yeah insurance is always the bugbear here. I haven't got my bill for my recent ER trip yet and am dreading it.
The doctor asked me about pain relief and I said I usually used tylenol but hadn't taken anything in case they needed to see unmedicated pain and his response was "well, I'm gonna tell you to wait until you get back home; if we give you any here it will be like $100 a tablet"
That said: having to wait extra time for a procedure really sucks, I feel bad for Maribou.
Ugh yeah. My last two hospital visits were both ER visits - one in 2016 where I had persistent stomach pain that I scared myself into thinking was gallbladder (turned out it was gastritis after having had food poisoning; the NP pressed on my belly a couple places and when i didn't scream in pain she said "yeah this is almost certainly not gall bladder but we'll look at bloodwork to be sure" and ultimately I had to take a course of PPIs to quiet my stomach lining down but then was fine) and most recently a sprained knee (still hasn't healed up totally but is getting there) that I was afraid was a blown meniscus (again, i didn't scream at any of the "trigger point" pressures, could move everything, and the x-ray was unremarkable)
But yeah. I have visited people in hospital with something serious (or near the end of their lives) and that's really not fun. Haven't had a chance to do the new-baby visits, which would be more fun - most of my loved ones had their babies far away, or else, it was at a time when visitors weren't extremely welcomed unless they were immediate family.
I have a vague childhood memory of my dad throwing my brother and me in the back seat of the car, my mom in the front seat, and driving like a demon to the nearest ER (about 20 minutes away; he made it in 15) because my mom had taken an antibiotic she'd been prescribed and then said, "you know, I don't feel quite right and my throat is scratchy" and luckily he knew the right way to react; a dose of some kind of corticosteroid and a warning to call her doctor the next day and we all trooped back home.
My plans for this weekend are somewhat contradictory: first of all, I have to clean up the "depression nest"/"injured person nest" a bit - I sprained my knee (or maybe just really really pulled a muscle badly two weeks ago and the place has got BAD) but also remain fairly sessile in the hopes of this thing healing up the rest of the way.
The injury is nothing cool - I wasn't in a mosh-pit, I wasn't out chasing Bigfoot, I can't say "but you should see the other guy" - I just overworked my knee on uneven ground and then wore bad shoes and then turned kind of wrong in my cold house when changing clothes. I thought I'd torn a tendon but after an examination the ER doc concluded the worst was maybe a sprain. So I was in a giant immobilizer (ankle to thigh) for a week with crutches.
Walking on crutches takes more effort and energy than I had imagined.
Tuesday, I saw my regular doctor, her conclusion was the immobilizer was actually making things worse because I was throwing the rest of my body out of whack, so I now have a much smaller over-the-knee-only one, and a four-pronged cane. It hurts most when I first get up from sitting but works itself out with a little walking.
This morning is the first morning where I really felt like "hey this might get better on its own" rather than "damn, I guess in a couple weeks I have to go for an MRI and see what kind of horrific surgery I need." I'm also at the point of mildly cursing the immobilizer every time I have to put it on (I'm not supposed to walk far without it but can take it off when relaxing/sleeping) or adjust it (it does shift a little with walking)
At least I can actually walk now so I can go IN to the grocery store to pick out food rather than stare at a computer screen to order groceries and not be able to think what I need because I can't SEE stuff on the shelves.
I had a friend years ago who pointed out regularly that "separation of church and state" was originally conceived to as much protect religious groups from state interference as it was to protect the running of government from religious-group interference.
I mean, yes, lots of people hate the whole "no Nativity scenes on city public property" some places do, but I think those people would also hate being told "your particular denomination isn't allowed here any more.
Unfortunately right now to me, where I sit* it feels more like the church is meddling more in the government than the other way 'round. Or at least one very particular small arm of the Protestant Christian church.
