@Helical_Code Since we're in lizard mode over here...found this little guy sneaking into the garage and had to relocate him to the backyard oasis. He's only about an inch long!!

@Helical_Code The SO has traveled the world. The Galapagos islands is probably what she talks about most (alongside a very traumatic incident where a baby shat on her while she was on a train in India and she couldn't change her clothes for hours). If you ever get the opportunity to go, snatch it up without hesitation.

@Helical_Code LOL the SO piped up with "That's the Galapagos!" as soon as I started the video. She's been there and seen them. She says they're amazing (the islands and the iguanas).

@Helical_Code So Firnen is a middle aged mellow dragon who likes to lay around in lazy mode and make contented little popping noises...what an absolutely delightful creature!

@Helical_Code Same. My company tends to limit the number of PhDs they hire because we're expensive, we turn everything into a research project, we lack logic and practicality, and we like to work without disruption which makes us terrible project managers and poor mentors (we being incredibly generalized here and I try very hard not be any of that). I spend 50% of my day saying "yes you could get a more accurate estimate of the outcome, but does it change the design?"

@Helical_Code This is awesome. Does he/she get to run loose often? Growing up, my friends mom had iguanas, and we always had to be careful not to step on them when we were trying to sneak back into the house after hours because they would sleep on the stairs.

@Helical_Code LOL if there's a self cloning experiment in there somewhere, you should probably go ahead and add that that one to the prioritize list. Also...PhDs are so frustrating. We have very very specialized knowledge that so many of us feel places us above a certain level, and there's usually something to be learned from everyone, not just those we consider at or above our level. This week one of my minions taught me something new during our mentor meeting. She was so happy. I was thrilled.

@Helical_Code I seem to adopt minions on a regular basis. I teach them a lot of curse words. Tell them about all the mistakes I've made in my life so they can follow in my footsteps. I try to get them up to some competent level of independent engineering. Then, I turn them loose on the world and watch them wreak havoc. I wanted to be a professor but it hasn't happened (yet). So this is honestly the best part of my job and my company humors me.

@Helical_Code I hope you have an army of minions...

@cassandra17lina 😂 How was your drive home stepson? "Sh!tty as usual, thanks for asking"

@amarand Sooooo let's recap. I should set up my own ecommerce site (already done). I should charge shipping (already done). My company isn't profitable (not true). My product is a commodity (not true). Autumn's clients will pay whatever she charges them (good for her, we have very different clientele and products). My product isn't competitive enough (it is). Multinationals destroyed retail (ooook not touching this one). Amazon isn't going to save us (but they have). You can stop now b/c I'm out

@amarand Amazon is not kind to small business, but they are also the reason we are still in business. Even though we are a known brand name, website costs are lower, and we offer specials on our website that we do not offer on amazon....people will STILL choose to shop on amazon. Amazon is their security blanket.

@amarand Amazon does not fulfill our orders, we do. So amazon isn't offering free shipping on this item and neither do we, but the cost of shipping that consumers are willing to pay is not equivalent to what it actually costs to ship the item so we ship at a loss and lump it into the cost of the product. THEN when the customer returns it, AMAZON dictates the return packaging and we have no control over the cost of that shipment even though we could ship it much cheaper.

@amarand With all due respect. We sell cosmetics - venues and booths...no. We've been around over 50 years. We are a wholesaler with distributors. We are in catalogs, on distributor websites, and we have our own website. We have hustled our butts forever. 80% of our profit comes from Amazon because that's where consumers want to shop. So you either get with the times or you get left behind. Amazon sucks. We have a restock fee when amazon allows us to use it. Amazon forces us to allow returns.

What it's like to be a small business on amazon: Hi, I ordered this thing from you and you paid to ship the item to me. You gave me exactly what I ordered but I don't quite like the color. So I would like you to pay the cost so I can ship it back to you and I would like you to refund all of my money. You are out the cost of shipping both ways, and the sale, and the time and effort it took to send it to me and to restock it into your inventory. I feel this is fair. #somepeople #comeon

@Helical_Code I have new wool arriving in the mail today. If I could take PTO and have this retaining wall design itself...I would not be at work. #Ifeelyou #ignoreus

@GrandmaJ I love our solar lights. they also allow me to monitor the yard at night and locate doggo 1 and doggo 2 when they're being naughty.

Whew boy....accidentally let the SO run out of ashwagandha. Living dangerously over here. Won't let that happen again. #notcalm #cranky

@GrandmaJ 😂 I am optimistic that these just may work out for you

@ArcturusSaDiablo I love camelcamelcamel.com and you can set up watch points to get alerts when the price goes below a set threshold, which is really nice.