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2 hours ago, Southside Jim said:

Why the hell does Amanda Palmer have a Patreon?

 

Does she not make any money at all from Dresden Dolls and her (soon to be ex-) husband's book/TV career?

Same reason anyone else has one, it's a revenue stream.

For musicians it is becoming a big thing. Since the album buying market collapsed, they've lost their main source of income. The exact amount varies, but the average stream nets somewhere around half a penny for each play, which than needs to be split up amongst the members, management, whoever else is involved. Unless you're someone who is getting 10 million plus streams per song across multiple platforms, margins are very tight.

It is also why so many bands have been reforming and going on reunion tours lately, there are no royalties anymore. Much like why a lot of wrestlers have made patreons in the last month, lots of musicians have been too, since now the touring market is gone for the foreseeable future.

If you have an opportunity to capitalize on the name you've made for yourself, why not do it? No one is forcing anyone to pay for them. I threw $5 Danhausen's way, because why not? I'm a fan of his work, but I'm unlikely to ever see him live, so why not show a small token of my support?

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  • 4 weeks later...

So there's these E-Learning online courses at my work. And they're annoying, but you have to do them. But our fearless leaders decided to add some new ones. One of which was "Induction". Yes, more than 20 years into my employment, I have to complete an Induction course. What joy. BUT it gets worse than that. There's no actual course, it's just a quiz. A quiz that has 110 questions, some of which are on issues that I have never encountered (and I've encountered everything). And the passing grade is... One Hundred Per Cent.

Usually the quizzes are 10 or 20 questions long and the passing grade is 70%. But no, 110 questions, and you have to get every single one correct or you fail. And if you fail, you have to do the whole thing all over again. First attempt, 93%. Second attempt, 96%. Third attempt, 99%.

And the one question I got wrong on the third attempt, it was this: What PPE should you use when cleaning the Washroom: a) Rubber Gloves b) Goggles c) Mouth Guard.

I clicked Gloves on my first attempt. Wrong answer. I clicked Goggles on my second attempt. Wrong answer. So I clicked Mouth Guard on the third one, and that was also a wrong answer. You needed to get 100% to pass, and one of the question is glitched so you can't get it right. Some bullshit right there.

That was yesterday. I complained and they fixed it, so I'm fully complete on everything now. Unlike everyone else who works there. Ha!

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14 minutes ago, J.T. said:

So, I've been cleared to go into the office and help out with a project.  Server upgrade to the latest version of VSphere.

I get to go in and install a new server (one of the rare ones that's in the office instead of our colo) myself.  Not exactly looking forward to it.

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52 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

I get to go in and install a new server (one of the rare ones that's in the office instead of our colo) myself.  Not exactly looking forward to it.

My Return To Work brief was fucking crazy.  I feel that will be required to bathe in Clorox every five minutes.

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My wife has been having to go into her school for a few hours every day since the end of last week.

First it was to clean out her office.

This week has been because the are doing drop-offs for all the shit that needs to be returned (books, computers, instruments, sports uniforms, etc...) in addition to seniors picking up their caps and gowns. The dropoff stuff is easy because it is just sitting outside directing people in cars to where they need to go. She didn't run into anyone the day she cleaned out her office. However - other teacher complained because it is already obvious that you have the people who are acting like everything is normal (no masks, no social distancing) in tight hallways who want to have conversations vs. the folks who are taking things far more seriously

And that doesn't even take into account the fiasco that was the school district suddenly demanding that all seniors get a chance to "walk across the stage" so all the schools now have to devote days so seniors in 5 minutes blocks can show up, walk across a stage, grab their diploma off a table and leave. OH and it has to be live streamed - so she is going to be sitting inside for 3, 8 hour, days while students and a few family members come all while listening to pomp and circumstances on a loop because she has to run the live stream.

Grr....

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Yeah, teachers have it rough.  My sister teaches third grade and she is in Zoom meetings with staff and parents from sun up to sundown and in between she's still having distance learning sessions with her class.   She's already cleared her room.  I think telework stresses her out more than the normal routine does.

My brother is a professor at VT and I think he's going to remain a hermit in the hills of Christiansburg rather than come back to RVA for the summer.  I think he wants to keep up his distance learning class load and work on a few projects with the academic staff (ie. they have a regular Texas hold 'em league going on).

Edited by J.T.
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Just a heads-up, guys.  This economic stimulus check thing is wacky.

