Megan Non Brevis

New mantra in Theory 1 today (we are wrapping up our counterpoint unit): "Do not fear the eraser."

Dear article writers, bloggers, and thought leaders: before you ask a diffusion model to barf up a banner image, please just go on one of these archives and pick something nice.

2-Day Snow of Up to 7 Feet Stalls Colorado and Wyoming (Published 2003)

Delighted by the absolutely minimal coverage of this storm in the paper of record (days after the fact!), compared to the apocalyptic hounding we get from the press every time there's the faintest whiff of precipitation on the radar. www.nytimes.com/2003/03/20/u...

I feel like the Rocky Mountain News still printed the paper when Denver got 4 feet of snow in March 2003. (Also, FWIW: this was the only time in my Colorado childhood that school was canceled.)

Evelyn Barry Director of the Choral Program Please review the details for the position before applying. When applying, please confirm your legal name is entered exactly as it appears on your government-issued identification. Ensure that you hav...

Wellesley College is hiring a new Choral Director. The application deadline is March 27th. Feel free to bug me if you have questions.
wd1.myworkdaysite.com/recruiting/w...

If I were paying $$$ for an education to watch recycled Covid lectures and submit answers to auto-graded online quizzes I probably wouldn't bother either. But that was never good teaching and learning. And I'd wager that even "ok" uses of LMS haven't really improved teaching and learning overall.

Okay, certainly this Einstein cheating bot is Bad, but maybe this is an opportunity for faculty to explain to administrators why teaching and learning need to be happening in person, on paper, with pencils and highlighters and chalkboards.

Fun fact they cannot begin a game without the team dentist on premises.

Alysa Liu telling 60 Minutes “I love struggling, it makes me feel alive” is a legit revolutionary statement from a Bay Area native in a time when copious amounts of time and resources are being put toward convincing us to opt out of experiencing struggle, friction and self-actualization

FWIW I grew up in Colorado and we never had to make up snow days because … we never got snow days. A foot of snow? We had school. My first snow day was 11th grade because we got four FEET of snow in 12 hours. And even then we had school during the storm, just not the day after.

THIS IS THE ONLY TAKE

3-4 weeks later a student peeked into my classroom asking timidly "have you had a coffee?" I said yes and they called into the hallway "it's okay guys, come on in!"

During Covid the nearest coffee shop closed indefinitely. I teach at 1:30 and like to get coffee before. It reopened sometime in 2022 and one day my students were like "why are you so fun today???" 1/2

See also a notice for your students.

Wikipedia entry for dinkus In typography, a dinkus is a typographic device or convention that typically consists of three spaced asterisks or bullet symbols in a horizontal row, e.g.   ∗ ∗ ∗   or   • • •  . The device has a variety of uses, and it usually denotes an intentional omission or a logical "break" of varying degree in a written work. This latter use is similar to a subsection, and it indicates that the subsequent text should be re-contextualized. Such a dinkus typically appears centrally aligned on a line of its own with vertical spacing before and after the device. The dinkus has been in use in various forms since c. 1850.[1][2] Historically, the dinkus was often represented as an asterism, ⁂, though this has fallen out of favor and is now nearly obsolete.

perennial reminder that this typographic thing:

* * *

is called a "dinkus"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinkus

This is the only take I will consider

OTOH @brynhughes.net I appreciate that you understood this was a post about you specifically

I don't accept this

I'm watching all day every day but you don't see me posting about it like some kind of ... sports poster

anti-AI “credo” I have a religious exemption from using all generative “A.I.” I am not a member of the Silicon Valley sect. Their beliefs and practices are an affront to my sensibilities. The tech is trained on stolen intellectual property. The output is riddled with mistakes, and it is incapable of comprehending the weight of its errors. It is not even an “it.” But sometimes, it is filtered and massaged by unaccountable human sweatshop workers and bad actors. I am not required to use “A.I.” any more than I am required to join Amway, buy black market rhino horn, or attend the Fyre Festival. As a human, I have a duty and right to limit my carbon and water footprint and protect my fellow human. As a union worker, I have a duty and right to oppose tech that is used to threaten workers or cheapen our product. As a tech consumer, I have a duty and right to oppose scams that lower the quality of our tools. As a scholar, I have a duty and right to oppose anti-intellectualism. As a taxpayer, I have a duty and right to oppose the misallocation of public funds and data. As a grown up, I have a duty and right to protect young people from predators. As a person with a conscience, I am appalled at the decadent disregard for user safety, the callous dismissal of responsibility for lives ruined and slaughtered. My religion is related to my identity, geography, and family, making it an irrelevant accident of birth. What matters is that I was born. I have an exemption from their digital rapture, their cultural austerity, their intellectual poverty. I practice wholesome hedonism and First Do No Harm. CS 12/9/2025

i included this in my syllabi this year

Posting sports on main SMH

We give so much and do such a good job and it is so difficult to come to terms with “the institution will never love you back.”

Two PhD positions in #Musicology advertised at Uppsala University--and in Sweden a PhD is paid employment! The department is lovely and particularly strong in #EarlyMusic & #MusicalBookHistory. Closing date 26 March 2026; interviews can occur throughout application period.

www.uu.se/en/about-uu/...

Honestly if AI could number measures for me I'd consider it.

AI simply cannot stand in front of a classroom, gesticulating wildly and writing semi-illegibly on chalkboards, both of which are key to building rapport and convincing your students you are worth learning from

Some people just have a gift for titles. I love John Milsom's, which are short and sweet and somehow full of double meanings:
Discerning Josquin
Worshipping with William Byrd
Absorbing Lassus
The Passing of Time
Tallis, The Parker Psalter, and Some Known Unknowns

What proportion of your beautiful Canvas page is actually used by students? For more than downloading files and getting deadline reminders?

My huge aha moment a last year was that I was spending TONS of time on the LMS all to support ... students who weren't coming to class in the first place. I stopped spending the time on Blackboard and started spending it on writing new lectures and giving more feedback instead.

I often think about this in terms of email. When I did my undergrad in the 90s, none of my profs used email. It just wasn't how they communicated with students and colleagues.

Now, my working day is filled with emails but I don't think I'm a better historian than my undergrad profs because of it.

This is a great chance to read one of this year's Wallace Berry Award winning books!