iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 10h

This is pretty insignificant, but the rise of using “basket” instead of “group,” “set,” “category,” etc., drives me nuts for some reason.

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 19h

Thing is, I think a lot of elected GOPs actually cannot define socialism because they truly don’t know what it is. But Vance is probably smart enough to know—he just also knows that if he says what it is, a lot of people will be like “oh, yeah, we should do that.”

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Sorry for NYT Connections spoilers, but it’s perfect that the creators think most Americans will be more familiar with financial firms than budget hotel chains.

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Not voting *today*, but please, Ohio, go vote!

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Reposted by Greg Decker

Thomas M. Keck @tmksyracuse.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

If the problem is not polarization but authoritarian extremism, then the solution is not encouraging civil dialogue between racists and anti-racists; the solution is "to recommit to the project of pluralistic American democracy"

The vision of taking the United States back to a time when women and people of color “knew their place” is both unsupported by a majority of Americans and the cause of animosity between Democrats and Republicans. The solution is not to reduce the animus between pluralists and far-right extremists, but to recommit to the project of pluralistic American democracy. The movement against recent progress represents a minority of citizens, many of whom were disengaged with politics before the appearance of Donald Trump.24 In the most optimistic view, the United States is at the precipice of the most pluralistic democratic society in its history—but only if voters understand this and cast their ballots for leaders who support equal rights for all citizens.

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

What’s the theory about why he keeps saying “dumb” is spelled with a “b” at the end of the word? Is it really just that he didn’t know how it was spelled until earlier this year? That can’t be it, right?

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

OK, now everyone will know I am 1000 years old and very not cool.

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I don’t know, but I *love* the color of your wall!

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Reposted by Greg Decker

Megan Non Brevis @theorymeg.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Hear me out: sometimes it’s nice to learn about something just because … it’s fun and interesting! College is not supposed to be about optimizing yourself for A Career with no detours. It’s supposed to be an opportunity to learn and grow *as a human being* — much of which happens outside your major.

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

See also the “what a great assignment I have designed” to “now I have to fucking grade it” pipeline.

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Two years ago, Detroit Opera did Serse. I expected the place to be less than half full—it’s Handel, and non-opera people haven’t heard of it. But it was packed with every kind of person from all walks of life. And people were buzzing about it afterward.

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Seriously, this is incredible. People want to do these things, but they’re so often out of reach.

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Me in an email: Please let Dr. T and me know. Grammar check: Please let Dr. T and *I* know. 💅🏻 Me: 😒

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Just listened to it. It’s . . . kind of hard to believe it’s spent longer at No. 1 than “All I Want for Christmas is You.” The lyrics sound like ChatGPT wrote them.

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Yes, the author seems to take for granted that a public-only system would somehow close the door on a fight for resources. It would help, but that fight would be redirected. I agree with the basic premise, though.

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

For some reason randomly remembering when I got in touch with someone I went to grad school with for a friend because his employer was hiring, and his response was basically like “we’re a really good school—I don’t know if your colleagues where you teach could keep up. She probs wont be considered.”

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

If a blue wave comes to pass, there needs to be some kind of citizens’ campaign to let Dems know this in no uncertain terms.

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

For the first time in a long time, I have one day each week when I don’t have class to teach, and I have no standing meetings. It is amazing what I can get done in a working day with no other obligations.

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Same thing is about to happen in Ohio.

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Remembering the summer of ‘23 when our mortgage broker told us we’d likely be able to refinance in a couple of years “when there’s a new administration in place” *wink wink* 😉

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

This does not allay my fear that Dems will get elected, say “we need to move on,” and then do nothing to punish the absolute lawlessness going on all around us. Every election cannot be “the most important election of our lifetime.” Real consequences ASAP.

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

It’s a win-win for them: they get to destroy American universities while also destroying our R&D sector. What could go wrong?

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

If you want any thoughts/advice, DM me. My husband was a sleep technologist for many years before changing careers. I’ll pass questions on to him!

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I can’t publicly say what I actually think, but I’ll just leave this here.

