Names are hard

AuDHD, new to Tumblr, bi, 30s, she/her Profile pic by @magentasnail

[sailor-cerise]

about me and this blog

Reblogs and texts posts at the moment.

Autism, ADHD, chronic illness, art, and things I think are cute or cool or interesting. Other interests include space, being queer, nature, sailor moon, most animals, linguistics atheism, reading (of fiction and non), shiny things, soft things, and learning lots stuff about lots of things.

I am early 30s. Sometimes I may reblog things that are like, R-rated (e.g. jokes about dildos or funny anecdotes about sex) and I swear, but no NSFW images reblogs planned.

DMs may go unanswered because they sometimes stress me out but they are still welcome! asks too even though I'm a total newb about them!

Anonymous asks are currently turned off. You can thank the spammers and scammers. -.-

Ummm new to Tumblr and trying to respect people's boundaries with likes/follows/reblogs but if I fuck up, I do I appreciate a very direct "please don't do that" if you're willing/able (but I won't take it personally if you need to just block me instead).

I aim to include descriptions when I can, and use the undescribed tag when I can't. I reblog a lot of art, some described some (tagged) undescribed. Feedback on my own IDs is welcome if you've got tips.

I think that's it for now!

pfp from the talented @magentasnail (pfp ID: a drawing of Autism Creature with purple line art. Autism creature is wearing headphones and looking out with a neutral expression.) (Banner ID: digital painting of pink and purple clouds like a sunset over some trees, reflected in water. The colors match the pfp.)

[thebibliosphere]

I need to send a "per your last email" email because the person I'm dealing with gave me conflicting information and is now trying to make me the problem.

They even had the audacity to screenshot their own email, so I've screenshot their most recent email in the same email thread that counters that other email, and now I'm trying to find a professional way to say, "this you?"

Fun times.

[ms-demeanor]

"My apologies, I was under the impression that we were moving forward on the information here [include most recent screenshot] - is that incorrect? Please clarify which is most accurate."

[bethanydelleman]

Important research for a story I'm writing! Not real life, never real life.

You are transported back in time and into the body of a young noblewoman in the 1400s. Your parents have married you off to an awful, abusive, rapist husband whom literally no one else would marry despite him being very high nobility because he's that terrible. You successfully produce a baby boy and then plan to murder this man for the good of everyone and yourself. Here is the question: do you think you could murder him in a way that is undetectable to the historical people around you? Note: they aren't stupid, you are the prime suspect as the battered wife AND you can't just say poison. Where are you going to buy poison? Do you know anything about poison actually? NO GOOGLING! You were sent back without a plan!

Do you think you could murder someone in the 1400s and get away with it with your modern know-how?

Yes, I totally have a plan (tell me for research purposes)

No, I realize that I'm very uninformed about murder

I have some ideas but I'm not sure they would work

Remaining time: 3 days 11 hours

Edit: my notes are full of murder. I love you all

[firthbetterorfirthworse]

First step: alliances. Who is going to support my power when my husband dies? Who's a threat? Who can reliably slip me information, who will look the other way, who do I need to pretend around? Is the local medical dude stupid and easily led, seduceable, or a good man who already detests my husband?

THEN construct a plan. Ideally, I'll be a day or so travel away when shit goes down. Can I incite a duel with some well placed words to an enemy? Does he have a drinking buddy who might recklessly induce him to fence or ride after too much liquor? I didn't do anything, I wasn't even there when he got that wound.

When I come back to nurse him (if I do) it's with all the modern day knowledge that I won't apply. Not that anyone would listen to me, of course, but I can ask questions, after all I'm just a female? What is happening? Isn't bleeding the patient good? This water from the stagnant pond was blessed by the priest, surely God will favor him if we anoint his wound with it?

I get nowhere near my husband, especially without witnesses. The sick room is no place for a delicate lady, and besides, on no accounts can we risk his heir. I should probably be sent away - for my health, you understand.

Sometimes people die young. Women are widowed early.

It's so tragic.

[bethanydelleman]

Two notes:

To clarify about the poison, you can use poison if you actually know how to identify it, I'm saying you can't just go "Poison!" with no knowledge about poison. Buying it probably means they know that poison and you're caught. Your personal knowledge when you read this post is all you have.

Another point of clarity: You went through all that trouble to have a baby without modern medicine so you could get the sweet house after your husband died. That's why you can't be caught. No disappearing.

