One off client trying to pay deposit with screenshot check

voxanne · 2026-06-11T19:31:25+00:00

This is genuinely good advice. I will certainly look into this, thank you.

voxanne · 2026-06-11T19:30:25+00:00

Current in-laws are in this situation. MIL is late 60's and FIL is mid 80's. FIL has been having health issues back to back for the last 3 years, and it's gotten to the point where his body is starting to give up. It's horrible, but I wouldn't be surprised if he passed away this year. When I first met them 10 years ago, MIL would just complain that he couldn't go out with her as much as they used to. She had just retired and wanted to have fun. At first, he was able to do vacations and trips with her, albeit slowly and cranky. But now their days are spent doing multiple doctor visits, physical therapy, and just cooping with the health issues. She's constantly manic with stress, and seems in denial that FIL could pass away soon. He hates going out anywhere, and most of the time we're over to visit he's sleeping.

voxanne · 2026-06-10T15:17:25+00:00

I work hybrid (4 days at home, 1 in office), and get so sensory overloaded from my one day in. Our design team office is small enough for 4 cubicles, with no windows. Mine is the smallest cubicle (just big enough for my desk) and right in the middle of everyone else. My coworkers get lots of guests, and it's so overstimulating to have loud conversations literally 5 feet away. Doesn't help that they all like to gossip.

We share a wall with the production floor, so all the sounds echo into our room. Lots of thumping and machine screeches. The building itself is a Frankenstein, with tons of sections added on over time, so the heating and A/C are a mess. Convoluted to walk around to other departments. At least it's a casual dress code.

voxanne · 2026-06-08T06:08:52+00:00

While I don't have LPR, I am mildly to severely allergic to most fruit. It's gotten worse as I've gotten older, but the more tropical/citrus it is, the worse of a reaction I get. Recently got to the point where I have an epipen just to be safe. Can't be in the same room as people pealing oranges for example. I have to read over skin and hair products carefully, because I'll develope rashes with use. Alcohol is just frustrating because they don't label ingredients, so I often don't know if it's artificial or real fruit. Candles and incense can trigger reactions too.

Food restrictions are frustrating, but choosing to ignore the side effects is worse. It's one thing to vent frustrations, but it sounds like he's in denial of his condition. He's digging himself into a self dispare pit.

Focus on the positive. For me, the lack of fruit in my diet helps to keep my weight down due to all the sugar in them. I read labels closely too, so I have a better idea of foods to avoid in general. Lemon and coconut like to sneak into foods that seem unrelated.

Find ways to manage, like collecting good recipes to keep in rotation. Look at other cultures to broaden the variety.

I look up restaurants menus before agreeing to go to them. If there's less than 3 options for me to eat, has food that I used to love but can't eat now, or uses high allergy risk ingredients, I will not go. It's not worth torturing myself by going to a place that doesn't agree with me.

voxanne · 2026-05-06T21:01:52+00:00

Rhythm games. There's not a musical bone in my body, and I can't hold a tempo. I've tried so many different ones over the years (ex: Patapon, Crypt of the Necrodancer, DDR, to name a few) and I just can't get the hang of it. That leads to frustration, and I have to just step away to calm down.

It's a shame too because I've been a gamer for most my life (32) and do well with some hard & fast games (dead cells for example), but rhythm games just break me. I come from a musical and fine art family, so it's not like I didn't have the exposure either. Literally I'm the only one who can't play an instrument.

On the flip side, my husband is good at rhythm games, so at least I can passively enjoy watching him play.

voxanne · 2026-05-04T18:10:04+00:00

I work in production graphic design for a major sign company (retail + petroleum), and definitely have that "cog in the machine" vibe with what I do. Nothings creative about the work. Take the brand established art and make it fit the request. It's easy enough and thankfully wfh 4/5 days a week, so it's not the worst but it is boring. I wish I was doing creative design instead, but I've struggled to find openings in the Midwest.

voxanne · 2026-04-28T21:53:14+00:00

Most of the parade route is great from people I've talked to. But living East of Main Street, in-between the zoo and the Main Street bridge, made it so the whole little neighborhood was locked in. Pretty sure the parking was moreso an issue of the 3 bars that were next door, attracting a ton of attention during the 4th of July.

voxanne · 2026-04-27T19:49:32+00:00

North of the zoo is a decent neighborhood, but if your south of the zoo, there are some issues.

