struggling-academic

Latest Posts by struggling-academic

I'm a bachelor's student halfway across the world from the US and yet my thesis project is still in jeopardy because it was being funded off of an US government grant. My supervisors have no salaries anymore. We have a passion for science and hope that other funding will come through. And not much more.

I don’t think people understand how bad Trump cutting research funding is. People keep assuming there will be no research at all continuing on…false! This will almost certainly lead to an uptick of biased, privately funded studies (think: leading dog food brand funds study that finds their dog food to be the most nutritionally complete)…it’s going to be a mess trying to determine what’s real, accurate scientific information.

In the most ADHD moment of late, turns out I forgot to mention to my therapist of almost 2 months that I have, in fact, been diagnosed with ADHD 😂

We are no longer allowed to take bones from our teaching collections home due to previous students being caught sword-fighting with human femurs in public

Nothing surprised me more in my forensic anthropology lectures than the fact that they just- let you pick up human bones bare handed

To all the trans people who see this tonight, no matter what happens, we will survive. Trans people will still be here 4 years from now and 10 years from now and 100 years from now and tomorrow. We have always existed and we always will. The world cannot unlearn about us; we are too public, too loud, too beloved, too present. Ill be here tomorrow. Please stay here with me.

Live. Thrive. That is the greatest rebellion.

I hope none of you disappear in the coming days. Seriously don't do anything that can't be undone.

Your friends and family with chronic pain aren't doing well.

Yes, even the ones that say they are.

Yes, especially the ones that are complaining and lashing out already.

Chances are high that however bad they will admit things are it's actually worse. By a lot.

We're conditioned to be "okay". If we're breaking down at non scheduled times we aren't coping well. I promise.

Your sibling/partner/bestie/parent who is breaking down without preamble on a Tuesday is suffering. Be kind. We're sorry.

How to Celebrate International Archaeology Day

🥳🥳🥳

down with found family. UP with FOUND DIVORCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@chilchucks-timbs I found the femur and a vertebrae while hiking in Scotland and risked the wrath of airport security to bring them both home

I do gorilla research and I approve this message

“don🦍t believe anything your brain tells you after 9 pm” wrong. the prime time for decision making is when you🦍re sleep deprived

^example of what life would be like if we used gorillas instead of apostrophes

I am probably going to be annoying by adding my input here, as this is not a Universal Experience ™️, but I have grown to love and appreciate old sewing machines - like really old ones. My dad runs a soft goods business, working with canvas and leather, and the newest sewing machine he works with is circa the late 70's or early 80's. These are all-metal machines, and they just. don't. break. There a few parts that will go, mainly belts and sometimes the wiring (I thought my sewing machine was possessed for a bit, but that's a story for another time). However, there are people out there who know how to fix these things, and if you buy a refurbished machine, they will last forever.

My baby is a Singer Featherweight 221k, made in Scotland, and has likely been used on and off for 70 or so years. It may only sew a straight stitch, but it certainly works at that!

One of my other personal favorites are hand-crank machines, which don't require electricity at all and can be set up anywhere, powered by your hands. It takes some getting used to because one of your hands is occupied, but I sewed hundreds of face masks during the Covid lockdown on a hand-crank, and it worked really well!

Anyways, this is my pitch for the continued use of vintage/antique sewing machines because they are built to last and will run for years with basic upkeep.

bros yall probably already know what i’m about to say but i’ll say it anyway just in case

learn to sew, the joys of sewing are never ending. I sewed a witch hat last month, this week i turned some old pants into shorts, if my favorite socks and tshirts get ripped i can stitch them back together, i made a mouse plushie from an old airline blanket.

you can do a lot of things by hand sewing, albeit slower. but there are more basic cheaper machines too. if you don’t want to invest in a machine sometimes there are public places where you can use the machines. I did most of my sewing at my university campus library, some public libraries have machines too. but if none is available remember you can fix stuff by hand (i learned hand sewing solely so i can repeatedly fix my favorite socks, and it’s doable)

so yeah learn sewing, it’s a good skill

At the start of one of my many attempts at uni (we're no joke on number seven) I took an anthropology class because it seemed cool. This was at the absolute height of the popularity of Bones so the first lecture was literally standing room only, fire hazard levels of packed.

So the professor comes in and I cannot express enough how much this man was actually round, not tall, greying, balding, and literally wearing a three-piece tweed suit with a little red bow tie. He was the most perfect human being I've ever met.

Anyway the look on his face when he saw an actually packed lecture theatre was one of sheer unbridled glee. Natural, right? His dinky little subject is suddenly unbelievably popular.

Which gave him the perfect opportunity to talk about pissing for a solid hour. Because that was his specialist subject. Comparative urination etiquette.

This man who was the Platonic ideal of a humanities professor stood there and talked enthusiastically about piss to a packed to the rafters lecture theatre full of bright-eyed first years, and as this was a Monday morning it was almost certainly many people's first ever university lecture of their whole life. His eyes were glittering with joy the whole hour. He was having the time of his life.

There were absolutely no questions at the end of the lecture. He, apparently having fully understood what he was doing, clearly expected this and instructed us to have a lovely day and wished us good luck on our higher education journey.

You could sit anywhere you wanted in the lecture theatre the next week and the lecture was intro to methods in anthropology.

