This week honestly started dramatically. I'm going to be talking some shit here. It all started months ago. Basically, me, my mum, and my brother do weekly house cleaning for one of our/my mum's friends. They are a couple who's kids are my childhood friends but everyone's all grown up so it's just the two of them. They're a bit older than my mum, so very late Baby Boomers. My mum is an early Gen Xer. Anyway, here's the key to all this: they are way loaded. I'm not talking millionaires but they don't struggle or anything. It's always been a bit of an awkward point in our friendships but nothing drastic. They're very nice people and they have even helped us when we were buying our house and the bank was giving us grief so I'm super grateful. But, we don't actually owe them anything and that's important to note.
Even though when we clean, we clean all three of us, they still only pay us as if one person was working for however many hours we were there. So, we made some money doing that while they were away and they said they would just give it to us in cash when they arrived. No problem. Also, my mum had a project with a Chinese client, instead of paying her directly they transferred this money to these friends which was convenient for my mum. They would bring it all in cash once they got to France. No problem!
In the end the amount was well over 1000 euro. But, once these friends arrive they give my mum only 200. So she's obviously like, what? They say they can't give her the whole amount right away because they can't take money of the ATMs here and they need to go to Bordeaux to do that. They keep giving her a 100 there and a 100 there instead of the entire amount. It's just so disrespectful. Why didn't they just have this money ready ahead? We're not borrowing, it's literally just our money. Feels weird. We're also broke all the time so it's just stress-inducing. But we feel some kind of shame or obligation to them even though we don't actually owe them anything and they're supposed to be our friends. Plus, they are not in the same boat at all, they are VERY financially secure. It just feels so weird. Pair that with them openly calling everyone in France on welfare lazy and choosing not to work... in front of my mum who's on welfare now. They know perfectly well about my mum's work ethic, they've known her for near 2 decades now. What is happening?
Anyway, on Monday I go to dinner at their house. It's very pleasant, both of my childhood friends, their children, are there. We are having a good time and I'm not the one who brought up politics! I'm gonna refer to them as the Boomers for now just to keep it brief. Basically, it's the Boomers who bring up politics, starting with migration. Mind you, NO ONE at the table is French. Everyone immigrated here. Way to pull up the ladder. It keeps spiraling, they are big defenders of deregulation, low corporate tax (I'm talking billionaires!), lax opinions on labor exploitation, and anti-welfare. Essentially, everything I hate. But you know what? I was calm like a clam. Maybe it's the overexposure, or arguing with my dad (who's debate tactics are: become a schizophrenic 1500s peasant, he is yet to be defeated by reason), or that stupid ass Jubilee thing Mehdi Hasan was subjected to, but I was just not having it. I kept it cool and collected, stumped them a bunch of times.
The best exchange was when the Boomer told me he didn't feel safe anymore in Zurich train stations, so I asked why. Because of the people, he says he just doesn't feel safe. I ask, don't you think it could be your bias, I mean, these people haven't actually done anything to you. And yeah. That's where all these things lead: brown people are scary. Why? They don't need a reason.
Their daughter and her boyfriend backed me and were also very openly in disagreement with the Boomers. I don't think they liked that. They interrupted me a lot, they took it personally, I think. But I'm kind of done being a passive nod over here, nod over there type. Might not be invited over for a while, I'll live though.
I know who I am and it's a good place to be. There's a lot about me that makes me unhappy but I'm open-minded. I should be more pro-active for sure but it will take me time to get there. Also I want the last of our money back.
 |
| Rare nice pic of me (maybe) ... but where am I looking? (,,>﹏<,,) |
On Tuesday I woke up with a migraine and spent all day with a migraine... it sucks! Made my Blaugust post officially, worked on a microsite, finally figured out some Javascript that's been giving me trouble. I need to apply for a travel document STAT but I still haven't done it... maybe I am a lazy immigrant on welfare who doesn't want to do anything. Woe me.
