Oh wow – it’s almost enough here to make me believe my silly way-to-into-astrology-ex-room-mate about this month. I was having an absolute shit day and figured y’alls furrinati and other stories would be a fun pick-me-up, but it looks like everyone else’s life is falling to bits in one way or another too. SO MANY HUGS for those who want them.
Ally, please be safe. Scary stalker families are no good, and I really hope you are mentally and physically insulated from him( them?) in the future. Katz too. I’m not entirely appraised of the situation, but it sounds unsettling for you both.
Pinapplecookies – I can’t contribute much that hasn’t already been said, but know that lots of us have been there, and you have a right to talk about it as much or little as you need.
Auggz – No wall-breathing for me, but sometimes if I stop paying attention tiled/patterned floors look like they’re crawling out of the corner of my eye. It’s unnerving.
Well, I’m pretty sure I just got my ass rejected from the last PhD program I had applied to this round thanks to a nasty cascade of events that led to one of the people that was supposed to write me a letter rather pettily failing to and then only informing me of this and why I deserve it after the fact (today, when recruitment in our department was going and I was wondering about not being informed). I am infuriated, and worse, I work with this person, so I had to play nice with her all day…
On the bright side, my lack of emotional breakdown about my now more-or-less-rudderless future proves that my new anxiety meds are more than up to the challenge that is my brain #_#.
This is not at all the healthy response, but I think I may go drink a bit now.
On the bright side Ally and Tawney are adorable, as is the war capybara.
Tawny is so clingy that she latches her claws onto my clothes whenever I try to lift her off of me. Soon my clothes will be full of holes, but I don’t really care.
wordsp1nner
10 years ago
Purrty kitty. It’s amazing what a blanket can do. A couple of years ago, my parents gave my sister and I both faux-sherpa blankets for Christmas (one red and white and one green and white) and they quickly became the kitties’ favorites. I stole mine from them and brought it to my apartment, where it quickly became a favorite of my new kitties. You can see it in four out of five of these photos including my current gravatar:
In other news, the Pacific Northwest has snowed and will continue to snow for a week. I have terrible tires for snow and I am terrified of driving in snow–the first time I tried, I lost control of my car while driving 5 MPH and trying to turn into a parking lot. The car stopped turning, but I couldn’t get it to stop either, and it almost went over the curb. My boss makes fun of me for being a wuss, but if it snows worse, I can’t get to work.
cassandrakitty
10 years ago
I’ve discovered that I can train the cat in terms of where I want her to lie (since she insists on invading the bed) by putting a hand towel on the spot I want her at. What is it with cats and sitting on stuff? She also sits on any piece of paper left on the floor. My old cat loved lying on remotes.
Argenti Aertheri
10 years ago
BENGAL KITTENS!!
And yep, they’re looking for a fight. The breed exists because of cross breeding with a wild cat species, they’re not like other house cats, they’re bred to play nice, but they’re still only a few generations removed from wild cats. So they won’t attack you or anything, but they bore silly easy and are as smart as wild cats — they’re not going to play hunt the same toy for long since it’s obviously not going to be dinner.
Really, really awesome cats, I totally miss my ex’s bengal (I seriously considered kidnapping that cat when he was in jail), but know what you’re getting into before you find your cat dragging leftovers out of the fridge!
Strangely, my ex’s bengal never showed any interest in the fish tanks other than seeing the 55g as a nice small enclosure to hang out under (I had a board on the bottom layer with the filter on it, she’d hang out under there, puff’s tank is on that layer of the stand now 🙂 )
Kiwi girl
10 years ago
Mine insist on sitting on my crochet patterns. While I am crocheting. Sometimes one wants to sit on my lap, and i’m lucky if I move what I’m working on out of the way before they plonk themselves down.
#firstworldcatproblems
@chimisaur, I didn’t realise there were PhD rounds. I started mine by talking to the person I knew would end up being my primary supervisor before I wrote my research proposal, because I wanted to make sure he was interested. It also helps that I’ve known him for ?15 years and we’re about the same age. Where I’m studying, it’s just up to the supervisor/student to make it work, there’s no actual placements as such. And you can start at any time during the year too, with renewal happening each year at the time of first enrolment. I have confirmation coming up in the next 6 months, which is the only formal bit I need to get through. And all postgrads in the department get an email inviting them to it. Luckily, I’m used to giving presentations so I shall be okay. And my program is coming along, albeit it slowly, but I only need to show a prototype (/phew). So best wishes for future intakes, and are there other options as to where you can study?
