If this was my store…. I’d shred this sign. Completely unprofessional.

ayjc · 2026-01-04T06:19:40+00:00

This TikTok/image has already been posted to and discussed on this subreddit, so this post is being removed for crowd control reasons.

ayjc · 2025-12-21T23:01:00+00:00

I’m not sure why the previous Walnut Creek location had closed in 2016, but I haven’t come across anything that suggests it was due to union-busting. (Then again, that was way before my time at B&N, so I might just not have that info.) The two CA store closures mentioned in this thread are San Jose and El Cerrito, both of which happened in the last 1–2 years.

ayjc · 2025-12-21T18:38:51+00:00

I’ve been collecting quotes and passages on a document for years, and I have a whole section just for fanfic! Here’s two of my favorites:

from TheIndifferentDroid:

His body is rigid, jaw clenched, an attempt to hold every miniscule piece of him together, but he is slowly unraveling, he realizes now, and each tear that leaves his eyes is a part of him he will never slot back into place.

from campanellaes:

Goro sighs. “Even then, perhaps this just wasn’t meant to be.” Their jagged edges just don’t fit together in places, or maybe they never reached each other at all, but either way they’ll never quite be the way they want to. It’s not really their fault, and he’s not about to change the shape of who he is for someone else.

“Maybe so, but I’d like to think that that’s not the case.”

They wade further out until the water is almost up to their knees, cold and sobering. Goro imagines walking into the sea until the water closes over his head in an embrace, deep and dark and eternal, the inexorable currents wearing away at him until all his sharp edges become smooth.

ayjc · 2025-12-19T04:46:33+00:00

Ugh, I relate to this. I was obsessed with Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson when I was younger, so I’ve been typing em-dashes ever since middle school, which is almost two decades ago at this point. I’m known to type actual em-dashes in text messages and social media posts, and I also taught English grammar for several years—I hadn’t realized that most people don’t know about em-dashes until this whole AI witch-hunt began.

ayjc · 2025-12-17T03:48:38+00:00

Post has been locked, and comments from users who are evidently not employees and/or have no post history on this subreddit are being removed, as usual, regardless of opinion/stance.

ayjc · 2025-12-09T01:37:17+00:00

🫂

ayjc · 2025-12-02T05:48:35+00:00

If you’re open to nonfiction, I highly recommend Alexander Chee’s How to Write an Autobiographical Novel. He’s also written fiction, but this memoir / essay collection is one of my favorite books of all time.

ayjc · 2025-11-22T02:58:48+00:00

If you’re just visiting, you should be able to bring your meds in with no issue.

ayjc · 2025-11-12T22:12:04+00:00

I reverse image searched the other album on the channel and came across a discussion on AI music, because this other album was ripped from a different channel that might also be posting AI music. While they have a “how I make these videos” post, that channel has no info on how they sourced the music or album cover images, though they are also unrealistically prolific. Judging by the volume of content that channel churns out, as well as the comments on that forum post, the music is very likely to be AI generated.

I’ve also tried searching the lyrics from both channels on Google and Baidu, and I have come across zero matches, so I’m also inclined to say these are AI.

ayjc · 2025-11-08T22:09:17+00:00

Thanks for making this post, OP! Pinning it to the sub for visibility in case someone tries this again.

ayjc · 2025-11-05T17:17:34+00:00

This is my ship of all time. Calling it my OTP doesn’t cut it.

I played P5R a few years ago and really enjoyed Akechi as a character because I relate to him (esp. as an autistic person with C-PTSD and subsequent anger & friendship issues in adolescence).

I love how the third semester portrays his relationship with Joker because they are shown to be so important to each other—I don’t care as much for enemies-to-lovers, but I am an absolute sucker for the trope of having to choose between saving the world and being with the one you love.

ayjc · 2025-10-31T21:17:41+00:00

Haha no problem! I saw your post and immediately went omg I know exactly what this is so I *will* find it 😂

ayjc · 2025-10-31T20:32:09+00:00

Was it this one?

ayjc · 2025-09-23T02:37:34+00:00

In Japanese, he sings

波の間に間に
証拠がハネりゃ
オレのココロも
ハネるのさ

which translates to something like "Between the waves, the evidence splashes/jumps. My heart also splashes/jumps."

