#house clearance cost

[tittyinfinity]

"You're so lucky that you can get paid to sit at home and do nothing" is something I hear from family members & people online.

Okay, let's say you're not disabled at all. No health issues. You've somehow tricked the system into believing you're disabled (not possible).

Would you still trade your job and salary to live off of $600-800 a month?

Would you give up your house, your car, your hobbies, the ability to buy gifts for yourself & others, and ALL of your savings, just for the "great benefit" of sitting in bed all day?

Do you really think it's that great?

Now, add health issues to all of that.

Not only are you stuck at home, but your body hurts every time you try to move, lights and sounds can send you into a meltdown, you can't even make it to the bathroom without nearly passing out the entire way there. You're always too fatigued, too dizzy, or in too much pain to do basic activities. You can't cook for yourself more than once or twice a month. Fast food is expensive. You can't keep your place clean or even get yourself to shower regularly. You can't afford your hobbies – even just buying a video game is 10% of your income for the entire month. You don't get to buy yourself (or your kid/s) nice things. After paying bills, you have almost nothing left for necessities and gas. Your car breaks down? It costs 50%-200% of your monthly paycheck. You want new clothes? You got the thrift shop, clearance section at walmart, or ordering cheap things from horrible places like Temu, Shein, or Wish. You want a place to live? You won't be able to afford to live alone until you get approved for housing assistance after waiting 5 or more years on a waiting list. And either way, bills are gonna be more than half of your monthly paycheck.

Does all of that sound like a privilege?

And do you REALLY believe anyone would try to fake a disability for that?

Get mad at the system that underpays you, not at disabled people who are paid well below a sub-minimum wage just to "sit around" and feel like shit all day

#the examples i gave just mentioned my own health issues #i dont know what it's like to experience other people's disabilities so i can't speak on those #but anyone is welcome to add stuff if theyd like #disability #chronic pain #.bdo

[afeelgoodblog]

The Best News of Last Year

1. Belgium approves four-day week and gives employees the right to ignore their bosses after work

Workers in Belgium will soon be able to choose a four-day week under a series of labour market reforms announced on Tuesday.

The reform package agreed by the country's multi-party coalition government will also give workers the right to turn off work devices and ignore work-related messages after hours without fear of reprisal.

"We have experienced two difficult years. With this agreement, we set a beacon for an economy that is more innovative, sustainable and digital. The aim is to be able to make people and businesses stronger," Belgian prime minister Alexander de Croo told a press conference announcing the reform package.

2. Spain makes it a crime for pro-lifers to harass people outside abortion clinics

Spain has criminalized the harassment or intimidation of women going for an abortion under new legislation approved on Wednesday by the Senate. The move, which involved changes to the penal code, means anti-abortion activists who try to convince women not to terminate their pregnancies could face up to a year behind bars.

3. House passes bill to federally decriminalize marijuana

The House has voted with a slim bipartisan majority to federally decriminalize marijuana. The vote was 220 to 204.

The bill, sponsored by Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, will prevent federal agencies from denying federal workers security clearances for cannabis use, and will allow the Veterans’ Administration to recommend medical marijuana to veterans living with posttraumatic stress disorder.

The bill also expunges the record of people convicted of non-violent cannabis offenses, which House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said, “can haunt people of color and impact the trajectory of their lives and career indefinitely.”

4. France makes birth control free for all women under 25

The scheme, which could benefit three million women, covers the pill, IUDs, contraceptive patches and other methods composed of steroid hormones.

Contraception for minors was already free in France. Several European countries, including Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Norway, make contraception free for teens.

5. The 1st fully hydrogen-powered passenger train service is now running in Germany. The only emissions are steam & condensed water.

Five of the trains started running in August. Another nine will be added in the coming months to replace 15 diesel trains on the regional route. Alstom says the Coradia iLint has a range of 1,000 kilometers, meaning that it can run all day on the line using a single tank of hydrogen. A hydrogen filling station has been set up on the route between Cuxhaven, Bremerhaven, Bremervörde and Buxtehude.

6. Princeton will cover all tuition costs for most families making under $100,000 a year, after getting rid of student loans

In September, the New Jersey Ivy League school announced it would be expanding its financial aid program to offer free tuition, including room and board, for most families whose annual income is under $100,000 a year. Previously, the same benefit was offered to families making under $65,000 a year. This new income limit will take effect for all undergraduates starting in the fall of 2023.

Princeton was also the first school in the US to eliminate student loans from its financial aid packages.

7. Humpback whales no longer listed as endangered after major recovery

Humpback whales will be removed from Australia's threatened-species list, after the government's independent scientific panel on threatened species deemed the mammals had made a major recovery. Humpback whales will no longer be considered an endangered or vulnerable species.

Climate change and fishing still pose threats to their long-term health.

Some other uplifting news from last year:

A Cancer Trial’s Unexpected Result: Remission in Every Patient

California 100 percent powered by renewables for first time

Israel formally bans LGBTQ conversion therapy

Tokyo Passes Law to Recognize Same-Sex Partnerships

First 100,000 KG Removed From the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

As we ring in the New Year let’s remember to focus on the good news. May this be a year of even more kindness and generosity. Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2023!

Thank you for following and supporting this g this newsletter

Buy me a coffee ❤️

#best news of last week

[maleficentmrsofallevil]

Slow, but appreciative, clap

Maybe I'm just having a Chris Evans "I understood that reference" moment, but I appreciate MGA's commitment to the bit for this doll:

I know she's the MGA Entertainment Rainbow High Shadow High Series 2 doll, and a darn near exact copy of the series one doll (which I also own). I don't know what her name is, and I don't care, but I'm guessing she's the "techie" character, since she has a laptop, tablet, and a smartphone. I'd make some kind of joke about overkill if, uh, people who live in glass houses wanted to throw stones...

So we've got a bustier modeled after a motherboard, some 3.5 mm A/V jack cords as a belt, and CD-ROMs in clear sleeves on the front of the skirt. I respect this.

On the side of her shoes, you can see the tiniest little swoop that I'm guessing is supposed to be like the "Intel Inside" logo. I'm guessing, cuz 1) I can't really see it, and 2) maybe it's supposed to be Pentium? That's pretty old, tho. Like, she's not wearing actual floppy disks.

She comes with the standard stand and comb we've come to expect. The only thing I'm sad about is that prior series dolls had a case to go with their cellphone that had a little thumb holder, and this doll doesn't have that case. Maybe she's one of those cellphone purists who doesn't do cases cuz she needs the thinnest possible phone. Or maybe it got cut cuz cost cutting. Meh. I can't be bothered to figure it out. I saw the leaked photos for the new series, and slime is back. This line is officially dead to me now.

Oh - I figured out the way to use the thumb holder is to center her long-ass nails in the hole and push gently upwards until the tablet stays in place. The phone is just balancing on her hand.

Of course, I bought her on clearance. MGA pushes these doll lines out too frequently and too fast, forcing retailers to clearance out prior lines while current lines languish in stores, which is why I refuse to pay full price.

#dollblr #mga entertainment #slow clap #but not sarcastic

[eggl-rd]

Who is the guy who is on fire with the gas mask can you explain him to me but in like, the worst way possible?

thats my good friend plinko. tehyre 4 dogs in a trenchcoat and their favorite food is plain white bread or plain white bread with salt and pepper if they want something spicy. if you dont keep them hydrated theyll start to crystalize. theyve canonically committed at minimum 35 war crimes and they love to play my little pony. theyve a weevil. they collect ketchup packets. they dont kill people for the money they do it becuase they love it. htey cost 4 dollars at your local grocery store but theyre on clearance so you can get them for 2. theyre made out of model magic. they are rapidly approaching tge white house as we speak

#tf2 #pyro tf2

[toiletpotato]

Driving While Black: Race, Space and Mobility in America

Please consider watching this documentary, especially if you want to learn about how systemic racism works within the system of transportation, as well as its mental and physical effects on Black people in particular. You will learn something new.

