#they're still only £1.50 each

[nothorses]

i regularly help my mom with door dash and i see this all the time. sometimes we get an order that's, say, $6 going down the road and we think "oh that's really good!" and we assume that would be like, a $2-$3 tip, right?

no.

often when someones food hasn't been picked up in a long time, door dash will raise the base pay drivers are given to entice people to take it. we've taken entire family dinners to people for 0 tip because of this and it pisses us off every time... my entire family is disabled and other than our social security this is our main income.

if you can't afford to pay someone for their labor, you can't afford the fucking food! go eat somewhere else!

Also, like, doordash calculates the cost based on the price of the meal rather than the distance driven; your one-person Wendy's meal that takes me 20 minutes to get to you (between the drive-through line, the drive itself, finding your place, and the handoff) still only pays me, like, $2.50.

Your tip might be another $1.50 on that, and that's $4 for a half hour of my time; then I have to wait and possibly drive a ways back into the dash zone just to get another job, and by the time I'm on my way to the next job, I might have made $4 for, at minimum, 30 minutes of labor. If you short me the tip on that as well, I made $2.50. If that happens to me again, I make $5 for the whole hour.

Bear in mind that the hours you're most likely to make any money during the day amount to like, 2 hours in the afternoon and another 4 in the evening.

And like you said, drivers don't see the tip until after they deliver the order, at the soonest. You can finish a whole order thinking you're getting paid fairly, only to find out afterward that the customer fucked you over.

The zone I started working in also had the only Safeway in the area, and the Safeway contracted us for deliveries; customers didn't have access to the Doordash site/app, and literally could not tip us except in cash when we showed up (which I only ever had happen once).

Safeway doesn't tip.

At one point I drove 20 minutes from the Safeway to the customer, and that's after waiting in line for 15 minutes to pick the order up, and before another 20 minute drive back into the delivery zone to get my next order, plus the handoff. About an hour of labor. The Safeway order paid me $7.

That's less than half of minimum wage in this area.

Drivers in that zone tell each other not to take Safeway orders because they don't tip, and they're never worth the pay. The catch is that every time you turn an order down, your % of orders accepted lowers; if it drops under 70%, you receive less orders for less pay.

So even if you do turn down an order that you know isn't going to pay well, you're punished by the app, and given fewer opportunities to make money, period. You are pressured to work for less, and to gamble on shit orders in the vain hope of a decent tip to compensate.

Servers rely on your tips. They do not have an option. This isn't a hypothetical; you are causing direct harm. Yes, Doordash needs to fucking do better, and it's not your fault they're set up like that. But your asshole choices have an impact on us because of that, and knowing that, you can choose not to cause harm.

[fourseasonsfigs]

Building Block Figs - Beautiful Fight Scene in the Middle of the Lake (Part One)

Figthusiast friends, it's time for a little something different! Today we have the first of a series of building block Word of Honor fig sets.

I first saw these sets earlier this year when I was browsing for figs on Xianyu, my favorite secondary market app. I stopped my scrolling in total surprise when I first saw a picture, and was like wait...are these actually Lego-type Word of Honor figs??? I zoomed in, and lo and behold, they sure were.

I absolutely loved Legos when I was a kid. My family didn't have enough money to be able to buy much in the way of expensive toys, but I did save up my babysitting money so I could buy a few of them myself. It took a long time at $1.50 an hour!

So, of course when I saw these, the nostalgia factor combined with my fandom fig obsession made these a must buy.

Today's fig is that the first set I found. It's called (via MTL) "Beautiful Fight Scene in the Middle of the Lake", which I must congratulate for being extremely descriptive and 100% accurate.

As soon as I saw this, I did an immediate search on Taobao and Weidian to see if I could just buy the set vs. pick it up off Xianyu. For two reasons. One, I can buy directly off Taobao (vs using a third party purchase agent for Xianyu), and two, I was hoping there was more in the series than this one figure. However, they were no longer being sold on either platform, so Xianyu it was.

I browsed around and was lucky enough to find a seller on Xianyu that did, in fact, have other sets in the series, and who was clearing them all out, brand new and unopened. She noted that she was still a fan, she just had never had the time to put these together and realized now with her workload she probably never would. I bought all three of her sets, including this one, for about $37 total, which is about half off the retail of 179 yuan per set they originally went for (about $25 each). I thought this was a great deal considering the actual costs of specialized Lego sets these days, even non-branded building block sets.

As far as I can tell, there are four big sets that are famous scenes from the show, and three small sets that are just our two favorite leads only. I was able to buy the three big scenes off that one person, and one of the set of figs-only, but I'm still missing some (too many!). I keep checking Xianyu. I was actually surprised to see the other day there was another set I didn't know existed - but sadly it ended up being sold out. I'll keep looking.

Anyway!

The Beautiful Fight Scene in the Middle of the Lake is a 1,236 piece set, measures 8.4 x 16.8 x 12.4 cm, and it's rated about 8 hours to complete. It's the fastest of the big sets (the remainder of which are rated 10, 10, and 11 hours respectively). In retrospect, should I have started with the smaller figs-only set (rated 2 hours)? Probably. But I was just so charmed by this set, and I only have one lake fig set to date, so this seemed like something very fun. Plus, as you will hear about later, I did not fully understand the specs until well after I was almost done assembling the very last set.

