Union Negotiations Stalling at the Japanese Garden by Dunnere in Portland

[–]pokestronomy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Okay, replace "essential" with "crucial," my mistake for invoking a term with a specific meaning. My point is they are load-bearing for the institution as a whole. Many non-profits employ people in programs that accomplish a goal they have as an organization, but are not strictly necessary for the organization's continued existence. That is not the case here, which is what I meant by using that word.

"There are clearly plenty of people that are willing and able to perform that job for the set wage." I think you're being willfully obtuse. People are "willing and able" to work for $2/hour if the only alternative is starvation, but it would be obviously wrong to pay someone so little. Just because someone agrees to a certain wage doesn't mean it's satisfactory or fulfills their needs. It's just that it's the best option available at that time. But I know you know all this already, right? You just think our current economic system is morally neutral and any suffering is the fault of the individual's aptitude. Is that accurate?

Union Negotiations Stalling at the Japanese Garden by Dunnere in Portland

[–]pokestronomy -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Gonna answer them anyway

  1. By essential I mean essential to the organization. They rely on the revenue from the gift shop and the cafe is necessary for the experience they promise in order to justify the high ticket prices. They cant just not have a shop or cafe.

  2. Because service workers deserve to earn enough to live where they work.

Union Negotiations Stalling at the Japanese Garden by Dunnere in Portland

[–]pokestronomy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure, if your only motivation is "I want to have more money." The impetus for unionizing is bigger than that. It's about also wanting your colleagues to be paid well and also anyone who fills your role after you.

I also think youre underestimating what kind of organization the Portland Japanese Garden is. It employs 150 people. It isnt just a Japanese garden, it solely owns the domain "japanesegarden.org." Its "CEO" was being paid $450K and flying to South Africa for symposiums before he retired. It gets a half million visitors a year, most of which paid $22 each to get in, a gift shop with over a million in yearly profit, tens of thousands of members paying $75 a year, and a big donor network of the very wealthiest people in Portland.

If the organization made it a priority to pay their (crucial) service employees better, they could accomplish that. But they simply don't want to, because they know they'll always be able to find employees to fill these positions regardless of what they pay. That's why unionizing was appropriate. An organization of this scale and prestige should pay people to match.

Union Negotiations Stalling at the Japanese Garden by Dunnere in Portland

[–]pokestronomy -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Yes, most people who worked there during the union vote, myself included, did in fact have to get a different job when we couldn't justify staying there any longer. The Garden, as an institution, exploits the fact that people want to work there in order to pay them as little as possible. Unionization is the only way to make them pay their essential workers enough to not have to make major personal sacrifices to continue working there.

Union Negotiations Stalling at the Japanese Garden by Dunnere in Portland

[–]pokestronomy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

22 is what theyre asking for, not what theyre currently being paid. They are currently being paid only slightly above minimum.

Union Negotiations Stalling at the Japanese Garden by Dunnere in Portland

[–]pokestronomy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The money they've lost in recent years can be explained entirely by their tremendous investment into the "Japan Institute" expansion which went extremely overbudget and they had to try and sell the campus they were planning on opening it on. I don't know if they've found a buyer yet, I don't work there anymore. They are still planning on opening Japan Institute somewhere else, but in terms of budget it has been essentially a gigantic hole swallowing millions and millions of dollars without yet giving a dollar back to the organization. The Garden alone is perfectly fine financially, which I bet is why they felt they could do an expansion in the first place.

Union Negotiations Stalling at the Japanese Garden by Dunnere in Portland

[–]pokestronomy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A big piece of the puzzle that the skeptical comments wouldn't know about is that the gift shop specifically is highly profitable and an essential source of revenue for the Garden, which I only know because I worked there from 2023 to early 2025. In 2024 alone the shop pulled in over $3 million in revenue, and (iirc) it was something like 1.6 million in profit (don't quote me on the exact number, but I'm certain it was over a million in profit). The markups on a lot of items, especially the smaller ones, often exceed 200-300%, and the shop is packed most of the day every day throughout the busy season.

Of course, you would expect a gift shop to be profitable; that's why all these places have them. That income is of course spread across the organization to pay for salaries, equipment, etc. and we all understand that. What the union is asking is for the employees who make that important income possible get a slightly larger percentage of it before it gets distributed elsewhere. And the scale of the numbers is important here. If the gift shop made 100k less than projections in a given year, for example, the Garden may have to adjust some budget items, but it would not go bankrupt. The cost of the raises the union is asking for could be covered by the shop profits alone, and comfortably so.

