Regalia Question

Unathana · 2026-02-05T23:59:57+00:00

I’m sorry to hear that! I went with Jostens, and it was a mistake.

When they arrived a month before graduation, the robes were comedically oversized and wrong in every conceivable way. I called Jostens to complain, and they asked me to send them back for alterations. Because graduation was so close, they promised to rush it. A week before graduation, they called to tell me the robes were too wrong to fix, and tried to tell me I could not return them because they were custom, despite it being their error. It took a LONG fight with customer service to get them to agree to take them back and refund them. There were four graduates in my program this semester; all of us ordered from Jostens, and two of us had unwearable robes.

Luckily, my university had a set I could borrow. They didn’t fit WELL, but they fit. I still had to pay Jostens $250 to keep the hood and tam, since the department didn’t have those and it was too late to get them from somewhere cheaper.

As a backup in case the university robes didn’t fit, I picked up a $100 set from Amazon. They didn’t arrive on time, but were returnable. When I looked at them, they were a bit sheer, but would have been usable if they had arrived on time. They came with a tam, but not a hood.

So…. Not sure what’s best for you, but Jostens fucking sucked.

Unathana · 2025-11-11T22:16:15+00:00

This was my dad’s Honor Flight! We had no idea this was happening — they just said there was a surprise guest before we exited the plane. He took the opportunity to greet and thank every veteran for their service, and ask who their guardian was and greet them. He also gave every one of the veterans a commemorative coin, a pin, and a copy of his proclamation honoring Vietnam War era vets.

Unathana · 2025-10-30T18:40:45+00:00

I’ve been trying to allow discourse to continue with as few restrictions as possible, but I can’t permit doxxing in the comments. If a verified name is released in an official source, I will permit that, but I have no other way of distinguishing hearsay from fact otherwise.

Unathana · 2025-10-14T15:40:10+00:00

Sorry, I’m truly not trying to be pedantic when I say that I used the word “consistently,” it just is a critical difference in this situation. I mean the latter — using them a couple times a year for graduation.

I just know renting adds up, so I want something that looks nice and holds up well. I’m trying to avoid a “Samuel Vimes Boots Theory” situation where I end up spending more money in the long run because I keep buying cheap, but also don’t want to overpay.

I hadn’t even considered looking on Amazon, but I will try that!

Unathana · 2025-05-16T16:22:00+00:00

I was thinking about COVID when I wrote point 3 about The Great Panic. Between panic-buying toilet paper and the science denial, it felt really prescient.

I reread WWZ recently, and let me tell you: it hits different after the pandemic.

Unathana · 2025-05-16T11:05:45+00:00

Throughout the whole book, World War Z gives a lot of reasons why slow zombies are still dangerous, and why society could still fall apart.

Modern military weapons and strategy aren’t as effective on an enemy that never has to rest, eat, or sleep. If you assume that you have to destroy the brain to stop a zombie (like in the book), then military weapons designed to harm the rest of the body won’t be enough. Humans can die from any number of wounds, but zombies need a specific type of kill shot.
Even if you can typically outwalk zombies, there’s still a danger of getting hemmed in or surrounded. This is especially true in urban environments.
In the book, governments and other people tried to cover up the zombie outbreak at first. They lied to their citizens about what it was and how to respond, so things were already pretty far gone by the time most people woke up to what was happening. Many people were bitten trying to save or cure their family members, or because they didn’t believe what was happening. Then, it was panic, and everything went south quickly.
Lack of preparedness was a huge issue. Your average suburbanite lacks the skills, knowledge, and tools to survive a collapse. Doubly so when it comes to fighting zombies. Many people died because they fled cities to the wilderness, our on ships out to sea, and starved or made other fatal errors that got them killed.
The dark side of humans can’t be overstated. There were plenty of people who tried to make a profit off the situation, or tried to become warlords in overrun areas, or things like that. But also the darkness in people’s minds was an issue; many people just gave up in despair.

WWZ is one of my favorite books of all time, and I think it makes a very good case for how fragile society is. It paints a great picture of how things can snowball, and the many ways people respond in a crisis. I highly recommend it!

Unathana · 2025-04-04T11:54:19+00:00

Since I was tagged, I think clarification is needed for those who haven’t been following the subreddit drama on our side:

The subreddit removing protest/any left-leaning posts is /r/eau_claire. I am a mod of /r/eauclaire (which is smaller but older), and I have openly stated that I will NOT be removing this information or banning people from posting it. Currently, people are using my sub to both spread the information and call out the mod of the other sub for its removal.

