23rd Bout of Randomness

[Vala]

Haha well you're lucky kitsunerei88 that you've never come across them. My last house had one and it was simply awful to go outside in winter.

[Idleness]

I think kitsunerei88 hasn't come across them because people would probably die in them in Canadian winters!

But yeah, old houses that haven't been modernised, certainly in NZ, they had the toilet in the laundry which was usually a lean-to out the back of the house, that you got to by going outside the back door and then into the laundry. My house was built in 1926 so it's 90 years old and it's had no big alterations to structure or layout in that time. Which means it's pretty retro, hence renovations and my excitement over an interior toilet.

[kitsunerei88]

Our winters aren't that bad. They're pretty bad for driving, but a short walk across backyard probably wouldn't kill you. Though if you locked yourself accidentally, you're probably out of luck...

[Vala]

Well okay, kitsunerei88 as long as you say so. I personally am very afraid of the cold. I just hope you've never experienced locking yourself out!

[Seek]

Been a while ;__; I did not expect uni life to get much worse once you start teaching. Yes, I was an innocent

[mistrali]

A wild Seek appears!

I understand if you'd rather not share here due to privacy etc., but I'm curious as to what you're teaching

[Seek]

I'll drop you a PM

[mistrali]

Aug 23, 2016 19:43:59 GMT 10 Seek said:

I'll drop you a PM

Oh, see, that actually makes sense. I think I left my brain back at the office yesterday.

[Vala]

"I think I left my brain back at the office yesterday. "

Ugh, I do that all the time.

[Seek]

Eh, you know what they say, no harm done We all have these days!

[Vala]

True, Seek

Sorry, I can't help but wonder this. Where is your username from? One of my young cousins was reading a book with a character of that name and I just recalled that as I saw your post.

[Seek]

If your cousin was reading Seeker by William Nicholson, then that's exactly the book--to not spoil anyone inadvertently, I'll just say that the protagonist, Seeker After Truth, wants to become a warrior-monk. Mild spoiler: the monks say no.

Now, maybe someone would go "aww, that's terrible, I'll find something else to do with my life." Seeker? He goes off and determines to do a deed of such badassery that the monks would just have to let him join their order. I kinda loved his Never-Say-Die attitude, and I also like Nicholson's writing in general.

[Idleness]

So yesterday I was told that I may be doing a new role. I've never done this kind of work before, so I'm going to have to learn it on the fly, and quickly. Not too worried, everything I've done I've learned on the job and it's worked well for me. Not that I don't feel some anxiety, because I really do prefer to know that I know what I'm doing!

So last night I had weird dreams. I was in my old bedroom in my parents' house, and I went to the wardrobe and got out my old school uniform skirt and put it on. Our skirts were the most iconic part of our uniforms. Then I went to the mirror and noticed flaky skin on my face, so I start picking at it. Then I'm basically pulling off my face in big sheets of dead skin, and there's tender new skin underneath.

I can only conclude it was about learning to put on a new face.

[Vala]

Aug 23, 2016 21:03:20 GMT 10 Seek said:

If your cousin was reading Seeker by William Nicholson, then that's exactly the book--to not spoil anyone inadvertently, I'll just say that the protagonist, Seeker After Truth, wants to become a warrior-monk. Mild spoiler: the monks say no.

Now, maybe someone would go "aww, that's terrible, I'll find something else to do with my life." Seeker? He goes off and determines to do a deed of such badassery that the monks would just have to let him join their order. I kinda loved his Never-Say-Die attitude, and I also like Nicholson's writing in general.

Yes! That's the book. I think I'll go check it out now I've read the Wind Singer books by him - ages ago - but I remember liking his writing. 

[Kypriotha]

Sorry I've been a bit AWOL lately; work has been super hectic. I'll try to get caught up on all things Glake this weekend

[Vala]

That's all cool Kypriotha, I feel like the last few days have been hectic for everyone I know too.

[Tamari]

I've been so missing lately, too. I meant to catch up on things this summer, but I have no home wifi and thus are stuck using my phone. Not conducive to writing fic.
I had a great summer though! I'm about to start my second year of college. Moving in the 3rd!

