disorganized tropical low

My days are a constant mashup of ethics and tech, tea, learning sciences, more tea, some biking, more tea, life with middle school twins, and a search for balance - aiming to live life, not just make it through each day. Lately I’ve been curious about trust and technology - as functions of design, implementation, etc. Big #Tool fan #BikeHighwaysEverywhere #ILoveMyEbike #PocketsForWomen

Ethics and Educational Technology: https://www.routledge.com/Ethics-and-Educational-Technology-Reflection-Interrogation-and-Design-as-a-Framework-for-Practice/Moore-Tillberg-Webb/p/book/9780415895088

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Last Notes

2026-05-05 14:02:54 GMT

RE: https://newsie.social/@ProPublica/116522209051511105
So many examples like this and a SCOTUS that rules based on ideology and power grabs … Republicans are lawless. And since they run every branch of our government right now, WE are lawless.
Any future where Republicans get to keep their party and hold future office is an unjust future.
#note1p2u…vzhz

2026-04-15 14:24:48 GMT

the plum tree bends
branches stripped from last year’s storms
tiny leaflets blooming onward
knowing not they were supposed to give up
instead, defying the winds
moving one year closer to fruit
not a #dailyhaikuprompt lol, just the poem that ended up emerging

2026-04-08 13:55:36 GMT

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I feel like my hyperfocus is on meetings, lol sob. They just eat up my schedule and leave me no time to even micro-focus on writing. I do have a sabbatical coming up next year and am using that to draw lines in the sand and bring a bunch of different service activities to a close.

2026-03-18 13:38:17 GMT

How did there happen to be two different cameras pointed at the same building from different angles just moments before and as the building was hit?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/mar/18/iran-war-live-updates-oil-prices-hormuz-trump-larijani-key-leader-killed-israel-strikes?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

2026-03-06 13:53:15 GMT

RE: https://journa.host/@atrupar/116182488440274092
What? It’s nothing of the sort. Haven’t we learned by now? Trump threw her under the bus to *claim* he’s being accountable but it’s a serious case of distraction. He put Markwayne Mullin in. Just look him up - he’s vile. That should be your clue that they aren’t going to change tactics. They’ll lean into them until we get angry enough that they throw Mullin under the bus… but that won’t be for another year or so as well, and then rinse and repeat while the brutality continues.
#note10c9…may5

2026-02-15 15:14:47 GMT

Time magazine’s Person / People of the Year should be Minnesotans resisting ICE.

2026-02-10 02:47:24 GMT

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Our twins were in the NICU for weeks after my body was essentially shutting down during pregnancy (HELLP syndrome). It is IMO the heaviest place where I felt like Thoreau’s line about “lives of quiet desperation” was the only apt description. And we had the best outcomes possible but there was so much tragedy and grief all around.
Sounds like you’re a PICU nurse? Thank you so much for all you do!!

2026-01-30 00:07:58 GMT

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It would be a good counter to Susan Collins’ attempt to try to waive everything away saying ICE has left Maine.

2026-01-17 05:32:14 GMT

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trying to look back through time to this moment, it’s hard to imagine the past 10 days or so not being identified as a clear turning point into undeniable civil war, when a governor had to give the speech Walz gave

2026-01-15 07:18:06 GMT

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a dear friend and colleague works here. She’s beyond stressed.

2026-01-14 00:13:43 GMT

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Exxactly this. I’d love to have an organized tax strike with the message that “we refuse to pay for ICE”

2025-11-12 04:00:23 GMT

From central #NewMexico rural low-light pollution area - views of tonight’s aurora (the second one captures Orion rising on the horizon partially in the aurora)
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/115/534/711/498/603/309/original/ec5d4f875a152c12.png
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/115/534/719/996/395/283/original/6bad2d47c6487335.png

2025-10-05 15:53:43 GMT

Do Democrats even have talking points on ICE and these ICE terrorizing raids? If so, what are they?

2025-09-21 15:05:56 GMT

Seeing a lot more images WITHOUT alt text - if your vision is access to information, make sure EVERYONE can actually access it. The old algorithm is clicks and engagement; the new algorithm is information access. Let’s go, Fediverse!
#AltText #Accessibility #AccessibleFediverse

2025-09-08 13:41:28 GMT

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ngl we need some US banksy art calling out the jackassery here

2025-09-05 23:44:14 GMT

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Did they mean to dress like twins?

