Wobbegong

I would love to write an update and post a new challenge but I'm SO SLEEPY. It's only 5pm but I might just turn in.

Welcome to the Juice Bar, the Rebels home away from home! Pull up a chair and make yourself comfortable. Take a minute to introduce yourself, let us know why you're here, tell us something nerdy about yourself, and share a gif! In addition, if you feel comfortable, share something you have always wanted to do and what you think it would take for you to accomplish it. If this is your first challenge here at NF, welcome! There have been a few changes to the forums since Level Up Your Life was published. As a newcomer, please post your challenge in the Level 1 / First Time Challengers subforum. Have questions? Want some feedback? Ask away! Just want to hang out and chat? Awesome! Prefer to hide in the corner for a bit? Have a drink on us.

ZEROH!!!!! Welcome back!!!! It's going ok. On days when I eat eggs, I eat at least five eggs... but I don't eat eggs every day. 😕

I pretty much knew exactly what it would be about but was already really nervous about my contract discussion and had kind of been waiting tensely to hear it was time to discuss. So you're right, the verbiage of the message was not so much the problem. I think this is probably fine. There's stated context (the project) AND urgency (low, "some time soon"/"when you have time"). These things mitigate the dire sentiments associated with the shorter version. If you left out either of these elements (We need to talk about that project. / We need to talk sometime soon.) the stress level begins to increase, but with both there I think the sentiments would translate pretty much directly. It's not a red flag sentence. But even with those shorter versions that only have one piece, context again plays a big part. "We need to talk about that project." might mean "hey we really are gonna be coming up on the deadline soon, let's get that ball rolling" more than "there is a big problem with the project." For the record, people with native fluency also hate the connotations of "we need to talk." Sometimes it's just the case that a conversation is necessary! That's the cleanest way to express it! In practice you end up with people making all kinds of convoluted sentences or saying that and then immediately rushing in with reassurances, it can be pretty funny.

I would've realized that about pi if I had taken even a few seconds to think about how to go about converting (obviously a ratio is the answer) but I only got as far as "the area of a circle is pi*r^2" lol. Is cheesecake American? New York cheesecake is certainly American, but surely the concept of cheesecake is much older. Surely. It was delicious and completely ruined my egg eating and also fasting protocols, but whatever, cheesecake! It's not like I eat it regularly. Thanks! Since Tuesday was a holiday I won't see her again until next week, but she texted me that the cheesecake was good, so hopefully she had a nice time. That would've been smart, and I did try, but in the end I just kind of... slouched along as usual. I'm still on top of things, but I also still haven't gotten ahead with anything. Forgive my ignorance, but why wait for the queen? Is there some particularly strong loyalty there? I reflected on this and have decided you're probably right. If it's not diet-related, that means I have a new mystery ailment that happened to start around the same time as classes and fasting and eating more eggs, which just seems so unlikely. Stress is definitely part of it, but super-likely dietary issues that could cause fatigue include nutrient deficiencies (I've been meaning to start taking my multi-vitamin again, but haven't quite gotten into the swing of putting it on my computer when I go to sleep to remind myself to take it in the morning), or protein deficiency (even with the eggs I know I'm not getting nearly enough). I'll try to address those and hopefully it will help. The text was actually in Japanese, and more accurately translated said, "Something I want to talk about has come up, so when you have some time, could you come by the office? Please advise me of when you will be coming in advance." It was very polite, but also very vague, which is the crux of the issue. Last year the text she sent me did say "We have to talk, please tell me when you can come to the office" and I made it very clear that her phrasing really stressed me out. In American English (and perhaps also British English, but I can't speak to that), "We need to talk" means "something is very wrong. It's wrong enough that we have to discuss it in person and in private as soon as possible, and it probably means the end of our current relationship," whether that's a romantic or a work relationship. It's stupid and obnoxious that these words carry this implication, but they do, and people like me and Tate have a pretty visceral reaction to hearing them (or even seeing them written, or in my case, processing a translation). Where I come from, "We have to talk" is a variation that also requires in-person and private discussion, but means "There is a big problem but if you are willing to put in a lot of work the situation might be salvageable." "We need to talk" suggests that a decision has already been made, and the outcome is not one you will like, but you can't avoid hearing it; "We have to talk" indicates there's still room for decision making, but none of your options are going to be fun. It should be noted that the drama of both of these statements hinges on the lack of context provided. If you state upfront what exactly is going to be discussed, it's FAR less stressful. "We need to talk about that rug" might mean your rug is ugly, or filthy, or you're too attached to it, and I want it out of my house/life... but we're not going to break up over it. Without context, there is the implication that whatever information being conveyed in this "talk" is going to upset you, so you aren't allowed any details until the conditions (1) in-person and (2) private have been met. Over time, the phrase has basically become shorthand for "assume the worst." "We must talk" is far too stilted for an American to use in conversation. Americans typically only use "must" to extrapolate, ex: "She must take really good care of herself, to look that good at her age" or "You must be Waanie! I've heard so much about you." Again, I can't remark on British English. I think they use must when issuing invitations ("You must come to dinner!") but since most of my contact with spoken British English is through period dramas, that could be totally outdated usage. I don't know if anyone actually uses the imperative must anymore except in academic writing. We typically rely on "have to" instead; I think Brits do use must not (or probably mustn't, pronounced mussn't), but Americans use cannot/can't. "You mustn't sit there!"/"You can't sit there!" We can't use "don't have to" in those situations because "You don't have to sit there" would mean something completely different. "We should talk" is way more difficult to parse because it actually gets used in a bunch of different contexts. It can mean "you just messed up and I'm gonna set you straight" or "I see some great opportunities in our future!" or "we haven't had a conversation in a while and it would be nice to catch up." Largely depends on the context. Sorry. I hope that cleared things up a little... I got very wordy, so it's probably more confusing than helpful. But I'm always happy to dive into these sorts of questions, so if I can be of use, let me know.

