Standard disclaimer: In this post I'll attempt a summary of our City Council meetings this past week. As ever, I make no claim of these notes being comprehensive of everything we covered, nor that they will reflect the perspective of any other person or Councilor besides myself (Kit). This Council meeting is already published on Medford Community Media.
And if you’d like to follow along, here is the meeting agenda on the City Council’s public portal. We took items out of order on Tuesday, but I’ll go in order of the agenda.
Our meeting started on a delightful note. At our previous meeting, on the motion of Councilor Tseng, we invited the MHS Orchestra to play in the Chambers in celebration of their gold medal win at the prestigious Massachusetts Instrumental and Chorus Conductor’s Association Concert Festival. I was genuinely so moved and impressed by their performance on Tuesday. We administered citations to all members of the Middle School String Ensemble, who took home the silver medal at the same Festival, and trophies to all members of the High School Orchestra. Congratulations to all the players and Conductor Chang!
We debuted a new agenda section, “Refer to Committee for Further Discussion,” with a motion by Councilor Leming. (This new section is for items that are intended not to be debated on the floor, but rather just introduced and sent immediately to committee where substantive discussions will be held.) Councilor Leming’s resolution was to explore ways to allow the Director of Veterans’ Services to offer housing incentives to veteran renters. Director Shaw shared a bit about her preliminary ideas for incentives that might help combat how veterans are often stigmatized/disadvantaged in housing searches. This sad topic shores up a point that the Council has heard recently, how housing (unaffordability, precariousness, homelessness) is one of the most critical issues facing veterans in Medford. Councilors offered some initial words of enthusiasm for these ideas but held further questions and comments for when this matter is taken up in the Resident Services and Public Engagement Committee.
We unanimously approved the Action Plan for this year’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding appropriation. The previous week, we had a Committee of the Whole where the CDBG Manager and funding recipients gave more detailed presentations about their work in the community that will be funded by CDBG this year. Many of the funding recipients are returning from previous years, and this funding allows them to continue their work in Medford on the program priority areas, with services such as housing resources, and food and transit assistance.
We unanimously approved the special permit for extended hours for Pinky’s Pizza. We first discussed this two weeks ago and tabled it, asking the business owner to speak with neighbors to try and come to a mutually agreeable compromise, and allowing the Licensing Subcommittee Chair to look into the topic more deeply. The business owner came back this week with a scaled-back request, just to midnight Monday–Thursday and until 1am Friday–Sunday, which we approved. (11pm is the default close of business time unless otherwise requested.)
We unanimously approved a Lodging House License for 28 Winthrop St., which is a Tufts University-owned property. In recent years Tufts purchased this building and did a significant remodel to modernize, improve and densify the building; it will now fit 28 students, 1 student per room. Any students who live in the building will park their cars on campus. The building has already been approved by the Community Development Board and passed all inspections, so this vote was just a one-time license approval so that it can go forth and be operated as a dorm. I appreciate Tufts investing in housing more of their students in dense, high-quality student housing near (and ideally on) Tufts campus.
We reviewed and filed the Annual Public Report on Surveillance Technology. Under the Community Control over Public Surveillance (CCOPS) Ordinance which passed in 2023, this is the City Council’s reporting obligation. Under CCOPS, all new surveillance technologies or uses of surveillance data by City departments must be approved by the City Council. This report documents, in the previous calendar year, how many new technology/data requests the Council has approved, denied, or made modifications to, as well as including copies of any Surveillance Reports by City departments that are using surveillance technology.
As lead sponsor of the CCOPS Ordinance, I prepared the Annual Public Report. It was easy to do because currently, the only eligible surveillance technology in use by a City department are body worn cameras, which are in use by the MPD as of December. In finalizing/negotiating the ordinance in 2023, we exempted body worn cameras from the City Council approval process until 2028. So the number of new-technology requests approved, denied or modified by the Council in 2023 was zero. If folks are interested in reading more about CCOPS, I wrote about it in April 2023 after the ordinance passed.
We reviewed an Open Meeting Law complaint that was filed against the City Council for something I wrote in a Reddit post in April. Per law, upon receipt of an Open Meeting Law complaint, the Council is required to review the complaint in a regular meeting and decide on a response. Prior to the meeting, one of the City’s KP Law attorneys reviewed the complaint, found that no violation occurred, and drafted a response to that effect. We reviewed and unanimously approved the attorney’s response. (TLDR on OML: A quorum of a public body debating a matter that is before that body, outside of a duly-noticed public meeting, would be a violation of Open Meeting Law. The intent of the law is to ensure that all discussions about matters before a public body, by that public body, are happening in public with proper notice to the public.)
On the motion of Councilor Scarpelli, we unanimously passed a resolution to support H.4624, “An Act relative to municipal tax lien procedures and protections for property owners in the Commonwealth.” Here’s some background from WCVB.
We entered Executive Session to discuss various matters of litigation/claims with a City attorney. Entering executive session means the Council talks privately about a specific topic – no public Zoom, no TV cameras, no audience. There is a limited set of circumstances under which public bodies are allowed to do this, which includes discussing strategy with respect to litigation.
This might be my briefest report yet. I’m sure the next one will be longer! Thanks for reading.

I'm drowning myself in the tomato sauce while talking about geometry to my kids. I just wanted to show them how maths is cool and great for food lovers! I am just a mom but I like math so be kind, I am no Fields medal recipient) :-)
3 pizzas sizes : 18" = $34 / 12" = $24 / 10" = $23
I calculated that the area of 1 pizza of 18" is bigger than 2 of 12: 18"=> 9*9*3.14 = 254 vs 12"=2*6*6*3.14 = 2*113=226 and that the difference of the areas 254-226=28" is equivalent to a 6" pizza (3*3*3.14=28) So area wise, you need to eat 2 pizzas of 12" and 1 pizza of 6" to eat as much as a pizza of 18".
Am I right ? Is there a visual modelisation that I could show them?
Then I calculated the price per square inch of pizza.

• for the 18" I did $34/254" = $0.13 / square inch
• for the 12" = 24/113 = 0.21
• for the 10" = 0.29

So they got that by spending less, you actually spend more per pizza bite. They loved it . AND THEN THEY ASKED QUESTIONS ! aouch.

1. Question 1 : What 2 pizzas sizes would be the same to eat? Is there only one solution or multiple? I am stuck to solve this. I said that radius pizza 1 square *3.14 * 2 = radius pizza 2 square. But the 2 unknown equation is not my forte and I am stuck.
2. The pizzeria sells slices of the 18" pizzas (8 slices per pizza) at $5 each slice. So if they spend $25 on 5 slices of 18", it would still be a better deal than buying a 12" pizza. Right? So I said, if you do this, then the poor pizzaman looses money. So their question was : what would be a perfect pizza pricing and size offering so that noone gets "screwed"? what sizes and prices
3. what other cool things could I do with math, food/drink and my kids please?

For easy calculation, all pizzas have zero topping and are the same dough.

In case you don't know, the Sun Princess is Princess Cruises' latest behemoth ship. I just got back from a 2-week sailing and took meticulous notes on this epic new vessel. Here's my extremely detailed, no-BS review:

The Sheer Size is Nuts

When I say this ship is massive, I mean it's absolutely nuts how big this floating city is. Especially when you get off in ports and have to walk back down the dock to reboard - that's when the sheer scale of the Sun Princess really hits you. Even though it carries a ton of people, the only time it really felt crowded was during breakfast. The Eatery fills up quick and the International Cafe, which sits outside The Eatery doesn't lend itself well for crowds of people wiaint for their coffees. You kind of end up waiting in the middle of where the walking traffic moves.

The Medallion Life

Your entire cruise experience revolves around the new Medallion wearable device and app, for better or worse. I'll admit it has some creepy "Big Brother" vibes with how much it tracks your every movement and purchase. But the convenience it provides is undeniable.
The medallion is your modern day "cruise card" that you tap everywhere to make payments, order drinks, unlock your stateroom, get on/off the ship, and more. But what's crazy is the app can use the medallion to detect your location anywhere on board. Order a drink or meal through the app and the server will manage to find you anywhere on the ship to deliver it, usually within 15 minutes. Caveat: there were times when it took longer and other times when our order was marked "delivered" and it never arrived.
The medallion definitely feels like getting on/off the ship is way faster. The only time we ever waiting in line was for the few minutes it took people to run through security.
This made getting food/drinks almost too easy. On port days when we needed to get off the ship early for excursions, setting up a scheduled delivery of my Egg McMuffin, fruit plate in coffee was really convenient.
Fair warning though - if you're anti-tracking and value privacy over convenience, the ubiquitous Medallion system may not be for you.
Story: we were sitting by the Crooners bar having our nightly pre-dinner cocktail. The bar was packed on this night for some reason. A staff member in a suit started wandering the room, made eye contact with me from 40-feet away and then made a b-line for us. He wanted to sign us up for a wine/food pairing event they were having. I have to believe this is because of the tracking being done via the meddalion. They could see we drink our share of wine. It definitely felt like targeted marketing.

Premium Package Was Best for Us

We opted for the Premium beverage package at $80 per day and I'm glad we did for a few reasons:

1. If you need to have more than one device connected to the internet at a time, Premium makes sense just based on that (you can have four devices). The cheaper Plus package only allows one device, which was a non-starter for me needing both my phone and laptop to be online. I'm unfortunately not able to just live off the grid for almost three weeks and need to periodically check in with my clients.
2. The wine selection is way better with Premium vs Plus. As a wine drinker, the upgrade was 100% worth it.
3. Two free speciality dining meals are included, which was clutch on our 2-week cruise to break up the repetition of the main dining rotation.
4. Unlimited premium desserts and ice creams - a nice perk for those with a sweet tooth.

Basically, Premium removed almost any need to think about or worry over costs on board. For $80 per day, the premium drinks, speciality dining, better wines, desserts and internet made it an easy choice for our group's needs.
And for those wondering about the 15 drink per day limit (since there's almost a weekly post asking about it) - it was never an issue for me. I'm a scotch drinker and to get a decent pour, you basically have to order a double. Even drinking doubles, I never got to 15 drinks/day. This even includes sea days where we'd typically have a mimosa or two with breakfast, a few cocktails/beers at the pool, an cocktail or two before dinner and then wine at dinner.

Staff & Service

I can't say enough about how incredible and friendly the service was across the board on the Sun Princess. Our room steward, waiters, bartenders - everyone went so above and beyond daily, it really elevated the experience. I'm always amazed how they remember everyone's names.
However, we did notice a clear slip in the quality of service in the second week compared to the first, likely due to a crew changeover partway through our sailing. Simple things like forgetting drink orders or getting meals wrong became more frequent from our new set of MDR servers.

Suites & Staterooms

We originally booked a balcony room. When the bid offer came in I followed some old advice and just placed bids on upgrades because "you don't have to take the offer if you don't like it." Well guess what, that's not the case anymore. My offer was accepted and we automatically became the proud recipients of a Reserve Mini-Suite for an additional $500. In hindsight, I'm glad it worked out. The room has noticably more space than a standard balcony room. These mini-suites are spacious, basically a separate living room and bedroom divided by a curtain you can close off. Having two TVs and an extra closet was great.
As mini-suite guests we also received a nice amenity of free premium wines in our room - on the second week they even topped us up with two more complementary bottles! I guess each week is looked at as a new sailing -- so you get two more bottles! Some older posts complained about the wine quality. It looks like it's been upgraded because we received a Pinot Noir and Chard from La Crema. Being California wine people, La Crema works great for us. If you can swing it, I'd highly recommend going for a mini-suite over a regular balcony.
That being said, I'd avoid the "Cabana" balcony suites. The layout is really bizarre and in my opinion a downgrade. When you walk out onto your balcony, it's not really a balcony. There's another area in front of your balcony that connects a few other cabana suites. The idea is that a few rooms share a private balcony with jacuzzi. However, it also means that walking out onto your balcony doesn't give you a private ocean view because there's this 20-30 feet of additional patio in front of you and everyone above you just looks down into your balcony area.
They've done a great job with the power situation in these rooms. Every outlet has a USA 110v plug, a Euro plug, a USB-C and a USB-A plug. There are outlets by the desk area and with each nightstand on both sides of the bed. Since we had ample USB outlets, all we really needed a regular USA outlet for was the blow dryer. Don't get tricked! There's what looks like a two-prong USA outlet by the sink in the bathroom. It has a funky icon next to it. This outlet is for charging an electronic razor -- that's the only kind of plug that will fit in this outlet so don't try and jam another device in there -- it won't work. My mom tripped the breaker in her state room by running the hair dryer while her curling iron was on -- so beware ladies!

Dining Highs & Lows

Main Dining Rooms

It can be confusing because there are three floors (Decks 6, 7 and 8). We reserved dining in the Deck 6 MDR prior to the trip via the app for the first few days just so we knew there was a guaranteed place to eat. On night one, the dining room manager introduced himself to us and said he went ahead and booked our table for us every night of the trip. If we didn't show, it was fine.
Food quality in the main dining rooms (MDRs) was consistently good across breakfast and dinner. On port days, it's an "express breakfast" which just means a shorter list of options. Nothing mind-blowing, but solid and tasty. My biggest gripe here is the operating hours. On sea days, the MDR closes for breakfast at 9:00am. You basically have to choose between sleeping in a little, hitting the gym, or getting a decent breakfast.
Pro-Tip: Biggest breakfast tip is stay away from the scrammbled eggs -- they're gross. We figured out that the scrambled eggs come from a bag. If you want real, cracked eggs, either get an omelett or over easy/medium/hard/etc.

