Double bourbon, please. Leave the bottle. So my wife is being sued for malpractice. It's a friend's client, whom she was assisting for all of 2 hours, in 2013. She isn't even called out by name in the paperwork, but she's on the charts (as she should be). Our guess is that the family is primarily attempting to get money out of the hospital that received the transport, but as lawyers do, everybody got shotgunned. Midwives in California can't take insurance anyway and aren't required to carry malpractice insurance. This has led to the common practice of not carrying it. The idea being that the family doesn't see you as a giant meal ticket attached to a doctor, they see you as someone whose life they have to ruin and pickaxe apart if they want any money out of you. Neither my wife nor her friend had malpractice insurance in 2013; my wife had it (first one in California, so far as we know) four months later and her friend had it a year later. So this is a test of that theory, I guess, as insurance sure as hell don't cover stuff that happened before you were insured. Of course, they've got 90 days to file once they've served, and they served Monday. So we might not even know what we're looking at for another three months. Meanwhile, the job from hell has outmaneuvered my union. Without getting into the specifics, they've managed to find a weird little corner of the agreement (that I haven't seen) that allows them to argue the union contract doesn't apply to me. End result? No back pay, no union hours, no benefits. It means I really was getting my ass kicked out in the woods for "lose my number" money, being away from my family while contractors hit us with a 2000% markup on simple work and generally delaying my life working 12 hours a day in hostile conditions for people I hate. Yesterday they basically said "yup can't help you, sucks to be you" until I pointed out that the conditions they're backing out on are something my union was aware of before I even got there and that I could have protected myself against these problems trivially had they only bothered to inform me. So now they're scrambling, but it's like expecting the Keystone Kops to arrest the robber. Really, the worst I expect they can do is feel bad for screwing up, and they aren't particularly good at that. BUT THINGS SUCK ALL OVER. Nearly everyone I know has it worse than us. I mean - lose our jobs? DONE! Neither of us are working right now so we're inoculated. Lose our health insurance? DONE! it goes away in October if I don't get hired back to my big show. We've got a giant phatty loan we can tap into for the next 11 months come hell or high water and our cost of living keeps getting cheaper. I mean, shit. We're waiting to hear back on whether or not the rootin' tootin' private school is going to give us financial aid to send our daughter there. If they do, our daycare budget actually shrinks and if they don't, she keeps going where she goes, which we can afford. And hey. My wife is about to get a lot more work from another friend because one of the midwives in her practice is about to have a baby, and the other... ...yeah. So you deliver babies for a living, you have a 1-year-old and a 3-year-old and your husband is a stay-at-home dad. And he's having difficulty swallowing and his back hurts but you don't do anything for six weeks and then you send him in for a checkup and he's lost 50 lbs. And then he goes in for an endoscopy and the question becomes "Hodgekins or non-Hodgekins." And you don't have health insurance and chemo ain't cheap so you need to stop seeing clients or earning money of any kind because you need to drop below the poverty line immediately so that you qualify for Medicaid. Which means my wife needs to pick up the slack. And our relationship is strong, and we're all healthy, and really, we may be losing a couple rungs from a very tall ladder and we're going to be fine. But it still sucks. And it sucks worse when you look around and realize that all your friends are dealing with suck. So watch your backs, Hubski. Not sure if mercury is in retrograde or what, but things are getting eerily bad-newsy. Stay frosty.
You have a good outlook, which as you know, is really important. That lawsuit sucks though, that would freak me out a bit. What sucks the most is that my natural inclination would be to reach out to the family bringing suit and say, "hey... I'm a person, just trying to make a living by genuinely helping people. I had very little, to nothing, to do with whatever grievance you have, yet I still have to pay an attorney to protect me. Do you think that's right or fair?" --but any attorney will advise to NOT DO THAT. The litigiousness of our society is a bummer, to say the least. Good luck with it all to you, your wife and your friends. Hard times, but you are not unaccustomed to hard times. You'll be fine. You are one of those people who I don't worry about. Your compass works well.
