Out Loud and All In

I make things

[citizen-zero]

WIBTA for taking advantage of my boss’ possible manic episode?

I know this already sounds bad but hear me out.

So I (30M) am the sole employee of this guy (62M) who’s honestly just a miserable boss and an even more miserable person. It sucks so bad working for him—the pay is horrendous, he’s verbally abusive, and the working conditions are awful (in the winter I literally have to stay bundled up the whole work day because he refuses to put the heat on in the office). He wouldn’t even give me holidays off if it wasn’t for the fact that there’s basically nothing to do those days because everywhere else is closed. I’m almost positive he unironically thinks poor people should die if they can’t work. His nephew (aka his only living relative and just the nicest guy) came by yesterday to invite him to Christmas dinner and he told him he’d see him in hell.

I cannot stress this enough—it’s BAD. I’d quit, but it’s been hard finding a better job and I’ve got four kids at home, including one with special needs.

Anyway, so here’s where I’m wondering if I’d be the asshole. Today was Christmas Day and he showed up at my house out of nowhere (huge red flag, I know). At first I thought he’d forgotten I had the day off and he was here to chew me out, which was worrying enough, but then his whole demeanor changed and he was super happy and excited and talking about how he was going to raise my salary. He even mentioned possibly making me a partner in the firm.

Now if that was it, I’d feel a little weird about the suddenness of it but it’d be fine. I’m not going to complain about having more money to feed my family. But then he started talking about how he wanted to pay our mortgage off. He talked about wanting to pay for our son to get the very expensive medical care that’s probably going to save his life. He mentioned at one point that he was going to be donating a huge amount of money to charity too—I knew he was rich but it staggered me. All this from a guy who doesn’t (didn’t?) even want to turn on the heat or the lights because it costs too much money.

It was such a sudden and drastic change that happened very literally overnight and now I’m kind of concerned he’s having a manic episode or something. I really, really want to accept his sudden generosity (I probably will; my wife is all for it and thinks he owes it to us), and I would love to believe that he’s truly had a sudden change of heart (an actual Christmas miracle lol) but I’m just worried about the possible consequences of accepting huge financial gifts like this from someone who I believe might be experiencing some kind of break from reality. Even if there’s nothing legally wrong with it, I’m worried about the ethics of it.

TLDR, my asshole boss might be in the middle of a mental breakdown. WIBTA if I accepted his offer to pay off my mortgage and my son’s medical expenses?

[dais-yyyy-deactivated20250224]

Dame Maggie Smith

1934-2024

[faeriekit]

"This fic was ai generated—" Cool, so lemme block you real quick

[justheretoread-ao3]

[mercymomentmurdermeasure]

i immediately thought of this

[bluepsi]

I’ll say it again, please just grit your teeth and vote for Biden…

[dear-julien]

Trump Pledges to End LGBTQ+ Protections “On Day One” - Philadelphia Gay News

Donald Trump says he will end a series of LGBTQ+ protections established by the Biden administration “on day one.”

Vote blue.

[zofimp]

Are those "Biden protections" in the room with us at the moment? Go eat shit and die.

[bigboysdrinkmilk]

They are in fact in the room with us right now.

4/26/24 - Biden/Harris administration incorporates latest rule to the ACA that includes protections on the basis of sexual orientation and improves pre-existing protections for gender identity, mandating nondiscrimination in health care and insurance coverage for LGBTQ+ Americans.

4/19/24 - Biden/Harris administration finalized a Title IX rule that clarifies the scope of nondiscrimination protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity throughout educational activities and programs.

1/9/24 - Biden/Harris administration reverses Trump/Pence era “License to Discriminate” rules.

6/8/23 - Biden personally announces a series of initiatives that include efforts to protect queer and trans foster youth, improve access to mental health services for LGBTQ+ youth and address the rise in hate-fueled violence.

4/26/23 - Biden/Harris administration files lawsuit against the state of Tennessee, challenging the constitutionality of recently enacted legislation banning age-appropriate, medically necessary gender-affirming care for transgender youth.

2/7/23 - Biden uses his SotU address to encouraged Congress to pass the Equality Act “to ensure LGBTQ Americans, especially transgender young people, can live with safety and dignity.”

12/13/22 - Biden signs the Respect for Marriage Act, one of the biggest legislative wins in the fight for LGBTQ+ equality in over a decade, guaranteeing federal rights, benefits and obligations of marriages in the federal code for same-sex couples. The legislation also repealed the Defense of Marriage Act and affirmed public acts, records and proceedings should be recognized by all states.

8/4/22 - Biden/Harris administration declares Monkeypox a public emergency and wields federal power to ensure equal access in the distribution of vaccines and treatment.