Reserve Suite Dining Access

The Reserve mini-suite gives you access to the Reserve Restaurant. It's a little bit more elevated of a dining experience and reservations aren't needed -- you just show up. We dined her a few times and it did feel more elevated. Unlike the MDR, the server in the Reserve Restaurant feels more personal because they're handling smaller groups.

Lido Deck

For more casual fare, the Lido deck had some surprises like an awesome made-to-order salad bar station that became my go-to for healthier meals between all the indulgent dining. The burger grill, taco station and pizza areas were pretty standard, but that salad bar slapped.

Lackluster Buffet

On the flip side, The Eatery buffet left a lot to be desired. Despite different themed stations, the quality was mid at best. We largely avoided eating at the buffet outside of quick breakfast grabs. The Eatery closes for breakfast around 10:00 AM. At which point if you move further into the ship, the restaurants that are normall Catch and Butcherblock become a buffet extension that's opened later -- it's kind of funky.
The layout of the buffet is weird and leaves people wondering if they're cutting in line especially when you go to the extended buffet at Catch/Butcherblock.
What's odd to me is you can go grab a million cheese plates, fruit plates or hummus/veggie plates at the buffet. But if you order those things through the Medallion app, it's not "complimentary." You have to pay like $4.99-$5.99 for those items. We still can't figure out why it costs $5 to order a tiny cheese plate but ordering a cheeseburger is free.

Specialty Dining Winners

We used our two speciality dining credits at Crown Grill and Butcher's Block by Dario. I was a little worried because I had read mixed reviews on here about both of these restaurants. However, both meals were really good and before you come at me, I'm a foodie guy -- I'd tell you if they sucked.
We chose Crown for my parent's anniversay dinner. The service was awesome and they made us all feel really special. The setup here is like a steakhouse, where you order your beef and then the sides are a la carte family style. We had a group of seven -- the manager just said "we'll bring you out all the sides, enough for your whole party" which was great.
The next week, we hit up Butcher's Block by Dario. I've never left a meal more full on a cruise ship than at this place. It's family style dining and they just bring out everything for you -- almost like a brazilian barbecue place. We started with a bread appetizer and a glass of wine while you wait for them to get the dining room setup. Then there's more bread on the table + veggies. Then the food starts coming out: beef tartar; beef carpaccio; etc. The main event is the massive tomahawks and porterhouse steaks they carve up tableside. They'll just keep putting beef on your plate until you beg them to stop. Finally, there's desert and a grappa digestif.
Both restaurants were great experiences and a very welcomed change from the MDR after a week of repetition. The food, service and overall vibe were a noticeable step up.

Spellbound

We also splurged one night for the Spellbound immersive magic/dinner experience and it was easily a cruise highlight despite the $150/pp price tag. After an elevated multi-course meal, you get ushered by a guy in a top hat into an exclusive hidden club. While waiting for the magic show, you hang out in their bar which is reminiscent of the Dinseyland Haunted Mansion. While enjoying your drink, there's a magician perorming more intement magic for everyone at the bar. Once they're ready for the show, you're brought into the room where the actual magic show takes place. Afterwards, you're welcome to hang out in the Spellbound bar and continue drinking.
If you're from LA, you probably know about the Magic Castle in Hollywood. Spellbound is an extension of the Magic Castle. Just like with the Magic Castle, you show up in formal wear. This means a coat and tie for the men and an evening gown/dress for the woman.
Overall, we really enjoyed it.

Room Service

This was hit or miss for us. You fill out the paper door hangar and place it on your doorknob before heading to bed. Then you hope and pray that it will actually arrive -- which in two of our instances, it never did. Your options are also super limited. You also may or may not receive what you actually ordered. With coffee for instance, you have a choice of ordering it to-go (paper cup) or stay (actual coffe cup). We always seemed to get the opposite of what we ordered to the point where it became a running joke for us.

International Cafe

This became our goto for a lot of things: coffee, snacks, quick breakfast food (pastries, coffee cake, avodcado toast, Egg McMuffins). Werid fact though: if you order the Egg McMuffin through the app, it comes as an egg patty just like McDonalds and with cheese. When you get the one at International Cafe, it's just an over easy egg and no cheese. Why they can't just be the same is odd.

Night Owl Needs

My main dining gripe was the lack of solid late night food options for us night owls. The Eatery buffet closed at an absurd 10:30pm, leaving only spotty room service or mobile ordering as the choices if you worked up an appetite after evening activities. More robust late-night casual dining would be appreciated.

Bars & Alcohol

Overall, great selection of cocktails. All of the bars have their own little theme and different menus. The ladies I was with were consitently impressed at the quality and thought of the cocktails at each bar. They were also super impressed with the quality of the glassware being used. I must admit, everything from the rocks glasses to the martini glasses really were beautiful.
If you just want straight spirits, you have to order a double to get a normal pour (they're actually measuring out the pours). That being said, with either Plus or Premium, you'll get a good selection of top quality booze.
You gotta try really hard to hit the 15-drink max. Some days I had drinks at breakfast, during the day, lunch, before dinner, during dinner and after dinner. I never hit my max.
One thing that impressed me was staff actually being concerned about drink quality. We were having drinks at one of the bars on the Lido deck. The supervisor was upset with the bartenders because they ran out of premium liquor and hadn't requested more. He made sure to remind them that when someone orders a premium drink they get a premium liquor -- no exceptions.
You also must checkout the Good Spirits bar. There's a few times throughout the night where you watch a live cocktail demonstration. The bartenders at GS are so fun and playful -- really makes for a great vibe.

Amenities - Hits & Misses

The gym facilities on board were a bit of a disappointment, especially for a new ship. While they had a nice assortment of cardio machines, the actual weight room was laughably small with only a few pieces of strength equipment that were always monopolized. Not a deal-breaker, but an area that could be improved.
The pool areas were nicely spread out across different sections of the Lido deck. On sailing days, there was typically a band, the DJ and then a random movie on the jumbotron. The random blasting of action movies at 3pm really ruined the pool vibe and it's typically when the deck would thin out. One minute you're relaxing in the jacuzzi, the next an action movie with explosions is shaking the pool area. It made no sense and seemed tailored for a much younger crowd despite this sailing's passengers being mostly older adults.

Technology & Support

In addition to the Medallion app, the overall internet speeds on board were fast and reliable enough for me to easily stay connected for basic work needs.
The technology support via the app's live chat feature, however, was utterly useless. Any time we had issues properly being charged for drink packages or had to modify reservations, the live chat was a time-wasting nightmare. You're clearly just talking to an outsourced rep with zero actual knowledge of Princess' systems or operations. Your best bet is to go in-person to the guest services desk.

Other Notes & Quibbles

• Dress codes weren't enforced at all. We did the whole suite/gown routine for formal nights only to see plenty of people still rocking jeans and t-shirts in the MDR. Same lack of enforcement for the "formal attire required" Spellbound event. Either lose the formal nights or enforce them.
  
• Our drink package tallies often had errors, with our group's drinks randomly getting combined onto one person's account. Always double check and ask for corrections.
  
• The "Cabana" balcony suite layout is bizarre - your balcony is just a shared landing in front of other suites, rather than a private space. We avoided these after hearing the lack of privacy.
  

When a dating app allowed users to mute specific words, phrases and emojis, singles quickly curated their lists. How did a few overused phrases become an “ick” for so many?
Being “fluent in sarcasm,” a love of tacos, an uncontroversial opinion followed by the words “change my mind.” These are a few well-trodden tropes of the online dating world, and there may be a linguistic explanation for why they don’t work on you.
The popular dating app Hinge added a new feature called Hidden Words this month. It allows users to hide the profiles of matches who use certain words, phrases or emojis in their messages.
Online singles were quick to express their eagerness to take advantage of a “mute” button for specific language that turned them off. “I wish I could mute the phrase ‘pineapple belongs on pizza,’” said Mitchell Allen, a 31-year-old in Toronto who uses Hinge and Bumble, and lamented a lack of meaningful connections on the apps. Mr. Allen said he would also mute any phrases relating to love languages and Myers-Briggs typology: “I don’t believe anyone who speaks like that lives in a universe of reality.”
Liking pineapple on pizza is innocent enough — but expressing it, according to much of the online dating world, is intolerable. And those using such clichés may not realize that they’ve consigned themselves to semantic purgatory.
All dating apps allow users to filter potential matches according to their age, gender and proximity (most also paywall other filters), effectively rendering invisible those who don’t fit the bill. But users’ enthusiasm for a filter according to word choice exposes just how specific their dislikes, or icks, can be.
Malia Griggs, a 34-year-old who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., said that she couldn’t help being turned off by poor grammar, such as someone using the wrong “you’re” or “their” in a message or profile.
“I wish I could filter for punctuation almost,” Ms. Griggs said. She admitted that, while her dating coach had encouraged her to view habits like spelling and grammar as changeable, she continued to see both as a definitive sexual turnoff. “To me, it feels like you’re not taking the time to even read your own profile a couple of times, and we don’t have the same values. My values are grammar.”
Even if spelling errors and grammar aren’t holistic indicators of a person’s dateability, the best online connections are often forged by finding those who communicate through screens the same way you do.
This is often called “typographical tone of voice,” a phrase coined by Gretchen McCulloch, a popular internet linguist, to describe how online writing has come to contain the same social nuance as face-to-face interactions. It may follow, then, that glib statements such as “no drama” and “since apparently it matters” convey far more than those writing them realize — including an inability to read the (virtual) room.
“A lot of these cliché phrases, a lot of people take them to imply something else,” said Erika Ettin, an online dating coach in New York City. “‘No drama,’ for example, might be a euphemism for ‘Don’t bring up your issues to me because I don’t want to hear about them.’”
Having spent years swiping for her clients, Ms. Ettin said she wasn’t surprised to hear that daters could get the ick from an idiom.
“I mean, I could go on all day about the cliché phrases that everyone is sick of,” she said, listing off a series of generalizations of abundant variety — including “I like to go out” and “I like to stay in” — and the bizarrely pervasive love of tacos. “Like, OK, tacos are fine, but gee whiz.”
Adele Goldberg, a professor of linguistics and psychology at Princeton University, suggested that associating a simple phrase and the negative conversations that often follow it might eventually make the two synonymous in daters’ minds.
“This is basically priming,” Professor Goldberg said. “If you hear the word ‘apple,’ the commonly associated word ‘orange’ will also come to mind.” Using a word or emoji that had been primed to be associated with something else in recipients’ minds — like an eggplant emoji (apple) and a particular body part (orange) — was unlikely to pass muster, she said, even if the sender intended it innocently or ironically.
Ms. Ettin was skeptical that certain words could be divorced from their double-entendres on dating apps and was confident in banning a word like “oral” from exchanges. “I don’t think anyone’s talking about an oral report in the first message,” she said. “‘How was your oral report on Woodrow Wilson?’ I don’t think so.”
Reached for comment, a Hinge representative emphasized that Hidden Words was primarily a safety feature and a means of “giving people the agency to create personal boundaries around the types of interactions they want to have.”
But in a swipe-addled era that has increasingly led hopeful romantics to burn out, app users’ boundaries may be a barrier to interaction itself. Ms. Griggs would be happy never to see a profile referring to “The Office” again: “We’ve all seen it. Like, I don’t … it doesn’t even matter if it’s a good show anymore. Get a new show.”
How Language Influences Your Choices in Online Dating - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
What words/phrases would you add? I would add the words fit, cuddle, physical touch is my love language, just ask...

WARNING LONG POST!
Hey Everyone,
I noticed there hasn't been a lot of actual job search hacks on here so I hope that this is helpful. I made a comment about this in the past and since then have gotten a lot of DMs about it so figured I would make a much longer post. You can look through my comment history, I spend a lot of time trying to help people.
DISCLAIMER: I've spent the past decade as a Hiring Manager in Sales and Customer Success. I've interviewed probably 1000+ people during that course of time. Most of my experience is in the tech industry as I have helped scale up two start ups to acquisition and now work as a Hiring Manager for a global tech company. However the below method really works for almost any industry.
This is going to cover
1. Why it’s important and when to follow up
2. The ONE thing that is going to make your follow up 10x more impactful
3. Templates that can be used
4. How to find the right contact information to follow up
If you're not following up during the interview process you are doing yourself a huge disservice:
Keeps You on the Radar
Following up keeps your name fresh in the minds of the recruiters or hiring
managers. It reinforces your interest in the position and can make you stand
out from candidates who don't take this extra step.
Demonstrates Professional Etiquette
Sending a thank-you note after an interview shows good manners. It
expresses appreciation for the opportunity and can reflect positively on your
character and suitability for the workplace culture.
Provides an Opportunity to Reiterate Your Fit
A follow-up is a great chance to remind the employer of your skills and how
they align with the company’s needs. It can also be used to add any relevant
information you might have forgotten to mention during the interview.
Encourages Transparency and Open Communication
Following up can prompt a response from the employer regarding your
application status, providing you with valuable information on whether to
keep waiting, move on, or concentrate on other opportunities.
There are 4 areas in the interview process where you will want to follow up

1. Right when you apply to the job posting
   • This could be directly to the Recruiter or ideally the Hiring Manager
2. Immediately After EVERY STEP of the interview process from phone screen to interview rounds
   • Ideally this is individual and personalized to each individual you interacted with
   • Bonus points if you can find the information of even the assistant or front desk who helped you
3. Following up if you have not heard from them for a period of time
4. Follow up to update any referrals or connections you have

Now that we know when we should be following up it can seem daunting to follow up in so many steps. That’s why you will want to use general templates and just tweak them with small bits of personalization. What should be personalizing it with? That’s where the magic bullet comes in…
The first most important thing in follow up is actually doing it, the second thing is personalizing it with the right information. That right information is going to be based on the questions that you asked during the interview.
I have another free guide on what are the main questions to ask a Hiring Manager in the interview but the three key ones for this are:

• What are the key attributes that would make someone successful in this role?
• What are the biggest challenges that someone in this role faces?
• What are your teams primary goals to accomplish this year?

