SLAG-91

TEA (Texas Education Agency) has given guidelines that gives parents up to two weeks before the beginning of school to decide on in-person or online. That makes staffing decisions very difficult (who teaches the online vs. who teaches in-person...what % of your faculty does what). I am the only teacher of my course at my school (AP Statistics), so I assume I'll be at school, which I am OK with, as I mentioned earlier. It is my preference. What I am hoping to see happen is that students who choose on-line learning have teachers specifically teaching on-line classes, and that teacher may or may not be from your campus. They handle the grading, etc. There is also a question of going back and forth between the two modes, and it looks like the minimum commitment is for 6 weeks/9 weeks (one grading period...some districts use 6 weeks, others use 9). I'd prefer to see a semester's worth of commitment to whichever option is picked, but that's not a hill I'm going to die on.

Letter from past and present leaders in health policy, health care systems and academia Their recommendations can be seen by clicking on "thoughts" that is hyperlinked. ETA: Meant to put this in the non-smack part of politics.

For me, it was cutting out the sugary soda (knocked back a 20 oz Coke from the vending machine probably once a day on average), grazing on something with protein during the day (go no more than 3 hours without eating, even if it's just some almonds), and cutting out the fast food, Whataburger in particular. I also drink a LOT of water. We have an exercise bike upstairs, so if it's raining, I'll get on that for about a half-hour...turn on an ESPN 30 for 30 short and pedal away. Otherwise, a long walk around the neighborhood. Exercise helps out, but changing diet is the biggest influence imo.

The least experienced cop (Lane) has filed a motion to dismiss the charges against him. Link to PDF of motion

I'm heading into my 24th year of teaching (HS) and am much more concerned about unfeasible and unenforceable mandates being dictated to us than I am about getting sick. My preference is to go back in person, for the record. I'm thinking about things like social distancing requirements on buses, for instance. Are you going to have an aide on every bus to enforce these rules? The driver can't drive and play keep-away monitor simultaneously. Some districts are encouraging kids that can take something other than the bus to do so. Drop-off lines at school are going to become much more crowded. If you combine that with mandatory temperature screenings before coming in (who is going to be responsible for administering those? Our school has many points of entry...not likely to have a nurse/nurse's aide at all of them), it would take a very long time to even get everyone in the building. Fire drills (required monthly in our district)...going to have the kids politely walk out 6' apart, particularly when the goal.is to get out of the building as quickly as possible? Good luck with that. Social distancing and fire drills are basically mutually exclusive, as any teacher will tell you. If a mask mandate is for kids, say, less than 10 years old...have fun, 4th grade teachers. Most kids turn 10 during the 4th grade, so you'll have mask enforcement for some, but not all. "Happy Birthday, _____, here's your mask!" I'll stop there...but the "what about X,Y and Z" list of considerations for schools is seemingly endless. Our district is offering parents/students the choice of 100% on-line or 100% in-person. I will be interested to see how the numbers shake out on that. No hybrid option. I am glad I am not the decision-maker here, because there are no good options...just varying degrees of craptastic ones.

Candidates would change how they campaigned if the presidency were decided by a straight popular vote, so trying to compare what would have happened in previous elections is pretty futile. It could drive up participation in states that, electorally, are pretty much in the bag for one party or the other at this point. I imagine Democrats in Idaho and Republicans in California pretty much feel like their presidential vote is wasted right now, but if their vote was part of a nationwide tally, more of those voters would vote. The other side of that is that the very large cities would hold even more sway, and pretty much wipe out any input whatsoever from residents of smaller states. Basically, I think campaign strategies would focus even more on urban areas where there are more people, and even less on rural areas that just can't provide the sheer numbers. The electoral college, for any flaws it may have, does give every state guaranteed input on the outcome of a national election, however great or small, and I can live with that. Would awarding electoral votes by congressional district be an in-between compromise worth considering? Just some random spitballing on a Wednesday afternoon...

I was much more on edge for the Kentucky game than I am today's game...today is a "do what we do, play fast, shoot 3's and see where it gets us" game for me, at least. Getting to a Final Four, especially for the first time, has been a dream come true. You want to play on the last weekend of the year, and here we are. Neither team in this game has an edge re: Final Four experience, so I expect some nerves to start with on both sides. Hopefully we settle in first.

I'll put it on par with the 2013 run to the BCS title game right now. Two more wins and it's even with the 2010 title run. This feels heavenly...at the end of the Lebo-Barbee error, I mean era, wait...no, I had it right the first time, error, a Final Four appearance seemed ridiculous to even mention. To see it happen, it's incredible. It's always been other teams, but today, it's us. We're in the club.

Ran into a buzzsaw in the second half and couldn't stop the bleeding. Offense deteriorated into too much 1-on-1, and when that went in the tank, so did the defensive effort. To their credit, Purdue was excellent in the second half. 17 of 26 from 3 is tough to do during shootaround, never mind a game. Better days are ahead...nights like that one will hopefully be few and far between going forward.

Yep, Smith with the block. My bad. Hope we get Purdue tomorrow...would be good experience for our guys, especially the frontcourt.

This is a game we probably lose last year...and yeah, the youth showed at the end. It's worth noting that arguably the two biggest plays were made by upperclassmen (steal and layup by Dunans, block by Smith). A learning experience and no loss at the end of it. Best of both worlds...AU wins and Pearl gets some good coaching points.

I wonder how many voters left the president slot empty and voted for everything else down their ballot. I thought about it, but didn't (voted 3rd party). I wish ranked-choice voting would gain more national traction, but I don't see it ever gaining much of a foothold outside of local elections.

Awful...prayers to his family and friends. RIP Quentin.

That's where my buddy from college (and HS) are right now. The offense looks rudderless and if it continues, the defense (which is improved but not elite) will eventually give out. All of the losing at home is wearing people out. Jordan-Hare has become a welcome mat, and that is not acceptable.

'89 Iron Bowl. Historic day in Auburn. It almost deserves a separate category. The anticipation for that game was years in the making. I had a bumper sticker on my car that said "Hey Bama, See You In Auburn"...in 1987.