Super late, sorry! Just applied to a job being a community program manager within my current employer, same department but different division. Not convinced it's the right choice but it'd get me away from this team and that's a solid first step. Beyond that, the new union contract isn't great for me so I'm voting no. Solid pay raise but limited term still gets essentially no other benefits everyone else does, and that's not okay. So a no it will be. Super cool to have "Doctor" Oz leading CMS though :(
Well my job has been weird recently. Of course the questioning of funding come the new fiscal year. But beyond that... We've got a large facility that may need evacuating soon. And my supervisors have been very non-communicative with information, sharing very little with me. In addition, they're putting in new requirements for the coalition for right now as we work through the issues, but are having me lie to the coalition so it looks like we're just magically requesting some new things that we haven't before and it's all just suuuuper shady. It's also so directly in opposition to the ideals of emergency management, things like open, honest, and transparent communication. I can't wait to find a new job. My partner is moving ahead with the PhD application process but may not be applying to one program she wanted to as the program doesn't guarantee funding. It's a shame, but that's where we are these days. Still, I think she's got a great chance of getting in and I'm so excited for her.
Fuck yo, fuck.
We're now seriously considering getting over to Europe before the transfer of power. I'd give it maybe 10% chance now but it's certainly something we've begun to talk about as of this morning
Yeah that's the problem... I'm currently a government employee with a degree in public health. The government now has the ability to choose to fund or not fund my career and it's looking like they're going to not fund it and dismantle all structures that support it. Which means huge volumes of layoffs in my field in the next year with few job openings, and whenever it is the administration changes is when it might finally start picking back up, but that'd be a lot of cleanup and rebuliding structures which could very well take years. And I'm local government not even federal.
Election will be over in a week. What a ride it's been. Supreme Court just pulled some shit purging 1200 or so voters in Virginia. Ballot boxes being burned. It's going to be a hell of a few weeks in this country. A colleague from a different county is in salary negotiations for a new role. Disappointed she'll be leaving but she'll be significantly happier once she's out of the role so I'm happy for her. It's fun, because the state has a new email list for each thing they send out so we constantly send each other things to make sure we're actually getting all the info, so that'll be a missed resource. Beyond that, still applying to jobs. My partner found funding for a PhD so she's going to be applying and will almost certainly get in which will be super exciting and a wonderful journey, though the loss of income will be less fun. Hope y'all are staying sane this week!
Idk, I think it's pretty bleak. At least if Trump won in 2020 he'd have had a similar group of people. Now he knows they were pro-America and not pro-Trump so he'll be able to surround himself better. He's got the Senate which means Thomas and Alito will be able to turn over into younger court justices just as if not more extreme. Biden should have fixed the supreme court but didn't. They'll probably get the house too and controlling all three branches will let them run wild with everything they want to do. Project 2025 is real. Not sure how much will actually happen, but it's bad having looked through some of it. A lot of rights are about to disappear. A lot of regulatory bodies will disappear or be a shadow of their former selves. Quality of food and drugs could easily drop if funding is gutted, and it will be, and people will die but companies will make some money during it. And with big tech all of the extreme surveillance infrastructure exists and if Trump or the government truly does want to start doing things like tracking periods or pregnancy to try to find abortions they can. Just as easily they can do the same with transgender people, or non-heterosexual people. I think America is going to be in a very dark place for anywhere from a few years to a few generations, if it survives as a democracy.Don't get too panicky, the world isn't ending. Probably won't even suck that much more, just in an even less palatable way.
Not much to report this week. A board game I played as a kid and still play versions of that's been out of print for a long time has, as of yesterday, been re-released and heavily updated. Decided to get it since the old version is at my parents house and then we can have it out here too -- https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mrbgames/empire-builder-europe Otherwise, just anxious about the election but nothing new. If you didn't see it, this is worth a short watch
The holiday has me thrown off. Did an all day emergency shelter set up and tear down training yesterday which was super fun. And as the only tall person on the team it had me doing all the tall people things, which means my arms hurt today. Had a lovely long weekend off the grid, 10/10 would recommend. 3 year anniversary dinner is tonight. How quickly time flies! Hope y'all are well!
