Passionless

politics, rhetoric Leave a comment

Shouting match erupts as Pennsylvania lawmakers debate welfare bill (abc13.com)Nancy Pelosi Is Listening to the Wrong People (Esquire via Yahoo! News)Hey, Democrats: Stop Being Polite (Huffington Post via Yahoo! News) After the Republican wave election in 2010, new Republican majorities in a lot of state houses were quick to use their power to push through extremely right-wing legislation, covering everything from budgets to social policy, for a lot of new Republican governors to sign. Trying to determine which state got hit the hardest by these…

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O’er the Land of the Screwed, and the Home of the Screwers

politics, teaching Leave a comment

DeVos Repeals Obama-Era Rule Cracking Down on For-Profit Colleges (The New York Times) This presidential campaign season, as execrable as it already is (and I’m under no delusions of it somehow getting better in the next sixteen months), has at least generated some discourse about American colleges and universities, especially about their cost. While the possibility of forgiving student debt has grabbed the most headlines, how future students will pay for their higher education, or even if they’ll have to pay at all (outside of…

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Missing the Mosquitoes

personal, toledo Leave a comment

Summer hasn’t quite come to Wisconsin yet, but it should finally get here tomorrow. Temperatures around these parts have been slightly below average these past couple of weeks, reminding me of mid-spring weather back home in Toledo, and that’s definitely a good thing for my mood. Mid-spring weather was always my favourite in Toledo, that longest span of the year when everyone can keep their windows open twenty-four hours a day and no one runs their air conditioners, so the smells of new flora follow…

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Square With Our Imaginations

videogames Leave a comment

FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE Trailer for E3 2019 (youtube.com) I can still remember my reaction to the first official announcement that Square Enix was going to do a total remake of my favourite video game of all time, Final Fantasy VII, at E3 four years ago. I don’t watch video game conferences live, so someone who had watched it live directed me to a YouTube clip whose title spoiled exactly what it was of, and I didn’t get the opportunity to be as surprised as…

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Pencils Down

personal, teaching, work Leave a comment

If you’re looking for a line of work where it’s relatively easy to become well-liked, teaching probably isn’t for you. That’s not to say that it’s impossible to have students and/or colleagues like you — I’ve certainly had my fair share of both — but the heart of your work is convincing a lot of people, more and more of whom have grown up with the instant gratification of modern technology burnt into their synapses at an early age, to set aside those enjoyments and…

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