I now know firsthand that going to a car dealership is…an experience.
I went going exactly what car I wanted and I imagine that if you don’t know that much it’ll be easier for a dealership to screw you over when you get there by feeding you misinformation about a car, manipulating you into buying a more expensive model, and etc.
I had already done all my research online so I knew what I wanted. Down to the color. (Green is my favorite color!)
So boyfriend and I went (I followed Tumblr’s advice about bringing a man lol). And I test drove the car and loved it just like I knew I would. And THEN the real dealership experience began.
The bottomline is that I knew my credit score and so I knew what kind of interest rate (APR) I should expect. I also knew the manufacturer price of the car (MSRP) and I knew how much they were selling for on average in my area ($3k less than MSRP).
So I knew what I was going to pay and I had already decided on that in my head.
So dealer #1 (a white guy–this is relevant to mention lol) brings back the first set of numbers. He cushions it with making small talk and flattering me on starting my PhD in August. He also chats up boyfriend.
The numbers were bad. I could tell looking at it. Although they didn’t say the APR, I knew that my monthly rate shouldn’t be that high based on the number of months I’d be paying it. Also they only gave me $2k off MSRP.
I noted that the sticker price was too high because I can go to another dealer and get it cheaper and they knocked off another $1k.
And then I asked him what the APR was. He was very evasive and kept telling me to look at the monthly payments because that’s what “really matters.” No, what really matters is what I’m paying for the car overall which is the sticker price + state fees (unavoidable) + interest rate.
Dealer #1 finally told me the APR and it was 3x the rate I knew I was eligible for. I told him that’s not gonna work. He turned aggressive and said that I’m a first time buyer and I can’t expect better and that I’m being unrealistic to expect a lower rate and etc etc.
So I said that my bank quoted me a rate half that much and I’ll just go through them and buy later (at a different dealer). Because I want the car but there’s 2 other places I can go to get it in my area.
Then all of a sudden dealer #1 could get me a better APR. His next offer was 2x what I wanted to pay. I said nah that good enough.
Then they brought out dealer #2, who was a Black guy. He didn’t sit down and instantly start talking about the price. He said a bunch of small talk and said some stuff about being Black lol. Tryna be chummy chummy and connect with us on a racial level.
Then he tried to push the same numbers as dealer #1. I said I know I’m young and I don’t have a math background but you’re charging me way too much for this car and I’m not going to buy it at that price. Period. I said: get the APR down and I’ll buy the car. He kept telling me it wasn’t possible and I said okay…I won’t buy it.
But then he was like wait…lemme run the numbers. And ta da! He came back with the right APR. Also zero down. And payments lower than my target.
This whole process took 5 hours.
Moral of the story:
- know as much as you can before going to a dealership so you can focus on the numbers
- know your credit score so you know what your APR should be
- get approved through an independent bank for a loan so you have leverage to negotiate with a better rate from the dealer
- don’t focus on monthly payments. Times that by the amount of months so you know what you’re REALLY paying
- threaten to walk because stuff magically happens at dealerships when you do lol
This is why I ALWAYS finance directly with my bank. I was able to get a great interest rate and affordable payments. Also, I went with a small used car dealership with a great reputation, took the car to an independent mechanic for a check, and researched the hell out of cars before I decided, including test driving five separate cars until I found what I wanted.
Finally? If you are looking for a car, pick up Consumer Reports’ car issue. Objective data, repair histories on thousands of models, excellent advice on financing and buying - they have it all, and there isn’t a single advertisement.
I had never cosplayed before the first time I attended Chicago TARDIS in 2012. At that time I wore a male TARDIS suit, because that seemed a lot less common than the many fantastic TARDIS dresses seen at cons. I made a few variations of that over the years but I began thinking of ways to be able to incorporate something Pakistani into my cosplay, to show not just my love for the show but my own heritage.
With that in mind, on my next visit to Karachi, I went to a tailor to have the coat, shalwar-kameez, turban and khussas (the pointy shoes) made. Amusingly, this is the traditional pattern of a groom’s outfit, but the blue colour is definitely not traditional! I then translated the Police Box wording into Urdu and got it made into custom patches from a vendor on Etsy.
I will confess to some trepidation about wearing an outfit like that with Arabic calligraphy, but the response was very enthusiastic and positive. I’ve worn it for two years and have gotten an amazing amount of positive feedback and appreciation. My friend told me that someone told her it was a very brave thing to wear.. I don’t know if that is necessarily true but it was gratifying to hear.
There was certainly a lot of curiosity as the costume was instantly recognizable for what it was, just in a unique form. In some ways I think that immigrants always remain ambassadors, and this was one of the ways that I tried to be one. I came into cosplay a bit late but have since become an avid cosplayer.. Acting in the theater is one of my pastimes so in some ways it is a pretty natural fit!
Sometimes it’s just basic costumes but sometimes I like to visualize some fusions to mix things up, then I just need to find people who can make them.. I do have some ways to go in embodying the character while cosplaying, rather than just wearing the costume, but I hope to get that knack down. And I hope to keep finding ways to incorporate my heritage and background into the expression of the other things in life that I love!
I have a family friend who worked at our local Salvation Army headquarters as a a secretary. This particular office took all the Christmas donations for children in need, put them in a warehouse, and on a designated day the staff and their friends picked through them all, taking whatever they wanted. She saw people hauling away bikes donated for specific families. Some local children had hundreds of dollars of gifts donated in their name, and on Christmas they received three cheap things, items likely not even from the person who sponsored them.
My friend quit, and I’ve not given them a dime of my money since then.
Do not give to the Salvation Army.
Do Not. Give. To. Salvation. Army
Goodwill is a far better choice. Ditto local thrift shops. I won’t give the Salvation Army a dime.
I mean getting the government running is a priority RN. I’m sure Dems will get to it in time
Like they got around to closing Gitmo right?
the bill wasnt to fund ICE by itself the bill was to FUND THE GOVERNMENT PERIOD. Like seriously voting no to stop funding the government specifically to stop ICE from being funded is 1. not actually going to deal with the problem of abolishing ICE and 2. Only will continue to harm those who are affected by the shutdown. Like those whos families need the welfare programs that the bill voted to fund??
If we want to abolish ICE you dont do that by just saying ‘hi i vote to stop funding it’ once?? it takes LEGISLATION and WORK. Not just voting on one bill that isnt even focused on the issue at hand.
this is such a bullshit outrage piece and yall keep falling for it. incredible.
in 2019 we ARE reading articles and making sure we comprehend their contents and we are NOT posting headlines and reacting in outrage without even attempting to accrue further information
—
THIS WAS A FUCKING HIT PIECE.
YOU NEED TO STOP SCROLLING AND UNDERSTAND THIS.
THIS WAS NOT A MISUNDERSTANDING.
THIS WAS A DELIBERATE ATTEMPT TO TURN US AGAINST HER.
THIS WAS A FUCKING HIT PIECE.
—
They always do this with her and faux liberals get their page on, call her a cop and a fake.
Anyone else reading stuff like this and wondering how many people commenting saying she is Terrible are actually Russian psyops? Like, not to sound paranoid but IT ALREADY HAPPENED BEFORE.
Unless you actually look up the contents *and context* of a particular vote, especially on an omnibus bill, you’re probably misrepresenting things when you reblog posts with headlines or memes with text like this.
The European Parliament is meeting this week, and the committee that will decide the future of the controversial new Copyright Directive will meet next, and depending on what they do, it might be the end of the road for the internet as we know it.
The new Copyright Directive contains two deal-breaking clauses: the
first, Article 11, gives news sites the power to charge (or refused to
offer) a license fee for anyone who wants to link to their stories and
include more than a single word from the story to accompany the link.
Open access news sites can’t opt out of this regime, putting the whole
idea of public-interest, open-access news in jeopardy.
