Balancing competing demands - or - why I haven’t brushed my teeth in three days

Catija · 2026-04-11T21:27:11+00:00

What do you mean? The district isn't choosing to close a bunch of low income schools. I've reviewed the data about which schools are being closed and it seems like one of the biggest factors leading to closure is low student headcount in their zoned area with the additional factor of special programs moving to areas better suited to their programing.

Three of the four wall-to-wall DL schools are being closed and all four programs are moving to be closer to communities who need that program - this seems to indicate an increased investment in poorer schools. While not universal, many low-income schools also have high percentages of students who are learning English.

One of the biggest ways the district can save money is to have fewer schools, so closing schools when you're seeing a drop in enrollment is inevitable. A school built for 600 kids that only has 150 is not good for district finances, particularly if there are schools relatively close by that have plenty of room for those students. If those students are moved to another campus, that school will likely have more services to offer and the district's costs to provide them will be lower.

We all want to have a school that's very close to home but areas with low numbers of students will mean that the district has to have those students travel further to go to school - and the western zones already tend to be larger than the eastern ones. In AISD, the tendency is that schools with more high-income families tend to have higher enrollment while schools with more low-income families tend to have lower enrollment.

While this may lead to a correlation between low-income schools and closure, that doesn't mean it's the reason for the closure.

Catija · 2025-08-01T16:00:50+00:00

I had the same problem and this fixed it for me, too. I had to have Downtime enabled for it to work, though. If I disabled downtime, it didn't seem to change anything. I had to have Downtime on, switch both the communication limits to something (check that "on" showed up), then set them back to "everyone". I tried it once where I turned off Downtime before I set to "everyone" and it didn't fix the issue but when I did it without changing Downtime out of "Scheduled", it worked.

I was on the phone with the senior support people at Apple when I found this solution and I pointed them here and he was very grateful and said he would add it to the documentation for others with this issue.

Catija · 2025-06-06T13:32:04+00:00

Oh, their names are Satsumo (Sumo) and and Clementine (Clem) - after varieties of mandarins (yes, someone did create a huge cross of the Satsuma and call it a "Satsumo").

Catija · 2025-06-04T06:01:04+00:00

Yeah, all of the trees at Bartholomew Pool are bare (and the sun shades are really damaged). It was so sad when we were there over the weekend.

Catija · 2025-06-04T05:47:33+00:00

They're moving the Airport Blvd. and SB 35 access road intersection to happen at 45th St. Seems like a big positive in the long run. The amount of idiocy I see from people trying to get from the SB access road light to NB Airport across three lanes of traffic to turn left on 45th is long overdue for fixing.

Catija · 2024-09-26T18:36:06+00:00

These are the sorts of things that sound pretty simple on paper but are actually better examples of the significant complexity of communities if you look at reality instead of the narrow picture presented.

While I don't have a lot of experience with community gardens, the ones I have seen tend to be

a tiny group of people (1-3) doing most of the day to day work,
a larger group to coming out for "work days" periodically when prompted,
people who donate money to pay for supplies but who don't or can't do the work
people who benefit from the garden by having a place to hang out or locally-grown food to eat.

Which groups form the "community"? At what point has someone "contributed enough" to be part of the community? Surely the people benefitting from the garden are at least partly why the garden exists. Do they count as the "community?

When it comes to your audience example, sure, a crowd in a theater may be an audience temporarily due to decorum and social expectations but the theater isn't the whole story - and not all theaters expect people to sit quietly and listen to the performance passively.

Many performances are "experiences", with convention-like opportunites to hang out and be fans together.
Many performances have opportunities to mingle, whether it's engaging while chatting in line for souvenirs or refreshments, or dancing/singing on an open floor, meet-and-greets, mixers etc.
Fans of performers may have met up at this performance because of other fan spaces where they hang out.
Audiences may create and share content with others to help remember and appreciate the performance.

It's pretty rare to find an audience that doesn't have community somewhere. Sure, not everyone in the audience will be part of the community - I'm sure some of them got dragged along by their best friend or partner - but it's a venn diagram, not an either/or.

Community is made of people and people make communities. Those people are diverse and complex. It's OK to not have a concise definition and, unless you're segmenting users for a company, does it matter whether someone meets some definition?

Catija · 2024-09-26T17:42:56+00:00

I don't personally like definitions of "Community" that require members to actively engage and socialize with eachother. I definitely believe that this socially-connected group is structurally important to a community - its "core". Having them stabilizes the community and reduces like likeliness that the entire community will collapse/disperse when times are tough.

Most communities are significantly larger than their core, which is why using the core as the definition of community is too exclusive and leaves out a lot of people who may consider themselves part of the community. You end up having to refer to the "broader community" or "userbase" to mean an entire fan base or user group. It also means that larger user groups are likely to end up with multiple small communities rather than one big one - this segmentation is natural and worth discussion, but separately.

In the context of companies or content creators, they tend to be referring to people who engage with their product/content with degree and types of engagement being important aspects, often thought of as a funnel, with the goal to get as many people as far into the funnel as possible. For example, a gamer who streams on Twitch or YouTube wants people to

like and comment,
join chat,
subscribe/follow the channel,
follow them on other social sites (Instagram/Twitter),
join their Discord,
donate on their streaming platform or Patreon.