honestly, if you were turning into your mom, you would not be helping her do any of her shit right now. You’d be too far up your own ass to care about her. Everything Flea said is dead-on, but I just wanted to reinforce this in particular. Bean, have you ever heard the saying "Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas"? Usually it's used to warn against hanging out with the wrong sort, but in psychological circles "fleas" are sometimes used to describe the bad behaviors we pick up from the people who are treating us badly. No one is immune, we all get them and we all sometimes behave in ways that make us think, "Oh shit, I just did that thing I always hated having done to me." But know what sets those of us suffering from second-hand fleas apart from those who are a breeding ground for them: we take responsibility for our actions. We think, "I hated having that done to me, so now that I've done something that even vaguely reminds me of it to someone else, I'll take steps to fix it immediately." Just as you did. And just as Flea said, you cannot become your mother as long as you are taking responsibility for your own actions. I'm gonna drop this link here, because it's relevant and not a terribly long read (I know it looks wordy, but it's not jargon, it goes down pretty quick). You don't have to read it, but it might help. And then the last thing for today... I happened to see one of those motivational lists of Things To Keep In Mind About Why You're Way More Amazing Than You Think today, and one of the items made me think of you. It said, "We all have that one friend who seems to have it all together. That woman with the seemingly perfect life. Well, you might be that woman to someone else." You'll probably reject this outright, but you're that woman to me. You have a wonderful marriage, a house, amazing children, pets, friends, community, social engagements, goals, a successful career, hobbies, the whole shebang. Maybe you're not exactly where you want to be on all metrics, but from where I'm sitting, you look like a pillar of adult competence and fulfillment. So just... know that.

Congratulations on your newest party member!!

