iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 3h

the student is alright: "I don’t wanna be like the woman Anne Lamott shamed in the excerpt. I want to promise myself...that I will always write the shitty first draft. I will always shit all over the page, just spewing out the worst shit imaginable, until I find what I’m really looking for"

000

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

what someone you wanted to be a leader would do:

100

Reposted by @aaronottinger.bsky.social

Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Anthropic banning “abusive or cruel behavior” toward Claude in its new usage policies is proof to me that tech companies are going to moderate violence against AI before they ever moderate violence against women and minorities

207126083132

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

as part of my new Engl101: "Humanism & AI," students read & annotate a print copy of Tony Davies' Humanism. They submit 14-15 notes (in the margins or in a notebook) each week. So far, I'm impressed! This an "AI-resistant" assignment. 1/3

100

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

is all this work in the service of one day doing nothing? really seems like i should be able to figure out how to do that sooner.

000

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

signing off a little early today bc it's my birthday (45!) and I've got tickets to see Peter Hook and the Light! (first hour, New Order's Get Ready, second hour, all Joy Division). This is two years in a row I get to see Hook on my bday. Thank you, Peter!!!

000

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

just signed up for "AI Refusal Praxis in the Humanities CoP" put on by Washington State Board Community and Technical Colleges! Five 1-hour workshops in 2027!

110

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

been offline for the last two weeks bc i married my beautiful partner of ten years (so our wedding was also our 10yr anniversary!). we did not honeymoon after...just bathed in post-wedding exhaustion...really hard to get up & face the world again.

110

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

I must have messed up and wrote on my personal calendar that opening week and classes started a week earlier than they actually do...I just realized, in fact, that I have another week of summer! This is like the happiest thing that's happened to me in...way too long! 😄😭

110

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

I have to teach an online asynchronous class fall26, but thats it. After this abysmal summer term, letting my chair know I can't do it anymore. Morale is terrible, trust is broken, and (bc I can see how many hours were spent in the class), it's questionable if anyone learned a thing. Thank you, AI.

000

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

I appreciate where this is coming from. but i feel like the more obvious rule is, you can't blame "wokeness" or "DEI" on why you didn't get a job/tenure. Not every tenured prof writes a book; not all universities are research institutions.

000

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

the failure rate for my students this summer has surpassed 50% due to AI usage/cheating (call it what you will). I'm revamping classes; trying to adapt. but this is maddening. Despair is the word for what i'm feeling. and that this all feels like it is by design is the worst part.

020

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Marathon (Μαραθών): "a place full of fennel." 🤯

000

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

once at a bagel shop in college a group of 12/13yo girls were hanging out w their skateboards. I ordered a cranberry bagel & one of them said, loudly, "*cranberry*??? that's what my MOM likes!" multiple people, including friends, laughed heartily. Brutal. Ive never eaten a cranberry bagel since.

020

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

i hope everyone shares this. even if you already know it, many people do not. we cannot look ourselves in the face in good conscience in state with concentration camps. be cynical if you wish. that is no reason not to be irate—not to demand an end to these inhuman conditions.

000

Reposted by @aaronottinger.bsky.social

Andrea Pitzer @andreapitzer.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Nearly all concentration camp regimes involve the government making what were previously simple tasks of daily life unlawful or impossible for the group they’ve targeted for detention, bit by bit eradicating any possibility of public existence.

nytimes.com

ICE Arrests Surge at Airports, Opening New Front in Deportation Drive (Gift Article)

Federal agents are arresting spouses of Americans, tech workers and others whose visas have expired, including many who have active applications to stay in the country.

4437221

Reposted by @aaronottinger.bsky.social

Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 24/07/2026

The advocacy group Ohio Immigrant Alliance released a list of 59 active and former ICE and CBP agents charged with sexual and violent crimes between 2007 and 2026. Fifty of 59 cases the group documented were sex crimes, many of them committed against children.

motherjones.com

Report: Dozens of ICE and CBP agents have abused women and children

David Brouillette, according to Ohio Immigrant Alliance, is no outlier.

24300194

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

i'm glad that the author is not a young scholar. it gives me hope that not all philosophers get to a certain age and then transform into [insert your least fav reactionary thinker here]

010

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

A good lesson in the dangers of impunity. I think many students this fall would be shocked to know just how rigged things can be. But it might also come as some relief to know that accountability is possible (unfortunately, it is also extremely difficult to achieve, if/when it ever is)

010

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Ah, monarchs! could ye taste the mirth ye mar, Not in the toils of Glory would ye fret; The Hoarse dull drum would sleep, and Man be happy yet! Byron, "Childe Harold" (1.47.501-3) Replace "Glory" with "Gold" and it's 100%

000

Reposted by @aaronottinger.bsky.social

Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

only baltimore's largest employer higher ed is the largest employer in 10 states, 60 cities, dozens and dozens of counties; destroying universities is economic sabotage

6337161

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

imagine having a government that subsidized the cost of an affordable car that didn't need gas—for under $10k. we've forgotten that governments are supposed to add support, infrastructure, assistance. i'd blame the politicians but we keep voting for them. too much rot in the collective imagination?

