The larger of the two just went for an ekg — there may be a heart murmur. Not unusual with this size difference between twins — her heart was pumping more fluid during gestation. Fingers and toes crossed.
Yay for the safe arrival of the Ogglets, keeping all fingers and paws crossed.
Charly
I mean Gamers as in those loud vocal asshats.
The “discussion” was about the risks and effects of heavy gaming on kids. Because not only do I see the effects in my daily work, we also have data to back it up, like the fact that in Germany half a million young people show critical behaviour and addictive behaviour. No to mention the hyperrealistic violence and the “stories” in many games. But I was told I was just talking bullshit like “back in the 90s”.
I’m so fucking annoyed by people who have no clue.
I love games, I play myselfb we’re a happy family of Pokemon Go players, but I also know that there are many kids failing because the play games every day until late in the night.
Oggie, congratulations to you and your family! Fingers and toes crossed that all will be well with the little new ones.
chigau (違う)says
Oggie
EVERYTHING crossed.
rqsays
Best wishes for the health of the grandogglings!!
Jazzletsays
Best health wishes to the Ogglets.
voyagersays
I’m sending out all the best wishes for the baby oggs, Grumpy.
jimbsays
Well wishes for good health for the new Oggs!
(Son was 5lbs, 1oz when delivered via C-section 5 weeks early. Also had a small murmur which IIRC was a small hole in his heart. Eventually sealed itself and he was otherwise healthy. He is now in the midst of finals week to conclude his first year of college.)
Jazzletsays
All foetuses have a hole in the heart as they obviously don’t breathe so they don’t need to get oxygenated air from their lungs, the hole means most of the blood goes round the rest of the body and only a bit goes to the lungs. It usually closes shortly before birth if I remember correctly from learning this way back in university. Amazing when you think about it.
Ice Swimmersays
Best wishes to the baby Ogglets!
Ice Swimmersays
I’ve been quite busy with the studies again, one big project (report and presentation left), other course work including labs and simulations, but after 31st May it will be all done for the spring. No summer job and no interesting summer courses, but I think some rest will do good things. Also more time for job hunting (to be able to do my Master’s thesis for a company, as is common here).
Oggie: Mathomsays
Shelby’s heart murmur is disappearing. It was the blood vessel that helps un-oxygenated blood bypass the lungs.
I got to hold her yesterday.
Both babies are doing well and are starting to put on weight after losing 100g or so each. Both are suckling on bottles. Still a long way to go.
Oggie
Good to hear. A long way to go for sure, but they have a wonderful support system.
×+×
Us, we had a wonderful weekend. We saw Detective Pikachu on Friday and had a great afternoon out today. Sadly it’s over. Though after next week there will be many short weeks with holidays and stuff.
chigau (違う)says
Oggie
Good to hear.
jimbsays
Jazzlet: Thanks, I probably knew that back then :-) It was still present no doubt due to the early delivery.
Oggie: Good to hear about the improvement.
Oggie: Mathomsays
Both girls are off the IVs. Ivy is about 3lbs 2oz; Shelby is about 4lbs, 15oz. Both are getting some from the bottle — Ivy about 1cc each feeding, Shelby about 5cc — and the rest through feeding tubes. Other than not quite figuring out the whole suckle, breath, and swallow routine, they are damn near perfect.
Oggie
Yay!
That whole suckle routine is difficult enough for full term babies already (I remember having to spoon feed #1 because why not?) so they’re really doing great.
voyagersays
Oggie
I’m very happy to hear that your girls are steadily progressing. It must have been quite a thrill to hold Shelby for the first time. Hopefully you’ll get to hold Ivy soon, too.
Folks, I think I just need to sit here for a bit and cry.
Some days my job just makes me despair and today was definitely one of them.
We had two parent teacher talks today. First one was with a Roma family. We’re trying to get the kid into a special ed centre, for many reasons, one being that there books and transport and breakfast will be free and we were talking with the dad about the results of the evaluation and how to proceed.
During the talk we mentioned that it’s obvious that there’s a very close and warm relationship within the family, that we really appreciate how they’re cooperating with us and always show up, even though we know they have so little money for the bus and that this shows that they really care about their kid, at which point the father started to cry and the interpreter said “Sorry, he’s never been treated with so much warmth and cordiality before”.
What a fucking place is this world where a family knows only rejection and prejudice, where somebody feels so devalued and so much hated that being given the ordinary respect every person is due feels like a gift from heaven.
The next one was a woman who came to Germany as a refugee from Chechnya, who then divorced her violent husband who has been fighting like a lioness for her children ever since and who is now threatened with deportation, because her status as a refugee depended on his status, she and her children were only allowed as his family and since he went back, why can’t she?
Fuck, fucking fuckers. We’re trying our best to help her in her appeal.
But yeah, that was really more than I can cope with for one day.
Jazzletsays
Oh Giliell, I don’t know how you do it *hugs, and hot choclate and packets of findings*
I have voted in the European Elections, I so hope that Stephen Yaxley-Lennon AKA Tommy Robinson does not get a seat, but I fear that he will and I will have himm as one of my MEP’s. The world is full of shit that it’s even a possibility that someone like him could become an MEP.
voyagersays
Oh, Giliell,
I’m sending you a great big hug. I got a bit choked up just reading about your Roma family. It must have been an emotionally draining meeting for you. I’ve been sitting here thinking about how hard day to day life must be for them if such simple human respect and kindness is so unexpected. It must be incredibly difficult to instill good values in your child if prejudice is all they see modeled in the world.
On the other hand, your story about the abused single mother had me seething. What a fucked up world.
It sounds like you teach at a school with good values, but it also sounds like there’s more than just a bit of social work involved in your teaching. I hope tomorrow is a better day.
WARNING : Confronting material, child physical and psychological abuse, real life horror, possible images and voice of an Indigenous person who may (?) have since passed. (Published 1st June 2018.)
The European Parliament Election results for Finland are just about clear.
Two former Green party chairs, a smart journalist background lesbian for Left Alliance, a former trade union leader and a career MEP for Social Democrats. The Centre party (economically centrist, socially conservative, big in rural areas) got one MEP, about whom I don’t know and another one who is eponymous to getting pork barrel spending for his constuency when others think that the negotiations are already over.
For the liberal-conservative National Alliance,a TV host and two career polticians. Linus Torvalds’ dad got elected for Swedish People’s Party.
The anti-immigration Finns party got two MEPs, one creationist Trump fan and one prodigal son of a sawmill-owning family who has been having a drinking problem and who in his youth stole silver and wine from a church and recently was convicted to pay fines and reparations for battery and sexual assault of a female parliamentarian who used to be in the same party, but switched parties, during the big crisis the party got into two years ago. He’s been also convicted for inciting racial hatred. A true role model…
Well, in CZ the most votes for the last few years consistently gets a party led by a billionaire who runs his campaigns on fearmongering and sloganeering, and who promises o take care of the “little guy” whilst in reality just stuffing his pockets even more…
rqsays
We got 2 centrists, 2 pro-Russian reps, 2 fascist-party reps, 1 leftist and 1 Russian party rep.
I am not encouraged by the overall results coming in from all of the EU.
