Battle Kitten: Ascension

[Countess D'If]

Summer financial aid is 100% a fucking nightmare. I'm sorry you have to deal with that. When The Marine was at the college, it was always the A #1 cluster.

 

 

[fleaball]

Ostriched for a lot longer than I intended today. Reply coming tomorrow. In the meantime I may have just fucked up my bad ankle even more by falling down the stairs trying to catch a baby mouse. Forget surviving the Spartan, I'll be lucky to survive until then. And by falling down the stairs I mean I stayed upright the whole time but kept slipping backwards and going down several steps at a time before catching my balance, then losing it trying to avoid the falling mouse (which I whacked with the broom more than once while flailing and I'm hoping doesn't die behind my couch). Ankle is definitely pissed at me and instead of going to bed like I wanted, I'm sitting up icing it just in case. Whee. 

 

Onw of today's challenges was "share a quote." Can mine just be "what the fuck?"

[Countess D'If]

Oh no! Babe! 

 

*Hugs*

[fleaball]

I am totally thinking of OINTB and cringing. And I'm also terrified of like, waking up to a mouse in my bed or something. 

 

Ps whats the unnecessary plot twist you mentioned on FB? You should totally message me or spoiler tag it. 

[Countess D'If]

Did you finish whole thing?

[fleaball]

Yup. I would like season five tomorrow. And I also want to light things on fire. 

 

I have a be a thing I feel like was out of place a bit but idk if it's what you're thinking of. 

[Countess D'If]

test

[fleaball]

I'm playing FFX because mouse. I fucking suck at blitzball yo. 

[Countess D'If]

Ok, that works, never know with the mobile site

 

SRS OITNB season 4 Spoiler, for reals don't read if you don't want to be spoilered

They 100% did NOT need to kill Poussey. That was a bullshit decision. Number A

 

Number B, there has been one competent correctional officer this whole season. Pisquatella - no idea if that's the right spelling. He's a bit self righteous, but he does his job and he does it correctly. To suddenly have him be "the bad guy" was cheap, bad writing. They should have just let the psycho C/O be the bad guy. That was all that was necessary. I've never liked this show's propensity to show C/O's as incompetent and evil and I think this was just the last straw for me. Doing your job as a correctional officer doesn't make you the bad guy - remember that these women are criminals and the officers are doing a job. Are there bad C/O's out there? Of course. But for shit's sake, up until the very end HE was not one of them. Sure, he told Piper that he thought she wasn't cute, but EVERYBODY hates Piper. Him telling her that she's a piece of crap is not "bad guy" stuff, it's just the truth. Then BAM! Out of NOWHERE, big bad of the whole season. Cheap writing.

 

Then, there was the shameful treatment of the veteran characters. They were all shown as evil and sadistic, and drunk all the time. The one creep was ok, yeah you're a creep. But then when all the vets just fell in line behind him, bullshit. Vets aren't evil, except apparently in this world. I hated this device. HATED it.

[fleaball]

Agreed on all points. I'm pissed about the first but I do think it sort of fits for the point they were trying to make. :/ But still raging. Pretty sure I yelled at my tv. 

 

I fuckin hate Piper with every fiber of my being. Like from episode 1 I have hated her. Rawr. I don't trust myself to spoiler tag things while sleepy so I'll rage tomorrow. 

 

 

[Countess D'If]

I think Piper is the villain of the whole shebang. We hates her, precious!

[Lara]

7 hours ago, fleaball said:

trying to catch a baby mouse

 

Ugh.

Hope you didn't hurt yourself too much.

[NeverThatBored]

Ugh ugh ugh the mouse thing. Ugh. I keep cringing about that. And everyone hates Piper. She's the worst. 

 

I'm sorry about your ankle.  That fall sounds terrifying. I hope it's not really injured and you feel better soon. 

[athousandwords]

I couldn't even deal with a mouse being near me or anywhere close to my proximity while trying to sleep. I really can't blame you for playing FFX.  Hope your ankle feels better soon!

[fleaball]

On 6/20/2016 at 3:11 PM, NeverThatBored said:

 

I'm doing one with the liquid sunlight thing right now. It's the worst. I like a lot of the other ones way better. I'm only just now starting to get a hang of the liquid sunlight thing after 28 days of it, but up until like this past week, it wasn't doing anything for me at all. 