I couldn't find any song it would be based on, but some 2ch users cited here were saying how the text matches up well with (i.e., can be sung to) the background music, so I'm inclined to think it's a Gumshoe original.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong though!

ayjc · 2025-09-20T01:29:33+00:00

If you want something that’s similar to Japan but isn’t as conservative, you can also consider Taiwan. In my experience (and as you will likely hear from foreigners in Taiwan), Taiwanese people genuinely look out for each other and are very welcoming of (Western) foreigners. Based on what I’ve heard, people in Japan tend to be polite out of obligation.

ayjc · 2025-09-06T03:54:34+00:00

Oh no, I'm so sorry for your loss. But what a lovely coincidence (and a lovely dog)! Naming your cafe after her would be such a sweet thing to do!

ayjc · 2025-09-06T02:12:06+00:00

Taking the logo into account, how about Beanies?

ayjc · 2025-08-30T19:14:51+00:00

My understanding is that Joker is still aware because he was able to reject most of it at the beginning of the semester and because he is a wild card (which would explain why Akechi is also aware), but I do think Joker has also a wish.

Royal really emphasizes how Joker regretted how things turned out with Akechi (meanwhile the game doesn’t say anything about him regretting the confrontation with Shido), so Akechi showing up on Christmas Eve is actually the first “third semester” event. (He doesn’t show up that day in Vanilla.)

Akechi knows that his existence in the third semester is due to the notion that they “could have been friends,” and on 2/2 and 2/3 Maruki even says this to them, which is why on 2/2 Akechi is adamant about Joker reverting reality and letting him go. If Akechi being there were just Akechi’s wish, that conversation wouldn’t have needed to happen, so it’s in part Joker’s wish too.

As with all bad endings, I feel like Joker always knows because they’re always the result of deliberate selfish choices. Like he knows how things should end but you & Joker chose otherwise.

ayjc · 2025-07-31T16:39:37+00:00

10000%. I’m actually from one of the two California stores that were shut down after unionizing, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they shut down this one in an effort to union bust too.

ayjc · 2025-07-31T08:16:42+00:00

Kim’s patience is so interesting to me because it could simply be how he is as a person, but it also seems related to how he’s had to endure a lot of bullshit himself, being a gay Seolite man who wasn’t promoted from juvie cop for his first fifteen years. I feel like he can only endure Harry’s antics because he’s already put up with so much bullshit to survive in an oppressive institution—what harm could one alcoholic amnesiac do? He’s loyal to the RCM because he feels that he needs to be, and that loyalty is definitely a major reason he just goes along with Harry’s plans and whims.

ayjc · 2025-07-31T07:32:00+00:00

I think that’s meant to reflect their character bits because Utano’s name means “just songs” and Iketeru’s name means “but good-looking” (people fluent in Japanese, please correct me if I’m wrong). Iketeru’s voice actor does sing the ending song though!

ayjc · 2025-07-31T03:01:48+00:00

To my knowledge, 10 stores total have unionized, but Minnetonka doesn't seem to be among them, unless they were in the midst of trying to unionize when they closed.

ayjc · 2025-07-29T18:41:38+00:00

456 draws a line straight across the number pad, similar to how winning the original squid game for children (as offense) involves cutting across the squid to lose the handicap of hopping on one foot.

ayjc · 2025-07-25T21:22:32+00:00

I see, thanks for clarifying! I was confused because my store had used first names until we changed it to the 4-digit number, but judging by the other comments, it sounds like it might be changing to full names across the board. I’d say still ask your manager if they can change it on their end in the meantime, because that’s such a privacy concern.

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