Boy, it sure is nice to see so many old names. Sam KY Halfway through my thirties Current situation: ER RN, but my wife and I have been discussing the prospect of both going back to (the same) school (at the same time) for our DNPs so we can become family practitioners. There's a lot of comfort in the idea- she's the smartest person I know, and my best friend. Think it would help get through another school slog. Had passions, but the Nintendo Switch took care of those. Civ VI is alternately the stupidest thing I've ever wasted time on and the most addictive. I haven't made a song in months. Waiting for my birthday, and I'm gonna ask birthday santa for an old tascam portastudio tape four track. Then I plan on making a set of songs with it. Until then, I'm slowly bleeding money into mastering old stuff with the tentative plan of putting it on bandcamp for the world to ignore. My oldest daughter asked me to teach her how to play Magic: The Gathering the other day and that reminded me, once again, how awesome parenthood is.
Apologies for the delayed response- I spent almost all of yesterday driving. I think the issue I hold with the above thought experiment is that you've managed at once to overly narrow and broaden the subject of the discussion to a point at which the original subject matter gets lost in the shuffle. We're no longer talking about racism versus nationalism versus xenophobia, we're talking about the merits and pitfalls of Sharia law- essentially a policy discussion. And we can argue the benefits and pitfalls of Sharia, but it's a little like listening to somebody complain about the Jews' conspiracy to control world media and then say, "let's dig into that, though; would a worldwide monopoly on the media really benefit us as a polity?" Reading Roseanna and Amy's comments as charitably as you have for a moment, I'll discard nearly every other portion of the original quote; I'll ignore the part about "stinkin' Muslim crap" and "Muslim through and through" and "that's not America" and the speculation of whether or not this Somali immigrant-cum-stateswoman is here legally, and focus solely, as you'd have it, on her passing reference to Sharia. We then have to examine where she got this "Sharia" notion. Is there anything in Omar's voting record that indicates an affinity towards Sharia law? Have Rosanna and Amy studied Sharia? Do they even know what it means? In order to have the discussion you want, we have to take it as a matter of course that when they say "all that Muslim crap," they only take issue with the specter of Sharia, and that they are coming to the discussion with a viewpoint as informed as your own vis-a-vis apostasy, vis-a-vis state response to homosexuality, vis-a-vis capital and corporal punishment, etc. Furthermore, we have to grant that they care to recognize that "Sharia" only encompasses one practical portion of a fundamentalist minority of the world's second largest religion with a history spanning several millennia. But ultimately, to do so would be absurd. I think you and I can agree without too much controversy that in the above case, "Sharia" is shorthand. It's a condensation of a rich and broad culture into a bogeyman signifier. Look, here's Islam: And here's Islam: And here it is again: So why is it that in these discussions we always have to approach it from the terms of this and this and this? You opened the discussion searching for a working definition of racism. I'd say that when person A narrows the culture, religion, and physical characteristics of person B down to the basest caricature, and then rejects person B based on that caricature, that's as good a definition of racism as one might need. So, then. If it's not too hypocritical (I'll leave that up to your good judgment), I'd argue a sort of like-for-like. If someone is comfortable simplifying my cultural standpoint down to a cartoonish shorthand, I'm comfortable discarding the finer distinctions between xenophobia, racism and nationalism in favor of a catch-all term, in this case racism. The problem with ten-dollar words is that they have a way of sterilizing subject matter. As a for instance, "nationalism" has recently been re-introduced into the American lexicon as a non-pejorative. If we call all of what was discussed above "ethno-nationalism" rather than "racism," isn't it entirely possible that we might then inadvertently deem such behavior acceptable? Better to err on the side here of stigma rather than normalization, I think. Racism is a fine word for it. For all that, though, your point is well taken. We could be only a little less charitable to the above actors and assume that their issue with Rep. Omar has nothing to do with the color of her skin in conjunction with her cultural background, and only has to do with her religion. When John F. Kennedy ascended to the presidency, there were those who vocally decried his "Papist" affinities and wondered whether the Vatican would now run the White House. This isn't a perfect analog for our current discussion, but it subtracts the thornier issues of phenotype. In which case, "racism" wouldn't exactly fit the bill, would it? Taken in this light, I can respect your original point. I ask you, then, to reconsider mine. Whether or not the dumbing-down of a religious or cultural group to base signifiers, and then ascribing nefarious motives to this simplified Other is racist or xenophobic or ethno-nationalist becomes extraneous. It all merits an unequivocal condemnation.