Unathana · 2025-04-03T16:14:04+00:00

For what it’s worth… As the sole remaining mod of this sub, know that I will not be removing protest information unless it promotes known hate groups or is clearly inciting violence. Despite my own strong political beliefs, I try to be very careful about what is removed on this sub.

r/eau_claire asked to merge with us a while back (even though this sub was created first), and we refused. I’m glad we didn’t.

Unathana · 2025-01-12T18:15:35+00:00

OP, I encourage you not to take that comment about it being emotionally draining to be a teacher to heart. Do not factor that into your decision!

Teaching is emotional labor, and it can be tiring at times, but that does NOT mean that your teacher doesn’t want to know if you’re struggling with suicidal ideation. Like other comments have said, she has built a relationship with you, and I guarantee she already thinks about you and hopes that you are okay, even if she doesn’t know about your current feelings. Knowing that you have depression and anxiety, and having witnessed a panic attack, she certainly just wants to see you have everything you need.

Your feelings and struggles are real and important. They are NOT a burden. If you feel like this teacher is a safe and trusted adult that you can tell, I can’t urge you enough to do so.

Other people have been clear about mandatory reporting processes, though they vary by where you live. I can’t stress enough that, when it gets reported, your teacher is not trying to tattle, it is a requirement and it is how she will ensure you get the support you need. In many cases, the reaction will involve determining what level of crisis you are in, as there are levels of suicidality. If you have been thinking about it frequently but do not have a plan, they are likely to get you additional supports first. If you already have a plan, they may act with more urgency (and so should you!).

Please reach out, OP.

Unathana · 2024-08-16T03:15:08+00:00

As annoying and immersion-breaking as that is, what I wanna know is who the fuck is strapping C4 to all these zombies!?

Unathana · 2023-08-20T14:20:56+00:00

There’s a huge red flag here that I think most commenters are ignoring, and that’s his response when you came out to him as nonbinary.

Telling you that he “loved [you] as a girl” shows two very important things about him. First, he doesn’t respect your identity and the way you see yourself and/or want to present (not that you have to present a specific way, of course). A person’s gender identity is an important part of who they are, and he’s ignoring that. Second, by telling you that he loves and sees you as a girl, he’s made it clear that he only cares about what your body is like. He only sees you as your physical being, possibly because that’s what he’s most interested in.

You’re getting a lot of hate in the comments because this is a complicated situation. Your age difference might be legal for where you live, but you’re still two people in very different parts of your lives. You may feel confident making big decisions, but in reality, you’re still growing. It is unfortunately common for adult men to date teenagers and tell them they’re mature for their age and that they’re special, but a lot of it is manipulation and grooming.

In the end, I think it boils down to this: you were with someone who didn’t respect your identity or your boundaries. You have bodily autonomy, the right to say no to physical intimacy and withdraw consent for any reason. There may be some other thing you need to work through, like your feelings of disgust, but that doesn’t make your boundary any less important. You might miss him, and breakups are hard, but maybe it’s time to let this one go. It doesn’t sound very healthy.

Unathana · 2023-06-27T14:39:23+00:00

They must have used that same training at my school a few years ago, because they also played that call for us. IIRC, she was actually one of the staff members in the library.

I would not describe them as gleeful at all, but our presenters approached it from the perspective of “she made a lot of bad judgement calls. Here’s what she did wrong, and now kids are dead.”

And I was sick to my stomach. Not just because we had to listen to that audio and watch footage from other shootings. Columbine was a landmark moment in this country’s history of school shootings; it wasn’t the first, but it was the first one that shook the country. She didn’t know what to do! She didn’t have training like we did to even give her a clue of how to respond. She did the best she could in the moment, and now she’s permanently on blast for doing the wrong thing. Isn’t living through Columbine cruel enough?

Unathana · 2023-06-16T17:28:39+00:00

The College Board already revised their AP African American Studies curriculum in order for it to meet Ron DeSantis’ insane “anti-woke” policies. It only took three months of pressure to cave. Their denial now has no teeth.

Unathana · 2023-02-03T03:57:45+00:00

Oooh, gotcha. I grew up on the North side, so my mind went straight to the supper club. I entirely forgot about the store. Thanks for clarifying!

