gdp's Comments

The Toast : An Open Thread, and Sea Room

Fri, 1 Jul 2016 16:29:29 +0000

The Toast: *exits, pursued by bear hugs*

The Toast : The Final Link Roundup!

Fri, 1 Jul 2016 13:13:49 +0000

So long, everybody! This feels like the last day of summer camp when we're all crying and hugging and promising to keep in touch. WE CAN DO IT, WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY. See you all on #ToastieTwitter!

The Toast : How To Tell If You're In A Robert Frost Poem

Tue, 17 May 2016 16:13:10 +0000

"Three foggy mornings and one rainy day will rot the best birch fence a man can build, and you’ve just built a birch fence with your own two hands." WHY DID THIS MAKE ME CRY. GOD DAMMIT, ROBERT.

The Toast : Inappropriate Ways to Answer the "Where Do You See Yourself in Five Years?" Question You Get at Inte

Tue, 29 Dec 2015 20:15:30 +0000

I don't know, I don't have 2020 vision. (I got to say this in actual real life to my actual dad the day before yesterday, and it was the crowning moment of my year.)

The Toast : Cocktail Hour: Open Thread

Fri, 11 Sep 2015 17:41:59 +0000

It doesn't really matter if you believe them or not. Once an abuse accusation has been made, since you're an adult in position of responsibility working with students, that's the perspective you have to come at this with. Not "who should I believe?" but "what are the responsibilities I have in this situation and how can I keep everyone safe?" Is this a theater tech crew as part of a high school? Are these college-age kids, or minors? If it's teenagers in a school, you should escalate this to at minimum to a guidance counselor. What kind of abuse has been reported? If it's anything involving physical or sexual violence, if it's a minor, you are almost certainly legally required to report it, and your school should have a policy in place for how to escalate that. Your guidance counselors or HR staff should know what the policy is and can tell you what you need to do next. It's not your job to determine what happened, but to get this information to the people who do have that job, so everyone can be safe. If the abuse reported is emotional abuse among adults, then it's not necessarily something you have a direct role in preventing and stepping back might be the path of least harm, but make sure you're doing what you can to minimize harm if the accusations are true. It's normal to harbor doubts and to want to trust the student you already had faith and confidence in, and you might be completely correct about who to trust, but since you're in a position of responsibility, you have to make sure that if the accusations are true, you've protected everyone you're overseeing to the best of your ability.

The Toast : Ayn Rand's If You Give A Mouse A Cookie

Wed, 12 Aug 2015 13:43:25 +0000

"If the state chooses to bankrupt itself by returning tax-gotten gains to the citizens it stole from, what obligates the citizens to refuse them?" Ayn Rand's ghost remarked, before turning her attention back to re-writing children's stories and submitting them to The Toast.

The Toast : I'm Not Cis, and I Don't Want to Be

Wed, 12 Aug 2015 12:57:18 +0000

I can't speak for the author, but my impression from this essay was that the whole point is that cis women and transgender women are BOTH real women. The author cares whether people think she's cis because if she's only getting respect and recognition as a "real woman" because people think she's cis, then that respect is conditional and temporary, and could be revoked if people realize they were wrong about her being cis. Being recognized and respected specifically for being a transgender woman is a lot more guaranteed and safe, as well as being authentic to her true self.

The Toast : How to Love the Back of a Neck

Thu, 30 Jul 2015 18:17:59 +0000

I'm an English major programmer who agrees with a lot of what's already been said. I don't mean to pile on, just to explain what about the piece I found frustrating. It repeats and reinforces these ides: programming is math, not liberal arts; code language, not verbal language. Programming is for obsessives, not people who want work/life balance. Programming is for people who aren't good with people. In other words, programming is male. But it's not, and it never has been. None of the above is true, and all of those stereotypes are used to exclude women from the field. Blaming a person's hobbies and not their ability to balance them with a relationship is harmless if the hobby is something like microbrewing, but the "emotionally unavailable obsessive male nerd programmer" stereotype is something I have to push against every day just to get my job done. It's depressing to see it repeated here.

The Toast : If Gwyneth Paltrow Were Your Girlfriend

Wed, 8 Jul 2015 15:13:00 +0000

I am CACKLING. (But not like Gwyneth Paltrow would cackle, if I were her girlfriend. She would have a musical laugh that would echo just a little longer than any laugh should.)

The Toast : A Letter From Chris Kimball

Thu, 2 Jul 2015 18:32:39 +0000

I just finished reading The Haunting of Hill House, so yes, I did jump a little at that last line, and yes, I am now worried that I'm being haunted by The Haunting of Hill House.

The Toast : Actual Beach Reads: Talk and The Invaders

Wed, 1 Jul 2015 18:00:13 +0000

Literal beach reads, what fun what fun! I can't remember any recent ocean-side reads, but if we can count lakes and other land-locked shores, I can sneak in a recommendation for The Miseducation of Cameron Post, a YA/Adult cross-over with a queer lady protagonist navigating family, friends, and religion in small-town Montana (with a lot of swimming and swimming-adjacent making out, to go with the beach theme).

The Toast : The Thomas Hardy Boys

Wed, 27 May 2015 16:23:08 +0000

The Toast : How To Accept Compliments And Handle Praise

Sun, 17 May 2015 23:20:12 +0000

OH SHIT, A COMPLIMENT *slithers under the cover of nearby foliage*

The Toast : How To Accept Compliments And Handle Praise

Thu, 14 May 2015 16:12:55 +0000

Short-hand for steps 1 - 3: "Be a snake." And it works! People rarely compliment snakes.

The Toast : My Favourite Deleted Comments From the White Dude Book List

Wed, 13 May 2015 17:10:27 +0000

"A bunch of these are curriculum requirements in our compulsory education system. I just really don't get what you were going for." FWOOOOOOOOOOOOSH

The Toast : Fincan: A Short Story

Mon, 27 Apr 2015 15:27:40 +0000

YES. That last paragraph is such a perfect Solitary Witch lifestyle manifesto.

The Toast : How About Quit Telling Me How Long To Nap For

Fri, 10 Apr 2015 15:24:59 +0000

Well obviously you don't have trouble falling asleep, you are a kitten who has just eaten a plate of delicious pasta carbs, this is an EGREGIOUS sleep advantage.

The Toast : Cocktail Hour: Open Thread

Fri, 3 Apr 2015 20:06:49 +0000

Yes, hello! I'm 26, and I just started identifying as bi a few months ago. I don't think I was closeted before when I was identifying as straight, I was just going on my best guess at the time. About a year ago I started feeling like straight wasn't quite the right fit, and finally some recent crushes tipped me over into the "no, this is not a phase or a one-off, I'm into ladies sometimes" camp and I started thinking bi was the right way to describe myself. I'm still a little unsure about where I belong in queer spaces. It's not that I think I don't belong, but I'm in the habit of visiting those spaces as an outsider, and I think it'll take my self-perception a little longer to catch up. For the record I've also known this to happen in reverse--some of my friends have gone from identifying as gay to identifying as bi. Sexuality is A. fluid and B. confusing, and that's totally normal!

The Toast : Gears in the Skull: The Life and Times of a Teen Trivia Jock

Fri, 3 Apr 2015 17:44:35 +0000

I feel the need to clarify that a screaming horde of mental mini-Mes is a good thing. I LOVED THIS.

The Toast : Gears in the Skull: The Life and Times of a Teen Trivia Jock

Fri, 3 Apr 2015 17:41:20 +0000

I read this and now it's like a little horde of mini-Mes from years past are running around in my head going "AHHHHHHH"