#On demand app making company

[cruzotecapp]

Salon App Development: How to Create An App for a Salon or Spa Appointment Booking

Home-based services offer a tremendous value of comfort & convenience altogether. Even if we keep convenience aside for a moment, you can wonder how it saves time for customers. If your entrepreneurial mind says to build a business out of this, you might want to consider salon app development to bolster your chances of success.

Why & How to Create an App for Salon?

Before getting started on the hows, let’s understand the whys. 

Digital supremacy is rampant. We don’t mean it in a negative way, but that’s the truth. Only the recent pandemic underlined the idea, or maybe emboldened the thought. 

Since customers have gotten in the habit of ordering it at home, whether food or grocery or medicine or anything else online, home-based services aren’t lacking at any point of time. Besides, we see a huge untapped market for this segment. 

People are likely to choose these services because:

No waiting period

Zero confusion

Easy pre-payment methods

Comfort factor

Value added services

Moving on to the next point – how to create an app for a salon or spa. Since the market is resplendent with choices. Taking genuine points of consideration, it could take more than one person to design a salon app and develop into a promising product if time boundaries are set.

Search for services availability

Customers would want to explore availability of beauticians or hair experts on their preferred timings. A search feature enables a customer to find available dates & times for conveniently booking a slot. As it eliminates the need for calling a salon, one can also pay upfront charges for confirmed appointments in the hair salon app. 

Multiple booking management

One of the best features of salon appointment booking is that of multiple appointments scheduling, where customers can schedule, reschedule and cancel services. It’s a hallmark of a feature. 

Contactless payments

Covid-19 raised the awareness of safety and hygiene by ensuring no physical contact. On-demand delivery apps enable online payments for easy and smooth transactions. Most payment gateways offer integration features to provide services for customers of all kinds. Whether Debit/Credit Card, E-wallet or UPI payments, money transfer happens real quick.

Beauty products for E-commerce

What a fantastic way to increase the popularity of this app! A feature to sell beauty & wellness products aside door-to-door delivery services for benefiting customers. Your consumers are likely to enjoy the convenience of shopping through the app.

Custom push notifications

Letting customers know about an offer or deal through pop-up notifications is the most cost-effective way of marketing. Next time, you have special offers or new items or any kind of new updates – prepare a custom push notification for app users.

Salon & spa profiles

Beauticians, parlors or salons design their profiles by putting out reliable information for customer viewing. Moreover, customers shall be able to mark their favorite salons using a simple button. 

Google maps integration 

In India, most on-demand services utilize Google map integration to the benefit of consumers. API integration helps service providers reach to customer’s addresses in real time.

Appointment reminders

A dependable app designed to help both customers and service providers have intuitive functionalities. Setting reminders or calling the salon for timings isn’t ideal anymore. The app shall serve reminders before the appointment timings.

What Is The Salon App Development Cost?

Basically, frameworks, specifications, functionalities, and complexities of the development determine the salon app development cost. Typically, advanced apps with real-time chatting, multiple integrations and additional features could range between $15000 and $20000. Simple and reasonable salon app development may cost between $5000 and $10000. Advanced mobile suites could go upwards from $25000. 

Additional costs pertain to the following factors:

UI/UX design

Complex features

Quality Assurance

Minimum Viable Product (MVP) evaluation

Backend features

Wrapping up

If you’re interested in developing a hair salon and spa app to disrupt the on-demand industry, you don’t need a fortune to invest. Simple and affordable custom branded salon apps come easy on pocket and are quick to develop. 

Remember, an effective marketing strategy and promotions after thorough research can help you make your application a guaranteed success. 

Need a custom designed salon app development? Contact us today.

#cruzo #salon app development company #on-demand beauty & salon app development services #salon app development solutions #how to build salon booking app #how do i make a beauty salon app? #salon booking app

[gootarts]

as of 8/3, the most recently updated version of this post is here (it's a reblog of this exact post with more info added)

as a lot of you know, limbus company recently fired its CG illustrator for being a feminist, at 11 pm, via phone call, after a bunch of misogynists walked into the office earlier that day and demanded she be fired. on top of this, as per korean fans, her firing went against labor laws---in korea, you must have your dismissal in writing.

the korean fandom on twitter is, understandably, going scorched earth on project moon due to this. there's a lot currently going on to protest the decision, so i'm posting a list here of what's going on for those who want to limit their time on elon musk's $44 billion midlife crisis impulse purchase website (if you are on twitter, domuk is a good person to follow, as they translate important updates to english). a lot of the links are in korean, but generally they play nicely with machine translators. this should be current as of 8/2.

Statements condemning the decision have been issued by The Gyeonggi Youth Union and IT Union.

A press conference at the Gyeonggido Assembly will occur on 8/3, with lawmakers of the Gyeonggi province (where Project Moon is based) in attendance. This appears driven by the leader of the Gyeonggi Youth Union.

The vice chairman of the IT union--who has a good amount of experience with labor negotiations like these--has expressed strong support for the artist and is working to get media coverage due to the ongoing feminist witch hunts in the gaming industry. Project Moon isn't union to my knowledge, but he's noted that he's taken on nonunion companies such as Netmarble (largest mobile game dev in South Korea) by getting the issue in front of the National Assembly (Korea's congress).

Articles on the incident published in The Daily Labor News, Korean Daily, multiple articles on Hankyoreh (one of which made it to the print edition), and other news outlets.

Segments about the termination on the MBN 7 o' clock news and MBC's morning news

Comments by Youth Union leaders about looking into a loan made to Project Moon via Devsisters Ventures, a venture capital firm. Tax money from Gyeonggi province was invested in Devsisters in 2017, and in 2021, Devsisters gave money to Project Moon. The Gyeonggi Youth Union is asking why hard-earned tax money was indirectly given to a company who violates ESG (environmental, social and governance) principles.

Almost nonstop signage truck protests outside Project Moon's physical office during business hours until 8/22 or the company makes a statement. This occurs alongside a coordinated hashtag campaign to get the issue trending on Twitter in Korea. The signage campaign was crowd-funded in about 3 hours.

A full boycott of the Limbus Company app, on both mobile and PC (steam) platforms. Overseas fans are highly encouraged to participate, regardless if whether they're F2P or not. Not opening the app at all is arguably the biggest thing any one person can do to protest the decision, as the app logs the number of accounts that log on daily. For a new gacha such as Limbus, a high number of F2P daily active users, but a small number of paying users is often preferable to having a smaller userbase but more paying users. If the company sees the number of daily users remain stable, they will likely decide to wait out any backlash rather than apologize.

Digging up verified reviews from previous employees regarding the company's poor management practices

Due to the firing, the Leviathan artist has posted about poor working conditions when making the story. As per a bilingual speaker, they were working on a storyboard revision, and thought 'if I ran into the street right now and got hit by a car and died, I wouldn't have to keep working.' They contacted Project Moon because they didn't want their work to be like that, and proposed changes to serialization/reduction in amount of work per picture/to build up a buffer of finished images (they did not have any buffer while working on Leviathan to my knowledge). They were shut out, and had to suck it up and accept the situation.

Hamhampangpang has a 'shrine' section of the restaurant for fans to leave fan-created merch and other items. They also allow the fans to take this merch back if they can prove it's theirs. Fans are now doing just that.

To boost all of the above, a large number of Korean fanartists with thousands of followers have deleted their works and/or converted their accounts from fanart accounts to accounts supporting the protests. Many of them are bilingual, and they're where I got the majority of this information.

[note 1: there's a targeted english-language disinformation campaign by the website that started the hate mob. i have read the artist's tweets with machine translation, and they're talked about in the second hankyoreh article linked above: nowhere does she express any transphobic or similarly awful beliefs. likewise, be wary of any claims that she supported anything whose description makes you raise eyebrows--those claims are likely in reference to megalia, a korean feminist movement. for information on that, i'd recommend the NPR/BBC articles below and this google drive link of english-language scholarly papers on them. for the love of god don't get your information about a feminist movement from guys going on witch hunts for feminists.]

[note 2: i've seen a couple people argue that the firing was for the physical safety of the employees, citing the kyoani incident in japan. as per this korean fan, most fans there strongly do not believe this was the case. we have english-translated transcripts of the meeting between the mob and project moon; the threats the mob was making were to......brand project moon as a feminist company online. yes, really. male korean gamers aren't normal about feminism, and there's been an ongoing witch hunt for feminists in the industry since about 2016, something you see noted in both the labor union statements. both NPR and the BBC this phenomenon to gamergate, and i'd say it's a pretty apt comparison.]

let me know if anything needs correction or if anything should be added.