I had a surgical procedure that was scheduled this month (and is why I've been out of commission for a while), and I had specially saved up these sets as fun projects to make while I was recovering. I figured it would be nice to have something to look forward to.

So, post surgery, once I felt up to sitting up, I made myself a comfy little nest and settled in with my little boxes of treasures.

This is the pic from the seller - you would never know these were Word of Honor sets. They're just generic boxes from the manufacturer, with a small sticker on the top to indicate what set it is, along with a QR code.

I excitedly opened up the box, to find a bag o'bricks, a small black plastic piece and another sticker with QR code.

It turns out the little black plastic piece is a super handy little tool to quickly and easily break assembled bricks apart. Which is great if you accidentally assemble any steps incorrectly, as I would soon find out.

The QR code was for the directions, which were, in a quantum technological leap forward from my admittedly decades ago Lego experiences, online and fully 3-dimensional.

Pretty cute! I decided to go in order, and indeed start with the simple looking raft.

As a side note, I will tell you that I started this completely sure I was going to be able to assemble this set in an afternoon. I had somehow completely missed the MTL for the estimated assembly time until literally just now, as I was translating pics for this blog post. The set seemed fairly small in the picture, and while it has indeed been decades since I put together a Lego set, I'm (literally) an old hand at it. I felt extremely confident. Overconfident, you might say, given that my exact mental words to myself as I clicked on the raft image was, I'm gonna knock this thing out in no time.

Doesn't look like much, does it?

I figured that before I did anything else, I would sort by colors and shapes, so when I was ready to get started, I could move really fast. So I sorted. And sorted. And sorted some more. The bag doesn't look like a lot of bricks, but let me tell you, there were a LOT (1,236, which once again, I only realized until I was researching for this very blog post). Unlike Legos, these were all thin single-brick height, so there were no 4x4x4 type bricks, for example. It made it easier to sort, but as I was sorting (and sorting some more), I realized that it might take a lot of building to get significant height going.

Eventually, after about an hour, I got them all sorted, and felt very accomplished, if a bit tired. I took a little nap, and then settled back into my crafting nest, and then got ready to, and I quote myself once again, bang this sucker out.

The directions started with an image of the final product, which was helpful.

I will say the online direction interface was pretty amazing. I could zoom in, spin around, go upside down, view it any which way I wanted to by pinching and pulling at my phone's screen. It was fantastic, and certainly made it much easier. That little circle on the right side is the "next direction" button, and helpfully the number in the circle tells you how many steps you have left. There were 34 steps in this raft, and you can tell by the number here I'm not too far along.

Here's a little further as I gamely plug along. I got momentarily confused early on by the colors - there's a dark blue, a medium blue, and a light blue, and I had started assembling the raft with medium blue instead of dark blue. I got to figure out how useful that brick de-assembler was real fast, let me tell you. I also started screenshotting and translating the colors until I felt I had a good handle on what exact colors I should be picking.

You can see here how I can zoom in to figure out exactly where to place the bricks. You can't tell by the screenshot, but the bricks you are laying in each particular step blink, and are outlined in dark black like you see in the shot above. It's very handy.

I got into a groove pretty quick. For each step, I'd count and select the bricks shown in the little legend at the bottom, and put them in a little pile next to me. I did this to make sure I used up all the bricks each layer, as early on I was just following the directions and not realizing that some steps you had to put the brick underneath other ones, which would not be visible on the blinking screen unless I pinched and pulled the model to flip it around on the screen. If I got to the end of the step and still had bricks left, I knew one (or more) were hiding, and I could rotate the image around until I found where they should go. Yes, I did learn this the hard way, naturally.

After a good long time, I finally finished the raft! I will say, I was a bit puzzled that the raft is green and blue, as we well know the raft in the show is just bamboo.

Did I re-watch the scene just to make triple sure? I sure did!

So there's actually two rafts, this simple one here in the foreground, and then the bigger, sturdier raft there behind the boat. It's this first raft that this set is capturing, and more or less this moment, if not at such an acute angle.

I may actually rearrange the figures to be in this particular configuration later. Stay tuned!

It turns out that the raft is these colors because (now that I've put a lot of them together) the company doesn't appear to make many brick colors. The blues are unusual in the sense there are actually three different shades. The red bricks I have have only ever been one fire engine red color, and the brown bricks only one medium brown. So, rather than make the raft uniformly all brown, they made it colorful with the blue and green, perhaps to simulate the water. I admire the colorful nature of it, but I have to say, I'm contemplating re-doing the raft when I finish all the kits. Each kit has leftover bricks, and I seem to have a lot of brown bricks left over. I think I'm going to try remaking this with a brown raft base and black for the lines instead, with some blue and more of the transparent bricks to simulate water. Stay tuned for that, too!

So, by the time I finished the raft, I was beat. Super tired, and surprised it took as long as it did. BUT, I reasoned it only made sense since it was the very first piece I did, so naturally it would take longer than most. It was time to sleep.

The next day, I woke up bright and early, on a mission. On to Wen Kexing!

I started confident (confidence is never my problem, unfortunately, but it is sometimes A problem) that now that I had experience, I could in fact, bust this bad boy out.

