I had a lovely time with my family this Easter, but it certainly was draining. My daughters, who are usually up before seven, both slept past nine both Sunday and Monday.

I completed my teaching internship a few weeks ago, but because I had some issues with a project last year, I need to pause my studies for a bit before I can complete my degree. So now I substitute teaching, which I enjoy. I get to bounce around different schools and preschools and just follow somebody else's plans. When it's good, it's great, and when it's bad I'll be somewhere else tomorrow.

There is an exceptionally weird feeling of being nostalgic for something that you know is objectively not very good, but that somehow contributes to its charm.

I figure some of you guys must be into collecting/painting minis, so I'll drop a link here to the latest Bones Kickstarter. It's probably the best way to get bulk pricing on minis short of raiding the factory.

bluuuuuuuuUUUUUUUGH *dies*

Sorry I haven't been around for a little while, lemme just give a bullet-point list of some of what I've had to deal with:

* co-worker came back from maternity leave
* I help her get home at a decent hour and not be slammed with 10+ hour shifts because she has a three month old at home
* subsequently I work multiple 10-hour days in a row without lunch break
* get like 1 lunch break a week for a month
* work hosts a CPR class that I figured would be more convenient than finding one myself in a few months
* on Saturday morning, so cancel weekly friend get-together
* was on same week as I worked 48 hours, so now basically 50 hour week
* spend over an hour just driving to the place (not at my normal office)
* get lost driving back
* [insert Binding of Isaac crying image here]
* temp help we should have had most of the previous two weeks had some family emergency out of town, so we had no help most of those days
* of course its some of the most stupid busy days we've had too
* got chewed out by a newer doctor for not saying "good morning"
* at 31, I discovered I've parted my hair on the wrong side all my life

I had to force myself to catch up on some things over the weekend, like my credit card bill, because if I didn't I would miss the deadlines

Just at the end of last week, though, I was approached about a job opening where one doctor is leaving for (leaving from my current workplace to this new place about 10 miles away), because he likes me a lot and I'm kind of the only one "allowed" to take his xrays, and I am getting a lot of support to actually do it so it's looking like I'm going to do a transfer. Maybe not as "bad" stressful as the rest of it, but it's a BIG DEAL(TM) that is also weighing on me at the moment and kind of drawing me away.

In the mean while I've also watched Kill La Kill, and then Monster Musume for the first time. I could say a bit on them but I don't currently have the energy. I also decided to get some more personal toys from this neat little shop, one a hand-size mini xenomorph chest thing (I'm not sure how to describe it without getting more explicit) billed as more of a fun stress squeezy thing because of its size, which makes a nice wrist rest for computering; the other a rainbow-colored whatchamajigger that is a lot bigger than I expected. Like, it's gotta be 3 pounds of silicone. It feels like I could dislocate someone's jaw with it.

Ok, I know that US labor laws are a trainwreck of surreal comedy, but I'm fairly certain that working 10 hours without a proper break has to be illegal.

Yeah, that's a fair yikes. You have both my condolences and hope that the move works out.

@Aaarrrgh: while I can't speak to the particular circumstance other than a vague knowledge that the medical industry is terrible for that sort of thing, the general matter is "Well, yes, but actually no.". Most states (this is another one of those things that's a byproduct of the USA being less one big country and more fifty little ones in a trench coat, knife-fighting for control as hard as they can without spilling out and letting everybody know it's fifty little ones in a trench coat) technically require sane shifts, compensation for overtime, and breaks. Some have loopholes to all of those big enough to drive a mack truck through. And even if caught not using a loophole the penalties, which is hard as it pretty much requires an employee to bring suit and ride out a legal mess, are typically a slap on the wrist beyond a certain level. And this is coming from me, who lives in CA which has some of the smaller loopholes and tougher enforcement.

@Luna: Ouch. That all sounds like a real **** show, for sure. I really hope the new gig works out and things can calm down for you a bit!

Thanks for all the kind words

It's been a lighter week so far and I'm trying to get back into it and get back to all the people giving me love and support, though I'm mostly hoping that this prospective job change will give me a lot more time and energy to do that and the other things I enjoy doing.


