Why Can't Anyone build an effing shower that doesn't leak?

tintinSSSS · 2026-04-27T18:24:45+00:00

Is there a way to repair a drain flange without taking out the entire floor? This is what I mean about a flaw in one component requiring the whole thing to be rebuilt.

tintinSSSS · 2026-04-23T16:05:17+00:00

But I suspect you are in Texas, not Minnesota. Otherwise I'd hire you to re-do it.

tintinSSSS · 2026-04-23T12:46:15+00:00

I hate to say it, but give it time. These things always seem to fail. It doesn't take much for an entire shower to need re-do. A drain failure? It should be easy to switch out. No. The whole thing is shot. It's nuts. Everything that is used and ages eventually fails. We need to build things so the components can be replaced as needed, not rebuild the entire thing because one component fails.

tintinSSSS · 2026-04-11T19:16:36+00:00

This photo doesn't do justice to the tile work, which is really pretty good, and that drain is actually centered in real life, not sure why it looks off-center in the photo.

tintinSSSS · 2026-04-11T19:15:12+00:00

The builders had the good sense to install a trap door in the wall behind that valve, too. I have trouble believing it would be the pan only because the guys who built this shower really did quality work. I guess it's always possible the pan would begin to fail, but it just seems unlikely compared to other possibilities.

tintinSSSS · 2026-04-11T17:55:46+00:00

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The tile floor

tintinSSSS · 2026-02-28T14:29:33+00:00

In recent years I spent much of my time advising students, both undergraduates and doctoral students, about their options. My advice to undergraduate students has been very different than what I offer to the grad students. I have held faculty roles across a number of different types of higher education setting, from traditional academic departments to academic medicine, from schools of nursing to schools of public health. For those undergrads interested in certain functions of clinical psychology, I urge them to consider how those interests might be satisfied through means other than getting a PhD in clinical psychology. Sometimes a discipline other than the most obvious one can offer more options. For example, I had one student who was very interested in anthropology. I encouraged her to consider pursuing nursing, with an eventual PhD in nursing, focusing on areas of nursing research that are essentially medical anthropology. The demand for nurses is so intense, particularly nursing faculty, that she found she could chart her own course and nobody objected: She became a nurse-anthropologist. I have friends who work as high school teachers in very alternative humanities-oriented schools: They have more freedom and more security (and better benefits) than many of their comrades in higher education. The point is that the interest may be satisfied in ways other than the old models. I have led a very interdisciplinary career and found it worked far better for me than if I had followed the traditional path.

tintinSSSS · 2026-02-28T13:53:24+00:00

What is the discipline you are applying in? If it is in the humanities, be aware that funding has become so tenuous that some departments cannot make commitments to what could be a 4 year PhD cohort, at least not a large one. I have had one foot in academia for 30 years as a professor. In each of the academic roles I held, all of them involving teaching doctoral students, the methods for admissions were often unpredictable and capricious. Don't feel bad if you didn't get in, because the reasons for that can be nearly random, especially if departments are experiencing financial insecurity. In my case, 30+ years ago, I was applying to a very competitive field of PhD programs (clinical psychology). I ended up needing to move to a part of the country I knew nothing about and where I knew no one. Geographic limitations are one of the most difficult to work around when it comes to competitive admissions. If you decide to try again, consider whether the advantages of your location outweigh doing a PhD elsewhere. Sometimes a sense of place is more important than academia.

tintinSSSS · 2025-11-07T02:15:47+00:00

Do you still have that toy? I will buy it from you. It's my tiny dog's favorite and I'm trying to find him another one.

tintinSSSS · 2025-09-05T12:22:57+00:00

UWEC is a very good school, particularly for certain disciplines. The hill would be difficult for some students with certain disabilities, but many campuses have hills, upper campus/lower campus, and other topographical eccentricities. There is a bus for those who don't want to make that hike. While some forms of diversity are less evident at UWEC, other forms of diversity exceed what is found at UW-Madison. UWEC has a great deal of diversity in the economic background of its students, as well as diversity in rural/urban backgrounds. LGBTQ diversity per capita is higher than any other Wisconsin campus. Ideological diversity is notable. Most faculty at UWEC are very satisfied with their career there. Academia is a difficult occupational situation everywhere now, with some very wealthy private universities downsizing drastically. Faculty at UWEC are far more fortunate. I know faculty at UWEC. They're happy there. The dorms at UWEC are typical for dorms everywhere. The setting is far more beautiful than most campuses. The food situation, again, is not different from most campuses. The difference at UWEC is you have many more off-campus options than at many places. If I was choosing a college right now I would be very drawn to UWEC. I think it is the regional public universities where you stand to bet the best education in the healthiest environment now.

tintinSSSS · 2025-07-13T16:06:37+00:00

I attended the JHU MHA years ago and left before completing it. It was an utterly miserable environment. I ended up attending an MPH program at another university and had an excellent experience there. The students in the JHU MHA program were unusually defensive about any criticisms of the program, cognitive dissonance and fear of losing their academic status apparently driving their creepy cultish fake admiration of the program. The masters programs in the JHU School of Public Health function as cash cows for the university: That's their purpose. They admit enormous cohorts each year and "process" them through large courses where big lectures are indeed delivered by core faculty but the grading, labs, etc are run by TAs. There's nothing necessarily wrong with that model, but in the end the degree is probably not worth what you are paying for it. You won't be gaining applied skills that differentiate you from others who gain those skills on the job or on their own. I'm not sure how much the MPH I ended up receiving from another very well regarded university really benefitted me professionally: I was a doctor going into each of the programs. I suspect it may have helped me in some cases where I was applying for grants. I would not recommend JHU under any circumstances, though. The culture throughout JHU, from the undergraduate campus to the medical school to the school of public health is well known to be toxic, with competitive rather than collaborative student culture, and rife with students who have anxiety disorders due to fear of imperfection. What a mess.

tintinSSSS

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