The Fora: A Higher Education Community

Quote from: Parasaurolophus on March 18, 2024, 03:52:43 PMThe hatchling is three. Three!

Belated happy birthday to the hatchling!  Was the birthday the day you posted?

Thank you so much for your kind words, @hegemony, @ciao_yall, @apl6, @little bongo, @aside, @clean.

Yes, as I am sure many of you have felt, or may feel, grief will be a lifelong companion, changing shape and weight and features, and will come and go. Right now it's all around the unfinished conversations and missed opportunities and [my] undutiful actions. Later on I hope the happy memories will show their faces more. I am sure I will be caught off guard many times.

I am planning to take up [challenging new hobby] in their memory and hope I can succeed. Right now however I am neck deep in grading, writing, summer teaching, fall planning, etc.   

Thank you again for the kindness. 

The White House is impressive-looking and all, but it is a pretty old house.  You'd be shocked at how much work the plumbing needs.  Unfortunately the necessary appropriation has been stalled in Congress, like so much else.

Quote from: apl68 on April 19, 2024, 07:17:48 AM

Quote from: fishbrains on April 18, 2024, 02:29:44 PM

Quote from: apl68 on April 18, 2024, 10:02:59 AM

Quote from: fishbrains on April 18, 2024, 08:35:25 AMStudents don't know that the words "delve," "tapestry," and/or "whilst" in an essay send professors straight to the AI-generation detector.

While that's understandable, it does seem sad for those students who read a lot and have unusually rich vocabularies.  Although you may teach somewhere that doesn't have any such students.

It's more when all three words are used in the same sentence.

Okay, that does sound a bit suspicious. Must be one doozy of a sentence.

It wouldn't necessarily be diagnostic for my students, who even pre chat GPT seemed to love the chance to trot out SAT words whether they are needed or not. Hardly a final paper goes by without a student telling me that a plethora of evidence supports something, and I've certainly also been informed that they concluded something after delving into said plethora of evidence.

Just got a call from the CPAP supplies company asking for my date of birth so that they could send me the refills. I refused on the grounds that they have shipped supplies to the same address and that my name, address, and phone number haven't changed since they shipped the CPAP machine some years ago, and also the refills subsequently. What do people do when they receive similar calls on their cell phones in very public venues? Aaargh! Sent a message to the doctor's office. Now I have to see what the state policy is on requiring such information for sending parts such as tubing, nasal pillows and filters for the CPAP. Aaargh again!

OK..... I read this as Biden add on to regular toilet and wondered what the plumbing was like in the Oval Office.

Give yourself time to grieve. It is not a standard unit of time, and in my experience, even when you think you are better something will happen that catches you off guard and you are hit by a wave of grief. 
as others have said I hope that the happy memories come quickly when those waves appear. 

A CNN article with recommendations: https://www.cnn.com/cnn-underscored/reviews/best-bidets

Quote from: little bongo on April 19, 2024, 07:28:57 AM

Quote from: apl68 on April 19, 2024, 07:16:25 AM

Quote from: ciao_yall on April 19, 2024, 06:17:22 AM

Quote from: poiuy on April 18, 2024, 06:39:32 PMI don't often post on these fora. I don't know if anyone here even registers when I post. Maybe I am speaking to the void. But the impulse is here. 
My father left us in January 2022.  My mother, in March 2024. They were both very good, cool, people who gave us everything.
It was a rough ride the last few years with each of their health issues, and being a transnational family, though we were so incredibly fortunate that one sibling lived right there.
It's odd how heavy the absence is, of the person, of the routines, of all the vast space in heart and mind.
I think of the parable of the mustard seed and soldier on. I hope their energy is zinging around the universe in ultimate bliss.

May their memories be a blessing.

It's a great blessing to be able to look back at two good, loving parents.

+1

Amen.  So sorry for your loss of such wonderful people.

Thanks to all for the concern and good wishes for all the ongoing mishegoss at Artem U.  I'm personally safe and close enough to retirement that if the merde well and truly hits the fan, I am well funded for retirement and can just leave.

Earlier this week, the advisory body that was the next step in the process just spit the pacifier and threw all the toys out of the crib.  Were I the prez, I'd argue that they did not negotiate in good faith.  They have essentially ceded all decision making to the board and gawd knows what those guys may do.

Said advisory body seems to have recognized they shat the bed and are scrambling to come up  with a last minute, Hail Mary proposal to get in front of the board.  I'd offer that the proposals are about as effective as "let's have a bake sale".  Rather than dance with the devil they knew, now we all get to dance with the devil we don't.  Academic governance is a freakin' farce.  Nobody should take it seriously.