#tbh i just want to get my salary already

[shamblz]

Hhhhhhhhh the whole work team this morning got notified that we getting a 8ish% pro rata raise cuz of some wage benchmarking thing and we all just kinda sat there like 😐 on the teams call, and then I went straight into my 1:1 with my manager after n got kinda a gentle telling off for not reacting???????

[thebearer]

Annnnnnd how would Lip act in the situation of the devastation fic

i’ve had to think about this tbh. bc he kinda already had his own version with the unexpected pregnancy news of freddy.

but i started thinking in terms of lip’s reader leaving and taking the kids with her, and genuinely, i can’t think of a situation where that would happen and she would come back. like they’d be done.

now, with that being said, i could see lip and you getting into a fight- a huuuuugggeee fight. bigher than the one when you found out you were pregnant with amelia. this is based off of lip with best friend!reader who’s a elementary school teacher. she does pretty well, has a salary and insurance so wayyyy better than anything lip grew up with, but they’re not rich by any means. truly comfortable. lip’s working at the auto shop, still doing odd ball jobs but more full time, got promoted to a shift supervisor and got a raise. you both share a bank account together bc it makes it easier.

debby (bc it’s always debby and i’m a debby hater sorry) does something stupid. stupid enough to need bail money, stupid enough that she might get franny taken away or placed into custody elsewhere. debby calls lip, wailing and frantic for money, and lip, of course, rushes to give in.

comes to you all frantic and manic. “hey, uh, i-i need to move some money alright?”

“move some money? why?” you frown. “lip, are you- is everything alright?”

“debby got arrested.” lip mumbles. he’s known you for a while, a long while, he knows your disdain when it comes to debby and her carelessness. more so, his incessant need to always pull her out of the hole she dug herself in. “she needs money for bail.”

“woah, woah, hold on.” you stop him. “you’re- you’re not- lip, absolutely not.”

“what?” lip snaps. “absolutely not? what-“

“-lip.” you glare at him lightly. “no, we-we don’t have that kind of money right now. jude starts daycare next month, and the daycare fees are going to double-“

“-yeah because you insist on puttin’ them in that fancy ass one by your school.” lip scoffs. “couldn’t leave them with mrs. mcgee. too fuckin’ good for that.”

“yeah, i am too good to leave my babies with a lady who chain smokes and watches the price is right all day.” you glare. “i want my babies to go somewhere safe and- that’s not even the point right now. lip, no. you’re not doing it. we can’t afford it.”

“we can fucking afford it. don’t start this shit with me-“

“-lip, we might have the money for it, but that does not mean we can afford it. that’s our savings, our safety net-“

“-and this is my family. my sister.” lip gritted his teeth. “isn’t that what the safety nets for, huh? for shit like this? unexpected bad shit?”

“not for debby.” you snap, finality in your tone. “not for someone who continues to make bad decisions and not learn from them and then wants you to run and get her out of it every time. i’m sorry, lip. this time i’m not letting you do it.”

that escalates bc one, you told lip he couldn’t do something which just made him turn more stubborn, and two, he’s blinded with irrational rage.

“what about franny, huh? she’s your fuckin’ niece, you’re gonna just let her get put in the system-“

“-franny is more than welcome to stay here. i will gladly take her while debby’s figuring shit out, but you have kids you need to think of. two kid that are yours that you need to think of, lip!”

“don’t you fucking dare.” lip snarls. “don’t you use my kids against me.”

“i’m not using them against you! jesus, lip, you don’t get to just come in here and tell me what we’re doing with our money! that’s my money in there too, ok? i’m telling you right now, if you fuckin’ use my money on this, and not think about our kids, you might as well just not come home.”

lip is furious, leaves without another word, slamming the door hard behind him leaving you in the house with freddy and baby jude. you’re fuming, upset, hurt- he’s feeling the same. lip is furious, furious at you telling him what to do.

he ends up at ian’s house after coming dangerously close to going to the alibi. ian talks him down, tells him you’re right, which was not what lip wanted to hear.

“debby can wait. she’ll get out soon enough and she can figure it out.” ian rolls his eyes. “she shouldn’t have been such a fuckin’ moron.”

“what about franny then, huh? you’re gonna just let her go into the system? let cps get her until then?” lip spat furiously.

ian scoffs. “franny is with carl right now. he’s bringin’ her here tonight.”

lip burns with embarrassment, feeling petulant but still pissed. “hey, word of advice?” ian smirks. “quit bein’ a hard headed jack ass and go home and apologize to your wife before she comes to her senses and leaves your ass for good.”

and lip is still mad but it’s dwindling, a guilt replacing it instead. he just needed to calm down, to think straight. walking back to your house, he had the time to.

lip jammed his key in the door, the ridges not sliding the usual way, not clicking. so he tried again, turning the key with no luck- it didn’t budge. he pulled on the knob, twisting again and again but nothing. “stupid fuckin’ piece of shit door.” lip grumbles, knocking on the door.

he waits, huffing, knocking louder. when there was still no response, lip goes to pull out his phone, only then does he see the pink envelope with his name on it on the welcome mat.

lip opens it up to find a note:

“phillip,

since you insist on doing whatever you want without asking me or considering our family, i decided i would do the same. you can go stay with debby since you chose her over me and my kids.

ps. don’t bother with the lock, i had them changed xoxo”

he found his car keys under the envelope. lip was furious, absolutely fucking furious and sick and upset and just overwhelmed with every emotion possible. you hadn’t even given him his lighter, so he took a walk to the corner store to buy a pack of spirits and a lighter. he called you on his way back, not surprised when you didn’t pick up.

“hey, you know, i know you think you’re bein’ real fuckin’ funny but this shit isn’t funny, ok? i didn’t choose debby, i didn’t do shit, alright? so let me back in the house and let’s be adults about this.”

then another voicemail.

“alright, seriously? you’re not gonna let me in? you’re not gonna let me come say goodnight to freddy or jude? that’s fucked up. really fuckin’ fucked up.”

“you’re bitchin’ me out about not spending money, and-and you get that done? get the locks changed? how much did that cost huh? you can use money to be petty and childish but i don’t get a say in what i want to use it in?”

“ok this is ridiculous. let me in. talk to me. be a fuckin’ adult.”

“seriously? where the fuck am i supposed to sleep tonight? i know you’re fuckin’ seeing’ these- i can fuckin’ see you! just let me in!”

you don’t budge. don’t reply back, don’t answer the calls. he knows better than to bang on the door, wake jude or freddy up, and truthfully… he’s a little terrified at the moment. very scared that you’re truly done with him, that ian was right and you’d come to your senses.

so he slept in his car. in the driveway, thankful it was warm that night and he had a few spare shirts and things in the back. he waited until the next morning, when he knew you’d be up with the boys, to ring the doorbell.

his anger had vanished to fear and guilt, retreating back to you with his tail tucked between his legs, all sad eyes and gentle apologies that you deflected with anger still bubbling.

it definitely took him a while to make it up, a very long while before you actually gave him his new key. he had to make it up to you, work on his communication and his sharing especially with you.

[batsplat]

reading your fabio/casey post, im curious: how much sympathy do you give to riders who have chosen money over success? fabio could've gone elsewhere but he chose The Bag and while i feel for him given how bad the bike is (and that there's only two bikes, etc) he did tie himself to the project for years to come

(x) hm interesting one. there's a few different things here

first off, in general I have an extreme lack of sympathy for athletes who choose wealth over success. I understand it's an inescapable part of how sports works, but that doesn't mean I have to like it - these are sums of money that I just feel are fundamentally immoral. nobody should be paid as much as some of these athletes are. now, obviously not all riders in motogp are all that well paid, I get that they don't have a lot of career security and I also get that this is a reason why everyone's jumping at those factory seats. for instance, I do have some sympathy for jorge martin's choice to switch to aprilia, even though he too is of course choosing a less competitive bike. from the estimates of these guys' salaries to us available and considering expenses, that man is not being paid in a manner commensurate to his abilities or success. (though if the adage of 'ducati pays shit salaries but great bonuses' holds true, I imagine he too is very much fine.) still, by the time you get to the numbers fabio was getting chucked at him, fundamentally I... do not care anymore. like that's dumb amounts of money, I don't care how many yachts you can buy. it's disgusting

but, well. it's also what these big money offers mean, right. it's a way for manufacturers to show riders how much they're wanted - and while I also don't like... love that the way to do this involves this many millions, that's how this process works. the reason why casey ended up switching from ducati to honda wasn't a competitive calculation where he saw that ducati was trending downwards and decided to jump ship. it's because he went to ducati and told them to make him a suitable offer, and they didn't do so. from his autobiography:

