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Lmao how is this real, "the ambient sounds of the world were wrong, sir"

music humanities professor: today I avoided Art

the person reading this is going to survive the rough patch they’re going through

Just what it says on the van.

the very rare phenomenon of a volcano producing vapor rings/volcanic vortex rings. Mount Etna today (April 5, 2024) by Boris Behncke

Can we just give a shout out to Albion Finch, I mean what a supportive brother in law🥰🥹

Underrated Bridgerton characters that we should talk about more: Albion Finch. You just know that he thinks Phillpa is the sun, even if she's the type of sister that mocks people like a preschooler. In his mind that just makes her cute. We need a whole fanfiction of a day in the life of this man, hanging out with his inlaws, casually overhearing Portia's plotting and deciding that he's much too dense to get involved, so might as well get some more cheese, watching the Bridgerton guy buzz around Penelope, eating more cheese.

What a treasure of unproblematic manhood

Nothing to see here, just a street corner in New Orleans…..

This is The Violin Monster and he’s really cool. You should all look him up on Facebook. He’s the most talented violinist I have ever met, and he’s super sweet and friendly. He also teaches violin to kids. His back story is he’s a 400+ year old werewolf from Galway, Ireland who plays violin to quell his hunger for human flesh. I forget the details of how he became a werewolf, but I think it had something to do with a deal he made with a witch.

Story time: so one day I actually had spending money, so for funsies I kept putting money in his jack-o-lantern (that’s what his tip bucket is) requesting Scotch-Irish folk songs, and he didn’t just play every song he PLAYED them like he was in a music battle with the Faery King. I was quite impressed. Later, I ran into him, mask-off, at Café Envie and I told him “That was really cool, but you still didn’t play my favorite song ‘The King of the Faeries,’ do you not know it?” and Violin Monster looked around and over his shoulder, and then leaned over me and said in a hushed tone: “Oh I know it, but it’s bad luck to play that song. They say if you play it three times the Faery King himself will appear. So I don’t play that song anymore.” And then he smiled and walked away.

I don’t think Zach is just one of those performers who never breaks character, I think he’s actually summoned faeries by accident with his amazing music.

The man KNOWS

STOP. moment of gratitude for those precious times of breathing from your nostrils when you don't have a stuffy nose

Everyone who doesn't have a headache right now, stop right now for a moment and appreciate how good it is not to have a headache.

been doodling some bri'ish wildlife - love seeing these guys. because they are the classics aren't they?

Postal Adventures of Morris Mouse

WHY THE FUCK DO THEY KEEP DISRUPTING MY WORK DAYS WITH ALL THIS GOD DAMN PROMO GIVE ME A FUCKING BREAK PLEASE MY HEART AND MIND CANT TAKE IT AND I WILL BE FIRED AND THATS ON YOU SHONDA THATS ON YOU

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCKKKKK

I walked up to a restaurant entrance at the same time as this guy and he held the first door for me and then I held the second door for him and he said "we call that the Midwestern two-step" with a laugh and I've been thinking about it all day.

Boycott Eurovision

Just to also add, this song was originally called "October Rain" and it is 100% Israeli propaganda, they were forced to change the lyrics because they were too political, and so they censored it so it could bypass the rules.

Taken from euronews. They also tried submitting another propaganda song called "Dance Forever" but that was rejected.

Boycott Eurovision.

Just two bros, being adorable and in sync.

Benedict and Anthony Bridgerton | Bridgerton Season 3 trailer [x]

I wonder if work just.. got harder in the 2000s, comparatively.

So like... ok. I haven't researched this and I'm mostly thinking out loud, so forgive me.

I entered the working world in 2005. I had a few odd jobs for a few years and then finally just bit the bullet in 2009, got a job at a grocery storeas an inventory clerk. My job was to count surplus items in the backroom and update the counts. Additional responsibilities included helping stock the front end. I left that job in less than a year.

A friend of mine now works at the same chain, different location, same job title, in 2022. But where I shared that title with two other people, he's the only one with that job title. Additionally, there are less stockpersons, and he is often called out to the floor to help them, which impedes his primary job function. He is also expected to clean bathrooms and some other maintenance things that I cant imagine doing as an inventory clerk.

And I thought maybe it was just that his location is understaffed, but looking back on the past few years where I was expected to do everything (be the front end, the dispatcher, the manufacturer, the teacher, trainer, janitor, delivery driver, account handler... christ, how did I do all this?) I'm looking at the issue with fresh eyes.

I hear sometimes about the 'slim down,' where a lot of companies took on a trend of hiring less people than they need to cut down on the cost of labor, and I look at how fast a person can burn out at a job. And how many jobs are considered 'high pressure sales' when they dont need to be.

Like I'm looking at the possibility of starting a business and I'm looking at the jobs I've had that burned me out and why. And it's almost always been 'I was always juggling responsibilities because we needed more staff'.

Like it seemed like I was doing everything, but getting paid the same.

And I think about that backroom job, where occasionally i would have to help out the stockers on big days, but mostly my job was one function.

It's not like that anymore, is it?

