AZTRUM

You can’t see it from the other side, either. It also cost about $20, and I can’t recommend it enough. Easy to travel with, too! Great for Air BnBs!

Statue based on Leonardo daVinci’s famous concept for artificial wings.

You know how much I love interesting pathologies… so naturally I had to share these photos with you guys!

This is a conjoined bat that was either stillborn or died at birth (as evidenced by the attached placenta)! They were discovered in southeastern Brazil in 2001 and researchers believe the twins are Neotropical fruit bats (Artibeus).

Achaemenid gold medallion

so like, i am very used to girls standing next to me in public places. i end up acquiring a pack of ladies. just because women are like, that lady is a lady men stay away from. i am jerk kryptonite (usually, i get my fair share of creeps, such is life) but most men have self preservation that this 6′1 ox will break them. and i will

so usually i am in my own phone and look up to another lady standing next to me. and i will immediately look up and make eye contact and nod. like, you know, that nod. i see you and you can talk if there is something wrong. i end up on a reg basis being a defacto bodyguard to these young ladies and small women while waiting for buses and in the metro. 

i am a large oak tree. i protect the other birds. 

ladies, we all got roles. find tree in the wild. we’re always happy to provide shelter from the creeps.

LIL SIS WENT OFF, FOLKS. This tiny woman literally moved me out of the way, jumped up, and head butted Bro™️ in the face with such a fury. I thought she was going to kill him, it was truly a beautiful moment in my life.

Last year I had an internship at a fancy office during the day, and a food service job at night. One of the ladies at the office told me she needed a part-time job for some extra cash, and I let her know about an opening in my food service job, described what would be expected, all of that. 

Guys. She quit after one (1) shift, called me the next day, and ranted, “You never told me it was going to be that hard, is that what you do every night?! I’m not 20 anymore, I’m 50, I can’t believe they only pay you $9.50/hr to do all that work!” [For the record, I had coworkers who were 65+]

She was shocked when I explained that yeah, most food service jobs require you to stock heavy boxes, work the register, and learn to cook/prep food, then clean up before you go home. It never occurred to her that people who “just flip burgers” actually have demanding jobs. 

I kinda laughed and said “Tanya, I worked retail before this. This entire job is a break, to me. I get to sit down all day. Just let me enjoy that.”

Because I had to clock in ON TIME and clock out ON TIME (even if I stayed back unpaid to finish my designated work because deadlines were impossible) it had to be on time. Any minor infraction would have someone giving you a formal sit down. I got a formal warning because I filed a bucket up at a big industrial sink instead of from the slow running tap that needed me to be bent over for 4 whole minutes while it filled.

Every infraction could come would a reminder that you are replaceable, you are a number, you don’t matter. I was sixteen years old when I worked my first hour for free. I was seventeen when I hurt myself on the job and they took me to a doctor who said I couldn’t lift more than 2 kilos (4.5 pounds) and they put me on a closing shift anyway, with no help. Lifting huge boxes of chicken, huge plates of meat, with no one to help me.

I was in trouble the next day because my close up hadn’t left it clean enough.

I got an official reprimand and retraining and lost half my shifts because I refused to stop what I was doing (putting fish into a case) and mop the floor. Because I said that I couldn’t just leave the fish out, that was unhygienic, and that I would sweep the floor where I was working if they felt it was necessary, but that mopping would create a slip hazard for me as I have to move around the area quickly, often with hot things in my hands.

Simply not wanting to slip, hurt myself or give someone food poisoning was deemed to be problem behaviour, because I questioned authority.