2025-09-02 14:23:55 GMT

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Hmmmm … a federal foray from the deepest of red states into a blue state makes me wonder what the reasoning is for this

2025-08-10 16:02:52 GMT

If you think only the US is waxing extreme, you’re probably not paying attention to what’s happening in your own democracies. The same forces are at work everywhere trying to erode thriving democracies. And it’s been working.
https://social.coop/@nicol/115004263789294877

2025-07-07 14:18:52 GMT

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What I really want to try making is flatbreads and pitas … and now I’m developing a plan to try this some weekend lol (weeks are still too insane for me, but I try hard to not work on weekends)

2025-07-07 14:13:12 GMT

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I’ve never attempted bagels, but I have attempted English muffins … if using King Arthur’s counts 😁. They have a great mix and baking tins. They were a bit dense but still good.

2025-07-07 14:09:12 GMT

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Ah, that makes far more sense, lol. I genuinely had the impression you were baking most every day 😂

2025-07-07 14:02:27 GMT

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what do you do with all the bread you bake? (seems like you bake daily?)

2025-07-01 14:44:12 GMT

What is the cultural malaise that has let Republicans get this far into destroying health care, science (cancer research, weather data, vaccines), civil liberties, infrastructure, and even national intelligence and security? We have an illness in our logic and narrative that is destroying us from the inside. It’s more than racism (which is aplenty) … it’s a nihilism, I think.
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:aj3cdjcejjrldwr7qdidj2z6/post/3lsvthho6k22s

2025-06-17 13:20:17 GMT

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“As a political campaign, the fantasy economy has two major tenets: the education system is always failing, and the workforce is always inadequate. Claims about a failing education system and inadequate workforce are repeated endlessly and reinforce one another. We are constantly reminded that our purportedly failing K–12 and higher education systems have produced an inferior workforce, and that our allegedly inadequate workforce necessitates major reforms in K–12 and higher education.”

2025-06-17 13:18:25 GMT

“In sum, I discovered that the decades of claims that public schools and colleges are failing are at odds with official data on the education system and economy and with much scholarly research. By all standard measures, the American public is better educated today than ever before … since at least the 1980s, corporate America has engaged in a nonstop political campaign to deflect all attention away from its role in catalyzing inequality and onto the education system.”
https://www.aft.org/ae/summer2025/kraus

2025-06-15 13:50:43 GMT

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happy Father’s Day!

2025-05-18 01:54:56 GMT

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beautiful! I have 3 of the 4 planted down here in NM, right on the edge of blooming (we’re at ~6500 ft)

2025-05-01 13:40:54 GMT

So I learned that yesterday, a cop tried to sucker punch my oldest. The cop missed. My oldest had participated in a gathering commemorating their campus’s encampment to protest the Gaza genocide. The (weak sauce, pansy) university president called in cops to monitor the peaceful gathering. I guess they got bored because it was peaceful and decided to arrest a student for carrying a sign. As they hauled that student to a van, my son and others walked alongside and some cop tried to swing at him.

2025-04-25 15:46:19 GMT

Folks, it’s not just the Wisconsin judge. Don’t miss the fact that TWO judges (and one judge’s wife) have now been arrested. We are in crisis.
https://www.kob.com/news/top-news/former-judge-and-wife-arrested-by-federal-agents/

2025-04-10 19:19:57 GMT

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I blame the entire Republican apparatus - pres, congress, SCOTUS, and every org feeding them ideas and plans - for enabling, caving, lying, gaslighting, plotting (Project 2025), and throwing us under the bus.

2025-04-10 18:57:33 GMT

Things we can no longer assume in the US:
Car safety
Food safety
Drug safety
Health safety
Flight safety
Personal rights - what words we can use, what subjects we can study, whether we can vote, due process
Secure retirement investments
Social security that WE PAID
Stable employment
Unemployment benefits
Protections - based on race, gender, disability, sexuality
Well … nothing. We can no longer assume anything of the world we knew.
Thanks, I hate it.

2025-04-04 14:21:00 GMT

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we have a “four-legged stool” for ours, but even then … two of those are our social security.
I’m running out of words for the idiocy, the cravenness, the inhumanity, the historic self-own.

2025-04-04 13:41:06 GMT

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And when do we get to haul Republicans in for trials on their fiscally irresponsible policies, contributions to genocide, human rights violations, and dereliction of duty?
They like to hold hearings and yell at university presidents for imaginary problems. When do we get to hold hearings and yell at them for the very real problems they orchestrated?