The nicey-nicey portion of the program happened at the time, the next day, the next week, the next month and on through six months of extended care provided by the midwife. At the time, the clients held no one harmless. At the time, everyone was pleased with the level of care they received. At the time, no one was feeling litigious. At the time, no one had spent two years caring for a kid with cerebral palsy. Really, this is between the family and the hospital and our participation is collateral damage. We won't even know what that entails for months - my wife's involvement is likely to be terminated as soon as the plaintiffs process their discovery, which hasn't even begun. Of course, these are all likelihoods, not certainties. Possibilities include losing the house and declaring bankruptcy. But we won't know anything until war begins in earnest. Know what's shitty? You can lose your home, lose all your assets, have your credit rating destroyed and still have student loans.
Ugh. Sorry to hear about the lawsuit. You are right that it is extremely likely the lawyers are just shotgunning it, looking for some deep pockets (not knowing who is insured or not at this point) and nothing will come of it but it is still a pain in the ass at the least. Law suits sucks if you are not a professional litigant so I would expect for her, and you, to get pretty stressed out about it whether or not things move ahead. That is one of the reasons I stopped representing individuals and then moved out of litigation altogether. At the best it is a time and money waster and there is no way around that. At the worst it can be far worse. I actually lost a 4 year relationship once because my girlfriend was suing a former employer.... a suit which she was almost guaranteed to win but it still stressed the fuck out of her. Every morning before I left for work she wanted to talk about it; as soon as I got home she wanted to talk about it, she wanted to talk about it when we had dinner parties.... It was horrible. Hope this is the last you hear about it or simply have a walk on part in the war after 90 days.
I'm still trying to figure out if I'm suing the property manager or not. It'd be small claims, which means $5k and which means we both have to represent ourselves, but I'm just kinda worn down by all of it, you know? Hey. Brand new dishwasher and it only took seven weeks. Eventually I'll be able to schedule replacement linoleum to deal with the hole it melted in the floor. And the gaping hole left below the subfloor from where it leaked for six years? Cost $125 because we have a friendly contractor, rather than $5200 because we don't. There will come a time where "at least a major appliance hasn't burst into flame lately" is an absurd statement.
Small Claims can be fun since it is relatively inexpensive. If you have free time and are into arguing and presenting evidence and don't care whether you win or lose. You probably have at least 1 outta 3 of those things going for you. Good to hear about the floor fix. That is sweet. And you have mitigated the losses to lower the amount of any potential claim so it could be even more fun. :)
I'm up early and running around. It's been an up and down and WTF sort of month already, but last night was a small victory that I need to brag on. I have a big telescope, two small ones, a few sets of binoculars etc. It was clear and clean sky-wise last night and for the first time since a long time ago I managed to get the "bigger" of the smaller scopes out to the end of the driveway, get the thing set up, and look at the moon and Jupiter. The moon was so clean that I ran back in and got the laptop and camera and got some data to process! And I've lost half the 40 fucking pounds I gained since the accident. Small victories are the best victories.
Will do. I have to process the movies made from the capture software, stack the images and blah blah blah. I do have a capture that I got with my cell phone that I can share to tide you over. Hoping to have more later this week, but I got an outreach event tonight, a "how to buy a telescope" class to lead tomorrow and somewhere in there work as well.
Yeah, and while you can get above it you're still often fucked. We had some wicked Quadrantids some years ago and I schlepped the camera (and some cocoa, and some bourbon, and a tripod) out to Gold Bar, a good hour, hour and a half up into the Cascades. It was beautiful. Twice, the stupid things were close enough to hear - I've never experienced anything like it before or since, where you watch this streak and it goes out and a couple seconds later you hear this hollow THWOK and it reverberates just a little. And I lit three, maybe four rolls of Superia 1600 and took it in. Said "take good care of this stuff, there's meteors on it!" and waited. Came back two days later and they handed me four empty envelopes. Said there was nothing on them, it was all dark. I said "yeah, it was astrophotography." Guy behind the counter's eyes got big. Wandered back to the garbage can and pulled out a fistful of badly-developed film, splotchy and fucked. We looked at it together. They woulda been great shots. I used to give them about $100 a month. I've given them zero ever since.
The neat thing about Keto is you drop water weight quickly. Gaining that much weight in that short of a time was mainly due to a "fuck it let's eat" attitude and a ton of stuff over the holiday that I should not have been shoving into my body. Hopefully by May I'll be back on track again and doing the gym thing.
