Raising cane's chicken supplier

I know quitting your job as a cook usually simply comes with two weeks notice or a ragequit walkout, but for eleven months I worked at a new franchise that had such potential which was being squandered by the incompetence of upper management. I present the nearly 6000 word thesis I turned in on my last day. Locations and names have been changed to cartoon references. Brackets represent ambiguous information in place of specific details.
Krusty Krab Careers Jobs
Opening in [Month/Year], Krusty Krab (KK) Bikini Bottom is on its 4th kitchen manager in less than a year. Krusty Krab O-Town has recently let go its inaugural kitchen manager and sous chef. Almost no member of the Bikini Bottom opening management team remains employed by KK. There is a pattern developing where one must question both the choice of employee and the directive given to new franchises. These lingering issues I brought concerns about in the first weeks of opening but was disregarded at every turn despite my experience with festival traffic. As a result I decided this was not a place I wanted to advance, but with a good-enough paycheck I’d be a lowly grunt in the kitchen four days a week, at five days a week I would have quit or been fired over a public outburst long ago. If Krusty Krab alters course slightly while being true to the brand this could be a successful chain.
My unique employment history in brick and mortar restaurants, food trucks, pop up culinary concepts, trade shows/conventions, and the film industry make me an ideal candidate to be on the opening team for new KK locations. My outgoing nature and foresight are valuable assets. For example, on training week before opening when I was standing around idly without a task I took it upon myself to organize the disarray that was dry storage. Overhearing Krabs tell another manager where he wanted the cleaning products placed, I had a jumping off point and the organization I created nine months ago is still largely in place. Since returning from my vacation in early February I have made it my mission to keep the storage area organized because it was again starting to resemble a hoarder’s house rather than a commercial kitchen. This is now part of my weekly routines because every time I turn my back there is more product being placed haphazardly just anywhere with little regard. I also recently reorganized the walk-in cooler because of problematic stocking with items being placed on the same shelf or below raw proteins. I also simply put all the like products together such as cheeses or fruits that were scattered amongst several shelves. With recent overordering I cannot keep up with the organization of the walk in cooler. The pattern recognition of food types and even simple shapes appears to be lost on the Bikini Bottom crew. My daily reorganization of containers is proof of this. Most days I’ll take a few minutes to put all cylinders together, all cambros together in descending volume, all deep and shallow pans next to each other rather than intermixed. My decision to be a kitchen manager at age 19 from 2005 thru 2008 and rarely enter restaurant management since is very calculated.
With my prior knowledge of professional kitchens I was becoming Bikini Bottom’s resident nag to coworkers as I made note of health department violations on a daily basis. I stopped after being largely ignored for two weeks. My regular health department nags include; a battle with jackets and hats being placed only in the designated area (a designated area that did not exist until I created a place for personal items a in January by neatly organizing the dry storage area again), waiting until prepped items are cooled before a cover is placed on top, placement of raw seafood, open containers (very often sugar, flour, and pancake mix bags ripped open and left), and dirty dishes/containers placed back in rotation. The dirty dishes and containers in rotation with the clean ones are at an atrociously high number. I have given up on making the 4th fryer seafood allergy safe too. With the low volume of seafood allergy safe items Bikini Bottom should purchase smaller baskets to visually discourage cross contamination with the other fryers and baskets. My skills to organize the kitchen do not end with simply where to store products to meet minimal health department standards.
Half of the space in the Bikini Bottom kitchen is completely wasted on an ill-advised walkway to the dishpit. An intelligent design would place a second doorway directly to the dishpit connected to the bar or where the bathrooms reside. Numerous times during the opening week of KK Bikini Bottom I said, yelled, sang, and muttered that we have too many food items for the amount of space we have. Icus stated that there was more space than Bluffington. Is Bluffington intelligently designed? Because Bikini Bottom most certainly isn’t. So Bikini Bottom actually has less space even if there is more square footage. See the attached diagram for an intelligent design that could potentially house a menu of this size. Bikini Bottom forces a line design on this kitchen when an open concept is needed for this menu. It’s as if this floorplan was created by a person who had only ever seen one commercial kitchen previously and couldn’t think 4th dimensionally to understand the needs of the workers to smoothly serve customers.
There is not enough counter space for pizzas without getting off the line, the microwave is placed completely out of the way, the freezer’s curved design is a waste of potential counter space and a falling hazard for containers stored on top of it, the toaster is an overcomplicated and overexpensive piece of machinery that serves exactly one purpose when a flat top could be used to toast bread and other purposes like a quesadilla special, sautee was designed without an overhang for spices, the pantry station lacks the counter space to have two containers of flour and two containers of batter for seafood allergies, there are no Frialator fryers which I have worked with at every single kitchen job previously instead we got the cheap Vulcan model (is that logical), the cheap low boy in pantry that doesn’t drain excess water anywhere it’s just supposed to evaporate somehow but doesn’t, the grill and fryer should be placed next to each other (with a higher volume of crossover than other stations), the floors are flat instead on having a mild decline towards the drains (just look at the standing water residing behind the oven right now), in the dishpit the spraying area and the filled sinks are backwards of a logical dipshit, the ramp to the back door is on the wrong side, there is no refrigerated place downstairs to stage extra food for busy shifts (the beer cooler is once again used for such food items because of this massive oversight), the prep station is an afterthought and miniscule, the dishes on the line are difficult to grab for anyone under 5’11” and inaccessible for anyone under 5’6” (instead of putting them underneath tables that also give that desperately needed counterspace I spoke of), there is not enough space to store to-go containers or boats behind the line, expo is lacking a low boy for the numerous items that are supposed to be cold but are instead kept at room temperature all day long, no one in management thought about buying shelves until right before Bikini Bottom opened as a result the clean full sheets sat on the floor for days, we had only the exact amount of 1⁄6 pans for an absurd amount of time making it impossible to rotate and clean them when necessary (which is daily), we still struggle with 1/9 pan supply. And just when I thought I documented all the poor design choices possible I stumbled upon a person whose office holiday party was booked at KK Bikini Bottom. The deck space works just fine as a deck. It does not double well as a gathering space. The space is too long and narrow for parties, it promotes little splitoff groups rather than a coming together of a larger gathering. It may be advantageous to contact a social psychologist for help designing a private party space that promotes intermingling rather than enforcing small pockets to form. The reorganization of the physical kitchen isn’t all that screams for an overhaul.
There are six positions on the line at the Krusty Krab; expo, oven, grill, sautee, fryer, and pantry. But the pantry and fryer positions are forced together like a bad remix. Everyone who mainly works pantry deserves a $6 raise immediately because it is a station and a half. Both Icus and Krumm, while kitchen manager, kind of acknowledged the pantry is too big for one station without outright mentioning the lopsided distribution of work. I imagine in the only location where this works, Bluffington, a second person joins the pantry at noon because of the unreasonable amount of items one person is tasked with. Bikini Bottom only has one person in this position at all times, maybe modify it for one person? The excess of items on the pantry position largely resembles a position I would call “set-up” or “build” at a previous job that made sensible choices. This build position should have tostadas, tacos, butcher’s blocks, toast, salads, lettuce wrap set ups, and preparing plating for whichever station is most bogged down. I have absolutely lost my mind yelling about salads at least once a month, ranting that they do not belong on the fryer position because of how illogical it is that five salads are included on the mountain of other items the pantry has. I have always considered working in a kitchen a kind of dance, and the pantry station demands an unnecessarily convoluted dance to keep up with the demand. Without the salads, tostadas, and tacos the station is already the busiest. Do we really need to combine ballet and swing by including these extra awkward dance steps in this single station? For a kitchen designed this poorly I suppose it is. Again, see attached document for an intelligently designed kitchen that might be able to accommodate this menu. Unless Bikini Bottom is going to close for a month to fix the baffling floor plan design the menu is shouting to be reduced to 30-36 items.
The menu is too big. Krusty Krab is the jack of all foods, master of none. In general I believe individual locations should be allowed 18% omissions, and 18% unique items to this wildly unwieldy menu sitting around 50 food items including sides. The insistence on keeping menu items that don’t sell at Bikini Bottom because of Bluffington is mind boggling. Chicken tenders do not sell at Bikini Bottom. fried sushi does not sell at Bikini Bottom, not enough to justify their place on the line. I don’t care how well these items work in Bluffinton. They. Do. Not. Work. At. Bikini. Bottom. If the KK location in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean sells an incredible amount of live krill does that mean Bikini Bottom and O-Town must sell live krill too? Take the fried sushi off the menu. I had a complete meltdown about this during a Dimmadome service and my valid point was met with indifference. Replace the kid’s tenders with a kid’s fish sticks. We already have the tilapia fish sticks on the line for tacos. Or make the kid’s fish sticks cod. We cut cod to order for fish tacos in spite of health code violations because it is too rare of an order to make beforehand. Saffron in mashed potatoes? If you must. Why are green tomatoes only on the menu during lunch? Bikini Bottom throws away a sizable amount of spoiled green tomatoes each week. Have green tomatoes on the menu all day long or don’t have them at all. The smoked salmon could go on salads or a special taco to justify its place on the line. The corn pico’s place on the line is unjustified. It only goes on one item, tostadas, which are not particularly popular. If we had a taco salad we could throw the corn pico on there. We also have unreasonable waste from unusable taco shells, smash up those imperfect taco shells and throw them on said taco salad. But before we add salads, let's get rid of the pear and kale salads. The pears' position on the line are unjustified, if we threw them on a taco variation maybe their place on the Bikini Bottom line could be argued but for now they only go on a salad that isn’t particularly popular. The kale salad is an issue of space for a 4th green for salads is too much. The krusty salad is my most hated house salad of all time. And it comes down to the toast with goat cheese. This ancillary step of spreading goat cheese on a cracker is an unnecessary step for an overly complicated dance and should be part of the expo dance if expo wasn’t a shoddily designed afterthought lacking a low boy.
There are a plethora of squeeze bottles on the pantry station that have no place on the overloaded station. They belong to an expo station with a low boy to keep them cold. Pantry has an overwhelming ten squeeze bottles: chipotle crema, sweet chili vinaigrette, buffalo, korean bbq, ranch, caesar, wine vinaigrette, lemon vinaigrette, honey mustard, and lemon aioli. Only the first four are justified on an intelligently designed fryer section, the second four belong on the build station, the last two have no place anywhere but expo. With this extra space sautee could keep their bottles and two purees cold in the fryer's lowboy instead of leaving them at room temperature all day inviting a pathogen party. This theorized intelligently designed expo would have room to keep these four squeeze bottles and a double of every sauce chilled to pour them into ramekins, a move that is highly common in the expo dance. The fact that expo doesn’t have a double of all squeeze bottles is foolish. Expo has to bother an overloaded station to pour these side sauces instead.
How many gallons of basil aioli has Bikini Bottom thrown away in 11 months? Four aiolis in general is way too many and most go on a single item; basil aioli on the incredibly unpopular veggie burger, lemon aioli for calamari, sweet chili aioli for the BLT that is only served half of the day, and garlic aioli actually goes on two items…I believe. What a colossal waste of precious little space, lose two aiolis and then you can sing the logical song with me. Perhaps we can put garlic aioli and sweet chili vinaigrette on the BLT separately and accomplish the exact same thing the sweet chili aioli does. The wings too have unneeded complications. Having worked at a sports bar specializing in wings for the better part of a decade I find KK’s plating of wings to be overly pretentious. The carrots, celery, and blue cheese have lost function. Heffer Wolf always said no one eats the carrot/celery julienne with blue cheese. It’s a complete waste of all the ingredients because you’ve gone too far with the presentation. Wings aren’t fancy. Wings are supposed to have a small pool of sauce and be sloppy. It’s like a sloppy joe that’s not sloppy, an unsloppy joe is a failure to sloppy joes just as the KK presentation of wings is a disparagement to the dish. Ever since training week back in 2022 I have used a scale to give Bikini Bottom a passing or failing grade.
Chokey Chicken to Chum Bucket is the scale I use to judge efficiency and sanity at Bikini Bottom. Both establishments are upscale casual dining experiences in Capitol City in the same vein as KK. Chokey had high employee retention and relatively smooth openings for new locations. Chum Bucket’s employee turnover was high and every location opening was chaotic. Which one sounds closer to KK? Chokey Chicken was filled with chefs I respect including Chef Ren Hoek who remains a close friend to this day. Ren lost his lifelong passion for kitchen work after working management at Chum Bucket. He’s actually seeking work in Bikini Bottom. Call him up at [phone number], but KK will give him Nam’ flashbacks of why he chose driving for a living rather than cooking for five years. The pair of us together helming Bikini Bottom with the ability to omit and create 18% of the overloaded menu can bring success to this franchise. We have worked well numerous times in the past on various concepts in the past including creating The Attack of the Pickled Tomatoes Burger for [Promotional live performance of a TV show] at the Capitol City Theater. We served 100 people in 60 at the [sitcom filming] lunch. That’s physically impossible but somehow we did it quite a few times.
A fun anecdote about Ren Hoek’s KK experience from the soft launch; on training week numerous times I brought concerns about being seafood allergy safe that were dismissed. As mentioned earlier the pantry station lacks the counter space to have two containers of flour and two containers of batter, one each of which seafood never touches. Before the soft launch Chef Stimpy from Bluffington insisted all customers just kind of know everything is prone to be seafood contaminated. Well, chef Ren was a customer that night and this absolutely was not communicated to customers. He claimed to have a slight seafood allergy and was not informed of what the crab soup was. In reality he does not have a seafood allergy. I didn’t discuss the seafood issue with Ren, separately we noticed egregious violations of food safety standards and we each responded in our own way. The soft launch service was so awful that night Chef Ren walked out of a free meal to pay for some ramen, never to return to Bikini Bottom. I attribute this oversight, and many of Bikini Bottom’s (and probably O-Town’s) problems to hubris over the Bluffington location.