To be honest, I’m a little nervous.
lumipunasays
Six weeks ago, I mentioned the women’s ice hockey championship that was played concurrently with Finnish general election. Now, we apparently just won men’s hockey championship against Canada. Bigger news topic than the EU election, it seems.
Ice Swimmersays
lumipuna @ 34
I didn’t see the match, but apparently it was a big deal because the Finnish team consisted of players that weren’t big stars in NHL and KHL. They were trained and played as a cohesive and resilient team instead of being individual miracle workers.
rqsays
It was also a really good game, if you like that sort of thing. The Finnish team is always a pleasure to watch (they have a completely different style of skating, it’s quite elegant), and although my heart was with Canada, I’m quite pleased with the Finn win. Not least because they were the only ones to break Russia’s winning streak this championship.
(The Latvian team finished a nice, solid 10th, but their games this year were a lot stronger and a lot more consistent than other years. One day…!)
They were trained and played as a cohesive and resilient team instead of being individual miracle workers.
Maybe it’s just me, but there seems to be less and less reliance on the individual miracle worker -- in recent years, it seems several countries have returned to the idea of creating a team rather than supporting a star, and I like that.
The results are not as bad as they could be, but less than hoped for.
The right wing fell far behind their own goals, but the division between East and West is growing ever larger with some cities voting 50% AfD (right wing to fascists).
But I’m still angry at what happened at the polling station. Did you ever wonder how they get those “people under X years voted” statistics?
Well, now I know. Because our polling station was chosen as “representative”.
First thing was that there was absolutely zero information. When we turned up I had to asked why Mr got a different ballot than I did, marked with letters, so they told me that it was for statistical purposes. I asked them how they guaranteed that my vote was still confidential. They started talking bullshit because they have no clue about statistics, I doubt they understood the question about cohort sizes. I also had no choice and had to either accept a marked ballot or not vote at all.
Afterwards I angrily tweeted at the federal election officer who replied that “all is well” and linked to their page.
Oh, right, the polling station has to have at least 400 voters. Only that participation was 50%, makes 200 people. They’re split into men and women, makes 100 women. Then they’re split in up to 10 (!) age cohorts, which leaves 10 women in one group on average, meaning that there’s quite a chance that for some groups the number is just a handful.
Oh, and they guarantee that the voter lists and ballots are never brought together, only that of course there are people who both hand you the marked ballot and count the votes, so now the AfD bastard knows my name, face, address and the letter on my ballot and has a +10% chance to correctly guess my vote…
Nightjarsays
Not really any surprises here, the two major political parties remain as such and together got 15 of the 21 total MEPs with the centre-left (S&D family) comfortably winning over the centre-right (EPP family). The rest was 2 leftists, 2 communists, 1 christian democrat and the only surprise was 1 ecologist from a relatively new party that had never elected MEPs before and will be part of the Greens. Yay for that. The far-right parties remain negligible here. Also yay for that.
As for the results as a whole… I’m trying to be optimistic and look on the bright, er, green side of things while telling myself that the fact that “it could have been worse” is a sign it won’t actually get worse and the far-right has gained all the ground it can already. Please don’t tell me otherwise, I said I’m trying to be optimistic.
***
Giliell, that doesn’t sound right to me, WTF. Even if all 400 voted it still doesn’t sound like they can guarantee every vote is confidential if they are splitting it like that. And I had no idea they could put a letter on your ballot without even telling you. I would have been angry too.
In fact I’m angry at what happened to me at polling station, but it is comparatively minor. One of the people handing the ballots there was the mother of a childhood friend of mine who is exactly my age and recently had a baby. For some reason the lady thought it was appropriate to publicly comment on how I don’t have a baby yet (“unlike my daughter!”) and that I should start thinking about it because “it’s time”, so “when, when, when?” I was already in the voting booth with my ballot and I could hear her talking to me, saying my name, while I was trying to vote. Seriously, just how nosey does someone have to be to behave like that in a polling station of all places? FFS. I swear, I had to resist the urge to cast a spoilt vote right there…
chigau (違う)says
I am NOT happy to be living in Interesting Times.
not even a little bit
Jazzletsays
I am reasonably happy with how the vote went locally nationally and Europe-wide, I thought the right and the nationalists would do far better than they did. Locally Stephen Yaxley-Lennon was humiliated, we have a green, two Lib Dems, two Labour and three Brexit Party MEPs. The Tories lost their two seats and UKIP their three seats, which along side Yaxley-Lennons creaming I see as a rejection of the far right, and that was true nationally here as well with UKIP losing all twenty four of their seats (UKIP had taken a hard shift further right since the last European election). I agree that some of the eatern results are worrying, but it could have been so much worse.
Nationally the Tories are in a complete mess which is always good to see, but also worrying as no one is actually doing ny work on Brexit so FSM knows what’s going to happen about that. The results showed tht the country is still split, though the anti Brexit parties did a little better than the pro-Brexit partiy. Part of the big problem the remainers have is that there is no equivilent to Frage uniting the remainers, giving us a clear voice. But wiith Corbyn belatedly saying whatever deal is done must be put to the country there may be a way out of this mess, though I am not sanguine about that possibility.
voyagersays
Chigau,
Me too. I can barely read the news some days.
Jazzlet,
I’m glad the far right lost ground, but the results from the rest of Europe are worrying. It’s just like Chigau said, I’d rather live in less interesting times.
StevoR,
What a heartbreaking story. Thanks for sharing. Sheila Humphries talk is eerily reminiscent of the Residential Schools for Indiginous people in Canada.
Today my colleague of these last twelve years shook my hand for the last time and said good-bye. He leaves the company sooner, I have to hold on for five more months alone. It is unlikely we will see each other ever again.
After twelve years spent together in one team in one office, I did not lose just a colleague, but also a friend.
Fuck American shareholders and CEOs and their greedy paws that turn everything they touch into shit.
chigau (違う)says
Boy howdy, the air is bad.
and it’s only still May
voyagersays
chigau,
It is early for bad air. You must be getting more heat than we are. It’s humid here (93% last time I checked), but the temp is in the teens so it’s tolerable.
chigau (違う)says
voyager
I’m in Calgary and late this afternoon the smoke lifted.
But I can still smell it.
StevoRsays
@41. voyager :
Sheila Humphries talk is eerily reminiscent of the Residential Schools for Indiginous people in Canada.
Yes. I think a very similar pattern occurrred in many nations with European invasion and colonialisation especially with the British empire and Oz and Canada. Definitley similarities from what I know.
There’s also this powerful and moving truth-telling speech by Indigenous Aussie journalist Stan Grant which is well worth listening to :
WARNING : May contain images and voices of Indigenous people who have subsequently passed -- although this is a recent performance of it (April 2019) so probably unlikely.
In totally unrelated news and something rather fascianting stumbled on the other day, apparently if a white dwarf star comes close enough to a black hole it can detonate it as a supernova :
Heya
Sorry for being largely absent. Life was damn busy the last weeks and now we needed some time together to relax, so no lengthy computer sessions.
Love y’all
Ice Swimmersays
Kind of concurring with Giliell. There are a few study related things left to do, but Friday was hopefully the last marathon session (looking at 4-5 computer screens for 12 hours to get the thing done) for this spring.
Much love!
