It has been... too long since I've been regularly active here. I'm ready to come back. I'm ready to get in silly arguments and talk to other people fighting with themselves to earn their education.
I'm now in my second year of uni and. oof. but I will attempt to be more active again.
Starting strong: I
m going to start a productivity challenge, I've signed up for pole dancing classes, and I'm ready to re-make myself as many times as I need to in order to reach my dreams
Hello! I came across your blog for searching for posts about pharmacy tech. I started studying for the certification recently. Since I don't have any prior experience with it I've sort of been doing all the studying on my own. I was wondering if you have any tips or resources you'd recommend! The top 200 especially has been giving me trouble haha
Gasp! I'm SO willing to share all of my tips and tricks! I hope it's going well so far! (also- sorry it took so long, I've been writing a paragraph at a time as a treat to myself)
I passed the exam on my first attempt, and to be honest, I feel like I shouldn't have. I didn't really know my top 200 as well as I had hoped, and I didn't even study the other stuff very well (in my opinion). I went through my school to get the education, but it was... bad. The teacher was not confidant in herself, and the other students were taking pharm tech as an easy way out. This meant I had to do a LOT of self study. I spend ~$100 on the ptcb prep course that promises to take you through all of the info, and I think it does a pretty good job on everything bar the top 200- it has crappy flashcards and quizes and thats about it, so most of my top 200 knowledge came from elsewhere (aka purely self study)
I did several things- some more effective than others I'm going to list/explain all of them in no particular order.
If you hunt around on spotify, there is a robo-voice recording of the top 200 drugs and their generic and brand names, along with their class. I would play that as I went to sleep, whenever I was driving, when I was cooking and eating my meals- the robo lady's voice is forever ingrained in my head.
learn what the suffix and prefixes of the various generic names mean- it will be SO helpful (there might be info for that within the ptcb prep course)
Flashcards that you write out may work- I spent many hours making and playing with them, but I found that it wasn't active enough recall for it to work well for me, but I did find that using apps like quizlet and playing their games was helpful- it made it more a fun thing.
making up stories for the drugs is the thing that really saved me- I remember that baclofen goes to lioresal because you lie on your back and if you do that for too long, you get back spasms so you need to take a muscle relaxant. Thats one of the tame/ work appropriate ones, but I came up with some WILD stories and it works really well (I've not worked in a pharmacy yet as I'm in the process of going through undergrad and I can only work during the summers, but I figure that will also give me a hefty amount of amusement in the workplace as well)
If you have friends/parents/partner/a pet that are willing to put up with you, trying to teach them the drugs may work because you need to explain it all.
I think these are all the tips I have for you, but I want to wish you the BEST of luck. This is going to be easier than you think, and I know damn well that you're going to make it.
I'm super excited for you, and I hope it all goes well!
btw while people continue to fight the system don't forget about Undue Medical Debt (formerly RIP Medical Debt), a charity that buys and forgives medical debt. on average a donation of $10 will forgive $1,000 of medical debt.
I'm fairly confident that this is now the one original post I've made that has gotten the most notes, and I honestly couldn't be happier. the more attention we give this, the higher the chances that someone will see this and donate. medical debt is both one of the most crushing things a person can deal with and one of the stupidest things humanity has invented. and if you live in the US, I have no doubt that you've had to deal with medical debt in your life, either for yourself or a loved one. even a small donation can do so much good, and now is the time of year when we are encouraged to think of others.
Yeah quiet quitting is great and all but have you tried chaotic working?
Like. I remember back in my grocery store cashier days I did so much crazy shit.
When WIC (Women, infants, and children voucher program to help low income mothers/families with children) people were in my line I would pretty much know who they were. Before the cards they had to tell us upfront they were WIC and show us their vouchers for what they were allowed to get (it was awful some times. Like. 2 gallons of milk. $4 worth of vegetables etc etc). Theyād always have items hanging back, waiting to see what the total was and if they would have to take it off the belt.
I began to place the fruits/vegetables a certain way on the register scale so that like 1/2lbs of grapes read as like .28lbs or something. Then act shocked when I said that they still had X amount of lbs left. They got all their fruit and vegetables.
I think it started to kinda? Catch on to the women? Because I would have the same moms in my line month after month. And even after they switched to the cards (they worked like food stamp cards?) Iād still do the same thing. They were able to get more produce for whatever shitty max amount Indiana gave them.
i keep seeing soooo many ppl saying the canada post workers are selfish for striking right around christmas time and that they shouldve waited until january or whatever like omfg that is the point are you stupid!!!
