The less said about 2025, the better, honestly. Here's to more laughter, fewer tears, more books, fewer bills, and so much love you feel you'll burst, in 2026. Happy New Year, everyone!

"I believe we can identify one universal, in that “behold, the sky is doing something weird!” appears in virtually every culture for which we have records." #AmWriting

yassss, the maintenance guys FINALLY came and pooked the roofing insulation out of the tree outside my window, my sunlight is now unobstructed for the first time in MONTHS.

I want a voice memo of Taylor Swift saying "I woke up with a cat on my head."

Brigitte Bardot: *dies* Me: aww, damn it. *reads her wiki page* ...AWW, DAMN IT. (Just in case this gets misinterpreted through ✨internet✨ omg what a TRULY HORRIBLE PERSON. WOW.)

Evolution of my understanding of tasseomancy: How can they read leaves; don't they use teabags? How can they read leaves; don't they use a tea strainer? A tea strainer is one more thing to wash, and I'll be able to read my fortune in the leaves I end up spitting out...

Two things, and that's all I'll say on the subject: 1) "We teach students how to think, not what to think" is a principle I believe in, but it does not apply to straight up bigotry, and 2) it's only ever applied to the humanities, could you imagine a STEM prof saying that?

One last pre-Christmas weekend-travel note to say that if you wake me up tomorrow morning I WILL DEVOUR YOUR SOUL, so just don't do that, 'k?

Despite having a quintessential NYC Christmas weekend, seeing amazing friends, reading a transcendent book, & encountering what I can only believe must be a fellow minor chaos god in disguise at Penn Station, I'M SO FUCKING GLAD TO BE HOME. Even though I still don't have a stove.

Happy Almost Christmas to everyone except NYC tourists who pause in the curb cut with their back to the fucking street.

Dr. Gibson goes to the theatre…

There is no feeling in the world like falling back into the familiar rhythms of friendship and camaraderie with someone you love and haven’t seen in a long time.

Public transport riders ALWAYS seem to believe that their cough is SPECIAL and deserves to be free and uncontained.

Restaurants who refuse to make reservations for tables of 1 should be fined.

I love living in RVA. I love the fact that "oh, how nice, the local equal opportunity* strip joint has decorated for Christmas!" is a thought I get to have. *Club Rouge: A Ladies and Gentleman's Club.

A week before Christmas; stove needs to be replaced. I got a ton of microwave meals in my last grocery order, more than I usually do, and we're going to call that the Ghost of Christmas Present making sure that I can still eat on my budget this week.

One of my happy places:

It is once again a wonderful Christmastime, for I have been gifted...a fruitcake. Two, actually, one for eating, and one Squishable for cuddling. Fruitcakes are love. Love is boozy fruit in dark, rich, spiced cake. 🎁🧁

Love my local liquor store, but they need to train their people better because when I'm sitting there looking at VA craft liquors, saying I want a VA whiskey, and dude pulls up a bottle of Crown...man...no.

Love my local liquor store, but they need to train their people better because when I'm sitting there looking at VA craft liquors, saying I want a VA whiskey, and dude pulls up a bottle of Crown...man...no.

I am wishing everyone a very merry "stop emailing me about things that can wait until January."

Truly wish there was a "I'm a writer" filter on google, no I don't need to call a help line, I just need factual info about alcohol use disorder for the chapter I'm working on, thx.

Men on reddit: she coughed wrong so I abandoned her and the kids, kicked the dog, and set fire to the car, AITJ? Women on reddit: the 40yo man who sleeps at my apartment doesn't brush his teeth, change his sheets, or wash his ass, how do I bring this up w/o hurting his feelings?

The Americans with Disabilities Act is 35 years old. It's old enough to vote; serve in the military; drink. It is high time that places calling themselves "accessible" put some real effort into bathroom equality. Neither of the "accessible" stalls I used today were adequate, though they were...

A lot of being an autistic adult is stifling the urge to tell people how gorgeous their [insert features here] are. Eyes, that's pretty normal, but still could be weird. Skull shape? They're going to assume you want to wear them as a skin suit.

I've semi-trained my youtube algo to show a lot of trailers & it's amazing how many look interesting but then the second one drops & the thumbnail is a different actor & I'm like "...oh, actually, never mind..." Long story short, I never want to see the Kar-Jenners in anything.

If apple wants you to update the OS regularly, they should allow you to delete system files that aren't load-bearing and that you aren't using. I do not use the dictionary, chess, podcasts, or stocks, none of which are needed to run the computer, and I cannot delete them either.

SKULL OF THOMAS AQUINAS: TAKE A LEFT NOW PRIEST: No, the GPS says we have to keep going— SKULL: I KNOW A SHORTCUT PRIEST: Do you remember the last ti— SKULL: FOR THOSE WITH FAITH, NO EVIDENCE IS NECESSARY; FOR THOSE WITHOUT IT, NO EVIDENCE WILL SUFFICE

December 10 and two days before graduation means very deliberately letting my colleagues know that all emails are either merely FYI, or things I will circle back to in mid-January. I'm not here to make enemies, yo.

It is such a beautiful thing, grading final projects, and seeing students say that they enjoyed the process, that they feel accomplished and proud of themselves, that they went out of their comfort zone and were surprised at how good that turned out. Such a joy to experience theirs.

This is a discussion way too nuanced for this space, but the awe with which some of my students tell me that I really seem to care about them says a LOT about the current state of academia & none of it is good. We can all make choices about what type of academics we want to be.

Pet peeve: websites that haven't updated their UX in 15 years and look like a knockoff of a knockoff of geocities. Other pet peeve: websites that have just updated their UX; stop fucking 'fixing' what hasn't broken. ...it's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me.

...where it the Mia Goth love in the awards circuit??

A student just emailed me something so touching that I teared up. What a delight these brilliant, kind people are.

Will pay the ticket cost for one London/UK based friend to go to this and report back to me!!!: events.bl.uk/events/frank...

It's simmer pot season! Today's choices are: lemon, apple, cranberries, cloves, vanilla pods, and juniper berries. The apartment smells great, and hopefully my nose will stop bleeding.

I'm not saying life is a vicious circle. But it may be a cruel rhombus. Or a callous trapezoid. At the very least, life is a bloodthirsty parallelogram

Psykosonik wrote Silicon Jesus in the...mid-90s, so Rogan's thirty years late to the party.

...look, I'm sure Fennel, Elordi, and Robbie made a *great* movie. I'm just not sure that movie is Wuthering Heights.

Today I guided a student through submitting his first national-level conference abstract. We had a great time together figuring out the nuances of the submission system, and just chatting about (my) work, (his) projects, (our) lives. Days like this, I really, really love my job.

Evidence for the laughable design of the cybertruck is there's no imitations. Recall AM General releasing the H2 Hummer? Jeep was IMMEDIATELY like "nuh-uh, WE have that design ALREADY ALMOST IN PRODUCTION" and their own version was out 6 months later? Yeah not a thing Tesla has to worry about.

Someone on my work hallway just straight up lied to whoever they're talking to "oh, I'm traveling today, yeah, I'm in my car." Dude no you fucking are not. Own up to just not wanting to do whatever it is they're asking of you.

The phrase "I'm not going to do that, but you can if you want to" is such a game changer.

Happy last week of the semester to me:

Pain needs an off switch. Like, damn, okay, I got the point, you can stfu now.