Update for Everyone V: Born Under A Bad Sign

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Some of the aging conservatives at my church are honestly pretty terrible. I chose this religious community for myself and so I believe I'm obliged to cherish and to some extent defend it, but some of them make it pretty hard. A lot of these people are wonderful but some are simply garden-variety post-truth goons and it can get pretty damn frustrating.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Some of the aging conservatives at my church are honestly pretty terrible. I chose this religious community for myself and so I believe I'm obliged to cherish and to some extent defend it, but some of them make it pretty hard. A lot of these people are wonderful but some are simply garden-variety post-truth goons and it can get pretty damn frustrating.

Any chance you could be able engage some of them in a serious conversation and help them see things from your perspective? Not necessarily convince them, but at least build a bridge of some kind. I think you're one of the leftists on this forum who would be most capable to do that.

Oh, there's not really much ideological daylight between the ones I get along with and the ones I don't, it's almost all personality. There's this one guy who's a really hardcore Trumpista and would probably tread the fumi-e without a care as long as the daimyō "wasn't PC"; this is someone who seeks me out to complain about "the feminists" to even though he seems to know it bothers me.

Some of the aging conservatives at my church are honestly pretty terrible. I chose this religious community for myself and so I believe I'm obliged to cherish and to some extent defend it, but some of them make it pretty hard. A lot of these people are wonderful but some are simply garden-variety post-truth goons and it can get pretty damn frustrating.

Any chance you could be able engage some of them in a serious conversation and help them see things from your perspective? Not necessarily convince them, but at least build a bridge of some kind. I think you're one of the leftists on this forum who would be most capable to do that.

lol.

Hey, I bet you'd be even worse at discussing politics with Hillary people if she'd won than I am with these people, buddy.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Am going to a meeting with my Local MP at uni Rachael Maskell about the EU and Article 50 vote- apparently she's considering rebelling and resigning from the Shadow Cabinet over the issue, so I'm going to go and give me two cents- although she may remember me from when I heckled John Mcdonnell 

What is the Labour leadership's position on the Article 50 vote? I can never tell.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I've been considering getting guinea pigs. How do they do in smaller houses?

They do just fine, but having a large cage is optimal, especially if you get them in pairs or triplets, which they tend to be happier in as opposed to being alone.

Is the smell an issue?

I've never had a problem with it, so long as you clean their cage about once a week you should be fine.

Yeah, basically this. It occasionally got annoying when I had guinea pigs when I was younger, but it wasn't nearly as bad as with, say, ferrets. Just clean the cage regularly and burn some incense or something if for whatever reason you find yourself noticing it more than usual.

In general they're delightful pets and I'd recommend them to anyone.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I had my first meeting with a personal trainer today and we did some tests. My overall weight isn't hugely problematic but I do have too much body fat so my expectation is he'll recommend mostly converting-fat-to-muscle exercises rather than the weight-loss exercises I was initially expecting. This is honestly a little alarming to me but whatever. My cardiovascular health is good so I'm assuming the fat isn't in the worst places it could be, and my stamina and endurance seem less unspeakably awful than I was afraid.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Well, regardless of if it's a myth or not, the fat needs to go somewhere, and muscle needs to come from somewhere.

I got a more detailed assessment back from the trainer today. It's godawful on pretty much every metric and I'm incredibly discouraged.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I don't recall seeing you in any of the PAPOY pics as a fat. This is very worrying. Best of luck! I appear to be in my fourth day out of the gym myself, which is on its own quite disconcerting.

It's distributed pretty evenly. I look maybe twenty-five or thirty pounds lighter than I actually am. But, yeah, I've gained a lot of weight since I've been in grad school.

Thanks for the well-wishes, guys.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

It actually is an established Thing for your heart to give out while you're vomiting; it's one of the possible final outcomes of bulimia.

Anyway, congrats, Peebs.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

The town whose municipal government my mom works in got hit by a tornado several nights ago. It's the first February tornado in Massachusetts in recorded history.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

The town whose municipal government my mom works in got hit by a tornado several nights ago. It's the first February tornado in Massachusetts in recorded history.