You’ll see shortly how we’ll use this information to follow up with our interviewers. Basically we want to use this information to ultimately position ourselves as the ultimate solution to their problem. Sales 101.
Follow-Up Templates
If you think about all the times you need to do a follow up coupled with how many jobs you are likely to be applying to, that’s a lot of follow up. You want to systemize your process as much as possible and that’s where these email templates come into play. These should save you lots of time so be sure to bookmark them!
PS Make sure to change the personalized areas and not blindly cut and paste!
TEMPLATES
Right when you apply to the job posting - Messaging Template ⤵️
Subject: Hi [hiring manager first name]
Hi [hiring manager first name],
[personalized line like, I saw your post on Linkedin about xyz thought leadership, I saw xyc company recent news article about xyc, congrats on recent award on xyc, you get it something personalized]
I just applied to [position] at [Company]. I was so excited about the opportunity I wanted to directly reach out. I’m confident that my [something specific about your experience] would help your team achieve [the problem this role would solve]
[One more quick line about why you are a good fit and how you are UNIQUELY positioned to do well in the role.]
Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to speaking with you soon!
Best regards,
[Your Name]
Follow Up Immediately After EVERY STEP of the interview process from phone screen to interview rounds
Post-Interview Thank You Email (to Hiring Manager) - Messaging Template ⤵️
Subject: Pleasure speaking with you [name]!
Dear [Interviewer’s Name],
It was an absolute pleasure meeting you and speaking about [position] at [Company].
Our conversation today further solidified my excitement for potentially joining the [company] team. From what I am understanding it sounds like you are looking for someone who [insert what they said when you asked them what attributes success look like].
I’m confident that my experience in [specific projects or achievements that showcase you embodying those qualities] will be a great asset to your team and help you [what are the team goals this year]
Thank you once again for this wonderful opportunity. I look forward to hearing about next steps.
PS [insert a personalized line that is non work related that you remember about them]
Best regards,
[Your Name]
So it might sound something like this ⤵️
Subject: Pleasure speaking with you John!
Dear John,
It was an absolute pleasure meeting you and speaking about the Customer Success Manager role at Google.
Our conversation today further solidified my excitement for potentially joining the Google team. From what I am understanding it sounds like you are looking for someone who understands how to manage complex customer accounts, can work cross functionally between teams, and become a product expert.
I’m confident that my experience at Acme corp helping our Top 20 ACV customer deploy as well as when I was at my start-up creating a new process between Product and CS collaboration will be a great asset to your team and help you achieve that 98% retention rate that is 2024 goal.
Thank you once again for this wonderful opportunity. I look forward to hearing about next steps.
PS I’ll have to check out that pizza place you mentioned next time I’m in Chicago!
Best regards,
Gabe
Post-Interview Thank You Email (to recruiter) - Messaging Template ⤵️
Subject: Pleasure speaking with you [name]!
Dear [Recruiter],
It was an absolute pleasure meeting you and speaking about [position] at [Company].
Our conversation really got me excited to learn more about the role and potentially joining [company]. From what I am understanding it sounds like you are looking for someone who [insert what they said when you asked them what attributes success look like] as well as some that embodies [company] values like [insert values]
I’m confident that my experience in [specific projects or achievements that showcase you embodying those qualities] could be a great asset to the [department/team] at [company]
Thank you once again for this wonderful opportunity. I look forward to hearing about next steps.
PS [insert a personalized line that is non work related that you remember about them]
Best regards,
[Your Name]
Following up if you have not heard from them for a period of time
Follow-Up Email After No Response from Application (1 week)
Messaging Template ⤵️
Subject: Re: Hi [first name]
Dear [Recruiter],
I hope this message finds you well. I recently applied for the [position title] on [date]
I’m sure you have your hands full so I wanted to quickly know if this role is still considering applicants?
I am very excited about the opportunity to talk about the role at [Company] and how [mentioning specific skills or achievements] could be a great asset to the team.
Thank you for considering my application. I look forward to your update.
Best regards,
[Your Name]
Follow up if no response after an interview (1 week)
Messaging Template ⤵️
Subject: Re: Update for [your first name]?
Dear [Interviewer's Name],
I hope this message finds you well. We interviewed on [date] about the [position]
I’m currently approaching the final stages at another opportunity however the [position] at [company] is my top choice. I’m confident that my [your skills and experience] will make a big impact on your team.
Thank you for considering me. I look forward to your update!
Best regards,
[Your Name]
Incorporating follow-ups into your interview process not only showcases your professionalism but also underscores your commitment to the role.
Remember, the key is to be concise, respectful of the recipient’s time, and positive throughout your communications.
How to find the right contact information to follow up
Now, you’re not always going to have the contact information of people you are interviewing with.
So how do you find it?
Most corporate directories will have the same email format. The most common are:
[firstname].[lastname]@company.com
[firstletterfirstname][lastname]@company.com
[firstname][initiallastname]@company.com
[firstname]@company.com - usually for small startups or founders of start ups
So if you know at least one persons email you can pretty much guess the rest
Okay well what if I don’t even know their names?
This is where LinkedIn comes in handy.
Most of the time job listings will not have the Hiring Manager or Recruiter listed so you’ll need to do some digging.
The first step is to see if the job listing gives you any hints about who you will reporting to. For example something like “this role will report into the Director of Business Development”
Prefect - Hope over to LinkedIn and in the search bar simply look up [Director of Business Development] + [company]
99.9% of the time there they are. Check out the profile and confirm it makes sense. Sometimes you’ll even see them making a post that they are hiring. Use their name and plug it into the email format and fire away
You can use this method for pretty much anything. If you don’t have the exact reporting title use your best guess.
You obviously know the department (sales, marketing, customer success, legal, etc) you are applying into. Then consider the job level of the role you are applying into and what your managers level would most likely be. For example if you are an entry level marketing analyst you are not going to be reporting the Chief of Marketing. It’ll likely be a mid level manager level.
So for example if the job listing is for a Manager of Data Analytics so my people leader is likely at the Director level. I would be searching for Director of Data Analytics, Data Science, etc
Usually a reporting hierarchy might look like Associate, Manager, Director, VP, C-Suite. Insert a senior between each of those. Again, that is the typical structure. I suggest you map out the structure that is most commonly used in your industry.
Are paid email lookup services worth it?
The method above works most of the time, however it does take time. If you want to speed it up there are services out there that have data warehouses of verified emails. The common service is Rocketreach
Like I said, LinkedIn will work most of the time but if you want it faster you can use that service.
It's time consuming. I get it.
Now you are probably thinking wtf I send 100 applications a week I don't have time for this. Being candid don't you think that just clicking easy apply for hundred of applications a week and seeing no traction for months is a sign that perhaps you should try a different strategy? Yes, it's more time consuming but would you rather do something that takes longer but potentially increases your response rate by 15% or continuing doing what you're doing and get a 1% response rate (if that)?
I would rather spend the extra time on the job listing I care about and have a real interest for the role than blindly easy apply and have way less chances of standing out because once that spot is filled... it's filled. You got one shot might as well try to increase your chances as much as you can.
And that’s all folks! You’ve just read the ULTIMATE interview follow up cheat sheet. Let me know if you have any questions! If you made it ALL the way to the bottom then you deserve an award. Shoot me a DM and I'll help you any way I can.

As we are getting over 350 comments on the old thread, let's open up a new one. I am going to copy/paste below a comment that can be seen in the comments section of the PETITION that is being circulated. It's an interesting comment, and one that deserves to be seen by more people.
CM writes 1 day ago:
I went there with my daughter to donate food for the people she feeds. We brought 3 hurricane pizzas. She kept one for her family, the volunteers took one (only 2 people), and the other one was handed out. She told us next time to basically just bring cash. She then walked us over to a new building that she has all brand new items stored. It was heartbreaking to see my daughter question why Miss Carly kept the food for the homeless for herself.
So for those that don't know, a hurricane is a HUGE pizza that could feed a party of teenagers. And, they aren't cheap. But, I felt like this was the perfect quote to start a new post since the Fraud FB page just posted a story regarding a donor that dropped off a $500 Walmart gift card for the organization on behalf of her small church. While the donor was there, a conversation took place between the donor and Carly Rice, and Carly Rice suddenly became the recipient of the $500 gift card. Carly didn't alert the bookkeeper of the Walmart Gift Card, however the bookkeeper was notified of the donation by a volunteer. The bookkeeper confronted Carly via text, and Carly quickly responded that the gift card was a donation now to Carly personally for her 'own' groceries.
First, a Director of a NFP should NOT accept gifts of this magnitude. It's a huge conflict of interest. Now, if it were say a small gift card for $20 to a nail salon that Carly uses, that would be different. But, it's a LARGE gift card to a big-box retailer that would supply the NFP with valuable items to help those in need. This is NOT a personal gift. It was a gift to the NFP.

Howdy pals, first post here! Happy to share some deets and perspectives from my first ever solo trip. I am currently battling the post-Disneyland blues and scheming for a future visit LOL.
This is lengthy, so buckle up and thank you in advance for reading through!!!

• 4 day, 1 park per day ticket (1 DCA, 3 DL)
• Split stay between Eden Roc Inn & Suites and Best Western Plus Park Place Inn - Mini Suites. This was my first stay at both and I was super pleased with the cleanliness, value, and walkability of both locations! A bit more on them at the end of my report.
• Genie+ for 2 of the 3 days @ DL.
• My main goals this trip were to soak in the vibes, enjoy a super leisurely pace, and just going with the flow :-)
• Bonus point: this was also my very first Food & Wine Festival!

I’m currently based out of Texas and have visited annually with my SoCal-based cousins since 2022: after an awesome experience with them back in September 2023, along with keeping up with all the general park updates, I was really inspired and excited to plan and save up for a solo run!

4/8 AUS-LGB

A pleasantly sunny day which gradually got warmer in the afternoon and evened out to nice and cool in the evening: perfect arrival day weather!

• 12:30pm – Arrived @ LGB
• 1:00pm – Ubered to Eden Roc
• 1:26pm – Arrived @ Eden Roc and was able to check in early. Got a double queen room: secured/sanitized/settled room and ordered grocery delivery.
• 2:30pm – Lunch @ Earl of Sandwich/Downtown Disney. Their Italian always hits the spot! Followed up with dessert @ Salt & Straw, a scoop in a cup of Honey Lavender, one of my favs.
• Leisurely looked at new pins after lunch, visited the Home store, and browsed through World of Disney. Small list of souvenirs I got below!
• Took the GCH shortcut to return to Eden Roc.
• Checked out Pixar Place on the walk back: the re-theme is really cute! Also got a glimpse of Bing Bong walking around/finishing a meet and greet.
• 4:30pm - arrived back @ Eden Roc and napped (the lunch slump was real)
• Woke up to shower, prep for DCA the next day, and made dinner in my hotel room: relaxed and reviewed my DCA gameplan for the rest of the night.
• 9:00pm – Bedtime!

4/9 DCA (full day)

An amazingly crisp start to the morning with a warmer high in the late afternoon: yummy food, awesome live music, relaxing at the GCH, hydration, and a round of cold beers made this day fantastic!

