Yes, she’ll be comparing formal Arabic and what is actually spoken on a daily basis there.
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One of my cousins lived in Morocco for a few years, and my parents decided to take a vacation there and see her.
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I got the job I’d been interviewing for. 
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My son’s security clearance finalized and he’ll get his NASA id today. He’ll be working 2-3 days a week (minimum) at Goddard over the summer. Third generation rocket scientist, w001! Well, technically the work at Goddard is aerospace engineering, but he’s also involved in trapsat, which is more unequivocally science at this point.
We finally, belatedly noticed that the recent distressing plunge in my (formerly lifelong super-student) daughter’s grades and behavior started when she was in a nasty car crash five months ago; the school counselors say she’s clearly suffering from PTSD. The listed symptoms match her recent issues exactly - mood swings and rage issues, nightmares, inability to concentrate - basically the normal adolescent issues only much more intense. And as much as I hate to see any young person have the “incurable syndrome” tag pasted on them - I think that has the potential to make any problem worse - this means the school is going help her make up the work she’s had difficulty completing and assist us in her recovery. Note to other parents - many tedious hours of school volunteer work can really pay off in an unforeseen situation like this; if the principal and all the teachers know you by sight, they’ll know your kids, too, and they’ll be more cheerful about making an extra effort on your behalf if you’ve already done the same for them. Pay it forward, and hope you don’t ever need to ask for favors back!
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Please, have her evaluated by a psychiatrist and referred to a therapist for intensive counseling. (Start with a psychiatrist, because they can prescribe meds, which in my opinion are necessary for patients suffering from PTSD.) Hopefully your school can help out with a referral to a psychiatrist that specializes in PTSD in adolescents. The good news is, this is probably fixable, if she’s willing to put in the time and do the work.
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Well, I’m ideologically against medicating unless there are really no other options, so we will be starting with non-prescription therapies under the guidance of a psychiatric specialist. We’re what Internet pundits like to call “privileged” so we can do that sort of thing. But even if meds are unavoidable, successfully identifying the problem and a path forward counts as !VICTORY! for me.
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My daughter’s doing 1000x better with the migraines and panic attacks and the worrying and all that. Low iron looks to be the culprit.
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Serviced the Lady’s Dyson DC-14. Sadly not a euphemism.
This YT was really helpful, though I did have to go elsewhere for certain important details.
Vacuum was popping whatever breaker it was plugged into when powered on. Didn’t run at all, just popped the breaker instantly. Dead $300 vacuum, and nobody likes the internal house vac.
Disassembled it and component testing revealed the power cord was shorting/breaking with flexing of the cable near the grommet. Just like you’d expect if large, strong kids used it all the time and not gently.
Some serious youtubing and $65 on Amazon later, I can rebuild it. I have the technology.
- Rebuild Clutch
- New Belts
- Wipe down and cleaning of all internal parts
- New Beater Bar
- New Bar Bearings
- New A Hepa Filter
- New Power Cord
- Power system rebuild
Took three hours, including lunch and…uh…medication breaks. Initial smoke test at bench after reassembly passed.
Delivered it to the lovely client, who is thrilled after testing.
Victory!
(But now I have to clean the office.)
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Our DC-18 is pretty borgified with DIY parts at this point… they are pretty challenging to disassemble. Well done!
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Just replaced a cyclone top on a DC07 with an aftermarket piece. I love how the modularity of the Dysons make them repairable, and how the community of owners and repair shops (especially in the UK) have published howtos which make the repairs not too difficult. Hint on aftermarket plastic: before installing look for seams and corners where the aftermarket part is not as well finished as the original equipment, and sand them smooth before installing.
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Just spent an afternoon in a cafe networking with 30 other translators who I’d met for the first time. It’s the most sociable thing I’ve done in almost three years.
I mean, I only actually spoke with six of them, but it’s still uncharacteristically extroverted of me. I even gave three of them my contact details. I think I need to have a lie down.
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Sounds awful.
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That’s the crucial part. Remember that not everyone gets energized by being around other people, and THAT’S OK. If being social means you need an equal (or more) amount of time alone, sleeping or reading or watching TV, then that’s what you need.
And if this gets you more work or more contacts or even more social outings, that’s great. Just remember to always take care of your needs.
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So far today I feed the kids breakfast, got a haircut, took the garbage and recycling to the transfer station, emptied the dishwasher, cleaned up poopy underwear and bottoms, and found the time for a local showing of there Angry Birds movie which I will take the 2 bigger kids to in a half hour or so. For a 85 degree 85% humidity day, that’s not so bad. Hopefully install some AC tomorrow.
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I’ve had it and am (more or less) in remission. There are still lingering issues but I no longer fear sitting with my back to a door and don’t have nightmares where I wake up punching the crap out of a pillow.
Not to minimize what your daughter went through at all, but it was a single event or series of events across a relatively short time span, there’s the resilience that tends to come with being younger, and she has a supportive family environment. I would be pretty optimistic. That being said, PTSD is a surprisingly socially acceptable thing to have. I had depression as a result of PTSD and for a while just told people I had depression. I got a lot of "Oh, can’t you just [blank], " and "Weren’t you happy yesterday?"
With PTSD, people are weirdly understanding, even if they don’t assume that you were in Iraq or Afghanistan. Nobody seems eager to question it, in large part because it’s well known that something specific caused it. For a lot of conditions, you don’t have that mercy.
Don’t be so quick to dismiss meds though. I’m with @ratman on this due to personal experience. They can relieve a lot of acute symptoms. Prazosin ended my night terrors in particularly effective fashion, overnight. Sometimes therapy is harder when you forget what it feels like to not be constantly vigilant and constantly angry. A lot of it is to bring you down to a baseline where therapy is easier, and in the worst cases, simply possible.
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This.
Just as it’s unkind and dangerous to demand that someone get better from pneumonia or hepatitis or cancer without any medication, mental illnesses and disorders also have medications that help the healing process.
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Thank you for your support! I’m probably not as introverted as the comment might suggest*, but I was following advice I’d read to focus on having two or three really good face to face conversations that people will remember rather than spamming the room with your business card.
Since then I’ve had one email back from someone who would like me to work with her on a project she’s been offered, and another Facebook conversation with someone who has a lot of contacts in my specialisation and is very involved with a number of translator groups (both local and online). The third person I exchanged details with was able to put me in touch with someone who knows a lot about finding clients and offers training courses in the business side of translation.
- (although I was legitimately exhausted for over a day afterwards and had to abandon some friends we’d invited over after lunch today as I’d reached peak people for the weekend)
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This weekend I did first aid for a marathon.
Yesterday, I cycled to the course just to pick up my uniform, then cycled to my barber, then home.
Today, I cycled to the course, then to my area on the course, and then did a bunch of first aid patrolling on my bike before, again, cycling home.
I’ve probably gone further on my bike in the past two days than I have in the previous two years.
And, while my butt begs to differ, it doesn’t feel like I’ve done any serious damage (lesson learned: thirty seconds of really pushing yourself on a bike is more exhausting than a half-hour of cruising around at a “minimal effort” pace, and doesn’t gain you much time).
I’m going to try to make cycling a habit rather than an occasional thing (once my butt heals), and today’s a good start to that. Even if I don’t follow through on that, it was definitely a good weekend for me in terms of being active.
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Congrats on getting back into biking, but do you have bike shorts? They are mandatory if you plan on biking any more than 15 miles in a single sitting. The padding is butt saving and uh… gonads and sausage saving, if that’s something you need to worry about. For even longer rides I would also highly recommend vaseline for your nipples. Trust me, you don’t want to risk the alternative.
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