in grade 6 and every time we had a movie day or class party id ask my mom for a can of doctor pepper but i had to keep it in my backpack and it always got shaken up and would explode when i opened it bcus we all know dr pepper has much more chaos inside the can than any other soda and anyways my whole class instinctively knew every time that my doctor pepper would explode and we’d have to pause the movie and clean it up and id usually be covered in dr pepper for the rest of the day and be super embarrassed and this happened to me about twelve times throughout the year. you might be wondering why i couldnt keep my dr pepper in my locker until we watched the movie and its because i didnt have a locker in grade six after i left a piece of pumpkin pie that my teacher gave me in there for a month and it rotted and molded so bad and there were maggots everywhere so one day i locked the locker and refused to open it ever again so for a whole year i carried all my stuff around because i was afraid to go to admin and tell them about my maggot pie because someone started a rumor that if the principle figured out you did something bad she would lock you down in the basement storage room that was infamous for having a giant rat that lived inside of it and i was afraid of rats after seeing ratatouille because i thought a rat might climb inside my hair and start controlling me and force me to do things i didnt want to do like make soup
“this pillow works better if your a back sleeper” bitch I’m a rotisserie chicken sleeper I don’t stop turning until sleep rips me forcefully from this world
guy who does unboxing videos but he only talks about the boxes
“Hey, everyone, welcome back. Our first box today is a Uline nine by five by four. Single piece of clear shipping tape over the top, two inch, and the UPS label nicely centered. No edge tape, and you know, that’s fine. This box is pretty light, I’d say under a pound, and taped edges don’t really add much stability here. Let’s open it up and see what we’ve got for dunnage…okay, half-inch bubble wrap, that’s unusual in a box of this size.”
Sometimes a post throws into perspective just how much niche knowledge you possess.
I read this, and I can tell from the “review” that the package was NOT shipped by a professional.
One: two inch tape. Professional establishments use three inch. It’s MUCH easier to seal boxes with, especially around the edges. Two inch is what you can buy from office depot or lowe’s. It’s fine for moving house, but it’s definitely not professional grade.
Two: no edge tape. Just seal your edges, people. UPS basically plays soccer with your packages. Even the light ones, just on principal, give them the structural support you can offer.
Three: centered label. Looks pretty on a package, sure, but it makes it very likely that the label will be covered up when the box is sitting in a stack or a pile, and that increases the chance that it will be manhandled to get to that label or even potentially mis-scanned or missed altogether in a stack. Label the SIDE of the box if at all possible! And put it to the side if you can’t! Visibility!
Also, the reviewer may be accustomed to getting a lot of boxes, but I don’t think they were a professional shipper, either. Someone who has shipped too many boxes would comment on whether the box was new or reused, whether there was any special hazmat (mostly lithium-ion battery) labeling, the condition of the package post shipping, and whether or not the weight of the package matched the stated weight on the label. AND they’d have commented on the two-inch packing tape.
I don’t know what to say other than “your experiences are not universal,” because I do shipping and receiving at a machine shop for a living, I see packages sent by professional shippers all the time, and I disagree with you on just about every point.
One: two inch tape. Professional establishments use three inch.
Nope. For packages I see, two inch packing tape is the norm. Today I had one package with three-inch water-activated reinforced paper tape and one (from Uline) with 2.75" packing tape. Everything else used 2" packing tape. Yes, it’s exactly the same kind of stuff that you can get at Office Depot or Lowe’s, and people use it because it gets the job done.
Two: no edge tape.
Not uncommon for small, light packages. I just don’t see box failures on packages under a pound where more tape would have helped. Where I do see failures is overloaded boxes, thirty pounds and up, where the corrugate simply ripped, and no amount of tape would have saved the package.
PSA: please don’t fill an 8x8x6 single-wall box with machine screws and expect it to arrive intact. Fastenal, I’m looking at you.
Three: centered label.
Label on top is standard. I had only one box today with the label on the side, and all the rest on top.
Looks pretty on a package, sure, but it makes it very likely that the label will be covered up when the box is sitting in a stack or a pile, and that increases the chance that it will be manhandled
Your package will get manhandled, regardless of where you put the label. Plan on it.
to get to that label or even potentially mis-scanned or missed altogether in a stack. Label the SIDE of the box if at all possible!
Heck no! I expect labels to be on top and that’s the first place I look for them. If it’s on the side, that’s potentially four other places I have to look, which is a pain in the ass when I’m busy. And I’m always busy.
UPS, incidentally, says you should put the label on the largest surface. For the packages I get, that’s usually the top.
Someone who has shipped too many boxes would comment on whether the box was new or reused,
Okay, that’s legit. I do see a fair number of reused boxes.
whether there was any special hazmat (mostly lithium-ion battery) labeling
Hazmats aren’t common enough to mention it every time when there isn’t one present. (My hazmats are usually solvents or paint, and that’s not something I get every day.)
the condition of the package post shipping
Not usually noteworthy. My internal monolog (which is what the above fanciful review is based on) doesn’t bother to mention it unless something unusual happened to the box.
whether or not the weight of the package matched the stated weight on the label
Although I ship just as many packages as I receive, if not more, it never would have occurred to me to check. And I don’t have a scale in the receiving department, so it would be guesswork anyway.
AND they’d have commented on the two-inch packing tape.