(*a so-called Mainline Christian bordering on being "Progressive" Christian, but also a college biology professor at a public university and someone who has LGBTQ people in her life that she cares about and worries for)
This weekend is graduation, and I have to pack to travel to my mom's for Christmas. But today I have
- a research task to finish that will take several hours
- my spring Canvas shells to start filling
- a meeting with a student that MAY be woeful (student has been accused of plagiarism, with good reason, by another prof; the student is my advisee)
I was hoping to relax and enjoy a bit before traveling for Christmas, but, oh no
I have worn my pair that says "SHUT UP" to meetings. They need to make a "You're Killin' me, Smalls" pair, I think (I still say that from time to time, usually when someone donks up in lab)
"Elf" is fun. Depending on the age of any kids present, there's one "up yours" joke and maybe a tiny bit of innuendo but it's basically a good-hearted movie. There are some laugh out loud moments (at least for me), mainly focusing on the incongruity of a 6-foot-plus actual-human got up as an elf and sincerely being part of Elf Culture. Has a happy ending.
Home Alone is fun, too, and I was surprised about how much "heart" it had (the subplot with the old man estranged from his son) but you do have to suspend disbelief about the cartoonish violence that in the real would would have killed Harry and Marv. Some people prefer Home Alone II, which is set in a hotel and has a Tim Curry small part as a smarmy concierge.
I mostly watch the "classics" - The Bishop's Wife is a favorite of mine. But a lot of those are maybe a little slow paced for young kids, I don't know.
You can probably also find the old Rankin-Bass specials to binge. Years and years ago what used to be ABC Family would show all of them, including some of the less-well-known ones like Nestor the Donkey and The Christmas Snow on a Saturday a few weeks before Christmas.
Next week is finals for me - mine are all written, so it will just be the grading once they're done. Tonight I have to go out to dinner with a group of people; we are interviewing a potential new colleague today and traditionally we take them to one of the two really good restaurants in town for a meal. (the favorite place was all booked up with Christmas parties so it's going to be the expensive place instead)
I wonder how much of the so-called Lost Generation was affected, though, and maybe some of the hedonism of (some groups) in the so-called Roaring 20s was a reaction.
I know the covid pandemic changed me and I never caught the disease. Didn't change me for the better, I can say that. Not that I'm likely to go out dancing on tables or take a couple lovers in Paris and start writing poetry....
ThTh9: I will also confess I thought maybe the earthquake video was gonna be a parody where the joke was "the sound of the Earth when an earthquake hits" was the guy going "FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF[ish]" at the beginning but it was actually pretty cool. Sounds like someone practicing drums....
ThTh1: Yes, the trauma.. That's really underplayed. Just as a lot of workplaces seem to underplay the grief people losing a loved one (or experiencing a divorce) feel, and just expect them to keep pushing and keep working, everywhere expects people to be 100% back to normal
we aren't. I still cry more than I did in the before times. I have less ability to work sustainedly. In my students, I see similar things - more fear of uncertainty and need for regular reassurance and tendency to take the "safe" path, even beyond the fact that some of our new incoming students have zero study skills and if it seems even slightly difficult, they don't want to try.
But it's expected we are, and some people already seem to be forgetting the disruption. I was in a meeting with "outside evaluators" recently, where they were looking at our assessment data (I am on our general education council). And one of the well-paid outside consultants looked at us and said "your 2020 assessment data is very spotty, I don't like that, why is that so" and luckily before I could get up and say something totally impolitic, the VP of assessment stood up and said "Respectfully, during that time we were trying to transition to teaching entirely online, where x% (I forget the number she gave) of our students had unreliable internet at their homes"
I remain gobsmacked by that guy basically saying "Gee you didn't do everything absolutely perfectly while simultaneously trying not to die and worrying about your family members."
Small, less-expensive gifts (stocking presents?) but the best I've personally found for people who use pencils (I am a lab/field scientist and good pencils are essential):
Mitsubishi brand pencils. Yes, I think it's THAT Mitsubishi, but I've never been able to find out for sure: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000IGSDRS?ref=nb_sb_ss_w_as-reorder_k0_1_9&=&crid=RJCPDX1EW8RC&=&sprefix=mitsubish
They come in a cool retro looking box, too. The lead is baked or something so it breaks far less easily than many pencils.
If you don't like feeding money to Amazon (I know many don't), there are good pencils to be had at JetPens, just, apparently, not those exact ones.
Jetpens also has the best and niftiest pencil sharpener ever: the Kutsuwa Stad T'Gaal, which also sounds like it's a Klingon name: https://www.jetpens.com/Kutsuwa-Stad-T-Gaal-Pencil-Sharpener-Clear-Purple/pd/35939
They come in a couple different colors. Amazon has them, too, and maybe a good stationer's shop would carry them. You can set the dial for different degrees of pointiness of the pencil, and the case holds the sharpenings until you empty it. I have one of these in my research lab, one of them at home, and I've got two more on order - one for my office at work (yes, I have the one in the lab but they're cheap enough) and a fourth one to carry in my field kit.
