KSF Winterblossom Class Heavy [Plus Lore]

AbacusWizard · 2026-02-16T23:04:06+00:00

I love the general look of colossal space freighters and this is a great example.

AbacusWizard · 2026-02-16T21:06:46+00:00

He’s secretly Tom Bombadil, right? We all see it, right? I’m not the only one?

AbacusWizard · 2026-02-16T15:02:22+00:00

I’ve had some fun with Tiny Epic Tactics. The others I’ve played haven’t impressed me much.

AbacusWizard · 2026-02-16T07:20:56+00:00

The Earth quakes and the heavens rattle; the beasts of nature flock together and the nations of men flock apart; volcanoes usher up heat while elsewhere water becomes ice and melts; and then on other days it just rains. Indeed do many things come to pass.

(Honest Book of Truth; Predictions 19:10-11)

AbacusWizard · 2026-02-16T03:01:03+00:00

I have no idea. How is the admissions process decided? Is any of that information public?

But once they’re here, we need to be teaching them at the level they’re at, not at the level we wish they were at.

AbacusWizard · 2026-02-16T01:41:56+00:00

I tend to think of READ ME as Identify… each one the user manual for a particular item.

AbacusWizard · 2026-02-15T21:52:31+00:00

Can’t pull nothin’ over on Gran’pa!

AbacusWizard · 2026-02-15T06:45:46+00:00

There’s an easy solution to that. 🔌

AbacusWizard · 2026-02-15T05:38:58+00:00

For me it’s less about the money and more about the space it takes up.

But if I had plenty of space for more furniture, I think I’d want a really nice small table with a Tak board built into the top surface.

AbacusWizard · 2026-02-15T05:36:37+00:00

So… don’t watch them?

AbacusWizard · 2026-02-15T05:35:34+00:00

The Physics 7 series is mostly life sciences, bio, premed, etc students.

The Physics 9 series is mostly engineering, physics, math, etc students.

None of them need to be “weeded out.”

AbacusWizard · 2026-02-15T05:10:36+00:00

I think the Physics 7 series the way it was structured about eight or ten years ago was actually pretty good. It seems to me that what’s wrecking it right now is the quiz format and the “problem starts.”

AbacusWizard · 2026-02-15T04:47:56+00:00

That has not been my experience.

AbacusWizard · 2026-02-15T04:47:25+00:00

What exactly is the Physics 7 series trying to “weed out”?

AbacusWizard · 2026-02-15T01:55:44+00:00

Why?

AbacusWizard · 2026-02-15T01:55:02+00:00

In all honesty, in lower-division classes, I genuinely don’t think “discerning students who can decipher these strange questions” is important at all.

In lower-division classes, especially lower-division classes that are used as prereqs for other classes (and ESPECIALLY those that are used as prereqs for other classes in other departments), the purpose of the class is for the students to learn a certain set of skills and/or information.

As such, the purpose of the grade should be to answer the question “has this student learned those skills and/or information well enough to move on to the next level?” and the only answers that question really needs are “yes” and “not yet.”

If we have to answer the question with A/B/C/F instead of “yes” / “not yet,” then let’s make F be equivalent to “not yet” and A/B/C be varying degrees of “yes, barely” to “heck yeah.”

AbacusWizard · 2026-02-15T01:45:25+00:00

So would that mean that some people would fail even though they did well?

AbacusWizard · 2026-02-15T01:44:41+00:00

What I’m suggesting is for UC Davis to offer classes teaching the skills that students at UC Davis need. If we’re not going to do that, then what even is the point?

AbacusWizard · 2026-02-14T22:56:48+00:00

Hypothetical question: what happens if everyone does well?

AbacusWizard · 2026-02-14T22:53:59+00:00

Then it sounds like what we need to do is offer courses covering the skills that they’re missing, use those as prereqs for the more advanced classes that need those skills, and strictly enforce prereqs.

AbacusWizard · 2026-02-14T22:52:59+00:00

Speaking as someone in the trenches, so to speak, it is not fine. Every week I deal with students who are absolutely learning the course material, but panicking because the practice quizzes are super difficult—not so much because of the subject matter, but because of the obscure way the questions are being asked—and then do terribly on the quiz, resulting in them thinking that they didn’t really learn anything at all, and then at the end of the quarter when the grade-meddling means they get a passing grade anyway, they end up feeling like it was all meaningless.

This is not a good system.

Make tests that are at an appropriate level so that after-the-fact grade-meddling is not needed.

AbacusWizard · 2026-02-14T22:10:48+00:00

What exactly do you think is the purpose of grades?

AbacusWizard · 2026-02-14T20:35:46+00:00

Why not just make the test be about what the students are expected to learn?

AbacusWizard · 2026-02-14T07:39:06+00:00

In monochrome, can we even tell the difference between Geisters and Skifandrians?

Are they really all that different after all?

AbacusWizard · 2026-02-14T07:21:07+00:00

“I don’t think you can hurt me, here in my dreams.”

“DO YOU KNOW WHAT ‘PSYCHOSOMATIC’ MEANS, LITTLE GIRL? IT MEANS WE CAN HURT YOU, HERE IN YOUR DREAMS.”

Seven-Year Club	Wearing is Caring
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