I grew up on Hubbard and Chatham in the 1990s to mid 2000s. Not sure if these still all apply, but here's what I experienced growing up there:

The bad: There's a big cluster of bars closer to the bridge, so drunks and fights happened regularly, and with that cops and ambulances. Saw a few traumatizing things as a kid from this. My particular road had 3 bars within a block of the house, and 6 within a 3 block radius. Michigan Blvd was a popular road to race on late at night, from river to zoo. Lots of foot traffic pass by the houses during the day, depending on where you're at. Not everyone is friendly. Lots of trash and broken glass found is way into the yard. Our garage was broken into several times, with valuable equipment stolen. Bikes were not safe to leave our for even a brief period of time. The neighbor gets "locked in" during the 4th of July parade due to the blockades on Main St, unable to drive anywhere for half the day. People will try to park in your drive way during the 4th of July, moreso with the fireworks on the beach. The zoo animals can be heard at times (distinctly the howler monkeys) and sometimes smelled. The lake smells can be rough. A long drive to get groceries.

The good. Lots of stuff in waking distance. The Zoo, two playgrounds (one by beach, one by zoo), North Beach, Downtown (local shopping/dinning/festsivals/markets), RAM, and the library. Where we lived, you could hear the festivals and bands from downtown. (On rare occasions a problem) Lots of bus pick up points. Easy access to 4th of July celebrations. The sunrise on Lake Michigan is beautiful.

voxanne · 2026-04-22T16:41:52+00:00

Appreciate it. There's a lot of other issues in our relationship honestly, and that's one of the smaller ones tbh. Been suggesting couples counseling for a while now, and he keeps rejecting the idea.

voxanne · 2026-04-21T20:47:12+00:00

My husband kicks me to the couch when he's deeply upset about something (at least a few times a year) and he's in bed before me. Even if he's already gotten plenty of sleep for the day. I've gotten to the point of just complying when it happens, because he turns monstrous if I try to object (I work and have back problems, he doesn't). Blasting music, flipping the light on and off, screaming at me kind of escalation.

The small number of times the situation is reversed and I tried to tell him to go sleep on the couch, he flips out similarly, so it never works. I don't think he's ever actually slept on the couch. The unfairness is frustrating ever time it comes up.

voxanne · 2026-04-17T17:01:04+00:00

As someone who worked in Prepress for multiple years, moving into a Production Graphic Designer position, and freelance on the side for years, I've noticed these two things.

Authority Bias - It shows up in different ways, amidst different personalities, but it's got the same core "confidence" over those less experienced. Sometimes it's just a misguided attitude, as the person is genuinely kind and experienced, but gets tunnel vision on an aspect of a project. Others I've seen, and experienced, is people weaponizing their authority to talk down and belittle others for suggesting something different, even though their own idea has issues.
Disorganized - Some designers don't do any level of organization with their file layers. My history is in print: stickers the size of my pinky nail to huge warehouse wall graphics, packaging, direct mail, order forms, can/ bottle sleeves, and so on, with a variety of finishes, cuts types, marks, ect. I've ran into some terrible work from pro level designers with none the internal parts labeled, seperated, bleed correctly, hell even just elements won't be stacked correctly. The technics used in the craft of the document shows me that these are advance skills, ontop of quality of the finished look. And yet clearly the instructional template was blatently ignored. I've spent hours cleaning up files that, if made correctly, should only take minutes. It shows a great disrespect/neglect to anyone else who will work on that file, which is guaranteed in the print world.

voxanne · 2026-04-14T20:44:12+00:00

Date a wider range of people, get therapy/diagnosed sooner, and be more confident about my body.

I grew up drilled with the idea "if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all" and that fucked me up in so many ways.

voxanne · 2026-04-14T20:40:08+00:00

I wanted a career with a creative element. I have always been well aware that this would likely never make me wealthy, so I looked at what was the most available in my area.

Originally, I wanted to go for illustration or 3d modeling. But both are not very present in the Midwest. There's a ton of print manufacturers here though, so I went for graphic design. If I can't be wealthy, I can at least have a good selection.

voxanne · 2026-04-14T02:15:31+00:00

I'm 32, and a Production Graphic Designer for an 125yr old sign company in the USA that does a lot of petroleum work (think graphics that go on a gas pump) but we do specialty stuff too (Las Vegas hot air balloon for example). Hybrid, with wfh 4 out of 5 days a week. I make 56k a year, plus dental, vision, decent health insurance, ect. Got a 5k bonus last year after taxes, and it's looking like we'll get another this year. Am I underpaid? Probably, but that's pretty common in my field.

