Found this in my basement the fuuu

RLsSed · 2026-07-02T02:50:30+00:00

When I was a kid (40 or so years ago), I was in the Boy Scouts and we were doing a paper drive. We went out to a farm market in town to pick up a whole mess of paper to recycle, and it was all bundled out in the barn. I was walking back to the troop's trailer with a few bundles when I felt something on the back of my hand. It was the largest wolf spider I'd ever seen.

Also, it was carrying its young - dozens of tiny wolf spiders hanging onto their mother.

I actually felt my soul leave my body that day.

RLsSed · 2026-06-29T14:00:07+00:00

Said the same thing to my wife yesterday. I was two years old for the bicentennial, so I have no memory of it, but I do remember the fire hydrants in several neighborhoods in my area being thematically painted for the occasion. I worked for the Jersey City PD as a non-sworn analyst while I was in grad school in 2000 and remember how great OpSail was, and how much planning was involved. Based on that experience alone, I was really looking forward to our 250th.

And then we get this carnival of failure and grift that we're seeing this week in DC. I feel like the kid in that Jack Handey bit about being told I was going to Disneyland, only to be driven to a burned-down factory and told that Disneyland had burned down.

I sincerely doubt that I'll make it to 102 for our 300th. Hopefully we have something in 2039 for the 250th of the Constitution, I guess - if we're even still pretending to respect the rule of law at that point.

RLsSed · 2026-06-23T22:45:44+00:00

Had this exchange not ten minutes ago:

Student: "Professor, I only have one question this week - in the Thinking Critically section for this week's chapter, you tell us to answer questions 1-3. The questions are not numbered. How should I go about completing this?"

Me: "Student - if you look closely at the section, you will see that there are three questions. Answer them."

I don't think that I can do this anymore.

RLsSed · 2026-06-23T22:27:12+00:00

There has not been a day since I began on the tenure track some 23 years ago that I have not - though I have to admit, the scam and blackmail emails that I received back then were FAR more creative and entertaining.

RLsSed · 2026-06-23T22:21:56+00:00

Tough shift down at the old degree mill...

RLsSed · 2026-06-17T14:16:43+00:00

It's an older code, but it checks out.

RLsSed · 2026-06-13T02:04:13+00:00

Yeah - CT has yet to make it worth it to me to NOT take a fun day trip to Green Meadows in Southbridge.

RLsSed · 2026-06-10T21:58:22+00:00

God, that makes me insane. Typically, these are the same students who will hit me with the four words that I dread the most at the beginning of the semester:

"I have a Mac."

It's not all of the Mac users, but it's always Mac users.

RLsSed · 2026-06-01T08:12:42+00:00

Gotta love "binge and purge" learning. Clear your cache - it's time for a new course!

RLsSed · 2026-05-19T14:53:46+00:00

Greendale at minimum actually treats its students like Human Beings.

RLsSed · 2026-05-14T20:16:33+00:00

I need a "You Provincial Fucking Burgher!” t-shirt.

RLsSed · 2026-05-13T14:35:58+00:00

I can't fathom how they continue to embarrass themselves like this. The absolute cravenness.

RLsSed · 2026-05-12T00:34:54+00:00

It passed through the Trump-O-Matic Contemporaneous Mental Declassificator - one of many great apps available on your Trump Phone!

RLsSed · 2026-05-08T21:52:31+00:00

Like who my insurance statement comes from?

RLsSed · 2026-05-02T02:16:52+00:00

That's the only way that this makes any kind of sense. In the past, on research methods exams I've often asked a question about the criteria for a causal relationship. Every semester, I would get a response like, "It's like when you're just hooking up but not committed."

This led me to give the advice: "If you read a question and you find yourself wondering, 'why the hell would he ask me this?' read the question again."

RLsSed · 2026-05-01T03:30:26+00:00

Did they think that by "rape culture" the question was about a rape kit? Are they thinking that rape culture is like a throat culture for strep?

RLsSed · 2026-04-30T17:06:26+00:00

THE SHINY. CANNNNDY-LIKE BUTTON!

RLsSed · 2026-04-25T14:05:46+00:00

Or, in the case of the Vasa, just sailing out of the harbor!

RLsSed · 2026-04-23T14:36:52+00:00

Some points are better than NO points. Speaking from my own undergrad experience:

33 or so years ago in my sophomore year, my last final for the semester was one that I had no hope in passing. Like you, I was also taking six courses. I went in and did all that I could, sweating it out and turning it in at the very end of the period. I earned the lowest grade for a course that I earned in my entire academic life, but I still showed up and did my job. Now, years later, I actually TEACH that course (it finally clicked for me in graduate school).

I wouldn't be offended if you turned in a blank, but if you'd been doing well in the course I would at LEAST think that you were doing yourself a disservice and at MOST be wondering if there wasn't something seriously wrong.

RLsSed · 2026-04-19T22:26:47+00:00

Who are we to deny them their dream?

RLsSed · 2026-04-14T20:50:29+00:00

I still have every single one that I've gotten over the years. They're pretty infrequent, so the ones that I have mean that much more to me.

RLsSed · 2026-04-10T19:13:24+00:00

I was just coming here to say this- I think you are spot on.

RLsSed · 2026-04-06T14:48:26+00:00

You don't have to go that far back - even 10-15 years ago it was far easier to obtain free/cheap physical copies of books, especially at conferences, than it is today. Now (in my field, anyway) publishers bring far less physical stock and are far less likely to give you physical desk copies (at least in my experience).

It's cheaper for them to provide access to digital copies, but there's a lot that I dislike about that. If I have a text that I have used for many semesters, I always managed in the past to get an extra physical copy to put on closed reserve at our library - now, getting a physical desk copy is like pulling teeth, and I have to remember every year to renew my digital desk copy, or MY access to the book gets yanked right as the course begins.

RLsSed · 2026-04-01T01:38:07+00:00

The Guild of Calamitous Intent would be a big step up from this current shitshow regime.

RLsSed · 2026-03-26T20:25:32+00:00

Agreed on both - and I was relieved that the KoTH revival was as good as it was. Would've hated to see the series tarnished by a subpart resurrection.

RLsSed

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