Chef Chokey would also be hesitant to join the KK team. It will cost a finder’s fee just for me to reveal Chef Chokey’s name. Chef Chokey was a lead in the rapid expansion of Chokey Chicken restaurants. He opened numerous restaurants and was big on the philosophy that each restaurant must have its own personality in order to fit the unique local culture and the variety of working spaces. This is in direct conflict with the KK way that everything must be exactly like the Bluffington location no matter what. There was only one Chokey Chicken location that had the full menu, Chokey Springfield. Chokey Springfield had a large space which was intelligently designed to accommodate such a large menu. The KK menu is all over the place, closing in on 50 menu items which comes up as a failure on the Chokey Chicken/Chum Bucket scale. This is not the only area KK comes up as a major failure on the Chokey Chicken/Chum Bucket scale.
Has anyone in this company ever worked festival traffic before? Does anyone have the experience of working next to a major venue with 8000 seats before this one? The way Bikini Bottom handles Dimmadome services it certainly appears that the decision-makers fall on the wrong side of the Dunning-Kruger effect. Having all 50 items available during such massive traffic is completely asinine. An unwillingness to serve a partial menu is hindering the Bikini Bottom kitchen staff. I have worked festival traffic before, and Dimmadome events bring in festival traffic. I’ve worked inside a festival whose line never ended but every customer got their order in 5 minutes or less because the line kept flowing with only four items on the menu as that’s what was warranted at the B-Sharps Music Festival. I refuse to be set up for failure the way Bikini Bottom sets up Dimmadome services for failure. The entire week of concerts in [summer] 2022 I was set up for failure every day (it was after this I modified my availability to keep my sanity and my paycheck). When I brought my concerns about running efficiently during Dimmadome services I was labeled a B-worker for the first time in my employment history by Icus and Krabs. It is that moment which I was either going to holler at them both for being 2-dimensional thinkers who were obviously unqualified for the positions they accepted in this company, or just put my head down. If Bikini Bottom has a successful concert day service, hail your team because they snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. They swam with concrete shoes. I often wonder how many customers had bad experiences and never returned after concert days. A Dimmadome service should have no more than 25 items and have one or two specials to divert traffic towards an area the kitchen can keep moving. An Open Cup Open Plate (OCOP) special for foot traffic is absolutely needed. When I suggested OCOP special, Heffer was intrigued by this idea and immediately named burgers as the special to keep foot traffic flowing. Smithers wouldn’t hear this idea, babbling on about what’s advertised instead of hearing out a sound idea. This prattle despite radio commercials having inaccurate hours and social media promoting Bikini Bottom’s steak tacos to this day. I always found Smithers to be a better fit as a middle management office pencil pusher than as a hands-on restaurant manager. Overall I find KK managers are selected to be automatons not to question their orders rather than critical thinkers who could take the restaurant to the next level. During brunch service is another period of time that must be modified to lessen the heft of items. Having a full menu that barely works plus brunch is so deep into Chum Bucket territory, in my opinion we now have to use the Tropic Thunder scale of full retard to describe a 60-plus-item brunch. Chef Ren hired back a Chum Bucket cook who had a mental breakdown and stormed out during brunch (plus full menu) service because Ren knew the employee was justified and upper management was completely unreasonable in their brunch requests. It’s not just questionable decisions that hinder KK staff but improper equipment as well.
This is the first restaurant I have worked at which uses a touch screen on the line rather than tickets. From day one I found this to be technology for technology’s sake inferior to tickets. Chef Ren forced a new Chum Bucket location to rip out touch screens from the line and bring in ticket printers because of the higher efficiency. The touch screen is a great idea for expo, not the entire line. My biggest gripe is that each station does not get all the information. Early on I was regularly yelled at for not staggering my items, well I can’t see the rest of the order; a problem I have never had with a ticket system. Touchscreen software is also much more prone to errors and glitches. When I reported an error during a heavy service Icus and Krabs blamed my skills on the line without looking into the malfunctioning screen further. It was glitchy for weeks before the two finally investigated and corrected the issue I brought to their attention long before. Those two gave me an immense amount of ammunition to dislike them in the opening weeks until I stopped caring. The issue I had with being unable to scroll beyond the bottom of a completely filled screen has returned and is still there as of [my last day]. There are also important details that get buried. A frequent meltdown I have is that sauce on side requests and other important modifications are not capitalized or in red to catch the eye as they have been at jobs with tickets. These details get lost on Bikini Bottom’s touchscreens. A sauce on side salad made by me will be wrong 50% of the time because of the instructions being camouflaged in a word salad. This goes for coleslaw on the side and drizzle on the side too. Drizzle in general I dislike because of the pretentiousness, but whatever, drizzle it on top rather than putting it in a ramekin if you must. There are numerous places where Bikini Bottom overcomplicates matters for reasons I cannot ascertain.
Why is there such a large variety of plates? Why do we have a medium circular plate for salads and a large bowl for salads with protein? This just confuses the simplest of matters. I was told this is done because of the high price hike with protein, a larger presentation was desired. But that price hike is the price of protein in 2023. Bikini Bottom should put all salads in the large bowls and use all the circular salad plates in a skeet shooting promotion. I understand why we have both a circular platter plate and a pizza plate but in my restaurant the circular platter plates must go...or maybe the large platter plate instead. Is the large platter used for anything besides fish and chips? That extra space on fish and chips plates are only used for side sauces which can easily be delivered to customers on small circular plates. What is the medium oval plate doing that the medium rectangular plate isn’t? And vice versa. Why do they both exist when they are approximately the same size? Let me write an internet commercial where we break a lot of plates so we can get some logical use out of the superfluous plates. I don’t care which one is destroyed, the ovals or the rectangles but one of them is an unnecessary redundancy in excess done again. Speaking of commercials, the unimaginative radio advertisements for Bikini Bottom are doing little to lure new customers to the restaurant.
The three radio spots I have heard on KBBL all sound like they were produced by a marketing 101 student who wasn’t a natural in the field. The voiceover actor was so uncharismatic I was certain someone from the office was chosen at random to read the copy. Then I heard that same voiceover actor selling pool supplies on another radio station so I concluded that Bikini Bottom must have hired the cheapest guy in town to produce the most basic of commercials. Perhaps there is someone else you could hire more qualified to voiceover these commercials, an actor with experience on an Emmy award winning cable program whose unique place in the film industry was written about on [website] would be a much wiser choice to be the voice of the KK? (See external link). In the ad there was no catchphrase, no jingle, no music whatsoever. This simple approach to commercials lacks the pizazz to catch the attention of radio listeners. The first two commercials I heard would get a C in marketing 101 as they were nearly the exact same and accomplished the bare minimum to sell wares, the third one would maybe get a B- because there was some sort of attempted gimmick with the voiceover whispering to represent thinking inside his head about what he was going to eat later at KK. Not only does this commercial give no reason for the man to think inside his head, the outside world still and unpopulated. To see what a creative person would do with this concept see the attached script. There is an attempted slogan that could become part of an ad campaign. Commercials aren’t the only lost opportunities in promotions.
There are numerous promotional celebrity tie-ins at Bikini Bottom’s fingertips with Dimmadome performers. The restaurant could have a Phish sandwich as a OCOP special on [Phish performance dates], or a pretentious Jelly Roll on [Jelly Roll performance date]. Has anyone reached out to the Dimmadome theater or talent management for approved special menu items to be promoted inside the dome? Perhaps a special 20% discount to ticket holders? Is Bikini Bottom capable of getting permits to extend Open Container hours beyond [cutoff time] for an afterparty or block party throughout a Dimmadome concert? I see additional marketing opportunities left on the table for all new locations.
I believe new KK locations are missing out on a marketing campaign by opening with the entire cumbersome 50 item menu. This is a staggering amount of menu items which is too much to ask new staffers to perfect all at once. After a few months expanding the menu by approximately ten items is catching to customers who haven’t returned after a single visit or infrequently stop into KK. There are ten new food items that might appeal to them. Just like it appears KK doesn’t know what it’s looking for in a good commercial spot, this company doesn’t appear to recognize a talented from an untalented worker until it’s too late.
It is my understanding that KK had a headhunter to find Icus, the first Bikini Bottom kitchen manager. If it were up to me I’d hire someone to break the legs of that headhunter for bringing in a subpar kitchen lead. We are still attempting to recover from the lousy choices she made in the floor plan. If anybody responsible for Bikini Bottom’s floor plan is still giving input, stop them immediately. Once the doors were open to the public Icus had his head in the clouds to a point where I questioned if he saw the writing on the walls of an imminent demotion and stopped trying as a result. I had a full deck of 3x5 cards in an archaic powerpoint presentation bringing numerous concerns to light that he kept putting off listening to until he was fired. Those same cards were broken out for this essay. The second kitchen manager, Krumm, is a good lesson in honesty. According to Heffer, Krumm was given a bill of goods about how smoothly KK Bikini Bottom was running. Since Krumm stepped into a latrine pit which he was led to believe was a heated pool, he left in short time. Krumm also had plans to modify the menu but when his bosses told him to be a rodeo clown rather than a cowboy Krumm didn’t take too kindly to that. Meanwhile Heffer was the savior of the Bikini Bottom kitchen. I didn’t agree with every single decision he made, but I did with a majority of them. Heffer’s overhaul was such a blessing so I didn’t have to fiddle with the organization of 60% of the equipment anymore, only about 20% now. Too bad Heffer’s crippling depression came back after bashing his head into the wall out of frustration with the shackles KK restrained him with.
The current management team is enthusiastic but inexperienced. I see an accumulation of small infractions that might bring down Bikini Bottom’s health department rating significantly. I see the entire management team being inattentive or unaware about organizational issues. Whatever bureaucratic nonsense corporate tasks everyone with from the original sous chef Skeeter to Patty Mayonnaise that makes them walk away from the line between 11am and 1pm especially is infuriating. I have never been left alone on a multi-person line during peak hours so regularly, and I won’t tolerate it anymore. As much as I believe in his drive, I imagine our current kitchen manager SpongeBob will be let go after a disastrous service during the Dimmadome concert season that someone has to take the fall for. Chef Ren and I could help bring experience in management and dealing with festival traffic...if corporate does not force us to follow a failing strategy.
After working nearly a year at KK you may ask why I’m not proficient on more than one station. Excellent question. First, when I move over to another station the squeeze bottles are never labeled (until Stu Pickles was hired, now they’re sometimes labeled), so I always looked at the glut of unlabeled sauces and I’d go back to my station because the basic information is missing (also a health department violation for having numerous unlabeled, unchilled bottles). In his first week the new general manager Stu Pickles pulled out 90% of the containers under the grill station because they were lacking labels despite an expected health department visit. The second reason for my menu ignorance is the mountain of prep for my own and upcoming shifts I have piled up on my station throughout service. My attention to detail appears to be next level with my ability to anticipate stocking all items for all shifts including the weeknd. The third reason I wouldn’t learn multiple stations is a defense against the afternoon conference calls. In [month] the Bikini Bottom line was unprepared for a busy post lunch because one cook was cut and our expo person was busy with a conference call. The two of us remaining on the line had a miserable slog through an unexpectedly busy afternoon. When I brought this up to Krabs he disregarded me, being a good bean counter he quoted the cost percentage. What he didn’t take into account was the missing expo person who could have jumped on the line and expo to help the understaffed two man team. That person was stuck on a conference call. Just recently I saw the company actively lose money because of this poorly thought-out meeting during business hours. A customer wanted to order a dessert that was 86ed but had been restocked by our prep cook an hour before. The server was unable to sell them their dessert because the only person in the building who could help un-86 an item was on a conference call. This conference call calamity is another bone-headed choice that speaks to a larger decision-making problem within the corporate structure. Finish the conference calls by 10:45 am eastern.
In conclusion, I quit my position as a lowly grunt for this company because of its unwarranted perplexing dance steps and below average management. I don’t care how much varnish and lacquer is supplied, I refuse to polish this Bikini Bottom turd as a manager or full-time employee under the current circumstances. You would have to take a pickaxe to the floor, possibly relocate the bathrooms to add a door to the dishpit, get rid of the cheap low boy that doesn’t properly drain excess water, and Mr Gorbachov knock down that wall in the middle of the kitchen to give the proper amount of space to work. Or simply reduce the menu to 36 items (including sides) because that’s the amount of space this dreadful design can comfortably output. Would Gordon Ramsay compliment KK for all the unnecessary convoluted complications abound, or would Chef Ramsay yell about keeping it simple and demand KK chuck it in the flip? Thanks to the numerous pop up restaurants I have been a part of and the hectic world of trade shows/conventions, I may have more experience than anyone else employed by KK in smoothly opening a new location. I would enjoy being part of the opening team to ensure new locations have an efficiency Bikini Bottom lacks, and to keep upper management away from their worst instincts. Work with me and Chef Ren and we will help you become a well oiled machine like Chokey Chicken instead of the Chum Bucket cesspit Bikini Bottom currently embodies.

