Notices by Carrie Shanafelt (carrideen@c18.masto.host)

Dolores is feeling demoralized. #CatsOfMastodon

In this case, no, the student was misremembering the name of a poet he read last semester. But, unable to identify a poem on that topic by Phillis Wheatley Peters, Google just made one up.

I've had problems all month trying to put the publication dates of texts next to the titles on the syllabus--quickly searching for a bunch of dates in a row, a lot of them are off by a few decades--just small enough that if you're not really thinking hard about it, might seem plausible.

Last night, one of my students thought he had read a specific poem by a poet we're about to read, but I didn't recognize his description of the content of the poem. So he opens up Google and types in the poet's name and the topic, and it just spat out a fabricated poem in her style. This is what's really unnerving--"AI" is not adding value to a search service that works; it's flooding the search results with so much crap that you can't even verify a date or the existence of a text anymore.

@FlashMobOfOne 10 days though? That's some prescription-grade BBQ

My sweet dad has been struggling with a mystery illness for about 10 days that I fear could be part of the tuberculosis outbreak going on near them, but my mom (via text) has been blaming "too much BBQ," which is 1) the Kansascitiest thing to ail of, and 2) indicative of the kind of etiological medical thinking I know will take root in my brain over the next ten years.

I'm sorry that I haven't felt very inspired to say much over the past few days. Things are very bad here on earth! They have been bad, and every now and then, their badness becomes more visible to different/more people for a while. And social media spaces can't help but become attention-policing, outrage-churning, told-you-so-ing, football-spiking, panic-mongering spaces.

One of my goals is to do "the work" in my life, not online. Online, I prioritize listening, informing, and loving people.

During the GWB admin, a lot of really great people wrote a lot of stuff online about how to think about what was happening in politics and the war, and the real-life friendships I got from that period of blogging with anti-fascist anti-war anti-racist people are still most of the best relationships in my life.

What didn't happen was ending facism, or the war, or terrible things happening in our communities. Those who leveled up to MSM jobs from that group are the worst people in media today.

One of my best friends in philosophy taught me her theory of "wooking"--all the rabbit-holing and obsessing and fine-tooth-combing of ideas that we do to avoid working on our project. I can't help but think that what most of us do on social media around real-life suffering is the "wooking" of political action; it makes us feel as if we're doing something useful, but we're just feeling righteous while wasting our energy and nerves on conjured anger at the wrong people.

@futurebird Sounds like something Santa would do.

Last day of classes today. One of my students brought a ukelele and lightly strummed while they ate cookies and talked about how great 17th-century poets are. Wishing all my academic pals here a gentle denouement.

@chunshek I got 12/14 in the US. I get mixed up about a few things because I do some editing for a UK publication and read British texts for a living.

Twenty years ago, I was hung over in a bathrobe all day wondering what the hell kind of stupid, cruel country I live in. It radicalized me, and in the wake and ongoing progress of that nightmare, I found people online and IRL who became my best friends and allies. (One of them was at my apartment last night.) I don't have any wisdom other than to say we will find each other and work for justice. It's not the "bright side" to this; it's the only side there ever is.

I am especially grateful for the Fediverse today--for a means of finding and communicating with others without corporations profiting from misinformation and rage.

I caught Dolores trying on my sandals. #CatsOfMastodon

Life is funny sometimes. #nfl #patriots #texans

The Pats enter to O Fortuna from Orff's Carmina Burana and I'm going to say, that is the most accurate use of O Fortuna in pop culture.

Yes, Fortune is a fickle bitch, isn't she?

We are sitting next to a clutch of Texans fans who are very cool and not intimidated.

The Pats fans in front of us have preemptively apologized for being large and drunk and enthusiastic and like man I'm at an NFL game.

Do your cats ever have bad dreams? One of our cats is prone to nightmares--wakes up hissing and spitting and then needs cuddles. I wonder what cat dreams are like, and what happens when she has bad ones.