I'm flying LAX->SYD->ZQN next week on Qantas, but the tickets were purchased through American and both flights have AA flight numbers on my ticket.
Will I have to follow Qantas baggage limits (7kg total carry on weight) or AA ones (no weight limit)?
Seemingly everybody I interact with online has been diagnosed with and treated for some litany of mental conditions, many of which are supposed to only afflict a couple percent of the population.
These people can't all actually have bipolar disorder, but does that mean that I also don't have bipolar disorder because it's comically over diagnosed? Who can say? Can't trust the psychiatrist on this one. Am I getting fat on antipsychotics for no good reason?
Everyone thinks they have the true legitimate real ADHD that they've had from childhood and they absolutely need to take speed every day and it's just like insulin they have a chemical imbalance in their brains, a dopamine deficiency, and speed fixes that by giving them dopamine. But then ADHD is also over diagnosed and those other bad people are faking it to get speed.
Autism shows up completely differently in women in that fewer women have debilitating autism. But they are actually all just masking and would have debilitating autism if they weren't so good at pretending to not have autism.
I've got US and Canadian passports, Global Entry, and have had both passports added to my GE account by a CBP officer.
I'm flying ZQN -> SYD -> LAX (and two more flights). I need to enter Sydney on my Canadian passport because that's the one my ETA is on and the terminal closes during an overnight layover. I know that I'm supposed to enter the US on my US passport, and that the airline will send my passport info to the government.
I've heard that I should show both passports to the check in agent (all flights are on the same ticket) and explain the situation, but I'm flying Jetstar and I really don't have high expectations.
If the airline screws up and sends the Canadian passport info, will I still be able to use Global Entry as usual?
I'd been just running, hiking, and skiing, with the occasional pole or aerials class for the last couple years. I used to weigh 180 lbs from antipsychotics but lost down to a healthy weight in 2022. I regained a bit of the weight over the last two years and am now 150 lbs at 5'2. I told myself it was fine because I was active.
I started having some symptoms of PCOS and insulin resistance in the last 6 months, and my doctor advised weight loss and offered to prescribe a GLP-1 or metformin. I really don't want to add another pharmaceutical to my life.
I have Macrofactor installed but have only been logging one day every week or so. I know weight loss and a lower carb diet would help my symptoms. I also think I need to add strength training in to my routine. I've got higher testosterone right now, so much as well take advantage. Lower body training is limited right now because I am recovering from spraining my knee skiing. I've been going to a shitty little gym and doing my knee rehab and doing the exercise bike.
I've never really been a gym person and have always enjoyed being outside more. I also don't know why I was able to track calories really strictly for 6 months in 2022 and haven't been able to summon that discipline again.
I have a math BA, but took the proof based/theoretical route and did a fairly light degree. Other than two semesters of real analysis, I haven't really done calculus since high school. No differential equations somehow.
I'm looking at going back to college and getting a physics degree, but I'll pretty much have to start from scratch (I got a 5 and a 4 on the AP physics C exams a decade ago, but have no lab credit). I took a special relativity course the summer between junior and senior years of high school and the instructor said to my mother than I was smart enough to do physics but didn't care enough. I'm now a decade older and less of a slacker, but I also haven't done any physics since then.
I am hoping to get into medical physics or go into med school or PA school, so I would need to do bio/chem/ochem and get good grades. I know I'm a lot more mature than I was back in college, so I think the ratio of homework to slacking off will be better, and I've always been good at exams, but looking at what it'll be like to excel at course after course is rough.
Not sure if a physics degree would be biting off more than I can chew. It seems like a great way to destroy a pre med science GPA, but I want the option for medical physics.
I'm looking at switching from software development into something in the medical field, and radiology tech programs caught my eye.
I'd like something hands on where I'm on my feet and interacting with people a lot. This led me to looking at PT, PA school, and nursing school, but those have a pretty long learning curve from where I am now (I haven't taken bio 101). Radiology tech caught my eye because it's more "math-y" than the others.
