StrangeBird

During the pandemic, I started exercising at home using a series on YouTube called Body Project. It’s nice because most of the videos are only 25-45 minutes long, and you can do them completely standing up without any additional equipment. Some of the exercises are more cardio whereas others are more stretching or strength building. It’s done out of Australia, so you get to hear the Aussie accent and there’s often a bit of humor involved (especially the sessions run by the guy, Daniel). They also have their own website where you can subscribe if you want something more in depth. https://m.youtube.com/@BodyProjectchallenge

Possibly my favorite film of all-time is Arrival. The ending is a real tearjerker, but also makes you think about the nature of time (the fact that her daughter’s name is a palindrome and the entire film is portrayed as a story where the ending is also the beginning) and also a difficult ethical dilemma about choosing to bring someone into the world with foreknowledge of the pain it will inevitably bring. Amy Adams is a fantastic actress. I’m not much of a classical music aficionado, but the opening and closing song by Max Richter (On the Nature of Daylight) works so well in this movie. It never fails to move me deeply despite my having seen the film at least 5 or 6 times now.

After the abomination that was the final season of Game of Thrones, I thought I’d sworn off any future GOT spinoffs. Eventually I caved and tried House of the Dragon but did not find it compelling. However, the new show, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is terrific. It’s a smaller scale story, with episodes lasting only 30 minutes, but it’s a moving story with some compelling characters and a lot of humor as well.

I will wait to see the results on the field, but this not an inspiring hire. I see no track record of success or innovative thinking with this guy. I’m starting to wonder if MCDC has what it takes to lead this team to sustained success and a Super Bowl. Is it possible that the successes of 2023 and 2024 were more Ben Johnson’s offensive play-calling and less MCDC?

That throw was ridiculous.

If I recall correctly, some sort of statement regarding improper use of AI was incorporated into our university’s academic honesty policy. But other than that, it’s up to each instructor to decide how much to allow AI in the classroom, or whether to allow it at all. My school’s president has encouraged us to try to find ways to use AI in the classroom. Many of my colleagues, including at other schools, are very anti-AI and completely ban it. I see its value and usefulness, so I’ve tried to distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable uses of AI for student work. It’s an ongoing process. Last semester, I tried an assignment requiring students to engage in a philosophical dialogue with ChatGPT, using a specially designed prompt. Overall, the dialogues weren’t as interesting as I’d hoped, but maybe it’s something I will try again in the future.

I thought this report from 60 Minutes was pretty interesting. It’s impressive how humanlike the robot movement is getting, and now with an AI-brain. https://youtu.be/CbHeh7qwils

This semester, I’m experimenting with a new grading scheme in my college classes in which students must choose between a writing path (two in-class exams plus a semester-long, scaffolded written paper with rigorous requirements) or an exam-only path. The writing path is required to be eligible for an A. The max grade for the exam-only path is an A-, no matter how well you do on the exams. I’m doing this primarily because I received so many sketchy probably AI-written papers last semester. I don’t mind students using AI to assist them, but just not replace the writing process. I want to continue teaching writing to students who take it seriously and will benefit from it, but hopefully deter students who don’t want to do the work themselves. Because I really don’t want to read their terrible papers with citations from academic journal articles I know they haven’t actually read. In designing this grading scheme, I found ChatGPT quite helpful in understanding what features of the scheme might be considered unfair, and how I could frame it in a way that made sense and is / appears fair. I just straight up asked why might this be considered unfair, what sorts of pushback might I receive, what are some different possible ways I might go about constructing this new grading scheme. Chat had some really well-thought out ideas. ChatGPT is like an intellectual, creative partner for me. I have all kinds of deep, back-and-forth conversations with it about things I’m thinking about, projects I’m working on, or things I want to better understand. This may be controversial, but to some extent, I think it’s able to have original thoughts. Maybe not completely original, but it’s not just repeating verbatim information it’s been fed, or copying something straight from wikipedia. It’s synthesizing information, analyzing and comparing ideas, and putting forth its own ways of explaining complex ideas.

My father and I watched One Battle After Another tonight on HBO Max. I thought it was quite good. Good story, action, + humor. Do not recommend for the MAGA cult members.

The Rams and SF are also “good teams.” Carolina is obviously weaker, but they beat GB and the Rams. I guess neither of those teams is good.

We should be rooting for the Rams tonight, yes? Lions can still pass the Seahawks if the Lions go 3-0 and Seahawks go 0-3. Crazy 2-point conversion just now on a backwards lateral pass “fumble.”

It sounds like they suspect he is also the one responsible for murdering an MIT physicist a couple days after the Brown shooting. Scary stuff.

Packers are down 8 and Love just got intercepted. 6 1/2 minutes left in that one.

Final NFC Standings Prediction 1. LA 2. GB 3. PHI 4. TB 5. SF 6. DET 7. SEA Detroit goes to Philly again for the first round.

If the goal is making the playoffs (not necessarily winning the division), why would we want them to split the wins? The team that loses today hopefully loses again the next time they meet. The Lions need to pass one of those teams (though technically they could also pass one of the NFC West teams for a WC spot). The Bears are the weaker team, the team the Lions have the best chance of passing, especially since the Lions get to play them again, so it seems wise to root for the Bears to lose twice to the Packers (as gross as it is to root for the Packers).