The second clause, Article 13, requires platforms to check all their
users’ posts against a crowdsourced database that is meant to list all
the copyrighted works that may not be distributed online. Anyone can put
anything in the database without penalty for falsely claiming
copyright, and the filters will overblock millions of users’ posts
either by falsely identifying them as a match, or because software can’t
tell fair use from copyright infringement.
Worst of all, both of these measures will cost hundreds of millions of
euros to comply with, and that will put every European alternative to
American Big Tech out of business (some versions propose exempting
companies with less than 10m euros/year in revenue, but that only means
that earning your 10,000,001st euro will trigger hundreds of millions of euros in compliance costs).
The next step in this process is called the “trilogue,” when the
representatives of European member-states negotiate with the EU. If
countries representing 36% of Europeans refuse to endorse Articles 11
and 13, the negotiations cannot proceed (this is called a “blocking
minority”).
That’s where you come in: many European governments oppose this already,
and with just a few more key players, we can rescue the internet – not
just the EU internet, but the internet we all use, because these
policies will be impossible to enforce just in the EU – from these brutal proposals.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has prepared letters targeting the negotiators from four key countries: Sweden, Poland, Germany, and Luxembourg, and we need citizens and residents of each of these countries to get in touch with their nation’s negotiators right away.
Time is of the essence. More than four million Europeans have signed a
petition opposing these proposals and MEPs are up for re-election in
May. Between the popular dissent, the vulnerability of MEPs in upcoming
elections, and the local nature of this round of negotiations, there’s
never been a time when everyday Europeans could have more of a say in
the EU’s deliberations.
Tell your Polish, German, Luxembourgian and Swedish friends!
How Can Star Wars Be So Good Even Though It’s So Deeply Flawed And Narratively Inconsistent And Was Created By A Dumbass
[picture of Marcia Lucas in the editing room]
Seriously, stop everything you’re doing for the next twenty minutes and watch this video:
Although “George Lucas” has become synonymous with “Star Wars,” it’s really his collaboration with – and occasionally intervention from – the creative team surrounding him that helped launch the first movie into the stratosphere.
As the video points out, the movie that won all those Academy Awards – including, critically, the one for editing – was sculpted into its best-known and deservingly praised form by the editing team of Marcia Lucas (seen above), Paul Hirsch and Richard Chew.
If you’re at all interested in filmmaking or specifically the making of Star Wars, I can’t recommend “How Star Wars was Saved in the Edit” enough.
I’ve reblogged this before without that video in the reply chain. DEFINITELY worth a watch for fans who want to confirm how important Marcia’s contribution was - and for younger fans who can’t understand why older fans absolutely detest the re-released re-edited versions. Those things were cut for a reason, George!
Or, how once again a woman saved a creative property and has been all but erased by an ungrateful man.
There was another post going around how the deletion of the early scene with Biggs wad gay erasure. No it wasn’t it was simply pacing and Marcia fixed it.
Almost every single time a scene is deleted, it’s for a reason: pacing, run time, bad characterization, frigidity.
How Can Star Wars Be So Good Even Though It’s So Deeply Flawed And Narratively Inconsistent And Was Created By A Dumbass
[picture of Marcia Lucas in the editing room]
Seriously, stop everything you’re doing for the next twenty minutes and watch this video:
Although “George Lucas” has become synonymous with “Star Wars,” it’s really his collaboration with – and occasionally intervention from – the creative team surrounding him that helped launch the first movie into the stratosphere.
As the video points out, the movie that won all those Academy Awards – including, critically, the one for editing – was sculpted into its best-known and deservingly praised form by the editing team of Marcia Lucas (seen above), Paul Hirsch and Richard Chew.
If you’re at all interested in filmmaking or specifically the making of Star Wars, I can’t recommend “How Star Wars was Saved in the Edit” enough.
I’ve reblogged this before without that video in the reply chain. DEFINITELY worth a watch for fans who want to confirm how important Marcia’s contribution was - and for younger fans who can’t understand why older fans absolutely detest the re-released re-edited versions. Those things were cut for a reason, George!
Or, how once again a woman saved a creative property and has been all but erased by an ungrateful man.
