Update for Everyone VI: What Is and What Should Never Be

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Fourth day without coffee.

Kill me please.

I’ve scaled it back to just weekends.

Quick count of the night’s events. At least five Rick Sanchez costumes (sooo 2015); at least four Stranger Things costumes; only one Bladerunner costume.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I bought a pumpkin but am too lazy to carve it and lack the proper tools.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Went to GeekFest today. I have come to the conclusion that T- Mobile is a cult.

did they sponsor it or something?

Maybe. All I know is that there was a traveling T-Mobile store, the crowd was chanting "T-Mobile"... I know one guy kept beatboxing.

Ugh.   Most Greek festivals I'm aware of are held at churches, and so are able to a decent job keeping away any commercialism that is too distracting or off-theme.

Most Greek feats I’ve gone to were held at my house during undergrad.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Last night I gave a PechaKucha talk. It's an unusual format. You get 20 slides and they are projected for exactly 20 seconds each. Your 6 min 40 sec speech has to line up with the slides. 20 sec is not a lot of time to say something meaningful, so it really forces the speaker to plan words carefully. They are also entertaining, and even if they aren't, it is over quickly. Nine of us presented last night, and I was number 6, right after the intermission.

I had an extra challenge that I didn't expect. We got up for a group photo during intermission, and I wasn't feeling quite right. My stomach was upset, and I felt a touch of chills. I'm not prone to be nervous giving public talks since I do it for a living, so nerves didn't seem to fit here. I was concerned that it might be the norovirus my wife had at the beginning of the week. Any I gave the talk and no one noticed me in any distress.

I sped home quickly, and sure enough I went straight to the bathroom with norovirus. Mild fever, vomiting, diarrhea, the whole deal - through the night and into the morning. If it goes like expected, I should be over any symptoms in the next day or so. But talk about a close call last night.

Any chance a Russian spy is trying to poison politically active American scientists?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Bringing manufacturing back to America!

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I am so sorry to hear that, Ted.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

In a week’s time, I’ll be done with my first semester of grad school.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Stir crazy from lack of gym time. Meanwhile, my studying hasn’t even kicked into high gear, so I’m in a position of evading success in both fitness and academics. And even after my last final, I’ll still be at work the next day...

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

You found a lost bird? That's actually quite impressive!

I was just thinking that myself

Good to hear Parrotguy!

Holy sh#t. Now I understand the name.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Jacobin, Madison, WI seems like a smaller city that might meet your cultural and spatial tastes. It’s also the home of UW!

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Exams are over. My biggest worry for the next three weeks aside from money is, of course, gym time. Weather, availability, and early sundown are big factors. Next term will be me auditing Intermediate Russian I and taking two more grad classes.

EDIT: I also ran into my first boss as a TA from my sophomore year who said she might have some work for me. I'm already overcompensated for work I do for another professor, so I'd be willing to do something pro bono if I had time, simply to get experience and my name on something.

Deferred from college. I feel nothing

Regular four-year program?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Finished the semester with all A’s (though it was only two classes, and I audited a third).

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Am I, you’re at Leiden? That sounds awesome. Do you speak... whatever it is they speak over there?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I hate our current state of politics. I'm very disappointed in the GOP and still stand strongly against Trump and Democratic Party leadership.

But I can't get away from it.

You could always become an Independent and start looking at candidates on their own merits. If you really can't stand Democrats but are utterly disappointed with Republicans, there is no need to affiliate with either of them. You certainly wouldn't be the first young person to leave the GOP

Haha

I guess I just feel like I need to be with a party (the duopoly has me captive, I know ). And I guess it’s more of the family thing of it being hard to leave a party my family has been a part of ever since they came to America decades ago.

I have gone thru the thought process though and still plan on considering a switch

I find that if you cloak your party disassociation in edgy, perhaps foreign-sounding labels, it becomes that much easier.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I hate our current state of politics. I'm very disappointed in the GOP and still stand strongly against Trump and Democratic Party leadership.

But I can't get away from it.