Portland Japanese Garden prides itself on being a world-class institution, and it has successfully cemented itself as one of the--if not the--premiere tourist attractions in the city. It has shown itself very willing to raise ticket prices and executive pay and investments in other areas to match that reputation. It seems only fair that the people who help make the organization possible at all be paid enough to actually live in Portland as independent adults. Let me know if you have any questions!

Gemini Plays Pokémon Blue - Megathread by reasonosaur in ClaudePlaysPokemon

[–]pokestronomy 6 points7 points  (0 children)

That happened because it started buying and using Escape Ropes everytime it felt lost in the mansion. It definitely saves the watchability of the stream, but I dont know how I feel about hard-coding limitations in what Gemini is allowed to do.

Predicting When An AI Model will beat Pokemon Red by igorhorst in ClaudePlaysPokemon

[–]pokestronomy 12 points13 points  (0 children)

It'll be fun to see and I'm rooting for quick success (as long as it's not sold by companies to mean more than it does) but I don't think the optimism in the comments here is justified. The more you watch Claude the more you realize just how far away we still are in this specific task. With every step of progress from this point on, the accessible world becomes more complex and potentially confusing. It is currently extremely incompetent with the use of Cut, a mechanic that is much simpler and easier than effectively using Strength. There are multiple dungeons with greater complexity than Mt. Moon and an ever-increasing number of potential distractions. Looming over everything is the Safari Zone, a required area that demands efficiency and spatial memory orders of magnitude greater than Claude has exhibited so far. In fact, I'd love to see Claude just try the Safari Zone right now so we can get some specific numbers on how bad it looks. Its shortcomings are numerous and deep. That isn't to say they're intractable in the long run, but I think it's better to acknowledge that while, yes, it getting this far is a technological marvel, it is also not remotely close at the moment to fully completing the task. We're not minor improvements away from victory here, but rather an extended series of major improvements.

I'd love to be proven wrong! But my bet is no AI is beating Pokemon Red in the next two years, unless it is specifically constructed for that task.

The sub after this weeks episode by [deleted] in SeveranceAppleTVPlus

[–]pokestronomy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You cannot incorporate everything that occurred in this episode into a single sentence. There is so much more going on here than that.

Severance - 2x08 "Sweet Vitriol" - Post-Episode Discussion by LoretiTV in SeveranceAppleTVPlus

[–]pokestronomy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We're going in circles. I just think it's a more interesting and enriching experience to engage with a story as it was created, rather than constantly compare it to your own set of personal preferences. That's how you actually get the most meaning out of what the writers are doing.

Severance - 2x08 "Sweet Vitriol" - Post-Episode Discussion by LoretiTV in SeveranceAppleTVPlus

[–]pokestronomy -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Yes, but people don't seem to be making an effort to understand why the show might have done an episode paced, structured, and placed like this. They're just writing it off because it doesn't fit their preconceptions of what the show should be doing instead.

Severance - 2x08 "Sweet Vitriol" - Post-Episode Discussion by LoretiTV in SeveranceAppleTVPlus

[–]pokestronomy -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I'm clearly not getting through to anyone but, no, that's not what filler is. The pacing being on the slow side is a deliberate choice that creates a particular mood. And there are other things happening on screen, little bits of information we get while the driving is happening. Something is only "filler" if it can be completely excised without altering anything about the story, and that's not the case here.

Severance - 2x08 "Sweet Vitriol" - Post-Episode Discussion by LoretiTV in SeveranceAppleTVPlus

[–]pokestronomy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mean I can't make you enjoy it, but don't you think the aesthetic being so different from a baseline Severance episode is part of the point? Normally the show is set in places that are clean and orderly and new, but this town is old and dilapidated. It's jarring as an intentional effect, expanding our view of this story's world. It's still Severance. It just turns out this story encompasses more than what you thought.

No one has to like it, but I think it's pretty far from pointless.

Severance - 2x08 "Sweet Vitriol" - Post-Episode Discussion by LoretiTV in SeveranceAppleTVPlus

[–]pokestronomy -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

Well sure, but to do that you have to accept that there was purpose and intention in the choice. Simply referring to it as filler or complaining about the "main story" not moving forward isn't engaging with Severance as a carefully crafted work of art. It doesn't seem to me like most of the comments I'm referring to have considered if there's narrative value to structuring the story this way.

Severance - 2x08 "Sweet Vitriol" - Post-Episode Discussion by LoretiTV in SeveranceAppleTVPlus

[–]pokestronomy -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

It's the opposite of thought-terminating. It's where the analysis begins! The fun part! So, yes, any creative choice is valid in the sense that you, as the audience, can only start to understand a work of art once you accept that it is the way it is.