• 6:00am – Woke up to prep and had a protein shake for breakfast.
• 7:10am – Arrived @ Downtown Disney security via the GCH courtyard. With my walk from Eden Roc, I lucked out with my timing and got to walk in behind a group of Cast Members and a large family to enter through the security gate for GCH/Pixar Pier only-guests. Many of y’all know this shortcut is never guaranteed and may/may not be manned with a security CM. Always be courteous to CM’s and take the scenic (longer-ish) way through Downtown Disney if they ask you :-)
• 7:15am – Arrived @ DCA gates, third person in my line: a first for me! The Esplanade music really got me grooving and subsequently got into/conceded a hilarious mini-dance battle to an adorable 11-year-old and her family who were in line behind me. Vibes had already started off great!
• 7:32am – Scanned in through DCA.
• 7:35am – Arrived @ Soarin’ and were instructed to wait just before the main queue for official 8:00am start.
• 8:11am – In line for Soarin’ pre-show.
• 8:25am – Exited Soarin’. That orange grove scent never gets old!
• Leisurely enjoyed breakfast outdoors @ Smokejumpers Grill: the breakfast burrito was fresh and fantastic.
• Bought my 4-tab Sip and Savor pass from Julius Katz & Sons.
• Leisurely explored Avenger’s Campus. Crowd levels at this time of day were still quite low and made the Campus ambiance really nice, I really enjoyed the soundscapes that can easily be drowned beneath crowd noise and all the epic music. The Dora Milaje show is always so awesome and it was great being in the mix, solo. I loved seeing everyone have fun and getting their energy levels up. Got to wave good morning to the Black Panther from his perch and had a quick chat with Captain America about hot vs. iced coffee (lol) as he walked to his meet and greet spot.
• 10:25am – Made my way to the Golden Dreams booth and saw they opened early. I ordered the Blueberry Pancake Cold Brew a la carte: so great! As with any cold brew, a good mix before sipping is in order, but the balance of smooth coffee and sweet definitely gave me a boost. I also redeemed my 4 tabs to collect at their respective booths as the day rolled along:
  • Grilled Top Sirloin from Garlic Kissed (no question why this returns annually: REALLY yummy! I was pleasantly surprised with the sirloin quality especially since it has to be made en masse.)
  • Chile Relleno Empanada from Peppers Cali-Ente (another annual favorite of so many, and I understood why! I had my fingers crossed that the empanada itself wasn’t gonna be too hard or borderline crispy from staying under heat in the staging area and it didn’t disappoint!)
  • BBQ Beef Brisket Slider from Cluck-A-Doodle-Moo (as a Texan, I’ll always take brisket from anywhere else with a grain of salt lol but I was happy with my choice: the brisket was tender, the brioche worked great for the slider, and the pickles were generous.)
  • Carbonara Garlic Mac & Cheese with Nueske’s Peppered Bacon from D-Lish (holy guacamole, this was a banger and again, I understood why this is an annual favorite. Given both the bacon and melted cheese can render this on the oilier side, the tasting/Sip & Savor portion was just the right amount for me)
• Took a relaxed stroll along Paradise Bay/facing the Fun Wheel while finishing my cold brew. I really like watching DCA from this “low” angle and seeing the park continue to slowly come to life as the morning unfolded, along with the fun sounds of the pier on the other side. Offered to take people’s/family’s photos as I continued to stroll, everyone was friendly/exchanged where we were all visiting from. One woman told me this was her Dad’s first visit back since DCA opened in ’01!
• Circled back up to Garlic Kissed, picked up the sirloin, then ordered a Frozen Mangonada Beer Slush from California Craft Brews from next door (a winning combo…plus, I can’t ever say no to a beer slush on a sunny day!)
• Leisurely explored Carsland. Going solo really allowed me all the time to appreciate the details that go into its theming. Daytime and night vibes here are so unique and I was happy to experience both!
• Leisurely explored San Fransokyo. Wow: for how compact the space has always been, the details and theming are so on point. The J-Pop playing overhead put a smile on my face; the love for Big Hero 6 is great and seeing everyone enjoy their time meeting Baymax and Hiro were great vibes.
• Debated between the Cervecería or Rita’s and opted for a Sun Blonde: no regrets, just a happy gal and her cold beer! Will definitely try a margarita from Rita’s next time.
• Strolled across the San Fransokyo bridge, picked up my BBQ Beef Brisket Slider, and went over to the Paradise Garden Bandstand for some live music. The early afternoon crowd was still really light on this side of DCA, making the Bandstand really relaxed. Jazz tunes were super fun!
• 3:00pm – Relaxed in the GCH lobby before walking back to Eden Roc.
• 3:30pm – Settled back at Eden Roc for a nap.
• 6:10pm – Arrived @ DCA “shortcut” via the GCH (Lucky again with my timing at the main security gate)
• 6:17pm – Scanned back into DCA gates
• 6:30pm – Enjoyed more live music @ Palisades Stage: this got me grooving and hungry again LOL.
• Naturally, the evening crowds had made their way in by this time. Picked up my Chile Relleno Empanada and found a chill spot near Redwood Creek Challenge Trail to enjoy it.
• Caved in and ordered another Chile Relleno Empanada a la carte LOL.
• Took the scenic route back over to Nuts About Cheese and ordered a PB&J Whiskey Milkshake: oh man, that hit the SPOT. Apart from the raspberry garnish, I couldn’t quite taste more of the raspberry liqueur, but the whiskey wasn’t overpowering at all.
• Little Mermaid (nostalgic ride for me) had been down most of that day and unfortunately didn’t come back up that evening.
• Enjoyed a sip and stroll over to Pixar Pier and enjoyed the vibes there. Incredicoaster had been closed for refurb, so no launch views, but the Midway energy was really fun.
• Found a quiet outdoor spot near Boardwalk Pizza & Pasta to finish my drink, call/check on my folks at home, including FaceTime with my doggo. I was also tempted to try a slice of the “new” BBQ Chicken Pizza, but thankfully listened to my head instead of my stomach lol.
• Strolled through Carsland for all the neon lights energy, I absolutely adore the design and details of this land.
• 8:40pm – Returned for World of Color ONE
• 9:00pm – World of Color ONE. Standing further back wasn’t bad at all and the viewing area didn’t feel as crowded as it was. My cousins and I would usually do standby for the second showtime, but the first showtime was more than doable, solo: crowd wasn’t overwhelming and everyone in my immediate area seemed to be in a great mood. The music, as always, was fabulous, and loved seeing the magic and wonder on children’s faces around me.
• 9:30pm – Shortcut/bathroom break/water bottle refill at the GCH before my walk back.
• 9:52pm – Arrived @ Eden Roc.
• 10:30pm – Bedtime!

DCA Food & Wine Festival was awesome. I was so happy to experience Soarin’ Over California again while it was around (and should stay year-round tbh!) Crowds were very manageable, everyone I interacted with exuded great vibes, and all the food service CM’s were helpful and so friendly. The musicians get all my love, genuinely! Live music at DCA is really something special to me; my appreciation for DCA grew a bunch after this visit! I would definitely be down for my future annual visits to coincide with Food & Wine/just “after” the main Spring Break rush.

4/10 DL (relaxed day)

A much warmer Spring day.

• 9:30am – Woke up, made breakfast in my hotel room, packed bag for the day.
• 11:30am – Arrived @ Downtown Disney security, DL Hotel side.
• 11:40am – Arrived @ DL gates.
• 11:47am – Scanned in.
• 11:50am – Disneyland Railroad Grand Circle tour, on the E.P. Ripley! I missed the railroad so much!
• 12:30pm – Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. Forever my underrated favorite. Before and after the show, I love taking my time going through the gallery and reveling in the art and history. Every visit to the gallery, that gentle piano music really stirs this feeling of gratitude in my heart for being there, being present. It’s an incredibly special corner of Disneyland and I pray that Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln will stick around for when I get to bring my children. Whew, cue the midday emotions!
• Snack break: popcorn on Main Street and the Disneyland Band playing at Main Street Station. Classic! I loved singing along to their medley.
• 1:08pm – Standby for small world.
• 1:18pm – In boat for small world.
• 1:35pm – Exited small world.
• 2:00pm – Standby Mickey & Minnie’s RR
• 2:12pm – Ride shut down, exited, temp close.
• Snack break in small world: ordered a frozen apple slush from Edelweiss, so perfect on a warm day. I relaxed on one of the elevated benches and enjoyed the jerky I packed (Tillamook zero sugar sausage sticks are my go-to!) Pinocchio, Merida, Aladdin, and Mary Poppins strolled through and were all so lovely to say hello to, with Aladdin telling me I gotta make sure to watch out for Abu while I was snacking LOL.
• 2:30pm – Decided to stay put in small world since Magic Happens was right around the corner!
• 3pm – Magic Happens parade from small world area, shared the bench with a super sweet baby girl and her awesome father. Being close enough for the first time to see the details of every parade float with my own eyes was amazing. The crowd energy at small world was really fun! I loved hearing people singing along and being in the moment. After the parade, I chilled around a bit more to let the crowd disperse.
• 3:40pm – Walked back to Toontown.
• 3:47pm – Standby for Roger Rabbit.
• 4:15pm – Finished Roger Rabbit, strolled Toontown, and ran into Pete! I was surprised with how many younger kids in the area knew who he was lol.
• 4:45pm – Mobile ordered/picked up a Pridelands Potato, still a must-get snack for me when I visit, after my cousin put me on last year.
• Walked over to look at Fantasyland Theatre: after Tale of the Lion King ended earlier this year (videos of the last performance were amazing and had me emotional, the cast is incredible and deserve a comeback) it was cool to see a little of the prep going into the upcoming Pixar Fest! I stayed a bit to watch crew testing out some screen visuals and lighting. I’m hopeful that whatever the theatre will be used for during Pixar Fest will breathe some life back in that corner of Fantasyland/small world!
• 5:30pm – Found a great bench spot to relax and people watch near the corner where Matterhorn/Autopia/Nemo corner (I love the fence detail at this intersection.)
• Decided to check out the Marine Observation Outpost @ Nemo (the viewing room for guests to have the submarine experience without stepping down into one) and it was neat: accessibility and sensory friendly, and definitely an air conditioned haven during the sweltering summer months.
• Enjoyed an awesome evening stroll back to Main Street. By now, the weather had cooled significantly and it felt fantastic.
• 7:00pm – Met Pluto & Minnie on Main Street.
• 7:18pm – Disneyland RR Grand Circle tour, this time on the C.K. Holliday. Night rides on the train are magnificent.
• Churro and chill at Main Street station/overlooking Town Square. Listening to the music loop and ambiance at Main Street station at night is something else. Sigh!
• “Goodnight” to Walt while walking past his apartment/lamp above the Fire Station. Bathroom break near the lockers/DL gates before my walk back. – Shortcut exit through the GCH for my walk back.
• 9:08pm – Returned Eden Roc. Showered, dinner, packed up ahead of checking out the next day, and caught up with family back home.
• 10:30pm – Bedtime!

This was my first time coming into the park nearly midday and it wasn’t as bad as I anticipated. Initially, I had debated with wanting to rope drop my first DL day, but opted to do a more relaxed pace after a food-filled adventure the day prior and save rope drop for the next. Having the flexibility to sleep in is SO helpful and will definitely plan the same way for future trips. Looking forward to rope drop the next day had me excited!

4/11 DL (full day and hotel change)

Significantly cooler day and that alone boosted my morning walk! This day was also my check out from Eden Roc and check in to Best Western Plus Park Place Inn - Mini Suites.

• 6:00am – Woke up, made coffee, and did some stretches (which I had conveniently forgot to do the last 2 days LOL)
• 7:10am – Arrived @ Downtown Disney security via the GCH courtyard.
• 7:21am – Grabbed locker and arrived @ DL gates.
  • Locker stash: change of shoes, change of socks, 2 cans of sparkling water and 2 Uncrustables from my grocery delivery, and extra snacks.
• 7:30am – Scanned in, purchased Genie+, made LL for Indy 8:15am-9:15am.
• 7:34am – Lined up @ Adventureland for rope drop, enjoyed my protein shake.
• 7:58am – Entry to Adventureland.
• 8:05am – Walked on Pirates and got front row for the first time. I missed this ride SO much!
• 8:30am – Arrived/entered LL @ Indy.
• Made LL for Big Thunder 9:30am-10:30am
• 8:49am – In car for Indy, back row. Post-refurb videos I’ve watched on Indy don’t do the ride justice, everything seemed more vibrant and cohesive. Holy guacamole, I forgot how ridiculously fun and jerky everything is lol. Got the “not bad for tourists” ending.
• Bathroom break and saw Big Thunder was down. Pivoted to breakfast!
• 9:15am – Brekkie chimichanga with salsa verde from Ship to Shore. I have yet to be disappointed with it! SO good.
• Back deck seating near Ship to Shore/overlooking the Rivers of America was open! One of the most peaceful, scenic breakfasts I’ve had.
• 10:00am – Relaxed on the Mark Twain. Waving to people never gets old.
• Made my way back to Main Street, exited, and took the GCH shortcut back to Eden Roc.
• 11:00am – Checked out of Eden Roc, Ubered, and transferred to BW Park Place Inn - Mini Suites. Luck had it again, room was ready! Got a 2-double room, secured/sanitized/settled.
• 11:30am – Midday break and nap.
• 3:30pm – Woke up and freshened up.
• 3:37pm – Arrived @ security, Harbor side. I never take the convenience of walking across Harbor for granted! Stopped by my locker, grabbed some snacks, and changed socks and shoes. Much needed!
• 3:45pm – Back in line @ DL gates.
• 3:53pm – Scanned back in.
• 4:15pm – Flag retreat. My very first! I’ve always known about the daily retreat and seen videos, but never found myself in the area during this time when doing group visits. I’m super glad to have made time for this.
• 4:35pm – Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln – Very fitting after flag retreat. I was SO HAPPY to return here before the refurb/gallery changeover. The soft music while exploring through the gallery and looking at Disneyland’s past, present, future concepts had my heart soft. I was finally able to admire the details of all the Spirits of America figures unrushed: beautiful. There was actually a good number of guests with me for Great Moments, deservedly, because I fully agree that it’s incredibly underrated. The artwork, narration, and the overall message took a deeper meaning for me, on this day. Lincoln rising from his chair still gives me goosebumps!
• 5:00pm – Stayed for Magic Happens on Main Street, just in front of Great Moments. Vibes were awesome. I took some time in the Magic Shop and enjoyed looking at the décodetails of the stores on that side of Main Street while post-parade crowds dispersed.
• Made my way to Adventureland Treehouse and explored. With the refurb happening during my last visit and watching walkthrough videos after its completion, I was eager to see it for myself. Each level was so fun and creative, and the views at the top made the churro calorie-burning worth it!
• 6:21pm – Over to Frontierland and redeemed MEP for Big Thunder.
• 6:38pm – In train for Big Thunder. Night rides are wild lol.
• 6:43pm – Exited Big Thunder.
• Mobile ordered and picked up a 3-pack of Mickey Beignets @ the Mint Julip. So bummed I wasn’t able to try the ube flavored beignets, but next time! Found a nice table around the corner at Tiana’s Palace next to the main walkway and enjoyed the ambiance. New Orleans Square at night has a special place in my heart and has definitely been my favorite land since I’ve started visiting the parks and learning more about park history.
• 7:00pm – Pirates standby was still a bit too long, so I decided to stroll to the GCH for a drink before returning for Wondrous Journeys.
• 7:15pm – Snagged a bar spot at Hearthstone Lounge and enjoyed a Meadow Punch (floral-y rum) The mix was decent and the pour was generous. Not a bad drink, but definitely planned on trying something different next time. I was also tempted to order a chorizo poutine, but alas! I still had 2 more beignets nestled in my bag. Self-restraint ;-)
• 7:53pm – Finished the rest of my beignets in the Grand Lobby, bathroom break before back to DL, checked up on/chatted with family back home. Also, at this point of the trip, I was definitely missing my dog a LOT, haha.
• 8:15pm – Scanned back in to DL. Went to Disneyana and looked through some new awesome art prints.
• 9:30pm – Wondrous Journeys, viewed the projections on the middle of Main Street in just before the Coke corner. No fireworks this night, but no biggie to me. It was really fun hearing everyone singing along and how beloved the song and its outro version have become to lots of people.
• 10:20pm - DL RR Grand Circle tour x 2, C.K. Holliday. Super relaxing ride, and at this point, I was definitely feeling sleepy (and the rum from earlier lol) Interestingly, most of the animatronic dinosaurs in Primeval World weren’t working during this night.
• 11:00pm – Ordered a churro for the road and left the park. I emptied my locker and made my way across Harbor.
• 11:08pm – Arrived back @ Best Western Plus Park Place Inn - Mini Suites.
• Midnight – Bedtime!

