Metatalktail Hour: March Forth! Or not! March 4, 2023 2:14 AM Subscribe
Hello, happy weekend, and happy March Forth day – a day you are supposed to use to work towards achieving your goals.
If you'd like to share your dream, hope, goal, or ambition, please do so! If you'd like some help getting through a challenge, or finding inspiration, please ask! If you'd like us to help you celebrate a small or large win you've had recently, tell us about it, and let us cheer you on!
On the other hand, if this all sounds annoying, tiring, or unfun, just hold on, because tomorrow begins National Aardvark Week, a holiday that National Today tells us began 5 million years ago. After exploding onto the scene, the saucy insectovore carried on and nothing much happened aardvarkwise until 1990, when Otis, an aardvark puppet, is featured on BBC kids' shows. After this stunning media debut, aardvark celebrity status is enshrined a mere 6 years later, when the children's cartoon series “Arthur” features a whole family of aardvarks, and reaches a zenith in 2013 with the creation of a 30-meter-long sculpture of an aardvark named ‘Feestaardvarken’ in Arnhem, Holland. Heady stuff!
Or why not just tell us what's on your mind, or what is up with you these days? (but no politics, please!)
If you'd like to share your dream, hope, goal, or ambition, please do so! If you'd like some help getting through a challenge, or finding inspiration, please ask! If you'd like us to help you celebrate a small or large win you've had recently, tell us about it, and let us cheer you on!
On the other hand, if this all sounds annoying, tiring, or unfun, just hold on, because tomorrow begins National Aardvark Week, a holiday that National Today tells us began 5 million years ago. After exploding onto the scene, the saucy insectovore carried on and nothing much happened aardvarkwise until 1990, when Otis, an aardvark puppet, is featured on BBC kids' shows. After this stunning media debut, aardvark celebrity status is enshrined a mere 6 years later, when the children's cartoon series “Arthur” features a whole family of aardvarks, and reaches a zenith in 2013 with the creation of a 30-meter-long sculpture of an aardvark named ‘Feestaardvarken’ in Arnhem, Holland. Heady stuff!
Or why not just tell us what's on your mind, or what is up with you these days? (but no politics, please!)
I'm still a little punch-drunk from trying and failing at the big goals for much of my life, so I'm kind of on a "baby steps" approach - "I'mma do this and just....see what happens."
My biggest long-term thing is probably the blog. I am 36% of the way through seeing all of the "movies you must see before you die" - but it's taken like 3 years so far, so I'm going to be at it a while. But that suits me fine. I haven't really been paying attention to the readership stats, but every so often I have a peek and it looks like I have about 70 regular readers, with some baffling surges (apparently some college in Arizona discovered me, because every so often I get a surge of readers referred by one of their student sites...I tried to find out what was up with that, but no one responded). ...I'm also only 27 films away from not having to add anything to the bottom of my Netflix DVD queue any more (they cap your queue at 500 films, and so I've had to keep adding things to the bottom as things fall off the top).
In the slightly shorter term: I'm going to try to do more with my community garden plot this year. Last year was a dry run because I never thought I'd get a plot, so when I did get one I treated the whole thing as practice, claiming a couple of the free plants we got donated from Green Guerrillas and just seeing what happened. I grew 3 tomato plants and a few peppers, replaced the basil that got eaten by a squirrel with a cherry tomato, and also had fun tending the community-use herbs and fruits (a plum tree, a grape vine; I also started a container garden of tea herbs). But this year I have made, like, deliberate plans: peas and a leafy green in the spring, adding in carrots and a couple kinds of beans in early summer, and then kale closer to fall.
And - I've found that there are kinds of all these vegetables that are naturally purple, so I'm really leaning into it and am doing an all-purple plot (I'm toying with the idea of making a little scarecrow dressed like Prince, even). The peas and beans I've picked have amazing flowers, apparently, so that'll hopefully bring in more bees for everyone else's plots. And my plot is visible from the entrance, so hopefully I can bring in passers-by too ("yeah, community garden with a lot of tomatoes or whatever - hang on, WHAT is up with THAT one, with all the purple? Is that a purple string bean?").
And this weekend is first sowing - the peas are going in! It's going to start warming up just enough again, and we're about enough time from the last frost; and the bulbs we planted in the fall are starting to come up already so I think it's time.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:16 AM on March 4, 2023 [9 favorites]
My biggest long-term thing is probably the blog. I am 36% of the way through seeing all of the "movies you must see before you die" - but it's taken like 3 years so far, so I'm going to be at it a while. But that suits me fine. I haven't really been paying attention to the readership stats, but every so often I have a peek and it looks like I have about 70 regular readers, with some baffling surges (apparently some college in Arizona discovered me, because every so often I get a surge of readers referred by one of their student sites...I tried to find out what was up with that, but no one responded). ...I'm also only 27 films away from not having to add anything to the bottom of my Netflix DVD queue any more (they cap your queue at 500 films, and so I've had to keep adding things to the bottom as things fall off the top).