Also the Leichtturm bound notebooks. You can get ones that are roughly 8" by 5', (the A6 size) so small enough for a backpack pocket or a barn coat pocket; they are what I use now for my reading notes and for lab/field notes. They also come in all kinds of nice colors. I think also someone who sketched or who wrote fiction might like this as a 'traveling idea book." If I remember you can get them with plain paper, ruled paper (which is what I get) or grid paper.
https://www.leuchtturm1917.us/
As for books, if they've not read Becky Chamber's "Monk and Robot" books (a two-book series) and they are at all into SF or need a vision of a more hopeful world, I greatly loved those books. It's basically what they call "hopepunk" and also describes a world with a greater sense of community than ours.
I also like giving people Blue Q socks (if they are the sort of folks who wouldn't use wool socks, or don't quite rate my handknit ones, or wouldn't care for them properly). Most of them have some kind of humorous or cheeky saying on them. Some are a little foul mouthed, so choose carefully. Though I know some moms who'd love a set of "I love my A**hole Kids" socks. (Maybe even a dog or cat mom....)
Men are allowed to have dealbreakers, but also if they have 35 dealbreakers including things like "she wants to vote in elections," they should not be surprised if interest from women is low.
(I am MOSTLY exaggerating for humor here, but also: I am very glad to live in a time where my ability to avoid abject poverty is not predicated on finding a man to marry)
It's a power thing. The alpha-man wants ALL the power - that list of "dump her immediately" contains things that he would think he should be able to do to her (like "shush" her). But she can't do to him. No reciprocity; he wants to be the petty despot. No wonder some of these guys wind up "incels."
They are men who demand 'respect" for themselves but are unwilling to grant it to other people (at least: to women, perhaps also to other men and presumably to their eventual children). I am immediately suspicious of a person who demands better treatment than what they give other people.
I got there early enough, I guess. The Brookshires (grocery) was fairly crowded by the time I got there (my last stop, it was slightly afternoon) but it wasn't too bad. I drove past my local wal-mart when coming back into town and I don't think there was a single parking spot open in their lot
One more week of classes, then finals. Then I finally get a longer break. Last week felt like it was two months long - I had a cold that may have precipitated with my dog allergy over Thanksgiving, several things went wrong (including my cell phone battery reaching the end of its life and my having to go and get a new phone), and we had a student with major problems, almost all of which were self-inflicted, but which the student chose to believe were the faculty not being able to drop things on 10 seconds notice and deal with the issues that had been brewing for a while, but which the student chose not to tell the faculty (I presume because: "if you wait until the last minute, it's harder for them to say no" or some similar nonsense).
But I have a couple days now to relax and do not-work things. One of which is getting groceries, I literally did not have time last week. I wound up ordering a pizza for dinner last night partly because I had nothing easily convertible into a main dish in the house.
What I REALLY want - and one of my colleagues agreed with me and said she wanted the same - is to just be able to sit on the sofa and watch dumb Hallmark meet-cute holiday movies and knit or crochet. But since running errands during the week is not really a thing that can happen now, I have to gird my loins in a few minutes and head to the Target.
(Yes, I know: Target the first weekend of December, right after payday. I'm going to regret it.)
yeah, same, what little I saw about her death/funeral were people talking about the good things she had done, or noting that a 77 year marriage is an amazing thing.
I had fewer side effects with the "new" Pfizer than any previous shots (other than the very first one). I am presuming that's because the proteins this one targets are quite different than the previous ones. The worst reaction was july 2022, the "OG forumula" third booster (got the bivalent in November 2022)
I currently have a couple students isolating with COVID, it's definitely still out there. Based on reports in her area, my 87-year-old-but-fully-vaccinated mom has gone back to masking out in public. I'm not quite there yet myself where I live but if she does when I'm up at Christmas i will too
In a couple hours I leave here to go to a train station a couple hours away, then hop on an Amtrak to go to my mom's. I get a few days with her before the whirlwind that is my brother's family arrives. I packed yesterday afternoon so I should be ready to go once I'm out of class (and have eaten lunch, and put some lamps on timers, and made sure to turn off/unplug everything I can....)