So when I hear someone bemoan that 'no one wants to work anymore' I just think... y'know, work ain't what it used to be. When you're working the work of 3.5 people because someone at corporate decided it was right and good to hire less people than they need because it saves them 20$ per hour per store, but you still dint get your bonus because shrinks too high or they didnt make the amount of money they thought they would or you gave too many coupons ONCE. And it's like they're actively trying to chase people away, and then threaten you with automation but they do t make work attractive enough for people to show...

Work dont want no one anymore.

Oh damn, the notes on this. Apparently it's not my imagination and y'all have lived some horror stories.

I feel like we should be able to do something about this. Like we should be able to say 'no' to lean staffing and we should have a say in what our responsibilities are.

I'm thinking about all the times i should have just straight up said something. Like I think I had it in my head that if I took on all the responsibilities in the shop, eventually I would be rewarded with higher pay. But it doesnt work like that anymore. The reward for digging the best hole is a bigger shovel.

That's no way to live, though. And I just put up with it like it was normal to be so tired at the end of the day that I couldnt move. Maybe I should have just said 'no, you do it' when they started making me work outside my title.

Because that took a serious toll on my mental health.

i know so many people have said it but

UNIONS UNIONS UNIONS UNIONS UNIONSUNIONS UNIONS UNIONS UNIONS UNIONSUNIONS UNIONS UNIONS UNIONS UNIONSUNIONS UNIONS UNIONS UNIONS UNIONSUNIONS UNIONS UNIONS UNIONS UNIONSUNIONS UNIONS UNIONS UNIONS UNIONS

I HAVE A UNION JOB AND LET ME TELL YOU SOME THINGS

It is part time, contract, hourly, full remote. Because it's union? They have to offer me a minimum of 25 hours a week. If I *voluntarily* go under, that is on me, but they ALWAYS offer me up to that. If I ask for the hours, they HAVE to give them.

Overtime doesn't trigger until 40 hrs/wk... but any time spent on emails, spreadsheets, my timesheet, ANY admin task that's more than 15 min? I can bill for that. ALL training, meetings, etc? I bill for that.

I get holiday pay. Seperate from vacation, sick leave, personal time; if it's a federal or state holiday I *automatically* get 5 hours of pay for that day. Period. Unlimited. I got paid 5 hours to do nothing on MLK day and presidents day, no questions asked, nothing taken away from my other pay.

I get sick leave, vacation leave, "personal" leave (anything that isn't the former two -- like, "my friend had an accident and I need to drive them home"). I get health insurance, dental insurance, life insurance. I get access to the credit union. I get access to job search help if my position gets dissolved / I get laid off!

It costs about $80/month in union dues, but I MORE than get that back in terms of benefits and peace of mind, and it's automatically deducted from my paycheck.

U N I O N S.

as we are living through a new resurgence in unions, after they were systematically decimated for decades, people might ask ‘how do i join a union?’ or ‘how do i unionize my workplace?’. the IWW isn’t a union union in the sense that it will automatically give you benefits like the above. BUT it is the single best place to start if you want to begin unionizing your workplace, connecting with other workers (including prisoners), and generally learn about unions and the international labor struggle.

https://www.iww.org

Whenever unions being destroyed comes up, some asshat's always like "but the duuuues" like, STFU. I'd HAPPILY pay the dues to not be fuckin exploited.

The slim down has affected everything. It's why most of the movie theaters around me are nasty, the retail stores are always a trainwreck, and you constantly have long wait times at restaurants and grocery stores. It's the captains, NOT the crew.

We were waiting for tires at Walmart, and they'd called someone to a section on intercom a buncha times and some ol fart customer was so offended "Why don't they send a MANAGER there???" WOMAN. It's WALMART. They do not hire the goddamn people! I get unreasonably pissed about this cuz too many people have no idea what work is actually like now and make dumbass complaints and harass workers, bitching at the wrong thing.

Food service has gotten way worse thank staffing slim downs, ghost kitchens and online ordering. Seriously, look up the ghost kitchens. Tons of big chains try to pass off hokey "local" sounding food on grub hub and door dash that comes straight outta IHOP and Applebee's. It leaves the people working those restaurants effectively running numerous restaraunts of the same kitchen for single restaraunt pay. Ghost Kitchens have come under serious litigation in Houston specifically for having such poorly maintained spaces, workers have gotten seriously hurt.

It is so fucked how we're conditioned into saying yes to everything till you end up doing 5 people's work under the false promise of a better future. It burned my careers and bridges to the ground. Don't make my mistakes. I'm hopeful that GenZ and the rest of the up and comers will continue to take less bullshit at work and justifiably cry on TikTok behind the service counter cuz work is NOT working.

More Perfect Union is an excellent YouTube channel doing fantastic labor journalism that I can't recommend enough.

So, "lean staffing" was mentioned above. Not only do I hate the practice, I hate the term... calling it "lean" implies that what you cut away was fat. That it was healthier for it. But what you cut was SLACK. And slack is what allows lines to tighten without breaking. I call it "taut" staffing. A taut line is a line under strain. Strain too long, and it breaks. Increase the tension and it breaks. A taut line is one that cannot absorb changes.