Checking out of Bsky for a bit. Seems like a good opportunity for a reset with our church’s annual weekend retreat to Prescott (70F!, mountains!) coming up Friday. Take care of yourselves. Log off, too, if you need it!

this is, hands down, the best video I've seen on men's influencer content and it's not close either

Sorry, folks. Sounds like the civil war has been postponed due to white shooter

One policy solution to Young Men we should be considering is Universal Basic Electric Guitar (UBEG). I'm not joking, by the way. Kids of any gender should get a low-cost starter kit for some hobby of their choosing once they turn 13. A camera, paints, a cheap sampler, etc.

lol

What also gets to me is that it's bad in a way that you don't need any training to recognize. Any thinking undergraduate student can tell it's incoherent. In fact, it takes multiple years of training and dedication to that particular subfield to fail to realize how bad it is.

The way my son says “itsy!” when referring to spiders — in books, my Spider-Man mug, etc. — is just too much. A stake through my heart. Such cute.

Wife: “Maybe you have sleep apnea.” Me: “I haven’t gained that much weight.” W: “It can happen to anyone. You do have allergies and wake up with dry mouth.” Me: “Holy shit.” It would explain sleeping all the time but still being tired, the weight gain, and dehydration despite pounding water.

Enjoy this.

The generic Asian-woman bot-follow stream has been strong lately.

Me: Can I have one of those blue milkshakes that symbolizes Grimace’s blood? McDonalds Cashier: (offended) We believe every beverage symbolizes Grimace’s blood

the strawberry-wanter has logged on

Show. Me.

I am a hypermasculine and extremely powerful alpha male. As such my greatest fears are seed oils, rainbows, people who don't look like me being on TV, and preventative medicine. I cannot explain any of these fears and consider that to be your fault.

Breakfast watchers.

1) Quote poster is correct, 2) I am now a libertarian (lactose intolerant).

Left your phone on campus? Sucks. Left your phone on campus when you bike to work? Major bummer.

"In short, [proceeds to write the longest sentence in the paragraph]."

Super fun #TidyTuesday data all about frogs this week! 🐸 I decided to try to visualise the scientific names of the different frogs using a sunburst diagram 📊 Thanks to {ggiraph} - it's also interactive! Code: github.com/nrennie/tidy... #RStats #DataViz #ggplot2

I refuse to give em dashes to the AI

Building my coding skills. (Yelling at our IT department because they won't allow me to install the newest version of R without their intervention.)

Saw my former psychiatrist at the Children’s Museum today. Said hello and all that, but wasn’t really sure of the protocol. It was just about as awkward as the time I physically ran into my ex in the hall during my undergrad.

Dietary aide at an assisted living home. Washed dishes, mopped floors, scraped puréed food off of plates. $7.50/hour. That job taught me so much compassion. It was one of the best moves my parents made — making me get a job at 16 if I wanted to drive.

Fridge goblin.

Audio-mixing friends in DC! Smithsonian Folkways Recordings is hiring an audio engineer, applications due Sept 16

The subtitle of Chris's (2nd!) book is critical: Why Machine Learning Conflicts with Musical Creativity.

We built a calculator that doesn't work, but don't worry, it's also a plagiarism machine that will tell you to kill yourself. It runs on the world's oceans and costs 10 trillion dollars.

Well if half of the people I recommend as reviewers this year are as half as insightful as Megan at least I'll be in decent shape.

I taught every single semester in the core while developing a new curriculum for Theory 1/2 on my own. Managed 7 non-theory TAs. Didn’t get a break from the core until 2024. (Paternity leave.) Colleague entered 1st semester w/no core, pre-baked curriculum. Got a huge grant. Who would have guessed.

“It is structurally impossible to be a top scholar.” Only by hardline negotiating have we (a colleague who left the field and me) given my new colleague a fighting chance. I would have 2x output if I came in with the same graces. But there’s no way to articulate that w/o sounding like a whiner.

As a parent, the one thing that could give me a fucking sliver of peace in this country is if legislators actually did something about access to guns

ok nyx says everyone go to sleep now

Anyone got an extra $4k lying around? Asking for a friend.

Dean Cain, when he got home from training camp—

Hacking Pokemon Shield just so I can buy an expensive backpack that matches my character's pumps.

All I will say about linux/command line stuff is that I think a huge amount of people operate under the assumption that command line interface is the old bad way of using computer and graphical interface is the modern good way of using computer, when the truth is both have coexisted this entire time

Gods, Scotland is so beautiful.

Update: it rained and my Midwestern mom is mad (not really) that it's now humid in Arizona like back home.

In non-doomer news, my mom is in town so that means cocktails at a fancy train-themed bar w/my hot wife.

It's gonna rain. Bruh.

Well, shit.

Plugging two things you should read: 1) Kate Lewis's dissertation on Tharpe, Memphis Minne, and Maybelle Carter. Book from her soon! doi.org/10.15126/the... 2) My co-authored article w/ @sammygardner.bsky.social that has a section on Tharpe. mtosmt.org/issues/mto.2...

Last week to for vote for my panel "Can You Hear the Machine? The Disappearing Tells in AI Music" for South By Southwest 2026! Click the little heart in the link below to keep us in the running! participate.sxsw.com/flow/sxsw/sx...

It's 102 today and it makes me feel insane that I'm grateful it's not 113 like last week, or 120 like it was last summer. If want perspective, when it's 113 and you keep your house at 74, that's a nearly 40-degree difference. Think the difference between 74 and 34. Staggering.

The semester starts again next week and avoidant anxiety is rearing its ugly head. Like, I got a bunch done these past few days, but today our new couch is my domain.

We should consider that men chiding each other over being too emasculated has been doing psychic damage to men’s conception of themselves.

👀 limits to mental simulation, you say?

Do I have it correct that the White House has still not made a statement about 180 rounds being fired into the CDC and the death of a 33-year old officer who is expecting his third child? But we deployed the National Guard because a 19 year old got his butt kicked by preteens. Do I have that right?