I've heard wonderful things about Chicago I'm sure you'll enjoy it! What's bringing you out there? And I hope you're feeling better from the tonsillitis debacle
The public health job market is garbage right now with the election in a few weeks. No one wants to hire since budgets might evaporate. But hey, at least I'm currently employed so that's a plus. Hopefully the Dems will win and continue to fund my career. We're hoping to host a Halloween murder mystery party. It'll be our first time doing anything like that. Anyone ever done that before and have tips? Hope all is well with y'all, especially our Southeast USA contingency.
Thanks! Dinner was delightful we ended up doing the tasting menu which they described as "the chefs just having fun" and I think it really was since everything we got was off-menu. Super cool experience and incredible food!
Wow what a week it's been. Okay so the debate was a lot. Kamala did a great job of getting under Trump's skin and making him ramble incoherently. Moderators did fine. Excellent calling out of the fact that murder is illegal and that there's no evidence of people eating pets. It is going to be a long 2 months. On the job front, I think I'm getting in trouble tomorrow because the division director thought my email came across as "frustrated" which it had no intention of doing, it was simply saying "this has already been signed and approved" but he's insulted and now I might get in trouble. Fortunately I'm in a union and if I walk into the meeting tomorrow and it feels like it's a disciplinary meeting I'll be calling in the union to join. We normally work a bit remote but it's an in-person meeting which is odd. Very nervous about it, but I hate the people there anyway and have been applying so as long as I get to say "this is absurd here's proof" and keep my job I'll be happy. Worried about references and any impact this would have, but not really in my hands at this point. Gotta love a racist, sexist, fragile egotistical division director.
Just wrapped up a 2 day training that had me waking up an hour early so I'm pretty dead tired right now. In addition, we're doing a full scale exercise next weekz so I'm excited to get that over with. Job is still rough, but hopefully moved past the roughest bit I've been alluding to over the past few weeks? They basically wrapped it up with what I assume was a meeting with HR on their end followed by them coming back to me saying they're making official paperwork which I think means they were trying to tell me I was doing a bad job and HR was like "where's the job description and can you point to where c_hawk is doing poorly?" And they probably panicked and realized they didn't have anything but I've got emails saying I'm doing well. So now they're working on that and I've survived another day lol. Still searching tho! I think I want to get back to infectious disease I miss that stuff a ton the emergency management stuff isn't my vibe. Hope y'all are well!
Damn I keep calling these bootleg pubski at what point do I turn legit? Is there a licensure process? Idk. But I enjoy finding a new pic every week. Job is still weird. They're def not going to get rid of me they're still keeping me in the loop with planning and stuff, but still weird vibes and I'm definitely looking for new jobs now. My partner was told she was the perfect candidate for a PhD at a program that would be perfect, but they don't have funding for her :( so she's still looking at one or two other programs but who knows. They'll have funding next year they think but not for this year's application which is a travesty. Fed cut interest rates by a half percent right when I logged in so I got to watch my entire account pop by 1% and then fall back down a bit it was a ride. Hope y'all are well!
Some cool jobs at the FDA I'll be applying to in the coming days. Applied to a different one at a Google subsidiary yesterday. Being it's already October I'm not optimistic about finding something before the new year but we'll see how it goes. We've had a hell of a heat wave the past few days and no AC in the apartment. Yesterday it got up to 80 and only cooled to about 75 overnight. In the office today to escape. It is rough out there. Going to see Wicked for the first time tonight as well, excited for that. Hope y'all are doing well!
Oh yay the saga continues! So today my boss and her boss both dropped out of the meeting with the union in two weeks claiming it's supervisory and the union typically does not attend such meetings. While my boss is out next week, I've got a meeting with her boss and the assistant director of the division. So I'm sending an email to her to ask for clarification on what the meeting will be. Oy vey what a week it's been.
Today's picture is someone making a mojito with their homemade moonshine. It's fun finding a new bootleg pubski picture at work every week! Alright what's new? I've been doing some baking recently. Made soft pretzels last week and scallion pancakes this week. Both recipes are from the book Savory Baking by Erin McDowell. I can't sing the praises of the book enough it's got so many killer savory baking recipes. If you like baking its fabulous. The rough puff pastry is stellar I've made pies and pastries with it and there's a Broccoli Rabe and Ricotta Galette that uses that which still has to be one of the most dangerous and delicious things I've ever made. Work is still work. Still waiting on the federal government to release the work plans so I'm still in a holding pattern and applying to jobs slowly. Hope y'all are well!