I remember those yogurt ads from the 1970s purporting that folks in the Caucasus who ate yogurt had these prodigiously long lives, and what's more, looked a good bit younger than their advanced age.
Of course it all turned out to be lies. Or exaggeration, whatever. I know there's a cultural thing a lot of places that wants to ascribe long life to the particularly righteous (which is ironically the reverse of the American claim that "only the good die young")
Do you mean like fingerprints? My new laptop has a fingerprint sensor to log in and at least half the time I have to default to the (mercifully: short, numeric, easily-remembered-by-me PIN) because "We don't recognize your fingerprint, try another finger"
("Fool, I am using the finger I set up the sensor with!")
the whole log-in to apps to do anything is evil when it's something this urgent. There has to be a way to do it better. I usually wind up cursing out the on-campus apps for things like requesting my textbooks for next semester and the like (seriously they expect me to *remember* a unique password with at least eight characters and an upper case letter, a lower case letter, a number, and a "special character" when I only use the app once every four months?)
But in this case, yeah: could be a case of life or death. I'm glad you're OK but I think every medical provider involved needs to feel shame about how much they delayed someone getting treatment because of stupid apps.
I dunno, I feel like a haunted house run by theater kids would be a lot more fun (in the over-the-top and amusing sense) than one run by carnies, but that might just be me
I have a commute of five minutes (I live about a mile and a half from campus). That's great, though the drawback is the town I live in is really, really small, and it feels smaller now after the pandemic - in the before-times, it felt like nothing to drive to the next biggest town (~25 miles) for grocery shopping and stuff. The pandemic and extended road construction (especially on a bridge over a river, where for a time there was barely any railing between YOU and a 30 foot drop onto a sandbar) broke me of it; now going south to shop feels like an Expedition.
I didn't like wfh though, but I suspect that's (a) because I teach and (b) we weren't given a lot of logistical support - like, I needed a whiteboard for one of my classes, I didn't have a good set up in zoom to draw/write what I needed (my laptop had a tiny trackpad that wasn't good and I couldn't afford to buy one of the accessory drawing pads) and it also got extremely lonesome. (Happily partnered people/familes that are close to each other, they don't know how good they had it then)
I went back to teaching in person as soon as we were allowed (fall 2020, though one of my classes had to be over zoom - too large for distancing in the rooms). This semester is the first one that's felt at least semi-normal since Spring 2019. (Fall 2019 was not normal for me; my father had died in July of that year)
***
there's a potluck at church (another return-to-normalcy I had missed) on Sunday; theme is "Tex-Mex" and I have a pretty good casserole with beef and salsa and corn and beans and tortillas and cheese I can make. That's probably the main effort of the weekend.
I've managed to get the covid booster and the annual flu shot, sometime I have to game out getting the shingles series, while doing it at a time when I will have a couple days recovery time because everyone tells me that's a rough vaccine. I had almost no reaction to the flu shot, and this covid booster gave me a brief fever (100 F for a couple hours) and a mild headache, a lot less than with previous boosters.
I feel like required treatment plus probably losing his pilot's license is sufficient. I don't think he needs to be locked up in prison, but definitely have rehab be made a requirement of avoiding stricter sentences. If the passengers want to sue Alaska for "pain and suffering" or whatever, that's something they can try.
And yes, this definitely needs to end up as a "hey airline* employees? Don't do this" message
(*also train engineers, bus drivers, etc., etc.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Weekend Plans Post: The Hospital”
yeah insurance is always the bugbear here. I haven't got my bill for my recent ER trip yet and am dreading it.
The doctor asked me about pain relief and I said I usually used tylenol but hadn't taken anything in case they needed to see unmedicated pain and his response was "well, I'm gonna tell you to wait until you get back home; if we give you any here it will be like $100 a tablet"
That said: having to wait extra time for a procedure really sucks, I feel bad for Maribou.