I was merrily assembling away, and I happened to take a closer look at the directions - specifically, the little number in the bottom circle.

I don't know if you can see this number, but it is two of Gong Jun's favorite number 88. That's right, EIGHTY-EIGHT. I was like, what?!? How many was there in this figure? I've been going for a while (answer, as I scrolled back through the directions, is 111).

Remember how I said that these are all single-ply building bricks? Yep. Takes a bunch to turn them into a tall, yet humble philanthropist. Well, the only way out is through, right?

The directions kept having me assembling parts, and then having me set them aside for later. It looked nothing like a mild and gentle scholar, but I've found that, similar to life and perhaps also Ikea assembly instructions, sometimes you just have forge ahead and take it on faith that things are gonna work out.

Ah ha! Suddenly it IS starting to make a little sense. I recognize that costume!

(Sidebar to say, we all recognize this costume! And we know this gorgeous pale green outer robe is not, in fact, blue. I was slightly taken aback by this until I realized later the thing about the factory's lack of colors. The bright, intense grass green of the only green option (other than neon green, ahahaha) would have been even less suitable for our peacock's fine feathers, so actually this is a very good choice).

MAY I also note that number in the bottom right hand circle is 55. FIFTY-FIVE.

I'm gonna fast forward through the naps and the breaks, and just take one quick other picture break:

I just about cheered when I got to this point! I was like, oh there he is! You can also tell by the quality of light and the shadows that it was late at night at this point. On a different day.

Anyway, we arrive at the glorious conclusion:

Hooray! I was so happy and tickled at this point. I was just so charmed by him. His little rosy cheeks, his side wispies on his hair, the motion of him standing on one foot. The back of his hair is fantastic too, although you can't see it here yet.

On to our beloved A-Xu...

May I just say how DELIGHTED I am that this is indeed hobo-Xu? His little beard and goatee combo in brick form just made me giggle.

First thing, I checked to see how many steps our reclusive hobo had. 115, which I appreciated for Zhang Zhehan's birthday kadian, if nothing else.

You can tell by the colors and shadows that once again this is a different evening, here on step 77 and about to graduate to step 76:

Once again it looked pretty unrecognizable, except that now I had done one fig, I was starting to understand kind of where they were going.

Plus, Lao Wen got to watch this time. In the daytime, as you can tell by the nice bright light.

Annnd it's night time again. Ahahahaha, I love this fig! I really like how they did his bangs. You can see here too some of his glorious black hair streaming out behind him.

By the way, at this point the tips of my fingers were quite sore in a stingy kind of oversensitive way. Sadly, typing away at a keyboard all the time (also for decades!) at my desk job has in no way toughened up my fingers. I did not think snapping bricks into place and pushing down on them to squeeze them tightly together would tax them so much. Sitting here typing this, actually, my fingers are still sore (I am admittedly working my way though the last set, the 11 hour one).

It's yet another (different) evening, and at last, A-Xu is here! I was so happy to get to this point!

Annnnd I'm out of picture slots to do the full beauty 360 degree spin of these two. Sorry to make you wait (although you may be tired of such a massive post already!), but come back tomorrow for Part Two!

Material: Plastic building bricks

Fig Count: 500 (I'm gonna wait to count these until tomorrow)

Scene Count: 32 (same)

Rating: Lots of fun, actually. I'll give the in-depth low-down tomorrow!

[link to the Master Post Index]

#word of honor #shan he ling #wenzhou #wen kexing #zhou zishu #word of honor merch #figthusiast

[aelyryapayne]

October Writing Prompts, Day 11: Pumpkin Spice

For the prompt list, from Creative Writing Prompts, see here

Minor rage time...

I don't understand the weird fascination, the borderline obsession, with pumpkin spice. I also don't understand the stupidity of some folks regarding it.

No, that isn't what pumpkin tastes like.

Pumpkin is sweet and often honeyed in flavour. It drove me mad to hear folks at my old job saying they liked pumpkin, but then admitting that they had never tried an actual pumpkin, only pumpkin spice lattes or whatever. Pumpkin Spice is short for Pumpkin PIE Spice. It's a spice blend. THAT, is what you like. The taste of pumpkin in pumpkin spice latte is minimal, and generally overpowered by the spices and sugar used to make the syrup. And that leads me on to stupidity number 2.

No, this isn't something that you can only get in Autumn.

Nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and ginger, the base of Pumpkin Spice blends, are available ALL YEAR ROUND. This particular spice blend also makes up the base of most winter recipes as well! The combination is warming and soothing, just what you need in cold months. Folks don't use it during the rest of the year because it's warm, and they're looking for refreshing tastes instead. But the fact remains, you can still get them. Most folks I worked with DID NOT KNOW THIS!

No, it's not new, or special, or unusual.

Pumpkin Spice has existed as a blend for centuries, and you can make all kinds of things with the blend. Cookies, pancakes, muffins, roast seasonings... you name it, you can probably make it with this blend! It isn't special. It isn't new or unusual or unique. That's just commercialism convincing you that it is so that you pay a ridiculously inflated price for what is essentially half a teaspoon of spice blend that you can make yourself at home for less than the price of that stupid latte!

