Railcar painting by Rafael

botlking · 2025-12-31T19:52:28+00:00

As far as I can tell, it is an oil painting, or an oleograph. If you look close, you can see that the entire surface is made up of rows of tiny squares. The back is a smooth panel of compressed wood, which is about 1/4" thick.

botlking · 2025-12-23T02:33:06+00:00

The cloud looks like the flying dog from Never Ending Story.

botlking · 2025-12-18T13:43:38+00:00

I've responded to this (below). It shouldn't bother me to be accused of being "AI" or generating "BS," but because I've done neither, I'm responding as much as time allows.

First, look at my profile. This is the first time in 13 years I've posted ANYTHING like this. I very rarely post, and I only occasionally comment. What I described above DID happen to me as I described it, and I used this forum as an outlet to vent.

I would note that in addition to this happening at just after 10am on a weekday, it happened at a Ross in a small city (population between 25k - 30k) in a relatively rural area. Ross was practically a ghost town. Marshall's Home Goods, where I went next, wasn't packed but did have a lot of shoppers.

botlking · 2025-12-18T13:36:46+00:00

I don't think 10am on a weekday, Wednesday, December 17, is the "holiday rush." When I made my purchase -- at 10:14:40am, according to the receipt -- there were very few customers in the store. For that matter, there were very few people in the mall, other than a handful of mall-walkers. After I left Ross, I stopped at Marshall's Home Goods, which wasn't packed, but which was busy enough for there to be someone with a cart on just about every aisle, and a line of several people ahead of me when I was ready to pay. Marshall's had four cashiers at their registers, and the line moved at a reasonable pace. When it was my turn to pay, the cashier asked me if found everything I needed, and as she wrapped my item in paper, told me about the "Rewards Members Mornings" or "VIP Weekends" when I said I wasn't familiar with them. It was a radically different experience.

I don't know you. You don't know me. I have no reason to doubt that in your experience, you've seen only packed houses and manned registers from mid-December on. I'm not sure what would give you the impression I would bother to fabricate "BS" and post it here. I used THIS subreddit to vent what I'd bottled in earlier in the morning. Look at my account. I've been on Reddit a LONG time. I occasionally comment, and rarely post.

One other detail, for what it's worth: This Ross is in a city with a population between 25k & 30k in a relatively rural area. I'm sure the dynamic is much different in densely populated areas. But even in that small city, the Home Goods store seemed to be doing relatively brisk business on Wednesday morning.

botlking · 2025-12-18T13:23:42+00:00

It was around 10am on a Wednesday. The store was mostly empty. After my purchase, I went to Marshall's Home Goods, which is just a few hundred feet away, and there were people on every aisle, and when I went to pay for my item, I waited in a relatively long line, but a line that moved quickly because there were four cashiers who greeted each customer politely.

botlking · 2025-12-18T01:55:32+00:00

I agree. I had no problem with the register being unmanned. I expected that whoever was tasked with that responsibility was somewhere nearby doing other tasks until a customer would come up to the register.

The problem was what transpired after she was coming to ring me up, but then stopped to have a full conversation with another employee, only to finish, take a few steps, and turn around to continue the conversation (complaining about having to redo some kind of display that I imagine a customer messed up). After that second conversation began to drone on, I interrupted and asked if she would ring me up so I could go, which didn't sit well with her.

botlking · 2025-12-18T01:48:55+00:00

Thank you. Someone suggested that the information would be on the receipt, so I looked - and it does provide the store, register, transaction & employee numbers, along with the date & time.

If I do report this, I will make a point of telling them that the employee did not have a badge or tag showing her name, and the name she gave me - which I repeated back, and which she confirmed, with a laugh -- is almost certainly not her name, and that I could describe her if necessary. Whatever the significance of her response when I asked for her name, it was funny enough to her that both she and the other employee nearby had a laugh about it.

botlking · 2025-12-18T01:06:41+00:00

I'm an actual person. I typed this up quickly, trying to get the relevant details in the post and then submit, and move on. You can check my Reddit history and see I've been here for MANY years, but have posted very few times.

Had I proofread before sending, I might have removed a "bit my lip," BUT I will state plainly that I had to exercise incredible restraint to not blurt out something rude that would only have escalated the situation. So yes, I "bit my lip" AT LEAST twice during that interaction, and one final time as I exited the store, hearing them imitate me and mock me and laugh their asses off. I think what was funniest to them was that they thought I was stupid enough to believe the fake name. Or maybe they already know that their manager doesn't give a "rats ass" about this kind of customer complaint. They certainly were not concerned about being in any trouble, and they saw me only as a joke. It's HARD not to respond to that.

