I had a visa application in for another country. Was a long term long time plan to relocate back to the old country. My timing could not be worse, as the mood at the consulate has...shifted?
Meh? I'm a uni professor and I gave a subpar lecture. I really care so when I feel things don't go well, it hits me hard. I'm very tired and stressed and can see the same in my students.
I also want to fight back against the nonsense in my country; not sign holding, not performative nonsense, but can't find an outlet or ally. Its frustrating feeling powerless, seeing my students scared and suffering, and feeling useless.
Reminder: Do a little something for yourself. I shut my email down, took a minute off from advocating, job hunting paused, and I played no mans sky for 4 hours. I then made some bread and took a walk.
I was recharged and ready to continue. I forget to do this for myself sometimes and it really does help. So I'm alright this week.
If you want a bit of a variety in book recommendations, bridging the US to Optimism gap would be Rising Out of Hatred. Then for the earliest national forest and wildfire relief, The Big Burn. People coming together to rebuild A Paradise Built from Hell.
For fiction/sci fi the new James S. Corey series starts with Mercy of the Gods. Its good. For RhE rebellious sci fi side, Red Rising and its series is quite good. Takes off, in my opinion, around the end if book 2 and into 3.
Can you give me a breakdown or a guide you'd recommend for doing this? I used to be an RSS junky years ago, but my skills atrophied. It sounds lovely and a fun distraction project for me.
I really need help. I am a newly minted PhD and I research Denial rates for FEMA programs. I use FOIA request and public facing data to put this together. In one disaster, in rural America no less, a whopping 76% of applications for Individual Household Assistance were denied outright. Let the repercussions of that sink in. This data is crucial and is in danger of being removed, if it has not already. Any help you can offer or shout outs would be incredible.
As some of you know, I'm also trying to help my LGTBQ+ and BIPOC colleagues protect and defend their work and themselves. Any advice on networking or organizations I can steer people towards are welcome.
Job hunting is brutal. Like soul sucking. Every time a website application refers me to Workday or another management system of AI filtered horsehit, I die knowing I probably missed something and will get auto rejected.
Little acts of protest is where to start. If you can impede, slow, or sabotage anything safely, do it. Happy to share ideas in a more secure environment but a few are taking the maximum allowable time on things, flooding emails with questions and always following up with more to tie up headspace and resources.
Little, safe, things. A leak in a dam, with enough pressure and time bursts.
Gates has done a magnificent job burying the fact that he is a horrible human being. There is a reason old Slashdot used him photoshopped as a Borg for a thumbnail for any story Microsoft.
Good week so far. Applying for grants and jobs, ditching Windows entirely and going with Pop_Os, reading a ton of history books just for fun.