#project moon #limbus company #obligatory text post tag #that's all i've got for now. highly encourage y'all to not open limbus until they make a statement

[phontinent]

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[mostlysignssomeportents]

Housing is a labor issue

There's a reason Reagan declared war on unions before he declared war on everything else – environmental protection, health care, consumer rights, financial regulation. Unions are how working people fight for a better world for all of us. They're how everyday people come together to resist oligarchy, extraction and exploitation.

Take the 2019 LA teachers' strike. As Jane McAlevey writes in A Collective Bargain, the LA teachers didn't just win higher pay for their members! They also demanded (and got) an end to immigration sweeps of parents waiting for their kids at the school gate; a guarantee of green space near every public school in the city; and on-site immigration counselors in LA schools:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/23/a-collective-bargain/

Unionization is enjoying an historic renaissance. The Hot Labor Summer transitioned to an Eternal Labor September, and it's still going strong, with UAW president Shawn Fain celebrating his members victory over the Big Three automakers by calling for a 2028 general strike:

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/uaw-general-strike-no-class

The rising labor movement has powerful allies in the Biden Administration. NLRB general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo is systematically gutting the "union avoidance" playbook. She's banned the use of temp-work app blacklists that force workers to cross picket lines:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/30/computer-says-scab/#instawork

She's changed the penalty for bosses who violate labor law during union drives. It used to be the boss would pay a fine, which was an easy price to pay in exchange for killing your workers' union. Now, the penalty is automatic recognition of the union:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/06/goons-ginks-and-company-finks/#if-blood-be-the-price-of-your-cursed-wealth

And while the law doesn't allow Abruzzo to impose a contract on companies that refuse to bargain their unions, she's set to force those companies to honor other employers' union contracts until they agree to a contract with their own workers:

https://onlabor.org/gc-abruzzo-just-asked-the-nlrb-to-overturn-ex-cell-o-heres-why-that-matters/

She's also nuking TRAPs, the deals that force workers to repay their employers for their "training expenses" if they have the audacity to quit and get a better job somewhere else:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/14/prop-22-never-again/#norms-code-laws-markets

(As with every aspect of the Biden White House, its labor policy is contradictory and self-defeating, with other Biden appointees working to smash worker power, including when Biden broke the railworkers' strike:)

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/18/co-determination/#now-make-me-do-it

A surging labor movement opens up all kinds of possibilities for a better world. Writing for the Law and Political Economy Project, UNITE Here attorney Zoe Tucker makes the case for unions as a way out of America's brutal housing crisis:

https://lpeproject.org/blog/why-unions-should-join-the-housing-fight/

She describes how low-waged LA hotel workers have been pushed out of neighborhoods close to their jobs, with UNITE Here members commuting three hours in each direction, starting their work-days at 3AM in order to clock in on time:

https://twitter.com/MorePerfectUS/status/1669088899769987079

UNITE Here members are striking against 50 hotels in LA and Orange County, and their demands include significant cost-of-living raises. But more money won't give them back the time they give up to those bruising daily commutes. For that, unions need to make housing itself a demand.

As Tucker writes, most workers are tenants and vice-versa. What's more, bad landlords are apt to be bad bosses, too. Stepan Kazaryan, the same guy who owns the strip club whose conditions were so bad that it prompted the creation of Equity Strippers NoHo, the first strippers' union in a generation, is also a shitty landlord whose tenants went on a rent-strike:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/20/the-missing-links/#plunderphonics

So it was only natural that Kazaryan's tenants walked the picket line with the Equity Stripper Noho workers:

https://twitter.com/glendaletenants/status/1733290276599570736?s=46

While scumbag bosses/evil landlords like Kazaryan deal out misery retail, one apartment building at a time, the wholesale destruction of workers' lives comes from private equity giants who are the most prolific source of TRAPs, robo-scabbing apps, illegal union busting, and indefinite contract delays – and these are the very same PE firms that are buying up millions of single-family homes and turning them into slums:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/08/wall-street-landlords/#the-new-slumlords

Tucker's point is that when a worker clocks out of their bad job, commutes home for three hours, and gets back to their black-mold-saturated, overpriced apartment to find a notice of a new junk fee (like a surcharge for paying your rent in cash, by check, or by direct payment), they're fighting the very same corporations.

Unions who defend their workers' right to shelter do every tenant a service. A coalition of LA unions succeeded in passing Measure ULA, which uses a surcharge on real estate transactions over $5m to fund "the largest municipal housing program in the country":

https://unitedtohousela.com/app/uploads/2022/05/LA_City_Affordable_Housing_Petition_H.pdf

LA unions are fighting for rules to limit Airbnbs and other platforms that transform the city's rental stock into illegal, unlicensed hotels:

https://upgo.lab.mcgill.ca/publication/strs-in-los-angeles-2022/Wachsmuth_LA_2022.pdf

And the hotel workers organized under UNITE Here are fighting their own employers: the hoteliers who are aggressively buying up residences, evicting their long-term tenants, tearing down the building and putting up a luxury hotel. They got LA council to pass a law requiring hotels to build new housing to replace any residences they displace:

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-11-28/airbnb-operators-would-need-police-permit-in-l-a-under-proposed-law

UNITE Here is bargaining for a per-room hotel surcharge to fund housing specifically for hotel workers, so the people who change the sheets and clean the toilets don't have to waste six hours a day commuting to do so.

Labor unions and tenant unions have a long history of collaboration in the USA. NYC's first housing coop was midwifed by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America in 1927. The Penn South coop was created by the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union. The 1949 Federal Housing Act passed after American unions pushed hard for it:

http://www.peterdreier.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Labors-Love-Lost.pdf

It goes both ways. Strong unions can create sound housing – and precarious housing makes unions weaker. Remember during the Hollywood writers' strike, when an anonymous studio ghoul told the press the plans was to "allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses?"

Vienna has the most successful housing in any major city in the world. It's the city where people of every income and background live in comfort without being rent-burdened and without worry about eviction, mold, or leaks. That's the legacy of Red Vienna, the Austrian period of Social Democratic Workers' Party rule and built vast tracts of high-quality public housing. The system was so robust that it rebounded after World War II and continues to this day:

https://www.politico.eu/article/vienna-social-housing-architecture-austria-stigma/

Today, the rest of the world is mired in a terrible housing crisis. It's not merely that the rent's too damned high (though it is) – housing precarity is driving dangerous political instability:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/06/the-rents-too-damned-high/

Turning the human necessity of shelter into a market commodity is a failure. The economic orthodoxy that insists that public housing, rent control, and high-density zoning will lead to less housing has failed. rent control works:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/16/mortgages-are-rent-control/#housing-is-a-human-right-not-an-asset

Leaving housing to the market only produces losers. If you have the bad luck to invest everything you have into a home in a city that contracts, you're wiped out. If you have the bad luck into invest everything into a home in a "superstar city" where prices go up, you also lose, because your city becomes uninhabitable and your children can't afford to live there:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/09/27/lethal-dysfunction/#yimby

A strong labor movement is the best chance we have for breaking the housing deadlock. And housing is just for starters. Labor is the key to opening every frozen-in-place dysfunction. Take care work: the aging, increasingly chronically ill American population is being tortured and murdered by private equity hospices, long-term care facilities and health services that have been rolled up by the same private equity firms that destroyed work and housing:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/26/death-panels/#what-the-heck-is-going-on-with-CMS

In her interview with Capital & Main's Jessica Goodheart, National Domestic Workers Alliance president Ai-jen Poo describes how making things better for care workers will make things better for everyone:

https://prospect.org/labor/2023-12-13-labor-leader-ai-jen-poo-interview/

Care work is a "triple dignity investment": first, it makes life better for the worker (most often a woman of color), then, it allows family members of people who need care to move into higher paid work; and of course, it makes life better for people who need care: "It delivers human potential and agency. It delivers a future workforce. It delivers quality of life."

