anonemouse

I spent this entire morning and part of the afternoon getting everything done. The repair quote was almost $1900. *sigh* Guess I won't be getting that Caphalon cookware set I was eying at work anytime soon. I've got rental coverage as part of my insurance, so I'll be driving a bright red Chevy HHR for the next several days. Horrifically ugly car, but it's really nice on the inside. It's not that much bigger than my Civic, really, but it feels massive.

Yep, I'm fine. Just dreading all the crap I have to do tomorrow morning. I'm hoping that I can get everything done (call insurance, drop my car off at a body shop, arrange for a rental car, etc.) and still get to work on time. I don't think it's going to happen, honestly, since my insurance company doesn't open until about 9:00 (I have to call them to get a list of approved body shops), and I have to be at work at 10:00 with a half hour drive.

I wrecked my car tonight. It has rained cats and dogs all day today. I was just getting off the interstate on my way home from work, and I thought to myself, "I'd better be really careful exiting. Between the sharp curve and the rain, it would be really easy to hydroplane." What did I do about 5 seconds later? Hydroplaned into the guard rail, of course. I didn't do too much damage (and luckily, I wasn't hurt at all), but I did enough that I shouldn't drive my car any longer than necessary. I bent the front left quarter panel enough that it rubs on the tire really badly, broke the light, and damaged my bumper pretty well. And of course, this all comes about a month before the car's paid off entirely.

Oh, I agree. That's one reason online communication sometimes drives me nuts. To me, laxity in one type of communication creates a tendency to be lax other types of communication. The more you do something, the more likely you are to slip and accidentally do it at a very inopportune time. But other people don't always get it. Go figure, huh?

Lol, that's what I'm dreading! My spring semester actually ended a little over a week ago (the labs end earlier than the lectures do), but I'm teaching a biology lecture class and a couple of labs during the summer term, starting in June.

Personally, I love Target and Kmart. Well, I'm a fan of any place that isn't Wal-Mart. I DESPISE those stores. And yeah, Target doesn't have anything against vets. They don't let ANYONE solicit for money outside their stores, not even the Salvation Army Santas. If they make an exception for one group, they'd have to let all groups do it. And then the Targets would turn into Wal-Mart, with every group imaginable asking for a hand out.

Oh, I know. And I probably wouldn't have a problem with it, if they had asked first. It's the assumption that I wouldn't mind that bothers me. To me, a student just shouldn't automatically assume that every instructor/professor would like to be referred to by their first name just because they had one that likes it.

Perfectly said. I'm going to be worm food when I die, so I better make the most of the life I'm living now.

Thanks for the heads up, Wasa! Yep, I have definitely given up on attempting to explain the difference between a scientific theory and a layman's theory. It's just like slamming my head into a brick wall, repeatedly. Nothing gets accomplished and everyone gets pissed off, including me. As a biologist, it's extremely frustrating. Fact is, creationism is religion-based, whether you're talking about creation stories from Christianity, Buddhism, or Wicca. Teaching it is fine, as long as it stays in a theology class. It doesn't belong in a science class.

I teach college-level biology labs (and occasionally lecture classes, when my department needs me to), and you aren't kidding! I usually have a mix of four kinds of students: 1) direct-from-high-school freshmen; 2) upperclassmen that put off taking some of their gen-ed classes; 3) non-traditional (read: older) students; and 4) students repeating the class due to previous failure. Usually, the older students are by far my best students, then the upperclassmen (as long as they aren't Greek or athletes - those are usually fairly bad, in my experience). The first-time freshmen are usually terrible, unless they were over-achievers in high school. The repeat offenders will usually at least make an attempt to study, and in many cases, they'll try not to repeat the same mistakes they made in the past. My freshmen, though, have really destroyed my faith in the public school system (and some private and/or home school systems - the ones that utterly fail to teach modern, widely accepted scientific theory). Unless they were the cream of the crop and taught to strive for educational excellence, many of them are lazy and expect to be given an A on a silver platter (do the bare minimum or less of studying, don't bother to attempt extra credit, don't ask questions, etc.). The students I really love are the international students. They may not make the best grades because of basic language barriers, but they generally make a genuine attempt to apply themselves, ask the most questions, and really try to understand the material. This semester, I had the most international students that I've ever had. I had one from the Middle East, one or two from India, a couple from Africa, one from Japan, one that I think was either Portuguese or Filipino, and one from an eastern European country.