3/21/22 - Biden/Harris administration takes steps on Transgender Day of Visibility to protect trans Americans that includes issuing passports with an “X” gender marker, streamlining identity verification during the travel experience and providing resources to transgender kids and their families.

And that’s just the last two years, without including any educational or research work done towards new policies or educating Americans about LGBTQ identities and politics, like displaying parts of the AIDS quilt in the White House or regularly acknowledging Pride, days of visibility, or other issues within the community.

You may be too young to remember this, but Biden was one of the first major federal-level politicians to support gay marriage, and he dragged Obama along kicking and screaming to the finish line. This administration is one of the strongest allies the LGBTQ community has had. Ever.

[bogleech]

For the many many people who do not seem to understand how a government actually works, this doesn't mean Biden himself came up with these decisions, but they were approved and implemented by Congress because conservatives didn't have both the presidency and a majority. They desperately want the white house right now because it will allow them to make any policy changes they want uncontested.

[lonicera-caprifolium]

I don't think enough people remember that the Very First Thing Trump's team did when he took office in 2017 was remove the LGBT rights page from the White House site. Like, it was mere hours into his presidency. The whole site went down to make their changes, and everything else was replaced fairly quickly, but not that one.

Or his lawyers arguing, while he was in office, that employers fully should be allowed to fire people for being gay.

I also don't think enough people remember various military leaders, and thus entire units, -literally ignoring orders- in order to protect trans service members.

He is the country's biggest drain on actual social progress, and it'll happen again if he's re-elected.

[eargoat]

[hazey-magnolia]

I DONT WANT TO LEAVE THE SOUTH!!!! THIS IS MY HOME!!!

I want things to get better here instead of having to leave it behind to be safe!! I literally live in North Carolina i KNOW about the bathroom bills, i KNOW i PROMISE YOU.

Queer people who look down on the south and refuse to acknowledge that there are queer people here infuriate me. The south is not just Bigotry World tm! There are poc here!! There are trans people here! There are queer people and disabled people and tons of other people who deserve your love and support!

Don’t forget about us please.

[gonzocoded]

i love you intricate costume designs, i love you puppets, i love you prosthetic makeup, i love you scale models, i love you detailed set designs, i love you pyrotechnics, i love you animatronics, i love you shooting on location

[knitmeapony]

We have lived through this before.

People said Gore wasn't good enough, that he was Bland and uninteresting and middle of the road and something had to change. So they voted third party or they didn't vote at all. And the Democratic party didn't wake up, and we got George W Bush and all the absolute hot garbage that came with him.

And they said Hillary Clinton was the wrong candidate, that she was middle of the road at best and conservative for the Democrats at worst, that she was entitled and they were going to vote for a third party or they didn't vote at all or worse yet, they voted for the other candidate as a joke because it's not like those votes change things, you know? And the Democratic party didn't magically wake up, they didn't majorly change, and we are still dealing with the fallout from that.

And that's not only twice in my lifetime, but twice in my voting lifetime. One of the important things you learn in therapy is that you cannot change other people, and you cannot set your expectations based on how you think they ought to react to certain things.

If you are refusing to vote, or voting third-party because of what you think it's going to make someone else do, please reconsider.

If you want to make the liberals or the centrists or whatever you want to call them wake up, you're going to need to do something that hasn't already been done twice in the last 20 years.

[everentropy]

The glorious revolution isn't going to come because Donald Trump is in office

[knitmeapony]

And it'll probably kill a lot of innocent people, during and after, so maybe fuck the glorious revolution even if it would come.

[depsidase]

[megpie71]

As a former humanities student, I feel it is my duty to reblog this one.

[bramblefrump]

A tech bro tried to convince me AI was amazing cause "you could make 30,000 screenplays in minutes" not realising that every single one would be shit, you'd have to sift through everything just to find some good bits, time wasted that could've been spent just writing a screenplay.

Technology Brothers know nothing about what goes into creating a work, other than the fact a work has been created to be exploited for cash. They see creativity as an investment opportunity, not a love for humanity.

[feminist-space]

Matthew Dow Smith: "Just remember: Arts & Humanities are so useless and pointless that Tech Bros were driven to spend billions of dollars to try and get a computer to do something that badly approximates something Arts & Humanities students could do half asleep and wired on coffee the night before the due date."

[lifeafterpsychiatry]

It's a lot healthier to go for a daily walk than to sign up for a gym membership you won't be using because you hate that kind of exercise. It's a lot healthier to eat a frozen meal than to skip a meal because you were too tired to cook something healthy. It's a lot healthier to take a quick shower than to procrastinate an elaborate routine for days. Don't aim so high that you won't be hitting anything!