[captain-kit-adventuress]

i love the ideas in the notes, but one thing is really sticking for me: you are the only person that would marry this guy—whether by your own consent or someone else consenting for you—and suddenly, this fucker dies under what could be considered suspicious circumstances, especially if it was sudden. everyone knows you're an abused wife, knows the servants are abused, it's all public knowledge whether anyone talks about it or not. even if he legitimately died without being murdered, gossip might still spread.

but you are still a woman in the 1400s with a great house and likely an excellent fortune. how are you going to keep opportunists from blaming you as an excuse to get their hands on your property, especially in the face of rumours that your husband's death wasn't natural? it wouldn't even be that hard to make what is essentially theft look legitimate, it could still pass to the son, and he will need a trustee or guardian of some sort until he comes of age, and who better than the local lord justice, who also happens to be a greedy shit but basically is the law, so who's going to stop him?

who's going to stop anyone with better claim to their accusations (because again, you are a woman, and possibly not even a noblewoman yourself but by marriage) from depriving you of your property? what's going to stop your son from doing so once he comes of age, in the event that you can't legally inherit?

i think the question is not 'can you make it look good enough to get away with it,' but 'is anyone going to let you get away with it no matter how good you make it look'? i mean, it wouldn't take much, an accusation of witchcraft—sensationalised, of course, but it is hard to refute—and whipping up a very public campaign ending in a death sentence, and...that's it. game over.

or maybe the best question is, in the face of that, are you willing to risk it? it might not actually be the most cut-and-dried question: which eventuality of possible death are you most willing to risk? that at the hands of your monstrous husband, or that at the hands of a conspiracy to wrest property and possibly power away from you at any cost?

[bethanydelleman]

These are excellent points!

In this particular work, the husband is the heir apparent, his father is still alive and holding the title. Grandpa loves the little baby grandson and will definitely make him the new heir if his son dies. The husband has such a bad reputation that I really think if the wife kills him with plausible deniability, the gossip will be, "god has struck him down and he deserved it." Then she gets to bask in being in control of the household until her son grows up and then she retires as a dowager when he marries.

But the main point is that the noblewoman is getting genuinely worried that the husband might kill her or her son, so she's got to do something before it gets worse.

[captain-kit-adventuress]

ok, not to be a total shit about this—i am the first to admit i love poking potential plot holes as a form of brainstorming, sorry if that's not what you're looking for—but if granddad is still alive and loves grandson (and daughter-in-law?) my immediate first question is, how is son/husband getting away with this in the first place, especially to the extent there's genuine worry he'll kill wife or grandson or both? i am assuming a continental european-esque and/or british-ish medieval setting, so if that's wrong or markedly different, obviously none of my line of thought will apply.

if granddad is alive (and i'm assuming fairly robust), especially if he's titled, there would have to be some pretty good legal reasons why he's unable to help, or i'd have to come to the unfortunate conclusion that he's just as bad as his son. and he could be! he could be just as bad as his son and still love his grandson, that's not necessarily a conflict, but i am a little confused about the setup.

noblewoman daughter-in-law doesn't need to get away with it if granddad is willing to help make it go away—especially if he brings his purse as a bludgeoning tool—and would likewise, as you pointed out, be in the way of some unscrupulous person getting their hands on the estate. i know it will depend on their relative position in the society you're writing, but i'm also fully aware that you definitely have an understanding that a low-ranking nobleman doesn't have the kind of pull that someone higher up in the nobility would.

perhaps it's enough to say that i'm already hooked on the plot lol. and again, sorry if i'm stepping on toes, i don't always have a good awareness about turning off my editor tap.

[bethanydelleman]

I posted this on my Jane Austen blog so I'm not surprised everyone thinks I mean Europe, the story is from China, but honestly I was just wanting to know if anyone had ideas to kill historical people with future methods. The character is translated into English as a duke, so very high nobility.

As for why grandpa is alive and son is still awful? It's like a Tom Bertram situation if you've read Mansfield Park, Tom just runs off and does stuff and his dad can't figure out how to stop him (also, it's not like they are breaking into their kid's bedroom when he's alone with his wife). This character is the only son, so he's basically guaranteed to inherit and they keep covering up his actual crimes in some sort of vain hope that he'll stop. Also, if you live in a patriarchal society, there is this fun thing you can do called "blame the wife for making him angry/not fixing him," it works every time!