After the way they'd behaved I had pretty much decided that I was through with Ducati and even though they put a new contract in front of me, for 2011 and 2012, it was going to take a much grander gesture to make me stay. I told them I wanted them to show me what I meant to them. 'What do you mean?' they said. 'That's up to you,' I told them. I gave them months to do it and nothing happened. In the end I had to spell it out. I said, 'Rip up my current contract and show me what I am worth to you.' They wouldn't do it, and that told me all I needed to know. Up until then there was a chance that I'd stay but that effectively made my decision easy.

now, listen, casey's situation was very much its own thing, his bridges with ducati were already burnt and it was always highly unlikely he'd stay. but as he puts it, he was willing to give ducati a chance - if they put enough money on the table to show him they care. this is obviously not a performance-based decision. if casey stays with ducati, he does not win a second championship - it's as simple as that. riders want to feel wanted, they want to feel valued... and the money symbolises that to them, a commitment of faith on part of the manufacturer to the rider. martin's choice wasn't primarily financially incentivised, right (and tbh, if ducati weren't willing to put a large sum of money on the table for him, factory seat or not, they're idiots) - it was that he wanted to feel wanted. it's emotional but it's also practical in that you want to know your manufacturer will rally around you and do whatever it takes to make you succeed. it helps if you know they have a big stake in your success... money plays a role in so many of these decisions - and while I really don't like it, it's also tough to penalise fabio specifically too harshly for it

all that being said, if it really were just about any of the stuff I just listed, I would have less than zero time for the choice. I'm an old fashioned kind of bloke... for me sports is about one thing, and that's winning. but the real problem fabio faced was a lack of great options that could help him achieve said winning. let's quickly run through them:

yamaha: currently laughably uncompetitive. this season has been disappointing from them, even by the standards of their modest pre-season expectations... you would have hoped they'd be a little closer by this stage in the year. but, well, by the start of the year it was clear this would be a long-term project. they have made personnel changes in line with fabio's demands, have made shown themselves willing to follow his development direction and commit fully to him on every level as their star rider. he knows the project, he knows that the money is there - and unlike the two non-ducati european manufacturers, yamaha has a proven track record of winning championships

aprilia: the second/third best manufacturer at the moment, but far off the first. sometimes have the pace to challenge for victory, frequently don't. part of that will be down to the inconsistent riders and not just the inconsistent bikes, but it also doesn't help that it's also the number one technical problem team. aprilia had some strong early season pace around the time fabio was making his choice (remember, vinales really should have been leading the championship coming out of cota - though the fact that he wasn't does of course also tell you what you need to know about aprilia)... but at this stage it seems a little unlikely they'll have a bike in championship contention next season. the manufacturer with the least spending power, still doesn't have a title sponsor

ktm: seemingly full. now, obviously, whenever ktm says they want to stick with their current riders, you can reasonably assume they will change their minds. and they did change their minds, which is how we now have a completely new tech3 line up for next season. but realistically, given pedro's golden boy status and binder's contract spanning roughly until the next ice age, that was the best fabio could have hoped for. yes, there were murmurings both jorge and marc might be an option for the factory team - but I never took those all too seriously, and both riders have a more substantial history with ktm/red bull than fabio does. in any case, ktm will be built around pedro. I suppose you can say fabio should back himself to beat pedro, but that's the kind of call you can make if you think you'll be fighting for championships the moment you join the manufacturer. if ktm isn't there yet next year (which is likely), then what fabio would have had to do is attempt to assert himself against the next great thing, already more established than him within the manufacturer, from a satellite bike, with zero guarantee that ktm will actually be in championship contention any time soon. eh

ducati: well, look, a factory seat was never on the cards for him anyway. you'd have to think he could have gotten a satellite seat of some type, if he really had been willing to take whatever was on the table. ducati has generally liked collecting all the strongest riders, and you'd hope would've been up for it... who knows what spec he would have been able to acquire. if he's on a year old bike, then winning a title would always be a tall order. even if he's on the newest spec... the template here of course is marc, but it felt from the start that this gresini gig was supposed to be a stopgap. fabio is not at the stage of his career where he should be looking for stopgaps, and he still wouldn't have an obvious place to go for 2026. whichever way ducati ended up arranging their riders, there would have been no short to medium term route into the factory team for fabio

honda: lol

at a certain point, it does make sense to go with the manufacturer that is willing to back you as its star. now, look, maybe jorge martin wins the championship next year, in which case fabio's decision will obviously have aged poorly. but you'd have to say that's unlikely... fabio's bet here basically has to be that switching to aprilia might have brought him race wins next year, but sticking with yamaha might bring him more titles eventually. at this stage, neither of his two most plausible options look like championship contenders until 2027. yamaha, however, have a lot of money at their disposal - which they proved by signing him. if he switches now and the aprilia dream doesn't come off, it leaves him in a weaker position for 2027 than the path he's currently on. none of these options are great exactly... but there is a logic to the reasoning here. if there were an equivalent to honda 2011 for fabio to jump ship to, obviously he'd be an idiot not to accept. there just isn't, though, is there? he tied himself to the project for two years, which puts him in sync with basically the entire grid. it lets everyone completely reset for 2027... until then, you'd have to say it's pretty unlikely that anyone who isn't on a ducati will be winning any titles - and if they do, my money would still be on ktm. maybe you think fabio should back himself and take the risk, which is an understandable position. but equally, I do get how sticking with the devil you know and will go to war for you might make sense in the medium to long term. if it really was just the money, I have zero respect for that. but I don't think it was, so I'll spare him a little sympathy. for his troubles

[redhotchilisimblr]

rant about the sims 4

new roadmap unpopular opinion :

i’m quite satisfied with this roadmap. i mean, we got so many EPs in 2023 that I can barely catch up (I haven’t fully explored growing together, not finished my ranch and still setting residential lots..) there are so many things to do and a lot of simmers want “content for having content”, and are not actually playing the game. i know that we don’t play at the same speed (I'm very slow, I don’t age my Sims, haven’t finished Willow Creek.. so it says a lot), but how can you complain that EA releases too many packs, but at the same time request for more and more expensive packs? lmao it doesn’t make any sense. 

also, I don’t consider kits as packs. they are add-ons for people who want to expand some collections, but are not really essential to get (let alone the fact that some cc creators made some kits available as base game items). despite being a GC, I have purchased some of them with my own money and I regret some kits lmao. now, they are better quality content (for the price I mean) but at a time it was like.. yeah, I don’t want this but I still want all the DLCs. 

I live in France and here we have a powerful currency with the euros. But a lot of simmers tend to forget that many players are living with minimum wage or in a country where even 5$ USD means a lot on their salary/earnings. Now, imagine how players from “weaker currency” (let them called like that bc I don’t want to be biased, or let people think that everyone is poor in some countries when its totally not the case) are dealing with 40$ USD EP coming back to back ??? I mean, in some countries, 40$ USD is a monthly salary or not far away. Which means, getting 3 EPs is out of pocket - literally. 

The Sims 4 is now a luxury to play - because of EA’s greed, for sure, but also bc some players are pushing this agenda of “we need more packs, now!” and bc there’s a high demand, they do not care if the product is exactly want people want. I’m not trying to blame anyone in particular. Tbh, I used to be this kind of player (mostly bc at the launch, the game feeled empty and like a let down compare to previous edition). But now, I fully understand that we are responsible for this never ending issue. As a Game Changers, I know that some people might not believe me, or think it’s not genuine but, clearly, I’m not paid by EA for doing anything. I just playtest most of the time in very short period. I have a great job, I also have some passive income. I don’t need to be influencer to earn money and its a blessing.   

don’t forget that we are all waiting for updates to fix For Rent. it will be mad to launch a new EP if the previous one is still broken for so many players. there’s a lot of things changing for the influencers also and this “slow” time could be used to discover new gameplay, new players, new cc for those who used them and explore all the things we missed in the packs we already have. i still discover new options to this day and I play quite a lot so, you know, we are going to chill together and it will be good. 

as for my suspicion, I really do think as simmers we shouldn’t be worried about upcoming contents. with new competitors launching their game in 2024, EA will be more cautious about the kind of content they release, and they might release more in a shorter time period. I BET we will be flooded with DLCs by the end of the year... 

Now, I really do hope that more Game Changers will be more vocal about the issues (its starting but with caution). we really have nothing to lose. Not bc TS4 is going to be fixed (it won’t, as the BG have so many structural/coding issue) but for Project Rene. We need collectively to point out all the things we do love about TS4 (bc it’s a really beautiful game with a lot of potential) and also the things we don’t like. Loving something or someone is always about honesty : if you friend smells bad, please, tell him. if your friends is in the wrong, tell him! So if you care that much about the Sims, please, tell politely whats is wrong with the game without harassing the creators/workers. 

someone should just open a public file with all the complains compile and give it to the Project Rene team bc we do not want to miss this one for sure.

with all my love always, 

Red

[ham1lton]

Just because we're all in varying ages of life and ish.

I recently graduated (thankfully had a FT offer already because this economy is not for the weak) and I strongly encourage creating a budget before that first check comes. My salary is ABOVE average tbh and I already lived below my means but, life inflation is a thing baby 😭.