The failure to fund care work is a massive driver of inequality. America's sole federal public provision for care is Medicaid, which only kicks in after a family it totally impoverished. Funding care with tax increases polls high with both Democrats and Republicans, making it good politics:

https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2021/4/7/voters-support-investing-in-the-care-economy

Congress stripped many of the care provisions from Build Back Better, missing a chance for an "unprecedented, transformational investment in care." But the administrative agencies picked up where Congress failed, following a detailed executive order that identifies existing, previously unused powers to improve care in America. The EO "expands access to care, supports family caregivers and improves wages and conditions for the workforce":

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2023/04/18/executive-order-on-increasing-access-to-high-quality-care-and-supporting-caregivers/

States are also filling the void. Washington just created a long-term care benefit:

https://apnews.com/article/washington-long-term-care-tax-disability-cb54b04b025223dbdba7199db1d254e4

New Mexicans passed a ballot initiative that establishes permanent funding for child care:

https://www.cwla.org/new-mexico-votes-for-child-care/

New York care workers won a $3/hour across the board raise:

https://inequality.org/great-divide/new-york-budget-fair-pay-home-care/

The fight is being led by women of color, and they're kicking ass – and they're doing it through their unions. Worker power is the foundation that we build a better world upon, and it's surging.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/13/i-want-a-roof-over-my-head/#and-bread-on-the-table

#pluralistic #labor #hot labor summer #eternal labor september #jane mcalevey #los angeles #weaponized shelter #housing #airbnb #equity strip noho #tenants unions #red vienna #jennifer abruzzo #nlrb #the rent's too damned high

[phantomrose96]

At the risk of having an opinion on Tumblr, that post about having Tumblr do a 48hr blackout like the Reddit one is... kinda just dumb.

Reddit communities going dark was based on well-defined demands against a well-defined new thing the company was doing. Reddit would start charging $xyz amount for API access. This would kill 3rd party apps. The protest was "we want Reddit to renegotiate the API cost to a lesser more reasonable rate that won't kill 3rd party apps."

The tumblr post just seems to be a hodge-podge of every popular tumblr complaint currently, including things staff themselves would clearly like to fix. Like one of the demands is to increase efforts against the spam bots. Buddy tumblr would love to get rid of those things because "your website is infested with sex bots" is not a good look to advertisers. Clearly they don't have a good way to get rid of them otherwise they'd be gone by now. Some 48 hour protest is not gonna make them suddenly better at it.

Other demands include bringing back "go nuts show nuts" which is just straight up not possible anymore. The current CEO made a long post about it a while back explaining why it can't happen. Some of the gripes are just annoying things like Tumblr Live, which tbh would be nice if it was gotten rid of entirely but having it be one bullet point in a random 2-day log off protest isn't gonna do it... You're better off sending thought-out feedback on why it's a problem.

Also like... even if Tumblr said "We're selling all the world's puppies to the factory that tests the efficacy of pepper grinders on animal flesh" which would be a pretty good thing to protest, the Tumblr format itself just can't be organized the way Reddit is. Reddit is made up of a bunch of town center bulletin boards that announcements can be pinned to, with moderators who (for better or worse) can make decisions for a whole community. Tumblr is just everyone's random blogs. Most of you probably don't even know what post I'm talking about cuz it never circulated to your dash. Which version of what post ends up on your dash is a complete clown show. This format doesn't let us organize for shit.

Also parting thoughts, Reddit was able to actually shut communities down and they have better advertiser pull so a missing chunk of the userbase could potentially catch the ire of advertisers. Tumblr is a mud pit and I doubt half the advertisers even know they're advertising on Tumblr.

#chrissy speaks

[holdinbacksecrets]

Hi! Can you please write BTS version of the voicemails they will send hinting their feelings? Thank you 😊

thank you for requesting 🖤

voicemails from bts, hinting feelings

namjoon: “i was in a bookstore the other day and started to imagine a book you wrote being on the shelves someday. everything you do, down to the indentation of your steps, leaves behind a story. do you remember your birthday two years ago? you drank one glass too many, and it’s like the fiction unleashed. i recorded a voice memo, but i never played it for you. i want to.”

jin: “are you scared? this morning you sounded really scared on the phone. i’m sorry i didn’t say more or say enough. i was caught off guard because you’ve never showed me scared before, not like that. i’ve seen your apprehension. i’ve seen your insecure. i’ve seen your anxiety, but this was consuming fear. i’m making dinner, and i feel like you probably haven’t eaten today… if your anxiety gives anything away about your scared. come over when you’re off. i’ll greet you with a hug and bowl of soup. or two bowls. i have cheese and bread too. the good bread. the loaf you turned me on to.”

yoongi: “you used the notes app on my phone to write out your grocery list, and i’m amused. it sounds like you’re having a conversation with yourself: right now, i want rice crispies, but i’ll probably change my mind once i’m in the cereal aisle. trust your gut, or get two boxes. you’re 26. no one is stopping you. oh! get some apple juice too. i keep having dreams about twelve year old me at a friend’s house. we’d sit at the kitchen island after school with graham crackers and apple juice, and i miss her. i miss those simple conversations. you’re so pure and magnetic. sometimes i wonder where you came from, but then i’m just glad you made it here—tumbled into my life because you did tumble. you’ve always made the story sound too elegant. the tumble was charming, i promise.”

hoseok: “you’ve been sharing recipes with me, or i guess i should say the final product of your recipes has been shared with me, repeatedly, and now i’m starting to wait for the knock on my door or the ring of a text. is that bad? i wouldn’t want you to ever think i’m demanding treats, but i love… i love the time we spend together when you bring them over, and your eyes sparkle when my expression changes because of how good everything always tastes… i love that too.”

jimin: “did you say everything you needed to yesterday? i swear your lips parted and you leaned in so many times to never say anything. i know it was a busy place, and it’s not that fun sitting at a table for twelve. but i was ready to listen. i’ll be ready at 2 am too. whatever you need. there’s something to this, right? to the ease of our conversations. you trust me?”

taehyung: “do you want to sculpt clay with me? i bought a whole bag and a bunch of tools. i thought about booking a private lesson, but i wanted my record player and access to a kitchen and the ability to get my hands dirty whenever i want to—need it. do you need it too? if not, keep me company while i try to make something?”

jungkook: “can i pick you up today? this is going to sound ridiculous, but your smell used to linger in my car, and i can’t quite make out the notes of your perfume anymore. i can imagine them, but they don’t meet me when i open the door… i can’t leave this as a voicemail on your phone. can i leave this as a voicemail on your phone? i sound insane.”

bonus: “i’m calling to tell you i’m proud of you. sometimes when we were kids, i used to think our dreams wouldn’t make it higher than the trees. i thought they’d get caught in the leaves, die on branches come winter, but look at us. look at you. you’re incredible. we did it.”

#bts imagines #bts blurbs #bts fluff #bts scenarios #bts reactions #namjoon scenarios #namjoon blurbs #jin scenarios #jin imagine #yoongi scenarios #yoongi blurbs #yoongi imagine #hoseok scenarios #hoseok blurbs #jhope imagine #jimin imagine #jimin blurbs #taehyung scenarios #taehyung imagine #jungkook imagine #jungkook blurbs #jungkook fluff

[serialunaliver]

there is no way bytedance is selling tiktok to a US company. it's the fastest growing social media app, so still very profitable, and people in the US only make up 10% of tiktok users. if this whole thing does move forward successfully, it would be banned. bytedance simply doesn't have an incentive to give into the demands of the US government here because it's profit motivated at the end of the day, and giving up the company for 10% of its users when it's growing rapidly would be ridiculous.

[yandere-writer-momo]

Rent-A-Girlfriend

Part 2: Hanayama Kaoru

Yandere Baki Various x Afab Reader

Part 1

Part 3

…………………………………………..………………….

Kaoru was frustrated that his recent fling bailed on him for this important dinner with his peers. Kaoru could never keep a girlfriend for more than a month. Each one claimed he was too rough or too cold towards them.

Yet they all came to him for the same reason. For his money and to be in his bed. It’s not his fault none of them truly caught his interest. None of them were the type he would let stay by his side anyways. They were nothing more to him than bed warmers and limited eye candy.

But this dinner was important. He needed to keep up his status among the other yakuza and what better way to do that than to have a beautiful woman by his side?

Kaoru lit a cigar, inhaling the smoke deep into his lungs before exhaling. Women were too stressful.

“Maybe you should try a rental girlfriend for the night?” Kizaki piped up from the door way. Kaoru slowly turned his head around to glance at his right hand man. That wasn’t such a bad idea.

