🌸🌹2ck 🌱🐇 @2ck@social.cleverlibre.org

The birds are back in town!

Again, couldn't tell ya if they're the same birds, but this morning I saw a couple of barn swallows flying to and from the nest over my door. I'm glad I didn't destroy the nest last time: it's great to see them again 😄

I've started adding an extra credit question to all my exams that is, in a nutshell, "Describe, in detail, some topic you studied for the exam but that the exam did not cover".

Most of the responses I get are of the form "I found <thing> really interesting and studied it in great detail, but you didn't ask me enough about it and I want to talk about it more."

This is super rewarding.

I need to always keep this in mind while interacting with people.

#kindness

So, please satisfy my curiosity: Why do you follow me here on Mastodon?

(pick the most relevant option; if none apply and/or you want to add details, do so as a reply)

Cool pic and great story!
"In the early hours of Saturday morning, Todd Salat was outside near Delta Junction doing he what he does often: directing his camera at the sky, hoping to capture dazzling images of the aurora borealis.

That’s when the Anchorage-based photographer saw something wild — a sudden, bright light on the northern horizon that quickly started to take on a spiral shape as it drew nearer.

“It got bigger and bigger,” Salat said Saturday. “And I had absolutely no idea what it was.”

The white-ish blue spiral appeared to moving quickly. After about five minutes, it was almost overhead, he said.

“It was a beautiful piece of art in the sky,” he said. “I would say this was maybe the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen in my life."
It was rocket engine exhaust from a SpaceX Transporter-7 mission that launched on the Falcon 9 in CA.
#Alaska #NorthernLightsPlus
https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/science/2023/04/15/mysterious-glowing-spiral-in-the-sky-over-alaska-draws-questions-and-a-simple-explanation/

urhgh
"instead of voting, people..."
NO
there is no downside to trying to improve the world in every way possible
you should still engage in direct action! or any other approach you see fit! but voting might make a nonzero difference, so you shouldn't totally discount it entirely

I have an indoor cat. She greets me at the front door, like a good indoor cat.
Except this morning, when I returned home in an unfamiliar car, from the wrong direction. As I got out of the car I saw my good indoor cat barrel down a treetrunk, scoot across the lawn, and leap up a wall and through a window I didn't know she could access.
Then she demurely greeted me at the front door like any good indoor cat.
How long has this been going on?

second stage application paperwork, wants me to upload a copy of my birth certificate. then requires me to fill in an expiration date for it.

if I knew when my birth would expire I don't think I'd be applying for helpdesk jobs

Carving #trilobites and am cursing myself. Blanks I cut about a year ago, and must have been trying to use up odd pieces… cut the one in front with the grain running sideways instead of lengthwise… oops! It’s making carving… interesting…

#carving #woodcarving #trilobite

Took my kids to MicroCenter today to get parts for their very first built-completely-to-spec PCs. Gave them a budget and just kept them from making any actually-bad purchases.

Highlights: the sales person that helped with the keyboard and mouse selection was a younger gamer enby, and did a great job engaging with helping the kids make good choices like "prioritize stats over aesthetic, but still honor your aesthetic".

Kid1 saying "I want my tower to be pink; but not if I have to pay a Pink Tax", and the sales person helping her finding a case that was pink, met requirements, and wasn't more expensive than a black one.

Kid2 saying, to my surprise, "I'll spend the extra $30 on the AMD GPU because the Linux drivers are better and I want to run Manjaro" (clearly she took my advice to do some research! Holy crap!)

incognito mode ​​