Rant of the Day

[Genuine Article]

A friend of mine started teaching high school this year, and she was told to not teach anything crucially important for the first few weeks, because we live in a rural area and a bunch of kids just won't show up until after Labor Day. It felt straight out of To Kill A Mockingbird. That said, I always started school after Labor Day, so kids going back to school here in early August freaks me out. It just feels wrong for anyone to be attending school in August. The start of school = fall, and fall=September. The air should be crisp when going back to school.

[Digit]

I just looked up the district where I went to HS in WA and this year they started 9/2, two days ago as of the typing of this. I think I remember starting school and then shortly thereafter getting a day off for Labor Day.

[Portia]

The West Coast seems to let out late and start late, the Midwest seems to start early and let out earlier.

[Digit]

Interesting

In the Los Angeles Unified School District, which has had year-round schools since 1974, officials say that at first the novel schedule scared and annoyed a lot of parents, but now many would never go back to a traditional calendar.

[Zedability]

2 pm church on a fast Sunday needs to not be a thing.

[Katya]

2 pm church on a fast Sunday needs to not be a thing.

Because of jet lag?

[Emiliana]

So, after several months of underemployment followed by several more months of total unemployment, it looks like my husband is about to get a job at a college library. This is huge because it's a) full time and b) somewhat in his field!

On the other hand, it's also 6pm to 2am, meaning that on days he works I will probably see him for an hour or less. I've been totally spoiled lately by the fact that he's home all the time, taking care of the dogs, cars, apartment, laundry.... and when I come home from work, he's always there. I might or might have cried quite a bit just now at the thought of both not seeing him much AND about actually having to do housework on top of teaching.

I feel totally selfish for feeling sad about this.

[Katya]

I feel totally selfish for feeling sad about this.

Even if a change is a net positive, it's OK to be sad about parts that will make your life harder.

[Whistler]

maybe you could look into hiring a monthly cleaner? Housekeeping can be a big job and if I were working I think I'd want to outsource a bit.

I think you're justified in feeling a bit sad that he won't be there all the time, like Katya said.

[Portia]

I really am beginning to think I'm not the marrying kind.

[Genuine Article]

I just found out that the ward we combine with for cub scouts has a separate cub scout budget that is more than my entire Primary budget and it makes me want to kick things.

[Whistler]

I just found out that the ward we combine with for cub scouts has a separate cub scout budget that is more than my entire Primary budget and it makes me want to kick things.

[Zedability]

I'm so done with all the posts about National Suicide Prevention Week on Facebook. It's basically a lot of guilt-tripping (suicide causes so much pain to friends/family!), condescending platitudes (remember, it's a permanent solution to a temporary problem!), and useless nonsense about lighting a candle in your window for support. (As opposed to actually doing something useful, like educating yourself or reaching out to friends/family who seem to be withdrawn or going through a hard time.)

I know most Facebook campaigns are similarly useless, but I guess this is the first time I've had the perspective to appreciate to what extent the posts accomplish nothing other than letting people pat themselves on the back for "being so supportive."

The exception is the USGA facebook page, which posted a pretty decent status about it.

[TheBlackSheep]

I hear ya, sister.

[yayfulness]

Vox had an interesting headline (didn't read the piece, but I'm familiar with the statistics) about how 2/3 of US gun deaths are suicides, and how stricter gun control laws actually have a measurable impact on suicide rates. It was a different but welcome perspective.

[Shrinky Dink]

I had this huge thing on gun control in America and the system logged me out and I lost all of it. Anyway, here are the articles I was going to reference (including the Vox article) about how a gun buyback program wouldn't work in America (since we have about 4 times the density of guns that Australia had before their buyback) and how there are other solutions.

Articles:
1: http://www.vox.com/2015/6/3/8721267/gun ... un-control
2: http://monsterhunternation.com/2012/12/ ... n-control/
3: http://www.policeone.com/Gun-Legislatio ... -thoughts/

Article Summary:
1: Vox article referenced by yayfulness. Firearm involvement in suicides, only proposes Australia's gun ban as a solution. Favorite quote from the article:

I more or less know what's good for me. But depression doesn't. Honoring depression's wishes doesn't do me any favors. It doesn't respect my autonomy. What does help are efforts to reduce depression's power, to place roadblocks that keep it from making decisions that will permanently harm me.

2: Article written by Larry Correia in response to Sandy Hook. Search "Australia" to skip down to why Australia's gun buy back/ban wouldn't work in America. The entire thing is worth reading, but not relevant to the discussion of gun use for suicide. If someone does want to talk about increasing general gun control, it's a good place to start learning about what is already there and what legislation has already been futile.
3: A survey summary of 15,000 law enforcement officers reaffirming on why the gun buy back/ban wouldn't work and also offering other solutions to America's gun related problems from their perspective.

If we really want to reduce firearm suicides and accidental deaths in America, some of the best things we can do include increased gun safety, increased family values, parents paying more attention to their kids, reducing the stigma of mental illness, improved background checks, and increasing the ease of availability for treating mental illness.

[Portia]

Sad puppies guy? Hmmmmm, that raises some serious eyebrow for me.

[Portia]

I'm so sick of feeling like my gender is impeding my career advancement. After comments by my CEO, all I could think of was my ex-flame and his applications to top 10 MBA programs and his dated ideas that if more women wanted to work in computer engineering, well then, it would just happen, wouldn't it!

I feel like I've done the whole "play them at their own game" thing for a decade and well guess what still a chick.

[Indefinite Integral]

Ugh. I. hate. Chicago.

I never ever ever ever want to live here again. The teaching job market sucks, the bureaucracy is worse, the city is way in debt, which means taxes just keep going up. As a teacher with 5 years experience including time teaching AP Calculus where I raised the AP pass rate by a significant amount I can't even manage to get a job at a decent school. In 10 months of applications, I've only had 3 interviews. The worst part is I don't even feel like I have any other skills besides high school teaching. I just spend all day on the internet, bored out of my mind except for the 3-4 hours a week I spend tutoring.

[Imogen]

Ugh. I. hate. Chicago.

I never ever ever ever want to live here again. The teaching job market sucks, the bureaucracy is worse, the city is way in debt, which means taxes just keep going up. As a teacher with 5 years experience including time teaching AP Calculus where I raised the AP pass rate by a significant amount I can't even manage to get a job at a decent school. In 10 months of applications, I've only had 3 interviews. The worst part is I don't even feel like I have any other skills besides high school teaching. I just spend all day on the internet, bored out of my mind except for the 3-4 hours a week I spend tutoring.

You know where it's pretty awesome to be a teacher if you're in the correct districts?

Texas. You should move here. We always need awesome math teachers!