When workers strike this is fault of the employer. The employer could choose to meet their demands and end the strike. Striking workers are reminding their employer and the public how important and valuable they are. The employer is being selfish for not giving workers what they need during the season when they most demonstrate how valuable they are. If the precious holiday mail is delayed that's on the employer not the workers- the employer is choosing to force a strike, they could make a different choice, the striking workers are only responding to what they are forced to do to get their needs met. If you want the strike to end, pressure the employer, not the workers.
Warehouse workers for one of the two lead grocery chains were on strike in Australia recently, and everyone was having a freakout about whether or not there would be any groceries on the shelves of that store for Christmas.
Now this was just one grocery chains affected. The other lead grocery chain was completely unaffected by the strikes, as were all smaller/independent/etc grocery stores. Meaning people were still perfectly able to get their groceries elsewhere. But the threat of limited stock over the Christmas period had the grocery chain SWEATING.
They lost something like 50 million bucks in a few days because of the strikes, and they kept trying to push the "if the workers don't capitulate then you, shopper, won't be able to buy your Christmas ham!!!!" But i don't know anyone who was like "Yeah those damn workers, threatening my Christmas." Everyone I know was saying "There's an easy solution to this. Woolworths should just pay their staff and agree to their safety demands."
Some stores even had messages of support from customers appearing on the empty shelves:
Anyway despite the best efforts of the media, general public sentiment remained on the side of the striking workers, and today, news broke that Woolworths has reached a deal with their workers. The threat of having no stock over Christmas gave the workers the extra impact that they needed to drag Woolworths back to the negotiation table.
The people striking in the lead-up/over Christmas are not your enemy.
The corporations who hold Christmas hostage as they refuse to give their employees safe working conditions absolutely a liable wage are your enemy.
Knowing that trans women of color started the movement in the united states and were literally immediately erased and excluded from what they started is the most deeply jading knowledge.
It is the original sin of the so-called queer community and it damns it from the cradle.
Without Stonewall, without the efforts of Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, the LGBTQ Community wouldnāt be where it is today. Donāt forget the roots, donāt forget the catalyst.
and then TERFs wanna be like, āhmm well the LGBT community existed before Stonewall!ā
but likeā¦Becky, of course LGBTQ+ people existed before Stonewall. Weāve all existed since the beginning of time. But the movement got a shock to its senses, a jump-start, a rocket-into-space when that glass shattered via Marsha P. Johnson, and when Sylvia Rivera was up on-stage protesting guess who was on the sidelines heckling her?
The same fuckers who wonāt ever reblog or acknowledge this
My apologies to the original poster as I photo captured this post to add to the thread-I reposted this last year for pride and expect to repost it every year I have left-itās our history people.
Marsha P. Johnson allegedly died of suicide in 1992, and her death was never investigated. Even I, a mere prole, could catch theĀ āshe was murderedā vibes from the circumstances surrounding the discovery of her body.
Without a trans black woman, LGBT+ rights would not exist. Never forget. NeverĀ āpay it no mindā.
I made green tea, but I forgot there was an old bag of chai in the kettle, so I mixed chai water with decaf green tea, then I mixed in like a half table spoon or something of that honey from the dollar store that they aren't legally allowed to call honey because there's too much corn syrup in it and some almond milk and a single drop of coffee creamer because we ran out and???? It tastes like??? Nothing????
It has LESS flavor than my tap water! HOW do you EVEN-
I think I made a flavor that's only perceptible to shrimp, that's the only explanation
It tried to make it again and I somehow made milk???? I used almond milk but it tastes like whole milk???? Like straight from the fucking tit what the fuck, HOW DID I MAKE LACTOSE FREE MILK WTF WTF HOWWW
I think the reader's response to this post is probably going to either be "That's incredibly minor" or "Holy shit YES I'M ALSO PROUD", depending on people's personal experiences with academia, but:
Today I am incredibly proud of one of my students.
In the interests of disguising identities, let's call them Ceri. Ceri is one of my third year undergrads (meaning their final year, for anyone unfamiliar with UK uni systems.) They transferred to us last year, and within two weeks I was giving them the contact info to get to Student Services and get themself screened for ADHD; they have some mental health struggles, but I clocked pretty quickly that they STRUGGLE with procrastination, and punctuality, and attending 9am lectures in particular. Naturally, as is the way of my people, it took them a further four months to remember to go to the screening. Lol. Lmao. Rofl, in fact.
But, they did it eventually! Their screening lit up like a Christmas tree at the ADHD section, and they got a free laptop and optional one week extensions and a study support worker named Claire. This has helped tremendously, and although mental health + until-then-unsupported ADHD meant their academic profile had slid sideways somewhat, with the new tools available and a couple of resits they passed the year and hit this year running.
