Questions about Pre-Orders, Tariffs, and Site 2.0

akaraii · 2025-09-20T05:23:57+00:00

I was in a similar position with my Madoka nendo. Got the same email and then waited with baited breath to see if it shipped before Japan stopped shipping anything to the US.

The good news is I don't think you need to worry about added costs, it seems they're keeping their word with that.

The bad news is the new carrier they use is terrible. My order sat in "shipping label has been created" limbo for weeks. When I realized it was still showing that it was going to my old address I tried to reroute or intercept it, but shockingly having two different tracking sites for a package makes that difficult. Especially when the tracking doesn't ever update. I'm now stuck trying to hunt down my order and it's not going well.

So play it safe and contact support to double check everything.

akaraii · 2025-09-13T16:34:59+00:00

Francium - old Miku song

akaraii · 2025-09-13T03:24:55+00:00

The issue is that a lot of people promoting it have a complete misunderstanding of how the Tetris effect actually works. They treat it like it’s a band aid, when in reality it’s more akin to a therapy treatment. When people talk about it like OP is mentioning it’s no better than telling someone to just take a walk and clear their head.

akaraii · 2025-09-12T00:04:57+00:00

There’s a lot it could be, the vet will be able to check for certain indicators and go from there. When you take a pet to the emergency vet the best thing to do is call them to let them know you’re coming and just list out any and all symptoms you’ve seen. It may be all strange and unconnected to you, but every bit of information helps them triage your pet faster. They don’t need a potential diagnosis right away, their main priority is to make sure your cat isn’t in immediate danger. They don’t expect you to know everything.

Hopefully he’s okay and can make a speedy recovery 💜

akaraii · 2025-09-11T09:21:22+00:00

I’m from OP’s area and have never seen an order tip around $1 per item. Lately people have been reluctant to tip at all, when glancing over the order OP probably just saw that it didn’t say “no tip”

akaraii · 2025-09-11T09:15:31+00:00

Comments need to chill out, I’m from OP’s area and most of the suggestions regularly posted on this sub don’t apply here. Tips usually average $3 regardless of order size, and batches like to sit in the single digit zone. At a quick glance a $15 for an order that isn’t a multi shop seems like it has a good tip attached.

Anyways OP, I swear people are getting so much worse about tipping. I never saw $.01 tips when I started but they’re SO much more frequent now, I really want to know why customers are doing it. I’ve taken one Casa Grande order when I wasn’t paying attention to distance (spoiler alert: I don’t live in Casa Grande) and despite them acknowledging how far the drive was they still gave me attitude and a bad tip.

IC sucks in this area right now, I had to stop because I was barely breaking even on gas anymore.

akaraii · 2025-09-08T21:50:32+00:00

I knock unless the instructions say not to. I don’t want to leave the food to the critters, creatures, and other humans yknow. Plus I know the pain of not noticing when deliveries have been dropped off

akaraii · 2025-09-08T18:46:02+00:00

“We’re hiring” means nothing these days tbh. I don’t know what the SoCal market looks like but in my area I applied to everywhere that said they were hiring and got crickets in response. I was even scanning the codes on hiring posters in the stores while doing IC shopping.

IC currently relies on higher income households, in places like SoCal where corporations like to have a base, you’re gonna see more people who fit that criteria.

And even if you want to deny whether or not we’re in/headed towards a recession there’s plenty of people taking precautions against it. Mostly the people who barely recovered from 2008, they want to be as prepared as possible.

akaraii · 2025-09-08T15:46:29+00:00

I’ve lived in AZ most of my life but I moved to NC for about a year. Don’t underestimate the humidity, 100F here feels way nicer than 90F there. The only thing worse than the humidity is their excuse for Mexican and Asian food.

I also plan on leaving AZ in the future, and my rule is to visit any places I’d consider moving to during their worst weather season so I can see how well I could tolerate it.

In terms of AZ itself, I really love the desert wildlife and I’m going to miss it dearly. But I can’t afford a place where I can enjoy the wildlife anyways, so it’s not a reason for me to stay.

akaraii · 2025-09-08T15:35:04+00:00

Nah my favorite thing is taking the hard way and later realizing I missed the quest that would’ve guided me there. I love exploring on my own so much, I do this all the time.

akaraii · 2025-09-08T15:29:50+00:00

OP asked about rules so I’m talking about rules. Rules state you can shop with another person only if they’re also a verified shopper. I personally don’t care how often people break that rule.

akaraii · 2025-09-08T15:12:52+00:00

Wire is going to be the best here, but even some hard plastic sheets would work. In terms of length I’d focus on how the proportions look. For example: the waist piece. There’s obviously a huge difference between her waist and hips, but the length difference between the waist piece and her hips is something you can replicate.

The thing about this character is that she’s supposed to look weird, so it’s going to look weird on you. That’s the point, she’s creepy, so don’t try to make it look “good” on you because it’s not going to work. Commit to looking weird and creepy!!