No, I'm not, and I'm not sure how you got that. My point is that it's useless to apply "might have, could have, should have, would have" to abortion, because we DON'T KNOW. Yeah, an aborted fetus might have grown up to cure some disease. It also might have grown up to be a serial killer or rapist. It's an equal possibility.

And maybe the person that would have become the next Hitler, Stalin, or Hussein was one. That's just as likely as a researcher that could have cured cancer or AIDS or obesity.

Yep, we English/Irish/Scottish girls definitely burn easily. My dad's side is Scotch/Irish, and my mom's side is English. And yet I look like I'm part Italian/Greek (very dark brown eyes and LOTS of dark, curly hair - much of it in places that I don't want it in), and I have absolutely no idea where that comes from.

Yeah, I'm really wanting to get a swimsuit now, but I don't know when I'd use it! My parents have a weekend/vacation house at a lake, and I'd usually be spending my weekends there, but since I started some new part-time jobs recently, I'm swamped. My apartment complex has a pool, but I've never been much for sitting around and doing nothing in a pool. Plus, I burn like nothing else, so with my luck I'd get skin cancer. Seriously, when my brother got married, the ceremony was less than 20 minutes long and I came away from it with pink shoulders and cheeks.

Yep, from what I've heard, most people find that it's incredibly painful.

A bunch of different places carry them, like Macy's, FigLeaves.com, etc. Here's a link to a list of the stores, websites, and catalogs that usually carry them: The Miraclesuit - bathing suits, swimwear, beachwear, swimsuits and cruise wear

Miracle Suit is a brand of slimming swimsuits. Well, actually, they have different models that address different needs, I think. You usually buy them by size (like 12, 14, etc.) and cup size (and many of them have underwire, too), so they fit much better than many other off the rack suits, especially for women with larger breasts or bulges anywhere. They're usually well over $100.

Oh, I'm not planning on any of these jobs being a career for me. They're mostly just to keep me busy and help me earn a little extra money while I'm finishing up my Master's degree, which I'm hoping to get in December. I doubt I'll be at any of these jobs very long past that. And I'm the type of person that has to be VERY busy in order to get ANYTHING done. The busier and more rushed and stressed I am, the better I work. If I don't stay crushed for time, I put anything and everything off and nothing at all gets done. Rushing around to multiple jobs has actually motivated me to start working on my thesis again, which was actually one of the reasons I started looking for part-time stuff. Yeah, I'm starting to think that, too. I think I'll give it a couple more weeks and see if it smooths out. If it doesn't, I'm going to quit. On the upside, I definitely have four jobs! I called the DB manager today, and she wants me to come in tomorrow, before I start my shift at LnT, to get everything settled.

I really despise shopping for bathing suits. I went today and tried a bunch on, but couldn't find one that fit right. None of the halter-style suits fit me right (my boobs are too heavy, and the torsos of the suits are too short for me), I HATE the tankinis because they roll up my stomach and it's hard to find bikini bottoms that cover enough. Hardly anyone makes a really good one piece suit that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I think I'm going to have to splurge on a Miracle Suit or something, but I don't want to because I'm still losing weight! On the upside, I found a cover-up that I really like, so I got that. Now I just need to find something to wear under the cover-up.

That would tick me off to no end. With the Linens N Things job, I really like it (and I really like the employee discount, lol), but what I don't like about it is that I don't have a standard schedule that I work (or at least, I haven't yet). I'll be working 15-20 hours a week there, but I don't know what my schedule is going to be from week to week, which is going to make coordinating my hours at the Dressbarn job difficult.

As some of you know, I've currently got a couple of part-time jobs, one as an office assistant and one at Linens N Things. I was also teaching college biology labs part-time this semester (today was actually my last day of teaching for the semester). A couple of weeks ago, I had a very good interview at the local Dressbarn, but when I didn't hear back from them, I put it out of my mind. Well, guess what? The Dressbarn manager left me a voicemail today, wanting me to call her tomorrow, so I'm assuming that they are hiring me. And I also found out today that I will be teaching a biology lecture class and two labs during the summer term. So now, it looks like I really will be juggling four jobs. Luckily, the summer term doesn't start until early June, so I've got a little leeway to get adjusted. So why did I post this in Rants and Raves, you ask? Well, I'm ticked off because I'm having to consider dumping the office assistant job, even though it pays the most, other than teaching. The problem with it is that it has very irregular hours. I'm supposed to be working there every Tuesday and Wednesday and every other Friday, but half the time, the hours fall through. Either they don't need me entirely, or they only need me for a couple of hours. For example, this week, they didn't need me on Tuesday or today, and I only worked for about an hour and a half on Wednesday. I'd hate to drop it, because it's SUPER easy stuff (mostly just data entry) and I like the people. Plus, like I said, it pays fairly well for an entry-level part-time job ($10/hour) when I actually am working. It's just getting the hours that's seeming to be a problem.

