I got a contract for fulltime work given to me.
I looked at it.
I realized, calculating the amount they wanted to offer, that it would actually be less than I’m making part-time now.
So what did I do?
Let me tell you, every single piece of me wanted to stay quiet and settle and work my way up the ladder.
Until I realized that
I am worth more than they were offering, and it would be an insult to value me at any less than my actual worth.
I have a masters and a year’s worth of teaching under my belt.
I am a qualified professional who wants to make more than assistants pay.
Their reasoning for the pay was insurance. I’m given insurance that’s worth a great deal, so I shouldn’t worry too much because that added up to a bigger salary. Except insurance doesn’t do jack shit if I can’t pay for an apartment or car costs or student loans.
What did I do?
First
I breathed. I took a breath. I washed my face and had a quick cry in the bathroom. Ain’t nothing wrong with a real fast cry.
Second
I left a note on my bosses desk asking if he could speak to me about my contract whenever he was next available.
Third
Once in my bosses office, I calmly handed him my contract back and said, “I’m very honored that you thought of me for a position, but I cannot accept what you’re offering me. I have a masters and I’ve taught in this school for a year, and I’d been under the assumption that I’d be receiving a different position than this.” He asked me what I was looking for. I said, “I would work for no less than [MY RANGE]. And if you cannot offer me that, then I’ll have to continue working for you part time until I can find another position elsewhere that can.” I thanked him very much for the offer. I was polite and upfront about my expectations for the position that I wanted.
I can’t tell you what will happen. But I can tell you that going in there and establishing myself as a no BS worker who looks out for herself and negotiates got me farther than if I’d said nothing.
I don’t know the outcome yet. I really don’t.
But I can tell you that he is currently rewriting my contract with higher pay.
Will it be high enough to keep me there? I don’t know.
But I do know that today was me putting myself forward and taking a chance, and chances, no matter how small, do pay off.
DON’T BE AFRAID TO SPEAK ABOUT YOUR CONTRACTS.
IT’S FUCKING TERRIFYING.
BUT DO IT ANYWAY.
BECAUSE YOU’RE WORTH MORE, AND THEY SHOULD KNOW THAT.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
authors in the wizarding world
characters that could / i hope / will appear in the fantastic beasts and where to find them saga
Mads Mikkelsen and Alicia Vikander in “A Royal Affair“
apply for jobs you’re not qualified for! audit upper-level classes! get drunk with your TAs! see that poster advertising that lecture series? go there take notes and ask questions! thank the presenter for talking about this topic you love! if the class is full before you register, email the professor and ask if they can squeeze you in! RAISE YOUR HAND! tell the disability accomodation office to do their goddamn job! ask for help! file complaints! go to class in your pajamas and destroy the reading! you got this! you KNOW you got this! be arrogant enough to learn EVERYTHING! take your meds! punch a velociraptor in the dick! fear is useless and temporary! glory is forever! shed your skin and erupt angel wings! help out! spread your sun!
i had a really good morning! you deserve a really good morning! kill anyone who says you don’t and build a throne from their bones!
imma say it. “kung fu panda” did more for body positivity and saying that you can be fat and still be healthy and liked than ANYTHING any beauty companies trying to get your money.
hey so uhhh here’s an important update on what’s apparently happening at the border, especially with the use of the old japanese internment camps
all i can say is i’m sickened by this mess, by the atrocities committed against innocent people. and now there will be no surveillance. no one will be able to see what happens to these people. the UN, the media, and any other human rights organizations cannot get into these facilities, either, in order to stop what’s happening. by the way, coast guard members were apparently aiding in this process as well. so now it’s only a matter of time before it becomes a military movement.
no one gets in. no one gets out.
so when are we going to call this what it is? it’s fascism. it’s genocide. and if we don’t stop it now, it’s going to be disastrous.
contact your senators, your representatives, anyone that’s in office that can get off their lazy ass and do something.
‘“Why are actors of color, who have fewer opportunities anyway, only allowed to play their own race? And sometimes they’re not even allowed to play their own race,” Chan says. “In the past, the role would be given to a white actor who would tape up their eyes and do the role in yellowface. John Wayne played Genghis Khan. If John Wayne can play Genghis Khan, I can play Bess of Hardwick.”’
