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#how to make money for free on ebay
mothhball · 9 days
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five-finger discount
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Pairing | Neil Lewis x Reader
Warnings | 18+ SMUT, DUB-CON, fingering, p in v sex, unprotected sex, blackmail, sex on camera, brief edging, creampie, cheating, cursing, Moth pretends to know anything about movies
Summary | You’ve been trying to make easy money, but you’re not as subtle as you thought. Some lessons need to be learned the hard way.
Words | 4.4k
Notes | FINALLY DONE. and vaguely inspired by 70s porn haha
MINORS DNI
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INT. GUMSHOE VIDEO – THRILLER AISLE – DAY
“No, it's not. That's not what she said. Someone is in trouble. Something bad is happening!” squawks a woman from the running TV in the background while your fingers trace over the backs of the VHS as you walk past the shelves.
1 PM on a Wednesday certainly is no rush hour at Gumshoe Video. Even the most annoying film bros don't come here at this time of day to flaunt their knowledge of the craft and subsequent absence of social skills. You're in the clear, pretending to deeply think about your choice in entertainment for the end of the day, even though that couldn't be further from the truth. Throwing a glance over your shoulder, you spot the business owner, entranced by the film that he put on to pass the time, and you can see his plush lips silently mouthing along to the dialog. Cute. And easy to trick.
It's not your first time here. No, you made sure to become familiar with the place over the course of months now, learning where each genre and title has been sorted into its rightful place.
Certain old VHS-tapes can sell for a small fortune online, and for every tape you rent, you take one for free with the plan of selling it to the highest bidder. Currently, you have a stack at home, waiting for you to finally stop procrastinating and open up that damn eBay account.
Your pinky catches on a specific tape. 'A History of Violence', currently estimated to lure an additional 199 bucks into your greedy bank account. Quietly, you pull out the film, leaving a gaping hole in the neatly sorted row as you slip it into your purse.
With nimble hands, you try to rearrange the tapes to make the missing VHS a little less obvious, but in your haste, a few of them escape your clammy grasp and clutter to the ground. A head of silky brunette hair whips around, and you're met with pretty blue eyes as the store owner turns to face you.
You let out a giggle, trying to sound as vapid and innocuous as possible. You’re in character now. The persona you chose? An unassuming, ditzy little thing that’s hot enough to distract him, but stupid enough as to not get suspected of any wrong-doings. You’d say you’re a good actress. A fantastic one, even.
"Sorry," you purr, batting your eyelashes at him. "I'm a little clumsy today." You're already bending over to pick up the tapes when he makes his way over to lend a helping hand, and you make sure to show off your cleavage in an intentionally accidental way. You know he’s into you. You’ve been seeing the heat in his gaze for weeks now, along with the occasional crack in his voice and an almost endearing desire to impress you. It’s his biggest weakness and the reason your plan has been working flawlessly until now.
"Hey, hey, no worries. Uh, gravity wins sometimes. Don't sweat it," he grins at you, brushing his fingers against yours as the two of you work together to put everything back into place.
"What exactly were you looking for anyway?" he suddenly asks, breaking your focus for a second.
"Uh, Moonstruck," you mutter, completely on autopilot. The store owner nods, pursing his lips as he mulls over your answer. You’re aware of your blunder before he even answers.
"Moonstruck? Then you're in the wrong section. You know, with how often you come here, I thought you got the hang of our layout by now." Fuck, he’s got you. Play dumb. Play dumb!
Your poker face almost cracks, but you keep your composure. Or at least you try to. "Huh? Oh - I... right. God, I'm just all over the place today." You giggle again, relieved by the way his grin seems to soften. Hook, line and sinker. He may think he’s detective Sam Spade from ‘The Maltese Falcon’, but you’re Brigid O’Shaughnessy. Or he’s Batman and you’re Catwoman. Or – well, it doesn’t matter. Baseline is, you’re snatching tapes right from underneath his nose while he’s too busy fantasizing about what’s underneath your clothes.
The store owner speaks up again, lazily rubbing the back of his neck as he leans against the shelf, and his free hand wanders and gestures around a bit as if he’s trying to figure out which pose would look the coolest and most effortless.
“Right. Actually, that wasn’t really fair of me.” You tilt your head at him, eyebrows furrowing ever so slightly which prompts him to elaborate. “Some of our tapes went missing. Y’know, some of the oldies and goldies? That’s why I didn’t stock Moonstruck this week.”
Your lips part in surprise, but all you can reply with is a soft ‘oh’. The store owner shrugs, leaning in towards you. There’s something conspiratory about his expression which makes your stomach churn a little. “Yeah. But I do still have it. It’s just in my office.”
There’s a beat of silence as you mull over the unspoken offer. Your plan is built on the one tape you always rent for cheap. No one would think you’re stealing if you’re actually paying for something, right? Despite this, you wonder if you should call it a day and head home with the stolen film hidden in your purse. Alibi be damned.
“I… That’s great. Uh, actually, I was just about to –“ he cuts you off with a casual wave of his hand, and the grin on his face widens once more.
“Don’t worry. I’ll even give you a discount. Just follow me.”
INT. GUMSHOE VIDEO – NEIL LEWIS’ PRIVATE OFFICE – DAY
The private office of Neil Lewis, cinephile and pop culture enthusiast, is decorated with a distinct Film Noir charm, lovingly empathized by leather chairs and a checkered floor. Not to mention the letters on the door. He calls himself a private investigator. A joking title that makes you palms sweat ever so slightly. You notice that he set up a small camera on his desk, but he brushes it off as a regular procedure.
"So... Moonstruck,” he starts, gesturing for you to take a seat. Which you do. “Great pick. Just curious - Why did you go for that one?" The question makes you pause for a second.
"The... the cover spoke to me,” you casually lie, trying to sound somewhat cute, but it doesn’t land. Neil’s expression quickly betrays his skepticism, and his lips part while his narrowed gaze wanders around the room for a minute. "Hm. And what about the other one?"
"What do you mean?" Play dumb, play dumb, play – but he’s not letting you off the hook so easily.
"The other tape."
Silence fills the office, and you swear the VHS in your purse is starting to burn a hole right where it’s settled in your lap.
"Which... other tape? I just picked out this one."
"Ohhh, right. Sorry. My bad. Just… Moonstruck." The way he’s saying this makes it seem like he enjoys the taste of the letters on his tongue. You nod, a little too eager to get this conversation over and done with.
"So you won’t mind me looking through your purse?" Neil leans forward in his seat, folding his hands on top of his desk. Your eyes briefly fall onto the little desk name plate that’s undoubtedly just made out of shiny, golden plastic. But it does the job. It intimidates you. At least to a certain degree.
“No,” you lie through your teeth, trying to shrug off the tension. “I… it’s certainly no problem, Mr. Lewis. None at all.”
Neil lets out an apathetic sigh as he rises from his seat, causing the leather to squeak. His steps seem a little too confident for a video rental owner as he moves around the desk to first walk over to the door and lock it. “Neil is fine. I’m not a big fan of… formalities,” he starts, coming up behind you to set his hands on your shoulders. His hands are gentle but firm, causing your body to warm right down to the deepest layers. To make his control over the situation even more apparent, he splays his hands, tracing your collarbone with his middle finger. It’s subtle enough that he could pass it off as a figment of your imagination if you should choose to speak up. But you don’t. You stay quiet, even as he leans down and you can hear the murmur of his voice right next to your ear.
“Open your purse.”
You bite your tongue, slowly opening your purse to find Cher’s face grinning back at you. It’s Moonstruck. In all of its romantic glory, and it makes both you and Neil freeze for a moment. You lick your dry lips, saying the first thing that comes to mind.
"That's mine."
"Yours?" You wouldn’t know, but his eyebrow twitches upward at your ridiculous claim.
"Yeah. A... personal copy." Great, now you’re doubling down.
"With my name on it?" Silence, yet again. You could basically hear the dramatic music that the producers of any reality TV shows use in the background of any tense scene. But this isn’t scripted. No, all of this is improvised.
"... what are the odds?" you croak, feeling how your throat goes dry in real time. Neil scoffs in reply, shaking his head, and his grip on your shoulders tightens a tad before he lets go entirely. His expression is stern as he steps in front of you, leaning against the desk and crossing his shapely arms over his chest. For a moment, he’s silent, letting his eyes wander all over your form in a slow, appreciative way that makes your palms get sweaty. “You do know I have to call the police, don’t you?”
“What?” Your breath hitches in your lungs, and you blink a few times, almost in an attempt to shake yourself out of this very strange dream. “This… this is just one tape. Isn’t this kind of excessive?”
