After being a part of the University of Wisconsin System for nearly four years now, I don’t think I’ll get in trouble for saying that in my experience, the only constant for us is change. I showed up here in Richland Center in 2018 as the regionalization process turned our campus into a branch of the larger campus in Platteville (they gave me lots of free swag with the old pre-regionalization logo when I got here), and just as that process seemed to be entering…
[The following blog contains discussion of suicide.] Only 29% of hospitalised COVID-19 patients fully well one year on: Study (channelnewsasia.com)It’s not over: COVID-19 cases are on the rise again in US (sfgate.com)Climate anxiety and high school: How young people are coping (ABC News on MSN) One of the things I’m testing out with my College Writing students this semester is a term-long exercise where students are expected to keep up semi-regular email correspondence with me. In addition to helping students learn the formal and social…
I’ve blogged before about how a lot of my early love for learning came from the television shows I watched when I was very young. Children’s television staples like Sesame Street and Mister Rogers’ Neighbourhood had a huge influence on me, of course, but even my love of early-1980’s game shows led to me wanting to understand this thing called “math” that was responsible for all the contestants getting happy or sad during those old weekday morning blocks on the major broadcast networks. Contrary to…
[The following blog contains mentions of bullying and other abuse.] One of the first things you learn in therapy is that painful memories never really go away. If something painful sticks in your head for any reason, it’s practically impossible to get it unstuck. Often times, the most effective coping skill is to develop mental mechanisms to soften the relived traumas of those past memories: Remembering better times, or recalling that you have people who care about you in the present, or just recognizing that…
As I’ve been looking to both improve my mental health and build my Twitch channel, one of the video games I’ve had my eyes on is Unpacking, a puzzle-style game where you unpack items from boxes to organize various living spaces. I’ve enjoyed puzzle games all my life, and the low-key nature of Unpacking definitely places it in the “cozy game” genre that I’ve been trying to play more of, to help me maximize the benefits of using video games to help me unwind from…