Was it bad?

Not as bad as it could have been--no deaths or serious injuries--but a lot of property damage and the town has been in chaos for the past week. Here's a link to tornado relief (don't ask me why they're doing it through GoFundMe).

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Cathcon, what, precisely, is your major? Poli-sci? IR?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Cathcon, what, precisely, is your major? Poli-sci? IR?

Double major in political science and criminal justice studies.

Nice. My mom was a sociology/criminal justice double major.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Have I ever said how much I hate the alt-right?

I believe it was your buddy Classic that proclaimed once upon a time that he was part of the "Milo wing".

I want to say "Classic is to [something] as L. Brent Bozell was to bipolar", but I don't know what I could say that would be both sufficiently harsh and not too offensive. (I've been reading a lot about Bozell lately; he's a repellent, but tragic, figure.)

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I had a midterm in my Holocaust seminar today. Three essay questions, ninety minutes.

My "favorite" question (as in the one that I feel I did the best and most evenhanded job answering; obviously I didn't enjoy any of them) was about experiences specific to Jewish women during the Holocaust (especially involving sexual violence and pregnancy/abortion/childbirth, but not only; there's also stuff about how having their clothing taken and their heads shaved caused loss of identity for women coming from Orthodox Jewish society with its strict rules about gendered dress and grooming). The second question asked us to analyze different excuses and justifications used by the perpetrators (whether this meant justifications they made to themselves at the time or excuses they gave after the fact wasn't made clear, so I touched on both). The third question asked us to describe the Nazi worldview as it related to Jews and Judaism in our own words. I got pretty vituperative, but, with this professor, I'm pretty sure he'll appreciate that.

The one thing that I wanted to touch on that I forgot to--I knew that a question about the sources and nature of Nazi ideology would be asked, since we spent two weeks on it--was how obviously conspiratorial and nonsensical even relatively restrained proto-Nazi ideas were. Ask me about Julius Langbehn's #analysis of Shakespeare some time!

Hell of a way to spend Vera Lynn's hundredth birthday.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I got a terrible grade on an assignment that I did everything in my power to meet the criteria for and jumped through a lot of hoops to get done despite personal discomfort with the material, which I admitted to in the assignment and which the professor's comments were complimentary towards me for being willing to work through. It's so bad--literally the worst grade I've gotten on any assignment in any class in years--that I sat there in shock for several minutes looking at it trying to figure out what the hell I did to deserve it. I'm going to talk to the professor tomorrow and  see if it would be reasonable to ask for specific, concrete guidance on the actual writing process for the next few of these assignments. No sane, normal, good, non-fat-disgusting-moron person would need that for spiritual reflection papers, but apparently I do. This is my very last class in my master's and whatever grade I get in it will be right there at the end of my transcript like a punctuation mark for the rest of my life. And, as much good as it would do the world if I just croaked already, I'm selfish enough that I actually do want to live.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

As of earlier this evening I'll be vacationing in Maine for about a week! Most of that time will be in Acadia National Park doing outdoorsy stuff, so I won't be posting much this week.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I almost froze myself solid swimming in Seal Cove outside of what I guess is the recommended season. This is what I get for thinking ME-02 is okay.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I told my crush that I like her.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

BTW, who is this guy ?

serbia greattst countrey

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I'll just leave this here



(I have more)

You okay, dude?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I'll just leave this here



(I have more)

You okay, dude?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

tbh I hate myself for being open to dating someone like this as long as she's not racist, but it's not a real problem for me because all the young women I know are either leftists or postwar-European-style Catholic centrists.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Is it cause for concern that the one kind of beer I've found that I like is not only a Mexican pilsner, but a generally really poorly-reviewed Mexican pilsner?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I finished my master's degree on Monday.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I finished my master's degree on Monday.

Congrats! Anything next?

I'm hoping to adjunct at one of a few colleges near my family for a while, then maybe in a few years start a library science MS part-time, probably for something at a school or college library. I'm also planning to devote more time to creative writing than I have since 2012 or so.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

My air conditioner has been broken for three days, and it's in the 90s outside

Just get a fan.