Until, that is, the last fortnight.
Now, I take them for a Habitat Management module that has two assessments: an academic poster presentation before Christmas, and a site-specific management plan in May. Naturally this means we are at that happy point in the year for the poster presentations. I give out the briefs at the start of the year, so they've had them since October; I've also been periodically checking in with them all for weeks, to make sure they don't have any major burning questions. The poster presentation was to pick a species reintroduction project, pull the habitat feasibility study out of it, and then critique that study; Ceri chose to look at the hen harrier reintroductions proposed for the southern UK. All good.
Which brings us nicely to today! Ceri's presentation is scheduled for 2.30. At 11am-1pm, I am lecturing the first years on Biodiversity, while Ceri is learning about environmental impact assessment with a colleague I shall call Aeron. This means we are separately occupied during those same hours.
Nevertheless, Aeron messages me at about 12.
"I think Ceri needs to see you after your lecture," he writes. "They're panicking, I genuinely think they might cry. I'm worried. Are you free at 1?"
I say I am. At 1, I get lunch and sit in the common area; Ceri comes to see me. To my personal shame, imagine all of the following takes place while I stuff my face with potato.
Now: this part is going to be uncomfortably familiar to anyone who has ever tried higher education with ADHD, especially unmedicated. It certainly was for me. All I can say is, I never had the courage to take the step here that Ceri did.
"I have to confess," they said quietly, and Aeron was right, they were fighting back tears. "My mental health has been so, so bad for the last fortnight. I've left it way, way too late. I don't have anything to present."
"Nothing at all?" I asked.
"I've been researching," they said helplessly. "I found loads on the decline of the hen harrier. But it wasn't until last night that I finally found a habitat feasibility study to critique. Generally... I've been burying my head about it, and it just got later and later. I thought I should come in for Aeron's lecture, and I should at least tell you."
This part is a minor thing, right? But honestly, I remember being in the grip of that particular shame spiral. I never did manage to tell my lecturers to their faces. I just avoided. I honestly can't imagine having the courage it took them to come in and tell me this, rather than just staying home and avoiding me.
"I think..." they said hesitantly, "I know I can submit up to a week late, for a capped mark. I think I need to do that, and apply for extenuating circumstances. But then I'll have both Aeron's assignment and yours due at the same time."
Which meant they would crumble under the pressure and likely struggle to pass both; so me, being as noble and heroic as I unarguably am, stopped eating potato and said, "Let's make that plan B."
(It was good potato. I am a hero.)
So, we made plan A: I moved their timeslot to 4.30, giving them three and a half hours. The shining piece of luck in this whole thing was that this was the crunch time assignment - if it had been Aeron's, they'd have had to try and write a 3000 report in that time. But for me, all they had to write was an academic poster, and those things are light on words by design. We found them a Canva template, and then we quickly sketched out a recommended structure based on the brief: if it's habitat feasibility, look at food availability, nesting site availability, and mortality risks in the target release site. Bullet point each. Bullet point how well the study assessed each. Write a quick intro and conclusion. Take notes as you go, and present the poster itself at 4.30.
"You think I should try?" they asked doubtfully, looking like I'd just asked them to go mano-a-mano with a feral badger.
"If you run out of time, so be it," I said. "But your brain is trying to protect you from a non-existent tiger. That's why you've procrastinated - it's been horrible, and you've been shame spiralling, and your brain is trying to shield you from the negative experience; but it's the wrong type of help for this situation! So while you're sitting there working on it, hating life, every time your brain goes 'This is hopeless, I can't do it', you think right back 'Yes I can, it just sucks.' And you carry on. Good?"
"Good," they said. "I'm going to mainline coffee and hole up in the library. Enjoy your potato."
And then, of course, I had to go and watch the other students' presentations, so that was the end of me being any help at all. I spent all afternoon wondering if they were going to manage it, or if I would be getting a message at 4.25 telling me they'd failed, and would have to submit late and hope for an EC.
And Tumblrs
Tumblrs
Let me FUCKING tell you
They turned up at 4.15, fifteen minutes early, wearing a mask of grim, harrowed determination and fuelled by spite and coffee, and they pulled up that poster and started presenting and yes, okay, I'll admit their actual delivery was dramatically unpolished and yes, they forgot to include the taxanomic name for the hen harrier on the poster and yes, fine, I admit that there were more than a few awkward moments where they lost their place in their hastily scribbled notebook but LET ME FUCKING TELL YOU -
They smashed it. It was well-critiqued, it had a map, it had full citations, it had a section on the hen harrier's specific ecology and role in the ecosystem, it had notes on their specific conservation measures. They described case studies they'd read about elsewhere. They answered the questions we threw at them with competence and depth. There was analysis. All that background research they'd done came right to the fore. They were even within the time limit by 15 seconds.