Ice Swimmersays
Two videos and two pictures from Rovaniemi, Finland (700 km north of where I am). The first video is about birds already are there (not all migratory birds have arrived there yet, the insect-eating ones are still on the way). The first still picture is a capercaillie nest in mid-May and the caption states that the capercaillie hen (koppelo in Finnish, the cock is ukkometso [ukko = old man, metso = capercaillie]) already has the eggs in the nest 100 north of the Arctic Circle in mid-May.
The second still is a female Ural owl looking out from the nest, protecting the chicks. The second video features the male bringing a vole to the female and chicks and the female dicing (not visible) the vole so that the little ones can eat it. The article also warns people not to get too close to a owl nest or disturb the owls, because it would be bad for both the bird and humans, owls and Ural owls in particular defend their nests extremely aggressively.
Ice Swimmersays
Saw a tern catch a fish masterfully today. There is a building just on the waterfront and a tern is perching on the edge of the roof, gets alert and gets on its wings, dives and catches a small herring or other silver-coloured fish and leaves for the nest. That time it was on the first try.
I watched the scene from the sea. The water is already over 20 °C, the water temperature on the surface of the sea has been rising about 2 °C/day. The wind is probably blowing the warm water to the Finnish coast. It seems the sea is significantly cooler on the Estonian side.
chigau (違う)says
I must say
if you are planning on having an elderly relative go for the total care scenario,
have lots of money.
lots and lots
chigau, I hear you. This is how Aged Mum ended up in the claws of the reverse mortgage monsters. The latest is that they’re trying to sabotage the sale of the house so they can foreclose. Fortunately the escrow company lady knows how to work with them, she says.
chigau yes, a lot of money along with a lot of worry finding a suitable place despite them all costing a lot of money, at least in the UK. My sympathy.
Anne I like the dark angels best.
springa73says
Yes, good nursing care facilities are incredibly expensive. Three years ago, I had to get my father, who had developed serious dementia, into a facility. I was extremely lucky that my father had a pretty large amount of money saved and also had gotten long term care insurance through the federal government while he was still working for them. I was also lucky that the facility that my brother and I chose after doing tours of a few turned out to be very, very good.
Dad passed away after a little less than a year in the facility. I still miss him greatly, but his mind and quality of life were going downhill pretty fast despite very good care, so in a way I think that it wasn’t bad that he didn’t linger longer.
Since I’m single and unlikely to ever be able to save as much as my Dad, I wonder sometimes about these issues even though I’m only 43. I think long term care insurance would be a good idea for me, if I can afford it.
voyagersays
Chigau
Indeed. You do not want to be poor and old. My mom has been in a nursing home for about 3 years and her savings are dwindling fast. She had to relocate about a year ago from a private room to a semi-private room because of cost and since then there’s been one problem after another. There were also major issues with the home itself that took a long time to address. I live close by and it’s easy for me to pop in, but there are a lot of residents who don’t have family to keep an eye on things. I don’t have kids or even nieces/nephews so I worry about what will happen when Mr. V and I need care. Right at the moment saving for retirement is a priority and we’ve been thinking about long term care insurance. In Ontario the government pays for only the most basic care and anything above that is expensive. There also isn’t a lot of choice of facilities in my area. There are only 2 long-term facilities in my city and one of them has a waiting list that’s 2 years long.
Retirement homes are more plentiful, but they are not subsidized by the government at all and they are very expensive. They also are not staffed to take care of people who need a lot of care and there are no regulations for standards of care. Basically, only the landlord and tenant act apply and the government doesn’t get involved. If you have enough money, though, you can pay for extras.
voyagersays
Anne
I love the skeleton fairies. The blue one is my favourite. I love that its skinny skeleton legs show through the tulle skirt. Very creative and quirky.
My parents can luckily still take care of themselves and are fit enough to even help around the house, although more and more work falls on me and I had to spend significant amount of money on labour-saving gadgets that we did not have before -- like kitchen robot, dryer etc.
When my uncle needed care, it took about half a year to find a place for him, and after that, the costs took all of his pension and then some. I am not looking forward to when my parents will need to go into a nursing home because I won’t be able to take care of them myself anymore. Especially with the significant drop in my income.
I try not to worry about that too much, to be honest.
__________________________
Anne, those are beautiful, but also slightly horrifying and depressing.
Jazzletsays
I was very lucky with my dad, one of my brothers lived next door and did what he could for years, including when dad needed more care sorting out the carers. I’m not quite sure when he went into a home now, but he had an extremely good pension so he didn’t spend down his capital. My MiL on the other hand did, she needed carers at home for some years (she lived across the country from us and SiL and wouldn’t move closer), then in a home for around five years. We got help with the nursing element of her care, because that counts as NHS, but the domestic side she had to pay for, I’m rather glad she never realised how much her care was costing, she would have hated spending it on herself, she so much wanted to leave money to Mr J and SiL. She did, but far less than she thought she was going to leave.
I very much don’t want to end up like my MiL who didn’t know her children for her last few years, and was miserable most of the time, nor does Mr J, whether we will be able to take action should it cmoe to that I don’t know, but it is our intention. Mostly I too try not to think about it too much.
Chigau, I hear you. We’ve been through nursing home with grandma 1 (at up an entire house and still wasn’t enough) and at home care with grandma 2. (ate up 3 years of my sister’s life)
I am not looking forward to a lot of elderly people in my family. Fortunately at least on my side there are no childfree aunts/uncles.
Anne, I love them. Come Halloween they’ll make the most gorgeous hair pieces.
Giliell, I never thought of hair ornaments! Also, thank you for the wonderful box of your resin art, which arrived yesterday!
Today was (probably) my last trip to Aged Mum’s house. We brought home a whole carload of stuff for the yard sale my sister is planning and a few more bits and pieces for us. It still hasn’t really hit me yet, but it’s the end of a big piece of my life.
chigau (違う)says
All the money of which I speak belongs to Elderly Relative. I just manage it.
With my spreadsheets, I figure we can keep ER for between 25 years and (as long as the Government Pensions keep coming) the heat-death of the universe.
I am starting to like the house.
Anne
I’m glad they artived safely. How did I know about Mermaids? Well, who doesn’t love them?
Chigau
That’s good.
In Germany, children are responsible for their parentsc care. My uncle and aunt are currently a bit fucked, because the family didn’t sort out the house on time. Now her mum with severe Alzheimer’s owns 75% of it and they had the choice between either paying large parts of their income for the nursing home or one of them to stop working and care for her or lose the house.
Thanks. It’s going to be a few weeks before the official contract will arrive, but I can live with that.
I will also need to have a chat with some people about getting some permanent contract at some point because I’m too old for this shit.
I wish you luck in the negotiations, Giliell. How is it actually with consecutive contracts in Germany? I never needed to know this, but now I am curious. In CZ it is not allowed to perpetually give people limited contracts. It is allowed only twice, after that the employer must give the person an indefinite contract.
rqsays
First, a tentative congratulations Giliell -- I will offer a more substantial one once everything is finalized, but I wish you very much good luck and patience in negotiating a permanent contract. I have thumbs on reserve for you.
+++
I know we have artists here, could you recommend a good quality middle-of-the-road (in terms of price) marker? Eldest has set his heart on new artist markers, specifically Copic (thanks, youtube), and they’re a little outside my budget plus a little more professional than Eldest is right now, but I want to support his interest. Recommendations?