"
Ugh yeah. My last two hospital visits were both ER visits - one in 2016 where I had persistent stomach pain that I scared myself into thinking was gallbladder (turned out it was gastritis after having had food poisoning; the NP pressed on my belly a couple places and when i didn't scream in pain she said "yeah this is almost certainly not gall bladder but we'll look at bloodwork to be sure" and ultimately I had to take a course of PPIs to quiet my stomach lining down but then was fine) and most recently a sprained knee (still hasn't healed up totally but is getting there) that I was afraid was a blown meniscus (again, i didn't scream at any of the "trigger point" pressures, could move everything, and the x-ray was unremarkable)
But yeah. I have visited people in hospital with something serious (or near the end of their lives) and that's really not fun. Haven't had a chance to do the new-baby visits, which would be more fun - most of my loved ones had their babies far away, or else, it was at a time when visitors weren't extremely welcomed unless they were immediate family.
I have a vague childhood memory of my dad throwing my brother and me in the back seat of the car, my mom in the front seat, and driving like a demon to the nearest ER (about 20 minutes away; he made it in 15) because my mom had taken an antibiotic she'd been prescribed and then said, "you know, I don't feel quite right and my throat is scratchy" and luckily he knew the right way to react; a dose of some kind of corticosteroid and a warning to call her doctor the next day and we all trooped back home.
On “Weekend Plans Post: The Royal Rumble”
My plans for this weekend are somewhat contradictory: first of all, I have to clean up the "depression nest"/"injured person nest" a bit - I sprained my knee (or maybe just really really pulled a muscle badly two weeks ago and the place has got BAD) but also remain fairly sessile in the hopes of this thing healing up the rest of the way.
The injury is nothing cool - I wasn't in a mosh-pit, I wasn't out chasing Bigfoot, I can't say "but you should see the other guy" - I just overworked my knee on uneven ground and then wore bad shoes and then turned kind of wrong in my cold house when changing clothes. I thought I'd torn a tendon but after an examination the ER doc concluded the worst was maybe a sprain. So I was in a giant immobilizer (ankle to thigh) for a week with crutches.
Walking on crutches takes more effort and energy than I had imagined.
Tuesday, I saw my regular doctor, her conclusion was the immobilizer was actually making things worse because I was throwing the rest of my body out of whack, so I now have a much smaller over-the-knee-only one, and a four-pronged cane. It hurts most when I first get up from sitting but works itself out with a little walking.
This morning is the first morning where I really felt like "hey this might get better on its own" rather than "damn, I guess in a couple weeks I have to go for an MRI and see what kind of horrific surgery I need." I'm also at the point of mildly cursing the immobilizer every time I have to put it on (I'm not supposed to walk far without it but can take it off when relaxing/sleeping) or adjust it (it does shift a little with walking)
At least I can actually walk now so I can go IN to the grocery store to pick out food rather than stare at a computer screen to order groceries and not be able to think what I need because I can't SEE stuff on the shelves.
On “Trump and the Church”
I had a friend years ago who pointed out regularly that "separation of church and state" was originally conceived to as much protect religious groups from state interference as it was to protect the running of government from religious-group interference.
I mean, yes, lots of people hate the whole "no Nativity scenes on city public property" some places do, but I think those people would also hate being told "your particular denomination isn't allowed here any more.
Unfortunately right now to me, where I sit* it feels more like the church is meddling more in the government than the other way 'round. Or at least one very particular small arm of the Protestant Christian church.
(*a so-called Mainline Christian bordering on being "Progressive" Christian, but also a college biology professor at a public university and someone who has LGBTQ people in her life that she cares about and worries for)
On “Fighting Satan for Fame, Fortune, and Jesus, Or Something”
Not gonna comment on whatever theological angle may or may not be there, but I WILL quote Milhouse Van Houten:
"Trouble is a form of attention!"
On “Weekend Plans Post: The Fake Snowstorm and the Real One”
we have a thunderstorm this morning (womp womp).
This weekend is graduation, and I have to pack to travel to my mom's for Christmas. But today I have
- a research task to finish that will take several hours
- my spring Canvas shells to start filling
- a meeting with a student that MAY be woeful (student has been accused of plagiarism, with good reason, by another prof; the student is my advisee)
I was hoping to relax and enjoy a bit before traveling for Christmas, but, oh no
On “The Thirteenth Annual Mindless Diversions Unsolicited Shopping Guide”
I have worn my pair that says "SHUT UP" to meetings. They need to make a "You're Killin' me, Smalls" pair, I think (I still say that from time to time, usually when someone donks up in lab)
On “Weekend Plans Post: Wrapping up Christmas Shopping”
"Elf" is fun. Depending on the age of any kids present, there's one "up yours" joke and maybe a tiny bit of innuendo but it's basically a good-hearted movie. There are some laugh out loud moments (at least for me), mainly focusing on the incongruity of a 6-foot-plus actual-human got up as an elf and sincerely being part of Elf Culture. Has a happy ending.
