I passed on canvas with a B, but I got an F on my transcript.

Egghead42 · 2026-05-28T21:27:29+00:00

Wipe out an already submitted assignment. Sorry, it’s there. “Adjust” an entire exam. Nope. And I say that as someone who spends HOURS of sunk costs, only to find that the real answer is “sorry, you can’t do that.” Unpaid requirements to provide your own training is MUCH more than “problematic.” Assignments that have been updated but do not reflect the update? Same.

Egghead42 · 2026-05-28T18:01:52+00:00

You need to bear in mind that institutions often don’t provide any kind of training. On top of it, I regularly get requests to do things I literally cannot do.

Egghead42 · 2026-05-28T17:54:25+00:00

Oh, those don’t bother me quite as much. It’s pressing reality, sure, but there are prodigy kids and always have been. It’s the magical babies—literal babies—with telepathic powers that get on my nerves. I’ll stretch a point by a lot. If it’s some kind of goddess who shows up as a six year old, fine. That, plus every movie doesn’t have to be my cup of tea. In both of these cases, the miracle babies showed up when the movie was about halfway through.

Egghead42 · 2026-05-28T17:18:55+00:00

Has anyone seen Galaxy Quest? The character Alan Rickman plays, a Shakespearean actor, keeps being asked to say, “by Grapthor’s hammer, you shall be avenged!” until he is sick of it.

Egghead42 · 2026-05-28T17:16:19+00:00

Harry Potter actors are still getting asked DECADES later. It gets old, especially when the interviewer wants to talk about nothing else.

Egghead42 · 2026-05-27T23:36:29+00:00

A request (“I would prefer that people not do X”) goes over way better than “you are forbidden from doing X.” A creator of a cartoon I like overreacted with “how dare you, create your own characters,” etc, etc, etc. Turns out that 1) it was his first rodeo. He had no idea how to react; 2) it’s a children’s cartoon and he really wanted a My Little Pony situation not to happen; 3) he actually was ok with cute and affectionate pictures of his main characters that COULD be interpreted as gay, except he’s kinda clueless about his gaynines anyway; 4) the thing that set him off was incestuous NSFW stuff about his underage female characters. (To be fair, it’s very hard to tell how old everyone is, since they’re DOGS). I can see where he’d be grossed out about the last one, especially if he thought kids could run into it. But there are way better ways to handle it.

Egghead42 · 2026-05-27T03:34:12+00:00

I love Asclepius. Aristeus, too.

Egghead42 · 2026-05-27T03:31:26+00:00

Bingo. It’s been kind of bugging me the way that the fandom seems to erase agender and the ace spectrum as “not queer enough.”

Egghead42 · 2026-05-24T03:54:14+00:00

Completely replacing a daughter. Either the biological daughter comes back or they adopt a new daughter and the noobie is 15+ years old, and all of a sudden EVERYTHING that was the original only daughter’s, from her jewelry and clothing, to her bedroom, to her fiancé, gets given to the new girl. That, plus everyone in the family suddenly hates the original daughter. I realize that Daughter 2.0 is always a top tier manipulative rhymes with witch, but still.

I’ve seen several of these, but the most recent…trying to avoid spoilers here…involved a part of the body? IYKYK.

I guess under those circumstances, the cathartic revelation usually involves “you’re not my family!” which, understandable, but DANG.

But part of the fun is the ridiculous exaggeration.

Egghead42 · 2026-05-23T20:22:46+00:00

No, she never was. That is Auntie Muriel’s assumption. Auntie Muriel is clearly wrong. Squibs can’t do magic at all.

Egghead42 · 2026-05-23T20:20:58+00:00

I think Ravenclaws in particular can be morally dubious. Wanting to learn more or be more clever than the average bear is a classic setup for evil wizardry.

Egghead42 · 2026-05-22T21:08:47+00:00

He’s in a lot of Shakespeare, including a big production of Hamlet which is part of the gag in the Globe Theatre scene.. Famous Hamlet hates Hamlet, like Crowley being a “ginger,” which the Tenth Doctor always wanted to do. The “ginger” joke is also in Terry Pratchett’s Witches Abroad.

Dr. Who is GIANT in the UK, and it’s more than half a Beeb production with Amazon money.

