in grade 6 and every time we had a movie day or class party id ask my mom for a can of doctor pepper but i had to keep it in my backpack and it always got shaken up and would explode when i opened it bcus we all know dr pepper has much more chaos inside the can than any other soda and anyways my whole class instinctively knew every time that my doctor pepper would explode and we'd have to pause the movie and clean it up and id usually be covered in dr pepper for the rest of the day and be super embarrassed and this happened to me about twelve times throughout the year. you might be wondering why i couldnt keep my dr pepper in my locker until we watched the movie and its because i didnt have a locker in grade six after i left a piece of pumpkin pie that my teacher gave me in there for a month and it rotted and molded so bad and there were maggots everywhere so one day i locked the locker and refused to open it ever again so for a whole year i carried all my stuff around because i was afraid to go to admin and tell them about my maggot pie because someone started a rumor that if the principle figured out you did something bad she would lock you down in the basement storage room that was infamous for having a giant rat that lived inside of it and i was afraid of rats after seeing ratatouille because i thought a rat might climb inside my hair and start controlling me and force me to do things i didnt want to do like make soup

“this pillow works better if your a back sleeper” bitch I’m a rotisserie chicken sleeper I don’t stop turning until sleep rips me forcefully from this world

guy who does unboxing videos but he only talks about the boxes

“Hey, everyone, welcome back. Our first box today is a Uline nine by five by four. Single piece of clear shipping tape over the top, two inch, and the UPS label nicely centered. No edge tape, and you know, that’s fine. This box is pretty light, I’d say under a pound, and taped edges don’t really add much stability here. Let’s open it up and see what we’ve got for dunnage…okay, half-inch bubble wrap, that’s unusual in a box of this size.”

Sometimes a post throws into perspective just how much niche knowledge you possess.

I read this, and I can tell from the “review” that the package was NOT shipped by a professional.

One: two inch tape. Professional establishments use three inch. It’s MUCH easier to seal boxes with, especially around the edges. Two inch is what you can buy from office depot or lowe’s. It’s fine for moving house, but it’s definitely not professional grade.

Two: no edge tape. Just seal your edges, people. UPS basically plays soccer with your packages. Even the light ones, just on principal, give them the structural support you can offer.

Three: centered label. Looks pretty on a package, sure, but it makes it very likely that the label will be covered up when the box is sitting in a stack or a pile, and that increases the chance that it will be manhandled to get to that label or even potentially mis-scanned or missed altogether in a stack. Label the SIDE of the box if at all possible! And put it to the side if you can’t! Visibility!

Also, the reviewer may be accustomed to getting a lot of boxes, but I don’t think they were a professional shipper, either. Someone who has shipped too many boxes would comment on whether the box was new or reused, whether there was any special hazmat (mostly lithium-ion battery) labeling, the condition of the package post shipping, and whether or not the weight of the package matched the stated weight on the label. AND they’d have commented on the two-inch packing tape.

I don’t know what to say other than “your experiences are not universal,” because I do shipping and receiving at a machine shop for a living, I see packages sent by professional shippers all the time, and I disagree with you on just about every point.

Nope. For packages I see, two inch packing tape is the norm. Today I had one package with three-inch water-activated reinforced paper tape and one (from Uline) with 2.75" packing tape. Everything else used 2" packing tape. Yes, it’s exactly the same kind of stuff that you can get at Office Depot or Lowe’s, and people use it because it gets the job done.

Not uncommon for small, light packages. I just don’t see box failures on packages under a pound where more tape would have helped. Where I do see failures is overloaded boxes, thirty pounds and up, where the corrugate simply ripped, and no amount of tape would have saved the package.

PSA: please don’t fill an 8x8x6 single-wall box with machine screws and expect it to arrive intact. Fastenal, I’m looking at you.

Label on top is standard. I had only one box today with the label on the side, and all the rest on top.

Your package will get manhandled, regardless of where you put the label. Plan on it.

Heck no! I expect labels to be on top and that’s the first place I look for them. If it’s on the side, that’s potentially four other places I have to look, which is a pain in the ass when I’m busy. And I’m always busy.

