The only thing I can put my finger on is that our fall semester composition students are all going through homesickness and culture shock. They don't have friends yet, and college isn't what they imagined in some way. But by the spring, they have or know how to make friends. They're a bit more relaxed about being challenged intellectually, and less anxious about grades. They're more reliant on one another and vulnerable. It makes a huge difference.
For thirty seconds every day, Camilla comes over for some aggressive head grooming by Dolores, who eventually bites her in the spine. Is it worth it? Who is to say? #CatsOfMastodon
@Adam_Cadmon1 We've gotten good intel by asking drivers, most of whom work for multiple services, which calls they like to take now, since it changes all the time.
I've done it. I've made excellent guacamole. Everything fell into place for me today. I don't want to rub it in, but I also think it's dangerous to become too cynical to witness miracles.
My undergraduate alma mater Case Western in Cleveland is hiring full-time writing program lecturers, with a particular emphasis on writing about science and engineering. (PhDs in any field are welcome to apply, if you have relevant experience in writing and teaching writing.) https://case.edu/academic-careers/writing-program-lecturers-department-english
Oh fun, I just blocked someone who responded to a one-off comment that (very vaguely) described my (very specific) next book with "And what makes your book different from the hundreds of other people writing about the same thing???" People of Mastodon, don't do this. This is why people don't enjoy talking about their research here.
The other one I'm getting a lot is "You used a word I didn't know! Everything you write should be pitched precisely at me, a stranger who found your post!"
@futurebird Retired people also love learning, and are great students. If we had more retired people with more financial security, our colleges would have so many full writing courses, language courses, science and math courses. And they are so often mentors to younger students.
The discourse about Tracy Chapman "finally" being recognized for Fast Car is weird because it was a huge hit. Massive. Rolling Stone called it the best song ever written by a woman (and it was still no. 167 on their ranked list). I'm delighted that she's getting new royalties, new awards, new invitations to sing it, but there's this edge like she's supposed to be so grateful to Luke Combs. No, Luke Combs should be grateful that she let him sing it. Audiences should be so grateful to hear it.
@seachanger These are facts. I never in my life thought I would be the kind of person who drinks a protein smoothie for breakfast every day, but this perimenopausal person was just not going to make it without more protein.
Remember in Candide, when they find El Dorado? Gems and gold are sitting there for the taking. Everyone is rich, but because no one is poor, it's boring, so they leave.
I think there is an El Dorado fantasy at the basis of Euro-style capitalism. There's an untapped resource out there and all we have to do is pick it up off the ground to be rich, with no costs, no labor, no consequences. But the costs are devastating and invisibilized, every time. 1/
Part of this comes from Locke, whose bizarre idea of property is that there are, say, apples lying around on the ground, and if you do the labor to pick them up, they're yours and you can eat them, sell them, etc. But why are there apples? Why are the apples delicious? Who cultivated the apples? Who lives near that tree and depends on it and cares for it? If you eat or sell all the apples, who else starves? Usufruct doesn't & shouldn't protect corporate industrial harvesting of public land. 2/
Colonialism was predicated on the lie that mineral and land resources were just sitting there for the taking. Atlantic slavery was predicated on the lie that human lives and labor were just sitting there for the taking. If you read advertisements for colonial projects from the 17th century, they're all like this: Look, chocolate hangs from the trees! Gold sits on the ground! You can eat candy sweets all day by just picking them up--all hiding genocide, slavery, and ecological devastation. 3/
This month's cybersecurity certificate for my job said I should have an extra locked room in my (1-bedroom) apartment, as well as a separate computer and modem and a shredder, and that I should never work anywhere near cats or family members. The cat they depict as a threat to the security of my work looks exactly like my cat, who stands next to closed doors and howls like a wolf. Basically, I have learned that I am not allowed to do any work at my home, which will do wonders for my email flow.
@aral I got the bank to stop payment on the small theft. The $12k (not my money, but funds I oversee for a club) is still missing, and under multiple investigations.
@aral@ncrav@punkscience_ns I just discovered that someone did a $531 wire transaction from my account without any effective verification other than having my account number (from a previously washed and stolen check for $12,000). For all the security theater my bank puts me through, they sure don't have eyes on actual theft.
Lecturer at Yeshiva College in #18thC & #19thC #Literature. #Bentham & #queer #aesthetics (wrote Uncommon Sense, UVaP 2022), national #debt and #slavery, #Bronx #cats #boardgames #film Chair of Columbia Seminar in 18thC European Culture, Treasurer of the #Johnsonians, #philosophy reviews editor of JECS.#Admin of c18.masto.host, an instance for anyone with an interest or scholarship in any aspect of the global eighteenth century. All disciplines welcome!http://carrieshanafelt.com