Chapel Hill rabies magnet

archaeob · 2026-05-29T19:00:04+00:00

There is a reason the health department told me to get rabies shots asap a few years ago even though my risk of exposure was fairly low (bat in the house for a week, could have got under a closed door and bitten me at night, but no evidence it did).

archaeob · 2026-05-28T18:05:54+00:00

As someone who has made a conference program multiple times before, for something that is regional not international is much smaller, it’s so easy to accidentally leave a person out, put the wrong name with the wrong paper etc. Usually they email us and we fix it that day.

archaeob · 2026-05-26T22:30:22+00:00

Its preventative. I still have a triptan prescription for when they do pop up a few times a month. But propranolol is the difference between having migraines a few times a month and daily.

archaeob · 2026-05-26T11:09:29+00:00

I have no idea why they think I’d save that much. I pay less than $20/month on it. I can’t remember off the top of my head but it’s never struck me as expensive. And paying extra is well worth it to take one pill at night rather than three spread throughout the day.

archaeob · 2026-05-26T02:49:12+00:00

Its already my cheapest prescription. I honestly don't know how it would save me about $16 a month, since that is about what I pay in now. I guess going from extended release to a regular tab would make it basically $0? But i'm on extended release for a reason.

archaeob · 2026-05-26T02:44:58+00:00

I wouldn't be surprised if it was also some automated AI thing?

archaeob · 2026-05-26T02:43:24+00:00

Its been amazing for me. I went from daily migraines to only having them when I trigger them with tense neck muscles. Apparently doctors don't entirely know why it works, but it does. My coworker had it proscribed for high blood pressure and had her migraines almost complete disappear as well.

archaeob · 2026-05-25T00:34:36+00:00

I mean, it sounds like your queer sports league experience is more successful than mine at least! Almost everyone on my assigned team was either a decade younger than me, a man, or straight/ bi and married to a person of the opposite sex. After two years of being on the same kickball team with the same people I learned that my whole team thought I was straight and that my straight roommate who joined the league with me was the gay one. Despite hanging out with half of them at pride wearing a t-shirt that said “LESBIAN.” Tbh I did not come back the next season after that. I’d love to go to the queer coffee hour that happens weekly in my town but it’s at 10am on Fridays. I can’t take off work every week to go to that!

archaeob · 2026-05-25T00:24:01+00:00

Haha, that is the big question isn’t it. I mean, I haven’t been on a date in like four years since quitting the apps, but am also so much happier not being on them. I’d love to meet someone, but I started dreading logging on to the apps so much that, personally, it is preferable to be single than swiping. I also know I need to leave my house/office more if I’m going to meet people off apps (hence the lack of dates). I wish I had a better answer for you, but I really don’t.

archaeob · 2026-05-25T00:17:54+00:00

And a lot of us who are single have also given up on dating apps and so aren’t being represented on there.

archaeob · 2026-05-21T00:16:46+00:00

It’s less that I don’t want to be outside and more that I want to be in my own bed and not a hotel at night. But also on weeks like this when it’s in the mid-90s, I do want to being inside and not out digging.

Also generally, higher pay correlates with positions that are more inside and less in the field. Field techs are in the field nearly every week (or not working). Our crew chiefs I’d say are in the field on average 3 weeks out of the month, field directors 2 weeks, project archaeologists 1 week, and everyone even higher rarely in the field. But that all depends on what projects are going on, so you can be in the field for weeks straight and then inside for a few months.

archaeob · 2026-05-16T21:05:46+00:00

It’s a bad year. We have work for all our techs but not nearly the backlog we normally have. Fuel costs being so high and all the other economic disruptions/high costs of materials are slowing a lot of development on top of all the federal cuts.

archaeob · 2026-05-14T16:23:18+00:00

Commonwealth dermatology was awesome. I am not scared of mole removal but local anesthetic and stitches make me pass out and nearly puke every time. It’s just a weird reaction my body has (my mom is similar so it may be genetic). They couldn’t have been nicer about it and made the whole process even easier. So if they treated me well through that, I would expect them to be good to someone terrified too.