Were those Bengals? I thought Scottish Folds with the little squishy ears.
Love the story about Dominic, what a lovely dog (and lovely people looking after him).
wordsp1nner
10 years ago
I agree with kittehserf–they scottish folds (though not all had the fold–that isn’t unusual). This is according to the video poster in the comments.They are classic (blotched) tabbies, which are a little less common than the mackeral tabbies.
chimisaur
10 years ago
Yeah, the system in the U.S. has applications and interviews, just like undergrad, so even though I currently work with the P.I. I would likely be assigned to, I need to apply just like everybody else, and it would be totally cool if they just didn’t like me or my transcript, but it really chafes that another person kind of did in the whole thing in a way I could not foresee or control over a technicality. The fiancee (or however that’s spelled) is stuck in this city for work for the time being, and I have no other options in this city that are not laughably unlikely (posh private schools – I already have too many loans, and those kinds of places sneer at people who take 7ish years to finish undergrad, even if it was due to supporting themselves). So, I guess I get some kind of (hopefully non-service-industry, although with the unemployment rates in my city and field I am not very hopeful) job and wait for the next round of fall apps. Wow that was long, and probably really dull. Sorry for taking over the thread! Please continue with more important things.
And as an aside,Kiwi girl, thanks for the encouragement. Good luck in your program and speaking event! Am I correct in assuming you’re in NZ? One of my letter-writers that flaked out on me initially so that I had to get this other lady involved (I blame him much less though, he let me know ahead of time, for one thing) is my old PI and he moved his lab to Aukland and seems very happy there. Not that everyone in NZ knows one another, just that it seems to be a nice place to be an academic from my very limited experience. Okay, shutting up now >_<;
@chimisaur, yeah I’m in NZ but not going to mention what university I’m going to as that could ID me. The system you’re describing is way more formal than I have experienced here (I ended up starting the PhD with the second university I contacted, the first one didn’t have the decency to respond back to my research proposal, even after I had met face-to-face with the person who would have been my primary supervisor). Here, the universities just care about whether you’ll finish a PhD, and they don’t care if you’ve taken time out for work or raising a family or anything. I’d hate to be where you are, it sounds really snobbish / elitist.
From the fact that you mentioned a lab, I assume that you’re going to need to be physically in the university in order to do your PhD so a distance/extramural PhD is out of the question? 🙁
And I love hearing about what others are up to, so I didn’t find it boring at all. 🙂
chimisaur
10 years ago
You know what kitteh, it does seem useful. More valuable than the skills I’ve cultivated, at the very least. Kitty ears are cute and worth close study!
MEZ
10 years ago
@auggziliary
Does anyone get hallucinations where stuff “breathes”? It always looks like the walls/buildings are breathing to me. Also sometimes pictures look alive and 3d.
Could you be experiencing eye tricks? Are you feeling extremely anxious, or do you get panic attacks? It’s pretty normal for this to happen if you’re having a panic attack, or even just normally. 🙁
My life… well I’ll focus on the positives. I’m alive, and I’m grateful for all the people and good in my life. I WAS going to go back to school this month, but as usual everything has to go wrong at once. Oh well. I was actually planning on completely changing my direction in life; does anyone here work as a Nurse/CNA? Figure that if I’m going to have to deal with asshats, that I might as well make a real difference in how well someone’s feeling. 🙂
chimisaur
10 years ago
Yep, I don’t know of a way to tele-PhD in my field, so that’s out. What you described sounds like heaven right now though, no joke – maybe I should just grab the sig. other and go move.
I didn’t realize Aukland was a specific university; the way dudebro-old-supervisor was talking I inferred it was a city. My bad! I did not mean to tangentially pressure you into I.D-ing yourself!
In any case, I’ll live. I’m just prone to panic and this future-fails-resulting-from-drama thing is hitting me kind of hard as 1) the extent to which that woman screwed me and 2) the vodka sink in. Thank you again, Kiwi girl (and anyone else slogging through the comments) for being so darn nice about letting me vent. 😛
Kiwi girl
10 years ago
@chimisaur, The University of Auckland is in Auckland, along with AUT and one campus of Massey University. I have made the assumption that your PI went to the first, as the main science parts of Massey aren’t in Auckland, and I’m not sure about AUT. Auckland is touted as (one of) the best universities in NZ, so I had assumed that given your PI had immigrated into NZ, they probably went to University of Auckland. So I could have explained myself better in my reply.
