My Own Thoughts

after talking with Jill. Don’t want to sit in front because if you need to leave, everyone is watching you. The back is preferable because you need a deeper space for the wheelchair. A good idea to fix the problem of wheelchair people not being able to see the words is to hand out copies [...]

Dwarfed Punk Handwriting Analysis Star Trek TNG trivia, very fascinating, some of it. Apparently I didn’t watch all of the TNG, though I thought I did.

Eric by Shaun Tan. Go! Now. You won’t be sorry. You shouldn’t miss it. It’s very … sweet.

“100 Things Your Kids May Never Know About” from Geek Dad Terminals accessing the mainframe. Screens being just green (or orange) on black. Tweaking the volume setting on your tape deck to get a computer game to load, and waiting ages for it to actually do it. Daisy chaining your SCSI devices and making sure [...]

CNN Money: Top non-engineering fields. Only three of the 15 top paying degrees were outside the field of engineering — but they each still require math skills. For computer science majors, who specialize in programming and software, the average salary was $61,407. Graduates with degrees in actuarial science took home about $56,320; and jobs for [...]

I stayed up late last night till midnight talking to Lyn. I wrote the article I was working on for Friday and sent it off. Talked to Lyn about it and she helped me make it much better. Yeah. I went to UT and copied $32 worth of stuff on Judith. Good use of four [...]

I’m off to jury duty in Spring.

I implemented a policy that if students write to me asking what’s going to be on the exam, what the readings are, what we covered in class yesterday because you were attending to your BF who had gall bladder surgery after an allergy attack, etc. – things clearly addressed in the syllabus or course schedule, [...]

Big Lizards has the post: Americans are self-reliant: They want work, not welfare; their own insurance, not government-controlled health care; and an open choice where to send their kids for school (or to educate them at home). Obama wants to change America so that everybody must rely upon the government for every aspect of life, [...]

Another sighting for my “Natural History of the Common Troll” article. from Mouseman Oh, yes, and there is a HYSTERICAL citing of a troll on that same page: March 26th, 2009, time 19:01. I had another sighting of a troll today. As I observed, it marked a thread with its urine, and disappeared into the [...]

“Students aren’t required to be literate to take my class, according to official policy, and it shows.” Fosca Student email forums Ouch. I would just like to know how the student is so familiar with the sound of giving birth to Satan. Now there’s some life experience that worth some credit hours. from Conjugate “the [...]

the final that my roommate my frosh year had in Old Testament Survey — this is it, in toto: “Trace the history of the Hebrew people from the Exodus to the fall of the Southern Kingdom.” Literally no joke. If I’m lyin’ I’m dyin’. Some people used 4 blue books. I could probably fill four [...]

We now record fetal heartbeats at 14 days post-conception. We record fetal brainwaves at 39 days post-conception. And I don’t expect you to answer this, but I do expect you to pay attention to it as you contemplate these big issues. We have this schizophrenic rule of the law where we have defined death as [...]

The unborn have memories, according to medical researchers who used sound and vibration stimulation, combined with sonography, to reveal that the human fetus displays short-term memory from at least 30 weeks gestation – or about two months before they are born. “In addition, results indicated that 34-week-old fetuses are able to store information and retrieve [...]

Someone tried to write a college science paper on the “natural phenomenon” of werewolves, vampires, and zombies. Despite the fact that the student did not get the topic approved, as per the syllabus, s/he did a lot of work on the paper and developed it well. S/he looked at when those creatures were discussed using [...]

I am. I am. I even woke up the doggie. Read pages 353 and 354 on the Chronicle forum on “favorite” student emails. It’s on feminine problems, that not so fresh feeling, etc. Page 355 on what men do when they get that “not so fresh” feeling. What a lighter side to some really depressing [...]

But it’s a good thing they don’t fail her. He is a critically injured combat casualty, and she is Army Sgt. Jennifer Watson of the Casualty Liaison Team here. Although a somber scene, it is not an uncommon one for the Peru, Ind., native, who in addition to her primary duties throughout the last 14 [...]

For a very funny review, on (apparently) one of the worst books ever, go look up Shadow God on Amazon and read the first review. It is hysterical. Okay, maybe I’m hysterical. But it was fun and funny to read. Of course, I am an English teacher.

A portion of something. I have a tranche of students re-taking the final. Hmm. I love new words. You can tell I am an English geek, because inside I am doing a little happy dance about new words.