Kim (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
grammarwoman) wrote2022-03-28 04:45 pm
grammarwoman) wrote2022-03-28 04:45 pm
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.
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.
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You weirdo. :D
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!
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Hey! You doing Creation this summer? I'm thinking about it, but it would have to include a lap dance from Ben Browder to get me to pay the $$$ for a gold ticket for what they're offering right now.
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also - HOW is the Emperor in high school already?????? when did that happen?
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It seems like I blinked and he got bigger and older. Not as bad as niblings and friends' kids, but still - the nerve! ;)
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WHAT IS TIME, AND WHY DOES IT GO WHOOSH?
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Sounds like a pretty good life you've got going there. Keep up the great work! *hugs*
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Life is pretty good, I must admit. Thanks! *HUGS*
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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.
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I believe that makes you professionally and educationally well-rounded, and have a lot of books. :D
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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.
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Congrats on employing your degree - it's a rarefied club. :)
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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.
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