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Weekly Open Thread with Lateness!

tigtog

I’m late I’m late I’m late getting the open thread up this week! Please natter/chatter/vent/rant on anything* you like over this weekend and throughout the week.

Classic Tabby Scottish Fold
There was supposed to be noms in this bowl two hours ago!

So, what have you been up to? What would you rather be up to? What’s been awesome/awful?
Reading? Watching? Making? Meeting?
What has [insert awesome inspiration/fave fansquee/guilty pleasure/dastardly ne’er-do-well/threat to all civilised life on the planet du jour] been up to?

* Netiquette footnotes:
* There is no off-topic on the Weekly Open Thread, but consider whether your comment would be on-topic on any recent thread and thus better belongs there.
* If your comment touches on topics known to generally result in thread-jacking, you will be expected to take the discussion to #spillover instead of overshadowing the social/circuit-breaking aspects of this thread.

20 thoughts on Weekly Open Thread with Lateness!

  1. The past few days have been terrible, but there have been some more pleasant developments as well. I found a therapist in downtown Boulder with Donna’s help, and I should be setting up an appointment soon. (I’ve just been procrastinating because I’m still nervous about seeing a therapist.)

    And I’ve really made a decent amount of progress in learning Java. I’ve heard from many IT folks that it’s a terrible language, but I’ve also heard that jobs that involve dealing with Java servlets can have pretty high wages. So I’m focusing on that language these days. I should try learning other web development stuff as well, but I don’t want to lose my momentum in learning Java yet.

    So yeah, at least some things are working out for me! ^_^

    1. I’m sorry things have continued to be difficult, but am glad you’re planning to make that appointment. And it’s OK to be nervous — I avoided seeing one (or a doctor) about my transness for years, because I was afraid I’d be laughed at and told I couldn’t possibly be a woman. Of course, that’s not what happened.

      Donna

      PS: Do you want to be called by your new username, or is it still OK to call you by the old one inside the comment section? (I wasn’t sure if the new name was for privacy purposes.)

    2. Java rocks! It can take a bit longer to write things than other languages, but the bonus is that it’s much easier to read other people’s code, which is usually a lot harder.

    3. Professional software engineer here. Java is definitely not a terrible language. It’s a little clunkier and bulkier than the most modern generation of languages; I use predominantly Java professionally but Python for my home projects.

      That said, if you don’t mind that it’s a little more verbose to do some of the same things, it’s a perfectly good language to use and it’s arguably the single most marketable one to be proficient in today. You are making a good choice.

      (Also it’s getting some sweet modern fancy-pants features in the Java 8 which is upcoming some time this year, if you currently find yourself pining for lambda expressions.)

      1. (Also it’s getting some sweet modern fancy-pants features in the Java 8 which is upcoming some time this year, if you currently find yourself pining for lambda expressions.)

        That’s what I’ve heard as well. I’m excited about that because I know Ruby as well, and I’ve always appreciated procs and lambdas in Ruby.

  2. It’s been a very upsy-downsy week for me. On Tuesday I was told I’m being retrenched from the job I’ve had for nine years. Not my boss’s decision – he was shattered – it’s our chucklefuck general manager. He’s doing to us what he did to our other branch: setting us up to fail by cutting numbers until it’s impossible to run the place. You can’t run a retail/mail order/trade/commercial business with two people, even during a downturn, and that’s what it’s going to be when I leave. It’s such a fucking joke: this jackass has done no marketing, no catalogues, no nothing in the last decade, won’t let anyone else take on the job, won’t listen to any suggestions, and treats the branches as the enemy.

    On a small upnote, I’ve invested in a suit for interviews (my wardrobe was notable for having nothing remotely businesslike in it) and an e-reader, cos I’d been thinking about getting one for a while. I’ve even managed to download a book, though I’m not quite sure how! 😛

      1. Ah. If you had a kindle we could loan each other books for free, that’s why I asked.

  4. Yesterday, I was asked to define “rape culture” and off the top of my head, I came up with this: “A culture in which women and girls are commodified, sexualized and held responsible for their own abuse while men’s aggression is encouraged and excused.”

    Would appreciate feedback!

    Have a super Saturday!
    : )

    1. I think this is an excellent definition, but I think it’s important to emphasize the objectification aspect of rape culture as well. Rape culture is in many ways rooted in the patriarchy’s objectification of women.

  5. Not quite a shameless self promotion Sunday (it is Sunday in Japan though) since it’s an open thread, in case you missed it: former Miss Kentucky and Miss America finalist, Djuan Trent, on the importance of coming out publicly.

  6. Yesterday I was working with my step-dad in his backyard. I helped him maintain a large bonfire (we had a lot of brush and debris left over from the 2013 flood that we needed to get rid of) and pump out the underground septic tank. As I was finishing up some things outside my sister took a picture of me – all scratched up and covered in dirt and dust – and sent it to my dad. Maybe I’m being a little too sensitive, but that really pissed me off. I know my dad makes remarks like “He’s a hardworking boy” when he looks at pictures like that, and it really bothers me because I feel it degenders me.

    And on a related note, sometimes he makes “jokes” (in quotes because he’s the only one who laughs at them) about me whenever he looks at a picture of me in which I’m not smiling. It’s usually something like “You look like your mother just died” or “Are you an orphaned refugee boy from a war-torn country?” He’s so insensitive about those jokes that he will even tell them in front of all of his siblings, nephews and nieces. He’s right in that I hate being in pictures and I’m generally an unhappy person, but instead of assuring me that he takes my feelings seriously and asking me what’s wrong, he jokes about my frowning.

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