pete hegseth is so bad at his job that we're like one tick away from the gray zone being like "actually, pete hegseth is good, because he effectively stands against american imperialism"

I have frequently felt this way.

I took 3 AP classes and I don't think they had the skill impact of community college or the intellectual impact of my later 4-year institution courses. The university experience isn't about singular classes but learning multiple challenging things in concert with each other. But, I know, the cost...

I know we can't change school policies with social media threads, but I wish college was left to colleges, high schools to high school, and if students want to graduate early and start college sooner, that should be facilitated.

Community college courses were some of the hardest I've ever taken, including my English composition course. But, man, did I ever learn and grow in them.

I ended up being a TA during my undergrad, and the writing I graded was pretty sub-par. The Penn State instructors told me it wasn't their responsibility to teach students to write because high school covered it... which was definitely not the case.

This is what I did in 2001-2002, doing half days at the local community college and half days in high school.

In its defense, the best writing education I received came from those classes, far better than either high school or Penn State.

I think there's a lot of underemployment and people who have jobs are sitting on them while seeking new opportunities.

The inherent tension between a 4.3% unemployment rate and getting told during an interview that you were one of the hundred people who applied within the first day a job was posted for a temporary contract position explains the difference between the economy on paper and how the economy feels.

They're also extremely at-risk when they taunt their little sister who is in charge of cooking all holiday family meals.

I'm the only writer in a generation of software engineers in my family, and my brother is delighting in telling me I will never get another job if I don't embrace AI, which is specifically bad at doing the craft I've been honing for two decades.

There's also a pervasive sense of insecurity and stagnation in the workplace. There's 200+ applicants to every job posting, so many contract positions, a loss of easy mobility between jobs... Even if unemployment is low, it feels very bad.

I had to mute him eventually. I couldn't handle it.

oh god, I know that guy from the anime side of bluesky, and... uh... his takes are something else

@dereksemsick.itch.io The child is now lobbying to get a subscription to The Onion. Should this be part of his birthday gift?

A red blousy flower bloom in a field of green.

I have typed and deleted several posts that would have just added another bit of negativity to the skyline, so instead, here's a pretty peony blooming in my yard. #bloomscrolling

Train trips to visit friends and explore their cities! That would be so good for my headspace and expanding my world.

My first thought was reading, my second thought was a few stints of cross-country travel via train *while* reading. Depending on the funding, I'd put the kid in lots of art camps and dance and music lessons, things we can't really afford now that will help him grow into his own creative being.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum!

where my French knitters who are good at list-keeping at

Ohhh, that sounds good! Instant coffee plus a little bit of vanilla might work well, too!

I could play with it myself, too! It was such a rich flavor, kind is like a full-bodied cola.

Look, for my money the absolute game changer technologies right now are batteries and biosciences, not statistically modeling a mid conversation, but you do you.

Hello, I am Alex Goldman, the host of @hyperfixedpod.bsky.social and the former host of Reply All, which some of you probably listened to and liked. I have noticed that a lot of former Reply All listeners have no idea my show exists, so I feel like there's a big untapped audience out there.

Also, no idea how or where he learned this.

It wasn't until my child walked into the living room the other day and described the events of The Great Emu War in far too much detail that I realized he inherited my ADHD, but my husbands factoid-based memory.

Medicare for all, UBI, job training. All of these policies could help us *now* and prepare us for future changes, but they're trotted out as hazy ideas to address issues at some later date when they could be improving lives now.

And the voices in the industry that are teasing us with an ai-driven eutopia of prosperity keep saying we'll need laws to create a strong social safety net and share the wealth while actively lobbying for neither of those things and simply getting richer themselves.

I *need* a Pepsi Kona, a cola-coffee blend that was only test marketed around eastern PA in the mid-1990s.

Trying to explain the lovely ladies in Les Mis to my son is impossible when he refuses to accept people would have recreational sex and pay for it.