[Seek]

Aug 24, 2016 6:25:32 GMT 10 Idleness said:

So last night I had weird dreams. I was in my old bedroom in my parents' house, and I went to the wardrobe and got out my old school uniform skirt and put it on. Our skirts were the most iconic part of our uniforms. Then I went to the mirror and noticed flaky skin on my face, so I start picking at it. Then I'm basically pulling off my face in big sheets of dead skin, and there's tender new skin underneath.

I can only conclude it was about learning to put on a new face.

Who knows, maybe it was about learning how to put on a happy face...a brave face...

Oh, I give up, clearly you dreamed you were Eleanor Rigby

[/badjokes]

[Seek]

Sorry for the double-post, guys. Just wanted to add something more--someone let me know if I shouldn't.

Wow, Zika's hit us and the government's scrambling to wipe out mosquitoes more than usual, which I find kind of ironic, because Zika's less deadly than dengue or malaria, and despite having a new kind of dengue fever pop up here, we're panicking about Zika, which...isn't fatal.

I kind of understand: with each infected person, we're allowing chains of transmission that can reach pregnant women and fertility rate and having babies is important etcetera. But at the same time, IDK. I kind of wonder if our priorities are misplaced, and whyever on earth did we not start scrambling when we just found out earlier that a new form of dengue had just shown up here.

[Vala]

That's no good Seek. Just wondering, what country do you live in?

[mistrali]

Seek I think the truth, or part of it, is that Zika is a lifelong condition and is similar to an intellectual disability. I mean, they're two quite different things with different consequences. It's not that Zika is less significant purely by virtue of not being fatal. Dengue is 'the evil we know', but a different strain of it. Zika will impact whole families in new ways for decades (care, disability industry, accommodation, new treatments), to say nothing of moderately to severely affecting the QOL of people who have it, potentially for seventy to eighty years*.

So in that sense, I suspect they want to really hammer it home that they're doing everything they can and redoubling their efforts because Zika is entirely new and has the potential to scare the crap out of many mothers. Whereas with dengue, people might tend to be less alarmed and rightly think they have some coping mechanisms ("it's 'just' another kind of something we already have"). But yes, I agree that the two should be given equal priority & that they should have acted as soon as the dengue was discovered.

*Not arguing that PWD cannot have QOL, or that disability necessarily leads to poor QOL (how could I, with the Paralympics & a lot of people I've met being a definitive example of the contrary?), just that Zika is lifelong and quite a bit more of a drain on the system than something like dengue. Yes, I know how that sounds, but it's true.

[Kypriotha]

Every time I open this thread, I see the very first post I made in it in November last year and realise nothing has changed. I have been very busy at work all year and even more so right now and I would very much like a break.

[Vala]

Sept 6, 2016 20:37:40 GMT 10 Kypriotha said:

Every time I open this thread, I see the very first post I made in it in November last year and realise nothing has changed. I have been very busy at work all year and even more so right now and I would very much like a break.

Ugh, I feel the same way. I've been so overwhelmed and tired the last few weeks with exams rolling in. Luckily studying finishes in a week for me!

I hope you get the break you deserve

[mistrali]

Sept 6, 2016 20:37:40 GMT 10 Kypriotha said:

Every time I open this thread, I see the very first post I made in it in November last year and realise nothing has changed. I have been very busy at work all year and even more so right now and I would very much like a break.

Aw I hope you get a nice long break over Christmas or even sooner.

[max]

^This really drives home my misgivings about proper grown up-hood, now imminent as it is.

Like, I am so down to spend exorbitant amounts of my future grown up income on skincare (now that I've learnt that you can spend money on sun damage. Which I suffered a lot of, being as fair skinned as I am, allergic to many sunblocks, and playing a variety of summer sports my teen years), and moving home is really high up on my list of priorities because I miss it so much, but. Grinding..



My main concern this week is that I have to ask my brother to access our mum's $ to pay for me to attend a conference at the end of the year. Unfortunately, being more of a tech dinosaur than I am, he's under the illusion I broke his gmail, and is sending me angry texts about it, and doesn't understand his laptop well enough for me to help him try to fix whatever's happened long-distance.  

More unfortunately: I've had to cover the conference myself because it was due, and now won't be able to make rent before Friday

[Idleness]

Adulthood is so overrated. I don't recommend it.