Kaoru pulled out his phone and uploaded the app. He made himself a simple account and didn’t even bother to add a profile picture. Kaoru was positive most women knew who he was. His fingers scrolling through each available ‘girlfriend.’ His fingers stopped once he came upon an exotic looking young woman. A foreigner? How delightful. She would surely impress his comrades.

Kaoru quickly requested a date with her, his eyes widening when he saw that he can send her instructions on how to behave at the date and there were options to send her clothes. A small smile on his face as he typed the requirements to be his company.

Kaoru was thrilled that a woman was finally down to comply to his demands…

.

.

.

Friday rolled around and (Your name) made her way to the post office first thing in the morning to get the dress her date had bought for her.

She loved that her job supplied her with a PO Box so her dates didn’t know her address. Plus they had a strict code of rules. The customers were not allowed to kiss or touch her inappropriately or they’d be banned. It was an incredibly progressive company.

(Your name) was impressed by the long black gift box her date supplied for her. It seems he was a man of money.

A white envelope caught her eye. She quickly opened it and read the neatly written note.

“𝑀𝑒𝑒𝓉 𝓂𝑒 𝑜𝓃 𝓍𝓍𝓍 𝓈𝓉𝓇𝑒𝑒𝓉 𝒶𝓉 𝟧𝓅𝓂. 𝒟𝑜 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝒷𝑒 𝓁𝒶𝓉𝑒.”

What a lovely gentleman, she sarcastically thought. He seemed to be incredibly dominant and have high expectations.

(Your name) opened her phone and scrolled through the app. Kaoru didn’t want her to speak at all. She was strictly to be arm candy only and she was fine with that. She honestly preferred not speaking to a man like this.

She gathered her dress and made her way back home. (Your name) would be sure to follow all of his demands. Maybe she’d earn even more money if she played the part of a subservient woman to him?

.

.

.

(Your name) had to admit that Kaoru had amazing tastes in clothing. The dress hugged her figure and left her back completely exposed. The red silk made her feel like a neatly wrapped present.

She chose to do an elegant style of makeup and to make sure he hair fit the description of a high class woman. (Your name) needed to impress him and his peers. She would not disappoint him.

She arrived to the meeting spot at 4:50pm. Giving her a ten minute window before he was to arrive.

A black limousine pulled up beside her not even two minutes later. A tall muscular man in a black and red suit stepped out, his entire face covered in scars. His presence itself was incredibly intimidating, it didn’t take her long to figure he was someone who was dangerous.

“You’re even prettier in person.” Kaoru complimented her softly before holding out a hand for her to take so he could help her into the limousine. She gave him a small smile and a slight bow in thanks. She wasn’t sure if he had given her permission to speak.

(Your name) accepted his hand as she lifted up a bit of the skirt of her dress to get into the limousine. She could feel Kaoru’s eyes burning into her as she maintained an elegant composure around him. Was he waiting for her to slip up?

(Your name) sat in the limousine and adjusted her dress. She made sure not a single wrinkle could be seen.

Kaoru sat in front of her. He was impressed. (Your name) was certainly a high class lady with outstanding elegance. There wasn’t a wrinkle nor a single hair out of place on her. So far, she has exceeded his expectations of a date.

“So far you’ve exceeded my expectations.” Kaoru muttered as he held her small hand in his, rubbing his thumb over the soft skin on the back of her hand. She even had a charming French tip nail. Classic yet elegant. He really liked her.

The two of them arrive to the restaurant. Kaoru getting out of the limousine first to hold the door open for her. Kaoru extended his hand out for her to take to help her step out of the car. His dark eyes admiring her form. She was more than what he hoped for…

Kaoru basked in the attention of his peers who paused their conversations to admire the woman on his arm. Kaoru adored how the stares at him in envy… he’d book her again for sure just from this alone.

(Your name) didn’t utter a word. She held her head high and looked forward. Her arm wrapped around Kaoru’s forearm as he lead her to the head of the table. The scarred man pulling a chair out next to him for her to sit.

(Your name) obediently sat in the chair, her body facing his slightly as he sat down. Something about him screamed possessive so she’d be sure not to trigger that.

She stayed silent the entirety of the dinner, ignoring the glances of his peers. Kaoru smirked into his glass of sake. He adored her attention on him.

Kaoru held her hand to get the stares of his peers to stop. He needed to establish that she was his lady in front of the others and he wouldn’t stand for their ogling all night.

It felt like hours until the dinner ended. (Your name) didn’t speak to anyone nor did she acknowledge anyone other than Kaoru. Kaoru seemed thrilled about this fact.

The scarred man lead her back to his limousine and helped her back into the car in the same fashion as earlier. The door clicking shut behind him as he sat across from her. His dark eyes gazing into her very soul but she didn’t dare to speak.

“You did well tonight.” Kaoru complimented her before scooping her hand up in his to press a kiss to the back of it. “Better than I had thought… I may book you again.”

Kaoru chuckled when she smiled at him. His interest was piqued. She was asking him for permission to speak with just her eyes… what a marvelous woman. “You can speak. I haven’t heard your voice all night.”

“Thank you, sir.” Kaoru shivered a bit at the nickname, his hands tightly grasping the fabric of his pants when she bowed her head to him a bit. Perfect… she was perfect. “I just followed your orders, sir.”

Kaoru leaned forward and held her jaw in his hand, his obsidian eyes gazing deeply into hers.

“I will seek you out again.” Kaoru huskily whispered before releasing her. He leaned back in his seat and pulled out a cigar from his suit jacket. “Do you smoke?”

“I don’t, but thank you for the offer, sir.” (Your name) smiled politely at him, the scarred man humming in response.

“I appreciate your honesty.” Kaoru lit his cigar before blowing the smoke off to the side. “How much for a night with you?”

(Your name) paled a bit at the question before giving him a bow. “That is another thing I don’t do. It’s against my contract with my company, sir.”

This was the first time someone close to her in age asked for a night with her but she wasn’t interested in those sorts of activities. At least not with someone so dangerous looking. He was more than likely a gangster.

Kaoru sighed but he nodded in response. “Polite even when you decline me. I’ve never been rejected before. Do you even know who I am?”

(Your name) gave him another polite smile. “I hope you’re not offended that I do not know who you are, sir.”

Kaoru felt a surge of excitement course through him. This was the first woman he met that didn’t know who he was and wasn’t after his money nor his title… he decided there and now that was going to keep seeing her. She interested him.

“Not at all…” Kaoru almost told her how much it thrilled him but he didn’t want to scare her off. He never wanted to scare off a potential new play thing.

Kaoru’s driver dropped her off on the street he picked her up on. The man really wanted to take her to her house but she wouldn’t tell him her address… a shame. He’d spoil her if she told him.

As soon as (Your name) bowed to him and left the vehicle, Kaoru turned to the driver, Kizaki.

“I want all the information you can get on her.” Kaoru told Kizaki.

“Right away, sir.”

Kaoru put his thumb on his lip as he smirked to himself. He had to have her… he had to have the very best and he would have a night with (your full name)… one way or another.

(Your name) made her way into her house, her phone vibrating in her pocket. She opened up the light, pastel pink screen with a whistle.

𝐇𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐲𝐚𝐦𝐚 𝐊𝐚𝐨𝐫𝐮 𝐠𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝟓𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝟏𝟎𝟎% 𝐭𝐢����! 𝐖𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐨!

𝐇𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐲𝐚𝐦𝐚 𝐊𝐚𝐨𝐫𝐮 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞!

𝐃𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭?

𝐘𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐨?

“And he paid me twice the amount just for this night… I wonder who he is.” (Your name) thought for a minute before accepting the date. Her phone lighting up again with a new notification.

!! 𝐔𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭 !!

𝐎𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐡𝐢 𝐊𝐚𝐭𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐢 𝐢𝐬 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐰 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐨𝐨𝐧! 𝐏𝐚𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐲 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞!

𝐃𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭?

𝐘𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐨?

Oh! A family dinner? Someone must’ve lied about having a girlfriend…

(Your name) laughs before happily accepting the offer. She wasn’t going to let some other broad take her money opportunity. She skimmed over the details. Dang… this guy was in dire need for a girl to pretend to be his partner for an entire afternoon in front of his family.

