Open thread for personal stuff, March 2015 totally real elephants edition

@WWTH:

I’m sorry about your dad’s fiancee, that sucks.

There was one good tutorial.
The topic was whether Constantine was a true convert or a pagan adopting another god.
Myself and the other person writing that tutorial said he was pagan.
One of the two Professor’s said he was a true convert.
It was a fun debate.
There was shouting.
The Latin prof in the next office came in to tell us to shut up, realised one of the people shouting was a staff member, and went away again.

(Yes, Ancient history degree)

Also, I am currently hyper. Sorry. I might bring up Maiden music. (Bruce Dickenson has been diagnosed with cancer :() And history as my last 2 posts show.

Hi everyone,

I’m a mostly-lurker, sometimes-poster that started reading we hunted the mammoth more regularly after the gamergate fiasco.

Anyway, I thought I’d introduce myself. I’m a 28 year old first year teacher. When I’m not stressed out at work, I spend my time playing video games, watching shows, or going to dog parks with my significant other and our dog, who is some kind of Labrador mix, possibly Pitt and Great Dane. Sometimes she’s like a little horse. I also hang out with my good friends, but it’s gotten harder to do since I’ve moved cities and started my new job.

I found my way here while learning more about feminist issues. It wasn’t something I had thought very much about before, but now I very much identify as a feminist. Even though I’m a cis hetero woman, I’ve had the fortune of not encountering terribly sexist things in my life.

I’m kind of new to actively participating on the internet, so there’s a lot I don’t know. I do want to get more involved in communities I find awesome, so I’m looking forward to maybe talking more with you people.

I’m using chopsticks.
I always thought chopsticks would be incredibly hard to use…but then when alone with an ex I tried using them to pick up a bit of spring onion.
And it was easy!

I finally got caught up on a couple of weeks’ worth of threads. Whew!

I started a new job in January; then I got snowed on A LOT and spent most of my non-work time navigating our non-functional transit system to and from work; then I got braces put on and teeth pulled out and ate soup for most of February and took a lot of vicodin. And now here we are.

But I found my wedding dress today, so that’s a plus!

Thanks for all the advice and reassurance, guys. It has really helped cut through the initial panic.

No, uni couldn’t offer much in the way of leniency. Attendance is compulsory because of government funding, it is pretty much out of the uni’s hands if I’m missing classes, which of course makes the pressure to attend, and the fear and shame if I don’t, pretty intense. All they could offer in terms of “help” was student counselling, but as I told my adviser, I’ve been in and out of counselling since I was 10 and I can count the number of times it helped on my thumbs.

The meeting with my adviser got pretty unproductive as I got upset and panicky, and she just kept helping me try to find my dead fish (see hyperbole and a half on depression). I had to leave quite abruptly. My partner has been very understanding, and I told my mum and she said she agrees it’s the best decision, and she helped me think of a way to frame it to my dad so that when he tells my grandparents – who are dying and quite single-minded about these things – they won’t be disappointed, they can still be proud of me.

The local equicentre specialises in therapeutic riding, so I would love that. Where I used to ride and work, I frequently lead for the disabled kids in their lessons and I was always a favourite with them. Oddly enough I have an affinity for “problem children” and general misfits, can’t think why 😉

Emilygoddess, congrats on the job and dress finding! But…

WHY YOU STEAL ALL OUR SNOW? Seriously, have you seen pictures of the traditional Iditarod start in Anchorage? They had to haul in snow from the mountaintops, because there was no snow. In Anchorage. Alaska. In February. I cannot count the levels of wrong.

The town I’m in has also been pretending it’s May. We’ve had more snow than Anchorage, but it keeps melting! The local fitness places have been offering “Sad Skier’s” discounts, because the local ski place doesn’t have snow making things because usually the weather gives us snow, and this year the skies were all nopetopus about that arrangement.

Welcome new folks!

WWTR, I’m sorry for your loss.

K and Andrew, everyone else has said really great stuff so I don’t have much to add. Best wishes going forward.

Zephyrus, 🙁 I hope things get better for you. Depression is awful and I hope you find the support you need. You are a worthy person

@Skye

Thanks 🙂 Both cats say meow

—

Personal note: Having my worst arthritis pains in weeks today. So much money spent on medication, and still.. :/

Happy birthday, Robert! (I’ve always been told getting older beats the alternative ;)) . Your husband sounds awesome. Enjoy the pie.

@K

Even if it wasn’t a maintaining funding-related issue, getting disability accomodations from universities is a nightmare and rarely works out well, especially if it’s not an obvious physical disability (at least in the U.S.).

I barely made it through my undergrad. The last term I basically gave up. (Note that at the time I never reached out to the institution).

I took a year off before grad school in an attempt to de-schoolify but grad school was terrible. There, I did attempt to reach out and got absolutely nothing. Like, stood up for appointments, e-mails going completely unanswered nothing. Ended up burning a lot of bridges professionally. If it hadn’t been necessary for economic reasons I probably would have been better off doing my MLIS over 3 years instead of 2.

I’ve found in general that it’s easier to be successful dealing with individual faculty members than it is with the school as a whole.