[Kypriotha]

Sept 7, 2016 19:33:43 GMT 10 Idleness said:

Adulthood is so overrated. I don't recommend it.

Agreed.

(Although I also don't want to go back to being uni!me. I want some happy medium - freedom and money, but not too much stress and responsibility.)

I am having a long break over Christmas/January, but a lot of that will be travelling, so I'm not sure how restful it will be. I might try to extend it a bit, so I can have a real break. I definitely have enough hours accrued in lieu!!

Good luck with your money/tech issues max.

[Seek]

Sept 4, 2016 12:47:55 GMT 10 mistrali said:

Seek I think the truth, or part of it, is that Zika is a lifelong condition and is similar to an intellectual disability. I mean, they're two quite different things with different consequences. It's not that Zika is less significant purely by virtue of not being fatal. Dengue is 'the evil we know', but a different strain of it. Zika will impact whole families in new ways for decades (care, disability industry, accommodation, new treatments), to say nothing of moderately to severely affecting the QOL of people who have it, potentially for seventy to eighty years*.

So in that sense, I suspect they want to really hammer it home that they're doing everything they can and redoubling their efforts because Zika is entirely new and has the potential to scare the crap out of many mothers. Whereas with dengue, people might tend to be less alarmed and rightly think they have some coping mechanisms ("it's 'just' another kind of something we already have"). But yes, I agree that the two should be given equal priority & that they should have acted as soon as the dengue was discovered.

*Not arguing that PWD cannot have QOL, or that disability necessarily leads to poor QOL (how could I, with the Paralympics & a lot of people I've met being a definitive example of the contrary?), just that Zika is lifelong and quite a bit more of a drain on the system than something like dengue. Yes, I know how that sounds, but it's true.

Hey mistrali! Sorry it took me a while to get back--teaching week is taking a lot out of me. Thank you for your explanation; I think it puts things in a different light for me.

With the caveats:

1. I re-read an article and realised that the issue with Zika isn't just developmental issues in foetuses (we have, after all, to still put that in perspective: this affects 10% of foetuses, which is something to set against potential strain on the healthcare system.) The issue is that there's a link (exact nature undetermined) to Guillain–Barré syndrome, and that would definitely be a major load on our already-taxed healthcare system.

2. Our current issue is that they tested the Zika strain here and found it's homegrown: they can't seem to detect any sort of genetic link between this and the one afflicting the Brazil region, which means that it's a localised form of Zika, and what it actually does it a big question mark right now. (I have a bad feeling we're going to find out eventually...)

3. I can see why the government would be concerned, although I also do think that's somewhat overreacting anyway. It makes sense to me that they need to appear to be acting decisively, but the moment we had about 5 Zika clusters, with cases continually climbing, and since Zika can be transmitted across mosquito generations--perhaps I'm a pessimist, but it looks to me that Zika is here to stay, unless we somehow manage to exterminate the entire native mosquito population (not ecologically advisable) and/or until we find better treatments for it.

4. I guess I should've been clearer about the context: I can absolutely see why our government thinks this is a big deal since they were already worried about and on top of the dengue issues. But I have fellow classmates (male or non-pregnant and not planning on parenthood anytime soon) who are panicking about catching Zika, and to me, that doesn't really make sense--ruling out the worries about Guillain–Barré syndrome, they really don't stand to be badly hit by Zika as compared to our new, existing dengue fever problem. And mass panic helps no one--mosquito repellents and winter clothing are flying off the shelves, which is ok, great business for the companies that produce these things, but also not very helpful since the people who really need those can't get to them.

Thanks for the perspective!

[mistrali]

Seek Ah, that puts a slightly different slant on things - thank you.

"helpful since the people who really need those can't get to them."

I was wondering what you meant here - people who are already sick, or people who can't afford those things?

[Idleness]

Kypriotha, one thing I have learned is that no one is indispensable, even though sometimes it feels like it! Take some leave, the work will get done or it will wait for you. It's not worth running your health down over.

*Though, I don't know your workplace culture. I know not everyone is lucky enough to have bosses who hold the wellbeing of their people as essential to the success of the enterprise. I hope you're not in one of those toxic places.