Proteins continue to play a vital role in the global food industry. There has been a transition in demand for alternative protein sources due to the world's acceleration toward innovative and sustainable eating. Today's consumers of protein require protein alternatives and appealing sensory experiences. Protein has not yet attained megatrend status, however, due to obstacles relating to obtaining favorable volume, texture, and machinability to meet consumer expectations.
Get Free Smart Book @ https://nforming.com/blog/healthcare/alternative-protein-market/
Beyond veganism and vegetarianism, the plant-based movement is embracing a more mainstream flexitarian approach. According to Cargill, flexitarian consumers can be difficult to please because they have grown up with conventional meat and dairy and have specific expectations regarding the appearance and taste of any meat-based meal.
In light of these trends, some of the alternative protein market leaders are concentrating on developing innovative products. In March 2023, for instance, Marel, a global provider of advanced food processing solutions, collaborated with Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM), a global supplier of human and animal nutrition products, to establish a state-of-the-art taste and texture innovation center. The inauguration is anticipated to take place in the second half of 2024. The innovation partnership will enable the establishment of a collaborative space on the Wageningen Campus to develop plant-based and alternative protein products from concept to commercialization in order to meet the region's and the world's rising demand.
Despite these positive market developments, uncertain economic conditions and businesses continuing to deal with pandemic-related issues have influenced investor behavior across industries, including alternative proteins. According to a new report compiled by the non-profit The Good Food Institute (GFI), alternative protein market players raised $2.9 billion in funding last year, broken down into plant-based ($1.2 billion), fermentation ($842 million), and cultivated ($896 million) categories. Although 2022 funding totals represent an overall decrease compared to the $5.1 billion raised in 2021, investments in alternative proteins in 2022 vastly surpassed the $1.1 billion raised in 2019, which was regarded as a breakthrough year for alternative proteins as it occurred before the pandemic.

Proteins continue to play a vital role in the global food industry. There has been a transition in demand for alternative protein sources due to the world's acceleration toward innovative and sustainable eating. Today's consumers of protein require protein alternatives and appealing sensory experiences. Protein has not yet attained megatrend status, however, due to obstacles relating to obtaining favorable volume, texture, and machinability to meet consumer expectations.
Beyond veganism and vegetarianism, the plant-based movement is embracing a more mainstream flexitarian approach. According to Cargill, flexitarian consumers can be difficult to please because they have grown up with conventional meat and dairy and have specific expectations regarding the appearance and taste of any meat-based meal.
Get Free Smart Book @ https://nforming.com/blog/healthcare/alternative-protein-market/
In light of these trends, some of the alternative protein market leaders are concentrating on developing innovative products. In March 2023, for instance, Marel, a global provider of advanced food processing solutions, collaborated with Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM), a global supplier of human and animal nutrition products, to establish a state-of-the-art taste and texture innovation center. The inauguration is anticipated to take place in the second half of 2024. The innovation partnership will enable the establishment of a collaborative space on the Wageningen Campus to develop plant-based and alternative protein products from concept to commercialization in order to meet the region's and the world's rising demand.
Despite these positive market developments, uncertain economic conditions and businesses continuing to deal with pandemic-related issues have influenced investor behavior across industries, including alternative proteins. According to a new report compiled by the non-profit Good Food Institute (GFI), alternative protein market players raised $2.9 billion in funding last year, broken down into plant-based ($1.2 billion), fermentation ($842 million), and cultivated ($896 million) categories. Although 2022 funding totals represent an overall decrease compared to the $5.1 billion raised in 2021, investments in alternative proteins in 2022 vastly surpassed the $1.1 billion raised in 2019, which was regarded as a breakthrough year for alternative proteins as it occurred before the pandemic.

Please don't report this and mods please don't delete this, I am only trying to raise awareness for this issue because many people are in the same boat as me and maybe something could be done in the future to prevent this, this is not a cry for help or attention, it's just a rant that I had to get off my chest.
Throwaway for a reason, also please I'm only here so I could share this with people of this subreddit to raise awareness because I'm sure many people feel the same way as I do and there's no need to say that I should contact 147, and keep the whole you're still young and seek help from certain places because it won't work and it doesn't matter anymore.
I am a 19 yo international student at EPFL and simply put, I want to die. I am most certainly failing this school year, and I am not allowed to retake it. My dream from a very young age was to be a computer scientist, I used to write and publish code from a very young age (12) at android development websites like XDA developers. It was my dream to pursue a career in this field.
When I first started high school, I discovered this one university in Switzerland and fell in love with it, it didn't have absurd tuition fees like the US or the UK, plus the entry requirements weren't that hard because you were only required to get a good mark in your last year of high school, and I did just that, I also applied for a school in another european country and my father paid a hefty deposit to the school because it was a private institution. When I committed to Switzerland, the school refused to repay the deposit whatsoever. But then all the pressure was on my shoulders to succed in the swiss university, I was required to succeed this year because you have no other option if you fail, you can't even retake the year. I passed my first semester, but then the coursework of the second semester got really ugly and I messed up the first round of tests, really messed them up and now it's impossible for me to pass the year.
My family has invested so much into me, Switzerland is an expensive country, and they require me to succeed, and I failed them miserably, I've wasted all their money, heck even the hefty deposit that was blown into thin air just because they wanted to secure a good education for me. But I failed miserably, and I don't see myself living with the failure.
My family would literally hang me if I come back failing this year, they would scold me everyday, tell me I'm a failure and just make me feel shitty every single day, now do I deserve it? Absolutely! But do I want it? No, and there's no way to escape it right now, and no I am not exaggerating and if you think I am it's probably because you don't know anything about my culture and the way we generally handle these problems. And no we are not even remotely rich.
I myself also can't live with the failure, feeling worthless for the whole semester now, and trying to kill myself in every way possible, heck I even tried to hang myself one day but chickened out, I also try to cross the street in the most unnatural ways hoping for a car to run me over, I even ate rotten food including raw chicken that was sitting for days but my body always seems to recover, I couldn't find a reliable solution to kill myself.
I don't wanna go back to my home country, as it will just mean endless pain for me, I also failed to mention that my older sister also nearly died after a suicide attempt because she failed med school every other year for the first three years, my family doesn't want this kind of offspring, and they would just torture me for it, heck I don't wanna live a life when I can't do anything. My sister is still struggling with mental health because of the constant shit she endures with the family's pressure, I don't wanna live like her.
Since I can't retake this year, it is basically a gap year, and my national diploma is rendered useless now, do you realize how fucked up that is? I can't do anything related to sciences because even if I wanted to retake the national high school exams and get a fresh diploma to apply to local universities I can only do "Letters" specialty which wouldn't get me anywhere near a STEM field. My life is basically ruined, it has no meaning anymore.
I don't wanna go back to my home country, not that I like it here in Switzerland, it's just that I will be rotting there with no studies to do, no job, scolded everyday, being called a failure and just keep enduring forms of torture I cannot and I am not willing to bear, all for nothing, I can't even work a job because the country is such a mess too and even qualified people don't get jobs.
But I have found a way, a reliable way to go out, painless too, I won't disclose it, but I am going to end my life this night, I'm just trying to leave a good mark on my "friends" and raise awareness.
I won't give out any info because I'm scared, and you can keep your mean comments away because I won't read them, don't bother to say anything, just read this post and do whatever you want with it. I'm not blaming anyone for my failure even if I sound entitled
And yes my parents do know that I am failing this year, and what they have done is just basically cut contact with me, they haven't called in ages and they didn't send money for living expenses, this alone can tell you a lot.
Thank you for reading this.