In the slightly shorter term: I'm going to try to do more with my community garden plot this year. Last year was a dry run because I never thought I'd get a plot, so when I did get one I treated the whole thing as practice, claiming a couple of the free plants we got donated from Green Guerrillas and just seeing what happened. I grew 3 tomato plants and a few peppers, replaced the basil that got eaten by a squirrel with a cherry tomato, and also had fun tending the community-use herbs and fruits (a plum tree, a grape vine; I also started a container garden of tea herbs). But this year I have made, like, deliberate plans: peas and a leafy green in the spring, adding in carrots and a couple kinds of beans in early summer, and then kale closer to fall.
And - I've found that there are kinds of all these vegetables that are naturally purple, so I'm really leaning into it and am doing an all-purple plot (I'm toying with the idea of making a little scarecrow dressed like Prince, even). The peas and beans I've picked have amazing flowers, apparently, so that'll hopefully bring in more bees for everyone else's plots. And my plot is visible from the entrance, so hopefully I can bring in passers-by too ("yeah, community garden with a lot of tomatoes or whatever - hang on, WHAT is up with THAT one, with all the purple? Is that a purple string bean?").
And this weekend is first sowing - the peas are going in! It's going to start warming up just enough again, and we're about enough time from the last frost; and the bulbs we planted in the fall are starting to come up already so I think it's time.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:16 AM on March 4, 2023 [9 favorites]
Short update, for those who follow perhaps loosely along: walk unaided, almost entirely without pain.
posted by majick at 6:27 AM on March 4, 2023 [18 favorites]
posted by majick at 6:27 AM on March 4, 2023 [18 favorites]
I got up and ran this morning. Now I need to do again 3X next week, and the week after, and the week after...
posted by COD at 6:51 AM on March 4, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by COD at 6:51 AM on March 4, 2023 [7 favorites]
I'm still working on de-hoarding (there's a general organising / de-cluttering thread in IRL, if anyone is interested in joining). It is hard. I would rather be writing Wikipedia articles than tidying and sorting and I would rather be playing Spider Solitaire than that. I am about to drag myself upstairs to Room of Double Doom to open the door and peer at its innards (I can't get into it). I often fear the death of whatsisname from Howard's End in this sort of thing. Leonard. (Reads over words to ensure I haven't referred to Howard's Way, which was set in these parts and would be a rather different cultural ref.)
posted by paduasoy at 7:02 AM on March 4, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by paduasoy at 7:02 AM on March 4, 2023 [7 favorites]
My goal is finally getting a college degree, after dropping out decades ago. After this semester I will have 3 courses left for an associate's in computer information systems at a community college, putting completion either at the end of summer or at the end of the fall semester, depending on if all three classes are offered locally this summer. I would love to transfer into a 4 year and eventually get a bachelor's, but community college tuition and even the least-expensive state school tuition are worlds apart. My 9 year old sometimes gets irritated when I have homework and he doesn't, but I also love that he is seeing that learning doesn't end at a certain age, and that you can always make a change.
Eight week terms means you're basically always working on midterms or finals, so today I'm up to my ears in tests and papers and projects, but I also haven't had this much fun in decades!
posted by Ann Telope at 7:54 AM on March 4, 2023 [17 favorites]
Eight week terms means you're basically always working on midterms or finals, so today I'm up to my ears in tests and papers and projects, but I also haven't had this much fun in decades!
posted by Ann Telope at 7:54 AM on March 4, 2023 [17 favorites]
I've been dealing with knee problems for the last few weeks, so I haven't run in a while (good luck with motivation, COD!). I haven't gone to a traditional doctor yet, my massage therapist has encouraged me to take it easy/ice it, so I'm trying that first. My hopes and dreams are that this is a blip, I recommit to stretching/supportive exercise, and I can get back to running soonish.
Last weekend I worked (volunteer advocacy) with a young adult who has a court date next week, and is scared because they don't know what to expect, can't afford an attorney, etc. I'm going to offer to go to court with them as emotional support (not legal or anything like that). I'm a little hesitant, as I haven't done it before, my program doesn't usually work with people long-term (or really, more than just a week) I want to maintain boundaries, etc. They may not want it, and I'll make the offer this weekend, and see what they say.
Anyway, I love you all.
posted by Gorgik at 8:25 AM on March 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
Last weekend I worked (volunteer advocacy) with a young adult who has a court date next week, and is scared because they don't know what to expect, can't afford an attorney, etc. I'm going to offer to go to court with them as emotional support (not legal or anything like that). I'm a little hesitant, as I haven't done it before, my program doesn't usually work with people long-term (or really, more than just a week) I want to maintain boundaries, etc. They may not want it, and I'll make the offer this weekend, and see what they say.
Anyway, I love you all.
posted by Gorgik at 8:25 AM on March 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
I have several things around the house that need doing. I have the money to pay others to do them but have been reluctant to re-enter society after happily isolating for the past few years. However, in the last month I have addressed a number of the issues. Yesterday, I spoke to my gardener about taking care of the outdoor ones. I had a small (useless) fence removed along the side of the house before it fell down. I was going to replace it but have decided it is fine for there to be no fence. I am getting my outdoor lighting redone because the ones I have now have little lids that fly off in the breeze which drives me crazy.
I have had a small hole in my ceiling (currently covered with a "temporary" patch, that has been up for two years, made of a folded Whole Foods grocery bag held up with rainbow duct tape) that needs drywall (I know there is a patching kit, but I have balance issues that mean getting up on a ladder to address it would be a very bad idea). In a mailer that came recently was an ad for a company called "Patches in a Day" and now I have them coming out next week.
