Unqualified Datums @thespoonmechanic - Tumblr Blog

milquetoaast

source

yanguang

trangoldin

somarysueme

i do think Kojima often has interesting and salient social commentary. He is writing speculative fiction that is asking questions worth asking. But also it not infrequently feels like he’s imagining a fantastic reality where men can have sex with each other. And he says “wouldn’t that be interesting? If men could have sex with other men?” And you say “but Hideo, men can have sex with other men.” And he says, “yes, in fiction anything is possible.” And you say “no, Hideo, in reality. Men are having sex with each other in reality right now. it’s actually happening.” And he says “I like to think about this hypothetical world. I think about it a lot.” And you say, “You could also have sex with men if you wanted to. Do you want to have sex with other men?” And he says “What if when you were horny you didn’t have to put up with bitches? Amazing to think about…”

shittysawtraps

therapyspeak jigsaw: are you in the right headspace to play a game that could possibly hurt you?

hugsohugs

can't stop thinking abt this image. he smelled an icky smell and it was soscary

sunbentshadows

tiktok that is good

earhartsease

lineageandtrajectory

The moon's umbral shadow created by the total solar eclipse seen from the ISS.

softplaces-deactivated20240808

dogpuppy

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."