I wish I had advice to give for your situation, but I’ve never had to experience anything like it so I have no suggestions. 🙁 All I can do is say I hope that things pick up. Hopefully the technicality can be resolved easily enough and you’ll get in for the next intake.
chimisaur
10 years ago
@Kiwi girl – Oh, I see. Well, if it changes things about where the P.I. went, he kind of Immigrated to where I am, and then had a kid and wanted to move back to NZ to raise him/her (I forget which; babies all kind of look alike to me) close to family, so it wasn’t like he was an AMAZING international jet-setting scientist of renown or anything (although I find his research awfully interesting, but that probably goes without saying). So, uh assumptions are silly, I think was my point. But in a friendly way, not all snobby and pokey.
I’m fine, really, although thank you for the wistful want-to-advise. I’m at the phase now where I’m thinking this is probably all for the best. I’ll do the next intake, or even take my chances with one of the snobby private schools since one does have a spring run and I don’t have much to lose, and just start completely over away from toxic people and what is, to be honest, kind of boring work even though I love my science in general. I very much miss my old lab *le sigh*.
You know what kitteh, it does seem useful. More valuable than the skills I’ve cultivated, at the very least. Kitty ears are cute and worth close study!
Don’t knock yourself! So many people here are ferociously educated, and
I so admire all the skills cultivated by manboobzers.
Even if they aren’t on the level of kitty ear recognition. 😉
LadySunami
10 years ago
Probably somebody already linked to this, but I think it’s awesome: http://xkcd.com/1325/
Kiwi girl
10 years ago
@chimisaur: LOL about the babies comment, but you’re right on the money. It’s impossible to tell the sexes apart when they are fully clothed, when they are only months old. 🙂 Anyone that says they can has relied on clothing and toy clues.
Kiwi girl
10 years ago
@wordsp1nner: is working from home an option (assuming electricity and internet is okay)? I would never tease someone about being a “wuss” for driving in (1) terrible weather that (2) they’re not practiced in driving in. Or could you get a lift with someone else? I think your fears are valid, and I’ve never driven in snow (driven over an area known for black ice, with my heart in my mouth each time).
We Hunted The Mammoth
She’s so pretty. 🙂
Ah, the love of a nice kitty. 🙂
Tawny’s a sweetie.
Purring kitty close by/leaning on you is great for anxiety, too.
Speaking of cute pet stories…
http://www.greeleytribune.com/news/9218474-113/dominic-haswell-dogs-clinic
Oh wow – it’s almost enough here to make me believe my silly way-to-into-astrology-ex-room-mate about this month. I was having an absolute shit day and figured y’alls furrinati and other stories would be a fun pick-me-up, but it looks like everyone else’s life is falling to bits in one way or another too. SO MANY HUGS for those who want them.
Ally, please be safe. Scary stalker families are no good, and I really hope you are mentally and physically insulated from him( them?) in the future. Katz too. I’m not entirely appraised of the situation, but it sounds unsettling for you both.
Pinapplecookies – I can’t contribute much that hasn’t already been said, but know that lots of us have been there, and you have a right to talk about it as much or little as you need.
Auggz – No wall-breathing for me, but sometimes if I stop paying attention tiled/patterned floors look like they’re crawling out of the corner of my eye. It’s unnerving.
Well, I’m pretty sure I just got my ass rejected from the last PhD program I had applied to this round thanks to a nasty cascade of events that led to one of the people that was supposed to write me a letter rather pettily failing to and then only informing me of this and why I deserve it after the fact (today, when recruitment in our department was going and I was wondering about not being informed). I am infuriated, and worse, I work with this person, so I had to play nice with her all day…
On the bright side, my lack of emotional breakdown about my now more-or-less-rudderless future proves that my new anxiety meds are more than up to the challenge that is my brain #_#.
This is not at all the healthy response, but I think I may go drink a bit now.
On the bright side Ally and Tawney are adorable, as is the war capybara.
Tawny is so clingy that she latches her claws onto my clothes whenever I try to lift her off of me. Soon my clothes will be full of holes, but I don’t really care.