My goal with all of this is to cut down on the nagging voice in my head that "helpfully" keeps pointing out all this stuff to me. It is helping. I feel less guilt. However, I did have a dream the other night where I entered a building and it was like something from MC Eschar (but in 70s era generic civic building design of terracotta tiles and square metal-rod railings on stairways) and I spent what seemed like a very long time ducking under walls to reach stairways to nowhere and climbing over railings and walking down endless halls...finally got out but "out" was somewhere I didn't recognize. Very tiring dream!
posted by agatha_magatha at 9:16 AM on March 4, 2023 [4 favorites]
I have had a small hole in my ceiling (currently covered with a "temporary" patch, that has been up for two years, made of a folded Whole Foods grocery bag held up with rainbow duct tape) that needs drywall (I know there is a patching kit, but I have balance issues that mean getting up on a ladder to address it would be a very bad idea). In a mailer that came recently was an ad for a company called "Patches in a Day" and now I have them coming out next week.
My goal with all of this is to cut down on the nagging voice in my head that "helpfully" keeps pointing out all this stuff to me. It is helping. I feel less guilt. However, I did have a dream the other night where I entered a building and it was like something from MC Eschar (but in 70s era generic civic building design of terracotta tiles and square metal-rod railings on stairways) and I spent what seemed like a very long time ducking under walls to reach stairways to nowhere and climbing over railings and walking down endless halls...finally got out but "out" was somewhere I didn't recognize. Very tiring dream!
posted by agatha_magatha at 9:16 AM on March 4, 2023 [4 favorites]
goal: tidy up the house for family visitors tonight.
soundtrack: 3 Feet High & Rising, De La Soul (and maybe some Wayne Shorter later on)
posted by supermedusa at 9:32 AM on March 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
soundtrack: 3 Feet High & Rising, De La Soul (and maybe some Wayne Shorter later on)
posted by supermedusa at 9:32 AM on March 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
I read this post and was like “I do not have goals.” But I suppose I do - stop working as soon as I can without compromising security in the (hopefully not too terribly many) years that remain. So I guess it’s perfect that today a friend shared that Capital One has a CD special earning 5% APY for 11 months. I just moved over a good chunk of cash that otherwise would’ve sat in savings earning virtually nothing! (Sorry if this comes across as shilling for Capital One but that is a really great CD rate these days!!)
posted by obfuscation at 10:20 AM on March 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by obfuscation at 10:20 AM on March 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
I am in the middle of boxing up my apartment. I'm not actually close enough to moving date that I can box up my pots and pans and lamps and clothes and the other things I still plan on using right up until quite close to moving day. However, I'm almost done with boxing up my books, and this makes me feel quite at loose ends from a perspective of, "Well, what am I supposed to box up now?"
But still, I can certainly do a box or two.
posted by Jeanne at 10:21 AM on March 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
But still, I can certainly do a box or two.
posted by Jeanne at 10:21 AM on March 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
Achieving a goal takes a lot of aard vark!
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:26 AM on March 4, 2023 [12 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:26 AM on March 4, 2023 [12 favorites]
I thought "I'm kind of too old (or feeling too old atm) for dreams and ambitions, and then I saw the NYT Food email about baked lemon pudding, and thought ... aha, this seems like a manageable dream for today, and then I read it, and saw those six fatal words, "beat egg whites to stiff peaks," and gave up on life again. Thanks, NYT.
(I don't actually have a nyt subscription, but they still send me emails, and every now and then I can click on one without getting the paywall. It's kind of like nyt kinky email lottery.)
posted by taz (staff) at 11:42 AM on March 4, 2023 [8 favorites]
(I don't actually have a nyt subscription, but they still send me emails, and every now and then I can click on one without getting the paywall. It's kind of like nyt kinky email lottery.)
posted by taz (staff) at 11:42 AM on March 4, 2023 [8 favorites]
The big goal, for the moment, is underway: we are traveling the US for a year or two to see it and figure out what parts of it we might want to live in. It's been six months, we're prepping this weekend for packing next weekend for moving on from Oregon to Colorado. We're seeing local friends this evening, and doing a quick jaunt tomorrow upriver to Multnomah Falls to get one more chunk of the local beauty in our faces before we get to the next landscape.
I also completed a certification this week that I need to get for my new job, and got diagnosed with ADHD and am now in ADHD hell trying to get the doctor's office to correctly communicate my Rx to the pharmacy.
I have mostly rehabbed an unhappy knee that kind of sidelined me over the holidays and into January. I need to get motivated to do my PT exercises more consistently, which the ADHD meds will help with, right?? I managed several mile-ish inclined walks with my cane in February and I'd like to be comfortably doing 2 (with cane if needed - anything to not re-injure it again) by the end of March.
posted by Lyn Never at 12:22 PM on March 4, 2023 [7 favorites]
I also completed a certification this week that I need to get for my new job, and got diagnosed with ADHD and am now in ADHD hell trying to get the doctor's office to correctly communicate my Rx to the pharmacy.
