Joshua Barsczewski

I'm starting to wonder how much "the male loneliness epidemic" is just straight and bisexual women identifying low-effort, mean, and incompetent men and choosing not to date, marry, and tolerate them anymore

Absolutely not

“We have not touched the stars,
nor are we forgiven, which brings us back
to the hero’s shoulders and the gentleness that comes,
not from the absence of violence, but despite
the abundance of it.”

Richard Siken

… and he SERVED ✨

Kafka has NOTHING on accredo specialty pharmacy.

Guess I'll just whither away on the vine while AI figures out how to get me pills...

Relying on a prescription from a specialty pharmacy during late capitalism is a particular kind of hell.

How'd my pharmacy auto-call me, and when I needed to talk to a human the operator had no clue why they called or have any records of me as a patient

Yaaaaasss

I think faculty culture over in Ettinger is very different than in the CA. Deeply jealous.

No one is leaving New York City to go to Texas and Florida. Could you imagine lol

(no shade to Texas which has a lot of delightful areas)

I’ve struggled with using Arendt to understand Trump since I don’t think he’s banality of evil; he seems to delight in cruelty.

But the anti-thinking ethos MAGA wears on its sleeve? Arendt has a lot of insight here

Hannah Arendt Is Not Your Icon

Hard not to think of politicians embracing AI/defunding the liberal arts when you read this

“Thinking is hard, and often frightening; Arendt suggested that people who were “just following orders” welcomed a permission structure that discouraged thought.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/b...

I’m not unsympathetic to how difficult the holidays can be for parents but this strikes me as one of the more annoying traditions that one can very easily nope out of…I roll my eyes every year when I see people complaining about it

I could go the rest of my career without people worrying about whether giving students with accommodations extra time for assignments is an unfair advantage.

In my career, every single project--every single one--I've worked on, someone has asked for more time. It has never caused major problems

Nah, I got it figure out. I just want to vent about how unclear we all are to students

Yeah, that's what I expected from personal experience, but like...this is so not transparent to students. Grumble grumble grumble

Are official required for the application or not? The instructions contradict themselves twice.

My guess is that unofficial are fine for now but students will need to submit the official ones upon enrollment. WHICH IS FINE AND VERY EASY TO SAY

Helping a bright, first-gen student apply for grad school and I'm being triggered by how badly written some application instructions are.

Like, under the header "Application requirements," what the hell does:
"Official Transcripts required (unofficial are acceptable for application review)" mean?

being a budget manager in academia is such a clown show. Why'd someone just today approve a contract I signed and already transferred the money on 8 months ago...

This is my fear. Not that LLMs will make better content, but that we’ll lower our standards enough that we’ll accept slop as good enough.

I think it’s already happening

I think if you're legitimately worried about students lying to get an advantage in your class your energy is better spent addressing the ways the structure of schooling deprioritizes learning and creates an adversarial relation between students and instructors

These are good, thoughtful, conceptually-sound guidelines and ideas written by people who actually know what they're talking about, not companies trying to bully you into using their product or clueless admincritters who haven't taught in years

I want all future students to know that I will never teach remotely on what should be a snow day. I refuse. They can't take everything away from us

The Salvation Army is NOT a charity! They are an evangelical protestant church that uses donated money to actively oppress gay rights. They have threatened to close tens of thousands of New York soup kitchens if they are forced to adhere to civil rights laws when dealing with gay employees. They spend your money lobbying governments to prevent LGBT rights legislation. Please research a charity before giving. Happy Holidays!

Your annual reminder... do NOT give to the Salvation Army.

Michelle Obama on a beach in Hawaii somewhere

Costco is the anti-Target. Plush you can get a hot dog and a pop for $1.50!

I've never been a hunter but I was practically raised on game meats. Learning as an adult that farm-raised venison is often gross if not prepared properly was such a huge shock because wild venison is delightful

Idk if Western Pennsylvania public schools still do this, but when I was in K-12, we always had the Monday after Thanksgiving off to celebrate deer hunting season.

I'm well into my 30s now but a little part of me still thinks of today as a holiday where I shouldn't have to work

a man in a striped shirt is pointing at the camera and making a face . ALT: a man in a striped shirt is pointing at the camera and making a face .

Just dodged an actual phishing attempt that got my email from a restaurant reservation. Only took failing my employer’s random tests two times to learn how to suss them out

Are gay people allowed to make beard jokes about this or is that too risky?

nothing so humbling as finally typing up the handwritten notes you thought were brilliant a month ago