You can watch the entire thing, for free, at the link above. It's about two hours long. There are English captions, though near the end the timing is a bit off.

In the second half of the documentary, they show footage of police brutality against Black Americans. The footage is interspersed between interviews and other segments, often without warning. It is distressing and that is the point.

Below are some quotes from the documentary I've collected, if you do not have the time to watch it right now:

Allyson Hobbs, historian at Stanford University: (1:13:48 – 1:14:26) “There’s a very complicated history around the interstate. The interstate for Black travelers creates a very positive benefit in that the interstate makes travel safer in many ways because instead of traveling on country roads and back roads where there was quite a bit of fear and quite a bit of uncertainty about what could happen, traveling on interstates felt more safe and more secure.”

Eric Avila, author of The Folklore of the Freeway: (1:14:31 – 1:14:59) “The interstate highway program was kind of built with this myth of consensus. That it’s what everybody wanted. It’s by popular demand. But for people of color, and for African Americans in particular, they were kind of left out of that consensus because their neighborhoods were the sacrificial lands in which to build this highway.”

Elie: (1:16:20 – 1:16:45): “The thing that people usually say is ‘these were dying communities and we needed the overpasses, we needed the highways to move people out of these ghetto environments.’ Well in fact, these were communities that were vibrant. That people were living in. That the United States government destroyed through a combination of active funding of detrimental projects, and a kind of benign neglect.”

Avila (1:17:23 – 1:18:12): “Highway construction impacted Black communities or other non-white communities, because that’s where property values were the lowest. There is a certain kind of cost effective strategy in building highways through neighborhoods with lower property values. It costs the state less. However, historically, lower property values have been tied to race and African Americans in particular. In many ways all of these federal policies and programs were interconnected. The Federal Housing Administration’s policies, urban renewal, slum clearance, highway construction, all of these processes worked in tandem with each other to create an even more racially stratified geography.”

Leah Chase, chef: (1:18:14 – 1:18:38): “And they did that so fast, I’m telling you: because Black people were not involved in anything in those days. People would do things, we didn’t even know what was going on. We were not involved. In those days we were not allowed into the process so they just came through there with that thing, took away houses; took away good businesses, good people.”

Alvin Hall, author: (1:19:38 – 1:19:52): “You see it again and again in almost every major city in America, and it was really a huge economic setback for many African American businesses because they became isolated.”

Hobbs: (1:19:54 – 1:20:15): “If you retrace it and if you go to some of these areas that were once bustling Black business districts, now often they are abandoned buildings, sometimes they are abandoned, sort of, empty fields.”

Tamara Banks, journalist: (1:20:54 – 1:21:24): “When you erase a history, you erase an identity. You erase what’s important to people and how they connect with their community and how they connect with humanity as a whole. When you lose that culture and that space, now there’s a chink in the chain of your family legacy and you start to wonder, does my legacy matter? Does my life matter?”

Craig Steven Wilder, historian at MIT: (1:25:32 – 1:26:18) “The Montgomery Bus Boycott is actually a story of transportation in many ways. It’s the bus boycott, but it’s also how it was that African American women managed to establish and to reuse a network of connections to deploy their resources to sustain this boycott over months and months and months. And it meant, in fact, accessing cars. It meant finding new ways to move people around town, new ways to actually get people to their jobs. And so Montogomery is in many ways actually a wonderful way of thinking about how Black people deployed the automobile to challenge Jim Crow.”

Sorin: (1:19:15 – 1:19:33): “When road planners put through highways, they often take the path of least resistance, and that’s one of the reasons that Black communities have been so vulnerable, because they have the least amount of power to stop it.”

Sorin: (1:33:11 – 1:33:22): “I think the automobile is the way that many people encounter the police, and I think that’s where we start to get the term ‘Driving While Black.’”

James Baldwin, author: (1:35:07 – 1:35:24): “A cop is a cop. And yeah, he may be a very nice man, but I haven’t got the time to figure that out. All I know is that he has a uniform and a gun, and I have to relate to him in that way. That’s the only way to relate to him, at all, ‘cause one of us is gonna, one of us may have to die.”

Hobbs (1:36:42 – 1:37:10): “There are still so many dangers of being on the road, and I think we’re in a time right now where African Americans are feeling a similar kind of fear as their grandparents felt in the 1930s and 40s.”

#there are time stamps because i actually have a 6 page document of quotes for just the second half of this documentary #(this was assigned for school but i really think some folks here would benefit from watching it) #this documentary is well worth your time

[btwnskyandsea]

Hey! I As of this post I only have EIGHT of these cuties left in my shop--please take Claude home! I need his remaining huggable clones to move out of my house! 😂😂😂

At this point I'm selling him at cost, no profit. Please adopt him, he needs MANY hugs and a hot mug of Almyran pine needle tea to get through the cold Fódlan winter!!

#claude von reigen #claude von riegan #fe3h #fire emblem three houses #fan art #fan merch

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The real scandal is overclassification

The fact that every president and VP has a garage or filing cabinet or shoebox full of classified documents isn't (merely) evidence of political impunity - it's also the latest absurd turn in the long-running true scandal: the American epidemic of overclassification and excessive secrecy.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/30/i-come-to-a-land-downunder/#but-id-have-to-kill-you

Thousands of American bureaucrats have unilaterally classified tens of millions of unremarkable documents without any legitimate basis for shielding them from public view. Meanwhile, millions of people have "Top Secret clearance" and can view these documents, making a mockery of their supposed secrecy.

Writing for The American Prospect, David Dayen crystallizes the incentives, problems and corruption that we should be paying to, and laments that instead, we're scoring cheap political points about the recklessness of presidents and ex-presidents, heavily salted with paranoid fantasies about the Danger to National Security (TM) posed by letting these docs escape the airless chambers of official secrecy:

https://prospect.org/politics/2023-01-30-president-classified-document-scandal/

Overclassification is a well-documented (ahem) problem, used by bureaucrats to cover up corruption, crimes and incompetence, as well as out of the lazy reflex to declare everything to be secret. This is abetted by members of the vast "Intelligence Community" who have rotated into the private sector and have a lucrative side-hustle as TV talking heads who spin spy-thriller fantasies about the risks of these paper broken arrows.

Dayen points to Senator Moynihan's 1997 report on "Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy," and its conclusion that if you declare everything secret, then nothing ends up being truly secret. It's a brilliant, readable, devastating critique of official secrecy. Nothing has been done about its recommendations:

https://sgp.fas.org/library/moynihan/

In 2016, the House Oversight Committee concluded that 90% of classified documents should not be classified, the same figure that the DoD came up with in its own report, 60 years earlier:

https://oversight.house.gov/hearing/examining-costs-overclassification-transparency-security/

Meanwhile, the Information Security Oversight Office - which oversees classification - keeps ringing alarm bells about overclassification, with 50m+ documents being classified in a typical year. Rather than listen to the ISOO, Congress has cut its staff in half over the past decade. 620 ISOO employees oversee the three million Americans empowered to classify documents:

https://fas.org/irp/congress/2016_hr/overclass.pdf

In 2010, the Washington Post's Dana Priest and William Arkin took stock of the post-9/11 explosion in state secrets in their "Top Secret America" report: "No one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/top-secret-america/2010/07/19/hidden-world-growing-beyond-control-2/

Attempts to liberate classified docs using FOIA requests fail repeatedly, with US agencies returning heavily redacted documents, even blacking out a report on the plans of the "Group of the Martyr Ebenezer Scrooge [to hijack the Christmas Eve flight of] Prime Minister and Chief Courier S. Claus."

