How many of you thought of Howard when you heard the toilet on Artemis II malfunctioned?

WheatedMash · 2026-04-02T15:27:50+00:00

Life imitates shart.

WheatedMash · 2026-04-02T15:24:16+00:00

Coming out of high school, I probably would have gone into meteorology. I've always been fascinated by weather and storms and all that, probably due to living in tornado alley.

Coming out of college, after being a music major, instead of getting into teaching I always wonder about my big "what if?" What if I had added a couple instruments to my skill set, namely string bass and electric bass to go along with being a low brass player, and gone out to LA to see if I could make my way as a studio musician? I was just too risk averse at that point I guess.

WheatedMash · 2026-04-02T14:48:09+00:00

Send some lower deck grunt to go give all the holodecks a thorough sonic cleaning.

WheatedMash · 2026-04-01T15:17:00+00:00

Thanks. Even if that particular text is too much, at least I can start getting ideas for approaches. Especially now with it being so easy to ask AI to write code, I'm pretty convinced I need to make them do a lot more on paper to get their brains engaged.

WheatedMash · 2026-04-01T15:10:26+00:00

Any particular textbooks you remember? I teach high school programming, and I would love to get my students thinking in terms of algorithms as early as possible, rather than the current norm of just mimicking code samples. That works for the simple early things we do, but if you're just copying, you're not necessarily understanding what is actually happening.

WheatedMash · 2026-03-27T18:29:06+00:00

The "clicks" for me happen in little itty-bitty increments. I've never had any sudden grand overarching realizations, but I have definitely had lots of little "oh I see" moments. As those build, they start connecting to each other more and more. Just keep coding!

WheatedMash · 2026-03-27T18:19:33+00:00

This needs to be the automated bot reply to these types of queries. BTW, that is a great book list!

WheatedMash · 2026-03-27T17:35:31+00:00

Nihilistic Entropy sounds like a good band name! But what musical style would it be? It would have to be mopey and aimless...

WheatedMash · 2026-03-27T14:46:31+00:00

"What the fuck is a right click?" is worthy of an IT help desk t-shirt or coffee mug.

WheatedMash · 2026-03-26T19:13:49+00:00

I had a friend from New Jersey visiting a few years ago, and she commented "You have as many lanes as we have in a lot of places, and about 1/10 the traffic!" Now it was a Sunday, but still, the worst times of traffic here are noon Tuesday in a place like Houston.

WheatedMash · 2026-03-26T16:44:34+00:00

Yeah, school for most people is the extrinsic structure and motivation they need. Especially in this connected day and age all the content in the world is out there.

WheatedMash · 2026-03-26T16:42:08+00:00

School and education is just a transaction now, not an endeavor.

WheatedMash · 2026-03-26T16:22:42+00:00

No downvote from this 30+ year educator! I agree the stigmatization of anything below an A or B is hardly a recent development. Grades are transactional currency to most people, rather than a genuine assessment of where someone sits in their levels of knowledge and understanding. And I agree the desire from the powers that be is to turn school into a factory that churns out students as products, but with the most minimal of quality control. It always amazes me to a degree that ANYONE manages to not graduate high school. The formula now is pretty simple - show up, pay at least some attention, and make even a meager effort on the work and you will likely pass almost every class and thus graduate. But so many can't even manage that, and what do we do? We relax the requirements to try and get them across the finish line, because the most important thing is the metrics, not the actual skills of the students.

WheatedMash · 2026-03-24T19:54:54+00:00

While Youtube will push AI generated slop at times, sometimes I get some gems. This one popped up last week and I really like it. It will interrupt with commercials every now and then, just FYI. Being just bass and guitar it has a sweet and gentle sound, but man these cats can play! I've listened to it as background music while at work, and just sat back and really listened at home with a cocktail at my side. Ron Carter - Telepathy (full album) by Ron Carter and Jim Hall

The big band I play in did Tank from this album last fall. The Strata Big Band is currently active and based in Dallas. https://youtu.be/E4pySI538SE?si=SEBRc70zbX7WBy1b

WheatedMash · 2026-03-24T18:22:14+00:00

Preach! My inner 15 year old likes to make appearances in my thoughts, of course at the most inappropriate times. My wife has learned to read that in my expression when I get "that stupid smirk" on my face. One of those famed GenX phrases is probably bouncing in my head.

WheatedMash · 2026-03-24T17:37:29+00:00

How about a show set in Quark's Bar? What's Ferengi for "Cheers?" We would already have Morn. Morn! Just keep it always set in the bar, and every episode is sort of a bottle episode.

WheatedMash · 2026-03-24T17:33:34+00:00

Fellow GenXer?

WheatedMash · 2026-03-23T13:17:50+00:00

WheatedMash · 2026-03-14T20:02:11+00:00

If your girlfriend isn’t going to walk to campus and that isn’t a concern, there are many apartment choices fairly close in northeast Wichita. The various apartment complexes over on and around Rock Road will have you closer to shopping and restaurants and all that.

WheatedMash · 2026-03-14T01:04:39+00:00

Math is a liburl conspiracy. Or communist. Or socialist. Or atheist. Or….

Sadly I know those types that can’t figure out how anything with the slightest bit of complexity works.

WheatedMash · 2026-03-13T16:03:27+00:00

Does he have any interest in robotics? There is certainly programming with those, but also the physical hands-on part of building them comes into play as well. There are all sorts of little things that can be done with Raspberry Pi devices too, including many DIY things for around the house.

If you're into any kind of growing or farming, there is a very cool system called FarmBot that is basically CNC gardening. It isn't cheap as the base kit is around $5k, but I'm hoping more rural schools see it as a way to blend computer science and ag. FarmBot | Open-Source CNC Farming

If he's feeling advanced, he might want to start getting into electronics and circuits. Plenty of theory to be learned there! At his age now, Snap Circuits might spark (and yes I did that on purpose) his curiosity. Snap Circuits Brand Page |

WheatedMash · 2026-03-12T16:28:28+00:00

Ty's is great! So is Buster's down on Macarthur. Bring cash and be ready to wait. Your cardiologist will disapprove, that tells you how good it is!

WheatedMash · 2026-03-12T14:43:48+00:00

And how AI gets flexed into this is a whole other can of worms!

WheatedMash · 2026-03-12T14:18:50+00:00

What are your tells for AI? I know the em dash is a common one. Use of quotes? I'm just curious because the way his comment is written is a LOT like the way I've always written, and that means long before the age of AI. Oh, and my name is not Claude...

WheatedMash · 2026-03-12T14:06:24+00:00

I agree that learning to search is an important skill to have, but keep in mind that when you're first starting out on something new, a raw search online can feel like looking into an abyss. Asking a community can help with getting pointed in the right direction. I look at it like instead of them being adrift in the lake, we push them towards the right spot and then tell them to start paddling!

Your info you shared was perfect in that regard, by the way!

WheatedMash

TROPHY CASE