That's about the right of it, from what I understand. My knowledge of it is sketchy at best, but from what I understand here in Texas, there is no limit to how many hours you can be asked to work as long as you're compensated. Of course, what I'd rather, and what I can't get across to my manager, is that what I want is less stress and not more money.

Yeah, in my experience that's a specific point many managers just can't seem to understand...*

Crossing fingers for the new job! Gog knows how we need a lucky break lately.

*or deliberately pretend to not understand, of course.

In some US states, quite a few companies have mandatory 80-100 hour work weeks but only pay for the first 40 hours. Failure to comply means termination of employment. Ie. I work in software and this is extremely common in many tech fields.

Legality? Questionable. But the net profit is “worth it” even if they do get fined. No one ever gets shut down bc they did/do this ****. And no one rich goes to jail. So there’s no major risk.

——————

What’s hilarious is that now these sweatshops can no longer hire people and are hemorrhaging employees; because the Pandemic has recently created a “worker shortage”.

Hospitals in particular are finding out some of the real costs of treating staff nurses like ****. It’s gotten to the point where private hospitals want the government to step in and “regulate” the salaries of traveling nurses who are “price gouging” them. Turns out free market capitalism is only good when it helps rich people!

Maybe, just maybe, they’d be able to keep employees if they treated them like human beings instead of batteries.

People always react to the mandatory 80-100 with only 40 hours pay with some variant of “that’s probably illegal” and/or “you should report that”. Assuming they believe me.

Yes and yes. Doesn’t change anything though.

The blatant hypocrisy would be almost funny if it wasn't for the massive "collateral" damage

Have no fear. We’re going to have nuclear war by the end of 2023 so it won’t matter too much long term.

So I was collecting up some professional references, and an M.A. I asked then immediately turned around and told her doctor -- one of the three who are leaving the practice at the end of June -- and he actually started reaching out to contact me about following him! Now I have TWO doctors wanting me to come along with them! I didn't even do anything!

I mean, I kinda get it because I have that ye olde schoole "work ethic" that makes me a "hard worker" but makes me kill myself over it, but I am just NOT a people person and I didn't expect to be this... popular. This other doctor actually called me so I spoke to him directly and he was heaping praises on me, about how he's never had a single complaint and he's enjoyed working with me, et cetera et cetera.

I actually had a mad laugh because I was told in confidence how many people are going with him: his P.A., the other spine doctor, and 4 or 5 M.A.s; and thinking about how the practice is going to be running like a chicken with its head cut off. I feel kind of bad for the people who are sticking around, but I have no love for that place and despite several people banging the drum about our situation, management hasn't learned its lesson -- I even have on recording from a private conversation (legal here in Texas as a one-party-consent state) with a manager that "they were not looking to hire more M.A.s, despite them being clearly short-staffed, too.


please do not remind me

I already feel like hiding under a rock because of it and the more I hear of it, the more my invasive thoughts tell me that it might be better to not even try to see how it turns out

You can’t hide. Nowhere in the US is safe lol. At least getting vaporized immediately means we won’t have to deal w slower more painful deaths due to the fallout

————-

I’m sorry tho. Kind of in a stressed mood atm.

Yesterday was the first day in 2+ weeks I didn’t throw up due to Covid and/or Covid-caused infections (ie pneumonia). Haven’t played a video game in 2 weeks and even watched anime for the first time in years. The horror!

Yeowch. Good to hear it's getting better? (the only anime I saw in the last years were Miyazaki movies just after being quarantined lol)

(Btw, I've been dealing with tendonitis (both wrists) for a good month and still nowhere close to a full recovery - I had an idea for a story but lost the will to write after a few hours due to wrists suing me for physical abuse. Done my covid round too, pretty mild symptoms but two weeks after having tested negative - twice - I'm still feeling sporadic fever-y flares that for some reason barely register on my thermometer, like I feel more feverish than I actually am, which is very unusual for me)

Well, Luna, we've always really liked you around here, so I'm not surprised that IRL people do, too! I'm happy for you, and I hope you find yourself in a much more positive position as soon as is likely (to paraphrase Steven Fry).

A game I was looking forward to was supposed to come out on March 31st for both PC and Switch with Crossplay.

On March 28th they announced the crossplay was borked so they were indefinitely delaying the switch version until it was fixed.

Since then: radio silence.

