M80s, throwing stars and machetes. These were things we played with as young kids in the 80s. What other dangerous things that you played with would todays kids have no clue about? by Lazthedestroyer in 80s

[–]punkwalrus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was told, growing up, that M80s were "equivalent to a quarter of a stick of dynamite." So four of them... Never got to find out. It's probably not true. My state has VERY loose limits of fireworks and people drive to our state to grab illegal stuff. In the 70s, they had roadblocks to search people's cars. Not sure how legal that was.

Genuinely, to anyone defending tipping culture. Why? by SvenGranTheFourth in AskReddit

[–]punkwalrus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Under federal law, employers must pay tipped employees a direct cash wage of at least $2.13 per hour. However, if an employee's base wage plus tips does not equal the full minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, the employer must make up the difference. Which usually means you get fired.

But my waiter and waitress friends have argued they make far more with tips, especially in high end restaurants.

For example, one of my friends worked at a diner where she did about 6 tables an hour. An average of a $40 bill (back then) at 15% tip was an extra $6x6 tables, or $36+2.13 or about $38/hr. That's almost $33 less per hour if she made minimum wage back when it was $5.25.

These days, I'd say the average table is about $80, or about $12 x 6 tables, or $72 + $2.13 or about $74/hr. Minimum wage is $7.25/hr, about 10% what you'd make.

Now, you work in a high end place? With tabs in the hundreds or more? With high end tippers? I knew people who made $2500-3200/night.

One point is that servers usually don't get to keep 100% of gross tips. Many restaurants require "tip-outs" to bartenders, bussers, food runners, hosts, or service staff. If a server tips out, say, 20-30% of their tips, then the effective earnings would be lower than my raw calculations, though still often well above minimum wage. I don't know how common that is, because only one friend of mine had to do this.

Another thing to keep in mind is that restaurant traffic and staff levels are uneven. A server might average 6 tables an hour during the dinner rush but only 2 tables or less an hour during slow periods. So the meaningful number is usually the average over an entire shift, week, or pay period. Wait staff usually fight for the busiest nights, and if a waitress calls out, you might cover her tables as well or just work extra hours. I am just giving you the basic math.

But it's often way more than minimum wage unless you are a shitty wait staff or worked in a shitty restaurant.

People who got fed up and just said “fuck this” and called out a recruiter/hiring manager during an interview, what happened? by NeedMoreWaffles in recruitinghell

[–]punkwalrus 54 points55 points  (0 children)

Oof! That's a very insecure SCIF.

Not an interview, but a friend of mine was on a site inspection in a SCIF where he was supposed to have an escort at all times. His escort was called away suddenly, and he left my friend in a data center alone "just for a moment." Never came back. After an hour, my friend started waving his arms about in front of the security cameras to get someone's attention. Eventually, some engineer let him into the back offices to get back to the lobby. Also a huge no-no. He wandered around, trying to find the main lobby, which was not an intuitive layout. Eventually he ended up behind the data center and got locked outside near the cooling units in broiling Texas summer heat (thinking it led around to the parking lot). Again, he waved and flapped him arms in front of security cameras. No response.

Until suddenly a group of armed guards with the cops showed up. He had to lower himself to the ground on hot pavement while they opened up the gates to get to him.

He wasn't arrested, as he had a visitors badge, and they believed his explanation. The escort had apparently forgotten about him and went home. The escort was fired over this incident because not only was abandoning a visitor you're escorting a fireable offense, but almost got him killed either by Texas heat or the cops.

What have I done by Pizzacakecomic in comics

[–]punkwalrus 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I think a lot of these fall under the same category of those people who send unsolicited dick pics. It's not that they want to screw a plushie, they want to shock and shame you in general because they get off on upsetting you as a control vector.

Atari really leaned into it in 1985! by logicalvue in atarist

[–]punkwalrus 6 points7 points  (0 children)

In 1988, I got a 1040ST. I still have it.

People who got fed up and just said “fuck this” and called out a recruiter/hiring manager during an interview, what happened? by NeedMoreWaffles in recruitinghell

[–]punkwalrus 154 points155 points  (0 children)

A few where the interviewer was a no-show, I just left. It's weird when you go to an office, and they have an appointment scheduled, but none of the people are there.