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/22/magazine/the-strange-politics-of-classified-information.html

As Dayen says, the talking point from ex-spooks on TV that "overclassification is no excuse for bad document handling," is the equivalent of the old saw that "mass shootings are not the time to talk about gun control." And yet, the press keeps buying it.

Take the Politico op-ed by an ex-FBI spook, who turned the fact that "a foreign leader might like turnip-flavored ice cream into a classifiable scenario," proving that there is no overclassification excuse too absurd to get an airing:

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/01/26/the-wrong-question-about-the-classified-documents-scandal-00079540

[Image ID: A photograph of the Military Records Center in Alexandria, Virginia. Displayed are some captured German records waiting to be boxed.]

#pluralistic #overclassification classified documents burn before reading fyeo state secrecy secrecy scandals partisanship #overclassification #classified documents #burn before reading #fyeo #state secrecy #secrecy #scandal #partisanship

[usafphantom2]

My father knew the inside scoop. My Dad, Butch Sheffield, was with the SR 71 program from cradle to grave and wrote down in his unpublish book some of his reasons why it was canceled prematurely.

During the Carter Administration, 1977-81, while Stansfield Turner was Director of the CIA, the two of them made a decision to rely upon National Technical Means (NTM) or Spy Satellites for intelligence. This included eliminating manned aircraft and spies on the ground. This has been proven to be one of the biggest intelligence mistakes ever.

The reason for this strategy was it was risk-free for the political Administration. No airplanes or spies could be captured and displayed like Francis Powers and the U-2. This made the politician feel comfortable.

NSA National Security Agency never liked the SR-71. Why? It did not collect Communications Intelligence’s (COMINT)! It went too fast for COMINT. Ninety percent of NSA executives came from a COMINT background. They thought that COMINT was the only kind of intelligence that was useful.

All the time I was Recce. Chief, they (the NSA) came to the Pentagon in groups to try to insult the SR 71 program in any way, they could. You would attend a meeting, and one or two people would attend from each service and DOD. NSA would show up with ten people. I would ask why. They would say that each one represents an area of NSA. It was a joke in the Pentagon. I would only let one at a time in my area.

They would tell the White House in a flash-type message that an SR was almost intercepted by a Foxbat when the Foxbat was three hundred miles away from the SR. These types of messages were never followed up with the truth, from NSA, that they had been wrong. They often were.

The cost of this, National Tactical Means (NTM) has never been made public; in fact, most people with security clearances inside the government don’t know the cost. I knew because I I knew because I got a copy, one of twelve printed each year by the NRO, telling the real cost of: the satellite, the launch cost, the communications cost and the ground station cost.

The cost was enormous. The NRO did not want to give me the book. I knew it existed and asked for it. Finally, they gave it to me after I pressured the Director when I worked for the U S Congress.

One might ask how did this affect the SR-71? The answer is that once this very large amount of money was being spent on satellites, they no longer wanted to fund the SR—the SR then went from a National collection platform to a tactical intelligence asset.

Col Richard “ Butch” Sheffield

@Habubrats71 via X

[freehawaii]

SLAP IN THE FACE - MAUI SET TO REOPEN FOR TOURISM - RESIDENTS OUTRAGED

ABCNews.Go.com - September 19, 2023

West Maui, an area devastated by wildfires that ravaged the historic town of Lahaina less than two months ago, is set to reopen for visitors on Oct. 8. Lahaina will remain fully closed to the public until further notice, according to the Hawaiian Tourism Authority. The decision to open up for tourism has prompted outrage from some residents, many of whom remain displaced and have yet to pick up the pieces of their destroyed homes. Jeremy Delos Reyes, one of the roughly 7,500 displaced residents, is living with his family at a nearby hotel and is angered to learn that the state is planning for the return of visitors to the disaster area. Reyes has lived on Maui for 48 years. "Why am I stuck at a resort right now every day, waking up wondering if me and my wife and my family are going to get kicked out because tourists need a place to stay?" he told ABC News in an interview. He continued: "Why do these displaced people that lost family members -- lost everything they own -- have to go to work now and put on a smile to serve cocktails, to bring towels, to clean their room? How would that make you feel if you lost your family and everything you own?” Oct. 8 will mark two months since the wildfires began their destruction. Displaced residents say they have yet to revisit their old homes, as they await clearance from federal and local agencies to clear the areas as safe from hazardous materials and poor air quality. The disaster area is restricted to authorized personnel only, and many areas still don't have access to clean, safe drinking water. Many children from the region are still being transported to schools outside of West Maui, with expectations that schools will start up around Oct. 13 if they prove to be safe for return.

Jordan Ruidas, a resident and community organizer, has created a petition to delay the reopening of West Maui that has gathered more than 5,000 signatures. Tiny.One/DelayTheReopening "With it being exactly two months after the tragic fires … it seemed like a slap in the face honestly," she told ABC News in an interview. Ruidas said she and others know that West Maui will eventually need to open, "but what's concerning to me is our government officials have not hit certain benchmarks that a lot of us working class, Lahaina locals feel like we need before we can even start to get back to some kind of normalcy.” However, some business owners in the region are anxious for economic support. Noah Drazkowski, who was born and raised in West Maui and owns a local business, said his feelings are mixed about the reopening. The majority of his income comes from tourism, he says. The impact of the fire has compounded on top of the economic hit the COVID-19 pandemic had on his business. "Being born and raised here, it's difficult to want to reopen and that tourism is going to come back in," Drazkowski said. "But as a business owner, I know that we need it. I know that our families need it. You know, we need to be able to get back to some kind of normalcy to help push forward.” Tourism accounts for a large chunk of Maui County's economy. According to the Maui Economic Development Board, approximately 70% of every dollar is generated directly or indirectly by the visitor industry. The board calls tourism the “economic engine” for the County of Maui. Some residents don't want it to be this way, arguing that the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands has impacted the ownership of land and water for Native Hawaiians. Maui has been under water restrictions in recent years amid an ongoing drought and has been facing a housing crisis, as costs skyrocket. As residents continue to grieve, some fear the devastation will be exploited by visitors gawking at the tragedy. Those who do decide to come when West Maui opens, residents ask that they be respectful of the grieving city. Drazkowski recommends volunteering in the recovery efforts while on vacation if possible. "We went through a crisis. We went through a natural disaster. A lot of families are still grieving and still processing and they don't really want to see, they don't really want to see anyone on the side of the road trying to take pictures of what happened to their home," said Drazkowski.

#maui wildfire #maui strong #lahaina strong #delay the reopening #free hawaii #hawaiian kingdom

[georgefairbrother]

At the general election on 23rd February 1950, the incumbent UK Labour government just managed to cling on by their fingernails, with a precarious single-figure majority…

Under Clement Attlee, Labour had won in a landslide in 1945 (145 seat majority), but by 1950 the wheels were, if not actually falling off, at least coming loose. The final result in 1950 was 315 seats for Labour, 298 for the Conservatives and nine for the Liberal Party. Opposition Leader Winston Churchill noted that the parliament would be in an ‘unstable condition’.