Purrty kitty. It’s amazing what a blanket can do. A couple of years ago, my parents gave my sister and I both faux-sherpa blankets for Christmas (one red and white and one green and white) and they quickly became the kitties’ favorites. I stole mine from them and brought it to my apartment, where it quickly became a favorite of my new kitties. You can see it in four out of five of these photos including my current gravatar:
http://imgur.com/a/fqtg8
In other news, the Pacific Northwest has snowed and will continue to snow for a week. I have terrible tires for snow and I am terrified of driving in snow–the first time I tried, I lost control of my car while driving 5 MPH and trying to turn into a parking lot. The car stopped turning, but I couldn’t get it to stop either, and it almost went over the curb. My boss makes fun of me for being a wuss, but if it snows worse, I can’t get to work.
I’ve discovered that I can train the cat in terms of where I want her to lie (since she insists on invading the bed) by putting a hand towel on the spot I want her at. What is it with cats and sitting on stuff? She also sits on any piece of paper left on the floor. My old cat loved lying on remotes.
BENGAL KITTENS!!
And yep, they’re looking for a fight. The breed exists because of cross breeding with a wild cat species, they’re not like other house cats, they’re bred to play nice, but they’re still only a few generations removed from wild cats. So they won’t attack you or anything, but they bore silly easy and are as smart as wild cats — they’re not going to play hunt the same toy for long since it’s obviously not going to be dinner.
Really, really awesome cats, I totally miss my ex’s bengal (I seriously considered kidnapping that cat when he was in jail), but know what you’re getting into before you find your cat dragging leftovers out of the fridge!
Strangely, my ex’s bengal never showed any interest in the fish tanks other than seeing the 55g as a nice small enclosure to hang out under (I had a board on the bottom layer with the filter on it, she’d hang out under there, puff’s tank is on that layer of the stand now 🙂 )
Mine insist on sitting on my crochet patterns. While I am crocheting. Sometimes one wants to sit on my lap, and i’m lucky if I move what I’m working on out of the way before they plonk themselves down.
#firstworldcatproblems
@chimisaur, I didn’t realise there were PhD rounds. I started mine by talking to the person I knew would end up being my primary supervisor before I wrote my research proposal, because I wanted to make sure he was interested. It also helps that I’ve known him for ?15 years and we’re about the same age. Where I’m studying, it’s just up to the supervisor/student to make it work, there’s no actual placements as such. And you can start at any time during the year too, with renewal happening each year at the time of first enrolment. I have confirmation coming up in the next 6 months, which is the only formal bit I need to get through. And all postgrads in the department get an email inviting them to it. Luckily, I’m used to giving presentations so I shall be okay. And my program is coming along, albeit it slowly, but I only need to show a prototype (/phew). So best wishes for future intakes, and are there other options as to where you can study?
Were those Bengals? I thought Scottish Folds with the little squishy ears.
Love the story about Dominic, what a lovely dog (and lovely people looking after him).
I agree with kittehserf–they scottish folds (though not all had the fold–that isn’t unusual). This is according to the video poster in the comments.They are classic (blotched) tabbies, which are a little less common than the mackeral tabbies.
Yeah, the system in the U.S. has applications and interviews, just like undergrad, so even though I currently work with the P.I. I would likely be assigned to, I need to apply just like everybody else, and it would be totally cool if they just didn’t like me or my transcript, but it really chafes that another person kind of did in the whole thing in a way I could not foresee or control over a technicality. The fiancee (or however that’s spelled) is stuck in this city for work for the time being, and I have no other options in this city that are not laughably unlikely (posh private schools – I already have too many loans, and those kinds of places sneer at people who take 7ish years to finish undergrad, even if it was due to supporting themselves). So, I guess I get some kind of (hopefully non-service-industry, although with the unemployment rates in my city and field I am not very hopeful) job and wait for the next round of fall apps. Wow that was long, and probably really dull. Sorry for taking over the thread! Please continue with more important things.
And as an aside,Kiwi girl, thanks for the encouragement. Good luck in your program and speaking event! Am I correct in assuming you’re in NZ? One of my letter-writers that flaked out on me initially so that I had to get this other lady involved (I blame him much less though, he let me know ahead of time, for one thing) is my old PI and he moved his lab to Aukland and seems very happy there. Not that everyone in NZ knows one another, just that it seems to be a nice place to be an academic from my very limited experience. Okay, shutting up now >_<;
Ha! I haz the kitty ear recognition power.
