Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis is a rare but fatal side effect of #measles infection, which manifests years after a kid recovers. This story of a family who lost a 10-year old to it is heartbreaking. Renae was too young to be vaccinated when she caught measles. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/21/o...
Yeah they can be easy to miss among all the juvenile bald. I'm guessing this one was migrating through, Anchorage is hardly their favored habitat lol
we technically have to request permission to install any software
i have gotten around this through the clever loophole of running Linux on the lab's research computers, bc they will not manage any Linux machine
my dad...idk. he said he thought i was doing it for online clout + because i wanted to prove i was better than other people (basically that i was virtue-signaling, without actually using the phrase).
it's still a sore spot. neither of them would accept the vouchers in case they ever needed an organ
multiple reasons. my mom, who has come around on it more since, has said a lot of it came from anger over how her mom's remains were mishandled during what was supposed to be very limited tissue donation, and so she was viewing all organ donation through that lens. which honestly i kinda get.
the last really big fight i had with my parents was over my nondirected kidney donation. i think they're still upset about it tbh.
like, i love the flexibility of it being normalized, but the fact of the matter is i will simply distract myself if and get much less done, so i have to do it sparingly!
oof
it hit me really hard bc i had finally worked up the nerve to recognize my PhD program was not working for me and was planning to reach out to find another lab to join elsewhere. Covid threw a wrench in that. i finished, but it was not a positive experience for me that further fucked me up.
yep.
like, i can at least intellectually understand where it comes from- if you can't yell at the people actually responsible, it feels good to at least yell at *someone*
but a lot of people work on understanding feelings =/= actions
i keep uninstalling it but every time there's a required institutional update, it gets added again 🙃
the societal momentum to open up way too early? yes, that is ableism in action.
acknowledging one's individual experience of having a really hard time not having direct human contact? not ableism.
glad to see nuance is once again a challenge on the internet!
saying "actually isolation and measures to try and protect myself and others from the plague were really hard to handle, but also if i had to do it again i 100% would because it was the right thing" is *not* ableism, folks.
A Canada goose crossing in a crosswalk on a city street.
I was like "what is this Canada goose doing in Englewood" and 15yo goes "he's in the crosswalk, leave him alone" and you know what? Fair
it appears i have forgotten absolutely everything about using Concur 🙃
don't get me wrong, isolation was 100% the right move and we should have done it longer + more effectively
but also it fucking sucked and i think part of the backlash to it was partially fueled by people trying hard (for understandable reasons!) to make it into a positive experience when it was not
the first hug i had was February 2021 when i helped dig out someone who got stuck in the snow in my alley
it really fucked me up!
the only positive of isolation was that i no longer felt like i was missing out on the connections other grad students had to departmental life that i felt unwelcome in when the lab got kicked out of the museum, but, well. that's not what i call *healthy*, y'know?
yeah
like, i'm thrilled for everyone who discovered they could WFH way more productively
i...discovered the opposite lmao
the vulture trio is giving strong "you will be visited by three spirits" vibes
Well, I had $900 saved for the car and it’s looking at $2100 so uhhh…
If anyone is able to help out😬😭
PayPal @ birderk
CashApp $KBirder
Venmo @ Katie-Andersen-26
Pardon me while I go scream.
oh that's just an average wednesday for me
just minding my own business, procrastinating on grading, and a freaking GOLDEN EAGLE just casually flies past my office window????????? 😱
they’re turning the fonts gay
The wins keep coming! Elle, along with my current grad student Noelle and current undergrad/incoming grad student Iqra, all had their abstracts for the @wilsonornithsoc.bsky.social / @fieldornith.bsky.social meeting this summer accepted 🥳
Hey you! I am still on the market for jobs this fall! I am an entomologist who specializes in inclusive biology teaching (15+ semesters of collegiate instruction) and a broad array of research skills spanning collection & ID, molecular work (RNAi, Genomics), and phenotyping (behavior, physiology)🧪
Friends, could you help me share this Kickstarter? It’s doing well but I need to extend its reach: www.kickstarter.com/projects/158...
Going from "fuck idk if I can finish grad school" to having grad students of my own in 3.5 years is still a level of whiplash I can't adequately articulate.
Today one of my grad students is having her first committee meeting to present her thesis proposal and excuse me I have *emotions*
Lol in fairness I wanted a regular sized one so I could make larger batches, but this was all they had. It does make an ambitious amount of ice cream for one person in a single sitting though
A small ice cream maker full of purple ice cream
Yes, I got a personal ice cream maker and immediately made homemade crowberry ice cream
You all have permission to be jealous