You would never have known they'd produced it in three hours, from a quivering and terrified mess fighting the bodily urge to dehydrate via tear ducts. After they left, the second marker and I looked at each other and went "So that was a 2:1, right?"
I caught up with Aeron downstairs and he was beaming. Apparently Ceri had seen him on their way out, and had gone over to talk to him. Aeron said the difference between the Ceri of this morning and the Ceri of then was like two different people; in four hours, they'd gone from their voice literally breaking as they admitted the problem, ashamed and broken, to being relaxed and happy and smiling.
"I reckon I've passed," they apparently told Aeron, pleased. "Maybe even a 2:2. There's things I wish I'd had the time to do better, but I'll be happy if I passed."
They won't know until late January what they got, because we're not allowed to release marks until 20 term days after hand-in, and the Christmas holidays are about to hit. But I'm really hoping I can be there when they're released.
But mostly, I'm just... insanely proud of them. I cannot tell you how happy I am. And I know, I know, obviously this is not a practice I would want to see them do regularly, or indeed ever again, and it only worked because they were fucking lucky with the assignment format, but like... when life is just punching you in the face, and you hit a breaking point... isn't it nice? That just this once, you pull off a miracle, and it's fixed? The disaster you thought was about to ruin you is gone? To get that relief?
In terms of being able to manage ADHD as a grown person, that was SUCH a big deal - both overcoming the shame spiral to be able to say 'I need to tell someone I need help' and the catastrophizing spiral of 'i'm going to fail so why even try.' Leaps of faith about being able to do hard things are an essential part of things like applying for jobs and promotions and grants and things like that, and if you can't make them it makes your life harder. So is being able to communicate when something is not going well BEFORE the worst has happened, so there's time to course correct and come up with a new strategy.
it's probably never going to be super easy for them, but knowing they can and have successfully used their new tools to deal with a crisis in the past is a boost to being able to do those things again when they recognize something going south.
And believing in that kid right now, for that crisis, made a concrete difference in their future academic opportunities.
Right??! It's such a huge thing for them to have done. I failed my first attempt at a degree because I tried to hide away forever. I'm honestly so impressed by them coming to tell me.
Even now, actually, something I really hate about myself is that when I forget about something I was meant to do - or even when I assume I've forgotten about something because I didn't know but everyone is talking as though I should have - even now, I never admit it. My automatic, shame-fuelled response is to think on my feet and go along with it and pretend I knew, or to make some other excuse. And I'm older and in theory wiser than Ceri lol
Thank you for sharing. Thank you sooo much. Iām an adult woman in my 40s who wasnāt diagnosed with ADHD until my 30s, and my default ācopingā mechanisms are STILL interfering with my life.
Your story just might have saved my career today. No lie. Iām MONTHS past due on one assignment that I have done all the research for, have all the information necessary, and just stare at and CANNOT finish. Im ahead on everything else, knocking it out of the park in all other aspects of my job, but the oONE THING thatās half done is killing me. To the point where theyāve removed all other tasks so I can āfocus on finishing this.ā And Iām still just staring at the goddamn word doc until I crawl away for a stress nap or some other avoidant activity. Iām Ceri, but without the courage to explain whatās going on bc thereās literally no one else at work who can do this assignment. Itās my job to do this. And Iāve been doing it for years with no problem, but now that itās fully behind and A Big Deal, thereās too much pressure and the shame spiral is visceral and avoidance is automatic. I even called out of work today because I couldnāt face it.
Reading this, and your response, and the outcome, has touched something in my brain that I can FEEL has diffused the emotional bomb that has been going off every time I open the Word doc. Honestly i could cry with the relief.
Iām printing this out, framing it, and hanging on my desk. It will help future me feel connected, understood, and optimistic during the next Big Freeze (thatās what I call mine).
I wish I didnāt grow up a product of the Before Times when no one knew that ADHD presented so differently in girls than boy. I wish I hadnāt been so high functioning that I breezed through most of school while building horrible habits and cinderblock walls of false confidence as knee-jerk reactions to not knowing something I am expected to. I wish I could just Be Better now. But I canāt and I didnāt and Iām not, but now I can at least not feel so alone.
So thank you again for sharing, because you definitely changed my life today.