I have mostly rehabbed an unhappy knee that kind of sidelined me over the holidays and into January. I need to get motivated to do my PT exercises more consistently, which the ADHD meds will help with, right?? I managed several mile-ish inclined walks with my cane in February and I'd like to be comfortably doing 2 (with cane if needed - anything to not re-injure it again) by the end of March.
posted by Lyn Never at 12:22 PM on March 4, 2023 [7 favorites]
those six fatal words, "beat egg whites to stiff peaks,"
Hand-beating egg whites is a serious PITA (A = arm) chore even for healthy non-inured people. I'm a firm believer in saving energy and pain by using even a cheap hand mixer or immersion (stick) blender.
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:26 PM on March 4, 2023 [4 favorites]
Hand-beating egg whites is a serious PITA (A = arm) chore even for healthy non-inured people. I'm a firm believer in saving energy and pain by using even a cheap hand mixer or immersion (stick) blender.
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:26 PM on March 4, 2023 [4 favorites]
I’ve actually gotten a lot accomplished today but that really a coincidence. I don’t believe in making resolutions and so on because I think they just set you up for self-reproach and do more harm than good. Instead I made a playlist of songs in 3/4 time signature. Lots more fun.
posted by holborne at 1:29 PM on March 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by holborne at 1:29 PM on March 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
taz, if you try the lemon pudding anyway, please tell us how it went. My family is a bunch of lemon fiends.
New things I'm trying:
1. This was week 3 training with a personal trainer. Thanks to pandemic magic, I was able to hire someone recommended by a friend who lives several states away. So far I'm pleased with how it's going.
2. The mister and I have resolved to make time for a postprandial walk with each other every evening, now that Little e is old enough to leave unsupervised for brief periods. We've only been at it for a few days so far, but it is totally worth sticking to this one.
posted by eirias at 1:39 PM on March 4, 2023 [5 favorites]
New things I'm trying:
1. This was week 3 training with a personal trainer. Thanks to pandemic magic, I was able to hire someone recommended by a friend who lives several states away. So far I'm pleased with how it's going.
2. The mister and I have resolved to make time for a postprandial walk with each other every evening, now that Little e is old enough to leave unsupervised for brief periods. We've only been at it for a few days so far, but it is totally worth sticking to this one.
posted by eirias at 1:39 PM on March 4, 2023 [5 favorites]
Hand-beating egg whites is a serious PITA (A = arm) chore even for healthy non-inured people. I'm a firm believer in saving energy and pain by using even a cheap hand mixer or immersion (stick) blender.
Even better, some stick blenders come with a whisk attachment. This is what I use for my own egg whites - strongly recommend.
So what I had planned to do today and into tomorrow was:
* Go to the gym first thing in the morning.
* Do meal planning for the week.
* Go do my laundry, myself, in a laundromat; hit the grocery store across the street while things were in the spin cycle.
* If it warmed up, get the peas planted in the afternoon.
* I have a ticket to see RRR tonight.
* Tomorrow - do chores around the house while my roommate was out at bowling.
* Watch a movie for my blog.
* Cook a nice healthy bean stew for Sunday dinner.
However; I have a childhood friend who moved to Berlin and became an artist, and she is part of an exhibit that opened last night in Brooklyn. She invited me to the opening night gala - but she didn't tell me, until I got there, that about half of our neighbors from the street where we both grew up would all be flying in from throughout the country to also attend. And - they all fell on me when they saw me, gushing about how long it had been since we'd seen each other, and etc., and they all insisted that I join them for breakfast today.
So my weekend has now become:
* Go meet everyone at Juniors' first thing in the morning.
* Play tour guide on a shopping expedition to the department stores in Downtown Brooklyn.
* At some point - I shot my brother a quick text saying that the neighbors' boy who babysat us that one time and whom he looked up to now has less hair than Dad these days.
* Bid everyone farewell when we all went to our various hotels and homes at noon so people could pack and go home.
* ....Send the laundry out to the laundry service.
* Watch a movie for my blog.
* Do some quick meal planning.
* Still to come is RRR tonight.
* Still doing chores around the house while the roommate is bowling, and then I'll plant the peas.
* Then the bean stew for Sunday dinner.
...No gym, and my morning plans were shot - but I walked all the way to Juniors' and I'm counting that, and I think it makes total sense for any busy work plans to go hang when someone who last saw you when you were nine years old is in town.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:23 PM on March 4, 2023 [4 favorites]
Even better, some stick blenders come with a whisk attachment. This is what I use for my own egg whites - strongly recommend.
So what I had planned to do today and into tomorrow was:
* Go to the gym first thing in the morning.
* Do meal planning for the week.
* Go do my laundry, myself, in a laundromat; hit the grocery store across the street while things were in the spin cycle.
* If it warmed up, get the peas planted in the afternoon.
* I have a ticket to see RRR tonight.
* Tomorrow - do chores around the house while my roommate was out at bowling.
* Watch a movie for my blog.
* Cook a nice healthy bean stew for Sunday dinner.
However; I have a childhood friend who moved to Berlin and became an artist, and she is part of an exhibit that opened last night in Brooklyn. She invited me to the opening night gala - but she didn't tell me, until I got there, that about half of our neighbors from the street where we both grew up would all be flying in from throughout the country to also attend. And - they all fell on me when they saw me, gushing about how long it had been since we'd seen each other, and etc., and they all insisted that I join them for breakfast today.
So my weekend has now become:
* Go meet everyone at Juniors' first thing in the morning.
