No way would I be as effective as I am if I didn’t spend a good chunk of time every day alone with my thoughts and looking at the sky.
It’s the most enjoyable thing plus it’s healthy and costs zero money.
AI Videos
80% of my recommendations on YouTube are videos about writers are literature. They are almost all AI-generated. And they are terrible. Riddled with factual mistakes, ugly. The inundation of this garbage happened very fast.
Surprise Breakfast
After all the hype, I’m sure everybody is curious about the surprise breakfast. You can’t see it in the picture but the gigantic salad with the rose has the a la huancaína sauce.
The China set is a gift (from the past, not today), and it’s a really beautiful story.
Please observe the virtuous cups of water and the inordinate number of pickled foods.
Anti-choosy
Thank you, everybody, for the birthday wishes!
In good news, in class we are reading a play where the male character tells the woman he likes that he can’t offer lifelong love but promises to”try to choose her every day”. All of the (mostly female) students were repulsed by this and said that the female character should not agree to this choosy arrangement.
Choosy is no longer chic.
Keep Calm
A Real Surprise
“I will go out now to buy you a surprise bouquet of flowers for your birthday,” N tells me. “Then I will hide it under your desk. Don’t look there because it’s a SURPRISE bouquet of flowers.”
Parallel Worlds
It really concerns me that we and people of other political beliefs increasingly live in realities that don’t coincide.
I talked this morning with a colleague who is a professor of chemistry and a US citizen and who can’t travel to his father’s funeral because of the tense political situation.
Can you guess in which country the funeral takes place? A hint: it’s a country where it’s dangerous for an American to go.
Another hint: I’m going there in May.
Yes, it’s Montreal, Canada.
The colleague delivered this update like it’s a completely normal thing. Like it requires no explanation. And yes, exactly a year ago I had an identical conversation with another colleague. It also involved the dangers of traveling to Canada. There’s probably something going on in the other side’s news cycle of which we are utterly unaware.
Hidden Labor
Yesterday we had a long meeting of the curriculum council where people from the English Department complained that they are burned out because they do a lot of “hidden labor.” For thirty minutes we listened about hidden labor. Then a Middle Eastern colleague, who is notoriously non-PC, said, “What is this hidden labor you keep mentioning?”
“Well, for example, it’s when we spend time with students outside of the classroom,” somebody explained after the initial shock passed.
“So … office hours?” the Middle Eastern colleague asked. “It’s in the job description that we hold office hours. How is this unusual?”
“There are many other kinds of hidden labor,” another colleague, who is known for being very vocal, spluttered. “For example, I’m here at this meeting. This is hidden labor.”
“I can see you very well,” the Middle Eastern professor quipped. “You aren’t well-hidden.”
“One Night Only”
Much of the liberal agenda stems from the liberals’ fantasy that somebody is going to prevent them from having sex.
Cat Food
The cat refused every human food I offered it. I even shared a bit of my boiled sausage (not the spoiled one, don’t worry) with her, which is very big of me. I don’t share my sausage lightly.
But she goes crazy for the rotisserie chicken. I have no idea what it means.
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