MomKat Musings @momkat - Tumblr Blog

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miamaimania

“Swiss Knife Beetle” ✚ Victorinox Coleoptera

babushkaat

let’s hang on mama (of another species)

dredsina

Ive said this before but swear the biggest skill to learn as an adult is how to resist high-pressure sales tactics. You do NOT have to answer questions with anything other than "Sorry I'm not interested." No matter how nice they are or no matter how many follow up questions they ask or even how agitated they get when you stand your ground. Just keep saying I'm not interested. Don't answer their questions. Don't give them an opening to try to push back on your reasons. Be a fucking brick wall of I'm not interested.

sweaterkittensahoy

When we bought our car, I told Sean to let me handle it. I walked in and said "We have X for a down payment and cannot pay more than Y in monthly payments." My Y number had some leeway, but I didn't mention that.

First thing the sales guy did after I laid down the rules was turn to Sean and go, "What's your number?" And Sean said. "Oh, no, you negotiate with Gayle."

So, strike one for the sales guy. Could not divide and conquer us by implying THE MAN would not surprised at what I laid down.

Sales guy then had to confer with his manager and left us at his desk for several minutes. I have a vague recollection (this was 16 years ago) of Sean and I amusing ourselves doing bits about the other people there to look at cars. I am sure we did not give off the stressed or nervous energy they were hoping for.

Guy comes back. His first offer is fifty dollars a month more than I told him we could pay. I looked at him and said "I gave you our upper limit."

"Well, but what's another 50 bucks a month?"

"Something I can't afford."

He didn't know what to do with my open and unashamed admittal that I had a budget because my money was finite.

He went back to talk to the manager again.

It took two more rounds of "I told you what I can afford" before he finally came back 20 bucks under what I'd stated as my max.

The trick to resisting high-stress sales tactics is doing the math at home, knowing exactly what you can afford, and then walking into the room and stating that number minus 15%. Then refusing to budge from that number. Never, ever, meet then where they want. Always meet them where you want. Because at the end of the day, you can walk away and go somewhere else and say "I told the people at Z what my terms were, and they refused to work with me. Here are my terms. Meet them, and you make a sale today."

teachablr-moment

I have been a salesperson. I tried very hard to make a living selling life insurance. I read all the books and failed many, many more times than I succeeded. In the end, I went into education, where the sales pitch is much more agreeable (do your homework and I'll give you a better grade).

Lemme tell you that sales people are like the fae folk in the old tales.

They are beholden to the magic number 3. Refuse a sales pitch three times and they are trained to give up. They are trained in many ways to "redirect a refusal", but three refusals means it's time for them to give up.

They cannot enter your home without your permission. But once given in any form, permission is tough to claw back.

They truly fear a failed deal. Sale folk feed on the magic of forging contracts. If they cannot meet their quota, they will starve.

Their deals are never symmetrical. Somehow, it's always weighted in their favor, usually in inscrutable ways.

stormsthatrage

Shoutout to Project Hail Mary for being the only media where the unconscious protagonist is dragged off screen by an alien spider monster and the audience's reaction is heartbreak on behalf of the alien spider monster.

puzzled-on-main

am i allowed to say kill all trillionaires or is that too specific of a threat

tarragonthedragon

i just got the "see where your blood has gone!" email from giving blood but it glitched and just showed me my current location. which. theyre not wrong. that is where most of my blood is

frontmansdefender

pinkbowsandstripedsocks

edwardspoonhands

Honestly, Tvyek is pretty miraculous. It’s permeable to water vapor but not to water, it’s nearly impossible to tear, but can be easily cut. It’s cheap and made entirely without binding chemicals. In addition to being used for wristbands, it’s used to wrap construction sites to keep out water during construction, for tear-resistant envelopes at Fed-Ex, coveralls for mechanics, and my wallet, actually.

Fun tip, though it looks like paper, Tyvek is plastic, and cannot be recycled with paper.

fairypsychicarchive

andromedafalls

holy fuc

piisbetterthanpie

I didn’t even know it had a name

bishounen-jump

everybody here's my tiny crochet coelacanth <3

ihavethemangoes

FINALLY FINISHED !!!

I’ve been at this since like September. Originally the plan was to do five panels but by the time I reached three I realized it was absolutely going to be too heavy. If the back bothers me then I’ll just buy some black fabric and sew it on.

I pinned it excessively since I have been warned the feathers won’t flatten unless blocked aggressively. They still don’t behave themselves 100% but again, if it bothers me I’m willing to steam block it in the future. Super fun before and after pics.

Pattern is of course the feathered wings shawl by my favorite pattern designer craftyintentions.

monkeyislandtwo

fonts will be named shit like viscera antique, 16 bit dreams, doctor's orders, bingo condensed, googly, wish you were here

equos-bipes

for your consideration

bolasaurus

TdF update, my day 4.

And it is done! All the Polwarth has been spun, plied, washed, and set. 2 more skeins are drying, but here's the 4 dry skeins.

They are so stinking plush and squishy!

Next project has been chosen, gave myself total free reign from my stash and still went with my only other wip. A gorgeous merino and silk blend that truly deserved to be spun. It will probably keep me going to the end of TdF and beyond! I have 200g of the blend and 200g of matching merino to ply it with. Gonna take a while, but very worth it when I get there!

goldensunset

>‘this thing is too generic and tropey’

>look inside

>forefather of that genre

firestorm09890

frankbelloriley

lronage-deactivated20250901

Ultima Thule by Henrik Saxgren

teashoesandhair

I'm in a little local cafe and the women behind the counter started griping to each other, "Oh Christ, Stephen's back again," "It's him, is it? I thought he'd stopped coming," "It's definitely him, look, it's bloody Stephen on a Thursday morning," "Do you want me to get rid of him or are you going to do it?" and so I was peering outside, trying to spot this nightmare customer, this pestilence of a person, this pox upon the cafe trade, and then one of the women from behind the counter ran outside, clapping two trays together loudly and yelling "GET OUT OF IT, STEPHEN!" and it turns out that Stephen is an absolutely gigantic fuck-off seagull who hangs around outside, menacing people for crumbs

batbetbitbotbut

Yeah, yeah, all the textile and fibre arts lead to each other, we all became trapped here long ago.

The danger zone is when they lead out of textile and fibre arts, into agriculture and woodworking and smithing and beyond.

justgarb

I should build a warp weighted loom

penny-anna

Now you see, I’ve watched enough cartoons to know that this square of the carpet is on a separate animation cell from the background & therefore something funky will happen if I step on it. You won’t catch me making a rookie mistake like that no sir!