Freaks only, "normal" people DNI - Tune in for queer stuff, hating on capitalism, lots of animals and uhh, oddities?
Hello and welcome to my 🥯 blog! 🥯
You can call me Ocelot or Magpie, I’m over 20 and I use any pronouns. I’m an neurodivergent things liker with a horse special interest. I’m in the CET timezone.
I post about animals (domesticated and wild), queer stuff, a bunch of art, capitalism hate, D&D, some Lord of the Rings, some fashion (mostly just random posts I like though)
Something that I first applied to working with children, and have applied in a limited form to working with adults: you don’t need to tell someone when they read your instructions wrong. Sometimes it’s enough to point out what they did right and then whatever they didn’t do? You ask them to do it in more precise words, and you make it sound like it’s a new request. Remarkable how fast things get done this way.
This is also a habit I built up from emergency response training. If I say “I need you to bring me a first aid kit and an accident report” and you bring me just a first aid kit, it’s so much more efficient to say “thanks now can you bring me an accident report” than “I asked you to bring an accident report why didn’t you bring me one”.
Once you’ve internalized “a person bleeding out is one of the worst times to start an argument” you start to wonder what other tasks could get accomplished without arguing
I know everyone says it’s best to just stick to “said” as a dialogue tag bc it disappears and that’s true and I mostly do but I want to take a moment for my all-time favorite dialogue tag, “lied.” Absolutely nothing hits like “‘I’m here to help,’ he lied.” NOTHING.
When I’m in charge of the planet, it will be illegal to make a job posting unless you are actively searching for a candidate.
Lean staffing will also be illegal. If you need three people to do a job, you’re hiring four.
You are also either earning an amount or you are not earning that amount. ‘Earn up to 21.50/hr’ no. Either you’re paying 21.50 or you are not paying 21.50. Tell the truth or jail for employer for 1000 years.
message to cis allies: buying your trans friend lunch will do much more good for the trans community than debating transphobes who will not change their minds publicaly on social media and making all your trans followers see how much people hate them over and over again
if you base your trans allyship more on fighting with idiots than supporting and loving the trans community you may want to rethink things a little. bc i tend to get sick of when my cis friends want to talk more about how many people hate me than anything else about my transness.
Do Not Let HR do this to you. It is not illegal to talk about wages in the work place. I did and got a 12% raise!
True info. Now let me add something: The power of documentation. (I was a long time steward in a nurses union.)
Remember: The “‘E” in email stands for evidence.
That cuts both ways. Be careful what you put into an email. It never really goes away and can be used against you.
But can also be a powerful tool for workplace fairness.
Case 1: Your supervisor asks you to do something you know is either illegal or against company policy. A verbal request. If things go wrong, you can count on them denying that they ever told you to do that. You go back to your desk, or wherever and you send them an email: “I just want to make sure that I understood correctly that you want me to do xxxxx” Quite often, once they see it in writing, they will change their mind about having you do it. If not, you have documentation.
Case 2: You have a schedule you like, you’ve had that schedule for a while, it works for you. Your supervisor comes to you and says “We’re really short-handed now and I need you to change your schedule just for a month until we can get someone else hired. It’s just temporary and you can have your old schedule back after a month.” A month goes by and they forget entirely that they made that promise to you. So, once again, when they make the initial request, you send them an email “I’m happy to help out temporarily, but just want to make sure I understand correctly that I will get my old schedule back after a month as you promised.” Documentation.
[Image ID: Text reading: In the middle of a busy clinic at our practice, I got pulled in by my manager to speak to HR, who must have made a special trip because she lives several states away, and told I was being 'investigated’ for discussing wages with my other employees. She told me it was against company policy to discuss wages.
Me; That’s illegal.
Them: (start italics) three slow, long seconds of staring at me blankly (end italics) Uh…
Me: That’s an illegal policy to have. The right to discuss wages is a right protected by the National Labor Relations board. I used to be in a union. I know this.
HR: Oh, this is news to me! I have been working HR for 18 years and I never knew that. Haha. Well try not do do it anyway, it makes people upset, haha.
Me: people are entitled to their opinions about what their work is worth. Bye.
I then left, and sent her several texts and emails saying I would like a copy of their company policy to see where this wage discussion policy was kept. She quickly called me back in to her office.
HR: You know what, there is no policy like that in the handbook! I double check. Sorry about the confusion, my apologies.
Me: You still haven’t given me the paper saying that we had this discussion. I am going to need some protection against retaliation.
HR: Oh haha yes here you go.
I just received a paper with legal letterhead and an apology saying there was no verbal warning or write up. Don’t even take their shit you guys. Keep talking about wages. Know your worth. /End ID]
At one of my old (shit) jobs my boss would continually come have these verbal discussions with me and would never put anything in writing I took to summarizing every discussion we had in email. Like “just to confirm that you asked me to do X by Y date and you understand that means I won’t be able to complete the previous task you gave me until Z date - 2 weeks later than originally scheduled - because you want me to prioritize this new project.
The woman would then storm back into my office screaming at me for putting the discussion in writing and arguing about pushing back the other project or whatever. At which point I would summarize that conversation in email as well. Which would bring her storming back in, rinse and repeat ad nauseum.
Anyway I cannot imagine how badly that job would have gone if I hadn’t put all her wildly unreasonable demands in writing. Bitch still hated me but she could never hang me for “missing deadlines” because I always had in writing that she’d pushed the project back because she wanted something else done first.