Home Alone is fun, too, and I was surprised about how much "heart" it had (the subplot with the old man estranged from his son) but you do have to suspend disbelief about the cartoonish violence that in the real would would have killed Harry and Marv. Some people prefer Home Alone II, which is set in a hotel and has a Tim Curry small part as a smarmy concierge.
I mostly watch the "classics" - The Bishop's Wife is a favorite of mine. But a lot of those are maybe a little slow paced for young kids, I don't know.
You can probably also find the old Rankin-Bass specials to binge. Years and years ago what used to be ABC Family would show all of them, including some of the less-well-known ones like Nestor the Donkey and The Christmas Snow on a Saturday a few weeks before Christmas.
Next week is finals for me - mine are all written, so it will just be the grading once they're done. Tonight I have to go out to dinner with a group of people; we are interviewing a potential new colleague today and traditionally we take them to one of the two really good restaurants in town for a meal. (the favorite place was all booked up with Christmas parties so it's going to be the expensive place instead)
On “Thursday Throughput: Schooling Edition”
I wonder how much of the so-called Lost Generation was affected, though, and maybe some of the hedonism of (some groups) in the so-called Roaring 20s was a reaction.
I know the covid pandemic changed me and I never caught the disease. Didn't change me for the better, I can say that. Not that I'm likely to go out dancing on tables or take a couple lovers in Paris and start writing poetry....
"
ThTh9: I will also confess I thought maybe the earthquake video was gonna be a parody where the joke was "the sound of the Earth when an earthquake hits" was the guy going "FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF[ish]" at the beginning but it was actually pretty cool. Sounds like someone practicing drums....
"
ThTh1: Yes, the trauma.. That's really underplayed. Just as a lot of workplaces seem to underplay the grief people losing a loved one (or experiencing a divorce) feel, and just expect them to keep pushing and keep working, everywhere expects people to be 100% back to normal
we aren't. I still cry more than I did in the before times. I have less ability to work sustainedly. In my students, I see similar things - more fear of uncertainty and need for regular reassurance and tendency to take the "safe" path, even beyond the fact that some of our new incoming students have zero study skills and if it seems even slightly difficult, they don't want to try.
But it's expected we are, and some people already seem to be forgetting the disruption. I was in a meeting with "outside evaluators" recently, where they were looking at our assessment data (I am on our general education council). And one of the well-paid outside consultants looked at us and said "your 2020 assessment data is very spotty, I don't like that, why is that so" and luckily before I could get up and say something totally impolitic, the VP of assessment stood up and said "Respectfully, during that time we were trying to transition to teaching entirely online, where x% (I forget the number she gave) of our students had unreliable internet at their homes"
I remain gobsmacked by that guy basically saying "Gee you didn't do everything absolutely perfectly while simultaneously trying not to die and worrying about your family members."
On “The Thirteenth Annual Mindless Diversions Unsolicited Shopping Guide”
Small, less-expensive gifts (stocking presents?) but the best I've personally found for people who use pencils (I am a lab/field scientist and good pencils are essential):
Mitsubishi brand pencils. Yes, I think it's THAT Mitsubishi, but I've never been able to find out for sure: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000IGSDRS?ref=nb_sb_ss_w_as-reorder_k0_1_9&=&crid=RJCPDX1EW8RC&=&sprefix=mitsubish
They come in a cool retro looking box, too. The lead is baked or something so it breaks far less easily than many pencils.
If you don't like feeding money to Amazon (I know many don't), there are good pencils to be had at JetPens, just, apparently, not those exact ones.