 

Agree with you on the voice thing too. Sometimes I get annoyed because he keeps talking when I'm trying to do the exercise.  

 

 

Ugh ugh ugh financial aid stress is the worst. I remember being in knots all the time when I had to deal with it while I was still in school. I'm sorry you're dealing with that.  

Oh there are a bunch of them. Kindness is the latest one. I want to say generosity and self-esteem too? I feel like there are more. Or maybe I've just repeated the ones that do it so it feels like more. 

 

23 hours ago, zenLara said:

 

 

 

For me, is one I like a lot. I focuse on the warmth feeling only because it's what more easily comes to me, and I do get a deep breath with it. Maybe try to identify only with one thing, the color, the warmth, the space in the body, instead of trying to do the complete visualization?

You're scary.

 

I've tried breaking it down but nothing has really worked. I'm just going to skip those ones and go for something else lol. 

 

23 hours ago, Countess D'If said:

Summer financial aid is 100% a fucking nightmare. I'm sorry you have to deal with that. When The Marine was at the college, it was always the A #1 cluster.

Ugh I'm glad it's not just me then but wtf. 

 

8 hours ago, zenLara said:

 

Ugh.

Hope you didn't hurt yourself too much.

 

7 hours ago, NeverThatBored said:

Ugh ugh ugh the mouse thing. Ugh. I keep cringing about that. And everyone hates Piper. She's the worst. 

 

I'm sorry about your ankle.  That fall sounds terrifying. I hope it's not really injured and you feel better soon. 

I knew people didn't like her and had seen people complaining about her before I started watching it last fall, but wow. I don't think I've ever hated the main character of a series so much before. 

 

6 hours ago, athousandwords said:

I couldn't even deal with a mouse being near me or anywhere close to my proximity while trying to sleep. I really can't blame you for playing FFX.  Hope your ankle feels better soon!

We had them at my parents' house but they pretty much stayed in the vicinity of the stove. Plus we had two cats that made quick work of them. >< This guy (and I hope it's just the one) is everywhere and I am not a fan. 

 

 

So my ankle hurts a little more than usual, but doesn't seem swollen and doesn't hurt to walk on. I'm taking it as a win. 

 

15 hours ago, Countess D'If said:

Ok, that works, never know with the mobile site

 

SRS OITNB season 4 Spoiler, for reals don't read if you don't want to be spoilered

 

  Reveal hidden contents

They 100% did NOT need to kill Poussey. That was a bullshit decision. Number A

 

 

Number B, there has been one competent correctional officer this whole season. Pisquatella - no idea if that's the right spelling. He's a bit self righteous, but he does his job and he does it correctly. To suddenly have him be "the bad guy" was cheap, bad writing. They should have just let the psycho C/O be the bad guy. That was all that was necessary. I've never liked this show's propensity to show C/O's as incompetent and evil and I think this was just the last straw for me. Doing your job as a correctional officer doesn't make you the bad guy - remember that these women are criminals and the officers are doing a job. Are there bad C/O's out there? Of course. But for shit's sake, up until the very end HE was not one of them. Sure, he told Piper that he thought she wasn't cute, but EVERYBODY hates Piper. Him telling her that she's a piece of crap is not "bad guy" stuff, it's just the truth. Then BAM! Out of NOWHERE, big bad of the whole season. Cheap writing.

 

Then, there was the shameful treatment of the veteran characters. They were all shown as evil and sadistic, and drunk all the time. The one creep was ok, yeah you're a creep. But then when all the vets just fell in line behind him, bullshit. Vets aren't evil, except apparently in this world. I hated this device. HATED it.

 

 

 

MOAR SPOILERS

Spoiler

Re Piscatella (I googled it because it was bothering me): I didn't like him much but yeah, wtf. The previous 3 seasons I was shaking my head at all the guards because seriously what the fuck? They're all morons? (Why does Luschek have a job?) And then suddenly strict-but-effective dude turns into bad guy when clearly unhinged power trip dude would have been more than enough?

 

The vet thing bothered me too. Like the guy who told Bayley about the people he killed? What the fuck? And the fact that they were all just as moronic as the guards who walked out last season? Ugh. I'm sure it was all supposed to reflect the bad decision MCC made of hiring them just for the credits they'd get or whatever, but this shit reflects on people in real life too. >>

 

Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention, but I feel like the thing with Healy came out of left field? I mean he's always been a misogynistic creep with a complex and rubbed me the wrong way, and okay the flashbacks sort of explained some stuff, but I don't know how we got to the point of him walking into a lake?