4/12 DL (final full day)

The coolest weather of the entire week, most of the day was overcast with some rain chances at night. I planned on having an “OG” Fantasyland morning and then soaking up as much ambiance as I could for my finale day. No regrets on my pace!

• 6:00am – Woke up, showered, prepped my bag, chugged a protein shake.
• 6:42am – Arrived @ security, Harbor side.
• 7:13am – Arrived @ DL gates, scanned in, purchased Genie+, made LL for Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway 9:30am-10:30am.
• 7:26am – Arrived @ main rope drop.
• 8:01am – Arrived @ Alice via the Matterhorn path and ran into Captain Hook!
• 8:09 – Finished Alice.
• 8:10am – Arrived @ Mr. Toad’s
• 8:14am – Finished Toad’s.
• 8:15am – Arrived @ Pinocchio.
• 8:19am – Finished Pinocchio.
• 8:21am – Arrived @ Snow White.
• 8:27am – Finished Snow.
• Caught the Pearly Band finishing their Fantasyland set. So fun! Made my way back to NOS.
• 8:38am – Walked on Pirate’s.
• 8:52am – Finished Pirates.
• Stayed for an entire Bootstrappers set! They’ve been my favorite group in the park, by far.
• Beignets and coffee break @ Mint Julep. Called in/chatted with family back home and was reminded to bring home some churro toffee! Before leaving the park that, I made sure to do so and they were demolished about 48 hours after returning home lol. So good.
• 10:00am – Arrived/entered LL @ Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, purchased LL for Rise of the Resistance 10:30am-11:30am. Doing this ride solo is such a treat and finally got to spot more Hidden Mickeys that my cousins had mentioned to me prior to my trip! The underwater bossa nova theme variation is so fun and Daisy’s conga line always gets me smiling. Our train stayed a tad longer in front of Mick, Min, & Pluto’s ending picnic scene and the ukulele/fireworks ambiance was so nice.
• 10:19am – Finished MM RR, went to Galaxy’s Edge.
• 10:30am – Arrived/entered LL @ RotR. No Kylo Ren lightsaber through the ceiling effect this time (I’m curious how long that’s been out for) but everything else was smooth. That escape pod drop still surprises me lol. Also, manifesting for the laser cannons to return in the future (wishful thinking?)
• 10:54am – Finished RotR. Bathroom break/water bottle refill. Ordered a Blue Milk, as one does while on Batuu. I love taking time in Galaxy’s Edge: it’s right behind NOS in my favorite lands. Crowd levels still seemed very light at this time that I could still hear and enjoy all the soundscapes and immersion overhead. I saw some CM’s set up on mini tables with cards: I’m assuming Lorcana? I couldn’t get close enough as there were guests. It would be so cool if it was Sabacc cards and Sabacc mini games instead. Ran into the Stormtroopers on my way out and waved to Chewie up on the platform.
• 12:00pm – Arrived @ River Belle Terrace for brunch. Since it was a colder afternoon, I welcomed sitting inside. I was seated in a window nook with a view of the Pirate’s queue, a little of Adventureland Treehouse, and the Adventureland to NOS walkway. I ordered the Loaded House Fries with Egg and a Modelo, just as good as I remembered!
• 1:00pm – Boarded the Sailing Ship Columbia.
• 1:27pm – Bathroom break, then arrived @ Pirates.
• Mobile ordered early dinner for later: the 7 Greens Gumbo with Chicken and a cornbread from Tiana’s Palace.
• 1:35pm – In boat for Pirates.
• 1:55pm – Exited Pirates. I’d be so down to dedicate a future morning rope drop for doing Pirates like 3 times in a row LOL.
• Followed the sound of sea shanties…The Bootstrappers, again! This time, near Eudora’s shop. Enjoyed the whole set and had fun learning a new drinking song (“Spent All Me Tin” (?)) and of course, “Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me)” NEVER gets old.
• Mobile ordered a Dole Whip and strolled to the Enchanted Tiki Room, because a trip to Disneyland is never complete without a visit where the birds sing words and the flowers croon. The afternoon gradually continued to be overcast with some rain chances in the evening made the thunderstorm sequence so fitting. Enjoying your Dole Whip during the show is top 10 vibes for me.
• Walked back to the hub and made my way to Main Street station and got to see some of the Main Street vehicles come out from backstage, a first for me! Found a nice spot and watched the Disneyland Band groove and move.
• Boarded the DL RR to relax, E.P. Ripley again!
• 3:00pm – Magic Happens from Main Street Station. The parade crowd energy on Main Street is so unique to small world/other viewing areas.
• 4:00pm – Back to Tiana’s Palace to pick up my mobile order and asked for a to-go box since I was leaving the park for a bit.
• 4:20 – Returned to BW Plus Park Place Inn for early dinner & nap (chances of rain between 5pm-8pm) I enjoyed the 7 Greens Gumbo over the House Gumbo that I had last visit. The cornbread was (thankfully) not dry, but tbh I could’ve done without it; earlier, temptation had struck once again and I thought on trying a house-filled beignet, but definitely next time. OG beignets, from both Mint Julep and Beignets Expressed in Downtown Disney, are still supreme!
• Woke up and ordered a small grocery delivery from 7-Eleven for my last night. Chance of rain was still around, so I packed my poncho and umbrella just in case.
• 8:30pm - Arrived back to DL.
• Saw the line at City Hall wasn’t a mile long like during the day and hopped in to pass along my Cast compliments in-person, in addition to having submitting them via app. I definitely encourage y’all to continue keeping track of the stellar Cast Members that you both interact with and observe doing a fantastic job, especially amidst everything they put up with on the daily. With the good also comes the bad (or, at the very least, aggravating annoyances) and Disneyland will never be exempted from that. Vacation time is understandably precious, but making the time to drop by City Hall and passing your compliments in-person is worth it, IMO. Always try your best to pass your compliments forward and don’t forget that a genuine, verbal “thank you”, “you’re awesome”, or “you really made my day” to Cast Members really goes a long way!
• 9:30pm – Wondrous Journeys, no fireworks. Admittedly, I was a little bummed as the last nights of this show were approaching (thankfully was able to watch some livestreams of the final Wondrous night, Sunday, Apr. 14, WITH the fireworks…happy tears all the way from Texas) but I was really filled with gratitude for an incredible week back in Anaheim and fulfilling my goal of my first solo trip.
• Decided to hang on Main Street after the Wondrous crowd dispersed and relaxed in Town Square. It’s usually around this time during any vacation that I’d start anticipating and brainstorming “the next trip”, but the nostalgia and peaceful feeling of being on Main Street at night, with all the lights, helped to be intentionally present in the moment. I was really happy in that moment.
• Finale churro on Main Street and a goodnight to Walt walking past his apartment.
• 10:45pm – Back to BW Plus Park Place Inn: swung by the front desk to pick up my grocery delivery, showered, and called it a night (after an Advil LOL) Bedtime!

4/13 SNA-AUS

A cloudier, colder morning that made way for little peeks of sun, then a little rain @ SNA.

• 8:37am – Woke up to pack, sigh!
• 9:30am – Arrived @ security, Harbor side.
• 9:48am – Arrived @ Earl of Sandwich for breakfast, ate outside on the patio for some finale Downtown Disney vibes.
• 10:30am – Picked up churro toffee @ Marceline’s Confectionery, as requested by the fam back home!
• 10:44am – Back to BW Plus Park Place Inn, secured the churro toffee, and cleaned up the last bits of my room.
• 11:00am – Checked out of BW Plus Park Place Inn, Ubered to SNA. Started fleshing out this report before/during my flights.
• 2:00pm – Departed SNA.
• 6:00pm CST – Arrived @ AUS after a layover in LAS.

Souvenirs bought:

• Disneyland license plate frame and a new pin for myself
• Food & Wine coasters for my parents

Quick takeaways!

• Hotels: First time stays at both locations and no regrets splitting my stays so I could end my solo trip just being across Harbor. My feet and back thanked me LOL.
  • Eden Roc Inn & Suites: Carlos and Janet at the front desk were so helpful. I requested/received a refurbished first floor room and it was more than spacious. Shortcuts in/out of GCH made the walks to/from here a piece of cake.
  • Best Western Plus Park Place Inn - Mini Suites: Dalia at the front desk was equally helpful; I also requested/received a first floor room. I usually stay at the Best Western Plus Anaheim Inn (2-minute walk between each of these BW’s) but the Mini Suites had the lower rate for the last half of my stay. While I’m partial to BW Plus Anaheim Inn, the Mini Suites’ location couldn’t be beat for my solo trip.
• Bag(s): My main bag over the last year has been the Hydroflask Slingback Bottle Pack. Here’s a review from Pack Hacker. I also bring Daiso foldable/packable lunch totes, similar to this.
• Shoes: Sketchers Slip-ins, New Balance Dynasoft Nergize V1, OOFOS OOriginal recovery sandals.
• Socks: Muk Luks graduated compression socks (knee length) and Dr. Scholl’s compression socks (crew length)
• Crowd: Coming after the “main” spring break rush made this one of the best visits I’ve had since I started coming annually. I avoided chokepoints as best as I could, guests had good vibes in the immediate areas I was in, and overall, a very tolerable crowd experience (especially compared to my August/September 2023 visit)
• Cast Members: Fantastic. I was so privileged this solo trip to experience and observe magic being made, even if I wasn’t the direct recipient. Magic is really in the little things: waving back to someone passing by on the train, complimenting someone's ears/outfit, enjoying the ragtime piano at the Coke corner. Each Cast Member I encountered was phenomenal in their roles/capacities.

Things I’m looking forward to next visit!

• Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
• Trying more seasonal food
• Monorail rides/enjoy Tomorrowland night time vibes
• Making time for more music around both parks
• Starting the morning at Tom Sawyer Island
• Late nights/shutting down the park
• Taking my film camera to the parks

WHEW. To anyone making it to the end of this trip report: THANK YOU! :-)

Let me tell you a story.
There was a kid. When he was in early elementary school he would order pizzas to people’s houses.
When he got a little older (4th gradish) he would order pizzas to houses, wait for about 25 minutes, position himself behind the recipient’s house, then launch eggs at the delivery guy.
I’m not really sure what his logic was but I think he saw the irony in how stupidly chaotic the pranks were.
This child successfully egged 1000 targets without getting caught before retiring.
As an adult, 30 years later, he feels slight regret but also a little pride. He will try his best to make sure his kids don’t do this.
Anyway, sorry Dominos drivers.

