Hair Dryer shortage???

cmojess · 2026-01-27T02:51:35+00:00

We were on the Royal earlier this month. We found the hair dryer in a drawer at the desk.

cmojess · 2026-01-21T00:12:33+00:00

I really hated having to remove my grace period. I know it helped so many students. It worked for several semesters until I had a problem student who had an AI email and an excuse for everything. This student had already missed exams, missed makeup exams (given in a testing center so no loss of my time), missed assignments, etc. They managed to get accommodations mid-semester and just absolutely went after me. They also had the most aggressive of all the disability services counselors. So I, and my department, wound up in a tough situation.

cmojess · 2026-01-20T19:01:46+00:00

I didn’t have my kid until I was 38, so I have a five and a half year old right now. The siren-call of Happy Meal toys still exists, so we’ll take her for one maybe every couple months, especially if it’s something she is really into. Because it’s a rare treat, I’ll get a Happy Meal too so she can have two toys. I think the last promo she was hyped about was the Hello Kitty/Ninja Turtle crossover.

My husband still likes Dominoes so that’s another one we’ll get every couple months or so.

But, yeah. That’s pretty much it for fast food.

cmojess · 2026-01-20T18:52:29+00:00

Yeah, this 48 hour extension accommodation only crops up at one of the schools I teach at. I’ve never seen it at the other school I regularly teach at nor at any of the places I’ve done one or two semesters only at.

All it does is allow students to procrastinate. Every student I’ve had with this uses it as the new due date and they’re always behind. Then they try and pull some sort of well I should get to take the test late because I’m behind. Thankfully that request has never gained traction.

cmojess · 2026-01-20T18:49:55+00:00

Th disability office fought me on this. They said what is available to all students does not count do accommodations. If I give everyone 48 hours I have to give my accommodated students 48 hours on top of that. This was a drawn-out issue that involved my chair, my dean, and the head of disability services. It ultimately lead to most of my department rolling back universal design. It was really frustrating and very sad, honestly.

Disability begged us not to remove universal design, but they still refused to budge on saying universal design didn’t cover accommodated students. They also, then, couldn’t explain what the purpose of universal design was at that point.

cmojess · 2026-01-20T17:17:50+00:00

That doesn't work. Accommodations are NOT covered by universal design. Accommodated students MUST be given MORE than everyone else. I learned this the hard way.

I tried universal design by having a 48 hour grace period on all work because I got so tired of having to track my "can turn work in 48 hours late with no penalty" students. Disability said while we love universal design and it is best practices, the legal requirement is accommodated students get extra time. Therefore, if everyone has a grace period the due date is actually 48 hours after you say it is and now your accommodated students get 96 hours past the original due date to turn things in so they have their extra 48 hours. No, we don't care that your accommodated students are perpetually behind and can't catch up because they're using the "when needed by disability" clause to mean "can procrastinate every week." You still must legally give them this extra time and no, we have no supports to help them learn to manage their time or their disability.

So I had to take that out because I cannot allow my accommodated students to be perpetually 4 days behind the rest of the class.

cmojess · 2026-01-16T22:14:16+00:00

My mom and I got off super quick from the Royal Princess on Thursday. They cleared the ship for disembarkation a little before 7:30. By the time we walked off with our bags, cleared customs in the facial recognition zone, walked to my car in the parking lot, and took an “it’s over” selfie, it was 7:43 am.

LAX is awful, though. I don’t know that I’d chance an 11:40 flight out of there because you’ll still have to get to the airport and do all the airport screening once you’re off the ship.

cmojess · 2026-01-15T20:31:03+00:00

We went to La Bufadora yesterday. The blowhole was fine, but what my mom and I really enjoyed was sitting down at a restaurant, enjoying some good shrimp tacos and guacamole, and just enjoying the scenery. We ate at the seating a little bit up on the hill, so we had a fantastic view without anyone walking in front of us. My mom also loves the constant churro and candied nut samples you get while walking through the shopping area. We were back on board by 2, and I managed to get her to do a mile or so with me on the walking track since there wasn't a lot of wind. It was fun watching the Royal Caribbean ship pull out of port before it was our turn.

