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Every few years, when I’m feeling existential dread, I go down an astrology rabbit hole. In one now. I already knew I’m a Cancer Sun, Cancer Moon, but just learned that I have my South Node in Cancer and the day I was born, there was a total solar eclipse in Cancer. That’s a lot of feels!

Sometimes, the timeline is a lot.

Ha! Yes. That was the first time I ever used AI, back in 2022 when my students wanted to show me this new fun party trick. Those were the Will-Smith-eating-spaghetti days. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not an AI purist. I still think it’s a great party trick, but I’ve never seen it anything more.

This is an incredible idea.

It’s so hard to tell sometimes, and it’s so widely encouraged. It’s not so much about structure so much as the total lack of content. AI regurgitates and summarizes really well, but it won’t invent an original idea. Bad writing with original thinking is often stronger than good writing without.

Generic praise, lots of words that avoid any original ideas, summaries of the obvious, well crafted and structured but say nothing specific, personal, insightful, or interesting. Totally empty calories.

PSA: If you use AI to write your I’m-interested-in-your-graduate-program email, do not proceed, do not apply, do literally anything else in the world but contact me ever again.

I cannot underestimate how totally the pandemic fucked up my ability to respond to emails. Like, severe anxiety when anything shows up in my inbox.

Last night as we walked downtown to dinner, I saw a cd lying on the sidewalk. It was Husker Du, Zen Arcade. I thought, that's cool and weird. What relic listens to Husker Du on cd anymore?

“In his view” doing a lot of work here.

Mercury retrograde ends today and I finally started writing a piece I’ve been stuck on for weeks. TIME TO SING, MERCURY!

Freddie Mercury's Iconic Live PerformanceALT: Freddie Mercury's Iconic Live Performancestatic.klipy.com

Counterpoint: OnlyFans content by Humanities majors is 1000% better than OnlyFans content Engineering majors, so . . .

If graduates can make more money on OnlyFans than with a B.A. in the Humanities, we won’t fund your History Department. Solid policy!

Trump administration ties schools' federal loan access to earning power of graduatesThe U.S. Education Department said on Monday it was finalizing new federal student ‌loan rules that would tie schools' federal loan access to the earning power of graduates, marking the Trump administ...www.reuters.com

Yes, historically, those people were called “poor people” and today rich people think it’s cool to pretend to be them.

Last night I dreamed that my department was trying to find a place for our first meeting of the semester, but everywhere we tried to meet was surrounded by smoke and wildfires. Eventually the university shut down because of the looming threat. Think I’m a bit anxious to go back to work?

Why, yes, I WAS once editor-in-chief of The Redwood Bark, thanks for asking. Proud alum of this fine institution and proud of these student journalists!

Baby hummingbird fell out of the nest during a rainstorm. I put him back. Did I do the right thing?

Remember when this was also a thing after Jan. 6 as ex-wives and ex-girlfriends turned in these repugnant chuds over to the FBI? How the right built an entire political movement making men utterly unfuckable will be the subject of many a political science monographs in the after times.

If you were at #shear2026 and I don’t yet follow you, like this and I’ll follow you back! This was an exceptionally good SHEAR for new faces and a new generation of scholars. Let’s stay connected 😃🤝

I always forget how bad cities smell in the summer.