A lot of the people I worked with had this idea that Pumpkin Spice was super expensive, and that's why it only comes out in October, but it's really not. You can buy jars of each individual spice for £1, and bearing in mind you get multiple servings out of a blend (about 12 servings if you make on a 4 - 1 - 1/2 - 1/2 tsp ratio) you're saving a LOT of money! You can also buy a can of pumpkin puree for between £1.50-£2, depending on brand, getting a lot out of that too!

The reason they market it only in October is because of Halloween. They're taking advantage of a REALLY old traditional recipe for pumpkin pie and making you pay through the nose for it, all because of a round, orange member of the squash family that most folks turn into carved lanterns for one night a year!

I'm not sure I will ever understand the fascination with Pumpkin Spice during October. But here's my though - folks should try making it themselves at least once at home. You'll probably find that you'll like it even better when you can adjust the measurements to suit your personal tastes. And you'll save a boatload of cash too!

#October Writing Prompts #October Writing Challenge #Pumpkin Spice

[cupcakegame]

Trying to find a Baking Specialty? Think about Cupcakes!

Can not state specifically when it occurred, but cupcakes have made an actually large return. The "Once Upon a Time" mainly, youngsters's dessert is now a favorite of any ages and also for all celebrations cupcake game. Many companies are profiting this reasonably simple-to-make, easy-to-frost as well as embellish treat. Otherwise as a specialized business, they're adding cupcakes to their existing product line. Just exactly how versatile can a cupcake be? Well, you can utilize nearly any kind of cake batter that's ideal for a bigger cake. Sizewise there's whatever from a mini to a king size that's so large it's baked in 2 components (Super Duper Cupcake Pan). There are hundreds of ways to decorate. There is a full closet of devices to provide each cupcake a well-dressed sleek presentation. Products like: cupcake cooking linings, cupcake wrappers, cupcake sleeves (in several colors and designs), bakery boxes (in pink as well as white) as well as special inserts for the bakery boxes all assist to provide your products and also service an expert appearance. You're restricted only to your creative imagination and creativity. How much can you charge for cupcakes? Rates vary from $1.50 - $4.00 per cupcake as well as possibly a lot more. Your prices must be based upon: the quantity of active ingredients and decorations/garnishes utilized, the types of components used (better equates to greater rate), start-to-finish manufacturing time (some cake batters and designs are more engaged and elaborate than others), special packaging and the size of the cupcake. Who's interested in purchasing cupcakes and wherefore reasons? Cupcakes are in need for both business and personal. There's a cupcake market for: style events as well as events, holidays, unique celebrations, wedding events, Sunday dinner, even if and treat on your own. For the much healthier way of living, there are vegan cupcakes. Tough to think about any occasion or require that's not covered. Specialized pastry shops like CamiCakes in Jacksonville, FL and also Atlanta, GA, Sweet Carolina Cupcakes in Hilton Head, SC, George Town Cupcakes in Washington, DC, Molly's Cupcakes in Chicago, Il The Atlanta Cupcake Factory in Atlanta, GA as well as Gigi's Cupcakes in Nashville, TN (with locations in 8 other states) are simply a few of the lots of cupcake specialists around the nation. Got a min? Check out the on the internet remarks from their customers. Definitely food for assumed if you're planning to supply cupcakes in your product line. It's terrific when you can pick up from somebody else's success or errors, whichever the instance could be. Still trying to find indicators that the cupcake organization is hot? The Food Network Channel has a tv show, "CupCake Wars", that's all about cupcakes. Desire a lot more? There's also an internet site dedicated to talking concerning cupcakes, CupcakeBlog.com. I recommend you get in while it's HOT if the baking as well as selling of these sweet little treats rate of interest you. Simply choose your most preferred cake flavors as well as frostings. Develop a few kicked-up layouts. Pick the appropriate product packaging, to ensure that your cupcakes are not compressed or shattered when the bakeshop box is closed. Do a little research study to find out what the going prices are in your location. Decide cost(s) finest for you. Create a good advertising and marketing technique. See to it you have the proper license as well as allows to operate a baking company. As well as you're prepared to bake and also market cupcakes. Idea: Don't neglect top quality. High quality is always KEY in the food business.

[solesurvivorkat]

Pair Eyewear

My writing (and YouTube channel, and a couple other of my interests) had taken a bit of a backseat lately, because I found a new special interest to distract me:

Pair Eyewear

(Note: this turned into a bit of a longer post, so I put it behind a cut. I am NOT sponsored by/affiliated with Pair in any way, I just wanted to share some of my personal thoughts/experiences with them thus far.)

I knew my eyesight was changing just a little bit (not to a point in which I couldn't see, but I could still tell it wasn't 100% the same), and it had been years since my last eye checkup. I had to wait quite a bit for my eye appointment to be scheduled, and then wait for the appointment day to arrive.

It was really hard to wait because in the meantime, I'd discovered the beauty of Pair Eyewear, and just how addicting it can be. Longer story short, for those of you who've never heard of it: Imagine getting a pair of glasses, and then making that frame look (decoration-wise) almost any way you want/can imagine - either to match any outfit, or reflect any interest/decorative idea. That's Pair. Glasses with small magnets on the base frame - and then you can order different tops (also w/ magnets on them, to stay on the base pair) to align over the base pair to make them look different.