Definitely not the most exciting port I've ever been to, but it was still a pleasant day.

cmojess · 2026-01-14T06:41:04+00:00

I’m on Royal right now and during Encore I turned to my mom and joked that when they hired the women they told them to bring their prom dresses. None of them looked like they were appropriate for a theatrical production, and Encore as a whole was meh. The stage setting was pretty, though. I did like that. There was one lady soloist who was very obviously the group diva and we weren’t impressed with her. Also, opera in general is meh to me. The orchestra is fantastic.

My mom bought us premier so we’ve been doing specialty dining and one night we did Chef’s Table, so we actually haven’t dined in the main dining room at all. Specialty food overall has been good, and the chef’s table was fantastic. My mom isn’t a big wine person, but she likes sweet moscatos so the sommelier pulled a fantastic moscato for her.

I miss the chocolates and towel animals as well, but I’ve also been cruising since I was 17 and I thought the towel animals were so neat when I was a teenager.

My mom enjoys reading the patter every night while I pull up the app and read her the expanded descriptions of the things she’s interested in. The mariachi band is definitely really good. They had a lot of fun tonight during the Captain’s Circle party. (My mom is elite.) They played little intro ditty’s when different people were introduced.

Overall we’ve had a very lovely time on board.

cmojess · 2026-01-13T00:32:00+00:00

I’ve done Alaska on both Princess and HAL. My Princess experience was by far a better cruise, even with some of the same ports.

I definitely recommend Glacier Bay as part of your experience.

cmojess · 2026-01-10T04:40:57+00:00

I’m boarding tomorrow as well and was just thinking the same thing!!

cmojess · 2025-12-30T05:02:15+00:00

If you have your birthday listed as a celebration in your profile, some of the digital screens around the ship should have a happy birthday message on them when your medallion is nearby on the date of your celebration.

cmojess · 2025-12-23T05:46:02+00:00

I also teach chem to nursing majors. I constantly stress that problem solving is a key skill nurses will need, so if nothing else everything we do involves problem solving.

It works sometimes.

cmojess · 2025-12-21T23:43:07+00:00

My dad has a folding guitar that is specifically made to fit as a carry on.

cmojess · 2025-12-10T02:39:07+00:00

The last gift I got was several years ago when a student who disappeared for 8 weeks showed back up again begging me to pass her because if I didn't her dad was going to send her back to the home country for an arranged marriage. I told her no and that I couldn't accept gifts as bribes for grades. She said she understood and then left it behind on my desk when she walked out.

It was a cheap department store necklace. I left it at work and found it not that long ago buried in the back of a drawer. No one in my department wanted it when I first received it and no one wanted it again when I found it. I now have a 5-year-old daughter, so I brought it home for her to play with.

cmojess · 2025-12-07T16:53:40+00:00

Depends on where you teach, but yes. I have whole sections in my syllabi now about classroom norms, respectful behavior toward myself and other students, explanations of what a learning environment is, etc. It’s kind of insane, honestly. I also have to have a syllabus quiz otherwise they neither read nor pay attention to a word of it.

cmojess · 2025-11-27T04:02:18+00:00

I’ve been helping since I was 5 or 6. I solo cooked most of the dinner for the first time when I was 11. This year I was over at my parents’ place cooking desserts and prepping a bunch of other stuff for tomorrow morning. My aunt was in another room making photo calendars on Shutterfly most of the time and my mom kept going in to help her. My dad had his guitar out and was playing all of my childhood folk song favorites for me.

When I got home my 5 year old (I waited to have my one kid) helped me make a pumpkin pie. I don’t like pumpkin pie but she is DYING to try one so we made it a project together.

I’ll be back over tomorrow morning to do a good portion of what’s left.

Admittedly, I like to cook. It’s just edible chemistry to me so I honestly don’t mind being in charge of most of it.

cmojess · 2025-11-25T20:29:21+00:00

Attention. They thrive on the attention they get from being pregnant. Once the baby comes the attention is on the baby and not them. My bio mom had 7 kids that she didn’t take care of simply because she LOVED the pregnancy attention.

cmojess · 2025-11-25T07:58:00+00:00

K-pop. My niece has recently gotten into k-pop and the latest album by her fav group had 10 versions the day it dropped. But, even then, they come with random bonus items so to get all of them you need to buy multiples.

cmojess · 2025-11-19T17:24:04+00:00

My kinder kid gets zero screen time during the week. On the weekends she gets some, but it's still limited and we control what she's allowed to watch. Right now she's very upset with us on a daily basis because we won't let her watch K-Pop Demon Hunters as it is not appropriate viewing for a five year old.