I know I have money coming and magically I'm catching myself wanting a bunch of stuff pre-job me would not have looked at. I simply don't want to be that person getting xyz amount but, still being broke and paycheck to paycheck. I REFUSE

Obviously treat yourself but, don't (this is an EXAMPLE) go and get a car that is more than your yearly salary just because you were approved for the car loan.

i’m genuinely so shit at budgeting. i can’t do it for the life of me. that’s probably why i’m so broke 😭 i can’t wait to graduate and finally get a proper job and paycheck. this economy is not for the weak ur so right. do u have any tips on how to budget? i feel like i’m spending money every day.

[swordsmans]

Hey I saw your tags about your degree and how you ended up as an archivist and I was wondering if you would be willing to elaborate more on how that happened and stuff! I work in a library right now (though I do not have a MLS, I waffle back and forth on going for one) and archives are something I'm very interested in but they seem somewhat impenetrable as a field.

Hellooo!!! :D OMG!!! It’s always nice to meet other people in the field!!! I understand the apprehension about wanting/not wanting to go back for an MLS/MLIS—it’s a lot of work and debt for very little, tbh. Work experience is arguably more important than the degree unless you have very specific career goals (like archives, for example).

It’s a little bit difficult to answer this one without utterly doxxing myself, but the short answer is that I kind of. Fell into it? I was initially hired because my “specialty”/background is data and cataloging (the information science part of the degree lol), and I was supposed to do something else in a different department altogether. However, there was a little bit of staff shuffling and my museum looked internally when they needed an archivist to do something very specific with the collection. Because I was relatively new to the role (so I hadn’t settled much), had previous work experience in special collections, and the project is time-sensitive (grant related; oh, grants…), they just scooted me over to archives for what was supposed to be few days a week until they hired someone else, but… well. Here we are. I’m sorry I don’t have a very straightforward answer!! It really was just a weird alignment of circumstances in an extremely underfunded institution.

Technically I swap between a few different roles, and as much as I do enjoy my job I don’t know if I will stay an archivist long-term. You’re right—it’s an extremely impenetrable field and often jobs will look for multiple academic qualifications beyond just an MLS/MLIS when looking for candidates, like secondary relevant MAs or PhDs. I don’t think I’m technically even qualified to do my own job, because my background is not maritime history. Like you saw, it’s literally horror literature lol. I just happen to be really, really good at information analysis, which fits my museum’s specific need. And because I’m not technically qualified on paper, my institution doesn’t “have” to pay me an archivist’s salary, so everyone kind of wins. I’m the budget-friendly option for them and I get to do interesting work—but don’t know if I could leverage this experience into a similar position elsewhere when it’s time for me to move on.

It’s difficult to weigh the worth of going back for the degree (and choosing a specialty) because of the high commitment/low reward aspect of the industry. Personally, I do think it’s worth it—with the caveat that in order to find a job there is an extremely high chance you will have to move for your job. Out of town, probably out of state, potentially out of the country depending on where the openings are. I pivoted away from looking into a lit PhD because this was basically a requirement for academia, and I don’t have the ability to do that. Archives are very similar, I’m just a fluke. Libraries in general are a little all-consuming, although you might already know that. An MLS/MLIS would open a lot of doors, but you would have to shape your life around your job because of the way your new position would (in theory) work. It’s a very personal decision.

Either way, libraries are lucky to have you!!!! You’re doing wonderful, essential work by default and it makes me happy to hear you’re passionate about the field enough to consider staying long-term. <3 It seems like there’s always a shortage of staff because of the low pay and grueling environment (depending on the place, I suppose, but that’s been my experience) and I’m glad you seem to have found your place in our industry d(*ﾟーﾟ*)

[shamblz]

Hhhhhhhhh the whole work team this morning got notified that we getting a 8ish% pro rata raise cuz of some wage benchmarking thing and we all just kinda sat there like 😐 on the teams call, and then I went straight into my 1:1 with my manager after n got kinda a gentle telling off for not reacting???????

[stereax]

Congrats on the followers! And if you want to talk technical hockey I'm all in for it (and particularly for the caufield and bratt bit)

:D!!! Thanks Val :)

Tbh I don't really care about my follower count THAT much. Like, I learned that the hard way - sometimes less effort gives more followers. (Sideblog has 188 and I barely do any ACTUAL work on that one lol.) But hey, 50's pretty nifty! (That rhymes!) So I'm happy about that, and I'm glad 50 people have decided to join me on my little blog of horrors (ha).

Alright, let's talk about Caufield and Bratt.

Or, Why Cole Caufield Has Broken The Winger Market And Stereax Is Now Scared For Bratt And Timo's Contracts.

So Cole Caufield, noted Short King, just inked an 8-year, $62.8 million contract. This equates to $7.85m AAV. AAV is short for Average Annual Value - generally a lot of NHL contracts don't pay the same amount of actual money each year. Take a look.

Forgive my phone for not letting me capture the years or M-NTCs. Those aren't important to the point.

Caufield's contract is front-loaded. This means he's getting paid more salary in the beginning than in the end of the contract, especially with those signing bonuses (I can explain those in a different post if you'd like). Contrast this with Timo:

Timo's contract is back-loaded; the majority of his money is being paid in the final two years (especially the last year) of his contract. This is why Timo has that massive $10m QO (Qualifying Offer). Covered (some of) the intricacies of QO in another post, so I won't bore you here.

Okay, so we've taken a look at Caufield's contract. He's getting paid about $10m for the first three years, then it slides down to $8.7m and then four years at around $6m. It averages out to $7.85m annually over the length of the contract.

Why has this ruined the winger market, you might ask? Caufield is an incredibly skilled winger and this contract, assuming he stays healthy and continues producing, will likely look like an absolute steal in a few years, similar to the Jack Hughes contract. To that, I say: yes, you're absolutely right. But.

The New Jersey Devils have two incredibly skilled wingers that need contracts. These contracts will likely be large. These players are Jesper Bratt and Timo Meier. I'm going to focus mainly on Bratt here - Meier is a power forward under a different set of circumstances, and I've already done a dive on his contract (linked above). Bratt and Caufield are far more similar - undersize "skill" wingers. Here's a three-way comparison between Caufield, Bratt, and Kevin Fiala, who I've long touted as a Bratt comparable.

Career:

Last three seasons:

Fiala and Bratt are older than Caufield, and they've played more seasons; even in the three seasons check, Caufield lags due to injury and not being a mainstay lineup addition. Fiala leads most of these metrics, for better and worse. Important to note, once again: Fiala was the 11th pick. Caufield was the 15th. Bratt was the 162nd.

K. Fiala: 11.3% career shooting%, 78.5 points per season for the last 2 seasons. 0.98 ppg (points per game) for the last 3 seasons of which 0.38 gpg (goals per game) and 0.60 apg (assists per game).

C. Caufield: 14.1% career shooting%, 39.5 points per season for the last 2 seasons. 0.68 ppg for the last 3 seasons of which 0.43 gpg and 0.25 apg.

J. Bratt: 12.7% career shooting%, 73 points per season for the last 2 seasons. 0.86 ppg for the last 3 seasons of which 0.32 gpg and 0.54 apg.

Two things are notable about Caufield that differentiate him from Fiala and Bratt. Once again, Caufield is significantly younger and has not played a full season with the Habs yet (closest was 67 games in 21-22). Still has a lot of development room, also makes the per season stats look a lot worse than his on-ice performance. Secondly, Caufield is much more of a sniper - his G/A ratio (goals/assists) is 1.71, meaning for every assist he generates, he pots 1.71 goals. Fiala's G/A is 0.63; Bratt's is 0.59.

So what does Caufield's contract mean for Bratt?

Caufield has essentially set the winger market for this offseason, especially as he hasn't been proven yet. Again, think Jack Hughes here. He's clearly a great player, but teams historically don't tend to throw 8x8s at rookies coming off their ELCs, especially not rookies who've played maybe 60 game seasons up to that point and who are apparently injury prone. See all the points Bratt can use to point at Caufield and say he should get a higher salary? Especially as Bratt has played longer in the NHL?

Also notable is that Caufield's contract has only bought 3 of his UFA years (the years marked with M-NTC). Bratt's, if it goes to 8, buys 7 UFA years. UFA years, especially early UFA years, are incredibly valuable (a player can go to any team and has already earmarked these years to your team); this will also drive Bratt's price up.

The Caufield contract is high risk, high reward. If Caufield underperforms the contract, or gets injured a lot, it's an almost $8m IR hit. Bratt is a more proven commodity: we know he's a 70-point scorer in a season. Caufield has about that much in his entire career.

Are you seeing the picture now? With Caufield's signing, Bratt can walk into Fitzgerald's office and basically demand an 8x8.5.

[basiliskonline]

Advice from a GM that just Started Pro-GMing

You'll see my thread on my experiences here.