As the Attlee Government entered the final full year of its first term, the contentious Iron and Steel (Nationalisation) Bill was presented to parliament. This measure resulted in serious conflict with the Conservative Opposition, which had otherwise been generally supportive of the Government’s Welfare State reforms. The nationalisation programme was a source of disagreement, in particular iron and steel which was seen as profitable and efficient in private hands. (It would later be re-privatised by the Churchill government).

Cost of living pressures were also causing headaches, although the government asserted that food subsidies were saving the average family around 14 shillings per week. The peak inflation rate of 7.7% in 1948 improved to around 3% by 1949-50, but would spike again to around 9% in 1951. (1970s and 80s governments would have looked back at those inflation figures with teeth-grinding envy).

Health (and housing) Minister Aneurin Bevan said that the NHS was costing double what the Government had budgeted for. Other sources suggest that the blowout was as much as three times the initial estimates. Rationing was lifted on clothing, but high prices and low availability appeared to make little difference. Meat and butter rations were increased but the sugar ration was cut. A number of industrial actions disrupted essential services like transport, coal mining and the docks, the latter resulting in a declared State of Emergency.

The Government was also struggling to uphold a key component of its manifesto, rebuilding war-damaged housing and supporting slum clearances. Production and building targets were difficult to achieve because of the continued shortage of materials and labour. About 9 000 fewer permanent new homes were built in the first part of 1949 as had been constructed during the corresponding period of the year before. (Harold Macmillan would boost housing renewal under the Tories, although he was less hampered by labour and material shortages, and the construction of high rise flats was incentivised.)

Leading up to the 1950 election, the Liberal Party was calling for controls on spending, limits to nationalisations, the application of food subsidies based on need, and the curbing of an expanding bureaucracy and civil service. In their 1950 manifesto, they asserted;

“…Crisis upon crisis comes upon us, because we are living beyond our means. The Liberal Party believes passionately in full employment in a free society, and in maintaining the social services, but unless we practice thrift and get full production, lower rations and mass unemployment are inescapable when the American aid ends…”

Following a period of death, illness and disunity within government’s depleted ranks, the Conservatives returned to power when another general election was called in 1951. Labour would be out of office for 13 years, although many of their initiatives were embraced and even expanded by subsequent Tory governments.

#social history #uk politics #working class history #social justice #modern history #uk government #british culture #society #human rights #uk history

[nancydrewwouldnever]

My entire outfit costs less than $20 and here I am judging these people at the Met who have my student loans on as a dress. Maybe even a down payment on a big house

LOL, they might! That dress Dua Lipa got must be on loan from the Chanel Archive, which means you can't even put a price tag on it.

For the record, I've already had my shower and washed my hair, so am in the pjs I got on clearance at JC Penney for $7.

#ask

[eunchancorner]

I give you clearance to ramble about whichever OCs you want :> go wild

OK

SO

I have several ocs so I'mma go down the list starting with my Spooky Month ocs. Maybe one day I'll ramble about my Welcome Home ocs too-

(This is every oc but Sasha, since I already rambled about her)

Eun (aka my sona) SO. This is a bit complicated. Eun and their sister somehow made their way to a Catholic orphanage that was established in like, 1960, and still follows most of those rules. Their sister got extremely sick and ended up dying, then Eun befriended a cat and got adopted by Lila after Skid got upset about not being able to have an older sibling before Lila realized... 'Wait holy shit you can-'

Mariana Cross She's one of my lil goth girls who actually loves anything cutecore. Her mom was a werewolf but her dad isn't so a genetic mutation happened and instead of turning every full moon, she just has paws instead of feet. She hangs out with the hauntiest house gang a lot and has a crush on... well, most of them. She's just a sweet little pan bean

Lilliana Cross This is Mariana's older sister. She ended up with her mother's werewolfism but is able to control it far better thanks to growing up with it. She's completely lost use of her arm after (call me cringe) saving John's daughter from the fire after hearing her and seeing the fire while on a walk. She's currently living out of one of her dad's old warehouses and doing the best she can to help people. (She also may or may not be dating Ignacio)

Seraphina Discord Now this bitch. She was originally made for a Captain Bob character AI rp, but I couldn't stop myself. Originally she was made to be a fearless captain who, so far, has fought a terrifying sharklike beast, befriended the shark hybrid, Captain Bob Velseb, and lost her leg to the beast I mentioned earlier. Adapted into other AUs, however, she's that person in the horror movie who kills the monster. Despite her outwardly cold, antisocial, and fearless demeanor, inside she's affectionate... and terrified. She fears what may come after her next...

Jasper Scoreson This is my genderfluid bean, Jasper. They're about the Hatzgang's age and live in a not-so-nice household. He's allowed to dress how he wants inside, but outside he has to dress like a 'proper boy', although she much prefers dressing in more femme clothes. Their house is also very restricting right down to what he's allowed to look up or even eat around his parents.

Juno Henderson She's a bubbly little sweetheart who can easily be described as the girliest of all. She loves everyone and everything, and is my darling lil lesbian bb. Like I love this lil bean sm you have no idea- BUT. But. I can't have a normal oc. That's just not allowed. So she's a cultist, and quite a useful one at that. She's quick and seemingly trustworthy, allowing her to round up sacrifices with ease, whether with persuasion or by force. However she doesn't like doing the sacrificing, leave that to Atticus.

Arina Doiteain Another cultist lesbian girl, but far more butch. Also a massive arsonist, which means her and Ignacio get along not-so-surprisingly well. She sees Juno as a little sister that she must protect at all costs (despite Juno being able to defend herself perfectly fine. But she doesn't mind!) She was actually my second oc that I wanted to impose as a villain but I couldn't do it and just made her a cultist instead

#eun rants #sm #spooky month #sm ocs #spooky month ocs #eun #mariana #lilliana #cross sisters #seraphina #captain discord #jasper #juno #arina

[t00turnttrauma]

money, money, money

part 1: winners and losers

I’m back for a little while... enjoy!

tags; @jackiidk, @groggyvanfleet, @doodle417, @gretavanflowerpower, @callmebymym @TheFleetOfDreams, @gretavanfleas, @seventieswhore, 

Weekly grocery shopping was one of your favorite pastimes. While the store could occasionally be a little over stimulating and busy, it cleared your mind. Staring at the various options of pasta sauce, you racked your brain into trying to remember what Josh had asked for.

He said no chunks. Then that’s just tomato puree with some Italian seasoning, you thought, picking up a jar. He obviously wanted something that wasn’t carried here. He’s getting Prego and he’s going to like it.

You snorted at the double entendre, setting the glass jar in the shopping cart. The store wasn’t too busy today. It was still normal business hours and fairly early in the morning. This meant that the overnight workers had just fallen asleep and the conventional day-to-dayers were settling into their desks with their freshly brewed coffee. You decided to take the morning off to clear your mind. Without a clear sign of where to go or what to do, you wanted to feel useful.

Danny usually did the shopping for the house. He had a desk job and the ability to be out on time and had reliable transportation, but it was what they called ‘Divorce Season’. While the post holiday blues and normalcy were returning, divorces were also being filed much faster than before the holidays. The stress of planning and cooking and in-laws often proved to be too much for the once semi-happy couples of central Michigan. 

