My four years of volunteer tutoring in high school translated to a 20 hr/week job in undergrad that paid 9/hr, far more than you'll get at most jobs in college, and now to an easy side job where I can make 13/hr and do as few hours of it a week as I want while I'm doing my PhD. I don't know that I would have been able…

Well, while it doesn't guarantee a job, it doesn't guarantee debt either. Carefully pick a college that offers you plenty of scholarship money, or go to a community college if you can't get any scholarships. Don't just go to the "best" school that'll take you regardless of whether you'll have to take out loans or not.…

Huh...I was convinced the SNES was brand new when we got it in 1994 when I was almost 5 years old. Clever parents...looking up the dates, I think Donkey Kong Country was what convinced my dad to get it so I guess it makes sense and there's just no way I would have heard of it by then otherwise.

It was the best time of my life up to that point, and it's certainly a lot better than grad school. But I'm hoping for times to be better, hopefully even better than college, after grad school.
So far I'd rank my life stages as:

Me too! Love it!

I do miss Florida a lot of the time. And I'm in NC now so the humidity isn't that much letter- but I've learned that I detest having a winter, even a mild one.

I went there for undergrad, graduated class of 2012. Where you there when we got the text about being on the alert for a man with a cowboy hat carrying a puppy and wielding a machete, the same day there was a completely unrelated bomb threat on one of the buses? Or the day they found a grenade in the library? I loved…

I usually make my PB&J with strawberry jam. Haven't tried raspberry, thanks for the tip!

Cubano would probably be my number 2 after the Reuben (which obvs deserves #1), but I'm from Tampa where it's from so I'm biased.

We put some other song on first, like a terrible father daughter dance song, and pretended to be dancing traditionally, then the music changed to Hip to be Square and we did a choreographed dance where we fake-fought over his cane that he was using as a microphone, I took it away and pretended to do a sax solo on it,…

One of my friends here in a PhD program (different one than me) says her mom lies to everyone that she's only getting a master's, not a PhD, and not telling them it's in engineering, because she's afraid if she seems too smart men won't want to marry her. :/ She's from China, not Nigeria, but it seems to be a notion…

I was curious about this, as a nanoscientist myself, so I checked if I could find some studies already done on toxicity of TiO2 nanoparticles when ingested orally.
I'll put links as well as abstracts and conclusions here in case you can't get access to the article itself (I'm on campus now so it just automatically…

My cat demands I take showers. And reaches in and grabs my legs while I'm in there. I've heard from other people saying their cats do it too and I don't understand.

I've ranged from 110 lbs (underweight for my height) to 180 lbs (overweight for my height) over my adult life. My ribs have always been visible. It really is just in how you're shaped.

I said being AGAINST gay marriage makes one a bigot. Being neutral about it (i.e. neither for it nor against it) does not make one a bigot. I don't think Nintendo's response is bigoted- just tone-deaf. I do think those who oppose gay marriage are bigoted.
I've yet to see an argument against gay marriage that comes out…

Well, you can have your beliefs and express them, but I've yet to see an argument against gay marriage that isn't bigoted and we're allowed to use our freedom of speech to express that as well. Not going to stop anyone from expressing those views but likewise we're allowed to express the fact that opposing gay…

It could be hate, too, but fear is less malicious and I'd prefer to think it's not malicious. I mean I suppose in this specific case it could be apathy. What would you propose that it is?

It is fine to believe that. I don't understand why someone would dislike gay marriage but it's fine for you to believe that as long as you're not acting to harm others (including voting against gay marriage, etc.) like many against it do. I don't really think that this response by Nintendo is heinous but it is…

Except that those opposed to gay marriage are actively trying to stop others from having equal rights, whereas by disdaining those who oppose it we're not limiting their rights. They have a right to say what they believe according to the 1st amendment, and we have a right to say they're idiots and backwards for…

And yet I've NEVER heard a single rational reason come out of the side opposing gay marriage. Can you name even one?

Seriously?! What other rational reason could there be?