grammarwoman: (Candle lemon)
Kim ([personal profile] grammarwoman) wrote2022-03-28 04:45 pm
Entry tags:

Meme! (and a birthday)

I took today off from work as a birthday present to myself and had ambitious plans to Get Shit Done - and then I realized I haven't read DW in a long while and have been playing catch-up all day. Ah well.

1. Name: Hm. I feel like I should be internet safe here and not share my RL name, but if you don't know and want to, PM me.

2. Age: 49 as of today - it's my actual-factual birthday!

3. Location: Central Illinois, a town with the feel of a suburb without the urb.

4. Occupation: Software engineer for a company with dental and veterinary divisions.

5. Significant Other: My husband. We met in high school, rotating on opposite sides of a friend group but never really interacted (he thought I was functionally mute, because that's my default behavior in a crowd), then hooked up several years later. We've been married now for (gulp) almost 22 years.

6. Kids: One headstrong teenager formerly known as the Emperor, now a high school junior who is taller than I am and catching up to his dad.

7. Brothers/sisters: I had one brother, but fuck cancer. I'm going to bawl if/when I make it to 50, because he never did.

8. Pets: We have a delightful Lab/German Shepherd doggo who is a goober and devoted to her humans, with me as her favorite.

9. List the 3 biggest things going on in your life: Trying to mold the kid into a happy, healthy, independent adult and feeling like it's never gonna happen. Dealing with aging parents. Feeling out of control all the damned time.

10. Where and for what did you go to School for?: Michigan State for Computer Science, with an unofficial minor in English. I'm one of the few people I know who is actually employed in a job that corresponds with my major.

11. Parents: *knock on wood* Still have both of mine, thank goodness; I got to see them yesterday, and they took me out for a birthday dinner. The husband's parents are around as well, though not as in good health.

12. Who are some of your closest friends?: My best friend had to move away for a job, and I haven't seen her in person since the pandemic started. We have good friends in town, too, but we try to be safe and only meet up outdoors; we have a thriving chat on Discord, including our D&D campaign.
misbegotten: A skull wearing a crown with text "Uneasy lies the head" (Default)

[personal profile] misbegotten 2022-03-28 10:27 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm one of the few people I know who is actually employed in a job that corresponds up with my major.

You weirdo. :D
aurumcalendula: gold, blue, orange, and purple shapes on a black background (Default)

[personal profile] aurumcalendula 2022-03-28 10:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Happy birthday!
ailurophile6: (happy birthday)

[personal profile] ailurophile6 2022-03-28 10:53 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm glad you posted here today, because I know you don't check in on FB very often.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!
ailurophile6: (mcshep)

[personal profile] ailurophile6 2022-03-29 01:02 am (UTC)(link)
I'll be there Sat and part of Sunday - general admission lol
umadoshi: (riceball love (snowgarden))

[personal profile] umadoshi 2022-03-29 01:15 am (UTC)(link)
Happy birthday! ^_^
musesfool: tasty cosmopolitans (we'll laugh and we'll toast to nothing)

[personal profile] musesfool 2022-03-29 01:49 am (UTC)(link)
Happy birthday! <3
highlander_ii: Tom Creo's left arm with rings of tattoos from "The Fountain" ([TomC] tattoos - lft arm)

[personal profile] highlander_ii 2022-03-29 05:51 am (UTC)(link)
Happy actual-factual birthday!

also - HOW is the Emperor in high school already?????? when did that happen?
squidgiepdx: (Check Please - Bitty and Jack)

[personal profile] squidgiepdx 2022-03-29 02:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Welcome back! ::tumblyhugs::
talitha78: (jillicons hoola hamster)

[personal profile] talitha78 2022-03-29 04:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Happy birthday!!!
kass: Eleven and Amy hug. (hug)

[personal profile] kass 2022-03-29 10:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Happy birthday to you, my dear! I send so much love your way. Also omg how is the Emperor a high school junior.
renenet: (Default)

[personal profile] renenet 2022-03-30 01:22 am (UTC)(link)
Happy Birthday +1!!! I would have been on time, but I was saving up for that +1! ;-)

Sounds like a pretty good life you've got going there. Keep up the great work! *hugs*
the_shoshanna: kitty icon with cake, hat, and streamers (birthday kitty)

[personal profile] the_shoshanna 2022-03-30 06:14 pm (UTC)(link)
uh -- happy birthday +2!

Undergraduate me did a special major combining two fields with a concentration in a third, and then I did graduate work in one or two (depending how you count) more unrelated fields, and am paid to do something unrelated to all of them.
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)

Thoughts

[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith 2022-03-30 10:30 pm (UTC)(link)
>> 2. Age: 49 as of today - it's my actual-factual birthday! <<

Wow, mine is in a couple of days.

>>I'm one of the few people I know who is actually employed in a job that corresponds with my major.<<

Wordsmith with a Rhetoric degree here.
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)

Re: Thoughts

[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith 2022-03-31 06:30 pm (UTC)(link)
While the job market has gotten much more chaotic, the college system has gotten much more specific, which is the opposite of helpful. Used to be a history degree would prepare you to teach history, write about it, run a museum, or run a historical collection in a large library. Now those are all separate degrees. The narrower the degrees get, and the more unstable the job market gets, the more people have to work outside theirs -- which usually means working far below their potential, because degree inflation makes it hard to get any kind of decent job without a degree for it. The one bit of flexibility there is that some jobs don't care what you have a degree in, they just require any college degree, which is nothing but a means test. >_<

Then of course, you have to account for the leaking pipelines, which leak for two broad categories of reasons: people who are forced out, and people who leave because they're unwilling to be mistreated. People leaving their original field may not bother getting a degree in another, so often wind up in work that doesn't match the degree(s) they have.

Less obvious is the massive amount of wasted talent among immigrants and refugees. Instead of checking people's credentials and helping skilled workers touch up for local work, most are left to scrabble for menial jobs. Unless someone comes in specifically to work for a company, which is a separate program, they very rarely have the chance to work in their field. Which is how we wound up with Russian nuclear engineers sweeping streets; it was a running joke for a while. You'd think they would've made more effort to catch at least that job qualification, but no; the ones who got scooped were almost all people who got basically headhunted. Anyone who made it here on their own was left on their own. Currently, people whine about refugees taking up medical resources, but don't search among them for their own medics to take care of each group.

I have a job in my own field because my life choices and priorities are a lot different than average. Rhetoric was actually my third choice of degree; I picked it because it was easy, applicable to pretty much anything I'd want to do, and flexible enough that I could find something useful in it. But that probably also feeds into people not working their degree, if they can't get the one they wanted or find something else useful.

I've studied the problems of the educational system a lot.
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)

Re: Thoughts

[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith 2022-03-31 07:03 pm (UTC)(link)
No, your comment was fine. I just have a tendency to bring up the background when people mention that issue.
romantical: (Default)

[personal profile] romantical 2022-04-04 02:44 am (UTC)(link)
I thought of you all day on Monday! Happiest of birthdays (a couple days late, but no less heartfelt!) <33333