I know exactly how these guys feel.

One lab today, and it’s an easy one. The stack of grading on my desk is less than half an inch thick. I may make it after all.

Also, the new Avengers movie is opening at the theater in town tonight. I should go, since there won’t be any lines while all the students are holed up and studying for finals, right?

I have no idea whether this sentence is actually in the book or not, but I don’t care — I read it and if I ever had a soul, it just curled up and disintegrated.

Found on Facebook

The imagery doesn’t even go together with the situation! And if ever a lover “mewled” at me, I’d have to throw them out of bed and be sick on the sheets.

Why do the hamster pups only have three legs? When do hamsters smirk?

Stress levels are high. In our classes we’re winding down the teaching part (the fun part!) and focusing on the assessment part (the miserable boring side). I guess sometimes people — students and/or professors — snap. Professor Irwin Horwitz just gave up, failed an entire course, and stopped teaching. He explains why:

“Since teaching this course, I have caught and seen cheating, been told to ‘chill out,’ ‘get out of my space,’ ‘go back and teach,’ [been] called a ‘fucking moron’ to my face, [had] one student cheat by signing in for another, one student not showing up but claiming they did, listened to many hurtful and untrue rumors about myself and others, been caught between fights between students…. None of you, in my opinion, given the behavior in this class, deserve to pass, or graduate to become an Aggie, as you do not in any way embody the honor that the university holds graduates should have within their personal character. It is thus for these reasons why I am officially walking away from this course. I am frankly and completely disgusted. You all lack the honor and maturity to live up to the standards that Texas A&M holds, and the competence and/or desire to do the quality work necessary to pass the course just on a grade level…. I will no longer be teaching the course, and all are being awarded a failing grade.”

[Read more…]

I am feeling a strange and somewhat unwarranted affinity to Dan Savage right now. Apparently he’s going to be on some new television show (that’s the unwarranted part: there’s no comparing our relative popularity or cultural influence), and certain people are rising up in protest because he’s too rude.

Dan Savage’s vulgarity and violent rhetoric is well-documented. Savage is unapologetic in his promotion of filth masquerading as humor. His new show, ironically titled “The Real O’Neals,” is a platform he does not deserve. Even so, Disney ABC continues to remain silent as pro-family and pro-faith organizations call for it to reconsider its decision to promote this bigoted, hate-filled man.

"Disney ABC continues to circle the wagon and ignore the anti-religious bigot in their midst,” said MRC President Brent Bozell. “We will not relent in exposing Dan Savage for the vile hate he spews at conservatives, Catholics, and evangelicals. Disney ABC’s silence is shameful.”

[Read more…]

I’ve got all this grading to do. Do you think the students will object if their papers are returned covered in blood, vomit, and tears?

That’s not a comment on the quality of their work, but how I’m feeling when faced with the interminable ever-growing stacks.

Inspired by the title of Philip
Sandifer’s essay, I felt compelled to filk.

No rights reserved. For pity’s sake, I left quite a few lines
unchanged from the original. I deeply apologize to Leonard Cohen, who
probably has no idea what this is all about.

“First we take their rockets”, to the tune of “First we take
Manhattan”, by Leonard Cohen

They sentenced me to Less-Than-“No Award”-dom
For trying to game the system from within
I’m coming now, I’ll show them “No Award”-dom
First we take their rockets​¹, then we bite their shins

I am guided by a voice from out of Heaven
I’m guided by my hatred of their sins
I’m guided by the beauty of our weapons
First we take their rockets, then we bite their shins

I’d really like to vote your ticket, baby
I love your malice and your trolling and your sword​²
But you see that crowd there moving into Worldcon?
I told you, I told you, told you, I was only bored

Ah you loved me as a loser, but now you’re worried that I just might win
You know the way to stop me, but you don’t have the discipline
How many nights I prayed for this, to let my work begin
First we take their rockets, then we bite their shins

I don’t like this social justice, mister
And I don’t like those people dark of skin
Don’t need rights for wife or girl or sister
First we take their rockets, then we bite their shins

I’d really like to vote your ticket, baby

And I thank you for those items that you sent me
The ballot and the little rocket pins​³
I practiced every night, now I’m ready
First we take their rockets, then we bite their shins

I am guided

Ah remember me, I used to live for music​⁴
Remember me, my mouse​⁵ was full of win
Well it’s Judgement Day and everybody’s losing
First we take their rockets, then we bite their shins

1: The physical form of the Hugo award looks something like this (the
base is different each year):

More info here.

2: Flaming phallic sword.

3: Every Hugo nominee receives a little rocket pin; one per
nomination, as best I can tell. John C. Wright will thus receive 5. It
would perhaps be appropriate if they were accompanied by as many as
necessary to come to 30 pieces of silver

4: Psykosonik, it says there.

5: Yes, the mouse that goes to 11 18…!!

Some focus groups were gathered to come up with impressions of a couple of states, and they generated a word cloud for each one. Can you guess which state goes with which set of words?

[Read more…]