Saturday, March 2
Mar. 3rd, 2024 01:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
Though quite windy, not THAT cold otherwise.
I woke up in a pretty terrible mood. Like a "mood hangover" from being worked up about the over crowded pottery class.
Partly it is from getting so tired of the woman who seems to have taken over the whole pottery studio, without ever being elected. She makes all of the glaze, orders and picks up the clay for the studio, is mostly in charge of the firing schedule and running the kilns, teaches the beginner's class, and just somehow makes all kinds of decisions for the class, often without anyone ever being aware that those decisions are being made.
She has so much control over the studio that no one really can do anything without running it by her, even though she isn't "in charge" in any official way.
She also WILL NOT train anyone else to help with the glaze making, or let anyone else order the clay or pick it up, or do any of the firing. She will also sometimes act like a martyr over "everything she does for the studio".
Every time I turn around, she's got control over some other aspect of the studio that I wasn't aware of.
I am not the only person to have noticed or cared about the situation, as this is a lot of power and control for one person to have. Not only that, but if anything should happen to this woman, our studio would be screwed because no one else knows how to do anything.
I was also feeling "hungover" from wondering if by talking about this with D from pottery, that I was going to be seen as "creating drama". It bothered me a bit when she asked "why do you care", because then it made me feel like I was over reacting, when in some ways I feel like I am one of only a few other people who seem to be aware that having one person with all of this control isn't that good for us.
THEN I felt bad that likely my husband thinks I am "over reacting" as well, and in truth, my husband is so bland that he might think that anything other than being in a perfectly flat and "okay" mood is over reacting. If you had lunch with my husband every day for a year, he might literally seem to be in exactly the same "perfectly calm and pleasant" mood every single day of that year.
So, to him, my moods are very dramatic.
In a way, it gets to me that he's ALWAYS so in control of himself that he's ALWAYS FINE, but is that really okay? I think he's actually not in touch with his feelings, because you can ask him how he's feeling just to check in with him, and he just always is "fine", and can't articulate anything besides that. Maybe sometimes he can be "a little frustrated", but that's it.
He doesn't even get upset when someone dies that he says he really cares about them. He doesn't get upset when one of our pets dies. The only time I've seen him actually upset is when we had job/money issues a few years ago.
ANYHOW, most of my day just sucked because I felt like everyone was sort of letting me know that being upset about this pottery person was a dead end issue, and there wasn't any reason to be upset about her, or this crazy over crowded class I witnessed the other day.
The only positive thing that happened was that we went to town to watch Dune part 2.
It was really good. REALLY good. I loved how beautifully it was filmed, and the sense of drama, the pacing, how much time it spent developing the characters, etc. Really well done.
We came home right afterwards, and no time to do much else to make the day feel somehow like I did anything worthwhile.
Turkmenistan is another of the "Stans" bordering Russia, that was once part of the U.S.S.R. It has about 6.5 million people.
"Turkmenistan has long served as a thoroughfare for several empires and cultures.[18] Merv is one of the oldest oasis-cities in Central Asia,[19] and was once among the biggest cities in the world.[20] It was also one of the great cities of the Islamic world and an important stop on the Silk Road. Annexed by the Russian Empire in 1881, Turkmenistan figured prominently in the anti-Bolshevik movement in Central Asia. In 1925, Turkmenistan became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic (Turkmen SSR); it became independent after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.[6"
This city of Merv was VERY IMPORTANT for a long time (with a huge population of about half a million people), as an oasis along the Silk Road, and later more of an administrative hub. It was one of the many cities re-named "Alexandria" when Alexander the Great conquered most of the known world at that time.
It was mostly destroyed when it opened it's gates to the Mongols (in surrender?) and something like 700,000 people (many refugees as well as the regular inhabitants) were slaughtered and buildings razed.
Though it tried to carry on for a few centuries afterward, it had never really recovered.
It is one of the best preserved and oldest of the known "oasis cities" that were on the Silk Road.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merv
This is a good video mainly about Merv. https://youtu.be/Ysr11u4Gx_A?si=pmV_fXi9_U88d_b_
Formerly of the USSR, Turkmenistan is not really Democratic. There are several parties, but mostly everything is run by the main party, the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan (formerly the Socialist Party).
"The former Communist Party, now known as the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan, is the dominant party. The second party, the Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, was established in August 2012, and an agrarian party appeared two years later. Political gatherings are illegal unless government sanctioned.[citation needed] In 2013, the first multi-party parliamentary elections were held in Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan was a one-party state from 1991 to 2012; however, the 2013 elections were widely seen as rigged.[49] In practice, all parties in parliament operate jointly under the direction of the DPT. There are no true opposition parties in the Turkmen parliament.[50]"
Some efforts are being made to remedy this more or less one-party system.
Turkmenistan is largely the Karakum Desert, though there are some forests and plains.
The Soviet era and it's collective farming ruined the nomadic traditional life of the people here. Now, Turkmenistan is the tenth largest producer of cotton, as well as wheat.
Oil and gas revenues are very important here, and energy is mainly generated with natural gas.
There is a very interesting natural feature that is also a huge tourist draw, known as the "Gates to Hell", a gas well that has caught on fire and has been burning for YEARS.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darvaza_gas_crater
The main religion is Muslim.
There are also still remnants of the ancient tribes, who are/were renowned horsemen.
Turkmenistan is the home of a remarkable breed of horses known as the Akhal Teke.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akhal-Teke
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkmenistan#Education
Though quite windy, not THAT cold otherwise.