* Play tour guide on a shopping expedition to the department stores in Downtown Brooklyn.
* At some point - I shot my brother a quick text saying that the neighbors' boy who babysat us that one time and whom he looked up to now has less hair than Dad these days.
* Bid everyone farewell when we all went to our various hotels and homes at noon so people could pack and go home.
* ....Send the laundry out to the laundry service.
* Watch a movie for my blog.
* Do some quick meal planning.
* Still to come is RRR tonight.
* Still doing chores around the house while the roommate is bowling, and then I'll plant the peas.
* Then the bean stew for Sunday dinner.
...No gym, and my morning plans were shot - but I walked all the way to Juniors' and I'm counting that, and I think it makes total sense for any busy work plans to go hang when someone who last saw you when you were nine years old is in town.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:23 PM on March 4, 2023 [4 favorites]
Goals I'd like to have: have a true love in my life, find some other job, actually get more than generic bit parts in theater.
However, all three of those feel like they are waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much to ask of the universe since other people seem to disagree with those goals.
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:33 PM on March 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
However, all three of those feel like they are waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much to ask of the universe since other people seem to disagree with those goals.
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:33 PM on March 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
I have 6 hours and 45 minutes left to enter 5 job-hunting activities I completed last week into the Oregon unemployment insurance’s online weekly claim form. I should have done this Wednesday at the latest.
posted by bendy at 5:17 PM on March 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by bendy at 5:17 PM on March 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
I did it!
posted by bendy at 5:41 PM on March 4, 2023 [21 favorites]
posted by bendy at 5:41 PM on March 4, 2023 [21 favorites]
I think it's a worthwhile question to figure out what goals we have, if we have any. But I'm starting to suspect it's okay not to have goals, or at least aspirational goals. I'm increasingly exhausted by the idea that we must always be striving towards something. This is not a knock on taz's prompt at all, just something I've been thinking about for a while. If you have something you really want to achieve, please try! It really does drive the world forward, and can make it a better place. But I feel like there's this pervasive subtext that if you don't, you're not really bettering yourself or the world. And so what if you're not, I say. This comment has been brought to you by slacker Gen-X me.
posted by mollweide at 5:59 PM on March 4, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by mollweide at 5:59 PM on March 4, 2023 [7 favorites]
Goal: I want to leave this town before the Great Salt Lake does.
posted by armeowda at 6:20 PM on March 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by armeowda at 6:20 PM on March 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
What is it with the knees around here? My goal is to get mine working again too. I've been in PT for months with no noticeable progress in the knee itself, but my ass is the perkiest it's ever been so that's something I guess.
and, yeah, like obfuscation, to stop working as soon as possible. Which actually makes my goal to make as much money as possible, which is weird because I have never thought of myself as a person preoccupied with making as much money as possible. I just nabbed what promises to be a pretty sweet side gig, but we'll see.
posted by HotToddy at 6:42 PM on March 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
and, yeah, like obfuscation, to stop working as soon as possible. Which actually makes my goal to make as much money as possible, which is weird because I have never thought of myself as a person preoccupied with making as much money as possible. I just nabbed what promises to be a pretty sweet side gig, but we'll see.
posted by HotToddy at 6:42 PM on March 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
Four hundred physical quid went missing at work this week. For extra fun it was from one of my shifts. CCTV proved I'd handled it correctly without error or impropriety and put it in the safe where it belonged. Experienced some small satisfaction when I eventually found it fallen down the back of where the manager had indisputably dropped it whilst counting up the weeks takings, although not enough satisfaction to offset the couple of days' stress for myself and my colleagues, who were all implicitly under suspicion
On a positive note I've had three whole lazy days off this week prior to the aforementioned shit/fan interface and the shifts I did work were nonsense-free and replete with the sort of funny little human moments interacting with customers which don't quite rise to the level of anecdote but absolutely do remind me why I enjoy my job, i.e. in no small part due to the humans I get to interact with. Just this once you may disregard my username :)
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 7:38 PM on March 4, 2023 [6 favorites]
On a positive note I've had three whole lazy days off this week prior to the aforementioned shit/fan interface and the shifts I did work were nonsense-free and replete with the sort of funny little human moments interacting with customers which don't quite rise to the level of anecdote but absolutely do remind me why I enjoy my job, i.e. in no small part due to the humans I get to interact with. Just this once you may disregard my username :)
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 7:38 PM on March 4, 2023 [6 favorites]
This week I will be mostly feeling aardvarks
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 7:42 PM on March 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 7:42 PM on March 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
With their consent, I hope!
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:26 PM on March 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:26 PM on March 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
I think it's a worthwhile question to figure out what goals we have, if we have any.