The feeling I got from the original story is that the grandparents are in this like, cognitive dissonance where they do know their son is The Worst, but they only have one option, and they do love their kid as parents, so they kind of both try to protect the wife but also excuse their son and pretend he isn't as bad as he is. And they probably don't want to admit to themselves that they raised such a terrible person and are enabling his future behaviour by never letting him face consequences.

As for money, I'd bet he's just charging things to his family account and then they don't want to look bad as a family by not paying or telling places that he's grounded. What thin veneer of dignity they still have as a noble house and whatnot.

This character isn't totally fleshed out, but I imagine him to be similar to Arthur Huntington from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall if you've read it. There is a story line where he almost manages to drag friends down with him too.

[captain-kit-adventuress]

you said china and it all immediately clicked for everyone's behaviour. so it's rich, noble arsehole son drags down everyone around him because no one can quite admit how terrible he really is, much like a rampaging rhino—you have to wait until the rampage is over before you can safely get it back to where it can't harm others and hope against hope that there isn't too much lasting damage.

not sure if this was mentioned in the notes, i didn't consult before i started this, but any thoughts on pennyroyal? could legitimately be medically administered for mundane reasons, by a medical professional, and it's notoriously difficult to dose correctly, as in, a few grains too much and someone is dead rather than cured. not sure if this would apply in china, but sometimes pennyroyal was also used to create a minty flavour in dishes. even if (when?) the wife is suspected, medical guy can back her up or servants can be like, we use this all the time, i don't know why this one was different, and maybe grandparents are like, welp, that seems reasonable to us, because it lifts a huge burden off their shoulders and their son dies in a way that doesn't reflect poorly on them.

bonus because pennyroyal often causes very painful, agonised deaths and husband sounds like he deserves it.

[thebibliosphere]

I haven't had the energy to log in and thank everyone personally yet (the weather in MN is killing me rn), but thank you to everyone who donated to my Ko-fi so we could get our dishwasher repaired.

The company I bought the unit from--and which I supposedly have an extended warranty with that they're refusing to cover, but that's another matter--quoted me 4-6 weeks to come look at the machine for a diagnostic, then warned me there was another 6-8 week wait for parts.

They also quoted me several hundred dollars for the estimated parts, which they were going to order pre-inspection (????), and told me it'd be $400 for some rubber tubing, which was the likely culprit. And then another $900 for labor, not including the diagnostic testing.

Well, thanks to the very kind people who donated, I was able to call another company that came out the next day, told me the problem wasn't with any tubing at all, but the water sensor at the base of the machine was busted, and then quoted me $700 to replace it. Bracing for the worst, I asked about the timeline for parts and how much everything would cost in total, including labor.

Yeah, turns out that $700 included parts, labor, and diagnostic testing.

Oh, and ordering the official licensed parts took a week.

I told him the other place told me it'd be almost two months to order parts, and he asked who the company was, rolled his eyes, and said, "Yeah, they've been doing that. They're trying to get you to just buy a whole new machine."

Anyway. He showed up this morning at 7:30 a.m. and fixed it. I have a working dishwasher again. Thank you for helping with that <3

[echosbento]

Basically the exact same thing is happening with me rn, but Whirlpool are evil and refuse to send the parts to our local guy so we have no choice but to buy a new one. Which we can't afford. So we're just stuck handwashing everything until something dramatically changes.

[thebibliosphere]

We had such awful luck with all of the “brand new” Whirlpool machines that were in this house when we moved in, so unfortunately, this doesn’t surprise me. It felt like every few months a different machine broke. The only thing that was solid was the refrigerator but that thing was built pre-enshitification of everything. It could have survived a nuclear blast. I actually regret not keeping it and moving it out to the garage or something.

I wish you luck trying to replace things when you can. I know for me the dishwasher is a major appliance I struggle without. My back just can’t handle standing/sitting at the sink like that anymore.

[fearecia]

Hey Joy. Have you ever heard of an "apron sink"? Most of the problem with back pain and sinks is having to bend *over* the 2+ inch lip at the front to wash anything. Apron sinks don't have that issue. You also don't get the wet belly problem with them.

That's just a random example I googled ducked.

I know replacing the sink isn't an answer to the dishwasher problem, or even something you could probably consider doing anytime soon. Just figured I'd mention it for when you do the chance to do that kitchen remodel.

[thebibliosphere]

Oh, that’s interesting! I had been leaning toward that design purely for the aesthetics on the off chance we could ever afford to renovate the kitchen. (lol, lmao, even) But that’s good to know it actually helps with some of my issues.