Proteins continue to play a vital role in the global food industry. There has been a transition in demand for alternative protein sources due to the world's acceleration toward innovative and sustainable eating. Today's consumers of protein require protein alternatives and appealing sensory experiences. Protein has not yet attained megatrend status, however, due to obstacles relating to obtaining favorable volume, texture, and machinability to meet consumer expectations.
Beyond veganism and vegetarianism, the plant-based movement is embracing a more mainstream flexitarian approach. According to Cargill, flexitarian consumers can be difficult to please because they have grown up with conventional meat and dairy and have specific expectations regarding the appearance and taste of any meat-based meal.
Get Free Smart Book @ https://nforming.com/blog/healthcare/alternative-protein-market/
In light of these trends, some of the alternative protein market leaders are concentrating on developing innovative products. In March 2023, for instance, Marel, a global provider of advanced food processing solutions, collaborated with Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM), a global supplier of human and animal nutrition products, to establish a state-of-the-art taste and texture innovation center. The inauguration is anticipated to take place in the second half of 2024. The innovation partnership will enable the establishment of a collaborative space on the Wageningen Campus to develop plant-based and alternative protein products from concept to commercialization in order to meet the region's and the world's rising demand.
Despite these positive market developments, uncertain economic conditions and businesses continuing to deal with pandemic-related issues have influenced investor behavior across industries, including alternative proteins. According to a new report compiled by the non-profit Good Food Institute (GFI), alternative protein market players raised $2.9 billion in funding last year, broken down into plant-based ($1.2 billion), fermentation ($842 million), and cultivated ($896 million) categories. Although 2022 funding totals represent an overall decrease compared to the $5.1 billion raised in 2021, investments in alternative proteins in 2022 vastly surpassed the $1.1 billion raised in 2019, which was regarded as a breakthrough year for alternative proteins as it occurred before the pandemic.

I found this thread (https://www.reddit.com/AskWomen/comments/7p9jg9/domestic_abuse_situations_are_often_characterized/) through an online search on the problems platonic relationships pose for romantic ones, and while there's much to agree with here viz. abusive men, I've found no parallel here (nor anywhere else) for the abusive relationship that I find myself in (to my thinking at least). As this is an 'AskWomen' section of Reddit I would like to do just that -- because I am a man.
I met my partner ~ 11 yrs ago when I came to France for work -- she was, it seems, still involved with her ex (the father of her children) when we met, but I didn't know at first as they didn't live together. She also has this odious little character she keeps around who is a very old friend and effectively a second father to her kids. She has these other men in her life but I find that she makes the time for that other by taking that time from ours. She says that I'm being abusive, jealous, and controlling in this set-up and I contend the opposite; certainly my "odious" phrasing above might seem to lend credence to her POV, but let me outline some details of why I said this as I would very much like a female perspective here. The trouble started as soon as this character got wind of her new relationship with me -- swearing at her young kids, refusing to leave his room whenever I was in the house, engaging in grand-gestures (taking a taxi back to the airport and flying back to the UK, only to be beseeched back by telephone by my girlfriend's kids in floods ot tears two-days later), etc. This emotional blackmail had its desired effect -- her children stopped speaking to me and started hating me (blanking me whenever he was here, stealing from me, telling me they "wish I was dead", etc.), and my gf (understandably, I suppose) unconsciously sided with her children and it formed a wedge between us. When I stated my unhappiness about this situation and her effective sanctioning of his behaviour -- she said that told him that he couldn't come here anymore if this persisted, and he had agreed to stop -- that he loved her and her kids and only reacted the way he did because of what he thought he would lose, and she told me and that the responsibility to "build bridges" was mine. I hardly need describe what I thought about this, the damage already done, my only crime to start a relationship with someone new.
If that was all there was to it I could easily have looked past it (I'm never been the jealous type), but I found his presence to be wearing as he was here for the best part of six-months of every year (he's a retired pensioner): every breakfast, every lunch, every dinner, every day (pre-Brexit -- and thank heavens for Brexit in this one respect!) and I began to notice that my gf was increasingly only available to me in his company. She spent her summers going on holidays with him/her kids, telling me that I had her for the rest of the year (the cold, dark, part of the year where she is miserable, seasonal-affective disorder personified). I also began to see how she seemed intent on revalidating him by diminishing me in his presence or putting on a show for his benefit (shouting at me, being critical of me, being short with me in conversation, or just ignoring me altogether) and I started to withdraw from this. She told me I was being jealous, and that he was a part of her life that I would have to accept. I told her she was abusive and passive-agressive, which didn't help!
Neither is he the only problem, and I describe the following as symptomatic of a part of my gf's behaviour -- that she is too fond of the attention of other men. Perhaps you may conclude otherwise. You see, there's her ex- too (the father of her children) and he's also "part of her life" too. Does anyone other than me regard it is inappropriate and unacceptable that her ex- comes down for lunch every weekend? How about three days a week (to see his kids)? How about every single 5ucking week for the past 11 years?! She always sits facing him and I am left to one side. They only talk to each other and if I don't speak to her the entire meal for me passes in silence . When I initially questioned this continual attendance she said he only came to see his kids and so I put up with it until they left home -- which they did years ago and still he comes, every week (last time I raised this she tried to be jocular by highlighting his handyman abilities), but she never Ever allows him to see me close to her (or us kiss) and always keeps her distance from me in company when he is here -- another 'partner' validated at the expense of her actual partner. She takes him out to dinner alone on his birthday, whenever his family have any sort of event I am always excluded (although the platonic character is always taken), and I can't remember the number ot times that I've walked into our kitchen to find she and her ex- swiftly moving apart from a tete-a-tete (that she would never have with me if he were in the house). When I question any of this I get the same spiel, the asserted jealousy, or that I aggressive and unreasonable. My gf has just spent the past two weeks in the company of her platonic other-half when I hardly saw her at all despite us living in the same house, taking more time off work to garden with him in that time than she's taken off on my account in the last six-years, and the day after he goes she make herself unavailable again and when I go to find her to ask if she didn't think that it would be politic to spend half-an-hour of that evening with me given how little I've seen of her for the past fortnight I am presented with excuses and we have a blazing row. I have never, in 40+ years of dating, encountered a situation like this, a gf whose raison d'etre seems to be bending over backwards for every other man (and whom I am apparently supposed to take on trust she is not bending over for forwards as well); am I being unreasonable and controlling in finding such behaviour unacceptable and an abuse of her relationship with me? We've stopped having sex weekend-mornings (and now almost altogether) as it gets in the way of the cooking necessary for entertaining her ex, and in this sexual context she even told me the previous time that her platonic partner was here (he just left again after another two-week stay) that we couldn't have some planned daytime bedroom-fun because "...what would he think if we just went up to our bedroom during the day"! My reaction to this statement was as verbally explosive as one might imagine.
And that's just her platonic partner and her ex-partner. Now let me describe the situation with her boss. My gf has an outfit that she looks very fetching in and I have expressed no amount of admiration for her in it (indeed, the booties were purchased on my recommendation), so much so that we regularly used to engage in a particular sexual act with her wearing it. I soon noticed, however, that whenever she wore that outfit to work she would always come home with a description of how her lecherous boss had come back to the office that day and blah, blah, blah... I held my tongue to be certain about what I thought I was seeing but after 10 or 20 times of this I was forced into the obvious connection -- she was seeking to appeal to him physically. Nothing so wrong there I suppose, this is still a baldy-patriarchal world and a gal has to get along if she wants to get ahead professionally, but in the context of her other behaviours viz. other men I was less minded to be sanguine here. The last (two) straw(s) came recently when she was going away on a business trip with said fat-boss -- smiling as Messenger messages from him pinged while we were still in the bed in the morning, sitting grinning at her phone on the train while I stood there like a lemon on the platform waiting for her train to depart, and a long email to me at midnight describing the wonderful meal he took her for and the film at the cinema they went to, completely forgetting to ask me about the results of my cancer-remission test that day. Then when my birthday came around a couple of weeks later and she asked me what she should wear and suggested the outfit that I liked she was crass enough to tell me that was her boss' favourite outfit too, apparently unaware that I was already aware of what he liked her to wear and what she liked to wear for his benefit. Again I reacted negatively to this statement and, extraordinarily, she told me that he sexually assaulted her years ago -- it was all that I could do not to say that I was not surprised that a lecherous boss would do so as she seemed to be giving him all the signals he would expect of someone receptive to an approach. Ladies, who goes out to dinner alone with a man who sexually assaulted them previously (and that this was apparently reported on)? Who goes to a dark cinema alone with that man? Who continues to dress to appeal to that man post-assault (and then tells her partner what that man likes her to wear?!)?
I find all of this behaviour sickening frankly, and when I raise any of it with her I'm told that I'm being jealous, controlling, etc., and she even gaslights me now by saying that I imagine all of it. I always know when some bloke is coming around our house as she always dolls herself up for every tradesman's visit (apparently you only get the best price with a man if you "make yourself look attractive first"), but is happy to look like she slept in a hedge when it's just me and her. I don't mind the latter in the least and never need her made-up or dressed-up -- I find her attractive as-is, I just ask why she is only ever interested in making that effort for other men (cue tight-jeans and two different lipstick shades in as many hours). There's hundreds of other things too: she never fails to put me aside to answer the phone or the door -- even during sex -- in case it's an emergency (her mother "might have fallen down the stairs"), she regularly takes a call from family at lunchtime and talks the entire way through our meal (doing it once at a restaurant on my birthday -- although she did complain to me about her mother interrupting when she was at the retaurant with her ex- for his birthday), whenever in company she is voluble in her answers to statements from others but if I speak to her she'll either ignore me, offer a grunt, or a one-word Y/N answer (but if I speak to anyone else she'll quickly interject to negate or disagree with what I've said), she absolutely never lets me finish a sentence and immediately cuts me off, when we sit alone at a table (home, bar, restaurant) she looks to one-side or over my shoulder and if I ask her to attend she tells me she's "looking at her roses" or goes into her "...I can't just sit here looking into your eyes for hours-on-end" tirade. Last year when she was studiously staring over the top of my head in the restaurant I asked her if there was something wrong with my hair (she is invariably critical of my appearance) and she told me that she was looking at the waiter -- I asked if she could perhaps focus on the person taking her to lunch rather than the person serving it and she told me not to "be so rude". It feels very much like she's making clear to all concerned (and even those whose business our relationship is not) how little consequence I am relative to them, emulating the blanking behaviour that that little POS enforced on her kids by sticking his nose in our relationship. When I wanted to do something about the latter early on she would have none of it and he is now happy as Larry as he is validated in his position of being appended to our relationship -- the personal side of which she has effectively given away. She'll make endless excuses for not engaging verbally, tactilely, or physically in bed, swearing at me if I speak to her before she's ready to rouse, excusing herself once she is awake by saying that she can't stay if I try to cuddle her, putting her hand over her genitals if I put my hands on her body. Yet when I cease bothering and just go downstairs when I wake she lies there for hours saying she was waiting for me to come back. I have to ask her for sex ("it's too cold", "it's too bright", "I'm too tired", "I'm not a morning person", "I've got weeding to do"), I have to ask her for her company of an evening ("I can spare you ten minutes", "I haven't got long", "can't you wait?", "I've got to get this email finished", "I've got to go to my son's restaurant", etc.), taking time from our time together to get all of her chores done so that she can then spend hours, days, and weeks in the company of her other gentleman-friends tp give them her full attention, unencumbered. Then, when they've gone, she's unavailable to me again because she has to catch up with all the things she couldn't do while entertaining them or attending to her family's many needs. If I question any of this it's because I don't understand and am not close with my family (I did my time with them already), or don't have children, or don't have friends of the closeness that she does (not true -- I just don't impose those friendships on my relationships and recognise all of the dividing lines therein). If I try and spend time with her she's refractory and regards it as a chore and is largely mute, yet when I walk away she gets all offended, moist-eyed, and passive. I worked out out that I spend ~ 98% of every week in our relationship alone. There's a chicken-and-egg element to this sorry tale, as she says that she would be more invested in our relationship if there was more affection and if I loved her like her platonic partner does and I tell her that she is confusing effect with cause and that I never fell in love with her because of having to compete with a panoply of other blokes for access to my own girlfriend.
Am I jealous, needy, cntstruck, lovelorn, or needlessly dramatic? I don't think so -- I have long regarded infidelity in the physical sense as an odd, modern construct: if my gf saw a breathtakingly attractive man who propositioned her for a quickie that she took him up on it would not be the end of the world. We should no more want to experience just one person's body in life than one person's cooking (= never going to any restaurants), but personal fidelity is another matter. Even if I saw the most amazingly attractive female who I knew wanted me whilst I was in the company of my partner (this actually happened to me on two occasions long ago with a gf's sister and a gf's 'best-friend'), I would never, ever marginalise that partner or make her question her standing in that situation as that would be absolutely beyond the pale. Yet my gf purposely marginalises me in company all the time. It's cheap, nasty, and ultimately why I know that she and I have no future together. Her need to sideline her partner for the attention of other men is what brought us together so I shouldn't be surprised that is what took us apart. Many men (whose input I really don't want -- please) would regard her as a slattern, but I do not. But having never encountered such aberrant behaviour before I don't really know what to think.
If you've read this far then you must think that I'm a colossal, desperate 5ucking idiot who can't see the obvious in all of this. But I'm not, and I'm perfectly aware of what it all means -- this is a dead relationship with someone I should perhaps never have started one with (but one that I choose to stay within because of other entities that we both share and that neither is willing to be parted from). Neither am I simply venting as I am resigned to the hopelessness of the situation (I know all about facing reality from my experience with cancer, which disease my gf also kindly once advised me also was not her fault). No, what I want is to try to understand what this behaviour means and to have an external female view of whether I am to blame for any of it. And that's what I would like from you dear ladies (please don't read a patronising tone in that phrase), and input from as many of you as possible so that whatever conclusion I draw is as robust as possible. If I get enough useful responses I may even show this thread to her, not because I can't articulate any of this myself (which I have, ad nauseum), but because I would like her to see what other women / someone other than me thinks of the behaviour that I describe. I don't believe that I'm at fault but am perfectly ready to hear any reasonable argument that I am because it might give me closure and show that perhaps I had a hand in creating my own misery. It might even make me feel a little better about who I am. When I met this woman (she was 51, I 48) I was on the rebound from a long-term relationship with a much-younger partner, and I thought that I had found heaven on Earth. The years that followed showed that I had instead found the opposite. I have never been so unhappy.
Please help me to understand.