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Oh, my god. Well, politician also makes sense 😂

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

This has to be a baseball player, right?

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Ugh, I’m so sorry you’re having to deal with this!

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Has anyone made the switch from an iPhone to a different brand of smartphone? How much of a hassle was it? Thinking about it, but I’ve been using iPhones for 16 years. And I am slightly technologically challenged 😬

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

You can’t teach grad classes without it. New faculty are automatically granted grad faculty status, and then you have to renew every 6 years. My understanding is that it has to do with accreditation compliance. Each dept can set their own criteria, though.

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

This is a huge point of contention. It counts toward our merit and is expected of graduate faculty (necessary to retain grad faculty status). But no one gets load credit. On the other hand, teaching loads vary widely among the doctoral programs on campus.

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Where I live now and where I’ve heard (a) elsewhere are also somewhat rural, so maybe there’s something to that!

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

This is interesting to me, Mike! If you don’t mind saying, which part of PA, and was it urban, suburban, or rural?

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

My own answer is that I say (c) as do my parents, but I’ve heard (b) fairly frequently. And while I don’t usually use it, I do find it grammatical. I had never heard (a) until I moved to NW OH, and I hear it around Ft. Wayne as well. It doesn’t make grammatical sense to me, but it is common here.

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

😂 OK, I’m going to explain why I asked about it in just a second.

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Curious, Megan—did you grow up hearing anyone use (b)? Are your parents originally from Colorado?

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Abby, I was hoping you’d respond, because I hear (a) all the time in NW Ohio and NE Indiana. Is that something you heard growing up?

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Here’s a question I didn’t see on that US dialect survey that I’m curious about: Which of these do you use/do you find acceptable: (a) The dishes need washed. (b) The dishes need washing. (c) The dishes need to be washed. Or are some or all OK? Interested to know also where you’re from or grew up

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Who could have predicted that handing out tax dollars to completely unregulated enterprises would produce bad outcomes?

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Coming in at a close second: sending bad news because of some new terrible thing the state government is doing.

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

One of the absolute worst parts of my job is having to send bad news to students because of some new terrible thing the federal government is doing.

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

At the Dolly museum in Dollywood, there’s a big sign right as you exit that says something like “we can’t just hope for peace and understanding—we have to work for it.” Wish more people would take that to heart. Hope she’s resting peacefully now.

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

This is such an insidious and cynical way to make sure someone is making money on what is supposed to be public education. Maybe the schools wouldn’t be struggling so much if they were funded properly and if we had actual social services.

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Reposted by Greg Decker

Ryan Marino, MD @ryanmarino.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

The Haslams have more than $16 billion, and for some reason they are currently trying to take $600 million of Ohio taxpayer dollars to construct a new stadium for the private NFL team they own, while they use their public position (and the team’s employees) to promote extremely partisan politics

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

OK, hear me out: BBC/PBS does the second half of the Poldark book series (after the time jump), bringing back the original cast from the 2015-20 series. It’s perfect, because it’s about a decade later and the time jump is also about a decade. Too niche?

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Not saying this is a reasonable explanation by Hassett, but people may not know that public school districts often lay off a certain number of teachers each spring “just in case,” but then usually hire them back over the summer when they know what their needs will be for the new school year

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Serious question: the Covid mRNA vaccines provide excellent protection but only for like 4-6 weeks, right? Will an mRNA flu vaccine be similar? Doesn’t seem super helpful when the flu season is more like 4-6 months…

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Someone on Bluesky (can’t remember who 😬) shared this recipe last week. Made it as directed for a dinner party today, and it was fantastic! Highly recommend if you like cheesecake and the toffee-ish flavors of vanilla and brown butter.

buttermilkbysam.com

Vanilla Bean Brown Butter Cheesecake | Buttermilk by Sam

Vanilla bean cheesecake made even more wonderful by adding nutty, toasty brown butter to both the crust and filling.

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Greg Decker @leprofgalant.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Recently heard a national security expert say in an interview that their number 1 fear re: AI is its potential use for bio weapons. So, this seems . . . not great.

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