Thank you for acknowledging that. It's been bothering me for a while.
I don't know if I can do this justice, but it is making me laugh so hard. This is the set up for the Google Form to order a Lady Mascot shirt from the high school:
Email address:
Total due for the order ($20 per shirt):
Name on the order:
Shirt size: _ XS
(ie a radial button with only one choice offered)
How many:
Shirt size: _ S
How many:
Shirt size: _ M
How many:
Shirt size: _ L
How many:
Shirt size: _ XL
How many:
Shirt size: _ XXL
How many:
Submit
And since it's a Google Form, there is lots of blank space and it just creates the effect of scrolling in a particularly meandering way, like this is a song Ace is making up as she goes, from the backseat of the car.
3: I think I added it back in the fall. But yes.
Messed up the link. https://www.tiktok.com/@jamie_ehrett/video/6924306399161896197
Maryland's first mass vaccination site opened up and is a 5 minute walk from my house. I suppose I can't just randomly show up, though.
They reopened the bars this week and the Superbowl is this weekend. What could possibly go wrong?
1 and 2: I did try to figure out if Thorn was ok, and somebody looked on Facebook, and said she was still alive, though it was a hard year.
We had a beloved admin in our department who left in 2018 for the local big state U. More opportunity for career development, better salary, etc. They're much closer to my house, and I've idly thought sometimes about what it would be like if I just adjuncted or was a lecturer there, or something.
Anyway she's leaving and coming back to us (in a different capacity) due to the awfulness of the culture/people there and the general niceness of the culture/people here. I'm already someone who overvalues the status quo and fears change, so I suspect now I will never leave my job.
Isn't that pretty common for faculty?
yep. It was kind of already a foregone conclusion.
Well, it seems good to have confirmation that you're with pretty good people, on the up side, Heebie.
All present and accounted for over here. Back to about 75-85% of normal in general, and pretty much 100% of normal at my job, so hurrah. No longer avoiding certain tasks because I know I can't concentrate for long enough to do them. Now to reintroduce exercise!
We're alive and well; getting a wargame campaign and a roleplaying campaign off the ground this weekend. I'm running the roleplaying game (Descent into Avernus for D&D 5e), and am chomping at the big for the wargame to launch. We've had first round orders in, but keep finding things to work through before executing them. (It's a custom campaign overlaid on Full Thrust: Fleet Battles for the engagements.)
I did "drynuary" or whatever for the first time this year. My level of relief at its completion is really a sign of...something, I don't really care to pursue that thought. Anyway, back to drinking my dinners.
Somehow I'm drinking a lot less frequently the past month. Good feeling that that happened without my planning it (since there's alcoholism in my family).
I've cut back on drinking a bit over the past few weeks. Didn't think of trying at the start of the year. After Jan. 6, didn't feel bad about not trying. Started cutting back after the inauguration. Not quitting, I'm sipping a Manhattan now, but I won't be following it up with a beer like I would have most nights last month. Work has been busy lately, but I like some parts of it, it seems secure, and my supervisor is a reasonable person, so I'm not job-hunting at the moment.
I had a shot of zirbenschnapps today -- we had a masked couple over after skiing (it was an epic powder day), and finished the bottle. It's impossible to get in Montana. Maybe smuggling is the answer?
I felt compelled to honor the letter, as well as the spirit, of the January 6 "Here Endeth Dry January" tweet that made me laugh so hard. I should exercise more moderation, but I'm not going to sweat that particular thing. More pressing: I seem to have hit the point of hating my job so much that I can barely make myself do it. I spend hours every day trying to talk myself out of just quitting, but... maybe I should quit. It's like I have Severe Acute Burnout Syndrome. (Home life has been requiring somewhat more attention for various reasons.)
I don't like work if I have to write too much. I'd rather to data analysis and then write something incomprehensible and pass it on to somebody else to make sense of.
I've put in a request to change departments at my workplace. There are good reasons to think it will be approved this time (I tried three years ago, and was denied), but I'm going to be stressed and worried until I hear the answer, and there's no clear timeline for when that will be. I really hate uncertainty.
I've also--not burned bridges, really, but made more explicit the fact that some bridges were in very poor repair due to choices made by others,* and so if I'm not allowed to leave that will make staying a bit more awkward. Mostly, I'm ok with that, because it was already very awkward for me, and I very much think that others should be feeling that same level of awkward themselves insofar as they're the ones who messed up.
The one aspect of the pandemic that has been a godsend is that department meetings are all on Zoom, so I can turn off my camera sometimes.
