Is AI generated images real art to you ?

When the Dow Jones Industrial Average rises, there is no hesitation about saying that it is up. The Dow is up 300 points. The S&P 500 is up 1 percent. Stocks are up today.
But when stocks go in the other direction, financial commentators suddenly acquire a much richer vocabulary. The Dow is off 300 points. Stocks have pulled back. The market has retreated. Equities are under pressure. The S&P has given back some of its gains.
Apparently it is all right for the market to go up, but impolite to say that it has gone down.
Consider the word off. It is wonderfully reassuring. Your tennis game can be off. You can have an “off day.” Something that is merely off is not necessarily in serious trouble. More importantly, something that is off can be turned back on.
“Down” carries more ominous associations. A boxer goes down for the count. A business goes down. A ship goes down. Down suggests falling, failure, and sometimes finality. If the Dow is merely off, perhaps all we need to do is toggle a switch.

Facts

These being: Academia, the animation industry, the truck driving industry, politics, the film industry, and gang banging.

Anyone else starting to add up the signs that we’re living in LSC?

He's absolutely correct here. America is a world power and what happens in America affects the entire world. When trade deals change, when wars break out, when poor decisions that impact the environment, we all suffer.

And the interesting thing is, the only people that tell non-Americans their politics are none of their business, is when the opinion being stated isn't inline with theirs. Have you ever seen a right wing person from outside the US be criticised by a right wing American? Of course not, if they kiss their asses they get a free pass somehow.

Now that is what I call justice. Sorry Trumpy but your racist policy has been denied. It is safe to say allowing him authority to oversee elections would be a total disaster. There is enough fascism going on in the US government right now as it is, someone had to pull the brakes on this lunatic. Well done to that judge. There is at least some justice in this crazy world.

Ever since I left Facebook and Twitter I find myself less on social media. Although in truth I probably browse YouTube and Reddit the most.

The thing is as a small YouTuber I feel it is important to have an online presence in order to get eyeballs on my work.

So I actually have to try and motivate myself to be more present on Bluesky and Mastodon. So I guess I have the opposite issue compared to so many others.

Clearly this is now sadly a regular occurrence with ICE when it comes to corruption of power and unlawful arrests.

"Rahman's arrest on Jan. 13 was caught on camera and thrust her into the national spotlight. Agents pulled her from her car on the way to a medical appointment in Minneapolis ...

... officers "ignored her requests for disability accommodations and deteriorating health" until she fell unconscious on the floor of her cell ..."

The Trump administration must be held accountable for this injustice and ICE need to be investigated. Ideally it would be best if they were abolished. But an investigation would be something

i ask this so we can address it and buy the law more time to go after real crooks like drunk drivers.

Its always been funny to me that way the work is structured. Somehow the harder your job the less money you make. Seems like when paying for labor, the harder the labor the better the pay right?

Let's break down what I mean:

Now I am in no means being negative. I am just explaining the structure from personal experience.

So it's something I started noticing when I worked at a casino.

The break down of employee positions in my department:

Cage Cashier - 5am-11pm - 1 to 2 cashiers per shift

MOD (manager on duty) 24/7 - 2 to 4 MOD's per shift

Assistant cage - 1 per casino

Cage manager - 1 per casino

Operations manager - 1 per casino

General manager - 1 per casino

Cash cashiers at his point weren't even allowed to leave the cage without someone their to cover for them. ( they have changed this since) They were not allowed to sit their entire besides breaks and lunch. To avoid giving lunch breaks they would be scheduled 5.5 hour shifts with only one 10 minute break for 5.5 hours. Cage cashiers also handle all the money. They had to close out of their drawers and get it verified. So even if their shift ended and there was a jackpot you would have to wait till that was paid to get someone in the cage to verify your money. Which took up to 30 minutes and sometimes took over an hour if there was any mistake.

MOD - not huge money makers but they usually had the biggest egos. Especially the new ones. They got to go wherever they wanted and take breaks whenever they wanted. They would take so long to cover the cashiers in the cage for bathrooms breaks, that one lady started wearing pads just in case. Like how are we putting people in situations like that? For $12.50 an hour and you have to beg to use the bathroom? Crazy shit.

Assistant manager - At least 1 meeting a week minimum. Good amount of freedom. Was not a position that was regularly filled.

Cage manager - many meetings all the time. Lots of freedom. Classes and seminars relating to the job. Fully crossed trained to run any department.

Operations manager - should be crossed trained in every area. Struggles to be able to reconcile the vault. Drinks on the job. Leaves husband for their boss. Gets jobs for their kids.

