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Brambonius

@brambonius.bsky.social

1.8K followers 920 following 3.5K posts

Officially an Earthling, creative in several ways and possibly out of the box (is there even one?), might use English, Dutch and other languages. Beware!
Human rights and the golden rule are a minimum!
All social constructs might need deconstruction...

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Brambonius

@brambonius.bsky.social

We have the word 'deconnectierecht' (right to deconnect) in Belgium and I think it's EU law even...

Woodo @woodo.bsky.social · 13h

Alt-Text Version

My American manager tried to write me up for "lack of commitment" because I leave at 5:00 PM sharp. I work in the Netherlands.

I work for the Dutch branch of a large US tech company. We recently got a new middle-manager based in New York. He seemed like a nice guy at first, but it turns out he is totally obsessed with "hustle culture."

Last week, we had a 1-on-1 meeting where he told me he was "concerned" about my dedication to the team. He listed his grievances quite clearly. He didn't like that my Slack status goes offline at 5:01 PM every single day. He was annoyed that I didn't reply to an email he sent on Saturday morning until Monday at 9:00 AM. And he was especially frustrated that I refused to join a "team bonding" Zoom call that was scheduled for 7 PM my time, which is 1 PM his time.

He gave me the usual speech about how "in this company, we go the extra mile" and that if I want to grow, I need to be more available.

I had to give him a bit of a reality check. I looked him in the eye over Zoom and told him that in the Netherlands, if you can't finish your work by 5 PM, it doesn't mean you are dedicated. It means you are inefficient or understaffed. I told him I am neither.

I also reminded him that contacting me outside of working hours for non-emergencies is actually frowned upon here, and that my contract is for 40 hours, not "40 hours plus nights and weekends."

He tried to threaten me with a Performance Improvement Plan. I immediately forwarded the email to our local Dutch HR representative. She literally laughed when she read it and told me to ignore him. She said she would have a "chat" with him about local labor laws.

Since then, he hasn't sent a single email after 5 PM. I honestly feel bad for you guys in the US. The fact that you have to apologize for having a life outside of work is insane to us

January 5, 2026 at 6:59 PM

Brambonius

@brambonius.bsky.social

There's something darkly funny about which posts get the extreme shadowbanning treatment on the other network....

(Screenshotted 7 hours after posting, 2 weergaven = 2 views while I'm supposed to have more than 1K followers over there...)

Tweet:

Text:
"Some people have weird ideas about what counts as a 'fun fact' on here..."
User:
Brambonius (@brambonius)
Time and Date:
2:03 p.m. · 5 jan. 2026
Engagement:

Weergaven (Views): 2

January 5, 2026 at 6:16 PM

Brambonius

@brambonius.bsky.social

Close as in being in Belgium being close to meeting a wild wolf probably (we have less than 20 for the whole country mostly in places where nobody comes), and they still might be right about the closest.
Distrustful individualism+transactionalism naturally leads to extreme loneliness it seems...

First Tweet:
"This is the closest a woman will come to hitting on you and you use the moment to brag to other single men online"
Second Tweet:
"There has been 3 instances in the past year where a girl in my apartment building (who I don’t know) asked me for help in moving heavy objects. I told them I’ll do it for money; when they refused, I walked away.
This is the correct course of action."

January 5, 2026 at 5:12 PM

Brambonius

@brambonius.bsky.social

Reminder: a 'married single mother' with a sponsor who expects sex but is otherwise uninvolved with her and their children does not signify a 'traditional marriage', it signifies a very dysfunctional family with a man who should never have married.

January 5, 2026 at 1:10 PM

Brambonius

@brambonius.bsky.social

For the #WIPsnips, here are Pyra and Ronan again.
Linguistic and cultural evolution between now and the 27th century, and our 2 naive pure souls here...

‘As an old saying says, “the friendship is the benefits”…’
‘Hmm, that sounds weird.’
‘Yeah, old sayings often do. It’s probably like a reference to something else, but I have no clue what. I don’t know what could be of more benefit than friendship itself.’
‘Maybe something like that shirt I wouldn’t have gotten from the people of the embassy if I weren’t your friend?’

January 5, 2026 at 11:29 AM

Brambonius

@brambonius.bsky.social

For the #WIPsnips, near the end of Pyra and Ronan's trip when they're going home, which can mean very different things to different people.

