Reminder: Do a little something for yourself. I shut my email down, took a minute off from advocating, job hunting paused, and I played no mans sky for 4 hours. I then made some bread and took a walk.

I was recharged and ready to continue. I forget to do this for myself sometimes and it really does help. So I’m alright this week.

I went to a day long Zazen retreat and it was lovely. Little victories. Needed the reset.

If you want a bit of a variety in book recommendations, bridging the US to Optimism gap would be Rising Out of Hatred. Then for the earliest national forest and wildfire relief, The Big Burn. People coming together to rebuild A Paradise Built from Hell.

For fiction/sci fi the new James S. Corey series starts with Mercy of the Gods. Its good. For RhE rebellious sci fi side, Red Rising and its series is quite good. Takes off, in my opinion, around the end if book 2 and into 3.

Can you give me a breakdown or a guide you’d recommend for doing this? I used to be an RSS junky years ago, but my skills atrophied. It sounds lovely and a fun distraction project for me.

I really need help. I am a newly minted PhD and I research Denial rates for FEMA programs. I use FOIA request and public facing data to put this together. In one disaster, in rural America no less, a whopping 76% of applications for Individual Household Assistance were denied outright. Let the repercussions of that sink in. This data is crucial and is in danger of being removed, if it has not already. Any help you can offer or shout outs would be incredible.

As some of you know, I’m also trying to help my LGTBQ+ and BIPOC colleagues protect and defend their work and themselves. Any advice on networking or organizations I can steer people towards are welcome.

I am begging anyone on this sub, begging. Help me get FEMA data. It is just as vital. Please.

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My favorites are the ones that use the same management system for candidates. Must be a default notification time setting. So you get like 4 at once.

Hanging in there though.

Thanks :-)

Job hunting is brutal. Like soul sucking. Every time a website application refers me to Workday or another management system of AI filtered horsehit, I die knowing I probably missed something and will get auto rejected.

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Little acts of protest is where to start. If you can impede, slow, or sabotage anything safely, do it. Happy to share ideas in a more secure environment but a few are taking the maximum allowable time on things, flooding emails with questions and always following up with more to tie up headspace and resources.

Little, safe, things. A leak in a dam, with enough pressure and time bursts.

Rough one. On the market in Academia. Got 4 rejections in a row. Like within minutes of each other. Gut punch and soul sucking.

Starting a ye olde Dragon Age: Origin playthrough after a few years of being away. I miss oldschool Bioware.

One never suspects the Frozen Inquisition!

This is an executive order, not a law. That doesn’t make it any less terrible, however. Those commenting it is just political posturing are seriously misinformed at the wide range and scope this action will (not might, not could, WILL) have on you. Anything even tangentially related to getting work done, grants made, research funded with the federal government will be effected. In brief, the scope and impact of an executive order can vary greatly depending on the specific issue and the details of the order itself. This one will likely be meant to ensure that grant making, contracts, research, and legal recourse for those not subscribing to it’s narrow and, frankly, archaic definitions will have a very difficult time interacting with the federal government in a variety of ways. But again, we are entering uncharted territory where the legislative, judicial, and executive are now all openly corrupt and willing to harm and hinder rather than help people.

I don’t think the general public realizes the sheer insanity of the new government and their willingness to go far to harm people they don’t like or don’t agree with. Therein lies the real danger. How this EO will be interpreted and executed across the executive branch will be purposefully cruel and targeted. With the recent spat of boot licking in SCOTUS, I fear we’re all in for a world of hurt. I’m just an ally, and I’m telling you that you absolutely must not bury your head in the sand on this one. You have to find ways to either protect yourself or protest/contest in a way you deem necessary for your health and well-being. Even a simple act of protest can mean a world of difference to those who are and will suffer.

The only bright side is an Executive Order ONLY effects federal branches of government under authority of the President. They can be undone by future presidents and challenged/overturned after judicial review. Remember the “Muslim ban?” That was one example.

So please, I beg you, do not brush this off as a Trumpism. This is meant to unleash the powers of hate, ignorance, and brutality that will latch onto as permission to be complete assholes.

Gates has done a magnificent job burying the fact that he is a horrible human being. There is a reason old Slashdot used him photoshopped as a Borg for a thumbnail for any story Microsoft.

I went quiet here for a long time because I was finishing my dissertation which I defended successfully!

I now don’t have to work, come home and work, anymore. I am so relieved and have been sleeping like the dead for the past few days. I’m looking for in academia jobs and excited for whatever comes, wherever I end up.

I just respect everyone and never assume their identity is what I initially (subconsciously?) think. It took a long time to get there, but I just take every person as a person worthy of respect and dignity as my default.

Thanks for this. Time to play around and experiment.