Wednesday was also at home, though I went out for an hour to buy groceries. I buy my cats the most meat-rich cat food (right now its Edgard Cooper and Sheba) and it's for sure more expensive but literally their health is more important to me than my own. For the humans I made fake tonkatsu (by fake I mean inauthentic because I'm bad at Japanese cuisine). My mum renovated another chair today too, the cats immediately took over:
 |
| Everything is theirs. |
I pass this building on my way, doesn't it look so cool? Imagine if it was renovated, it would be such a cool boutique. It is a lingerie/undergarments type of store now but it's never open and a total mess.
 |
| It could be so cool... |
Thursday we went to Tom's but my brother dipped early because he didn't feel good (because the fucker goes to bed at like 4 AM). After he left we switched to Mod Nation from Eternal Sonata. Here's my Mod, Veronika who drives the Slutmobile:
 |
| She's bad! Bad at driving... |
 |
| I want a PS3 or a PS4 too ｡°(°¯᷄◠¯᷅°)°｡ |
Tom also told me about his process of getting into a uni for programming and game design. He had a super cool pitch document for a survival horror game and I was able to read all the French pretty well but he still ragged on me for getting two words wrong. The uni he didn't get into made him take a culture quiz that was a general knowledge quiz about movies, art, books, etc. I would have aced that shit and motherfucker didn't know who directed Star Wars and mixed up Alien with Aliens, picked from MULTIPLE CHOICE that Cameron directed the first one instead of Ridley Scott. He truly is a JRPG diehard. Or just a plain zoomer.
Friday was my brother's birthday. He got up pretty late so we had plenty of time to set up the balloons. My sister was caught unprepared though and she rushed to pop the confetti and that thing went off right next to my ear and goddamn it hurt. I'm getting 'nam flashbacks. We took the train out of town at 12:30 and walked to the buffet 'cuz we just missed the bus. Royal Wok is kind of our spot for celebrations now, I didn't eat till passing out this time.
 |
| Long horse.jpeg |
 |
| My selections ദ്ദി ˉ͈̀꒳ˉ͈́ )✧ |
 |
| He cannot be normal... |
 |
| Way home. |
Afterwards we stopped by the Easycash, I picked up 2 Clone Wars DVDs and we saw a thing of beauty. A UbiCollectibles figurine of Wrench, 25 CM. He was gorgeous. We debated... do we really need this? Especially because we don't even have much money now. But it was only 25 euros! And it's basically untouched and being sold online for upwards of 120 euros... Ah man, we bought it! I'll post more pics to finnymemo which is now also the general purchases and finds as well as fashion blog. This was as much a gift to him as it was to me. Kind of bullshit, huh, me buying myself gifts on his birthday? To be fair I have saved up and bought him the pricey Miller (he gets the fedora) version of Expanse Osiris Reborn so it's not like he's gift-less.
 |
| He's perfect ಥ﹏ಥ |
On the way back the kiosk lady was mad at us for flipping through magazines. Man, nobody's allowed to have any fun anymore! At home no one wanted to eat because everyone was still recovering from the buffet but eventually we got to the cake and watched Fellowship Of The Ring, director's cut. The most friendship forever film/book of all time.
 |
| He's chilling on my PC for now. |
Saturday was pretty relaxing, everyone had chores around the house and I made my first Blaugust post on finnybox. It was about Marmoris, my mermaid project. You thought I would shut up about mermaids? Never! Put together a bit of a blogroll to keep up with others and mostly looking to see what fellow 32bit Cafe users are posting. In the afternoon we went to the city pool, it was fun and there were fewer children trying to injure me than usual.
 |
| Made contact with the neighbor's cat (•˕ •マ.ᐟ |
 |
| This?? (๑ᵔ⤙ᵔ๑) |
Sunday morning was busy with more of Blaugust and working on a commission. For dinner we went for a BBQ with the same family from the beginning of the post. They finally paid us back whatever was left so it's water under the bridge I suppose. I'm not mad at them or anything, I don't have beef with them, but I kinda needed to vent about the situation because it was really putting me on edge. No politics were talked about, this time I'm thankful because Monique was there and she's finally properly back on her feet after her surgery. Don't wanna stress her out.
Anyway, look who's posting on time, on a Sunday, at the end of theeek? Hell yeah! To more timely posts!
This Week I'm Excited For...
The collector's edition for Witch Hat Atelier Volume 14. Pika Edition have such amazing collector's editions for affordable prices, this one comes with a Brushbuddy! It's gonna be out on the 20th of August at our local store so I'm gonna be there!
 |
| It's so cute! ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡ |
Image Of The Week...
A moody shot of Pearl Jam CDs from 2005. It's from a flickr group for Cybershot owners. I want any camera from the Cyberhsot series so bad...
Song Of The Week...
The first Deftones albums that I fell in love with in it's entirety was their 2003 self-titled release. It's just so good top to bottom. My favourite song is probably Minerva but the opener, Hexagram is perfection.