Also some safety tips re: high winds and possible tornadoes would be nice, summer storms have come with a vengeance and the next ones are supposed to fall right where the offspring are right now and I’m a bit worried.
On that note, I also wish a great deal of safety to anyone else currently in the path of unfriendly natural phenomena.
Oggie: Mathomsays
Both girls are home. Have been for more than two weeks. Ivy is up to about 5lbs, Shelby is closing in on 7lbs. They sleep. They are beautiful. They are quiet. They are, when awake, very alert and always looking around and fixating on faces.
Ice Swimmersays
Oggie @ 72
It’s nice to hear that the twins are progressing ands being alert.
A frivolous cultural note: Here parents keep the name of the kid secret until the baptism/namegiving ceremony. It felt mildly foreign to run into the American(?) way to disclose the name immediately (I have no preference in this matter). I’m not sure how it is done with premature babies here.
Apparently, one thing that’s common here and probably elsewhere is to crochet octopi for premature babies as they make it less likely for the babies to pull the tubing and other medical stuff.
Oggie, that is great news, fingers crossed for it keeping on that track.
_____________________
On a different note, today I feel depression gnawing at my brain again. We had a “team meeting” where the new organization was shared with us. The gist of the meeting was “in order to be competitive, we need to innovate and grow”.
Telling something like that to the remainder of a team that just has been decimated three times over as a matter of cutting costs is just wrong on so many levels. I really think that those top managers who are not downright psychopaths or sociopaths are still at the very least assholes. Exceptions exist, but they are rare. They tell us essentially “there’s fewer of you now, but you have to work a lot harder so we can stuff our pockets” and they do not even pause to think that that particular message won’t be taken in favorably. My social skills are abysmall, but I at least have empathy. These people have neither.
The remaining five months I have to spend in that shitshow just suddenly seem insurmountably bigger.
chigau (違う)says
Oggie
That is good to hear.
voyagersays
Oggie,
That’s wonderful news. Enjoy every wonder-filled moment.
voyagersays
Charly,
Ah yes, the team building ra,ra,ra! I always left those meetings feeling stunned and exhausted.
I’m sorry your last days with this company will be so stressful, but it does confirm that you’ve made the right decision to get out. Try to hold on to hope. It won’t be much longer before you can tell them all to go to hell.
Ice Swimmersays
Today, I the last credit points from the courses I took this spring were registered. At last, I could send the official transcript PDF, to the unemployment office. More than half of the credit points required for graduation is done, with an mediocre average, but no failed courses or even any courses with the lowest grade that’s a pass (1).
I had to ask for extra time from the unemployment office, as some courses ended at the end of May and the University has a one-month time window for reporting the course results and the unemployment office wanted them in two weeks. I must say it was nerve racking to wait for the results, especially for the big project course, which was pivotal for getting enough credits.
lumipunasays
Congrats, Ice swimmer! Just this spring, it took me over seven weeks to get the credit for one course after the final assignment deadline was over.
A random note on commenting: some FTBlogs want your username and email rather than WordPress login. Apparently, both the username and email need to be different from the ones in your WP account, or the system deems you an impostor regardless of whether you’re currently logged in. I just figured this out.
lumipunasays
And now I was able to use my account for commenting at A Trivial Knot. It’s been confusing.
voyagersays
Ice Swimmer
Congratulations and Well Done! It must be a relief to have that worry off your mind.
lumipuna
Now I’m confused. Doesn’t that mean that you now have 2 WordPress accounts?
I only ever log-in with my username and password and I haven’t had that happen.
lumipunasays
I’ll just say it’s been a trial and error to comment on certain FTBlogs. Plus occasional bugs on others.
Oggie
That’s great news! Wait for the moment they first recognise your face and smile.
+++
I’m so dead. Yesterday was our “staff excursion”. Since I basically belong to two schools I get twice the meetings and twice the staff excursions. This was the one for the school i belong to administratively (special ed centre) but don’t actually work at. The plan as communicated was this:
Meeting at 9:00 and hiking to location A. Lunch there at 12.
Hiking back and having coffee/beer at location B. End of excursion at 3 pm.
Reality: Arriving at location A 12:30 after 13 km with a few hundred metres difference in altitude, repeatedly. Lunch. Hiking back “the short way”, 7km. Arrival at quarter past 4. Nobody wants coffee anymore.
I drove back home, had a shower and cooked dinner because we had invited Mr’s aunt and husband. Today everything hurts. I have bone spurs in my right foot and my muscles are completely sore because while I do walk regularly, I don’t walk 20km a day over hilly terrain.
++++ Charly
I wish you luck in the negotiations, Giliell. How is it actually with consecutive contracts in Germany? I never needed to know this, but now I am curious. In CZ it is not allowed to perpetually give people limited contracts. It is allowed only twice, after that the employer must give the person an indefinite contract.
This is basically the law here as well with a few exceptions. One is “working on a project”. One of my previous employers worked with that rule: You worked on a project with a limited contract, and when that was over you worked on the next project and so on. While I was working there they changed the rule of giving you an indefinite contract after three instead of 10(!) years.
The other one is contracts tied to names.
And then there’s the particular shithole I’m in, in which the ministry claims I’m actually not qualified enough for the job I do. That’s why the excursion yesterday was still so important because it’s a networking opportunity. There’s quite a lot of us who were trained as teachers, but not as special ed teachers. Since there are very few actual special ed teachers, they will take whoever applies. Some of my colleagues have been doing this for more than 5 years now and that’s an absolute scandal. You cannot hire and pay somebody for five years and still claim they’re not qualified. I hope we can do something about this via the union. I know that for primary school it is possible to get a permanent contract despite not being a primary school teacher. You can’t get tenure but fuck tenure.
I’ll pester the department responsible for regular schools during the summer break and ask them about my perspective there, because working as a special ed teacher also is a qualification that would be useful for many schools.
Giliell, come snuggle in the pillow fort and have a soothing cup of tea.
Well, it’s all over. The check from the escrow company arrived this afternoon. My parents’ house, the house I grew up in, the backyard we had our wedding reception in, belongs to a new family. I need to close the trash company account, pay off a few final bills, and close the bank account and distribute the remains, but that’s all. I suppose it’ll sink in eventually, but right now I just feel numb.
voyagersays
Giliell,
I hope the aches and pains pass quickly. I don’t think I could do a 20k hilly hike. Are these sorts of things common? I mean, going for an all day hike with your collegues. We used to have company picnics, but they were always on our own time and were easily missed.
voyagersays
Anne,
It’s a strange and unsettling feeling to lose a family home, but you have a lifetime of happy memories to draw on. Maybe you could have a good photo of the place enlarged and framed with part of the money. Then, you still get to keep a piece of it. I bet the new family will love the home and feel the same way about it years from now.
The larger of the two just went for an ekg — there may be a heart murmur. Not unusual with this size difference between twins — her heart was pumping more fluid during gestation. Fingers and toes crossed.
Yay for the safe arrival of the Ogglets, keeping all fingers and paws crossed.
Charly
I mean Gamers as in those loud vocal asshats.