The tinsel, fake snow, and red and white decoration was finally put away, replaced with hearts and discounted items that no one wanted. You stopped at the clearance section, seeing the cheap ornaments that were even lower now. They were blue and shiny. You thought about it for a moment. This coming year was going to be a rough one, maybe ending it on a high note with drinks and a Blue Christmas theme would be a good idea. There was more than enough space in storage as everyone usually went home to their parents for Christmas. For the time being, you had no plans in seeing your family for the holidays, any of them. Obviously the universe had other plans when your older sister rounded the aisle, stopping in her tracks. Your body had the instinct to turn and run, but your feet stuck to the ground. You were about to walk past, ignoring her, until your mother appeared behind her. You hadn’t even noticed that he was speaking to you until she placed a hand on your shoulder.

“You haven’t been home in days, Y/N, we’re worried about you.”

“I said I’m fine, mom. I’m staying with some friends.”

She sighed heavily. “Please come for dinner so we can talk about what happened.”

You swallowed thickly. “Maybe. I’ll call you.”

“We just think that you should come home with us.” 

You grabbed the handle of the shopping cart. “I have a lot of things to get done. Preparation.”

Your sister, Nicole, bounced her dog as you walked away, ignoring the barking from both Nicole and the dog. The white mutt was an exotic, purebred dog. She’d spent ages looking for a dog like Nellie. She came with a pedigree and a monthly grooming appointment that cost more than what you made in a month. She’d been the golden child, Nicole, not Nellie. She grew up in the right crowd, met a man on spring break during her senior year and married rich. Now she lived in a house that was bigger than the branch you managed. Her husband was the son of some Wall Street broker who spent more money on his haircuts than his watch. He was relatively handsome but had the personality of a slice of damp bread and the humor of a children’s tv show where putting emphasis on a random word in a sentence is the height of comedy. 

Instead of stopping to pay for the items, you abandoned the cart. While you felt bad for the employee who had to put it all back, there was no way you would risk running into Nicole again. What she was doing in a discount grocery store would continue to stump you. She was the reason for your predicament anyway. She was an aspiring trophy wife, jetting off to luxury destinations with her husband's unlimited paid vacations. You hated how helpless she was. If they were to ever divorce, she would lose everything. She never went to college as she jumped ship the moment she could. You hated the idea, instead taking the time to save for college. Your parents were all on board, until Nicole opened her mouth. You’d been a teller, paying your parents for rent and a portion of the bills. It seemed like good practice, until you had a taste for the finer things in life, depleting your savings quickly. You were asking for money to go to school, until your sister shook her head. 

Why don’t you just run the bank? 

It was unforgivable and still brought red to your vision. Your knuckles were white for the entire drive to the grocery store in the next town over. * Sam’s joke was running in your mind all night. While there were so many hoops to jump through, robbing a bank is possible. To make it work, you started looking into those who have gotten caught. You researched local robberies and even famous, successful heists. You wrote down what went wrong and what could have happened if their car had started or if they hadn’t taken the long route. The downfall usually happened when the team members either didn’t trust one another or they trusted too much in the wrong people. You thought about it. The other four in the room were all trustworthy. You’d grown up together, seen each other at your worst and best. They were also tight knit, a true brotherhood in more ways than one.

You put on your slacks and blazer, grabbing your thermos and satchel before walking out the door. The fall air was crisp, slightly wetter than normal thanks to the storm that had passed through overnight. The drive from home to work was a short one. If you beat the morning traffic of parents taking their kids to school and the teenagers joyriding before the first bell, it was ten minutes tops. You sat at a stoplight, seeing Jake puffing away at a cigarette as he walked to the shop. You would have offered him a ride, but he was almost there and was still angry about his talk with Chester last night.

You gripped the steering wheel. The thought of robbing the bank sent both a chill down your spine and a pulse of excitement through your chest. There was a big risk, but the big reward almost made it worth it.

Walking into Y/L/N Family Bank and Trust was always a trip. The others were polite, smiling and waving hello each morning. Every few days, they would take turns and buy coffee for everyone. You never drank a single sip. They were only playing nice because one, you were their boss, and two, your last name was sewn into their shirts. They did things without including you, like visiting the bars downtown or scheduling their lunches together so they could go off in pairs. It bothered you at first, but eventually, you grew accustomed to it and developed a ‘screw them’ attitude. You weren’t dying to make friends with middle aged women and you wanted them to know it.

Your job wasn’t hard at all. Because you had no licensing or credentials, you did the little things around the office and looked busy. You basically ordered the office supplies, kept everyone in check, looked over the finances, and counted the money in the vault twice a day. The tasks of the job also included praying that no one decided to rob the bank when you were there. You’d been trained on what to do since you were young and spent hours in your father’s office at the main branch. 

Hand over the ink packs first

The ink packs were just what they sounded like. Hidden between layers of cash was a fragile box of ink. When a thief would try to open it, the ink would release, making the bills useless and the ink would permeate their hands and be impossible to scrub off for weeks.

Use the bait money

Bait money, a wad of cash that was recorded and kept aside. While fancier banks can have their linked to a silent alarm, here they were just ways to identify who is spending the money where. 

The day was spent in a haze and by the time you made it to the end of the work day, anything you tried to plan out was instantly squashed by some security feature. The vault was far too thick to drill into without at least two hours of time. Business hours was difficult as there were always people roaming in and out of the bank. After hours was just as risky as that’s when the motion sensors were out to play.

Danny walked into Booker and Calvin Law Firm. He’d gotten the job early in high school, a favor that turned into a real job when he turned 16. While he applied to college and was accepted to almost all of them, they were too far away. The prospect of a band being picked up was too big in his mind to jeopardize. Instead, he picked up a notebook and the headset and began making the schedules for Brian Booker. 

He’d ended up here during what was supposed to be his college years. He’d been seeing a girl for a few months. She was an heiress of some kind. While he grew up well off, she never had to worry about a thing. Her idea of an adventure was backpacking across Europe, staying in a new five star hotel every night and enjoying things similar to the things she’d seen on Instagram. He shelled out most of his savings to follow her. Danny wasn’t sure what he was expecting to find, but he was hoping to find a new love for art or geography. His girlfriend also went out looking for herself, instead she found Paolo, Ruth, and Leonardo. He used the little savings he had left on a plane ticket home. In the span of one weekend, he went from staying in plush hotels with private pools and beautiful views to sleeping in his childhood bedroom where his feet hung over the end of the mattress. His parents had sold his adult bed, instead giving him the race car bed he hadn’t slept in since he was nine. 

Around the corner, Jake worked at Monty’s Motor Shop. He’d been there since he graduated high school, specializing in oil changes and car detailing. He hated his job and would rather be spending his time practicing new riffs or creating new techniques and sounds with second hand instruments he’d bought at the pawn shop a few streets over. Instead, he spent the eight hour work day working on cars he would never be able to afford at this rate. He’d never been a materialistic guy, but he was living paycheck to paycheck in a house that was way too small and with way too many people. He slept on a mattress and box spring he bought when the hotel at the east end of town closed. He always regretted not making it as far as he’d always dreamed. He had talent and the personality of a rockstar. He got along well with others and didn’t have an issue with authority, but there was something that he was missing in his life. He and Josh had a terrible issue with their money. They made a promise to their parents to pay their own way through school. It wasn’t because their family couldn’t afford it, it was just their first step into adulthood. They would live at home to cut costs, they already had roommates anyway. Instead, both of them had been fiscally irresponsible, ruining their chances. Jake put all of his eggs into one basket and counted them before they’d hatched. 