Spiders gonna spider. I'm not advanced enough at arachnology to even begin to ID it or tell you anything about the danger level; I only know the ones I watch out for in my own home, lol. But I definitely feel you on the conundrum: I tend to leave by spiders be, but with other bugs, a large part of my concern is "can I squish it without feeling it? how many tissues will I need to load to not feel the squish? If I miss, will it start running around? If it starts running around, and escapes to some buggy little crevice where I can't follow, will I have to give it this whole room?" But I don't squish any of the unwanted bug visitors I get in Japan, so I haven't had that problem for a while. Also that manager sounds terrible, but this in particular: reminded me of a book I read as a kid. In it, there was a scene where the noble lady main character surprised her servant by trusting her with a large sum of the noble's money. The servant asked if she wasn't worried that the money would be stolen. The noble replied, "In my experience, nobles who think their servants steal usually get servants who do." It also reminds me of the quote, "If someone does you the service of showing you their worst self, believe them." Nobody is ever going to want to do anything for this woman if she can't start giving people reasons to. At the end of the day, she can cry as much as she wants about not getting the help she needs, but the reason will still be because she drove it all away. I hope your future interactions with her are as limited and pleasant as possible!

Jumping back into my UK discussion did y'all hear Barbados is stepping out of the Commonwealth? Apparently it's the first country to do so in 30 years.

Replies later. I've been taking my iron every day but I'm back to feeling exhausted all the time, and now I'm actually getting worried. It might just be stress -- I got the "we need to talk" text from my supervisor (which I've been assured year after year doesn't mean the same thing in Japanese as it does in English, but freaks me out every time anyway) which I assume means it's time to discuss re-upping my contract again. I took Wednesday and Thursday afternoons off to try to get ahead on my course work this week after being totally laid low by those translations, and ended up just barely getting stuff turned in on time Wednesday night and spending all of Thursday afternoon relaxing and recharging. I played some BOTW and went to bed at 8 because I was so tired. I'm writing this post as I finish breakfast and run out the door; Friday is a busy commute day. Luckily I have a nice four day weekend with Monday and Tuesday being national holidays, but I wanted to spend it socializing online, not buried in catch-up work and naps! And to top it all off, I'm way behind on my egg-eating quotas. Ugh.

I didn't eat any eggs today but I ate some cheesecake and it was pretty freaking delicious. Much heavier than the cheesecake I've had in Japan (probably a result of neglecting a block of cream cheese while keeping the egg count the same, whoops) but also so much more like the cheesecakes I grew up with. And the crust came out really well! Hooray, hooray! I left out that extra block of cheese by miscalculating 4 x 8 (four blocks of eight oz) when trying to figure out what that would be in grams... I went with 24oz because I'm an idiot and then rounded down to 600g because that was what I had on hand. So probably explicitly calculating would've helped, since I'd've had a calculator out to handle pi and squaring and could let it cover my sorry arithmetic skills. 😓 Whatever, it's still delicious. I delivered the gift cheesecake to its intended recipient this morning and she practically exploded from happiness. She lives alone and hasn't been able to meet up with her friends or family due to the virus, so I think she might not be expecting many presents this year. In fact, she may not be planning to celebrate at all. I made sure to remind all of the students that her birthday is in two days so they should wish her well too. Hopefully. If it seems like I'm making a really big deal out of a random coworker's birthday, it's because I am. I'm just worried about her because she's lost a ton of weight (she was small to start with and has now crossed over into looking fragile) since moving out on her own, and she regularly works from 6am to 10pm just to stay on top of all her duties. Since I only see her once a week there's not much I can do to help her, but at least if it's her birthday I can give her a cheesecake and expect her to take in some calories. (By the way, this is not the same teacher as the one I'm working on UK info with. That one doesn't like cheesecake.) Speaking of relationships with coworkers, yesterday I worked with that elementary school teacher who the sixth graders were boycotting previously, and this week I tried just casually taking over a bunch of stuff without asking. We still went with her lesson plan, but I ran as much of it as I could myself, so the kids would be engaging with me instead of her. It actually worked really well! She even thanked me at the end of the day. These classes all happened to be a bit easier to do that with, though, because they were presentations. Usually we're much more textbook heavy, and I doubt I'd be able to make much difference there. But next week I won't see her because we have the day off, so I don't have to worry about it until the week after that! Yaaaay