[creamypancakebatter]

this is actually really helpful and affirming thanks

[breelandwalker]

[posallys]

i'm literally begging people to relearn how to use earbuds and headphones. i don't wanna hear your fucking tiktok while im waiting for my flight.

[southbreak]

100% this.

[where-our-stories-start]

Last Week Tonight, March 16, 2022

[crippled-peeper]

apparently people are now purchasing thick water to make slimes with because of a trend on tiktok

thick water is for disabled people who can’t swallow properly. stores usually have extremely limited supplies of it.

please don’t buy thick water for fun or to make slime with. it’s literally the only way some disabled people can drink anything. It’s not a fucking toy

[briarpatch-kids]

If you want to make thick water without taking a very limited resource from disabled people, the chemical used is "sodium alginate" and you can get non food grade versions of the stuff at dye shops. It thickens over like 2 hours.

The most economical thickener for Fiber Reactive Dyes and works as a thickener for other liquids as well, including all liquid Silk Dyes.

[thishazeleyeddemon]

Question: I've heard for certain resources, buying it is good because it leads to increased production of the item. Does this hold true for thick water

[crippled-peeper]

Probably not. Thick water has extremely limited uses for folks with dysphagia and people who have swallowing issues. They keep thick water in extremely limited supply in most pharmacies because of how infrequently it is used. That means if only 3-4 abled people buy it “to make slime” that some people might have to either go without food or liquid by mouth for several days or travel impossible distances to acquire it

[auroraborus]

It's also overpriced. Thickened liquids are so pricy that nursing homes risk dehydrating people to cut costs on them (source: I worked in one) and they're not easy to get if the store runs out as mentioned. Don't be the reason a disabled person can't drink

[monsterblogging]

Another fun thing about Pacific Rim canon: the halving pattern Hermann describes in the film? Literally every other piece of media and loads of paratext (EG, Travis Beacham's posts) contradict it right and left. Like for example, there were kaiju coming out two weeks apart in 2016, and no kaiju at all in 2023.

My guess is what happened was that Beacham and del Toro designed a far more elaborate backstory, and then one of them or somebody else came up with the halving pattern for the film so it wouldn't get bogged down in a more elaborate explanation.

[leebrontide]

I know the US government acts like a corporation but it’s not.

Not voting isn’t the same as a boycott. Because you can’t bankrupt a government by not voting. All you get by not voting is less control over what the money is doing.

The money comes from taxes, not voting. Abstaining from voting does nothing to reduce the governments ability to get money and spend it on shit.

So yes, sometimes you vote to reduce harm because not voting WILL NOT REDUCE HARM.

It’s not a boycot. Abstaining doesn’t take power from the government. It just reduces the number of people they feel answerable to.

[bogleech]

Not only do they not give a shit if you don't vote it's precisely what the most sadistic ones are hoping for.

[ninjawizard93-4]

Showed my film class part of Pacific Rim today to talk about sound and damn there's so much detail in that movie

[hawktims]

PACIFIC RIM (2013) dir. Guillermo del Toro

[ninjawizard93-4]

I will never get over this moment

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

In their defence, a lot of it is sand.

[its-time-to-be-silly]

I'm starting to think that maybe Europe just isn't that big

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

[yanzinator]

no but because australia is close to the bottom of the map and the flat map is distorted to fit a square map shape, australia on the flat map is significantly smaller compared to places closer to the equator.

[crazy-pages]

Thank you for being the one single person in the notes who understands map projections. Australia is big, but still significantly smaller than the US.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Australia is not significantly smaller than the mainland US, no. These are the real sizes, not a Mercator projection. I think you're misunderstanding what yanzinator said. The US does have significantly larger island territories than Australia, though.

[antikate]

The continuous US (so, not counting the islands and Alaska) and Australia are roughly the same size:

US: 2,959,064.44 square miles (7,663,941.7 km2)

Australia: 2,969,907 sq mi (7,692,024 km2)

And the person above has the impact of the Mercator projection completely backwards: North America and Europe appear much larger than they actually are due to their latitudes. Most notably Greenland looks like it is bigger than Africa! (It isn’t.)

In the picture below, the pale blue is Mercator and the dark blue is actual size:

And here is Africa vs Greenland:

[ineffectualdemon]

There is a website where you can drag and drop countries on top of each other to see the actual size comparison taking into account projection

Compare Countries With This Simple Tool

Drag and drop countries around the map to compare their relative size. Is Greenland really as big as all of Africa? You may be surprised at

It's pretty cool and also Japan is a lot bigger than I thought it was