The Contradictory Feelings Thread

[Vijay]

Some of my co-workers are getting together at a bar right now. I was going to join them, and I get along especially well with a few of them, but bars like this one are crowded and noisy, so I was never that enthusiastic about going since you can't hear what anybody's saying, which is not all that fun IMO. I went there straight from work since one of my co-workers said they were going to do that, but then I didn't find anybody there, so I came back home and was about to go back.

Then one of our garage door cables suddenly snapped, so I had to cancel anyway.

[Linguoboy]

One of my direct reports has been by my desk at least eight times today. She's been trying to make sense of her timesheet, which contains an adjustment. She put down "Excused Absence" (unpaid) on her previous timesheet when she should have used "Vacation" (paid time). Instead of trying to fix that retroactively, timekeeping annotated the current timesheet to indicate that the week of pay she should've gotten in the previous pay period will be in this pay period's pay packet. It may seem a little abstruse, but it's a simpler way of handling things than issuing a separate check just for the week of paid vacation time.

I explained all this to her yesterday, but she couldn't make sense of it, so I told her to call timekeeping. She had to stop by my desk beforehand to tell me she'd called timekeeping and afterwards to tell me what they said--even though she took the call within earshot and I gathered as much from her side of the conversation. Then she stopped by twice more to talk about modifications to the current timesheet, and finally on the third visit I explained everything again and it finally clicked. She hadn't checked the totals for the previous pay period and consequently never realised she was missing a week's pay.

So I'm glad that she finally comprehends the adjustment, but Judas Priest it was a long road to get here.

[Linguoboy]

I've gotten into my head that I want to read the new biography of Carwyn James in Welsh. But do I really want to pay $10 trans-Atlantic shipping? My last attempt to buy something from a small publisher in Europe was very frustrating.

[masako]

the love is strong, but I want to leave...I'm just too hurt

[Yiuel Raumbesrairc]

So, I met my trainer yesterday. Finally, and for that I am happy.

Got the meal plan. Basically, when he noticed I had lost over nine pounds of muscle during the last few weeks, he basically said "eat more of everything". Overall, he made it unrestricted, with only a few guidelines.

The funny thing? His first goal with me is weird. Step one : maintain the muscles.

So, it's gonna be a long one, even I've been trying for over fourteen years.

[Risla]

The strongest typhoon to hit Japan in twenty years, and I live literally right on that dotted line. Apprehensive? Uh, yeah. Excited? Hell yes.

[Frislander]

I'm currently just under 3 weeks away from returning to Cambridge for my second year. On the one hand I'm glad I've been home, because I can definitely see the injustices in the Cambridge system and the damaging effects it can have on people, myself included, and I definitely miss things about my life up here (like how stuff's much more reasonably priced, I actually eat bread, and pease pudding exists). But on the other hand I just can't wait to get back because I love it so much. Almost all of my friends are now down there, and I so much appreciate what I am able to experience down there (especially the variety of food and drink). Also while I love my family dearly, I also wonder how on earth I've managed to cope living with them for 18 years, my brother in particular, because he's just such a massive prick and treats me like shit even though he knows we're fundamentally different in ways that mean neither of us is better than each other.

[Risla]

So I've been losing weight lately, and have been doing so quite fast—it's been about 1.2kg a week this month. I've been feeling pretty good overall and have been assuming the pace would eventually slow down as I continued the program

But yesterday at the doctor, she pointed out some blood test results—low albumin and MCV/MCH—and asked if I've been having particularly bad diarrhea lately (I haven't!), because low albumin and MCV/MCH results are signs of malnutrition. Oops. I told her how fast I'm losing weight, and she told me to try to slow down a bit.

I've been too successful, apparently. I think I need to modify the program I'm doing so I eat somewhat more than I have been…

[alice]

Back to work on the 17th. Ideally this will be the start of a steady and successful "phased return" to normal working hours. More realistically there will be bumps and setbacks along the way, and there's the possibility that I won't improve fast enough to justify my employers continuing to employ me. Given the unpredictable nature of my illness this is a lot more likely than I feel comfortable with.

[Salmoneus]

So I've been losing weight lately, and have been doing so quite fast—it's been about 1.2kg a week this month. I've been feeling pretty good overall and have been assuming the pace would eventually slow down as I continued the program

But yesterday at the doctor, she pointed out some blood test results—low albumin and MCV/MCH—and asked if I've been having particularly bad diarrhea lately (I haven't!), because low albumin and MCV/MCH results are signs of malnutrition. Oops. I told her how fast I'm losing weight, and she told me to try to slow down a bit.