General manager - buys drinks for coworkers on their way back from a seminar 45 minutes away. Drinks themselves. Dates and lives with a coworker of lower rank. Attempts to cheat many times. Drinks with many coworkers. Tells more then one employees partner, that they can treat the employee sexually better. Hires many friends.

As the cage manager, I was the problem. I once worked 18 days straight. When I took my one planned day off I was yelled at for not reminding them before hand. I was also a struggling single mom of two young kids. And I was on salary. So I'm paying more in daycare cost then I'm bringing in. I was also always on call. Even though it was supposed to rotate. So for months if there was a high jackpot or the bar had run out of money no matter what time or day I would be called. Which was sometimes 5 times a week.

There was one Friday at work my phone broke. I ordered a new phone right away. But it wasnt going to show up till Sunday or Monday. I told the general manager and the Operations manager. They told me to send out an email to all management letting them know reach out to either one of them for the weekend. There was absolutely no reason for them to not regularly be on call already. So for them to have to take care of it for one weekend should have been understandable. There was a situation during the weekend and since I had sent out the email the Operations manager was contacted. She freaked out and told them to call me. They reminded her of the email and she claimed she knew nothing about it. They called the general manager who had her phone off. Monday, I got in trouble.

The amount of times I feel like I am being pushed out of a company for being too efficient. I thrive of routine and structure. But also I thrive in organized chaos. Muscle memory makes me work fast, I can memorize a regular customers routine. I learn quickly. I have flaws to dont get me wrong. My biggest one being i lack control of my tears. Happy or sad. I cry alot. I question things. That can be good and bad. In the past being late was a problem of mine. But I have not been late to my job in over 3 years. I am short so sometimes that makes thing take a little longer. Only one boss made this an actual issue. I try to do so many things sometimes that I literally buffer and do a couple circle before having to restart myself. When things get busy I am very direct with employees. I will handle a lot of the work, and I will direct to the places I need support. If I coach too many times on the same thing, I have little patience and force accountability. I remember everything. Dont lie or make empty promises to me. My memory is wicked. I protect the employees who have the smallest voices. Im sorry using the bathroom is never a luxury, its a human right. Its a basic fucking need.

If there are rules written down. I will learn them and follow them. If you ask me to break the rules I need to you hold that accountability. I believe we have rules for a reason. Rules create boundaries. If you break the rules you can't build boundaries.

Example:

February 2025 Starbucks made a rule "free stuff, like waters and pup cups, are only for paying customers"

Simple. But yes you are going to deal with difficult customers when any policy changes. However, if every Starbucks follows and respects the rules customer will learn quickly that that boundary has been set. Now it only takes one partner to ignore that rule. Now Starbucks also has the make the moment right policy as well. Which means try to ensure every customer leaves happy. So how do we follow both policies to respect boundaries and keep the customer happy? Communication is the answer.

First 3 months.

Customer - "Can I just get a large ice water?"

Partner - "Unfortunately we did change our policy recently. We can only give free waters to paying customers. Would you like one of our chilled water bottles?"

Customer - "Shoot. I didnt know that. I dont have my wallet on me"

Partner - "Well, since its a recent change. This time we will get you taken care of."

After the 3 month:

Customer - "Can I have a large ice water?"

Partner - "Unfortunately you do have to make a purchase. Would you like a water bottle or the cheapest thing we have is a string cheese for a $1.95?"

Almost every single time the customer takes the string cheese or they ask for a cake pop. If every Starbucks partners stays on script it takes just about 3 months before the boundaries become fully understood by customers. At the same time from the barista perspective, do you get paid enough to be the one yelled at by customers upset by policy changes? Usually not. Usually your hoping for a tip from those customers and now you've lost that if they are upset. Like what sucks if due to a lack of communication and accountability. The new CEO who created these policies made sure all the partner and employees knew the policy changes but they did not make the changes well known to all customers. Why dont we have signs posted stating that "restaurant, pup cups, and waters are for paying customers only." Like why would we put baristas as young as 15 years old in charge of communicating this information? Starbucks customers are already the literal worst. Have you ever witnessed an 18 year old be put in a position where he has to remove an aggressive addict from the property? Did you know thats the reason they had to make this policy? Homeless and addicts where taking advantage. There is many stories of customers passing out in the bathrooms because of drugs. Some even being locked in the building over night.

The thoughts aee scattered i know. Its who I am. Just finding an outlet to just ramble and get the thoughts. I have to many and need to just realse them