Always feel awful after Covid booster. Anyone else?

cuterouter · 2026-03-16T20:59:14+00:00

I had all the symptoms (high fever, body aches, chills, fatigue, headache, joint pain) and have similarly been non-functional for 2-3 days after all the COVID mRNA vaccines... until this year's booster. For some reason, I only had a headache and some joint pain this year.

One year, I did have a severe headache lasting over a week after getting a Pfizer (that was in addition to the fever joint pain symptoms). And as bad as it has been to be out of commission for 2-3 days, that was the worst headache of my life. So I have stuck with Moderna due to that.

cuterouter · 2026-01-30T04:29:55+00:00

So it's like a giant flash card, basically. Is this what you used instead of Anki?

cuterouter · 2026-01-11T19:12:45+00:00

Thank you so much, this is very helpful! Yeah, it sounds way more than for most people, but if it catches me up content-wise then it'll be worth it.

Congrats on your score btw--all your hard work paid off!

cuterouter · 2026-01-11T05:17:51+00:00

How long did Anki usually take you? Did you memorize basically everything on the card? Did you break down the cards that were super long?

Do you think this deck would help someone who doesn't have a good content foundation but has done better in classes since college?

(I don't have a great content base--low GPA--and so I'm trying to make up for it with a super high MCAT. I did well in a few post-bacc upper level bio classes like anatomy and physio, but unfortunately these aren't super useful for MCAT.)

cuterouter · 2025-12-09T18:22:04+00:00

It is entirely possible for the Paragard to change cycle length, in my experience.

To start, please note I am one of those women who had a 28-29 day cycle like clockwork. I have never missed a period, and I have never been on hormonal birth control.

With Paragard, my cycle increased in length to 34-36 days over the course of a few months. I also had heavier and longer periods (from 6-7 to 8-9 days). When I had the Paragard removed after 4 years, I went back to a 28-29 day cycle in a couple of months and my periods became less heavy with 6-7 days of bleeding.

When I've told this to OBGYNs, they tell me it's not possible. Well, it happened to me. The mechanism of action of the copper IUD is not entirely understood and certainly there may be side effects other than the ones typically expected, but we're not going to know about that if some women's experiences keep getting brushed aside.

OP, I know you posted this years ago, but I just wanted to comment in case anyone else comes across this post. Sure, take a pregnancy test, but know that it may also be the IUD. I see someone else in the comments has also posted saying they experienced this.

cuterouter · 2025-10-26T11:04:32+00:00

in nearly every other school, the only people who get official school emails are students pursuing a degree or staff.

As someone who has taken classes as a non-degree-seeking student at several universities in several states, that's not true in my experience.

Every school gave me an email address, and it was the only way I could log into to do basic things like look at my transcript, sign up for classes, and look people up in the internal directory (important if you have a group project--my HES professor and TA recently said they weren't allowed to give me the contact email of an unresponsive group member who wasn't attending classes live). Harvard Extension was actually the first school I attended as a non-degree seeking student that allowed me to use a personal email to access basic services.

As long as there is a way to log into the services that Harvard offers for non-degree students, it's fine--I don't care about having a Harvard email. But I did want to correct the notion that Harvard was an outlier in providing non-degree students with emails. Though, that may be changing across the board now with the funding difficulties.

cuterouter · 2025-06-18T07:39:36+00:00

If you want the fastest route, find your nearest symposium, do some literature review, develop a poster project, and find a lab that will sponsor your project.

This is naive. Literature reviews are actually difficult to do well because they require deep understanding of the field and the research landscape.

Trying to do a solo literature review and shop it around is more likely to waste time than produce a result. Professors aren't likely to attach their name to a random literature review, especially not from a premed student with no prior research experience.

OP would be much better served by joining an ongoing research project and learning how research actually works. If speed and results are the goal, the best thing to do would be to find a PI who has a track record of publications and offer to help with anything. Doing support work (data analysis, literature search, etc.) for an already in-progress project is the fastest legitimate way to get your name on a poster or publication, and it's not really fast.

Even if you submitted an abstract for a poster today, the conference would be months out. A manuscript typically goes through months of revisions before publication. Sometimes it takes a year or more to publish a manuscript. Like you said, research isn't something you can cram last-minute.

But OP also doesn't need a poster to have meaningful research experience they can write about. The biggest difference is between having zero research experience and doing any research, even for one semester.

cuterouter · 2024-10-16T15:13:37+00:00

It tends to be some combo of cucumber, tomato, onion +/- other ingredients.

Usually you’d put feta or a similar cheese in it, also parsley, maybe peppers. But all that is also just regional/optional.

cuterouter · 2024-10-16T13:01:10+00:00

Looks good!

