one problem with learning is it will make you so angry at how stupid everything is

It seems that there have been at least three pieces or Discourse™ that I thankfully missed this morning by hanging out with my dog.

"Writers have been using me long before the advent of AI. I am the punctuation equivalent of a cardigan—beloved by MFA grads, used by editors when it’s actually cold, and worn year-round by screenwriters. I am not new here." #McSweeneysTop25of2025

Happy New Year, everyone. I’m going to try to post pics of my adorable Winifred every day this year.

Celebrate the Old Ways

Who stands in the desert all smashed and alone? OZ-Y MAN-DIAS Vast trunkless legs sunk in sands level and lone OZ-Y MAN-DIAS If King-of-Kings hubris be something you care OZ-Y MAN-DIAS Just look on his Works all ye Mighty: despair OZ-Y MAN-DIAS

So 2 thoughts on this, 1 complementary and 1 a bit more critical #medievalsky

#OtD 30 Dec 1905 former Idaho Gov. Frank Steunenberg was assassinated. Elected with workers votes, he later used federal troops to crush a strike. @IWW Bill Haywood was charged but acquitted by jury of poor farmers, who actually thought he did it! stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1027...

working at a university

BRB naming my eccentric, inexplicable, but ultimately helpful tech company Bombadil.

Last summer I was at the Metronome in Prague having a beer (as one does), and overheard a conversation near me. One person asked another if they had been to the city before, and the other said no she had always avoided Prague bc Charles IV had stolen the relics of her town's saint back in the day.

Giselle took half of everything

Ok, we don’t NEED this game, but it would be nice. #gobirds #flyeaglesfly

This right here.

Remember: When Tylenol was poisoned *by an outsider* and killed people, the company recalled all their products & redesigned them. When Intel’s Pentium had a bug so obscure it affected 1 in _9 billion_ long division calculations, they recalled their chips. ChatGPT was made deadly *by its team*.

We didn't survive and thrive as a species because we had warriors or hunters - pretty much every omnivore can manage that. We did so because we developed Grandmothers, and domesticated Dogs. Community is what defines us as a species, and every "self-reliant" libertarian shitweasel be damned.

Christmastide corgi vibes.

Universities embracing generative AI be like:

It is EXHAUSTING not only being made responsible for coming up with new kinds of assignments for our students; it's also tedious reading op-eds that suggest the core problem is a crisis in teaching. But, as Chris and I lay out here, this isn't a crisis in teaching; it's an attack on learning.

Happy 14th anniversary to this youtube video

This house doesn’t like the other houses across the road

For some reason, I misread this as a "morale test" and now the wargame jokes just write themselves....

Peak masculinity.

Don’t forget to leave a brick out for Ben Folds this morning

Hell yeah. Happy Christmas to all those who like the food.

December 25: A really great day to remind people who try and tell you otherwise that actually, Mithras didn’t even have a birthday—he was born from a rock 🪨—and Christmas really doesn’t have anything to do with Mithraism. Mythbusting: the gift that keeps giving historical truth.

Making potato filling listening to Groovelilly on @wxpnfm.bsky.social Hell yeah.

Cunk spittin Christmas cheer

whatever is going on in higher ed in terms of theories of reading and selection, an enthusiastic teacher discussing and writing about an old book with kids at taxpayer expense remains a good idea

Folx, life is hard. Listen to Robert Drake tomorrow.

Currently drinking a solstice mead I brewed up during the summer solstice of 2024. Last bottle left.

Happy Winter Solstice! On midwinter’s day, the sun sets between the pair of stones that form the largest trilithon at #Stonehenge Farewell to the shortest day of the year, as we look forward to lighter days ahead! ☀️ #StandingStoneSunday #Archaeology

Glad we won! #flyeaglesfly

I’m sorry, but it is disgraceful to be an academic who uses this technology to conduct research. It should be prohibited in all of our scholarly institutions, including universities and journals.

Holy shit (see what I did there?) this is great:

Grading my honors section last as a treat, and so far I have not been disappointed.

5️⃣ SEPTA The “Jolly Trolleys” are iconic. Tastefully done, unique themes, spreading holiday cheer over west Philly. The trolley decorations are done by the operators themselves IIRC, giving a wonderfully homemade quality. Too bad the other lines don’t get in on the fun. Grade: A-

You would think that the guys who are all hyped up on the Roman Empire might have look a bit at the whole damnatio memoriae thing...

The TA has been through a lot this week, but she’s keeping me company through the final grading push.

Sweet Winifred had surgery yesterday. She's currently at my feet recouping as I grade essays.

Hell yeah.

Fuck. I'd gone almost two weeks without buying another book...

Someone much more clever than I am pointed out that Frosty the Snowman could be considered a golem, so I ran with that.

Oh hell yeah. Reading this just as soon as I finish my current batch of final papers.

Live shot of me watching this game tonight....

Rival CDC in Avignon

Apparently me not skeeting is what we needed.