 

I know I have challenge responses to post but first I'm gonna go shower because I am disgusting the humidity finally broke so it's actually worth it.

[Severine]

Financial aid is such a surreal mindfuck. They've set up an entire system to distribute money on the basis of people really needing it, and needing it at a very certain time for expenses with fixed due dates, but the system operates like its own independent universe where time flows differently. I'm sure it's occurred to many people within the bureaucracy that hey, it really fucks up people's lives if the money is 3 weeks late. It's a testament to the intractable, impersonal dysfunction of the system that it continues to happen anyway, year after year. I've received financial aid for school in both Canada and Scotland and it was the same bullshit as here.

The ankle thing sucks but I have to hand it to you - with what you described it's pretty damn impressive you kept relative control of the fall and didn't actually go tumbling ass-over-teakettle all the way down.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[NeverThatBored]

2 hours ago, fleaball said:

We had them at my parents' house but they pretty much stayed in the vicinity of the stove. Plus we had two cats that made quick work of them. >< This guy (and I hope it's just the one) is everywhere and I am not a fan. 

 

So in other words, you're saying you need to go adopt a cat, right?

[fleaball]

2 hours ago, Severine said:

Financial aid is such a surreal mindfuck. They've set up an entire system to distribute money on the basis of people really needing it, and needing it at a very certain time for expenses with fixed due dates, but the system operates like its own independent universe where time flows differently. I'm sure it's occurred to many people within the bureaucracy that hey, it really fucks up people's lives if the money is 3 weeks late. It's a testament to the intractable, impersonal dysfunction of the system that it continues to happen anyway, year after year. I've received financial aid for school in both Canada and Scotland and it was the same bullshit as here.

The ankle thing sucks but I have to hand it to you - with what you described it's pretty damn impressive you kept relative control of the fall and didn't actually go tumbling ass-over-teakettle all the way down.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

It's incredible. Like, yes we're going to give you money for living expenses on top of your tuition, but surprise we aren't going to tell you when you'll get it so good luck paying for things.  

 

lol I was convinced my roommate would come home today and find me at the foot of the stairs with a broken neck. Idk how I managed it. 

 

5 minutes ago, NeverThatBored said:

 

So in other words, you're saying you need to go adopt a cat, right?

I would have several at this point if it weren't impossible to find a reasonably-priced place in DC that allows pets. T_T

 

Okay, challenge shit!

Day 13 (6.20)

Spoiler

• Allow yourself to indulge in your favorite treat
  • Nope, sorry. I had no desire for any treat thing yesterday and I wasn't going to go buy and eat it just because. 
• Share a quote
  • Ugh really? I already have song lyrics in my sig and we talked about my French tattoo (which I got 7 years and 2 days ago, thanks to Facebook for the reminder) and the lyrics in "Wait for It."
  • Okay have more lyrics. So there's a French musical of Romeo and Juliet (the one I translated in high school because I'm a dork) and in one of the songs Romeo says "je vis ma vie tel que je suis" which is basically... idk, I asked one of my high school teachers and she went with "I live my life true to who I am." It's one of those wonky-to-translate things. But it's another line that jumps out at me every time I hear the song and something resonates. So there. (The subtitles on the videos are not the best and some of them made me laugh but if you like musicals and have two hours to kill, watch the whole thing.)

 

Day 14 (6.21)

Spoiler

• Choose something about your appearance that could use a little TLC and tend to it
  • Easy! Realized after my shower that my eyebrows were in desperate need of work. Done. 
• Share a fear you overcame
  • Erm. I don't have any specific phobias but I'm pretty sure like, everything I've done despite anxiety belongs here? Applying to grad school (twice! because fuck England), moving and having to adult on my own, actually talking to people in my target languages when I was abroad, etc. 

 

 

So the volunteer manager at the shelter emailed to see if I'm still interested. I responded with some questions and she said cat volunteers usually wind up doing the laundry and cleaning and such in addition to working with the cats. (I'm guessing it's because there are so few cats compared to all the fucking dogs they had?) She suggested I shadow  a cat volunteer to get a better idea of it, and I just wrote back agreeing. So there's that. I'm not thrilled at the idea doing laundry and washing dishes, but maybe after shadowing someone and having a solid idea of what's happening it won't seem as bad?