There's a bachelor's program in multiple modalities that I'm looking at.
The main downside to me is long term career growth, and I'm not really clear what the pay situation is. I see everything from $30 an hour to $90k a year mentioned by different people.
I guess these things do come in threes
I'm a dual US-Canadian citizen living in New Zealand. My New Zealand work visa is on my Canadian passport. I got my Australian ETA on my Canadian passport because I do round trips to there from NZ. In September, I am flying from New Zealand to the US, with an overnight layover in Sydney. I have to clear immigration in Sydney because the international terminal closes overnight. I have to enter Australia on a passport with an ETA on it and I have to enter the US with my American passport.
I know it's possible to have an airline flag different passports for different legs, but I think it would be simpler to get a second ETA. I'd like to save the $20 though.
I'm spending a few days in New York in September, and I'm planning on a comedy show one evening, going to dive bars with a friend another, and I'm pretty open otherwise. I'll be working remote until 7 every day. I'm staying in a hostel in the upper west side.
I'd love to get drinks at a lesbian dive bar if such a thing still exists, and just general advice for interesting spots.
I've been to NYC a few times before, but I don't know any gay women there and my last attempt to find a chill lesbian bar was a bust. I'd like something that's quieter on a weekday, and where I can just grab a drink and sit at the bar and chat with people and where it won't be weird that I'm solo.
I'm looking at a few unis to go back and complete a biology or biochemistry degree. I have a math bachelor's and will have a 5 year gap between it and going back to study.
The problem is, my last 30 credits GPA is 3.1.
I'm not sure if it's even worth applying.
I'm trying to decide whether to start with IFoA exams or go down the SOA/CAS process.
I've got US and Canadian passports, a maths degree from the US, and I'm working as a programmer in New Zealand (which does not have its own actuarial exams, and accepts US or Australian or UK qualifications). I'm planning on moving back to North America in a year or two, and then I'd like to move to London a year or two after that. I qualify for the 3 year youth mobility scheme visa, so sponsorship is less of an issue.
Ideally I will pass 1 or 2 SOA exams this year and get into University of Waterloo's Master's program that grants exam exemptions up to associate level in SOA, CAS, and IFoA systems, but barring that I'm trying to figure out which one to prioritize.
Do UK employers regularly hire people with SOA or CAS qualifications?
I started skiing this year and have done a few days of lessons. I'm just about there on skiing greens with my skis parallel instead of in pizza. I signed up for one last one this Saturday (Southern Hemisphere), and was planning on heading out on my own on Sunday.
I find the lessons at my hill to be really well run. They've been good about matching similarly skilled groups together and they split/joined groups mid session (and pulled another instructor in) to get us into groups of 4-5 students at the exact same level. Every lesson and drill I've done has progressed from the previous, and I'm finally starting to get a feel for balancing on the outside ski and getting my skis parallel.
I know how to ice skate but haven't done it much since childhood, and I'm also generally a bit risk averse in adrenaline sports (used to climb a lot and had a habit of down climbing instead of dynoing).
Group lessons cost $175 NZD or about $100 USD for 5 hours. I already have used gear and a season pass.
Something had just been feeling wrong about my workouts the last couple of weeks and I was beginning to become concerned that I should see a doctor about it. Much higher HR at the same paces despite a deload week, and just felt off. I had some thyroid medication changes 6 weeks ago that I thought might be related, and I was on the verge of seeing a doctor about it.
I posted looking for advice in a couple mostly male spaces and everyone was advising me to run more zone 2 or run more zone 4 or start lifting heavy 3x a week (I don't have the time and I hate it) or get a personal trainer before seeing a doctor.
Lo and behold, I started coughing with a chest cold yesterday, and it seems like my last couple of weeks of stuff being just off are probably related.
Every time my running fitness and recovery have just felt off, it's turned out I've had low ferritin or hypothyroidism, or in this case, a simmering infection.
I guess I just want to say to trust yourself and that it can make sense to get a doctor's opinion before trying a bunch of other fitness changes if stuff just seems off and unusual for you. We know ourselves best.
