Mike Driver
YOU ARE THE REASON
shark vs the universe
pixel skylines
if i look back, i am lost
taylor price
noise dept.
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d e v o n
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open
2025 on Tumblr: Trends That Defined the Year
titsay
izzy's playlists!
Interview Vampire Daily
tannertan36
cherry valley forever
EXPECTATIONS
Sade Olutola
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seen from United States
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@aheist
The poetry of maritime signal flags is obvious: it’s the poetry of code. Meaning: it says ‘that’ which means ‘this’.
"One mind trying to envision everything that could happen, everything that could go wrong, everything that one ship of humans could ever need to say to another. There is something tender about the tendency toward thoroughness. And then something grave about how the language effloresces, absurdly, into such dark specificity."
Candace Hicks: "Notes of String Theory" (2022)
I loveee dungeon meshi ! I know for a fact that laios would make videos like this
Haha, nerd
Nerd for you 😜 I’m obsessed @reipisuto
I find it sad that whenever disney tried to make a sci-fi movie out of their leagues, it always flops at the box office. Like man :(
Corporate Glossary: every Friday, learn the secret meaning of common corporate words
“They’re trying to discharge her constructively. Do you know what Constructive Discharge means?” She asked.
As soon as I heard the term ‘Constructive Discharge,’ I knew I’d never seen it on a vocabulary quiz.
“No. What does it mean?” I asked.
She explained.
“Constructive discharge is a fancy way of saying “being forced out.” It’s not good. And if you’re not a lawyer or in human resources, you’ll probably learn what it means when it’s happening to you.”
“Oh my God. I’ve seen this my entire career and never knew it even had a name.” I thought.
You’ve seen constructive Discharge too. You may have experienced it. We’ve all made choices to avoid it.
Constructive discharge defined
“We can’t fire you, but we’ll make you so miserable you’ll quit, and then we won’t have to pay your unemployment.”
Then there’s the textbook definition:
“A constructive discharge occurs when your employer has made working conditions unbearable, forcing you to resign.”
Or as one person put it.
“I didn’t get handed a pink slip, but when you’re not wanted, people have a way of letting you know.”
HR isn’t always the secret police.
Employees aren’t always victims of evil-doers.
However, employers push employees out all the time to maintain and protect the, “We didn’t do anything wrong, YOU did,” power structure.
Constructive Discharge looks like this:
— Meeting invitations slow to a trickle, and you’re excluded from emails and generally looped out of what’s going on.
— People stop talking to you or stop talking when you walk in.
— Your emails don’t get answers, or they arrive too late to be of value.
— Suddenly, your work is not good enough, though nothing about your work has changed.
— Reviews, once good or even glowing, are now mediocre or bad.
— Instead of a bonus, you get a Performance Improvement Plan.
— Warnings and write-ups start so they can justify your eventual termination with documentation of your “poor performance”
— Your work, clients, assignments go away, or they overwhelm you with work.
— The words “Set up to fail” were practically invented to describe this scenario.
Constructive Discharge is illegal
It isn’t easy to prove you’re a target, and it’s even more challenging if you don’t even know constructive discharge is a real thing.
If you’ve ever experienced this and don’t fully understand what’s happening to you beyond knowing you’re in the process of being excommunicated, it can be hell. It’s not uncommon for the experience to leave long-lasting scars.
Talk to anyone who’s ever been through it. They’ll tell you.
Knowing constructive discharge exists and how it’s used gives you power to predict what’s coming and to protect yourself.
Seeing the endgame helps you in two ways.
You know what to expect. Having a sense of what’s coming next is enormously empowering. You can go on the offensive and protect yourself. Constructive discharge works to crush your ego, making you feel you did something wrong and deserve this treatment.
Without strategy, you end up being a miserable pawn in your employer’s endgame.
Remember, they’re almost certainly building a case to fire you in the event the hellscape they create for you doesn’t persuade you to quit.
If you’re getting pushed out, and you know what to look for you can prove constructive discharge and you can get unemployment benefits, be released from payback obligations on a signing bonus, and protect your mental health.
You’re not crazy, incompetent, or a failure. This is real and it’s carefully executed to leave you holding the bag and feeling like you did something wrong.
