Struggling-academic - Chronically Ill, Chronically Struggling

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.

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

How to Celebrate International Archaeology Day

🥳🥳🥳

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

@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 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

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.

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

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.