SPECIES : Dog
AGE : 10
SEX/NEUTER STATUS : Female / Spayed
BREED : Mixed. Maybe lab/some kind of wire haired
BODY WEIGHT : 51 lb
CLINICAL SIGN : not sure what this means?
DURATION : most symptoms have been years, diarrhea started reoccurring way more often about 6 months ago.
LOCATION : Kentucky
Grace has never done too well under stress. I have fed her the same food forever (Purina, green bag, walmart).
About 2yrs old we noticed she would start panting and stretch her head around to her butt and cry. Her stomach would instantly get bigger and harder. Vet said it wasn't bloat and probably had endometriosis so we got her fixed. Didn't fix anything.
We tried changing her food slowly. Messed her up so switched it back. Raised her food bowl. Scatter her food so she doesn't gobble. We don't free feed (due to having a dachshund that will overeat) and We definitely don't over feed.
She had an incident about 5 months ago. Diarrhea, seemed almost like she couldn't/didn't want to stand. Had to carry her in and out. I boiled chicken, mixed with white rice and a little pumpkin. Fed for a week. Back to normal poop.
She has seemed off since that episode. Lethargic, antsy, pants even more. Drinks more. keeps giving me the signal that she's hungry. She has even started to get into the trash. We put it up now. She has diarrhea during even slight stress incidents.
So we tried switching food went with Purina one. Same brand higher price. She seems more bloated looking and gassy but hasn't had the gas build up issue with the whining. Not sure what's worse.everything else is the same.
Took her to the vet yesterday. No parasites. I tried to explain everything but he kept talking over me. Told me she has colitis, which seems probable. Gave me medication. Metronidazole. Told me to give her some dog yogurt. I had to ask him if I should give her senior dog food. He said it wouldn't hurt. He didn't have any suggestions for me.
Ended up walking out with a $200 bill for a fecal test I didn't need, two shots I didn't need, a medication, and worst of all, no suggestions or advice which is what I really needed!
Can anyone suggest a food that isn't too expensive. Sensitive stomach and skin, senior dog. My biggest issue is I don't know what label to trust and I can't afford super expensive. Do I even need senior food? What does it mean when your vet says "it couldn't hurt" ?
Also, If you think there is any reason to question the diagnosis from the vet, pleas let me know.

Given the rising want for unique and customized products, opening a personalized present keep might be a profitable business venture. Your store's profitability will be influenced by a variety of variables, such as your goal market, product line, pricing scheme, marketing initiatives, and operational effectiveness. Without understanding greater about your company, it is not possible to supply you with a unique number, however, I can list the essential factors that can have an effect on a customized present shop's profitability.
Unique and Diverse Product Range:
It's essential to provide a variety of personalized gift options if you want to draw clients and increase sales. Think of including things like monogrammed mugs, t-sublimation shirts, picture frames, sublimation keychains, engraved jewelry, and stationery. You may set your store apart from rivals and increase market share by providing distinctive and cutting-edge merchandise.
Target Market Identification:
To customize your product selection and marketing techniques, it is crucial to understand your target market. Determine which customer groups, such as couples, families, friends, or business clients, are most likely to value personalized gifts. Consider their tastes, demographics, and purchasing patterns when putting together a selection of goods that will speak to their wants and desires.
Competitive Pricing:
In order to draw customers while maintaining profitability, it is essential to choose the appropriate pricing plan. Do some market research to find out how much-personalized presents often cost in your region. Think about things like labor costs, overheads, material costs, and the target profit margin. It's crucial to strike a balance between profitability and competitive pricing, especially in the early phases of your company when establishing a clientele is crucial.
Efficient Operations:
Your operating procedures can be improved to increase profit margins. Streamline your supply chain to get products and materials at reasonable pricing. To negotiate good terms, think about developing relationships with dependable manufacturers or suppliers. Additionally, streamlined order fulfillment, shipping, and inventory management procedures will cut costs and guarantee client delight.
Marketing and Branding:
Driving sales and boosting profitability requires building a strong brand and putting those plans into practice. Spend money developing a website that is both aesthetically pleasing and easy to use and that displays your personalized gift selection. Use influencer partnerships, email marketing, and social media platforms to raise brand awareness and draw in customers. Encourage pleased customers to leave feedback or reviews because good word-of-mouth can have a big impact on how profitable your store is.
Repeat Customers and Customer Loyalty:
Long-term success depends on developing client loyalty and repeats business. Implement tactics like rewards programs, special discounts for loyal consumers, or individualized offers for holidays, birthdays, or anniversaries. Building a loyal customer base that returns for more personalized presents can be facilitated by providing outstanding customer service and creating a frictionless buying experience.
Upselling and Cross-selling Opportunities:
Look for chances to add more products or services to the order to raise the average order value. You may, for instance, recommend matching coasters or a gift-wrapping service at the checkout if a consumer buys a personalized mug. You may increase income and improve the entire customer experience by upselling and cross-selling related products.
Cost Control and Financial Management:
For continued success, keeping a careful watch on your spending is essential. Review your expenses frequently, look for areas where you can cut prices, and wherever you can, bargain with suppliers for better terms. To track the financial health of your company and pinpoint opportunities for development, keep accurate financial records and frequently review your profit and loss accounts.
It's crucial to keep in mind that these variables are only basic suggestions, and actual profitability might vary greatly depending on a number of factors unique to your company. Your personalized gift shop will be well-positioned for success and profitability by conducting in-depth market research, creating a strong business plan, and continually changing your strategies in response to client feedback and market trends.