“Yeah, maybe it’s one tape today. But you’ve been coming here for weeks.” Your jaw drops, but you can’t seem to come up with an appropriate response. You’ve been had. For the past months, you were convinced that he only saw you as a little piece of eye candy wandering through the store, but he’s been seeing right through you all along. Now you definitely don’t feel like Catwoman anymore. When he notices that you’re not going to say anything, Neil continues.
“Did you really think we don’t have security cameras all over the place? Well, I’ve been watching you the entire time, playing along when you pretended to be all ditzy and cute. It’s not just one instance. It’s a whole case, baby. And you’ll go to jail.” That makes you break out of your stupor, and you can feel your pulse speeding up.
“No- wait, no, no, no. Please, can’t we just talk about this for one second?”
“I don’t bargain with thieves.” He’s smug. Too smug for your liking, considering that he’s threatening you with the loss of your precious, precious freedom.
“Please, I’ll do anything,” you plead, fixing him with the biggest puppy dog eyes you can muster in an attempt to appeal to the soft, awkward side of him. And he cracks. At least the tiniest bit.
“Maybe… maybe we can work something out. But I’ll need to search you first. Who knows what else you’re hiding.” He gestures for you to stand, and you get up from your seat, causing the leather cushioning to faintly squeak once again. “Spread your arms. To the side.”
Your expression settles into a pout, but you do as you’re told, much to Neil’s satisfaction. He returns to his previous position behind you and starts by touching your shoulders, slowly trailing his hands down your arms. His fingers leave tingles behind on your skin, and you’re even more aware of how close he’s gotten when you feel his breath on the back of your neck. His cheeky hands continue to wander, making their way down your sides, softly squeezing around your waist before he moves on to your hips. You try to think about it as a TSA search, but it’s a little hard to do when his hands linger for much longer than necessary on your thighs and your calves as he crouches down. Once he’s satisfied, he straightens back up, and you almost think he’s done before he leans in to rasp into your ear.
“You’re gonna have to take your clothes off… so I can search you more thoroughly.”
Your heart skips a beat, and you’re about to protest, but he’s already pulling your top off, tossing it aside before he moves on to your shorts. A sigh escapes him as he pulls them down along with your panties, and he doesn’t give you even a second to recover before he’s gripping and caressing the curves of your body. Leaning his chin on your shoulder, he runs his fingers over your hips, feeling how your skin warms beneath his touch. “Take your bra off.”
“What? There’s no way I could be hiding a tape in there –“ In response, Neil lightly pinches your thigh, causing you to jump a little and let out a soft whine. Seems like there’s no way around it. With shaky hands, you reach behind yourself to unclasp your bra, and Neil leans back ever so slightly to give you the space to move. That is, until your tits are exposed, and his body is glued against yours once more. The feeling of his hardening cock pressing up against your ass sends heat into your core, and you instinctively clench your thighs together. Of course, this catches his attention.
“Ah, so you are hiding something.”
He wraps his arms around you, steering the two of you over to the mirror he hung on the wall next to his ridiculous little costume rack. You watch your own flushed expression as his hand slips between your legs to let his fingers trace over your already wet folds. With a groan, you try to avert your eyes before he corrects you with a rough grope of your breast.
“No. Eyes on yourself. I want you to see the guilt on your face while I search you.”
Reluctantly, your eyes return to the mirror, just in time for him to plunge a finger into your velvety pussy. Your lips part, and as much as you’d like to keep quiet, your resolve crumbles immediately when he finds that sweet spot inside of you. Within minutes, the office fills up with the sounds of your pleasure and the obscene squelching of his fingers in your wet cunt. And he’s thorough in his search, quickly working you up from one finger to three, making your toes curl against the checkered floor. For a moment, he drives you up to that delightful edge, only to pull his fingers out of you at the last second.
You don’t have the capacity to complain when he lifts his hand towards the light, showing off his glistening digits. Both of you are entranced by the sight, and Neil lets out a soft wheeze before he licks his fingers clean.
“Yeah, I made up my mind. Get over to the desk and bend over.”
“I have a boyfriend,” you whine, turning your head to give him your biggest puppy dog eyes.
“Well, you should’ve thought about it before you stole from me. Losing those rare tapes was a financial disaster for me. I’m risking this store. And I’m not gonna do it without something in return.” He finishes his sentence with a light smack to your ass which only manages to get you even more riled up. It’s hard to disagree with him when he knows just how to get you going.
Neil drags you back over to the desk, angling the camera in just the right way before he hurriedly tears his clothes off completely. The sight of his urgency makes your chest fill with butterflies, but you still need to protest. You have to!
“I don’t usually do this… what if my boyfriend finds out?”
“That’s one more reason to behave. You wouldn’t want him to see this little clip, right?” he asks, although the question is entirely rhetorical. You’d love to feel guilty, but you can’t bring yourself to it.
 His hands run from your shoulders down to your hips, kneading your flesh with the attentiveness of a potter crafting a masterpiece, and he leans over you to place open-mouthed kisses down your spine. You shiver, drawing your bottom lip between your teeth to stifle the noises that are threatening to escape your mouth. With a quick movement, Neil reaches under your knee to guide your leg on top of the desk, and you let out a soft sigh when you can feel your arousal rolling down the inside of your thigh as he spreads you open with two fingers.
“You know… nice girls wouldn’t get this wet in situations like these. Then again, you’re a filthy thief, so you’re the furthest thing from a good girl.”
Neil wraps one arm around your waist, pulling you back against his chest so he can latch back onto the side of your neck, sucking and biting while he uses his other hand to guide the tip of his cock against your drooling entrance. His naked skin against yours fills your head with need, and you press up against him a little more to feel him more closely as he slowly pushes inside your velvety cunt. Both of you let out a hiss, and Neil follows it up with a needy whimper as he stills for a moment.
“Fuck… oh fuck,” he breathes, causing your lips to twitch up in subtle amusement. Neil’s hand shakes as he adjusts the camera, making sure to get everything in frame, and in this moment, you clench around him on purpose, causing him to moan right into your ear. “Jesus Christ, don’t do that –”
The slap to your ass is meant to punish you, but it’s doing the exact opposite, and you let him know this by moaning his name. His lips return to your pulse as he pushes his cock deeper into you, stretching you so perfectly that it sends goosebumps over your skin. Or maybe it’s because of his warm breath on your ear. Or his hands diligently kneading your tits. The cocktail of heated touches and sensations is literally making you feel drunk.
“Your cock feels so good,” you whine, causing him to suck in a sharp breath at the praise.
“Yeah?” he chuckles, bottoming out inside of you before he starts to set a slow, sensual rhythm. “You’re such a depraved little slut… getting off on your punishment. If only your boyfriend knew.”
Neil rolls his hips against yours, drawing a moan from both of you that would fit perfectly on the set of a porno. Maybe you’re hamming it up a little to feed his ego. But that isn’t very hard to do when he fills you up so deliciously, making you wetter with every thrust.
You’re already starting to feel breathless when he slowly speeds up, drilling into your dripping pussy with even more fervor. Words are starting to become a little difficult, but you try your best anyway. “You’re better than him. SO much better –“
Your reward is a second smack – aimed at your chest this time.
“You’re damn right I am,” he groans, sucking another hickey into your skin and adding to the little necklace of bruises he’s been placing around your neck. “Suck these for me, will you?”
Your eyebrows furrow in confusion, but it doesn’t last long when he brings his fingers up to your mouth, and you eagerly latch onto his digits, still faintly tasting yourself from earlier. You suck them down to the knuckle, running your tongue in between them in a way that makes him groan and pound your cunt even harder. Once his fingers are sufficiently coated in your saliva, he pulls them free from your lips and reaches between your legs to rub your clit.
The one leg you’ve been standing on threatens to give out immediately, but he holds you up with his other arm, and gently guides your hands into place to better support yourself on the desk. Neil nuzzles his face into your hair, breathing heavily against the shell of your ear.
“If you promise not to steal ever again, I might let you cum on my cock.”
His words are intercepted by quiet grunts and whimpers, and you find yourself agreeing pretty quickly, blabbering out promise after promise.
“I’ll never – never steal again! I swear, I swear, I swear, please! Please, please let me cum –!”
You’re almost not recognizing your own voice due to the desperately needy tone that’s laced through your pleading, but Neil doesn’t mind. Quite the opposite, really, because you can feel his thrusts picking up in intensity. He rewards your obedience by rubbing your clit a little faster, and you have to bite your knuckle as to not cry out his name. Fuck, it’s only noon and you’re approaching your release at breakneck speed.
“Fuck… I – I’m close,” you breathe, turning your head to look at him from over your shoulder. His teeth are back in your neck as he kisses and bites at your skin, and his voice sounds strained as he answers you.
