Couch 231: Live Long and Prosper!

An adjunct professor at a local community college ordered me to do something today. Didn’t even introduce himself. Just ordered me.

At first I tried to engage politely, but he become more and more peremptory. He wants something from my department that it would not be to our benefit to do, is a ton of paperwork, and which we would only do as a favor to a longstanding colleague, which he is not.

I finally blocked his emails when he started telling me federal law requires me to do what he wanted. (It doesn’t.)

1. He does not know with whom he is dealing.

2. Why cant i choose a gendered pronoun for whom?

3. Federal law, huh? Sic SD on 'im!

Two words: inflectional reduction.

Or my preferred explanation: English is a sloppy language that lacks nuance.

Whim and wherm are my choices.

"Ask not wherm the bell tolls..."

Doesnt that sound better? I want that said at my funeral.

"Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs; Make dust our paper and with rainy eyes
Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth, Let's choose executors and talk of wills"

"Be not self-willed, for thou art much too fair
To be death's conquest and make worms thine heir."

Um...I would have guessed wherm was the male gender? (Do I really need to explain why?)

But also, given that the rest of the quote is “it tolls for thee,” but surely not all those listening are the same gender as wherm, you need a more gender-neutral term?

And it sounds like wherm in and of itself is the sative, since you left out the for?

English is a flexible language.

What it lacks in grammar it makes up for in vocabulary.

Incidentally, do you know of a language where "who" is gendered?

Latin: qui, quae, quod

Ancient Greek: ὅς, ἥ, ὅ

And English vocabulary is nothing compared to Japanese and Korean.

Can someone remind me how to block a user on here? I can't seem to figure it out. (It's none of you!)

Profile >> My Profile >>Edit Ignore List >> search for user name.

Oh, it's under my profile, not something with the other person's. Thanks! And that would keep them from seeing my posts, correct? (I know theirs would be blocked from me.)

Don't think so. I think blocking only prevents them from posting on your threads, quoting you, and you don't see their posts. I think they can still see yours.

I can still see the posts of people who have me blocked. I didn't realise they couldn't see my posts. They are missing out on such a goldmine of insightful and intellectual comment!

Hm, OK. I guess I mistakenly thought my ignoring someone also kept them from seeing my posts. Like if I blocked them on Facebook. It would be nice to have that sort of capability on here.


(Note: This is not due to anything that happened on PC--this is someone I know outside of PC who occasionally posts here. They unilaterally ended the friendship yesterday, like a "never contact me again" thing, and I'm just feeling less comfortable posting on here, knowing it can all be read.)

You can do it from their profile (drop down menu under their avatar >> Add to ignore list) but since profiles record the last 10 visits, I like the other way better.

You cannot see their posts. They cannot post on your threads. You will not receive PMs from them. I think that is it.

From my past experience in ignoring someone, they can opt to see your posts. The text of their post is hidden, and you have to click on it to see it. Like it says "this person is on your ignore list, you must click to see the post." Not unlike how a trigger warning works on here.


So they still have the option!

OK, thanks! And I guess they'll now be able to see that I visited their profile, but oh well.

Also - if they use taptalk (or something like that) they can still post and quote etc - it defeats parts of ignore -you can't see them but they can do everything else

Me too! Thanks @@ for the recipe!

it is so weird going to lunch at 9am even if it is 4 hours into my workday. But! today is my friday, and I'm off work for the next 5 days, so who cares!

Jeez, LT that sounds awful. Sorry that happened :/

IOP starts tonight. I'm nervous. This IS what I wanted but I am still nervous.


Something my T, Dr, K said is getting to me. He was talking about how I am good at using my resources to get help but my brain has twisted it around to mean that I am taking advantage of the services. I don't think that is what he meant but that is a bit how it came across. I pay good money for my health insurance, about 10% of my gross pay. Why shouldn't I use the resources available to me if it would help me?


I will probably take some anti anxiety medication later so I am good during class. I just hope everything works technology wise. I'm not the best when it comes to Zoom.

I hope IOP goes well, Kit. And I don't think you're taking advantage of the services in a negative way at all. Like you said, you pay for your insurance. They approved covering this program. It's not like you're lying about your mental health to get it covered.

Also, it's in the best interest of your insurance to cover a program that could help prevent hospitalization. As that would be MUCH more expensive for them. It's similar to how my insurance (and I think most insurance, at this point) completely covers an annual physical, because they'd rather have any sort of issue, like high blood pressure (thinking of that because H just got diagnosed with it and is on a medication) get diagnosed and treated early on, rather than someone not knowing what's up and winding up in the hospital with a heart attack.

I know how it can be to feel like you don't deserve care as much as others, as I've been there. But you deserve it. You deserve whatever help you feel you need and that is being offered to you.

Thanks, Chihiro.

Thank you LT. Sincerely. What you said helped a lot. HUGS Kit