I don't think I could ever love a man more than I still love him.

recently when im tempted to say 'i'm gonna kill myself' i try to correct it into saying "im gonna walk into the river and become a trout" or some other form of that. this is my new thing

Love how anthropology in an attempt to distance itself from its original sin (skull measuring etc) has become the leftest academic discipline possible. There are centrist or even right-wing historians, economists, but have you seen one social anthropologist who leans even a little bit to the right? No because there are none of them

Further ideas: dig up your own backyard and see what you can find (if you live in an apartment, the local park will do), donate your body to science, go to a pathology museum (bonus points if you dress up like you're going into the field), donate your racist neighbor's body to science

International Archaeology Day is coming up, here's some ways to celebrate: Punch a Nazi in the face, learn about Otzi the Iceman, debunk everything a conspiracy youtuber says, debate a young earth creationist, try to find the tomb of Genghis Khan, sell your soul in exchange for the secrets of the past, be like Indiana Jones by punching a Nazi in the face, dress up as Romans. Those are just a few of my ideas

I met with some very cool people today to discuss their new research project about parasite-animal-human relationships, which hopes to touch on social and biological anthropology, primatology, veterinary medicine, human medicine and others. It's genuinely one of the most amazing projects I've heard about recently and I'm thrilled to (hopefully) be a part of it.

For my fellow scientists, please suggest your favorite books, research papers, anything really on the subject of parasites from any point of view!! I'd really appreciate it.

window watching

i sit in the window and stare out at the world. life goes on, the trams and birds and people go about their days, and in the window, i remain still. i watch the birds with particular interest, i envy them their wings. it's windy today, and i can see them playing with the currents, flying in intricate patterns that only they can see.

what i wouldn't give to fly again...

Sleep Tax

so I've been thinking about something and I'm gonna call it sleep tax

basically, because of my ADHD I need a bit of extra time to get ready in the morning, but also the earlier I wake up the more time I need cause I'm also dealing with sleep deprivation.

So like, if I need to leave home at 8:30 I need to fully wake up by 7:30 so my first alarm has to be at 7:00 so I have time for a few snoozes and an hour to get ready. If I have to leave by 8:00 though I need to wake up fully by 7:00 to even have a chance of getting ready in time and my first alarm has to be around 6:20.

And it gets worse if it's cold cause now there's the extra step of forcing myself into the cold and the cold makes everything else harder to do. So now I have to wake up like 15 minutes earlier to give myself time for that but really my first alarm is way before that so I can have proper snoozing time. Like, Now to leave at 8:30 I have to fully wake up around 7:15 or earlier and my first alarm will be at 6:30.

Now, if waking up this early makes me sleep deprived for whatever reason. Like maybe I had a lot of work the night before, or I had a bad day and ended up staying up late on Tumblr trying to decompress to the point that I could get to sleep, or I just couldn't sleep. Then it'll start a cycle of not so great energy-sapping days where it's hard to sleep and I consistently get to bed closer to 1-2am. Now I'm getting like 6 or less hours of sleep a night and am getting very sleep-deprived so getting ready is even slower. Now I have to wake up even earlier to compensate for that. My first alarm now is at 6:20 (or earlier) so I can wake up at 7:00

And if I have to wake up earlier when I'm already waking up at 7:00 and have to leave around 8:00 instead of 8:30, well I just kind of die cause now I'm waking up at 6:45 with my first alarm at 6:00 or 5:55 all while getting less than 5 hours of sleep a night

So now I'm in this horrible cycle of getting more and more sleep deprived because the sleep deprivation and other stuff makes it harder and harder to get ready so I have to wake up earlier and earlier which makes my days more and more energy-sapping which means I stay up later and I get more sleep-deprived and I'm even slower getting ready and have to wake up earlier and on and on and on

Broke: Good Omens isn't a gay love story because Crowley and Aziraphale aren't in love

Woke: Good Omens is a gay love story because Crowley and Aziraphale are in love

Bespoke: Whether Good Omens is a gay love story or not is debatable; it is, however, undeniably a story of the love between Crowley and Aziraphale (whatever type of love that may be)

Neil Gaiman: Good Omens isn't a gay love story because while Crowley and Aziraphale are in love, they are not human males, they are an angel and a demon

Saving this for later here

An easy-ish dinner you can make a bunch of and save for later because I’m bored so why not

Chicken and rice mess (chicken can be substituted for cubed tofu dusted with flour)

Some cubed chicken (maybe a pound, idk. Depends on how much you want)

1 Cup of white rice (don’t rinse it. The starch adds to the creamy texture in this one. Trust me.)

1.5 cups water or broth (chicken or vegetable)

One 15 oz can tomato sauce

One 15 oz can stewed tomatoes

Oil for sautéing

Salt and pepper

Onion powder

Garlic powder

Either Italian herb mix, OR a mix of cinnamon, paprika, and dried rosemary (grandma calls this version Greek chicken but we both know that’s not accurate)

Optional: Sour cream or plain yogurt

Get a real wide and deep pan and get it up to medium high heat. Brown your chicken or tofu on all sides in the oil. Add the rice.

Optional: Toast the rice on a lower heat in the oil until some of the grains start to look clear or slightly brown. Not strictly necessary but good if you’ve got the spoons for it)

Dump in the cans of tomato chunks and sauce, the water or broth, and all of the spices and salt to taste. Stir until incorporated. You can add a pinch of sugar here too if you prefer that in your tomato dishes.

Turn up the heat until the mixture is simmering and then give it one last stir before turning down the heat to low and covering it for 20 minutes or until the rice is very soft and most of the liquid has been absorbed.

If you want, you can add a big scoop of sour cream or yogurt to your serving for extra creaminess and protein. Tastes best the next day after sitting in the fridge for a while.