ELSEWHERE

Anyways my extreme rambling the past few days aside, today is my last day of regular work until Wednesday! Tomorrow I have off, although at some point I need to travel to Indiana and check into my hotel for the class I'm taking. I'm assuming my check-in time is 3 PM because that's unfortunately fairly universal with hotels now (I do need to perceive the e-mail they sent me just to verify, though), and the drive itself is I think two hours, so I have a goodly bit of time tomorrow morning to chill and pack. I don't have to worry about avoiding rush hour traffic, either, which will be nice. Monday and Tuesday are forensic entomology class, then Tuesday afternoon I drive back and have my regular work schedule Wednesday through Saturday.

So it's kind of a packed week, but I'm excited for the class!

This morning I decided it was time to put the window air conditioning unit in for the season, so I did that, and while I was at it I cleaned Baby Dog's various dog beds and replaced any heavy/fuzzy blankets with some old bedsheets for her to kick around and nest in without overheating. I also nabbed some groceries and went ahead and cleaned the floors and did some various other chores so Tomorrow Erika doesn't have to, which means I'm ready to sit down for a minute and be a slug until I have to take Baby Dog on afternoon walkies and go do a capitalism.

erikavonkaiser wrote: ↑Sat May 18, 2024 4:43 pm

someone get Ann Reardon to do an episode about wtf happened to those opaque gummy snacks

these bitches:
Screenshot 2024-05-18 114155.png

Did they just fall out of favor because translucent gummies seem more like fruit juice and therefore more "natural" or is the component that makes them matte actually a carcinogen or something

It is basically that "made with real fruit juice" fruit snacks became in vogue because "healthier". If you can find "made with fruit puree" (one I've seen is funables brand) they're much more like the opaque fruit snacks, but not quite the same thing.

This is a thing I do deep dives on occasionally to see if anyone is bringing the opaque fruit snacks back because they're just inherently superior to the gummy fruit snacks

I have returned from Indiana!

Well, actually, I returned yesterday afternoon, semi-unpacked, got a handful of groceries, then became an absolute slug until bedtime because I was running on fumes.

Class was great, though! I think it should've been balanced slightly better between the two days, because day one was non-stop and a bunch of field time under the hot sun from 8:00 AM to a little after 5:00 PM and I was absolutely heat-exhausted afterward. The next day was a lot more chill and we were done at around 2 PM-ish, with the option to stay late if we wanted to do "maggot art." I have never said yes to something so fast in my life (I have a short video here, warning that it's what it says on the tin, so live maggots are involved) and it was super fun! The basic idea is that you put maggots face-first into non-toxic paint (they breath through their butts, so this is the polite way to do it) and then let them wriggle around on paper of their own accord. Once you're done you wash 'em off and they're totally fine; they don't breathe or absorb anything through their skin and won't even try to eat the paint because it has none of the smells rotting flesh does. Or, I guess, it shouldn't. If it does, uhhhhhhhhh call someone. Not the police. Someone else, probably.

Anyway, I learned many things about decay, insects, and maggot instars, which is all very up my alley and useful for my job. This morning I have woken up unnecessarily early, likely because my internal clock is a bit off, and used the time to start a load of laundry. I should probably finish unpacking, too, but eh

tbh I would love to be a forensic entomologist and wish I had known more about it as a field when I was pursuing schooling (although likely couldn't have afforded it anyways, since my military benefits barely covered an undergraduate degree and taking on decades of debt is terrifying), but as I was talking about w/ my friend Masque last night, the hard part of pursuing further education as an already-grown-up with a job/set schedule is not only the cost, but the time

Like if I could switch to part-time work and live off that while being a full-time student towards my Masters, I would consider it, but I have to maintain a full-time job which would mean online or "evening" school and sacrificing my extremely limited free time with even more work. I already struggle to meet my social and creative needs, and that struggle would be exponentially worse if I had assignments and class times that needed tending.

It's just not a trade I'm willing to make, unfortunately

I did full-time work/full-time school when I was getting said undergraduate degree but I only managed that because I was in my twenties and extremely mentally unwell

I protest to that phrasing a bit (I don't think it's "heroic" to be, not a predator, or to use your safety and privilege to tell your peers to stop being creeps) but it's a good way to illustrate that "safe man" vs "dangerous man" is a spectrum that can be hard to explain if you haven't lived the experience of constantly categorizing masc-presenting people that way to figure out if you're in danger or not

A similar categorization occurs when you're figuring out if it's safe to be visibly queer or not, like it's one thing to have an undercut and be somewhat butch and it's another to say "my girlfriend" if you don't know the vibe (even more so for mascs, I imagine, since a man saying "my boyfriend" can't really get the "oh he must mean 'my boyfriend' as in his bestie for the restie" treatment like femmes can get, which is not a good thing but can be a safer thing)

erikavonkaiser wrote: ↑Wed May 22, 2024 12:52 pm

I should probably finish unpacking, too, but eh

I finished unpacking and put away laundry and went on a run, I need a gold star so I can gaze lovingly at it when I fucking crash at like 9 PM while I'm trapped at work

erikavonkaiser wrote: ↑Sat May 18, 2024 3:12 pm

While I'm complaining about random things this is definitely a competing needs thing or whevs but I am finding it increasingly alienating when adult spaces expect all mentions of alcohol, drugs, sex, weapons, etc to be spoiler tagged

Like, I get it, and I want the majority of people to feel safe

But it also feels extremely puritanical and puts me off

everyone please stop it with your "unalive" and your conversations that look like badly redacted legal documents

especially if all you're censoring is the word; do you really think blocking out "whiskey" and only that word is going to make someone triggered by alcohol talk feel safe?? You are obviously still talking about, that

I know I'm being grumpy and man everyone should do what works for them but it's becoming an instant "nope" for me if I see heavily censored conversation everywhere

I am thirty-two years old try and stop me from talking about whiskey and wieners at your own risk