Countries within a country is too confusing for me to wrap my head around, let alone explain to this teacher. But thank you for the clarification. Yeah, that's my concern too. I'm fuzzy on a lot of the details in that history but I know the broad strokes well enough to be concerned. But it sounds like everyone's pretty much on the same page about it? At least in terms of recognizing that border control will be a huge sticky problem? I favor independence but I hope there aren't any wars about it. Perhaps that's naive. The only game I've ever played with Templars is FFTA. But Bangaa are lit so I guess I take your point. I am definitely too lazy to fill in a weekly pill sorter. But the pillow thing works because I can put them on top of my laptop when I go to sleep, and then I can't use my laptop (something I do every day) without moving the pills somewhere, and my pillow is in reach; and I can't go to sleep without moving them again, so I remember to take them. It's good! That makes sense as a distinction, thank you! I'm not sure if the same distinction exists in Japanese, though, so I'll stick with "country" for my explanation to the teacher. Thanks again to everyone for your help with this! I really have learned so much from you and I am so happy and honored that you would take the time to educate me and be so friendly and thorough about it! If there's anything you ever want to add, please feel free.

Cookie Update: the cookies are very honey- and almond-forward (from a honey-almond cheesecake base), but somehow are simultaneously the most peanut-buttery cookies I've ever eaten. I wish I had mixed the batter in with cooked oats and baked them into bars instead of cookies. They're pretty great already, but they might be better with a touch of jam. On that note, I'm off to bed -- as I typed that I glanced over at my pillow for my iron and found it not there and sought them out (on the bedside table) and took them anyway. This technique has been working great, thanks again for that suggestion @Waanie! Of course, tonight I just had milk with my cookies, so I'm not in a great place for iron, but at least I'm taking it. That's what counts!

INTERESTING, I had assumed each different country would have its own representation in the UN, since... y'know... Canada and Australia are also part of the commonwealth, but separate. The only difference is geography. But I guess "the only difference is geography" is pretty much the basis of many country divisions, soooooo I also am basically expecting at least Scotland to pull out sometime in the nearish future, but it would kind of be a messy situation, wouldn't it? Not that the situation isn't already messy, of course, but historically humans haven't been great at saying "Yeah, sure, go ahead, you can have a separate country. Nbd." I'm definitely going to be handing this map to my teacher friend. It's very helpful. I DID NOT KNOW THAT. That sounds like a super big deal to not know. Thank you for telling me! So England is basically the Washington, D.C. of the UK. DC doesn't fall under any state's jurisdiction and so it's managed directly by the federal government. They do have a mayor, but Congress likes to pretend that's not the case. If Wales is a principality, is The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Norther Ireland comprised of three countries, or four? Is Wales not a country? I am absolutely going to be using this argument. Thank you. Also because if they suddenly start to control that border when Eire doesn't view the British hold on N. Ireland as legitimate, couldn't that be interpreted as a declaration of war? Obviously my grasp of the situation is underdeveloped at best but that sounds really dangerous. Do all of you call him the clown? I call him the muppet, but maybe that's insulting to Jim Henson. That's reasonable, and I didn't really mean "they'll punch you in the face" so much as "they'll be sorely offended." But that's good to know, that the portrayals are dramatized. The Irish War of Independence was fairly recent and very bloody, so it seems like the sort of thing that would leave a lasting impression on the cultural psyche. But you're absolutely right to call me out about it, because by speaking in hyperbole I'm contributing to the dramatization of the situation. Thank you! I know right, I'm learning so much. I ran out of headspace and day hours to get cheesecake baked on Sunday, so I'm just finishing up with it now. After they bake they chill for 5 hours (or overnight, which is what I"m doing, because I do not have time to be cheesecake tasting at 1:30AM), so I'll let you know when I have a piece with my coffee tomorrow! Should be good. It's been a while since I baked though and I forgot how circles work and how when I adapt normal-sized recipes for my itty bitty pans that fit in my itty bitty toaster oven I end up making a TON of stuff. There were numerous hijinks with both crust and filling and I ended up with so much extra material for crust that I decided to roll it into a quick little batch of peanut butter cookies. So now I have those too. Aside from all of this baking, I have not accomplished a single thing on my to-do list for tonight, but I think it may just have to be that way. I'm taking the afternoon off on Wednesday and Thursday because I happen to have no afternoon classes, so hopefully I'll be able to get enough on top of my shit that I can actually relax over my four day weekend.