If they force you out, in addition to feeling horrible, you lose your paycheck, benefits health insurance, and possibly owe them money.
YES-AND. IF YOU HAVE NEVER READ A SINGLE ADDITION I HAVE MADE TO A POST, READ THIS ONE.
In the US, you have A FEDERAL RIGHT to communicate to your boss that you see what they’re doing, and by so doing, YOU RETAIN YOUR RIGHT TO UNEMPLOYMENT—EVEN IF YOU QUIT!!!
Here’s how it works.
1) go to work tomorrow and read the employee rights poster. By law, they’re required to have one, and they’re usually located in the breakroom. It looks something like this:
Usually, this will be posted next to a state labor laws poster, as well. (Also required by law, but I have seen them posted in two separate locations due to a building having a stupid wall layout, so if you don’t see both, do some poking.) There are a few different styles of these posters, but they’re all basically variations on a theme, so you should be able to recognize yours from the image posted above. I’ve read them hundreds of times in the last eight years, just to keep my memory fresh. If you don’t see such a poster, contact your state labor board, because that is VERY ILLEGAL. The law is unambiguous on this: the poster must be posted in a highly-visible (to employees) location that is readily accessible. Not in your boss’s office, not in HR, not on the back of the fridge. Highly visible, readily accessible, REQUIRED BY LAW. If you have to contact the labor board on this one, skip straight to step 2b while you’re at it, because your boss is up to some shady shit.
2a) now that you’ve had the primer of your rights as an employee, if everything is good for you, great! Keep an eye out and revisit these from time to time to be sure you’re not missing anything, especially if things start feeling rough. If things are NOT good for you, progress to 2b.
2b) if you suspect you’re the target of constructive discharge, DOCUMENT. EVERYTHING. Dates too, if you can remember them, although if you’re trying to remember “as far back as you can go” when you begin to document, your dates might be a little hazier. Ask for personal hard copies of any consultations, write-ups, improvement plans, reviews, etc. and so forth that you receive. YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO THIS DOCUMENTATION. Keep all of this in a file. If any of your coworkers make comments on what’s happening to you, note those down too: “on 1 July I called to inform my supervisor I’d be late due to an unexpected flat tire. I arrived six minutes after my shift was due to begin. I received a corrective action form. My coworker Linda commented that she was surprised, because although this is my first tardy in over three years, other employees with repeated, significantly more severe tardies do not receive corrective action forms. My supervisor did not explain why he felt I required this form after a single incident of tardiness.” If you know what you’re being asked to do is illegal, MAKE THAT CLEAR IN YOUR DOCUMENTATION. “After hearing me mention to Sarah that I was hoping for a raise, supervisor Paul asked to have a one-on-one and required me to sign a form stating I would not discuss my salary, in contravention of state and federal law.”
3) when you feel you have sufficient evidence that Some Bullshit Is Afoot, it’s time to write to your HR department. Instructions on how to do this will be on that poster (sorry, I’m home and getting ready for bed, I don’t have this part memorized), but basically you’re going to be telling them that conditions have deteriorated such that you may be forced to resign if they don’t improve. Note that the phrase “forced to resign” is IMPORTANT AS HELL. Make sure you keep a hard copy of this letter for yourself.
4) You now have to give them 10-14 days to read, respond, and implement changes (I forget the exact number of days but it’s in there somewhere). CONTINUE TO DOCUMENT.
5) best case scenario, they realize they done fucked up, and things will change for the better. More likely scenario, you have to quit. HOWEVER, if you have followed all of these steps correctly, you can still claim unemployment.