Okay something that bothers me is the fact physics is seen as the more prestigious of the three main sciences, with biology at the bottom and chemistry in the middle. Like. I doubt most people could name a famous biologist, but they could name 5 famous physicists. Why are Albert Einstein and Stephen hawking household names but Norman Borlaug and Jonas Salk aren't?
Not to dismiss the accomplishments of Einstein or Hawking, or their genius, but their actual tangible contributions to society have been miniscule compared to that of Borlaug or Salk who have each saved LITERALLY hundreds of millions, if not billions, of lives each. Half the food on your plate was probably grown thanks to Borlaug and Salk is the reason half your siblings didn't die of polio as a kid.
Sure Einsteins theory of relatively is important for modern satellite communications but really though how can it compare?
This is coming from someone who studied physics. I love physics, and years ago when i was at uni I looked down at biology and so did everyone else studying physics. And I know others did too. Retroactively of course I know this was so very wrong.
If society as a whole started treating biology with more respect then maybe more students would go into that field. If we had rockstars of medicine and agricultural science that were household names rather than just physicists? think of how many more lives could be saved, how many more lives could be improved.
I'm not saying physics isn't important, and more scientists of any kind is always good, but proportionally I think societies priorities are a little skewd.
Jonas Salk was a household name in his lifetime, and people do know the names Richard Dawkins and Louis Pasteur and Charles Darwin. But biology has been demoted to a "soft science" in recent decades, a phenomenon I can explain with a single image:
My prediction is that you will see this happen with chemistry next.
its already happening with chemistry-adjacent studies!!! chemical engineering used to be seen as the hardest form of engineering, until it became extremely popolar with women students, to the point where it is now pejoratively called āfemical engineeringā, and lookie-look which is now considered the *easiest* type of engineering. wanna venture a guess?
Someone in the notes actually took the time to inform me that "correlation does not equal causation" but there is actual scientific evidence that we value women's work so low that when women enter a field, the prestige and pay in that field drops. We have seen this in numerous fields, even outside of the sciences and engineering fields. Biochemistry is being demoted to a soft science now too, but I think we will see, as the trends continue, that more women in chemistry will lead to devaluing of chemistry.
Some sources on this phenomenon.
Work done by women pays less because women do it, research shows.
Abstract. Occupations with a greater share of females pay less than those with a lower share, controlling for education and skill. This asso
The above two sources are discussed on the NYT article and show that, as women enter a field, the prestige and pay drops from that field. I found an interesting article on this below:
This third link is to an article that examines the long-term change in disparate prestige and pay experienced by women over time. In some respects, the gender pay gap is shrinking significantly and has been doing so since the 1980s. HOWEVER, when you control for other factors (more women are highly educated now, more jobs require higher education now than in 1980, more fields have earned a prestige and pay boost commensurate with these events) the negative effect of female percentage on overall pay an occupation receives has become stronger over time. In other words, the sex-based discrimination women experience has intensified as our net educational level and career choices have increased.
It's interesting because there's science behind this, there's science behind the pay gap, but MRAs value women's opinions so lowly that they can rebut it with "nu uh!" and people will go "well there's really no way to tell who is right here."
I had wanted to link them before, but I really didn't want to do so in the context of an online argument. Either you believe in sexism or you don't. If you don't, then I won't convince you it exists, and I don't want to spend my free time trying.
I cannot get over the assassination happening while I was trying to get coverage for my testosterone. Imagine going into the pharmacy all excited to get your first ever testosterone prescription but find out it costs 800$ out of pocket for a three month supply and UHC won't cover it. So then you wait for your provider to get back to you about changing your prescription for an entire week and a half, and during that wait someone just. goes and fucking murders the CEO of your insurance company. Like they just kill him on the street. They had so much calculated hatred for this guy that they even engraved each bullet that hit him. Then, as if the heavens themselves opened up entirely to watch brian thompson descend into hell, your testosterone is ready two days later for pickup, and only costs 10 delicious dollars.
the gimmick blogs are like tumblrās rogue gallery. yes weāve got some heroes, yes weāve got some villains, but more importantly if you look over here you will see some freak who devotes all their time to counting the number of ātāsā in a post
i know we're all sick of self-care being a marketing tactic now, but i don't think a lot of us have any other concept of self-care beyond what companies have tried to sell us, so i thought i'd share my favorite self-care hand out
brought to you by how mad i just got at a Target ad
Now THATāS a self care resource! If youāve gotten distracted by capitalismās appropriation of āself-careā and watering the meaning down to nothing this is a super helpful guide to cut through the bullshit.