“Your misfortune is my gain…” (your name) whispered as she started to slip out of the silk dress. It seems she’d have to play the part do being a sweet girl who absolutely adored her boyfriend…

Sometimes her job was a headache because she had to pretend to be so many different people. The pay was certainly worth it all though. She’d pretend to be anyone her clients wanted so long as they paid her for her valuable time.

(Your name) scrolled through Katsumi’s profile with a hum. He was a cutie. He seemed to be the typical ‘boy next door.’ He was active in the community so she was going to have to be careful in case anyone recognized her…

(Your name) took a glance at her reflection in the mirror. She was going to have to look soft and extremely feminine tomorrow… that seemed to be Katsumi’s type. The innocent doe character…

She sighed before going to her fridge and cracking open a beer. She just had a few more months of this contract with the company and then she could stop going on dates. It was exhausting pretending to be interested in all these men.

(Your name) took a sip of the beer with a smile. She wondered where she’d move next after all of this was over… maybe she’d go back to the States?

#baki hanma #baki the grappler #baki son of ogre #baki x reader #baki the grappler x reader #yandere baki #yandere #yandere imagine #yandere fic #female reader #Baki #baki kaoru hanayama #grappler baki #baki gaiden #baki dou #hanayama kaoru #kaoru hanayama #yandere x reader #yandere x you #rental girlfriend #original idea

[lovelyyandereaddictionpoint]

I love your blog so much!! You're without a doubt my favorite writer on this app, you write yanderes so so well and you just manage to capture so amazingly the personality of EVERY character you write, especially Byakuya, i love him so much, and you just write him so well, i've been reading and rereading your works nonstop!

Could i please request yandere Byakuya with a Reader who's very kind and gentle and they like to follow him around (not in an annoying way, but in an attempt to try to befriend him and make sure he is okay during the killing game, since he is kinda excluded for being an ass). Better yet, how would he react to Reader actually leaving him alone after he went too far, or was too mean to them

Love everything you post so much, feel free to deny, remember to eat and drink water!

Thank you so so much! I'm happy i could make you happy! 🖤🖤🖤🖤

Sweet ‘n Sour | Yandere Byakuya Togami

It’s honestly an honor

That you’re transmigrated into an anime/game

Too bad it’s the killing game of Danganronpa

And of course, with you thrown in the middle things are really unpredictable

So you’ll comfort yourself in being as kind to these characters as you possibly can

Especially Byakuya

A fan favorite and an intriguing ally throughout the game

Of course, you just gravitate toward him

Even though he sneers and insults you

Sometimes threatens

But you don’t mind…

…

Even though….

Those comments are beginning to hurt 

It’s one thing to love a meaner character through the screen but in person, it’s pretty hard

despite your inclination to maintain your usual smile and gentle actions

After a while, you just stop trying 

Too bad some may consider that your biggest mistake:

“Honestly I was hoping you’d turn up as one of the corpses during this farce; it probably would have made it even more interesting.”

That was it.

That was the last straw for you. Toko could have all his time and attention for all you care. The sheer fact you’ve put up with this for so long disgusts you. To hear your own life be spat on by the guy you’d been trying to extend a helping hand to–it was despicable. (Of him or of you, you couldn’t decide.)

“Ah, I see. Have a good night then.”

That was the last time you went out of your way to speak to him; immediately changing your schedule to accompany someone else. Since you’d been away with Byakuya you almost forgot how kind the rest of the group was. 

“(Y/n) I’m so happy you’re willing to hang out now! Let’s make donuts together!”

“After that I hope you’ll indulge me and Naegi in a puzzle of sorts.”

“I-if it’s alright with you..”

It was refreshing. 

To be told you were actually wanted around was somehow so fulfilling.

What terrible company you’ve been keeping.

“I’d love to!” Within a matter of days you are feeling the warmth of friendly interactions; whereas the man you’re avoiding is having a….less than stellar reaction.

Crash! 

Toko was excited that her Byakuya-sama had finally chased you. A rival weak enough to be effected by words wasn’t much of a rival at all! But upon your absence in only a few hours into his daily routine Byakuya had made an intense realization. 

That he desperately desired your attention on him.

He didn’t have to actually see you skirting your routine with him to know he hated the thought of you spending any amount of time with his classmates rivals. It literally made his skin itch and his throat close up with every minute away from you. Naturally he doesn’t care that even Toko is unnerved by the tantrum he throws. Books are strewn about, the shelves dangerously leaning against one another. All of it just an emphasis of the palpable malice emanating off of Byakuya. In the middle of the ruins he just stands still. 

Alarmingly still.

Like a predator looking out. 

Are they hunting? Scoping? Contemplating the ways to torture their enemies?

No one really knows.

Even when he pulls at his hair and belts out in an uncouth laughing fit. In an instant he stops demanding Monokuma show himself this instant. He needed to find you. Now. He’ll make it a point to inform the headmaster of his own teaching. 

Because apparently you–being the kind and gentle soul you are should be able to withstand all kinds of people. Especially him. Always him. So he’ll offer his own guidance by keeping you within arms reach at all times. 

He expects you to persist against anything he can throw at you.

How else are you going to rule the world as a Togami?

#yandere x reader #yandere x you #lovelyyandereaddictionpoint #yanderexrea #yandere byakuya togami #yandere byakuya x reader #yandere togami danganronpa #yandere danganronpa #yandere danganronpa x reader #yandere danganronpa trigger happy havoc #yandere byakuya togami x reader #yandere togami byakuya

[bioethicists]

hm i really hope that someone has said this better than me but the betterhelp ads (specifically the video ones, as the podcast ones tend to be less scripted) are such poignant examples of alienation + the role of 'go to therapy' in perpetuating that alienation. keep in mind that, if you personally found a therapist who is genuinely healing for you + that therapist happens to be through betterhelp- i'm genuinely happy for you + that experience does not invalidate anything i have to say below! (but jsyk they're trying to sell your shit to facebook lol)

starting strong w/ the fact that betterhelp is essentially the uber of therapy (aka using an independent contractor model which is harmful + predatory towards its providers), rushing in to fill the market on largely uninsured and/or uninformed ppl who want the ease of a concierge system without the cost + lacks a meaningful supervision system (which led to one gay man being recommended a conversion therapist when he asked for someone to help with his identity struggles, btw!). smarter people than me have written about the ways in which these trendy independent contractor apps strip people of labor rights, fail to provide adequate wages, + in the case of healthcare apps, increase digital surveillance + decrease accountability demanded from providers while exploiting the failure of the US healthcare system in order to churn a profit w/o actually creating sustainable, equitable change.

the betterhelp video ads all circle around a theme- a millennial starts talking about some form of emotional pain or worry, usually relatively standard existential worries ("do you ever think nothing has meaning?") or life worries ("i hate my job" "i think i'm gay"). their friends or the ppl around them respond blankly + coldly, looking at them like they're crazy. while i understand these ads are supposed to be tongue in cheek, they demonstrate the crushing reality of our alienation from one another- the solution to your friends responding to your evident pain with confusion + apathy is to confine that pain to a therapy session! nobody wants to hear your struggles or understands them- come generate profits for us by facetiming a newly graduated 24 year old who can barely make rent!

this theme fits well with what already put me off about betterhelp's marketing- their goal has never been to provide access to therapy for those who want it or to altruistically fill in some healthcare gap. their goal, bolstered by the rise in emotional suffering following, you know, the worldwide pandemic, is to generate + increase demand for therapy as a commodity. their earlier podcast ads focused on convincing others that therapy "isn't just for crazy ppl" + "everyone should be in therapy". regardless of if you personally agree with that statement, it should be evident that this is a blatant marketing tactic in which therapy is a commodity to be peddled, not an offer of support or healing. in fact, they're probably actively shying away from treating "crazy people", bcuz their flimsy support systems could not possibly handle an influx of ppl regularly in crisis or experiencing breaks with a common reality. their target audience is your average millennial under late capitalism + post COVID - anxious, lonely, vaguely depressed, unhappy with their jobs, worried + hopeless about their futures.

i'm not here to tell anyone not to get therapy. that's a personal decision + is none of my fucking business. it's about questioning the total alienation we feel from one another, such that pouring our heart our unexpectedly to a friend + being met with a blank stare is framed as "haha you need therapy" + not "it's crushing that this is how distant we are from one another". it's about a company noticing that (unfortunately very real) distance + fear of vulnerability + using that to direct our emotions into the confines of a business transaction under abusive labor conditions. it's about a world in which we are not engaging with one another emotionally (despite, or i guess bcuz of: widespread suffering, recent mass death, class warfare/untenable working conditions, increased pressure of fascist politics, generational trauma + abuse, etc etc). commodifying therapy isn't going to make that loneliness go away- it's going to normalize it.