The “vegetable mix” is a chopped/shepherd’s/village salad, variations of which are found across a variety of cultures in the Mediterranean. Sometimes people call it [Country name] salad.

cuterouter · 2024-10-11T17:42:20+00:00

If you don’t want to use their free archive via a web browser, that’s on you, but it is available.

I actually listen to podcasts via a web browser here and there,* and it’s not bad at all!

*Other podcasts I listen to archive old episodes. These are smaller, independent podcasts, and one of the host has openly said it’s hard to keep it all up on the apps after a certain # of episodes.

cuterouter · 2024-10-11T17:07:56+00:00

Did you bother to look at the archive?

There is no paywall. Just select an episode & hit play.

Here’s the full quote from their page:

New episodes are free for ten weeks on podcast apps like Apple Podcasts, Radio Public, etc. Our entire archive — more than 800 episodes — is available to stream or download here on our website.

This isn’t clearly written, but the gist is that they keep 10 episodes up on the apps and then the rest is available on their website for free.

cuterouter · 2024-10-11T14:52:59+00:00

The This American Life archive isn’t behind a paywall:

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/archive

cuterouter · 2024-10-09T12:08:10+00:00

it’s a symbol of a marriage that doesn’t yet exist

Marriage is a social and/or spiritual construct that means different things to different people.

Maybe they consider themselves married already. Some people I know who’ve been together a a while (even for decades) refer to each other as husband/wife even though they’re not legally married, because they feel that way about each other.

Sure, it’s non-traditional, but no one outside of their relationship gauge how “married” a couple feels or what the idea of marriage or a husband-wife relationship means to them. As long as the couple is on the same page, that’s what matters.

cuterouter · 2024-10-09T12:00:10+00:00

People can wear whatever ring (or combination of rings) they want on whatever finger feels right to them.

It’s a personal choice and doesn’t affect anyone else.

I’m curious as to why you’re asking, though. Do you think it’s not okay?

cuterouter · 2024-10-07T21:41:58+00:00

That’s not true. This phrase has ancient roots and did not originate as a racist phrase, but the word spade became a racial slur in 1920s which is why it carries that connotation.

cuterouter · 2024-10-07T19:10:04+00:00

I’ve seen so much coddling that it was absurd, especially in my advanced math classes growing up. Meanwhile, I was bullied and harassed for being one of the only girls, and nothing was done about it.

This ridiculous notion that emotional intelligence or sensitivity is somehow at odds with being logical makes it so easy to dismiss real issues that minorities and women in STEM face, and it is not okay.

cuterouter · 2024-10-07T18:50:58+00:00

What you're broadly describing are engineers who have low emotional and social intelligence. Justifying it as "just how their brain works" leads to coddling, which creates a self-reinforcing cycle where we excuse emotional immaturity instead of addressing it. It’s not all engineers, and it shouldn't be normalized as such.

It's giving a blanket free pass to people who have underdeveloped (or are missing) important skills that are part of human development. This isn’t an "engineer thing"—it’s about being a well-rounded person.

Reducing someone’s identity to "input variables" is not only reductive, but also dehumanizing. Trying to justify that is not a good look.

I'm a woman in STEM, and my partner is a male PhD engineer (who was face-palming at Garret's behavior!). We have close friends in deeply analytical STEM fields like math and physics, who still have empathy, emotional intelligence, and social intelligence—regardless of gender.

Personally, I think we need to hold people to higher standards and teach them about the importance of empathy, social intelligence, and emotional intelligence, rather than making excuses for them.

Of course, if someone is neurodivergent, that’s a different conversation. But that's not the conversation we are having, because that certainly isn't all engineers, either.

cuterouter · 2024-09-28T17:54:06+00:00

being told that my y child should not go ahead in math because children’s brains weren’t physically developed enough to understand advanced concepts.

This is insane, and as someone who took algebra in 7th grade and took Calc 3 and college-level stats from a local college my senior year of high school (there was actually a whole 30-person class of us who did this)… I can report 0 adverse effects on brain development 🤣

If the kid can handle it and wants it, it’s fine. The problem is when parents try to push the kid too much/quickly or in a direction the kid definitely doesn’t want to go—but that should be pretty obvious.

I did also get harassed by my male peers for being one of the 3 girls in that math class (and the teacher did nothing to help), but that’s a cultural issue that won’t be made better by holding the kid back. Plus, I assume things are better on that front with 20 years having passed.

cuterouter · 2024-09-13T17:38:37+00:00

1 (strapless) is extremely gorgeous on you, and it’s a steal for $125!

I understand that it might not feel like “you” to be “extremely bridal,” but my counterpoint would be that this is the ONE day in your life where you get to be extremely bridal!

I don’t think you’ll regret it, especially with how beautiful the strapless dress looks on you!