Name	Relation	Convicted of	Sentence	Sources	Notes
Badalian; Edward	Called in	Conspiracy; obstruction of an official proceeding; entering and remaining in a restricted building	4 years, 3 months	[1] [2]	A message posted by Rodriguez between Dec. 31 and Jan. 4 to a person not identified in the indictment said he would "assassinate Joe Biden" if he got the chance and "would rather die than live under a Biden administration." Prosecutors allege Badalian collected weapons and tactical gear to bring to Washington D.C. on Jan. 6, including respirators, masks, snow goggles, knee pads, and baseball helmets. The gear was among the items used by supporters of former President Trump to storm past barricades to get into the Capitol. Badalian allegedly went on to boast about his part in the Capitol riot by appearing on the show "Infowars" under the pseudonym Turbo, alongside video provided by someone identified only as "Person One."
Biggs; Joe	Friend, Infowars correspondent	Seditious conspiracy; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of an official proceeding; conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging any duties; obstruction of law enforcement; destruction of government property	17 years	[1] [2]	Proud Boys, Iraq veteran, purple heart recipient, engaged in domestic violence, homophobe, mysogynist. Was supposedly approached by the FBI for on-the-ground intelligence about "Antifa". Destroyed a Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in 2020.
Brown; Jeffrey Scott	Fan	Civil disorder; assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon and aiding and abetting; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building for grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; disorderly conduct in the capitol grounds or buildings; act of physical violence in the capitol grounds or buildings	4 years, 6 months	[1] [2] [3]	"The day before the Jan. 6 riot, Brown posted a selfie, wearing an Infowars shirt, and a message — 'Boarding LAX' — to a Telegram messaging application group chat that described itself as 'the Comms for able bodied individuals that are going to DC on Jan 6' where members 'are all ready and willing to fight"
Crowl; Donovan	Fan	Conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; civil disorder	Pending	[1] [2]	In 2015, Crowl, at 45, moved into the basement of the home his mother, JoAnn Rowe, in Peoria, Illinois, where they squabbled over politics and media. “A lot of it was Alex Jones,” Rowe told CNN last year, referring to her son’s media diet. “He would tell us that Hillary Clinton had a sex ring in the basement of a pizza parlor.”
Kostolsky; Jackson	Fan	Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds	30 days home detention	[1] [2]	In a letter to the presiding judge, his mother said Kostolsky, who is in his early 30s, was a fan of Alex Jones and other right-wing personalities. “He was very influenced by Rush Limbaugh and, sadly, Alex Jones and his conspiracy theories,” she wrote. “It seemed to fuel his anger issues. He believes everything Alex Jones has to say. Jack is what I believe to be a victim of the media.”
Minuta; Roberto	Security detail	Seditious conspiracy; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of an official proceeding; conspiracy to prevent members of Congress from discharging their official duties	4 years, 6 months	[1] [2] [3]	Oath Keepers, key ally of Stewart Rhodes. Tattoo artist. In his video broadcasts he stated "You know what? Millions will die. So what? ... Get your fucking soul ready. Get right with God." Earlier in the day, Minuta had been part of a team providing security services to Roger Stone. He was photographed with armored gloves, goggles and bear spray on January 6.
Montoya; Samuel	Employee	Parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building	4 months home detention	[1]
Nordean; Ethan	Friend	Seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging any duties, obstruction of law enforcement and destruction of government property.	18 years	[1] [2] [3] [4]	Proud Boys - Prosecutors alleged Nordean was a chief organizer of a mob of about 100 Proud Boys that marched through Washington before the breach of the Capitol. (...) Nordean told the judge, “the truth is, I did help lead a group of men back to the Capitol. There is no excuse for my actions, ignoring police commands, going past barricades, entering the Capitol. In video played to a federal jury in D.C., Seattle-area Proud Boys head Ethan Nordean told other group leaders that morning that they would shortly “link up with Alex Jones.” Florida lieutenant Joe Biggs repeated to Nordean just before noon that the rendezvous would occur at the West front of the building where “we’ll … merge with Alex as they’re comin’ in and we’ll do our s---.” In a November podcast called “Warboys,” Nordean referenced “the day of the rope” for “traitors” who were urging acceptance of the 2020 election results. That term, prosecutors said, was lifted from “The Turner Diaries,” a racist and antisemitic novel depicting the violent overthrow of the “Zionist Occupied Government” by white supremacists who storm the U.S. Capitol.
Rhodes; Stewart	Friend	Seditious conspiracy, obstruction of an official proceeding, and tampering with documents and proceedings	18 years	[1] [2]	Part of the Oath Keepers. Although he didn't kill anybody, this guy may be the most dangerous one yet, as he had a leading role on Jan 6th and apparently "goes way back" with Jones. He procured a "small arsenal of weapons" worth $20,000 on the way to DC. And was later recorded on tape saying: "My only regret is that they should have brought rifles... We should have brought rifles. We could have fixed it right then and there. I'd hang fucking Pelosi from the lamppost."
Rodriguez; Daniel	Fan	Conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding; obstruction of justice, and assaulting a law enforcement officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon	12 years, 7 months	[1] [2] [3]	Said Infowars inspired him. He used a stun gun on officer Michael Fanone, who suffered a heart attack immediately after while begging for his life
Schaffer; Jon	Guest	Obstructing an official proceeding; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon	Pending	[1]	Oath Keepers, founding member. Jon Schaffer has pleaded guilty to multiple felonies, including for breaching the Capitol while wearing a tactical vest and armed with bear spray, with the intent to interfere with Congress’ certification of the Electoral College results,"
Shroyer; Owen	Employee	Illegally entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds	60 days	[1] [2]	Also heavily involved in the Sandy Hook case
Tarrio; Enrique	Friend, guest	Seditious conspiracy; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of an official proceeding; conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging any duties; obstruction of law enforcement; and destruction of government property.	22 years	[1] [2]	Zac Drucker, who worked for Jones for six years and leaked video of him drinking vodka around the office, told Hatewatch in a phone conversation that former FBI informant and Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio used Infowars to build up the Proud Boys brand. Tarrio does not appear in the texts, but he has popped up as an Infowars guest many times over the years. In 2021, Reuters revealed that Tarrio served as an informant for local and federal law enforcement for years before taking a leadership role with the Proud Boys. “Enrique Tarrio talked to Alex like he needed something out of him all the time,” Drucker recalled to Hatewatch. “I always thought that Enrique Tarrio was an informant for the government the entire time. Just because of his demeanor, the way that he projected himself. The way that he would be in a conversation … he would always do these prepper conversations where he’s just getting you in the narrative he wants to present [before] he starts talking to you. And I always found that manipulative.” Drucker said that the Proud Boys and Tarrio stroked Jones’ ego in order to access his Infowars audience.

Other references to Alex Jones:
Jacob Anthony Angeli Chansley A.K.A. QAnon Shaman
Chansley first called into the Alex Jones show on January 8th, 2021, in the aftermath of J6.
Jones worked himself into a frenzy denouncing QAnon as lies, frequently interrupting him. Chansley returned to the show on August 4th, 2023. Jones apologized.

• ‘Bye bye Q, I can’t talk to you any more’: What next for Alex Jones, America’s foremost conspiracy theorist?
• Alex Jones - Infowars - 2021-01-08
• Alex Jones - Infowars - 2023-08-04
• Twitter - "Goad Gatsby" - Today Alex Jones did an absolute turnaround on his treatment of Q Anon Shaman Jacob Chansley

William Watson

• AL.com - William Watson, Alabama man shown with ‘QAnon Shaman,’ says he was directed by radio host Alex Jones
• Affadavit

One thing I don't see brought up enough is how Henry says that whoever we play as in Pizza Sim wasn't who the job listing was intended for. As he puts it, "my brave volunteer, who somehow found this job listing not intended for you."
If Michael was the intended recipient of the job listing, then that means we don't play as him in Pizza Sim and he's still out there. If Michael wasn't the intended recipient of the job listing, then who was, and where are they now?

After reading a handful of recent threads on other comic book drama I decided I would dip my toes in and tell a more recent story about a new comic book publisher, Bad Idea, and their quest to make everyone hate them (or love them) by being as gimmicky as possible.
It's a story of how collectors, speculators, and comic book stores burned themselves out of Bad Idea's comics because of Bad Idea's bad ideas.

So What Is Bad Idea?

Bad Idea Corp, or Bad Idea, is an American comic book publisher that launched in 2020. It was started by several former executives from Valiant Comics, who all left the company after it was bought out by a Chinese entertainment company, and a few executives from Hivemind Entertainment, a media production company that has been involved with shows like The Expanse and Netflix's The Witcher. Like Valiant Comics, Bad Idea was in the business of making schlocky, grindhouse comic books. The more 90's the idea, the better.
But what quickly set Bad Idea in the industry apart was their early promise to never publish trades, new printings, digital versions, or variants of any of their comics. And they wouldn't use Diamond, the biggest (arguably only) comic distributor in the business at the time. You had to order directly through them.
This was an extremely bold promise. What Bad Idea was promising was unprecedented.
It meant: Every comic would be sold in limited quantities. Comics will not be reprinted to meet demand. Every comic would only be sold in stores. And you have to order it only from them since they will be the only ones printing and shipping it.
What this meant for readers and stores was that to read any Bad Idea comics costumers would have to go to comic book stores every week and pray it was in-stock. If you missed out, you missed out. You wouldn't be able to get it anywhere else... ever
And to not use Diamond Distributors? They held the monopoly on comic book distribution since the 90's. The last comic book publisher that even attempted to self-distribute was Marvel it caused them to go bankrupt. (Sidenote: Both DC and Marvel have both abandon Diamond Distributors since 2021, but that's entirely different, dumber story.)
It went against every piece of wisdom in the comic book industry. It was a Bad Idea (tm).

Hollywood Here We Come

Despite these terrible decisions and promises, it immediately interested retailers. And to understand why you have to understand a cornerstone of modern comic book collecting: "speccing"
"Speccing", or speculating, is when a collector or investor attempts to predict which comic books are going to be used as a basis for a movie or a TV show. In the age of the Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe, DC Universe, and massive shows like The Walking Dead, this has become massively popular and lucrative. For example, if you bought The Walking Dead #1 for $2.50 in 2003, and you held it in mint condition until now, you could sell it for a meaty $1000. Alternatively, you could attempt to predict which comic book characters are going to show up in a big, blockbuster superhero movie or show, such as popular Spider-man character Miles Morales' first appearance going for around $600 despite it being first released at $3.99 in 2011. If you specced right, you could make some absurd returns.
It's not the entire community, but it is a major part of the community.
Now, Bad Idea's executive branch created a lot confidence behind the company since the leadership's previously saved Valiant Comics with an extensive and successful relaunch in 2012. The connections to Hivemind Entertainment, a Hollywood company, created a clear pipeline for Bad Idea's comics to be adapted into movies or TV shows. Here was a company creating original content being headed by comic book veterans partnering with Hollywood playmakers-- if there was any company on the market that could make the next The Walking Dead, it was probably these guys.
And Bad Idea knew it.

We Paid Gilbert Gottfried To Annoy Comic Book Shops

After announcing their existence, Bad Idea also announced it would only be selecting 20 comic book stores to carry their books... if they met their strict conditions.
What were these conditions? To quote Bad Idea:

• Rule 1: Comics are limited to one person.
• Rule 2: Comics must be sold for no more than cover price for 30 days from street day
• Rule 3: Comics can be offered for pre-order but cannot be shipped to anyone before street day
• Rule 4: Comics must be displayed in the highest traffic section of your store
• Rule 5: Stores must prominently display each promotional material for a mandated time period

Failure to comply meant Bad Idea would immediately cut you off from ever selling their books ever again.
Normally, these types of conditions would be a death sentence for a new publisher. Bad Idea's conditions meant comic book stores couldn't mark up Bad Idea comics to meet demand, sell in bulk to speculators, and that their comics had to take up prime shelf space. Speculators, however, ate this up. It meant that Bad Idea was purposely making their comics hard to find and stock, and that each comic would have a small number of copies-- essentially a perfect storm to inflate values.
Comic book stores, despite their best interest, were intrigued.
The first chance anyone had to talk to Bad Idea was at ComicPRO 2020, a comic book retailer convention. Bad Idea announced their first two titles, Eniac by Matt Kindt and Doug Braithwaite, and Megalith by Lewis LaRosa (remember this one for later), and that they will be expanding the list of stores to 50. All announced by Gilber Gottfried and other celebrities on Cameo.
Oh, and if you wanted in you had to sign up right now. The first 50 stores to sign would immediately be accepted into Bad Idea if they followed guidelines. The rest were out of luck. Better luck next year.
....Actually, make that the first 100 stores.
It was pretty clear Bad Idea was creating an atmosphere of gimmicks, FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), and artificial scarcity by announcing "limited lists", have people fight over them, only to expand it later to meet demand.
But something was happening and retailers wanted to capitalize on it. 100 comic book stores was still a short list, and the two books that were announced had top-tier talent on it. Matt Kindt was already a massively popular writer for creating Mind MGMT and writing Keanue Reeves' BRZRKR, and Lewis LaRosa was a titan of an artist in the comic industry. It was the kind of talent that perked ears.
Then COVID hit.