Thanks for summoning people! The comparison to state v fed makes some sense, and perhaps even moreso if I think of England kind of like DC where it only has the fed? Maybe??? Thank you for stopping by! I was not confused that it's four different countries and I know there's significant bad blood there and a lot of tension about who exactly is part of what. That's part of why I work so hard with this teacher to make sure she understands it's not all the same thing -- as an English teacher she's uniquely positioned both to encounter a larger number of native English speakers, including British ones, than the average Japanese person and she could accidentally insult them; and also she is an "expert" on English-speaking culture (not really, but the students at least assume so) and so she can use her power for good if she chooses. But it's been like pulling teeth to get her even to acknowledge that there are four countries and they're distinct. (My first success was getting her to "more than one country" which came in the form of her saying "I know there are three countries, England, Scotland, and Ireland" NO NO NO!) So regarding the different governments, you all have your own heads of state (are they technically under the queen? Even though she's just a figurehead?) but what exactly is the nature of the union if everyone is so antsy? Is it just "we agree to not pick fights"? I guess with Brexit it seems like your international relations are kind of tied up together, is that true? Don't worry, I didn't vote for Trump either and am also super embarrassed to be in any way associated. I will give you a pass. Most of what you said was clear but I have one question: the British Isles are the one island that houses England/Scotland/Wales and the other island that houses N. Ireland and Ireland, but "British" people are people from the UK, and Irish people will fight you if you call them British... is that an accurate understanding? N. Irish people do get lumped in as British though, even though they don't live in Great Britain. Seriously thank you all for your help with this, I know I can look it up and I will do that also but it really helps to talk to people about it too.

I was WRONG I don't think I have any heavenly power with which to smite her regardless. I did at least convince her to introduce some English-speaking culture to the special ed class, since she has ultimate authority over the curriculum there. That was a win. (Most of the standardized curriculum chooses to explore Japanese culture during English class. The reasoning is that it's easier for kids to improve their English knowledge when studying things they already know, but the end result is that English class is really boring and kids don't get any exposure to foreign cultures. The general attitude seems to be that Japanese students will only use English in real life when they're interacting with tourists who come to visit Japan, not in their own international travels. Most kids have the impression that foreign travel is pointless because Japan is the best country, so why would they ever want to leave? It's weird.) This same teacher is also constantly fighting me about the UK being four countries. Maps in Japan show just one country (all of England, Scotland, Wales, and N. Ireland are a single color with no dividing lines), the Japanese word for the UK is "Igirisu" which is synonymous with England, and in the teacher's words, "If they all have the same queen, then they all have the same government. How are they not the same country?" I'm not an expert in the history or politics of the UK, all I know is England conquered all its neighbors and the barrier between N. Ireland and Ireland was a huge problem (but the relationship between England and Ireland has pretty much always been "a problem" one way or another) and people were freaking out about what was gonna happen with that with Brexit but then Covid happened and I never heard anything else about it. All that is to say if anyone has the Cliff's notes so I can explain this to the teacher in a way that will help her understand, I would appreciate it. I do my best to stick up for the Welsh, Scottish, and North Irish, as I know they often get lumped in under the English umbrella just for all being British together. But I don't know enough to be a good ally. Cheesecake is getting postponed to tomorrow. This is not ideal because it will mean mixing and baking Monday afternoon and delivering Tuesday morning, which means if something goes wrong I'm screwed, but hopefully it will be fine. Even striking cheesecake and the making of flashcards off my list, and having been productive all day, I'm less than halfway through the stuff I'm supposed to get done today. I'd've done more tomorrow, and I told my friend I was gonna have to cancel on our regular hang out date, but then she came to me with bad news and I felt like I should comfort her so I spent the regular amount of time hanging out with her. On the plus side, seven of the items on my list today are a work project I have to have finished by Monday (broken into chunks on the list), so once that's done I'll have freed up a bunch of time and brain space for the coming week. AND I have a four day weekend next week! And I have been making progress cleaning today, even in light of all the desk work I have to do, and I got two loads of laundry done (although no clue if they've actually dried at all -- fingers crossed) so hopefully I'll at least have clean clothes and a clean space and can relax about that a little. Blargh. Too many things.