But this thread is more of a bullet point general advice or things to expect. Will update as I think of things so definitely keep an eye on it and return to the original post regularly if you want to see (or ya know follow me xD)

Between September and November I had familiarized myself with Startplaying, tried some things that didn't work, adjusted my prices and eventually had my first paid campaign underway at $12/Person, about $60/3 hour session.

Between November and January I recruited for my second campaign at $14/Person and got my minimum player count so a session is coming up on Wednesday the 4th. Fill this group up will eventually bring me into about $80 a game for a 3 hour session.

My next campaign I'll be aiming for $16/person.

NOW ONTO THE ADVICE

I am running the same campaign for different groups, this provides me a variety of benefits:

This campaign is one im already running for my personal group, which means any prepwork, is prepwork i'd be doing already. This is definately important at a "starting salary" for a new Pro-GM.

It allows you to practice, familiarize yourself with and getting focused feedback. Everytime you run it, you'll be running a better product.

Warning: For many people this may lead to burnout or getting bored with your campaigns.

What to Run?

I'd love to run indie games and smaller stuff, but tbh the pickins are slim there, especially with how the website is formatted, you will really need someone searching for your games in order to find them.

Your best options are D&D5E and PF2E, though I imagine WoD and other mid-tier games have some possibility too, the Big Two are your best bets for getting regular traffic outside your own bubble.

Campaigns or One-Shots? Campaigns!

Campaigns tend to be more popular than one-shots, and luckily for you, new Pro-GM, they are obviously more consistent.

A Campaign takes, in my experience, a couple weeks to get filled up, people will get impatient or find other opportunities and they'll come and go, but on average I probably get about a person a week, once you have 3 or so, they can and often start to come in much faster.

To prevent issues in regularity, make it clear up front in the description that you are not looking for a "drop-in" campaign, and you are aiming for people that at the very least intend to stay when joining.

Organization and Tools

look around at other startplaying games to see how they set up their templates and adventure pages.

I'd suggest setting up a discord or guilded server and set up campaign specific roles, so that only people in those campaigns can see the role-related channels. this also allows you to tag everyone in the game for reminders of game start and the like.

Foundry VTT is absolutely fantastic for some games, not as a fantastic as others, if you are running PF2E I strongly suggest familairizing yourself with Foundry because quite frankly its an AMAZING VTT experience.

Feel free to ask questions i'll answer as best as I can!

[definitely-mothman]

The Reflection of a Prince Ch 3

I’m really bad at making summaries, but in a nutshell, this is an Overblot! Jade Leech fic, with the Original Characters belonging to Royal Sword Academy, specifically for a fandom based on the Little Mermaid. • A gala approaches, on not one land, but two, and split in half, what other choice does a Prince have to do? But beware in the past, there is an eye that still watches. Who remembers, who plots and hides teeth in the darkness.

AO3 Link

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2

Ch 3 in Read More

Azul was flipping through finance files, about 7 in the morning according to his watch. It was the best time in the week to put together the documents for each days’ sales and costs, along with calculating the salary for employees for the biweekly basis. It was unusually quiet, although it didn’t bother him at the moment. It was still somewhat early, and the silence made it easier to focus.

It was only logical such silence should be rudely interrupted by annoying text vibrations on the wood desk.

“Hey do you like. Have the attendance sheets for the Board Game Club on hand rn.”

Right side top drawer, folder at the very front. Divider is by year…there it was.

“Yes I have them in the Lounge. Is Crowley asking for them already?”

“Kinda I mean. Yeah. He didn’t do this shit last year, says it’s bc of the festival thingy. BS tbh.”

“Do you want me to run them over in the next few minutes?”

“It doesn’t have to be like right now now, but around 7:30-7:45ish would be coolio, plus I’ll be actually awake at that point lol.”

Set the papers aside, set phone timer for 7:30. He’d likely just ask Jade or one of the third years to carry those over. The logistics of having the main keys for the lounge and having to cross campus not long before opening the back entryways for early shifts just seemed too annoying.

“Ok, someone will come by 7:40 at the latest.”

“Man I thought you’d do it ;-; you always send your Vice to do it and ngl he scares the shit outta me dude”

“That doesn’t sound like my issue, Idia.”

“I mean I’ll gladly accept paperwork from anyone in your dorm who isn’t in the top 3 tiers of the ‘Would Murder Me’ list. Like seriously there’s gotta be someone dude.”

“Any of them would likely lose the papers or be late. It’s not my issue he has an intimidating air carrying out benign errands.”

It was about 7:15.

“Bro tf you mean ‘intimidating air’ that implies it’s like. Accidental, and not him creating the comforting aura of a slasher villain. Idk how you survive interacting with him for most of the day. If I got locked in a room with either Leech for like 30 minutes I’d probably kms to get out faster.”

“I’m sure he’d find that quite humorous to hear. Anyways, it's not my problem, and I have things to do so I’m going to go silent for a while.”

“Alr whatever you’re like 100% serial killer victim number one tho.”

He put down the phone on the desk, mentally rolling his eyes.

It wasn’t the first time he’d heard a qualm like this about Jade, especially not from Idia. It was strange to keep hearing, probably because he just couldn’t see what it was everyone was so…afraid of. In a competitive setting, it was logical for even him to be wary of Jade as a long-game player and as someone very good at concealing his hand. But in terms of just normal school life, it just didn’t make sense. At the worst, Jade liked to poke psychologically in the same way Floyd did physically. Instead of chasing and manhandling, it was done with subtle body language and straight faced teasing. Once you wrapped your mind around how the game worked, it was actually quite fun to play in return, although for a completely anti-social loner like Idia, it didn’t seem like much fun.

He may have come across as strange or snakelike, but Azul had a level of trust in him that provided a sense of ease. At the very least, if Jade had wanted him dead, it would have happened already. He made him tea or coffee every morning, and Azul couldn’t think of the last time he’d even had a second thought at drinking what was placed on his desk.

Speaking of which. He hadn’t drank anything all morning, and the lack of hydration was beginning to make his early morning energy wear off. Usually they were both up around the same time.

He left the VIP lounge, heading back towards the shared communal space, including the small kitchen the dormitory shared. The tea bags he used were typically in one of the top shelves of the cabinet farthest from the shared fridge. He put some water in a pan and turned on the stove, sitting the bag’s string over the side. There was a kettle in the shared area, but it was nowhere to be seen, so he’d have to make do.

The tea that he had made wasn’t perfect, but it was fine enough. Octanivelle students set for the early shifts had started to trickle in, and Floyd stumbled in behind them. A bit earlier than he normally woke up, but well within his range.

“Hey Floyd. It’s odd having you be the first one up.”

Floyd slid over, propping against the island. He still looked a bit tired.

“Huh? Jade left our room like. A few hours ago. At least, I think so. Idk, I was half-asleep.”

“A few hours ago? I haven’t run into him all morning. I was going to ask him to run some papers over to Ignihyde.”

“I could run them over lol-“

“It’s fine, you can handle opening, I’ll just run them myself. Was he running off to do the headcounts he mentioned yesterday?”

“Idk, probably? He sometimes dips out in the middle of the night to do something-or-another, I figure it’s just that.”

“…I wasn’t aware he did that. I doubt anyone at RSA is awake enough for him to get any reasonable survey numbers at this hour.”

“Eh, who knows. I’m not worrying about it personally. Probably went off early to maybe hike over there instead of taking the bus. I could see him doing something like that.”

“Oh, ok. If you're not worried-“

“By the way, when are you supposed to be taking the papers over?”

“Um,” Azul checked his watch again. It was 7:39 already, and the walk across campus would probably take some 7 minutes. Shit.

“I should probably go now; I’m already behind schedule.”

“Alrighty then, have fun. I need the key ring though to open.”

“Right, right.” He took the Lounge key ring off of his belt loop, and took the trenchcoat off his shoulders and dug through the pockets for the VIP lounge key. There. When he took his hand out though, he had two keys.

He couldn’t remember which key this was, and with how often he absentmindedly put them in various pockets, it was any guess when he’d put it there. He handed off the known key to Floyd, and put the second one back.

With that, he returned to the office space, collecting the papers, and then headed towards the mirror for the main campus.

For Azul’s taste, it was an eerily lonely morning.

• • •

“I’m good to meet up whenever you are.”

It was almost 5 in the afternoon, and students were flowing to and from Coralliadom, mostly to leave campus to get dinner or head towards the cafeteria. Rielle hovered over the message, and panned his gaze over to his Housewardens’ staff. He went over and took it up, gripping 3 fingers around the magestone and prying it out. He put the stone in his right interior pocket.

“Aight. I’ll head out that way. Should I turn my GPS on to make it easier or smthn?”

“Sure.”