The “discussion” was about the risks and effects of heavy gaming on kids. Because not only do I see the effects in my daily work, we also have data to back it up, like the fact that in Germany half a million young people show critical behaviour and addictive behaviour. No to mention the hyperrealistic violence and the “stories” in many games. But I was told I was just talking bullshit like “back in the 90s”.
I’m so fucking annoyed by people who have no clue.
I love games, I play myselfb we’re a happy family of Pokemon Go players, but I also know that there are many kids failing because the play games every day until late in the night.
Oggie, congratulations to you and your family! Fingers and toes crossed that all will be well with the little new ones.
Oggie
EVERYTHING crossed.
Best wishes for the health of the grandogglings!!
Best health wishes to the Ogglets.
I’m sending out all the best wishes for the baby oggs, Grumpy.
Well wishes for good health for the new Oggs!
(Son was 5lbs, 1oz when delivered via C-section 5 weeks early. Also had a small murmur which IIRC was a small hole in his heart. Eventually sealed itself and he was otherwise healthy. He is now in the midst of finals week to conclude his first year of college.)
All foetuses have a hole in the heart as they obviously don’t breathe so they don’t need to get oxygenated air from their lungs, the hole means most of the blood goes round the rest of the body and only a bit goes to the lungs. It usually closes shortly before birth if I remember correctly from learning this way back in university. Amazing when you think about it.
Best wishes to the baby Ogglets!
I’ve been quite busy with the studies again, one big project (report and presentation left), other course work including labs and simulations, but after 31st May it will be all done for the spring. No summer job and no interesting summer courses, but I think some rest will do good things. Also more time for job hunting (to be able to do my Master’s thesis for a company, as is common here).
Shelby’s heart murmur is disappearing. It was the blood vessel that helps un-oxygenated blood bypass the lungs.
I got to hold her yesterday.
Both babies are doing well and are starting to put on weight after losing 100g or so each. Both are suckling on bottles. Still a long way to go.
@Oggie, good to hear that, keep us posted. Fingers crossed!
@ Oggie, A long way to go yes, but a good start. Keep eating and growing little Ogglets!
Ice Swimmer
Good luck with tthe job hunting and enjoy your break.
Oggie
Good to hear. A long way to go for sure, but they have a wonderful support system.
×+×
Us, we had a wonderful weekend. We saw Detective Pikachu on Friday and had a great afternoon out today. Sadly it’s over. Though after next week there will be many short weeks with holidays and stuff.
Oggie
Good to hear.
Jazzlet: Thanks, I probably knew that back then :-) It was still present no doubt due to the early delivery.
Oggie: Good to hear about the improvement.
Both girls are off the IVs. Ivy is about 3lbs 2oz; Shelby is about 4lbs, 15oz. Both are getting some from the bottle — Ivy about 1cc each feeding, Shelby about 5cc — and the rest through feeding tubes. Other than not quite figuring out the whole suckle, breath, and swallow routine, they are damn near perfect.
Oggie, I’m so glad to read that the grandbabies are improving.
Oggie
Yay!
That whole suckle routine is difficult enough for full term babies already (I remember having to spoon feed #1 because why not?) so they’re really doing great.
Oggie
I’m very happy to hear that your girls are steadily progressing. It must have been quite a thrill to hold Shelby for the first time. Hopefully you’ll get to hold Ivy soon, too.
Folks, I think I just need to sit here for a bit and cry.
Some days my job just makes me despair and today was definitely one of them.
We had two parent teacher talks today. First one was with a Roma family. We’re trying to get the kid into a special ed centre, for many reasons, one being that there books and transport and breakfast will be free and we were talking with the dad about the results of the evaluation and how to proceed.
During the talk we mentioned that it’s obvious that there’s a very close and warm relationship within the family, that we really appreciate how they’re cooperating with us and always show up, even though we know they have so little money for the bus and that this shows that they really care about their kid, at which point the father started to cry and the interpreter said “Sorry, he’s never been treated with so much warmth and cordiality before”.
What a fucking place is this world where a family knows only rejection and prejudice, where somebody feels so devalued and so much hated that being given the ordinary respect every person is due feels like a gift from heaven.
The next one was a woman who came to Germany as a refugee from Chechnya, who then divorced her violent husband who has been fighting like a lioness for her children ever since and who is now threatened with deportation, because her status as a refugee depended on his status, she and her children were only allowed as his family and since he went back, why can’t she?
Fuck, fucking fuckers. We’re trying our best to help her in her appeal.
But yeah, that was really more than I can cope with for one day.
Oh Giliell, I don’t know how you do it *hugs, and hot choclate and packets of findings*
I have voted in the European Elections, I so hope that Stephen Yaxley-Lennon AKA Tommy Robinson does not get a seat, but I fear that he will and I will have himm as one of my MEP’s. The world is full of shit that it’s even a possibility that someone like him could become an MEP.
Oh, Giliell,
I’m sending you a great big hug. I got a bit choked up just reading about your Roma family. It must have been an emotionally draining meeting for you. I’ve been sitting here thinking about how hard day to day life must be for them if such simple human respect and kindness is so unexpected. It must be incredibly difficult to instill good values in your child if prejudice is all they see modeled in the world.
On the other hand, your story about the abused single mother had me seething. What a fucked up world.
It sounds like you teach at a school with good values, but it also sounds like there’s more than just a bit of social work involved in your teaching. I hope tomorrow is a better day.
Giliell, all the hugs. You are the best.
Giliell
*bighugs*
Now I’m crying, too.
GiIiell
*many pouncehugs*
You are wonderful. And I’m also crying.
Thank y’all. We#re trying our best to help the family. And I’m sure as hell not going to vote for any Fortress Europe party today.
Today in Australia has been National Sorry Day at the start of Reconcilation Week
https://www.reconciliation.org.au/national-reconciliation-week/?fbclid=IwAR2Vp6pOFg1BWK1ZFxuUyZPH4RpsoRHHPYOouM6es_1uPBJacEi-4lrxJKs
Listen. Bloody hell. I can only begin to imagine :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V3SX0H7pHc
WARNING : Confronting material, child physical and psychological abuse, real life horror, possible images and voice of an Indigenous person who may (?) have since passed. (Published 1st June 2018.)
Also this song :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aywDT6yHMmo
Archie Roach. No words.
Tears.
Nobody deserves that.
Yet so many suffered things like that and worse.
The European Parliament Election results for Finland are just about clear.
Two former Green party chairs, a smart journalist background lesbian for Left Alliance, a former trade union leader and a career MEP for Social Democrats. The Centre party (economically centrist, socially conservative, big in rural areas) got one MEP, about whom I don’t know and another one who is eponymous to getting pork barrel spending for his constuency when others think that the negotiations are already over.
For the liberal-conservative National Alliance,a TV host and two career polticians. Linus Torvalds’ dad got elected for Swedish People’s Party.
The anti-immigration Finns party got two MEPs, one creationist Trump fan and one prodigal son of a sawmill-owning family who has been having a drinking problem and who in his youth stole silver and wine from a church and recently was convicted to pay fines and reparations for battery and sexual assault of a female parliamentarian who used to be in the same party, but switched parties, during the big crisis the party got into two years ago. He’s been also convicted for inciting racial hatred. A true role model…
Well, in CZ the most votes for the last few years consistently gets a party led by a billionaire who runs his campaigns on fearmongering and sloganeering, and who promises o take care of the “little guy” whilst in reality just stuffing his pockets even more…
We got 2 centrists, 2 pro-Russian reps, 2 fascist-party reps, 1 leftist and 1 Russian party rep.
