Madeleines are to Proust what theme songs from James Bond movies are to me, except I couldn’t write an entire book about how they remind me of playing Axis and Allies with my brother.
Ça fait plusieurs mois que je fais (presque) tout sur mon smartphone en français, mais aujourd’hui, je me suis demandé pour la première fois si je préfère être tutoyé ou vouvoyé par une machine.
Bike commuting today for the first time in 5 months, Also, commuting today for the first time in 5 months.
The apparent significance of particular numbers is largely a factor of culture and our choice of number system—that is, more arbitrary than actually significant. That said, this is still a bummer of a summer for a tenth wedding anniversary.
Rewriting a syllabus + recurrence of a particular, ongoing personal anxiety + general pandemic stuff = some high levels of pre-semester stress today.
Pandemic parenting is full of frustrating moments—but also gems like this morning’s inventing games using the pieces to Ticket to Ride while listening to Indochine.
Lots of talk right now about students dissatisfied with online teaching. While those voices shouldn’t be ignored, I’ve also already had three students (of thirty) in my fall hybrid class specifically ask to take it fully online.
My brain has decided to treat me to an unrequested Serge Gainsbourg/Hamilton mashup, and I’m not sure what to think.
One of my earliest publications has been added to a research anthology without my knowledge or consent, since publisher owns copyright. Not necessarily opposed to end result, but still miffed about lack of control.
The NPR radio adaptation of Star Wars is just as great—and just as terrible—as you would think. Totally worth a listen.
Victoire du jour : apprendre que la FNAC fera livrer des livres jusqu’au Kentucky. 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
Late fines start to lose some of their teeth once you start reframing them as new opportunities to financially support your local library.
Resolved, that watching a clip of the first Enterprise vs. Reliant fight from Wrath of Khan shall be accepted as a legitimate reason for staying up too late.
The more tired I am, the more easily I cry, so maybe staying up late last night and running 10k this morning were not great choices prior to introducing my kid to Up.
Currently reading Superman Smashes the Klan, and it is the epitome of what a Superman comic should be. Can’t recommend enough.
One of my favorite things about university libraries and ILL is that they’re officially there for research, but no one will stop you from reading the books just because you want to.
Is my brain mush right now because grading is hard? Or is grading hard right now because my brain is mush?
Every day that goes by in this election cycle just makes me more frustrated that we don’t have ranked-choice voting.
One of the best things I did as a brand new faculty member was to decide on a standard files and folders scheme. Still thanking myself for it.
The thing about getting in the habit of reading privacy policies is that it sometimes changes your behavior, but it ALWAYS ups your anxiety about the impossibility of ever changing your behavior sufficiently.
Just figured out a regex solution to something in under ten minutes. Watch out Friday, nothing can stop me now.
This afternoon, a career in academia looks like working from the kitchen table, playing a French 80s radio station, and fuming at Reviewer B’s complaints about my using the journal’s template like I was asked to.
I just finished rereading Philip Roth’s 2004 novel “The Plot Against America.” It is really good—in ways I didn’t appreciate when I first read it in high school and that I couldn’t begin to articulate now.
One of the greatest joys I experience as a veteran of a decade of French classes is whenever I discover that a song we used to listen to in high school is an actual song, not just something made up for class.
Hearing a lot of things today that are reminding me why I find utilitarianism totally unsatisfying as a moral philosophy.