I've been too successful, apparently. I think I need to modify the program I'm doing so I eat somewhat more than I have been…

It may be frustrating to have to 'slow down' when you're 'succeeding'; but if it makes it any easier, slower rates of weight loss don't just produce fewer side effects, they're also strongly associated with much slower rates of weight regain. [This appears to be for both psychological and physiological reasons.] So while it may feel counterintuitive, going more slowly can actually help you get where you're going.

[Risla]

It may be frustrating to have to 'slow down' when you're 'succeeding'; but if it makes it any easier, slower rates of weight loss don't just produce fewer side effects, they're also strongly associated with much slower rates of weight regain. [This appears to be for both psychological and physiological reasons.] So while it may feel counterintuitive, going more slowly can actually help you get where you're going.

I'm curious if you have any idea how condescending the scare quotes come across as.

I didn't set out to lose weight super fast, because I don't live under a rock and know that it's not good to lose too fast, especially since I'm missing six feet of my digestive tract and know very well that I am prone to malnutrition. This is just how it's been playing out since I've been doing intermittent fasting, because it also seems to be helping a lot with my ED-NOS (which is a huge relief) and then I'm losing weight for two reasons: 1) only eating during a 9-hour window, and 2) not eating like a crazy person during that 9-hour window. And as I said, I thought it would slow down after a few weeks…

[Vijay]

To tell or not to tell Janko that we've moved to a new board...

[alynnidalar]

Janko can read the posts about it on the old board, the same as we all did.

[Linguoboy]

This is kind of a happy thing but it's more of a "I didn't fuck this up as bad as I could have."

Three weeks ago, I scheduled my annual checkup for this morning because it was the earliest morning slot they had and my doctor always orders blood tests that require fasting. Somehow it was in my head as 9:30 a.m. when really it was 9 a.m. Normally that wouldn't've been a problem, since I tend to leave plenty of time, but today I cut it really close and, thus, missed the appointment. As luck would have it, though, someone with a 1:15 the same day had just cancelled and they let me do the blood draw anyhow, so I was able to eat breakfast and then come back during my lunch break.

[Vijay]

Janko can read the posts about it on the old board, the same as we all did.

Too late, somebody else already told him.

[doctor shark]

So, my family (near Fayetteville, NC) is safe and my mother's house is intact after Florence passed through the area, but they're without power and have been since about Friday morning. No estimate yet on when power will be back. They're also far enough from the river where there shouldn't be a risk of flooding from the Cape Fear River (they're not in the 1 mile evacuation zone), but it's still worrying hearing about the reports and predictions of potential flooding.

Also am starting to plan to go back to the US for Christmas, but I'm not looking forward to the potential awkwardness of possibly visiting my father and his new pimp wife, especially if I have to go alone (without my brother). It's at a point where I think I probably should visit as I haven't seen him in about two years, but... IDK.

[Risla]

I'm happy to report that this typhoon is 100% bog-standard normal typhoon, not terrifying apocalyptic typhoon like the last one. However, there appears to be another beastie spinning itself up right on its heels, possibly to arrive next week. At this point, it looks like it's going to follow almost the exact same course, although that can change very easily.

[mèþru]

I finished the SAT and was prepared to be all excited but then the news happened
now I'm 3/20 enraged, 1/10 sad, 1/4 happy and 1/2 empty

[Risla]

My parents left Japan two days ago. Exhausted, emotionally and physically drained, and so glad that's over.

I think my favorite anecdote from this trip is how my mother pulled me out of bed at 10 PM to make me help her go change hotel rooms, because…she didn't like the texture of the windows. No, seriously, that's the real reason.

[doctor shark]

My parents left Japan two days ago. Exhausted, emotionally and physically drained, and so glad that's over.

I think my favorite anecdote from this trip is how my mother pulled me out of bed at 10 PM to make me help her go change hotel rooms, because…she didn't like the texture of the windows. No, seriously, that's the real reason.

Oh, good lord... I mean, I know the feeling of relief once relatives leave, but that sounds like a special level of headache.

Fun stuff: My boss is hosting a TEDx event at the university. We've known this event was supposed to happen since... I think March? Either way, lots of time to prepare, one would think. Except, of course, when, at the last minute, people pull out and boss goes into panic mode. And boss also tells us, quite last-minute, that he needs some stuff for an exposition table for the TEDx event. And this stuff is to be done by Friday. So I volunteer to help, probably because (1) I'm too nice, and (2) the thing I volunteered to help with, designing a poster, is something I think I'm reasonably good at.

Except the one poster is actually two posters. And it's for a project I'm not directly involved with, so I need images and graphics from other group members. Which took forever. And feedback from the other group members has been exceptionally sparse and lacking.

The posters are now at the printer, and, if people don't like them, I'll tell them where to go. And I don't have the worst of it: another coworker is hurriedly working assembling the event logo, which, due to TED requirements, has very exacting dimension and illumination requirements. And this is where the one person originally supposed to do the task pulled out. (Fun!)