COVID, The Button, and The Hero Trade

The first few months of COVID hit everyone hard but it hit comic book stores especially hard since their entire model is based on customers coming in literally every week to buy a stack of comics. In light of this, Bad Idea quietly postponed their May 2020 launch to a later date.
And in the meantime, Bad Idea's social media was hacked by a Big Red Button.
Bad Idea would only launch their comics if a button was pressed one billion times. Until then... zero announcements and zero comics. Everyone was left in the dark. But now the comic book buying public knew Bad Idea existed, and they were interested in hearing more, so they clicked that button. A lot.
It quickly reached that goal around August 2020. But still no news.
Then, in September, a comic called The Hero Trade showed up at the doorsteps of comic stores.
The Hero Trade is a one-shot short story, only 8 pages, about a back-alley scumbag selling body parts of superheroes to whoever could pay. This black-and-white book was randomly sent to 200 comic book stores unannounced and the comic had no credits in it. Most had no idea what this comic was and assumed it was worthless self-published comic from an unknown creator trying to get stores to buy more copies by handing out free samples.
However, two weeks later Bad Idea announced that they published The Hero Trade. Not only that, but they announced that the comic was drawn by David Lapham, creator of Stray Bullets, and written by Matt Kindt.
Immediately copies of The Hero Trade began selling for thousands on eBay with all kinds of rumors swirling behind it. Was it the beginning of a new comic universe? Was it being made into a show or a movie? What the hell was Bad Idea? With all the obtuse rules to even sell their books meant they had to be big, right?
Bad Idea wouldn't say. But hey, here are some books you could order from us.

"Not First Printing"

What followed were weeks of confusion as stores, even those weren't in the loop, were mowed down with requests to carry Bad Idea books. Bad Idea also announced that it would be sticking to its limited roster, but now that roster had ballooned to 236 stores worldwide.
Curiously, the first comic Bad Idea comic would be Eniac... not Eniac and Megalith. But that little blip was overwhelmed by another announcement: if you were the first to buy a Bad Idea comic in stores you would get a pin. In fact, this would run every time a new Bad Idea series came out. These became immediate collector items. Word also got out that Eniac #1 would contain a new The Hero Trade issue as a small back-up story. Customers lined-up outside of stores at 4am, or earlier, just to snag this pin and this comic and to get in on Bad Idea.
Finally, on March 3rd, 2021, Eniac #1 launched.
And a lot of people were immediately turned off by the company.
Remember how Bad Idea said they wouldn't do extra printings? Well, that was a lie. Bad Idea actually had two printings come out on the launch of Eniac #1, the first printing and a "Not First Printing". Why?
Because Bad Idea had to cut everyone's orders in half to meet demand.
Why?
Because Bad Idea had already printed their entire first printing before retailer orders ever came in. Then Bad Idea took the orders from their stores, cut those in half, and then filled what they could fill with the first print with their "Not First Printing".
This led to 3000 first prints worldwide, about 10 per store, making them much rarer than the "Not First Printing" which were printed at an unknown, but higher, amount. The only difference between the two prints as that the first print had white fonts and the "Not First Printing" had black fonts. While a minor difference, it meant one copy could be much rarer than the other.
Then things snowballed out of control. The book sold out at major retailers like Midtown Comics in 20 minutes. The pins and the comic were suddenly going for $600 combined, while first prints got as high $100. Everyone, from collectors to speculators to casual readers and curious observers, wanted in just to see what this comic was. Stores would watch a customer walk in, buy a Eniac #1 for $3.99, then sell it for $100 minutes later on eBay because, remember, comic book retailers were forbidden from marking up prices on this limited comic. The one that tried was immediately banned from carrying Bad Idea comics ever again.
Everyone felt burned. If you simply got to the store late, even if you pre-ordered, you could get a "Not First Printing" book, a far less valuable for trading and collecting. Stores saw scalpers make obscene profit off of their stock and had no way to fight it. On top of that, the "Not First Printing" announcement showed that Bad Idea were wiling to print more copies of their "Not First Printing" books as long as stores kept ordering them. While this preserved the value of the first print, since they looked visually different and had limited runs, it also meant any other printing basically had no value since they were perpetually printed to demand.
How could you trust this company, as a retailer or as a customer, when they couldn't even stick to their core ideals of no new printing or variants for their launch book?
This wasn't helped by the fact Eniac #1 was only getting good reviews, not great reviews. People expected something mind-blowing from creators like Matt Kindt and Dough Braithwaite, something on the level of The Walking Dead or recent cult-hit Something Is Killing The Children. Instead, what curious customers received was an above-average sci-fi spy thriller. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, above-average is still very good, but Bad Idea spent the last year having fans jump through hoops to get it and people were let down.
One book in and Bad Idea was already failing to live up to the hype and already burning fans.
And then came a wave of gimmicks.

Buy Our Comics And Win A Rock

Bad Idea was publishing a new series about once a month, and each series lasted about four issues. But every month or so there would be... well, a bad idea.
The first of these was the announcement that they would have a comic available for purchase in stores only for only 24 hours. After that, every comic book store would have to mail back their unsold copies for a refund. Failure would to comply meant getting cut off. Retailers, again, were annoyed that Bad Idea was just creating more work for them just for a marketing gimmick.
Remember those pins I mentioned? The second was the announcement that you could trade those pins to Bad Idea for either a new exclusive comic... or a rock. The few pins that did remain people fought over and sold for hundreds. Counterfeit pins flooded the market to compensate. But little did anyone know is that Bad Idea actually chipped the pins to tell authentic ones from fake ones. Those that got caught were banned.
The last gimmick was The Final Five. Bad Idea announced that they'd be ending (as we know it) and would be publishing only five more books from August 2021 to December 2021 before closing. It would be 15 issues in total... and you would have to pre-order all 15 issues blind and upfront. No information on any of the books were given. You just had to hand over $250 and trust that these books were worth it. But hey, if you were one of the first 10 people who ordered you'd get a sticker! Hell, maybe one of those books would be Megalith, which still hasn't come out yet.
The Final Five were released and... none of them were Megalith.
There also came a final wave of redemption during the Final Five period. That Final Five sticker? You could send it to get an issue of The Hero Trade: Passive/Aggressive #1, which was actually two different stories with identical covers. Every Bad Idea store got copies of either the Passive story or the Aggressive story. The sticker could be redeemed to get which ever version your store didn't carry.
Then you could buy back that sticker you sent in. You weren't promised anything except the sticker... but if you sent some extra money you could maybe get something else. Fans sent whatever they thought Bad Idea wanted, including a cake recipe and a copy of The Hero Trade. In one funny twist, a fan sent extra money to buy Bad Idea's Megalith #1-4, which still hadn't come out yet, only to receive Megalith #1-4 from Continuity Comics.
But along with this announcement came that the Final Five had a secret sixth book. So secret that it was invisible.

Conceptual Funnies, or How To Destroy The Collectors Market

Before we get to Conceptual Funnies #1, we have to talk about the practice of "grading".
Grading is a third-party process where a professional, such as the CGC, or Certified Guaranteed Company, is given a comic book or trading card and grades it on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest, and then seals that item in hard plastic with a certificate to retain its condition. It's mostly for collectors and speculators to preserve their cherished items from ever being tarnished.
However, none of it is official. Everything from the grades to the name of the variants is generally done through ongoing conversations between the CGC and the community. None of this is endorsed or acknowledged by any publishers, like Marvel or DC, but they understand it as a pillar of the comic book community and often play to it by making rare comic book variants. The CGC exists and is legitimized by a series of gentleman's agreements between the community, publishers, and themselves, so the community often scrutinizes the CGC in an effort to make it seem "legitimate" and "professional".
At the very end of 2021, Bad Idea announced that they broke ground with the CGC, the top comic book and trading card grading company in the world-- Bad Idea and the CGC have graded the first invisible comics called Conceptual Funnies #1.
Somehow, it's even dumber than it sounds.
How do you grade an invisible comic? What even is an invisible comic book?
Well, Conceptual Funnies #1 isn't actually invisible, it's two pieces of very clear acetate plastic stapled together like a comic book. There is no comic inside, just two pieces of plastic which held the concept of a comic called Conceptual Funnies #1. Only 34 copies were made, one at every grade from 1.8 to a 10. How the condition of something like an invisible comic is judged remains a mystery.
Then, Bad Idea sold those graded books at random for $1000 a piece on New Year's Eve.
The comic book community was livid. They saw it as a violation of everything the CGC stood for. How can an invisible comic book be graded at a 10, or any grade? And how can the concept of a comic be graded? How is it even a collectible, let alone a comic? The comic book community immediately called it out as a cheap, devaluing gimmick. If the CGC continued grading whatever at any grade then the entire grading process would be a meaningless sham of made-up numbers. Which it kind of is. Community members across the board demanded the CGC to step in and disavow the comics as illegitimate.
And even if you thought this was just all a funny prank on the community, Bad Idea made it hard to justify it as just a joke. After all, what kind of joke comes with a $1000 starting price?
So the CGC stepped in. They asked Bad Idea never sell the comics again.
Bad Idea was happy to oblige... only because they had already sold out.
Then, Bad Idea closed as we know it.
Thoroughly destroying their reputation and announcing they would no longer publish comics.

Running To Kickstarter

They were lying. Of course.
After months of silence, Bad Idea came back as Bad Idea Donuts, a donut company. They would spend the summer of 2022 touring conventions as Bad Idea Donuts, selling donuts (that came with a free exclusive comic), and giving absurd tasks to fans to allow them to win exclusive comics and meet the creative teams.
This was a sly move because on Bad Idea's part because, for the entirety of this tour, Bad Idea was not selling books in comic books stores. This kept them mostly out of the general public eye to instead sell directly to die-hard, convention-going nerds.
At San-Diego Comic-Con, Bad Idea announced they were back as Bad Idea Two. Not only that, Bad Idea Two would be doing not just one blind pre-order, but two blind pre-orders. The first blind pre-order would be on September 7th, 2022.
This was capped off by the Stop Bad Idea! Kickstarter. People could pay Bad Idea to stop publishing comic books and to stop existing, but only if they surpassed $2.6 million. This was advertised at New York Comic-con with a picket lines at their booths where fans could picket Bad Idea to stop existing. Now the Kickstarter opened a whole new can of worms, not because of the gimmick, but because of what was offered.
Stop Bad Idea! would be to stop Bad Idea from ever publishing... but really it was Kickstarter to fund a The Hero Trade omnibus collection.
Remember The Hero Trade? It was that comic that was randomly sent to stores and launched a ton of hype for Bad Idea. Speculation about it launching a new comic series were right because The Hero Trade was a small part of a new, gritty, shared universe of superhero grifters, criminals, and scumbags. But instead of an on-going series, The Hero Trade were a series of short one-shots that had been published at the end of several of their comics as back-ups. The Hero Trade trade omnibus would collect all these shorts into one volume alongside some new stories.
This, of course, went against the company's original promise of no trades.
Stop Bad Idea! would also sell a set of 5 copies of Megalith #1, the comic that was supposed to be published two years ago, to only two people for $5000. Later, it offered another set of 5 copies of Megalith #2 to another two people, again for $5000. And yes, someone did buy Megalith #1.
Oh, and all of these things was available only to this Kickstarter.
On October 19th, 2022, Stop Bad Idea! announced a final twist and that they would reprint the surprise The Hero Trade comic, but this time it would be in color and it would be have an exclusive cover by Joe Quesada, controversial Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics from 2000 to 2011.
Now at this point Bad Idea fans have put up with a lot. But reprinting The Hero Trade, even with a new cover, means devaluing the first copies that were published since there are now more limited copies, even if they looked different.
This wouldn't matter to most, but it matters to collectors when a graded copy of The Hero Trade went for $3200 at its highest... but is now barely breaking $300. The collectors that have stuck around from the beginning were getting their very rare collection devalued in real time.
Stop Bad Idea! was then followed up by the equally confusing Megalith Kickstarter. Years after its announcement, Megalith was finally here... as a Kickstarter for an omnibus collection. Besides the omnibus, you could back anything from an action figure to more exclusive comics or even buy art pages. If you had the cash for it.
And finally, Bad Idea predictably broke their promise of "No Digital Comics" with their Kickstarter Save Digitial Comics With David Laphalm And The Ends! This Kickstarter was centered around The Ends series by David and Maria Lapham, with a focus on bringing premium digital comics. This an entirely other drama in the comic community, but digital comics are notoriously bad thanks to sites like Amazon's ComiXology. The Ends Kickstarter planned to give its backers uncompressed pages in ultra-high quality matching exactly what the artists saw and worked on while making their comics. And also Backers would get an omnibus of The Ends.

Where Are They Now?

