The whole TSA game is crazy. Who knows what long term exposure to those scanners will do. In my case I've been through 3 TSA screenings in the past 7 days, with another one tomorrow morning. So far I haven't been pulled for the full body scan, or the grope, but I'm sure it will happen soon enough. It doesn't make anything safer, and it is intrusive, but I wouldn't dare even raise a question about it. The simple fact is the average TSA agent is underpaid, abused, and has a lot of power. That is a bad combination. It is within the power of the TSA to have someone placed on the Do Not Fly list and the appeal process is byzantine at best. I've watched them get nasty with people who ask a simple question, so I try to always have a smile on my face and just get the hell through, because I'm stuck. If I can't fly, it's a major impact on my livelihood, which sucks.
'Lineage'
Spike's Bitches 46: Don't I get a cookie?
[NAFDA] Spike-centric discussion. Lusty, lewd (only occasionally crude), risqué (and frisqué), bawdy (Oh, lawdy!), flirty ('cuz we're purty), raunchy talk inside. Caveat lector.
Not looking forward to the nudie scan and/or groping Thursday, but whatever. I do feel like it's security theater, and questionable in its effectiveness, but oh well.
So. Yeah. Bloom is off for me and the Fresh Makers. I am definitely going to be doing more active networking than I had planned this week. Don't have time to get into it right now, but my confidence is shrinking rapidly about the dedication of this org to its training programs.
I learned this morning that it's really not good to need to use an inhaler while teaching a class. Found out this afternoon that it's even worse to need to use one while driving a car.
I've been trying to avoid airplane travel for a while now. This is just one extra thing. Even more than security theater, I am having trouble dealing with being an already big woman (just my skeleton) who is now obese. While the airlines keep making seats smaller. Add to that my disability and that airlines are now monetizing pre-boarding and it's a pretty awful travel experience. I'm going to the Bay Area again in January and am trying to borrow a car to do it.
Set my alarm for 8 this morning so I could reset my schedule to take in most of the daylight but I went to bed late as usual so I snoozed 'til 10. Fail. Meant to cycle to Trader Joe's and the library a couple hours ago but decided to hang around instead. Mostly because my online addiction has me glued to my keyboard, but also so I could spend some time checking my garden, my seedlings and trying to maximize sunlight time. I can do shopping in the dark.
it's really not good to need to use an inhaler while teaching a class.
Uh, why? I would think open airways and the ability to breathe are 2 essentials for a successful class.
Uh, why? I would think open airways and the ability to breathe are 2 essentials for a successful class.
Yeah, but actually using the inhaler kind of interrupts the flow of the class. (I managed OK -- I could kind of tell that an attack was coming on, so I did just a short lecture and then spent the rest of the class time having the students solve problems and explain their solutions at the board. Started coughing and gasping while a student was explaining one, so I kind of stepped over to the side of the room to use the inhaler.)
Barb - does it ever help to go for a walk and listen to something (like a book on tape that is not at all reminiscent of your work, or she who shall not be named) to distract the brain?
Not really. The thing that's tended to help the most is yoga, but even that's been off the table for a few weeks, since I had to carry the 80lb dog down the stairs and lift him up into my car to take him to the vet. I did heinous things to my back and shoulder.
I'm just, I dunno... kind of twitchy and anxious. More sleep would probably help.
sleep is good. i hear wine can help with that for some people ;P
I am totally opposed to the scanners for a whole lot of reasons, but I don't really care if they photo me (or grope me, both have happened before). I wasn't about to let them photograph Mal, however.
Now that they're saying kids under 12 don't get a pat-down, my plans for YouTube greatness when Mal went Tasmanian Devil on the TSO are kaput.
I actually had a fight about these scanners today at work, with my newest Problem Child. Not only is he convinced he's the smartest person in the room, he won't shut up about it. And he's not. Pretty far from, in fact (he informed us all yesterday that if we knew our history, we'd realize that Pompeii was destroyed in a volcanic eruption).
Following our "agree to disagree" about the utility of backscatter scanners and TSA in general, he IMed me...at which point I discovered that he's set his customization so that all his chats come thru in Papyrus font.
No jury of my peers in the world...
why would you need a jury? You were at my house all week.
The Inquirer published a pretty horrific article today about a Doctor who has written a memoir of being overweight, and how the medical profession treated him. I remember discussions here about doctors running the gamut from insensitive to downright evil on the topic of weight - this article bears that out. If people want to see it, I'll post the link.