UPS, incidentally, says you should put the label on the largest surface. For the packages I get, that’s usually the top.

Okay, that’s legit. I do see a fair number of reused boxes.

Hazmats aren’t common enough to mention it every time when there isn’t one present. (My hazmats are usually solvents or paint, and that’s not something I get every day.)

Not usually noteworthy. My internal monolog (which is what the above fanciful review is based on) doesn’t bother to mention it unless something unusual happened to the box.

Although I ship just as many packages as I receive, if not more, it never would have occurred to me to check. And I don’t have a scale in the receiving department, so it would be guesswork anyway.

Which everyone uses. There’s not much need to comment when it’s far and away the most common type of tape.

Perhaps things have been different for you, but this is how it is in the manufacturing industry.

The January 6 hearings are having a lot of impact. And a lot of people are going "Oh, shit, is THAT what happened?"

We need to let them change their minds without making it harder.

A lot of people are realizing that they have Queer relatives, and that's changing their minds about policy.

We need to let them change their minds without making it harder.

A lot of people really believed that they would never come for Roe v. Wade, and are now awake.

We need to let them change their minds without making it harder.

We need to remember that there is an organized and strategic operation designed to keep people from thinking clearly, and that the systemic nature of the problem provides plenty of other ways to influence their thinking. The right wing spends a lot of money and a lot of time keeping their base angry and afraid, because when you're angry and afraid you can't think clearly and you're easy to manipulate.

When someone breaks free of that system, we need to let them, without punishing them.

#you know how like… it sucks when you do something your parents asked for#and they just go ‘well FINALLY’ or ‘look who decided to join us’ or whatever#and you know how it makes you 100% less likely to want to repeat the new behavior?#don’t be that person. don’t punish people for doing what you want because they didn’t do it sooner or because it’s unusual for them.#on god people need to be able to walk away#like… I think of how part of the tactic with missionaries- Mormons going door to door-#the point isn’t to convert you#tho it’s a bonus! but the point is to reinforce that everyone’s going to be shit to them for their beliefs#it’s cult tactics. You can’t leave#can’t leave if you’re convinced you’ll be harmed or cast out doubly#and so on.

All. Of. This.

This often gets shut down by people saying like "oh we aren't obligated to be patient" and no, nobody is, but unfortunately things genuinely CANNOT improve if that's the only way *anyone* feels. If you can't be encouraging or welcoming of someone who's still coming around then you just need to stay out of it, not actively do the opposite and ridicule them for not having everything figured out yet.

Tumblr Code.

This is an absolute tumblr relic. I feel like an archaeologist right now. This is incredible that this is on my dash.

date of origin: 2nd of july, 2012.

Bro what it’s the second of July 2020. Happy 8th anniversary of this classic tumblr post!!!!

HAPPY TWNTH BIRTHDAY

Being an American right now is so fucked up. Like hi I'm living my life. I'm gay. I'm doing great. My government is trying to take away my human rights. I can vote but it might not do anything because of gerrymandering. Sometimes people here deliberately spread deadly viruses because Freedom. We're told this is the best country in the world. I can't escape. I don't want to leave. I want to escape. I love the land itself. The government is like five steps from actively trying to kill me. We have brand new lawmakers who better understand the will of the people. The highest court in the nation is rigged to side with fascists. I'm graduating soon and I have an incredible life ahead of me. My planet is dying.

What the hell do I even do, man

Like. This sounds overdramatic but you know that scene in the two towers where theoden looks out at saruman's army and realizes he made all these warriors just to destroy Rohan which is full of innocent people and his people and he says "What can man do against such reckless hate?"

That's how I feel on a daily basis

I don't think I CAN do anything except keep doing what I'm doing. Keep myself alive. Make stuff that helps other people be happy. Encourage activism and change. Plant flowers. I have to focus small. There ISN'T anything I can do against the big pharmaceutical companies causing millions of deaths from covid (among thousands of other medical ailments) because they refuse to release the patents on lifesaving medicine. I can't do anything about it I literally can't

All I can do is fucking write stories and posts and run stupid little dragon RPGs and plant flowers and hope. But if it helps other people too, what I'm doing, then it's worth it.