‘Almost home. Back to normal life.’ Pyra looked out the truck window, where the ruins had given way to trees again. All the way from here to Seventh City it would be forests and then endless fields of crops here and there. She moved closer to him, and took his hand. Ronan sighed and moved a little closer.
‘Home… That word means very different things to both of us… We literally come from different worlds that are just a few miles apart, and now we’re going back there after stay in a different reality for normal life as you call it. I mean, you have your village and I a Nation City and a horrible school to get back to… Plus I’m going to miss being with you all the time…’
‘Ah, that’s flattering…’
‘It’s all your fault, you know?’ Ronan said.
‘I didn’t do anything, except for not checking when that aeroplane would depart. All the rest was done by the both of us.’
‘I didn’t mean… I meant me falling for you. Nevermind. Well, you convinced me to escape into the city in Héva, and to cross the wilderness too. You always do dangerous things, that’s true.’
‘But it would have been boring if we wouldn’t have done those things. And it was educational!’ She grinned again.
‘It was, and it all ended well, but sometimes you need to think before you act, Pyra. It could have ended differently too, you know.’
‘I am good at calculating risks… And I had you as a second brain.’
‘Or you were lucky sometimes, and you literally needed me to stop you from doing even mores stupid things.’
‘Oh, but that would still mean we’re a good team, right?’

January 4, 2026 at 11:02 AM

Brambonius

@brambonius.bsky.social

Don't touch the pretty snail...

What is the scariest animal that no one talks about?
The cone snail.
Look at that beautiful shell, covered in pretty patterns! Don’t you just want to pick it up?
If you do, you’re as good as dead. They have a venomous, stinging tongue that stretches far enough to strike you no matter where you hold it from. A few microliters of cone snail toxin is powerful enough to kill 10 people, and the worst part? The stinger is full of painkillers so you won’t even realize you’ve been stung.

January 3, 2026 at 1:12 PM

Brambonius

@brambonius.bsky.social

For the #WIPsnips
Pyra and Ronan.
Being each other's calmth and safe space can be part of any close relationship, even in a conversation about relationships.

‘I need you as a friend now. We can get to the girlfriend thing later, there’s too much I need to recalibrate in my brain for now, and I need the Pyra that brings stability for that.’
She grabbed him closer and her slow breath combined with the touch of her warm body finally calmed him.
‘I’m keeping you stable by giving you a lot of hugs. Check. Fits in both roles, so don’t overthink it.’
‘I never thought I’d like hugging so much. The book was wrong about that too. I’m just a bit selective in who I let hug me, but I’m really getting used to them

January 3, 2026 at 12:39 PM

Brambonius

@brambonius.bsky.social

The seeds of Japanese knotweed in the cold Wintertime...

January 3, 2026 at 11:11 AM

Brambonius

@brambonius.bsky.social

The winterflowering sakura (Prunus x subhirtella 'autumnalis') is, eh, winterflowering again.

As it should...

Dark picture of 2 pink cherry blossom flowers, with vague buildings and sky in the background.

January 2, 2026 at 10:36 AM

Brambonius

@brambonius.bsky.social

This meme brought to you by Sambucus gang, or something like that...

January 1, 2026 at 9:54 PM

Reposted by Brambonius

Prof Emily

@professoremily.bsky.social

#WIPSnips #writingcommunity #writers #writesky

I've shared at least parts of this snip before, but I thought it fit for New Year 😈

From #Tenement, my dystopian mystery about people living in an infinite building.

After returning my book to its proper place, I lingered among the Tenement Records. Their dusty spines were labeled by ranges of dates, arranged in backwards chronological order: Year 351-355, Year 346-350, Year 341-345, and so on.

I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking for. But I picked up the oldest volume and began reading the first entry.

“Day One.” The looping words were written in faded brown ink. “On this day it was decided that a record should be kept of all the notable doings in the Tenement, so to preserve our history for posterity. We begin the counting of days at One, for none of us knows how long the Tenement has existed before today.”

I skipped ahead a few pages, skimming the words for anything promising: dark halls, strangers, outsiders, Back Door, Lazarus.

“Need help finding something, Noah?”

At the end of the aisle, Mr. Gellar the Librarian stood watching me.

I slipped the book of records back onto the shelf. “Uh—no, just browsing.”

“You sure?” he asked. “Because you know, if you do need help, I would be the one to ask. I know this Library better than I know my own apartment.”

“Well...” I hesitated. Then, deciding to take a chance, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the Nwissy. “Actually, could you help me find out what this thing is?”