Paper your asses babes. Do not let them get away with shit. If they won’t put what they’re asking you to do in writing then write it up yourself and email it to them.
regular plea for people to stop using this as a reaction image
[ID: A white man in a suit who is saying, “Now this might strike some viewers as harsh, but I believe everyone involved in this story should die”. End ID]
this is a real sentence that was said by a during an snl skit by the guy in the picture (norm macdonald) in response to a real news story - specifically, the murder of brandon teena, a trans man, whose death macdonald is mocking here. this very sentence that has now been turned into a meme prompted a trans rights org to picket the nbc in absence of any apology from them (the statement here slightly misquotes the sentence, but you can find video demonstrating that the wording in the image is what he said). i’ve used this as a reaction image in the past when i didn’t know the history behind it but i think more people should know and we should stop using it like this
We had one of Steff’s comedian friends staying with us on the weekend, lovely lad called Sam from Singapore. He had never been to Wales before, and he requested that we take him to a Welsh restaurant so he could try Welsh food
That’s surprisingly difficult, actually. Like a lot of Welsh culture, our culinary traditions have not exactly been applauded over the years, so you don’t really see them. But a lucky Google search revealed a brand new one has just opened in SA1 called the Welsh House, so great! Away we went.
Fuck me, they went all in.
It wasn’t just the menu (though fuck me, what a menu - one of their ‘for the table to share’ options was little mini leek and cheddar Welsh cakes with salted butter and they were paralysingly good). It wasn’t just that every alcohol was Welsh, even including the wine (surprisingly good btw, called 'Naturiol’.)
The table centerpieces were daffodils. All signs for the toilets were Welsh only. The walls had photos of Wales, modern and historical; the windows had the fleur de lis; the specials board (pork belly in Welsh cider and damson sauce with honey and wild garlic glazed carrots) had dragons on. I realise this is probably normal for country-themed restaurants, but I’ve never been to one for Wales before.
But the best bit, see, was the music
I clocked, when we walked in, that they were playing If You Tolerate This Then Your Children Will Be Next by the Manic Street Preachers (you always clock the Manics). Ah, I thought. A Welsh song! In a Welsh restaurant! Ho ho ho.
As they seated us, it became What’s New Pussycat. Ah! I thought. Another Welsh song! Fu fu fu.
Then they played Monster by the Automatic and I was like my god are they only playing Welsh music?? That’s so cool! What an eclectic mix that’s going to be. We should suggest to them they should look into Welsh language music too, really mix it up.
And then they played Anrheoli by Yws Gwynedd and lads, Steff and I lost our shit. We lost our fucking shit. Sam’s sitting there, utterly bewildered. The staff are nervously edging away from us. We don’t care. It’s the first time I have ever heard a Welsh language song played outside of a Welsh language setting. We’re so excited.
“They’re playing Welsh music!!!” says Steff. “Holy shit!!!”
“Imagine if they played Sebona Fi!” I say, humorously.
“Nah,” says Steff. “You can’t in a restaurant. There’d be a riot, it’s faerie music.”
“…what?” says Sam
We explain the cultural phenomenon that is Sebona Fi. The song changes: Primadonna Girl, by Marina and the Diamonds.
“She’s Welsh??” says Sam.
“She’s from Abergavenny!” we beam.
“I don’t know what that means,” nods Sam, who is from Singapore.
Next: The Bartender and the Thief, by the Stereophonics. We’re in high spirits. The extraordinarily Welsh wine arrives, as does the rarebit on sourdough starter. Sam, a gay man, delightedly orders the faggots and peas.
They play Ben Rhys by Gwilym Bowen Rhys, and we lose our shit again. Sam is now used to this, because comedians are adaptable. “They even have daffodils!” I say, misty eyed. “Is that relevant?” Sam asks, fascinated.
They play Hiraeth, by PLU. Hard to explain that one. Very hard to explain the effect it has when it’s played in a restaurant, but Sam looks around the suddenly muted room and whispers “Are we in church?”
“It’s about Hiraeth,” whispers Steff. “So kind of.”
Next: the Masses Against the Classes, by the Manics. Utter tonal whiplash. This playlist is not remotely restaurant appropriate. It’s perfect.
“You’d think they’d pick like… a genre,” Sam says dreamily. “We just went from church to the barricades.”
The faggots arrive. “I forgot it would be a western sized portion,” Sam says morosely, of what to me is a normal sized plate of food. He tries one, and brightens.
UGH is is literally so much to ask that I have time and money to learn how to tailor clothes and embroider and knit and make cakes and bake bread and do makeup and hair and nails and do all my own diy projects around the house and
like I know this is probably so hard to make but my brain says I could do that and I need to do that
btw since this I have been beautifully and painfully trying to learn to cook, crochet, sew, paint etc and oh boy am I mediocre at a bunch of things but I’m having fun
I was working with an item today that just utterly flabbergasted a part of me (the other was deeply frustrated with the catalogue record AS SOMEONE APPARENTLY THOUGHT IT WAS PRINTED ON SILK, coming back to that in a minute) … but ANYWAYS … said item is a replica of a medieval manuscript prayer book THAT IS ENTIRELY WOVEN out of grey and black silk … WOVEN … text, images, intricate grey scale, WOVEN … NOT PRINTED …
And it’s flabbergasting because it’s from 1888, Jacquard machine, IT USED PUNCH CARDS to weave these intricate pages … something like 400 weft per near square inch … IT looks like a page of textured paper, but it’s not, it’s entirely SILK … F*CK …
Anyways …
OKS I’ve since calmed down and found out that the reason they used “printed” is because it is essentially printed by a computer … in a weird way; when I import the record, I’m just gonna take that note out …