000

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

positivity without optimism. I think that's possible (and my usual disposition)

120

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

the closures of the libraries at MIT is happening at the same time that the President of MIT writes about why scientists are "losing heart" but never mentions the closures of their own libraries... 👀 www.statnews.com/2026/05/27/s...

statnews.com

MIT president: Why so many optimistic scientists are losing heart

“This erosion of our strength is a loss for the nation,” writes MIT President Sally Kornbluth.

096

Reposted by @aaronottinger.bsky.social

eileen chengyin chow @chowleen.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

“I write with dismay, grief and sorrow for the permanent closure of MIT Libraries Barker, Dewey and Rotch, and termination of library staff in those libraries. For MIT to be closing three of its four major libraries..." fnl.mit.edu/may-june-202...

fnl.mit.edu

Lament for the MIT Libraries - MIT Faculty Newsletter

551526684

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Muriel Spark once said to an editor, "If I write it, it's grammatical." This is the kind of energy I want students to adopt—and NOT, "what does ChatGPT think?"

062

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

that moment when both the instructor and the student can't seem to find the 'end' button on zoom... 😅 ...😅 ...😶

000

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

I don't know if I can use this platform anymore. I went from an empty feed to a feed FILLED with memes. I mute accounts...and that's all I seem to do now. I didn't follow these folks and more keep coming. I wanted a small network of actually thoughtful humans. Too much to ask, I guess. @bsky.app

000

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

just wrapped up the last event for National Poetry Month at Highline College. We awarded 10 cash prizes for our poetry contest (in all, about $1k). This year we were so lucky to have Ebo Barton and Saddiq Dzukogi join us on campus. My last year as committee chair. But the poetry will continue!

000

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

I watched the Manosphere doc on Netflix (Louis Theroux). The formula for these guys (and the WH): surround yourself with uneducated people that can't ask you basic questions that would, despite their simplicity, throw off your entire worldview. I couldn't finish the doc; my brain hurt.

000

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

this platform is a LOT of accounts that I do not follow, have no interest in, and can't seem to expunge from my feed fast enough. Why can't I come here and just follow like the 100 ppl I want to hear from, whose only memes are out of date and make sense to about 100 ppl?

000

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Bluesky is Severance: It's my job to come here and mute accounts, and if I mute them all really well, one day something will happen.

000

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

i have this feeling that there are some professors out there who are receiving completely AI generated work, but because they don't see any spelling or grammar mistakes, they're response is "oh, this is great!" 😩

010

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

today in class, during a difficult convo about AI, I told my students that sometimes I see my typos in emails and just leave so that they can see that I am a human writer.

010

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

getting married in spite of all the bs around us. That's what we've been telling people. So I'm not saying this is a "spite wedding". But I'm not saying this is not not a "spite wedding".

media.tenor.com

a bald man is drinking from a cup that says ' coffee ' on the sleeve

ALT: a bald man is drinking from a cup that says ' coffee ' on the sleeve

000

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

went to a department meeting on AI today and I left feeling so...defeated. 😩 Weirdly, in response, I keep coming back to an essay idea about writing, AI, and...ceramics.

000

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

yesterday, a big sigh of relief as our maniac in the wh decided not to go full genocidal. but let's not forget the other genocidal maniac still going strong. fuck these guys. they're destroying peoples' lives—and for what??

000

Reposted by @aaronottinger.bsky.social

Ilhan Omar @ilhanmn.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Sickeningly evil. Donald Trump must be impeached. When will it be enough for my Republican colleagues to grow spines and remove him from office?

Trump truth social post: A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don't want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!

49997341863

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Okay! Now, is there anyone else who seems to, idk, flirt with nazis, post fascistic rants, threatens entire civilizations...ahem. If we're talking about people who are not "conducive to the public good," I mean, seems like a certain someone should also be banned.

010

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

This is disgusting. I imagine other nations already recognize that we are no longer a safe place, an ally, or even a trustworthy economic partner. But everyday that becomes much clearer.

020

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

Enjoying the latest from @rcolesworthy.bsky.social! putting this in my stack for a new version of Engl102 next year: "Research, Readers, Writers, Publishers" (not 100% on the name yet 😅)

an excerpt from an essay by Rebecca Colesworthy

131

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

screenshotting all the posts today on Trump's insane posts and the "sane washing" headlines vs. accurate headlines for next year's media class. Keep'em coming y'all!

000

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

re-watched it again for the millionth time on friday night. unfortunately, because i'm an old i fell asleep right after they introduce Deep Throat 😭

000

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

thinking about which Shakespeare play is the play of our times. thinking Titus Andronicus. other contenders?

image of Sir Anthony Hopkins, face painted in blue, portraying Titus Andronicus (from the film directed by Julie Taymor [1999])

010

Reposted by @aaronottinger.bsky.social

Mike Hixenbaugh @mikehixenbaugh.com · 03/04/2026

It’s not just Ms. Rachel. The biggest names in children’s educational programming are coming out in force to call for kids to be freed from ICE detention. Here’s “Reading Rainbow” host @mychal3ts.bsky.social outside the Dilley Immigration Processing Center.

6492002396

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

i just heard that our school is going to *require* AI somewhere in the outcomes for all courses going forward...idk if that's true exactly or what the specifics are but...gross.

000

aaronottinger.bsky.social @aaronottinger.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

I know we receive what seem like rude emails from students all the time. We just have to take a deep breath, be cool, and reply with a little instruction. It's a different medium and genre than they're used to. They have to learn it first. It's our job as instructors to usher them into this world.

010