They have all different categories of top frames (or 'toppers', as they're often referred by):

...Not enough? Fine - you can also find people who create and sell their own toppers on Etsy (depending on the style of base frame you get - some people don't create for all styles) or Facebook. Really - the only limit is your imagination (...or your wallet, I suppose, lol).

There's also over 10 different styles of base frames (round, rectangular, cat-eye, narrow, medium, wide, etc), and 6 different colors the base frames can come in, so there's tons of room for customization.

When I finally had my eye appt. (more on that in a sec) and got my glasses prescription, I could finally try out Pair! I picked out the 'Reese' base frame (narrow, round frames... cat-eye frames ad rectangular frames seem to be really popular, but they're not for me personally).

Again - much longer story short, I loved seeing all the different colors/designs/types of toppers I could choose from (toppers range from $20-30 each, depending). After quite a bit of time looking at tons of them (and they're also coming out w/ a 'summer collection' in a couple days, God help me, lol), I purchased my base frame, a sunglasses topper, and a few other toppers from Pair:

I didn't order the star ones in time for Memorial Day, but I'll still have 'em for July 4th. The cheeseburger ones were so goofy that I knew I HAD to buy them (LOL), the silver sparkle ones were pretty, and Spider-Man is totally my young son's thing, so I knew I had to get those too. (I got a few more from misc. sellers on Facebook - I'll talk about those when they arrive in the mail)

The base frames start at $60 - however. That's the price for either a single-strength prescription, or if you just wanted to get Non-Rx glasses (blue light blocking, OTC readers, etc).

I was not as lucky, lol.

The good news is that without glasses, my eyesight is technically still 20/20 - I can see 'legally' well enough that it doesn't hinder my driving or everyday life much. But my eyesight is starting to go a tiny bit - I've worn OTC reading glasses (+1.50s) for years, and turns out I also am starting to have a tiny bit of trouble reading tiny print 100% clearly from further away (think like, hanging menus in take-out restaurants - I can read them, but the words aren't 100% crisp like they would be in someone w/ perfect eyesight).

The optometrist told me I could go w/o glasses if I wanted and I'd be fine (unless my sight suddenly got worse, and I'll get them rechecked in 2 years) - but if I wanted to wear glasses, I'd either have to get 2 different pairs (one for reading, one for further away) or just get readers and deal w/ the slightly blurry further-away tiny words.

ANYWAY - I really wanted my Pairs (lol), so I ordered what is called 'Progressive' lenses - think like, bifocals w/o the lines in the lenses. I've heard that some angles in the lenses can look slightly distorted & it may take a tiny bit if getting used to - but I was willing to take the risk (I've heard mostly good things about Par progressive glasses).

Progressive/bifocal/multifocal lenses, obviously because they have more than one strength, will cost more than just the $60 base price. Depending on what your Rx needs are (plus you can add-on blue light-blocking features, transition lenses that darken in brighter light, and some other options if you want - I did not), the cost can go from $60 to a few hundred dollars (off the top of my head, I think mine were in the $200-range).

...Yes, this is definitely more pricey - but (in theory) I would see better, and with all the customization options I had, it was worth the money. Some people have several pairs of glasses just b/c they want different styles/looks... this is ONE pair w/ different toppers you can change out. Plus, some people spend that much (or more!) for REGULAR glasses, so really - seemed totally worth it.

AT ANY RATE: If anyone is interested, definitely check it out. I should get my new glasses in the mail tomorrow (after lots of impatient waiting, lol) so I'll let you know how they are - and if anyone decides to buy from them, use the code/link below and I can save you a little money in the process. :-)

Get $25 off your first order of $60 or more!

#Pair eyewear #The Reese #Reese is the word #Reese lightning #yes I am a dork #but I'm a (relatively) happy dork #lol #prescription glasses #customizable glasses #express yourself #glasses don't have to be boring #or a burden #patience is hard #Patience is not my strong suit

[freckleslikestars]

Mulder and Scully’s FBI badge stickers up now on Etsy

First ten orders get a free I want to believe sticker!

#my art #shameless self promotion #txf #xf fanart #please support me!! #I always try to keep their prices reasonable #but these ones took me soooo long to design #they're still only £1.50 each #or £2.50 for the pair #but that's more than I usually charge #I dunno #I feel kinda weird about charging more #but also I know it took me about 6 hours total #anyway #I think theyre my favourite Ive made so far #the x files #mulder and scully #mulder #scully #stickers #support small artists #support small buisnesses

[one-abuse-survivor]

my dad isn’t in my life anymore. no contact allowed. currently trying to get him to accept an avo against him (a violence order mainly means he can’t contact us or go near us). but he’s still fucking managed to control land ruin my life. he won’t accept. saying it’s baseless and everything we said isn’t true. wouldn’t even accept to call us kids on a wednesday unless the avo was taken away. he’s selfish and only thinking off himself. he also has started giving us money. which, when he was home he never did. you would have to beg for it. he wouldn’t buy us a 1.50 chocolate as he only wanted to spend a 1 on it. he was always a cheapskate and never spent money on any but his fishing, keep in mind he has around 30 grand sitting in his bank. but last week, he gave me and my sister 150. this week, another 100. but didn’t give my brother anything. sure he doesn’t have an account but he has an account for when he turns 18. i’m pissed. i feel uncomfortable. i don’t want his money and i know he’s trying to give it to us to win us over on his side as neither of me or my sister like him. my brother does. idk what to do anymore. he’s a horrible person, homophobic too and i’m gay. i don’t want his money but i have no way to send it back. i feel like shit and want to cry. idk what to do anymore :(