I'm a fan of stand up, and haven't been to any since moving to NZ.
I'm living in Wanaka, and I assume if there is any here, it's very intermittent. I'm happy to drive to Queenstown or Dunedin for something good, but probably not a weeknight open mic.
there was a couple year period where I read several women's mental illness memoirs. here're tiny reviews of the ones I remember:
Wasted - Anorexia. The author was deeply unlikable and had a huge ego.
i'm glad my mom died - Hollywood and bulimia. Great read but was really hard to recommend to my own mother.
The Center Cannot Hold - Schizophrenia. I honestly have to question if she actually had it because she seems way more functional and normal than I'd think.
Good Girls - Anorexia. Really a good read.
Building a Life Worth Living - BPD. Really inspiring and shows the power of spiritual health. Basically invented a way to train people out of the worst parts of BPD through mindfulness and other such things.
An Unquiet Mind - Bipolar 1. The one that got me down this rabbit hole. I first read this about 6 months after I had a manic episode and was diagnosed with bipolar 1 myself. Very vivid writing.
There's an overall theme in all of these where the author doesn't have to face the true consequences of their disorder because of a wealthy upbringing and flexible academic jobs. Lots of privately paid psych ward visits in these, sabbaticals to Oxford, being able to just not work.
have any of y'all read these or others? curious
Edit: forgot to mention Unshrunk - affluenza and BPD, misdiagnosed as bipolar, now antipsychiatry. This one drove me a bit batty because she seems to have had BPD (which doesn't respond to medication) the whole time and got much better after the gold standard treatment for BPD, yet she spends the whole book railing wholesale against psychiatric medication without realizing that it does in fact make a huge difference for a lot of us with other ailments, including the author of An Unquiet Mind.
mine's not really that interesting, but whenever I go to check someone's history these days it's always private.
am I giving up personal info for no benefit?
I have a flight from NZ to the US with an overnight layover in Sydney (10pm -8am). Is the international terminal open to sleep in overnight? If not, is it worth it to do the little pod hotel on airport grounds? Any tricks to get as much sleep as possible without missing my flight? Flights are Qantas and American Airlines.
I'm trying to figure out the best way to get some sleep because I have a 41 hour itenerary with 3 layovers in economy class.
I've been in NZ for 6 months on a WHV and I have 17 months left (Canadian).
I recently took a short trip to Australia and when reentering NZ wasn't sure how to answer a few questions on the traveler declaration.
It asked whether I live in NZ. I work (a fixed term job) and pay taxes and have a car and have a short term sublet here, but most of my possessions and assets are back home and I forward a lot of mail to my parents house. In general if anything goes even slightly sideways here I will be on the next one way flight back after I sell the car and work through my notice period.
It also asked whether the primary purpose of my trip was business or holiday. I am working full time so I kinda feel like I should answer business, but the real reason I'm in NZ is for the nature, and so far I've spent about equal amounts of time hiking and working.
I recently moved to Wanaka, and I've never driven the Crown Range at night during the winter.
I'm flying from Australia to ZQN on Monday night and I'm wondering whether to drive the Crown Range or to go around through Cromwell. Would rather avoid chains.
I live in Wanaka and have a pass at Cardrona.
I used chains for the first time today and I'm not sure if I did it right. I got new chains at Mitre 10 and they are the right size. There was a slapping sound with each rotation whenever I was going over 25 km/h. I pulled over several times to try to retension them and had a couple people look at them when I was at the top, but as soon as I got back above 25 km/h the noise started again. I have a Subaru Outback and they have a tighter wheel clearance and I've seen some threads that at least the American owners manual recommends cables instead of chains, but I'm not sure what the requirement is here. I see a lot of Subarus with chains here and haven't seen cables for sale anywhere.
I'm wondering if I've got them on right but the tight clearance means I just have to go really slow. Would it be fine to just stay below 25 km/h whenever chains are required or should I try to find cables?