Oh no my picture got deleted! Onto the update: it was definitely a disciplinary meeting, cut it short about 5ish mins in and rescheduled for 2 weeks out with the union present. Not sure what all fallout will be, but at a minimum a reduction in job duties. It's a shame because I've built up wonderful and strong relationships and this could easily undermine that.
We haven't had one of these in weeks! At work so I can't find a good #bootlegpubski picture so if y'all can, decorate with your own #bootlegpubski picture! My last bootlegpubski post had illegal liquor from the illegal distilling reddit page. Had a great time getting together with kleinbl00 this past weekend. Got some good food, better liquor, and the best time. His new workshop is going to be absolutely incredible and I can't wait for the finished product tour we all deserve. Check out rezzeJ's weekly music post for kb's music recommended I am currently listening to as I post this. We also got to talk about emergency management and the fact that there will in fact be more pandemics in the future. Otherwise the job has been what the job has been recently. Have to work Saturday, but my shitty boss won't let me flex the following week, so I really only have a 1 day weekend which is bullshit. Hopa y'all are well!
So yeah Texas did something about moving towards not criminalizing hobby distilling. Doubt it'll make any federal moves, but it always seemed fun so if something does come from it who knows! Beyond that, I found an article the other day about making homemade fermented hot sauce so I'll be setting up a ferment this weekend and letting that sit for a bit and making hot sauce with it. Maybe it'll be spicier than Tim Walz's couch fucker quote. That's the benchmark. Hope y'all are well!
Hot sauce update: so we put it together this past weekend and it's fermenting away. It was a few types of Chiles and peppers, and it's also got peaches and mangoes, and cardamom pods, dried hibiscus, and cinnamon sticks. It stared by smelling super strong and spicy. But we may have fucked up and put in too much fruit because now it just smells like alcohol lol. Going to be interesting to try whenever that happens. Probably give it another week to a month of ferment before we blend and bottle it up. In work news, we've had a meeting space reserved for around a month now for an event the week of labor day. It's just a job-owned space, nothing exciting. But the county heads decided they want it at the same time and place for a meeting they have, so they're kicking us out 3 weeks out to find a new space if we have to move the time of it. Apparently not the first time this has happened either. The original space was Centrally located for our external partners, free for us to use, has plenty of parking for free, and is plenty large enough. No other space will meet all those requirements. So now I get to play those games which is super cool.
We finished and blended the fermented hot sauce this weekend. It tastes great, funky, spicy, but a bit yeasty. Not sure if we had too much fruit in the ferment or what else might have been the problem. But it's real yummy and we're excited to be using it. cgod. Applied to a job with the most hellish monopoly on earth, PG & E. I didn't understand the hate for them then I moved to CA and damn now I get it. And yet they pay well and seem to have stable jobs. So here we are. Hope y'all are well this week! Hard to believe September is just a few days away
My grandmother is using her retirement to educate the fuck outta her retirement community. She hosted a meeting today on "Limitatianism" and extreme wealth, she's working on forcing a historical site she helped fundraise for to use the funds to create an exhibition about the history of the site and its use of slaves, she helps run a TV show for the community that's teaching people not to be racist or sexist or any other ist/ic, she helps run a human library where you can borrow people and hear their life story, things like growing up gay in the 40s and 50s. Some people get annoyed with her. I love it.
Working on fermenting Mustard right now. Otherwise, how is it September already? Hope y'all are doing well!
Going on a 3 day 2 night 20ish mile backpacking adventure this weekend. Spending my work day meal prepping and packing and sending the occasional email. Also if you haven't listened to Mavis Staples' new single you should. Almost 85, still a killer voice, and an absolute killer song:
This is super valuable information thank you so much!!
My boss's boss could only make part of a meeting and asked me to sit in on the rest and take notes. During that meeting, someone introduced themselves as a new team leader at the CDC's local quarantine station. I applied for similar roles this past summer and was referred to the hiring manager but never heard back, which is a shame because what an absolute dream job it would be working with shit like that. Well during yesterday's meeting when the new guy introduced himself he mentioned they were hiring one more. Sent him a cold email after work mentioning that is a dream job of mine, and he wants to forward my resume to the hiring team (he's too new to hire himself) and follow -up next week.