Not Prime Time

September 25, 2019 — Kaye

Alternatively: Amazon Is Guilty Of Many Things, But Your Bad Shopping Habits Aren’t One Of Them.

However, I felt that was too long for the title box.

I recently purchased Amazon Prime, though for half of the discounted monthly price instead of the regular price. For whatever reason, they gave me an offer to extend the trial, so I’m currently getting two free months of Amazon Prime. The only benefits I really care for are the fast shipping and the discounts. Yes, I know you get free shipping if you spend over twenty-five dollars, but I said fast, not free. Not that I’d subscribe to Prime if I had to still pay for shipping.

Anyway, I searched for some reviews on Prime. The general opinion is it’s worth it if you shop on Amazon a lot, you live in a rural area, or you have a child. Of course, some people think Prime is trash, and that’s a valid opinion too. Online shopping is a luxury, after all.

But among the bad reviews, something I couldn’t help noticing is a lot of people claimed they saved more money after cancelling their Prime subscription because they didn’t shop as much for items they don’t need.

Amazon is no saint – big duh – but if you were needlessly buying items you didn’t need solely to make use of Prime, that’s not their fault.

Amazon does the same of any company that offers paid subscriptions. Yes, they make it easy to shop (ex: one-click button), but the same can be said about any store. I used to be a cashier, and I lost count of how many times a customer with an overloaded cart told me they came in for only one item. There’s no difference between doing that with Amazon and any other store, physical or virtual. We put extra stuff in the waiting aisle because we want you to buy more.

Yes, it makes it easier, but ultimately, it comes down to self-control and that’s never on the store. I’m not sitting on a high horse. I’m guilty of buying more than I came in for. I didn’t become a big shopper until I started working in retail, and I really just wanted to use my employee discount. But that’s still my fault, not my job’s. They’re not responsible for my shopping habits.

Now, yes, it makes sense to avoid something that makes you feel an unnecessary urgent need. I’d say cancelling Prime or avoiding a certain store is exercising self-control… if you can admit you were the cause. If someone blames their habits on Amazon, or any other store, they’ll merely take those habits elsewhere after cancelling Prime.

As for myself, I’ve had Prime for seven days and haven’t made a purchase since, despite wanting to. I haven’t seen anything I care to buy. I was interested in Amazon Fresh, but that’s an additional $14.99 per month, and shipping still costs a fee, so screw that. I doubt I’ll keep Prime for a year, but it’s going to prove useful for Halloween. Yes, I still wear costumes. No better candy than free candy!

Edit: Amazon Fresh is now free for Prime members and Prime Video has the entire Pokemon series, so I will be keeping that membership, and switching to a yearly subscription when I can afford to do so.

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Setting The Bar Low

September 21, 2019 — Kaye

I don’t like to bring up social issues on this blog. There’s probably something that makes this seem like a lie, but I genuinely don’t. However, this is one I couldn’t ignore.

I’d rather not get into the details, but two days ago, I got a huge reminder of how fortunate I am to have my boyfriend. I say that in spite of the arguments and near breakups we’ve had, and I mean it. I’ve read a lot how men are praised for doing the bare minimum, especially when it comes to caring for their children, and I agree it’s ridiculous if that’s the case. At the same time, when you’ve never gotten even that, the bare minimum can seem like the peak of the mountain.

A friend of mine is in a very rough spot right now. She’s staying with friends and relatives, alternating between houses. She had to argue with her boyfriend just to get his attention and check in with him if he’s home or not, despite he knew she had to go out. From her frustration and arguing, it was obvious this happened a lot. He apparently has a habit of ignoring her just to rile her up (if she’s not exaggerating). Even when she finally got a hold of him, they continued arguing. All because she wanted to know if he was home or not so he could possibly let her in.

My boyfriend came with me when I needed a root canal for no other reason than I asked and was anxious. He asked the dentist if he could hold my hand. He couldn’t (dentist said certain things splatter), but he was allowed to stay in the room, so he did. Note my boyfriend lives thirty miles away, so this is going out of his way. He still did it, and arranged his work schedule to allow him the time for it.