[nymph1e]

On Discomfort and Morality

My father finds gay men uncomfortable.

He's told me before that it's like a knee-jerk for him. Something he doesn't consciously control. He sees two men behaving romantically, and his body reacts with mild discomfort.

In the 1960s, when he was in high school, most of the boys in his form thought he was gay on the simple fact that he wasn't homophobic. He wouldn't participate in insulting queer people, he didn't care if someone was gay, he wouldn't have a problem hanging out with gay people. So people thought he was gay. That's how prevalent homophobia was in his formative years.

When I was 10, my dad told me very seriously that Holmes and Watson were gay. That it was obvious from the literature and the time period that they were meant to be a gay couple. When I was 14 and I came out to my parents as bi, when my mum was upset my dad ripped into her for it. Told her that she was being stupid, that it was my life to live how I wanted to and that she needed to get over herself.

My dad formed my views on censorship: that being that it was completely ridiculous and thoroughly evil. He didn't believe in censorship of any kind. If I asked him a question about sex, he answered it honestly. When I was 12 and I asked him about homosexuality, still young and uncertain, he told me that there was nothing wrong with it. That it was just how some people were. That there was likely an evolutionary reason for it. And that for some people it was uncomfortable on an instinctual level.

He taught me that just because you're uncomfortable with something, doesn't make it wrong. He also taught me that most people don't understand this.

I see a lot of this on the internet as of the last few years. The anti shipping movement, the terf movement, the anti ace movement. It all stems from discomfort that people have crossed wires into believing means wrong. Really every -ism and -phobia out there stems from this same fundamental aspect of humanity.

The next time you see something and you automatically think it's disgusting, or wrong, or immoral, I invite you to ask yourself: is this actually wrong or does this just make me uncomfortable?

[3liza]

usa: you do not need to go to the post office to mail a package

you can order priority mail shipping boxes and envelopes in any size from store.usps.com for free. if you do not have a printer, you can buy them with the postage already paid on them. the postal service will deliver these boxes to your house. you can pack your item into the box at home, then go back to usps.com and schedule a time for the mailman to pick the package up from your house. this is also free. you do not have to visit the post office at any point in this process. if you use flat rate mailers you also do not need to weigh anything.

i have to explain this to people about 20 times a year, no joke. it is some sort of anti post office conspiracy that everyone thinks you have to buy shipping boxes and then drive to the post office and stand in line to mail things. you do not. shipping mailers and boxes are 100% free. priority mail service or above (and prices are now adjusted to the point that its usually pointless not to use priority mail) entitles you to a free pickup, and if you have even one priority mail package to ship, you can ask for all your other packages to be picked up on the same trip too.

if you are shipping JUST books, use Media Mail. its very cheap

[chucktaylorupset]

“Irritated fans produce fanfic like irritated oysters produce pearls.”

— Anne Jamison (via pen-in-hand)

[daggersoliloquy]

hey don't cry. on december 3, 1926, agatha christie went missing for eleven days and because the uk police didn't know what to do they recruited sir arthur conan doyle, creator of master detective sherlock holmes, but all he did was conduct a séance to try and contact her distressed spirit

[miseria-fortes-viros]

some of you are saying enemies to lovers when you mean rivals to lovers and some of you are saying enemies to lovers when you mean enemies with benefits. but these are all distinct categories

[eroscestlavie]

emoji chain for emoji you like but rarely have a use for. I’ll start:

🗜️

[smallinfections]

🫙

[churchyardgrim]

🍤

[mycotoxin]

📟

[valentines-2nights]

🍼

[soradicalsoup]

🧷

[thegoddessofincest]

🪲

[potorch]

🫐

[n0t1tle]

🫁

[nobody-home]

🦂

[rxko]

🪤

[megafaunatic]

⚗️

[sleepnoises]

🪎

[discount-wizard-spells]

🚠

[sailor-cerise]

🐢

[torpublishinggroup]

The Maiden and Her Monster by Maddie Martinez (@maddiesmartinez) When Malka makes a deal to save her mother’s life, she must go into the woods to find the monster that haunts it. But upon meeting the inscrutable, disgraced golem, Malka’s bargains begin to unravel: protecting her people may force Malka to endanger the one person she left home to save. And the golem that she was raised to dread may not be the monster Malka always believed her to be.