Josh went to college for a little while, scraping together what he could after begging his parents for a loan. He spent two years in community college. He took a few years off to help his brothers survive. They wouldn’t be in the financial pickle if it wasn’t for him. He wanted to move to Los Angeles and create films. He had it all planned out. He worked his way through high school scrounging every dollar he could find, usually in Jake’s pants when he did laundry, and saved it all. Josh had ambition and a dream. All went well. After telling a little fib that he was going on a spring break trip with an ex-girlfriend, he hopped on a plane to LAX with his dream. Tucking his hands into the pockets of his cardigan, he made his way to his hotel. He rehearsed his speech all night. Pacing in his hotel room, he rambled about the plot of the film he’d been planning. He’d been working on letting his work do the talking, but he only became more nervous the closer the pitch came. Josh promised that he would only close his eyes for a few hours. He settled into the hotel bed and closed his eyes. 

He ran most of the way to the office building he was supposed to meet the producers in. Taking a moment to stop behind the revolving doors, he stopped to refluff his hair in the reflection and make sure he had all copies of his script. He arrived just on time, sweaty and out of breath. 

“Mr. Kiszka?” The woman asked, looking unimpressed with the wannabe director. 

“Yes, ma’am,” Josh grinned, shaking her hand. He glanced over the rest of the producers. “I’m sorry for being late. I’m from a small town, I’m not used to traffic.” The only other man in the room nodded. “Better late than never. Let’s see what you have.” 

Josh felt confident as he handed out his scripts. He ran them through the plot, symbolism he wanted to include at any cost. The four producers looked interested, asked questions and were overall engaged with Josh. He walked out hopeful and optimistic. His shoulder felt light but his chest still felt heavy from the lies he’d told his family. He was never one to be attached to his phone, but he was constantly checking for messages and missed phone calls. The day it finally came, he practically sprinted from the dinner table. 

“Josh! You’re not excused!” Sam shouted after him. 

Josh ignored him and disappeared down the hallway before anyone asked any more questions. “Hello?” 

“Is this Joshua?” 

“This is him,” he said shakily, kicking the door to his bedroom closed. 

“This is Diane Letters from Ridgewood Studios. I’m calling because we reread your script and thought it over-” 

“Yes?” Josh was fighting the urge to yell at her to spit it out. 

“We decided to go in another direction. I am so sorry, but we would love to keep your script for future endeavors, if that’s alright with you.” 

Josh felt his heart break. “Of course.” He wiped away a stray tear. “I would be honored to be considered again.” 

Defeated, broken, and disappointed, Josh hoped to bury his sorrows in his now cold plate of meatloaf. He took his seat and picked at the peas in front of him. 

“Was that your girlfriend?” Ronnie cooed, kicking Josh’s ankle lightly. 

Josh only hummed in response. “Maybe.” 

Light dinner chatter ensued. Josh and Jake were a few weeks from graduation, their college dues were due. Karen turned to her two soon to be Fighting Titans. “Have you two sent in your payments?” 

“I did,” Jake said, grabbing a third slice of meatloaf. “Josh?” Josh swallowed. “About that. I want to talk to you and dad about my future.” He looked at his siblings then at his parents at either end of the table. “Alone.” Jake guffawed, dropping his silverware. “You didn’t knock up Simone did you?” The table went silent for a moment before their father sighed. “Josh, please tell me you didn’t.” 

Josh couldn’t believe his family. Sam and Ronnie both had their heads down towards their plates but their eyes were trying to catch one another to silently gossip. Jake stared at his brother, unable to believe that he was right. 

He took a deep breath. “I lied to you guys, and I��m sorry-” 

Karen stared at her oldest. “Do her parents know?”

“This isn’t about Simone. We didn’t even have sex!” 

Kelly rolled his eyes. “Let’s stop with the lying. Please.” 

Jake shook his brother by the shoulders, silently congratulating him for avoiding the walking sack of hormones named Simone. 

“No, Y/N-“ 

Everyone echoed the name of the girl they’d known their whole lives. Silence fell over the unsuspecting family once again. Josh was the most confused out of the bunch. He danced around the subject for as long as he could, assuring his family that you were not the subject of his confession, only a minor part. 

“Just spit it out,” Karen said. “Whatever you say does not leave this table.” She gave her younger three a warning look before looking at Josh. She reached around the corner of the table for his hand, silently promising that everything would be okay. 

“Instead of going on that camping trip with Simone on Spring Break, I went to Los Angeles. I spent all of my money on a meeting with some movie producers.” He took a shaky breath. “I thought they really liked it. They said they would give me a call if they liked it and wanted to buy the script but… they turned me down. I’m really sorry, mom.” 

Kelly was the first to rise from the table. He scraped his plate into the garbage can, leaving the dishes in the sink. “How much did you spend?” 

Josh shrugged. “I don’t know. Like eight grand on the flight and hotel and everything.” 

“And how much did you have saved?” 

“Around ten.” 

His father chuckled. “For getting that scholarship for your grades, you really are not very bright.” He sighed. “Go to your room. We will talk to you about it later.” Josh grabbed his plate, walking to his room to finish his meal. He felt like a child again, picking at his plate at the desk in his shared room. This was their punishment as kids when they fought. Instead of eating at the table with everyone else, the culprit was sent to their room with their food and could join everyone for dessert if their fit or instigation had passed. The door opened and he spun around, expecting his parents to come in and take his phone and the car keys, but instead Jake was there. 

“You idiot,” he seethed. “Do you realize what you’ve done?” 

Josh furrowed his brows. “I broke the promise. I’ll take what’s coming.” 

“No, doofus! They’re checking all of our bank accounts and they’re going to see that I spent my money on-“ 

“Jacob!” 

Samuel was in a similar boat, just a little bit ahead of his brothers and best friend. The oldest agreed that Sam had the potential to be the greatest, chipping in to help pay his tuition for Lauchland Community College. He took all the classes he could, receiving multiple awards and semester after semester on the dean’s list. Much like his brothers, he too had a musical dream that he was too attached to. He purposely drew out his education. His idea was that if he made his classes take as long as possible, he could stay home and continue working with his brothers. 

Sam could have had it all. He had the looks and the brains and the charisma, but what he lacked was direction. All the people in his life that he looked up to were right here in Frankenmuth, also directionless and scraping by. Part of him felt like it was his destiny, to just be another loser feeding into the local economy. He hadn’t saved up his money he made. His parents bailed out Josh and supported Jake when he took a blue collar job, so why would he be any different? Sam is their son too. When it came time to ask for money to go away to college, a hefty scholarship letter in hand, Sam couldn’t go through with it. He took one look at his two brothers sitting in the living room, dozing off and still in their uniforms. Most kids his age would have taken the chance to get out, but his brothers had been there for him. He was going to be there for them. 

“Sam?” Kelly asked. “We’re here like you asked us to. What’s up?” 

Sam looked at his father, then his mother before shaking his head. “I have graduation rehearsal tomorrow morning, so I need the car.” 

Karen nodded. “Ask Josh for the keys.” 

How they all ended up living together was just a natural progression. It started with the twins. They felt like they had a chance to get out and finally have their own rooms, so they rented an apartment in an old building. Then Sam tagged along. He wanted freedom as he was freshly eighteen and out of high school. The three of them worked hard to make ends meet with Jake and Josh carrying a brunt of the bills to keep Sam as stress free as possible. After Danny’s excursion across Europe and a three months stay of playing board games with his parents every night, he needed a place to call his own: the small closet that was converted into a bedroom for him. Sam slept on a pullout couch in the living room and he hated it. 

At five pm, you locked the front door as the tellers counted their drawers for a final count. You received their money at the door of the vault, like every other day you were there. They gave you their slips with their amount of money written on it. You’d check it against the master logs before setting it inside the vault. Then, you locked it by turning the long handles and hearing the air hiss for a moment.