I am going to try and make this thread more balanced, and less extreme than some of my other recent material in this subreddit.
I really, really don't like intersectionalism, or Wokeness. That should be pretty apparent to anyone who has seen my posts in this subreddit. I genuinely view it as a form of Maoism or authoritarian Communism, which has been specifically tailored to exploit the cultural divisions which are unique to America, rather than focusing on the divide between rich and poor which existed in Russia and China.
The reason why I am making this post though, is because over the last several months, I've started to notice the existence of a particular demographic on YouTube, who genuinely do exemplify and perpetuate what I can only call the "angry white man," stereotype which the Woke mention being opposed to. I've also realised that I don't like it, any more than I like the negative characteristics of Wokeness.
To cite an example of what I am talking about, I know of one particular channel on YouTube, whose video about the black Cleopatra controversy, expressed on the one hand that while pro-black historical revisionism was bad, (which I agree that it is) then gave Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra, and John Wayne as Genghis Khan a free pass, when both of them were white actors who were playing characters that were either non-white, (in the case of Khan) or white but still of a substantially different ethnicity, in the case of Cleopatra. This same channel has recently released a video complaining about the "cleavage deficit" in recent media.
I am genuinely extremely concerned about the level of censorship that is beginning to emerge on the Internet, especially in relation to artificial intelligence. On entering this sub the other day, I was also greeted with this video:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePFrVZ9z6Io
The reason why I want to post this video here, is so that I can deny woke apologists the ability to claim that this level of paranoia among transgendered people is not real. It is real, and it is intersectionalism's own equivalent to the Right's white replacement theory. I do not condone white replacement theory, and I do not condone transgendered paranoia or aggression about a potential anti-trans holocaust.
I also do not want responses to this thread, either from conservatives claiming that white replacement theory does not exist, or from trans apologists claiming that trans holocaust paranoia does not exist. Both exist, neither are justified, and both have the potential, due to the actions they inspire and motivate, to CREATE exactly the kind of scenario that their adherents are afraid of.
I also recently became aware of the existence of this video:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFpUjyM0orQ
On the other hand, I did not condone the conservative overturning of Roe vs. Wade. I also do not condone conservatives making it more difficult to obtain no-fault divorce. Marriage should not be a form of legal inprisonment. The first 25 years of my life was spent within a nuclear family scenario, with two parents who came from an English boarding school background, where my father was the proverbial "head of household," but was also narcississtic, tyrannical, and corrupt. I do not want the conservative family paradigm, because I have first hand, direct personal experience of how and why it does not work, and why it has been so widely rebelled against. If I do hypothetically end up standing in front of Jesus Christ after I die, I am quite seriously going to tell him that I view the crowning moral achievement of my life, to have been the fact that I managed to resist the urge to kill my father.
My point is that in the culture war, neither side are innocent. Neither side are saints. I don't want responses to this from the usual angry Zoomers about how BLM are angels, or they'd already have their woke Utopia if conservatives would just hurry up and die. I also don't want conservative responses claiming that Donald Trump is really a misunderstood hero, and that of course he didn't really want to overthrow the Republic and become an Emperor. Both statements are false, and both are expressions of partisan mind control.
Get your shit together, America, because I and a lot of others are starting to get very, very sick of it. There are far too many vindictive, brainwashed, mentally ill children on both sides.
I don't want:-
- Abortion, divorce, gay marriage, or psychedelics to be illegal.
- Insane censorship everywhere, in a futile attempt to pander to the transgendered community's insatiable insecurity and paranoia.
- Constantly being preached at about wokeness by AI, or the inability to engage in erotic roleplay with AI due to "fetishisation," or intersectionalism's manufactured fantasy of the month.
- Morally bankrupt hysterics within the black activist community needing to replace every public figure they possibly can with a black individual, regardless of said individual's original ethnicity, whether white or otherwise.
- Higher mathematics (or classical education in general) condemned as an artifact of white supremacy. Do any of you realise how ironically insulting that actually is towards black people?
- Popular culture completely wrecked in the name of "representation," especially when said representation is usually an insult to the target group anyway, because of what morally horrible people the characters in question are.
- Conservatives automatically branded and hunted down as neo-Nazis, purely for either believing in Jesus, or wanting to raise fucking chickens.

I am going to try and make this thread more balanced, and less extreme than some of my other recent material in this subreddit.
I really, really don't like intersectionalism, or Wokeness. That should be pretty apparent to anyone who has seen my posts in this subreddit. I genuinely view it as a form of Maoism or authoritarian Communism, which has been specifically tailored to exploit the cultural divisions which are unique to America, rather than focusing on the divide between rich and poor which existed in Russia and China.
The reason why I am making this post though, is because over the last several months, I've started to notice the existence of a particular demographic on YouTube, who genuinely do exemplify and perpetuate what I can only call the "angry white man," stereotype which the Woke mention being opposed to. I've also realised that I don't like it, any more than I like the negative characteristics of Wokeness.
To cite an example of what I am talking about, I know of one particular channel on YouTube, whose video about the black Cleopatra controversy, expressed on the one hand that while pro-black historical revisionism was bad, (which I agree that it is) then gave Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra, and John Wayne as Genghis Khan a free pass, when both of them were white actors who were playing characters that were either non-white, (in the case of Khan) or white but still of a substantially different ethnicity, in the case of Cleopatra. This same channel has recently released a video complaining about the "cleavage deficit" in recent media.
I am genuinely extremely concerned about the level of censorship that is beginning to emerge on the Internet, especially in relation to artificial intelligence. On going into /JordanPeterson the other day, I was also greeted with this video:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePFrVZ9z6Io
The reason why I want to post this video here, is so that I can deny woke apologists the ability to claim that this level of paranoia among transgendered people is not real. It is real, and it is intersectionalism's own equivalent to the Right's white replacement theory. I do not condone white replacement theory, and I do not condone transgendered paranoia or aggression about a potential anti-trans holocaust.
I also do not want responses to this thread, either from conservatives claiming that white replacement theory does not exist, or from trans apologists claiming that trans holocaust paranoia does not exist. Both exist, neither are justified, and both have the potential, due to the actions they inspire and motivate, to CREATE exactly the kind of scenario that their adherents are afraid of.
I also recently became aware of the existence of this video:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFpUjyM0orQ
On the other hand, I did not condone the conservative overturning of Roe vs. Wade. I also do not condone conservatives making it more difficult to obtain no-fault divorce. Marriage should not be a form of legal inprisonment. The first 25 years of my life was spent within a nuclear family scenario, with two parents who came from an English boarding school background, where my father was the proverbial "head of household," but was also narcississtic, tyrannical, and corrupt. I do not want the conservative family paradigm, because I have first hand, direct personal experience of how and why it does not work, and why it has been so widely rebelled against. If I do hypothetically end up standing in front of Jesus Christ after I die, I am quite seriously going to tell him that I view the crowning moral achievement of my life, to have been the fact that I managed to resist the urge to kill my father.
My point is that in the culture war, neither side are innocent. Neither side are saints. I don't want responses to this from the usual angry Zoomers about how BLM are angels, or they'd already have their woke Utopia if conservatives would just hurry up and die. I also don't want conservative responses claiming that Donald Trump is really a misunderstood hero, and that of course he didn't really want to overthrow the Republic and become an Emperor. Both statements are false, and both are expressions of partisan mind control.
Get your shit together, America, because I and a lot of others are starting to get very, very sick of it. There are far too many vindictive, brainwashed, mentally ill children on both sides.
I don't want:-
- Abortion, divorce, gay marriage, or psychedelics to be illegal.
- Insane censorship everywhere, in a futile attempt to pander to the transgendered community's insatiable insecurity and paranoia.
- Constantly being preached at about wokeness by AI, or the inability to engage in erotic roleplay with AI due to "fetishisation," or intersectionalism's manufactured fantasy of the month.
- Morally bankrupt hysterics within the black activist community needing to replace every public figure they possibly can with a black individual, regardless of said individual's original ethnicity, whether white or otherwise.
- Higher mathematics (or classical education in general) condemned as an artifact of white supremacy. Do any of you idiots realise how ironically insulting that actually is towards black people?
- Popular culture completely wrecked in the name of "representation," especially when said representation is usually an insult to the target group anyway, because of what morally horrible people the characters in question are.
- Conservatives automatically branded and hunted down as neo-Nazis, purely for either believing in Jesus, or wanting to raise fucking chickens.
EDIT:- I'm starting to see the usual forms of deliberate dishonesty appearing from intersectionalists in the comments; including one comment claiming that referring to something as Marxist is an easy method of dismissing it, when the comment in question is in association with BLM, the leader of which admitted to being a trained Marxist.
Stop doing this. It's a great example of exactly what causes the sort of frustration I experience in response to woke activists on Reddit. You are deliberately, intentionally dishonest. You know exactly what you are doing. I see it constantly, and I am tired of it. There is a continual attempt to employ pedantry and semantics, and to destroy literally any commonly held definitions.
Apart from anything else, the single main reason why said semantic dishonesty is such a problem, is because it makes communication impossible; and if communication becomes impossible, that increases the likelihood of violence.
I am also not going to respond to any comments posted from intersectionalist apologists, whose posting history demonstrates that they have spent little to no time in this subreddit, prior to posting in this thread; so don't bother doing it.

I never really realized this until now at the age of 26, but I have no idea how to genuinely socialize with other people.
I’ve worked at plenty of different jobs and I’ve never really been able to make friends with my coworkers.
It’s not because I’m mean or stand off-ish, it’s the opposite actually; I try to be so genuine and nice. I make it a point to remember names, keep a smile, and try to find out their interest but I can never really be accepted by the culture.
There have been times where I’ve worked at place for a year, and some new person starts working and within weeks they are connecting with everyone! I just wish I knew what I was doing wrong. It feels truly awful not being able to connect with the people around me.
I’m trying so very hard, I’ve read so many books, tried different medications, made genuine efforts to control my hyper arousal, and the list goes on. I promise I’m trying so hard to be normal. What did I do to deserve to feel this isolated?
I’m not a bad person, but I feel like I’m being punished for things outside my control. I remember growing up, as a small boy no older than 8 BEGGING my mom to stop being so mean to me. I would tell her “I know I’m not good, but please stop being mean mommy.” And of course it would make things worse.
I wasn’t a bad kid, other adults would always say that my parents raised me right because I was so respectful; they told me they wish their kids could be like me. Oh what sick joke.
I’m not a bad person, so why am I still plagued with loneliness? Why do I look at other people enjoying community and feel like I don’t deserve that human right? Why does every cry for help fall on deaf ears?
At the very least, please PLEASE tell me what I’m doing wrong? I’m sure I could fix it if I had a goal to work towards. I’m just a chicken with my head cut off. I don’t mean any harm, I have a good heart, I really do, but oh god I feel so alone every day. I’m trying.
I want to fit in so bad. I go to the gym everyday, I have a skin care routine, I shower 2x a day, I brush and floss 2x a day, I wear a smile on my face no matter how hard it is, so please why am I not accepted!?? Why am I not part of the pack?
Why does it feel like me, my genuine self, is not good enough. I don’t want to hurt this way anymore. It hurts so bad and I don’t know how to make it stop. I’m scared everyone, I don’t know what else to do. I don’t want to unalive, I don’t don’t want to hurt myself like I used too, I just wish my messed up self was good enough.
I’m not delusional. I see it with my own eyes. Just the other day everyone ordered food and nobody bothered to ask me if I wanted anything. Everyone was eating and laughing and I was just left out. How could I not feel like a complete failure?

Title says it all, here is a description of all three if you will decide to accept my request (thank you in advance):
Isaac is a caucasian British 30yr old gentleman from steampunk 1880s, he has dark blond very short hair paired with a walrus moustache, an oval face shape, hazel almond eyes and a convex raised nose. He wears a dark brown morning coat, trousers of a lighter shade of brown, narrow shoes, a brown top hat and he always has his trusty silver cane-sword. He has all of the characteristics of a classic gentleman except that he is pretty dumb and loves boxing, to the point he has become a champion in most underground clubs.
Kesha (or Innokentiy) is a caucasian Russian 30yr old super-soldier and WW3 vet from the 2070s, his facial features are very similar to Isaac's just without the mustache. He wears a black very tight futuristic full body suit with some parts of it covered by armour of a silver-like material, he wears a helmet similar to a motorcycle one. He has a futuristic pistol resembling a Makarov and a rifle resembling a Lobaev sniper. He is a lot smarter than Isaac and is less likely to spar with someone.
Alistair is a caucasian Vinuves (a fantasy race I created, details come later) 30yr old assassin from the 1500s, same facial features as the previous two just longer hair and red eyes. He wears a crimson and emerald green jester-like baggy clothing covered by a light chestplate and bracers, he also has a hood and a white simplistic mask (simplistic meaning: eye holes+mouth hole without much detail) decorated with red markings (you can come up with them yourself) and magic symbols. He has two shortswords (you may pick the type) and a hidden blade from AC. He is an absolute arrogant asshole because of the high magic power his race typically has and of his own training he endured, he also is alcoholic (cuz ethanol enhances his power) and the only people he treats not like shit are his two friends (Isaac and Kesha).
That's all, if you want any further specification you can ask or just invent the detail if it's missing, thank you in advance if you decide to help me

Hello! I’ve found and read quite a few of the threads on here about chicks or hatching eggs + a broody hen, but thought I’d post my own situation in case anyone has any particular stories/tips/corrections they’d like to share. I’d really appreciate it!
I’ve had my (highly melodramatic) Penedesenca broody for about two weeks or so. Every effort to break her broodiness has failed. So, this evening, sort of on an impulse, I got 7 new chicks (between 2-5 days old, a mix of easter eggers, prairie bluebells, sapphire splash, and wyandotte; existing flock is 8 hens, for reference) and switched out her eggs for the seven babies once it got dark. It’s been about an hour or so and no trouble so far (of course, it’s nighttime, tomorrow will be the real test). Before introducing the chicks I built Lila (the broody) a 2’h x 4’w x 2’d fully enclosed and secure box out in the main (also very secure) run and transported her existing nest box and (non-fertile) eggs out there along with her grumpy self.
Anyway, though I’ve had many, many, many chickens, this is my first time attempting to brood chicks ‘au natural.’ I was wondering if anyone has any advice or whatever, particularly in regards to:
(1) Penedesencas as broodies & mamas; (2) Number of chicks, time spent being broody, etc etc; (3) Contingency plans (or not) for rejected chicks or a mean mama; (4) Timing and tactics in introducing hen-raised chicks to the rest of the flock; (5) Just general anecdotes!
I’ve historically had a lot of trouble integrating new flock members (usually pullets between 6 and 12 weeks old), which is a huge part of why letting Lila raise these appealed to me. Any tips or anything would be much appreciated! Thanks!