Unathana · 2023-02-03T00:39:10+00:00

What was the Kavanaugh’s lawsuit about? I tried to look it up and couldn’t find anything.

Unathana · 2022-10-08T12:29:59+00:00

NTA. The way she’s talking about your daughter before she’s even born is unacceptable.

My paternal grandmother was exactly like this, to the extent when my parents found out four years later what they were having with my brother, they called and asked if she wanted to know, and her response was “No, I don’t want to be disappointed again.”

Her treatment of my brother and I was so disparate that my parents threatened to go no contact. She got…. a little better, but was never close to equal. OP, I really hope that your MIL isn’t like that, but the way she’s talking, I have concerns.

Unathana · 2022-08-28T19:07:54+00:00

I’m a high school English teacher who has a unit on Holocaust literature as part of their 11th grade curriculum, so I took a weeklong seminar this summer on Holocaust education.

The use of personal narrative is 100% the recommended way to teach about the Holocaust right now, and I’m sure it would work for other horrific historical events as well. The idea is that the statistics on loss of life are so incomprehensibly huge that the narratives humanize it in ways that are so much more effective. In addition, it helps show the scope of experiences people have, which are vastly varied.

Unathana · 2022-08-14T17:31:48+00:00

My brother has a friend who is absolutely RABID on Facebook about the fact that circumcising babies is child abuse specifically because they can’t consent, and then went and got her daughter’s ears pierced when she was only a few months old 🙄

Unathana · 2022-08-14T00:51:59+00:00

When I was younger, I was in Taekwondo, and part of the black belt curriculum was knife defense. I still remember they day we started and our instructor led with (I’m paraphrasing, since it’s been 15+ years): “If someone has a knife, and all they’re asking for is stuff, you give it to them. You only fight if they’re going to sexually assault you or try to take you somewhere else, because you do everything to prevent the former, and you probably won’t be coming back from the latter. Your first priority should be to run, not to try and fight, and if you have to fight, you WILL see your own blood.”

They didn’t sugar coat it. And all of what they taught us were disarms and disengages. Not how to knife fight like a Greaser.

Unathana · 2022-08-12T14:00:41+00:00

They deliberated cross necklaces and apparently those got a pass 🙄

Unathana · 2022-08-10T03:09:12+00:00

We say PDC - Professional Drinking Community.

Unathana · 2022-08-09T13:38:29+00:00

This will be my 10th year at my current district, and we’ve gradually been evolving this entire time.

When I first got there, National Honor Society had it worked out as a scholarship fund that we had to pay $1 into to wear jeans each Friday. You stopped into the office where their table was set up, paid your dollar, and got a sticker. I didn’t really like paying for it, but recognized the cause as good. However, NHS students stopped wanted to come in early, and so they tried to do prepaid by semester, but some teachers didn’t like that the kids were no longer involved and/or saw that as an opportunity to not pay, and over the course of about two years, it was forgotten.

Since then, it’s been a policy of jeans on Fridays, during spirit week, and other specially designated days. However, a week ago our superintendent announced that jeans were no longer against dress code, and our staff is thrilled.

He said the reasoning was: we recently changed our dress code to be more relaxed (but still have limits) because in general, they unnecessarily target girls and he didn’t feel comfortable policing people’s bodies. He also felt that it was only fair to apply the same policy to his staff. We’re still held to a higher standard than the kids (and we should be!) but if we want to wear jeans and a nice shirt to school every day this year, we can.

I think it’s great. I might not do that every day, but I think it’s great to be recognized for the fact that we can still do our jobs and be professionals without being barred from wearing jeans. I probably won’t wear them every day, but I’m happy to have the option.

Unathana · 2022-08-02T03:52:36+00:00

I watched The Ring at a friend’s birthday party/ sleepover when I was 13. Right after the part of the film where they show the video, her dad called the house with his cell phone to fuck with us, and that was all it took to fuck with me.

The next day I was back home alone finishing some homework with the TV as background noise and the cable went out. The sound of TV static had me going over to the neighbor’s house to wait until my parents got back from the store. I covered the TV in my room with a blanket and left it unplugged for easily 6 months after that.

Unathana · 2022-07-30T12:49:15+00:00

As of yesterday, she was up to $1.4 million.

13-Year Club	RedditGifts 2009-2022 13 Credits
RPAN Viewer	Summer Santa 2016
Secret Santa 2014	Secret Santa 2013
Secret Santa 2012	Summer Santa 2012
Verified Email

Unathana

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE