This weekend’s open thread is hosted by some snowy river otters at Squaw Creek, photographed by Kenny Bahr and shared by USFWSmidwest on flickr.
Please feel free to use this thread to natter about anything your heart desires. Is there anything great happening in your life? Anything you want to get off your chest? Reading a good book (or a bad one)? Anything in the news that you’d like to discuss? What have you created lately? Commiserations, felicitations, temptations, contemplations, speculations?
Categories: Life
Soggy here, innit? 
In memoriam: Diana Rigg 
Getting out the ‘yes’ 
100 books by women in 2016 
Hoyden About Town 
I am recovering from a hangover. I think I need a toastie and a cup of very sweet tea.
School’s been back for a week and things are going well! Overheard the Lad saying to a friend (who goes to a different school) “our new teacher is AWESOME!”. The class size has shaken out nice and small (19 kids) so I’m thrilled about that.
Our termtime activities are ramping up: karate has restarted, singing/dancing/drama school has restarted, and footy and guitar will start soon.
I can’t believe it’s the last year of primary school, and that he’s aiming toward getting his black belt in a year. On to new adventures soon.
Well, we are in our new house, and about 80% of the stuff has been unpacked. There were a few dramas, and it took us almost a whole week to get back on the internet. It looks like it’s been a busy time here…
Moved from media thread.
Hildy February 9, 2014 at 1:45 pm
I don’t agree, Mindy. Some things are right or wrong on an objective standard, and to sit back and let people sort it out for themselves is like letting Germans sort out their Jewish problem for themselves. Sometimes you just have to take a stand.
Yes, it’s good that a solution was found, but that doesn’t help the girls mutilated while we watched and waited.
I don’t claim to talk for WOC (although I’m not white), I only speak for myself – but that also means not shutting up.
Mindy
Mindy February 9, 2014 at 2:00 pm
How would white women going in and telling that community that what they were doing was wrong have lead to any faster changes?
I spent yesterday at a bit of a rally around some of the polling stations against the decision to allow dredging in the Barrier Reef. Then I went and voted in the Griffith by-election and was relieved to see that we hung onto our Labour seat.
In other news, I’m gearing myself up to see an expensive neurologist after a bunch of GPs and other various practitioners have no idea why I have the pain issues I have. So fun times there. Anyone got tips for dealing with specialists?
Mindy: The Reich comparison would suggest that that poster thinks that dropping bombs on them would lead to much better outcomes for women and girls than continuing to work from the inside toward sustainable cultural change, an approach which is already working. I happen to disagree vigorously with the analogy and its implications, and the onus is on that poster to somehow support their assertion (though I can’t see how).
Moving on: it’s a lovelyish weekend here, a touch hot but not stinkingly so. More plants have been bought for the garden, and otherwise we’re just noodling about the house.
Sorry about the expensive-neurologist issue, Jo. No huge tips here except I guess go in prepared (lists of meds, key dates, yadda yadda). And debrief with your GP afterwards, assuming you have a good one who knows you; sometimes specialists, in my experience, get quite the wrong end of the stick in their rushing about. I’ve even have one just plain lie about my history outright in their summary of the situation. (And in a rather important way.) If crap like that makes its way onto your record without correction, it can be a problem.
I’ve heard similar about specialists, Lauredhel, so I’m being rather cautious myself. I’m just starting out with this whole thing, so I don’t really have any previous experience to draw on yet, or established GP relationships. But I’ll make myself a list of all my symptoms and stuff I’ve tried so I don’t forget anything. Thanks. 🙂
I haven’t been to a lot of specialists, but I find that taking a list of questions with me when I do go helpful. Otherwise sometimes I forget to ask and since they are a bit exxy to visit you need to make sure you get your money’s worth! Also have never met on who ran on time so make sure you have something to keep you occupied.
I cannot stand genocide analogies for anything at all.
All the best, Jo.
It took me four hours to get home by train today. Sydney Trains is not great.
Sorry to hear about your Sydney trains marathon Chally. Are you okay?
Hurrah for a cool change tonight and a week where it’s only going up to the low thirties!
For the first time in yonks it’s been cool enough to play at the computer in the evening, and I’ve had fun making some pictures of Mr K (slightly NSFW). This is my favourite.
I hope your neurologist is worth the time and money, Jo, and you get some answers in due course.
I tend to take my partner to specialist appointments, but that’s more for navigating the stress of the situation than improving their diagnostic accuracy or fit of their recommended treatment. (Reason for a support person: my experience with them is specialists, probably because they see sicker people on average than GPs do, are much more cavalier about throwing around what you may consider Very Bad News — or at least Very Bad Theories Being Entertained For the Time Being — without any visible recognition that you might then have a Very Bad Evening/Week afterwards. A GP debrief can be helpful on that too.)
My other news is that my baby is a month old today! This seems very unlikely; she was born either yesterday or a million years ago, I’m not quite sure. But it definitely wasn’t a month exactly.
Wow Mary, a month already? I should make time to come and visit you, I always like to give new parents the first month to themselves and their closest peeps only.
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Blerk on transport woes, Chally.
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In other news, a three pronged DDoS attack has targeted FreeThoughtBlogs, Skepchick and Feminist Frequency simultaneously over the last day. Hm, I wonder what all those blogs have in common?
Congrats, Mary!!
Cheers, Mindy. I’m okay, thanks, although I was quite distressed, and we were not given any information about what was happening, even when stuck at one station for over an hour. That is, there were two announcements during that time, which no one in my carriage could hear because the announcements were soft and the air conditioning loud. But we had, evidently, air conditioning and I had water. But also I don’t like coming home alone after dark in this neighbourhood, and I was quite physically drained after a hot day :(.
I once got stuck on a train in Germany during a heatwave where the airconditioning had failed due to the heat (only in Germany…) and it was horrible. So I feel your pain, Chally – I’m glad you got home eventually.
Congrats also from me Mary – and thank you to you and Mindy both for sharing your thoughts on seeing specialists. I very much hope it will be worth the money as well.
You don’t think it could be because they upset a special snowflake subsection of teh menz do you?
Sounds like timey-wimey stuff. 🙂
Nothing quite like the feeling of being trolled in the morning.
Just a quick update for all those who were sympathetic when I was making the application, my eldest’s Certificate of Registration as a British Citizen arrived yesterday. He felt my happy dance was over-the-top, but I’m really hoping never to have to engage with any institution that defines my children as illegitimate ever again. Worth celebrating.
Glad to hear it, Sunset. I presume that makes a plethora of other paperwork situations far simpler than they have been, so hurrah!
Great news Sunset. I think having a win over bureacracy is well worth a happy dance.