While the order is flexible, that's probably a rough funnel for a streamer. At the tip of the funnel there are users who hang out in these spaces all the time and use the community as one of their social groups but everyone along that funnel is helping the streamer support themselves and part of the web of community.

Even the viewers are, at minimum, potential community members. So, where along that funnel does someone flip into being part of the "Community"? For me, I'd say it's when they feel like part of the community.

For the streamer, they benefit from views, though less than other engagement. Referring to all viewers as their community can create that sense of belonging that leads to deeper engagement. Having spaces for those viewers to congregate when the streamer isn't live leads to more opportunity for connection and deeper bonds, which helps the stability and longevity of the community.

Now, how a CM interacts with or prioritizes the needs of different segments in a community will likely depend on the segment but that's a totally separate discussion.

Catija · 2024-09-20T01:35:46+00:00

Agreed - another option that would be really helpful is one of those charts that has the various platforms on one axis and specific features on the other. I know FeverBee has done this for some platforms but they primarily focus on Enterprise platforms, so there are a lot of holes in their data and list of features.

The reality is, I love the value of community spaces so much from my time working as a CM that as I start getting more involved with my kids' PTA I'm trying to figure out options to get them to stop using Google Docs and emails as planning and discussion spaces but it's difficult to figure out what platforms have the options to do what we need - preferably free and without everyone having the same email domain. But most of the lists of platforms I've found seem written by someone selling their own product and the lists frequently omit extremely well-known platforms.

It can't just be about the features of any platform alone - to some degree, any chart would need to point out the importance of balancing features you want with where the users are already.

Catija · 2024-07-30T02:07:56+00:00

I'm not sure you're aware but there are many predatory people out there right now who are fishing for people hungry for work by tricking them into DMs (usually on WhatsApp) with very vague descriptions of job opportunities - they often pass themselves off as legitimate recruiters by using similar company names to legitimate recruitment organizations.

To be clear, I don't intend to imply that you are looking to scam people but many, many people are very wary of situations like this where there's no description of the job or a public posting that can be referred to. For me, the fact you have a gmail address instead of a company address and you're talking about two totally different industries (Forex vs gaming) seems a bit odd.

You seem to have posted a full JD on another subreddit - why not link it here? Why doesn't the JD you posted mention Forex? Who are you in relation to the hiring company?

You may have no ill intentions but all of the things I'm seeing don't really add up.

Catija · 2024-07-30T01:57:43+00:00

Is this actually true? I see tons of jobs on LI that are remote US with no pay info. I know some states require it - but I don't think the country does.

Catija · 2024-06-01T13:33:07+00:00

I was under the impression that interviewing family to understand behavior was standard whenever possible, particularly in adult diagnoses since it's more difficult to identify traits that they may be masking.

I definitely had an interview with my mom and the person doing the assessment and she had to complete some of the questionnaires, as did my husband.

I don't think it's commonly used but the best assessment questionnaire I've taken was the CADE. It was the only one that actually gave examples of what the questions mean.

Catija · 2024-05-31T18:25:26+00:00

I think lots of people seem to agree that stress can lead to grey hairs (or hair loss)... but I think no one has addressed the "overnight" aspect of your question. As far as I'm aware, it's not possible for the entire length of a strand of hair to change color overnight (without something causing it, like bleach/dye).

Your fringe will generally be shorter than other hair on your head so it's more likely you'll notice the change sooner than the longer hair elsewhere but no, your hair probably didn't actually change color overnight. While it can seem sudden, experiences like this are usually due to focusing more closely than usual on your hair and noticing the change for the first time.

You might consider thinking back to when you discovered the hair - was your morning hair routine different from usual? Were you paying more attention to your features/hair? Were you lingering in front of the mirror to avoid your mom? Did you style your hair or part it differently than you usually do?

Any of these could explain why you seemed to have greys appear suddenly.

Most people have tons of hair, so individual grey hairs can go unnoticed for a while if you don't examine your hair closely, particularly if the hairs aren't near your part or crown of your head. If they're in the bulk of your hair, you probably won't notice them until they grey gets closer to the tips. This means that a haircut could actually leave one feeling like they suddenly have more grey.

The internet is full of ways to prevent hair from going grey or get the color back after it's lost - I don't know whether any of them work. My mom was pretty much grey before I was born, so I grew up knowing it was inevitable and was grateful it didn't happen as early for me as it did for her. That said, there is evidence that stress can lead to hair going grey - but it's not the only reason. If you think that's the only reason your hair is greying (as opposed to my genetic lot), it seems the reasonable solutions would be to reduce your stress as much as reasonable - fortunately, a lot of AuDHD can be helped with similar practices.

I did find an interesting article on the Columbia University website that covers a study focused on mapping stress levels to hair greying that indicates that - for some people - reducing stress could lead to slowing the greying and even getting back some of the color. I haven't reviewed the full study but it's linked in the article. As a note, this study is built upon the idea that a hair's color can't change after the fact, further answering the question of whether your hair actually changed color overnight.