“Go ahead… let go for me. If only your boyfriend knew, hm?”
That’s it. Your orgasm rips through you, and you let out a whine as you claw at the surface beneath you. Neil is generous enough to let you ride out your climax, but you can tell how impatient he is when he suddenly pulls out, swallowing heavily.
 “On your back.” He doesn’t have to tell you twice. It’s a little awkward, but you manage to scramble and reposition yourself, lying back against the desk and looking up at him with flushed cheeks and tousled hair. Neil is in the same state, licking his lips and swallowing dryly as he guides his cock back into your cunt, aided by his thumb on the base of his length.
“Fuck… how can you still be this tight? Shit, FUCK…” He’s cursing and muttering under his breath, having half a brain to readjust the still rolling camera as to not miss a single second. His hands guide your legs around his waist, and he leans over you, staring at you through blown out pupils that clash against the vibrant intensity of his ocean gaze. His pretty face is red, and sweat beads on his forehead, causing his hair to stick to his skin. Without thinking, you reach up to push it back, causing both of you to still for a second before Neil finds his tone again.
“M’gonna fill you up… and send you back home to your boyfriend with a creampie in that pretty cunt. Alright? Alright.”
You can only nod in response, hearing your own racing heartbeat in your ears along with his continued grunts and moans. His hands on you are gentle, but his thrusts definitely aren’t as he pounds you against the desk. Neil’s hips smack against yours, causing every novelty item around the two of you to tremble along to your feverish rhythm. You tilt your head back but he goes after you, finally capturing your lips in a hungry kiss that he’s been trying to hold back from the entire time. But now that he’s rapidly approaching his own climax, the self-restraint is completely out of the window.
Your tongues clash, and you moan into his mouth when his hands find yours, linking your fingers together. Neil’s lips faintly taste of iced coffee as he licks against your tongue, and your grip on his hands tightens when his movements start to become erratic.
Your lips stay locked the entire time, even as he lets out a guttural groan when he finishes inside of you, thrusting into you a few more times to push it in as deep as possible. Finally, he stills and pulls away from you, unable to resist stealing one last peck from your swollen lips. You’re still breathing heavily as his hands roam over your body once more, relishing the feeling of your skin beneath his fingertips. Now that he has material on you and you promised not to steal again, he’s gentle. Almost too gentle, and you have to clear your throat to snap him out of it.
Neil catches himself, blinking down at you with soft eyes while he wipes some sweat off his brow. There’s a subtle twitch in his lips that tells you that he’d love to keep touching you, but he’s aware of the setting you’re in. Almost reluctantly, he pulls out of you to let you retrieve your clothes. While you’re getting dressed, he checks the camera and stops the recording before he speaks up.
“You’re free to go, then. You know what happens if I catch you stealing again, right?”
The question prompts you to nod in response, and you mumble out a “yes” as you pull your top back over your head. Once Neil confiscates the VHS from your purse, you’re free to exit the store on trembling legs, cringing a little at the feeling of your combined fluids leaking into your underwear. But God, this heist was worth it.
INT. YOUR PLACE – LIVING ROOM – DAY
As expected, the house is quiet when you get home, and you let out a deep, satisfied sigh as you throw yourself onto the couch to decompress for a moment.
Not even 20 minutes pass until the front door opens, and you hear familiar footsteps. A lazy smile spreads over your face, and you sit up, watching you boyfriend as he kicks off his shoes and throws his jacket over the coat rack on the wall. He makes his way over, leaning down to press a sweet kiss to your lips, and your vision is filled by ocean eyes and faint freckles. Neil chuckles softly, placing the camera onto the coffee table before he sinks down on the couch next to you and pulls you close. “I’m glad Lucien agreed to take over the rest of the day.” You hum in agreement, closing your eyes when he brushes his fingers through your hair to massage your scalp.
“I think that was our best one yet.”
FIN.
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tags: @ellebelleshelby @cilliansprincess @mcumorningstar @x0xomady @mandies24 @detroitbecomevenom @pretty-bluebird @ink5ouls (couldn't tag) @flwrs4aust @vampmary1411 @ashdrinksoatmilk @luvizuku @nnattu @ptolemaniac @kiss-me-cill-me @celebrities-imagines
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viridianriver · 9 months
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I've been thinking a lot about my relationship with consumerism lately.
Growing up in a working class family - I accidently became kind of an expert in sustainability and anti-consumerism. More out of necessity than preference, really.
But nowadays, I even though I can afford to shop at corporate stores? I still won't. I feel bad for anyone who sees them as the default way to shop, because having seen the alternatives? Y'all are getting so screwed. Hard. Buy something for $40? Thats 20 bucks for materials and the laborers, 20 bucks for the CEO and investors? Can't we cut out the middleman?
Hell yes we can.
The Broke Bitch Guide to Ethical & Sustainable Shopping
Why Should I Listen To You?
Want better quality shit that's not subject to planned obsolescence, and not made impossible to repair when it breaks? Well you ain't finding it at a for profit company anymore.
Want a 50% off deal (or more) on everything you buy? I know it sounds unrealistic, but that's about how much companies across all industries mark prices up by. Just by avoiding corporations, you're cutting your spending in half.
Well where the fuck do I shop then?
The obvious ones: Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and Ebay - You can find damn near anything on here, and haggle on prices. And buying used locally? You're putting 100% of the money into the hands of a neighbor who needs it more than a billionaire, and reducing waste!
Construction material recycling centers / The Dump - You can get reclaimed materials at many of these for dirt cheap or free. Also if you meet any contractors around here, ask them if they'd sell or give you any nice shit they tear out of rich people's houses.
Thrift, Vintage, and Secondhand shops - Another way to reduce waste, find higher quality clothes than fast fashion, and save a buck. For the best savings, go to Goodwill Bins - they're the last stop before clothes get recycled, and they sell clothes for a dollar or two a pound. (Great for sewing/craft materials too)
Car Junkyards - Cheapest spot to get car parts, lots of cars get totalled but still are intact enough to gut for parts.
Buy Nothing Groups or local "free and for sale" groups on Facebook - People post things they're getting rid of for free, it's an amazing way to reduce waste and save a lot of money!
The Dreaded Phone Call or Email - If you're looking for a specific product or material - Think of what industries might create that as a waste product? What kinds of workers might be tasked with hauling old ones away? When that thing is thrown out or recycled, where does it end up? Call or email a few of those companies and ask if you can buy their old shit.
Antiquing, Flea Markets, Yard Sales, and Estate Sales - A great way to get high quality furniture for cheap. If you're worried about bedbugs get the biggest black trashbags or tarps you can find, and put your furniture in there in the hot sun for a while to kill anything off. Spray some insecticide in there while you're at it.
Bartering - Make a group chat with your friends or neighbors where you post stuff you don't want anymore, and barter with each other! You can barter more than goods, you can also trade skills like tailoring, repair work, physical labor, teaching a trade, or home cooking!
Farmers markers and local grocery shops - If you have a lot of farmers nearby, this is a great stop for cheap produce and more ethically farmed meat.
The "Trash Day Walk" - Take a walk around town with a friend on trash day, and if you find anything good, have one of y'all wait there while the other grabs a car.
The "I know a guy" - If you ever need repairs done, and a company sends a guy who gives you a high quote... Ask him how much he's making out of all that. It'll be fuckin pitifully low. Then ask him if he'd come by off the clock to do the work for twice or triple the pay. It'll still be cheaper than the corporate quote. If he says yeah, congrats, now you "know a guy" who'll charge you a more a fair price! Knowing a contractor, plumber, electrician, etc can save you a lot compared to going through a company!
This seems like a big change - How do I make it easier?
Delete Amazon and all the rest of those apps off your phone and replace them with Ebay, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, etc. You'll be surprised how quick your brain will rewire what it thinks of as the first-stop for shopping. You can still use them if you need something you can't find elsewhere - this doesn't have to be all-or-nothing, but you won't see them as the default anymore.
Talk to other people about it! Most of my barters started by mentioning the idea of bartering to my friends and neighbors
Get into vintage / antique shit. It's a fun hobby and if you make a day of it, it can be super enjoyable to look through all the weird shit for a few gems. Retail stores don't have the entertainment factor of ~weird shit~ after all
Learn a little about economics. Once you see behind the curtain of the cash flow through most large corporations, spite will probably drive you to look elsewhere anyway lol. Shit's bleak.
Your Post Wasn't Long Enough - I Want More
If anyone's interested, I've been wayy too obsessed with this shit lately and would Post again.
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imreadydollparts · 4 months
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Q&A stuff here
(If you have any other questions, let me know.)
How dirty of a doll or pony can I send?