January 1, 2026 at 1:57 PM

Brambonius

@brambonius.bsky.social

Always watch out for Christians who don't live by the golden rule.

January 1, 2026 at 8:46 PM

Brambonius

@brambonius.bsky.social

Something about this is scary.

(I suppose it's exaggerated too)

January 1, 2026 at 11:38 AM

Brambonius

@brambonius.bsky.social

For the #WIPsnips
May have shared an earlier version of this.
Pyra is serious about relationships and misconceptions about neurodivergence and already planning a future with Ronan. They still live in different worlds though...

(suggested song for the scene: beach boys - wouldn't it be nice)

‘We have all the time in the world. And I need to be serious about the right things. I can be unserious about the rest… But I’m serious about you, yes. And if we’re serious and get the Elders on our side, your parents will have a hard time keeping us apart… They will have to accept that that whole impossible thing was nonsense…’
‘We’re 15. I can’t rebel against them.’
‘You’re not a kid anymore. That’s why I would take the legal way… The laws of the outlaws are powerful…’
‘You think they’d let us?’
‘They’ll have to. And if they don’t we have to wait for 3 years and then you’re 18 and we’re both adults.’
‘The patient may never be able to live alone, and will need parental care beyond the normal age of maturity and all that. You don’t know if they’ll let me go after that age.’
‘That’s a load of industrial crockpot-soup, and you know it. There’s nothing about you that is described by all that nonsense. You can always find a job in our Ghost Town, and a place to live too. Maybe even with live-in girlfriend.’ She winked.
‘They said I’d probably not be able to ever do a job…’
‘They misdiagnosed you. A few Coggitio type three traits won’t make you too disabled to work. I’ve been travelling with you for more than a week now you know. I’ve seen you in action. I can vouch for you. And the beginner jobs are just working at the bar and the farm anyway.’
‘I’m not so sure of the bar.’
‘Aunt Leya will teach you. They have more timid introverts working there. I mean, Elder Michael worked in the Square bare for ages. He isn’t exactly the wildest extrovert either, is he?’

January 1, 2026 at 10:40 AM

Brambonius

@brambonius.bsky.social

Happy Gnu Year!

January 1, 2026 at 10:18 AM

Brambonius

@brambonius.bsky.social

Bad advice of the day:

'It doesn't have to get done, it just has to be perfect.' - An ADHD proverb

January 1, 2026 at 10:10 AM

Brambonius

@brambonius.bsky.social

Good morning.
According to the listeners of @stubru.bsky.social radio this is the best timeless song ever again. Put it loouud...

Pearl Jam - Black (Official Audio)

YouTube video by PearljamVEVO

www.youtube.com

January 1, 2026 at 9:04 AM

Brambonius

@brambonius.bsky.social

For the #WIPsnips
From the (almost end) of the story of Ronan and Pyra...
He'd probably rather face the old megatusker neo-mammoth of oakling wood than his parents at this moment.

‘Wake up youngsters, this is the end of your adventures for now. You’re home and there’s a whole welcoming commite for you two it seems.’ Sarah said from the driver’s seat.
With a shock they woke up, and let go of each other’s hand, which they were still holding. When had they even fallen asleep? Ronan shook his tingling hand and followed Pyra’s eyes. Apparently they were riding into Seventh City Ghost Town from wilderness gate, and a small crowd had gathered on the market square indeed.
‘Oh, oh, my mother’s there. The most adventurous part is only beginning for me, and not a fun one.’ Ronan moaned.
‘And my parents, and Eliza and half of the Elders, and my whole class too. So much for going unnoticed.’
‘I even see ambassador Jibrilla. Do you think we are in trouble?’
‘We might get some preaching, but I think they all were worried and are glad we’re back. Look at it that way, don’t forget they love us.’ Pyra said when the van parked.
‘They love you, I’m just an afterthought.’
‘You’re part of the story now. And you’re certainly a lead role too anyway.’

December 31, 2025 at 3:04 PM

Brambonius

@brambonius.bsky.social

Reminder: "Evil begins when you treat people like things." - Terry Pratchett (probably paraphrased)

December 31, 2025 at 8:05 AM

Brambonius

@brambonius.bsky.social

For the Ronan and Pyra story, no first kiss yet for Ronan.
(He's 15, lives in a rather dystopian place with strange gender dynamics and is considered 'unmarriable' because of weird reasons including his autism diagnosis so he doesn't really believe in romance for himself at this point.)