#i should take iron supplements oof

[the-creepy-creature]

blood looks reallllly tasty right now....... must be the creature brain :)

*stands up too fast and wakes up on the floor*

...or the anemia cravings

[mamaangiwine]

hi! i noticed in your pinned post that you said you try to include your hungarian heritage when it comes to your craft. may i ask for some recommendations regaring this? i'm hungarian myself but everything is about catholicism these days and i couldn't really find good books about the old ways.

thank you in advance, hope you have a wonderful day!

Oof. Idk if I can really provide recommendations tbh- at least not comfortably.

This is a tricky question as I am someone who supplements much of her craft with academic literature and research. Things like anthropological studies, folkloric studies, historical papers, etc.

However, there has in fact been an ongoing reframing of history in main-stream Hungary since the 1970s, influenced by nationalist rhetoric and spurred by a romanticized view of that history started by academics as early as the late 1800s .

These academics, inspired by the current European Romantic ideology of the time, sought to uncover the "true" history of Hungary that would illuminate the pre-conquest ethnic and cultural practices of ancient Hungarians. Though there are many notable academics we can trace back to the foundation of this reframing, one of the most well known is Vilmos Diószegi.

Diószegi worked incredibly hard to prove that Hungary's spiritual history was tied to a mysterious historical figure called a 'Taltos'. It was Diószegi's belief that the 'Taltos' was a Finno-Urgic-based, Turkic style 'shaman' who assisted in priestly duties in their respective communities and used a drum to enter an ecsatcy induced trance. Diószegi would even go on to theorize what the Taltos 'shamanistic world view' would have entailed. However, many scholars, including Éva Pócs, doubt these theories and have pointed to inconsistencies in Diószegi's research and reconstruction. Though there was undoubtedly Turkic influence, these scholars suggest that the Taltos has more in common with pre-christian Balkan, Bulgarian and Southern Slavic traditions.

Now, overall there wouldn't usually be a problem with that. Disagreements happen in academia all the time. The issue is that Diószegi's work is treated as absolute, and is the basis for most modern Hungarian paganism and reconstruction due to the unique ethnic and cultural identity it can provide. A cultural identity Hungarian Nationalists love to hold up on a pedestal and point to as evidence of a glorious and mystical past that existed before Christianity and, of course, Jewish People.

Therefore, when studying Hungarian paganism and folk practices one has to be discerning. Despite Diószegi's influence on Hungarian Academia as a whole, it doesn't mean it's all without merit (it doesn't necessarily mean all of Diószegi's work is completely without merit either, just that it shouldn't be treated as gospel especially with the inconsistencies surrounding it and the romantic european foundation it was already working from). For instance Mihály Hoppál's work has been known to research not only "modern" (60's and 70's) Hungarian folk practices, but source them by region. I've learned much from his detailing of Hungarian folk practices- I just don't take everything he has to say as fact. I question it and compare it with other research- rigorously.

As for the Catholic element of Hungarian practices, my personal take is this: Embrace it. That isn't to say that you should become a Christian or even agree with Christianity. Despite the fact that I, myself, am not Christian, I personally just find it unrealistic to separate the two. Christianity has been established in Hungary since the year 1000. Over that time the 'old ways' and Christian practices have undoubtedly been syncretized past the point of being able to concretely tell them apart. This is the fundamental problem I have with reconstruction as a whole, because much of it tries to simply omit Christain concepts from folk traditions without, ironically, realizing that in doing so we may be equally erasing pre-christain approaches and philosophies. They're just too entwined. My closest ancestors were catholic as opposed to pagan. Granted, weird catholics who saw things and knew things, but catholics none the less. Their history and traditions are just as valid, and are also just as important as the pre-christian beliefs that undoubtedly found themselves braided into that same history and those same traditions.

I'm sorry if this doesn't really answer your question, but regardless I hope you found it helpful.

[bettsfic]

wait so you have to teach classes as part of the phd but aren't paid for that separately? yikes. I imagine this is an australian thing but over here we get ~$28k/year (~20k US) for just the phd and then tutoring (like a TA) is completely separate at maybe ~$32US/hour, though kind of expected and tbh we can't usually do the work in the allotted time. good luck with that though, I guess :( I hope someday you are paid appropriately.

oof, yeah no over here it’s not like that at all. i’m going to address this more thoroughly in case people are curious. 

most grad school in the US isn’t paid for. you have to take out loans. that’s why i couldn’t pursue becoming a therapist, which was what i had wanted to do since i was a kid. i just couldn’t put myself in that much debt. so i did creative writing, because (i love it, obvs, but also) those programs are usually funded. so for people looking to do grad school in writing, look for that phrase: fully funded. this should not be hard to find. programs that are funded are eager to boast about said funding. fully funded means every student that gets accepted receives a tuition reimbursement and living stipend. 

other phrases you might come across are partial funding, fellowship, scholarship, etc. this means you might get accepted into the program, but the funding isn’t guaranteed. you may also see something like “generous financial aid packages.” this means you will be paying off that degree until you’re dead.

english departments are funded by composition classes, which every entering undergrad has to take or pass out of somehow. like, imagine forcing every single college student to take a certain class. that money adds up. so comp funds graduate degrees in english departments, which means that most grad students are accepted on teaching assistantship, and they have to then teach comp in order to receive a stipend. and by TA, i don’t mean helping out a more experienced teacher teach their class. i mean you get maybe 1-2 weeks of training and then you have 20+ of your very own students and a can-do attitude.