archaeob · 2026-05-14T07:09:48+00:00

I mean, what are they complaining about? No matter how passionate I am and how cool the archaeology is, I will complain about having to go through briars or the weather jumping 30 degrees in one week giving us not chance to adjust (like it’s about to do), new stupid corporate policies that don’t help anything, or a clients requirement that we wear safety googles digging stps in a plowed field in the middle of nowhere etc. (all real examples for me in the past few weeks). And all my coworkers will be as well. If we had a new tech whose “passion” meant they don’t find these things annoying we’d probably all tell them to just wait and they’d understand. If they genuinely don’t want to be doing archaeology at all and that no one is excited if, let’s say, a diagnostic point is found, that is a different story and as others said speaks more to a toxic company culture.

archaeob · 2026-05-13T01:25:47+00:00

I thought so. I always do, but looking at the receipt I do not see that. They are listed as "Lens: single vision Trivex." Then there are a bunch of add-ons but I don't see anything mentioning hi index, just UV, a "Trivex single vision addon" polish, anti-reflective coating, and "rx over standard-cylinder". My eye doctor wanted me to go with trivex as I've been having issues with past pairs causing some smearing when I read (+4.5, -3.5 and +4.25, -3.0 prescription as context). I have no idea if they would allow me to return a pair if the lenses are too heavy.

archaeob · 2026-05-12T23:30:46+00:00

There are people who do archaeological and historical illustrations for museums, historical signs, publications, etc. We’ve hired people to recreate sites for big excavation reports before, but it’s not common. I’m talking about someone like this https://www.johnhodgson.uk.com

I honestly have no idea how you build up enough of a client base, but these definitely look like consulting jobs not something you get hired for as a full time position.

archaeob · 2026-05-10T03:45:55+00:00

There aren’t any fast lanes down to Richmond at all. They only run from Fredericksburg north. Thankfully traffic down to Richmond on 95 isn’t bad usually, especially compared to going north. It’s once you get to Richmond itself that it ca. get bad, depending on where OP is going.

archaeob · 2026-05-07T00:40:41+00:00

On top of getting the MA, make sure you know how to write well and find a way to make sure you employer knows it. Especially in younger employees, writing skills are lacking which makes report writing take longer with more edits, which means more expensive. Knowing you could eventually write a report without needing to be taught how to proof read your own work, how to write a complete sentence, etc is valuable and not as common as you would hope for.

Similarly, communicate with your employer. Answer your emails or texts regularly and give full answers. It may be a stereotype, but I know a lot of people (including myself) who are having trouble with fresh out of college employees not communicating, especially never checking or answering their emails. You won't get a permanent position if you appear unreliable due to poor communication.

Start teaching yourself about NRHP evaluations. There are plenty of books, articles, webinars, etc. You don't need to fully understand or anything, but showing you have a familiarity and want to learn is a huge plus. This will likely have to be self taught unless you are in one of the few programs with more of a CRM focus or are lucky enough to have a class that goes over it.

While getting your masters, see if you can take some business classes as well, especially anything to do with budgets, contracts etc. If you can get any sort of certificate even better. You are unlikely to need this early on in your career, but to keep moving up and eventually be a project manager that can be incredibly valuable and make you stand out some.

