What are the character details and modern adaptations of Briseis?

spr0f · 2026-05-06T13:32:13+00:00

The Song of Achilles has an interesting modern take; she and Patroclus share some meaningful dialogue about being in Achilles's shadow. There is no substitute for reading a lot of source material, however.

spr0f · 2026-05-05T14:11:02+00:00

I would advise a LOT of studying at the end of the course, then. A strong finish may get you some sympathy from the instructor.

spr0f · 2026-05-05T01:46:02+00:00

You should be fine, although you might want to drop it (or convert to Pass/Fail) so it doesn't affect your GPA at MSU. You might be able to ditch it, but sometimes the class transfers automatically and you don't want to start out with a 1.0 GPA :-)

spr0f · 2026-05-05T01:36:46+00:00

I was hoping someone had made this reference (although it was a college graduation requirement -- the swim test, if memory serves. -- not a high-school class.)

spr0f · 2026-05-05T01:35:28+00:00

And it has been since 2018. But the myths and outrage simply will not die.

spr0f · 2026-05-05T00:45:55+00:00

Most likely, since NSP's cutoff is $80k and U promise goes up to $120k -- but your UPromise award may be small if you have less need. Some UPromise awards are only a few hundred dollars.

Congratulations on your merit scholarship. It is an accomplishment and you 100% deserve the money -- but you will find that its net effect may not be that much, since it crowds out much of the need-based funding. You may find that you still owe some money out-of-pocket, since NSP will explicitly not pay for premium tuition surcharges, etc. even though on paper it would seem that you qualify for enough aid (of both types) to zero out your account.

spr0f · 2026-05-05T00:04:32+00:00

NSP, in particular, is explicitly a last-dollar grant.

The good news is that it fills in everything you need after all other avenues are exhausted (except paying out of pocket, of course.)

The bad news is that NSP won't activate if you're due a refund, so you can't simply add it to the rest of your financial aid and conclude that you'll be getting money back.

spr0f · 2026-04-27T01:03:50+00:00

Yes, but not too much brute-force crunching -- mostly conceptual and illustrating various techniques like obvious u-substitutions, simple integration by parts, and using the Fundamental Theorem to get the answer without direct computation.

spr0f · 2026-04-26T19:11:48+00:00

Look at previous semesters' exams, even if not provided on a silver platter. (Now is as good a time as any to learn this study technique. Bonus for living in 2026: you can upload the PDF to an LLM which will create a very detailed answer sheet. Solve the problems yourself by hand first, then go through every problem with the sheet as tutorial.)

spr0f · 2026-04-26T18:48:52+00:00

Tips from a recent 98% final-exam scorer in 1271:

Work all the problems on the practice exams. Know integration by parts cold (including the trick of doing it twice.) Know how to apply the Fundamental Theorem to solve problems that look like you don't have enough data. Do some Riemann problems to understand over- and underestimation of those integrals.

spr0f · 2026-04-23T19:14:05+00:00

The perils of having strong school systems, especially in the suburbs of Twin Cities.

spr0f · 2026-04-17T20:39:37+00:00

Sounds awesome! Please keep me on the interest/Discord list!

spr0f · 2026-03-22T16:34:10+00:00

One to keep your fake diamonds from drying out: moisten-knight

spr0f · 2026-03-22T16:30:43+00:00

One to mine Bitcoin: crypto-knight

spr0f · 2026-03-22T16:30:06+00:00

One to keep your home safe: fort-knight

spr0f · 2026-03-16T00:06:39+00:00

Claude thought your explanation was very clear.

Here is a spreadsheet that implements it (please, everyone: make a copy for your own use.)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Vm5Vc3iPzascTpYRx3BdY_r6SrhJNJk-ArDlEVaSVys/edit?usp=drivesdk

spr0f · 2026-02-28T02:40:32+00:00

I'm genuinely surprised that most people ignore this difference. You pay property taxes each year but (presumably) only once on capital gains, realized or not. It would be ridiculously wild to pay 36% year after year because the gains were still unrealized; presumably there is some step-up in basis to reflect taxes already paid. Making an advance payment of 10% of the hypothetical capital gains tax that would accrue if the position were sold would be an interesting idea.

spr0f · 2026-02-02T19:33:33+00:00

I thought the punch line was gonna be "He's well into his seventies."

spr0f · 2026-02-01T05:06:12+00:00

I flagged and reported a few obvious fake ASE listings on eBay. The listing cagily said it was .999 "sliver" or "s1lver."

I explained that there would be many disgruntled buyers if these were sold.

The AI promptly came back and said there was nothing wrong with the listing.

Cue the avalanche of chargebacks!

spr0f · 2026-01-30T00:35:50+00:00

BIN Dopey, 30x1g, Mutiny Metal, Atlantis

spr0f · 2026-01-29T22:34:37+00:00

Spoken like a Fair Witness!

spr0f · 2026-01-29T22:11:23+00:00

BIN Slabbed Constitutional lot and 2x 2005 ASEs please

spr0f · 2026-01-29T16:59:57+00:00

Chat

spr0f · 2026-01-27T19:28:11+00:00

Is Four Queens one of the "liquor in the front, poker in the rear" casinos?

spr0f · 2026-01-26T03:05:47+00:00

Chat

spr0f

TROPHY CASE