6) now go contact the IWW for information on how to start talking union to your coworkers before it gets this far: www.iww.org
And finally, a note because this has happened to me and statistically either has or will happen to some of you:
If at any time the poor conditions should escalate to include sexual assault or harassment by a supervisor, DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $200, CALL THE LABOR BOARD IMMEDIATELY. Make an EXACT record of what happened: write down statements verbatim, if you were touched inappropriately make note of exactly how and where, if you were offered any kind of quid pro quo (e.g., a promotion in exchange for oral sex; sex in exchange for continued employment) make note of EXACTLY what was offered and asked for. It is 100% okay to call the labor board and say “I don’t know what to do, my boss groped my breasts today and told me he’d have a talk with his supervisor about my pay rate ‘if I was nice’. Please tell me what to do, I’m afraid if I quit I’ll lose unemployment.” Someone will be able to help you. In cases like these, do not wait. This is also true if you’re blatantly racially or religiously discriminated against. Please note when I say “blatant,” that’s a much higher standard than what Tumblr understands as blatant. If your boss says you’re pretty cool for an N-word, call. If your boss makes a disparaging comment about doo-rags, document and hold your horses for now. (Is that a microaggression? Yes. Is that something the labor board will find actionable? Not on its own.)
Stay safe out there. Don’t let the bastards get you down.
I have been through this, so let me add some tech-industry specific advice:
If you’ve been placed on a Performance Improvement Plan, ask for digital and hard copies of the plan that have been signed by HR.
If you have the strength to do it, accept the PIP, and indulge in malicious compliance. Do everything exactly as it’s outlined in the PIP document and nothing more. Overachieving against a PIP won’t help your situation, but don’t quit.
Keep copies of every email and message related to your PIP on a separate USB.
Find your company handbook. It is probably hidden somewhere on an internal website. Save a copy to the USB so you can research it for ANYTHING that might help you negotiate with HR at the end.
Keep all of your notes on the same USB.
Always assume your work computer has spyware on it.
None of this will help you keep your job. Remember that. All of this is to help you negotiate with HR when it’s time to review your PIP performance. WHEN they say you didn’t meet the goals that were outlined, refer to your stack of documentation and give specific examples of where you met those goals. Ask HR what the next steps are. Your ultimate goal is to make HR suggest that you and the company part ways.
DO NOT AGREE TO THAT MAGIC STATEMENT. That’s when you start negotiating the terms of the company letting you go. The things I politely demanded AND GOT in writing:
3 months salary.
All remaining vacation time paid out.
Continued insurance coverage for 3 months.
A guarantee of a good reference if any potential employer asked for one.
A guarantee that the company would not contest my unemployment claim.
After all of that was signed and I had digital and physical copies of that paperwork, I told HR that my last day of work would be the following day. Remember that at that point, you don’t owe them anything, including two weeks notice. Say your goodbyes and walk away.
“It’s a hospital not a hotel.” is one of the shittiest fucking things I’ve ever seen commented under a patient complaining about their care. No, you’re right. It’s a hospital, not a hotel. You’re paying way more to be there and you’re likely having one of the scariest experiences of your life and you’re probably overwhelmed, in pain, unwell, having a mental crisis OR otherwise stressed. The least they can fucking do is treat you like a human being. They should you your basic human needs like water and food.
one time, i saw somebody manipulate a nurse into holding their dick for them while they peed.
How to protect yourself during stampede
this isn’t the usual thing I’d share on my stupid nerd blog, but this is SO important. I was nearly crushed in a crowd like this once. It was terrifying because you have NO control over the panicking mass of humans around you. you are just at the mercy of all this chaotic force. this is a real thing that can happen very suddenly! it did happen in the news recently! My situation was, the olympics was happening in my city, I was on my way home from school, and a crowd of people suddenly flooded into the street around me. in seconds it went from, busy-city-street-crowded, to, wtf I can’t even move crowded. I was so pressed against the backpack of the man in front of me, my feet lifted off the ground a moment. People were climbing lamp posts, signs, bus shelters, trees, everything to get up out of it. it was like the street became an ocean of people, and all the people’s survival instincts were making them dumber. everyone was yelling. no one knew how to solve it. police, fire fighters and medics saved us by breaking the locks on the inside of the mall we were trapped next to. a huge group flooded into the building, releasing a bit of the pressure on the people outside. I was in that group that got in.
We were trapped in the mall awhile. Because the olympics was on, they had big screens in a few sitting areas of the mall that would normally be showing the games. but now the coverage was focused on this crowd surge. They showed a helicopter shot of the building we were now in, totally surrounded by colorful dots. a solid mass of humans with no space between. I know someone was partially trampled and needed medics, because I saw that, but i don’t know the statistics on who else was hurt, hopefully no one killed! I don’t know if these methods can definitely save you, but they might give you a better chance. so watch and share!