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Inside and out, these are both fine to come to the salon.
I may decline a pony or doll if they're dirtied with bodily fluids of any kind. I will be more than happy to talk you through the cleaning process so you can take care of that yourself.
However, if you are distraught and can't handle it, we can talk. I absolutely need a warning.
What happens if you damage a pony/doll someone sent?
I fix it.
For example, I got some 40Vol on a customer's Confetti's yellow hair and it bleached out the yellow color. I told the customer what had happened and did a partial rehair with vintage hair of the same color from my MLP G1 tail stash. That way the owner is informed and the pony is still full vintage.
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Another example is that I was resetting the pose on a Flutterbye, and her feet turned white where they'd sat in a little boiling hot water (I didn't take a picture). I blasted them with a heat gun for a while and they're good as new.
And another was a Birthday Pony who's ribbons had been tied in knots and were weak. I snapped one when I went to recurl it, informed the owner, and they were amenable to replacement of all of the ribbons.
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Repair is often risky. If I do damage that I can't fix, I will pay the going price for one of the same quality on eBay or order it for you and give it the salon process for free.
What hair do you use?
I use high-grade, silky smooth nylon mostly ordered from Shimmer Locks for full rehairs.
For partial rehairs like replacing a few plugs here and there or a forelock that was cut, I use vintage hair as long as I have it available in my stash of tails or can harvest enough from the pony's own tail without making the tail too thin. I do offer full tail replacements if I happen to have a replacement tail.
Can I request a hair style?
Absolutely! I can't guarantee that I'll be able to do the style you're wanting, but I'll certainly try. I can attempt a few different kinds of curls and have both a standard size and mini crimper.
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You can also let me know if you want every pony's mane to be on the same side of their head. I'm not very consistent with that otherwise.
Why do you charge so much more for deflocking?
I hate doing it.
What paints do you use?
Right now I'm using Army Painter acrylic paints. I was using Liquitex before and found it difficult to get just the right consistency, whereas Army Painter has been easier for me to manipulate.
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Why is your hair styling/photography/etc. so inconsistent?
I am not a professional anything and have a poor memory.
My photography is also inconsistent because I use my phone and every time I take my phone on or off of the cheap ringlight-phone-tripod the tripod moves.
The way I style a certain pony's hair will change between ponies because I don't remember how I styled it before and if I've had to flat iron it, I may not remember that it had been curly.
One of the great things about this being a hobby as opposed to a business is that I don't have to spend a lot of time on the parts that aren't fun (for me photography isn't fun), and don't have to be consistent. I just have to enjoy what I'm doing. If I can help out other people and get a little money so that I can keep doing what I do enjoy, that's a bonus.
Do you always ---
deflock So Soft Ponies?
No. I only do that when asked because I hate doing it. I will also deflock a pony I bought to clean and sell if the flocking is bad enough, but if the flocking is decent I don't ruin it.
straighten doll/pony hair?
No. I will do my best to preserve factory curl if it's present and the hair is in good enough condition it doesn't need flat ironed, but can't guarantee I will succeed...
How aggressively I treat hair depends entirely on the hair itself.
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seat-safety-switch · 30 days
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I had a job interview at the zoo the other day. Now, don't get me wrong. I have enough animals at home, from packrats stuck in my wiring harnesses to my former neighbour's gang of feral chinchillas. In this case, doing my duty to society would involve some light landscaping, which means I would get to drive the little Kubota yard cars they had.
Ever since I was a kid, I was transfixed on visits to the zoo by these yard cars. You could tell me that we're taking a baby giraffe home, and I would not care. Hearing the utilitarian, hay-choked burble of a repurposed Club Car was enough to make me happy for the rest of the day. That and ice cream, of course. When I needed some extra spending money, this memory brought me back to the zoo. Also, their new "get paid cash under the table if you're not a snitch" employment policy, enacted since the last director got caught trying to flog excess gorillas on eBay.
I would like to say that the interview went well, but that's not really my task to judge. We talked for awhile about my basic proficiency with shovels (good,) rakes (adequate,) spades (poor,) and trowels (borderline) and about my availability (slutty, but not for free.) Then it was time for them to evaluate how I handled myself around an internal-combustion engine. Safety is paramount at the zoo: with all those kids around, accidentally backing over one of them while trying to rip a fat skid on the Gator 6x6 would look bad in the papers. Luckily for them, safety is my middle name.
You can imagine that it was a big surprise to me that I not only did not get the job, but that a nice process server arrived to give me a restraining order. In my defence, I figured that it would be a bit "out there" to jump a hedge, and thought twice about it. Ultimately, though, I had to show I was management material by demonstrating how quickly I can get the job done. Cost optimization is the only way that they would ever give me the keys to the really nice, bossman-only, ultra-luxe long-wheelbase EZGO for driving VIPs around. I hear it's got a turbo, all the better for outrunning those pesky investigative journalists and their pro-gorilla bias.
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suzieb-fit · 9 months
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You don't need to walk endlessly on a treadmill.
Why not join a local walking group?
You don't need to go carb free.
Why not cut out refined carbs and stick to healthy ones?
You don't need to spend money on fancy sportswear to go running.
Why not wear your trackies, an old t-shirt and get going?
You don't need protein shakes, energy supplements or a snack before working out.
Why not try a fasted workout? See how it makes you feel. Trust me on that one....
You don't need a gym membership to get lean, toned and fit.
Why not download an app, follow YouTube home workouts or get some fitness dvds from ebay?
You don't need to eat to a set, habitual time schedule.
Why not listen to your body (not your emotions or your habits), and eat when and if you are honestly (and physically) hungry?
You don't need to follow the latest fad.
Why not put some research into what constitutes a nutritional, natural, high quality diet that you can follow forever?
You don't need to feel bad about where you are right now.
Why not commit to taking small, daily steps towards a brighter, healthier you?
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3liza · 1 year
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do my fellow Americans know about the post office online store?
in most places in the USA you do not need to go to the post office to mail a package from home. the USPS webstore will mail you, for free, you don't even pay shipping, Priority Mail class boxes and envelopes. you can also request that a mail carrier pick up your Priority Mail class or above packages for delivery, for free (not available everywhere but yes in most places with standard mail service).
you can sell something on ebay without leaving your house or spending money on packing materials. you can buy prepaid boxes if you don't have a printer, but usually ebay and Etsy etc have better shipping prices so it's cheaper in the long run to just get a printer (people sell them cheap or give them away a lot on craigslist, fb, nextdoor etc if you live somewhere with enough population density).
the post office will also send you stickers for free, this is how graffiti artists get the stickers for their slapups. some of them are funny
someone is going to scold me and say "don't abuse this system to get boxes for moving or stickers for just fucking around with" but the post office deals in such enormous volume i kind of doubt it would make a dent in their operations even if a few hundred people on Tumblr did order cremains labels for fun.
anyway my point is that in many/most areas of the United States you do not actually need to physically go to the post office anymore to mail things. changes in shipping prices and mail classes over the past decade have made it so almost everything above a letter or postcard size, except media mail, is going to cost almost the same whether it's Priority or First Class anyway. you can also check mailing prices on the USPS website.
I've run into a lot of people who are experienced with selling stuff and mailing stuff and haven't heard about priority mail pickup, free boxes, or prepaid boxes. hopefully this can help someone
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splatteredraccoon · 18 days
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The goal for the KOSA international strike, is to stop using sites World Wide for two days straight, on March 31st (Easter Sunday) and April 1st (April Fools) that specifically would profit off of the extra user data and privacy concerns that KOSA brings up. Were doing these two days world wide, because holidays usually mean big web traffic, and a complete halt in web traffic on two holidays that happen to be back to back will be Disturbing for Profits. Additionally despite KOSA being a US bill, it will have detrimental effects on the whole world, considering how many websites are actively hosted in the US, but that also means the whole world has the ability to influence web profits and protest. We're aiming for big sites and browsers that make money by:
-using third party ads via algorithm
-selling user data, or otherwise disclosing data to third parties for profit
-sites that rely on online advertising to sell their products and services
As well as sites that censor marginalized groups and protests regularly.
That being said, so far the list of sites that are going on the strike list includes:
-Twitter/X (third party ads, censorship, and data collection)
-Google, the browser, as well as all of its subsidiaries (YouTube, GMail, Drive, Etc.) (third party ads and data collection)
-Bing, the browser as well as Microsoft online services like OneDrive (third party ads and data collection)
-Tumblr (third party ads, censorship, and data collection)
-TikTok (third party ads, censorship, data collection, and relies on advertising to sell its services)
-Snapchat (if people still use that??) (third party ads and data collection)
-Instagram (third party ads and data collection)
-Facebook (data collection, censorship)
-Twitch (third party ads) (those of you who watch streamers or YouTubers, should inform your favs en masse about the strike, as KOSA will have serious effects on their livelihood.)