*A year and a half ago my cow-orders (many of whom I considered close friends) voted almost unanimously to change our bylaws in a way that directly hurt only me, and made me officially a second-class member of our department. While they were addressing my contract type rather than me personally, their logic for doing so was seriously dumb, everyone acknowledged that their stated purpose could not accomplish its goal, and yet they were still willing to permanently screw me over to make a point to high-ups who DGAF (and probably didn't notice). To add insult to injury, this whole discussion and vote happened on my birthday, and not a single person with advance knowledge consulted me ahead of time or gave me warning it was happening (including one person who I considered a very close friend). I'm still furious, obviously.
In happier news, I just got a grant funded. A small grant, but I'm not complaining.
If it's K award, you're supposed to have an advisor who does the complaining.
26: Literally? Or do you mean that you can relate?
My 93-year-old mother passed away Thursday, from non-COVID causes. I haven't been able to see her for a year. I had planned a visit last March, plane tickets and all, but cancelled. She was losing her hearing so we could only have occasional brief shouty conversations over the phone, which neither of us enjoyed. My sister and her sons were able to be with her on Thursday. Today one of the sons informed my sister that he has tested positive. Just, Jesus Christ.
Oh no. I am so sorry. That is so devastating.
21:
Wait, if you had people over to drink, then there must have been significant unmasked time, no?
33: My condolences. This year is making even awful things worse. I hope your sister and nephews stay healthy or recover quickly.
My condolences, mcmc. Best of luck to your family.
32: So very sorry for your loss, mcmc.
I'm so sorry to hear that, and am thinking of you and your family.
One of my closest friends in local politics called me from a Phoenix hospital tonight. They'll be moving him to hospice in the next day or two. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer almost exactly 4 years ago -- I remember because I'm his alternate delegate for state conventions, and he couldn't go to the convention where we had to replace Zinke, Trump's first Secretary of Interior. Four years with pancreatic cancer is pretty good and we knew this day would come. Klaus grew up in post-war Berlin, lived in NYC for 40 years from the late 60s on (and was active in Dem politics there), retiring out here maybe 12 years ago. Taking horse trips into the Bob, dabbling in politics, wintering in Arizona. A pretty full life, and although he was glad to have outlasted Trump, he wasn't done. What does one even say?
34 Yeah, off and on. Often not at the same time. I probably gave/got more helping him change a tire up at the hill, if either of us has it. Masked, but there was some serious breathing involved.
My younger relative (ok, my brother) that I've mentioned before, as having issues with mental health, but also, with sometimes being aggressive or violent when unwell has been jailed for 8 months. This was a surprise to all of us, as we were expected him to get a non-custodial sentence, but, to be honest, it's not necessarily a bad thing. Our mother is planning to move to a new house, and by the time he's out of jail, she'll be in a new location, which he won't have. All contact won't be severed, but meetings will be in neutral places, potentially with social workers involved. I'd like to think he might learn from this experience, but I know he won't.
My older cousin died a couple of weeks ago, and the funeral was streamed last week, which is a strange, intrusive experience. She wasn't someone I have seen a lot recently, but I have a lot of fond memories of visiting her as a kid, and she was a really good, kind person. To make matters worse, her son* who is a news and freelance photographer, who covers a lot of NGO and protest related stuff, was arrested last week in a very dodgy bit of suppression of press freedom when he was covering a protest. It made the national papers over the past 10 days in the UK. The case has since been dropped but the poor fucker was taken away in front of his kids, his memory cards and phone confiscated, etc all in the week he was dealing with his mother's death.
* same age as me, so we were quite friendly as kids/teenagers but again, not in touch much except for weddings/funerals, etc-
I/we (immediate family) are all fine, however. Our local area is one of the ones in London which has cases of community transmission of the "South African" COVID variant, so they are surge testing everyone (tens of thousands of people) with PCR testing and sequencing to identify any other cases. Our own apartment isn't included, it's not every single address in the post code, they are only doing the streets within some radius of known contacts/cases. So we aren't being tested, but a lot of our friends and neighbours are.
32:I'm so sorry, that's an awful way to lose a parent.
42: Not unmixed, I guess, but wow that has to be very stressful for everyone involved.
40: I'm very sorry for your friend.
40: I'm so sorry, Charley. In the same situations, I've asked, "Do you want to talk about the hard stuff--I'll listen to anything you want to say without judging or trying to make you feel better--or do you want me to distract you?" You can enlarge a meaningful picture of friends, or Montana, or whatever to poster size and have it sent to his room. You can send a very soft and comfortable dressing gown. You can just say that you love him and will keep fighting the good fight.