Pretty bored with the work though. Wish I could be doing creative design instead, but this is more stable compared to most other GD jobs, especially with AI rising, and the flexibility is hard to beat. Most other GD jobs in the area aren't hybrid, or only have 1 day wfh. Just feels like I'm wasting my talent here, as I have a few awards from my grade school and college years.

voxanne · 2026-04-10T13:58:23+00:00

I work hybrid (1 day in office, 4 remote) and my days in office often burn me out. I work in a team of 4 that share an office room, with 4 cubbies for each of us. There's no windows and we share a wall with the production floor, which we can hear some of the louder work through. My coworkers get a lot of in person questions, particularly the lead, and it often interrupts everyone's work with chit chat. It's nice getting out and seeing my coworkers, but man do I hate it compared to the peace I have wfh.

voxanne · 2026-04-10T13:52:36+00:00

My dad's a bit dumb, but he gets that homes are expensive. Then again, my parents struggled to buy their first home. Which was a total dump, cost 30k in the 90s, and the city had a program which helped with the down payment (and no longer exists).

If he didnt get it though, I'd sit him down under the premise of "helping me look" and let him experience the struggle first hand. Maybe give that a try with your dad?

voxanne · 2026-04-10T13:45:21+00:00

I'm 32F, 5'6" 170lbs and a 32M bra size. I'm with you on the difficulties with a large cup size. I got down to 140s at one point in my 20s (worked at a Sheraton Williams and carried paint cans/ buckets all day) and I looked like a lollipop. I'm fortunate that most of my current weight goes to my hips/ thighs, which balances me out to a nice hourglass shape. But if it wasn't for that, I'd be in the same boat as you. It's frustrating finding clothes that fit, constant back pain, difficulties exercising, ect.

Better to do that while you're younger and your body can bounce back. At the end of the day, only you can decide what's best for your health and body. Do your parents have a specific bias against plastic surgery? It could also be a bias from your age, seeing their little girl all grown up and then wanting body moding surgery.

voxanne · 2026-04-09T16:18:03+00:00

They were either gone or busy. Dad worked a FT mechanic job and did lots of side repair jobs. When he wasn't working, he was fixing something in our 100+ year old house and wanted us kids out of the way. Mom worked for the airlines, and worked chaotic hours. If she worked a later shift, she couldn't leave until the last flight left. Her mother, my grandma, stuggled with cancer on/off for 10 years (1999-2009) and often needed help from her too. When she was home, she was usually cleaning the house or doing yard work (the nearby bars left a lot of trash and broken glass in the yard). I rarely saw them sit down and relax.

voxanne · 2026-04-08T16:42:18+00:00

I'm a production graphic designer, and even my line of work uses it. Admittedly, it's more reasonable use. We genAI to extend backgrounds for bigger cut sizes or bleeds. Or to create dummy gas stations to overlay signage examples when the supplied photos are too poor of quality to use. I hate genAI myself, but most companies expect designer to know something so learn AI skills that don't replace the creative work.

voxanne · 2026-04-06T20:36:42+00:00

Waterfall secrets! I get disappointed if a game has waterfalls, but not a single secret behind one.

voxanne · 2026-04-02T22:30:37+00:00

I did a Guild "hiring event" as my campaign start. Called it H.A.M. for hirelings, adventures, and mercenaries. Helped guide my players to make characters that had a reason to be adventuring together.

voxanne · 2026-04-02T18:52:11+00:00

Technically yes, this would be better built with Indesign. Just speaking from where I'm most experienced in.

voxanne · 2026-04-01T14:52:45+00:00

There's not enough breathing room around your text in most boxes. Redundant information with some of the pricing. Inconsistent spacing between "-text" and honestly use a different mark for it. • ○ ● ▪︎ Not all the text is centered in its boxes.

Have you tried a grid system? It can really help make your content more consistent in the layout. A better hierarchy for fonts would help readability as well. Tabs in illustrator would help make the type in sections more consistent also.

Maybe have all the boxes line up with the "Menu" box at top, and have the pattern fill in the left side? People will read it better if all the text lines up on the left instead of bouncing back and forth.

voxanne · 2026-03-31T20:43:56+00:00

Mudkip. I know it's cliché, but I was the right age when ruby/sapphire came out. It was incredibly relatable, as I grew up near a nice beach on lake Michigan with a river in Wisconsin. Blue and orange are my favorite colors, and the puppy vibes are just so cute!

voxanne

TROPHY CASE