#anti psychiatry #smh i write all these on the toilet then my wife is like charlie it's been a fucking hour

[clonefrce99]

Life on its form

Any driver x fem!ooc (only mentioned as she)

WARNINGS: driver dies, there are references to depression (mentions of giving up). HEAVILY ANGST - if you find something else, let me know.

Also there's probably some grammar mistakes here and there.

A/N: it's the saddest thing i've written in a year but I couldn't waste the idea. Hope you enjoy :)

From books to movies, love seems to be this enormous thing that works like missing pieces from a puzzle.

Love is supposed to fulfill the empty spaces.

And is very common to hear people say: “It takes effort, and sometimes it’s tiring. But it’s worth it.”

So, during every single relationship, she tried. She tried her best to make it work – because that’s what it takes, right? To some she was loud, to others she was more of an introverted. Fun but not funny, you know? At one point, to one of her partners, she was just enough. She never got too angry or too sad or too happy.

Her partner loved when their friends talked about her. About how good she was, how they wished their own partners were like that. She never complained when he went out with his buddies, wasn't jealous when he got too close to another woman. She was a good girl. His good girl.

It was tiring. But… love requires that. You need to give to receive. And they were good. They were also enough to her. Even when they got mad, like mad-mad, everything was just fine.

For four whole months, they had planned this trip to enjoy the always so beautiful and fun European summer. When the day arrived, they simply said she should go alone, that they weren't on the mood and would be a terrible company. And, on top of all that, they said:

"You should go alone, make friends. It's gonna be good for you. For us, you know? To be apart."

Great. She thought. That clearly meant the relationship wasn't on its best moment. Ups and downs (even though it was more downs than ups). That’s what relationships are made of. No need to think any deeper.

So was right there, on that small country on the northen coast of the Mediterranean Sea, that she learned that love is actually simple and effortless. It comes, stays and requires nothing.

He taught her that. All he wanted from her was sweet nothing.

What was supposed to be a four week trip, became two months. And then three. Between somewhere here and there, she texted her now ex to let them know she wasn't coming back.

All her friends and family thought she had lost it. Who ends a three years relationship because of some random person they just met? They truly thought she had gone mad (to which she responded: yes! Madly in love!).

Was after a great night where they lived, laughed and loved, that he told her he was a Formula 1 driver. She imediatly wanted to cry. Not because of fear of everything being too much, or because he started to ramble about his plans with his ever so excited smile.

She cried because, for the first time in a long time, she felt safe. It didn't matter what would happen, if he was famous, if she would need to deal with all types of people.

He had her. She had him. Nothing else mattered.

When they had to leave the little world they had created during those months and go back to reality, all they felt was deep and raw love.

And then the months became a year. Then a year and a half. And then two years. And then they were living together. What started with a small space on his drawer, became a full section on his closet.

When routine started to catch up, during times where her work demanded more and so did his, with more and more races being add to the calendar, they decided to create a sort of system. Something silly. Something them.

They downloaded some apps for couples, so when they couldn't be together, they could still do things together. Their favourite was one where they could draw. Also, at the end of each day, they would write down to each other those detailed text messages talking about all things.

He also started to leave notes on the pockets of her clothing before leaving. Sometimes he would write poetry, something to make her laugh, or some sort of reminder of how much he loved her. He also loved to leave things with the notes: small gifts, from jewelry to chocolate.

No matter what happened, she knew it would always have something.

But it’s been three months since his accident. Three months she hadn’t found a note, the drawing app widget is nothing more than a white empty board and there is no more detailed messages.

She hadn’t attended the race that weekend, having too much work to do. They did made plans for going to this fancy restaurant he always wanted to try, though. Such a shame they never made it.

Would be a lie to say she remembers much from the days after the news. Actually, she barely remember the day itself. She knows she was the first to get to the hospital, that she was the one to call the family (both hers and his), and then talk with the team.

Some said they were sorry, some tried to find something to blame trying hard to sooth the situation.

But that was life on its form.

Even if it had someone or something to blame, what difference would make? He wasn’t coming back. She wouldn’t hear his laugh anymore, or his tantrums, or his rambling. She would never see again the way he used to lean against every surface he could, or how bad he was at hiding his emotions.

She would never touch him again.

And grief it’s different to every person. There’s no right or wrong way to feel it – as her therapist said. People feel what they feel when they feel and there's nothing you can do to change that.

She accepted easily, better than she thought she would, at least. She did got depressed on the first days, of course, but she kept on going. Always foward.

For first week of her work vacation, she went to her family house. No one dared to say anything. She was laughing, going out with old friends - what was surprising, considering they were sure she would give up.

But that's something she could never do.

She does have something to live for. The memories of every single moment they had together, good or bad, are worth living for.

Now it's been two days since she came back. The apartment is so quiet she allows herself to wonder why she didn't cried yet. From the balcony, she sees the sun making its way towards the line where the sky mets the sea. In a few minutes, it'll also be gone.

She smiles. Once, her therapist asked her "in one word, and just one, describe your love and why"

She answered that their love was just like the ocean. Not because it's unstable or deep, as some people say. She chose the ocean because it's endless and most likely, it won't ever go away. Now thinking better, she should've had chosen waves instead of ocean: always moving, always coming and going but never dissipating completely.

And that’s what their love is: something that will never just go. Now, some days she feels more, some days she feels less. But it’s there.

With this thought, she decides to change her clothes and do something she's been doing her best to avoid: to wear the last cardigan he bought. It was during that week, it came inside of a beautiful box and he had smiled saying, "i have great plans for this one".

Making her way to the small beach in front of their building, she takes a deep breath and fels that stupid feeling again. The one that puts her on the edge of something that never comes no matter how hard she tries. As if there's something waiting right around the corner.

The sky is now a mix of purple, pink and orange. It's beautiful. The wind becomes cold while she just stands there, feeling the sand wrap her feet. The waves crash, coming and going and then coming again.

It's when a bird flies too close to her that she puts her hands on both pockets. A reflex. Something so normal but that means a lot, specially when she feels one of her hands brush against something.

And there it is. She finally went over the edge, finally saw what is around the corner. Her eyes gets watery, she can feel tears falling down her cheeks and sees the wet dots being created on the sand. She laughs. Suddenly life is less heavy.

Her body almost gives in, but she manages to sit properly. With another deep breath, she sees what he left for her.

Two years ago, during a race week on the US, they managed to scape go to Santa Monica. He insisted on going to the photo booth and she hated every single one of the pictures. He told her to chose one to keep, the others could go.

And he carried that one with him everywhere. Either on his wallet or inside of his helmet.

And now the picture is on her hand, wrapped in a small paper. She's sure it was already there when he gave it to her, and when he kissed her goodbye for the last time.

On his crap handwriting, was written: a memory for you to keep until I come back.

Seing the sun finally disappear and the moon rise on the other side, she reliases she created another memory for her to keep on living for.

#formula 1 imagines #any driver x reader #charler leclerc x reader #lewis hamilton x reader #daniel ricciardo x reader #pierre gasly x reader #lando norris x reader #esteban ocon x reader #yuki tsunoda x reader #zhou guanyu x reader #logan sargeant x reader #nyck de vries x reader #mick schumacher x reader #felipe drugovich x reader #alex albon x reader #max verstappen x reader #valtteri bottas x reader #sergio perez x reader #lance stroll x reader #fernando alonso x reader #sebastian vettel x reader #oscar piastri x reader #carlos sainz x reader #george russell x reader #kevin magnussen x reader #nico hulkenberg x reader #formula 1 x reader #daniel ricciardo angst #mick schumacher angst #artsy writes

[avelera]

I've been talking with a few people irl about the TikTok ban and I was wondering if I could get your take on it? (iirc you work in election security). Mainly I'd like to know why TikTok/China is *uniquely* bad wrt dating mining/potential election interference when we've seen other companies/governments do the same thing (thinking of the Russian psyops here on Tumblr in 2016). It feels like the scope is so narrow that it doesn't come close to targeting the root problem (user privacy and data mining as a whole), leading me to think it's only point is "ooh China Scary". Thoughts? (No worries if you'd rather not get into it, I just thought of you as someone who might have more insight/informed opinions on the matter).