Even when we've had a long time to prepare, it's so hard to lose our friends.
Oh I am so sorry to read all of this, mcmc, Charley, Nicola(s).
ok, my brother
I had missed that. That's rough. I'm sorry.
I'm sorry, all. Mcmc, I hope your sister and nephew are fine, and I hope you have comforting memories of your mother. What a rough time to lose people. Charley, I'm sorry for you and your friend. Nichola(s), I'm glad your inner circle is safe and sound, but that's quite a lot of troubles after so much stress and strain of "normal" in a difficult year. I hope your brother manages to gain some sort of equilibrium, and I'm sorry for your loss.
Sorry to read of all the loss and challenges. Hang in there, oh my peeps.
As a long-term update, I have realized between the DUI of a couple years ago and Covid isolation, having a hard, rewarding job (that I may be leaving in a few months--updates when relevant), and possibly the ADHD diagnosis/medication... my relationship with alcohol (and weed) has changed a lot the past few years--two years ago, I would drink til tipsy several nights a week, especially when upset--and get shit-hammered 2-3 times a month. Now I have a single drink 2-3 times a week and the one time I got tipsy in the past few months it was a result of miscalculation based on lower tolerance.
Perhaps alcohol will more actively return to my life when dating and bars and shows are a thing again (although never again when I am driving), but I take comfort in knowing that I am capable of change and capable of moderation--which I always believed but always worried about, especially when others in my life expressed concern. God forbid I am actually growing up in my late 40s--it seems wildly off brand.
In shorter term updates, thanks to all for the advice/support during my recent spat with my ex over leaving me out of the decision to let older kiddo apply for a job. (said child is non-binary with they/them pronouns, which I am more slowly than I'd like getting the hang of--the bigger struggle is picking the right word in the moment to describe a relationship--switching from "daughter" to "child," "sister" to "sibling," etc. I 'll get there--and they know i' m trying and don't take offense when I slip.) kiddo got a job, and aside from the Covid risk it really has been great for them--even kids on the spectrum need socialization and time out of the house. The spontaneously hugged me out of joy the other night after a shift, which almost never happens. Happy-making.
As for my ex, over the past 5. 5 years, I have been paying anywhere from 30% to 200% in support over the state-defined formula--partly out of guilt that I wasn't earning enough when underemployed, partly out of a sense that I could afford it and the income difference was extreme enough (my income is triple hers) since I got the job I have now. After being silently infuriated for a week and change, I told her I would be paying the state formula only going forward. She accepted with good grace, but then told me that for the past two years she has been putting the "extra" into college savings--in effect choosing how I spent money without letting me have any input. Have all the info, knowing that I am dealing with a pile of consumer debt and depleted retirement savings that I used to cover support during the tough years. So, back to being deeply pissed, but also making me realize that the collaborative co-parenting relationship based on trust was far less than the ideal I had imagined.
Realizing also that this likely meant that I was not getting "credit" with the kids for my sacrifices, I asked them if they were aware of the over-and-above support I had been giving their mom, or that the money in their college savings came from me. They weren't. My younger kid even called it a "dick move" on her mom's part, which warmed my heart. (Note that I made clear that I still thought their mom was a good person and a good mom--just that I would be being less collaborative going forward since I didn't feel like I was being treated like an equal partner.)
All on all, it's wound up feeling very freeing--I'm going to be angry for a while, but we've reached a new detente where I feel like I am free to more proactively assert my decisions. Always a moving target, but ultimately an improvement.
In completely unrelated news, I stumbled across a trove of pics from one of the Flophouse parties, ca. December 30, 2016. I'm not sure if there are any old timers who attended that check in here that I'm not FB friends, but if there are and you want access, lemme know.
I'm down in San Antonio where my 1b niece just got her first shot. She's signed up on all kinds of "pre-registration" lists in Austin, but we managed to snag an appointment here thanks to a slack channel that's monitoring availability in TX. This is such a stupid system.
I tried to figure out Slack. I failed.
OMG. I could not make this up. Jammies sent me another screen shot of a Google Form from the high school.
Please someone click through and validate all these big feelings I'm having.
51: glad to hear cutting back on alcohol has gone well. As for the extra money issue, though, sorry about the stress/anger/etc. but it sounds like the new system is better, for whatever it's worth.
52: If it's from 2006, I'm curious. I might have been there. Please email me at at the address by my name here or reach out to me on FB if we're friends. (I don't know. It's not like anyone there goes by "Chopper".)
57-59: It won't load for me. I just see a spinning wheel indefinitely. Do I not have access?