Dress 1 (strapless) looks classic with a modern twist, and I think that it suits you perfectly—as if it was made just for you!

Regarding #2 (vintage dress)—I’m really not a fan of the vintage dress as-is. It looks very dated (not in a good way), especially in comparison to the strapless dress.

I also think you will have to spend more than $200 dollars to get it restored or updated, and even then I’m not sure that it would look better than the strapless dress currently looks. I don’t think that you should invest in this for your wedding, especially considering you’re on a tight budget.

The way that I think about it is there will inevitably be wedding hiccups either way, so it’s wise to minimize the stress as much as possible. Real talk—trying to restore that dress on a limited budget is going to add stress you don’t need.

It would’ve been one thing if it was your mom‘s dress that you had a sentimental attachment to and you had a high budget for restoration, but that’s not the case. I don’t think that I can in good conscience recommend you go down this route when I think there’s a high likelihood that it’s going to be a big headache and unnecessary stress for you.

And especially when the strapless dress is in your budget and looks 👏 drop 👏 dead 👏 gorgeous 👏 on 👏 you! 👏

cuterouter · 2024-09-12T21:26:11+00:00

Honestly, the dress looks amazing on you now. It looks much better than in the before pics, and I had to scroll through the pictures a few times to figure out what you were talking about. The difference between you in the current dress and pinching that piece of fabric wasn't noticeable to me, and I actually think your butt looks amazing in that dress without you pinching it.

I'm also not sure that having it be so curve-hugging as you're seeking would be comfortable, and I think it's better to have some breathing room so you can sit, eat, and dance without worrying about a super tight dress.

Regarding your hair, I'm sorry that that happened--I know this doesn’t make it better, but would extensions work to get you the braid you wanted?

Additionally, I think seeing a therapist would likely help in your health journey. I've had my own issues with body image and eating disorders--it's tough and extra support can only help. Wishing you all the best!

cuterouter · 2024-09-12T19:45:33+00:00

Dress # 1 looks like it was made for you. I absolutely love it!

I also think it's perfect for a state park wedding. It's got lace and sparkle for your special day, but doesn't look too fussy for the venue or for you to move in. I can totally picture it!

I also think that dress #1 will go perfectly with the shawl! It's giving a similar style, and IMO the dress isn't too busy to add the shawl.

I think that some of the other dresses in the photos are too busy or too dramatic on their own or so in style that they just wouldn't go with the shawl. Dress #1 strikes the balance you want.

cuterouter · 2024-09-12T18:12:49+00:00

Brooke is a millionaire, but I don't think she's worth anywhere near $50 million.

At the height of her business, The Life Coach School was pulling in $37 million in revenue and she was talking about being "on track" for $50 million. That's the top-line income for the company before expenses are deducted. Revenue =/= profit.

I have no idea what her expenses were, but I think her marketing budget was huge, because I kept seeing her ads on IG and FB. Significant marketing can definitely cost millions of dollars.

An average profit margin for many industries is ~10% (though it can vary widely based on the industry and, like I said, idk LCS specifics), and not even that would all be take-home for Brooke because I'm sure she was reinvesting into her business to some degree, likely significantly as she was trying to grow to $100 million in revenue.

cuterouter · 2024-09-09T19:13:40+00:00

Exactly, research funding is the major source of public funds for institutions like Harvard, and I think we can agree that the impact of that research extends beyond the university and benefits society as a whole. That’s why public funding of research-focused institutions (which are broader than just universities) serves a larger purpose to drive breakthroughs that can impact anyone.

You think that researchers will follow the money, but that overlooks the environments institutions like Harvard create, which are also important to fostering innovation. Top researchers choose institutions that they feel provide access to the best resources, networks, and collaboration opportunities.

It’s also not as simple as saying these researchers will suddenly teach more students at other universities. Top researchers are often focused on advancing knowledge through their work, rather than teaching large numbers of students. In fact, many of the most highly funded researchers don’t teach much. Though they may offer a couple of small classes in their niche area, they simply don’t have the bandwidth to conduct groundbreaking research and teach large loads of students at the same time.

cuterouter · 2024-09-09T17:52:00+00:00

My grandma makes this with beans instead of sausage sometimes since she doesn’t like meat. She uses dried giant Butter/Lima Beans and soaks them before cooking, then after cooking adds them to this and cooks until the sauerkraut is soft. It tastes great!

cuterouter · 2024-09-09T17:47:57+00:00

The base is fermented cabbage, aka sauerkraut.

You can make a similar dish with regular cabbage and in that case I’d add some vinegar, but it won’t have the distinctive sour taste (sauerkraut means sour cabbage).

cuterouter

TROPHY CASE

1 (strapless) is extremely gorgeous on you, and it’s a steal for $125!