candy coated crazy

Muriel Fahrion, the creator of Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears, was under a work for hire contract when she created them and as a result has received no residuals over the last 40+ years. If you like either of those properties, consider purchasing something from her website. She has art and cute jewelry!

In olden times, people had daily chores and other things to do but their workload/ daily working hours was actually much lower than it is today. Even in farming communities.

The concept of working super hard every day actually comes from capitalism, which in turn comes from Puritanical ideology.

The Puritans believed in salvation through work and in no play.

Early capitalists adopted this ideology because it meant higher productivity and therefore more money if their factories were running near constantly.

The idea of needing to be continuously productive in order to be useful/ allowed things like food and shelter, is actually quite an insidious ideal that is deeply rooted in the American culture.

“Let us put it generally: if a regime is immoral, its citizens are free from all obligations to it.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Gulag Archipelago.

[Pictured: Captain Pia Klemp sitting in a chair beside her controls.

@VivianAngrisani on Twitter wrote on 6/8/2019: “Pia Klemp, a German biologist & boat captain faces 20 yrs in prison for rescuing 1,000+ migrants at risk of drowning whilst crossing the Mediterranean. Seeking asylum is a human right. Only 1 in 100 sea captains are female. This woman is a humanitarian, not a criminal. #FreePia”

Many, many people celebrated Pulse. We were told we deserved it. That it was God’s punishment for our sin of loving the same sex. We are sent messages like these I received in 2018:

We in the community often call the victim count 49+ to include the survivors who couldn’t live with the pain.

The event was never officially declared a hate crime or targeted homophobic attack and is rarely listed as one in databases.

At our vigils for those slaughtered, Extremist Christian groups showed up to protest, holding signs like this:

ID: Me kissing a woman I was casually seeing in front of an angry looking man with a “Sodomy is Sin” sign.

Please understand how much more than just a mass shooting this was. We are still to this day harassed and told we deserved it by some.

“does this one spark joy?” she shouts at the restless audience, they boo in response

And in August? Basically everyone in Spain goes on vacation the entire month.

And since the financial decision makers were all gone, and my job was to ask for financial decisions, I had a much reduced workload every August.

I still had to show up to the office, which sucked.

And more.

When a job says "unlimited time off" ask what their average usage is. Ensure you match it. Minimum.

When a job says "you get X days off" use them. Keep a sharp eye on roll over limits year-to-year, leave no hour behind.

These are not health or mana potions to save for a boss fight.

Do not answer your phone on vacation. Do not check your email. Do not feel the need to explain.

I took last week off because I hadn't played Super Mario Bros. 2 in a long time and I said, "This is a good week to play Super Mario Bros. 2."

I regularly take off at least 1 day to have my hair done. Hair! I could have it done on a Saturday, I don't, because Saturday's are my time. Hair time is hair time.

Sometimes I take a day off because the weather is frightfully good or frightfully bad.

Do you remember how cheap movies are during the day, during the week, around lunch time? At least once a month I take a day off to go to the movies and eat snacks and cavort slowly and casually.

To hustle is to make your boss richer.

To lazily sashay down a boulevard with a fizzy water and no plans and less thought? Divine.

Time off is not a reward.

Time off is part of your compensation.

The fancy business term for this is "Employee Value Proposition." It is the sum of the question, "why do you want to work here" -- money + benefits + etc.

If you are in an interview and someone says "why do you want to work here" and they are a suit person, say something to the effect of, "Your employee value proposition is significantly higher than your competitors. I value X, Y, Z of your compensation package, firm's reputation, product's reputation, and the current course of your management team."