Which everyone uses. There’s not much need to comment when it’s far and away the most common type of tape.
Perhaps things have been different for you, but this is how it is in the manufacturing industry.
The January 6 hearings are having a lot of impact. And a lot of people are going “Oh, shit, is THAT what happened?”
We need to let them change their minds without making it harder.
A lot of people are realizing that they have Queer relatives, and that’s changing their minds about policy.
We need to let them change their minds without making it harder.
A lot of people really believed that they would never come for Roe v. Wade, and are now awake.
We need to let them change their minds without making it harder.
We need to remember that there is an organized and strategic operation designed to keep people from thinking clearly, and that the systemic nature of the problem provides plenty of other ways to influence their thinking. The right wing spends a lot of money and a lot of time keeping their base angry and afraid, because when you’re angry and afraid you can’t think clearly and you’re easy to manipulate.
When someone breaks free of that system, we need to let them, without punishing them.
This often gets shut down by people saying like “oh we aren’t obligated to be patient” and no, nobody is, but unfortunately things genuinely CANNOT improve if that’s the only way *anyone* feels. If you can’t be encouraging or welcoming of someone who’s still coming around then you just need to stay out of it, not actively do the opposite and ridicule them for not having everything figured out yet.
Being an American right now is so fucked up. Like hi I’m living my life. I’m gay. I’m doing great. My government is trying to take away my human rights. I can vote but it might not do anything because of gerrymandering. Sometimes people here deliberately spread deadly viruses because Freedom. We’re told this is the best country in the world. I can’t escape. I don’t want to leave. I want to escape. I love the land itself. The government is like five steps from actively trying to kill me. We have brand new lawmakers who better understand the will of the people. The highest court in the nation is rigged to side with fascists. I’m graduating soon and I have an incredible life ahead of me. My planet is dying.
What the hell do I even do, man
Like. This sounds overdramatic but you know that scene in the two towers where theoden looks out at saruman’s army and realizes he made all these warriors just to destroy Rohan which is full of innocent people and his people and he says “What can man do against such reckless hate?”
That’s how I feel on a daily basis
I don’t think I CAN do anything except keep doing what I’m doing. Keep myself alive. Make stuff that helps other people be happy. Encourage activism and change. Plant flowers. I have to focus small. There ISN’T anything I can do against the big pharmaceutical companies causing millions of deaths from covid (among thousands of other medical ailments) because they refuse to release the patents on lifesaving medicine. I can’t do anything about it I literally can’t
All I can do is fucking write stories and posts and run stupid little dragon RPGs and plant flowers and hope. But if it helps other people too, what I’m doing, then it’s worth it.
I am very small. I need to remember that and not try to pick a fight with an enemy that’s much bigger than me. It’s not selfish to say it’s probably for the best if I just focus on my life and immediate vicinity. It’s realistic and I think I can do more good this way.
There’s a lot of pressure to like, fight for every problem ever but I think I need to remember I can’t do that and I shouldn’t do that and I need to limit myself to what I CAN do
Idk, it’s clear a few other folks were also Feelin’ This. I guess we all have to scale down. It feels gross because like… Obviously I care about shit that’s happening, but I literally cannot deal with emotionally and intellectually engaging with all the awful news I’m bombarded with.
Being an American right now is still fucking awful, but being me doesn’t have to be
cool that there’s a trans guy character in that new baymax series or whatever. idc it will never detract how funny it is to me that they thought a man saying “these are the type of pads i use for my period” wasn’t an obvious enough signifier of him being trans so they just. put him in a trans t shirt. like JUST. a tshirt. in case you missed that this is the trans character. this is the trans character guys. cant you tell by the Giant Trans Flag he’s wearing
like. isn’t this at least a little funny just on a conceptual level
getting people who are like “is op mad about this or something??? is op a transphobe??”
…i’m transmasc.
also this is a disney property we’re talking about here. yknow. the company that literally contributed a fuck ton of money to a huge lgbtphobic bill. one that was passed and fucks up the livelihood of lgbt people? why are we giving them literally any benefit of the doubt. they might’ve “pulled their support” or whatever, but the fact is they’ll only use lgbt rep as an excuse to pander to the community. this is just another example. they’ll pull the “we have an lgbt character!!!” card in everything they make and they show up for like 2 seconds and then never again. if this is the doing of the animators, cool! good for them. but if your first impulse is to come to disneys defense on this….idk what to tell you. disney does not care about representation. they only care about YOUR money.
did you know the don’t say gay bill - the one that disney funded - in florida has lead to laws being made where if an lgbt child is in a class then the entire class has to be notified about it. and their parents. in a red state. in other words this is going to get lgbt children killed. so no i don’t care about disneys Trans Background Character of The Week and you shouldn’t either
can you people spread this version of the post more actually. really sad to see the replies of this post be filled with “oh but i’m trans and i’d wear that!” “they just did this so we’d know he’s a trans man and that he wasn’t buying them for his wife!” “it’s a kids show it’s meant to be obvious!” “this is for all the dumb straights who can’t take a hint!” and no replies acknowledging this for the pandering it is. this company funded the alt right’s shitty echo chamber i can guarantee you they don’t care. you people have GOT to grow a spine and learn to start hating corporations again and please you have got to learn to recognize bait when you see it istg
