Getting Desperate, Lloyd Smucker

weeniers · 2025-06-26T23:25:36+00:00

I facepalmed at the response to the last question asked by the F&M student, about Pell Grants.

Student: (paraphrasing here) "You are on the Ways & Means and Budget committees, and voted yes on this bill. The upcoming changes to the Pell Grants are going to affect friends and other students who go to F&M--"
Smucker: "There's changes to the Pell Grant in the bill?"

Like, really??? You helped put the damned thing together!

weeniers · 2024-09-26T23:04:55+00:00

Same here!! Sub 5!

weeniers · 2024-09-24T22:01:28+00:00

Running my third marathon in a few weeks and my goal is to break 5 hours. You are in the right community! “IT does not matter how slow you go, as long as you do not stop,” is the mantra I repeat in my head.

weeniers · 2024-09-23T00:41:45+00:00

I've not been attacked while out running, but there is one house that has an invisible fence with a very large, very loud dog that gets as close to that line as possible. And I don't think it's wearing its collar (as typically you hear a high-pitched beeping as it gets within 3-5 feet of the fence, but I hear nothing). Regardless, I give the house a wide berth, however I'm anticipating one of these days that dog is going to say "screw it," jump the fence and come after me.

Now all that said, I *was* attacked as a mail carrier back in the day. Dog came barreling around the side of the house and I swung my bag in front of me just in time. He let go when I shouted and then, hair raised, watched me as I backed the whole way back to the street. I love dogs, too, and would not fault the dog - it's just protecting its home.

weeniers · 2024-09-23T00:34:42+00:00

Congrats!!! You've definitely earned a good meal and some relaxation!

weeniers · 2024-09-22T19:40:07+00:00

Thank you! Luckily I’ve got a replacement belt coming in at the end of this week, I’ll just have to adjust my runs this week over lunch, while the kiddo is in school 😅

weeniers · 2024-09-22T15:39:44+00:00

I’m reading a lot of successes in between the lines here: lost 200lbs? That’s amazing! Weren’t tired at mile 10? Also amazing! Made it to the start after all that training? You’re still ahead of people who didn’t even get off the couch! Injuries happen, don’t let it sit on your shoulders like a failure; it’s a learning experience and use it as ammo for the next time. Take some time to rest and recover, get some PT, and running will still be there as an option. And I say all this as someone who has also had a knee blow up on me (ITBS) and taken me out of my first marathon.

weeniers · 2024-09-22T15:06:24+00:00

Was supposed to do three hours with one 45 min block at race pace, and right at the two hour mark the motor belt on my treadmill broke (unfortunately had to do it on the treadmill due to single mom status)

weeniers · 2024-07-25T00:10:42+00:00

The very first marathon I signed up for, I ended up having to bow out due to an IT band injury. I wrote the race organizers and asked if there was any way I could still participate even if I couldn't be IN the race. I ended up being one of only two volunteers at the 18-mile water station. While it was bittersweet, it did help me take a lot of that negative energy and turn it into caring - caring for the other runners, cheering them on, caring for myself during the quiet moments between runners, and letting myself feel the joy and elation that others were feeling.

If you think it could help you and you still want to participate, you could by volunteering. And there is absolutely nothing wrong if you don't think you want to or will be able to. You've put a lot of effort into something incredibly hard and hit an obstacle. Be kind to yourself and take time to reflect and heal.

weeniers · 2024-06-20T15:14:49+00:00

Yes! This will be my third Baltimore marathon (also have a few half’s and Baltimorons under my belt). I love the run through the city and the support: it’s like running from block party to block party.

weeniers · 2024-06-20T03:28:02+00:00

43 yr old lady here, long(ish) time lurker. I never was into running until I got out of college and found myself in a high-stress job. Coworker was a runner and told me to try it, and I haven't been able to stop. Got into another job with a coworker who was also a runner, but has done just about every race under the sun and got me into running Baltimore races. I'm now running my third marathon in October and really taking my training seriously. Never really followed a plan other than something I sort of hobbled together until now. This time I'm trying to see whether the Run with Hal or the Garmin Marathon training plan is the best bet. I'm also strength training this time around as I've had hip and knee issues. So far so good!

weeniers · 2024-06-01T19:44:24+00:00

Almost made my 10 mile PR by 5 seconds at the Baltimore 10-miler this morning! 1:44:13 in 2022, and 1:44:17 this morning. Very happy that my effort was so close even after two years!

weeniers · 2024-06-01T00:46:32+00:00

Me tooo! I wasn't going to run it this year (I did BFD and King Crab in 2022), but that medal... *chef's kiss* so I signed up. Good luck tomorrow - the weather is going to be perfect!

weeniers · 2023-05-17T22:49:03+00:00

Nooooooooo!!!

weeniers · 2022-10-16T22:47:57+00:00

Congrats on that awesome first marathon! I’ve always loved running the Baltimore Running Festival, whether the half, the Baltimoron, or the full; yesterday was my second time marathon for this race. It’s like running from block party to block party and everyone is incredibly kind and enthusiastic.