I am not encouraged by the overall results coming in from all of the EU.
To be honest, I’m a little nervous.
Six weeks ago, I mentioned the women’s ice hockey championship that was played concurrently with Finnish general election. Now, we apparently just won men’s hockey championship against Canada. Bigger news topic than the EU election, it seems.
lumipuna @ 34
I didn’t see the match, but apparently it was a big deal because the Finnish team consisted of players that weren’t big stars in NHL and KHL. They were trained and played as a cohesive and resilient team instead of being individual miracle workers.
It was also a really good game, if you like that sort of thing. The Finnish team is always a pleasure to watch (they have a completely different style of skating, it’s quite elegant), and although my heart was with Canada, I’m quite pleased with the Finn win. Not least because they were the only ones to break Russia’s winning streak this championship.
(The Latvian team finished a nice, solid 10th, but their games this year were a lot stronger and a lot more consistent than other years. One day…!)
Maybe it’s just me, but there seems to be less and less reliance on the individual miracle worker -- in recent years, it seems several countries have returned to the idea of creating a team rather than supporting a star, and I like that.
The results are not as bad as they could be, but less than hoped for.
The right wing fell far behind their own goals, but the division between East and West is growing ever larger with some cities voting 50% AfD (right wing to fascists).
But I’m still angry at what happened at the polling station. Did you ever wonder how they get those “people under X years voted” statistics?
Well, now I know. Because our polling station was chosen as “representative”.
First thing was that there was absolutely zero information. When we turned up I had to asked why Mr got a different ballot than I did, marked with letters, so they told me that it was for statistical purposes. I asked them how they guaranteed that my vote was still confidential. They started talking bullshit because they have no clue about statistics, I doubt they understood the question about cohort sizes. I also had no choice and had to either accept a marked ballot or not vote at all.
Afterwards I angrily tweeted at the federal election officer who replied that “all is well” and linked to their page.
Oh, right, the polling station has to have at least 400 voters. Only that participation was 50%, makes 200 people. They’re split into men and women, makes 100 women. Then they’re split in up to 10 (!) age cohorts, which leaves 10 women in one group on average, meaning that there’s quite a chance that for some groups the number is just a handful.
Oh, and they guarantee that the voter lists and ballots are never brought together, only that of course there are people who both hand you the marked ballot and count the votes, so now the AfD bastard knows my name, face, address and the letter on my ballot and has a +10% chance to correctly guess my vote…
Not really any surprises here, the two major political parties remain as such and together got 15 of the 21 total MEPs with the centre-left (S&D family) comfortably winning over the centre-right (EPP family). The rest was 2 leftists, 2 communists, 1 christian democrat and the only surprise was 1 ecologist from a relatively new party that had never elected MEPs before and will be part of the Greens. Yay for that. The far-right parties remain negligible here. Also yay for that.
As for the results as a whole… I’m trying to be optimistic and look on the bright, er, green side of things while telling myself that the fact that “it could have been worse” is a sign it won’t actually get worse and the far-right has gained all the ground it can already. Please don’t tell me otherwise, I said I’m trying to be optimistic.
***
Giliell, that doesn’t sound right to me, WTF. Even if all 400 voted it still doesn’t sound like they can guarantee every vote is confidential if they are splitting it like that. And I had no idea they could put a letter on your ballot without even telling you. I would have been angry too.
In fact I’m angry at what happened to me at polling station, but it is comparatively minor. One of the people handing the ballots there was the mother of a childhood friend of mine who is exactly my age and recently had a baby. For some reason the lady thought it was appropriate to publicly comment on how I don’t have a baby yet (“unlike my daughter!”) and that I should start thinking about it because “it’s time”, so “when, when, when?” I was already in the voting booth with my ballot and I could hear her talking to me, saying my name, while I was trying to vote. Seriously, just how nosey does someone have to be to behave like that in a polling station of all places? FFS. I swear, I had to resist the urge to cast a spoilt vote right there…
I am NOT happy to be living in Interesting Times.
not even a little bit
I am reasonably happy with how the vote went locally nationally and Europe-wide, I thought the right and the nationalists would do far better than they did. Locally Stephen Yaxley-Lennon was humiliated, we have a green, two Lib Dems, two Labour and three Brexit Party MEPs. The Tories lost their two seats and UKIP their three seats, which along side Yaxley-Lennons creaming I see as a rejection of the far right, and that was true nationally here as well with UKIP losing all twenty four of their seats (UKIP had taken a hard shift further right since the last European election). I agree that some of the eatern results are worrying, but it could have been so much worse.
Nationally the Tories are in a complete mess which is always good to see, but also worrying as no one is actually doing ny work on Brexit so FSM knows what’s going to happen about that. The results showed tht the country is still split, though the anti Brexit parties did a little better than the pro-Brexit partiy. Part of the big problem the remainers have is that there is no equivilent to Frage uniting the remainers, giving us a clear voice. But wiith Corbyn belatedly saying whatever deal is done must be put to the country there may be a way out of this mess, though I am not sanguine about that possibility.
Chigau,
Me too. I can barely read the news some days.
Jazzlet,
I’m glad the far right lost ground, but the results from the rest of Europe are worrying. It’s just like Chigau said, I’d rather live in less interesting times.
StevoR,
What a heartbreaking story. Thanks for sharing. Sheila Humphries talk is eerily reminiscent of the Residential Schools for Indiginous people in Canada.
Today my colleague of these last twelve years shook my hand for the last time and said good-bye. He leaves the company sooner, I have to hold on for five more months alone. It is unlikely we will see each other ever again.
After twelve years spent together in one team in one office, I did not lose just a colleague, but also a friend.
Fuck American shareholders and CEOs and their greedy paws that turn everything they touch into shit.
Boy howdy, the air is bad.
and it’s only still May
chigau,
It is early for bad air. You must be getting more heat than we are. It’s humid here (93% last time I checked), but the temp is in the teens so it’s tolerable.
voyager
I’m in Calgary and late this afternoon the smoke lifted.
But I can still smell it.
@41. voyager :
Yes. I think a very similar pattern occurrred in many nations with European invasion and colonialisation especially with the British empire and Oz and Canada. Definitley similarities from what I know.
There’s also this powerful and moving truth-telling speech by Indigenous Aussie journalist Stan Grant which is well worth listening to :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA3UsF8yyho
WARNING: Some confronting material. References to violent, bloodyand painful history
Plus this iconic song which is still sadly so relevant despite being at least a decade or two old :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4ioTBkpY0s
WARNING : May contain images and voices of Indigenous people who have subsequently passed -- although this is a recent performance of it (April 2019) so probably unlikely.
In totally unrelated news and something rather fascianting stumbled on the other day, apparently if a white dwarf star comes close enough to a black hole it can detonate it as a supernova :
https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/making-a-supernova-the-hard-way-tossing-a-white-dwarf-into-a-black-hole
As Phil Plait discusses ^ here.