The possibility that we can have no goals intrigues me.
posted by bendy at 9:46 PM on March 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
The possibility that we can have no goals intrigues me.
posted by bendy at 9:46 PM on March 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
That would make for a tricky soccer game.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:24 PM on March 4, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:24 PM on March 4, 2023 [4 favorites]
My sweet timid cat Baby Goat had a major breakthrough last night. He is 13 years old and so shy that no other persons have seen or petted him except my sister and I. Yesterday evening I had a friend come over, who we often call "our third sister," and we sat and talked for a few hours. Baby Goat came out from his lair and sidled up next to her chair and allowed her to pet him after a few snuffs! She then teased him with the wool ball on a string and he pounced and played and let her pet him some more. He's made a major milestone in learning "how to cat."
posted by a humble nudibranch at 12:35 AM on March 5, 2023 [13 favorites]
posted by a humble nudibranch at 12:35 AM on March 5, 2023 [13 favorites]
My goal for the next couple of days is to be able to go to sleep at a reasonable time (ideally before midnight). I'm owing some students' feedback on writing samples, so that they will have enough time for revisions before the final deadline and I'm dragging my feet, because having to read baby's first research paper is just my least favourite part of the job. 4 feedbacks given, 6 to go. I hope I can get that done this week, my feedback is overdue already, and exams are about to start soon. I'm downrigth looking forward to grading exams instead!
posted by sohalt at 3:28 AM on March 5, 2023
posted by sohalt at 3:28 AM on March 5, 2023
>The possibility that we can have no goals intrigues me.
>>That would make for atricky typical soccer game.
Ahem.
I have 6 hours and 45 minutes left to enter 5 job-hunting activities I completed last week into the Oregon unemployment insurance’s online weekly claim form. I should have done this Wednesday at the latest.
My spouse had to do that (for a different state) thanks to a covid layoff, and it was such an irritating chore. I mean, either you are wanting to find work in which case you will be doing "job-hunting" things on your own, or you don't want to find work right this minute in which case anything you enter will be fictitious. The whole thing was really infantilizing. (For the weeks when she wasn't really wanting to look, we figured out a low-effort way to apply for completely unrealistic federal jobs and thereby gain the correct number of items for the unemployment entries.)
posted by Dip Flash at 6:04 AM on March 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
>>That would make for a
Ahem.
I have 6 hours and 45 minutes left to enter 5 job-hunting activities I completed last week into the Oregon unemployment insurance’s online weekly claim form. I should have done this Wednesday at the latest.
My spouse had to do that (for a different state) thanks to a covid layoff, and it was such an irritating chore. I mean, either you are wanting to find work in which case you will be doing "job-hunting" things on your own, or you don't want to find work right this minute in which case anything you enter will be fictitious. The whole thing was really infantilizing. (For the weeks when she wasn't really wanting to look, we figured out a low-effort way to apply for completely unrealistic federal jobs and thereby gain the correct number of items for the unemployment entries.)
posted by Dip Flash at 6:04 AM on March 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
Yesterday, I learned that March 4 is Waltz (3/4) Day, possibly April 3 (3/4) elsewhere? I’d been having trouble with my right knee that has settled down, but the left knee took up the slack and let me know that Friday Night Dancing was Nope. Missed last week, too. Gobs of snow means walks will be short; the dog and I miss them. 1st appointment I could get is 2 weeks out. American health care is stupid.
posted by theora55 at 6:04 AM on March 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by theora55 at 6:04 AM on March 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
My goal for the year is to turn my woodworking hobby into a financially self-sustaining hobby, at least somewhat. So far I've made one sale, with two pending, but my next project requires a few specialty tools so I've had to spend a bit of money and I'm not sure I'll break even.
As my number one output seems to be firewood perhaps I should start selling kindling.
Anyway, ask me in December how I did and I'll let you know in which month I stopped keeping track and gave up. I predict it will be April.
posted by bondcliff at 7:53 AM on March 5, 2023 [7 favorites]
As my number one output seems to be firewood perhaps I should start selling kindling.
Anyway, ask me in December how I did and I'll let you know in which month I stopped keeping track and gave up. I predict it will be April.
posted by bondcliff at 7:53 AM on March 5, 2023 [7 favorites]
I started a ding-dang full-time job on the first after long months being frustrated by the modern state of job-hunting (somehow worse than when I was in my early 20s?) and golly it's a relief to be back in employmentville. If I get nothing else done at all this year I'll be satisfied. Also its a very very normie job which is absolutely unfamiliar after the last 15+ years, so that's probably gonna continue to produce a series of little culture shock revelations as I settle in.
posted by cortex (retired) at 8:03 AM on March 5, 2023 [14 favorites]
posted by cortex (retired) at 8:03 AM on March 5, 2023 [14 favorites]
I have a smaller goal of becoming a better skier. I’m a slow, fearful intermediate. Yesterday I tried a mogul run for the second time. The first time in December, I fell about ten times. There was a lot of powder, so getting up over and over was really miserable. Yesterday, I think I only fell four or five times. I did, however, manage to fall on my back and slide down the mountain headfirst about ten feet. I just remember sliding down head first on my back, looking up at my skis and hearing my super patient, supportive friend just cracking up. I was simultaneously kind of mad that he was laughing while I was also laughing because he was laughing. Good times.
posted by gt2 at 8:04 AM on March 5, 2023
posted by gt2 at 8:04 AM on March 5, 2023
taz: the creation of a 30-meter-long sculpture of an aardvark named ‘Feestaardvarken’ in Arnhem, Holland.
(Arnhem is in the Netherlands, not in Holland.)
I like the Feestaardvarken a whole lot. It's currently in storage in the local zoo, which I think is a good place to store an aardvark, and I really hope a new place can be found for it.
posted by Too-Ticky at 10:14 AM on March 5, 2023
(Arnhem is in the Netherlands, not in Holland.)