I'm done with nursing school. Top of class, for what it's worth. Feels good, man. I've now got a BSN, and I'll be starting in the Emergency Department in a month or so after passing boards. Surreal. Workload was shitty, but the curriculum was fascinating. Studying the cardiovascular system was as close as I've ever come to believing in a higher power. Makes me a little sad I never went to med school. Will probably go back at some point to get a DNP, but for the time being I'm good with turning my brain off, getting back into dad mode and making music on my off days.
FTFY:The bigger concern is not what Mr. Trump has done to the presidency but rather what we as a nation have allowed him to do to us. We have sunk low with him and allowed our discourse to be stripped of civility.
The bigger concern is not what Mr. Trump has done to the presidency but rather what we as THE REPUBLICAN PARTY have allowed him to do to us. We have sunk low with him and allowed our discourse to be stripped of civility.
just let me tell ya bout/this fuckin' day I'm havin'. Sailing along midday when a patient's dropped into one of my rooms: left-sided weakness, right-sided facial droop, disoriented to time/place/situation, found by her friend on the floor, last known normal yesterday 1pm. So we're thinking stroke, although left weakness and right facial droop make no fucking sense for stroke but whatever she's out of the treatment window no biggie. Drag her to CT and nothing shows- she's not stroking, but she's definitely Ay-1 fucked up. Getting an IV in her takes forever because she's big and old and dehydrated and UGH so it's a good hour and a half before she's lined and phlebotomy can finally get all the blood we need; BUN comes back in the 40s uh oh Creat comes back 3.3 nonono K comes back 6.1 oh come the fuck on lactic comes back 7.2 7.2 FOR THE LOVE OF GOD back it up Lactic is an indicator of how much oxygen the cells in your body are working with. It's the best indicator of sepsis, wherein due to a major infectious process your cells are working on anaerobic metabolism and pumping out lactic acid and basically that's not supposed to happen for protracted periods of time and it's not a good sign if your lactics are high. Normal lactic is 0.6 to 1.2. So this lady is basically circling the drain and I'm in the weeds and my other three patients are just treading water while I flounder and I'm still on orientation and my nurse preceptor has to jump in and save me and back it up You may not know me at this point. I'm seeing a lot of grey names in this thread and in general and that means I've been gone awhile and there are new faces or else old faces stopped giving a shit about me which is fine. Either way, let the record show that I once said some stuff here and posted some content here and I may again at some point in the future. For the time being, here's me: A year and change ago I joined an accelerated nursing program- BSN in one year, which for those in the know is fucking crazy, the normal accel program is two years compressed from four. We started the year with 120 students, ended with 78. I made it through not to toot my own horn (totally to fucking toot my own horn) top of class with all sorts of silly awards to show for it. I managed to postpone the nervous breakdown I'd been denying all year until graduation day, which I skipped in favor of staying in my bed, terrified that I was dying. For the better part of two months. Happy graduation, I guess. Five months and a Buspar prescription later, I'm a nurse in the ER, and by God I feel like I'm helping people. 60 percent of the time. The other 40 percent I feel like I'm just constantly fucking up. And now here I am, month three into my orientation and holy hell, some days I just don't know if I can do it. Most folks on my unit started somewhere sleepier, like telemetry or general med-surg. I'm beginning to see the benefit to that. It's like picking up a pair of skis for the first time after watching some skiing videos and being like "I'm a skier now!" and then heli-dropping into some triple black diamond in the swiss alps and there are hungry bears on surfboards riding an avalanche after you. Days like today, I feel like just disappearing, not showing back up to work or anywhere day after tomorrow. And I don't have many friends and I don't have many outlets so here I am, ghosted for the better part of a year only to show up briefly to shit out my worries in the corner of an imaginary bar. You're welcome, world
absurd interaction I had the other day while walking to a dentist appt: Approaching this sweaty, shifty-looking dude who kept plucking at his clothes, adjusting his belt, looking around. As he passes: SWEATY DUDE: "hey bra, you mind if we switch shirts real quick?" ME: "Uh. No, that's alright, I need my shirt." SD: "Yeah, but, like, we'd switch, you could have this one." (gesturing at my rather nice t-shirt and then to his drenched Seahawks jersey) ME: "No, yeah, I need this shirt. Sorry." SD: "Shit, just, whatever." I was surprised at how hard I had to work internally not to immediately just start switching shirts because the request was so unexpected and presented in such a tone to suggest that the notion was completely reasonable. Got me thinking, are people hardwired to follow requests without resisting, or am I just a pushover? Coincidentally, a similar interaction went down a couple days later wherein some dude walked up to my car while stopped at a red light and tried to convince me that I should a) give him a ride to the Seven Eleven south of us; then, when I pointed out that I was going north, b) I should give him a ride north; then when I pointed out that I didn't want to give him a ride anywhere, c) why was I so uptight; when explained to him that I wasn't in the business of letting strangers in my car and especially strangers who didn't care which direction they were going, d) how was he supposed to not be a stranger if I didn't let him in and get to know him. Again, through all of this I had to fight the voice in the back of my head saying, "why are you not following this request?" Again, pushover, or just human hardwiring? In any event, I hate my neighborhood and can't wait to get out of here.