-Amazon (relies on advertising)
-Etsy (relies on advertising)
-eBay (relies on advertising)
Additionally we wanna hit online subscription services hard too, especially storefronts that already use advertising to sell their products. This means cancelling and boycotting some streaming services you might not already be boycotting. Includes
-Cancelling Amazon Prime (See above)
-Cancelling Spotify Premium and Boycotting Spotify (third party advertising and data collection)
-Cancelling Netflix (Data collection)
-Cancelling Hulu (a subsidiary of Disney, already on the list of Boycotts for Palestine but also! Data collection, censorship, and third party ads)
-Cancelling Disney+ (See Hulu.)
-Cancelling Crunchyroll (Data collection and third party ads)
Then, US citizens, we want to use those two days to call, mail, or text (remember, were avoiding email services through Google or Microsoft, who are both big on data collection) house representatives im the US, demanding they not let KOSA pass. Threaten another, more extended boycott, as well as their soon to be up for reelection seats. I'll have a list of state house representatives put together soon, with contact information included.
We also want to support, both financially and with our presence, a handful of sites that don't profit off of users in any of the above ways, or censor users, that will also need legal funds to fight KOSA since they'll be targeted by it. The examples I have so far, are:
-Archive Of Our Own (completely user funded, no third party ads, no data collection, actively against censorship. AO3 has an account wait-list you can join if you haven't (unlikely given I'm posting this to Tumblr first lmao,) and is free to sign up for in this way.)
-Pillowfort (completely user funded, no third party ads, no data collection, actively against censorship. Pillowfort also has a free wait-list to sign up, and from my experience, will usually get you an account within a couple days max, so signing up now means you will have an account by the strike.)
Lastly, because this bill comes in wake of mass protests for the sake of Palestine, Yemen, Sudan, and other colonized peoples facing genocide, and is a threat to the privacy and safety of protestors, we're pairing the web shutdown with an economic shutdown, something I encourage anyone in any country that's actively being complacent or complicit in these genocides to participate in as well. Same rules as usual, do not spend money, and do not go to work if you can afford to on the 31st or 1st (for those on the other side of the planet, that's the 1st and 2nd for you, but you can always extend your own strikes to range between the 31st-2nd for maximum impact.)
If you have anything to add, please do, so that I can get this all sorted into graphics by March 14th in three days, which will give us two weeks time to spread the word as fast as we can, as efficiently as possible, and let people prepare accordingly. You can start talking about it now, and it would be helpful if others made graphics, reblog this post, and make their own posts about this too!
EDIT this post is outdated! Please reblog this one instead:
Happy #Easter-BlackOut babes ✌️
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20dollarlolita · 2 months
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The process of how I bought my wheelchairs.
Someone's asked for help on this, and I've written a couple of really thorough posts that I never published, but here's the short I intended this to be short, but it's not version.
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: This is not medical advice. I cannot provide medical advice. I am sharing my own experience, and it should not be used as your only research for this issue. Any time I am saying, "you," please note that it is a style choice to use the second person, and not an indication of giving advice.
Quick note: if your doctor prescribed you a chair, make sure you know what kind of chair was prescribed, and why. The best chair in the world is still awful if it doesn't do what you need.
Also if your insurance will cover a wheelchair then, once you've made sure that your insurance will cover the chair you need, make the smart choice about where you'll buy these things.
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The first time that I was using a wheelchair full time, I was borrowing this one from a friend. This chair is about $500, so when I was buying my first chair for myself, I was looking at that price point. If a chair I was considering was notably more than $500, I knew I could just get my own copy of this chair that I was already comfortable with. The chair that I was borrowing was three years old and had been heavily used, so I was confident in this model's lifespan.
The other big advantage of this is that it ships free with Prime, which meant that it was easy to send to a friend when I was tired of watching her use a inexpensive chair to get around the Disney parks.
But then I went on ebay and learned about the magical world of secondhand wheelchairs. The short version of the story is that a wheelchair can outlive someone's need for it, and so it's not super uncommon to see someone selling an older wheelchair for much less than the chair is new. A lot of the time, these are custom or modular chairs. Instead of a basic chair that's set up to one-size-fits-probably-most, modular and custom chairs have 10+ pages of options to select from in their order form. When you're buying a new custom chair, you pick every option to make sure it's perfect for you. When your goal to buying a used chair is to just get one that's better for you than a Drive Super Sport one-size-fits-hopefully-you chair, the secret to buying on ebay is to find out what features you absolutely need, and then to check the other elements of the chair and see if they will work for you.
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Quick note, at the time that I was buying my wheelchair, I actually already owned a wheelchair, and had decided it wasn't going to work for me to use full-time. This is an Invacare Tracer and it was, according to the tag, stolen from a wheelchair rental place in 2010, and according to my mom, stolen from my neighbor's to-be-burned pile in 2019. So if we don't count alleged crime as a cost, this wheelchair was free. This is a great example of a chair that's set up to be one-size-fits-no-one-perfectly.
This wheelchair would be better than nothing, but it's heavy, the wheels are really far back, and it doesn't really fit in my car. The tires have no tread and are pretty worn, so they don't do great for outdoor offroading. All detachable parts of this (armrests, foot rests) had been lost a decade ago, and they're not cheap to replace. I already knew what kind of budget I was willing to spend, and I felt that just using this as my main mode of movement wasn't going to be worth the saving of the $500.
I do still use this wheelchair a LOT in my house, because it's a pain to get my real wheelchair out of my car and into my house (because stairs), but I wouldn't feel confident taking it out on the town unless I have someone to push me.
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So the secret to buying a wheelchair on ebay is a three step process:
Determine how much money you're able to spend. The best wheelchair in the world isn't going to do you any good if you can't actually get it.
Determine what main features you want in a chair, and look for those.
When you find a chair that has those features at that price, check to see if everything else in the chair works for you.
(Secret step 4: be lucky enough to have someone listing the chair you need).
So I picked this chair (Which is a Quickie 2 Lite) mostly because the Medwarm wheelchair had been a bit too wide for me. This chair was narrower and had a lot of the traits of the Medwarm chair that I'd liked. It folded, had 24" wheels with tread, had feet plates that didn't stick way out in front. I didn't actually know how any of that felt until I had it, because I didn't have experience with multiple wheelchairs. My inexperience gave me a superpower, which was that I didn't need to get so critical of certain traits, because I had no idea what any of that meant.
Shipped and with tax, this was $400. At the time, I just went, "hey, this is like the wheelchair that I want, but without the negative trait of being as wide, and it's $100 less."
The main this about this chair that I learned that I love is that the center of gravity is farther forward than on the Medwarm chair (I believe it's set to +1"). This gave me a lot more power pushing myself. When I was using the Medwarm chair, it wasn't uncommon for me to ask friends to push me long distances. I very rarely needed that in the Quickie2.
But I did have to replace it.
Short version of a long story was that when I went to being a most-time wheelchair user, the seat of my chair got smaller relative to my body. I'd picked a narrower chair because it was easier to navigate the world, but I'd actually picked a chair that was becoming too small for me to fit my Kitten Holding Legs into. I looked into getting a new chair.
So let's talk about the wheelchair that I bought and couldn't use. We learn from our wins and our misses.
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This is a 19" Catalyst 5. There's a few problems with this one for me, but they all sum up to (for me personally) that it had more negative (to me) traits than the Medwarm one, but also was more expensive. I'd picked this one because it looked like it'd be more like my Quickie2 than like the Medwarm, but it just wasn't good for me.
My Quickie2's narrow, so I could put my feet right next to each other. This was the most comfortable way for me to sit. The way that KI measures a Catalyst frame and the way Quickie measures a Quickie 2 frame are different. My 15" frame Quickie 2 had a 14" wide seat, and this 19" Catalyst 5 had a 22" wide frame. The first time that I unfolded it, I knew that it was just too big for me to use comfortably. In addition, I didn't like the solid low-profile tires. I didn't like how far away the wheels were. It also had a really nice quality back, but the back had to be removed to fold the chair, so it was another step to take in and out of my car. It was also about 2" shorter at the seat than my old chair, and I already deal with being too short for my store's counters, so I didn't like losing that height.
So this was a case where I looked for traits that I thought I wanted: folding, wider seat. Then, instead of checking to see if the rest of the traits of the chair were things that I wanted, I just assumed it'd be okay. Personally, it just wasn't the chair for me.