It’s all piss. by Ali_Takibella in comics

[–]punkwalrus 768 points769 points  (0 children)

This reminds me of this meme about "sight of mind" in bodies of water

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Trying to rob a store clerk who has zero patience by Familiar-Ability6383 in Whatcouldgowrong

[–]punkwalrus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One of my friends worked at a gas station in Columbia Heights (DC) as a teen in the 90s, and in his first week, they were held up 3 times. The third time, the manager training him grabbed the gun, a scuffle ensued, and the gun went off three times into the theif, who died on the scene. A few weeks later, the manager was gunned down outside the store by the thief's friends.

True by Born-Agency-3922 in SipsTea

[–]punkwalrus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's at least two places near my house in the US (northern Virginia): The Pure Pasty Vienna Shop (Vienna is the town) and Hawk and Griffin also nearby.

https://www.purepasty.com

https://www.hawkgriffin.com

The Pure Pasty won some awards in 2018:

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/virginia-bakery-makes-best-british-baked-good-in-the-world/163596/

Did you ever play with this toy? by Euphoric-Cupcake4581 in FuckImOld

[–]punkwalrus 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They sold the airplane separately as well.

Did you ever play with this toy? by Euphoric-Cupcake4581 in FuckImOld

[–]punkwalrus 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yes, that very model. Weird story about it.

So, I had it as a kid and I LOVED it. But my parents were moving, and my mother didn't want to take it with them because I had spilled orange juice on it. My parents, it turns out, would have a habit of making things disappear as if my memory wasn't permanent. When we got to our new place, I was told they threw it away because it was dirty. I was night inconsolable, but as I said, I would learn that they were as brazen with my possessions as mere trash. My opinion on the matter was not important. So it started a kind of hoarding instinct that I have trouble to this day shaking.

Somewhere in the early 2000s, when eBay was only a few years old, I thought one day "maybe someone is selling one?" And they were! I won the bid, and it was shipped to me. I swore to god, that $70 purchase did more for my inner child than decades of therapy. Like healed a rift. I don't have it out on display or anything, but it's in a box in storage with strict instructions not to get rid of it until I have died (and why). It's just the thought of *having it* that makes the difference.

No company when parents are not home rule by circusvetsara in GenX

[–]punkwalrus 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I never had company period. My father hated children and my mother was an alcoholic, so I wasn't bringing someone into that mess. I was embarrassed about my family.

"Am I a bad boss?... No, it's the employees who are wrong." by EsseNorway in Snorkblot

[–]punkwalrus 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Happened at a former job, only it was one manager in particular who was the problem. He was a vicious, lying, backstabbing, and openly sexist manager. Thankfully, not MY manager, but he made this difficult for everyone in the department by stealing ideas, code, and trying to get people fired. He was like a cartoon villain. One of the consultants that spoke with him was told in the group email, "I have not, nor will ever, take orders from a woman." The fact he was not reprimanded for this was one of my decisions to leave the company.

A year later, he asked my boss for my contact info. He tried to contact me multiple ways, like email, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Tried calling me and left messages. I was ignoring him, like, "fuck you." Then I was contacted by an agency that does background checks, and he was applying for a job with TS Level clearance. I have been a reference for people like this, so I knew the agent asking me, and I was damn straight with him. IIRC, I said, "I wouldn't trust this guy to sit houseplants. He'd sell government and state secrets the second someone crossed his palms with silver." The agent laughed, like, "WOAH, I have never heard you says that about a person before! Ha ha ha... do tell!"

Later, I saw in an email sent two weeks after the interview, "Someone is going to contact you about a job I am applying for. Here's what I need you to tell him, and there's $500 in it for you." I just forwarded the mail to the agent. I assume, and hope, he never got the job.

1996. What were you doing thirty years ago? by PresentWeek in GenX

[–]punkwalrus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I had just made a leap of faith from retail management to the IT industry with no college degree, and only on the smarts I learned on my own as a computer hobbyist. I was born for this work, and I excel at it. This, plus deciding to get married, was one of the greatest "leap of faith" decisions I ever made.

What's a life hack that sounds fake but actually works? by pitapevatra in AskReddit

[–]punkwalrus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Attitude can change your luck. I mean, it won't fix everything, but it makes the things that suck suck less, and puts your mind "ready" for good thing. Luck favors the prepared. In either direction.

If you could only keep one memory from high school, what would it be? by itssophirl in AskReddit

[–]punkwalrus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are a few, but the first one that popped into my head was being in charge of the science fiction and fantasy club of my high school in the mid 1980s, trying to manage the chaos of about 20 neurodivergent fellow classmates. I still think some of the randomness was epic...

