Goliath groupers can weigh up to 800 pounds! Once plentiful in the Florida Keys, these enormous fish were overfished almost to the vanishing point before regulations prohibited their harvest in U.S. waters in 1990. Now Goliath grouper populations are on the rebound in protected places like Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
(Photo: Nick Zachar/NOAA)
[Image description: A close-up view of a Goliath grouper’s head.]
40+ year old men who seriously believe the young girls working at stores and restaurants are actually flirting with them just because the girls smile and are friendly are the most disgusting and terrifying things on this planet.
i keep getting messages from men over the age of 40 who were upset by this post and i’d like to sincerely thank them for proving my point so effortlessly.
It’s my FUCKING JOB TO BE NICE TO YOU don’t flatter yourself
My graduate adviser gave me the best, least painful, constructive criticism I have ever received. Whenever she needed to tell me to do something differently, she would start by saying, “a lot of grad students have problems with this…”
That calmed me and helped me fully process what she was about to say. It normalized whatever mistake I was making. It helped me realize that it wasn’t going to jeopardize my acceptance in the lab, my university, or academia.
Most of all, I think it was her way of telling me, “I don’t want you to think of this as a disability thing that makes you different and less than everyone else. I don’t want you to spiral into feeling like you’re not good enough and you don’t belong here. I want you to learn from the mistake without feeling bad about yourself.” That was probably what helped most–knowing she cared enough, and understood me well enough, to say that.
This was the first time anyone had actually responded in a helpful way to my deep spirals of self-hatred and frustration in response to criticism. I still don’t understand how she knew. She’d known me for less than a year when she started communicating this way, and had never actually seen most of the symptoms. Yet she intuited a way to help me get past what people now call “rejection sensitive dysphoria” or “RSD.” And I will never forget it.
I hope someday to offer similarly sensitive constructive criticism to other people.
In the meantime, I try to say it to myself. When I drop a plate or glass and spill the contents all over the floor. When I say the wrong word in a sentence, or can’t remember the right one. When I show up late. Whenever I do some annoying disability-related thing.
Maybe saying it to yourself will help you, too: “Remember, you’re not the only one. A lot of people are working on this.”
Mr. C is off to Düsseldorf for the rest of the week, for some professional conference.
I was looking at their website out of idle curiosity and because I’m bored this evening, and I couldn’t help but be impressed again at just how pricey these things tend to run. I mean, I know that field tends to pay pretty well, and hopefully speakers get comped somewhat. (Not guaranteed, but hey.)
But, $750 early bird registration, before the €149/night (€169 sharing) special room rate? 😱 Still plenty of room for sticker shock there.
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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