So I'm not really familiar with all the details of the case and certainly not all the details of the bill. But I will give my perspective:

TikTok as a particular threat to users' data and privacy has been known for some time in the cybersecurity world. US government employees and contractors have been straight-up forbidden to have it on their phones for some time now. I, for example, have never had it on my phone because of these security concerns. (Worth noting, I'm not a government employee or contractor, it was just a known-to-be dangerous app in the cybersecurity world so I avoided it.)

This is because the parent company, as I understand, has known connections to the Chinese government that have been exploited in the past. For example, to target journalists.

Worth noting, another app that would potentially be on the chopping block is WeChat, which also has close ties to (or is outright owned by?) the Chinese government. This is just speculation on my part but it's based on the fact that all the concerns around TikTok are there for WeChat too and it has also been banned on government devices in some states, so I imagine it would be next if the bill passes.

I think this is important to note because I've seen some hot takes here on Tumblr have said that the entire case against TikTok is made up and there is no security threat. That is simply not true. The concerns have been there for a while.

However, the question of what to do about it is a thorny one.

The determination seems to be that so long as TikTok is still owned by its parent company with its direct ties to the Chinese government, there really is no way to guarantee that it's safe to use. From that angle, demanding that the company sever ties and set up some form of local ownership makes sense.

I am not a lawyer, but, that being said, forcing them to sell their local operations to a locally-based buyer is a pretty invasive and unusual step for legislators to take against a private company, even in a clear case of spying. I'm sure TikTok's widespread popularity is a big part of the threat it poses, which lends to the argument used to justify such an extreme step. (Because it is on so many phones, it really could be a danger to national security.)

That said, at one point young activists on TikTok embarrassed Trump (lots of good context in this article) while he was campaigning in 2020, and there was some talk then about shutting it down which seemed pretty clearly linked to how it was used as a platform to organize against him. I'm sure there's at least some right wing antipathy towards the app that has a political basis going back to this event. Trump signed an executive order banning it, the ban going into effect got bogged down in the courts, and then Biden rescinded that executive order when he got into office, pending an investigation into the threat it posed.

Those investigations seem to have further confirmed that the Chinese government is getting access to US user data through the app, and further confirmed it as a security threat.

Now, to muddy the waters further, there's several dodgy investment funds including one owned by former Secretary of the Treasury to Trump Steven Mnuchin that are circling with an interest to buy TikTok if it does sell. That's very concerning.

Funds like Mnuchin's interest in purchasing TikTok (even though they do invest in other technologies too, so it is in their portfolio) definitely makes the motivations behind the sale look pretty damning as momentum builds, that it could be some sort of money grab here in the US.

China has also pointed out that forcing the sale of a company because of spying concerns like this opens a whole can of worms. If China thinks that, say, Microsoft is spying on their citizens, could they force the US company to sell its operations in China to a Chinese investor? Could they force Google? Could they even further polarize the internet in general between "free" and "not free" (as in, behind the great Chinese or Russian firewall, as examples) if this precedent is set, so that no Western companies can operate in authoritarian states without selling their local operations there to a government-controlled organization, and thus be unable protect their users there? Or, if you don't have so rosy a view of Western companies, could it effectively deal a blow to international trade in general by saying you have to have to sell any overseas arms of a company to someone who is from there? Again, I'm not a lawyer, but this is a hell of a can of worms to open.

But again, this is muddy because China absolutely is spying on TikTok users. The security reason for all of this is real. What to do about it is the really muddled part that has a ton of consequences, and from that angle I agree with people who are against this bill. Tons of bad faith consequences could come out of it. But the concerns kicking off the bill are real.

#current events #tiktok drama

[mostlysignssomeportents]

When the app tries to make you robo-scab

When we talk about the abusive nature of gig work, there’s some obvious targets, like algorithmic wage discrimination, where two workers are paid different rates for the same job, in order to trick occasional gig-workers to give up their other sources of income and become entirely dependent on the app:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/algorithmic-wage-discrimination/#fishers-of-men

Then there’s the opacity — imagine if your boss refused to tell you how much you’ll get paid for a job until after you’ve completed it, claimed that this was done in order to “protect privacy” — and then threatened anyone who helped you figure out the true wage on offer:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/07/hr-4193/#boss-app

Opacity is wage theft’s handmaiden: every gig worker producing content for a social media algorithm is subject to having their reach — and hence their pay — cut based on the unaccountable, inscrutable decisions of a content moderation system:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/10/e2e/#the-censors-pen

Making content for an algorithm is like having a boss that docks every paycheck because you broke rules that you are not allowed to know, because if you knew the rules, you’d figure out how to cheat without your boss catching you. Content moderation is the last place where security through obscurity is considered good practice:

https://doctorow.medium.com/como-is-infosec-307f87004563

When workers seize the means of computation, amazing things happen. In Indonesia, gig workers create and trade tuyul apps that let them unilaterally modify the way that their bosses’ systems see them — everything from GPS spoofing to accessibility mods:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/08/tuyul-apps/#gojek

So the tech and labor story isn’t wholly grim: there are lots of ways that tech can enhance labor struggles, letting workers collaborate and coordinate. Without digital systems, we wouldn’t have the Hot Strike Summer:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/02/not-what-it-does/#who-it-does-it-to

As the historic writer/actor strike shows us, the resurgent labor movement and the senescent forces of crapulent capitalism are locked in a death-struggle over not just what digital tools do, but who they do it for and who they do it to:

https://locusmag.com/2022/01/cory-doctorow-science-fiction-is-a-luddite-literature/

When it comes to the epic fight over who technology acts for and against, we need a diversity of tactics, backstopped by tech operated by and for its users — and by laws that protect workers and the public. That dynamic is in sharp focus in UNITE Here Local 11’s strike against Orange County’s Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort & Spa.

The UNITE Here strike turns on the usual issues like a living wage (hotel staff are paid so little they have to rent rooming-house beds by the shift, paying for the right to sleep in a room for a few hours at a time, without any permanent accommodation). They’re also seeking health-care and pensions, so they can be healthy at work and retire after long service. Finally, they’re seeking their employer’s support for LA’s Responsible Hotels Ordinance, which would levy a tax on hotel rooms to help pay for hotel workers’ housing costs (a hotel worker who can’t afford a bed is the equivalent of a fast food worker who has to apply for food stamps):

https://www.unitehere11.org/responsible-hotels-ordinance/

But the Marriott — which is owned by the University of California and managed by Aimbridge Hospitality — has refused to bargain, walking out negotiations.

But the employer didn’t walk out over wages, benefits or support for a housing subsidy. They walked out when workers demanded that the scabs that the company was trying to hire to break the strike be given full time, union jobs.

These aren’t just any scabs, either. They’re predominantly Black workers who rely on the $700m Instawork app for gigs. These workers are being dispatched to cross the picket line without any warning that they’re being contracted as strikebreakers. When workers refuse the cross the picket and join the strike, Instawork cancels all their shifts and permanently blocks them from new jobs.

This is a new, technologically supercharged form of illegal strikebreaking. It’s one thing for a single boss to punish a worker who refuses to scab, but Instawork acts as a plausible-deniability filter for all the major employers in the region. Like the landlord apps that allow landlords to illegally fix rents by coordinating hikes, Instawork lets bosses illegally collude to rig wages by coordinating a blocklist of workers who refuse to scab:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/10/company-that-makes-rent-setting-software-for-landlords-sued-for-collusion/?comments=1

The racial dimension is really important here: the Marriott has a longstanding de facto policy of refusing to hire Black workers, and whenever they are confronted with this, they insist that there are no qualified Black workers in the labor pool. But as soon as the predominantly Latino workforce struck, Marriott discovered a vast Black workforce that it could coerce into scabbing, in collusion with Instawork.

Now, all of this isn’t just sleazy, it’s illegal, a violation of Section 7 of the NLRB Act. Historically, that wouldn’t have mattered, because a string of presidents, R and D, have appointed useless do-nothing ghouls to run the NLRB. But the Biden admin, pushed by the party’s left wing, made a string of historic, excellent appointments, including NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, who has set her sights on punishing gig work companies for flouting labor law:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/10/see-you-in-the-funny-papers/#bidens-legacy

UNITE HERE 11 has brought a case to the NLRB, charging the Instawork, the UC system, Marriott, and Aimbridge with violating labor law by blackmailing gig workers into crossing the picket line. The union is also asking the NLRB to punish the companies for failing to protect workers from violent retaliation from the wealthy hotel guests who have punched them and screamed epithets at them. The hotel has refused to identify these thug guests so that the workers they assaulted can swear out complaints against them.