Choosing the best automation solution among the many that are provided on the market might be difficult. Hence, it is important to choose an automation system prudently to prevent any difficulties with execution and cost.
You must carefully monitor a number of several factors in order to select the industrial automation system that will best fulfill your demands and goals.
Choose what you require: Outline your automation goals and the particular activities or processes you want to automate first. Pick the key problems you wish to solve, such as raising product quality, cutting costs, expanding production, or enhancing productivity.
You can utilize the steps below as a guide to help you decide:
Examine your infrastructure as it is now: Analyse the advantages and disadvantages of your current infrastructure, systems, and tools. Look for any areas that might greatly benefit from automation, have inefficient processes, or have bottlenecks.
Analyze the viability: Conduct comprehensive research to see whether automation is economically and technically possible. Consider factors including process complexity, talent requirements, potential ROI, implementation costs, and payback time.
High Performance: The key to automation is high-level programming. Your automation system must be able to function flawlessly after it has been put into commission. Regular problems might make your operation difficult.
Therefore, pick an automation solution by reading customer evaluations and learning how well the system performs after being commissioned. Additionally, since audits are conducted annually, any flaws or issues found might cause your audit to fail and hurt your organization.
Do some research on the options: Look at the many available industrial automation products. Speak with business experts, visit trade shows or conferences, and read industry periodicals to learn more about the latest recent technologies and trends. Look for reputable system integrators or suppliers that have a track record of effectively executing automation projects.
Examine how easily the automation solution can be adapted to work with your existing hardware, software, and systems. Consider its scalability to enable advancement and future expansion. Legal compliance and security should be considered: Industrial automation typically requires using dangerous processes and operating machines. Make sure the solution adheres to the regulatory requirements and safety standards that apply to your industry. Consider features like emergency stoppers, safety interlocks, and adherence to necessary certifications.
Test and assess: Before choosing, request a demonstration or trial project from potential vendors. Examine the performance, dependability, usability, and compatibility of the automation system with your workflow in a real-world or simulated environment. Obtain feedback from the main participants and operators in the process.
Flexibility and Scalability: A perfect industrial automation solution should be adaptable and scalable in order to handle growth or future changes. You could need more automation capabilities as your firm expands or the flexibility to change with the needs of the market. Pick a system that can be easily scaled and has the flexibility to add additional features or technologies as required.
Total ownership costs: Consider the solution's total cost of ownership, which includes upfront expenses, implementation costs, ongoing maintenance costs, and training requirements.
To identify the price structure that best fits your budget and long-term objectives, compare a variety of choices, including outright purchase, leasing, or subscription-based services.
Make a detailed implementation plan that addresses timelines, resource allocation, and training requirements. Cooperate closely with the vendor or system integrator to ensure a smooth transition and minimize business disruption.
Take the time to properly assess your options and involve significant stakeholders in the decision-making process to ensure a successful automation installation.
Join the automation revolution with KNEO Automation ! Connect with us for innovative solutions that drive success.
Conclusion:
Making the best choice for your company's industrial automation needs is crucial since it may have a big influence on its competitiveness, productivity, and efficiency. You may make an informed decision by determining your needs, investigating the available technologies, examining vendor expertise, taking integration and compatibility into account, examining pricing, and so on. Keep in mind that the ideal automation solution should support your objectives, be scalable and flexible, and deliver a good return on investment. You may start an automation journey that propels your company towards higher success with proper planning and the appropriate partner.

👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 02:59
Hello
[03:01]
Sorry for the random dm
[03:01]
I read that u were having trouble making new friends online
[03:02]
If I read correctly, you're in your 30s?
[03:02]
I am too
[03:03]
Anyway, if u wanna chat and see if we have anything in common u can shoot me a dm
[03:04]
I need friends too
​
Victorpollack — Today at 03:15
​
​
👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:16
Tell me about yourself?
​
Victorpollack — Today at 03:16
Well.. I am a nerdy guy with love of science fiction and PC games.
[03:17]
That's me summed up in one sentence ha
[03:17]
How about you?
​
👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:17
I'm a nerdy girl with a love of science fiction and games
​
Victorpollack — Today at 03:18
Hey, that sounds great! What's your favourites?
[03:18]
What genres do you like?
​
👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:18
Rn I'm obsessed with the new zelda
​
Victorpollack — Today at 03:19
Oh boy I've seen the trailers, it looks absolutely stunning.
[03:20]
I actually watched a stream of Critical Role doing a one-shot Dnd campaign based of in game lore.
[03:20]
As a promotion of the game.
[03:20]
It was super cool.
​
👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:20
Aye I like DND too
​
Victorpollack — Today at 03:20
Did you ever read SCPs?
​
👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:21
I've listened to basically every SCP video on the YouTube
​
Victorpollack — Today at 03:21
That's one of my go-to places when I want to read something cool.
[03:21]
Some of them are so well written it's insane.
[03:22]
What's your favorite out of the ones you know?
​
👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:22
The sentient ball of yarn lol
​
Victorpollack — Today at 03:23
Never read that one, tell me about it
[03:23]
Or tell you what, I'ma go have a quick read of it.
​
👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:24
Thank you, my memory is trash
​
Victorpollack — Today at 03:24
It's the SCP-66, yes?
​
👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:25
Unsure
[03:26]
I think maybe
​
Victorpollack — Today at 03:26
That is pretty cool one for sure
​
👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:26
Yeah sorry for being so vague, I'm like mid-migraine
[03:27]
Hard to think
​
Victorpollack — Today at 03:27
Sorry to hear that. Hope it passes quickly!
​
👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:27
Yeah ty I can still chat and everything
​
Victorpollack — Today at 03:28
So I've noticed your about me says that you have some strong stances on certain topic.
[03:28]
Tell me about it if you don't mind.
[03:29]
How did you come to hold these views?
​
👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:29
I watched Dominion on YouTube and saw the truth about animal exploitation
​
Victorpollack — Today at 03:30
Would you link me the video? I'm curious to see myself.
​
👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:30
Ofc
[03:30]
https://youtu.be/LQRAfJyEsko
YouTube
Farm Transparency Project
Dominion (2018) - full documentary [Official]
​
[03:31]
It's a 2 hour documentary
[03:32]
You're honestly the first person in my almost three years of activism to actually ask to see it
[03:32]
Most people don't want to know the truth they are culpable in
[03:33]
Even bringing up veganism usually makes a person agressive towards me
[03:34]
Personality I'll take bitter truth over a comfortable lie any day
​
Victorpollack — Today at 03:35
It's because of people that use veganism to feel and act morally superior to others.
[03:35]
Those people give all vegans a bad name.
​
👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:35
Yeah I used to be an asshole vegan too ahahaha
​
Victorpollack — Today at 03:37
Well if you know than you are aware that it's nothing against you personally, but rather the practice of how you implement it in your life.
​
👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:37
Egoism doesn't look good on anyone
​
Victorpollack — Today at 03:37
But people will remain people and not realise you can't put everyone into one basket.
[03:39]
I strive to remain an individualist. Someone who believes each person is to be evaluated separately regardless of what their beliefs and backgrouds are.
​
👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:39
Animals are individuals too
[03:40]
And deserve the same consideration
​
Victorpollack — Today at 03:40
The video you provided is quite drastic. I see how it could have affected you to such extent.
​
👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:40
The video is the industry standard in every developed country, actually
[03:41]
This happens everywhere
​
Victorpollack — Today at 03:41
There are differences obviously from place to place, but that is the general gist of it.
[03:41]
Although there are exceptions of course.
​
👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:41
Such as?
​
Victorpollack — Today at 03:42
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8Z_fDL9C3M
YouTube
Just a Few Acres Farm
how we raise 35 Dexter cattle on 30 acres - without buying hay!
​
​
👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:43
Regardless of how they are raised they all end up dead
[03:43]
Usually in a slaughterhouse
[03:43]
I've actually written about the ethics if you care to read it
[03:44]
I've had these conversations so much that I've made my own copypastas xD
​
Victorpollack — Today at 03:44
Sure I would be glad to have a look
​
👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:45
“Is sensory pleasure a justification for violence?” In today’s society, plant-based foods are readily available. Vegan staples such as rice, pasta, beans, legumes, fruits, and vegetables are among the most affordable food options. It is no longer necessary to exploit animals for food so why do we do it? Most people will tell you they like the taste of meat and don’t want to give it up. The interesting thing is that if taste satisfaction is a justification for needless violence, then logically other forms of sensory pleasure would also be justified. Thieves steal for the pleasure they gain from increasing their wealth and the excitement of breaking the law. Rapists rape for the pleasure they get from their victims. Serial killers kill for pleasure too. In all these forms of injustice, the wellbeing of the victims of these crimes are completely disregarded. The same is true for animal exploitation. To be logically consistent, you would have to say that all of these things are morally acceptable under the same justification. Obviously, it is not ok to steal, rape, and murder to please your senses, so the logical conclusion is that it is equally unacceptable to kill animals for taste satisfaction.
[03:46]
I have more
​
Victorpollack — Today at 03:46
Bring it on
​
👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:47
Wow you aren't even arguing, I've found a unicorn
[03:47]
Is it ok to kill an animal because they were bred for food? To be honest, it doesn’t really matter what your intentions were when you brought the animal into existence. Animals have no concept of purpose. Every animal bred for food wants to live, avoid harm, and experience wellbeing. It’s cruel to bring a creature into the world for the sole purpose of exploitation and murder, when you don’t need to. You can just live vegan.
[03:48]
Is it okay to kill an animal if you gave them a good life? No matter how you treat an animal, the bottom line is you don’t actually need to kill them. Taking their life is an unnecessary cruelty. There is no polite way to murder someone. If you went out on a date with someone and showed them a great time and then drugged the person and raped them, even if they did not experience pain and suffering, your actions are still immoral.
[03:48]
“Is it morally acceptable to kill when you don’t need to?” This is another important question. According to The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, a properly planned vegan diet is nutritionally adequate for all stages of life. Since we have established that animals are killed for sensory pleasure, we must conclude that killing them is unnecessary. Animals are sentient beings that have the will to live, avoid harm and suffering, and the desire to experience wellbeing.
[03:49]
In the meat and dairy industries, animals are forcibly impregnated via artificial insemination. Artificial insemination is the soft term the industry uses to downplay the rape and sexual exploitation of these beings. Don’t be fooled. It is rape. If this was done to a human being, it would be unacceptable, but because it is happening behind closed doors where their screams cannot be heard by you, the consumer, it is easy for the average person to shut their eyes and heart to the suffering of these innocent creatures. It’s easier to look away and tell yourself that somewhere in this monstrous industry, something humane has happened. That these animals have had a good life and a clean death. This is a comforting lie but a lie none the less.
[03:49]
“free range” and “cage free” eggs are not more humane than other eggs. These terms were coined by the egg industry to make you feel better about buying eggs, to make you think that the chickens live happy lives, free-roaming. THIS IS A LIE. Cage free and free range chickens are kept in factory sheds, much like those the egg laying hens are raised in. They suffer the same deficiencies and cruel conditions as hens raised in battery cages.
[03:50]
There is no essential nutrient found in animal products you cannot obtain elsewhere. You can be perfectly healthy on a plant based diet as acknowledged by the academy of nutrition and dietetics. It's senseless premeditated murder to participate in animal exploitation. Leave animals the fuck alone.
[03:50]
Some of these are a bit agressive, apologies
[03:50]
I wrote them a few years ago
​
Victorpollack — Today at 03:51
The question of whether sensory pleasure justifies violence is a complex ethical issue that requires careful consideration. While it is true that in today's society there are abundant plant-based food options available, and it is no longer necessary to exploit animals for food, the ethical implications extend beyond mere taste satisfaction. Your analogy highlighting other forms of sensory pleasure, such as theft, rape, and murder, raises valid points about the disregard for the well-being of victims in these acts of injustice. It emphasizes the importance of considering the moral implications of our actions and the consequences they have on others. When it comes to animal exploitation for taste satisfaction, it is crucial to recognize that animals can experience pain, suffering, and have an interest in avoiding harm, much like humans do. Many people argue that because animals possess the capacity to suffer, it is morally wrong to cause them unnecessary harm for our pleasure or convenience. Ethical frameworks differ among individuals and cultures, and reasonable people may hold different perspectives on this matter. Some argue that there are instances where violence can be justified, such as self-defense or protecting others from harm. However, when it comes to exploiting animals for taste pleasure, the necessity and ethical justifiability are heavily debated.
[03:51]
Ultimately, the decision to consume animal products is a personal choice that depends on a variety of factors, including one's values, beliefs, and consideration of the moral implications involved. It is important to engage in open and respectful discussions about these issues, promoting understanding and empathy for different perspectives, while striving towards a more compassionate and sustainable world. The ethics of killing animals bred for food is a highly debated topic, and opinions vary among individuals and cultures. Some argue that if an animal has been bred and raised for the specific purpose of being food, then it is acceptable to kill them for that purpose. They may contend that these animals would not exist if it weren't for the demand for their meat, and thus their lives have some inherent value in fulfilling their intended purpose. On the other hand, there are those who believe that breeding animals for the sole purpose of exploitation and slaughter is inherently cruel. They argue that animals have their own interests in life, to live, avoid harm, and experience well-being, regardless of the intentions behind their breeding. They advocate for a more compassionate approach, suggesting that we should prioritize the well-being of these animals and work towards reducing or eliminating their suffering by adopting a vegan lifestyle. It is important to note that these viewpoints stem from differing ethical frameworks and values. Ultimately, the decision on whether it is acceptable to kill animals bred for food is a personal choice that depends on one's beliefs and moral considerations. Engaging in respectful discussions and considering the perspectives of others can help foster understanding and empathy on this complex issue. It is essential to approach these conversations with an open mind and a willingness to explore different viewpoints in order to promote compassionate and sustainable choices.
[03:53]
I think this is the most diplomatic way one could answer :p
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:55
Do you know what speciesism is
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Victorpollack — Today at 03:55
Belief that one species is surperior to others.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:55
It's the entire reason animal exploitation exists
[03:56]
The root cause
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Victorpollack — Today at 03:57
However, it is important to note that the causes and perpetuation of the animal-food industry are multi-faceted. Economic factors, cultural traditions, and individual choices also play significant roles in shaping the industry's practices and growth.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:57
Same concept as racism, antisemitism, sexism, ableism, etc etc
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Victorpollack — Today at 03:59
moral relativism..
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:59
Hm?
[03:59]
I can see you're going to teach me some stuff
[03:59]
Excited
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:00
I just want to point out that moral relativism could be put within those categories.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:00
Please define moral relativism
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:01
Sorry I'm thinking of another word
[04:01]
It's at the tip of my tounge
[04:01]
Moral relativism is the opposite of what I was going for,
[04:02]
Moral relativism is a philosophical standpoint that suggests moral judgments and values are not objectively true or universally applicable, but rather depend on individual, cultural, or societal perspectives. According to moral relativism, there are no absolute or universal moral standards that can be objectively established. Instead, moral judgments are considered to be relative to the particular context, beliefs, or cultural norms in which they arise. This view recognizes that different individuals or societies may have diverse moral frameworks, and what is considered morally right or wrong can vary accordingly. It emphasizes the importance of understanding and respecting different moral perspectives without asserting the existence of absolute moral truths.
[04:02]
Moral superiority is what I wanted to say
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:03
I don't understand your point
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:05
What I'm saying is that it's important to hold your views while realising the danger of falling into the same practices that which you wish to avoid.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:06
Owning slaves was socially acceptable not even that long ago, do you think that slavery is objectively bad?
[04:06]
It was also culturally accepted
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:07
Indeed.
[04:08]
It was however a product of the times during which much of the world had no concept of philosophy, scientific method and access to information.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:08
Do you see the parallel?
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:08
I absolutely see your point of view, yes.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:08
What are your thoughts on the matter
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:09
To summarize it is a complex and multi-faceted issue. Ultimately, the decision on whether it is acceptable to kill animals bred for food is a personal choice that depends on one's beliefs and moral considerations.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:10
Now replace "kill animals" with "own slaves"
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:11
That would not apply in modern times.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:11
I don't see a difference
[04:12]
Having one standard for animals and another for humans is speciesist
[04:12]
Would you hold the same position with any other injustice
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:13
Killing animals and owning slaves are distinct practices with different ethical considerations. While both involve the treatment of living beings, there are significant differences in the nature and moral implications of these actions. Here are some key distinctions: Moral status: Slavery involves the ownership and subjugation of human beings, denying their basic rights, freedoms, and autonomy. Slavery is widely condemned due to its inherent violation of human rights and the principle of equality among individuals. Animals, on the other hand, are often not considered to have the same moral status as humans.This difference in moral standing is a point of ethical contention and subject to various philosophical perspectives. Consent, autonomy: Slavery involves the deprivation of an individual's consent and autonomy. Enslaved people are forced into a state of subordination and are often subjected to coercion, violence, and exploitation. In contrast, animals do not possess the same level of cognitive and moral agency as humans. This difference in cognitive capacity and understanding raises questions about the extent to which animals can give informed consent or exercise autonomy. Historical and societal context: Slavery has a long history deeply rooted in systemic oppression, racism, and the exploitation of vulnerable populations. It has been a significant source of suffering and injustice throughout human history. While animal exploitation in various forms has also existed throughout history, the moral considerations and societal attitudes toward animal rights have evolved over time, with increasing recognition of the ethical treatment of animals. It is important to note that the comparison between killing animals and owning slaves can be complex, as it involves different philosophical perspectives, cultural contexts, and individual beliefs. Ethical discussions around these topics are ongoing, and viewpoints may differ based on diverse moral frameworks and values.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:16
There are humans who have less cognitive capacity than animals
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:16
That we can definitely agree on haha.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:17
Still we wouldn't exploit and kill them
[04:17]
And personally I don't know anyone, human or animal, that would consent to what you saw in dominion
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:18
A lot of people do exploit those cognitively impaired. Plenty of scammers out there.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:18
I'm sure you hear the screams
[04:18]
Yeah but would you?
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:18
Me? No.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:18
Then why fund animal exploitation
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:19
I suppose I hold a different viewpoint on the matter.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:20
Would you explain your personal viewpoint
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:23
The fact is that no matter what I personally do, I won't change global trends and practices of the trade. In the short lifespan that I have, I do not want to spend my life trying to turn rivers back upstream. I do not want to fight the windmills. Therefore I see no reason to change whatever my habits are within the world I live regardless of my ethical stance on the matter.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:24
So an appeal to futility
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:24
I have different priorities is all.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:25
Your logic is inherently flawed tho
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:25
How come?
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:26
Because your stance is fallacious
[04:26]
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[04:27]
Just because you can't end animal exploitation doesn't mean you shouldn't minimize the harm you do
[04:27]
Can't end rape either, doesn't make it okay
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:29
Even if that may be, like I have mentioned. My priorities are different and I do not have the privilege to allow myself such an endeavour without compromising them.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:30
You're human, you have the privilege not to be exploited and murdered, unlike your victims
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:30
However I admire your spirit of having a clear vision of what your stances and beliefs are and giving it your 100%.
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@👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻
You're human, you have the privilege not to be exploited and murdered, unlike your victims
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:31
I beg to differ, I have been exploited many of times.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:32
Have you been anally fisted, forced to bear children, and then had those children stolen and murdered
[04:32]
Cause that's dairy
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:32
No, but I have been brutally beaten, stolen from, used for unpaid labour.
[04:33]
Therefore I can't say I see the world quite as pretty as it may seem.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:33
So why fund the oppression of others when you yourself have been oppressed
[04:34]
Your view seems extremely selfish to me
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:35
Because I have more pressing matters to attend to in my own personal life. Perhaps it is selfish of me to want to ensure my own well-being and of my fellow humans before attending to needs of poor animals that have bad conditions, however that is my set of priorites.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:36
When you go vegan you don't give anything up, you just stop taking what was never yours to begin with
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:37
However it does require resources such as time, effort and attention... Things I do not have to spare unfortunately.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:37
You're honestly telling me you can't spare the time it takes to read a list of ingredients?
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:38
I can't spare time to even cook most of the time.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:38
Me either
[04:38]
I get microwave shit
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:39
Good stuff. Well.. That has been an exhilarating conversation. How about a new topic?
[04:39]
You mentioned you like science fiction as well. What is your favorite movie?
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:40
I'm not really interested in pursuing this friendship, I can't consolidate the whole you activity supporting things I'm morally opposed to. The same reason I don't make friends with racists, sexists, etc etc
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:42
I have not in any way suggested that I support animal cruelty of any sort.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:42
You support it with your actions
[04:42]
Words are easy
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:44
However, if my inability to completely rework my entire life around your moral stance is enough for you to not want to be acquainted with me, than I must say I think there is nothing else I can do no matter how much I wish I could be your friend.
[04:44]
Well it's been a pleasure and I wish you a pleasant night.