2025-04-04 13:39:02 GMT

Is it possible to sue a president over dereliction of duty and fiscal irresponsibility?

2025-04-04 13:38:27 GMT

RIP, Retirement

2025-03-31 14:15:17 GMT

We are only a few months into Trump’s second term, and I’m already exhausted by it all. And now there’s polling showing a sizable number support a third term for him, which he’s working to normalize.
My ex was a lot like him, and it took me years to heal. Right now, I’m experiencing physical memories of that relationship and - like that one - my instinct is to leave it. Anyone’s instinct to leave the US right now is a sign of self respect and self care.

2025-03-29 01:43:34 GMT

Many people are finding out the hard way how much courage E Jean Carroll had to say “no” to Trump. As well as every other woman who’s had the courage to say “no.”
But that’s what this moment calls for. Columbia should say no. Harvard should say no. The law firms should say no (many are). It’s the only way to fight someone who just takes by force.

2025-03-15 15:32:20 GMT

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And that’s before we even discuss what I’m sure few will point out - that only some disciplines are highly valued and will have escape paths, and those are the disciplines dominated by white males and are viewed as generating innovations that drive economies. I have faint hope for seeing an increase in overseas opportunities for those who work in learning sciences or education, despite their importance to so many root causes in this mess. Nursing may break through that, but few others.

2025-03-15 15:25:44 GMT

Even as we begin to see or hear early examples of “brain drain” from the US, I think of how many of those recruited away are probably white male because academia has a race and gender bias issue. If saving science means saving mainly white males, then I have questions about what is being preserved.

2025-03-14 03:41:08 GMT

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keep this up and we’re going to be banned from international airspace

2025-02-27 15:05:19 GMT

These Lego sets are getting so realistic! #Caturday #CatsOfMastodon
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/114/076/460/258/275/739/original/436ffde8a8e8153c.png

2025-02-15 20:19:34 GMT

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I rarely truly wait on pins and needles for the next episode of any show, but Severance is so superbly written, casted, and acted.

2025-02-06 15:59:17 GMT

Wondering if American citizens can file a class action lawsuit for wreckless handling of our sensitive information?

2025-02-04 16:08:13 GMT

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A follow on … if the Constitution doesn’t exist anymore, does the country? And if the country does not, then do blue states actually, technically secede or do they just declare that “your new, sucky country is over there and we still exist under the actual Constitution and are not the same as your sucky new country”?
I seriously feel there’s some essential strategy here. They want to play with words? Let’s play with words.

2025-02-04 15:55:21 GMT

I can’t decide …
Is it too fatalistic to conclude that our democracy and constitution and thus our country are gone? Or is it more realistic to conclude those things as a basis for planning next steps?
With Republicans openly declaring that whether actions are unconstitutional doesn’t really matter (see Tom Tillis statement), my inclination is it’s time to be sober in our analysis.

2025-02-01 19:30:39 GMT

In honor of the #ADA being taken down, let’s all resist by practicing better accessibility, including digital accessibility. #AltTags and #ClosedCaptions for all. Keep all members of society visible and build access and alternatives. #ally

2025-02-01 16:04:05 GMT

Words on this post for scrubbing include Native American and indigenous. Many groups are being erased right now.
https://cyberplace.social/@GossiTheDog/113928960077922416

2025-01-26 15:52:17 GMT

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As someone in a state that relies heavily on federal support (NM), I’d like to see California go one step further and use this as an opportunity to create some coalitions. If Trump wants the states to take care of things themselves, we can make some real hay out of that.

2025-01-18 02:03:43 GMT

In the book, One Hundred Years of Solitude, there is a scene toward the end where 5,000 dead bodies are loaded onto a train and taken out of town. Over time people in the village think that number can’t possibly be that high, so the story over time erodes the details. First it’s less than 5,000, then a few hundred, then there were no bodies, then no massacre, then no train.
I’m thinking a lot these days about how fragile memory - and therefore history - really is and wondering what to do. /1

2025-01-17 16:34:39 GMT

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that’s all the park rangers and summer interns :-)
Ft Collins and Charlottesville are interesting. A lot of the graduates love the areas so they find jobs in the area. At one point, I think a lot of the baristas at Starbucks in Ft Collins had Master’s degrees, lol.

2025-01-17 16:18:37 GMT

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and also where Colorado State and U Wyoming are (I have colleagues up that way and used to live in the area)

2025-01-17 16:08:14 GMT

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other than these are counties with major universities in them??

