Chatterday! Open Thread.

two baby platypiThis is our weekly Chatterday! open thread. Use this open thread to talk amongst yourselves: feel free to share a link, have a vent, or spread some joy.

What have you been reading or watching lately (remembering spoiler warnings)? What are you proud of this week? What’s made your teeth itch? What’s going on in your part of the world? Feel free to add your own images. (Anna insists that these should only be of ponies, but I insist that very small primates, camelids, critters from the weasel family, smooching giraffes, and cupcakes are also acceptable.) Just whack in a bare link to a webpage, please – admin needs to deal with the HTML code side of things.

Today’s chatterday backcloth comes via The Daily Squee.

37 thoughts on “Chatterday! Open Thread.

  1. ZOMG SO CUTE! *cuddles them gently*

    I talked to Will (the cousin from last week’s Chatterday) the other day, and I explained what had happened, and now we’re great again. 😀

    I have no idea about my aunt’s opinion of me/my reasons/whatever at this point, and I actually don’t much care, since the one who was truly effected is Will, and we’ve discussed it and he’s no longer upset.

    Thank you so much to everyone who gave advice or comments – you folks really helped.

    (And even if you didn’t comment, if you hoped things would work out for me, thank you, too.)

  2. Wow, those are some cute baby platypuses! What’s the term for a baby platypus–platypuppy?

    I just started reading Elizabeth Moon’s The Speed of Dark, which I’ve been hearing good things about for a long time. So far I’m really enjoying it. I have no idea whether the information it presents about autism is correct, but given some of the people who have been recommending the book I’d like to assume it is.

  3. Platypuppy works for me! (Don’t they have poison something or others?)

    The city and county got a snow day today – I almost wish we didn’t, because all the things on campus are closed, which means that I have a movie from Netflix behind locked doors. Suffering, you know?

    Caitlin, I’m glad things worked out with Will!

    I’m starting physical therapy next week, if Tricare behaves. My muscles are reacting to the pain?

    I made a very difficult decision this week, but I made it, it’s over, leave me alone! Most students take 15 hours (5 classes) each semester, because we need 120 to graduate. I signed up for 5 classes this semester. But I realized that I couldn’t *do* one of them. I had two classes back to back – each an hour and a half, each French, starting before noon. I dropped one of them after buying the book last week. (It’s a workbook, so maybe in 20 years I’ll go hey, I used to understand this.) I can’t do it, I can’t physically do it. The class room is too small for much movement, let alone a more comfortable place to sit. I hope this semester goes better than last semester, but I was afraid since I’d already left class early on the 3rd day of class, that it would be a pattern and things would build up and crash on me in May. And I wanted to avoid that.

    So now I have nice big breaks in between all my classes, big enough to stretch out, rest, and get some food, which really helps the pain/stress (from being in pain).

    And we got snow. It’s 27 F and still snowing/sleeting/whatever. I have the window wide open. It’s still 70 F in my room and I’m so hot!

  4. I forgot to mention – after months of not walking to the library, I finally went this Tuesday! (After dropping the class online.)

    I read Bright-Sided, and it’s just scary. Never liked Calvinism.

    Ooh, Calvin and Hobbes plus snow! It’s the principle of the thing – if you don’t have to deal with it (driving, shoveling) then snow day snow day snow day! One year after it snowed, my sister and my cousin and I, we saw these footprints going to the pond’s edge, but no others (besides our own).

    And yes, Southerners are “wusses.” I get it. (We got the announcement about closing last night at 9 because of the “winter weather WARNING” – not a damn thing on the ground until after 8 am!)

  5. i am having a shit week. bad/down mood throughout, threats of layoffs at work, and then a major car accident to top it all off, leaving me with impact/soreness in the ankle, knee, and hip of my right leg. and a potentially totaled car. i have decided january is just not for me and when i get home from work i may very well stay inside until it’s february and safe to come out again.

    in other words: GRGRGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. (which was dulled a bit by platypi. but only a bit.)

  6. Abby Jean – I’m so sorry.

    I will build you a nice fort in front of the TV and we will spend this weekend doing nothing productive. (Snow makes me giggle, which puts me in a childish frame of mind and I really want a fort.)

    My father has many faults (like moving us to Memphis, HEYO!) but the man could build snow tunnels perfect for a 4/5 year old and her little sister to enjoy in Iceland.

    Nostalgia time for Kaitlyn… I’ll be back to normal when the snow melts. Perhaps.

    Abby Jean – lock the door and barricade yourself with good things – books, DVDs, the computer, pets, and ignore the world until February rolls around. Or March. Become a bear and hibernate. “Oh winter? Yeah, I had the wildest dream that I had to deal with winter weather and SAD! And then I went back to bed.”