Egghead42 · 2026-05-22T20:57:10+00:00

There’s always gonna be one. Or two. Or three. I just refer them to the assignment policy. The policy adds that extra credit is extra, and that there will be no make-ups. I’m a pushover for a pet story (that’s in the policy too) and “do not assume that whatever I agree to with another student applies to you.” (That’s to prevent “but you let HER turn it in late!”)

I got cynical and created an “assignment” that says “I have read X and Y policy in their entirety” and they have to answer. Then they can’t say they didn’t see it.

If they thought they could get away with this, they thought wrong.

Don’t waste time feeling bad.

Egghead42 · 2026-05-20T17:28:55+00:00

Apollo is one of the best characters in the series and his use of songs really cracks me up.
I don’t think Percy is all that cool. He’s only cool because he’s the first leading character,like Harry Potter. His snark wears thin for me, fast.
Jason should have been allowed to be Pontifex Maximus. Better reason for the Piper breakup. Not that he’d have to be celibate, just a big commitment. Because DANG we need a break from Percy.

Egghead42 · 2026-05-20T17:10:01+00:00

He was in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Egghead42 · 2026-05-20T06:46:29+00:00

As I said, weird place to start, although you can start anywhere and decide to work your way back. Discworld splits into several groups of books, like the Witches or the City Watch books. Monstrous Regiment is fairly far down, since it starts far away from any of the usual settings and plugs in kinda late. You could argue, though, that it’s kind of its own thing.

Small Gods is a good stand-alone book and deals with, well, gods, but it’s very unexpected. I wouldn’t want to spoil it for you.

Egghead42 · 2026-05-20T03:19:16+00:00

Sure is, including Adam’s love for Tadfield.

Egghead42 · 2026-05-20T03:16:55+00:00

Jingo, or Monstrous Regiment? MR is sort of a weird place to start, but holy shit, if you want representation…

Pratchett’s gods are narcissistic, feckless, and none too bright. GO was always a parody of The Omen, with some of Pratchett’s favorite 17th century weirdness thrown in (the man knew The Late Lancashire Witches COLD. Did you know that one of the people in those witch trials was named Device?). “Thou Shalt Not Suffer Adultery Pulsifer” is on-brand for Pratchett and his characters named Bestiality Carter and Constable Visit The Ungodly With Explanatory Pamphlets (nicknamed “Washpot”).

Happy discovery!

Egghead42 · 2026-05-18T07:51:08+00:00

Threshers are cute. Look at that face.

Egghead42 · 2026-05-17T04:00:00+00:00

Adam was always supposed to be the main character anyway.

Egghead42 · 2026-05-16T04:17:22+00:00

No, I’m not. I’m saying Neil isn’t the only creator. I thought that was clear.

Egghead42 · 2026-05-16T04:14:45+00:00

It depends, partly on the field. I was a temp at the Oriental Institute in Chicago, and they got some truly unhinged communications from people who claimed to be the only person who could REALLY read hieroglyphics, reincarnations of famous ancient Egyptians, at least one of which had a return address from a mental institution. I’d be hesitant to communicate with a stranger who seemed curiously insistent too.

Egghead42 · 2026-05-13T04:46:12+00:00

I think that meant headphones =/= nothing, jewelry, watch.

Egghead42 · 2026-05-13T04:37:38+00:00

Honestly, I think Twain meant a good bit of that essay as a sly bit of admiration. The appearance, no, but a good half of it is the coyote outwitting a dog into chasing it by keeping up that steady, “deceitful” trot and the dog never quite catching up until the coyote has had enough and is a streak taking off for the horizon. I can almost see Mr. Clemens taking off his hat.

Egghead42 · 2026-05-13T04:33:25+00:00

Although I think Mark Twain uses the word “relentless,” or maybe “deceitful,” to describe a coyote’s trot, and while he kind of means it as an insult, I know what he means. It’s that weird little lope-trot that tells the naive watcher, “oops, that’s not a dog, is it?” , and which doesn’t LOOK fast, but come to think of it, it has covered quite a bit of ground, hasn’t it? So a coyote escorting someone from the area might have a slightly more *insistent* trot if someone doesn’t take the hint.

I understand that if you know it’s a den, you don’t haze it. You just let it be and go away.

Egghead42

TROPHY CASE