2025-01-07 14:38:57 GMT

Confession time: I don’t understand Trudeau’s resignation. It seems like capitulation?

2025-01-03 07:08:24 GMT

How is using a company to kill any different from using a gun to kill?

2025-01-02 17:52:10 GMT

I’ll need to devote more time to this outside of typing on my phone with just my thumbs, but I think we are going to see a not-insubstantial cultural response to the AI / fake / mis-and-dis-information time centered around the this and values that include trust and authenticity. In the absence of these in the techno-society around us, many people seem to already be seeking them out - eg through artisans and craftwork, or through trying to figure out what organizations or entities one can trust.

2024-12-25 20:26:57 GMT

Where’s the @npub1etv…n8th on gaslighting? I feel like it’s 100% and holding steady.

2024-12-03 15:42:20 GMT

As I listen to debates on whether Biden should declare martial law or whatever, it strikes me that it’s f*cking amazing that we ever even had the American Revolution.

2024-12-03 15:01:19 GMT

I mean this with all sincerity when I say that I hope all the other democracies out there fare better than ours. It’s a brutal global turn right now.

2024-11-29 17:27:40 GMT

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less that 50% of the votes cast, and far lower if you use total eligible voters as the denominator. In terms of determining some sort of “mandate” or will of the majority, we are far from that.

2024-11-18 13:54:29 GMT

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I recently started using notecards to help, lol. I put one item per notecard, color coded of course, and pick the card I’m focusing on and set that beside me. It’s been effective for bigger projects, less so for the daily pop ups.

2024-11-15 14:36:50 GMT

As all professions and professionals - from health and medicine to law to technology and engineering to education to the humanities - are under attack, I wonder if we should band together not in our silos but across our disciplines and professional associations. No field should be left to defend itself. We are stronger together. I would love to see a coalition of professional bodies like AERA, NEA, MLA, IEEE, AMA, APA, and so on in defense of research and research-grounded practice and policy.

2024-11-09 16:07:16 GMT

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If anyone wants references, let me know. World Education and ProLiteracy have a LOT of resources and smart people working in this space, so they are great places to start.

2024-11-09 16:05:59 GMT

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If you’re looking for a systemic root cause to actually do something about besides just tweet a stat, you could hardly do better than adult literacy. Putting our shoulders to this plow - in the US and globally - could make a real difference! If you want to do something, you can volunteer at an adult ed center and learn research-anchored practices for teaching literacy (OR numeracy!). You can also support companies doing good work in this space like Learning Upgrade, Cell-Ed and Newsela.

2024-11-09 16:02:45 GMT

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Additionally, federal regulations have created some contradictory disincentives for programs working with adults with the highest literacy needs. Federal funding requires progress towards goals in a timely fashion, but the most struggling readers simply don’t progress that quickly. So adult basic literacy education may not be as fully supported by many programs.

2024-11-09 15:59:50 GMT

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In the state of New Mexico, for example, when I moved here a few years ago, the state budget for 21 adult education and literacy programs around state was just $900,000 total. That has gone up recently a little (I don’t know the new figure), but not nearly enough. And there are limitations with many of the programs’ models that require in-person (common across the US, not just NM programs).

2024-11-09 15:56:57 GMT

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In the meantime, *that still leaves 54% of adults in the here and now.* We don’t have stats on the comparisons of funding for k-12 literacy to adult. We do have adult ed programs in every state, but some states have more funding, and ProLiteracy regularly estimates that only 10% of adults who would benefit access those services - for a host of systemic, intertwining reasons like transportation, work schedules, child care, and other access barriers.

2024-11-09 15:53:18 GMT

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are too difficult to access. The remainder of that 54% score below Level 1 or cannot be tested for some reason (eg a cognitive impairment, etc).
So, many adults take in their information aurally - enter television, YouTube, TikTok, etc.
… Why don’t we invest in adult education and literacy? Well, we do, but it is substantially under-funded compared to K-12. And the logic goes (you might be going down this road yourself) … if we start young then we address the root cause. Yes, BUT …

2024-11-09 15:48:42 GMT

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19% are at Level 1, meaning text-based information presents difficulties. This is a continuum of meaning, but people at Level 1 struggle with more technical content or jargon (like political / expert / technical lingo or jargon). Some tools, like Newsela (which we should invest in!) have humans who rewrite news for different reading levels, but those aren’t widely used though adult learners do really like them when introduced to them. So the average blog, posts like this thread, and newspapers

2024-11-09 15:45:11 GMT

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Implications for misinformation and disinformation are poorly studied (any mis/disinformation researcher out there wanting to partner on this, reach out). But we can certainly infer or hypothesize some things: 33% of US adults are at Level 2, meaning they will struggle with information across multiple sources. They can read WaPo, Guardian, local paper, etc. But sorting out nuance, differences, and meaning is difficult. That zone seems easy to flood with bad information.