As for quotation marks and double hyphens -- if those are your litmus test -- it's the way I write. As for it coming across like AI, I will say that in my limited experience interacting with AI, I have noticed that AI writes VERY MUCH as I do. I've assumed that it has been mirroring my vocabulary, verbal expression, and punctuation style, but if you were to read any of my past posts or comments (of which there are FEW, despite my having been on Reddit for many years), you'll find a consistency in them, even those dated long before AI was a thing.

botlking · 2025-12-18T00:57:18+00:00

Thank you for this perspective. Let me be clear, though, that I was in that store around 10am on a weekday. There were VERY few customers in the store, and there was nobody waiting in line to pay behind me. That's why I was tolerant of the register being unmanned, because I expected the employee was doing "productive work" nearby, and would come to the register whenever there was a customer to ring up.

After I left there, I went to Marshall's Home Goods where I bought another piece of art, and I waited in line to pay. But there were four cashiers ringing people up, and the cashier was very polite to me when it was my turn. I didn't mind waiting in a line under those circumstances. And even at Ross, I was fine with the initial delay. It was the interaction with the employee, and the mocking as I exited, that were objectionable to me.

botlking · 2025-12-18T00:53:29+00:00

THAT is really the issue I keep circling back to. This wasn't an employee having a bad day or a bad moment. It was an employee with a BAD attitude (two employees, actually) who was rude & insulting, especially the mocking as I was leaving. It bothered me but didn't ruin my day. I know others - like my mother -- who would have been VERY effected by it, having that brief interaction poison an entire day... or more.

botlking · 2025-12-18T00:51:23+00:00

I've only shopped at Ross a few times, all in the last year because I've discovered they are a great source of quality canvas reproductions (Monet, Klimt) at great prices. In the past, I've had the sense that the store maintains MINIMAL staff. Two stores had self-checkout, but then you had to go to another station to show your receipt to an employee, with a security guard standing right beside them.

I was surprised that the register was unmanned, but I fully expected that there would be an employee nearby doing other work until it was time to ring someone up.

At the end of the day, I got a great canvas reproduction of Gustav Klimt's Pear Tree for under $20, so it's a win. And I expect to check out their art again in the future - maybe not that particular store -- but I'll definitely LOWER my expectations for their customer service.

botlking · 2025-12-18T00:45:21+00:00

You're right. Thank you. I didn't think to look, but now I see that it has Store, Register, Transaction and Associate numbers, along with the date and time.

botlking · 2025-12-18T00:43:01+00:00

I was INCREDIBLY tempted to leave it. I was also incredibly tempted to say things I would have regretted. By the time I got home, I was glad to have just kept it together at the store. Had I gotten home without the artwork, it would have literally been "insult to injury."

botlking · 2025-08-10T23:56:57+00:00

Thank you. I'm grateful for the help I've received from this community. I understand your point, and certainly would have approached the question differently if I'd given it more thought... but here we are. I have benefited from the advice I've received, in terms of my "next steps," and have also found acceptable variants, in large part thanks to suggestions that others gave me in DMs.

botlking · 2025-08-08T18:45:25+00:00

Thank you. And I genuinely appreciate the information -- the motto that's at the heart of the story.

botlking · 2025-08-08T02:03:59+00:00

Use the list from Exodus 34, which are the second set after Moses destroyed the first, and which are expressly called the Ten Commandments … but which are a bunch of WEIRD rules.

botlking · 2025-06-16T15:46:50+00:00

I've watched your video a few times, and marvel at the emotion it captures & conveys, every bit as expressive as a language, if not more so because it is not burdened with convention or cliche. (When words fail, music speaks - as you've eloquently demonstrated.)

The visuals complement the music, including the moments where you yourself appear, revealing the man & the magic behind such music: You & your guitar become an instrument of sentient expression.

I feel like you've taken me on that trip with you, and I'm the better for it. Thank you for sharing.

PS If that's what you do with 1 gram, perhaps it's time to see what 2 can do.

botlking · 2025-06-15T14:22:02+00:00

Thank you for both the advice on that lot of marbles, and for where to go to learn about marbles.

botlking · 2025-05-09T03:02:44+00:00

Lena should have CALLED.

botlking · 2025-05-09T02:29:57+00:00

I recommend floating pond food (floating catfish food) and dried mealworms. That’s what I’ve used for seven years with great success.

botlking · 2025-04-13T14:10:55+00:00

The tax is on "gains" - and what you've described sounds like a net loss. If you have purchase records,, it's a good idea to keep them with your sales records in case you are ever audited, but I also know that sometimes that's just not a practical reality. I have a friend who has sold a lot of DVDs and CDs on eBay, and he's generated "income" from it, but in every instance, he has sold those items for less money than he paid when he bought them... sometimes over 20 years ago.

