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today in coronavirus .. maybe people are tired of it

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canceled post-Xmas ski cabin rental in VT today. we had plans to ski between Xmas and NYer's but restrictions into VT are pretty strict.

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Elsewhere in college

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Oklahoma ay West Virginia has been postponed from Saturday to Dec. 12.

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Colorado St at Air Force cancelled 24 hours before tomorrow's Turkey Day noon kickoff. The problems in Colorado Springs persist.

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Cal and Stanford are still on track to fight over an ax this week, but there will be no battle for Paul Bunyon's ax this year. Minnesota has paused football activities due to Covid-19 problems, so their rivalry game at Wisconsin Saturday had been cancelled. It ends a 113 year unbroken run of the rivalry that neither World War, or the post WW I flu epidemic, were able to interrupt. Its also the 3rd game Wisconsin has lost to Covid, as the Badgers had to cancel twice earlier in the season.

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I have said this before but I also wish we had more rivalry trophies like the Big 10 does. We should have a commander of California trophy for the California school with the most wins amongst each other. We should have a trophy when we play UCLA and USC.

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I’ve always been jealous of the Paul Bunyan’s ax and if I am being honest, I’m a bit underwhelmed by our ax. I don’t believe an ax belongs on a a board, an ax is meant to be wielded.

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I read that bc of all the missed games, Wisconsin will not meet the minimum requirements to participate in the B1G CCG

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Northwestern probably made that a moot issue on the field.

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Imposter syndrome

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Would this category include Twist, impersonating a media entity executive?

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We need to ask Substack to add a poll option. I miss the option to "Punch Twist" every day.

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i'll start off by saying this is a super complex one that touches on race and gender and all the things. also, because this is a hard thing for me to relate to, apologies in advance if i get it slightly wrong.

i know it is from various forms of privilege, but i dont actually experience impostor syndrome myself. even if i am a minority in some setting, i usually just tell myself i am here and i deserve to be for any number of reasons such as ability, money, luck, effort, etc.

on the other hand, i will often ask women in the class i teach. why they dont speak up more and if it is a gender thing. the most common response as to why, is a sense of impostor syndrome despite the fact they were all Cal undergrads, got into a highly competitive grad program and that the classes are more or less 50/50 gender balanced. while i hear it more often from female students, it is certainly not limited to females.

my take is that impostor syndrome encompasses

- not feeling like you belong where you are because you perceive that you didnt get there on your own merits

- looking around, you dont see people "who look like you" so it emphasizes you dont belong

- the thing you are trying to do is hard. hard enough to question your abilities

- somehow it seems that others are managing better or it is not as hard for them, even if it is as a result of something external like more money or whiteness.

- you are worried about by judgement of the people around you ie. being exposed as the imposter

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My imposter syndrome during undergrad and grad school mostly had to do with feeling like I didn't work hard enough. I always felt like everyone around me had a stronger work ethic.

I feel lucky that it wasn't worse.

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this was my entire experience at Cal, that I didn't belong and I didn't work as hard as everyone else.

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this is interesting that the imposter part is comparing current work ethic to others.

my thinking is that you somehow get in to program/school/job. and then if you want to advance you need to out-smart, out-work, out-xxx, the other people to advance.

perhaps mistakenly assume the imposter syndrome was based on your previous path.

it seems self-evident that if i dont work hard AFTER getting into grad school that i deserve to fail or not advance to tenure-track-professorhood. but that is an accurate reflection of my effort, not really tricking any there.

i would say that i was a mediocre physicist and chose not to work as hard as others. i would say the same thing about my career in finance/banking. in neither case did i feel like an imposter though for self-inflicted mediocrity

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a lot of the work ethic feeling relates back to the sense of not belonging. Do i deserve to be here? Am I a pity admit? etc.

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I was a nerd in high school and very shy. I had a lot to overcome at Cal.

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This is how I also feel and process imposter syndrome. I always feel like I don’t belong because I didn’t work hard enough or I don’t really know what I’m doing.

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funny. you always struck me as a particularly hard worker.

but perhaps your brains made up for it !