2024-11-09 15:42:20 GMT

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The US is very middling in this data. PIAAC is a global measure (conducted every 10 years, so we are coming up on another data dump), and they compare data across countries.
So as you read a stat like this, I want you to understand: this isn’t unique to the US and thus isn’t indicative of a challenge unique to the US. There is a reason educational access is one of UNESCO’s Sustainable Development Goal. Additionally, women and POC are over-represented in the data, unsurprisingly.

2024-11-09 15:37:11 GMT

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Technically, 54% of US adults read at Level 2 or lower as measured by PIAAC. (While grade equivalence claims are common, it’s not backed by any data, so many of us are abandoning that phrasing … plus what “6th grade” means is vague and cultural).
A better way to understand this is that a reader at Level 2 has trouble making meaning across multiple texts, especially if those texts contradict each other. Level 1 means they have difficulty accessing information via text.

2024-11-09 15:33:54 GMT

Yes, it’s true that 54% of US adults struggle with reading, although the grade level equivalence is a dubious inference. I study this, so I want to share a few insights: namely that this trend isn’t unique to the US and better understanding the data has more implications than you may realize. /1
https://mastodon.world/@afouxenidis/113453002410321310

2024-11-06 11:20:19 GMT

“We’re surrounded by 71 million dipshits”
- me after eking out a little sleep then checking in on the 2024 US election results

2024-11-05 05:48:46 GMT

I’m going to distract myself all of #election day by doing a virtual program evaluation with a day full of meetings. Aren’t you jealous. I have just over an hour lunch to pop over and vote (rather rural so usually no lines). And as things drag out, I’m distracting myself with the new Stardew Valley update finally out on consoles. #distractodon

2024-11-03 19:53:09 GMT

I’m voting to protect bodily autonomy for women and girls.
I’m voting to protect me and my family from looney medical conspiracy theories.
I’m voting in defense of schools and the books, history, and science taught in those schools.
I’m voting in defense of science and ensure my family are protected from tornadoes, hurricanes and wildfires.
I’m voting in defense of unions.
I’m voting to raise the minimum wage to a living wage.
I’m voting so I can keep voting.
I’m voting for democracy.

2024-10-31 17:07:59 GMT

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as we’ve been out for walks, we’ve come across a few crossing our road

2024-10-22 00:53:28 GMT

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This is exactly the progress they’ve hated and seethed over and plotted against.

2024-10-11 02:19:13 GMT

Holy moly, this is what we can see in central New Mexico. It’s not quite this spectacular to the naked eye, but the camera picks it right up #aurora
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/113/286/388/836/347/852/original/f55e559119fc7dcf.png

2024-09-01 14:25:09 GMT

I was talking with someone yesterday who veered into discussing his son and his son’s wife. At some point he says, “she used to be a bombshell, but ah well.”
WTF
I bet she’s fuckin awesome to talk to. Sexism is exhausting and wasteful.

2024-08-27 14:42:36 GMT

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This should be a blowout and it stresses me that it’s not. This will be a long fight.

2024-08-22 00:39:21 GMT

Watching the Jan 6 footage … this still angers me so much. My reaction is still so visceral. #DNC2024

2024-08-17 13:00:30 GMT

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Maybe read some Walt Whitman and try to notice how his poetry breathes. It expands and contracts, ebbs and flows. Writing is organic. I think it’s okay to ebb and flow.
I’m far more productive when I go with my natural flow. I block off time on my calendar, but that’s not how it works for me in reality. Sometimes things really have to simmer or percolate on a back burner while I do something different.

2024-08-13 12:42:37 GMT

One thing to remember about Home Depot is that their CEO is very pro-Trump
https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/13/investing/home-depot-earnings-housing/index.html

2024-08-09 20:12:14 GMT

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it absolutely does, and they’re refusing to report on the real story … which is the incoherence!

2024-08-06 14:45:50 GMT

Academic journals: Please limit your article to 5,000 words.
Also academic journals: Please address all reviewers’ brainstorms on what they want want your paper to say but it’s not their paper so you’re saying it for them and putting your name on it. Also, word bloat? Haha, whatever.