DC Metro is closed today. Not "running with reduced frequency," not "single-tracking between Ballston and Foggy Bottom." That would be normal operations. Closed for 29 hours, for unplanned emergency inspections of electrical cables before they kill any more passengers. Even the New York City Subway is making fun. I remembered the bike I stopped riding when it got cold last fall, put air in the tires, and had a great ride in. Despite a detour to tour Constitution Gardens and a stop for coffee, I still sat down at my desk at the usual time, more refreshed than usual despite a rumpled shirt. I think I'll give my metro card a break for a while.
Yes, the New York City subway is run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and the D.C. subway is operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. In announcements they pronounce this "wuh-mata dot com." Amusingly, the web site melted down yesterday after the closure announcement so visitors were greeted with "Service Unavailable." Twitter is aflutter with wisecracks: "MAKE WMATA GREAT AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME" "BREAKING: WMATA" And my favorite, the updated service map:
Have you seen the RepUnderwoodSC twitter? I hear the jokes from it re: WMATA are priceless. https://twitter.com/RepUnderwoodSC/status/709845597868728321
I'm getting into another oil painting. I got some more paints for my birthday, so now I am working with colors that come from two different companies. It makes a difference. That red is a bit ridiculous, and will serve as an undercoat in the end, but it would have been more difficult to achieve with the colors I previously had. I am becoming really interested in the choice between detail, and the lack of it. Right now, most parts of this painting that lack detail have an amateurish quality, but there are a couple of places that do not. The bushes against the left bottom of the building are probably the best part of the painting atm, IMO. The more I paint, the more I am amazed by paintings like this one by John Henry Twachtman: So much deliberate choice and care is masked by a natural ease. Juxtaposing these right now makes mine look laughably bad. :) I'll have to do it again when I am done. There are a few moments when I am painting when I feel like I am in the zone, and what the brush leaves reflects it. When I painted those bushes against the building, I was like "fuck yeah". So weird, but it can make my day. Our new venture hit a big milestone this week. Progress.
This is interesting man. Assuming you are not distracted much, how long does it take for you to work on an intricate oil painting? And how long have you been doing this? have you posted other painting works of yours anywhere in this site (yes or no, i would definitely like to see more of your work)? And yeah, congrats on the venture milestone. cheers.
Thanks. I used to paint a bit with house paint on aluminum, but they were generally abstract. I just picked it up again last year after about a 10-year hiatus. Here's my third oil painting, which I posted recently: And here's a tag #myart.mk that I use for them. I would guess that a painting takes me about 20-30 hours, but I haven't tracked it. I paint about 1-2 hours at a time over the course of several weeks.
I've completely lost the thread. My contract ended. But I have other work to do. But I just can't seem to get anything moving forward at all. I have one BIG writing gig I need to be about half way done with... and I haven't even looked at the source materials yet. My totally happy family life got a big jolt when my sister left her boyfriend kinda suddenly. They'd been together for years, and he's as much a part of our family now as she is. She still loves him very much, and he loves her and is lost without her, but... well... emotions and feelings and stuff. And all I can do is help my sister move out, and text him that he's still my brother in spirit, and... yeah. Suck. A friend died last year pretty suddenly, just as he and his wife got into a nasty divorce. Now he's dead and she's trying to liquidate their vacation property so she can move on... but the meth addicts found it and... well, they did what meth-heads do. So I spent the weekend working with/for a woman I don't respect, to honor the memory of a dead friend... and clean up needles and trash and shit and... it was soul-sucking work. Spent yesterday driving around another friend with massive Stage 4 colon cancer. Errands, the doctor's office for blood tests and iron, grocery store for food, etc. It's hard to see such a vibrant dude just wasting away. And he's in complete denial about it, too. So hard. And finally, I still haven't applied for the job I REALLY WANT because I'm too panicked that I'm not going to do it well enough, and not get the job. So yeah. THAT's productive. Might be pulling my turtle head back into my shell, and bringing a bottle of Makers 46 with me.
My alcoholic, pedophile, Trump-loving roommate who I mentioned last week got prescriptions for valium and morphine and has been getting high as shit and buying pets. He bought fish, hamsters, a scorpion and hermit crabs. And I've generally been the one to drive him to the pet store then set this shit up. I guess he thinks I'm smart so I know how many crickets a scorpion needs but I don't know a goddamn thing about any of this and he keeps asking for help. Fucking obnoxious.