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Dumb ways to injure yourself

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Following Cal Football for decades

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Go Bears?

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sitting working at home for months and then not going for evening walks because of recurring storms this summer - I had no idea I could jack up my legs and thus my lower back that way.

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I took too much of a medication, fainted while walking down the hall, and broke a bone in my leg (down near the ankle, which twisted as I fell).

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Ouch. Makes whatever the original ailment was seem minor in comparison, I imagine!

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I went to sleep one night in August and woke up with shooting pain down my back and a frozen neck. It has since progressed to numbness and tingling all down my left arm and side and will likely lead to spine surgery. 😐

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ouch. I wonder how that happened? I guess something in a dream made you flinch hard?

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Not sure, but my ortho says when you get a frozen neck, it's your neck's way of preventing you from furthering injuring the joint or disc -- it freezes up so you can't move and do more damage, and it unfreezes when it starts to heal. I thought that was fascinating!

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TIL, my neck is smarter than I am...

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Ouch! Take care with that!

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No bueno :(

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oh no!

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Yikes! ☹️

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At the end of PE class, freshman year of high school: I turned around to talk to the boy I liked and fell over backward onto a fire hydrant set into the hill

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So, you married him,right?

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Cuts and bruises or broken bones? That sounds painful for you and for the boy to witness.

I suppose if this were a Rom-Com you two would have went to the Homecoming Dance together.

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Just a bruised bottom. I think we danced together once, so let's chalk that up to this impressive overture.

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oh god

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You might think age and wisdom could improve my game, but...just kidding, no one would think that.

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but now you're old enough to at least try and parlay it into "meet cute"

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Only slightly related: my friend has been on dating apps in NYC, and apparently, the guys there have been including their COVID test results in their profiles. "Look, I have antibodies!"

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there's actual value in that, so might as well try to use it

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For me this generally involved spraining my ankles somehow.

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Pulled my hamstring playing craps on the floor.

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Strained a nerve in my shoulder region while asleep. Very painful for one month back in 2019

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Pulled groin getting out of the shower...the Captain was here!, if ya know what I mean...

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hurt shoulder while stretching in my sleep

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playing basketball on the morning of your 25th HS reunion.

i tore my Achilles and @heyalumnigo had to drive me to the ER in Walnut Creek.

i still made it to the reunion that evening on crutches. the worst pain was the next morning and an uncomfortable 6 hour flight home.

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Don't forget we went to the Cal game after the ER but before dinner with friends at Oliveto before we all went to the reunion. You had to hobble from Unit 3 to Memorial. Luckily they let us use the high roller elevator because of your crutches and our seats were on the West side in the last row.

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i forgot about the Cal game.

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We had tickets to go and you hadn't seen the new Memorial so you wanted to go. Looking back I should've dropped you off and then went to look for parking.

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at least we got Top Dog

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Always

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Watchya cooking today?

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I'm told that my wife is brining a small amount of turkey and will be making pies and cranberry sauce today. Our habit for years has been to order sushi on "thanksgiving eve" and the fact that it's just the 4 of us is no reason to stop.

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Often have gotten Mexican the night before Thanksgiving, just to get something as different as possible. Tonight I've learned will be Chicken Pot Pie. Nor quite that different, but still pretty different.

The cooking for tomorrow will begin in the morning, building to full kitchen chaos just after noon, leading to dinner at 2.

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Pumpkin pie- trying out this recipe: https://smittenkitchen.com/2008/11/silky-smooth-pumpkin-pie/ (which is basically the same as this https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97314472#thing)

We are planning to get Chinese takeout tomorrow

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I read an article on the best Chinese restaurants to get Turkey in SF. Looked interesting, but I don't like Turkey enough to do it. Maybe Thanksgiving Peking duck instead.

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What? You're not Jewish!

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That's for Christmas my goyische friend

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Today cooking pies. Tomorrow cooking cheesy hasselback potato gratin and creamed corn, to go with the side ham because turkey is trash (we're having turkey too, but *I* am not having turkey).

