The other week at an assisted living training, one (older) (black) lady who was attending was somehow asked about something from her job as part of the presentation, and then she went off topic and began talking about how peroxide is good if you've got toe fungus, you just put it in a spray bottle and spray it all over your feet once a day, and it clears up really quickly.
As she explained it, she had really bad toe fungus, "and the Lord told me to share it with my neighbor."
"I was like, 'What?', since why would they want to hear about my nasty toenails falling off, but I went and did it anyway," she was like.
She then said that her neighbor was like "you're doing what?" when she told her about how she was treating her toe fungus, and so her neighbor clued her in about putting peroxide in a spray bottle and using that on it.
Saturday, September 7, 2019
Friday, September 6, 2019
Glimpses of other lives.
Last month, I had glimpses of two paths in my life that didn't happen (I prefer to say it that way instead of "paths that I didn't take," since in many ways a lack of family wealth made each path difficult if not impossible to follow, rather than something that I had choice over).
The first was a committee meeting for a board that I was asked to join.
The agenda somehow wasn't much, but it still took almost two hours, even though by the end of it everyone was just cracked out and ready to leave.
That would have been my life, in government!
It made me so happy that I spend my days walking around and talking with people, at my assisted living jobs.
The second was a text from a colleague with whom I'd collaborated on a paper before I chucked it along with trying for any academic jobs.
He had picked up the research and moved it forward in a slightly different direction, and I'd read drafts and shared my perspective and comments, and he'd gotten a "revise and resubmit" from a major journal.
So, he did that, and the editors seemed fine, and then Reader #2 raised some new points that weren't raised in the first round of feedback but could have been given then and incorporated in the revision, as well as making some quibbles that really weren't true but sounded like they were devastating, alongside their making a flatly inaccurate statement about the paper (that it failed to mention one text, when that text was actually mentioned in a footnote).
And, the editors backed out and turned down the paper, after all of that work.
What a crazy disorganized process and a waste of time!
Academia really is appallingly inefficient.
It's like a friend said who's now a tenure track professor but had done a post doc with a VA hospital research project, that that kind of weirdly timed feedback that causes wasted effort simply wouldn't be tolerated in granted projects in the VA system.
The more you look at it, the more that academia looks like a bunch of disconnected elites who play their little games with each other, with very little sense of mission of education and research. The big players are insulated by wealth, so they play games that take up time and fill their days with bullshit.
It really does make you wonder why we push public funds to it, when this kind of stuff goes on.
The first was a committee meeting for a board that I was asked to join.
The agenda somehow wasn't much, but it still took almost two hours, even though by the end of it everyone was just cracked out and ready to leave.
That would have been my life, in government!
It made me so happy that I spend my days walking around and talking with people, at my assisted living jobs.
The second was a text from a colleague with whom I'd collaborated on a paper before I chucked it along with trying for any academic jobs.
He had picked up the research and moved it forward in a slightly different direction, and I'd read drafts and shared my perspective and comments, and he'd gotten a "revise and resubmit" from a major journal.
So, he did that, and the editors seemed fine, and then Reader #2 raised some new points that weren't raised in the first round of feedback but could have been given then and incorporated in the revision, as well as making some quibbles that really weren't true but sounded like they were devastating, alongside their making a flatly inaccurate statement about the paper (that it failed to mention one text, when that text was actually mentioned in a footnote).
And, the editors backed out and turned down the paper, after all of that work.
What a crazy disorganized process and a waste of time!
Academia really is appallingly inefficient.
It's like a friend said who's now a tenure track professor but had done a post doc with a VA hospital research project, that that kind of weirdly timed feedback that causes wasted effort simply wouldn't be tolerated in granted projects in the VA system.
The more you look at it, the more that academia looks like a bunch of disconnected elites who play their little games with each other, with very little sense of mission of education and research. The big players are insulated by wealth, so they play games that take up time and fill their days with bullshit.
It really does make you wonder why we push public funds to it, when this kind of stuff goes on.
Thursday, September 5, 2019
Joking with the one resthome resident who wants to die.
A lot of times, the one resthome resident who wants to die will say stuff like "Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere" or "I'll be here" when we talk and I reference the future somehow, like when I say "see you next Monday" or something like that.
Anyhow, then, I had to help her the other week, but then I got called away for something urgent, so I turned the joke back on her.
"I'll be back in ten minutes," I was like, "So don't go anywhere!".
She got a kick out of that.
Anyhow, then, I had to help her the other week, but then I got called away for something urgent, so I turned the joke back on her.
"I'll be back in ten minutes," I was like, "So don't go anywhere!".
She got a kick out of that.
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
Reminsicence of the one resthome resident who wants to die, and her (Bulgarian) private aide.
For some reason, me and the one resthome resident who wants to die and the (Bulgarian) private aide who comes in sometimes to help her started talking about hunting the other week, and the one resthome resident who wants to die began reminiscing about her youth in Central Europe.
Venison was a delicacy, she said, and if it was ever on sale, her mother was sure to get some, and would cook it up for the family.
"Like steaks?", I was like.
"No, a roast," she was like.
Later, the (Bulgarian) private aide said that her uncle married a Slovak woman and lived in a rural area there, and that they did a lot of hunting, that everyone did in that region. When she went to visit, in fact, they had an entire room full of meat from hunting, all of it smoked.
She clarified, too, that she visited them twice under Communism, not after.
"As for me, Communism wasn't so bad," she was like. "We are a small country, it was different there, it was more quiet."
Venison was a delicacy, she said, and if it was ever on sale, her mother was sure to get some, and would cook it up for the family.
"Like steaks?", I was like.
"No, a roast," she was like.
Later, the (Bulgarian) private aide said that her uncle married a Slovak woman and lived in a rural area there, and that they did a lot of hunting, that everyone did in that region. When she went to visit, in fact, they had an entire room full of meat from hunting, all of it smoked.
She clarified, too, that she visited them twice under Communism, not after.
"As for me, Communism wasn't so bad," she was like. "We are a small country, it was different there, it was more quiet."
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Relaxation of my one (male) (Tibetan) coworker.
My one (male) (Tibetan) coworker has been tired because of his new baby, though he clarified that it's more from the work and the interrupted sleep than from being actually physically tired.
He was saying, too, that he was so tired the other week, that he asked his wife to give him a massage, and so "she got out coconut oil and gave me massage, it was so good," he was like.
"You better be careful," I was like, "Because you'll end up with a second baby."
He was saying, too, that he was so tired the other week, that he asked his wife to give him a massage, and so "she got out coconut oil and gave me massage, it was so good," he was like.
"You better be careful," I was like, "Because you'll end up with a second baby."
Monday, September 2, 2019
Noise on the subway the other day:
Two (black) people directly across from each other on the car, each with a kid, each with their cell phone out and on loud with some kind of music with a louder beat.
The woman started hers up after the man had his on, so you wonder if she got the idea from him.
The man got off with the stroller and the woman with the toddler like at the same stop, but they didn't seem to be together.
The woman started hers up after the man had his on, so you wonder if she got the idea from him.
The man got off with the stroller and the woman with the toddler like at the same stop, but they didn't seem to be together.
Sunday, September 1, 2019
Two disappearing cats (2 of 2): Old cat.
The other week, one (affable) (independent) resthome resident was saying that he couldn't find his cat, so I asked if I could go help him find him for him.
"You can try, but you might not be successful," he was like, and he then said that his apartment was small and very clean, and he simply has no idea where his cat goes.
So, I go into the apartment, and there sitting out is the cat carrier that he had brought out to take his cat to the vet and which had scared it and made it go into hiding, and otherwise his apartment wass on the bare side and very, very clean.
And, I look everywhere, behind stuff and in things and whatnot, and even at the fabric beneath the bed and sofa to see if it was broken and the cat had leapt up into the furniture and was resting on an internal beam, and no, I simply couldn't find the cat at all, it wasn't anywhere.
"I told you," he was like.
Like right after I left his apartment, too, I bumped into my one (male) (Tibetan) coworker, and I told him about the situation, so he went off to go to the apartment to go help find the cat.
Later, I saw him, and though he hadn't believed me at first that the cat was hard to find, it turned out that he couldn't find it, either.
It was pretty astounding, that a five pound cat could hide so effectively from three people looking for it.
I saw the resident later, too, and he said that the cat had briefly come out for dinner, but then had slipped away again and went and hid.
"You can try, but you might not be successful," he was like, and he then said that his apartment was small and very clean, and he simply has no idea where his cat goes.
So, I go into the apartment, and there sitting out is the cat carrier that he had brought out to take his cat to the vet and which had scared it and made it go into hiding, and otherwise his apartment wass on the bare side and very, very clean.
And, I look everywhere, behind stuff and in things and whatnot, and even at the fabric beneath the bed and sofa to see if it was broken and the cat had leapt up into the furniture and was resting on an internal beam, and no, I simply couldn't find the cat at all, it wasn't anywhere.
"I told you," he was like.
Like right after I left his apartment, too, I bumped into my one (male) (Tibetan) coworker, and I told him about the situation, so he went off to go to the apartment to go help find the cat.
Later, I saw him, and though he hadn't believed me at first that the cat was hard to find, it turned out that he couldn't find it, either.
It was pretty astounding, that a five pound cat could hide so effectively from three people looking for it.
I saw the resident later, too, and he said that the cat had briefly come out for dinner, but then had slipped away again and went and hid.
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