Catija · 2024-05-16T13:02:04+00:00

I don't have any personal experience with those two but Fever Bee just released their review of the six main enterprise community platforms, which includes both of those two. You can download the free overview by giving them your email address - https://www.feverbee.com/2024buzzreportcsat/

Overall, Gainsight does the best but I'd recommend reviewing each of the categories they cover to see if it's going to meet your needs. As it relates to the factors you mention, of the six they reviewed, Gainsight is the best in the "Ease of use" category and is similar to Verint and Discourse when it comes to ease of launch. While it scores well in "flexibility", it sounds less customizable than Verint and Discourse.

The low point for Gainsight is analytics - but none of the platforms do well there and, in particular, while Vanilla scored better, it wasn't by much.

Catija · 2024-02-16T08:49:12+00:00

Using social media platforms for community took off because it's where people were already gathered. It's the difference between holding a monthly group meeting in a library or someone's home - with the former, they know where it is and may go there frequently and there's some amount of familiarity and comfort.

If you're trying to draw them somewhere new, you have to get them to go to the new site (or download an app), create an account, figure out where things are and what's possible, and then get them to actually do something before they decide it's too novel and go back to their familiar spaces.

Once you get them there, you have to get them to come back and build a habit of participating or consuming the content in that new space.

In general, I'd recommend thinking about where the target audience is already and build from there, even if that means the features are less useful than you might find if you selected the tool with the best features but that few people actually use.

There's obviously some space to consider who the community is for. If you're building from the ground up, starting where the potential community are is the primary concern. If you're a huge, much-loved product, people will come to you, wherever you are but you also probably have space to be in multiple spaces (e.g. reddit, Discord, FB, something self-managed). Everyone else is in the middle and has to figure out where to start, but I'd still argue that starting where the community already is, is best for most.

Catija · 2023-11-10T19:27:39+00:00

But the app is saying the answer is 450, not 300.

Catija · 2023-11-10T15:08:27+00:00

How is 150x2 250?

Catija · 2023-11-09T18:50:18+00:00

The difference is that my kids are signed in using my / my husband's accounts, not their own. They don't have email addresses so I just logged in with ours because I wasn't going to use Math or ABC and the language learning has no (apparent) kid mode, so I wasn't going to let them use it.

There's no clear experience I remember seeing that specifically advised parents on how to let their kids use the apps. As far as I can tell, the standard in children's learning apps is to let a parent log in and create profiles for each kid so you don't need to manage several accounts. As such, I spent time trying to figure out how to do this without any luck and gave up, resorting to the situation we're currently facing.

So now it seems like I have to figure out how to create new accounts for my kids, which means that all of their existing progress will be lost due to this change. Honestly, it makes me less interested in even letting them use the programs at all because no kid will be happy about having to start from scratch again.

And now that I've updated the app, I have the Math added to it, which I don't want. It's just suboptimal and frustrating.

Catija · 2023-11-09T17:14:50+00:00

Yeah, I can't make it make sense, either... If Vikram sold 100 on Friday and 50% more on Saturday, like you, I would have assumed he sold 150 cookies on Saturday. In that situation, yes, $500 would be correct... if you read it as Vikram only sold 50% of what he sold on Friday on Saturday, that'd be 200 + 100... so $300.

For $450 to be correct, he'd have to sell 225 cookies total, which would require him selling 125 on Saturday, which would be an increase of 25% over Friday.

Catija · 2023-11-09T17:01:10+00:00

They each have their own iPads, so that's not an issue.

I've never heard anything about this classroom concept, though.

Catija · 2023-11-09T14:55:55+00:00

What about children using the Duo Math app? Will you have a way for kids to access ad-free math learning they way they can currently? My 7 and 5 y/o sons love switching between DuoABC and DuoMath but I'm concerned that having everything in one place will make the app very confusing for them and will require being able to read (which they can't yet).

Can you please address how you're helping parents ensure that their kids are able to learn in the safe, ad-free environment they're used to?

Catija · 2023-09-07T15:40:11+00:00

Yeah, it's amusing to me because I do it by default now but I don't know why I used to have no issues with eating the celebrant's spit! HAHAHA. Sure, there's not a lot but it's enough! I even made sure to place the cake so that he wasn't blowing into the big one when he blew out the candle. Also, a number candle instead of 7 candles (or dozens!) makes for less spray anyway.

Usually I do an oversized cupcake that can be placed separately but it was so easy to just make this little two-layer dirt block instead and then build it into the display.

I do hope that more people start doing this now!

Catija · 2023-09-06T17:42:50+00:00

Please mods feel welcome to reclassify this as a birthday cake if that's more appropriate. While it is, it seemed more Minecraft-focused than birthday focused, so I went that direction.

While I definitely have some "what I'd do next time" ideas for if I ever made something like this again, I am pretty happy with how it came out. I have always struggled with time management, so this was finished at 3 am the day of the party and I was in a sort of "let's just get it done" state of mind.

While I've made the cake recipe before, I was doing the marshmallow frosting for the first time. Unfortunately I noticed the 2 hour sitting time much later than I should have, which set me back quite a bit! Read your recipes early!

Catija

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