What We Are Seeking by Cameron Reed No matter how little he wants to be a doctor on a planet where the local colonists practice the barbaric custom of marriage, Dr. John Maraintha doesn’t have a choice when he is assigned to the desert planet of Scythia. At least Sudharma Jain, the beautiful translation specialist, will be going with him as well… But on a planet where the transformations of the native wildlife baffle human understanding, the most treacherous machinations may still be the unpredictable patterns of human nature.

Fate's Bane by C. L. Clark As a child, Agnir Clan Fein is taken as hostage and ward by another clan and grows up among the enemy. More inconveniently, she starts falling in love with the chieftain's daughter, Hadhnri Clan Aradoc. When their burgeoning love for each other leads them both to an elusive spring deep in the Baneswood, a magic awakens in them that may unite the clans to face an outside threat—or destroy any hope of peace. 

Greta Gets the Girl by Melissa Marr When Kaelee and Greta meet on a dating app, they both think that the connection is casual, no strings attached. That is, until Kaelee walks into a meeting about her debut sapphic romance novel, and discovers that her new editor is none other than Greta herself. Between Kaelee’s secretive past and Greta’s future career, can they overcome the obstacles in their path, and write their happily ever after—together?

Make Me Better by Sarah Gailey (@gaileyfrey)

Welcome to Kindred Cove: a beautiful, remote island famous for its miraculous ecology. Here, you can find healing and transformation; here, there is no grief or suffering. And Celia is so, so tired of being alone. 

A Mouthful of Dust by Nghi Vo

Chasing stories of a legendary famine, Cleric Chih and their hoopoe companion Almost Brilliant arrive in the river town of Baolin. But even though the famine passed years ago, old secrets and bodies refuse to stay buried. As Chih and Almost Brilliant search for the truth, something waiting in the shadows grows hungrier…

The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes

As an exterminator, Guy Moulène hunts the uncanny creatures that crawl up from the river and attempt to infest the walls of the city. But his latest quarry is different: a centipede the size of a dragon with a deadly venom and a ravenous taste for artwork, a monster that seeks to digest his city from the sewers to the opera houses. No sane person would hunt it, but Guy—struggling to provide for his sister—doesn’t have a choice.

Volatile Memory by Seth Haddon (@sethhaddonsblog)

Masks are military tech that can overcome the limits of human physiology, granting pilots and scavengers the crucial edge that could mean the difference between survival and death. Wylla, armed with nothing more than an outdated MARK 1 RABBIT and sheer desperation, plunges into the chase for an enigmatic MARK I HAWK—a mask that shouldn’t exist. A mask that may have a mind of its own…

Out in paperback on June 23, 2026!

Not enough books? Check out our other list!

[pronouncingitwang]

at some point in your life you will be boiling fruit, water, sugar, and lemon juice in a pot to make a syrup or jam. the instructions will tell you to simmer for a certain amt of time. your timer will go off and you will look at the pot and go, "hm, this doesn't look thick enough. maybe i'll let it go for another 10 minutes." this is the devil speaking. it's only so liquid right now because it is at boiling point. it will thicken when it cools down. learn from the follies of my youth and do not let this happen to you

[yokowan]

at some point in your life you will be making a sauce or a stew in which you need to add cornstarch to thicken it. and you will prepare a slurry of starch in cold water and think "this looks like way too little starch to thicken this amount of liquid." this is the devil speaking. cornstarch instantly polymerizes at 95°C and if you add too much it will turn into an impossibly thick goop.

[le-jardin-inculte]

at some point in your life you will be making some sort of cream based dessert that requires gelatin to thicken it. and you will soak some gelatin sheets in water and think "this is too few gelatin sheets for this amount of cream." this is the devil speaking. it will thicken in the fridge and if you add too much you will end up with milk jelly

[shithowdy]

at some point in your life you will be baking cookies. you will take the sheet out after twelve minutes as the recipe instructs and the cookies will still be glistening and soft. "these don't seem cooked enough," you will think to yourself, "i should place them back into the oven until their edges are nice and golden." this is the devil talking. this is how you get dry, overdone cookies. the cookies will continue to bake on the warm sheet for several more minutes and then harden up after sitting on a rack for a while. trust the process. trust the process.

[joeyclaire]

my mom’s trans allyship is on another level

[joeyclaire]

she once called my friend’s deadname “that stupid thing his mom calls him”

[asideoftrashplease]

I was once talking to my 75 year old Chinese dad in passing about a trans friend of mine not getting along with her family and he asked why and I said err, because she's trans, dad.