I am very small. I need to remember that and not try to pick a fight with an enemy that's much bigger than me. It's not selfish to say it's probably for the best if I just focus on my life and immediate vicinity. It's realistic and I think I can do more good this way.

There's a lot of pressure to like, fight for every problem ever but I think I need to remember I can't do that and I shouldn't do that and I need to limit myself to what I CAN do

Idk, it's clear a few other folks were also Feelin' This. I guess we all have to scale down. It feels gross because like... Obviously I care about shit that's happening, but I literally cannot deal with emotionally and intellectually engaging with all the awful news I'm bombarded with.

Being an American right now is still fucking awful, but being me doesn't have to be

cool that there’s a trans guy character in that new baymax series or whatever. idc it will never detract how funny it is to me that they thought a man saying “these are the type of pads i use for my period” wasn’t an obvious enough signifier of him being trans so they just. put him in a trans t shirt. like JUST. a tshirt. in case you missed that this is the trans character. this is the trans character guys. cant you tell by the Giant Trans Flag he’s wearing

like. isn’t this at least a little funny just on a conceptual level

getting people who are like “is op mad about this or something??? is op a transphobe??”

…i’m transmasc.

also this is a disney property we’re talking about here. yknow. the company that literally contributed a fuck ton of money to a huge lgbtphobic bill. one that was passed and fucks up the livelihood of lgbt people? why are we giving them literally any benefit of the doubt. they might’ve “pulled their support” or whatever, but the fact is they’ll only use lgbt rep as an excuse to pander to the community. this is just another example. they’ll pull the “we have an lgbt character!!!” card in everything they make and they show up for like 2 seconds and then never again. if this is the doing of the animators, cool! good for them. but if your first impulse is to come to disneys defense on this….idk what to tell you. disney does not care about representation. they only care about YOUR money.

did you know the don’t say gay bill - the one that disney funded - in florida has lead to laws being made where if an lgbt child is in a class then the entire class has to be notified about it. and their parents. in a red state. in other words this is going to get lgbt children killed. so no i don’t care about disneys Trans Background Character of The Week and you shouldn’t either

can you people spread this version of the post more actually. really sad to see the replies of this post be filled with “oh but i’m trans and i’d wear that!” “they just did this so we’d know he’s a trans man and that he wasn’t buying them for his wife!” “it’s a kids show it’s meant to be obvious!” “this is for all the dumb straights who can’t take a hint!” and no replies acknowledging this for the pandering it is. this company funded the alt right’s shitty echo chamber i can guarantee you they don’t care. you people have GOT to grow a spine and learn to start hating corporations again and please you have got to learn to recognize bait when you see it istg

for context these are the poems

also I almost forgot but the r/ambien Gives Us The Sleep post takes a completely serious third place in my favorite poems list:

and COMING IN HOT at NUMBER FOUR on my list, it’s Fragment 147! an accidental poem created when the original parchment containing a text by Sappho was used to stop a wine jug more than 2,000 years ago- eventually the wine dissolved most of the parchment, leaving just a few words and BOY do they prove that the Universe has a sense of irony.

I COME TO YOU WITH AN IMPORTANT NEW ADDITION TO THE ACCIDENTAL POETRY LIST, FROM OUR VERY OWN TUMBLR DOT COM:

May I add some of my favorites? :

BIDEN IS NOT KING! IF YOU NEED TO BLAME SOMEONE LOOK AT FUCKING MITCH MCCONNELL

So, here’s the thing. We’ve heard Democrat presidential candidates promise to codify Roe before. Obama did, and he came into office with a supermajority, a Democrat-written bill to codify Roe, and a filibuster-proof supermajority. After he was elected, codifying Roe was no longer “my priority” for the President. The bill went nowhere, Obama lost his majority, and here we are.

You might remember that Biden was that guy’s VP. As a conservative, Catholic “ticket balancer.”

He had zero intention of doing anything.

I keep seeing people trying their fucking hardest to absolve Joe Biden in particular and the Democrats in general of their fucking culpability for this mess.