That's totally ok! That's why I asked. Sometimes having people around to push you helps you move forward, and sometimes it just makes you wonder why your friends can't see you're standing at the edge of a cliff and pushing really isn't the solution! Clear and measurable goals ftw. We got this, team! Vitamins! Minerals! We'll take them!! If you're not doing things because you're exhausted, is it laziness or is it rest? 🤔 I hope you got everything sorted with HR. That song you posted was really catchy but also for real there's still three and a half more months of this stupid dumpster fire year... yike

I'm in Japan but same difference. I think East Coast regions with that hot tropical water coming up in the ocean are all more or less getting the same weather. As a West Coaster born and raised and used to getting those cold arctic ocean currents, I am not thrilled about it.

Would you like some rain??? I've got extra, I would like a nice dry day to do laundry. It's supposedly hurricane season but we've just been getting torrential downpours every afternoon, does that sound good? Downside is constant 80%+ humidity, be forewarned.

Today was a big busy day! I had preschool* in the morning and it pretty much went as expected, following the same playbook as I did earlier in the week at the other school. The same girl who cried two months ago cried again, but this time because she got tagged twice in a row. I was actually kind of relieved to discover she's an easy crier, because it makes me feel slightly** less bad about last time. There's also a kid there who is super forward and incites the entire rest of the school to be ultra cuddly by just being all over me super publicly, and although I know I'm probably not supposed to be touching the kids so much since Corona, as a very touch-starved person I really appreciate that kid. I also met a couple of new students today at preschool. I get there about an hour early because that's how my carpool schedule shakes out, so I usually spend that hour prepping for my classes or browsing reddit on my phone or whatever, but today one of the teachers kept coming up to me and trying to tell me something very mysterious about a student whose name I didn't recognize (which is all of them at preschool). All I caught from the convoluted explanation was "speaks Japanese" and "September" and then suddenly a little girl was being thrust at me. She was clearly a new student, and the teacher had said she spoke Japanese, so I tried asking her where she was from and got a blank stare. I tried again with a different vocab word and the stare became slightly frustrated. So I tried in English and suddenly she blossomed. Turns out she's from America.*** So yeah we chatted for like an hour. She had a really poor grasp of the more linear aspects of time so when I tried to figure out how long she was here for all she said was "a week," but when I asked how long she had been in Japan the answer to that was "a week, since last month," and August was more than a week ago so? She also told me it was her sister's birthday, but upon further inquiry revealed it was not her sister's birthday today; in fact, the birthday was tomorrow, but the party had already occurred. So I was even more lost. But overall she was a really funny kid who kept trying to affect adult ways of speaking but clearly had no idea what she was talking about. My favorite part of the conversation went like this: Her: I have a brother, too. His name is A__. Me: Oh wow, my best friend has a brother named A__ too. Her: Who is your best friend? Me: [Very seriously] Her name is S__ but I don't think you know her. Her: [Equally seriously] You're right, I don't think I ever met her. Her little sister, who is just barely four (or maybe four tomorrow? one of them told me she's four, but she was in the 3yo group) eventually joined us but was mostly content to let her big sister do the talking. She spent most of the conversation tugging on my fingernails, which both sisters eventually agreed were "pretty because they're long" but I should promptly trim them and apply nail polish. They were very concerned that my toenails were also long (they're not, don't worry). Anyway they both totally cracked me up and the teachers who passed by as we were chatting kept commenting to each other "Their pronunciation is so impressive" and "They speak English so easily" which was also hilarious since we were all native speakers. But the best part was the reminder. Most of the time when I try to talk with really little kids here, I feel completely lost. I'm used to feeling lost a lot of the time anyway, because I'm only passably fluent, not fluent-fluent, so with little kids I usually just assume they're too young to realize I'm an idiot and try to meet me at my level. False! Little kids talk in vague circles and actually make no sense even in my native language. They use weird words for things**** and have an underdeveloped grasp of the principles by which we adults live our lives. Being reminded of this was incredibly reassuring! Between my morning preschool adventures and my afternoon at middle school, I stopped by the grocery store to pick up some sour cream for a cheesecake I'll be making this weekend. But I forgot to get more eggs! I don't have enough on hand to eat five tomorrow, so I went back to the store after work, but when I got to the checkout I realized I forgot my wallet and had to go back home and get it, which meant an extra ten minutes schlepping around in the gross humid heat. When I got back to the store, I found the cashier had had my items reshelved. But I finally got all my stuff and got checked out and back home and now I can chill and enjoy my Friday evening. Another week down! How about everyone else, how have your days been? *have I been saying kindergarten or preschool here? It's actually preschool but everyone uses the direct translation of kindergarten, but I don't want to be confusing. It is non-academic "school" for children aged 3-5, which is probably called different things in different countries now that I think about it... whatever **Only slightly because I was only feeling slightly bad... she was totally friendly to me by the end of our class last time, so I wasn't too worried. ***I can't get any more specific than that. I tried asking her what state she's from, but her reply was "I don't know. Only my dad knows." Sounds secretive lol but whatever, she's five. I didn't know the difference between Nevada and Novato at that age. (One was a neighboring state and the other was where the nearest Costco was. A friend of mine moved to Novato and I thought I would never see her again. Imagine my shock when she turned up the next day at school, as if revived from death) ****the older girl kept referring to Japanese and English as Japan and America, respectively; she did not recognize the words English, Japanese, or language, so I didn't push it -- she's five, I'm sure she'll figure it out eventually

