Alex

A forty hour work week is considered full time.

It’s considered as such because it takes up the amount of time we as a society have agreed should be considered the maximum work schedule required of an employee. (this, of course, does not always bear out practically, but just follow me here)

A person working the maximum amount of time required should earn enough for that labor to be able to survive. Phrased this way, I doubt even most conservatives could effectively argue against it, and out of the mouth of someone verbally deft enough to dance around the pathos-based jabs conservative pundits like to use to avoid actually debating, it could actually get opps thinking.

Therefore, if an employee is being paid less than [number of dollars needed for the post-tax total to pay for the basic necessities in a given area divided by forty] per hour, they are being ripped off and essentially having their labor, productivity, and profit generation value stolen by their employer.

Wages are a business expense, and if a company cannot afford to pay for its labor, it is by definition a failing business. A company stealing labor to stay afloat (without even touching those that do so simply to increase profit margins and/or management/executive pay/bonuses) is no more ethical than a failing construction company breaking into a lumber yard and stealing wood.

Up til about the last 10 years it was widely understood that if you licensed a song to be used in a film or a video game or a television show that that song would be in that film or video game or television show in perpetuity.

Then, about a decade ago, things started changing. I don't know the exact point in time it changed, but the first time i became aware of it was around 2017 or '18 when some video game, i think it was Grand Theft Auto IV, got a big patch that did exactly one thing and that was remove a bunch of songs that had been in the game because the licensing expired.

And I remember being angered by that but going "oh well, that's video games, right?"

But then a couple years later when Netflix got the rights to Neon Genesis Evangelion and not only put out a new dub but took "Fly Me to the Moon" out of the show, even on the above ultra-fancy collector's Blu-ray set, which included the old dub.

And then recently i was watching From the Earth to the Moon, a HBO miniseries about the Apollo program that I've watched many many times in my life. It was one of my favorites as a kid, and i saw that it was on HBO Max. The thing that made me wanna watch was that it was remastered in 4K. Up til a couple years ago the only version available had been on DVD and I was, you know, really excited because I'm a bit of a cinephile (as you all may have gathered from my, uh, everything) and it's something I'm very familiar with.

Now as you might expect from a docudrama about the Apollo program, there's a lot of 50s, 60s, and early 70s music in it. Episode 5, "Spider", opens with a montage of space age art set to the theme song for Fireball XL-5.

So I'm watching this episode, which mind you, is one of my absolute favorites both as a space nerd and a machine fucker. (When you are done reading this post, please take the time to watch this clip that was formative to me as a robot girl.) So I'm on my nostalgia trip and i get yanked the fuck out because the song playing is not the right one.

It's still the theme song to Fireball XL-5, but its a cover, clearly recorded much later than the original, and it's really fucking jarring. Because the original is the exact sort of kitschy, early-60s space-age stuff that is being montaged in this opening scene.

And the really nutso thing is, I can't find anything about this anywhere. It's not that I'm crazy or that it isn't happening, its that it's just...gone. They do that now.

This is not normal.

It is not normal for companies (because this is 100% corporate pissing contests) to be able to retroactively change pieces of art because they don't want to lend their "intellectual property" to it anymore.

I fucking LOVE vaccines, friends. Give me the science stab. I’m so ready. it’s a beautiful day to not die of a Bajillion and one diseases that carried off like half the population before they had even reached age 10, and a significant portion before they made it to old age, 150 years ago

Before you hit send on that ask, reblog, or reply, remember to stop and PROOFREAD!

am I Pissing on the Poor?

did I Read the post in bad faith?

could I be Overexaggerating?

am I Out of line for saying this?

is it kind of Fucked up to say that to a total stranger?

is what I said Rude?

am I being Egotistical?

am I Angry at words that weren't in the post?

did I Dream up a pretend person to get mad at?

I've been dead in the ground for long enough.

This is bat friendly street lighting, which not only looks sick as fuck but allows bats to pass through without disturbance, as they cannot see red.

John, casually purifying it by dropping a charm no bigger than his pinkie into the water and then walking away: call me again when you’ve turned an orphanage into inside-out land sharks or something

John, who specifically chose this partner because he was a serial killer and therefore expendable, and was also planning to feed him to Dagon tomorrow anyway: aw thanks mate, you’ve saved me an arseload of trouble

Joker: …

John: haha I’m dating King Shark so good bloody luck

300gr bacon, beef or chicken. A meat of your choice. These go specially well. I prefer chicken tights. Diced

1 medium onion, diced.

Garlic minced (i used 2-4 pieces depending on size)

300gr carrot, cleaned, peeled and diced.

3 sticks of celery, washed and diced.

800gr potato. Washed, peeled diced in quarters.

1 head of broccoli.

8 cups of stock of your preference. I recommend using the bones of the beef or chicken, but veggies stock works too for a vegetarian or vegan version.

3 tablespoons all purpose flour.

1 cup whole milk. (Almond or rice milk work fine for a vegan option)

½ cup heavy cream. (Skip it for a vegan option)

Salt and black pepper to taste.