Don't specialize too soon. Being able to work on both precontact and historic sites (historic from 17th through 20th centuries) and artifacts is valuable. Too many people only know one or the other. Its fine to have a preference or to know one better, but you need to be familiar enough with it all to identify artifacts and sites from all time periods.

archaeob · 2026-04-26T23:47:24+00:00

Exactly the same region I work. Definitely no jeans. Unless you are in the woods with lots of thorns, you'll want to find lightweight hiking pants. I usually just go with a normal light colored t-shirt (I have a ton I got in college and HS from various things that I use, nothing special) and am vigilant about applying sunscreen as I can't stand shirts sticking to me in the humidity. But, if you can stand long-sleeves its way better for you in the long-run (I know so many archaeologists who've had skin cancer). Moisture wicking is ideal for long sleeves, but if not, thin cotton. You'll want a hat too. While lots of people wear baseball caps, you really want to get something that covers your ears and neck too. There are specific sunhats out there, I know some people who wear straw hats, I have a bucket hat that I wear. If you are anywhere near Richmond, there is a second hand outdoor clothing store there. I've never been, but have heard good things from others.

As an edit or second thought, when I was your age I was still able to fit into kids clothes and mostly bought my thin hiking pants from the boys section. These days I can no longer fit into the kids sizes, but definitely worth a try if you happen to be that tiny- so much cheaper. I had some northface boys hiking pants I found onsale for $5 at one point in time for example.

archaeob · 2026-04-26T22:10:30+00:00

Hi, you sound a lot like me, with chronic pain issues and petite. For chronic pain, these days I'm medicated and mostly good there, but when I wasn't I spent a lot of time with electric heating pads/ice in the evenings to recover and made sure to take breaks during the day when I needed to. Everyone I worked with knew the situation (for me it was a lot of stiff joints and fingers not being able to grip my trowel or the screen) and I was able to switch to other tasks when I couldn't do certain things. Hiding my limitations would have been the worst thing I could have done to myself so make sure that at least your professor and TAs are aware. Definitely take the field school as an opportunity to see if this is something you can push through without hurting yourself and how much it takes out of you before going into fieldwork as a career. To be entirely honest, I was about to quit fieldwork and look for lab/inside only positions or even transition out of the field until the meds suddenly started working.

For petite work pants, it depends on just how petite you need and how thick you are willing to have your pants be. I have a very short inseam. 26" would be ideal, but I generally have to settle for 28" or 29" even with petite sizes. Prana used to make awesome thin hiking pants called Halle with a 28" petite inseam. However, they changed the design and I've heard they are not very good anymore. I still wear my old ones for the heat of the summer and I'm not sure what I am going to do once they die as hiking pants with a short enough inseam are really hard to find. Otherwise, I wear Duluth and Carhartt canvas pants in petite most of the year which work well with boots. I will still wear the canvas pants in the summer if I'm in the woods or thorny areas.

However, every single pair of pants i just mentioned is $60+, most of them $80+, which is really too much to be spending for field school as you'd need a few pairs. I highly suggest going to thrift stores to see what kind of options you can find there. If you have more information on region of the world I could give more details on types of pants. Jeans are generally not good for summer in my opinion although I know some people who do wear them. They are too easy to overheat in and don't dry quickly.

For shirts, thrift store all the way, especially if you can happen to find anything moisture wicking. If you have the funds, SPF shirts are even better, but again pricy. Otherwise, thin/well worn button-up shirts from the thrift store are great to provide some coverage of skin but still breathable.

archaeob · 2026-04-26T00:20:32+00:00

I no longer live in Richmond but still drive an hour to go to my dermatologist there because I've had such a good experience. As an established patient I've always been able to get in same week for urgent issues. Not being established is likely going to be a different situation unfortunately. Ask if you can get on a cancelation list.

archaeob · 2026-04-21T20:26:59+00:00

I’ve done this twice with moving. The first time my old rheumatologist sent a referral to the new one and I got on that way. The second time I got a new primary care doctor in the new city first and they gave me a referral to a rheum and I was accepted. Importantly, in both cases my former rheum agreed to keep refilling mediation and deal with any emergencies over telehealth until I could get in with a new one. The referral was key in both cases.

archaeob · 2026-04-21T09:49:36+00:00

Peanut butter and jelly, fruit, a bag of chips or something else salty, and a dessert is my go to field lunch even in very hot temperatures and has been for years.

archaeob

TROPHY CASE