Yep, and I have friends who have a lot of their social events and stuff there. I usually politely decline if I’m invited.

I wasn’t fired, but I resigned from a brewery/coffee shop I worked at after only 7 shifts. Context: I’m trans and in the closet still.

Hired as a cook for this brewery, and based on the interview, I’m one of the more “experienced” cooks on the team, and they (owners) were hoping I’d be able to help make the kitchen more professional. It’s a part-time gig, so sure, I’ll do what I can.

Well, the kitchen was too small for the facility. They would have to stop taking orders on busy nights an hour before close because they didn’t have the space to get through the 40+ orders that came in within 5 minutes of each other. Orders from both the bar, the cafe they had, and to go orders.

They’re menu was fine, surprisingly, they didn’t stretch themselves too thin. But the staff were… Rough. The kitchen supervisor couldn’t believe I owned a chef’s coat, nevermind actually showed up to work in one since everyone just wore t-shirts (no aprons, as far as I could find). I told the owners they should have chef coats, it’s a safety thing, etc, idk if that ever happened.

Anyway, the kitchen supe would spend 90% of the shift video chatting with various friends/family/etc during his shift, loudly dropping the n-word every other word while we’re cooking and cleaning and prepping. All on the line, not even in an office or something, in the middle of the kitchen. I’ve had managers who are lazy, that’s fine, but I’ve never had one that unprofessional.

There were like 2-3 shifts though where the bulk of the conversation amongst the kitchen staff were LGBTQ+ focused: I’m not sure I could love my daughter if she was a lesbian, I don’t understand this stuff, it’s a mental illness, trans people, etc. If it had happened once, fine, whatever. But over 2-3 different shifts, and the supervisor is taking part? No, I’m not cool with that.

My last shift, I’m annoyed and pretty over my coworkers based on their views I got to listen to, but trying to just get through it. I’m working the deep fryer, reheating some chicken wings. Pull the basket up and grab the thermometer to temp them when the supervisor calls over, “Oh, no, you don’t need to temp those, they’re already cooked!”

I pulled him aside after and asked him about that, and he goes, “Yeah, we already cooked them to 165°F before we cooled and stored them. You’ve just gotta get em heated up again, you don’t have to temp them.”

I send an almost 2-page long resignation to the owners the next day, explaining that I did not appreciate the conversations taking place in the kitchen and the opinions about people my coworkers had, people who may very well he standing in the room with them.

But I really harped on the fact that the kitchen supervisor, the supervisor, didn’t seem to be familiar with health code policies. Any good that’s already been cooked and then cooled must be brought back to 165°F when being reheated, that’s, like, one of those food safety things every pro cook should know, nevermind a supervisor.

I advised they may want to send their supervisors for food safety retraining before they made a customer sick, and that there were too many issues within the kitchen for me to help them without basically cleaning house and starting over.

No, to the point where I’ve had a few friends and family members offer to buy me decorations (or they’ll text me of ones on sale), and I always turn them down.

Halloween, I’ll put out a pumpkin if I’m feeling frisky, but that’s about it. Christmas, I’ve considered getting a tree, and had a roommate that had a really small plastic one with two ornaments that’d we’d put out.

But they’re too expensive, they’re too much work to put up/take down (especially outside in the snow), they take up too much room both while in use and in storage, my dog would probably fuck with them or be afraid of them (Halloween), they drive electricity use and cost up, they can be stolen, they can increase fire risk, I normally live alone so it’d only be for my dog and I, the list goes on.

I tell friends/family, particularly for Christmas since many of them can’t believe I just don’t do decorations, that I draw a Christmas tree on a piece of paper and tape it to my wall every year. Costs $0.05 in ink, paper, and tape, and 5 minutes to put up and take down. Easily movable, lightweight, efficient.

Why’d the cookie go to the hospital?

He was feeling crummy!

What’d the envelope say to the stamp?

Stick with me, kid, we’ll go places.