You walked through the well lit parking lot, another security feature. Sitting in your car, you sighed. The cleaning crew arrived soon after, letting themselves in through the back door. Instead of going home, you let yourself into the house again, meeting Danny in the living room. You’d barely started a conversation when Josh and Sam arrived. The four of you chattered about, sharing news from the day. Jake ran into the living room ten minutes later than usual. 

“I bought a scratcher and I won forty bucks!” Jake said excitedly. He dropped a twenty into the coffee tin. “So, I bought all of you some and the rest went in here.”

You grabbed one from the middle of the table. You scratched the film off and flipped it over. Josh and Sam did the same, racing to see who could finish first. Danny only scratched the barcode at the bottom. He pulled his phone out and scanned it. His phone buffered for a moment.

“Bust.”

You held his hand for a moment before taking his phone and scanning yours. Just like Danny’s, your ticket was not a winner. Sam’s was also not a winner. Josh’s turn was eventful. The app buffered before revealing an error message. He frowned, having to manually check the card. His eyes were wider than saucers. “Someone double check.”

You slid the card over, reading the instructions and then doing the math involved. “Holy shit.”

“How much?” Sam asked, swiping the card and looking at it. “I don’t know how to read lottery tickets.”

“A thousand, I think,” you said. Some of the ink was rubbed off too much and left the question if it was an 8 or a 3. 

Josh was the first out the door, forgoing a thicker coat and running down the street to the gas station. Jake and Sam were hot on his trail, stopping to grab their coats first. You and Danny were left at the dining room table, alone. The two of you sat in silence. Your brain was still walking through the possibilities. You studied the walls, finally realizing how shitty the place is. The cheap paint was peeling in spots, revealing the floral wallpaper beneath. Air bubbles formed, bursting in the summer when they swelled with the heat. The carpet in the living room was horribly outdated and mashed from years of traffic. Mysterious stains dotted the threads, even since before they had moved in. No matter how many times Josh or Danny had taken cleaning supplies to it, they never budged. The floor beneath the linoleum squeaked, parts of it peeling up. The black and white checkered pattern was interrupted. The white was no longer bright, but a pale yellow. The black checks had faded overtime into a dark gray. The landlord was a younger man, maybe around 40. He owned other buildings in the area, but barely managed them. The five of you could have easily spruced the place up, bought supplies and done the labor with the help of guidebooks and the internet, but it was written in the contract: at no point should there ever be renovation without express permission from the landlord. 

With a sizable amount of income, the five of you could easily find somewhere else to live. Somewhere with an attentive landlord. Or better yet, somewhere without a landlord. Somewhere that could really be yours. A place without rules where you can hang a picture without having to ask first or risking your deposit for any reason. 

“What are you thinking about?” Danny asked, putting a cigarette between his lips. 

“Just some stuff at work,” you lied. 

“Problems with the ladies again?” Danny could sympathize with you. You’d ranted to him for hours over the years, grumbling when they would go out to the bars without you or ‘forget’ your coffee after you had no choice but to write someone up for misplacing ten dollars. 

You only sighed in response. Before you could come clean about doing what you actually spent hours mulling over, Josh walked back into the house, kicking the snow from his feet. He explained that the card was a bust, only worth thirty dollars according to the machine next to the drink fridges. You tried to remind them that it was thirty dollars more than what they began the day with. The four of them groaned, playfully picking on you for being so positive.

“What?” You asked, turning around in your chair to see Josh and Jake on the couch, sharing a joint. “I’m not allowed to be upbeat?”

Jake scoffed. “Y/N, you handle cash all day so you should know that thirty dollars is directly next to nothing when it comes to living life as an adult.”

He had a point. You’d have blown thirty dollars on anything had it been last week when you were still on your parent’s account. You would often buy them dinner or groceries when they were running low, but you would also buy unnecessary things like multiple cases for your iPad that matched each phone case you had. “Speaking of the bank,” Sam started, sitting in the other love seat, his long legs hanging over one side. “Have you given much thought to what I said about last night?”

It took a moment for everyone in the room to remember. Josh rolled his eyes. “She has more things to worry about than a hypothetical question that we shouldn’t even bring into the air because it’s illegal.”

Danny chimed in. “Yeah, Sam. Just drop it.”

You shook your head. “To answer your question, Sammy, I have been thinking about it.”

The room went silent. The floor vibrated as a truck rumbled past. Jake was the first to speak, truly wondering if you were serious. You nodded. “It’s possible. And think about it guys, one time and we’ll be well off.”

It was true. Eight grand would be just enough to get them on stage at The Backwoods. You obviously would need more to pay for school, but with your job, you could get another at a different bank closer to the school you wanted to go to. You’d start at the bottom, but that was the least of your worries. All you needed was something to start with and a little more to keep making payments. * The weekend finally rolled around. The week between paydays was weird. This was usually when groceries were beginning to run low and there were ingredients that no one looked at because they took far too long to make. Josh, though, often took it upon himself to research new recipes and try new things. No matter the struggle, Josh was somehow able to make ends meet. 

You’d been staying in Jake’s room, refusing to go home if the lights were on. He shared the couch with Sam in the meantime. 

“You’re not going to believe who’s hiring,” Sam said. He slid his phone across the table. There was an ad to be a local driver for the same armored truck company that delivered the money the bank distributed. Jake peered over the table, sitting back with a roll of his eyes. Danny chuckled. Sam cracked into a smile. “Guys, I think this is a sign that we should do it.” 

Josh brought the food he was cooking, spaghetti and garlic bread, and placed it in the center of the table. He took the empty lawn chair, scooting in. Danny stood up to gather drinks for everyone. 

“I also have a hundred dollars to put into the coffee tin,” Sam said casually as he served himself. 

“Please tell me you’re not still selling photos of yourself,” Jake grumbled as he scooped his own serving of pasta onto his plate. 

Sam held his phone up, causing the rest of the group to groan and avert their eyes. He took his phone back. “It’s not me! It’s not me- yet. But look!” 

Josh cackled at the photos. “Sam, please stop!” He took a deep breath, turning his head dramatically. “Every time you show them, I can feel my soul leaving my body.” 

“There’s nothing wrong with it. I’m not naked and my face isn’t in it.” Sam tucked his phone back into his pocket. “It’s how I paid the rent last month.” 

You shook your head. “Of all people to sell feet pics, of course it’s you.” 

“My piggies are beautiful,” Sam stated through a mouthful of tomato sauce. 

“Except no, they’re not because they’re always so dirty,” Danny muttered, grabbing a piece of homemade garlic bread, which was just butter and garlic powder on a nearly expired hot dog bun. 

“Someone’s talking a lot of shit for someone who has an OnlyFans.” 

All heads turned to Danny. His OnlyFans was a sore subject, especially for the man himself. It was a desperate measure in an attempt to keep the lease afloat. “It was one time and I got us the deposit for this roof over our heads so I don’t want to hear anything about it.” 

It was only a short time before more questionable jobs were exposed. Jake broke out onto a grin. “Can we talk about how Josh was a rent-a-friend?” “Hey, those people were really nice and only a little bit lonely!” Josh defended. “Besides, if we want to talk about weird jobs, let’s talk about how Y/N was a dominatrix for a week!” 

You nearly spit out the drink in your mouth. You swallowed quickly. “I got fired because someone stole my whips to go play cowboys in the park and got robbed!” 

“How was I supposed to know that people who LARP know how to fight?” Sam demanded. 

You rolled your eyes. “Everyone knows that the kids bullied in middle school who took karate are going to know how to fight.”

