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Thoughts on education
I've been on lj over 20 years now, and I've had lots of thoughts on education [also, I was posting stuff on marypat.org in longer form from 1996 - 2002; I've also written a lot at the Actuarial Outpost on this subject - RIP, Actuarial Outpost [November 2020 ( Read more... ) -
Life is difficult; then you die
So.... this is just me typing.
Not advice, and not even a complaint. A reminder, at best (memento mori!)
(Amusingly, it takes three times for the computer to understand that YES I MEANT "mori" and not "more"... three times means I MEAN IT)
For the past several weeks/months/whatever, Stu has not been doing well.
I am not going to get into all the ( Read more... ) -
I will never go away
(until I do)
(because I have to)
I will let other people's stuff go, because it's not mine and yadda yadda.
But there is a reason I like to keep some stuff of mine forever. No, I'm not a hoarder.
Today, I got to bust out my tirade against calculators in math classes, which I wrote 24 years ago:
25 Aug 00
Here is my tirade on calculators. ( Read more... ) -
Still on lj after all these years....
Haven't quite gotten to my lj-versary yet (that's April 26 - I started on 26 April 2000.... I was an early adopter).
Yes, I have a substack. I'm on facebook. I'm on twitter/X. On LinkedIn.
Why am I here?
Because I've got a lot of mass.... and inertia has a power of its own.
No, mainly because I use those other places for other things. I keep using ( Read more... ) -
Forgetting
Socrates would say - I told ya so
Or would it be Plato?
Plato was the one who wrote stuff down, not Socrates, and I wonder if he wrote stuff down for the same reason I do (I doubt it ... for us, writing is a different process, etc etc)
But I write for myself, for my memory, because the moment I write something, and I put it out there, I can safely ( Read more... ) -
April is the cruelest month
I probably have a post with this title already, and cannot begin to care.
I hate the spring.
Once upon a time, I hated it, because it was when I couldn't breathe.
But I left the south, the area of the hideous pine trees, and its promiscuous pollen spewing everywhere and I just itch thinking about it. So that's not my issue - not for April, at any ( Read more... ) -
Living in increments
As I've detailed in many posts here on livejournal, I've had a chronic pain problem since August 2010, and frankly, it's only gotten worse over time. What once was centered in my neck with facial pain (and migraines) has become neuropathy (plus some extra pains) in my arms and legs.
It comes and goes in waves, in amounts, and it's the situation ( Read more... ) -
About the Candles
Siobhan just came home from college, and noticed a bunch of candles on the kitchen counter:
( Read more... ) -
On plagiarism
No, not really about whether Claudine Gay "really" plagiarized or whether she should be booted from this/that/the other, but my experience w/ plagiarism over the years, as someone who has been plagiarized from and as a teacher.
Let's get the teacher bit sorted with first - I taught a writing class at UConn, to actuarial science majors. It was ( Read more... ) -
Fictional characters I identify with (a work in progress)
Nanny Ogg
Aunt Betsey Trotwood
Falstaff
Mary Bennett
Steven Maturin
Razumikhin (when drunk)
Feel free to add your own in comments (here or where-ever)