I didn’t listen to Trump’s Afghanistan speech but I know he said that he’s withdrawing troops because America First and enough with throwing people and resources on unwinnable conflicts somewhere else. I know it because he’s isolationist and not hawkish. 

And if you’ve heard otherwise, it’s all fake news. 

Of course, you can read this very long and deeply insane article that “provides thoughts and guidelines for talking about the complex issues of racism and equality in age-appropriate ways with children aged two to five years of age“. Or you could turn off the TV and go do something really age-appropriate. 

Oh, come on, like nobody snuck a peek on the eclipse without the glasses? You must be truly old if you weren’t even tempted. 

I was wondering when the terror attacks in Spain were going to produce some juicy conspiracy theories, and finally they did. 

The theory is that there was no attempted terror act in Cambrils. Police just came, grabbed a few random “moros” and killed them. Why? Because they are just that mean. 

People have the strangest ways of dealing with trauma. 

The eclipse culminated with a huge bout of thunder. The heat is supposed to drop after it rains. That was one useful eclipse.

The eclipse is unexpectedly cool, folks. I’m actually feeling it. Yay, I’m not as old and jaded as I thought I was. 

As the saying goes, after the age of 40 you have to choose whether to prolong your life or prolong your. . . Please guess the last word of the saying.

Instead of having the regular, familiar and comforting nightmares about coming to the first day of classes without any syllabi, tonight I had nightmares about Jewish pogroms and having to escape the slaughter.

I was completely wrong about July. It turned out to be a great month for the blog, with really good readership numbers. It was the best July the blog has ever known by far. 

Thank you for reading! Much more exciting stuff awaits us. 

This is one of the rare times that I don’t envy the environment in the world of business. At my work, we are practically exhorted to take students out to view the eclipse instead of teaching regular classes. 

But this feeling is as rare as the eclipse. Just an example. We had a 2,5-hour all-faculty meeting on Friday. A huge group of people, free coffee, free food, the eve of the new academic year, finally we have a budget and can pay for academic travel and other good stuff. You’d think anybody could get people energized and excited under these circumstances. At least, you should get me excited because I don’t require all that much. But no. It didn’t look like a single person got a shot of energy out of it. 

(It used to be different back when I first came here but the administrators who knew how to do this have all left).

It’s beyond unfair that I work among such a large collectivity, and I have to do all this for myself.  All of my motivation, energy, drive and fire have to come from within. And it’s tiresome. 

In contrast, you should experience the environment at my sister’s business. The air is crackling with energy. People look happy to be there and convinced that what they do has value. Nobody mopes. Or at least not 💯% of the time. So yes, I envy that.