I’m not mad bc of either individual thing. I’m mad bc they didn’t tell us about a massive mess until only 3 days before launch when it’s guaranteed it was known way earlier; and then it’s been over a month delay wo real communication while PC gets to solve the meta in the meantime….

Basically amounts to **** communication. Just slightly frustrating lol.

I'm sorry I didn't drop by sooner -- I planned to originally, because I had taken a few days off of work to take care of my mom while she had a minor surgery, but between only having my phone(s) and most of my mom's internet going to her AppleTV streaming, it kind of slipped by me. Everything went well, and a majority of the time I was enjoying lazing around while my mom rested.

Actually, it turned out that her surgery was being done in the same hospital complex as my prospective new jobs, so I ended up having appointments on the day of her surgery, just some meet & greets with some managers and staff, showing me around the offices. On top of that, one of the offices used to be one of our old offices, which had been renovated in the years since but I was already familiar with the place for having to go there myself many times when the tech who used to work there was on vacation.

In the mean while, since I'm looking to quit my current job soon, I decided to use up my reward points. They've got a system set up where you get points for being recognized by your peers and such, and can cash them in on a department store site thing (that is seemingly tied to Best Buy?). So, what I decided to buy with the points I had saved up were some larger games that I would NEVER buy myself, and settled on Elden Ring for the piss-poor and Disgaea 6 for the Switch. I actually wanted the SMT3 remake (on PS4), but it was out of stock. I'm not actually that interested in either game, but everybody's making such a big deal out of Elden Ring I decided I might as well, and I know if I ever start Disgaea 6 I'll sink hundreds of hours into not progressing at all, just like I did when I played Disgaea 1 back on the PSP (I think I fought 1 boss and spent all the rest of my time in the Item World).

Actually, I'm somewhat tempted to buy a capture card and just stream myself playing Elden Ring. Last weekend I ended up streaming myself playing games for the first time (speedrunning Celeste) and it wasn't awful. I even got close to my personal best. It's something I had been trying to build myself up to for some time, to try and get over that anxious hurdle, and one night it just kind of happened when I was in a voice chat with some meatspace friends, so then the next night I decided I would actually do it for real like I had been meaning to with that other group I keep mentioning that I met through AI Dungeon originally. I don't have any desire to actually be a streamer, but I recognize that the socialization is good for me and I want to become more confident and less nervous about interacting with people; and as far as Elden Ring is concerned it doesn't seem like much of a game for my tastes but maybe playing with people will make it more enjoyable.

I met with the other manager this Friday past and I think it may have been an actual interview.

Also it has been a while since I've felt open and loose enough to just talk about what's been going on, but I want to make some progress toward that. I've been watching a lot of anime (for me) in the last few months. I've watched Cromartie High School, Kill La Kill, Monster Musume, and I just finished watching Interviews with Monster Girls. I'll try to say just a few words for now on each, and maybe come back to them more later.

Cromartie High
A silly gag anime, spoofing the delinquent genre which I don't think really exists anymore? Barely animated, but on purpose, and uses it to make jokes all the time. Fun, but I wanted something more afterwards.

Kill La Kill
Well, that was a **** show. Still not entirely sure what to think of it overall, but I had really high hopes and it was a massive letdown. Barely animated, and bless them they tried to make it work, but there was not enough there to help detract from that fact.

Monster Musume (No Iru Nichijou)
I have watched this show and the OVA in both sub and dub and am checking out the manga because for some reason I spend more time on things I don't actually like than the things I well and truly enjoy. It's a dumb harem show -- a genre I don't get on with at the best of times -- that tends to forget the characters' dimensions and biology. It's tough not to compare it to Interspecies Reviewers, and find it woefully lacking.

Interviews with Monster Girls {Demi-chan wa Kataritai}
I expected another show horny for monster girls. What I got instead was a cutesy slice-of-life using monster girls as a narrative conceit to make those with disabilities, neurodivergence, special needs, and possibly PTSD visible and paint them as ordinary people, and I fell head over heels in love with it. I am definitely going to be actually buying the manga to get more of it because it was so good.

Now that I've reached the end of those, I decided to finally see Big O for the first time. 4 episodes in and it feels so much like a Japanese-flavored Batman cartoon, and I can see why it had a following back in the day, but I'm also curious to see where it goes.