I woke up in a pretty terrible mood. Like a "mood hangover" from being worked up about the over crowded pottery class.
Partly it is from getting so tired of the woman who seems to have taken over the whole pottery studio, without ever being elected. She makes all of the glaze, orders and picks up the clay for the studio, is mostly in charge of the firing schedule and running the kilns, teaches the beginner's class, and just somehow makes all kinds of decisions for the class, often without anyone ever being aware that those decisions are being made.
She has so much control over the studio that no one really can do anything without running it by her, even though she isn't "in charge" in any official way.
She also WILL NOT train anyone else to help with the glaze making, or let anyone else order the clay or pick it up, or do any of the firing. She will also sometimes act like a martyr over "everything she does for the studio".
Every time I turn around, she's got control over some other aspect of the studio that I wasn't aware of.
I am not the only person to have noticed or cared about the situation, as this is a lot of power and control for one person to have. Not only that, but if anything should happen to this woman, our studio would be screwed because no one else knows how to do anything.
I was also feeling "hungover" from wondering if by talking about this with D from pottery, that I was going to be seen as "creating drama". It bothered me a bit when she asked "why do you care", because then it made me feel like I was over reacting, when in some ways I feel like I am one of only a few other people who seem to be aware that having one person with all of this control isn't that good for us.
THEN I felt bad that likely my husband thinks I am "over reacting" as well, and in truth, my husband is so bland that he might think that anything other than being in a perfectly flat and "okay" mood is over reacting. If you had lunch with my husband every day for a year, he might literally seem to be in exactly the same "perfectly calm and pleasant" mood every single day of that year.
So, to him, my moods are very dramatic.
In a way, it gets to me that he's ALWAYS so in control of himself that he's ALWAYS FINE, but is that really okay? I think he's actually not in touch with his feelings, because you can ask him how he's feeling just to check in with him, and he just always is "fine", and can't articulate anything besides that. Maybe sometimes he can be "a little frustrated", but that's it.
He doesn't even get upset when someone dies that he says he really cares about them. He doesn't get upset when one of our pets dies. The only time I've seen him actually upset is when we had job/money issues a few years ago.
ANYHOW, most of my day just sucked because I felt like everyone was sort of letting me know that being upset about this pottery person was a dead end issue, and there wasn't any reason to be upset about her, or this crazy over crowded class I witnessed the other day.
The only positive thing that happened was that we went to town to watch Dune part 2.
It was really good. REALLY good. I loved how beautifully it was filmed, and the sense of drama, the pacing, how much time it spent developing the characters, etc. Really well done.
We came home right afterwards, and no time to do much else to make the day feel somehow like I did anything worthwhile.
Turkmenistan is another of the "Stans" bordering Russia, that was once part of the U.S.S.R. It has about 6.5 million people.
"Turkmenistan has long served as a thoroughfare for several empires and cultures.[18] Merv is one of the oldest oasis-cities in Central Asia,[19] and was once among the biggest cities in the world.[20] It was also one of the great cities of the Islamic world and an important stop on the Silk Road. Annexed by the Russian Empire in 1881, Turkmenistan figured prominently in the anti-Bolshevik movement in Central Asia. In 1925, Turkmenistan became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic (Turkmen SSR); it became independent after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.[6"
This city of Merv was VERY IMPORTANT for a long time (with a huge population of about half a million people), as an oasis along the Silk Road, and later more of an administrative hub. It was one of the many cities re-named "Alexandria" when Alexander the Great conquered most of the known world at that time.
It was mostly destroyed when it opened it's gates to the Mongols (in surrender?) and something like 700,000 people (many refugees as well as the regular inhabitants) were slaughtered and buildings razed.
Though it tried to carry on for a few centuries afterward, it had never really recovered.
It is one of the best preserved and oldest of the known "oasis cities" that were on the Silk Road.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merv
This is a good video mainly about Merv. https://youtu.be/Ysr11u4Gx_A?si=pmV_fXi9_U88d_b_
Formerly of the USSR, Turkmenistan is not really Democratic. There are several parties, but mostly everything is run by the main party, the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan (formerly the Socialist Party).
"The former Communist Party, now known as the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan, is the dominant party. The second party, the Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, was established in August 2012, and an agrarian party appeared two years later. Political gatherings are illegal unless government sanctioned.[citation needed] In 2013, the first multi-party parliamentary elections were held in Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan was a one-party state from 1991 to 2012; however, the 2013 elections were widely seen as rigged.[49] In practice, all parties in parliament operate jointly under the direction of the DPT. There are no true opposition parties in the Turkmen parliament.[50]"
Some efforts are being made to remedy this more or less one-party system.
Turkmenistan is largely the Karakum Desert, though there are some forests and plains.
The Soviet era and it's collective farming ruined the nomadic traditional life of the people here. Now, Turkmenistan is the tenth largest producer of cotton, as well as wheat.
Oil and gas revenues are very important here, and energy is mainly generated with natural gas.
There is a very interesting natural feature that is also a huge tourist draw, known as the "Gates to Hell", a gas well that has caught on fire and has been burning for YEARS.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darvaza_gas_crater
The main religion is Muslim.
There are also still remnants of the ancient tribes, who are/were renowned horsemen.
Turkmenistan is the home of a remarkable breed of horses known as the Akhal Teke.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akhal-Teke
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkmenistan#Education
