I still use PCMCIAs at my job. Had to order a reader. It has been… challenging (particularly getting permissions to connect it to the system, but even finding them is not super easy).

I’m at “iPad and enormous curved monitor connected to a laptop” so I guess I average out to upper-middle management. Which is shockingly accurate.

Oh, yeah, that’s a fair addendum: “unless you live in a state that does not allow the reduced minimum wage for tipped employees.” At that point I would agree that tipping is more or less optional.

I feel like “mental gymnastics” has become grossly overused, and I don’t think it applies, but regardless you are involved in the shitty food joint’s (read: all that have wait staffs that operate on tips) business model, by being their customer. By going to a business that you know pays their wait staff less that minimum wage, you are agreeing to their shitty business model. So then, not paying a tip is essentially taking a discount on your order at your wait staff’s loss. The business owner isn’t hurt by that, they still get the full rate for the food. And as long as SOME customers pay tips, they don’t have to pay any more (hence the taking from other tables comment).

It is a shitty system, but you agree to participate in it if you go to those restaurants. Which, for sit-down restaurants in the US, is most. If you go to one of those restaurants and don’t tip, you aren’t making some protest against tipping culture, and you aren’t hurting the business owner. You are only saying that the wait staff should be paid at $2.13 per hour to serve you.

Lobby against the labor laws that allow less-than-minimum for tipped employees, or don’t go to restaurants that rely on that model. Anything else, you’re just taking a discount from the wait staffs’ paychecks by not tipping.

And I absolutely can not believe that such anti-worker, pro-business owner bullshit is happening here. I cannot stress enough, you not tipping does nothing to the business owner. Billionaires jack up prices, stifle wage increases, and we’re out here complaining about having to tip a person who otherwise would get $2.13 an hour, because somehow that’s legal.

That being said, starting at 30% is ri-goddamn-diculous.

Also, since I didn’t get to your later point, I’m not sure of its relevance to what I was saying. You have no control (and usually no knowledge) of how tips are distributed. So not sure what you are expecting from me here.

Not for each transaction. So not tipping is like reaching over to another table and taking some of their tip for your table. They are still paid less than minimum wage for the service they provided you, but someone else’s tips will still keep them out of minimum wage for the shift.

So yes, at they’re worst they should get at least minimum wage for each shift. But per customer, their rate is below minimum wage without tipping, which is an awful system we need to get rid of.

I’ll be honest, with the exception of “Keep Us Connected” I absolutely hated the musical episode… except the first time they mentioned that it had affected a Klingon vessel. And then I powered through in the hopes of seeing Klingon musical time, and when it happened, it redeemed the whole thing for me. Better than I could have hoped.

Yeah, okay, fair ban.

Have you listened to his Mythos Trilogy? It’s a compendium of Greek Mythology. He wrote and narrated it and it is brilliant. I’m on Troy right now (the third book).

Right? What other possible materials could they use? Prior to plastic, we just cupped our hands and had people pour beverages into them, or directly into our mouths.

Plastics have been revolutionary in keeping our hands and faces from getting sticky. I, for one, refuse to go back to the days of sucking off the tap.

I mean, even their science is called “magitek,” so I think it’s magic all the way down.

Where I live it would cost at least twice that. The veggie burgers would be about $12 per pack of two, buns would be around $9 (but only come in a 4 pack) and the Danish would probably be $8 or $9.

Real beef is still way cheaper. A pack of probably 15 patties is around $40.

I live in Alaska. Frozen stuff is a premium. And otherwise prices are all over the place, and supply depends on what came on the barge.

I feel like that’s the equivalent of a person from 100 years ago hearing about the internet, and saying “so if I wanted to get somebody a message in a hurry, I could pen a letter, have someone take a picture of it, take the picture to a developer, and then send that over the internet to somebody?”

I mean, you could, and it would be better than what you have to do now, but the actual way they’d do it in the future is probably a lot better.

I hated it with the exception of Uhura’s song, even fast-forwarded through La’an’s song, but the second they mentioned it reaching Klingons I was invested.

And when they hailed the Klingons it did not disappoint.

I think the biggest issue is religious people that can only view things through the lense of their own perspective equate any belief system with religion. And since we, as humans, categorize everything, everyone has a “belief system,” even if you believe in absolutely nothing (nihilism).

So “atheism” is considered a religion, believing in the scientific method is a religion, and believing in the inherent and equal rights of people is a religion.

I absolutely hated that episode for most of it, even fast-forwarded through a few parts, because I am sick of every TV show needing a musical episode (or four, fricken Magicians…ugh).

And I said through most of it that the only redeeming thing, the only thing I was continuing to watch the episode for, was because they mentioned it got to the Klingons, and I wanted nothing more than to see the Klingons singing.

And boy did they not disappoint. We rewound and watched the Klingon section two more times. Just amazing. Made up for the whole thing (mostly).