(Very useful, as I’m sure everyone realises.)
@chimisaur, yeah I’m in NZ but not going to mention what university I’m going to as that could ID me. The system you’re describing is way more formal than I have experienced here (I ended up starting the PhD with the second university I contacted, the first one didn’t have the decency to respond back to my research proposal, even after I had met face-to-face with the person who would have been my primary supervisor). Here, the universities just care about whether you’ll finish a PhD, and they don’t care if you’ve taken time out for work or raising a family or anything. I’d hate to be where you are, it sounds really snobbish / elitist.
From the fact that you mentioned a lab, I assume that you’re going to need to be physically in the university in order to do your PhD so a distance/extramural PhD is out of the question? 🙁
And I love hearing about what others are up to, so I didn’t find it boring at all. 🙂
You know what kitteh, it does seem useful. More valuable than the skills I’ve cultivated, at the very least. Kitty ears are cute and worth close study!
@auggziliary
Could you be experiencing eye tricks? Are you feeling extremely anxious, or do you get panic attacks? It’s pretty normal for this to happen if you’re having a panic attack, or even just normally. 🙁
My life… well I’ll focus on the positives. I’m alive, and I’m grateful for all the people and good in my life. I WAS going to go back to school this month, but as usual everything has to go wrong at once. Oh well. I was actually planning on completely changing my direction in life; does anyone here work as a Nurse/CNA? Figure that if I’m going to have to deal with asshats, that I might as well make a real difference in how well someone’s feeling. 🙂
Yep, I don’t know of a way to tele-PhD in my field, so that’s out. What you described sounds like heaven right now though, no joke – maybe I should just grab the sig. other and go move.
I didn’t realize Aukland was a specific university; the way dudebro-old-supervisor was talking I inferred it was a city. My bad! I did not mean to tangentially pressure you into I.D-ing yourself!
In any case, I’ll live. I’m just prone to panic and this future-fails-resulting-from-drama thing is hitting me kind of hard as 1) the extent to which that woman screwed me and 2) the vodka sink in. Thank you again, Kiwi girl (and anyone else slogging through the comments) for being so darn nice about letting me vent. 😛
@chimisaur, The University of Auckland is in Auckland, along with AUT and one campus of Massey University. I have made the assumption that your PI went to the first, as the main science parts of Massey aren’t in Auckland, and I’m not sure about AUT. Auckland is touted as (one of) the best universities in NZ, so I had assumed that given your PI had immigrated into NZ, they probably went to University of Auckland. So I could have explained myself better in my reply.
I wish I had advice to give for your situation, but I’ve never had to experience anything like it so I have no suggestions. 🙁 All I can do is say I hope that things pick up. Hopefully the technicality can be resolved easily enough and you’ll get in for the next intake.
@Kiwi girl – Oh, I see. Well, if it changes things about where the P.I. went, he kind of Immigrated to where I am, and then had a kid and wanted to move back to NZ to raise him/her (I forget which; babies all kind of look alike to me) close to family, so it wasn’t like he was an AMAZING international jet-setting scientist of renown or anything (although I find his research awfully interesting, but that probably goes without saying). So, uh assumptions are silly, I think was my point. But in a friendly way, not all snobby and pokey.
I’m fine, really, although thank you for the wistful want-to-advise. I’m at the phase now where I’m thinking this is probably all for the best. I’ll do the next intake, or even take my chances with one of the snobby private schools since one does have a spring run and I don’t have much to lose, and just start completely over away from toxic people and what is, to be honest, kind of boring work even though I love my science in general. I very much miss my old lab *le sigh*.
Don’t knock yourself! So many people here are ferociously educated, and
I so admire all the skills cultivated by manboobzers.
Even if they aren’t on the level of kitty ear recognition. 😉
Probably somebody already linked to this, but I think it’s awesome:
http://xkcd.com/1325/
@chimisaur: LOL about the babies comment, but you’re right on the money. It’s impossible to tell the sexes apart when they are fully clothed, when they are only months old. 🙂 Anyone that says they can has relied on clothing and toy clues.
@wordsp1nner: is working from home an option (assuming electricity and internet is okay)? I would never tease someone about being a “wuss” for driving in (1) terrible weather that (2) they’re not practiced in driving in. Or could you get a lift with someone else? I think your fears are valid, and I’ve never driven in snow (driven over an area known for black ice, with my heart in my mouth each time).