Bad Idea now exists comfortably in their niche as another comic book publisher on Kickstarter.
Kickstarter has surprisingly been a major player in the comic book community for allowing small indie projects to get funding and deliver high quality products for years now. Bad Idea sits in that community thanks to their die-hard fanbase that's willing to buy all kinds of overpriced gimmicks and schlock from them. However, even their Kickstarter community has ran into problems because it has taken Bad Idea over a year to fulfill the The Hero Trade omnibus with many fans still missing items.
The publisher also recently ended their Save Now! Kickstarter. Save Now! is another series by Matt Kindt that was teased in one-shots several years ago. This Kickstarter would give backers, you guessed it, an omnibus of the entire series and bonus goodies.
But to comic shops? Bad Idea is dead.
Bad Idea published too many books at too low of a volume and created an inflated market that extremely few people could buy into. If you couldn't drop a couple hundred dollars you simply weren't seeing a vast majority of Bad Idea books. You couldn't find them anywhere digitally, since Bad Idea had no digital distribution and no one was scanning these books for uploads, so you had to shell out for physical copies. And even when prices were more "reasonable", such as with the blind pre-order campaigns of the Final Five or Bad Idea Part Two, customers simply didn't trust the quality of the books. And stores, already resentful of Bad Idea due to their restrictive rules that cut into profits, were more than willing to stop ordering from them and stop recommending Bad Idea to customers. What Bad Idea stock they did have sits unread in bins.
While these marketing tactics gave great word-of-mouth press, it also meant that Bad Idea was always going to be an insular, niche publishers producing books to an ever-shrinking audience because no one else could get them even if they wanted to. Almost like a metaphor for the entire comic industry.
Now, people may have stuck through if Bad Idea's comics lived to the hype. What people were expecting were the next Grim or Something Is Killing The Children, both of which are massive modern comics that have taken the comics world by storm. It seemed like this would happen with The Hero Trade, but Bad Idea kept The Hero Trade story limited to back-ups and one-shots with no plans for an on-going. An on-going of The Hero Trade would give the company consistent presence in the community.
On top of that, the critical reaction to Bad Idea has been tepid at best. For an easy example, not a single Bad Idea comic has ever received an Eisner Award nomination, the comic equivalent of the the Oscars. Meanwhile, new titles from Boom! Studios, Fantagraphics, and Image Comics regularly top the Eisners every year. For something as insanely hyped as Bad Idea, it's astounding to see how little their books can stand up to scrutiny.
So while Bad Idea is still alive... interest has dried up.
Bad Idea just had too many bad ideas.
​

Note: This is a continuation of the "Decide What to Eat for Lunch" series.
A few months after defeating the Duolingo Bird, you're sitting around bored watching TV. Then, you see a Papa John's commercial. However, one detail caught your interest: Whoever gets a golden apple inside their pizza box wins a free vacation!
Hungry for some pizza, you order some Papa John's. When you open the pizza box... you get a golden apple inside the box! What are the odds? There's a phone number attached to receive your prize, and you call it. At the other side, you get a masculine voice at the other end.
"This is the CEO of Papa John's, Robert Lynch. How may I help you?"
"Hello, I'm calling because I found a golden apple inside my pizza box."
"You got a golden apple, awesome! That means you'll get to go on vacation to six select places! Now, this will be a mystery destination, until you select a number on your keypad. Dear recipient, please select a number between 1 and 6 on your keypad."
What will you do?
View Poll

When Pizza Man Is The Job Title AND The Hero Name

Awesome, Children, Delivery, Inspirational, Kind Strangers, Pizza, USA Right March 11, 2024
Almost every Friday like clockwork, our pizza place gets a delivery order for 42 [Street]. I am new, so I am bringing pizza to this address for the first time. I knock on the door to 42, and it’s opened by a group of three wide-eyed kids. The children’s faces all light up when they see me, my uniform, and most importantly, the pizza box.
Children: \All in unison** “Mommy ordered pizza! Mommy ordered pizza! We’re having pizzaaaaa!“
Just as I think I am about to make these kid’s night, the mother appears. She looks very skinny, and I notice that the apartment looks a little… barren. I’ve seen this before when I was also young and had a single mother scraping by just to keep the kids well-fed and warm.
She looks at me, looks at her kids, and she looks like she is about to cry.
Mother: “Sorry, I think you’re looking for 42-B. This is 42-A. It’s the door just past this one.”
Me: “Oh, sorry. I didn’t see.”
Mother: “It’s okay. The doors aren’t very clear.”
The kids have put it together, and they realize the pizza is not for them. They don’t cry or have a tantrum, but I can tell their little hearts are broken.
Mother: \To her kids** “Remember your manners! Say goodbye to the nice man!”
They all manage a subdued “bye” as the mother closes the door, and I feel broken.
I successfully deliver the pizza to the correct recipient and head back to the pizza place. I instantly tell the manager about my encounter, and within minutes, I am out the door again for more deliveries.
Less than an hour later, I am standing in front of 42-A. The kids once again open the door and are surprised to see me, although they’re tempering their excitement this time after what happened before.
Me: “Key, kids! Is your mommy here?”
Before they can answer, their mother has returned again. Her face is one of confusion when she sees me again.
Me: “Oh, hello again! After my mistake of knocking on the wrong door earlier, I wanted to make it up to you and bring you some pizzas on the house. One of these is a veggie supreme, and the other is a pepperoni as I didn’t know if you were vegetarian or not. You’re welcome to both if that’s not an issue.”
Mother: \Embarrassed** “I… I don’t have any money for a tip.”
Me: “That’s what ‘on the house’ means! My tip was seeing your kids behaving so politely earlier and wishing me an amazing goodbye! So… can I give you the pizza?”
The mother burst into tears as she happily accepted, and the kids almost exploded with excitement. I totally get it; I would have been elated to know we were getting pizza when I was a kid. They happily took both pizzas!
And they did so again the Friday after that when 42-B made their order again.
And again…
And sometimes when 42-B didn’t even order…
And for all the kid’s birthdays…
For two more years.
That family kept my soul alive until I left for college!

TL;DR: I had a boss that was so worried about the team's productivity that she held team meetings during lunch and fed us homemade soup.
The dot com boom ended about two months before I graduated college and all of the tech jobs seemingly disappeared overnight. As a student, I was working for an instructional design team in one of the other colleges of my university and, as I was nearing graduation, my boss asked me if I had a job lined up yet. When I told him i didn't he offered me a job working on a grant that he had won and said he could probably pay me for six months. Shortly after I accepted that offer, a position opened up on my boss' team. My boss' boss was able to use the open salary line to extend my contract until the position was filled. Finally, after over a year of red tape, mandatory public postings, and a university-wide hiring freeze, I was offered and accepted a full-time position.
A couple years into that job, the college administration decided that they were going to do a reorg. As part of it, my team got merged with another team that did similar work to us and with it I started reporting to the other team's manager. I knew my new boss already, but not well, but I did work with a number of her employees regularly. They had often shared their frustrations with her leadership style, so I was not looking forward to reporting to her. Let me tell you, she lived up to her reputation.
I'm not even sure where to start with how bad things were working for my new boss.
* First, there was her insistence that everyone be in the office from 9-5 every day, even when my job often required me to work later into the evenings. One day, I was 10-15 minutes late because I got stuck in a line at the post office trying to ship out a gift before work. I walked in to a wonderfully passive aggressive note on my chair about how our day starts at 9:00. Never mind the fact that I had worked a full 12 hours without a break for dinner the day before.
* The college I worked for served students with particular needs, so the main focus of what we did was to design instruction that was accessible to them. There was another team that assisted with instructional development for the rest of the university, but at a much smaller scope. My boss was always paranoid that the administration would outsource our work to that team (which they were not equipped to handle, but in terms of resources and specialization, and they would openly tell us "we don't want to do what you do"), so she refused to tell anyone "no," for fear that they'd complain to the hire-ups. On one project, this lead to a client dictating how I did my job, insisting that the tool I wanted to use (and the best one for what I was doing) was "old technology" and that I should use "shiny new buzzword," even though I knew it wouldn't work for what the client wanted. So, at new boss's insistence, I spent a month learning that new tool and developing a prototype with it only to hit the wall I knew was there and then go back to the old tool. Then, when the project was late, it was suddenly my fault.
* Then there were the office supply debacles. As soon as she started, a sign-out sheet went up on the supply cabinet. She told us that it was to help the admin assistant better keep track of what needed to be ordered and not to track what anyone was taking...because it's clearly easier for the assistant to compile an order from a random, unordered list than to open the cabinet and say "oh, that box of pens is almost empty, I think I need to order more." Then one time a project manager asked to order *one box* of a specific size of binder clips with his project budget because they were the perfect size to bundle the deliverables he was producing. He was denied, being told "we have a size larger and a size smaller, we don't need that size too."
* One-on-ones were always fun because she'd spend them trying to get you to give up "dirt" on other employees.
* And for performance appraisals, she seemed to believe that she had to grade us on a bell curve, so every year someone would get "exceeds expectations" at the expense of someone else getting "fails to meet expectations." She got away with this because she'd subtly give you "advice" in the appraisal in the form of "you did great at A, B, and C, but you need to work on D." Then the next year it would be "You did great on B, C , and D, but you need to focus more on A," so by the time it was "your turn" to get the bad review she could say you consistently had problems with everything for several years.
The kicker, though, were her team meetings. She decided that, with such a large team it was "too hard to find a time that worked for everyone," so we would have our team meetings from 12:00-1:00 and lunch would be provided (this was obviously code for "I don't want you not being productive for an hour every two weeks, so I'm taking your lunch instead"). Every department at the university gets a hospitality budget that's used for things like taking job candidates out to lunch, social events, and--in my current role--buying the team food when they get stuck working late because some old system decides to crash at 4:30 on a Friday. It's not that big, though, so we weren't sure how she was going to sustain buying food for bi-weekly meetings with it. We found out when we had our first one: she made us soup. Like in a Crock Pot in her own kitchen soup. It was the most watery, most bland thing I've ever tasted. There was a rumor that she was paying $15/meeting to feed about 18 people. And judging by the condition of her office, I can only imagine what her kitchen must have looked like, and that skeeves me out to this day.
At some point they did a 360 review with us and my boss said that the feedback we provided was "very surprising" to her. She and the AVP she reported to met with us to discuss the results of the review and what they would be doing to make improvements. At the next team meeting we had pizza from an actual pizzeria and then, as I recall, team meetings got moved so they weren't during lunch anymore. A short time later, an instructional developer position opened up and my boss decided she wanted to go back to her original job as an ID for the few years she had before she retired. A new manager, one with real leadership experience, was hired from outside.
By that point, I had drawn the straw to be the bad review recipient of the year and I decided I was done. I actually had to reschedule my meet-and-greet with the new manager because I had a job interview. When I did meet with her, I was excited about her vision and what she was bringing to the team, but another opportunity came up in another part of the university that I couldn't pass up. I'm still there today.

1. You should have humbly sent a CAKE FROM A BAKERY that YOU paid for to the child and left it at that or if YOU wanted to do more YOU and YOU alone should have done it instead of exploiting the situation for YOUR monetary benefit both directly from money collected AND your "creator fund."
2. You should NOT have turned this into a charity case SADFISHING your followers who are complete strangers into donating to YOUR scam.
3. You should have VETTED your charity recipient FULLY!
4. You should NOT have created a massive wish list from YOUR incentivized account and then continue to keep adding to it and adding the most non-relevant items for a BIRTHDAY!
5. You had no right collecting CASH MONEY TO YOUR MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS!
6. You have never been TRANSPARENT about ANY of it due to made up safety reasons. There are plenty of children on social media who are beneficiaries of charity. you constantly make "for safety reasons" shit up.
7. You avoided and deleted over and over and over!
8. You tried to do damage control by posting the most pathetic photos which provided PROOF there was no BIG wonderful celebration. It was beyond ridiculous. One dollar store mylar ballon, 2 packs of Walmart plates and a shitty flower arrangement along with a gender reveal home decorated cake??? That sealed your fate along with NO photos of gifts being opened and played with and NO pizza! People who receive charity don't get to be anonymous! You could however had covered her face like you did on ONE photo.
9. You LIED and DEFRAUDED an entire platform of people about the WHOLE story then tried to cover your ass briefly then do the only thing you are good at which is DELETE AND BLOCK! (well that and cheating, lying, scamming and STALKING) By the way how much did your bestie donate???
10. You did NOT provide PROOF of amounts collected and the same exact amount allegedly spent/given.
11. YOU ARE A LIAR AND SCAMMER AND WE ARE HERE TO WATCH YOU GO DOWN! It WILL eventually happen even though your smug ass thinks you are invincible.
12. Have a great day with your coffee, playing dress up, shopping and eating shit food you NON-INFLUENCER!

​

Any Lucifer Netflix series fans on this sub? I am pretty new to Reddit but was lurking for some time. Today reading your stories I started thinking about how was hell pictured in Lucifer. For those who haven’t watched, the idea was that people who ended up going to hell were re-living same horror scenarios over and over, trapped in their own guilt forever. Hell doors being always open somehow no one left..
I don’t know who came up with this vision but man.. I don’t even need to die to experience it!
I am 30F and don’t necessarily consider myself true binger (yet), however I am headed that direction. And definitely I am stuck in my own small hell loop of unhealthy takeaway foods addiction.
So here is how my viscous cycle (hell loop) looks like: I work from home, 9-5 corporate job. Every day is “new me” day. I am overweight and need to lose. From the moment I wake up till the moment I finish work I typically eat 1 meal. Often relatively well balanced and normal sized. Like 2 eggs and a sandwich with veggies. Or oatmeal with fruits and nuts. Protein, fiber, fat.. Other times I am too busy with work and not eat at all. Doesn’t matter - either way as soon as I am done with work my hunger beast mode starts and I begin internal talk. I am tired, hungry and want something FAST. - it was such a stressful day, I deserve to relax, I am too tired too cook now.. - I worked SO HARD and now I am supposed to come up with dinner idea.. I hate this. - I would need to go shopping first.. fridge is empty. If I happen to have ready healthy food in the fridge (I regularly try food prepping to combat this problem) then the thinking process is: - I hate re-heated food. - This will not taste as good as freshly cooked. - How many times a week am I supposed to eat the same blant thing? - It tastes like paper.. (I am obviously not the best cook however I try things from youtube or online recipies)
Aaaand I order pizza or get some mcdonalds. Or eat something else that is super tasty and comforting like spaghetti or other types of high caloric pasta. I eat until I feel slighly uncomfortable which obviously indicates I overate at least a bit. Often add something sweet at the end.
Then guilt kicks in. I am angry at myself and regret it. Tomorrow it’s „new me” all over again..