Sharing to my own stupid nerd blog for the same reason, this is SO IMPORTANT. Human crushes are one of the most unexpected ways to die. People go out to a show or a sports game, and make it there, but they never come back. Other strategies include staying away from large obstacles (like fences) that you could get crushed against, and doing your best to stay above the crowd. Try to climb onto something if you can.
And also — not to get nitpicky with deadly tragedies, but they’re called “human crushes,” not “stampedes.” It’s an important difference in description and also in respect. The deaths usually happen because the victims are pinned together in a tight space, they can’t breathe (as in the video) and they suffocate. “Stampede” doesn’t convey what actually happened to those people. The crush that happened in Seoul recently wasn’t because people “stampeded,” it was because they couldn’t move at all and they suffocated. But calling it a “stampede,” you’d think it was the people themselves that ran over each other, like wild animals. It’s disrespectful and untrue.
Horrifyingly, the victims of many human crushes have been blamed for their own deaths, which are usually purely accidental or due to criminal mismanagement from authorities. If you’re in a mental place to read about tragedies and police corruption, check out the Hillsborough Disaster, in which 97 people died due to the incompetence of the police, who then blamed everything on the victims: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillsborough_disaster
Just want to point out that the police are so corrupt that they use the authority and resources entrusted to them to manipulate municipal governments into never passing any type of policies which would even gradually reduce the amount of money flowing their way and that most city leadership is dominated by represenatives of the local aristocracy who have a deeply vested interest in preserving the capacity for the police to terrorize local communities so they can continue to act as their class's personal mercenary enforcers.
cut open a package of bacon while making food tonight, and then paused to take a pic because I realized the way I open bacon is probably not normal
is it just me? does anyone else do this?
update:
(ID in alt text)
I think we've all done something very important here. thank you for your input!
sharing, absurdity, joy
cannot stop thinking about the guy who claimed that the husky dog from the thing had his tail CGI’d out because it was wagging
at a time where CGI looked like absolute fucking shit
Minor correction: Jed wasn’t a husky, he was a malamute and wolf mix, which some believe attributed to his rather unnatural behavior in The Thing, such as, again, not wagging his tail.
However, we can see in other movies he’s in, where he plays non-antagonistic roles, like in White Fang, how he can also be a total sweetie when needed.
So what’s up with this wolfdog? Well, certainly not CG, because as you said, CG fucking sucked in the ‘80s… it really is just that Jed was a very good actor.
People who have worked with Jed have said that he had an almost human-like understanding of what he needed to do in scenes, and we can truly see as much on the screen; he sold his performance as the titular Thing in that movie, in a way that I honestly doubt many other animal actors could.
Was it because he was part wolf? I don’t think we’ll ever really know, I think his wolf lineage definitely contributed to his rather un-dog-like behaviors, but I wouldn’t say that’s the only thing that made him so talented; after all, such props should still go to the trainers that worked with him over the years! But it’s also alleged that Jed didn’t really need to be given commands very often, because, again, it was as if he perfectly understood what he needed to do.
But anyway, the point here is… no CGI! Just one very talented animal actor, who absolutely deserved to receive awards for his role in The Thing. We love Jed. :)
Also to add- CG wasn’t just bad in the 80′s, it was barely in its infancy. CGI at the time was not capable of rendering things like tails, it was being used for stuff like this;
This is from 1977, 5 years before “The Thing” released, and this was the best CGI anyone had EVER made at that time. The original Star Wars was on the cutting edge of cutting edge, and THIS was all they could muster. Digitally erasing and replacing a dog’s wagging tail wouldn’t have been possible in the early 80′s.
Tried this again- washing hands, entering, exiting, and using restroom stalls.