Yeah, honestly, Audrey's bangs are too short too. She won't be able to get into high school with a haircut like that. For shame, Audrey. /s Also hiiiiiii I feel I should point out, since I seem to have neglected to before, that the child in question is thirteen years old. The decisions she makes about her bangs at this age should not be treated as though they are in any way near to "this will make or break your future" territory. That's way harsh. Why you gotta come for me like this? It's too true. You know, sometimes I come to the forums and complain that I don't feel like I know what morality is and my polite veneer is just an act I put on for self-preservation and convenience (even though it's often inconvenient), and then something like this happens and I'm like "You know what, fuck this, these are goddamn children, I will defend their right to grow and explore and make mistakes along the way to my dying breath, COME AT ME JAPANESE TRADITIONS, DO YOU EVEN LIFT?!" But I actually don't lift, myself, and I don't stand a chance. Sometimes the best I can do is just try to say "I think she looks cute" at the opportune moment.

Yeah! All of this! It did! I'm aware that it worked because I wanted it to, and there's nothing stopping me from just moving them off my pillow and out of my way without taking them, so in the future I might just put a single pill on my pillow -- because then it would be the difference between picking it up and putting it down somewhere else or picking it up and putting it in my mouth. But a single pill is also more easily lost or overlooked, so for now I'll stick with the whole bottle solution. There is also the plus side that having put the bottle on my pillow immediately after waking, I am now discouraged from going back to bed. I ate six eggs yesterday, so well done me! My daily average for zero week is still way lower than 5, though. Yesterday I walked into one of my classes a few minutes before we were scheduled to start, and a kid flagged me down to ask what I thought of another student's hair. The boy asking voiced his question with a bit of a chortle, and the girl in question looked pretty nervous. The only issue I could see worth mentioning was that her bangs were shorter than I've ever seen on a student -- about an inch above her eyebrows. Overall, it looked like she cut them herself and didn't realize pulling them straight to cut them would result in them bouncing back quite a bit when released. I used to cut my own hair and made the exact same mistake my first time cutting my own bangs. It also look like she cut them in one big hunk, because there was a single piece that was a centimeter longer than the rest and they kind of curved down towards one side of her face in a way that didn't look intentional. She looked pretty embarrassed. "She looks cute," I said to the boy who asked. Some of the tension left bangs girl's shoulders, and the boy sighed happily. "As expected of Miss Wobbe," he replied. Then, to the girl in question, "She really is kind, isn't she?" The girl, one of my shyer students, didn't reply verbally but looked at me with an expression of great relief and gratitude. I decided to push my advantage. "Short bangs are really popular in America right now," I told them both, to their surprise and delight. I'm honestly not a huge micro bangs fan, but I would rather this girl not get bullied for something so ridiculous. But the teacher heard our discussion and took the opportunity to jump in with a stern, "This isn't America." And to the girl, "You shouldn't have cut them so short." What's the point of saying something like that? It's not like she can fix it now, what is she supposed to do, get fringe extensions?? They'll grow out in a month or two anyway, it's just bangs, no big deal. Well, that's my opinion, but apparently it is a big deal because after class the teacher sought out that class's homeroom teacher and pulled him aside to explain the situation and instruct him that he needed to have a conversation with the student about it. She also took the opportunity to remind me that people might wear their hair in all kinds of crazy styles in America (and ok, excuse me, have you seen some of the haircuts our kids wear? Do you remember the boy who graduated last year whose hair was short everywhere except on top and at the very bottom of the back, making the world's most flamboyant mullet??) and that we have a strict dress code at this school and that this student will give a bad impression of herself and the school in interviews if she's seen with bangs like that. She's not interviewing this year, but she can't be allowed to think that hairstyle is appropriate, because what if she does it again just before interviews next year! In these situations, don't be so forgiving to the students, they need adults to model the importance of strictly adhering to the rules. So yeah that's the story of how I got called out yesterday for saying a girl's scissor accident was nothing to worry about. Sigh.