The discussion then turned from accusations and sore subjects to the craziest experience in those jobs. You’d picked up being a dominatrix for an outlet. You were thinking of quitting, unsure if you could continue the odd line of work. After realizing you’d misplaced the supplies they’d given you, you came clean. Instead of asking you to pay for replacements, you were fired on the spot. When dinner was finished, everyone picked up their respective spaces except for their plates. Josh, Danny, and Sam filed outside, looking for something to do while Jake followed you into the kitchen. 

“We’re all losers,” you chuckled as you carried the plates to the sink. 

Jake placed a cigarette between his lips. “Things are gonna change. I can feel it.”

#sam #sam x reader #sam gvf #sammy kiszka #sam kiszka #Greta Van Fleet #greta van fleet fanfic #greta van fleet x reader #gretavanfleet #greta van fleet imagine #greta van fic #greta van fleet fic #Daniel Wagner #danny wagner #danny x reader #danny gvf #danny wagner x reader #drw #drw gvf #drw smut #joshua kiszka #Josh kiszka gvf #josh kiszka #josh gvf #josh kiszka imagine #josh kiszka x reader #Jake #jake smut #jacob kiszka #jake kiszka x reader

[urlocalbitchboy]

‼️Let's play AITA!!!‼️

So since my breakup back in November, my aunt and uncle have been working on helping me out with a living situation for myself, and my two cats. We have been working on getting a shed built in their backyard for me to convert into a tiny home.

It started out being super chill, and they said I could have a bunch of creative freedom, and my cats could live with me in said tiny home and such. Well, slowly, they've stopped talking to me about design changes, and building plans/schedules, which they need to change where in the back yard it is? Cool, that's chill. Still keep me in the loop, cause I can't mentally handle being left in the dark. But that's not tge frustrating part.

The frustrating part is that they've been helping me out with my cats, because until the tiny home is built, I'm living at my grandmothers house, and she doesn't allow cats.

When I do get to visit my cats at my aunt and uncles, my cats behaviors are noticeably different. My younger cat doesn't wander around much, and clings to the guest bedroom where I sleep when I'm over there, and my older cat hides in the basement all day, and is more reclusive, and violent, when he was previously super happy and cuddly, and chill.

NOW

My aunt and uncle have JUST NOW told me that my cats will not be moving into the tiny home with me, but will be staying in their house. Did I mention that there are also 2 dogs in this house that I have actively had to tank away from my cats because they snarl and try to attack my cats?? Yep. Already that stresses me out beyond belief, because why wouldn't it? My cats behaviors have changed in that house, and I don't like having to constantly worry about the dogs going after them. My aunt and uncle try to reassure me that there's a bunch of perches for them to jump on and get away, but it doesn't change the fact that I can tell my cats are more stressed, compared to previous living situations.

I have been told that up until today, they were going to live with me in the tiny home, and that was a huge thing that aided in my decision to accept this offer, and now they're backing down from it, under the excuse that "they have more space to run around, and whatnot." Which, sure, they do, but at what cost of both them, and myself being stressed to shit? Also, if I move out of this tiny home into a new one, what do they think I'm gonna do? Leave my cats there? No, they'd be moving with me. I have lived with my cats in smaller spaces than this tiny home, and I'm very good at keeping them stimulated, and continuing to make sure that they have what they need, and then some. They've always been healthy, and happy living with me in the smaller spaces that I've been in, and based on how my cats tend to secluded themselves, I doubt the bigger space is helping much.

I feel deceived, and my cat-momma bear mode is in full alert, and I'm pissed that they're trying to control where MY cats stay, when I've previously been given clearance to have them with me. I don't appreciate that they're trying to tell ne what's best for my cats, when I've seen their behavioral change since the switch, and I can tell there's more stress. I don't appreciate the dogs trying to attack them. I don't appreciate my ability to make decisions has been taken away. I don't appreciate that when I got upset about this decision, my family tried to pit me as the bad guy, but I'm worried I might be.

So I ask, am I the asshole for being pissed about this?

#aita #just moments with mikky #im going mental #i just want my mfkin cats back #im so stressed out that my eczema is flaring up

[paydayquid]

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[redhillconfetti]

Blog Post 31-12-22

A Year in Review 2022

As i sit here on the final day of 2022 to reflect on the past 12 months, i feel a little trepidation at the thought of starting a new challenge for myself in a year that was hard to get through.

When we came out of the pandemic there was a cautious hopefulness in a lot of small businesses about what 2022 may hold. We entered the marketplace again after two very tough years where many of our contemporaries were no longer there, whether succumbing to illness or the business not able to last multiple lockdowns, restrictions and even Brexit. Those of us still trading were thankful for every single customer and sale, for the support we received from friends, family and even strangers.

As the Winter months moved into Spring we started to see that the trend of wedding supply requests were slower than we’d traditionally seen, so we added more effort into a side enterprise we’d started in 2021; our Redhill Collectables vintage store.

We already had a brilliant network of house clearance businesses and thrift shops that would come to us with materials such as vintage papers which we’d use for wedding decor, but as disposal fees increased for them, we looked into taking more products off their hands, sorting, mending, and offering these items through our Redhill Collectables ebay store. This gave us the financial stability to continue to offer wedding supplies to those customers that were still looking to add a small sprinkle of magic to their special day.

In April i had been due to have an operation that would have changed my life and health for the better but was also major surgery, a procedure that took a lot of emotional and mental preparation. Just 24 hours before i was due to have surgery the operation was cancelled as the anaesthetists did not deem it safe for me to proceed with the operation.

When the warmer summer months encroached, the wedding season finally kicked off, with our home grown petal confetti being incredibly popular, as was our seed paper confetti. But with that I also had to deal with the mental aftermath of having my operation permanently cancelled. I took a step back from social media and it was with the help and support of my family that I worked through the feelings I was left with. One of the first ‘rules’ of business is to never let on if you’re struggling, but to be battling depression at the same time as trying to run a business and keep our heads above water financially was exhausting. When you’re self employed you don’t have the option to go and see HR, its you and just you, though i am forever thankful for the support those closest to me gave.

With the heat and chaos of summer giving way to the cooler Autumn months, the true toll of the Cost of Living Crisis took hold and became a firm realisation that the only way i was going to make it through the rest of the year is to increase my hours and to also make big changes. When i’d been sorting through some old boxes i’d stumbled upon a business projection plan i’d optimistically written in late 2019. The ‘goal’ was to increase turnover, slim down our product lines, and with careful planning and promotion get to the point where we could invest in a small electric vehicle to use for local deliveries and errands. The most shocking part of the projected numbers was as of October 2022 we were at that increased point financially, but every single ‘spare’ penny was now simply going towards household bills and groceries, and supplimenting any increases in courier costs as we started to have to work around the Royal Mail strike action.

By the end of November 2022 I was regularly putting in 70 hour weeks. This was obviously not sustainable whilst trying to be a parent, wife, and run a household too, and was the final deciding factor in the direction i wanted to head in for 2023. Now having had a couple of weeks to rest and recharge, i'm looking forward to how i plan to develop the products and services that Redhill Confetti offers, with more focus on weddings rather than generic crafts. Our vintage side of things will continue with Redhill Collectables, and for us to become fully focused on reducing waste and recycling.

Finally, the 'challenge' that i alluded to at the very start of this is my aim for 2023 to write a blog post weekly. This will hopefully be an insight into running a small business, the highs and lows, and a behind the scenes look.

Happy New Year!

Simone

X

#business blog #redhill confetti