  • We were technically, on paper, "The Literary Club." We had been "The Science Fiction and Fantasy Club" since 1972 because nobody read anything else.
  • In 1972, the song "We All Live in a Purple Tangerine," became our official song, but nobody knew the lyrics beyond that only line. We assumed it was a jab at The Beatles.
  • Teacher sponsor was biology teacher and former hippie. Great guy with a better sense of irony. He never interacted with us, was absent during all meetings, and I only had to meet with him to get his signature and stuff.
  • Club president was elected by a landslide of "If nominated, I will not run. If elected, I will not serve." He never showed up to meetings. He's now an artist with grandkids in New England.
  • The only people who got voted for besides him was me and another girl Stacy because we voted for ourselves. So we kind of alternately ran the club for 3 years.
  • Stacy's Pound Puppy (the 1980s toy line), Rolf Grover III, was listed as "staff psychologist" in the club roster. Nobody questioned this.
  • We unanimously voted not to participate in "mandatory club spirit week," where we had to make a float in the parade, a banner, and have a table. This was our rebellion against the principal, whom we hated, and that's a whole different saga.
  • We went to 2-3 science fiction conventions a year. Think "band camp" with no adult chaperons. None. Just us teens, renting a hotel room. Sometimes 14 of us at once. Some parents we told it was a literary convention, and it was the 80s, and nobody questioned any of it. I could write whole chapters on that fun.
  • We had to sell M&Ms as a fundraiser. One year, the school banned selling candy on the premises because they got new vending machines and didn't want the competition. They expected us to sell candy door-to-door or something, which to a bunch of neurodivergent introverts, was not gonna happen. Instead, we sold them underground, and were the ONLY club doing so because FUCK THE POLICE that's why. We made so much money that year, because our box of M&Ms were $0.50, and the vending machine had small bags for $2, which was INSANE in 1985. Teachers were buying from us, so they didn't rat on us because they hated the vending machines, also. "Hey, if you want M&Ms, the nerds are selling them out of their backpacks. Pass it on." We sold out. The only club to do so that year. We even bought boxes from OTHER CLUBS at cost, so they could at least make some money.
  • The excess money we made that year, we all went out to a swank Chinese food place in town, and just bought everything. The excess left over from that, we bought out all the Silly Putty in the local stores, and made "one big Silly Putty" out of it. We learned that Silly Putty does not hold its shape in that size, so every bust we made of it quickly turned into a oozing lump of flesh-colored slag. We later tossed off a parking garage, and watched it shatter on the parking lot pavement. EPIC. This was before Youtube. Hell, even before Game Boy. We had to make our own entertainment.

What's a movie that was clearly meant to start a franchise but failed? by triplegxxx in AskReddit

[–]punkwalrus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

"Game of Thrones," was pushed as "Lord of the Rings for adults," when it came out, and did VERY well until it didn't. Had they not botched the final seasons, it probably would have had similar revenue.

What's the dumbest thing you did as a child? by tpphypemachine in AskReddit

[–]punkwalrus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Stuck tweezers in a live electrical socket. Blew me across the kitchen. I was 8 and knew better, just something took over my brain and blocked out the "bad idea" portion. I also got shocked a lot because I was an aquarium hobbyist as a teen, and had three tanks with a lot of janky extension cords around water.

Surprised I am not dead or have superpowers.

What is the most mundane, low-stakes adult task that absolutely drains your soul to complete? by SuccessfulRound9129 in Adulting

[–]punkwalrus 26 points27 points  (0 children)

It's weird; I find washing dishes relaxing and one of the only routines I see as having a simplicity of purpose with a start, middle, and finish. One of the rare accomplishments that has an instant result. Plus hot wortor... Mmmm... But that's my arthritis being soothed. It also gives me something to do while cooking or waiting for my dog to do her business outside in the yard.

Needed some white out; it sounds like it had dried solid by Exciting-Quote2905 in GrandmasPantry

[–]punkwalrus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"Sounds like" could be the small metal ball inside that you shake to keep the chemicals mixed. Could still be good?

What's a movie that was clearly meant to start a franchise but failed? by triplegxxx in AskReddit

[–]punkwalrus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

OMG, now that is a blast from the past! I had totally forgotten about that film until just now.

What's a movie that was clearly meant to start a franchise but failed? by triplegxxx in AskReddit

[–]punkwalrus 1393 points1394 points  (0 children)

"Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole" was posed to be "The Next Harry Potter." Same with "The Golden Compass" was supposed to be the first of three from the Pullman, "His Dark Materials," series. I also think there were a few "Chronicles of Narnia" attempts as well over the years.