(english composition, ftr, is a first-year class where students learn, supposedly, how to write in college. extremely debatable whether or not it does this.)

so there are classes you take (workshop, seminars, practicums) and classes you teach (comp). the classes you take are all charged by credit hour. you’re still billed for tuition. however if your program is fully funded, it means your tuition will be reimbursed (usually excluding fees and whatnot, which ironically get taken out of your paycheck). you earn what’s called a stipend for the classes you teach. you usually get paid monthly, 9 months a year. summer you’re on your own, unless you have a program that offers a summer stipend or teaching opportunities. stipends that i’ve seen range anywhere from $6k per year to $28k. in my mfa, i made $16k and now in the phd (different school) it’s $17k. a lot of people work part-time to supplement their income, but some programs won’t allow you to do that, because you’re there to write, and working eats into writing time.

grad school in english is honestly better than i thought it would be, financially speaking, considering i came from a field (psychology) where i would have had to put myself in significant debt to do what i wanted to do. i won’t pretend $17k is a fair or living wage, but english classes are usually only in the afternoons 4 days a week, and i have health insurance, and i’m being paid to write. 

[whenemmafallsinlove]

i was told i had an iron deficiency in high school or middle school so that also pushed me to take supplements but now i’m paranoid about iron poisoning. sorry to make you work while on tumblr oof

(cont: ok after ice night and some google i self diagnosed an iron deficiency and started taking supplements is that bad?? should i have talked to a doctor first???)

i mean yeah i’d always talk to your primary health care provider before adding new supplements to your regiment! that being said it’s probably unlikely you’re going to get iron poisinoning. i can’t diagnose over the internet any more accurately than someone can over the phone; only a blood test would for sure tell you what your iron is!

[sassypotatoe1]

Oof so I was just woken up at 4:49 am with cramps so bad I couldn't see.

Cramps this bad usually have different reactions, like nausea, extreme dizziness, faintness, shortness of breath etc. And I've had them this bad since my period started but I sometimes have diarrhea that feels the same so I didn't think much of it until about middle high school. Since then I've basically learned a lot of things that help you avoid cramps, and help you relieve them and I'm going to share those things with you. Since it's too late for the avoidance steps apparently, I only had to apply the "oh shit I'm dying my stomach is being torn in half I need to make it stop" steps, but I will list the avoidance steps for those with uteruses that don't have terrible planning and execution habits like me.

To avoid horrible, terrible, no good, very bad cramps, the first thing you have to do is:

drink a lot of water. One of the main causes of superbly painful cramps is dehydration and electrolyte loss. If you are already dehydrated in the period before your period, drink energy drinks that have a ton of electrolytes or electrolyte packages you can dissolve in water.

Skip the coffee, and the tea, in fact skip the caffeine all together (I know I know how will you survive without your morning coffee?) caffeine dehydrates you because it boosts your adrenaline, which burns up a lot of water, thus making cramps worse.

Use a multivitamin for women that has magnesium, calcium, iron, and some fatty acids. If you don't use it the rest of the time, use it the week before your period. Cramps can sometimes be made worse by a lack of iron or magnesium, and the other supplements help with hormonal balance which helps a ton with pms.

Eat a lot of protein and fruits and veggies. I know you're craving that cheese burger and chips (veggie burger if you're vegan), I am too. In fact I want one right now. But it's not doing you any good, especially not during your period. Carbs make you bloated in general, but during your period, when your uterus can have inflammation that makes it swell up to 3 times its size, extra bloating does nothing for your comfort.

Now, when you've skipped these steps, and you're in crisis mode like I was 15 minutes ago, the first thing you should do is to:

get a hot liquid inside of your body. You can take a pain killer or anti inflammatory or muscle relaxant, I use ibuprofen, there's no shame in it but if you take any medication for chronic pain or drink pain meds frequently, you may have developed an intolerance for these drugs and they're not going to work how you'd probably like them to.

Warm up your feet. If your feet are cold, your cramps are worse. It's a fact that I have no explanation for, but I have found it to be true. Warming up your feet with an extra blanket or pair of socks will already help.

Put a heat pad or hot water bottle on your lower abdomen. It will draw blood with oxygen and water to the area, and your muscles around there will use it to function without cramping. It is probably the most helpful tip here.

Things you can eat or drink that are natural for period cramps are bananas (potassium), chocolate (magnesium), ginger (anti inflammatory) probably in a tea, apple juice (I don't know why), and water. Always water.

I am exhausted, I fell asleep at around 3 am so I am going back to sleep, but I hope these tips help out anyone who gets cramps as bad as I do.