Nancy Riley

Ahhh! "Praise the Lord & Pass the Ammunition" was a favorite in our grad school TA office YouTube Friday rotation! Haven't thought about that one in a minute.

The reason for the season!

Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance required 9,852 theatrical pyrotechnics, nearly 400 costumed extras, and a lot of ingenuity.

And yes, that was a real couple featured in the wedding.

www.wired.com/story/bad-bu...

My puzzle

Fellow puzzle lovers: In honor of the Super Bowl I made a little football-themed crossword with my friend @robdubbin.bsky.social for @puzzmo.com.

You can play for free today:

www.puzzmo.com/puzzle/2026-...

I know there are other really important things going on, but I just ran across this while looking up something else re: Chicago style, and I just...?!?!
"Note that a place of publication is no longer required in book citations"

I just graded an assignment to avoid grading another assignment, so I'm really making the most of my snow day

Kentucky Men’s Basketball Tipoff vs. Ole Miss Moved Earlier to 11 a.m. ET Kentucky Men’s Basketball Tipoff vs. Ole Miss Moved Earlier to 11 a.m. ET

I complain all the time about 11 a.m. central kickoffs, so I am obviously thrilled (tone: sarcastic) re: 10 a.m. central tip off for the UK basketball game. Safety first and all that, but I'll still be grumpy about it

Trader Joe's was out of everything

I had a former colleague from an office job years ago reach out to me privately making sure this wasn't me. Public Musicology!

It’s a good thing I don’t care much about the outcome of this game since both my cable & internet are down. I’m cheering most for my iPhone hotspot that’s letting me stream the game on my laptop

I know we had three days of class last week but tomorrow seems like the first day of class somehow?

The part of the semester when I'm an IT textbook/website consultant... and I definitely do not love it.

Carved out time to discuss AI use with students on 1st day of class in all my classes but esp the 1st yrs. Was (mostly) really impressed with their takes & general self-awareness of how using it as a substitute for thinking is counter to getting an actual education vs using it as a tool/help/tutor.

Missed opportunity 😭

I had this one too but sadly its whereabouts are unknown!

Opting to have an existential crisis about an AI policy for my syllabus instead of completing the actual syllabus/course schedule for first day of classes tomorrow. This is fine 🫠

Happy New Year, y'all! I saw a shooting star tonight so I'm gonna take that for any/all good mojo it has to offer for 2026 💫

Wait, I have to finish 2 and need 1 more. What's your fav short book?

The big question hanging over the remaining days of 2025, will I finish the last 3 books to meet my goodreads/storygraph challenge?!?

I get to/have to play the piano this weekend. My instruments have been the carillon and toy pianos for the past like 5 years. I should probably practice an actual normal-sized piano.

Legendary

Tackled so many analog photos from way back in middle school up to iPhone era. Absolutely ruthless in what I threw out, but by the time I got to boxes w/ grad school stuff I had lost my resolve. I took those boxes to my office at school for now/ever. Cleaning out success, maybe?

3M floppy disk with various file names written on it from Fall 1997

Am being forced to deal w/boxes of old stuff this weekend. Past Nancy kept ALL papers/things ever but maybe we sent more cards/letters/notes back in the day? Either way, this floppy disk says a lot abt data storage in the 1990s. Initials are NPR & they're stickers. Crap.doc is insightful, I'm sure.

Nothing says Christmas cheer like playing piano trios (6 hands, 1 piano) on toy pianos with dear friends!
Also, this is your sign to go ahead and buy that toy piano you’ve been eyeing 🎹

Yes, all of this!

Get to have lunch with a friend tomorrow :) & then later in the week visiting Athens, GA which is always good for the soul!

Cats won! I got good live music, catching up with friends, and I can watch the recording with no stress!

Going to a Christmas thing that is pretty much during the UK-IU game and I can't decide if it's a good thing or bad thing that I won't see it in real time #gocats

More books in the mail & cookies from a neighbor have things looking up. Six grad projects to go & a couple of stragglers with outstanding assignments for other classes. I think I might make it? Happy Friday, y'all!

Chuckling to myself as I comment "No all caps, or rather, NO ALL CAPS" on a student bibliography bc I'm just that hilarious