But those trashy white rednecks still have a socially-ingrained privilege over people of other races. In many areas, if a black man and a white man went to the local Walmart, the black man is the one that would be followed by the employees, to make sure he didn't steal anything, no matter if he was wealthier and of a higher social status than the white man or not. Yes, hatred, bigotry, and prejudice can exist, no matter what race the person is, but racism is a special kind of hatred/bigotry/prejudice, because it is backed up by societal privilege. It's not really "I have more money than you" privilege that we're talking about, it's "I can go to a store in pretty much any location and probably not be followed around" privilege, the basic things that most white people can do without thinking about it.

I'm going to go out on a limb here, and I know it might get me yelled at, but there are people that do need something, whether it is a Lap Band or RNY or the sleeve or whatever, because what they are doing right now and what they have been doing in the past is obviously not working. People like John Goodman, who is obviously unhealthy. Seriously, to me he looks like he's going to drop dead of a heart attack at any minute. He looks a hundred times more unhealthy than he ever did on Roseanne. People like Oprah, whose weight yo-yos up and down constantly, which we all know will eventually absolutely ruin her health, if it hasn't already (we've heard that enough times from our own doctors). Other people, no, I don't necessarily think that they NEED a Lap Band, people like Vince Vaughn, who don't even look obese. But for some people, when you can tell that they're in trouble or that they're clearly unhealthy, acknowledging that they do need to do something, anything but what they're doing now, isn't necessarily attacking them. Now, as for the OP, I've noticed the same things as a lot of you have, so I can't speak for her intentions, just for my own and probably some of the other posters. For me, I'm not posting here to point at someone and laugh that "OMG, they're SOOOO fat and gross!!!" But, yes, I do think that there are some people out there that DO need more than just dieting and exercise, and I don't think it's attacking them to point it out. Especially when some of these people struggle publicly with their weight, not to mention making money off that struggle (like Kirstie and Oprah).

1. Yes, without a doubt. I live in the South, and I see it very often. Not to say it isn't in other areas of the country (I've certainly saw it when I was in New England), but I think it's probably more "socially acceptable" to be openly racist/bigoted in certain social circles here. 2. I think prejudice exists in all groups. Do I think that "reverse racism" exists, though? Not really, since racism, to me, has an element of privilege to it, looking down on a race because you think your race is better than theirs. I think certain members of all groups can be prejudiced and bigoted against members of other groups, but not necessarily racist. 3. I think that when properly applied, affirmative action definitely has a place in our society. The kicker is making sure it is properly and correctly applied. As much as I wish it wasn't necessary, I think it will continue to be so until prejudice doesn't exist in our society. And that will be when pigs fly, I think. And honestly, as a woman in a scientific field, I'll acknowledge that I will probably benefit more from AA than many other people. 4. I think stereotypes are generally NOT warranted. Sure, there are always going to be members of a group that completely fulfill the stereotype of their group, but they are by far the minority, I think. Not single black mothers are on welfare, not all gay men are effeminate, not all lesbians are butch, not all poor white people from the South are ignorant, racist rednecks, etc.

Yeah, that's about how I feel about it. By the time a student is in college, I shouldn't have to give them a tip sheet on how to create an email with a proper, professional appearance. If I teach a lecture class this summer (I find out tomorrow or early next week if I will be doing it), I may be forced to give one out just to avoid the irritation. It really burns me, though, to know that I may have to do that. I just don't understand why some people don't realize that email is just a substitute for one-on-one conversation, and that they should treat it as such. In other words, don't write things in an email that you wouldn't say in a face-to-face or phone conversation with your boss or instructor/professor, and that includes the manner in which you say/write something, as well as your actual vocabulary (i.e., watch your tone; people don't have the benefit of seeing facial expressions, body language, etc. over the internet). Email is only informal if you're talking to your friends and family as friends and family. You use proper formatting, capitalization, punctuation, check spelling and grammar, etc.