@Shamlet

Life in 2025 trade war Canada: bought some product of Ontario yellow plums, and they're really good, and when I eat them I say "yes! you go, Ontario!"

Understand, American friends, that it's not personal:

Forgive me
they're just delicious
so sweet
and so Canadian

The New ChatGPT Resets the AI Race With GPT-5, OpenAI is making its strongest effort yet to hook users.

quatrain for 2025

race here
race there
while there are cliffs
everywhere

Into the home stretch of Moby Dick, and it says something about this novel that I am thinking almost as much about how to describe the experience of reading it as I am about what I've actually read 🐳

And 51 years ago today, Nixon resigned -- forced to resign, as this speech makes plain in content and tone.

That forcing makes this an interesting classroom piece for rhetorical analysis. How often do we get to consider a speaker's reluctance as a factor in assessing purpose and effectiveness?

Keeping a commonplace book has emerged as a quiet highlight of the summer. Reading, noting sentences and bits of language I like, and simply copying them into a notebook is such a non-tech, inefficient use of time that it feels delightfully subversive.

It's like I'm assembling a survival manual

Into the home stretch of Moby Dick, and it says something about this novel that I am thinking almost as much about how to describe the experience of reading it as I am about what I've actually read 🐳

There is for sure, and yes, without those ties you have to invent your own reasons. Only five hours for me, but that's still a bit more than a hop, skip, and a jump --

One of these summers -- Yellowknife would be the first goal for sure. The gift of time in July and August is a great part of being a teacher --

Oh yes, the tiny radio-TV 😎

Saskatoon is such a memory portal for me -- always love the chance to get there, even if it's just passing through

Opposite direction, but drove up from Regina on Monday and the sign for Blackstrap brought up memories of trips with my grandparents pretty fast

Furthest in each direction I've been in Canada:

N: Fort McMurray, AB
S: London, ON
W: Victoria, BC
E: St. John's, NL

Need to get up north, but so fortunate to have had the chance to see every province in this beautiful country 🍁

The CFL: three downs, twelve players, a wider, longer field, et complètement bilingue 🍁 🏈

Depends what side of the border you're on 🍁 🏈 😎 Funny enough, it's Expos Tribute Night at the Alouettes game in Montreal tonight

I have always loved it, and in 2025 can't stop connecting it to our politics. So sad to have missed this production; hope it becomes available somehow via streaming etc.

And of course so glad you're enjoying your time in Canada!

Keeping a commonplace book has emerged as a quiet highlight of the summer. Reading, noting sentences and bits of language I like, and simply copying them into a notebook is such a non-tech, inefficient use of time that it feels delightfully subversive.

It's like I'm assembling a survival manual

the best part of a used book is the secret life it's led before it falls into your hands

Teaching in a nutshell:

There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness is the true method.

Moby Dick, Chapter 82

YouTube video by C-SPAN President Nixon Announces Resignation

August 8, 1974. Happy 51st Anniversary, guardrails

The book a vengeful Ham-let is reading in Act 2 Scene 2 about "most weak hams"

That's the catch -- we don't need it in everything, but to maximize profit and return on investment I have to create that belief

Indeed discouraging, but important we don't let that overwhelm us. True knowledge is well worth defending and fighting for

OpenAI releases GPT-5, calling it a ‘team of Ph.D. level experts in your pocket’ OpenAI says its latest version of the popular AI model is better at coding, more accurate and less deceptive than previous versions.

It's "less deceptive than previous versions" -- so, still deceptive then. Like, say, "Ph.D. level experts". Or at least like a news headline that parrots and amplifies a hyperbolic sales pitch

How hollow, how shallow to believe that knowledge is just a commodity that can be so cheaply bought

dark clouds in the bottom half and left side, with a slice of blue in the top right and the sun, bright but concealed by cloud

a conflicted sky

Why then do you try to "enlarge" your mind? Subtilize it.

Moby Dick, Chapter 74

Teacher life: visiting the office supply store on August 7 is an intense combination of "OMG school is almost here" and "OMG those are only $1.99!"

Life in 2025: I can pendulum from the darkest pessimism to the brightest optimism without effort, often within a single day

I'm assuming you're going to see Lepage's Macbeth? If so, will of course be very interested in your take on it!

Thinking about what Hamlet would be like if very little effort was put into concealing crimes, as in "yeah, sent Hamlet to England to collect the tariff, he might come back, he might not, we'll see what happens" -- the royal we becoming the full-on mob family we

How do I feel old? Let me count the ways. 🤣

That aside, this sounds fantastic!

my bike leaning against a bench on the top edge of a hill overlooking the Whitemud Equestrian Park -- freeway on the left of it, North Saskatchewan River on the right

And now for the last phase of summer, aka training camp:

1. Get outside, enjoy the last weeks of warm sunshine
2. Start working off all that good summer eatin'
3. Start correcting sleep patterns
4. Start doing some school stuff, light working holiday style

#4 best done in conjunction with #1