Gemma Chan interviewed by Jessica Chia
no
i’ve been doing my homework on how to break into a writing career and honestly. there’s a Lot that i didn’t know about thats critical to a writing career in this day and age, and on the one hand, its understandable because we’re experiencing a massive cultural shift, but on the other hand, writers who do not have formal training in school or don’t have the connections to learn more via social osmosis end up extremely out of loop and working at a disadvantage.
Peter: activate instant kill
Me:
favorite presidential kid? probably alice roosevelt.
-her mother died two days after she was born and on the same day her maternal grandmother also died. teddy was so sad that he left his newborn daughter with his sister anna for two years and could never bring himself to say his wife’s name so alice who was named after her mother had to be called “lee”, her middle name.
-when teddy remarried, alice’s stepmom edith made it clear that she thought alice’s mom had been beautiful but dumb. when alice’s parents couldn’t handle her anymore, they sent her to her aunt anna’s. according to alice, “If auntie Bye had been a man, she would have been president”. alice claimed to feel one-sixth as loved as her five half-siblings.
-then alice got polio which at the time could kill, not to mention cripple. her stepmom put her through an uncompromising regimen of nightly forced wearing of torturous leg braces and shoes, which left alice with no trace of the disability and able to run up stairs and touch her nose with her toe well into her 80s.
-alice’s dad and stepmom tried to send her to a conservative girls’ school but alice wrote home, “If you send me I will humiliate you. I will do something that will shame you. I tell you I will”.
-when teddy became president in 1901, alice became an instant celebrity and fashion icon at age 17. she did scandalous things like smoking cigarettes in public, riding in cars with men, staying out late partying, keeping a pet snake (called emily spinach) in the white house, and placing bets with a bookie.
-she even had a color - alice blue - and a song - alice blue gown - named after her. the press called her princess alice.
-during an imperial cruise to japan, alice jumped into a pool fully dressed and coaxed a congressman in to join her.
-one time a white house visitor commented on alice’s frequent interruptions in the oval office, usually with political advice. after the third interruption, teddy explained, “I can either run the country or I can attend to Alice, but I cannot possibly do both”.
-in february 1906, alice married congressman nicholas longworth and was the social event of the season. it was attended by more than a thousand guests and thousands gathered outside hoping for a glance of princess alice. she wore a blue wedding dress and cut the wedding cake with a sword.
-alice publicly supported her dad’s 1912 presidential candidate while her husband supported president taft. alice appeared on stage in her husband’s own district with her dad’s vp candidate. longworth lost by 105 votes and alice joked that she was worth at least 100 votes (meaning she was the reason he lost).
-alice’s campaign against her husband caused a friction in their marriage and longworth was known to be carrying on many affairs. it was also generally accepted knowledge in dc that alice had a long, ongoing affair with senator william borah, who by alice’s own admission was the father of her daughter, paulina. alice had a wicked sense of humor and had initially wanted to name her daughter deborah (as in de Borah).
-after the death of her daughter paulina in 1957, alice fought for and won custody of her granddaughter joanna.
-in the 1950s, alice’s health began to fail her and she broke a hip. she also discovered she was suffering from breast cancer and had to have two mastectomies. in 1960, alice was diagnosed with emphysema.
-alice was also a champion of rights for african-americans. one day, in 1965, alice’s african-american chauffeur and good friend, turner, was driving her to an appointment. turner pulled out in front of a taxi and the driver yelled at him, “What do you think you’re doing, you black bastard?” turner stayed calm but alice told the taxi driver, “He’s taking me to my destination, you white son of a bitch!”
-after many years of ill health, alice died of emphysema and pneumonia at age 96, outliving all five of her younger half-siblings.
-her most famous quote was, “If you haven’t got anything good to say about anybody, come sit next to me”.
-when senator joseph mccarthy joked at a party, “Here’s my blind date. I am going to call you Alice”, she replied, “Senator McCarthy, you are not going to call me Alice. The trashman and the policeman on my block call me Alice, but you may not”.
-she told president lyndon b. johnson that she wore wide-brimmed hats so he couldn’t kiss her.
-when a kkk member dressed in full costume asked her to trust his word, she said, “I never trust a man under sheets”.
so in summary, alice roosevelt longworth was badass.
this is her:
here’s little alice
more of teen/young adult alice
alice with her daughter paulina
alice as a grand old lady
Trump Has Told Over 10,000 Lies As President
Donald Trump, the spoiled and entitled little rich-kid who grew up to be a serial bankrupt, a malignant narcissist, and a pathological liar. A petulant man-child, untethered from reality, whose monstrous ego compels him to tell the most outrageous lies to aggrandize himself.
