more stuff, more things
So... trip to the shore. While I am the better for an amazing new meatloaf recipe, and a fabulous fresh tomato pie with mimoulette cheese and cipolini onions...
...it was a less than spectacular attempt at a vacation. Conceivably whale-watching wasn't the best activity for a man who'd had chemo a few days before. As it transpired, both my parents were seasick -- one to each rail of the boat, as it were, and me in the prow trying not to be Sympathetically Influenced. No whales, of course, but I did get several awesome dolphin pictures, which I'll post when I have an opportunity.
The rest of the annoyances of the trip can better be imagined than described -- (parents! gah!) but on the way home our bus ran over a SUV. And then they wouldn't let us leave the scene because we were "witnesses". !!!
Anyway, made it home alive (barely).
Teaching at Queens = great (thanks, ophymirage, folding paper was a big hit!), except somehow in this "vacation" I picked up a really nasty feverish cold. And I still haven't finished my wiad story.
AND I'm still boggling at the incredible surveyfail thing. OMFG, you guys. Can I not leave the internets for two seconds without people being asshats? I will say though that fandom continues to be awesome, and I want to send it a collective pony. I've been so proud and impressed by the way people have handled it, and been transparent about their involvement, and written incisive critiques that made so much sense. The junk science in this whole debacle was so shocking, I was offended on behalf of all the scientists I know. To me, it wasn't so much that we were being researched by outsiders that was the problem, it was that the research was so bad.
I am reminded of the people who wave their Ph.D.'s around as some kind of evaluation of self-worth. And who insist on being called "Doctor" by all and sundry. Like, no. THAT IS NOT HOW THIS WORKS. And I say this as someone who reveres academia, perhaps more than I should. In short, GET OUT OF MY AVOCATION, YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG.
Then of course we got the rampant sexist, misogynist, queerphobic wtfery of it all, and I start to wonder if these folk are trolls? There's a serious hint of "I'll be Back" in the tone of the dude's last emails, and I'm just in awe.
In conclusion, it's my birthday. *fail of epic proportion? Oh, internets! You shouldn't have! But I didn't get you anything!
I go to sleep now. Think happy un-snotladen thoughts for me, please. Or de-snotting ones. I'm not picky.
...it was a less than spectacular attempt at a vacation. Conceivably whale-watching wasn't the best activity for a man who'd had chemo a few days before. As it transpired, both my parents were seasick -- one to each rail of the boat, as it were, and me in the prow trying not to be Sympathetically Influenced. No whales, of course, but I did get several awesome dolphin pictures, which I'll post when I have an opportunity.
The rest of the annoyances of the trip can better be imagined than described -- (parents! gah!) but on the way home our bus ran over a SUV. And then they wouldn't let us leave the scene because we were "witnesses". !!!
Anyway, made it home alive (barely).
Teaching at Queens = great (thanks, ophymirage, folding paper was a big hit!), except somehow in this "vacation" I picked up a really nasty feverish cold. And I still haven't finished my wiad story.
AND I'm still boggling at the incredible surveyfail thing. OMFG, you guys. Can I not leave the internets for two seconds without people being asshats? I will say though that fandom continues to be awesome, and I want to send it a collective pony. I've been so proud and impressed by the way people have handled it, and been transparent about their involvement, and written incisive critiques that made so much sense. The junk science in this whole debacle was so shocking, I was offended on behalf of all the scientists I know. To me, it wasn't so much that we were being researched by outsiders that was the problem, it was that the research was so bad.
I am reminded of the people who wave their Ph.D.'s around as some kind of evaluation of self-worth. And who insist on being called "Doctor" by all and sundry. Like, no. THAT IS NOT HOW THIS WORKS. And I say this as someone who reveres academia, perhaps more than I should. In short, GET OUT OF MY AVOCATION, YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG.
Then of course we got the rampant sexist, misogynist, queerphobic wtfery of it all, and I start to wonder if these folk are trolls? There's a serious hint of "I'll be Back" in the tone of the dude's last emails, and I'm just in awe.
In conclusion, it's my birthday. *fail of epic proportion? Oh, internets! You shouldn't have! But I didn't get you anything!
I go to sleep now. Think happy un-snotladen thoughts for me, please. Or de-snotting ones. I'm not picky.