He asked: "Oh, was she the only son or something before *waves hand*?" and I was like, warily, no she has two brothers. And he responded with a great deal of confusion: "Then what's their problem?!?!"

Later on: "Anyway, even if she WAS the only son, that's not her problem, that's THEIR problem. They should have had more sons if they were going to be bothered about it."

[jackdaw-kraai]

Knowing what I know about chinese culture there’s something so beautifully simple about his logic of “no son to carry on family name/look after them in old age/all the other stuff? Skill issue! Should’ve had more sons! Should’ve kept the family unit strong yourself! Blaming your daughter for your own failure of family planning is W E A K!” and then he learns there are more sons and it completely breaks his train of logic because if yes to more sons then why issue?? You have two others and you’re mad you don’t have three?? Whack. Greedy.

I can already envision him as an ancient lord of a powerful house looking down his nose at the latest messenger bringing gossip from the house of his offspring’s friend and going “now they have a daughter to marry into another family for powerful alliances and two sons to take over her former duties and somehow they’re still complaining about their good fortune? They shall not survive the winter.” and then sipping his tea with all the grim satisfaction of someone about to watch an unnecessary soap opera of drama unfold from a safe distance or something

[asideoftrashplease]

That's a funny image for sure, though I think if there's a typology of Chinese philosophical mentality, there would likely be a spectrum from "Confucian patriarchal lord" to "Buddhist monk / Taoist hermit" and my dad renounced at 18, was a monk for a time, before coming back to work for his family since they were poor 🤷 it was what 3 years after we gained independence from the British so the economy was probs a mess.

When he found and married my mom, he was nearly 45 and they had so much trouble conceiving that he went to a Guanyin temple supposedly "magical" for praying for children. When I was born (not a son, also an only child until now), my mom said, "when you prayed at the temple did you ask for a son?" He said, "Aiya, everyone is asking for sons, so I said any gender is okay. If I asked for a son, maybe we wouldn't have gotten a child because Guanyin's son quota is already used up. Do you want that to happen?" My mom laughed for days about "son quota" and continues to tell people about it today, but her honest answer was: "Any child is okay."

Jokes on them. They didn't specify a gender, so Guanyin Ma gave them a non-binary child!

More seriously: my dad doesn't care about sons. When I told my parents that I wouldn't marry or have children, I thought he might be disappointed, but he wasn't. Then again, maybe I should have expected that, given he tried to become a monk at 18 🤪 I think he said the thing about sons to poke fun at people who care too much about sons because he frankly thinks it's all a bit ridiculous. In his eyes, a child is a child, so what's the point in caring about gender? If the child "changes" gender, does it make a difference?

When I first spoke to my mom about trans issues, still closeted at the time, she said, "I don't understand why they feel the way they do, but they aren't hurting anyone so don't bother them. They are normal people just minding their own business." I said, "I agree, but on the topic of not understanding: Mom, do you think that when we reincarnate, we are always born into a body of the same gender?" In Buddhist stories, there was a lifetime in which Guanyin was reincarnated as a cow or ox, and in repayment for my birth, my dad does not eat beef till this day. Gender or species isn't constant in the cycle of rebirth. My mom said, "No, you're right. Whatever thing that carries on has no gender. I was probably male, human or animal, in one of my past lives." And she has supported trans rights even more ever since.

[tzikeh]

Maryland to Become First US State to Ban Surveillance Pricing That Charges More After Mining Personal Data

Maryland will become the first US state to ban surveillance pricing in retail stores, after passing Protection from Predatory Pricing Act.

Jesus fucking christ that this exists in the first place

[boyslit]

I WAS FUCKING WONDERING WHAT THOSE DIGITAL PRICE TAGS WERE ABOUT SUDDENLY i had hoped they were so the workers didn't have to finagle those little papers into the slider part anymore 😭

[eclipticasolaris]

Hi, yes, that is the OFFICIAL excuse made to me by the guy replacing the paper tags with digital ones at my local Walmart, but the end goal is to remove the numbers off the shelf entirely, replacing them with QR codes that you have to scan with the app…. Which requires your login information….. and also stores your card information so even if you didn’t use your Walmart account at the physical checkout, if you used a card they recognize, they assign that purchase to your Walmart account purchase history.