It's based on how you get your tax check, so if you get a paper check like me (I'm old and distrusting), you'll most likely get a debit card in the mail with your stimulus amount on it.  The card and its packaging look so sketchy that people have been throwing them out.  Fucking tremendous.  The return address is somewhere in Omaha and the sender is "Money Network."  What the everloving fuck?  Probably some scammy small business that Our Great and Fearless Leader has a stake in.  Anyway, if you want to transfer the money to your bank account, you'll need to register with the card's website and then do a withdraw using your bank account number and routing number.  OH HEY!  There's a daily limit to online withdraws that's explained absolutely nowhere in the materials!  It seems like it's $1000 per withdraw and $2000 daily.  I found this out by:

  1. Trying to pull all the money out and getting an error that had nothing to do with the problem AND offering no explanation how to fix it.
  2. Googling
  3. Finding somewhat of an answer on Reddit
  4. Trial and error

So yeah.  I still have a few hundred to transfer out and I hope to do that tomorrow. 

This has been my public service announcement to you.  The only plus side to this ordeal, aside from the cash, is not having to get a paper check with Orange Julias Caesar's name on it.  Now I will sit on the money, hoping I'm not furloughed like some of my work friends were, so I can spend it on paying down debt or whatever instead of groceries.  What a mother fuck of a time to be alive.  Stay safe amigos.  Even if I hate you, I love you.

 

Edited by Technico Support
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I just got my official You Are A DoD Employee / Remember Your Oath / Don't Loot Shit e-mail from the Secretary of Defense.  He must lurk this board and saw my post about that dinette set at Rooms To Go.

And yep.  My mom almost tossed her Stimulus Debit Card thinking it was yet another bullshit credit card lure from One Main Financial.

Edited by J.T.
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"Money Network" is actually a large, scammy business that exists only to extract fees from workers so I am totally unsurprised they're involved in all this.

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2 minutes ago, Zimbra said:

"Money Network" is actually a large, scammy business that exists only to extract fees from workers so I am totally unsurprised they're involved in all this.

Color me shocked.

Seriously, the IRS already has the infrastructure to do this.  What's the deal?  Shady as fuck.

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I’m enjoying my time as a pre k teacher.  The small class size is nice. I can send my student to his room and I only have one concerned mom questioning my classroom skills.  Getting paid a senior engineers salary for it is a plus. 

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15 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

Color me shocked.

Seriously, the IRS already has the infrastructure to do this.  What's the deal?  Shady as fuck.

'Cause what's the point of helping if you can't get your beak wet, too?

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31 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

This has been my public service announcement to you.  The only plus side to this ordeal, aside from the cash, is not having to get a paper check with Orange Julias Caesar's name on it.

 

But you will still get a letter in 3 weeks' time full of word salad, if you haven't already.  Once I've got nothing better to do, I'm going to set up my phone to record, light it on fire, and then piss on the ashes.  Perhaps my one and only contribution to Youtube as long as I live.

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19 hours ago, Contentious C said:

But you will still get a letter in 3 weeks' time full of word salad, if you haven't already.  Once I've got nothing better to do, I'm going to set up my phone to record, light it on fire, and then piss on the ashes.  Perhaps my one and only contribution to Youtube as long as I live.

I wish I thought of doing all that but with it being hot as Hades inside and the A/C being busted the idea of setting anything on fire might not being the best idea.  Though I did rip it up into tiny pieces and put his name/signature in the toilet.  At least it's something.

And we got a check which sounds a lot better than whatever that debit card bullshit is.  At least with the word salad there was only one asinine phrase but it's whatever.  We've been meaning to get a rainy day fund in an account we don't touch so this will do nicely.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So, like 15 minutes ago at the tender age of 41, I just completed the first module of the very first college course I have ever taken. It's Intro To Sociology, and I have no fucking idea what to expect!

I have decided that since I have all this experience in Social Service over the last 13 or 14 years, I should maybe start making some strides towards a more rigid social worker type position. That's not really my classification currently, but a lot of my work is very social worker-y just based on the nature of my caseload. So why not take some college credit, and make my employer pay me more money to do the same kind of stuff I already do?

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 6/3/2020 at 11:35 AM, Contentious C said:

But you will still get a letter in 3 weeks' time full of word salad, if you haven't already.  Once I've got nothing better to do, I'm going to set up my phone to record, light it on fire, and then piss on the ashes.  Perhaps my one and only contribution to Youtube as long as I live.

I have saved mine for the same reason. The pissing on it part I did not think about though, and is inspired enough to try. 

Personally I got the paper check, likely because my taxes were done ages before most other people. This card deal sounds like some scam they cooked up after they figured it out later on in the process. I believe I heard a rumbling that there might be another check coming? 

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