Writing about the strike for Jacobin, Alex N Press tells the story of Thomas Bradley, a Black worker who was struck off all Instawork shifts for refusing to cross the picket line and joining it instead:

https://jacobin.com/2023/07/southern-california-hotel-workers-strike-automated-management-unite-here

Bradley’s case is exhibit A in the UNITE HERE 11 case before the NLRB. He has a degree in culinary arts, but racial discrimination in the industry has kept him stuck in gig and temp jobs ever since he graduated, nearly a quarter century ago. Bradley lived out of his car, but that was repossessed while he slept in a hotel room that UNITE HERE 11 fundraised for him, leaving him homeless and bereft of all his worldly possessions.

With UNITE HERE 11’s help, Bradley’s secured a job at the downtown LA Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites, a hotel that has bargained with the workers. Bradley is using his newfound secure position to campaign among other Instawork workers to convince them not to cross picket lines. In these group chats, Jacobin saw workers worrying “that joining the strike would jeopardize their standing on the app.”

Today (July 30) at 1530h, I’m appearing on a panel at Midsummer Scream in Long Beach, CA, to discuss the wonderful, award-winning “Ghost Post” Haunted Mansion project I worked on for Disney Imagineering.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/30/computer-says-scab/#instawork

[Image ID: An old photo of strikers before a struck factory, with tear-gas plumes rising above them. The image has been modified to add a Marriott sign to the factory, and the menacing red eye of HAL9000 from Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey' to the sky over the factory. The workers have been colorized to a yellow-green shade and the factory has been colorized to a sepia tone.]

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

#pluralistic #hot strike summer #unions #UNITE HERE #labor #computer says no #tuyul apps #jacobin #gig economy #nlrb #marriott #Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort & Spa #instawork #scabs #Aimbridge Hospitality Group #University of California #nlrb section 7 #unfair labor practice #ulp #UNITE HERE Local 11 #mansion tax #race #algorithmic wage discrimination #Veena Dubal #disciplinary technology #chickenized reverse-centaurs #reverse-centaurs #como is infosec #Jennifer Abruzzo

[shigure]

we've gone a decade without any major technological revolutions. we've had big changes, lots of refinement, fancier cartridges, newer programs. but the most impactful changes have been big companies deciding to switch to subscription service, with all of us powerless to stop them.

in the meantime, every day is the newest tech revolution. someone's started a new a.i. program. someone's designed an app to communicate with your team called teekup. it doesn't work. samsung has released a new phone, apple has released a new statement that they will be further taking away user privacy protections. we're oversaturated with ideas. not thinking ideas, just desperate vying for marketability. and the sick part is, even though all these people being interviewed about their new revolutionary product may as well have been built in a lab, they probably will starve if it doesn't go viral. they don't even have the creative freedom to give up on their idea. their best bet is delusion that they're offering a public service.

it's really not a surprise that nfts have taken off on the more corporate side of social media. techies need a new messiah. crypto saps need to believe some new shiny thing will somehow resuscitate their wallets. facebook's marketing team can't help but pray that they'll be able to sell something with the equivalent pull of bitmojis but for people under 40. and it's so easy to make them. you can just make a bunch of them. maybe one of them will sell, maybe not, but then you can give them away for free and lie to your boss that this counts as engagement. after the past few decades of the tech sector loudly trying to find a way to euthanize artists on the whole, this could be their big break.

everyone knows art doesn't pay. did you know law doesn't either? it used to be that companies would just hire hundreds of lawyers just in case, and you wouldn't have to do much of anything to get a fat paycheck. after the 2008 crash, these companies started downsizing, and asked if they really needed all these lawyers. so they fired them. haha! sucks to be them, these corporate lawyers leeching, now without a job and nobody is hiring. serves them right for hating art. for looking down on everyone else. if you were in law school in 2008, going in because your parents wanted you to make something of yourself, you left with no prospects. you worked at the apple store for a year, with a law degree. maybe someone came in that said all lawyers are liars, and maybe he's right, and maybe you would have looked down on him if you'd graduated five years earlier. but right now you're replacing his charging cable.

the crash didn't un-crash. nothing fixed itself. moderately well off people found new ways of not working, poor people got sick and died. uber started up, telling everyone they could be trendy and make money. airbnb started up, and the demand for housing just increased - not to live in, just to sell again and make money off of. we're still in the pit, and companies are starting to ask if they really need that many programmers. you went into tech because it would make money, and your parents wanted you to make something of yourself, and you're grappling with the despair of being a perfectly normal person in a world where only sterile talent seems to matter. of course you need ai art. of course you need nfts. tech was your path to literally just living comfortably. in 8 months you're going to be out of a job.

the apple store is still hiring.

#AVERAGE DOG OPINION

[collapsedsquid]

Odd Lots did a piece on inflation and choice which I think was interesting and tried to address the "greedflation" thing.

A few points though they did grope towards the idea I've been pushing though, that the "inflation" surge is about hegemony rather than supply and demand, it's about what companies have social permission to do.

They did focus more on "individualized/algorithmic pricing" though, Uber and fast food offering prices on their apps. I've been more concerned on issues like a rental property owner's cartel, which is not individualized, but this is something that is concerning to see.

The hosts of Odd Lots did push back on the concern here, Joe Weisenthal was "Dude I'm happy to be charged more for my Uber if I have a low battery." While Tracy Alloway mentioned "These fast food app-purchase deals are sort of like coupons, which are fun." Sales and coupons after all are attempts at individualized pricing which are fun. (They did accept some criticism, but they made this points) A lot of economists love these sort of pricing tuning things that consumers find incredibly annoying.

I do though think of the academic journal pricing model though, absurd list prices that nobody important pays. What Tracy was describing is fast food moving to that model, you grossly overpay at the window or you get an individualized deal on the app. The total opacity, the attempt to disrupt any modeling of their price by consumers, that is what makes this extremely offensive.

And yeah I do wonder how this type of thing is going to feed into inflation statistics, how do you gather and aggregate these prices?

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for making my dad pay my phone bills?

I (Adult F) live with family. I make minimum wage so I can't afford anything, but I want to be independent someday. My dad (63M) is responsible for paying all the bills in the house, and each of us his children would be paying for our own separate expenses. BTW, this arrangement is the norm where we live, because it's a patriarchal country.

I was jobless during the whole covid period, so my dad was paying for everything.

After I start working again, he told me to pay my own phone bill. I agreed, but wanted a cheaper plan because my current one has a lot of data that I don't even get to use because our house is out of service. I can only use it when I'm outside, which is rare unless it's for work, and our workplace bans phones on the hour.

Anyway, it was my father who got me this phone number, I don't want to change it because it's the number I'm used to and I'll lose many contacts if I change it, but when I called the company to get the cheaper plan, they refused because this number isn't mine technically. My father will need to go to their office in person, which closes very early, and it happens on the time he's working his side job and he work everyday there, he doesn't cancel unless he has an emergency, and he doesn't have any day off because this job is mostly a hobby he likes, not a steady source of income.

Which is why, I'm stuck with a phone plan I don't want. I do pay it, sometimes. I did so regularly, but one time I was late, and my father paid it accidentally. All the bills show up on his bank app and he pays them without double checking. One time he came to me laughing and said "hey, I paid your bill accidentally because you forgot."

I laughed back at him and offered cash in return, but he refused, he told me to just pay it the next time myself.

However, these days I just ignore the bill completely, because I started working in a supermarket, and when I find good deals, I buy grocery for the whole family. Shared grocery is my dad's responsibility, so I could demand him to pay me back but I don't because I'm making him pay my phone bills anyway but he does pay me sometimes. For reference, my phone bill is about 30$ but the grocery I buy is sometimes more, sometimes less, and sometimes nothing. It depends on the deals I come across snd the brands our family like. I feel guilty because my dad most likely has no idea he's still paying my bills, even though I'm helping him with grocery. I also don't demand an allowance from him anymore unless I'm in a pinch, even though I'm entitled to it since it's a cultural norm.

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole