I’m starting this post not quite knowing where it’s going. I have a number of random thoughts roaming through my brain right now. I’m on my third cup of coffee, this one iced, and normally, that would help with the brain organization. But for whatever reason, it’s not. What is helping is that I made a sort of generic calendar/to-do list for each day of the week (Mondays is for prompt responses, Tuesdays for blog post, like that). Today’s generic to-do list said “Blog post, Friday Thoughts.” So, here you have it. My thoughts on this Friday, July 21, 2023.
Continue reading “Friday Thoughts: A Random Collection”Stop Sitting Down
We were out driving the other day when “Stand” by Sly and the Family Stone came on the radio (okay, on the Sirius channel we were listening to). As I bounced in my seat and sang along, the lyrics suddenly struck me. I mean, I know the lyrics, but their application to today’s cultural and political madness struck me. After we got home, I looked up the song. It was written in 1969 by Sly Stone, was the title track on the album “Stand”, and performed at Woodstock.
Continue reading “Stop Sitting Down”Back in the Game
I’ve been going through a few weeks of… not really malaise, but just a sort of checked out feeling. I haven’t been writing like I want to/need to/should be in order to keep to my self-imposed publishing schedule and while I have been following news and events, and have opinions on things, I haven’t mustered up the energy or whatever to write about them here either. But over the last couple of days, I’ve done some introspection and pulled apart some things and reminded myself that this sort of disconnect is not really productive nor is it conducive to keeping my creative side, which is still newly emerging, engaged and active.
Continue reading “Back in the Game”Friday Thoughts: Non-binary, Gender neutral, or Neutered?
It’s been an interesting week. Interesting in the manner of frustrating and somewhat scary. In the “Frustrating” column is the death of the not-quite-five-year-old refrigerator. The fridge belongs to the landlord, so at least the expenses are his. However, dealing with the fall out is on us. In the “Somewhat scary” column is the tornado warning that sounded last night and the winds that blew so hard I could feel the back wall vibrating. Yeah, I was raised in earthquake country, not tornado country. This will take some getting used to.
Continue reading “Friday Thoughts: Non-binary, Gender neutral, or Neutered?”Academic Failure and the Loss of Discourse
A post from seven years ago floated up in my FB memories this morning. It was a rant from a former student about the loss of discourse and discussion in the classroom. At the time, this student was in a grad class and had raised a differing point of view only to be greeted with gasps of astonishment. I had copied the rant and posted it as Reason #47 for why I teach. In reality, rants like this, demonstrating the critical thinking skills of my students, remain Reason #1 for why I taught. Yes, I’ve left that world, and the inability to have constructive discussions and arguments in the classroom is my primary reason for leaving.
Continue reading “Academic Failure and the Loss of Discourse”Friday Thoughts: Disagreement vs. Misinformation
I know I’m likely preaching to the choir here, but I wanted to take a few minutes and examine the issue of disagreement vs. misinformation. “Misinformation” is flying about a lot lately and in most cases it is mildly to egregiously misapplied. “Misinformation” is a word that conjures up images of propagandizing evil dictators. People think “Soviet propaganda” or similar when they hear that term. Characterizing statements as “misinformation” conveys to the listener that the statement is not only false, but deliberately misleading and therefore dangerous. Put your hands over your ears immediately before you become contaminated!
Continue reading “Friday Thoughts: Disagreement vs. Misinformation”Starting 2023
It’s Sunday morning, the first day of 2023 and I’m drinking cappuccino and thinking about the day and year ahead. For the day, we’re going to a friend’s house and participating in a chili cook-off and tasting that promises to be a lot of fun. We have friends in Texas! Yay! We’ve been in Texas for just over a year now… thirteen months to be exact and every day I’m more and more convinced we made the right move. Not that I was worried it was a bad move, but every day I just feel more comfortable.
Continue reading “Starting 2023”Merry Christmas!
I am enjoying my first Christmas with family in four years. I’d almost forgotten how much driving between houses there is, but it’s still fun. We spent last weekend with my cousins doing Christmas and today, some are doing a second Christmas with some of the same people, while others are with the other side of the family. We are splitting our time between my husband’s parents and siblings.
Continue reading “Merry Christmas!”Fear of Money
Earlier today I saw something about Elon Musk and one of the first comments was something to the effect that it was obscene that Musk was worth as much as he is. Combined with the release of the Twitter files and other things, this got me thinking again. It’s not news to anybody who’s been paying attention that a huge number of people who consider themselves “liberal” or on the left, absolutely hate money. And as the saying goes – we hate what we fear. They hate people who make money, people who try to make money, people who want to keep their own money, people who build wealth, people whose parents are wealthy, people who spend more than they do… whatever. If money is involved, they hate it.
Continue reading “Fear of Money”Thanksgiving 2022
This time last year (well, the equivalent weekend, if not the date), we were having Thanksgiving dinner with one of my best friends and her family. We were only three days away from the moving truck arriving and taking all our worldly goods down to Texas. We spent the next three days frantically trying to finish up packing and figuring out what was going in the car, what was going in the truck, and what was going in the trash. It was a bit frenetic to say the least. And we were still packing when the moving truck arrived.
Continue reading “Thanksgiving 2022”