I like the Feestaardvarken a whole lot. It's currently in storage in the local zoo, which I think is a good place to store an aardvark, and I really hope a new place can be found for it.
posted by Too-Ticky at 10:14 AM on March 5, 2023
Metafilter: a good place to store an aardvark
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:29 AM on March 5, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:29 AM on March 5, 2023 [3 favorites]
My new mitten and old cat are sleeping side by side in my lap. It's a relief the hissing and sputtering part is over. The kitten purrs so much he is a delight. When I first rescued him he jumped into the food dish and devoured it. He eats 4 times what my old kitty does, and he is no more than three months old. A tuxedo shorthair, with black spots on his white heels.
Life brings us beautiful things at times.
posted by Oyéah at 1:35 PM on March 5, 2023 [10 favorites]
Life brings us beautiful things at times.
posted by Oyéah at 1:35 PM on March 5, 2023 [10 favorites]
Well, thank you for the reminder. I got a thing done that has been lingering-- I got an ugly shelf stand thing about the size of a grandfather clock for $14.99 at Goodwill, with a dated cutout of a heart on a scrollwork front piece across the top. I've been talking about remaking that with a new front piece and a new top. So far, I've removed the ugly heart scrollwork and taken off the top, and reinforced the backing that was coming loose.
Now I have the measurements for the top, and what I'll probably do is put what was the top centered where the heart was, put a mosaic on it (probably of an eye) and then build a new top that works like a little tray. The mosaic work is probably my favorite part, but it does make the thing heavier, so I don't know if I'll do the sides and top. I think I'll paint the rest of it a soft green-blue because right now it's that orangey "folk style" wood look that screams 1994. Right now it's bad at being a night stand, but I bet it'll be great at being a plant stand.
Although this particular trip to the hardware store has to wait until I talk to my new therapist, which I'm not looking forward to, since I am now dealing with some issues I don't want to deal with. Oh boy.
posted by blnkfrnk at 1:57 PM on March 5, 2023
Now I have the measurements for the top, and what I'll probably do is put what was the top centered where the heart was, put a mosaic on it (probably of an eye) and then build a new top that works like a little tray. The mosaic work is probably my favorite part, but it does make the thing heavier, so I don't know if I'll do the sides and top. I think I'll paint the rest of it a soft green-blue because right now it's that orangey "folk style" wood look that screams 1994. Right now it's bad at being a night stand, but I bet it'll be great at being a plant stand.
Although this particular trip to the hardware store has to wait until I talk to my new therapist, which I'm not looking forward to, since I am now dealing with some issues I don't want to deal with. Oh boy.
posted by blnkfrnk at 1:57 PM on March 5, 2023
There are goals and there are GOALS.
My current goal is to finish the renovation of our home, which has now entered its third year. I demolished the main bathroom on the weekend, which I'd been putting off for a bit mostly because of the pain I thought it was going to cause in my bung shoulder (small tears in two ligaments plus some bursitis). Turns out I was right and I won't be doing much with that shoulder for the next week or so. But we've bought all the new hardware we need and the hardest part (jackhammering up the tile floor plus the bonus component - a surprisingly massive slab of concrete under the bath), so now we get to start re-building, although there's still a shitty job to do in cutting into the concrete slab floor in various places to move drains to suit the new layout (necessitated by whoever thought it was a good idea to build a main bathroom with no separate shower). So, once this bathroom is done, there's just the master bedroom and ensuite, plus some painting outside and a bit of landscaping in the backyard. My goal is to finish all that this year. Then we need to decide if we're going to stay here long-term or take a profit and move on. Tough, because we absolutely love everything about living here (except for the constant renovation going on), but have a huge mortgage (yes, first-world problems that many in the first world don't even have either, I know)
Bigger goals are impinging on my life at an increasing rate though. My wife and I have been having lots of discussions about 'the R word'. I never really considered myself the retiring type and always figured I'd just work until I die, but never figured on meeting someone I'd actually want to spend that much time with for the rest of my life (my wife, just in case that wasn't clear), so now I don't know what the fuck to do. We're trying to get around to making an appointment with a financial adviser to lay out what the reality of retirement would look like financially for us. I have no idea how to get my head around the idea of actually being retired. What the fuck do you do with your time when you don't work? What's your purpose in living?
posted by dg at 3:13 PM on March 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
My current goal is to finish the renovation of our home, which has now entered its third year. I demolished the main bathroom on the weekend, which I'd been putting off for a bit mostly because of the pain I thought it was going to cause in my bung shoulder (small tears in two ligaments plus some bursitis). Turns out I was right and I won't be doing much with that shoulder for the next week or so. But we've bought all the new hardware we need and the hardest part (jackhammering up the tile floor plus the bonus component - a surprisingly massive slab of concrete under the bath), so now we get to start re-building, although there's still a shitty job to do in cutting into the concrete slab floor in various places to move drains to suit the new layout (necessitated by whoever thought it was a good idea to build a main bathroom with no separate shower). So, once this bathroom is done, there's just the master bedroom and ensuite, plus some painting outside and a bit of landscaping in the backyard. My goal is to finish all that this year. Then we need to decide if we're going to stay here long-term or take a profit and move on. Tough, because we absolutely love everything about living here (except for the constant renovation going on), but have a huge mortgage (yes, first-world problems that many in the first world don't even have either, I know)
Bigger goals are impinging on my life at an increasing rate though. My wife and I have been having lots of discussions about 'the R word'. I never really considered myself the retiring type and always figured I'd just work until I die, but never figured on meeting someone I'd actually want to spend that much time with for the rest of my life (my wife, just in case that wasn't clear), so now I don't know what the fuck to do. We're trying to get around to making an appointment with a financial adviser to lay out what the reality of retirement would look like financially for us. I have no idea how to get my head around the idea of actually being retired. What the fuck do you do with your time when you don't work? What's your purpose in living?