I’ve done this experiment prior to Covid-19 and in it I found that it was far more dangerous and confrontational to enter the women’s restroom in gender nonconformity. People hit, shouted, and even had me dragged out. However in a new 2022 study of over 75 binary bathrooms tested (in london area) things were noticeably shifted. I was stopped and confronted about an equal number of times in both restrooms. People in the mens room were more likely to get security involved than before. People in the womens room were more likely to accept that I was allowed to be in there if I explained. But people in the mens room were more likely to demand proof of some kind. Such as an ID or even use of urinals. Overall both were unsafe feeling at times. But to the credit- I felt safer in the womens room than the mens for the majority of the time (and for the first time since doing these experiments). Although in the womens room I have always felt a huge amount of empathy or guilt whenever my natural aesthetic scares someone because I know that fear is rooted in trauma which is valid. But yet- if I have to use the bathroom on my “birth certificate” then this is what a “woman’s room attendee looks like”. Even in a dress I can get reported in the “womens room” often as a product of transphobia when people assume I’m a transwoman. Typically my encounters, even if I’m hit by someone, lead to me holding them in their trauma and telling them it will be ok. That weighs a lot on my conscience sometimes- creating that amount of disturbance and anguish just by existing. We still have a long way to go to create safe places for people just to relieve themselves. But for my safety for now- if I just want to feel the safest and don’t have capacity to educate- I’ll be using the mens room in a collared shirt or jacket. That seems the safest combo.
What do You think?
(original tweet)
I would like a million dollars so I can give it to this man to carve whatever he wants in wood surfaces all over my dream house and also any public buildings he feels like, please.
this is so gorgeous.
That’s because it’s not skilled labor, anyone can do those things. In order to make good money, you have to be able to do something that not everyone can do.
ARTISTS aren’t skilled labor? Really.
Make me some art RIGHT NOW. Paint me a portrait in oil-based acrylic.
What? You don’t know that acrylics are water based, not oil based? Gee, that’s something only a skilled painter might know.
Or instead compose me a song. Design packaging for this new product we’re launching in 10 days. Make me a webpage with eye-popping graphics you didn’t steal from another site.
Artists do all that. In fact, every manufactured thing you touch passed through the hands of a skilled artist at some point.
FAST FOOD! If fast food is ‘unskilled’ then why does Wendys, McDonalds (et al) expend time on training employees? Surely if any asshole off the street could do the work they can just slip right in there and start slinging happy meals on day one, right?
Do you know the correct EH/OSHA-approved way to wash your hands? Do it wrong and you are literally violating the law.
Quick: what do the symptoms of Hepatitis-A look like?
Or let’s talk janitorial services. Do YOU think you can clean an entire floor of an office building in the allotted time? Where does the trash go? The recycling? How do you get ahold of the waste removal company when the dumpsters are inexplicably full at 4am? Whom do you call? What’s the account number? Is this even your job to worry about? If the dumpsters are full where do you put a night’s worth of collected trash?
What do you do with hazardous waste you might encounter, if you’re cleaning (say) an industrial workspace? Dispose of it incorrectly and that’s a crime.
What’s the procedure for when you encounter a trespasser in a secure building where supposedly nobody but you is working? Can you identify a fake or expired employee badge? Are you supposed to? Your training probably covered that.
How much would we have to pay you, dear @ithinkthatthismustbetheplace, to deal with a seriously clogged toilet? Shit-smeared walls, standing waste water, the entire place trashed as if it was 3am after a frat party? You have less than an hour to return that restroom to pristine condition. And no, building services is not going to help you.
You don’t think that requires skill?
Or adequate compensation?
All labor is skilled labor
^^^
The idea of “skilled” or “unskilled” labor is inherently classist, and misses the fucking point anyway. All labor has dignity, whether you THINK it’s “skilled” or not, and all people deserve to live comfortably, whether they’re able to work or not.
When you peel back the layers of this bullshit argument it becomes obvious that it’s just another way to keep us huddled masses infighting instead of building guillotines.
ok i made this in february and i still think that’s the best and the happiest thing i made this february
something something bi awakening
This is awesome on so many levels.
Ladies and Gentlemen i present to you John Carpenter’s The Thing, as performed by the claymated, Antarctic cast of the hit children’s animation Pingu. Directed by Lee Hardcastle, in under 3 minutes. Noot, Noot.
amazing.