Heya
Sorry for being largely absent. Life was damn busy the last weeks and now we needed some time together to relax, so no lengthy computer sessions.
Love y’all
Kind of concurring with Giliell. There are a few study related things left to do, but Friday was hopefully the last marathon session (looking at 4-5 computer screens for 12 hours to get the thing done) for this spring.
Much love!
Two videos and two pictures from Rovaniemi, Finland (700 km north of where I am). The first video is about birds already are there (not all migratory birds have arrived there yet, the insect-eating ones are still on the way). The first still picture is a capercaillie nest in mid-May and the caption states that the capercaillie hen (koppelo in Finnish, the cock is ukkometso [ukko = old man, metso = capercaillie]) already has the eggs in the nest 100 north of the Arctic Circle in mid-May.
The second still is a female Ural owl looking out from the nest, protecting the chicks. The second video features the male bringing a vole to the female and chicks and the female dicing (not visible) the vole so that the little ones can eat it. The article also warns people not to get too close to a owl nest or disturb the owls, because it would be bad for both the bird and humans, owls and Ural owls in particular defend their nests extremely aggressively.
Saw a tern catch a fish masterfully today. There is a building just on the waterfront and a tern is perching on the edge of the roof, gets alert and gets on its wings, dives and catches a small herring or other silver-coloured fish and leaves for the nest. That time it was on the first try.
I watched the scene from the sea. The water is already over 20 °C, the water temperature on the surface of the sea has been rising about 2 °C/day. The wind is probably blowing the warm water to the Finnish coast. It seems the sea is significantly cooler on the Estonian side.
I must say
if you are planning on having an elderly relative go for the total care scenario,
have lots of money.
lots and lots
chigau, I hear you. This is how Aged Mum ended up in the claws of the reverse mortgage monsters. The latest is that they’re trying to sabotage the sale of the house so they can foreclose. Fortunately the escrow company lady knows how to work with them, she says.
I did a shiny thing. https://anne-d.dreamwidth.org/332326.html#cutid1
chigau yes, a lot of money along with a lot of worry finding a suitable place despite them all costing a lot of money, at least in the UK. My sympathy.
Anne I like the dark angels best.
Yes, good nursing care facilities are incredibly expensive. Three years ago, I had to get my father, who had developed serious dementia, into a facility. I was extremely lucky that my father had a pretty large amount of money saved and also had gotten long term care insurance through the federal government while he was still working for them. I was also lucky that the facility that my brother and I chose after doing tours of a few turned out to be very, very good.
Dad passed away after a little less than a year in the facility. I still miss him greatly, but his mind and quality of life were going downhill pretty fast despite very good care, so in a way I think that it wasn’t bad that he didn’t linger longer.
Since I’m single and unlikely to ever be able to save as much as my Dad, I wonder sometimes about these issues even though I’m only 43. I think long term care insurance would be a good idea for me, if I can afford it.
Chigau
Indeed. You do not want to be poor and old. My mom has been in a nursing home for about 3 years and her savings are dwindling fast. She had to relocate about a year ago from a private room to a semi-private room because of cost and since then there’s been one problem after another. There were also major issues with the home itself that took a long time to address. I live close by and it’s easy for me to pop in, but there are a lot of residents who don’t have family to keep an eye on things. I don’t have kids or even nieces/nephews so I worry about what will happen when Mr. V and I need care. Right at the moment saving for retirement is a priority and we’ve been thinking about long term care insurance. In Ontario the government pays for only the most basic care and anything above that is expensive. There also isn’t a lot of choice of facilities in my area. There are only 2 long-term facilities in my city and one of them has a waiting list that’s 2 years long.
Retirement homes are more plentiful, but they are not subsidized by the government at all and they are very expensive. They also are not staffed to take care of people who need a lot of care and there are no regulations for standards of care. Basically, only the landlord and tenant act apply and the government doesn’t get involved. If you have enough money, though, you can pay for extras.
Anne
I love the skeleton fairies. The blue one is my favourite. I love that its skinny skeleton legs show through the tulle skirt. Very creative and quirky.
My parents can luckily still take care of themselves and are fit enough to even help around the house, although more and more work falls on me and I had to spend significant amount of money on labour-saving gadgets that we did not have before -- like kitchen robot, dryer etc.
When my uncle needed care, it took about half a year to find a place for him, and after that, the costs took all of his pension and then some. I am not looking forward to when my parents will need to go into a nursing home because I won’t be able to take care of them myself anymore. Especially with the significant drop in my income.
I try not to worry about that too much, to be honest.
__________________________
Anne, those are beautiful, but also slightly horrifying and depressing.
I was very lucky with my dad, one of my brothers lived next door and did what he could for years, including when dad needed more care sorting out the carers. I’m not quite sure when he went into a home now, but he had an extremely good pension so he didn’t spend down his capital. My MiL on the other hand did, she needed carers at home for some years (she lived across the country from us and SiL and wouldn’t move closer), then in a home for around five years. We got help with the nursing element of her care, because that counts as NHS, but the domestic side she had to pay for, I’m rather glad she never realised how much her care was costing, she would have hated spending it on herself, she so much wanted to leave money to Mr J and SiL. She did, but far less than she thought she was going to leave.
I very much don’t want to end up like my MiL who didn’t know her children for her last few years, and was miserable most of the time, nor does Mr J, whether we will be able to take action should it cmoe to that I don’t know, but it is our intention. Mostly I too try not to think about it too much.
Chigau, I hear you. We’ve been through nursing home with grandma 1 (at up an entire house and still wasn’t enough) and at home care with grandma 2. (ate up 3 years of my sister’s life)
I am not looking forward to a lot of elderly people in my family. Fortunately at least on my side there are no childfree aunts/uncles.
Anne, I love them. Come Halloween they’ll make the most gorgeous hair pieces.
Giliell, I never thought of hair ornaments! Also, thank you for the wonderful box of your resin art, which arrived yesterday!
Today was (probably) my last trip to Aged Mum’s house. We brought home a whole carload of stuff for the yard sale my sister is planning and a few more bits and pieces for us. It still hasn’t really hit me yet, but it’s the end of a big piece of my life.
All the money of which I speak belongs to Elderly Relative. I just manage it.
With my spreadsheets, I figure we can keep ER for between 25 years and (as long as the Government Pensions keep coming) the heat-death of the universe.
I am starting to like the house.
Anne
I’m glad they artived safely. How did I know about Mermaids? Well, who doesn’t love them?
Chigau
That’s good.
In Germany, children are responsible for their parentsc care. My uncle and aunt are currently a bit fucked, because the family didn’t sort out the house on time. Now her mum with severe Alzheimer’s owns 75% of it and they had the choice between either paying large parts of their income for the nursing home or one of them to stop working and care for her or lose the house.
Heya
Just a quick update that I have at least a verbal confirmation that my contract will be renewed.
,b>Giliell
Good news, I hope you get confirmation in writing pronto!
Giliell, that’s great!
Giliell @ 63
Hoping that you’ll get the official confirmation with official stamps and all!
Giliell,
Congratulations! I hope the official letter arrives soon.
Giliell
doubleplusgood
Thanks. It’s going to be a few weeks before the official contract will arrive, but I can live with that.