He flicked it on, and began to make his way out of the dormitory. He left the staff in his room to not raise any sort of suspicion, but held onto his pen. He managed to slip Claude’s visage in this escape attempt, sliding through the mirror and booking it across campus towards the gate. It was actually quite invigorating, sneaking off like this. See, I told you I could take care of myself! The gate was open, and Rielle slipped in with the crowd of leaving students, removing the outer RSA jacket and bundling it under his arm. Just before the bus stop, he broke off, awkwardly trotting down the incline and breaking off into the tree cover surrounding the campus.

He had to walk for a while before eventually running into the Octanivelle kid, about 3 minutes. Curly brunette hair almost covered their eyes completely, and their poise seemed too calm for how they talked over text.

Whatever, people were usually more casual over text anyways, right? Not like he had another option at this point anyways.

“Heyo-! I made it, sorry if I was a bit late.”

“It’s fine, I made sure to set time aside so I’d be good if you were. Do you have the stuff I asked for?”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it right here.”

Rielle took a small jewelry box out of his pocket, one that you’d normally keep earrings in. He handed it over to the student, who opened it, eyes glazing over the inside.

“Spit vial thing, hair is in a vial, the clippings are just in the box bc I figured that was fine, and the empty vial is the…song? Idk if you just wanted me to sing into a vial, so that’s what I did, sorry if that wasn’t what you wanted.”

“Oh that’s fine.” He closed the box lid, and put it in the pocket of his dorm uniform, which went almost below his knees.

“Are you guys’ uniforms that long? Based on the photos, I always thought they hit like, mid-thigh at the longest.”

“Oh, this isn’t my uniform.” The kid took out a small glass dish, and sat it over a bundle of tinder he’d piled on the ground. “I spilled some shit on mine earlier this week, so I had to borrow my roommates. He’s like, a good foot taller than me, haha.”

His voice seemed a little…stiff, despite how casual his words were. The student looked up towards Rielle, expression a bit nervous.

“Uh, did you bring a water bottle or something by chance? I would’ve brought one myself for the potion but I didn’t think about it. I mean, I can just use a water spell I guess, but I haven’t eaten a lot today and my magic’s probably a little shaky because of it.”

“Oh, no worries, I’ll do it. Did you skip lunch or something?” Rielle clicked his magestone into his pen, and with a small flick formed about two cups’ worth of water inside the dish.

“Thanks, and no, I didn’t bring much money when I made my way over here so I couldn’t grab anything substantial in Craneport.”

“Oh. Well, you’ll need my ID to get into the dorm anyways, so don’t worry about using it to get meal swipes. Claude will hound you-me if he sees you being the slightest bit winded. Wait-“

Rielle took out his phone, and began texting rapidly. The students’ phone pinged several times back to back.

“Ok I sent you the itinerary for the day of, so that you’ll be ready for that, and also the sheet music for the musical performance on Friday.”

“Musical…performance?”

“Yeah, I am/was doing a pretty singing number for the gala thingy- but you’re taking on my singing voice anyways so you’ll be good. There’s 5 days anyway to get the hang of it, and you won’t be on stage alone!”

“O-oh. Ok.”

The student began to dump the contents into the water, and lit a small fire on the tinder beneath the dish with his pen.

“I could’ve done that, yknow.”

“Oh, sorry. Just didn’t think about it.”

“Lol, you don’t have to say sorry. Just don’t want you to overexert yourself.”

The kid took a small twig nearby to stir the mixture, using his other hand to control the flame, it spinning to a light blue color. He was murmuring something under his breath, but Rielle couldn’t make out whatever incantation he was saying. Maybe saying it really quietly was a part of it?

In a moment, the small whirlpool in the mixture tinted to a bright red, and spread out within the dish. A small smile briefly appeared on the kid’s face, and he put the twig to the side, taking a small necklace out of his pocket.

“Oh, that’s the jewelry item?”

“Yeah. I’m using this one specifically because I’ve been able to get it to work with other magic properties like this already. No worries for me about it not working.”

“It’s so…cute. Is it an actual nautilus shell? It looks a bit more worn and dirty than the ones you see in shops. And it’s so tiny!”

“Yeah, it’s an actual shell, a friend of mine picked it out for me, we were pretty little at the time. So that’s why it’s kinda small.”

“So I’m guessing the string on it is more recent so it fits your neck? Lol.”

“Yeah, I’ve changed the string a million times at this point, hah.”

Again. That slightly strained voice, enough to notice but not noticeable enough for Rielle to want to bring attention to it.

The Octanivelle student took the twig he’d sat down, and stuck it firmly in the ground. Taking the necklace’s string and catching it on the twig, he dipped the shell down into the potion, where it began to glow a pale white within the liquid.

“Ah, yeah. The contract scroll. I almost forgot about it.”

He took a golden paper out of his pocket, along with a slightly decorative pen. It was folded several times into a little square, and once unfolded the top portion was too crinkled to properly read. But most of it was legible, and listed everything they’d spoken about over text, word for word. Rielle panned over the language, checking for any small print. He may have had no other choice, but he’d barter if he needed to.

“The only small text on there is about you being liable if the Unique Magic offered in the contract expires before you return to trade places with me again.”

“And that time would be…”

“Friday, about 11pm. An hour and a half after the gala hosted in your dorm will have ended. I just don’t want to be stuck up there. Do you want the pen? I thought you’d take it already-“

“How did you do this? This is a Unique Magic in and of itself, dude! Did you actually get your Housewarden to write one up for you? Like an IOU or something?”

“…can’t say. Secrets of the trade, lol. I don’t wanna lose my chances of getting deals like this in the future, you know?”

The student smiled, but the emotion didn’t quite reach the shine in his eyes. As if they carried two different people. I suppose that was Octanivelle for you. Rielle took up the pen, and carefully signed his name, drawing a smile heart above the i.

He absentmindedly handed the paper and pen back over, and dropped his RSA jacket onto the ground. The guy would probably need it if he wanted to slip back onto campus.

“There you go. I should probably text my parents about now and head off towards the hall of mirrors. Pretty much no one’s walking around campus right now, although you might wanna wait a few minutes before going into campus.”

“Alright, I have to wait for this to finish up anyways. Hope you have fun at the family gathering.”

“Yeah, I will! Thanks for doing me a solid, man.”

“Don’t even worry about it.”

Rielle finally got up from a squat on the ground, turning and heading back towards the campus.

He couldn’t have left soon enough. The illusory potion put together that morning was only meant to last about an hour. Even now, teal was beginning to push through the brunette hair, which was now falling to the ground at an alarming rate. He hadn’t even bothered to notice the contacts that already matched his eye color, or how squatting down disguised his clothing slowly fitting more snugly. The potion let off a sweet-smelling steam. It was done.

Taking the string off from around the twig, the necklace was pulled from the solution, and now it had a beautiful yellow gleam. He took off the Mostro Lounge jacket, covering a simple white dress shirt like those worn in RSA. The jacket and hat was placed into a pile along with the glass dish, and with a gentle wave of his pen, the pile burst into a large flame.

The necklace’s string fit perfectly to his head, and the nautilus shell was tucked beneath the shirt collar. He imagined how it looked outside of himself. Thin, siren eyes becoming like that of a doe, merging in and out as if both were mirages. A pale glow flowing down the edge of his hair, it growing vibrant red, and growing longer as the glow went down, beyond his hair’s end. The shell felt as though it could replace his own heart with how warm it felt against his chest.

Finally, he opened his mouth, feeling up and down the foreign vocal chords. The sweet, silky sound that left his mouth. That voice which was far too beautiful to belong to him. He stood and straightened his back, and lightly lifted his eyebrows along with the corners of his mouth, trying to make it look natural. Speak with your throat, keep your balance on the left side instead of in the middle. Pretend as though your head is filled with helium.

“Hey guys! Sorry I’m back late, I got kinda sidetracked, went on a stroll and lost track of time. But…you forgive me, right?”

[kithtaehyung]

Ryen hi! Remember when you posted some time ago about being offered a job? Well I've got something to share if you don't mind hehe

I wanted to text you immediately to congrats you, but I wasn't mentally in the right place because I was actually stressed out about finding a job and I... wasn't exactly sure if I *want* to find a job here or if I want to go home and work there. And as I was looking at your post, it makes me realize just how important it is to put yourself and your creation out there for people to see. I never do that, bc I'm.. too shy, too unconfident, I don't believe in myself enough. So even if I know I'm good at something... I can never put it out there.

Anyway, long story short, my visa expires on September 1 and if I don't find a job right away it's pretty much obvious that I'm going home bc I need to extend my visa, find a new place, and find a job. None of those are easy tasks. I was basically resigning myself into whatever's gonna happen without doing anything about it bc I do not even know what I want.

But. well. I did a part time job with this company before (like 6 months ago??) as a tour guide and last week they suddenly called me after so long and I got offered (!!! 😭) a job and the company wants to sponsor my visa and even pay for the deposit of the new place (that they're going to help look for me also!!!!!! wtf😭😭😭) which they'd just cut off from my salary monthly instead. They're busier than I am looking to find ways to get a working visa for me 😭😭

I've always been the kinda person who believes that whatever's meant for me, it will happen. if i was meant to work here instead of back home, then the way will come to me somehow. and it did?? so now basically it's just about my visa while everything else is practically decided.

ANyway, this is getting long and I just wanna say that I got reminded of you when I got offered the job and I wanted to share hehehhe

🌌🌌

STARRYYYY the way I was about to shout your actual name LOL just imagine me screaming it out loud and congratulating you in person😭 if I was there I most def would’ve gotten you a gift and brought it to you🥹🥹 or we would’ve gone back to that cute af coffee shop for a date! and then found a nice rooftop or balcony to chill on.

Truly, I’m so so happy for you. And I’m honored you wanted to share this with me🥳💕💕 this is the type of stuff I love to hear about no matter how I’m feeling because it’s just like, an instant shot of happiness or good vibes. Absolutely love hearing updates or victories or good things like this!! So thank you for telling me.

Life just has a way of working out, even if the path is strange. This is something I’m still learning myself tbh, even if I kinda already know it to be true? Prepare, yes. But timing and things pull through in the end🫂

AHHHHH I’m just so🥹 for you.

[florrickandassociates]

TGF Thoughts: 6x03-- The End of Football

This will probably be a short one. This isn’t a bad episode, but it’s a case heavy one, and, y’all, I have so much to say about episode four (which I’ve already seen*) that I just want to get through this one. 

*I have also now seen episode 5 oops

This episode’s title makes me happy. The Kings used to say that there was exactly one big thing CBS wouldn’t let them do on network*, and that was go after the NFL. This seems to no longer be an issue on Paramount+. 

* That they actually attempted to do; obvs they couldn’t have the characters swear, because hearing the word “fuck” is much more detrimental to society than gritty violence! 

I am not a big sports fan. Tbh, I held a grudge against football for a little while there because it was “that thing that meant TGW would start at 9:17 some weeks and 9:53 other weeks” when games ran over. That was so infuriating. While I’m walking down memory lane, here are the two worst things football ever did to me: (1) A game went into overtime the night that they killed off Will, meaning that the episode aired in Canada in its entirety before it started in the US. This meant that spoilers found their way to me, like, fifteen minutes before the episode aired. My fault for being on twitter, but I did not like that experience and I blame football. (2) There was one episode, I think it was the season six premiere, that was delayed nearly a full hour because a game went into DOUBLE OVERTIME over a touchdown that happened with literally one second left on the clock. That’s just cruel.  

So yeah football is bad and we should ban it because it used to get in the way of me personally enjoying my show when I wanted to. There are no other reasons it is bad. Just those. (I kid. I will likely “case stuff happens” nearly all of the football-related scene of this episode, but the traumatic brain injury stuff really is a big deal.)  

Carmen has moved into, but not furnished, her big new apartment. She’s watching a reality TV show that seems horribly delicious and working out when – you guessed it –  Charles Lester knocks on her door. This time, she’s got a gun. She puts it away when she recognizes Lester’s voice. She also notes that she didn’t buzz him in and he says the doorman let him up. It only took thirteen seasons, but I’m glad the writers have finally realized that doormen are a thing in fancy apartment buildings in big cities. It used to drive me crazy that people would just show up at Alicia’s door.  

I want to understand how Carmen’s compensation works. I assume that as a lawyer at what I believe is a prestigious firm, she’d be making enough to afford that apartment, but did she get a raise? Is her salary tied to the work she brings in, and if so, does that kick in immediately? Why is this a thing that I care about? I think it’s part of a broader question I have about Carmen’s status at the firm. To echo something @antiphon said about episode 2, does the rest of the firm know or care that Carmen’s bringing in these unsavory elements? Ri’Chard clearly does, but how does STRL feel? Liz? Diane? Why does everyone accept it like it’s a given that this firm would take on these clients? And how is Carmen allowed to operate so autonomously? Also, what is she getting out of being part of a firm if she’s a team of one and not using the firm’s resources (other than Jay, I guess)? I think this episode answers some of these questions, and Carmen was flat out asked why she stays at the firm last year, but I think the writers could’ve done a better job here. It feels like Carmen’s off on her own island and it doesn’t really make sense that this could, like, happen in the first place.  

Carmen is being summoned to something called a “Crypto-Prom” which sounds either like hell or the most amusing thing in the world.  

It’s a weird move to just bring someone a dress to wear, but I guess Charles Lester is a weird person.  

I would watch Carmen observe things for hours tbh.  

Carmen and Lester talk about Lester’s backstory; it’s mildly interesting. He flips the question around on Carmen and asks her why she’s doing this, because, quote (this is so ridiculous I need more than quotation marks to indicate these are his words), “Liz and Diane are lawyers. You’re the law.” WHAT? I mean, I get what he’s saying, but what a way of saying it.  

This scene is a little heavy-handed in its attempt to get us to understand that Lester is the future version of Carmen (in terms of career, at least).  

Ben-Baruch determined Carmen’s dress size, because he is “good at sizing up women.” BARF.  

The crypto prom is cut short by an undercover cop and Lester’s subsequent arrest for the murder of the CI embedded with Ben-Baruch last episode.  

Diane wakes up from her latest trip to a hallucination of a sexy shirtless man painting. Did you get that the drug makes her really horny? I think the writers are really being too subtle here. We need more elves with erections to make the point.  

Diane’s developing, or should I say DEEPENING, her obsession with flowers. The colors, apparently, “tickle her brain.”  

“I worry that I don’t see enough of the beauty of the world,” Diane says. Bettencourt asks why. Diane says it’s the “curse of the progressive” and I find this hilarious. I don’t doubt that she feels this way, but wow, is it a privileged thing to say. She’s cursed with not seeing the beauty of the world because sometimes in her cushy life filled with arts and luxury... she has to think about the suffering of others? I PITY HER.  

I get where she’s coming from, of course, it just sounds so PRIVILEGED. If she’d just said she doesn’t see enough of the beauty of the world, fine, but to call herself cursed? Okay, sure.  

“If one person is suffering, you can’t enjoy your life,” Diane says. Come on. I’m sure she loves to think of it that way, but, come on. If she really felt that, there are things she could be doing to help... like working on pro-bono cases...  

To continue making the point that Diane doesn’t see enough beauty, she begins to reference art. Compelling case, Diane, 10/10.  

Bettencourt, of course, knows the painting Diane’s referencing before she says its title. I appreciate (but maybe don’t need?) the visual of the painting. I appreciate it because I was going to look it up. 

Bettencourt tells Diane she is a “lifeguard” based on her analysis of the painting (she sees the suffering magnified while the painting shows it off in the corner with everyone ignoring it). Huh, that sounds familiar... 

Diane has her shoes off lollol  

I think the reason I like this high!Diane is that I feel like these scenes are actually just showing me who Diane is when she isn’t working. Like, sure, she’s high, but also this kiiiiiinda just feels like a less inhibited version of who I imagine Diane is in her free time.  

Diane worries she won’t be able to go to court after her treatment because she isn’t angry enough. “Maybe you’ll be better at your job if you’re not angry,” Bettencourt says, and that shakes Diane to the core.  

Bettencourt gives Diane homework, and she’s like OMG YAY HOMEWORK I LOVE HOMEWORK in a tone that sounds somewhat sarcastic but mostly serious. 

Diane saying, “I do. Guilty.” and raising her hand sheepishly when Bettencourt asks her if she knows what doomscrolling is is (1) adorable and (2) extremely cringe. I’m so here for it. 

Bettencourt tells her to stop doomscrolling for 72 hours, which is advice I could use, too. He says that it’s not just the treatment that can change her mood – it's also her behaviors.  

CASE STUFF HAPPENS!!! (sorry I'm very excited to get through this recap) 

Ok something I care about is happening now; this case is interesting in that Ri’Chard and Liz are working together. Liz acknowledges that Ri’Chard is good. He says arguing in court is his fourth favorite thing, after sex, food, and music. Literally why are you mentioning sex, dude?  

In her extremely gray and bleak office, Diane watches protests out the window. She gets a news alert about how the protests keep going on, then scrolls through a bunch of horrible news articles about guns, climate change, killer gators, skin cancer... there’s one that says “Texas politician sues own daughter over abortion” which is either a real thing or something that will be a real thing in the next year, and mandated school prayer. Then her phone chimes with a news alert about gun violence, a literal plague, “body odor definitive sign of rare genetic disease,” warehouse employees being overworked to death... she decides to unplug. So, on the one hand I really think there’s some truth to all of the “stop doomscrolling” stuff – I haven’t really checked Twitter today and I do feel better for it* -- but I also am not sure it works so well when there are actual protests outside of Diane’s (verrrrrry fake) window. So, Diane is just supposed to tune out the literal protests outside her office because it makes her feel the same way that... clickbaity headlines designed to encourage more engagement do? That’s a stretch. The problem with doomscrolling is that there is no point to it. Getting more enraged in an echo chamber and then spending more time on websites (and thus getting said websites more ad money) is a thing you can easily cut from your life. Paying attention to your surroundings is... not the same. I’m not sure what the point here is – that you can make yourself feel better personally but the world literally outside your window is going to be shit?  