    (Because even in my nostalgia-fueled nonsense, I realize some people get “real” snow and thus aren’t big fans. Plus a day off means a day with no pay. Which is no fun. I told my mom to go to school and demand the extra day in 2-4 weeks – I was there, it wasn’t my fault no one else was!)

  7. And Abby Jean, as a sign of my great maturity…

    (I can’t do this!)

    You can play with my stuffed platypi in the fort.

    I am so mature!

    *hugs Puffy, stuffed Platypus extraordinaire*

  8. Ouch! Sorry to hear, abby jean!

    I’m really tired of this winter, it’s been snowing almost non-stop for weeks and weeks and the streets and pavements are slippery as hell. It’s snowing so much, they can’t clear the pavements fast enough.
    .-= Kowalski´s last blog ..Ponderables of the Week =-.

  9. I am still feeling used & underappreciated this week. I told my boyfriend this a few days ago via IM (we’re in an LDR.) Today when I came home there was a box outside my house. Inside the box was a pink snuggie from him.
    Well at least someone appreciates me around here!

    I am still reading the same book I was reading last week. It seems to have… The second sections is more… Fall-aparty. Something is messed up in this book. I feel like I’m playing Phoenix Wright, I want to shout out “Hold it!” and. “objection!” because I think I’m seeing some contradictions. Or else I’m reading it wrong.

  10. {{{{{abby jean}}}}}

    I beat Dragon Age: Origins this week! It is the first console game I have beaten… maybe ever.

    That is about all the big news I have.

  11. *turns into squeeing mess over beautiful velvet-upholstered baby platypi*

    If anyone ever decides to make a baby platypus plushie, it has to be either velvet or velour. Nothing else will do.

    At present I’m in a somewhat “emotional” mood (in need of catharsis) so I’m busy re-reading stuff which makes me teary. It’s not quite working, so I suspect I’m going to have to dig out the Mercedes Lackey some time this afternoon, and bawl my way through the Vanyel trilogy.

  12. Millefolia, a lot of what is presented in The Speed Of Dark is based on the author’s own experiences together with her son, who has just started university. She has a personal blog at http://e-moon60.livejournal.com/ and her ongoing reflections on the subject (and continuing snippets of research) are housed at http://www.speedofdark-thebook.com/blog/

    Lou, of course, is a completely different person to Elizabeth Moon’s son; they have different strengths and different things they want to work on.

  13. Just finished The Speed of Dark and wow. I’ll need to take some time to process it, but I already know that for me it was a very strong, gripping, excellently-written story. Freya, thanks for the information on it, I’ve been too busy reading since I got home to look anything up. 🙂

  14. Well, I had some scheduling headaches from the clinic, but I did get to see a doctor who seems better with the first one. At the very least, he didn’t start off the appointment telling me what he wouldn’t prescribe and gushing about Zoloft. (I wanna get off the stuff ASAP. It messes with my ability to concentrate, but I’m not rushing to get off it until things settle a bit.) He also didn’t blame my problems on anxiety, which is something I’m kind of tired of hearing. I’ve had anxiety issues for years and I know what it does to me. Based on when things started, I think it’s entirely possible anxiety worsened things, but I scarcely think it’s my only problem. He prescribed some muscle relaxant, which the last guy I saw said he simply would not do, and hopefully that helps. I think once the muscle tension is dealt with, I should start healing. Nothing else I’ve tried seems to keep the tension off for long. Then again, I haven’t been able to get a psychical therapist. I’m so tired of Medicaid always sending me to the suburbs when I need to see a specialist.

  15. After noticing Shakesville’s thread about “mansplaining” the other day, I realized that there’s a disability-related equivalent to this phenomenon as well. I’ve seen it far too many times: some neurotypical claiming they know better than me about the limits of what I can do, about the way I perceive things, and so on. I’ve seen this with physical disabilities as well– well-minded people who think they know more about how something should be made accessible than someone who actually has a disability.

    I think this phenomenon should be termed “ablesplaining”. Unless, of course, one of you can come up with a better term…

  16. I finally have a shampoo+conditioner again that don’t make my head itch. I’m so relieved.
    Itching is a sensation (maybe *the* sensation) that I really can’t deal with well at all. I’d rather be feeling (well nothing special of course, but if that is not available) all kinds of other sensations than itching.

  17. Quijotesca – I’m so glad you found a nice doctor. It’s such a revelation and a shock, but it shouldn’t be. They should all be nice and mentally, you leave happy. It should not be a drain of energy (or painful, but I kind of hate chairs right now).

    I’m getting better in dealing with Dr. Ego. I don’t think I yelled that loud after the surgery. Also, reading everyone’s medical stories here makes me (sigh) grateful for him.