 

The prof I RA for emailed to ask if I still want to work with her. Apparently they have to tell the person in charge if they want the same student or to switch it up, and she said some students like to change their second year to expand their network. I'm torn, because I've heard other students complaining about the profs they work with, but I also was highly frustrated working with her. Meh. 

[fleaball]

Random thing I hope will happen when I lose weight: less surface area to cover = easier to shave. Because somehow I always miss huge patches on the backs of my thighs. I've tried running the razor in different directions, running my hand over it to make sure I don't feel anything else there, even doing awkward contortions and hoping I don't fall on my face in the shower to see if I've missed anything. And each time I'm like "fuck yeah I did it right!" And then no. No I didn't. What the fuck.

[Countess D'If]

12 minutes ago, fleaball said:

Random thing I hope will happen when I lose weight: less surface area to cover = easier to shave. Because somehow I always miss huge patches on the backs of my thighs. I've tried running the razor in different directions, running my hand over it to make sure I don't feel anything else there, even doing awkward contortions and hoping I don't fall on my face in the shower to see if I've missed anything. And each time I'm like "fuck yeah I did it right!" And then no. No I didn't. What the fuck.

 

I avoid this problem by not shaving higher than my knees

[fleaball]

1 minute ago, Countess D'If said:

 

I avoid this problem by not shaving higher than my knees

When I played soccer we had longish shorts, so I would literally shave from the bottom of the shorts to the top of my socks. I approve of your solution, but I eventually want to wear shorts and not think something is crawling on me every time there's a breeze.

[Briniel]

 

On 20.6.2016 at 1:21 AM, fleaball said:

• Identify your largest source of stress and analyze it - what can you do to reduce it?
  • Shocker, having an anxiety disorder is incredibly stressful. One of my big issues is avoiding things I need to do because they're scary and anxiety-inducing, and then it snowballs because I get more stressed about not having done the thing, so I put it off more because it's scarier, and then there's less time to do it in, etc. Job applications, school papers, sometimes just sending or replying to emails. To reduce it, I can do one scary thing every day. Power through and cross off one thing I've been putting off. 

Ugh, that sounds a little like my situation right now regarding chores and adulting and stuff... I keep putting it off and then it just causes more stress. I love your power through idea. And I love that you already started that quest by agreeing to shadow at the animal shelter. Go you!

 

You also wrote something about your flaws and how the flaw you picked may be something to work on rather than a flaw (can't find it right now or I'd quote) - maybe you hit the nail righ ton the head with that... there are no flaws. You're not flawed. If there's something you want to change about yourself, go for it, but you're enough, just the way you are.

 

9 hours ago, fleaball said:

When I played soccer we had longish shorts, so I would literally shave from the bottom of the shorts to the top of my socks.

This cracked me up! I don't think I'd shave if body hear on women was more socially acceptable.

[Briniel]

Oh and I found this earlier on fb and it belongs here:

[Severine]

I end up doing a weird pose where I rest my foot against the edge of the bathtub behind me, and then kind of rotate my hips and turn my torso around backward so I can see the back of my thighs. It's not very comfortable, but it works. I'll be pretty annoyed if I fall one day and injure myself for the sake of something I wish I didn't even need to do in the first place.

[athousandwords]

11 hours ago, Severine said:

I end up doing a weird pose where I rest my foot against the edge of the bathtub behind me, and then kind of rotate my hips and turn my torso around backward so I can see the back of my thighs. It's not very comfortable, but it works. I'll be pretty annoyed if I fall one day and injure myself for the sake of something I wish I didn't even need to do in the first place.

 

This is exactly how I injured my back

 

My sister volunteers at a cat shelter regularly and it seems like a lot of new recruits 'start from the bottom' - doing laundry, cleaning litter, etc. They have a high turn-over rate of volunteers (she's in a college town, so it's a lot of students coming in and out) so they need to make sure someone is going to stick with it before they make them customer-facing. Volunteers who have been there for a few months get to start manning the front desk and helping out more with adoptions, etc.  But!  Even the helpers who are doing the chores still get a lot of time to play with the cats.  They usually have a schedule of when to do certain tasks, and the rest of the time, they can be in the main room playing.  Not sure if your shelter is similar, but shadowing a volunteer should give you a good idea.