*this is also, in large part, because when I use Twitter specifically, I feel like I have to see how every conversation or topic goes, even if I’d be perfectly fine never knowing about it. I get very obsessive about it and it turns into a huge time suck. 

Marissa, the newest member of her dad’s legal team, is looking obviously bored during a meeting. Diane grabs her and tells her to shut off access to the news, Twitter, and Facebook. Chumhum is ok though! Marissa wonders how Diane will keep track of the protests without any of this, to which I have two responses. (1) Diane could simply LOOK OUT THE WINDOW WHY IS NO ONE ACKNOWLEDGING HOW WEIRD IT IS THEY ARE ALL STILL IN THE OFFICE and (2) What’s there to keep track of with the protests, anyway? No one seems to know what they are about, so what information is there, other than their physical location? And if it’s just their physical location, please refer to (1).  

Also... preventing yourself from doomscrolling and cutting yourself off from the news are different things. There is a medium between obsessively refreshing Twitter and living under a rock. 

Wait guys I have to tell you this story about my mom because Diane just said something that sounds like the serenity prayer. So my mom and I were going through an old box of stuff and we found a necklace with the serenity prayer on it, and I was like, “uhhh why do we have this?” (you all don’t know my mom but believe me, this is not something it would be like her to own). I’m fully expecting her to say a friend gave it to her or it was sent in the mail by some charity, but NO. NO. She tells me, “Oh, I think I got it for you at Goodwill or something when you were really into Desperate Housewives and Bree was going to AA meetings.”  

I was twelve when that plot aired. So my mom bought me a serenity prayer necklace as a reference to a TV show plot about alcoholism... when I was TWELVE. This story says so much about my relationship to television.  

Carmen tries to convince Lester to find new representation. She’s Baruch’s lawyer, so she can’t be Lester’s. I know how this plot ends, and it surprises me that Lester can’t see it five miles away.  

I feel like we have seen a lot of these cases where the financier of the case has interests that are at odds with the person who’s actually in court.  

Case stuff happens. 

Carmen wakes up on the floor (??) to find her gun box empty. Ben-Baruch has broken in to threaten her! A lot of drama happens but basically he is scary and requires her to make Lester the fall guy by giving him shitty representation. 

Credits at the 17:20 mark! I’m sad there isn’t any sort of cute warning message over the skip button like there is for Evil.  

Thanks to Diane Lockhart’s patronage, flower stands are THRIVING despite the protests.  

After buying as many flowers as she can possibly carry, Diane boards the work elevator with Carmen (have these two interacted before? I genuinely don’t remember.). She offers Carmen flowers, and Carmen declines but asks if she came from a funeral.  

Diane says she didn’t, but she wants to make the downstairs cheerier. Remember in TGW when the floral budget was one of the first things to go? In a plot about the 2008 recession? Man this show has history.  

Okay, Diane, stop showing off how much more knowledgeable you are than everyone! You’re making me feel inferior! (I have seen, and very much liked (though I remember some parts being hella weird and the central theme being very heavy-handed), Metropolis. And it is not that deep of a cut. But it’s not enough for Diane to have art and literature?! She knows her film too?!)  

Carmen’s opposition in court is her former teacher. He seems like an asshole. He tries to throw her off by acting like she wasn’t memorable in class and it’s surprising she’d do well.  

Carmen returns some flowers to Diane and says her meeting is too serious for flowers; Diane offers to help. Carmen declines.  

Carmen must have a great memory because she’s able to quote this guy’s lectures. She could also be bullshitting (at least in terms of her certainty about when he said things).  

Diane’s office is still gray but now it also has flowers. I love having the flowers in every shot.  

Without doomscrolling to keep her busy, Diane realizes that she is... not doing work.  

She goes out into the open seating area and comes across a pack of associates discussing the news – women are being outlawed in Texas (one of those absurd headlines that you’re meant to, I think, take as a dark joke? Because even in this day and age that would be quite alarming?). Diane wants to know what’s happening! 

The associates all play along with Marissa and refuse to tell Diane, a partner, the news. I did not realize they all had that kind of relationship with her! Marissa, watching this, smiles to herself and tries to leave the room.  

Doesn’t Diane need to know SOME news to do her job?  

Marissa refuses to turn social media and news back on.  

There’s footage of Lester leaving the crime scene; he insists it’s a fake. 

Oooh a little moment continuing the tension between Carmen and Marissa when Marissa drops a vase of flowers off on Jay’s desk and Carmen tenses up.    

Carmen wants to know if the video is fake but doesn’t know if she’ll do anything with it... since she suspects Ben-Baruch faked it. Jay seems worried for Carmen. 

I guess people can get used to anything but it’s very alarming how little anyone seems to care about these protests.  

CASE! STUFF! HAPPENS!  

I don’t know why I love the detail of Liz having an Apple Watch, but I do.  

Marissa dumps a bag of toys on Diane’s desk to distract her. It’s pretty funny (though not as funny as when Kalinda read Diane Vampire Diaries fanfiction). Wild to do to a partner, but we all know Marissa has no boundaries.  

Diane decides to pour drinks for herself and Carmen since she’s picked up on Carmen’s stress. Look at Diane actually being a mentor!  

Carmen says she’s waiting for Liz; Diane notes that Liz probably isn’t coming back to the office this late and asks what she needs. Carmen gives Diane a thinly veiled summary of her predicament. Diane asks for more information, listening attentively, then says “With more drinking comes more clarity.”  

Carmen’s equally stressed the next day in court. Diane surprises her by showing up as co-counsel, which... like, actually, this is new ground for Diane? And probably an appropriate, good use of her time, given the profile of the clients and her status? (This is, of course, setting aside that I don’t think anyone at Reddick & Associates actually would want Ben-Baruch as a client in the first place.)  

Diane says she’ll do her best and Carmen can do her worst. Feels like a doomed plan, but, okay! 

Case stuff happens. 

Case stuff happens for the other case. 

Case stuff happens for Diane and Carmen’s case again. It’s done pretty well but I don’t have much to say about it.  

Ben-Baruch is pretty scary. 

I love that Lester says that Bishop “accepted Jesus after he left prison” and that’s why he’s not active anymore. Nice little wink at Evil, where Mike Colter plays a priest, right there. 

Football case stuff happens. 

Turns out the guy financing Liz and Ri’Chard’s case doesn’t want the same thing as the actual client. (This feels familiar.) 

Rivi shows up to get Carmen out of this mess. Ben-Baruch wants Carmen killed (or at least roughed up tbh I am not really paying attention to this right now and don’t want to rewind 10 seconds) and Rivi is like, I am more important than you and I want Carmen to be okay! Clever—also, scary. Rivi might be slower to turn on someone but Rivi absolutely WOULD turn on Carmen if needed. So this is... just getting Carmen in deeper.  

Diane is at Bettencourt’s office when a window explodes and the episode ends. Sorry, this is way less dramatic when you know how it ends. (I will say I was mildly worried they’d wind up kissing.) 

[eggs-can-draw]

firedemongaming: pretty sure, because of Byakuya, naegirigami doesn't have a closet but a spare house each just for clothes. Byakuya is just extra like that

me: he was just having an Ariana Grande moment "bought a crib just for the closet, both his and hers, I want it, I got it" /paraphrasing and it'll be more embarrassing if I am correct than if I'm wrong

tbh the levels of extra-ness sometimes leave a bad taste in my mouth, being wasteful in a post-apocalyptic setting is not looking good. Just getting stuck up again instead of letting things be fictional ig, but there's this "they don't need a house this big" or "why so many vehicles? when the air is recovering from the Tragedy too? And they usually drive together anyway?" things like that. And Shuichi still being an heir to the Togami corp in the end, like, he's not going in that direction talent wise, I don't think he's going to be involved the way Byakuya is, might stay the owner but won't act as CEO, might sell it and spend the money. I'm wondering about those things, because it just rubs me the wrong way for anyone to have this kind of wealth or power, but they do need it to defeat FF and I don't know...

firedemongaming: the main problem with irl billionaires is they just hoard the wealth. occasionally passing it amongst themselves so even if his financial decisions seem wasteful, it's ultimately healthier for the economy than him just not using it and naegi and kirigiri would definitely make sure that he used some of his money for good as well for every wasteful decision

me: okay, the last bit does make me feel better, bc I know about the issue, but still felt like due to the state of the world he should be putting that money elsewhere, not saying he can't have luxuries, but more like instead of having many extra cars and jets and using his wealth to get access to things others can't for his family he could be investing in rebuilding the world

firedemongaming: as for the pollution bit, udg demonstrates that electric vehicles are the most common post tragedy and, given the environmental situation, I feel that sustainable, renewable clean energies would have been the first to reappear and, as a result, gained the monopoly fossil fuels hold in our world. The source for this bit is the sheer amount of electric cars we encounter. pretty much all the cars are electric (hence their movability with the move bullet) even the already destroyed cars we see are electric. I recon they'd try to enforce a 1 to 1 charity to luxury ratio, Byakuya doesn't quite understand why they do but he knows it makes them happy so he agrees

me: they tell him it's "Investing in Shuichi's future" and he's ready to make the sum double

firedemongaming: he's ready to make it double just because it makes them happy, if they told him that he'd probably tenfold it. He eventually starts making a massive donation on each of their birthdays (probably a month's worth of his salary), he originally started doing this because one of them asked him to make a small donation and fortunately for the charities. his extra-ness with cash applies to that as well XD

Yin: Makoto at a charity that he 100% believes in: I normally don't use my husband's money, but there can be exceptions Kyoko: you are such a house husband Makoto getting flustered: using his money for good things feel nice! and he told me I could do this!