I ended up learning that selling a used wheelchair on ebay is actually pretty easy as well, so the money I lost on this purchase summed up to the cost of a roll of bubble wrap to pack it up to send it to someone who would benefit from it.
When I was looking for my next wheelchair, I had changed what I wanted out of a chair. I knew that I wanted tires with actual tread on them, instead of solid poly smooth tires. I knew that I wanted a wider seat, but not too wide. If it didn't come with a little bit of camber on the wheels (that's where they slant towards the top of the chair), I wanted to be able to add it. I also wanted it to be a minimum of 17" high seat. But the biggest change was that I'd decided that I didn't really need it to be folding.
I drive a hatchback with back seats that can fold down, and I pretty much never have passengers. I decided fuck it, if I'm not driving people, I don't need to keep the seats up, so I could get a non-folding chair and just shove the whole thing in the back without breaking down. Without breaking down the chair. I could still break down. Life is tough sometimes.
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So this is a Quickie GT, which is an old, discontinued model. According to the serial number lookup, it was made in 2009. The good news is that it immediately passed the Cat Test.
When I was looking at this chair, I saw that it was designed for people who push themselves, and would probably be less good for someone who needed other people to push them. This wasn't an issue for me, because I hate being pushed.
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(same chair plus two cans of spray paint)
This chair was over the $500 budget (it was $670 with shipping and tax), but this time I'd done enough research to be confident that it'd be a lot better for me than the Medwarm chair. I stuck with Quickie as a brand because I felt like I better understood how they size their seats. The serial number lookup said that this chair was 17" wide, so I was ready to get a 16" seat, and that's what I got. It's got pneumatic tires, which don't just have tread but also roll along the ground like bicycle tires. I love this chair. Instead of two separate foot rests, there's just the one, so I'm a lot more comfortable with how I sit.
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It does have the downside of this is the smallest it gets without taking off the wheels. The wheels come off easily and so it's not a big problem, but it's more steps to get it into the car if I don't want to fold back my seats. Also, the front plate doesn't flip up or go away, so if I want to propel myself with my foot I'm a lot more limited.
Once I don't need this anymore, I'm also going to need to either sell it or figure out where to store it. I can keep a folding wheelchair in the back of my closet in case I need it again, but this one will be taking up some space.
For all of the chairs that I got, I was really only searching ebay for a couple of days before the right one at the right price showed up. This is somewhat slanted based on what I need, because certain things do show up more often than others, and at different prices. Wider chairs tend to have less selection and be more expensive, while 12-14" wide chairs are really plentiful.
Let's get together and look at some ebay chairs. We're going to search "wheelchair" and set condition to "used". If you plop the sort system into "price+shipping: lowest first" and then start scrolling until you get past all the wheelchair parts and all the "free local pickup: <location that is in another country>" and into the actual wheelchairs that can ship, you can start checking out the market.
I immediately eliminate anything that doesn't have all the parts, that is too expensive, that is only available for pickup, that doesn't have foot rests, or a few other things. The first one that I saw that I didn't elminate was this.
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The most important thing from this listing is where they post the serial number.
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And that's because KI, Sunrise, and Permobil all keep databases of all the serial numbers of all the chairs they have sold.
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You can now go onto a site that sells that chair and look up what all those things mean. Spinlife sells the Catalyst 5Vx, and if you click "help me choose" on an item listing, it'll usually give you pictures of the different options. For me personally, the draw of this one would be that it's a really good price, and it's roughly set up the same as my default Medwarm chair. I don't like the tires but I do like the side guards and arm rest combo.
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This was on a listing for a chair where the serial number wouldn't pull up. I wouldn't consider this one since I can't tell the width or depth when the seller won't list it and Sunrise doesn't have it. I'm just dropping this screenshot because "SELLER NOTE TO SELF" and "BUTT PAD NOT INCLUDED" both made me laugh.
As a quick final note, this is not going to be cheaper than getting a really basic wheelchair off Amazon. However, as someone who has used really basic wheelchairs, getting something upgraded has a whole lot of value. One of the reasons why I really like lolita fashion is that we treasure used things that still have use, and so it's also got some value to me to see if I can get something used that still has use. In my experience, things got better when I tried to get something used. If you do want a really basic chair, it might still be worth it to check if they're available for nearby pickup. Plopping my location into "free local pickup within 30 miles" offers me a basic Drive chair for $20. It's reusing something instead of having to throw it away, and it's also $20. Can't argue with $20.
Anyway, that's half diary entry and half possible advice.
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thelaurenshippen · 4 months
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this is a genuine question not at all meant as a rude gotcha, but I feel like I've seen lots of people cite the relatively low barrier of entry as a huge advantage of podcasts as a medium, "if you have access to decent audio tech you can make a podcast" etc etc. So where does the need to sell a script come in? Is it a financial thing, and IP thing, something else?
this doesn't read like a rude gotcha at all, it's a really good question! there is a much lower barrier to entry when it comes to podcasts compared to tv, film, theater, etc. (though not as low as writing a book if we're talking about hard resources - you can technically write a book with just a laptop and a dream and then self publish! though as a writer who has written a lot of scripts and four books (3 published) writing a book is a much bigger psychological burden imo lol).
the need to sell a script, for me, is entirely a financial thing. if I had the money to produce podcasts at the level I want to entirely independently, I would! I know how to do it! but, unfortunately, I really only have the funds to produce something like @breakerwhiskey - a single narrator daily podcast that I make entirely on my own.
and that show is actually a great example of just how low the barrier is: I actually record the whole thing on a CB radio I got off of ebay for 30 bucks, my editing software is $50/month (I do a lot of editing, so this is an expense that isn't just for that show) and there are no hosting costs for it. the only thing it truly costs me is time and effort.
not every show I want to make is single narrator. a lot of the shows I've made involve large casts, full sound design, other writers, studio recording, scoring, and sometimes full cast albums (my first show, The Bright Sessions had all of those). I've worked on shows that have had budgets of 100 dollars and worked on shows that cost nearly half a million dollars. if anyone is curious about the nitty gritty of budgets, I made a huge amount of public, free resources about making audio drama earlier this year that has example budgets in these ranges!
back in the beginning of my career, I asked actors to work for free or sound designers to work for a tiny fee, because I was doing it all for free and we were all starting out. I don't like doing that anymore. so even if I'm making a show with only a few actors and a single sound designer...well, if you want an experienced sound designer and to pay everyone fairly (which I do!), it's going to cost you at least a few thousand dollars. when you're already writing something for free, it can be hard to justify spending that kind of money. I've sound designed in the past - and will be doing so again in the near future for another indie show of mine - but I'm not very good at it. that's usually the biggest expense that I want to have covered by an outside budget.
but if I'm being really honest, I want to be paid to write! while I do a lot of things - direct, produce, act, consult, etc. - writing is my main love and I want it to be the majority of my income. I'm really fortunate to be a full-time creative and I still do a lot of work independently for no money, but when I have a show that would be too expensive to produce on my own, ideally I want someone else footing the bill and paying me to write the scripts.
I love that audio fiction has the low barrier to entry it does, because I think hobbyists are incredible - it is a beautiful and generous thing to provide your labor freely to something creative and then share it with the world - but the barrier to being a professional audio drama writer is certainly higher. I'm very lucky to already be there, but, as every creative will tell you, even after you've had several successes and established yourself in the field, it can still be hard to make a living!
anyway, I hope this answers your question! I love talking about this stuff, so if anyone else is curious about this kind of thing, please ask away.
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loverinn · 5 months
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GOFUNDME, PLEASE HELP OR SHARE
I'd be very grateful if anyone donate, share, reblog or interact with this post, I know I'm not popular here but I'm going to talk a little about my situation.
My husband made this GoFundMe to help me to move with him because I suffer of family violence at home, I live in bad conditions and in a very dangerous neighborhood (I been harassed and almost kidnapped many times), my mother doesn't have a job and her boyfriend barely makes money, he does drugs and they both abuse me verbally, mentally and physically.
I'm autistic and I have hypotension, my health is going to worse because of my conditions, I'm not able to eat everyday, have most of basic needs things and I can't pay my medication (cleaning tools and cleaning products, pads, deodorant, gel, shampoo, etc) but thankfully my husband helps me a lot. My mother's boyfriend has diogenes syndrome, which makes my sensory issues and allergies worse (I'm very allergic to dust and pollen)
I'm not able to have studies because my school is far away and I don't have a transport, my mother doesn't want to take me there and she doesn't want me to have a driving license and I can't afford to buy or rent a transport for myself, also I been bullied at school and I'm very sensitive to noise.
My boyfriend is just starting a new job and he will save money to help me to move with him, but I'd be very grateful if I could live with him as earlier as possible, all the donations will be for the passport, paperwork, flight, to be able to bring all my properties, etc.
