Random Thoughts December 22, 2025

So Lizzy broke a couple of the nails she had done last week, so she peeled the rest off. I loved mine, but they were too long for me to type, pop can tops, pull up my socks, etc. Therefore, we went in and had them edited today. The results are in the pic. It's s slightly brighter red than last time, with smaller sparkles, no snowflakes.

"There is no timeline for grief," but even so, it's usually longer than a couple of minutes, followed by a world tour. She says, snarkily. I wonder who among my readers may be offended by that observation (I do post the blog to everyone and then share it to my friends list), and if they're offended, who they think I could possibly be speaking of.

Full offense intended.

I'm looking forward to Christmas simply because it's a nice, quiet affair now that the kids are older and so on. Or maybe the fact that Lizzy begins Christmas at 12:01 AM on November 1st simply makes it seem quiet by comparison.

Why yes, there are more important things going on right now than my quiet, homegrown Christmas. I'm aware of these things, of course, but I have made a conscious decision (aided and abetted by my therapist) to help where I can, and then escape from All That Out There™ by way of logging off. This is especially important for me during the two weeks before and after the Winter Solstice (yesterday morning in my hemisphere) when there is Extra Super Duper Hibernation Mode™ happening for me.

Yes, it's Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), aka seasonal depression, and I also use other aids to help with it, like my fancy sun-mimicking lamp and vitamin D and actual antidepressant medication, but I still basically want to sleep for those four weeks.

Come to think of it, pretty nails (and massages for relaxation) may also be treatment for such things, in a self-care sort of way. Even my Calm app may, for the same reason. And new hair ties, and this little spa set that my Secret Pal got me, etc. Okay, that means I'm doing the self-care recommended while not even realizing it until just now. 

Go me.

Anyway, nothing much has changed recently, but I'm getting into writing it out again, so here we are.

Random Thoughts, December 14 2025

Four fingers with sparkly dark red gel polish
 and a snowflake on the ring finger

How do they not see it? Or maybe they don't care, as long as they've got theirs. That does seem to be the pattern.

We're at that point in the ongoing crisis in my country (it seems cyclical), when I'm snoozing even people I like and/or agree with on social media, because I can only take so much outrage before I need to go suck my thumb in a corner.

Speaking of thumbs...

Why, yes, my daughter did get me a pre-holiday full set of acrylic nails with sparkly dark red gel polish and snowflakes on my ring fingers for an early Christmas present. The thumbs are done, too, but none are in the picture.

I forgot how hard it is to type with nails that extend past my fingertips, as it's been years since I've had them this long.

Actually, I forgot how hard it is to wrap gifts, rub my eyes, roll my socks up my legs, and pop open a can of seltzer water with nails that extend past my fingertips.

People who would rather snipe about taxes than actually respond to requests for help during unprecedented flooding in my area make me want to slap them. Of course, I'd have to get within six feet (these people, in my experience, are also generally antivax and antimask), and I might accidentally gouge one of their eyes out with these nails, so I'll have to content myself with helping those in need and merely fantasizing about slapping the selfish assholes instead.

Wow, my skin looks extra super dry in that picture up there. Must use extra lotion.

Tomorrow is Accessory Day at my workplace. Hanging with bus drivers in reindeer hats and light-up garland necklaces is always a fun time.

I'm sure glad Abby made it home for the holidays before the flooding started in earnest. The area between her school and our house is pretty wrecked.

I'm also glad that my workplace is collecting warm coats and the like, in addition to the food drive.

Must wrap the last gift for my Secret Pal for this quarter. Should've done it when I had all the stuff out for the kids' gifts this morning.

While I was writing this, Lizzy announced a charley horse in her right calf and we looked up the origin (unknown but likely from 1880s baseball slang comparing players' leg cramps to old horses), and she is both amused and slightly annoyed by the fact that the treatment I recommended (a banana and hydration) actually is the approved treatment.

That's all I've got this morning.

Tech and the Student in 2025

Bitmoji cartoon of a brunette-with-grey
woman wearing a doubtful expression
with the caption "ummmm..."

I participated in a Facebook post this morning about how the more tech we have in schools, the less well students perform. 

I had a few thoughts. 

More than a few, actually, and it got so long I thought it would make a decent-length blog post, refreshingly not (primarily) about the horrific things my government and their lackeys are doing. I'm pretty pro-tech, having worked in the industry, and I also believe that content is more important than time spent. Not to mention the irony inherent in complaining about technology on Facebook, of all platforms.

So here goes (expanded somewhat from the initial response).

~~~~

I suspect (from observation as a former student, current parent of a high school senior and a college senior, techie, all-around geek, intercultural communications graduate (online, no less), and McKinney-Vento driver for my school district) that it's several things.

• The tech: sure. It came very fast, and it's very engaging/distracting. It has its good points, like easy access to information or the ability to communicate in ways we haven't before or spell check, and its bad points, like easy access to misinformation, internet bot trolls, and Grammarly nagging me about sounding more professional on my personal blog 🙄. Most of the other bad and/or inappropriate stuff is blocked on school devices by district IT departments. And also the tech was aided and abetted by...
• The pandemic: yep. The surge to techify wasn't out of nowhere; if we wanted them to have school at all, it was through this medium. We required teachers and students to do it the technological way, and then when it was (mostly) safe to come back into the buildings, we expected everything - including the kids - to revert seamlessly. Even those kids who started school over Zoom. And also...
• The performance: this too. If we're expecting identical performance output when the method of input has changed, that's highly unlikely to happen (case in point: the loss of cursive in much of GenZ and Gen Alpha), as well as...
• The disconnect: the way it's traditionally been done does not work for everyone, and yet here we are, refusing to change with the times. The tech is here. We can't just stuff it back into Pandora's Box at this point.

So here's the thing. I believe the tech is here to stay, and we can try to go back to the old ways all we want to; it may work in small pockets, but it's not the be-all and end-all. There's a difference between tradition and stagnation. How many people, even in my generation (X), were ever required to, say, diagram a sentence? The only time I've seen that was in literature set in the 19th century or earlier. We have regained some older skills, and let others slide, and that's... well, it's evolution, really. Progression. 

It's not intrinsically bad. Like most things, it's the way in which it's used.

"No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Die"

A bitmoji cartoon of a brunette with grey
woman, pinching the bridge of her nose, as if
to stave off a headache.

You know, everything going on in and around my country right now would be funny in its over-the-top ridiculousness if it weren't so dangerous and scary. 

It's like my government is currently made up of a Bond Villain - or even one of the many many parodies of the same - and his lackeys. Except that most of them aren't as smart or as classy as Bond Villains.

But no, they have to take it and go full on HYDRA instead.

Yes, I am using various fandoms to illustrate my point here. The "OMG-it-went-woke" crowd doesn't have a monopoly on that, no matter how wrong I think they are, as the fandoms they bemoan (many different comics, Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, etc., ad nauseum) as being "suddenly woke" have always been that way. At least for the times in which they were written.

But the Bad Guys in these (HYDRA, for example, or The Master, or Nehemiah Scudder, or the Galactic Empire, or any of the assorted authoritarian/batshit people/organisations in much of science fiction) are not meant to be blueprints, you numpties.

These were meant as cautionary tales, much like fairy tales in their early incarnations. Or even in some religious works.

Don't stray from the path. Be honest. Have integrity. Be kind. Love thy neighbor.

It's not that hard to be decent. Unless you're never ever satisfied.