"Cops deploy their training and their intuition creatively[...] Every day cops show similar restraint and resolve incidents that could easily end up in serious injuries or worse." "Creatively"
Went to a wedding last weekend- late on the way there, and we got stopped in the most godawful traffic snarl I've ever seen- accident in the middle of a tunnel, no indication that tunnel was closed before we got to the mouth of it, at which point there was no way to turn off and a steady stream of cars piling up behind. No sign of any sort of city services, guy answering the hotline says, "yeah, I should think they oughtta do something about that." Only date night for months, no way in hell we were going to be late, so I got out of the car, walked a hundred yards back and personally un-fucked traffic, saving everybody (more importantly, my wife and I) a massive headache. Not the selfie type, but I couldn't resist: You know what feels good? Being proactive. Esp. if there's booze and dancing at the end of it.
me un-fucking traffic
Don't really know what to say. A lot of people drift in and out of this community and things keep chugging along. 8bit leaving... that's hard to process. Such a creative, caring, hilarious guy. Have already noticed his absence. Hope he knows there's always a place for him here.
Same thing I've been doing for the past three weekend evenings- putting the kids to bed, nuking leftovers, watching one Twin Peaks, knocking back a scotch, glazing over while playing Xbox 360, wondering what's become of my drive to do anything remotely productive. Just noticed this morning that I have love handles all of a sudden. Nothing's driven home my fading youth like that did. I'm having a hard time with it. But last night I did this: So I'm not a total burnout. Considered making a standalone post tagged as "grubski" (why isn't that a thing yet), but this'll do just as well.
Did a semester in Belfast, NI studying the politics of deeply divided societies. Totally useless academically- I was unaccustomed to and ill-equipped for study at a large university, and ended up blowing off most of my classes. I actually still have nightmares where I'm attending the final exam and realize I haven't showed up for a single class. Which was pretty much exactly how it went down, actually. Besides that, while the town was rich in history, the old sectarian rivalries had congealed into little more than gang warfare. The stakes were no longer as highfalutin as the soul of the territory (or at least not overtly), but rather control over turf, and drug/contraband distro therein. At least that was my lowbrow Yank perspective, which was carefully tended to by my classmates, who either felt it necessary to protect me from harsh realities, or else really didn't have a sense of their own history or a desire to mull over it. Or maybe they were trying to leave it behind and were practiced in the art of re-directing academic tourists such as myself hell-bent on clodhopping all over their carefully-established social boundaries. I wasn't smart enough then to tell the difference and it's been long enough that I can no longer reliably pick it all apart from my armchair. It was vastly informative, though, on a lot of unexpected levels. It was a master class in loneliness, for one. I made a couple acquaintances there, but for one reason or another (see above, perhaps) I remained at a remove from most of my classmates. They were polite enough and included me in whatever, but I wasn't really friends with anybody. I spent days walking through the city by myself, or in some movie theater or another, or in a pub. I had a shower in my room, like the bathroom was a big shower with a sink and a toilet, and I remember spending maybe an hour at a time just sitting under the hot water. No matter what I was doing, you can rest assured that I was stumbling-drunk for most of it. Stoli was cheap, way too cheap, and we'd mix it with anything. It came packaged with coke, but I think we tried milk one time late at night just because. Blech. It was also a great lesson in money management, or else the consequences of a lack thereof. I'd pissed away pretty much all of my student savings around 3/4 of the way through the semester (again, see above), and found myself with a month left and about 100 pounds to my name. I ate boiled potatoes, made my own crumbly bread, and when I was feeling decadent I'd buy one of those awful sausage-in-a-buns they sold at every corner store. By the end I even had to give up, gulp, my enormously debilitating drinking