I explained very clearly to the manager my issue with the meat section not having the price tags listed, and they claimed it was only going to be for the meat, since meat is by weight, and the price of each item is printed on the packs of each item.

Sure. That’s how they get their foot in the door. Fast forward not even two weeks, and here we are:

Bar codes. No prices, no item descriptions. No price stickers on the individual items. Heck, not even the name of the item that is SUPPOSED to be there.

No. The only way to see the price is to scan it on your phone app, which is also recording what you looked at recently, as a way of gauging what you might be looking for in the future.

So here’s what we’re gonna do gang:

Every time you go into a store that has implemented these price-less tags:

Take 1-3 items up to the cash register. Ask the cashier for the price, or hit the price check item on the self checkout, which will likely call over the attendant.

Express that you didn’t actually want it, you just couldn’t see on the shelf how much it was.

POLITELY, AND WITH A THANK YOU FOR THE PRICE CONFIRMATION, Give the items to the cashier or attendant to put back.

When they inevitably try to push the app, politely decline. If pressed for why not, say you don’t want to have to carry your phone in-hand the whole time you are shopping in order to see how much things cost. (Not having cell service or data to use the app is NOT a valid excuse, as stores already often have complimentary WiFi AND more stores will provide WiFi rather than give up on this push for surveillance pricing)

If it’s a shelf-stable item, the cashier will have to set it aside, taking up room in their limited operating space, and eventually pass it off to someone to put in a holding area to put back later. If it’s a fridge/freezer item, it might have to get tossed due to food product sale regulations.

In either case, you are making it a pain in the ass for them to have these digital bar codes. Tie up the checkouts. Give the employees more busywork that the company has to pay them to do. Hurt their bottom line having to toss the pint of ice cream you carried around in your cart for 20 minutes before giving it back to the cashier.

Yes, call your reps. Yes, push for more legislation like this in more places. But also take an extra minute out of your shopping trip to MAKE IT HURT for companies to pull this shit.

[antisocialxconstruct]

I've seen some people in the notes express (very fair) concern that this is only going to inconvenience already under-paid laborers, and not have any impact on corporate. While I can't speak for every company or every store, I do work in a grocery store and I can tell you this is precisely the kind of thing that would have an impact, especially if people are doing it en masse. Stores absolutely track their shrink numbers, and they do draw distinctions between what gets stolen, damaged, or wasted for other reasons. If people are making it clear that the reason they're bringing things to the cashier is that the prices are not adequately represented on the displays, and rather than improving business it's wasting product, slowing down transactions, and causing confusion and mistrust in customers, that is a language that shareholders speak.

[dovewithscales]

I worked in retail for years. If this had happened while I was working retail, I would have been delighted and felt great solidarity with anyone who was wasting my employer's time and money and giving me busy work as an act of protest. In point of fact every moment the employee spends carting items back to the shelves is a moment not spent standing at a register.

[sailor-cerise]

[ID: photo of a grocery store shelf with single serving salad kits. Each has a digital price tag on the front of the shelf that shows only a barcode, with no physical price tag on the item or the shelf. /End ID.]

[stonecrop]

I’m both pro herbal medicine and pro vaccination because you can treat burns with aloe vera juice and sore throats with lavender infused honey but you can’t rid a country of polio with plants. 

[made-of-love-and-stars]

THIS.

[tr4shpandaa]

Don’t forget kids, jewelweed is a natural counteragent to poison ivy rashes but it won’t do shit against whooping cough

[dovewithscales]

Mint for nausea, valerian and chamomile for sleep, antibiotics for fucking infections.

[thorinobsessed]

I’m in love with this post

[sandersstudies]

My sisters and I were talking about our future kids doing sports and damn why do so many sports either put you at risk for life-altering injuries (like football) or put you at risk for lifelong body image issues (like dance). A lot of sports that have lower risk of these two things, like swimming and martial arts, are not offered at schools in our area and mean a large amount of money paid for lessons outside of school.

Track and field sports were our favored choice in the end. It has the bonus of being relatively easy to continue into adulthood. Golf and tennis also met the same standards but those sports are considered kind of upper class and pretentious in many spheres, and equipment can get expensive.

What other sports jump to mind for you? My sisters or myself did martial arts, cheer, gymnastics, tennis, and hockey, so those were sports that began out discussion, but I’m sure there are sports we aren’t even thinking of as well.

[sailor-cerise]

I wanna go to my local pride parade

But

Heat.

Booo.