Yeah I have a lot of thoughts on the like. Excessiveness of the spending. I didn’t interject at the time because I was doing stuff (still watching tho, I’m always watching)but tldr the overly excessive spending exists in jokeland in my head. Like. Yeah Togami can be a big spender but he knows how not to go overboard. Yeah the house is a bit big but not like 25 staircases in law suite private jet bug yknow? It puts me off a little too

[creida-sims]

Strangetown news part 1

So, I wanted to post more gameplay this year... Lets go lmao. Not a lot of pics coz I am more of text person tbh

Lola and Ajay got engaged! Honestly, this pair is one of the sweetest I ever had in my game. They weren't in any rush, and originally I wanted to pair Ajay with Bella who lives in the same apartment complex (it's actually just garages reformed to be VERY cheap apartments lmao) but for some reason they didn't get along well despite having a mutual attraction. I mean, both Bella and Ajay still have a want to fell in love with each other despite seeing other people for a good while.

I didn't plan to get them engaged, but they always wanted to spend time with each other, so I figured, why not? And on another dream date, Ajay proposed.

Oh, and Lola is pregnant. Yeah. Ajay keeps wanting to date Bella, but never acts so... We'll see. Lola already wants marriage, btw. Maybe after I move them out. They don't have a lot of money because of my mods to make their lives harder (higher rent, bills, lesser salaries) so maybe I'd do that later in Lola's pregnancy.

(Just a nice picture)

Bella is sleeping with Gunnar by the way. I guess two romance sims know how to satisfy each other. She kept thinking about Ajay for a whole night, but she definitely had a good time regardless.

About Gunnar, well... He graduated and moved into a very cheap man-cave in SimCity (makeovered Downtown) and is just sleeping around. He laid a job in show-biz. Nothing special.

Um... Bella might want to check for STD afterward. I doubt having sex in a club toilet is hygienic much, and Gunnar did it more than once.

[realpapaemeritusiv]

🔫 Tell everyone about gianni rn or I’ll shoot (it’s full of water) (just regular water but it’s like just slightly cold)

damn guess i gotta tell the world about my main boy gianni. it'll be under a cut bc its long as shit

okay so this right here

is gianni (technically gianni copia emeritus if we're going by full legal names here). we've made our own lore and i hope eventually you'll make a masterpost of it so if i write stuff later on i can include the link as a reference for anyone that might choose to read it bc honestly i think the lore that we've altered and made up is really interesting and i think people might enjoy reading it one day. anyway, onto the meat and potatoes of this.

so, with the lore that we've created, gianni is the twin brother of copia (named giorgio/gio in our lore bc honestly he needed a name and that name slaps) born to nihil and lucifer (i am 100% down to answer more questions on this bc this slaps also ik owen will def be down to answer questions about that little tidbit or it might be in the headcanon tag on their blog).

there's a bit of a branching path with him because i go back and forth between having them be raised together until they're both 10 or until they're both 5, but the constant is nihil having to send away one son to keep them safe from imperator (named cirice in our lore and will be called that for the duration of this post just to keep things streamlined). from 5/10 until his mid to late 30s, gianni worked his way up in the ranks of an abbey in italy that i think i made up. honestly, he was completely taken advantage of in that abbey, being worked to near death by the cardinals and siblings of sin (fun fact this man is a people pleaser to the max and also physically cannot take a single day off and has actually almost died from it). while literally being overworked by pure luck he managed to meet a special someone (you'll shit when you find out who it is) and starts a little sneaky relationship with them.

the person? temptesa, aka our own rain ghoul. (i'm sure owen's posted lore about it so go check it for more deets). they probably get a good year or two together and exchange rings before his beloved is sent away without his knowledge (to Linköping by pure luck where they're later reunited and i'll def expand on that if anyone wants to know more)

so he's eventually asked to return to the abbey as a cardinal (that we placed in Linköping just for simplicities sake and to have one cohesive area anytime the abbey's mentioned) and arrives back home after 25-30 years to one of 2 things

the previous papas already having been executed by cirice and prepared for the veneration of relics and everyone in the abbey absolutely depressed

or

during anti christmas :)

i haven't really taken the time to build the lore on everything that happens immediately after he's returned home, but he does continue his work as a cardinal and watching as his twin becomes papa and tours the world spreading the word of the church

UNTIL

he gets to play papa one time because his brother's way too sick to perform the ritual/show and he's the only one available who can fill the role. he literally crams learning all the songs in like 11 hours and is such a nervous wreck before that first show and he def barfs at least once before he goes on stage for the first time.

this man is a whole ass natural at being on that stage. talks to the crowd, puts his whole self into every song, and literally stays a few hours after that first show just to talk to anyone who stays after bc this man loves the fans, adores them tbh.

he finally gets his chance to be papa when gio wants to step down and focus on starting a family with his wife (who i am also 100% down to talk about later, not rn tho this is gianni time) and this man puts his entire being into being a good papa. he doesn't take a salary, pushes for the ghouls to be equal to him, defends the ghouls (and there's a ton of stuff i could talk about when it comes to him with the ghouls bc this man is lowkey a whore), and just pretty much revamps the church from the ground up and has the ghouls finally be equals to everyone else.

that's just a lil taste of gianni tbh bc there's so much more i could talk about but i gotta workshop some of it still

[cupboardgods]

Hi! I was wondering how you became a grants manager? I'm interested in making a career change, but when I looked into it a lot of the advice was just "find a non-profit and do work for free for a while". Thank you!

Tl;dr: I got grants experience doing simple admin work for NIH during the pandemic, and I have an arts degree and a lot of customer service experience.

But ugh literally. Years ago, I met a woman who "coasted on [her] inheritance" for a decade working unpaid jobs and climbing the ranks at her museum until she got a leadership position. Not only was that really insensitive "advice", but I dont know if you can even DO THAT anymore with the current job market. So I know the struggle and unfortunately that's also the stage I'm at now in my career despite my job experience.

I think I was very lucky to land that arts council job, actually. Recruiters keep telling me that grant review/grantmaking is super niche (they're not even clear on what it is a lot of the time...they think I was writing grants or doing accounting...no).

I think it was a combination of right time/right place and the role being difficult to fill.

Basically, I got pulled into contract work at NIH by a friend in summer of 2020. One of those situations where they really needed people and your education/background didn't matter too much. That job involved supporting grant review meetings, recruiting reviewers, etc. Didn't pay well but was reliable and remote and easy.

Eventually, I was fed up with working there and started looking for arts nonprofits that I could volunteer for and hopefully leverage a job I liked. That's how I stumbled upon the arts council job opening, which was full time and paid a competitive salary for the industry.

I was a good fit bc of my arts background, lots of customer service experience, and also because I was coming from NIH, which is like the best of the best in peer review.

Tbh the responsibilities ended up being much more than what was described in the job posting. My arts council was pretty ambitious despite lack of resources, and also wanted me to revamp everything. I had to learn A LOT on the job. God it was so much. It was a big step up from my previous admin role. Also, going from an NIH institute with hundreds of employees and over $100 MILLION in funding to a tiny nonprofit with 9 employees and a couple bucks was a bit of a shock.

I guess I'd say look to larger organizations to get experience? I live in the DC area, so it's all associations and government contracting here. But I do think my NIH role was the main reason I got the Grants Manager job.

And of course, in a career change, really sell yourself. Make sure you are clear about how your previous experience makes you a good fit. It might be as obvious as "I managed this program therefore I can manage yours too," but if you don't say that, the employers aren't going to come up with that themselves. The reality of the current job market is they don't want to train you and they expect you to have already had the same title they're hiring for.

I'm currently trying to pivot to other nonprofit work--program manager roles, preferably in the arts, but I'm not being picky. But lately I haven't had a lot of success.

Best of luck!