Jetpens also has the best and niftiest pencil sharpener ever: the Kutsuwa Stad T'Gaal, which also sounds like it's a Klingon name: https://www.jetpens.com/Kutsuwa-Stad-T-Gaal-Pencil-Sharpener-Clear-Purple/pd/35939
They come in a couple different colors. Amazon has them, too, and maybe a good stationer's shop would carry them. You can set the dial for different degrees of pointiness of the pencil, and the case holds the sharpenings until you empty it. I have one of these in my research lab, one of them at home, and I've got two more on order - one for my office at work (yes, I have the one in the lab but they're cheap enough) and a fourth one to carry in my field kit.
Also the Leichtturm bound notebooks. You can get ones that are roughly 8" by 5', (the A6 size) so small enough for a backpack pocket or a barn coat pocket; they are what I use now for my reading notes and for lab/field notes. They also come in all kinds of nice colors. I think also someone who sketched or who wrote fiction might like this as a 'traveling idea book." If I remember you can get them with plain paper, ruled paper (which is what I get) or grid paper.
https://www.leuchtturm1917.us/
As for books, if they've not read Becky Chamber's "Monk and Robot" books (a two-book series) and they are at all into SF or need a vision of a more hopeful world, I greatly loved those books. It's basically what they call "hopepunk" and also describes a world with a greater sense of community than ours.
I also like giving people Blue Q socks (if they are the sort of folks who wouldn't use wool socks, or don't quite rate my handknit ones, or wouldn't care for them properly). Most of them have some kind of humorous or cheeky saying on them. Some are a little foul mouthed, so choose carefully. Though I know some moms who'd love a set of "I love my A**hole Kids" socks. (Maybe even a dog or cat mom....)
On “Moral Codes and Alpha Bros”
Men are allowed to have dealbreakers, but also if they have 35 dealbreakers including things like "she wants to vote in elections," they should not be surprised if interest from women is low.
(I am MOSTLY exaggerating for humor here, but also: I am very glad to live in a time where my ability to avoid abject poverty is not predicated on finding a man to marry)
"
It's a power thing. The alpha-man wants ALL the power - that list of "dump her immediately" contains things that he would think he should be able to do to her (like "shush" her). But she can't do to him. No reciprocity; he wants to be the petty despot. No wonder some of these guys wind up "incels."
They are men who demand 'respect" for themselves but are unwilling to grant it to other people (at least: to women, perhaps also to other men and presumably to their eventual children). I am immediately suspicious of a person who demands better treatment than what they give other people.
On “Weekend Plans Post: The Last Few Normal Weeks of the Year”
I got there early enough, I guess. The Brookshires (grocery) was fairly crowded by the time I got there (my last stop, it was slightly afternoon) but it wasn't too bad. I drove past my local wal-mart when coming back into town and I don't think there was a single parking spot open in their lot
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One more week of classes, then finals. Then I finally get a longer break. Last week felt like it was two months long - I had a cold that may have precipitated with my dog allergy over Thanksgiving, several things went wrong (including my cell phone battery reaching the end of its life and my having to go and get a new phone), and we had a student with major problems, almost all of which were self-inflicted, but which the student chose to believe were the faculty not being able to drop things on 10 seconds notice and deal with the issues that had been brewing for a while, but which the student chose not to tell the faculty (I presume because: "if you wait until the last minute, it's harder for them to say no" or some similar nonsense).
But I have a couple days now to relax and do not-work things. One of which is getting groceries, I literally did not have time last week. I wound up ordering a pizza for dinner last night partly because I had nothing easily convertible into a main dish in the house.
What I REALLY want - and one of my colleagues agreed with me and said she wanted the same - is to just be able to sit on the sofa and watch dumb Hallmark meet-cute holiday movies and knit or crochet. But since running errands during the week is not really a thing that can happen now, I have to gird my loins in a few minutes and head to the Target.
(Yes, I know: Target the first weekend of December, right after payday. I'm going to regret it.)
On “We Should Talk More About Dying, Cause You Will”
yeah, same, what little I saw about her death/funeral were people talking about the good things she had done, or noting that a 77 year marriage is an amazing thing.