    I asked him to change my prescription, he went off to his office to do so. I’m standing in front of the nurses’ station awkwardly. His door is cracked. His voice booms out, jovial. “I’ve got tickets to the Memphis game* and I can’t use them! Do you want them?” And, “Unlike the university, I have to work!” (I take care not to bring political books into appointments, though I did bring one once and now I know where he stands. I don’t need to know that!)

    *That was the game my mom and sis would have given their eyeteeth to go to – we’ll take them off your hands!

    He’s a good doctor, most likely a good person, he just grates. But he doesn’t leave me a wreck anymore – I’m stronger and better at asking for what I need, which will serve me well when Tricare dumps me. (Unless I join the military. It’s the family business!)

  18. Norah – I’m so happy for you and your no longer itchy head!

    Itching is so annoying – sometimes creams and lotions don’t work fast enough, antihistamines don’t work fast enough, oops I’m bleeding. I’ve found a shower – really hot or really cold – helps slow it down – I have taken a shower before for no reason other then to calm down the itchiness.

    My nails grow so fast, when I get itchy, I am in trouble! I was so lucky when I had chicken pox (er…) because of my friend. Earlier that school year, I’d finally been diagnosed with allergies to almost everything non-food that can trigger a reaction (like the puppy I’d gotten a couple months before!). I do sneeze and get watery eyes, but the most common reaction is itchy itchy itchy.

    So I’m a precocious 4th grader. I tell my teachers, I tell my friends. Including my best friend, who used to live 2 houses away from me.

    She was merciless – yell at me when I scratched, hit my hand to make me stop. And then the chicken pox. Oy, the itching. Yes, I scratched. Yes, I have pock marks on my face.

    A funny little thing I remember from the allergy test – they touched your back with this thing, and each little poker had an allergen in it. Then they wait. And then I scratched. Whoops.

    Anyways, Norah, I have been there and it is under control now, and I am so happy for you!

  19. Well, the marks from chickenpox don’t seem to have much to do with scratching: I have a few on my face as well, but I never scratched my face when I had it (I think I was too busy trying for a way to reach my back).

    Interestingly, they are in the *exact* same spots where my dad’s chickenpox marks are on his face as well. That sort of stuff fascinates me.

  20. Good for you, not scratching your chicken pox, Norah!

    My pockmarks don’t itch, and they stopped itching once they became pockmarks. (I don’t remember if my back was bad – but I had one on the bottom of each foot. That was where the first one was.)

    I’ve got a case of the nostalgias, I blame the snow.

    And five minutes ago I was a snow grump. So much ice ice ice ice wee splat! And because the sun is going down, the parts of the sidewalk that are cleared but wet are indistinguishable from the parts that have no snow, but lots of ice. The safest place to walk is the middle of the street, except cars are now driving there. I mean, when did that happen?

    And now that I’m back inside, I’m soaked in sweat. Make your mind, my body says!

    I got a huge (inside) laugh at seeing a car with Wisconsin plates covered in snow, I don’t know why. I was on the lookout for plates from places that don’t get snow days based on “warnings”. Yeah, we may be “wusses,” but we get “snow days”! So there!

    And all the trees are frozen (except for the ones with leaves) and it looks so Christmassy and I did my homework so I’ll pretend it is.

  21. FWD has featured a couple of articles on employment recently. I am employed (yay!) but times are tight and I could use a little extra cash. Does anyone have any recommendations for side jobs for a disabled person? I can’t drive, and my hours at work make taking a second job next to impossible. Any other ideas? Thanks!

  22. There is an online resource for PWD to work for companies that need phone support people — you have to set up your phone line and computer for it, and you can field calls from home. But I bookmarked that resource so long ago, I don’t have it immediately on hand. I’ll try to dig around for it, though.

  23. So cute!!!!!!!!!!! I just keep coming back to this page to look at the baby platypuses, because they are so darn adorable!

  24. Laredhel said:
    “Ablesplaining has been in use, along with whitesplaining, cissplaining and straightsplaining”
    Oh *that’s* what it’s called! Thanks, I’ve been wondering all weekend about this…

    @ Codeman,
    …and came up with a specific subcategory of ablesplaining, called autism’splaining.

    (See link below!)
    .-= Kowalski´s last blog ..Eek!!! Autism’splainers really exist! =-.

  25. Codeman:

    “I think this phenomenon should be termed “ablesplaining”. Unless, of course, one of you can come up with a better term…”

    I sort of like to call it “tab-splainin”, which is a bit strange given that I’m not that sure how I feel about the term “Temporarily Able-Bodied” to denote people without disabilities. Guess it just has a nice ring to it.

  26. Freya, thanks again for the links to Elizabeth Moon’s blogs. I read through the entire Speed of Dark blog (I think I’m going to add it to my feed reader) and a couple of the posts got added to my slowly-growing file of “if I ever have kids, these posts will me be a better parent.”

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