I'm in panicked syllabus finalizing mode and wondering if any of my (creative writing) friends have suggestions for the best short essay (or writing of any sort) that will prepare a student for best practices and/or approaches to in-class workshopping of peer writing. Thoughts/suggestions welcome!

If you are an academic working in the United States, please join AAUP to fight back against the countless disastrous violations to academic freedom that risk the safety of scholars and students alike: www.aaup.org/join

Please consider signing the petition to UNC system president Peter Hans asking that he reconsider the recent decision to publish faculty syllabi, which violates our academic freedom and poses clear and unnecessary risk to our students, faculty, and community: actionnetwork.org/petitions/pr...

My bluesky account is just going to be Uncle Monte content for a while.

Uncle Monte was an asshole and a pervert. He loved to scream incessantly, eat plants we loved, vomit prolifically, stick his head in a shoe and breathe deeply, and have his butt slapped vigorously. He was the strangest cat I’ve ever known, and I will miss him immensely. Back to outer space, lil guy.

My cat, Uncle Monte, is really sick, and it’s hitting me hard. Give your fur babies all the love you can.

A fling of sand pipers hunt crustaceans at sunset on New Year’s Day.

Greetings to you from the beach!

Did a mini Bob Ross paint-by-numbers project, but for some reason I thought he was holding a spatula instead of a paintbrush. Happy 2026!

a holiday miracle

If you haven’t been terrorized by an elderly man breaking into your house late last night, please allow me.

Ginger Pear Galette.

Candy that ginger.

For the other present I wrapped, I used a thrifted art book for the paper and performed some chaos ribbon work. Tis the season to lean into whatever gives you joy.

I’ve officially gone down the crafting rabbit hole—made an accordion style scrapped Christmas wrapping paper.

It’s that time of year again! (the time of year when my damaged toe nail falls off, which happens once every six months)

Spent some time holiday crafting with friends. This is Herbie the radish man, who makes sure the fire does not burn Santa on his way down the chimney!

It’s the entire point. There’s no plan to make this meaningful for students. No plan to use it administratively. Its design and implementation signals its only real intent. It’s best and easiest use case is for systematic harassment and to scare faculty into complying in advance.

We're now accepting submissions for the 2026 @scmstudies.bsky.social AFM SIG Early Career Scholar Essay Award 🎉 This award recognizes exceptional work from emerging scholars in the broad areas of pornographic and adult media. 🧵Check below for more details!

This is the ideal Bucket Boy. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like.

Gentle reminder there is nothing more Christmassy than violently traumatising capitalists until they pay their workers fairly

This is one of the most important documents produced this year. At a time when many of our professional organizations are punting, @aaup.org has been leading on EdTech, AI, academic freedom & faculty governance. I'm humbled to be joining the team that authored this report.

The N Carolina immigrant rights group Siembra is teaching business owners their rights if federal agents show up at their door. While most can name their first and second amendment rights, far fewer are familiar with the fourth, which prohibits unreasonable government searches and seizures.

Ho ho ho! It’s happening again. Bucket Santa Boy will be making an appearance tonight at the Pink Triangle Party! Come tell me if you’ve been naughty! partiful.com/e/GJ03fbQ319...

If I could go back in time and stop the parents of the software developer who made the “gobs” for “gonna” autocorrect from procreating, I would.

I think I am continuing to improve in how I design, structure, grade, and run my classes. This semester has been a challenging one, to be sure, but I ultimately feel the reward of learning to be better with regard to my pedagogy.

Ricky Martin?! Shut up!

Did not recall that The California Raisins had a character name Banana White—spoofing Wheel of Fortune’s Vanna White—until I went to the Durham Vintage Collective this afternoon.

This salted maple cream is no joke, y’all. A dollop’ll do ya.

Olive oil pumpkin cake, soon to be topped with salted maple cream.

Made an apple pie.

The Goon King

Both inside and outside the house, we’re cultivating magic.

Welp—I did it. I publicly shamed a trio of Gen Z kids for loudly playing audio on their phones at the coffee shop, asking them if they had spatial awareness. I think I’m officially very old and very cranky.

Still find it wild that my YMCA has a 9/11 Memorial “StairMaster Challenge” that they advertise every September.

So the pope has some inspiring words on cinema, yes. But he (or his speech writers) also quotes D.W. Griffith without any recognition of the racist caricatures he helped proliferate. So all told, a very on point Catholic response: some progressivism mixed with some inadvertent racist acquiescence.

Yesterday I was publicly shamed at the gay bar when a friend asked me what I thought a Stanley cup was and in all seriousness answered “Isn’t that a hockey thing?” The look of horror on his face and accusation of being a bro were priceless.

The Republican president is a pedophile who has doubled my healthcare costs and let scores of violent criminals out of jail. But a Democratic mayor-elect wants to make busses free in a city I don't live in. I have never felt more politically homeless.

Nothing could make me less likely to want to shop at a store than store-mandated faux optimism, friendliness, smiling/staring/asking how my day is going. Y’all need to learn how to be human. This is not the way.

I feel like we have the opportunity to turn David Lynch's quote into this moment's "Keep Calm and Carry On" and it's a far better rallying cry too.

Real?

All day, many of you have been asking for a Cheney obituary from me. Get ready:

It is right to remember people as they were, for their deeds, and in the case of politicians for what they did and made possible, and not sugarcoat or produce milquetoast revisionist hagiographies. This man was vile and America is worse off because he existed.

One of my strongest compulsions is the desire to get stickers fully off of products I buy, and this irrational need has resulted most recently in me accidentally stabbing my thumb with a razor.

Will I ever be able to grade essays quickly? Survey says…

“If every disappointment, criticism, wrongdoing, or trauma is treated as a sacrifice that one must give up to God, how is introspection, change, or personal responsibility even possible?” My therapist is going to love me this week.

The punishments will continue until morale improves!

I remember when the idea of a “dark room” at a club used to mean something.

Frantically patting myself down looking for my car keys that were in one of my two hands frantically patting myself down looking for my car keys.