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017724-cheesy-hasselback-potato-gratin?surface=cooking-carousel&fellback=false&req_id=744334159&algo=cooking_doc2vec_weight_1&imp_id=654308076&action=click&module=RecirculationRibbon&pgType=recipedetails&rank=1

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Cooking pies is a phrase that caught my attention; its usually baking pies. Do you do something different? Or just use different semantics?

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Nothing different, I'm baking regular old pies. He just asked what I'm cooking, so figured I'd answer in the vernacular.

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Nothin'. I will be picking up my Thanksgiving meal that I ordered from a local restaurant.

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Same here, we are getting a meal from Heirloom LA and will be re-heating it tomorrow.

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Have to ask the wife, no idea.

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She's making apple butter to go with the ham for tomorrow.

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Nothing. The leg of lamb is "marinating" for tomorrow (deboned, and rubbed with olive oil, dijon, rosemary, shallots, garlic and cracked pepper). And I'll be prepping the porchetta (rosemary, sage, chili flakes, orange/lemon zest, fennel seed and fennel frond) tonight for Big Game eats.

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this all sounds much better than turkey

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bc it is. My thinking is why waste the biggest and best meal of the year on turkey?

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Big Game porchetta is a fucking great innovation. Imma nominate you for a Nobel.

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Not cooking but picking up a 14 lb. Turkey from Poulet already roasted that I am bringing to my Mom's house. She is making the rest of the stuff except for the mashed potatoes, which is my task.

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Update. Just picked it up. It smells wondrous and now is in the fridge.

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no actual cooking. spatchcock and brine turkey in buttermilk.

first time trying the spatchcock technique and will cook it on the Big Green Egg tomorrow.

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now i am also making .. Turkey neck/heart broth. thanks @sgbear

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Turkey neck/heart broth, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, brining turkey (which seems still semi-frozen), broccoli quiche

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do you have recipe or process for "Turkey neck/heart broth". after spatchcocking the turkey i have all these parts and no real plans to use them.

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Literally just those two ingredients and water, low and slow for hours. I use it as a moistener for stuffing instead of water. I don't use the liver or other giblets because otherwise it tastes too much like iron.

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Also, may be the last time I buy turkey from my friend at the farmer's market. Last year it was 32 pounds. This year it is 27 pounds. I am going to have lots of leftovers again.

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OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY

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Michael Flynn receives full pardon.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/25/politics/trump-pardon-michael-flynn

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I can’t wait for Trump to pardon himself.

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There's good reason to believe he can't.

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Good thing is the state of NY can still prosecute him. Unless he runs.

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I hope that this time next year this category is replaced with “THE CRUMBLING GOP”

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we should check out the gloom and doom on Parler.

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Someone should but I won’t go over there. If someone is brave enough to do so I applaud them and their sacrifice to our democracy.

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Indeed.

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PRO

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both an amazing player and the most staggering cheat, which is why he'll always have a place in my heart for what he did to England in Mexico 86

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the hand of God https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ccNkksrfls

I still can't believe he got away with this

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It's pretty stunning that no one called it, given that it was just him and the goalie all alone in the middle of the field. No traffic to obstruct the ref's view.

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Revenge for the Falklands

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I know!

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Reminds me of the Sharks hand goal in the playoffs against the Blues in 2019 (the Pavelski 5 min major, 4 goal bonanza season). I think the hand pass is not reviewable so since none of the on-ice officials saw it, it was still ruled a goal and the Sharks won in OT.

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CAL

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Go Bears!

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Cal to play Big Game without almost the entire starting Oline, Moore, Croteau, McKenzie. Brown Jr is a maybe

https://247sports.com/college/california/Article/Cal-football-COVID-O-Line-Stanford-Oregon-State-offensive-line-Michael-Saffell--155362175/

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Yeesh. This season is a joke.

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The site is down....says so on the splash page. Maybe it is due to the AWS national outage.

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Now it is back up...

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from big game week 2006

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Qcq8fxNwkYxnZk3C9

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Your kid is (was) cute!

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was is the appropriate tense. 16 yrs old, sassy teenager now.

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