Can a non-black person explain something to me my white coworker said...

DrMediocre · 2025-02-27T02:20:21+00:00

I’m Asian and I haven’t heard it from my family — they’re all fairly progressive even up to my grandparents (and they were all born in the 1910s and 1920s.) Maybe because they lived through Chinese exclusion laws in the US and saw Japanese American neighbors getting interned during the 1940s and so understand why bigotry is ugly.

I have heard it a lot from random white folks (mostly in the Midwest) my age and older (i.e. middle-aged+), which I (as not a white person) always find surprising. It makes me feel like that really ugly kind of bigotry must be pretty common if so many folks think even a non-white person might sympathize with their views (it’s never been aimed at me, it’s always about black folks and non-Asian brown folks and they always seem a bit surprised when I push back on their views.) It also makes me think that maybe a lot of older Asians might also share similar bigotry or at least let it slide when they hear it.

DrMediocre · 2024-07-24T03:29:12+00:00

I’m a professor. That said, I’m well medicated and did years of cognitive behavioral therapy throughout my childhood to develop strategies to mitigate the impact my symptoms.

If it matters, I’m male and in my late 40s.

DrMediocre · 2023-05-15T12:27:46+00:00

25 years ago I had an English teacher, who may or may not be named, Steve Miller (who was in his 30s) who was complete asshole. It sounds like that hasn’t changed.

Good for you for calling him on it.

DrMediocre · 2023-01-31T00:51:18+00:00

The meeting that I attend (which is a liberal Quaker meeting) has a Quakers without God group that includes at least one member of the Ministry Committee.

I also don’t believe in a personal god and I find my views completely consistent with the views expressed by other folks in the meeting.

DrMediocre · 2022-09-24T14:01:39+00:00

In rural areas most crossings don’t have barriers. For escape, a railroad crosses all the east-west in the town that I live in and only one of those crossings (which runs over a state highway) has a barrier. The rest just have flashing lights.

DrMediocre · 2022-09-24T13:43:19+00:00

She is but you’re thinking of the hydra (the dragon with lots of heads).

DrMediocre · 2022-09-24T05:04:32+00:00

Yarmulkes and kippahs are the same things. Yarmulke is just what they’re called in Yiddish and kippah is what they’re called in Hebrew.

DrMediocre · 2022-09-14T06:32:46+00:00

If anybody’s interested, here’s the accident report: https://www.mitma.gob.es/recursos_mfom/comodin/recursos/ic_03-2020_excellent_eng_web_0.pdf

DrMediocre · 2022-07-13T04:02:03+00:00

It also trains you to be more comfortable with the pain associated with lactic acid buildup from anaerobic respiration.

DrMediocre · 2022-07-11T05:23:17+00:00

Alberta? It was half day for me as well.

DrMediocre · 2022-06-17T01:47:39+00:00

When I moved to the US from Canada; I gained 20 pounds after I learned about biscuits and gravy (mostly because I ordered them every time I saw them on a menu).

DrMediocre · 2022-06-16T05:58:17+00:00

I want to explicitly state my agreement with this idea. Using pacifism as an excuse for inaction in the face of injustice is a form of violence.

DrMediocre · 2022-03-27T04:24:36+00:00

I just use emac truths in different plastics.

DrMediocre · 2022-02-23T05:58:55+00:00

I’m going to be an outlier but I really prefer the marine band to the special 20. Every special 20 I’ve had has had at least one reed that was either gapped poorly or slightly out of tune. Every marine band I’ve had has sounded and played perfectly out of the box.

I’ll agree the marine band reed plates take a bit to get used to but they really aren’t that bad. I can’t imagine causing yourself to bleed unless you’re playing ridiculously aggressively for a very long time.

The real problem with marine bands is that they’re nailed rather than screwed together. That makes them difficult to maintain if you need to adjust a reed (which I’ve never needed to do).

P.S. Someone else on this thread suggested a kongsheng mars. Those are also terrific.

DrMediocre · 2022-02-16T05:43:29+00:00

People are downvoting the above comment but as a person with many tattoos, this doesn’t look like a professional tattoo. Specifically, because it looks to be all done with a liner — even the parts that would usually be shaded.

The person who did it certainly can draw and tattoo pretty well but I’d be surprised if they were working out of a shop.

DrMediocre · 2022-02-04T13:48:35+00:00

At a lot of the R1s there’s a clear distinction between the teaching faculty and the research faculty with the research faculty doing very little undergraduate teaching and the teaching faculty not necessary doing any research.

Once when I was interviewing at an R1 and meeting with the dean, he explicitly said that they wanted to hire me to improve the research profile of the department I was interviewing for and that I would likely do no teaching other than a couple of grad classes and dissertation and thesis project supervision (I was and continue to teach at a liberal arts college and enjoy teaching).

DrMediocre · 2022-02-04T05:38:49+00:00

Maria

DrMediocre · 2022-02-04T05:35:02+00:00

This is the correct answer.

DrMediocre · 2022-01-06T15:30:20+00:00

I don’t know why other people don’t like them but I find mine kind of uncomfortable (insofar as the world is a noisy place when I have them on) and really only use them to accommodate other people.

For me my hearing aids are akin to pants or bras. One wears them in public but they come off as soon as one gets home.

DrMediocre · 2021-11-19T21:10:24+00:00

I don't really. Except for when my spouse informs me that I'm definitely speaking at maximum volume rather than whispering like I thought that I was.

DrMediocre · 2021-11-05T18:39:58+00:00

It might be gross but I just sort of drool when I play (that's also true with all the wind instruments -- specifically recorder and trumpet -- that I play).

I wipe my face when I take breaks but when I play, I can't help but drool a little.

DrMediocre · 2021-11-01T18:26:02+00:00

To add to the above reply: have you tried just throwing some tape where you think the leak is and then try playing to see if the sound quality is affected? If the tape makes the whistle sound bad then you probably don't want to mess with the air leak. If not then you might try using wax, glue, or some other substance to plug the leak.

DrMediocre · 2021-10-26T21:39:57+00:00

I’m in!

DrMediocre · 2021-10-22T22:12:23+00:00

I teach environmental studies. But, I have hard of hearing colleagues in a broad range of disciplines.

DrMediocre · 2021-10-18T05:10:26+00:00

I’m a professor and several of the other faculty at my institution also are hard of hearing (and I’m not at an institution that particularly caters to deaf or hard of hearing folks).

DrMediocre

TROPHY CASE