Feed the fish to the crab, the crab to the hamster, and the hamster to the scorpion. Feed the scorpion to the roommate and profit.
I'd feed the roommate to the scorpion. No need for animal violence :PFeed the scorpion to the roommate and profit.
'Morning Pubski. I got hit by a drunk driver Sunday night. I was stopped waiting to pull out of my apartment complex and got hit by a comparable size vehicle at less than 25mph. I'm okay, my car is more or less okay, other than some shredded plastic on the bumper. I just feel like I got the stuffing beat out of me. But with enough NSAIDs, tea and lower back yoga I should be right as rain before too long. The guy who hit me ran off and hit someone else according to the local PD. The guys in lockup, my insurance has the police report, and I have instructions from the ER to follow up with my GP in a week. I clearly don't have enough on my plate. But, I can't see any fundamental change in my short, medium or long term goals or planning as a result of this, barring some health or automotive complication. Before Sunday, my car was aesthetically unpleasant but very capable and reliable for what I asked of it. Today, my car is slightly more aesthetically unpleasant, but (probably) equally reliable. Before Sunday, I did yoga because it made me feel good. Yesterday, I did yoga to not feel bad. Not sure how much of a change that is, but I definitely appreciated it more. Completely unrelated, but I'm responsible for my own transportation to and from NYC in June. I've never really been a fan of the airport and it's looking like taking a train is 3x less expensive, and takes honestly about the same time to get there from Michigan. It's like an hour and a half of flying but hours and hours in airports. The train takes about 4 hours, and I don't have to deal with TSA. Sounds like a win for the locomotive industry.
On what planet does Amtrak have 4 hr service between D-town and NYC? are you sure there isn't a day change in there? My uncle retired from Amtrak, and it's a running family joke that when Uncle Larry asks you to pick him up at the train station at 4pm, plan on midnight. And sorry to hear about your car/back. I'm super glad you're more or less ok.
I enjoy Amtrak a lot. There are stretches (Seattle to Vancouver) that are more economical than driving. There are stretches (Seattle to Portland) that are more expensive and take a little longer, but occasionally worth it. And there are stretches (Seattle to Los Angeles) that are completely out of the running, because they cost 4x what a first-class ticket on an airline costs and take four days. The trick to Amtrak is they run on the same track as BNSF. BNSF is not required to inform Amtrak of its schedule, nor accommodate non-commuter rail travel. Which means Amtrak will occasionally sit on a pass rail, waiting for a freight train. It also means there's a good chance that your train will miraculously transform into a charter bus with all the glamour that entails. The last time I took Amtrak to Vancouver it ended up being a bus that got lost on the way to the station. We all ended up voting on which turns to take because none of us wanted to take on the ruinous data charges you get in Canada. Just be aware of what you're getting into. I'd be tempted, too, but that whole "bus" thing looms like a specter.
My cousin (the son of the retired Amtrak uncle) also works for Amtrak. He manages some of the "commuter buses" that take passengers "between train stations" or in other words... on 4-8 hour bus rides from hell.there's a good chance that your train will miraculously transform into a charter bus with all the glamour that entails.
hey - I'm all for rail travel. It can be relaxing, beautiful, and comfortable. As long as you don't kill a guy like lil did with her train. I just didn't want you to plan for 4 hours, and experience what will surely turn in to 30. I am convinced that the only semi-reliable rail travel in the US is in the north east corridor (a funny comment considering today's woes in DC). But seriously - need a train from Philly to Boston? no problem, and mostly on time. Need to get from DC to NYC - no problem. Want to get from San Francisco to Chicago? See you in 4+ days. Amtrak is GREAT if you don't care about time.
Holy shit! That's terrifying. I'm so glad that it's something you're able to walk away from. And they caught the guy. Jesus. Is that automatic jail time?
Thanks! I think so, I'm not sure though. One of my little brothers was expressing his desire for maximum punishment but I tried to convey to him that I'm more sad for the dude than anything else. I find it hard to believe that a healthy, happy, somewhat fulfilled individual would knowingly put themselves and others in that kind of danger. I genuinely hope he gets the treatment he needs.
