Pronoun Trouble

Okay, I said I'd share the actual fun stuff about my Philosophy 101 teacher in my next post, because he does seem to be actually trying to be a fun guy and bring enjoyment and humor to his classes. He likes to make jokes and pop culture references (most of which are a little dated even to me, who is probably fifteen to twenty years older than most of my classmates), and he does genuinely care if we get good grades, and really doesn't want us to use GenAI to actually write anything for us, even if he is encouraging us to use it as a reference for how to write essays.

Moving on! One of the things he had us do is act out and film a YouTube video about Descartes' "Cogito, ergo sum" moment, and subsequent refutation of global skepticism. It's basically a parody of Bill and Ted, but much shorter and about one particular moment in European philosophy history.

I volunteered to play a minor antagonist, The Disco Kid, because the part has a few song parody lines that actually involve singing, and I figured that most people would prefer to avoid that. I, meanwhile, am not afraid to make that kind of fool of myself on a YouTube video that hardly anyone is likely to ever see. (I probably won't even link it over here, since it credits me with my paperwork name, except maybe under access only. I may share screencaps of me in my totally rad Disco/hippie outfit, though.) And if it somehow actually goes viral, I imagine I'll probably be the breakaway favorite character.

Anyway, aside from the GenAI thing (which I do want to find a way to subtly subvert, aside from just very emphatically shaking my head any time he suggests my classmates use it) and the whole "This is definitely European, Christian philosophy we're learning here" things, it's genuinely a fun class. Not a lot of homework, textbook is effectively some online essays and other ridiculous videos the teacher has made, very generous grading. I should be able to ride it out fine without my head exploding.

Currently between classes! I spent the first couple of hours after my morning class studying, and now I'm seeing what I can do to spend the rest of the time before my evening class. If either of the classes were in my hometown, I'd just go home for a nap and some relaxation, but unfortunately they're both in the same city where I work, which is half an hour away by car and seems like a waste to drive. I mean, I could still technically get almost five hours at home between classes? But that's a lot of time and especially gas money that I'd just as soon not spend, for the time being. I may change my mind by the end of the semester, but until then...

I only had one item left to do for this week's evening class (one evening a week): A quiz on the first chapter of our textbook, all multiple choice or true/false, three attempts allowed. I got 90% on the first two tries, and 100% on the last one. So far, so good!

I also figured I'd try and get a little bit ahead for my evening class stuff. I have the time, so why not? Unfortunately, I can't actually tell at the moment if what we're going to be assigned this week is three whole textbook chapters, or just the introduction for those three chapters. I read the entirety of the first of the assigned chapters just in case, then threw in the towel for today; I plan to ask for clarification tonight, since the website I access the (legit free) textbook through marks the to-do item complete once I open just the intro part of the chapter. Our reading for last week had been the opening of the first chapter and all three sub-parts, each of which got checked off as I opened them, so I would say I have reason to be confused!

ANYWAY. Wednesdays aside, I have a morning class Monday through Thursday, after which I usually visit the college library to work on homework for an hour or so. I'm pretty sure this is something I can keep up for the rest of my classes, so I'm cautiously optimistic about keeping my grades up for these last few semesters and actually getting my Associate's degree!

So far, so good ✌

Our local Joann's has five days left before it closes, unless it completely runs out of everything before then.

In related news, guess who has two thumbs and impulse-bought ten yards of fleece featuring sharks spyhopping. I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do with it, but like. It was only $15. I am very, very, very weak to that kind of deal.

(Note to self: Do something with Avery and Zeek and spyhopping; it would be adorable.)


Footnote: SABLE = Stash Accumulated Beyond Life Expectancy. I have perhaps purchased too much fabric in general...

And There Was Only One Bed, Chapter Four is now available to listen to!

If you liked the fic (or if you haven't gotten to it yet but it seems like something you might like) and listening to stories is a thing you enjoy, go do so! gwogobo did a fantabulous job 💖

I've (finally) made it about half an hour into the final chapter of SVSSS book three and I just want to give Luo Binghe all the (platonic) hugs 😭

Also ZZL. Boy deserves some of his own. Planning to get him laid for Sot69, at least.

Edit: 45 minutes left in the last chapter before the extras. Possibly the exact point where things start looking up again. There's no audio version available for Book 4 that I'm aware of, so I'll have to read said extras silently, but to be honest I'm looking forward to it. Bring on the happy ending, please and thank you!

Got a very mild scolding at work, which RSD promptly blew out of proportion 🙄 Managed to work through it by composing a countdown poem about it.


Though it is rarely anything big or important,
just a small misstep here or there,
still I find myself flinching.
I shy away from
these lingering memories,
like open
wounds.


Needs a title still (initial title was "making a small mistake at work"), but it helped me through things, so. Still good. (Cuz goddamn does emotional disregulation make thinking about small mistakes feel like accidentally poking an infected hangnail or getting lemon juice on a papercut. Like, are you serious. That much from this? Can't we just give it up and heal already?)

Remembered a deadline and took a break from writing another Dreamwidth primer to instead get the 2025 theme poll for summerofthe69 finished and posted. There are forty-four possible themes to choose from, and voters also have the ability to decide if the fest should have twenty-three themes this year, instead of the previous standard of thirteen.

I've got two possible plunnies that I'm sitting on for this year; I'm going to try and get them outlined over the next month, and then when theme voting closes on May 15th, I'll see which themes I can shoehorn the stories in to 😜

Even odds that I'll skip posting the voting link around tonight; it's only half an hour until my clock flips over to midnight anyway, so.

Just found out via Tumblr, the governmental website for Covid information is now literal propaganda. No, really. It is a fucking trip to click through and even skim.

This is definitely one of those "laugh so you don't cry" moments, because like. Seriously. What the FUCK.

Heaven help me, I have actually been going to bed at a reasonable hour the past few days! The trend seems highly likely to continue tonight, as well...

Anyway, to-do for tomorrow:

Go to the grocery store, pick up juice and raspberries (and maybe other veg?)

Doctor's appointment

Nap!

Probably we'll be watching the niblings again (elder nibling discovered a love of raspberries in Florida, so that's why I'm picking those up)

I think that should be everything. ...Oh, wait!

Make a "sleepy" icon

There, that should do the trick.

Absolutely devastating that Tumblr communities don't allow embedded links from Dreamwidth. I include so many of those fuckers in my tutorials, because I want to make things easier for potential Dreamwidth users! Unfortunately, when I go to copy-paste one of the tutorials I'm writing for newcomers over to Dreamwidth Sharing on Tumblr, that means I have to manually remove all hyperlinks and either enter a Tumblr substitute (or the occasional non-Dreamwidth substitute), or include a plain text version of the link after the text I would normally embed the link in. Very frustrating, especially when Tumblr informs me that I missed a link, and therefore cannot post the entry to the community.