On “CDC: COVID Lingering Effects A Drag on Life Expectancy”
I had fewer side effects with the "new" Pfizer than any previous shots (other than the very first one). I am presuming that's because the proteins this one targets are quite different than the previous ones. The worst reaction was july 2022, the "OG forumula" third booster (got the bivalent in November 2022)
I currently have a couple students isolating with COVID, it's definitely still out there. Based on reports in her area, my 87-year-old-but-fully-vaccinated mom has gone back to masking out in public. I'm not quite there yet myself where I live but if she does when I'm up at Christmas i will too
On “Weekend Plans Post: Getting Ready for Thanksgiving”
In a couple hours I leave here to go to a train station a couple hours away, then hop on an Amtrak to go to my mom's. I get a few days with her before the whirlwind that is my brother's family arrives. I packed yesterday afternoon so I should be ready to go once I'm out of class (and have eaten lunch, and put some lamps on timers, and made sure to turn off/unplug everything I can....)
On “Throughput: Worlds Collide Edition”
I remember those yogurt ads from the 1970s purporting that folks in the Caucasus who ate yogurt had these prodigiously long lives, and what's more, looked a good bit younger than their advanced age.
Of course it all turned out to be lies. Or exaggeration, whatever. I know there's a cultural thing a lot of places that wants to ascribe long life to the particularly righteous (which is ironically the reverse of the American claim that "only the good die young")
On “231 BPM”
Do you mean like fingerprints? My new laptop has a fingerprint sensor to log in and at least half the time I have to default to the (mercifully: short, numeric, easily-remembered-by-me PIN) because "We don't recognize your fingerprint, try another finger"
("Fool, I am using the finger I set up the sensor with!")
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the whole log-in to apps to do anything is evil when it's something this urgent. There has to be a way to do it better. I usually wind up cursing out the on-campus apps for things like requesting my textbooks for next semester and the like (seriously they expect me to *remember* a unique password with at least eight characters and an upper case letter, a lower case letter, a number, and a "special character" when I only use the app once every four months?)
But in this case, yeah: could be a case of life or death. I'm glad you're OK but I think every medical provider involved needs to feel shame about how much they delayed someone getting treatment because of stupid apps.
Oh, and congratulations on the new baby!
On “In Which Jaybird Goes To A Haunted House”
I dunno, I feel like a haunted house run by theater kids would be a lot more fun (in the over-the-top and amusing sense) than one run by carnies, but that might just be me
On “Weekend Plans Post: The Return to the Office”
I have a commute of five minutes (I live about a mile and a half from campus). That's great, though the drawback is the town I live in is really, really small, and it feels smaller now after the pandemic - in the before-times, it felt like nothing to drive to the next biggest town (~25 miles) for grocery shopping and stuff. The pandemic and extended road construction (especially on a bridge over a river, where for a time there was barely any railing between YOU and a 30 foot drop onto a sandbar) broke me of it; now going south to shop feels like an Expedition.
I didn't like wfh though, but I suspect that's (a) because I teach and (b) we weren't given a lot of logistical support - like, I needed a whiteboard for one of my classes, I didn't have a good set up in zoom to draw/write what I needed (my laptop had a tiny trackpad that wasn't good and I couldn't afford to buy one of the accessory drawing pads) and it also got extremely lonesome. (Happily partnered people/familes that are close to each other, they don't know how good they had it then)
I went back to teaching in person as soon as we were allowed (fall 2020, though one of my classes had to be over zoom - too large for distancing in the rooms). This semester is the first one that's felt at least semi-normal since Spring 2019. (Fall 2019 was not normal for me; my father had died in July of that year)
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there's a potluck at church (another return-to-normalcy I had missed) on Sunday; theme is "Tex-Mex" and I have a pretty good casserole with beef and salsa and corn and beans and tortillas and cheese I can make. That's probably the main effort of the weekend.
I've managed to get the covid booster and the annual flu shot, sometime I have to game out getting the shingles series, while doing it at a time when I will have a couple days recovery time because everyone tells me that's a rough vaccine. I had almost no reaction to the flu shot, and this covid booster gave me a brief fever (100 F for a couple hours) and a mild headache, a lot less than with previous boosters.
On “The Alaska Airlines Attack”
I feel like required treatment plus probably losing his pilot's license is sufficient. I don't think he needs to be locked up in prison, but definitely have rehab be made a requirement of avoiding stricter sentences. If the passengers want to sue Alaska for "pain and suffering" or whatever, that's something they can try.
And yes, this definitely needs to end up as a "hey airline* employees? Don't do this" message
(*also train engineers, bus drivers, etc., etc.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.