Annual spooky season reminder that Edgar Allan Poe only lived to 40 and died under very mysterious circumstances. He also had a falling out with the Allan family when he was young and tried to go back to being Edgar Poe, but the whole world seems to have refused him on that one.

Cherry cake is my next experiment. The recipe calls for "pecan icing," but I dunno. Best icing for a cherry layer cake? Chocolate? Coconut? Match it with cherry?

I need to be sponsored by ibuprophen. I can't go a conversation without someone saying something hurts and suddenly I am offering the bottle.

I hate guns.

If you only got to pick 2: -learn one language instantly -teleport anywhere 2 times per day -sentient kitchen cooks/cleans for you -can tell when people are lying -can fix anything -breathe under water

Bought a case of evaporated milk and feel *UNSTOPPABLE* You want fudge? Baked mac and cheese? Spinach & gnocchi soup? A PUMPKIN PIE?!

The world is rough, I know, but if I said "I'm thinking of getting bangs" the girl code collective will still rise up and make sure I do not. We've got each other's backs. And foreheads.

(Josie reading Project Hail Mary) Me: I can't wait to read that! Josie: Uh... I dunno if it would make sense to you. It's got a lot of math and science stuff. (If anyone needs an ego check--my house. We got cookies and sucker punches.)

If you want to be a bestseller: "Readers don't like exposition. Show, don't tell." Dungeon Crawler Carl: "Hold my cat."

Still stubbornly sure that we could recover a lot of student engagement if we stopped the essay push and ran with stories instead. Let essays be a class everyone takes, but build and scaffold from early literacy forward by focusing on stories. Kids should be writing stories all the time.

I like social media because you can always put footnotes. What are real life conversations missing? Footnotes. *Writer is in no way an expert on real life conversations.

When you cleverly make a meal out of all the fridge leftovers and produce that needed to be used up ASAP, and everyone sits down together, and you send up a quick prayer that you aren't about to poison everybody. #frugal

"We will lose jobs to AI at first, but then we will be free to find new directions. It will work out." A good society would figure out the details BEFORE allowing/embracing the mass layoff event.

Watching reading comprehension expectations radically change in one generation... Good thing we still know how to teach it. We can flip the switch any time, even when the childhood window closes. It's not too late to be or make stronger readers.

OWL Purdue needs to be phased out of the English teacher repertoire (including mine). It had its time. Things have changed. Let it go. Also it has so many aggressive ads that my laptop literally starts to make strange sounds if I linger on any of the pages.

Grading and really REALLY wishing I had an anonymous account. Would so like to vent.

"You can work in the office just as well as home." How to explain? Trading water cooler chat breaks for putting the washing into the dryer makes my life easier? Being able to get up from tough grading and stare into my refrigerator makes my brain go? What's so great about offices?

I love teaching community college. Me announcing feedback: "I graded these late, so if you see any confusing bits that sound like Klingon, let me know and I'll clarify." High school enrolled student: "Klingon?" Retiree beside him: "I'll explain later."

The hardest part of teaching writing, for me, is when a student thinks their work makes perfect sense, and I literally can't figure out what they're trying to communicate. It's so hard to even start the feedback.

I got to introduce the rules for informed consent and interview strategies today. This part is always so hopeful. Training our future contributors in the research field.

I have classes that hate AI. I also have classes where most of the papers are eerily similar. I don't like this game.

Grading papers and shopping for my Halloween costume every chance I get. Being an adult is different than I expected.

I teach writing and research and therefore, obviously, greatly dislike gen AI. But the worst, to me, is what it's doing to recipe sharing culture. We can't trust anything anymore. Measurements all over the place.

Petition to go back to calling them "pumpions." 🎃 🎃 🎃

The unsung heroes: -People who rate their purchases/products -people who give blood and volunteer to help train phlebotomy students -librarians at facilities that offer computer literacy classes for the older population Heroes pulling more than their share of the weight.

I want to work on some good habits: -carrying a book around -reading around people -telling people to leave me alone, I'm reading

Team creamy desserts does not know what to do with people who want me to over bake cookies, so they're "not too soft."

"I want to read more, but it makes me so sleepy." Way before Ambien, there was English class.

I start all my discussion replies with "Thanks for sharing!" and several of my students have started doing this in their peer responses. They're not always cute, but dang it this is cute.

I did a search for the best libraries in NC, and the little AI summary had the Billy Graham Library as number one. GUYS.