Meeting Other Grad Students (2 of 2): A Pole.

Later, I was with other students, and somehow this Polish guy who's a scientist of some sort had a wine bottle, and was pouring it out for someone.

"Please, drink more," he was like.  "That's the Polish way!"

"No!", someone else was like, "That's drinking straight out of the bottle!"

"Yes," I was like, "And then throwing the empty bottle at a Jew."

At that, the Polish guy didn't say anything, a ton of people laughed, some nervously, and this one prissy Romance Languages grad student just got quiet.

So, I was like, "If you can find one!", and people laughed some more.

"You laugh because it's true," I was like.

At that, someone was like, "But what if someone isn't laughing."

"Well," I was like, "You don't laugh because it's true.  It's very sad, humor can work like that.  I'm just trying to point out the nature of Polish anti-Semitism."

Meeting Other Grad Students (1 of 2): Biologist.

I was at a reception the other day with grad students from different divisions, and I happened to be with some biologists.

Someone asked me what I studied, so I gave them the one sentence version, so then they asked more and then someone else asked more, and the next thing you know I had this big long speech.

After that was done, I asked the first (white) guy what he studied.

"Bird skulls," he was like.

I then asked him for his most favorite and least favorite bird skulls, and why.

(I also made a Jeffrey Dahmer joke, about how he probably got into it by killing small animals and then playing with their decomposing carcasses, but he didn't get it, or laugh.)

He said it was the woodcock, because their eyes have such an odd position on the skull that they look like an alien.

Somehow, someone asked something else, and he started saying how hummingbirds have really interesting skulls, since they have the longest beak of any bird, relative to their skull size.

"And you know what bird has the shortest beak?", I was like.

At that, everyone paused, and just looked at me.

"Uhhh," someone was like, "You're the wrong guy to be asking that question."

Without even acknowledging that, I was like, "A factory chicken.  You know, where they chop its beak off real close to its head and stuff."

The first guy then started saying something about pigeons bred to have really close-cut beaks, but then I said that I highly doubted their beaks would be proportionally shorter than a factory chicken's.

"They cut them off real close, you know," I was like.

UPS is a rip-off.

I ordered a book and for some reason the company sent it UPS (not through the post office like always).

What a bad choice! - because -

1) They can't get into my apt. building, and so I have to sign a release where they can leave it outside my door.

2) I can pick it up - though their office is 40 minutes away by public transportation (one way!).

3) I can arrange to have them deliver it when I'm home - for a $6 surcharge ($5 if I'm online)!

4) I can have them send it to another address - for a $6 surcharge ($5 if I'm online)!

I am never using UPS - how unfriendly and exploitative of them.  I badmouthed them to everyone I know, and contacted the shipper to let them know what a pain the company was, and how they should just use the regular old post office because it does a better job and is more customer-friendly.

Library cart sticker update.

The other week I found that sticker that the Communist woman gave me to give my mother.

I was using it as a bookmark in my Hebrew grammar, and it says -

FIGHT FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN ALL OVER THE WORLD!

I threw it in an envelope and sent it to her.  I hope that she really does put that on the shelving cart she uses at the public library in my hometown that she works!  She always bitches to her bosses to their faces about they pay her next to minimum wage with no benefits and rarely any raises, but expect her to cover time off for people with much better wages and benefits.

Blogger deflates me...

Thanks to the new interface, I now have stats on my blog - most get about 5-6 people reading them, and occasionally as many as 9.

The most readers one of my blog posts had ever gotten was like 11.  For some reason, my post about the Indian-looking Russian coffee can I own has gotten a lot of hits.

For some reason I thought I was at least in the 20s or 30s.

I need to be easier on myself.

I need to be easier on myself, and take time off if I'm feeling stressed or sick.

I went to the dentist for the 1st time in like 4 years a couple Mondays ago, and I ended up having 6 fillings, only 1 of which was for a cavity, but that one involved drilling.

Afterwards, I was woozy, I think from the anaesthetic (sp.?), just like when I got my wisdom teeth pulled.

(I was in high school; I couldn't get out of the car, so I slept there for a bit, then finally got up enough energy to move to my house's front porch, where I slept for another few hours in the nice afternoon summer weather...)

But, I had a hard time giving myself permission to take a nap and then the rest of the day off, because I really couldn't think.  The next day I was much better and I realize that I made the right decision, but it was very hard for me to make that decision at the time.

Rumor.

I heard that the Chicago Manual of Style has endorsed using "they/their" for indefinite singular subjects, e.g. -

"Everybody should get in touch with their inner child."

I wholeheartedly endorse that.  It's a wonderful innovation of the living language!