His slides also included a few pictures of him hanging out with his black friends.

I wonder if he started out with a couple of good ideas but got lost when he tried to expand them into a bigger talk.

If you left messages, I say yes.

I did. Yay, validation! I made a third call and actually accomplished something! And now I'm doing laundry because some day I will be a responsible adult who does laundry at least a day before going somewhere but apparently not today.

Yesterday D said, "Let's skip the [online gaming] tonight, snuggle up in bed, watch a movie, and eat ice cream."

Aww! So cute!

Honestly, I don't think I got anything at all out of this talk.

Wow, yeah, that sounds bizarre and kinda awful! I saw your post on FB and thought the title of the talk sounded pretty neat, but what a way to take the title and go crazy with it!

The Irish and other waves of immigrants were often treated as subhuman. However, people often say this to argue that their people suffered too, so blacks and other minorities shouldn't get special treatment. The problem with this argument is that second generation Irish were fairly indistinguishable from other white Americans, while blacks couldn't escape their otherness.

The Irish and other waves of immigrants were often treated as subhuman. However, people often say this to argue that their people suffered too, so blacks and other minorities shouldn't get special treatment. The problem with this argument is that second generation Irish were fairly indistinguishable from other white Americans, while blacks couldn't escape their otherness.

YES. Exactly. Thanks, Ginger!

As a friend of mine once said during a discussion comparing gay rights to civil rights "When you walk into a room, no one knows you're gay unless you want them to. I am always black."

... must not make Marcus Bachman joke

I just skipped a few sessions on pedagogical methods for quantitative literacy so that I could go in the whirlpool instead. I think I made the right choice -- my hips feel a lot better, and I think that I'll now be able to sit through some of the later afternoon sessions. Before, I was in too much pain to stay sitting down for more than ten minutes or so.

When I'm sitting on a dining-type chair that's too high for my feet to be flat on the floor, the most comfortable way for me to sit without putting pressure on my hips or back is half-lotus. Pretty much any other way of sitting on a chair like that will leave me in a lot of pain. However, whenever I do this in public, several people will smile at me and say, "I wish I could sit like that." I smile back and nod, but I don't get it. Why do people want to sit like that? What's so appealing about it?

(If I'm barefoot, then I sit crosslegged, but that doesn't work too well when I've got my ankle brace on, because the brace gets in the way, so it's easier to just put the brace foot on top of the other knee.)