Well. Compared to this month's mathematics assignment, this month's astronomy assignment was a piece of cake. Had a little reading to finish, and did the whole thing in about three hours from a cold start. Refreshing change of pace. I'm now done with deadline-bound assignments for March. #studying

Got my mathematics assignment done, wrote about 1,500 words of narrative prose and finished a chapter of the current story, got set up to do our taxes. Productive day. Tomorrow it's over to an astronomy assignment, which I suspect I'll be able to knock out in a couple of days. #studying #writing

Mathematics assignment finished. Hooray! I have no clue how it's going to turn out, but my marks have been higher than I expected throughout this course, so I'm zen about this one. Going to take today off, and then get to work on an astronomy assignment that's due Wednesday evening. #studying

I had hoped to have this mathematics assignment done today, but my brain is very tired right now. At least I caught some errors and produced corrected solutions to a couple of problems that look much more plausible. Will finish tomorrow. Not much left to be done. #studying

The annoying thing about complex mathematics: one tiny error at any step is likely to propagate through all your work, until you get utterly nonsensical results at the end. Just spent two days racking my brains over a problem, only to realize I had flipped a sign in an early step. #mathematics

Spent the day working on mathematics. I ought to be able to finish the current assignment tomorrow. That leaves most of a week to get my next astronomy assignment knocked out. Also wrote about 1,000 words of new narrative prose, and worked on a gaming-related side project. Busy. #studying #writing

As you use AI to simplify easy yet mundane tasks, like writing emails, you get increasingly dependent on it. You get lazy, less skilled, use your brain less, and (you may not want to hear this) get stupider as a result. Don’t let them take away your ability to think. Stop using it. Now.

Still feeling off, to the point that I haven't been out of the house all week. Wish I could figure out what was going on here. At least it's not affecting higher functions. I've been able to keep plugging away on university coursework, especially my current mathematics assignment. (1/3) #studying

Look, I'm a white man. What . . . "radicalized me" is probably the wrong term. "Caused me to stop and think" might be better. What caused me to stop and think was decades of watching other white men. Platoons of white men in my offices and social groups, in positions of power and authority. (1/4)

At some point we’re all going to have to talk seriously about this problem: the utter stupidity of white men *as a demographic.* White men give other white men every benefit of the doubt; despite OBVIOUS ignorance, incuriosity, innumeracy, incompetence… and many of them never realize that they do.

Still feeling under the weather today, general malaise and intestinal crud compounded by an optical migraine this afternoon. Fun. I did make good progress on my current mathematics assignment. On track to get that done early. Going to bed early tonight, will see how tomorrow goes. #studying

As if I didn't have enough creative projects going. My Muse, fickle creature that she is, is considering going back to the fantasy novel I self-published back in 2020 or so - the one that sold maybe six copies - and reworking the world design and the story almost from scratch. (1/3) #writing

I must have caught some bug recently. Possibly at the doctor's office yesterday. All I know is, I was working on some mathematics earlier today, and I could swear the squiggles on the page were moving around without me doing anything. I took that as a sign to go back to bed for a while.

The US government’s failed Middle East evacuation  should be a major scandal. Because if this is any indication of how they’re going to run this war? We’re screwed.

lower decks I miss you

Started on my next mathematics assignment today, and finished and posted a chapter of the current story. The month's to-do list is ticking right along. Also had my annual physical. No new heath issues, things look okay, although I may be getting a touch hard-of-hearing. (1/2) #studying #writing

Sometimes I’m not sure which offends me more: the fact that my country is currently run by cartoonishly evil people, or the fact that they’re all such *morons*.

The coldest 'stars' in the galaxy might actually be alien megastructures - #Astronomy - phys.org/news/2026-03...

Happy International Women's Day from my fav out of control Vulcan. 🖖 #StarTrek #StarTrekLowerDecks #lowerdecks #T'lyn

Finished my mathematics exam (caught an error, too) and got that sent in, and spent some time on the current chapter. Tomorrow is my annual physical, and then I'll probably get started on the next assignment and see if I can write a thousand or so more words. #studying #writing

Spent a good chunk of today working on higher mathematics through a fierce headache. Not fun. I did finish the quiz that's due on Tuesday. Tomorrow I'll spot-check a few of my answers and then submit the thing. Also started on a new chapter, and got about 1,200 words down. #studying #writing

Random thought: the genre of "progression" fantasy has the baked-in assumption that it's about the advancement of an individual character's power. I want to write a story about someone who, yes, advances in capability, but uses that progress to protect and develop their community. Hmm. #writing

Truth with alt text for nested quote (such truth).

Once in a while, #fanfiction produces some real gems. Such as this absolutely brilliant piece of world-building and character study wrapped in a #LowerDecks story.

