Sorry she is going through a bad time. If you ever want to connect, there’s a butt ton of Facebook groups that support female entrepreneurs and while they can be annoying with all the “You Go Girl!” graphics, there is also a lot of practical help with finding people who can do photography or make websites and such, and a lot of sharing of success stories which does help to keep your energy up.
The head of my Grad program is Dale Callahan and he has his own business supporting entrepreneurs. He is into Jesus so I wasn’t sure if he was going to be a good fit for me, personally, but he has turned out to be a tremendous resource with very practical advice on how to get started. His podcast has a lot of interviews with people who successfully launched businesses and it is so helpful when you are thinking, “I’m having that fantasy where I’m my own boss and the reality is I’ll be working like a dog,” to hear that other people do actually have businesses that support their lives rather than vice versa.
So, reaching out on a limb I contacted an old employer, just to see what was up. I really had enjoyed the work.
And I got offered my old set-your-own-schedule, work-from-home, just-get-the-work-done dream job that I had a couple years ago.
This bodes well for the rest of my future that has been lining up lately, which likely includes adopting my girls two little kids. Last night she told me she wants us to buy a place together.
If you really knew me a few years ago, this would count in the epic turnaround department. Literally a country song in reverse. Even got the truck back!
And for once… I’m not worried about the other shoe dropping. I can so handle the other shoe.
In the past, East Palo Alto experienced profound crime and poverty, especially during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1992, it had the highest homicide rate in the country with 24,322 people, and 42 murders, equaling a rate of 172.7 homicides per 100,000 residents.
I have a friend who started to develop an idea to buy farmland in Michigan to create a farming camp for inner city girls. (Her work history made this a realistic venture.) She asked if I would come look at properties with her, because I have some knowledge in this area. Before we’d even get to the properties, I would point out how much gang graffiti was on garages, etc. that we would pass going down the various farm roads. She finally realized that taking girls from the south side of Chicago to an area with even more gang presence was probably not the right move.
Rural Michigan is a scarier place than most people realize.
I drove over the Ben Franklin into Camden by accident - missed the exit - with my grandparents, and couldn’t figure out how to get back in the other direction. My grandmother was unflappable as she was far enough along with dementia that nothing flapped her, I don’t recall my grandfather’s reaction but I was scared shitless at being in the only car on the street with wheels.
Going to a funeral right now, for someone who died at 97, lived a good life, made everyone feel welcome in his presence, and his loved ones will miss him (including people like me, who are not related to him).
Turns out I didn’t flunk it. After taking a deep breath, resigning myself to my fate, and looking at my grade, I got a C+. I never keep track of my grade during the semester. To me, it makes no sense beyond the drop date, and I usually don’t worry about dropping anyway because of the way it often affects financial aid. I don’t understand students who endlessly calculate their grade and figure out minimum scores and grade cut-offs. My personal philosophy is basically:
If I do my best, then that’s literally all I can do. I don’t always do my best (because if I did, I wouldn’t be worried about this grade in the first place) but I don’t see the benefit of adding anxiety to the process. So I never really know my grade until the end.
Still, I don’t get it. That’s not a on a straight curve. After calculating it, there is no mathematical way I made the passing grade unless my instructor scaled it. I’m feeling a little split. On the one hand: Whoo-hoo, I passed. On the other hand the grade is inflated. On the one hand, I feel like I didn’t master the material. On the other hand, I don’t have to, I was taking the course for my own edification…
Either way, I think I might prefer a straight scale. I don’t know that I accept the philosophy behind scaling or curving grades. Still. I didn’t fail. Goes in the “win” column.
Well, it depends on the type of class and your school’s philosophy of grading. If “C” means “average” then doing a statistical curve makes perfect sense. If instead the letters are supposed to be objective measures of mastery of the material, then rescaling (but not statistical rescaling) again makes sense, since it is practically impossible to craft an exam and grading scheme where the point totals follow some predetermined set of cutoffs. Moreover, if you somehow magically create a 100-point exam where, say, 90 points is an A, 80 a B, and so on, then the 60% of the exam that everyone should get is wasted as an evaluation tool. Much better to write an exam that spreads the students as widely as possible across the 0-100 scale, so it is easier to disambiguate various levels of mastery.
Of course, this is all highly field-dependent, and so you’re more likely to find exams written this way in math or physics than you are in English or sociology.
I’ve started dreaming again lately. Awesome epic detailed dreams full of joy and sorrow. Dreams that process some of my past, dreams that offer insight into futures. Literally had no dreams for >15 years. None that I remember at least.
