A few short thought, and a confession.

I am alone tonight, Zena is staying at her sisters for the evening, it is upsetting my cat who greatly prefers it when we are both home, and in the same room if possible, she glares hatefully at me whenever I walk past. Gotta go to bed soon though since I have the opening shift again tomorrow.

So no immunity deal for Michael Flynn, it still remains to be seen if that is because the FBI or whoever thinks he doesn't have anything, or if they think they have enough they don't need him. It is rather exciting.

Ghost in the Shell released today, I can't decide if I want to go see it or not, I have no illusions as to quality mind you, the trailers did a great job convincing me it would suck, and the reviews so far have confirmed that theory, but I kinda want to see just how bad it is.
White washing is a problem in Hollywood, this is certain, but I wonder, does the fact that many of the most egregiously whitewashed movies are utter garbage make the white washing worse? If the movies were actually good would that soften the blow or make it heavier? I'll probably go see Power Rangers this week instead.

We are in the busy season at work, and Spring Break is certainly kicking it off, we are busting ass in the store right now. It's pissing me off because the customers aren't tipping. For me it doesn't hurt much, although more money is always better, but I am the highest paid employee the store has and don't have to rely on tips, virtually everyone else needs that stuff to do things like pay for rent, or gas. I take it personally when a customer doesn't tip, especially on large orders, like you just dropped eighty bucks on pizza, you couldn't throw a couple our way? We only made the damn things for you. Perhaps a quarter of my customers leave tips and I am starting to take it personally.

For a while I figured, well we aren't a full service restaurant, we don't do table service, walk around refilling drinks, that sort of thing, but you know? It really doesn't matter. Like at a full service establishment you go in expecting your food to be made the way you want it, a nice atmosphere, and friendly service, you tip for that because it is expected, but take yourself to a place like mine, or even a fast food joint, and you still expect all those things, but you also want it faster and cheaper. Somehow this means you simultaneously don't have to tip. It's weird. Not to say servers in full service places don't deserve it, I am saying everyone does. Well, that or a living wage in the first place so we don't have to rely on the idiots and sociopaths that are the general public for our well being, but let's not get crazy here.

In unrelated news the whole health care debacle brought up a thought for me, you recall some Republican shithead saying that all poor people needed to do to afford healthcare was not buy the latest iPhone? It was only the latest in a long line of people saying that poor people shouldn't have things, not nice things, just, things in general. I of course disagree strongly with the concept, but I had to do some soul searching recently because it turns out I have had almost the exact same thoughts about some folks who are my friends, and that is pretty fuckin hypocritical of me don't you think?

I think it is fair to say that most of my friends are not financially comfortable, and many live so far below the poverty line that it might as well be in outer space, yet I see on Facebook that they drop a couple hundred bucks now and again to go to cons, or to buy some useless(in my view) toy. when they have so many other things they could be spending money on. I have had to think strongly about why I condemn that but not the stuff in the previous paragraph. And I don't have a good answer.
When you are deeply in debt, a couple hundred dollars doesn't actually fix any problems. when your student loans are twenty grand, you have a thousand dollars of utilities breathing down your neck and the rent hasn't been paid in a couple months, fifty bucks isn't going to solve even a small part of that. So really, fuck it, why not buy a video game? May as well have some fun and hide from the world for a little bit.

It doesn't solve anything no, but nothing short of massive cash infusions or immediate debt relief will, it probably isn't all that healthy, but neither is throwing it at a wall of debt that won't be delayed or diminished even the slightest. There are no good answers, and in that situation it is pretty shitty to condemn someone for doing something to make them happy in the short term, they can't afford the long term anyway.

So to any of my friends who are reading this, in tough straits, and feeling bad because you bought a nice dinner rather than a student loan payment, I am sorry, I never told you that I thought you were being dumb, because even my worst isn't quite as bad as that, but I thought it and that was coming from a place of privilege I don't think I realized I had until just recently. Do what you can, it's all anyone can do, not that you need my permission or anything.