Good progress today - knocked out 9 out of 13 questions on the mathematics quiz I'm working on. Might be able to finish tomorrow, then do a double-check and post the thing bySunday. Quiz is due Tuesday, although given the time difference between me and the UK that means Monday evening. #studying

Yesterday was a wash - after tai chi and shopping, I was so tired I just took a brisk nap. Didn't even turn my computer on all day, which is blue-moon territory for me. Today, and through the weekend, I'll be working on higher mathematics. Assignments due next week, and the week after. #studying

Roman anti-cheating gaming accessory! This Roman ‘turricula’ (dice tower) was used to ensure a fair roll of the dice! 🎲🎲🎲 Dice dropped into the top, tumbled over sloping internal levels, and appeared randomly below. From Froitzheim, Germany, AD 300-400 📷 LVR-Landesmuseum Bonn #Archaeology

sketching with friends atm

Didn't get much done today, aside from a visit to the dentist which at least reassured me that I'm not developing a serious problem with any of my teeth. I did review a mathematics assignment that's due in about a week, which I'll probably start work on tomorrow. #studying

Another day mostly spent #studying in mathematics and astronomy. Making good progress. By this weekend I expect I'll be done with the current tranche of reading, so I can get started on assignments. The math assignment will be interesting. Going to give the equation editor in Word a real workout.

While doing my #studying in astronomy today, I'm reminded of one of the more amusing tidbits in the sciences: The quickest way to start a knife fight in the physical sciences is to ask an astronomer to define the term "metals."

The irony is that I spent the last two years of my federal career designing a curriculum that, among other things, taught Department of Defense officials about international law. I would hazard a guess all that work has been thrown on the trash heap. Good thing I retired when I did.

First of the month, and I set up my planning board for March, although I haven't gotten around to posting my planning message to my blog yet. Spent most of the day doing reading in astronomy and mathematics. Some assignments coming up in the mid-month, need to be ready. #studying

Was a little under the weather today, plus (waves hands in all directions), but I did manage to finish and post a chapter of the current story. So that's one more check box on the list for February. Next couple of weeks are probably going to be focused on university coursework. #studying #writing

Statement from Major General (Ret.) Paul D. Eaton, an Army commander during Operation Iraqi Freedom:

Finished my first trial run of version 0.5 of the Cultural Evolution Game today. It went okay, and it gave me several ideas for changes to the mechanics, so I suppose version 0.5 isn't finished yet after all. Notably, I'm rearranging the list of cultural Capabilities a bit ... (1/2) #gamedesign

Got some writing done today, and then got started on a trial run of the current version of the Cultural Evolution Game. This time, I'm working up a species of (mostly) carnivores, very aggressive and callous by nature, although civilization seems to be starting to mellow them. (1/4) #gamedesign

Some interesting new DNA research on the ancient people of Western Europe.

Productive day today. I'm finished tweaking the main body of the Cultural Evolution Game's mechanics. The next step is going to be the "reading the entrails" material (how to take the game's output and turn it into as detailed a history of your fictional species as you want). (1/2) #gamedesign

Over dinner, my son mentioned he's about to read "The Communist Manifesto" for a writing class, as part of the degree he's pursuing. Which gave us an interesting discussion about Marx, Engels and their consequences over our mac-and-cheese. At one point I reminded him I had invented ... (1/2)

Hubble Space Telescope image of Arp 25, also known as NGC 2276. The lopsided galaxy has a core offset to the upper left and a spiral arm separated from the others. It is interacting with a nearby galaxy, just out of frame. Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, P. Sell Source

Okay, the Cultural Evolution Game (version 0.5) is just about mechanics-complete. I've also started outlining the incomplete portions of my half-ish of the eventual book, including all the *supporting material* for the Cultural Evolution Game. (1/3) #gamedesign #writing

This one hits hard.

Still plugging away on the redesign of the Cultural Evolution Game. I think I'm going to roll back a feature I added in the last draft - my playtesters seem to concur with that idea too. Probably a few more days before I've got a mechanics-complete draft to take on a trial run. (1/2) #gamedesign

A few hundred words of new narrative prose, and a *bunch* of greater and lesser tweaks to the Cultural Evolution Game. I'd originally planned on an incremental change from the last draft, but what's coming out the far end is more like a significant redesign. So it goes. #gamedesign #writing

I swear, trying to make a limited change to a complex game design is like trying to eat one potato chip. #gamedesign

While I was having dinner out before bar trivia last night, I had a set of ideas about how to reorganize the Cultural Evolution Game to be more player-friendly and effective. Mostly this involved better ways to use the deck of cards that's being applied as one of the randomizers. (1/2) #gamedesign

It seems early to be logging the day and hanging things up, but I've been up since 0530 and productive that whole time. In particular, I've just about finished with the mechanics rewrite of the Cultural Evolution Game for draft 0.5. Might be ready for a trial run by Wednesday. #gamedesign

My experience is that reactionary conservatives love to refer back to historical examples to support ideological arguments. At the same time, they tend to be so ignorant of actual history that the examples they think support their arguments invariably fail. Ideology makes you blind and stupid.