Fall Semester

Classes start on Monday, which is hard to believe. Just a minute ago I had a whole nice leisurely summer spread out ahead of me like a paradisiacal mountain meadow. Now here come the swamps again.

I actually start on Tuesday, since I have a T/R teaching schedule. But of course I have a ton of prep to do before then. (I've already started the prep.) I'm teaching five classes this semester, in exchange for only teaching three in the spring: three Comp I classes, one nonfiction writing class, and one global lit.

The good news: this is my last fall semester. Next fall I shall be retired and living in Fayetteville.

OMG

 This is the weather forecast for the next ten days:

High of 79 a couple days ago and I dared to hope that the worse might be over. Hubris!

Six more weeks of summer.

My Kid Starts Graduate School

My kid had his first day of orientation for graduate school today. He's going for his Masters in Biological Anthropology, focusing on paleoecology. No cultural anthropology for him, he says. Bones and worms and extinction events are what he likes.

He's got a TA, which will pay a stipend and his tuition. He'll be making slightly more than he made working the help desk, so that's nice. He's teaching two labs and taking I forget what classes.

He says he's already met some cool people. 

It's an Insult, See? Because Tampons are

 

Republicans: How do we win back women?

Dan Bongino: I know! We’ll label the Dem VP pick Tampon Tim like using tampons or supplying them is a slur.

Republicans: Brilliant!! pic.twitter.com/5OKYWbXHTP

— Emily A. The Spirit of Jezebel (@emzorbit) August 6, 2024

Don't Chonk on Me

 

Things the Right Wants Us to Be Angry about

 

Tim Walz 

• Passed legislation providing free meals to kids at public schools
• Passed legislation providing menstrual supplies to kids in public schools in the 4th through the 12th grade (they're spinning this as "gives tampons to boys," but nothing in the legislation mentions gender or specific sorts of menstrual supplies)
• Protected the right to an abortion and made Minnesota a sanctuary state for people seeking abortions
• Also made Minnesota a sanctuary state for trans people
• Adopted "clean car" regulations, in order to reduce Greenhouse gasses. 
• Passed legislation restoring voting rights to felons
• Retired from the National Guard in order to run for office a couple years before his unit deployed to Iraq (the war the Right now claims it was always against)

He also got a DUI several decades ago, after which he quit drinking entirely, and still doesn't drink. The outrage on this one amuses me especially since I can remember "conservatives" saying it didn't matter if Trump sexually assaulted people when he was in his sixties, since he was seventy now, and after all people can change, can't they?

They also want us to be mad at Kamala Harris because she laughs too much.

This is some real desperation, y'all. I gotta admit, it's making laugh, probably too much.

Testing, Testing

 

kinda hilarious that the "nobody can tell jokes anymore" crowd is super angry about a couch joke

— Mike Drucker (@mikedrucker.bsky.social) Aug 7, 2024 at 11:33 AM

Tim Walz's Cat

 Tim Walz makes an ad for the humane society, featuring his rescue cat Honey. This is from six months ago, btw.

Watch through to where Honey and Walz's dog are best friends. Cats and dogs living together!

Tim Walz Jokes

 Love these:

Well, Yeah

 I mean, this was my reaction:

Harris choosing Tim Walz as her running mate sets a dangerous precedent that Democrats might do cool shit that voters love

— @geekysteven.bsky.social (@geekysteven) August 6, 2024

(Tweet by geekysteven.bsky.social saying: Harris choosing Tim Walz as her running mate sets a dangerous precedent that Democrats might do cool shit that voters love) 

Weird Insomnia

 So I have a new kind of insomnia now, where I fall asleep okay, but then wake up four or five hours later -- asleep at 12:30 a.m. last night, awake at 5:30 this morning. I try going back to sleep, but no dice.

Don't know what could be causing this new torment. At least it will come in handy when the semester starts -- I have an 8:00 class this semester, ugh.

Medical Procedures Eating My Life

I have four medical appointments or procedures in the next six days.

And then the fall semester starts.

Leftist Memes

 Spotted in the wild:

Just a Note

After a certain point, we have to realize that arguing/explaining things to this current crop of "conservatives" is pointless. (Things like "Is Harris black?" or "Was that athlete actually male?" or "Why vaccines are good, actually" or "No, there really isn't any significant voter fraud in the U.S." or "Are hats real?")

These "conservatives" don't care about truth or facts. They want to say (and probably believe) bigoted nonsense, and explaining why they are wrong is (1) a waste of time and (2) useless, since (see above) they do not care.

I, too, as an educator want to believe that if we just explain clearly enough and provide sufficient data that we can get people to understand why they're wrong, which will lead to them changing their minds. I want to believe we can say, nicely, calmly, "That turns out not to be the case. Look at these studies, and this research review. We can clearly see...."

But that's not what happens. What happens is we waste a bunch of time doing research, providing evidence, and constructing clear, cogent explanations, and "conservatives" shrug and say whatever, I don't care, you use pronouns, nyah nyah.

Accept that they're determined to believe whatever they need to believe to support their bigotry, block them, and move on.

Also Obsessed (in a totally not weird way) with who Harris slept with and why

 

Oh wow. Imagine how fantastic it must be. pic.twitter.com/7cvfEFQDyb

— Brooke from Let’s Not Date (@Lets_Not_Date) July 31, 2024