posted by dg at 3:13 PM on March 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
Counterpoint opinion: I just work to make money, as is required to survive in today's world, and I don't like how much it limits my social/hobby/leisure time.
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:47 PM on March 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:47 PM on March 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
March 4th was my dad's 80th birthday. For it, he got covid. That he was sick has ever so slightly lifted the guilt my brother and I have felt over not getting our shit together to have a party for this milestone. I just have a minor sore throat, so far. All of us are fully vaxxed, and Dad's feeling better than he did yesterday. I'm guessing we were exposed when we took my mom to the ER a week ago. She has dementia and misnavigated a step, falling onto a plastic tote and gashing her forehead. She looks like she stopped a truck with her face, but it hasn't slowed her down, and we continue to hunt for things she's moved when we weren't looking.
What any of this has to do with aardvarks I couldn't say.
posted by bryon at 7:39 PM on March 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
What any of this has to do with aardvarks I couldn't say.
posted by bryon at 7:39 PM on March 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
Having now looked at the National Aardvark Week page, I've submitted an omission from the timeline: the DePatie-Freleng cartoon The Ant and the Aardvark. A stunning bit of trivia even for me.
posted by bryon at 9:07 PM on March 5, 2023
posted by bryon at 9:07 PM on March 5, 2023
Counterpoint opinion: I just work to make money, as is required to survive in today's world, and I don't like how much it limits my social/hobby/leisure time.
Yeah, that's what I'm doing now. I spent much of my working life in roles where I had a purpose I was passionate about and where I genuinely believed I was doing something for the community. That all got stolen from me a few years ago and now I just do a job for pay and do my best. But that leaves a big hole in my life and I don't know how leaving that would make me feel. Maybe I should look at starting an Aardvark farm?
posted by dg at 11:10 PM on March 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
Yeah, that's what I'm doing now. I spent much of my working life in roles where I had a purpose I was passionate about and where I genuinely believed I was doing something for the community. That all got stolen from me a few years ago and now I just do a job for pay and do my best. But that leaves a big hole in my life and I don't know how leaving that would make me feel. Maybe I should look at starting an Aardvark farm?
posted by dg at 11:10 PM on March 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
What the fuck do you do with your time when you don't work? What's your purpose in living?
When he retired, my father idly started doing more cooking, and he got into it like whoa, to the point that for the next several years my parents' vacations were planned around places where Dad could take cooking classes. He has been doing all the cooking at my parents' house for the past 20 years now.
He was a guy who got A Job To Make Money when he got out of high school, so he could marry Mom; he hadn't really ever thought about "what do I want to do with my life", and I kind of think that if he'd given it some thought instead of just "I need to learn a trade", he would have been DELIGHTED to be a short order cook somewhere. It's become a definite Act 2 for him.
Your Act 2 can come along any time.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:15 AM on March 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
When he retired, my father idly started doing more cooking, and he got into it like whoa, to the point that for the next several years my parents' vacations were planned around places where Dad could take cooking classes. He has been doing all the cooking at my parents' house for the past 20 years now.
He was a guy who got A Job To Make Money when he got out of high school, so he could marry Mom; he hadn't really ever thought about "what do I want to do with my life", and I kind of think that if he'd given it some thought instead of just "I need to learn a trade", he would have been DELIGHTED to be a short order cook somewhere. It's become a definite Act 2 for him.
Your Act 2 can come along any time.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:15 AM on March 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
Maybe I should look at starting an Aardvark farm?
That could be your ants-er!
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:31 AM on March 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
That could be your ants-er!
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:31 AM on March 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
Longer version: turns out there was this nerve impingement, plus my flat feets, plus stomping around New Zealand for a month, plus the terrible terrible terribleness of the badly fit assistive devices, plus medical care being medical care.
Cortisone shot in the right place and I can walk. Mostly. Haven't tried to get ambitious yet.
posted by majick at 2:18 PM on March 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
Cortisone shot in the right place and I can walk. Mostly. Haven't tried to get ambitious yet.
posted by majick at 2:18 PM on March 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
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Second goal/challenge: Figure out how to get my kid affordably sorted for Pre-K in a state that doesn't have universal Pre-K.
Our process so far: Call neighborhood school, which includes pre-K but has limited slots with priority (understandably) for underserved populations.
Arrange tour at YMCA school.
Chortle at Montessori tuition.
Smile at local coop ethos and their low tuition, but sigh fretfully at short schedule and heavy parental participation requirements, which conflict directly with my medical needs and wish to maybe return to school at some point or have a part time job or maybe just time to myself.
Much fretful googling.
posted by champers at 3:25 AM on March 4, 2023 [2 favorites]