I hope you patted yourself on the back for being able to have that attitude. I generally feel sad for people as opposed to angry at them but I'm not sure I would be able to in that situation. That attitude only came about when I was working with some incredibly lazy unreliable staff. At first I hated them but as I heard more stories about where they were from I started just feeling sad. It made me grateful for the people in my life and the upbringing I had. I have no idea how I would have turned out if I was raised in a ghetto where everybody and there mother had drug problems. Where the children of those mothers beat a drunk man nearly to death for kicks. Seriously I had no idea how to react when a visibly shaken woman was telling me this story. We all get one life and I'm so incredibly grateful that mine will be fulfilling thanks to the people who helped create me. Being able to have that attitude while you are the one in pain though is something special you should definitely toast yourself for. Also, you should look into whether or not you have coverage for massage therapy ! ALSO another point, when I hit reply on mobile it took me to some page with a picture of a house which apparently had a mailbox ... not sure what that was about or if that's something on my end as opposed to the sites so did that happen to anybody else ?
I think it depends on his past behavior. If this episode was another instance in a pattern of selfish, sociopathic behavior, then it needs to be corrected. We could argue about the quality and aptitude of our criminal justice system in meting out that correction, but I think it's a matter how much, not if. Again, it depends on the individual... I can concoct a story for him where this was barely his fault, he was having the worst day ever. But drunk driving, hit-and-running is fucking low.
I've been trying to talk myself into running a half marathon. I ran 11 miles last Saturday at a sustainable 10 minutes/mile pace. That run included one of the three hills the 13.1 course runs. The one I'm looking at is May 29. I had a long discussion with my boss about what I want and where I want to go. It was stressful, future follow ups will be stressful, but I think it was productive. My boss is a great supervisor, and the topic came up because he didn't understand what I wanted, and I realize I hadn't thought about what I wanted in any specific way. But if that doesn't work out I'll finally make the leap and move somewhere else. I like this town, but it's still just the place I live and not somewhere I'm committed to. It's raining here, but it's supposed to stop this morning. I'm going to take my running stuff to work. After work I'll go run intervals on the steepest hill on the 13.1 route.
You should do it! It sounds like you're already pretty much ready.I've been trying to talk myself into running a half marathon. I ran 11 miles last Saturday at a sustainable 10 minutes/mile pace. That run included one of the three hills the 13.1 course runs. The one I'm looking at is May 29.
Thanks. It's hard to convince myself. Like, as someone who has never run a half and would probably finish with a time around 2:10, it feels like I'm insulting all the actual good runners by doing the same race. I know that's insane, but it's hard to shake the feeling. I suppose I need to reference my personal Rule 2 which goes something like "stop thinking about it and just do it. If you've thought about it this long and don't have a reason not to, it's as good as it's going to get."
Everybody starts somewhere ! People in those races are just paying attention to themselves because it's more about beating your own time as opposed to somebody else's. I would definitely just stop thinking about it and impulsively sign up if I was you :)
I signed up last night, thanks. :) I was poking around the half marathon's website and saw they had a St Patrick's Day coupon for $5 off. So I went for it. I also signed up for a 20K run earlier in May. Hopefully I'm not overdoing things, but the 20K is a really flat course and should be good practice for the slightly longer, slightly hillier half marathon.
I have! They're still all new to me, but after reading some of the online training plans I think I'm mostly in good shape for the runs. I did add some interval hill training, and it already seems to be helping. I'm giving myself a forced day off today to prepare for another long run on Saturday. The rough training plan I'm trying is Monday intervals, Wednesday intervals, Thursday short run, Saturday long run. The interval days end up being 4-5 miles between a warm up and cool down. Depending on how I feel, I may swap one of those weekdays with something like walking or hiking or _add_ a day of walking or hiking on an off day. I'm more sore than I was doing running or other cardio consistently but with no real plan. I think that's good; it's soreness, not pain. I do feel the miles in my knees a little, but again it isn't pain. It's no worse than a full day backpacking. My running form seems to be holding steady as I up the miles. I ordered a water belt, and it should be here today. I needed it last week, though it's cooler again this week. I also need to figure out nutrition while running. That's new to me, so I'm going to pick up some gels and take one with me for the middle of a long run.