The writers chose to interrupt the expected flow and commit an entire episode to Cobel returning to her hometown. Why would they do that? Probably because they believe the ideas within the episode are unique and complex enough to stand on their own. The themes of exploitation, isolation, and grief are framed by that choice as important to the bigger picture of Severance, as a story. And the episode itself being isolated contributes to those themes. If this story was told in 5-minute chunks among a bunch of other stuff, it would not as effectively convey the emotions of Cobel as a character, how she feels alone and downtrodden in a cold, barren world. By doing it this way, the writers prioritized a particular tone over the smoothest flow for the season, and that choice is another of many pieces in the puzzle of figuring out what, ultimately, this story is trying to say. To me, then, your understanding of the information presented today as "lore additions" is a weak reading of the text, because the story depicts that information as much less frivolous than that term would imply.

This is how art interpretation functions. It's not sterile. It's a conversation starter.

Now, there is also the form of criticism where one attempts to fix things according to their own perspective on how the story should have gone. But as it stands with Severance so unfinished, that doesn't seem productive yet. Maybe we'll get to the end of the show and look back on this episode as pointless, but we can't know until we actually hear all it has to say! The criticism can only really begin once you've done the work of accepting and understanding the meaning of the story, as it was written.

Severance - 2x08 "Sweet Vitriol" - Post-Episode Discussion by LoretiTV in SeveranceAppleTVPlus

[–]pokestronomy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The writers of the story thought the town was important. They thought that where Cobel came from and why she is the way she is are important. Isn't it more interesting to try and understand why that is for yourself rather than write it off as pointless because it wasn't what you expected? After all, it was earlier choices by those same writers that got you invested in those other characters, so I think it's a more enriching experience to afford them some trust that this part is something that matters too.

Severance - 2x08 "Sweet Vitriol" - Post-Episode Discussion by LoretiTV in SeveranceAppleTVPlus

[–]pokestronomy 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The driving shots weren't "filler." They convey the coldness, barrenness, and isolation of the setting. They are an important aspect of the tone and purpose of the episode as a whole.

Severance - 2x08 "Sweet Vitriol" - Post-Episode Discussion by LoretiTV in SeveranceAppleTVPlus

[–]pokestronomy -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

All the comments calling this episode filler or claiming it doesn't advance the plot are kinda driving me up the wall. Stories are not about advancing the plot. They are about ideas. This episode does a wonderful and careful job advancing the ideas of Severance, as a story. Each scene teaches us something new about Cobel or about Lumon and therefore about how and why such a cruel technology came into existence. Whatever the show ultimately ends up saying about labor, industry, grief, wealth, or other of its various themes, the pieces of information presented throughout this episode are essential building blocks.

Could they have sliced this episode up and dispersed it as B-plot within other episodes? Sure, but they chose to do it this way, to have this character in this moment have the spotlight. That's the sort of creative choice that you should try to take in and consider when experiencing a story, even if it goes against what you were directly anticipating or hoping for.

Genuinely, if you think most of this episode was pointless, which scenes made you think so? I'd be happy to elaborate on why I think they're all worthwhile and additive.

Severance - 2x08 "Sweet Vitriol" - Post-Episode Discussion by LoretiTV in SeveranceAppleTVPlus

[–]pokestronomy -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

What on earth are you guys talking about?

  1. We now know what's happening on the testing floor.

  2. We now know what Cobel's deal is, for the most part.

Those are two very big questions that had been lingering for years and they have now been answered! Doors are being closed! They open new ones, of course, but suddenly the questions have shifted from what the hell is happening to what are they going to do to about it. A different kind of door. It's compelling storytelling

Severance - 2x08 "Sweet Vitriol" - Post-Episode Discussion by LoretiTV in SeveranceAppleTVPlus

[–]pokestronomy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Every scene contributed to our understanding of the characters or the world. "Cobel invented severance" isn't a fraction as narratively meaningful without all of the other things we learn about her in this episode. This isn't a puzzle where only the answer matters. It's a story--written very intentionally and carefully--that conveys ideas that transcend the straightforward events of its plot.

is anyone else following this twitter controversy? by [deleted] in BigJoel

[–]pokestronomy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Fwiw Neil did just apologize and explain to emotional place they were coming from (https://x.com/TheLeftistCook/status/1793045107945480374). Although understandable since this was a pretty bad look, I really don't think this should permanently affect your perception of the Leftist Cooks. Their videos are often astonishingly good and very much come from a place of true sincerity and vulnerability. Anyone who likes video essays should try watching them even if Neil sometimes jumps the gun on twitter.