I'm so sorry you're going through this, nonnie :(

What he's doing right now, insisting that you're lying about everything and sending you money, are forms of gaslighting and love-bombing, respectively, and they're not an uncommon reaction among abusers when victims/survivors take steps to protect themselves (legally, but also physically, emotionally, financially, etc). It's a desperate attempt to convince you to give them another chance: to let down your guard and take away all the barriers you've put between you and them, like the avo, in your case. It's an attempt to make you question your own memories and start to believe that they're actually good and caring and willing to give you all those things they didn't give you when you were under their control. I really hope you know that's what he's doing and you're taking every step possible to continue to stay away from him.

I'm so sorry he's sending you all this unwanted money, but please, remember you haven't asked him to. It's not your responsibility or decision, it's his, and you don't owe him anything just because he's choosing to send you all this money. I know the feeling of wanting to send it back, but if you can't, I just hope you know it's okay do whatever you want with it. There's nothing you can do that will make you owe him anything in this life. There's nothing he can give you that will mean you owe him a second chance.

This is just an idea and you're absolutely allowed to ignore it, but if it'll make you feel better, you could always donate the money he's sending you to a local LGBTQ+ organisation. Or you could spend it on yourself and mentally throw it in his face that "ha! A homophobe's money is making a gay person's life better. Take that!" Or you could use it to further protect yourself from him, if that's an option somehow.

I'm glad you have your sister by your side, at least. I hope you can help each other remember that he doesn't get to be in your lives in any way if you don't want him to, no matter what he does to try to win you over.

Sending all my support your way ❤

#ask #abuse #abuse tw #abusive father tw #homophobia tw #manipulation tw #financial abuse tw #guilt tripping tw #gaslighting tw #love bombing tw

[xtruss]

Americans Used to Eat Pigeon All the Time—and It Could Be Making a Comeback

It’s reviled by city slickers, but revered by chefs.

— By Eleanor Cummins | February 16, 2018 | Popular Science

A vintage postcard of a pigeon plant. Wikimedia Commons

Brobson Lutz remembers his first squab with perfect clarity. It was the 1970s at the now-closed French restaurant Lutèce in New York City. “I came from North Alabama where there was a lot of dove and quail hunting and I knew how tasty little birds were,” the fast-talking Southerner recalls. “I’m not even sure if I knew then if it was a baby pigeon or not. But I became enamored with them.”

When he returned home, however, the New Orleans-based physician found pigeon meat in short supply. The bird was occasionally served in the Big Easy, but to satiate his need for squab, Lutz had to get creative. For a time, he says, he would call Palmetto Pigeon Plant, the country’s largest squab producer, and try to buy in bulk. “I pretended like I was a restaurant chef on the telephone to buy some from them, because they were only wholesale,” he says.

Eventually, Lutz decided to take matters into his own hands—and onto his own property. He bought some land along the Mississippi River, retrofitted a building into a pigeon loft, and bought a few pairs of breeding birds. “My initial plan was to go commercial, and I had a restaurant that wanted ‘em,” he says. But he’s found out he’s gotten a quarter of the production he expected. “I don’t know if it’s too hot here in the summer or if they’re not happy here or something, I’m lucky if I get from one pair six babies a year.” It’s enough to fill Lutz, but not enough to share his passion for pigeon meat with his fellow Louisianans.

Squab, once among the most common sources of protein in the United States, has fallen out of favor in the last century. The speedy, handsome, tender, and tasty pigeon of yesteryear was replaced in the hearts and minds of post-World War II Americans with the firsthand experience of the city pigeon, whose excrement encrusts our cities. It was replaced on the plate, too, by the factory-farmed chicken. But thanks to foodies like Lutz, squab is making a slow and steady comeback in French and Chinese restaurants around the country. Trouble is, the bird’s unique development needs mean farmers struggle to meet the growing demand.

A kit of passenger pigeons called for a shoot-out. Wikimedia Commons

Allen Easterly of Rendezvous Farm in Virginia sells his squabs in the Washington, D.C. area. He says most people are ignorant of the pigeon's culinary value—and that many seem to wish they could stay in the dark. "At the farmer's market, people say, 'What are squab?' And you say, 'Young pigeons.' And they go, 'Ew,'" he says. "They're thinking of the city birds pooping all over statues."

Pigeons may be reviled in the United States today, but as any squab enthusiast will tell you, for most of human history, the 310-ish species in the pigeon-dove family were revered. The little birds were a common theme for Pablo Picasso, who named his daughter Paloma, the Spanish word for dove. And physicist and futurist Nikola Tesla sought solace in his avian neighbors. One night in 1922, his favorite pigeon flew into his window looking distressed and eventually died. He reportedly said, "I loved that pigeon as a man loves a woman, and she loved me."