Probably. They might have been helpful last weekend at 11 miles, and 13 miles in May will probably be a little sweatier. Definitely worth a little inconvenience to avoid that pain!I know that a normal marathon usually requires nipple-bandaids, but does a half?
last week I buckled down in a writing workshop and doubled the length of my thesis so that feels good. i also actually have testable hypotheses now which in the social sciences is an accomplishment in and of itself :P this weekend i take my program's comprehensive exam so keep me in your good vibes thoughts for that. when i think about it logically, there's no reason that i shouldn't be able to pass because all i have to do is answer 3 open ended questions about security studies using theory since that's all i've been working on for the last couple years ... but when is anxiety ever rational? i even had my first panic dream about the comps last night wherein surprise it was actually a 50 question short answer test with random details. which is just silly. next pubski is my birthday tho so there's that. just gotta make it through this weekend.
I find it very interesting how airports work, why they are designed the way they are and how they are operated. It's like a small nation with its own goverment, infrastructure, policies, regulations etcetera. Lots of planning challenges too. "Airport Systems, Second Edition" by Richard de Neufville if anyone's interested.
When your ex says he isn't going sober at the same time as you are because of you, but just because it's time But then you break up and he Facebook posts, "Fuck sobriety" Cool dude. Here's Calvin Klein: Calvin Klein is NOT impressed. Other interests I've been engaging in recently: - picked up code academy again - sketching every day - hula hoopin' like whoa - reading actual books - maybe I will write real things again soon, but no rush on this - oh still running, seems my pulled muscle finally better - 'n' liftin' - for those of you who want a really engaging romcom show to watch, check out Mixology on Netflix
Ick. It's always the annoying little shit left and right that brings a man down. I wrote three little mini rants about three different things and then deleted them. I hate being negative. It's too easy to get lost in those emotions, so I try to be as positive as possible. That said, certified mail is a God send. I've been thinking a lot about starting a blog, but the more I look into it, the less it seems like something that appeals to me. It seems like a lot of work for no real pay off, especially as I'm not doing it for career aspirations or monetary gain. So I think I'll just to post to Hubski whatever I would be blogging about, which is just my usual comics, cars, and antiques stuff. I'm currently hosting all of my images on imgur though I wonder if continuing to do so would be a good idea. Looking over their terms of service, they have this . . . “Also, don't use Imgur to host image libraries you link to from elsewhere, content for your website, advertising, avatars, or anything else that turns us into your content delivery network. If you do – and we will be the judge – or if you do anything illegal, in addition to any other legal rights we may have, we will ban you along with the site you're hotlinking from, delete all your images, report you to the authorities if necessary, and prevent you from viewing any images hosted on Imgur.com. We mean it.” I don't want to get Hubski in trouble for wanting to share things. mk and co. I'm sure you guys as well as all of the users on here wouldn't really appreciate that. I've thought about starting a thread, asking you about image hosting if there was a way I could pay you for it, but I know this place is a project of love and I don't want to be so imposing. All of that said, I've seen a few good ideas around here lately about stickers. I can't wait for the next design contest to come up. That shit was so fun to watch last year.
We are actually working on some changes that will make it much easier to blog through Hubski if you want. It's something that I have wanted to do as well. There's not too much functional difference between a personal tag and a blog, so it won't be difficult to do without much disruption. Definitely share ideas as you have them. It's little wonder about imgur's TOS. I doubt they object to the use here, as it is exactly the same as on Reddit's, but I doubt they would let Medium get away with it.
One (relatively) easy way to implement this would be to have a part on one's profile, titled something like 'My Content', which returns a list of expanded cards with posts that I want to put front and center when people visit my profile. Newest blogs/creations at the top, similar to Twitter's pinned tweets but ten times as good. Maybe even allow users to auto-fill the list by giving it a specific tag - so have My Content automatically display my 5 most recent #technology posts in (embiggened) cards.
too right man... negativity is SO easy. My favorite co-workers and managers are people who don't sit around in meetings complaining about what's broken. It's the same in life I guess... I think I've been working too much.It's too easy to get lost in those emotions
Unfortunately, it's so easy to become negative at work, no matter what the job is. The stress of everyday work life is enough to bring a lot of people down. When times are rough though? Oof. Good luck. You should take a break. Go on a hike. :)I think I've been working too much.
A thoughtful person suggested to me that what lies at the intersection of a lot of my interests and experience is public health. This idea has been whirling around in my head for a week now, coalescing and congealing, vis a vis what to finish my undergraduate degree in. I finished only half of school before I dropped out unceremoniously in the fall of 2012. The trouble is, with a semester's worth of Fs, what's my GPA like? I found that University of Colorado Denver considers transfer students with GPAs as low as 2.4 (2.0 in special circumstances). I ordered a copy of my transcript yesterday, and I have 2.78! It's not a very good grade, and I'm not proud of it, but happy that it doesn't automatically preclude me from transferring. The ball is ever more rolling. edit: All my public health or otherwise insightful hubskiers, anything to look out for? My reasons for pursuing the major is (a) I love public policy, behavioral science, sociology, economics, and evolutionary psych (even if the latter can sometimes get you into trouble). (b) one dream job of mine is to work for AmeriCorps NCCC, the service program I loved. And after working there, an even larger goal of mine is to make a year of community service a national cultural expectation of young people. (c) the BS version of the degree is a pre-med track, something that I also think is interesting (in the safe, maybe-I'll-be-a-doctor-one-day kind of way). (d) I love Colorado, Denver particularly. (e) I want to, need to, finish college.
You could also consider getting an MPA, or Master of Public Administration. Combine this with a concentration in health management or health policy and it may be something right up your alley. I suggest this because, a) I'm about to finish up my Masters degree with said concentrations and b) you mentioned you like public policy.
I do like public policy. I've always thought of government as a sort of "applied philosophy" and I listen to podcasts about policy, health-related or otherwise. I also am considering seriously working for a government organization within AmeriCorps. But undergrad before grad. How do you like your masters program?
I've enjoyed it a lot. It's the first time I've gone to school with folks who purely have the same interests as me, along with the same ambition, talent, and smarts. It has done a world of good to me to be challenged as I have. My program emphasizes basic skills and work experience. So I've had to had an internship (which is great) and most of my classes are required "core" classes that focus on basic professional skills and the philosophy behind public administration. It's not exactly ideal, in my opinion, but I think it set's me up well for a career in the public sector. Your mileage could vary depending on the program you select - if you do look into public admin programs, make sure to do your research!
Dude I'm applying to MPH programs. Let's talk about this in detail. I'm also just kind of amazed by you in general. I still like telling the story of how when we met you were helping decontaminate shit-filled basements in Detroit, and how it didn't really seem to bother you at all, at least from where I was sitting.
I would love to talk about this in detail. Busy day today, but soon. Real soon. Thanks dude!!
Mood swings are rough. Doing a whole lot of activity and moping by turns. I know that nothing's really wrong, but they can be hard to shake sometimes. Energy levels low, but things still looking up on the whole.
It's probably been beaten to death, but physical activity helps all of that. You have the formerly-depressed cardiology patient of more than two decades telling you that. For me, it's yoga and kettlebells (Until I get my kayaks back). For _refugee_ (And lots of other people) it's running. If you don't already have a form of physical activity that you enjoy, or at least find not-intolerable, I highly recommend finding one, for sake of your mental health and emotional wellbeing.
I confess my actual feel-good addiction has become hula-hooping. I can do it in the warmth and precipitation-free, judgement-free zone formerly known as "my living room," it counts as cardio (internet says it might burn as much as 200 cals/hour), and really all you should try to do at once is 10 minute-bursts, especially to start. It's so easy to pick up the hoop and go for a few minutes. I am really glad I decided to pick it up. I find once I can get myself to do one thing, it's so much easier to get myself to do anything. For me, it's almost meditative. But running also helps. Though I'll be honest: running helps get out rage and frustration at least as much as it helps put me in a positive mood, so it's kind of 50/50 on that - really, anything that gets you moving, and exhausts you, tires out your mind as much as your body and really helps to break bad feedback loops.
Three things bother me. First: I'm not happy with my life. I've been honest with myself since the New Year and came to this conclusion as well as to the reason for it: I don't put in effort to improve my life because I'm terrified of change and, perhaps particularly, of change for the better. That's how I was raised, and it's hard to shake off without constant support from within and from without. One step I made to improve my life overall was to stop pretending that I'm fine when I'm not; yesterday, I channeled my emotions straight for the first time, without wallowing in the sorrow. An interesting result of this is that along the line I became more healthily-selfish (that is, more caring for myself while giving less of myself to others - this much I reserve for when truly needed). Another is that I've received sincere sympathy from a former groupmate of mine, which, overall, I don't get a lot. Second: the groupmate I've mentioned is a girl I've been interested in since October. We've been friendly pals since, and she was the one to provide sympathy whenever I'd felt terrible, but she'd rather hang out with her group and the friends she's made in the dorm, and when I ask her out, she always says she's busy or "maybe later". I don't know how to react to that. It feels like she's not that interested in me but can't bring herself to say "no". And yet, she provides compassion. I don't get it, and it bothers me to hang in between two places. Third: I get very little interest from people around me in general. I don't mean to sound pitiful, but it bothers me that I don't understand the reason behind it. I'm doing my best to be kind, thoughtful and compassionate, and while the result is not perfect, I think I'm doing fine. Then again, I made it a habit unintentionally to subtly point out others' inadequacies as some sort of ego defence, but people didn't give a shit about my presence even before that, so that doesn't add up. Am I acting overly defensive, thus putting people off? Am I just boring? Am I too invested into others to begin with? I feel like I could very much use "other people"-time, and I feel like without it, I'm slowly falling apart as a person, so it feels right to desire others' company. In other news, I now get to wear a badass-looking bandage patch over the torn skin that I got from falling onto an icy staircase. It looks so badass with a white shirt and black tie combo that I'm thinking of replacing it with a more casual accessory once skin heals, like a regular band. Oh, and _refugee_: I've decided against wearing vests. They look sharp with a jacket, but I prefer to rock a more casual style - I believe it's called "smart casual".
Not too much to bring to the table. I've felt like i'm not all here these past few days, I've actually felt the dulling of a lot of things lately. Still trying to determine if I should head back into therapy, but it's tough with how expensive it is. I know I have a problem, but not many cost effective options at this time.
I have an uncomfortable amount of work to do today (yay spring break), so I'll keep this brief. I met a girl at the beginning of the year, made a move, got rebuffed. Whatever. We ended up really good friends, things were great. Then like a month ago something changed, no idea what. All of a sudden she's cute as fuck and I want to be with her again. Never a good idea. Long story short, eventually the prospect of telling her was more attractive than the prospect of letting it fester, so I did, and she doesn't reciprocate. Now everything is aching loneliness again. Why, god, why is the primary concern of my life thus far my lack of control over my emotions? Fuck. But Opening Day (MLB) is in, like, half a month. I can't wait.
I started work. It's alright, the company I'm at uses Scrum and I got there just before the beginning of a new sprint, so we spent all of yesterday figuring out what we're going to be doing for the next two weeks. The day long meeting was actually not bad, since it was just a few of us. I have a retake exam next Tuesday but after commuting 1.5h each way for a full time job, I can't find much time for revision. I might stay after work in a library then take the late train home, at least then I'll have more energy. At least this problem is temporary. I'm looking to move to London as soon as I can, so the commute should get smaller soon. On the other hand, I've discovered podcasts so it's not as if it's wasted time.
I'm feeling fairly accomplished. Nothing out of the ordinary happened in the last week but I haven't been procrastinating to much and I've been steadily checking things out my to do lists. One part of my brain is being a self critical asshole and saying the things I've done are Rio small to count for anything, but if I left the planning to that guy my list would be full of giant vague ideas and of get nothing done. So life is good.
Last Saturday, I hiked up a mountain to the summit. Holy. Shit. How have I not done this sooner? And how is it legal to let us kids monkey our way up a hella dangerous landscape?! I think I've been high on mountain air for this entire week! I considered not applying for internships this summer (still a possibility I won't get one) and just being a hippie in the Rockies. Probably not amazing for my future but so tempting - I do want to take a summer off eventually to trek around a little. I really struggle to go to the gym now. I just don't feel that same sense of satisfaction. Plus, I like to have people with me when I'm on a journey. You just share in the struggle. Lifting a heavy bar just doesn't do that for me. You don't see the same sights. Any gym goers who can give me some insight? Speaking of, I should really be doing yoga right now...