PLEASE HELP US 🙏
Any donation and interacion will be very appreciated, feel free to ask me anything.
And I guess some people are curious by how I get or have the things I post/own (plushies, coloring books, Nintendo2DS and games, etc) most of them are gifts, and all my Bolt collection is from Ebay or Vinted, the most expensive ones are gifts from my husband and the other ones costed 4$ (and some of them are birthday gifts), I take a very good care of everything I own and that's why it looks new.
I sold a lot of clothes and books to be able to get most of the things I own too (and my own food, hygiene stuff, etc)
I only see my dad 1 time every month or every 2 months, he doesn't text me nor call me, he ignores all my calls and texts begging him for help since my glasses are broken and my gums are sick because I almost don't eat and that's why he sometimes gets me a small gift like a plushie or brings me to a restaurant (every 3 or 4 weeks), that's his way to say he feels guilty.
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redspringthorn · 23 days
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🇵🇸 Wire wraps for Palestine 🇵🇸
100% of the profits from these sales will go to fundraisers for Palestine or to buying eSims.
1- $35 - Eye pendant with garnet and carnelian beads.
2- $35- size 7 / 7.5 eye ring with amethyst beads
3- $25 - size 8 / 8.5 eye ring with amethyst beads
4- $25- size 5.5 eye ring with citrine, garnet and zircon beads. This one is not as comfortable as the other ones because of how bulky it is.
5- $30 - size 9 eye ring with moonstone and peridot beads
6- $15 - size 8 ring with antique seashell bead and garnet and amethyst beads
7- $15 - size 6 eye ring with glass bead
8- $10 - size 6.5 eye ring with glass bead
9- $10 - size 8.5 rose ring with amethyst beads
10- $10 - size 7.5 rose ring with green zircon beads
These are all made with solid copper wire.
ONLY the numbered listings on eBay apply to donating 100% of the profit. If you see something else on my eBay account that's not numbered or not a wire wrap and you want to purchase it for this fundraiser, message me and I will donate 25-50% of the profit of those items depending on what it is!
In addition, if you have the money and want to purchase these items for more than they are listed in order to donate more, I'll leave the option open for making an offer on eBay.
More info under the cut.
I'm selling these through my eBay account. eBay takes about 10%, but all profit other than that and shipping will go directly to fundraisers for Palestine or eSims and I will send proof for each one if wanted.
These are being sold for much cheaper than they normally would be because I just started out wire wrapping and intended for most of these to be practice pieces, but I think they all turned out well enough to actually be worn, though they may have small imperfections. So please look at the photos on eBay carefully. I won't be accepting returns since the money is going to be donated.
You can message me if you want the profit from your purchase to go to a specific established gofundme or organization for Palestine, or to buy esims. Here's some of the links I was going to use to donate.
Please feel free to message me if you have any questions!
Operation Olive Branch list of gofundmes:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vtMLLOzuc6GpkFySyVtKQOY2j-Vvg0UsChMCFst_WLA/htmlview#
Palestine Children's Relief Fund :
https://www.pcrf.net
https://www.unrwa.org
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bettafishblr · 11 months
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Fish ownership on a budget:
Do your research before you get the fish. I cannot emphasize this enough. It may not seem like a budgeting tip, but you WILL waste money going in blind. You'll buy stuff you don't need, buy the wrong thing and have to replace it, hurt your fish and need to buy treatment, etc. Sick fish are expensive fish, and it's not fair to make an animal suffer because you're impatient.
Save up and buy supplies gradually. This allows you to wait and find the best deals, as well as avoid the shock of dropping $200 on fish tank stuff all at once. Impulse buys are not your friend.
Buy the tank and filter first, if possible. You'll want to start your cycle as soon as possible, since it can take awhile (weeks) depending on tank size. I'll make a post about what that means later, but trust me, it's important.
If you live where there's Petco stores, wait until they have their Dollar Per Gallon sale. It is what it sounds like; a 10 gallon tank (good size for a betta) will cost you $10. Capitalism stupid, so make it work for you.
If you don't live where there's Petco stores, you might try buying a used tank. Garage sales, Ebay, Facebook Marketplace, whatever. Make sure it can hold water before buying, and clean it well once you get it home.
Some folks will try to sell you a tank at the price they bought it for; do not buy at that price if you can help it. Wait a bit longer and there will be someone who's selling at a more reasonable price. Fish tanks do not have high resale value once they have been used.
Guppies are a popular beginner fish, and they breed a lot. Most livebearers do. Don't slut shame them, just get a big tank, or all one sex. All females might still bring about fry (babies) as they might be pregnant when you get them. All males will still need a good sized tank as you need a lot of fish and a lot of plants/decor to avoid fighting.
If you've got a friend with guppies, you might be able to get a few for free/cheap. I am not kidding when I say these guys breed a lot.
"Feeder fish" are often priced cheaply, but they may not actually be a cheap fish in the long run. Goldfish need very large tanks, and a strong filter as they produce a LOT of waste. Feeder fish in general may also be sickly, partially because of poor breeding, partly because of how easily disease spreads in the stressful situations they are usually kept in. That's not to say they can't be good pets, but be aware of the risk.
If you're going to buy it often, buy it in bulk if possible. You'll usually save money that way (Exception is food if your fish is a picky eater. Nobody wants to be stuck with a fucking gallon of fish food your Gordon-Ramsay-In-Fish-Form refuses to eat).
Embrace the ugly. You may have decided to get a fish for the aesthetic pleasure, but you must remember that it is a living being above all. Fish tanks can be beautiful, and there's no reason they shouldn't be! But if you can't manage pretty and healthy, it is your responsibility to prioritize the health and wellbeing of your fish, whether the tank looks how you want it or not. You might like to be able to see your fish at all times, but if having limited hiding spaces stresses them out, give them somewhere to hide.
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Two principles to protect internet users from decaying platforms
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Today (May 10), I’m in VANCOUVER for a keynote at the Open Source Summit and later a book event for Red Team Blues at Heritage Hall; on Thurs (May 11), I’m in CALGARY for Wordfest.
Internet platforms have reached end-stage enshittification, where they claw back the goodies they once used to lure in end-users and business customers, trying to walk a tightrope in which there’s just enough value left to keep you locked in, but no more. It’s ugly out there.
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/2023/05/10/soft-landings/#e2e-r2e
When the platforms took off — using a mix of predatory pricing, catch-and-kill acquisitions and anti-competitive mergers — they seemed unstoppable. Mark Zuckerberg became the unelected social media czar-for-life for billions of users. Youtube was viewed as the final stage of online video. Twitter seemed a bedrock of public discussion and an essential source for journalists.
During that era, the primary focus for reformers, regulators and politicians was on improving these giant platforms — demanding that they spend hundreds of millions on algorithmic filters, or billions on moderators. Implicit in these ideas was that the platforms would be an eternal fact of life, and the most important thing was to tame them and make them as benign as possible.
That’s still a laudable goal. We need better platforms, though filters don’t work, and human moderation has severe scaling limits and poses significant labor issues. But as the platforms hungrily devour their seed corn, shrinking and curdling, it’s time to turn our focus to helping users leave platforms with a minimum of pain. That is, it’s time to start thinking about how to make platforms fail well, as well as making them work well.
This week, I published a article setting out two proposals for better platform failure on EFF’s Deeplinks blog: “As Platforms Decay, Let’s Put Users First”:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/platforms-decay-lets-put-users-first
The first of these proposals is end-to-end. This is the internet’s founding principle: service providers should strive to deliver data from willing senders to willing receivers as efficiently and reliably as possible. This is the principle that separates the internet from earlier systems, like cable TV or the telephone system, where the service owners decided what information users received and under what circumstances.
The end-to-end principle is a bedrock of internet design, the key principle behind Net Neutrality and (of course) end-to-end-encryption. But when it comes to platforms, end-to-end is nowhere in sight. The fact that you follow someone on social media does not guarantee that you’ll see their updates. The fact that you searched for a specific product or merchant doesn’t guarantee that platforms like Ebay or Amazon or Google will show you the best match for your query. The fact that you hoisted someone’s email out of your spam folder doesn’t guarantee that you will see the next message they send you.