Oh it’s an absolute joke. The most recent is a guy speaking to me like I’m a misguided child who was fooled into spending my fun money on a rock.

No, dude, the Democratic Party isn’t progressive, and I’m tired of them demanding my vote while giving me the finger and making no progress. I still voted Harris, begrudgingly, but I’ve been “had” and “need to go rest and come back when I feel better.”

She ran a shit campaign and lost, and her policies offered little to the average American beyond “not fascism,” I’m not misguided, her and the Democrats fucked up. Like they always do.

But if you point this out on Lemmy, you’re a MAGA Trumper with six Trump dildos shoved up your ass and a fetish for fascism.

Only thing I’ll disagree with you here is the machinist comment. My dad’s been a machinist for like 45 years now, same industry, same building.

He is constantly complaining to me that they can’t find machinists, or even people who are willing to learn. I have zero machining experience, and he was trying to get me hired at one point, that’s how desperate they were getting.

And it’s not a bad company, to be clear, they’re a government contractor, have very good benefits, competitive pay (he’s even complained they’ve given guys with a year’s experience multi-dollar raises to keep them), etc.

According to him, if you have mechanical aptitude and are willing to learn all of the intricacies of machining, you can and will make a decent salary for the rest of your life so long as you’re willing to work.

My dog has to smell my breath after I eat/drink something. If I’m eating a sandwich, he’ll watch the whole time, and when I’m done, he’ll hop up and start sniffing/licking for crumbs.

Then he’ll stand on my lap, and put his nose up to my face, sniffing and kinda wagging his tail. I’ll open my mouth wide, and start exhaling, and he’ll eagerly start sniffing riiiiiiiiiight up against my mouth, wagging and kinda shifting his weight on his front legs. And if you don’t listen closely enough to his sniffing…

… He’ll sneeze in your mouth. 😂 He makes my friends do it too, and I do warn them about keeping their mouth open too long.

Beyond that, the only other weird thing he does (besides his crazy yoga poses he does in blankets on the couch) is lick the floor. If I’m cooking, he’s standing by the stove, ready to lunge at anything that falls to the floor. But when I’m done cooking, he’ll basically walk the entire kitchen floor, focusing primarily by the sink and stove, licking every speck of oil and crumb he can find. You’d think I never feed him based on how he acts towards food, but here we are. 😂

He nabbed some chili seeds off the floor one night before I could get them, and I asked him how they tasted while he’s walking around the kitchen, licking his chops over and over. Moved to his water bowl, drank a good chunk of that, moved to the living room, laid down there for a bit… All the while, licking his chops, trying to get the spicy to go away. And then he came back for more 😂

I attempted to deliver cremated remains once while I was a carrier for USPS. I say “attempted” because you have to have the recipient sign for cremated remains, but they weren’t home…

I’m not sure how I’d describe it, but it’s an odd feeling leaving a “Sorry We Missed You” pink slip for a person versus a package.

Lol, sorry buddy, not something I can just… Do. There’s gotta be context/history/etc, lol, they’ve gotta earn it.

I told a cousin once I wasn’t going to be lectured on morality by a woman whose sole contribution to society was how much money she could spend at a liquor store. That whole post I wrote was honestly, according to my brother, some of the best criticism he’s read, quote, “You called her a lush without ever actually using the word, while also going up one side of her and down the other, saying everything the rest of us wanted to.” That cousin, to this day, will not interact with me at family gatherings.

I also once threw shitty advice I was given back into my boss’s face in my resignation text, to the point where he mentioned it felt “personal” when he called me to try to get me to stay. That was the resignation friends/family told me I should be a writer because, “You have a knack for telling people to go fuck themselves in a way where they thank you afterwards.”

My go to, though, when someone insults me is to usually respond, “I’ve been called worse by better.”

The U.S. election system is a joke, and a sham democracy.

FTFY

Are you saying the driver is wearing the seatbelt, the passenger(s) aren’t?

And how does the death result? Is it because of an accident? Are they messing/moving around in the car? Are they legally allowed to not be wearing a seatbelt in the vehicle?

There’s too many undefined variables I think for anyone to give you a solid answer.

America: our mail system is. USPS processes 23.5 million packages per day, and processes and delivers 318 million pieces of mail every day, to every single household in America, 6 days per week (7 days per week for packages).

They will throw mail sacks onto the backs of donkeys and trek them down into the Grand Canyon to deliver to tribes down there. They will deliver by bike, plane, boat, truck, car, etc. Hell, name any other organization where you could hand someone a letter and $0.62 and ask them to take it to Alaska for you, and they’d say no problem.

“Post” roads in the U.S. are named as such because they were roads built specifically for the movement of “post” across the country, and people have even argued that USPS (then the Postal Service) created the layout of the country as we know it.

And despite what many may think or know, USPS is incredibly efficient when it comes to mail and delivery compared to other countries. I remember them telling us during our orientation (I used to be a mail carrier) that back around 2013, representatives from USPS were actually flown to Germany to teach and help them start delivering 6-days per week. USPS taught Germany how to be more efficient at something 😂

Every person is three meals away from being radicalized. Not my quote, not sure who it’s attributed to, but I’ve seen it on the internet over the years.

I agree, shit will really hit the fan when people can’t find food/water anymore, or at least have it not be readily available. Personally, I think it’s coming sooner than people are expecting just because climate change will compound on itself year over year, and we’re doing damn near nothing to mitigate any damage (still pumping ground water up like it’s an instantly renewable resource to water golf courses in the dessert, for example).

But radical people tend to be desperate for change, and most people get desperate when they start to actually get hungry.

You’ve got a couple options here, depending on tools needed (though this is all mostly US based).

1. Local libraries can have libraries of things where you can check out all kinds of stuff, as another user pointed out. Tools, fishing poles, cooking equipment, etc.

2. Home Depot/Lowes/Ace Hardware will rent a lot of tools at decent rates, from hand tools to power tools to floor sanders and carpet cleaners and lawn and everything, haha.

But, auto parts stores like Auto Zone will also usually let you borrow tools for free after paying a returnable deposit. If you work on your car and say, want to raise/lower it, go to AutoZone, pay the $20 deposit for the proper spring clamps, use them, and return them and get your $20 back.

3. Makerspaces. These are more often found in cities, but they’re places for people to go and, well, make stuff. You usually have to either pay for your time there, or get a membership, but they usually allow access to stuff other places won’t: CNC/laser engraving machines, welding/metalworking/blacksmithing equipment, glassblowing facilities, woodworking shops, sewing shops, etc. And some of them offer 24/7 access, so you can go use the facilities any time you’d like, as well as classes to learn how to safely use the equipment, or projects/techniques.

This option is great for folks who have disposable income, but not the space for the equipment they may want or need. I’d love a CNC machine, but I’m poor, and it would not fit in my 800sqft house 😭😂

4. Honestly, call local small businesses/shops/etc. Some may let you rent time in their facility, or charge you to use some of their equipment. My boss lets people bring their wide slabs of wood in to be planed/sanded in our industrial equipment for pretty reasonable rates, they just have to call and ask first.

I’ve asked every realtor if the property has had any tenants pass away in it, whether I’m renting or buying. Some disclose no issue, some have said it’s illegal to disclose (not sure about that, it was for a rental in MD). The rental they said it was illegal, there would be a knocking on my walls late at night, like, 2-3 am. Both the wall behind my headboard, and the wall attached to the living room. I never knocked back, and a few friends said I should have rolled a ball and seen if if it would roll back, then I’d “know it was a child ghost.”

No thanks…

A buddy of mine, though, lives next to a house that was originally built as the town morgue in the 1700s. He’s said even when he’s visited, he’s seen lights flicker and stuff. His story, though, was about a couple renting the house. I guess the guy was an abusive asshole to the woman, and they were going at it one night during a storm. He raised his arm to hit her, and they both swear they saw a man standing between them, facing him with a very nasty look on his face.

She left him shortly thereafter and he moved out. But my buddy swears whatever was in that house had had enough him beating on her and made it clear he was being watched.

Met a woman on OKCupid back in like 2014. We seemed to hit it off, so we agreed to a mall date since we were both broke (she was a college student, I was a youngster in the military). We were gonna get food and just kinda walk around and window shop and talk. Gonna try to keep this short, but a lot happened:

1. Had me pick her up from her dorm, went up to the dorm, her roommates were drinking even though everyone was underage, and they’re thanking her for having mom get it for her. She’s super nice about it, but proceeds to complain the entire drive and start getting emotional because she hates that they drink when they’re underage, etc. Yet… She provides it…

2. She doesn’t eat when we get to the mall, and instead spends the whole time I’m eating, talking. No breaks for me to respond, just keeps going.

3. We start walking around the mall, and she starts randomly pinching me. Like, painfully, randomly pinching me in my arms and torso. I’m finally like wtf is with the pinching, and she says that she was doing it because I wasn’t holding her hand while we walked around… We just met, and the vibe is already pretty crap, and how in any way is that a way to communicate…

4. We finally leave and get back to her dorm, I walk her to her door, and I’m invited in by her/the roommates. Fine, I decline drinking because I’m a good sailor, but my date and I exchange some pleasantries with the roommates and then head to her room. It’s basically just a bed, I think maybe she was just super nervous at the mall and being in her own environment she’ll relax.

5. We’re just chatting, and the pinching starts again, and she’s kinda just going for it with no breaks. I’m getting pissed and finally grab her wrists and tell her to stop, and she bit me. On the chest, like, hard, not a romantic playful lil love bite. I’m, again, taken aback and am like, wtf?!?

6. She starts giggling and tells me that that’s how women tell guys that want to make out/get intimate. What?! No, not how that works, at all… Especially not on a first date. But, fine, I tell her she can just ask, figuring she just wants to make out.

7. After a little while making out, the pinching starts again, and apparently this time it’s how women say they want to have sex. I wasn’t so turned off, it just didn’t happen, like, at all.

8. She walked me back to my car, and I drove her back to her buildings door, and she bursts into tears about her roommates and the drinking again, I console her enough for her to feel better and go back to her room. Say goodnight, and she just sits there staring at me. I’m kinda done at this point and just ask what, and I get, “No kiss?” Fine…

9. Get a text while I’m driving home telling me it was one of the best dates of her life, she really hopes we can see each other again soon, she really liked me and was attracted to me, etc. I respectfully declined, and when she wouldn’t just take that as an answer, I sent her a text essay outlining basically all of the above, and I honestly can’t remember if she responded.

Honestly, she wasn’t a bad person, and maybe at different stages in our lives things could’ve gone better… But she had a lot going on and a lot of life to live and learn from, and I wasn’t up for the ride. Hope she’s doing well, if she sees this and recognizes it, and that she stopped using pinching as a means of communication.

Oh, and to illustrate how hard the pinching/bite were, I had dime sized bruises all over my arms and torso the next day, and a bite mark bruise on my chest.

Purchased a soft drink from a fast food restaurant. I have a few friends that, in their minds, it is never justified to buy a drink from a fast food place if you’re doing takeout because “you have drinks at home, they charge $3 for something that costs them $0.11 to make, etc.”

It’s become somewhat of a debate amongst our group of friends: I argue they have flavors I may not have at home, it can be a treat, and it helps keep restaurants in business since drinks are where they make their money. I’m told it doesn’t matter, the upcharge is too much to justify.

I’ve boiled my view on it to “There is a fine line between frugal and cheap.” But never thought the purchase of a soft drink would be so polarizing amongst people in my life, hahaha.

There’s also an ongoing moratorium on the board game Life simply because we cannot agree if it’s legal for one player to take out all of the bank’s loans on their first turn. It’s not explicitly stated in the rules you can’t, but many of us feel it defeats the spirit of the game.