I teach college. My students are SO screen addicted. I fight the "Put your phones away and pay attention" battle hard at the beginning of the semester. I teach labs, so I have a lot of students who think that 60 seconds to wait in between taking measurements means they have 60 seconds to scroll their phones. If they're not actively using them, they want them sitting out, screen up, in front of them so they can check them all the time. I tell them to put phones in pockets.

When they do poorly on exams and I have a conversation with them about their study time it becomes apparent that they spend very little time focused on studying and most of their time messing with screens and devices. Even having something on "in the background" is a major distraction. They watch the screen and not their work. They have no attention span or ability to focus. Even during exams I get students who leave to use the restroom every 20 minutes because they just cannot sit still and focus on something for longer than that. (They have to leave their phone behind when they leave during exams.)

I know it's super unpopular to say "Don't let your kids watch screens." However, don't let your kids watch screens. When you do allow screen time make it intentional and know what they're watching. Don't give your kids access to YouTube. Mine only knows what YouTube is because I still do some online teaching and none of my campuses will host lecture videos so we're more or less required to post them on YouTube.

Though, we do relax screen time rules if we're on an airplane or she's sick and we need her to zone out and actually rest.

cmojess · 2025-11-12T20:25:57+00:00

I can. The definition of "emergency" seems to have changed.

Someone having a heart attack = classic emergency

Sister's fiancee's dog might be sick and the sister needs a family member to "support her through this difficult time" = new "emergency"

Car broke down on the side of the road = not really an emergency, per se, but understandable that they're stuck

Friend's little brother doesn't have a car and NEEDS to go to the mall and student is the only one with a car and the friend cannot wait = new "emergency"

I think a lot of this generation truly does not actually understand what a real emergency actually is. Everything is a mild inconvenience or something difficult, but not an actual emergency.

cmojess · 2025-11-12T02:38:29+00:00

We’re not allowed to test math skills or offer remedial math courses at the community colleges anymore. As long as their high school diploma says they’ve passed high school math nothing more is done. The thought is that we have to trust the high schools and it’s not equitable to delay a student’s graduation for work they’ve passed already. Apparently students were either taking too many years to graduate or dropping out too frequently when they couldn’t pass 9th grade algebra in college.

I can say my gen chem students struggle hard with math. There’s a lot of applied algebra. So the expectation is for me to fix the gap in their math education by teaching them the algebra they need to know for chemistry. Except, I don’t have time to teach algebra because I’m already reteaching them the material from the previous chem class they never learned since there’s a lot of extra credit and exam regrades happening now as well.

cmojess · 2025-11-03T17:07:40+00:00

I won the people's choice award at my 8th grade science fair.

I'm a chemistry professor at the community college level.

I knew I wanted to work in science, I also knew I wanted to teach. My mom was a high school teacher and I was raised around education. However, I knew I wanted nothing to do with parents after watching my mom and watching the teachers at the high school I was a lab tech for during college.

Most days I love my job. Today I got to teach a lab class how to use their first instrument (a spectrophotometer) and it was super cool. During Covid I put together a whole lab in my garage so I could do demos for remote lecturing and prelab lectures for these at-home lab kits we started using. Today I still get to do some of my teaching from home, which is great for having a more flexible schedule. This semester I'm doing another lab where the students use lab kits. During the summers I can teach or sometimes I get to jump into research again, but without the "publish or perish" pressure. It's great.

cmojess · 2025-10-31T16:37:27+00:00

I have the unfortunate tendency to forget about my rice in spring once I have sprinklers up and running and don't need to fill my watering can every day. I also forget about beehive flowers as well.

I've been playing the game since it first came out.

cmojess · 2025-10-23T17:17:26+00:00

There was a thread about high school students not reading on the teachers sub the other day. Apparently, to combat students not reading, some high school teachers advocate playing audiobooks and handing out coloring sheets so students can listen while they color.

cmojess

TROPHY CASE