Since at least ancient Egypt, domesticated pigeons have served as a messengers. Their enviable speed and pristine sense of direction made them an important communication strategy well into the 20th century. Even when telegrams and eventually phone lines criss-crossed the continent, pigeons were often more reliable. During World War I, homing pigeons were used to discreetly deliver messages across enemy lines. One bird, Cher Ami, famously delivered a life-saving note to Army headquarters, despite being shot through the breast and blinded on her flight across the battlefield. She was awarded a French military honor, the Croix de Guerre, and her one-legged body (Cher Ami's right limb was also lost in her fated journey) sits taxidermied in the Smithsonian Museum of American History.

The pigeon's descent into the proverbial gutter is hard to chart, but its fate appears to have been sealed by 1914. That year, the last of the wild passenger pigeons, a little bird named Martha, died in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo. The birds were once so plentiful in North America that a kit (that's the collective noun for a group of pigeons) in the midst of migration could black out the sun. As they traipsed across the Midwest and Eastern United States, snacking in farmer's fields along the way, hungry humans would pull the babies from the nest and cook them for a quick meal. But deforestation and overhunting—people not only stole the babies, but shot the adults from the sky—drove them to extinction in just a few centuries.

For those who remembered the passenger pigeon's prime, squab remained a popular dish. The birds merely morphed from a kitchen staple to a rare treat sourced from local farms or shipped in from faraway poultry plants. But these days, pigeon is a dish best served defensively. For the generations after World War II, who have grown up on factory-farmed chicken at the expense of other birds, the pigeon is a nuisance, not a source of nutrition. In the 1960s, prices for pigeon meat dropped as demand for pest control skyrocketed. In 1980, Woody Allen dubbed the same New York City pigeons Tesla adored "rats with wings" in his film Stardust Memories.

While it's true that city pigeons shouldn't be eaten, rumors that they are a particularly diseased bird are just that—rumors. Pigeons are no more likely to carry avian disease than any other bird, but we have made these feral birds moderately dangerous by feeding them our trash. Unlike farm breeds, which are carefully controlled and fed a special diet, city pigeons clean up our forgotten pizza crusts... and likely ingest rodenticide, battery acid, and lead along the way.

Around the same time that enterprising businessmen began putting up spikes and spreading poisons in pigeon-dense parks, the chicken, previously a fragile and finicky bird prized primarily for its eggs, became the nation's leading source of poultry. In 1916, just two years after Martha the passenger pigeon died in captivity, scientists began work to develop a "broiler" chicken, bred specifically for meat production. The hope was the bird would grow big and grow fast. After years of tinkering, the Cobb company launched its breeding program in the 1940s and other poultry producers soon followed. By 1960, the National Chicken Council reports, the per capita consumption of chicken was around 28 pounds. In 2018, the council projects we'll each consume about 92.5 pounds of the bird.

Despite the public vitriol and stiff competition from chicken, a few folks, motivated by the pigeon's gastronomic promise, have preserved the squab-eating tradition. Scott Schroeder is the owner and chef of Hungry Pigeon, a restaurant in Philadelphia. Trained in French cooking, he started eating squab early in his career, and has only become more enamored of its taste. "I really fell deeply in love with them in a way," he says of squab carcasses. "The breast in particular tastes like a mixture of duck and steak at the same time, which to me sounds really good."

There are two reasons for this unique flavor. First, pigeons are an entirely dark meat bird, meaning they have a high concentration of myoglobin, the oxygen-storing protein that gives dark meat its unique color and taste. Where myoglobin is concentrated in a chicken’s legs, it courses through a pigeon’s entire body, allowing for a more succulent, if iron-intense, eating experience. The second factor is the age at which a pigeon is killed. Like veal, the prized meat of young cows, farmers kill squab when they’re young and their meat is tender. By trapping them just days before they take their first flight—typically around four weeks old—farmers ensure that the meat around a baby pigeon’s wings are never used and therefore never hardened.

In France, squab is often pan-roasted, with a cream-colored crispy skin. In Chinese cuisine, the squab is usually fried, so it's served up whole and bronzed like Peking duck. In Morocco, squab is commonly served in a pastilla, an elaborate and pastry-centric take on the pot pie. While the first two preparations require a young, supple bird, the pastilla can use adult pigeon, too, as the slow-cooked process is enough to soften the more mature meat.

In the United States, the taste for pigeon meat remains rare, but the meat itself is rarer still. Schroeder recently had to remove squab from his menu at the Hungry Pigeon. His supplier—"a really nice Mennonite man named Joe Weaver who is the opposite of Purdue Chicken"—stopped selling the birds and the chef hasn't found another source of squab at a reasonable price. While a generic whole chicken costs around $1.50 a pound, a one-pound squab is typically 10 times that; depending on who you buy it from, prices for a whole pigeon can trend north of $25. “A hundred years ago, everyone was eating them,” Schroeder says. “Now, you can’t find them, unless you’re filthy rich.”

From the National Standard Squab Book (1921). Left page, top: "Squabs one week old." Left page, bottom: "Squabs two weeks old." Right page, top: "Squabs three weeks old." Right page, bottom: "Squabs four weeks old. Ready to be killed for market." Biodiversity Heritage Library

Tony Barwick is the owner of Palmetto Pigeon Plant, the largest squab producer in the United States. When he isn't dealing with calls from pigeon fiends like Lutz masquerading as restaurateurs, Barwick manages farm's 100,000 breeding pairs of pigeon. Each month, he says, the Sumter, South Carolina-based business aims to sell 40,000 to 50,000 squab. Barwick's birds can be found in "white tablecloth restaurants" and Chinatowns from New York to Los Angeles. "I've been backordered for 15 years," he says.