Thank you!! I'm excited about it. I mean... right?? I format my own citations. I so far just in the first week and a half I've used a weird variety of sources (web pages, Supreme Court decisions, laws, books, etc) so it's easier to just do it by hand. Also I do not have Microsoft Office. There are probably online options that will format stuff for you, but I trust myself more, and while the source count will eventually add up, so will my experience with writing them and I won't need to spend as much time reminding myself of the standards. For now it's usually one or two sources per response and eight for the essay in question. As for the rest of the class, I have no idea what the problem is, except possibly that they're new to scholarly writing.

Having someone to tell me to take them would definitely help hahaha. Which is why I opened up the floor to all of you wonderful people here, and you know what? So far so good! Last night I came to post after I finished my homework and saw all of your messages and totally would've forgotten to take the iron if I hadn't. I decided not to post because it was late but I did take that pill! I'm trying this today. They are now on my pillow. Thank you! Yeah it's a big big boi and not shy, which is why even knowing what it was there for it was tough to reconcile that I was really allowing it. But I haven't seen it since I saw its twin (or it) outside, so hopefully I'm good??? I got my essay back last night and I got 100%! Which is exciting because I'm not used to being a good student and also made me laugh because I definitely would have graded that essay much more harshly (according to the rubric!). But I realized the prof probably doesn't have time to be checking all our sources and the fact that I can write coherent paragraphs in some semblance of a logical order might set me apart from many students in introductory college level courses. Plus I cited everything in APA (as the prof instructed us to) and apparently that was a big plus for me even though according to the rubric proper citations only account for 5/100 points. She wrote an announcement to the whole class reminding us about APA and sharing some how-to sites, so I suspect that several students didn't quite grasp the concept. I was a humanities major previously so I mostly used MLA*, but how hard is it to google "how to cite web source APA"? *I primarily used MLA, but of course Chicago is the objective best: how can anyone resist footnotes?

Spider buddies! I'm not even slightly surprised to hear you're also in this camp. Although don't you have Wraith for pest control? I use the same water bottle throughout the day and at night, so putting vitamins on top of it would not work, but I do like your idea of chaining the practice to something else. The only thing I can think of that I do every night is turn off all my electric stuff (lights, TV, laptop). I wouldn't want to put vitamins on top of a remote or on my laptop, so physical reminders might not be the thing, but maybe another chanted checklist would work? Right now I have one for before I leave the house, and it works pretty well for me. It started out "wallet, cellphone, keys" and has since expanded to "wallet, cellphone, keys; water, lunch, mask." It's dumb but it rolls off the tongue and makes remembering easier. The only issue is it's not difficult to remember to turn off my electronics and lights because they're bright and prevent me from going to sleep, so I don't currently use a mnemonic there. But I'll keep tooling this idea around, it might work.