½ teaspoon paprika, use the spicy one to get the warmth up a notch in winter.

1 tablespoon fresh chopped coriander. Optional.

1 cup diced gouda or manchego cheese. Optional but really ties all together.

Make sure you have all your ingredients ready and at hand for this one to make sure it comes out nice and tasty!!!

In a pot put water and the bones to prepare your stock (chicken, beef, veggie) You can use premade or bouillon cubes, just make sure its 8 cups worth of broth. In a different pot boil the potatoes until soft.

In a big pot put some butter or olive oil to fry the onion, when it turns a little transparent add the garlic, move constantly.

Add the celery and diced carrots, moving constantly.

The carrot will get a little brighter in color, add the diced meat. Salt and pepper to your taste.

Meanwhile, blend the potatoes with enough stock so your blender wont have trouble blending. If you have a food processor, it’ll be easier.

Ad the remaining stock to you big pot with the veggies and meat, add the broccoli chopped in bite size pieces. Add the paprika and taste for salt and pepper. Let over a medium fire for 10 min.

Separate 3 tbsp of the stock to mix with the flour, set aside. This will be a thickening agent.

Pour the potato mix on the big pot, move to integrate and taste for salt and pepper.

Add the milk and heavy cream. Move with a laddle. Have a final taste and let over low fire for 5 min.

Serve hot and decorate with a pinch of coriander and some cubes of cheese.

ENJOY!

Notes:

I personally prefer to use chicken, love how it goes with potatoes and veggies. Also the tight is very tender and flavorful. With beef you have to be careful not to overcook it or it’ll get gummy and hard to bite, so make adjustments.

VEGAN: could also skip the meat, cheese and heavy cream for a vegan option.

I make it for my younger sister and she loves it. Instead of meat i add some diced, toasted nuts when served. Cashew, pecan and pistachios work nicely.

You’ll have to use 5 tbsp of flour to thicken up the broth a tid bit more without the heavy cream but you can still use a vegan milk.

You can totally skip the coriander, but it adds another dept of flavor.

Do try it with the cheese tho, i promise it’s GODLY. Gouda and manchego are my fave, the melt nicely and have a strong after taste, but i guess any cheese that melts could work.

Finally, if you are like me and like spicy food you can add chopped chili. Serrano and arbol chiles are my go to’s, freshly chopped sprinkled just after serving my bowl.

Hope y'all give it a try and if you have any doubts do ask!

Substituted spinach for broccoli because my partner is not a fan of the latter and used chicken and bacon. Gonna try it again with a nice Italian sausage in place of the chicken next time.

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One of the venues I reached out to replied that they were "capable of providing for our dietary needs." Now, since I'd asked about several possible catering options, and since they'd only replied generally and without actually specifying which they were saying they could do, I was a bit suspicious. So I followed up, and asked what exactly they meant by that: did they allow outside caterers in general? or did they have a specific kosher catering partner? or could they actually cater kosher food themselves? what?

Their answer was – and I swear I'm not making this up – that they didn't allow any outside caterers, and couldn't cater any food which was actually kosher, but that they could provide us with a menu that included "knishes" and "potato, pancakes" [sic], and so hey, that was basically the same as providing for our dietary needs, wasn't it?

Now here's the thing:

The dietary restriction shared by the most people at this event is keeping kosher, but one of the attendees, who doesn't keep kosher, has a severe peanut allergy. If we had done what we were planning to do and simply specified "peanut free", and if the venue had decided, like they were apparently willing to do for the kosher food, "well ok, it's not actually peanut free, but it's mostly peanut free, and that's basically the same thing"? They could have literally killed her. And if I hadn't specifically asked, in detail, about kosher catering first, I might never have known about how lax they were about providing for dietary restrictions in general.

Now could we have explained the nuances of kosher restrictions to this venue and tried again? Yes, possibly. But their unwillingness to even try on the first pass made it abundantly clear that they were not a safe venue to work with on allergy grounds. We crossed the venue off our list immediately, and I reached out to other people in the area who I knew might be planning similar events in the future, and warned them to never use this venue, either.

Accommodations like this are instances of the curb cut effect. If you don't personally have a diet or a family obligation or clothing needs that need accommodating, it's easy to get annoyed at the people you see who are loudest about asking for those accommodations. But having those options available helps everyone, and the fact that some workplaces and and businesses and event vendors refuse to accommodate these needs should be a red flag to everyone.

when i’m at work, people get mad at me for not hearing them the first few times. like, openly agitated. they’ll assume that i’m stupid, or rude, or careless. sometimes they will indirectly chastise me for ‘not paying attention.’ at which point i say “i’m sorry, i’m hard of hearing. you were on my right side and i’m severely deaf in that ear,” and they go “oh my god i’m so sorry i didn’t know.”

yeah. you didn’t, did you? the only available information you had about me was… that i didn’t hear you say something. the thing you hated enough to comment on was that i couldn’t hear you. you don’t get to backpedal once you find out that i have can’t-hear-well disease. i shouldn’t need to present a diagnosis to expect decency from you