Good job, you successfully realized he’s not a fucking king. You know what he is, though? The commander in chief of the armed fucking forces.

So if Biden wasn’t a subhuman piece of shit or at least a senile walking corpse, if he wanted Republican votes here’s what he’d do. He’d say, okay, Senator Fuckface. I notice you have some military bases in your state, bases which are major sources of revenue, jobs, and clout that you use to keep getting yourself reelected. So if you want to keep them, then you’re going to vote to legalize abortion, because if you don’t I’m going to shut them down.

This isn’t unprecedented, either. It’s something that Obama threatened to do and which the National Defense Authorization Act empowers the president to do.

There you go. Use the war with Russia as a justification. Tell Senator Fuckface that you’ll move the base to Senator Shitfucker’s state, because Shitfucker agreed to play ball.

Or how about this: Joe Manchin is being a cunt, so Joe Biden gets on the phone with the Chair of the Security Exchange Commission which he appointed last year. He says, hey, Gary, isn’t it fucked up that Manchin’s daughter is price gouging people on an essential life saving drug? Maybe you could look into that for me. In fact, a lot of Manchin’s business connections are shady and might be in conflict with the law, and under the purview of the SEC to maintain a fair and functioning economy.

Oh, and if you don’t do it then I’ll fucking fire you.

Or hey, maybe Uncle Joe could say, “okay, as long as you continue to obstruct me and my party’s agenda, there will be no more fucking Republican appointments as long as I’m president. Every empty chair will have a democrat ass put into it.”

Or why not lean into the fucking fact that most or all of the senators in congress are guilty of insider trading at one time or another, and Biden uses his power as executive and boss of the fucking Justice Department to say, okay, if you don’t want to play fucking ball, I’ll have the DOJ clear off its fucking schedule and tell them to make it their personal business to look into every fucking penny of your bank account, and if a single cent is out of place then I’ll have them drop the entire library of fucking congress on you.

Because that’s the sort of shit that you do when you’re serious about getting your legislation passed in the face of a hostile government. You use the power you have on whoever you have to, however you have to. You don’t just put your hands in your pockets, shrug and go “aw, shucks, the Republicans won’t let us. We don’t have the numbers. Abloo bloo bloo.” You don’t cry about the filibuster, or the parliamentarian, or whatever fucking excuse the Democrats came up with this week for why they just can’t seem to swing protecting vital rights this time, gosh darn it, oh but if you vote for us in November we’ll definitely do it then.

So shut the fuck up, libshit bootlickers. “Hurrr do you know how the supreme court works? do you know how passing laws works?” Fuck you! Do you know how fucking politics work?

[ID: screenshot of a quote retweet.

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THANK YOU kineticpenguin for laying out EXACTLY how the president can throw his weight around!

Thanks, but I think you meant @theculturedmarxist  who wrote that excellent explanation

Line cooks and the weed man do more for the human race every day than any CEO has ever done in their entire life

80% of the line cooks ARE the weed men

Carrying the weight of the whole world on their shoulders like Atlas

Atlas carries the sky, but point made

I carry your dad into the bedroom like a newlywed bride

do you see this shit my liege

stop telling robots they 'pass' as a compliment, passing the turing test is not required from robots for them to be valid, also stop assuming robots even want to pass, it's not the only thing that being a robot is about and is based on anthropocentric standards that you really should be dismantling in the first place

one day you're going to decompose and i'll be there to watch it happen

I love your funny jokes and pictures, they are not only humorous but also legible. side note, unrelated, really quick question, by any chance do you have any heart problems that would lead to complications if you were exposed to electricity? just curious, no reason

Everyone would have complications if exposed to electricity

not me. you stay safe tho

I don't believe deals with the devil are real because I have yet to see someone walking around as an anthropomorphic neon wolf

Some lady gave my grandpa antifreeze once because she wanted his money but he fucking lived and he told us all he made a deal with the devil. We tried to exorcise the demons from him once and it actually kinda worked??? Also I think he opened a portal in dairy queen

Made a new flag for my island it fucken wimdy

scientist have created the worlds smallest bug

BREAKING NEW: they have now made it the tiniest hat to wear. in the world