What are you guys up to these day?

I’m back at work after being on leave. So I’ll be around less.

End of the month means slow internet. We’ve used up our allotment.

Just hanging out with friends and preparing to sail from Port Elizabeth, Bequia to Soufriere, St. Lucia

@filmfann – watching too many movies..)

The exam term.

I’m around as much as usual. If I’m busy or tired I may check in but not answer much.

Sometimes I click on “follow” and intend to answer later.

In my life, I’m a single mom who is out about 10+ hours per day between work and commute and often have meetings, parties and other obligations in the evening.

Now that it’s Oscar season, I’m trying to catch up on movies which are up for Oscars. In the past few weeks I’ve seen Manchester by the Sea and Jackie. Today I have a few hours to spare and so I might see Fences.

I’m still wandering around Boston as usual. School, and working at school. I tutor introductory Algebra and Calculus classes. Also, I help with a pre-Calculus class, which is my favorite thing to do. I’m still with Food Not Bombs regularly, heading there now.

My life is a damn mess right now, lol.

I had emergency abdominal surgery almost 3 months ago and by now I should be fine but I’m still very much not. I’m still healing the surgical incision. I’m still down 6–8 pounds from where I was. I’m still having random fucking bizarre pains that seem unrelated but started at the time of surgery (Lungs??? Muscles in my chest cavity???? My doctors can’t figure it out). Still drinking the nasty protein supplements that are supposed to help with all this shit.

Forgive me if I’m grumpy as hell. I was cheerful for a good while immediately after surgery. Felt like I’d turned over a new leaf or some shit. Turned out it was just the effect of painkillers on my brain. I’ve been an emotional mess ever since I stopped them.

I’m working full time and walking 10–15 miles a week just to get to work and all my various appointments.

The worst thing about incidents like this isn’t the immediate time when you are in the hospital and you have everyone’s love and support and work is telling you to take it easy until you are able to come back. It’s 3 months later when you still feel like shit, but nobody thinks you need help anymore, and work needs to you to be productive again.

I spend all my free time/energy trying to find a balance between resisting Donald Trump and staying sane and healing.

Sorry for ranting so hard on your question.

No apologies needed…just take good care of yourself. Hope everything will be fine for you after some time..)

@imrainmaker Streaming movies is impossible here, even at the beginning of the month.

I’m still here.

New career path, and building a better Q&A mousetrap.

Still enjoying my New Year.

Much love Mariah

Please get better soon.

Practising brain surgery. Teachers are not happy with my progress.

Maybe you should learn to spell. FIRST

@Tropical_Willie You kant make me spell rite…dear yew to trie….Dubble dear yew

“K” @Cruiser

@Tropical_Willie My spelling issues are only a small part of why my teachers are not happy with my progress :D

^^What are studying? New language?

sos

Trying for more of a balance between real life and internet life. Also, don’t find that much content to engage with here lately. Tired of fighting the same old battles and looking for joy in real life. (Although I would take a bizarre pleasure in getting to 50,000.)

Also, I was in Cuba for a week!

I only come onto Fluther when I’m at work. I pop in and out throughout the work day. It’s extremely rare for me to come on from home. I’m living my life: relaxing, reading, cooking, visiting with people all over, writing, etc.

@janbb Viva la Revolucion!

@Hawaii_Jake Venceramos!

I’m glad I’m not the only one who has been busy lately… At the same time, sorry I’ve been contributing to the slower pace!

Pet project I’ve been working on (pun intended)... I’m working with my dog to have him solve miscellaneous puzzles. He gets bored easily but isn’t much interested in learning tricks, and anyway he’s got the basics (sit, stay, wait, down, up, off, come, breakfast, food, walk) and he even has a fairly stable grasp on an assortment of directional cues I use when we go on runs.

The puzzles started with a treat/food ball that we got for him—there’s a 3D “maze” inside the ball, with an opening that the food spills out of—he pushes the ball around on the ground to get it to rotate and release some of the food. It took him a day to get comfortable with the ball (his first strategy was to bark in frustration), and longer than that to develop the various techniques he now has for navigating the ball out of tight places, or for changing the orientation of the ball when it’s not releasing any food, etc. And along the way I’ve been giving him various additional puzzles—putting the ball (or just his food) in situations where he has to tip something over or pull something off to get to the food. Over time he has become more confident and eager to try and get to the food/treat, and more resilient when things don’t initially work out. We’ve also developed a system where I’ll say “look,” and demonstrate how to get the food free while he watches me. Then I put everything back the way it was and he has a go.

Tonight I covered the food with a plastic lid, which isn’t new, but I kept it slanted so that someone could grab it by its edge and lift it out of the bowl. My dog started tipping the bowl with his nose like he’s used to doing, but interrupted by saying “look!” (at which he stepped back) and then I grabbed the lid with my hand and put it back a couple of times. He never picks things up with his mouth—always paws at the object, or if he has to, nudges it with his nose. Well, right after I showed him how I picked up the lid, he stepped up to the food bowl, bit the edge of the lid, and pulled it away. (Actually, it had a curved edge like a frisbee so he bit down on the edge and it swung against his chest, he startled and dropped it back into the bowl, and then he tried again and succeeded.) So now I’m very happy that we’re at a point of communicating that I can show him a new strategy—like picking something up instead of tipping something over—and he takes to the strategy right away. It was also confirmation that he really is watching what I do and applying it.

Working from home and watching the country explode on Twitter

@Seek while you watch your country explore on Twitter, I watch my country play cheerleaders on Facebook. ~

I don’t blame them. We owe your country a large debt of apology and shame.

For the past couple of days I’ve been monitoring Trump’s Twitter feed @realDonaldTrump. He’s a very busy man. In this short time, he has publicly insulted the Australian Prime Minister, threatened to cut federal funding to UC Berkeley over the protests, threatened to bomb Mexico, told us that if we didn’t like his choice of Supreme Court justice that we could basically go fuck ourselves, blamed the Democrats for DC not working, anounced that he is “getting ready to deliver a VERY IMPORTANT DECISION”—his caps (re: the supreme court nominee), said that Obama saved Iran from economic and political collapse by giving Iran $150B (read tratorious act) in the Iran Deal, said Pelosi and Schumer cry crocodile tears, and much more.

This is Trump unfiltered, unadviised, uninhibited. A realtime window into the mind of the President of the United States. A window into what is obviously the sick mind of a madman. Amazing.

^^ What you saw is what we got. I’m surprised at people who said, “Let’s wait and see.”

This stuff is so scary and entertaining in a sick way that he should have his own ticker in Times Square so people and the would can be reminded constantly what a madman so many misguided Americans voted in as president. It quickly becomes obvious that he should be treated as a very dangerous, armed psychiatric patient, not as a regular human being that can be dealt with on a rational level.

This may help to avoid real tragedy in the next four years just in case some world leaders still think that descriptions of Trump’s mental condition is just sour grapes and opposition hype. He really is unstable. I wonder if Cruiser has taken a look at #RealDonaldTrump?

Frankly, I don’t want to look at his Twitter feed because I value what is left of my peace of mind. Just seeing news content is enough to alarm me.

- Running overtime on my tax return.
– Looking at starting a new company with some other people.
– Considering legal action against some very violent people – once I’ve got my tax return out of the way.
– Planning for my role in a Tech show at the end of February 2018, sorting out accommodation etc.
– Being dragged into a school reunion tonight.
– Hoping nobody requests a meeting on the 14th Feb.
– Reviewing my budget. I’m always doing this, and so should you.
– Working out when’s best to take a short working break, and where.