That specific example may not be the bare minimum, but caring for your partner’s well-being is. January 2020 will mark five years since we met (June 2020 will be five years of being a couple), so any honeymoon phase ended long ago.

I hear of relationship struggles like my friend’s all the time. In general, it’s a running joke a woman’s first child is her husband and it’s so odd to me because that doesn’t describe my boyfriend at all. Contrarily, as an example, we argue (playfully) about who does domestic chores better and he insists on doing certain ones because “I don’t do it right”. Yet for some women, their boyfriend or husband washing a single dish would be a small victory.

I know being over the moon for doing what anyone who shares a household or a relationship should do is setting the bar low (note: I’m talking heaps of praise, not simple appreciation and a thank you), and my boyfriend agrees, but it’s hard not to feel I lucked out when I grew up with and continue to be surrounded by relationships where it’s an endless battle solely to get a helping hand. When my friend was arguing with her boyfriend on the phone to know if he’s home, my mind couldn’t stop drifting to my boyfriend, who’d wait at home all day until I came back if he knew I couldn’t get in without him (or give me the key, which is more sensible).

I feel writing this post is mocking people who have these struggles in their relationships, and that is not my intent. Rather, it’s bewildering to me this is so common, getting the bare minimum feels like winning a battle. I’m describing an observation, not trying to belittle others, and a very confusing one at that.

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Break It Down

June 20, 2016 — Kaye

I’ve got an art problem and it starts with “impatience”.

It’s much more fun look at your own than make it. At least, that’s how I feel when things start taking longer than I’d like. For the most part, I can reasonably assume how long something will take to finish because I’ve done it before. If it’s more than a day, the idea doesn’t leave my head. And I hate that.

The reason that happens is if something goes on for too long, I get bored of it, especially if I’m been working on it for several hours in a row. The longest I’ve ever worked on something was 14 hours and I still wasn’t finished. It’s not too hard to see why I didn’t want to open an art program again for a while.

I asked for advice on DeivantArt’s forum and I got two ideas I found useful. One was to take some time to make a bunch of rough drafts and sketches. It’s still practice and it’s hard to really get bored when they take about a half hour at most. That was a good idea to me because I do sketching. Can make everything messy and clean it up later. Besides, who says they all have to make it off the page? Some of my drawings never leave the sketchbook, which is probably good because some of them are really bad ideas.

The other idea was breaking down the process into smaller goals to achieve for the day instead of worrying about finishing the whole thing at once and getting it all done as soon as possible. Unless I don’t want to digitize it, my drawing process usually goes in this order: pencil sketch, transfer, outline, details, color, shade, background, sign and watermark, upload. Done. Depending on the size of what I’m trying to make, that can be a very long process, and it never looks like it took as long as it did. Something I spent three weeks on will often look like it only took half a day.

I feel like doing so makes me lazy, but I like the idea that I can just do one part at a time and decide I’m done of the day instead of trying to get it done as quickly as possible. That’s probably why they look so bad in the first place, in addition to the low skill I have. That’s not a new idea to me. Just one I always felt made me a lazy person because I’m making it easy on myself. Of course, if this is supposed to be fun, I probably should do that. I’m not exactly trying to make a career out of this. Having to rush, and still being unable to keep up, is why I never did well in art classes during high school.

I don’t know when I’m going to create or rework something again, but whenever I’ll do, I’ll give that idea a shot. Hopefully, it’s something I can manage to stick to.

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Goodbye, Sims 4

June 24, 2015 — Kaye

I talked about Sims 4 before on this blog, when I got some hate thrown at me for not being excited about the game. I can’t say I was wrong. To me, this game is a mess.

I did like it for a while, but it couldn’t hold my interest. Even when I did like it, I could only play it for 2-3 hours. Eventually, the time I could enjoy it lessened and it reached the point where this game was making me yawn within 5-10 minutes of playing. Creating sims, building, and moving things around were fun, but playing with them? No.

I’ve uninstalled it and I don’t miss it at all. I’m not interested in anything for it simply because no amount of new content can fix most of my problems with the game. Read the rest of this entry »

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