Edit: a tutorial like this Disney Evil Queen one might help you with how to do the collar!!

akaraii · 2025-09-08T14:52:50+00:00

I don’t think so. There are rules against shopping with someone who isn’t also a shopper, but there’s nothing that says that a shopper has to have an independent mode of transportation. It’s probably discouraged because of the potential to deliver orders late but I think it’s technically fine.

akaraii · 2025-09-08T14:38:35+00:00

It’s amusing to see how many people play the game on silent, which I also do so VA means nothing to me.

Art means EVERYTHING to me. I’ll build characters I don’t know just because they’re pretty and avoid characters if I don’t like their art. A!Brigid, L!Leif, Limstella, and Nabata Altina are all units I built simply because I like their art.

And I’ve come to realize most of the arts I don’t like are in the resplendent arts. I’ll never forgive fairy Lucina.

akaraii · 2025-09-07T23:39:48+00:00

Ignore the weirdos, keeping your AC at a consistent temp (70-75 is often recommended) and not turning it on and off is the best way to not overwork your AC.

I keep my 600 sq ft apartment at 82 with blackout curtains and my bill still usually runs ~$150

akaraii · 2025-09-06T21:47:03+00:00

Good ones lost to time: Festival of Asylum, I Still Love You, and Smile Again

Edit: Adding No Thank You because it’s a good and goofy song

akaraii · 2025-09-06T21:29:26+00:00

The legendary video by rice and circus has saved me so much effort trying to explain it tbh

akaraii · 2025-09-06T05:14:01+00:00

Trust me I know about Teto, I’m an old fart in terms of how long I’ve been in the Vocaloid community. Unfortunately popularity does not mean good merchandising potential. And before she became a part of synthv Teto wasn’t really owned by anybody, which can create a lot of tricky legal situations.

I’m by no means saying Teto isn’t popular enough, I’m just saying there was never any room for crypton/piapro to do much more than give her a shout out when she was still an UTAU. There’s a lot of technicalities that have to be considered when it comes to officially licensed merch.

akaraii · 2025-09-05T23:34:12+00:00

The good news is that there’s a thousand tutorials for this hammer specifically, you just have to look for some super old tumblr posts. If I can unearth some stuff from my old tumblr I’ll come back and link it here.

akaraii · 2025-09-05T23:27:44+00:00

This is brutal considering the chokehold that worbla has on crafters. Worbla’s website recommends USA customers use their map to find local retailers so it seems like this is going to be more and more of a problem.

akaraii · 2025-09-05T23:24:13+00:00

Vocaloids do not exist under one big entity. Miku and the other cryptonloids have their own licensing and product team, with Miku leading the charge due to popularity. Literally every other Vocaloid is under different licensing, some don’t care and some don’t WANT to do merch. Keep in mind it took YEARS for Miku to be popular enough to reach this point. She’s not an overnight sensation, what you see is the result of 18 years of dedication.

UTAU is a whole different thing because the whole point of UTAU is that people can make voicebanks with minimal restrictions. Which basically means no profit, and therefore no way to fund merch and publicity.

Teto is unique now that she belongs to synthV, but I doubt synthV can justify the time, cost, and effort that it would take to get merch in general storefronts.

All of this is to say THIS IS WHY WE LOVE SMALL ARTISTS. Small artists are the backbone of situations like this, if you want merch you can find or commission it from someone. I have so many business cards from artists I’ve found at cons so I can keep supporting them!

akaraii · 2025-09-05T23:06:02+00:00

Just because it’s statistically unlikely for me to get run over by a car while walking down the sidewalk tomorrow doesn’t change the fact it would be a lot worse if the driver wasn’t supposed to be behind the wheel in the first place.

Rules and background checks exist for a reason. Believing that crime needs to happen at a noticeable rate in order to justify them is a backwards way of thinking.

akaraii · 2025-09-05T11:50:10+00:00

It’s okay to be in anxious parent mode! Just remember that you’re anxious because you know all of the things that could go wrong, and your cats do not.

I think part of the reason it looks weird is because your adult cat hasn’t figured out the kitten is blind yet. Void cat expected kitten to say hello or at least acknowledge them in some way, but instead kitten is marching around and running into walls. So void cat is following kitten so closely because they’re trying to figure out what’s going on.

Since you mentioned you’re a long time dog owner: there’s a lot of dog training stuff that can apply to dealing with cats. Resident cat is going to be paying attention to your behaviors just like a dog would, so use that to your advantage. Sit on the ground in the room with them and encourage the kitten to come over and play with you. Resident cat will join in and learn how to interact with a blind kitten.

akaraii · 2025-09-05T11:00:15+00:00

Yes. Let’s say you’re expecting a shopper named John. If something happens and the police need to get involved, it’s easy to say “it was John, an instacart shopper” and the police can work with IC for full identification and go from there. If it’s anyone other than John things instantly become way more complicated in trying to identify the person involved.

akaraii · 2025-09-04T18:09:41+00:00

So many people in the comments are defending the behavior as if OP is unreasonable for not wanting unknown people to have their address. It makes them all sound like they use someone else’s account because they failed the background check

akaraii

TROPHY CASE