tea in tiny jars and paper cones

I spent like 10 minutes getting this camera in the perfect position.

Then a high speed chase ensued.

Look at these troublemakers.

And he returned to the scene of the crime.

if you put potatoes in your medieval european style fantasy world people will by and large not find it jarring and accept it as a normal fantasy trope

if you put, say, black people in your medieval european style fantasy world a whole demographic of people will get very angry and accuse you of breaking their immersion

my mom is in fact aware that dandelions exist. she temporarily forgot the name and there was some miscommunication.

the truth is actually weirder

she's aware dandelions look like this

she is familiar with this flower. she knows the name of this flower. she declines to believe, however, that these are also dandelions

she does not believe these are the same plant. I tried to explain, and she thought I was either misinformed or lying. so I asked her what exactly did she think the yellow ones were called?

gosh I enjoy this website

Sewing machines are operated by *people*. Knitting machines are operated by *people*. Yes lots of the process is automated but you cannot tell a machine "make me a t-shirt" or "make me a knit cardigan".

Guess what

Sewing is skilled labour. And yeah yeah all labour is skilled labour but what I mean is sewing in a factory setting requires 3-5 years of industrial level sewing expertise before you are skilled enough for that work. I earned that experience through college but most of the time it's immigrants who used to work in factories abroad. And what do we get for all that expertise? Minimum wage. No raises. The cheapest benefits money can buy. 50+ hour work weeks.

Piece work is illegal in Canada but not supplemental piece work. Jobs advertise that they pay $25 an hour but that's only if you're sewing at 200% efficiency. Otherwise your base pay is the lowest they can legally pay you per hour. To make more you need to reach at least 110% efficiency. Efficiency is supposed to be the average speed a garment can be sewn, meaning statistically at least half of the workers are SOL. Realistically the efficiency rate is arbitrary based on whatever the boss feels like. If too many people are making peice rate for his liking, change the efficiency rate to be faster. I've literally heard my boss talk about it on the factory floor.

Overtime is mandatory. Folks who can't make overtime get retaliated against. 11 hour days, plus Saturdays. One of my elderly coworkers had a medical event on the floor. I've passed out at my machine more than once. Their solution to the increase in medical emergencies post COVID was to buy a wheelchair so the next time it happens they can wheel whoever off the line and keep production going, because otherwise it's a "distraction".

Yeah it's not as bad as in other countries. But that's how they get away with it being bad here. Immigrants who worked in worse conditions elsewhere aren't going to complain because at least they get minimum wage here. At least they get healthcare here. At least they can sass their supervisor for yelling at them here. But they do get yelled at. They do put their health at risk. They do get paid comically poor wages for an extremely sought after set of skills.

And no! The union doesn't have the strength to make it much better. The companies do everything in their power to union bust and keep us in the dark about voting dates. They bully the union into half decade long contracts with barely any concessions. And every year the government does something or other to make unions weaker cause in Canada we're a nation run by companies.

Yes, fast fashion is deplorable. The working conditions in developing countries are deplorable. But even clothes made in developed countries are made under terrible conditions. And that's even if they don't lie about where a product is made. Stuff made in Myanmar where the finishing touches are done in Italy, for example. But I've gone on enough.