57: I finally got it to appear. I'm utterly baffled. Can you explain it to me? What's the deal with the colors? Add up the numbers?
60: My drive seemed to be totally spinning-wheel, for a minute there. It might work now?
61, 62: Maybe Moby answered my questions.
I don't even know where to begin with it. Burst out laughing?
This kind of thing must happen everywhere. There is nothing unique about Heebieville. I am going to keep repeating that to myself, but I'm not sure if it makes it better or worse.
I'm dying to know what they're going to do with that data (2). That form is incredible (1). Orange (3).
Click your heels together 3 times and repeat, "There's many places like heebieville."
Clearly Orange (3).
If I were given this in person, I would descend into unstoppable nervous laughter and really feel bad later.
The spinning wheel never resolved itself, but I was able to view it by clicking the "download" button. Agreed, badly designed form. As best I can figure, they want you to rank those topics/priorities from 1 to 7, but the best/only way they could see to do so was with a text box? So the problem there is not using the right tool or not knowing how to use it. But for some reason they gave an example with color words instead of anything relevant?
I'm not saying I could have designed the interface to use radial buttons or whatever, but given the tool of a text box, I'm pretty sure I could have asked the question better.
Also, a screenshot of a Web page is annoying, but this might not be totally rational.
I counted eight items in the list, so feel free to exclude one I guess?
65.2 is probably wrong. It's kind of in a sweet spot between too fucked up to get the form launched and still fucked up enough to not notice what's wrong.
But you're supposed to add up the numbers that correlate with your responses, so your answer should be a single sum?
I feel like this is not actually a digital literacy survey but a puzzle-solving IQ test, and we're all failing.
70 was me, just in case anyone takes the anonymity as passive-aggressive or otherwise intentional. Sorry.
73: a new voter registration requirement from a state with Republican state government, maybe.
I have to assume "add the numbers" means "insert the numbers".
75. OOOOHHHHHH I see. Well, that makes like 5% more sense.
Oh! Yes. 75 is my interpretation too. I didn't know where you guys were getting sums from.
I got what they meant by "add the numbers" intuitively at least, but yes, it's like if someone had been instructed to craft the worst survey design possible. I don't know if Google Forms allows the mechanism of clicking and dragging items to put them in a rank order, but they could have used radio buttons or something perfectly easily.
As best I can figure, they want you to rank those topics/priorities from 1 to 7, but the best/only way they could see to do so was with a text box?
But Google Forms has a prebuilt ranking-order style question right there. Like, they would have almost had to override Google's attempt to anticipate they wanted a ranked-order question and manually switch to short answer.
On a form about digital literacy.
53: 2006, sorry. I think it was the first Unfoggedcon.
79: heh, I didn't know that, but in my defense, I'm not a responsible for educating people about digital literacy. Seriously, this might be worth bringing up with someone.
Cyrus, I feel like we might be, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. If you have a friend in Minnesota who just offered pics from "The Other Place," that's me. At any rate, next step is getting emails anyway, so no worries.
That form! They sure aren't planning on automatically pulling data from the responses. Yikes.
Also, radio buttons. Y'know, like the radio buttons in cars; only one can be selected at a time. (Though I have jammed more than one of the mechanical buttons that are found in old cars.)
The obvious design flaws are useful in that they tend to divert attention from the obvious conceptual flaws. How is anyone supposed to rank these things? What do we mean by "cultural and social understanding" in the context of digital literacy? etc. ...
84. Yes! The problems with how they're doing it blinded me from the problems with what they are doing.
79. They drafted their "thoughts" in word after seeing bullet points in an article, and a less-capable underling was told by thought leader to cut-and-paste. You can only reach the underling to communicate, and underling cannot effectively take messages or relay email.
Yes!! How are you actually supposed to rank those things, even if the format wasn't inscrutable?!
It kind of reminds me of those tests (AP maybe?) where instead of just signing below "I didn't cheat" you had to write out "I certify that this is my work and I am the only person who provided these answers" prior to signing. It's like you'll take it more seriously because there's additional useless effort involved so you are more invested in it.
I think my mom is eligible and will be able to get her shot in Maine. I am so dispirited by our rollout in MA.
It's a koan to teach you that the real digital literacy is the friends you meet along the way.
87: Sure, but I'm totally used to that. Nancy Pelosi is always sending me surveys and asking me to choose the most important issue and so I have to decide between healthcare, peace, democracy, and candy, and I can only choose one or else I have to give her a hundred dollars every week.
It will be years before I stop enjoying the joke in 90.
I'm not stopping making it either way.
Orange you glad he didn't say 93 again?