Well my job has been weird recently. Of course the questioning of funding come the new fiscal year. But beyond that... We've got a large facility that may need evacuating soon. And my supervisors have been very non-communicative with information, sharing very little with me. In addition, they're putting in new requirements for the coalition for right now as we work through the issues, but are having me lie to the coalition so it looks like we're just magically requesting some new things that we haven't before and it's all just suuuuper shady. It's also so directly in opposition to the ideals of emergency management, things like open, honest, and transparent communication. I can't wait to find a new job.

My partner is moving ahead with the PhD application process but may not be applying to one program she wanted to as the program doesn't guarantee funding. It's a shame, but that's where we are these days. Still, I think she's got a great chance of getting in and I'm so excited for her.

Yeah that's the problem... I'm currently a government employee with a degree in public health. The government now has the ability to choose to fund or not fund my career and it's looking like they're going to not fund it and dismantle all structures that support it. Which means huge volumes of layoffs in my field in the next year with few job openings, and whenever it is the administration changes is when it might finally start picking back up, but that'd be a lot of cleanup and rebuliding structures which could very well take years. And I'm local government not even federal.

We're now seriously considering getting over to Europe before the transfer of power. I'd give it maybe 10% chance now but it's certainly something we've begun to talk about as of this morning

Don't get too panicky, the world isn't ending. Probably won't even suck that much more, just in an even less palatable way.

Idk, I think it's pretty bleak. At least if Trump won in 2020 he'd have had a similar group of people. Now he knows they were pro-America and not pro-Trump so he'll be able to surround himself better. He's got the Senate which means Thomas and Alito will be able to turn over into younger court justices just as if not more extreme. Biden should have fixed the supreme court but didn't. They'll probably get the house too and controlling all three branches will let them run wild with everything they want to do. Project 2025 is real. Not sure how much will actually happen, but it's bad having looked through some of it. A lot of rights are about to disappear. A lot of regulatory bodies will disappear or be a shadow of their former selves. Quality of food and drugs could easily drop if funding is gutted, and it will be, and people will die but companies will make some money during it. And with big tech all of the extreme surveillance infrastructure exists and if Trump or the government truly does want to start doing things like tracking periods or pregnancy to try to find abortions they can. Just as easily they can do the same with transgender people, or non-heterosexual people. I think America is going to be in a very dark place for anywhere from a few years to a few generations, if it survives as a democracy.

Fuck yo, fuck.

Election will be over in a week. What a ride it's been. Supreme Court just pulled some shit purging 1200 or so voters in Virginia. Ballot boxes being burned. It's going to be a hell of a few weeks in this country.

A colleague from a different county is in salary negotiations for a new role. Disappointed she'll be leaving but she'll be significantly happier once she's out of the role so I'm happy for her. It's fun, because the state has a new email list for each thing they send out so we constantly send each other things to make sure we're actually getting all the info, so that'll be a missed resource.

Beyond that, still applying to jobs. My partner found funding for a PhD so she's going to be applying and will almost certainly get in which will be super exciting and a wonderful journey, though the loss of income will be less fun.

Hope y'all are staying sane this week!

Thanks! Dinner was delightful we ended up doing the tasting menu which they described as "the chefs just having fun" and I think it really was since everything we got was off-menu. Super cool experience and incredible food!

Not much to report this week. A board game I played as a kid and still play versions of that's been out of print for a long time has, as of yesterday, been re-released and heavily updated. Decided to get it since the old version is at my parents house and then we can have it out here too -- https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mrbgames/empire-builder-europe Otherwise, just anxious about the election but nothing new.

If you didn't see it, this is worth a short watch

This is super valuable information thank you so much!!

The holiday has me thrown off. Did an all day emergency shelter set up and tear down training yesterday which was super fun. And as the only tall person on the team it had me doing all the tall people things, which means my arms hurt today.

Had a lovely long weekend off the grid, 10/10 would recommend.

3 year anniversary dinner is tonight. How quickly time flies!

Hope y'all are well!

I've heard wonderful things about Chicago I'm sure you'll enjoy it! What's bringing you out there? And I hope you're feeling better from the tonsillitis debacle

The public health job market is garbage right now with the election in a few weeks. No one wants to hire since budgets might evaporate. But hey, at least I'm currently employed so that's a plus. Hopefully the Dems will win and continue to fund my career.

We're hoping to host a Halloween murder mystery party. It'll be our first time doing anything like that. Anyone ever done that before and have tips?

Hope all is well with y'all, especially our Southeast USA contingency.

Some cool jobs at the FDA I'll be applying to in the coming days. Applied to a different one at a Google subsidiary yesterday. Being it's already October I'm not optimistic about finding something before the new year but we'll see how it goes.

We've had a hell of a heat wave the past few days and no AC in the apartment. Yesterday it got up to 80 and only cooled to about 75 overnight. In the office today to escape. It is rough out there.

Going to see Wicked for the first time tonight as well, excited for that.

Hope y'all are doing well!

Just wrapped up a 2 day training that had me waking up an hour early so I'm pretty dead tired right now. In addition, we're doing a full scale exercise next weekz so I'm excited to get that over with.

Job is still rough, but hopefully moved past the roughest bit I've been alluding to over the past few weeks? They basically wrapped it up with what I assume was a meeting with HR on their end followed by them coming back to me saying they're making official paperwork which I think means they were trying to tell me I was doing a bad job and HR was like "where's the job description and can you point to where c_hawk is doing poorly?" And they probably panicked and realized they didn't have anything but I've got emails saying I'm doing well. So now they're working on that and I've survived another day lol. Still searching tho! I think I want to get back to infectious disease I miss that stuff a ton the emergency management stuff isn't my vibe.

Hope y'all are well!

Damn I keep calling these bootleg pubski at what point do I turn legit? Is there a licensure process? Idk. But I enjoy finding a new pic every week.

Job is still weird. They're def not going to get rid of me they're still keeping me in the loop with planning and stuff, but still weird vibes and I'm definitely looking for new jobs now.

My partner was told she was the perfect candidate for a PhD at a program that would be perfect, but they don't have funding for her :( so she's still looking at one or two other programs but who knows. They'll have funding next year they think but not for this year's application which is a travesty.

Fed cut interest rates by a half percent right when I logged in so I got to watch my entire account pop by 1% and then fall back down a bit it was a ride.

Hope y'all are well!