And they are outrageous lies. Donald Trump is a ‘stable genius’. He knows more about war than any general (despite being a draft-dodger). He knows more about law than lawyers, more about science than scientists, more about economics than economists, and more about foreign policy than any foreign policy expert. He’s the greatest businessman the world has ever seen. The greatest American President in history. He’s told us all of this and much more. He says it over and over, as if repetition might somehow make it true.
In reality Trump is a deeply damaged, weak, narcissistic mess of character flaws so desperate for admiration that he makes these childish boasts to cover up his well-documented ignorance and failures. Whether he actually believes what he says is debatable. That he expects anyone else to is delusional. It might be pathetically touching if he weren’t such a horrible human being. It would indeed be richly comical if he weren’t in a position of power. The Orange Emperor has no clothes, and his naked incompetence is plain to see for everyone but his kool-aid drinking Maga cult followers..
But this isn’t just another diatribe against America’s worst president ever. Let’s give credit where it’s due. Finally, after a lifetime of never being good at anything Trump IS now officially the best at something. The greatest. Number one. He stands head and shoulders above every presidential predecessor in this one respect and nothing else. Nobody even comes close to him. What is he so great at ? Well, Donald Trump is the biggest LIAR ever to occupy the Whitehouse.
And what lies they are ! There’s nothing remotely subtle or clever about them. Most are embarrassingly childish and clumsy. They are easily fact-checked and exposed. Bizarrely, though, when called out on lying he doesn’t correct his lie and apologize as any normal person would. He doubles-down and either repeats the lie or adds even bigger lies to support it. Those who have followed Trump’s career over decades say he has never been any different.
Fortunately, for those outside of his Maga cult and for future historians, the Washington Post has been carefully fact-checking and recording Trump’s lies since he became President. This week marked a shameful milestone. Trump officially passed the 10,000 lie mark. Yes, this utter disgrace of a man has publicly lied to the American people more than 10,000 times since taking office.
And make no mistake, he’s getting worse. During his first 601 days in office pathological liar Trump made 5,000 false and misleading statements however his lying has dramatically accelerated since then, with almost 23 lies every day in the seven-month period beginning in late October during midterm elections.
Just recently, between April 25 and April 27, Trump made a staggering 171 false or misleading statements—more than any similar period in his first five months in Washington. If he goes on at this rate, he’s on track to tell a mind-blowing 35,000+ lies by the end of his first term. Of course, as he becomes increasingly deranged that number could be even more ! He may get to the point where nothing he says is ever true ! He is already past the point where we must assume everything he says is a lie until proven otherwise.
It’s a sobering thought (if two years of Trump has driven you to the bottle). Yes, Donald Trump might be the worst president America has ever had. Sorry. Strike that. Not ‘might be’. He is. Unarguably. He’s a crooked, self-serving, borderline psychopath who manages to tick the boxes of racism, islamophobia, misogyny, and white-nationalism, as well as sheer dumb ignorance and incompetence. It’s quite a toolbox he brought to the Presidency.
But at last (and at least) Trump has achieved what he has pursued so desperately since childhood. He is exceptional at something. He’s finally officially great at something rather than nothing. The thing is LYING. Once again, he has told over 10,000 lies to the American people since taking office. Take a moment to let that sink in. The scale of his mendacity is staggering. Nothing compares.
So well done Donald. Take a bow. You’re the undisputed greatest at telling dumb lies. Don’t rest on your laurels, though. The sky is the limit, although the gullibility of some of your followers apparently has no limit. The rest of us have faith that you can make it to 35,000 lies before the 2020 election. Go for it. We’re all watching you.
Internet Writer
(cartoon by Steve Sack)
Sesame Street: Respect is Coming
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THIS TOOK A FAR DIFFERENT TURN THEN I EXPECTED
Tiny Creekside Cabin
© brian mccloud
When your racist old boss thinks you owe her an explanation about why you quit
Like.... you’re rlly gonna pretend you don’t remember what came out your mouth when you’re talking shit about your hardworking, immigrant housekeepers and POC staff members and how you want to fire them even though they go above and beyond their duties. Ok, sis.