as i keep saying, the things to do to secure elections are to volunteer to work the polls or to serve as an observer, & to pressure your *state representatives* to take steps to further secure voting locations and ballots. you should also learn about how election administration works in your area.

I mean...they're all great. And the cat is made for a Batman outfit. But the dolphin reminds me of myself. Ha!

Dolphin is my fave.

Professors Are Being Watched: ‘We’ve Never Seen This Much Surveillance’

Imagine trying to teach an opinion writing course, where half the course is devoted to challenging students’ perceptions and biases so they can argue their opinions more persuasively.

You’d get fired in week one.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/u...

I insist that, if employers really cared, they would consider how many things get half-assed the more burnt out we are.

I have been thinking a lot about burnout (after my own diagnosis as a high school teacher) and the only thing I can come up with is, lessen my work load. Employers' concern always seems to be "keep employee working at all times" instead of, say, how less effective we are the more we work.

I spend so much time in my head, that getting out there and doing something that doesn’t require a lesson plan on a reading list is…nice. Doesn’t matter how slow I am compared to other experienced runners.

Gave myself a week break from running. (I mean, it was a 5k race but I wanted a break.) Left knee feels better. Also, I’m excited about getting back out there, in a way I haven’t felt excited about working out in a while. Here’s to long runs on Saturdays!

Picture of We Are Houston 5K starting line

Today’s the day. First 5k race.

Week 1, Day 3: already received requests to add MORE work to my plate, as a teacher. Could I get time off to grade essays? No? Huh.

Also, teachers in my district are becoming more comfortable expressing in public their indecision about returning next year. Semester hasn’t even started.

Reported to “work” today. Technically I reported to a workshop from 8 am to 1 pm, and then back on campus until 4 pm. And then the copier broke. So…HAPPY SECOND SEMESTER TO MEEEEEE.

The Curriculum Discourse™️ has me returning to a question I often ask myself & PSTs—what might happen if we START the curriculum design process by asking “how can students join meaningful conversations within the literary humanities?” instead of “what skills/standards should I cover in this unit?”

Sooo what do we do with last year’s vision boards? Do we just throw them out?

Twitter thread in Spanish by José Mario de la Garza, a human rights lawyer in Mexico, translated using Google Translate: 1. Overthrowing a dictator sounds morally right. No one mourns a tyrant. But international law wasn't built to protect the good, but to restrain the powerful. That's why it prohibits force almost without exception: not because it ignores injustice, but because it knows that if each country decides whom to "liberate" by force, the world reverts to the law of the strongest. 2. The problem is not Maduro. The problem is the precedent. When military force is used to change governments without clear rules, sovereignty ceases to be a limit and becomes an obstacle. Today it is “overthrowing a dictator”; tomorrow it will be “correcting an election,” “protecting interests,” “restoring order.” The law does not absolve dictatorships, but neither does it legitimize unilateral crusades.

Cont’d: 3. The uncomfortable question is not whether a tyrant deserves to fall, but who decides when and how. Because history teaches something brutal: removing a dictator is easy; building justice afterward is not. And when legality is broken in the name of good, what almost always follows is not freedom, but chaos, violence, and new victims. The law exists to remind us of this, even when it makes us uncomfortable.

Maduro isn't the problem: he's the face of the problem. Removing him from power would be merely opening the door. Behind him is the machine: Rodríguez, Cabello, the military command, the operators of repression and plunder. If you only change the person at the top and leave the system intact, what follows isn't democracy: it's a reshuffling. And there's something even more difficult: Chavismo didn't just capture institutions, it captured daily life. Economy, media, bureaucracy, employment, fear, favors, blackmail. A country can't be "de-Chavistaized" by decree or by an electoral miracle. The real transition begins when that network is broken without setting the country ablaze. The challenge is enormous, and it's also a moral one: to unite without vengeance, but without impunity. Targeted justice for those most responsible, truth for the victims, guarantees that the rest will dismantle the system, and a plan for people to live again—not just survive. Because freedom doesn't come with a new president: it comes when the state ceases to be a threat.

Best thing I’ve read this morning, from a human rights lawyer in Mexico. Translation is in the ALT-text.

Trump promised no “new stupid wars,” yet he’s starting one with Venezuela without congressional approval.

People can’t afford groceries and millions are losing healthcare, but this is where his focus is.

This is unconstitutional and not what the American people asked for.

Cancer research costs too much but we have the money to run Venezuela

What teachers get way too often, I think:

1️⃣ lots of resources without much, if any, agency
2️⃣ lots of agency without much, if any, resources

Maybe 2026 we can, you know, give teachers...both?

This is something I’ve been thinking about for the past year or so. I used to think I had to give it all. Now I am trying hard to keep something for myself, live life a little differently.

In 2026 I want all of the decent people to remember one thing.

You aren’t meant to be this disciplined, this self-sacrificing to survive. The environment is supposed to support good living. We can have that. You are not a failure. That is politics.

That is all.

Do you too want to spend a month reading Moby-Dick? Details below! (Srsly, this book blew me away the first time I read it; it is weird and beautiful and dreadful)

I hope so too. It feels like a good one.

During this break, I’ve watched a lot of films, knitted a lot (catching up on my blanket), and worked on my puzzle.

Last night I made arroz con gandules, which I haven’t made in a long time, and everyone was happy with it.

We started watching SHERLOCK as a family. That’s fun.

This morning I unfolded my 13th winter solstice wish, and WOAH. It is abstract and deep and definitely something to keep me busy this year.

I’m looking at it like “…I wrote this?”

Yup, sure did.

Anyway, I’m glad to have released the other ones out into the universe.

This year had me asking questions. So many questions. Some of them rhetorical. I wanted answers so badly, but this year just kept giving me questions.

Here’s hoping for answers in 2026.

YES. I can still sing the songs by heart.

Small note: if you see a fat person out exercising, you don’t need to give them advice!

If you’re wondering why your friends in academia are a little on edge right now, it’s because an eighteen-year-old who hasn’t done the reading, doesn’t look at the assignment, and has does no critical thinking skills more complex than “because I think it’s in the Bible” can literally end your career

Seasoned pork shoulder on a butcher block

Pernil!