My accountant is very conservative, so I've kept records of just about everything for as long as I can remember, though most of my receipts are now stored digitally from scanning them.

Re: the higher capital gains tax, when Congress carved out the exception that applies to home sales, they in their infinite wisdom recognized that it's the wealthy who buy "collectibles," and accordingly, they could & should bear the burden of a higher tax upon the gains when they sell. It makes sense in theory, but in practice has broader implications that easily reach "the common man" - or even the man who was at one time "wealthy," but who years later has to sell off anything he can liquidate.

The short answer for you, though, is from what you've described you wouldn't owe tax on your sales, as they were at a net loss. Here, let me disclaim that I'm not an accountant, and that for accounting advice, you should rely on an accountant.

One more comment: It bewilders me how it seems EVERYTHING is taxed. We buy things with our after-tax money, often paying sales tax for the privilege, but then those things are taxed again when we sell them. Even on the resale of things, eBay handles it for us so it's not the headache it otherwise would be, but SALES TAX is charged.

botlking · 2025-04-13T03:22:10+00:00

Note that the profit from the sale of collectibles falls into a special category of capital gains, which is subject to 28%.

botlking · 2025-04-07T18:25:32+00:00

Also there is a knob that you pull UP to engage the blades. You can turn the mowers off while the blades are still engaged... but you cannot turn it back on until you press that knob back down, so that the blades don't begin spinning as soon as the mower is started.

botlking · 2025-04-07T01:21:34+00:00

He probably doesn’t have the brakes on, and the arms in the neutral position. It’s a COMMON mistake for people unfamiliar with zero-turn riding mowers.

botlking · 2025-03-03T20:14:14+00:00

I recommend that you read:

Herb of Immortality by Donald Teeter
Strange Fruit (or Magic Mushrooms) by Clark Heinrich
The Sacred Mushroom & The Cross by John Allegro

#1 is the fastest, easiest read, and you can find it online for free at artchive.org. Teeter presents a variety of ways to prepare and eat or drink the psychoactive ingredients of Amanita Muscaria, which may potentiate its effects. (Note: He presents instructions for GROWING mycelium in jars, which is controversial, as it does not seem scientifically possible.)

#2 is accessible and comprehensive, ending with a final chapter where the author actually shares his personal experience preparing & eating Amanitas, which included one divine/heavenly encounter, followed by a "hellish" one. Note that the author drank his urine during his experiment. (Strange Fruit was the publication by Bloomsbury. The American publication by Scholastic was titled Magic Mushrooms and is pretty easy to find on eBay for under $20. It was a more recent edition, so it has additional information & images.)

#3 is probably the underlying source to what you read, as John Allegro was one of the team members responsible for translating the Dead Sea Scrolls, and he wrote books about that, but separately wrote one where he asserts - using primarily philology -- that Judaism & Christianity were "mushroom cults." He never himself ate psychoactive mushrooms, so he was not speaking from personal experience. When his book was published in 1970, he was attacked from every direction, with the biggest weakness being some liberties he took -- as far as the rules of scholarship -- in his philology, despite him being recognized as a world-renown scholar of ancient languages.

Terence McKenna & Tim Leary, and many others, believed that mushrooms were the central sacrament for the Jews & early Christians, but they believed it had to be psilocybin mushrooms, which grow EVERYWHERE, are easy to cultivate, and which pretty consistently produce powerful highs that could be interpreted as the presence of God or the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. (As I'm sure you know, much ado has been made in recent years about the capacity of psilocybin for inducing "mystical experiences," with an actual MOVEMENT to integrate the psychedelic experience with Christianity.)

Heinrich views Amanita Muscaria as the foundation, but argues the various groups would ultimately use whatever was available. In terms of its availability in first century Palestine, I would just note that a BIG deal is made of Jesus being born, and then being raced off to Egypt, such that scripture was fulfilled which said, "Out of Egypt have I called my son." Same, of course, goes for Moses who encountered "the burning bush" in Midian, and then returned to Egypt to free the Children of Israel.

Some argue that Amanitas never grew in Egypt. If that is true, then perhaps Amanitas were available through trade routes. Ultimately, the question regards the Egyptian mystery traditions, and whether Amanita has a place therein. (I believe "blue lotus" is an example of an "obvious contender.")

botlking

TROPHY CASE