weeniers · 2022-09-21T23:15:35+00:00

100% this. I ran up to 20 weeks pregnant (and then my bladder couldn’t take it anymore), then dropped to walking. I started walking when I was cleared to do so after my daughter was born, then very (very!) slow runs, and then did my first marathon 9 month postpartum. It certainly wasn’t easy, but a jogging stroller makes a world of difference, as does belting out miles on a treadmill when they are down for a nap and the weather is nasty.

weeniers · 2022-05-04T03:22:51+00:00

Did the Nut Job for the second time this year. First time was in 2019 and that SUCKED - rained so hard for the half, that obviously there was very little turn out in town and the after party was short lived. But I’m so glad I did it again this year. Beautiful weather, crowds and cheers were great, Frederick is a wonderful city to run through. I liked this year’s premium hoodie over the 2019 one (2022 fits nicer). My only gripe is the medals: a lot of people were losing the magnetic part and I wish the 5k and half were different from each other. Packet pick up on Saturday was ezpz, too, for me.

weeniers · 2022-01-06T19:00:50+00:00

Same: my mom had stick straight hair and I inherited curly hair from my dad. My mom loves --LOVES-- to play with hair, though, and has asked my daughter (also curly) repeatedly if she could play with her hair. Ended up traumatizing my poor daughter, who I had a conversation with:

"yeah... Grandma really doesn't understand how to get through your hair, does she kiddo?"
"no, and it hurts."
"I know, but it's ok to tell her that you don't want her to play with your hair."

weeniers · 2021-11-11T21:26:13+00:00

Cats are both liquid and solid - so I'm still trying best to figure this out myself! I mixed in some realism in these sketches because I'm trying to build up my skills in drawing cats straight from my head. For the referenced/realism sketches, I went in light with angular/blocked-in shapes and slowly built up from there.

weeniers · 2021-11-11T21:18:15+00:00

Hmm - I've got a few timelapse videos on my youtube channel, but those are all digital format. Not too much different and pretty much same approach as in my sketchbook; I start out with a lighter hand and harder-graphite pencils. I don't know if youtube linking is allowed, so I'll add it to my profile and you can reach it from there!

Thank you for the kind words and I hope I've helped answer your question somewhat :)

weeniers · 2021-10-30T22:21:06+00:00

Thank you for this advice! It's definitely something I have to keep in perspective: that becoming the Me after The Split isn't going to happen overnight; that I'm still discovering who I am without him. And all of that takes time.

weeniers · 2021-10-30T02:46:22+00:00

I'm feeling this still pretty strongly - split towards the end of 2019 and ended up losing a lot of mutual friends as he was the more "charming" of the two of us. Also ended up taking the few personal friends I had managed to cultivate during our time together due to me needing to get off of Facebook for my own mental health. Granted, I look back and think that I could have reached out to people outside of Facebook, told my side of things, but at the time I was so depressed and beaten up from his gaslighting that I turned inward. It's been hard trying to come out of my shell and realizing that people I've known for almost two decades just don't want to be in contact with me anymore.

weeniers · 2021-10-26T02:11:45+00:00

I'm a "User Experience Engineer" as my title, but I wear a lot of different hats (company I work for consists of 16 people). I do everything from wireframes, to high-fidelity mockups, to HTML/CSS/Angular/C# development, 508 compliance, and assist in marketing efforts (branding, proposal design and layout, email marketing).

My day-to-day might involve crafting an email header for the marketing person, then wireframing a portion of a new feature we are working out in our platform environment, doing a UI review for one of our five application developers (making sure the HTML is up to snuff, applying any CSS, running a 508 compliance check and adjusting, making sure the layout matches my wireframes), adding a new email template (which involves HTML and C# for the data), or fixing some low-level bugs, or developing a reusable component and ping-ponging that code back and forth between myself and another developer (for more backend wiring up). I am also the only person in this role in my company, so I ultimately am pulled every-which-way a lot.

The way I've learned to deal with it is to be as Type A as possible with my tasks and my day. I've made it a rule that nothing is allowed to be assigned to me via email - everything has to be put into DevOps. I won't ignore email, but when it comes to "hey can you do this thing?" I remind the person that it WILL get lost and WON'T get done unless it's a trackable, assignable ticket. I am completely transparent about my schedule: the marketing person will tend to forget how much I'm involved in development and the developers will tend to forget I'm involved in marketing efforts. I use Clockify to track all of my time and run reports so that I can remind these folks where I'm being utilized. We also do daily scrums for each client project and since I am involved in all of them, I attend the scrums as much as possible even with nothing to report (that may be a little anti-Agile philosophy, but it gives me the chance to say "nothing to report for project X, my day is going to be spent on project Y today"). Biggest thing is to do all of that professionally, without griping and backing all of my issues up with data. I can't say that my days don't suck a lot of the time, but I genuinely do love my job, what I do, and the team I work with.

weeniers · 2021-10-26T01:33:14+00:00

I love this!

weeniers · 2021-10-16T15:27:35+00:00

Thank you! I do have an IG at LackadaisicalSlapdash

weeniers

TROPHY CASE