habit. Hard times, man. Are you getting the sense that I was a shitty kid with a shitty attitude who pissed away an opportunity to learn something in a culture-rich setting? Hopefully so. I can't impart any wisdom about where to go or how to experience it, because I was so hilariously bad at the whole thing. I can only provide my own crooked experience as a sort of morality tale: here's what not to do. If you're gonna go abroad, do it for the right reasons, be respectful, and drink it in. But not literally, because that's a goddamn waste, it turns out. EDIT on reflection, this comes off as really discouraging. I don't think there is anything wrong with semester abroad programs per se, I think there was a lot wrong re. my attitude. I've been abroad for protracted periods of time several times since then, and I've gleaned a lot from it each subsequent time. Think maybe the trick is to approach it with a sense of wonder rather than entitlement. Which shouldn't be hard for a lot of people. Also, bet humanodon would have a thing or two to say about productive time abroad.
Two big issues have already been made in the other comments- the problem of anonymity, and the "don't feed the trolls" solution. I'll touch on the first issue only to say that I came up with a name for it a while back, and a I'm stupid proud of that name: ring of Gyges effect. Story of the ring is worth looking up, I think it sums up the issue nicely. Okay, that's it, others have already pretty much walked that ground. As for DFTT- I've been wrestling more and more with this one recently. From a practical standpoint, I agree with TNG. Trolling invites its own distorted dopamine feedback wherein pleasure is derived from antipathetic response- be that the good ol' downvote (how many can you wrack up for a single post? -thankfully this one isn't an issue in these parts) or else the vitriolic reply. This being the case, the best practical deterrent to trolling behavior tends to be a lack of any response whatsoever. On a purely mechanical level, it works, and I've espoused it in the past. Especially here, where sporadic troll outbreaks have threatened not only the overall tone of the site, but the integrity of our response as a community- we tend to place great emphasis on being decent people interacting in decent ways. By responding in kind to trolling attempts, we kind of belie our adherence to the notion that we're all human and ought to respond to each other as such. This invites a moral quandary, though, doesn't it? In what other environment are we encouraged not only not to respond angrily to bigotry, ignorance, hatemongering, but rather not to respond at all? if we're to treat interactions online exactly like face to face interactions, why are trolls exempt from reproach? Maybe it specifically discourages trolling from our neck of the woods in the short term, but might it also be at a certain point tantamount to refusing to speak out against The Big Issues more broadly? In the wider world, doesn't lack of meaningful response mean being Part Of The Problem? I don't yet have an answer to these questions- I still think the best way to off a troll is to pretend he isn't there. This has been demonstrably effective in the past, at least in this venue. Besides that, I'll continue to advocate for human decency no matter what- even if someone seems hell-bent on stirring the pot, I try to remind myself and others that we don't actually know the motivations, life situation, social standing, etc of the person with whom we're interacting. While somebody might come off as just arbitrarily nasty, they might be bogged down with all sorts of real-life baggage, of which we're only seeing the leather trim. That doesn't mean we have to agree with them or take their views seriously, but it does mean that we ought to respond calmly and with as much empathy as we can muster. Rational debate is hard, as you've demonstrated with the above examples, but it's not impossible. It's also absolutely vital to this arena in particular, and important most of all when we're confronted with something hateful. After all, decency is easy when you're among friends. Much harder when antagonized. That's when it's worth the most. So long story short: regardless of motivation (which we can't divine or else justify), be decent, and in so doing: 1) maintain your own personal integrity, 2) take a vocal stand against that which ought to be stood against and 3) give the trolls insufficient fuel to keep trolling. That's the best I got, so far. Good post, by the way.