An end-to-end rule would create an obligation on platforms to put the communications of willing senders and willing receivers ahead of the money they can make by selling “advertising” in search priority, or charging media companies and performers to “boost” their posts to reach their own subscribers. It would address the real political speech issues of spamfiltering the solicited messages we asked our elected reps to send us. In other words, it would take the most anti-user platform policies off the table, even as the tech giants jettison the last pretense that platforms serve their users, rather than their owners:
https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/10/e2e/#the-censors-pen
The second proposal is for a right-to-exit: an obligation on tech companies to facilitate users’ departure from their platforms. For social media, that would mean adopting Mastodon-style standards for exporting your follower/followee list and importing it to a rival service when you want to go. This solves the collective action problem that shackles users to a service — you and your friends all hate the service, but you like each other, and you can’t agree on where to go or when to leave, so you all stay:
https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/19/better-failure/#let-my-tweeters-go
For audiences and creators who are locked to bad platforms with DRM — the encryption scheme that makes it impossible for you to break up with Amazon or other giants without throwing away your media — right to exit would oblige platforms to help rightsholders and audiences communicate with one another, so creators would be able to verify who their customers are, and give them download codes for other services.
Both these proposals have two specific virtues: they are easy to administer, and they are cheap to implement.
Take end-to-end: it’s easy to verify whether a platform reliably delivers messages from to all your followers. It’s easy to verify whether Amazon or Google search puts an exact match for your query at the top of the search results. Unlike complex, ambitious rules like “prevent online harassment,” end-to-end has an easy, bright-line test. An “end harassment” rule would be great, but pulling it off requires a crisp definition of “harassment.” It requires a finding of whether a given user’s conduct meets that definition. It requires a determination as to whether the platform did all it reasonably could to prevent harassment. These fact-intensive questions can take months or years to resolve.
Same goes for right-to-exit. It’s easy to determine whether a platform will make it easy for you to leave. You don’t need to convince a regulator to depose the platform’s engineers to find out whether they’ve configured their servers to make this work, you can just see for yourself. If a platform claims it has given you the data you need to hop to a rival and you dispute it, a regulator doesn’t have to verify your claims — they can just tell the platform to resend the data.
Administratibility is important, but so is cost of compliance. Many of the rules proposed for making platforms better are incredibly expensive to implement. For example, the EU’s rule requiring mandatory copyright filters for user-generated content has a pricetag starting in the hundreds of millions — small wonder that Google and Facebook supported this proposal. They know no one else can afford to comply with a rule like this, and buying their way to permanent dominance, without the threat of being disrupted by new offerings, is a sweet deal.
But complying with an end-to-end rule requires less engineering than breaking end-to-end. Services start by reliably delivering messages between willing senders and receivers, then they do extra engineering work to selectively break this, in order to extract payments from platform users. For small platform operators — say, volunteers or co-ops running Mastodon servers — this rule requires no additional expenditures.
Likewise for complying with right-to-exit; this is already present in open federated media protocols. A requirement for platforms to add right-to-exit is a requirement to implement an open standard, one that already has reference code and documentation. It’s not free by any means — scaling up reference implementations to the scale of large platforms is a big engineering challenge — but it’s a progressive tax, with the largest platforms bearing the largest costs.
Both of these proposals put control where it belongs: with users, not platform operators. They impose discipline on Big Tech by forcing them to compete in a market where users can easily slip from one service to the next, eluding attempts to lock them in and enshittify them.
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Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, DC, Gaithersburg, Oxford, Hay, Manchester, Nottingham, London, and Berlin!
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[Image ID: A giant robot hand holding a monkey-wrench. A tiny, distressed human figure is attempting - unsuccessfully - to grab the wrench away.]
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Image: EFF https://www.eff.org/files/banner_library/competition_robot.png
CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/
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uu uuu tan buying the reader a special edition of her favorite book because he knew she'll freak out once she saw it?????
(i'm in my tan era... since i first saw him...)
this so so cute and it IMMEDIATELY reminded me of that episode of friends!! (don’t worry, me too… it’s been a rough near 2 years)
tan has his resources, he's got connections. he knows people. he can find anything in a matter of minutes, but NOT the special edition of your favourite book!! it would not be easy. he'd make tonnes of calls, trying to get info but would come up empty every time. he'd search ebay top to bottom (even across seas) antique shops, the biggest bookstores in the country, every website he could find, different shops when he's abroad for work. he would even look on facebook ?!?!?? (which he hates, but it's for you so he does it)
then maybe he sees that someone knows a person who has one, and then they exchange numbers. he asks if it's for sale, they say no. so then he finds their address and kills them and steals the book… just kidding lol. but he asks them if they are willing to sell and would offer thousands for it. he would pay any amount of money to get that book for you. maybe it's not going so well, so he tries a little pity party, saying how he's been after it for weeks trying to get it for you
maybe the person has no use for it anymore, maybe they're old?? so after hearing what tan said, they'd want to give it for free (crying) tan would say no, saying how he'd try somewhere else and that he wants them to keep the book. maybe they say "take it, make your girl happy"
tan would obvs pay them, giving them a couple hundred more for being so nice/ for the troubles
he'd wouldn't be able to wait to give it to you !!
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seat-safety-switch · 1 year
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All the degenerates know what day of the week the local thrift store puts out its new merchandise. We would join up in the parking lot, queuing for the door, ready to put an elbow into each others’ faces for the first whack at a timing light, obscure videogame, or an industrial-strength blender some normal person just didn’t know how to maintain. Now, though, buying stuff at a thrift store in order to list on eBay for double or triple its official price is a job. And if there’s one thing I hate, it’s a job.
That’s what the internet says, at least. If your boss isn’t paying you enough, you shouldn’t go into his office and open him up with a straight razor. You shouldn’t even ask for a raise while balancing a heavy cleaver dangerously close to his index fingers, after you and the other shop techs handcuff his wrist to his desk drawer. No, you should just use up some of your free time on a “side hustle.” Sure, you’re still working for a pittance, but it’s your pittance. If your hobby doesn’t make money, then fuck off. Only the rich can afford not to be profitable doing the things they love.
So, all across this great nation, we see folks driving hundreds of kilometres to buy new things from Walmart, and then sell them on Amazon. Now, when you go to Walmart, all the Recycled Engine Oil Product® from Hyun-seung Heavy Industrial Concern has been raptured up into the internet, where folks will pay approximately seventeen cents more per bottle in order to get it delivered. And that’s just new stuff – now, when I throw my fist into someone’s face at the thrift store, I’m no longer just worried about what reprisals will await me in the parking lot, but also if I am starving the children of the family which depends on eBay’s PowerSeller® reduced-fee incentive structure. Not enough to not throw that punch, mind you, but maybe just a little bit softer than I used to. Dental work is expensive, even if you do it yourself. Some asshole keeps buying up all the two-part dental epoxy that gets donated to the industrial surplus store and listing it on eBay, too.
Don’t worry, though. I’m in it for the love of the game. There’s no way I’d ever – wait a minute, people are paying how much for intact Volare dashboards? I sure hope I have enough sawzall blades to get all these out before the post office closes.
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phantominzie · 3 months
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Boycott Ebay, as they just helped the theft of 76,700 dollars that would have been donated to the children of Palestine.
Benoftheweek on Youtube has just made this video. He intended to sell acrylic nails on Ebay, and said that the highest bid would be given to the PCRF charity in full. The person who put the bid of $76,700, her name is Tara, rescinded her bid. If Tara had cared to read the terms and conditions of Ebay she would know perfectly well that she would have to pay the money she bid for. What makes it worse is that she would have been following Benoftheweek on Twitter, where he posted that he was having this auction, to see that every penny was going to the children of Palestine. Tara, or tafuhtr-0 on Ebay, knew that she just took over a QUARTER OF A ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS from children whose homes and being bombed, whose families could be separated, WHO ARE WATCHING THEIR HOME BURN AT THE HANDS OF GENOCIDE, she took all that money back.
But, of course, the story gets worse. Ebay, MADE BENOFTHEWEEK CANCEL THE BID AND GIVE HER ALL OF THE MONEY BACK. EBAY THEN CHARGED HIM FOR BREAKING A RULE THAT HE NEVER BROKE. Which means that Tara, this sick, horrible, evil, creation of a woman, got off scotch free. Meanwhile, the man who wanted to give money to a country who is going through a mass genocide, got his account on Ebay terminated, and had to pay EBAY FOR BREAKING A RULE HE, AGAIN, NEVER. FUCKING. BROKE.
I don't care how you do it but please watch the video below. Ben has now decided the next best thing is to donate every penny of ad revenue on the video to the PCRF charity. He has also said that if you were to donate directly it would help the cause as well. You don't have to sit down and watch it, you can leave it on in the background, but please do it. It makes me so fucking mad to see shit like this happen, so please, also boycott Ebay as well. Please, @ them on Twitter, Insta, and form of social media and tell them to give the 76,700 dollars they rightfully owe to Palestine, because this shit is fucking repulsive.
Do everything you can to share this, reblog this, the children of Palestine need this. Alright, you know your mission, now do it.
youtube
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