You could always become an Independent and start looking at candidates on their own merits. If you really can't stand Democrats but are utterly disappointed with Republicans, there is no need to affiliate with either of them. You certainly wouldn't be the first young person to leave the GOP

Haha

I guess I just feel like I need to be with a party (the duopoly has me captive, I know ). And I guess it’s more of the family thing of it being hard to leave a party my family has been a part of ever since they came to America decades ago.

I have gone thru the thought process though and still plan on considering a switch

I find that if you cloak your party disassociation in edgy, perhaps foreign-sounding labels, it becomes that much easier.

?

“I favor the type of conservatism espoused by Bismarck and Disraeli...”

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I hate our current state of politics. I'm very disappointed in the GOP and still stand strongly against Trump and Democratic Party leadership.

But I can't get away from it.

You could always become an Independent and start looking at candidates on their own merits. If you really can't stand Democrats but are utterly disappointed with Republicans, there is no need to affiliate with either of them. You certainly wouldn't be the first young person to leave the GOP

Haha

I guess I just feel like I need to be with a party (the duopoly has me captive, I know ). And I guess it’s more of the family thing of it being hard to leave a party my family has been a part of ever since they came to America decades ago.

I have gone thru the thought process though and still plan on considering a switch

I find that if you cloak your party disassociation in edgy, perhaps foreign-sounding labels, it becomes that much easier.

?

“I favor the type of conservatism espoused by Bismarck and Disraeli...”

Bismarck was far more Machiavellian than anything Machiavelli himself wrote.

Miles away from the point.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I wonder what would be easier: slashing one's wrists or simply overdosing pills. Hard to decide indeed. Damn Christmas.

Someone from my hometown community (about two years older than I) died yesterday. Don’t be in the obits on Christmas.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Grandma is still in the hospital and still doing better. She'll have to go to rehab to get her strength back and then she's staying for at least a month (hopefully permanently) at my aunts. She's been going through severe nicotine withdrawals in there, but she's going to give up smoking after a 50 year habit. She's breathing on her own and they've got her on antibiotics to clear up the pneumonia. I still can't believe how far from the edge she's come - a Christmas miracle for sure!

This of course means that I too will have to quit smoking. I'm waiting to after the New Year though, since she'll still be in some form of care until mid January.

I quit smoking almost two years ago, but December 31st was the last day I had a cigarette.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

After spending all day talking to the right people, I am officially allowed entry into Israel, will be going within the next three weeks to visit relatives for the first time.

Congrats!

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

ayyyy 1st day of the year and im already pissed. #soblessed #soangry

ignore this. drunk me was being dumb.

very hungover rn.

Yours are some of my favorite drunk posts.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

First conversation on one of those apps (where you meet people), and I am running headlong into the fact that I don’t know how to play dumb and exciting to an audience of potentially libertinous strangers. I am considering calling this entire endeavor a mistake. All I wanted to do tonight was start reading a book I bought.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Cath,

Welcome to hell, my friend (AKA the modern dating world).

Earlier today, I would have said that she luckily seems to have lost interest. Unfortunately, such appears to be not the case. Nevertheless, it appears incumbent on me to think of something interesting to say. Definitely a mistake.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Cath,

Welcome to hell, my friend (AKA the modern dating world).

Earlier today, I would have said that she luckily seems to have lost interest. Unfortunately, such appears to be not the case. Nevertheless, it appears incumbent on me to think of something interesting to say. Definitely a mistake.

Best of luck. Also, you seem to have a way of making the most vapid, mundane, or dull things sound more interesting than they really are...if you can do that, you'll be in good hands with topics for a while until you do have something interesting.

You've got this.

Lol. This is a very low replies conversation and I have no expectations whatsoever.

I am curious as to what the bolder means, though.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Loud burst, apparently caused by a bright, orange thing that fell to Earth around Southfield, Michigan, happened during class. Sounded like a firework. This is The End.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

And now I've been pulled from my Spanish class until August because I said the teacher I had this semester didn't want me sending in my objectivos online. I need to learn to keep my big mouth shut.

What?