Though Palmetto's monthly output may sound big, it's nothing compared to pigeon's peers in poultry. The U.S. Department of Agriculture doesn't even track the nation's pigeon population, instead focusing primarily on chickens, chicken eggs, and turkeys. "We're a minor species," Barwick says. "I don't know how many squab are produced in the United States, but… let's say 22,000 a week. There's one chicken company in Sumter, South Carolina, they do 30,000 an hour in just that plant." After a poignant pause he adds, "In a hour what our entire industry does in a week."

Barwick acknowledges that part of the pigeon's problem is its bad reputation. But from an agricultural perspective, the real bottleneck is the bird's long babyhood. In the avian universe, most species develop quickly. Chickens, ducks, geese, and many other birds, are all precocial animals, meaning the newborns are mobile and reasonably mature from birth. While they still need to be protected, an infant chicken can start waddling—and, crucially, eating everyday food—from about the moment it cracks through its egg.

The pigeon, however, is an altricial bird, meaning the babies are helpless at birth. While it's possible that scientific manipulation could eventually turn squab into mass-produced meat, this fundamental facet of the pigeon's development makes things difficult. "A human baby is altricial," says Barwick. "So is a pigeon… It's born with its eyes shut, which means their parents have to regurgitate feed to them." Because the young are helpless, family units have to be kept relatively intact, and birds can't be forcibly fattened up. In the beginning, baby pigeons won't eat scattered bird seed, instead relying on so-called "pigeon milk," which is gurgled up from mom or dad's craw. This is why, on average, a pair of pigeons only produces two babies every 45 days. By contrast, a single female chicken in an artificially-lit environment can produce as much as one egg everyday, which, if they're inseminated and incubated, can turn into new chickens.

Pigeon problems aren't just a matter of maturity, however. They're also a matter of pure poundage: a pigeon doesn't weigh much. In four or five weeks, a squab tops out around a pound. In the same amount of time, a factory-farmed chicken will hit five pounds, thanks to selective breeding for broiler birds and other mass-production techniques like growth hormones. "It's like oysters," Schroder says of squab. "There's just not a whole lot there."

Still, it’s clear that some of squab’s inconveniences are also a part of its charm. Because it’s hard to produce and familiar primarily to foodies, it’s treated with more reverence than a chicken. While this keeps squabs out of the mouths of the masses, it’s actually great for business. After a severe decline in the 1960s and 70s, Barwick says demand for pigeon is back—even if most Americans remain oblivious to this particular source of protein.

“Most of our squab we sell into Asian markets in the United States,” he says. “They love squab.” In China, young pigeon meat pairs well with special occasions including weddings and holidays like Lunar New Year. Barwick says that the domestic squab industry started to bounce back after England and China brokered a deal to return Hong Kong to China. Hong Kong residents emigrated to the United States en masse in the 1980s, he explains, and brought their penchant for Peking duck and roast squab with them.

In more recent years, upscale restaurants have started to sell more squab, too. “We have these celebrities [like Julia Child, Alice Waters, and Emeril] who love squab and they’ve really pushed it, so we’ve seen domestic demand start to grow again and it’s that TV effect,” Barwick says. The unique taste and, of course, the relative scarcity of the bird, make it a mouth-watering menu item—for those who can afford it.

The combination of increased demand, a stagnated supply, and the bigger budgets of these white tablecloth establishments have all conspired to raise the price of the bird. While it’s easy to track down a host of midtown Manhattan restaurants, where one or six courses might be squab, finding the little bird in Chinatown is much harder. I found five Chinese restaurants in New York City that had squab on the menu, but only one actually kept it stocked—$18.95 a bird, head and all.

Arguably the worst part of city living. Pixnio

In many ways, the squab's spotty history is not unusual. At the turn of the 19th century, horse meat was all the rage. And during the Gold Rush, miners relied on turtles as a steady source of protein. What food appears unethical or unappetizing has always changed with the shifting sands of supply and demand.

What’s peculiar about the pigeon is our over-familiarity with the bird. We’ve all seen cows, pigs, and chickens, but few Americans encounter them on a daily basis, let alone share their stoops and streets with the critters. For devotees of French cuisine, the love of pigeon meat has actually enhanced their respect for the squab’s urbane cousin. “I like their resiliency and that they survive our environment,” Schroeder the chef says. “To me, they’re such an iconic bird.” But for the majority of people, negative encounters with the city bird means, even for a reasonable price, this particular meat will never make it on the menu.

Still, Barwick says Palmetto is planning to increase it production by nearly 50 percent. Over the next three years, he says, Palmetto intends to add 40,000 new breeding pairs. This increase may not be enough to substantially lower the price or convert chicken-lovers to the ways of the pigeon, but it's sure to provide pigeon devotees some relief. “Squab is perfect for one,” Lutz says, his Southern accent speeding up to deliver this final determination. “If I went with someone, I’d make them get their own. I wouldn’t share it.” If all goes well, he'll no longer have to.