I will also need to have a chat with some people about getting some permanent contract at some point because I’m too old for this shit.
I wish you luck in the negotiations, Giliell. How is it actually with consecutive contracts in Germany? I never needed to know this, but now I am curious. In CZ it is not allowed to perpetually give people limited contracts. It is allowed only twice, after that the employer must give the person an indefinite contract.
First, a tentative congratulations Giliell -- I will offer a more substantial one once everything is finalized, but I wish you very much good luck and patience in negotiating a permanent contract. I have thumbs on reserve for you.
+++
I know we have artists here, could you recommend a good quality middle-of-the-road (in terms of price) marker? Eldest has set his heart on new artist markers, specifically Copic (thanks, youtube), and they’re a little outside my budget plus a little more professional than Eldest is right now, but I want to support his interest. Recommendations?
Also some safety tips re: high winds and possible tornadoes would be nice, summer storms have come with a vengeance and the next ones are supposed to fall right where the offspring are right now and I’m a bit worried.
On that note, I also wish a great deal of safety to anyone else currently in the path of unfriendly natural phenomena.
Both girls are home. Have been for more than two weeks. Ivy is up to about 5lbs, Shelby is closing in on 7lbs. They sleep. They are beautiful. They are quiet. They are, when awake, very alert and always looking around and fixating on faces.
Oggie @ 72
It’s nice to hear that the twins are progressing ands being alert.
A frivolous cultural note: Here parents keep the name of the kid secret until the baptism/namegiving ceremony. It felt mildly foreign to run into the American(?) way to disclose the name immediately (I have no preference in this matter). I’m not sure how it is done with premature babies here.
Apparently, one thing that’s common here and probably elsewhere is to crochet octopi for premature babies as they make it less likely for the babies to pull the tubing and other medical stuff.
Oggie
Oh that is good news.
Oggie, I’m so glad. Enjoy your new grandbabies!
Oggie, that is great news, fingers crossed for it keeping on that track.
_____________________
On a different note, today I feel depression gnawing at my brain again. We had a “team meeting” where the new organization was shared with us. The gist of the meeting was “in order to be competitive, we need to innovate and grow”.
Telling something like that to the remainder of a team that just has been decimated three times over as a matter of cutting costs is just wrong on so many levels. I really think that those top managers who are not downright psychopaths or sociopaths are still at the very least assholes. Exceptions exist, but they are rare. They tell us essentially “there’s fewer of you now, but you have to work a lot harder so we can stuff our pockets” and they do not even pause to think that that particular message won’t be taken in favorably. My social skills are abysmall, but I at least have empathy. These people have neither.
The remaining five months I have to spend in that shitshow just suddenly seem insurmountably bigger.
Oggie
That is good to hear.
Oggie,
That’s wonderful news. Enjoy every wonder-filled moment.
Charly,
Ah yes, the team building ra,ra,ra! I always left those meetings feeling stunned and exhausted.
I’m sorry your last days with this company will be so stressful, but it does confirm that you’ve made the right decision to get out. Try to hold on to hope. It won’t be much longer before you can tell them all to go to hell.
Today, I the last credit points from the courses I took this spring were registered. At last, I could send the official transcript PDF, to the unemployment office. More than half of the credit points required for graduation is done, with an mediocre average, but no failed courses or even any courses with the lowest grade that’s a pass (1).
I had to ask for extra time from the unemployment office, as some courses ended at the end of May and the University has a one-month time window for reporting the course results and the unemployment office wanted them in two weeks. I must say it was nerve racking to wait for the results, especially for the big project course, which was pivotal for getting enough credits.
Congrats, Ice swimmer! Just this spring, it took me over seven weeks to get the credit for one course after the final assignment deadline was over.
A random note on commenting: some FTBlogs want your username and email rather than WordPress login. Apparently, both the username and email need to be different from the ones in your WP account, or the system deems you an impostor regardless of whether you’re currently logged in. I just figured this out.
And now I was able to use my account for commenting at A Trivial Knot. It’s been confusing.
Ice Swimmer
Congratulations and Well Done! It must be a relief to have that worry off your mind.
lumipuna
Now I’m confused. Doesn’t that mean that you now have 2 WordPress accounts?
I only ever log-in with my username and password and I haven’t had that happen.
I’ll just say it’s been a trial and error to comment on certain FTBlogs. Plus occasional bugs on others.
Oggie
That’s great news! Wait for the moment they first recognise your face and smile.
+++
I’m so dead. Yesterday was our “staff excursion”. Since I basically belong to two schools I get twice the meetings and twice the staff excursions. This was the one for the school i belong to administratively (special ed centre) but don’t actually work at. The plan as communicated was this:
Meeting at 9:00 and hiking to location A. Lunch there at 12.
Hiking back and having coffee/beer at location B. End of excursion at 3 pm.
Reality: Arriving at location A 12:30 after 13 km with a few hundred metres difference in altitude, repeatedly. Lunch. Hiking back “the short way”, 7km. Arrival at quarter past 4. Nobody wants coffee anymore.
I drove back home, had a shower and cooked dinner because we had invited Mr’s aunt and husband. Today everything hurts. I have bone spurs in my right foot and my muscles are completely sore because while I do walk regularly, I don’t walk 20km a day over hilly terrain.
++++
Charly
This is basically the law here as well with a few exceptions. One is “working on a project”. One of my previous employers worked with that rule: You worked on a project with a limited contract, and when that was over you worked on the next project and so on. While I was working there they changed the rule of giving you an indefinite contract after three instead of 10(!) years.
The other one is contracts tied to names.
And then there’s the particular shithole I’m in, in which the ministry claims I’m actually not qualified enough for the job I do. That’s why the excursion yesterday was still so important because it’s a networking opportunity. There’s quite a lot of us who were trained as teachers, but not as special ed teachers. Since there are very few actual special ed teachers, they will take whoever applies. Some of my colleagues have been doing this for more than 5 years now and that’s an absolute scandal. You cannot hire and pay somebody for five years and still claim they’re not qualified. I hope we can do something about this via the union. I know that for primary school it is possible to get a permanent contract despite not being a primary school teacher. You can’t get tenure but fuck tenure.
I’ll pester the department responsible for regular schools during the summer break and ask them about my perspective there, because working as a special ed teacher also is a qualification that would be useful for many schools.
Ice Swimmer, congratulations!
Giliell, come snuggle in the pillow fort and have a soothing cup of tea.
Well, it’s all over. The check from the escrow company arrived this afternoon. My parents’ house, the house I grew up in, the backyard we had our wedding reception in, belongs to a new family. I need to close the trash company account, pay off a few final bills, and close the bank account and distribute the remains, but that’s all. I suppose it’ll sink in eventually, but right now I just feel numb.
Giliell,
I hope the aches and pains pass quickly. I don’t think I could do a 20k hilly hike. Are these sorts of things common? I mean, going for an all day hike with your collegues. We used to have company picnics, but they were always on our own time and were easily missed.
Anne,
It’s a strange and unsettling feeling to lose a family home, but you have a lifetime of happy memories to draw on. Maybe you could have a good photo of the place enlarged and framed with part of the money. Then, you still get to keep a piece of it. I bet the new family will love the home and feel the same way about it years from now.
New thread.