iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 20h

Managed to get into Philly for the Mid Autumn Festival in Chinatown.

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 02/10/2026

My university has travel abroad trips to Melee Island!

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 01/05/2026

Happy #AAPIHM and #MayDay . Kent Wong came out to chat with APALA Philly a few years ago and shared some of the stories in this book. For more on AAPI and labor history: reappropriate.co/201...

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 05/04/2026

$56 for a book review. Scholarly publishing is so messed up.

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 28/03/2026

I like my beer like my social movements.

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 28/03/2026

A post about how different agencies classify the social sciences. PASSHE doesn't classify social sciences as STEM-H. This often hurts us when they talk about priorities. Yet, PDE and NSF both classify us as such. This is a report by Baker Tilly for PDE on workforce. www.pa.gov/content/d... 1/3

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 08/03/2026

This is an interesting read. It's a collective memoir, not a deep analysis. Still, it's meaningful. I'm an US born academic, but my family is here because of relatives coming here for advanced degrees. My wife is an academic immigrant. Lots I can relate to.

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 06/03/2026

I was a critic for my friend Yuki Kato's Author Meets Critics session at ESS on her book Gardens of Hope. It's a great book, and it was a fun session! Check out the book here: nyupress.org/9781479...

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 28/02/2026

Taking my daughter to New Japan Pro Wrestling show

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 27/12/2025

Pictures of high school and college papers from 1990s. AI-generation do not know the struggle of working hard on a paper only to get a B-.

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 27/12/2025

Except for the Berlin part, basically my world. Oh and my wife demands I take her to this doner place every time we visit family in California.

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 07/11/2025

Rally for higher ed. in Philly w/ my @apscuf.org union siblings.

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 18/10/2025

This is kind of hilarious. In the 1950s, drywall producer National Gypsum used Muzak to ease "worker tension." Despite the claims, it didn't stop their factory workers and miners from striking.

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 27/09/2025

Good game. Reminds me of Double Dragon.

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 15/08/2025

End of summer course prep for Fall 2025

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 08/07/2025

Thinking about the Philly DC33 & Teamsters Local 25 strikes + the role of private waste corps. After Philly's trash is picked up it goes to Covanta (ReWorld) & Waste Management (WM) facilities - including incinerators. Local 25 were pushed to strike by Republic Services. #1u 1/4

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 02/07/2025

Only started playing Cyberpunk this year and just wrapped it up. As an urbanist and sci-fi geek, Night City was an amazing setting. Now I'm on to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 18/06/2025

I picked this up at duty free to help with my summer session paper grading while in Istanbul (which has been the tradition the last few years). The funny thing is lots of students didn't in drafts in this class. Oh well ...

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 16/06/2025

Early morning run from Nişantaşı and down İstiklal. My brain is still trying to switch from left side to right side traffic. Thankfully, I did this before morning hour.

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 07/04/2025

I let my kid open her birthday present early.

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 04/04/2025

Indeed, Kutztown (and some others) is geographically lucky in the grand scheme of things. See map from @pennlive.com below. However, as a state school, we will still be impacted by a state that is flat population-wise but has an aging population. www.pennlive.com/news/2024/03...

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 04/04/2025

I was in a somewhat frustrating faculty discussion about the demographic cliff earlier this week. Below is a chart from #PASSHE 's 25-26 appropriations request. The decline in traditional college-aged students is real, but its impact varies by region. www.passhe.edu/offices/publ...

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 03/04/2025

Tried something different this semester in my class. I now do weekly quizzes rather than periodic exams. Why? Because of AI exam cheating. The drop on quizzes is - my guess - it's easier & perhaps even more likely for a student to cheat on 4 big exams. This is how the grade distribution changed.

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 22/03/2025

Didn't get everything I had planned done during Spring Break, but did manage to take my visiting mom to Longwood Gardens.

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 13/03/2025

Yes, I compromised my political and economic beliefs to get this platinum trophy.

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 09/02/2025

Getting some writing done while getting into the spirit. It's how I pre-game.

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 08/02/2025

Our daughter asked us to use this highlighter. We had to explain our reaction to the ask.

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 01/02/2025

More from PASSHE appropriations PowerPoints. These slides from 23-24 and 24-25 track the number of high school seniors in feeder counties. From 2004-2037, the population around KU has historically been and is projected to be stable. Yet we've seen declining enrollments since 2010. 1/2

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 31/01/2025

The following figures are from the 23-24 and 24-25 PASSHE appropriations PowerPoints. You'll notice in the 23-24 version they note that languages had higher workforce demand than computer science. I think they realized what they did and changed to categorizations for 24-25. 1/2

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 15/12/2024

Book nook 1 complete. Put it together with (some) help from the 8 year old. I'm debating whether to do another one during winter break.

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 29/11/2024

Pics from our annual holiday visit to Longwood Gardens. The beauty there is the calm before the storm of grading and the other end of the semester bureaucracy.

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 27/11/2024

Thanksgiving "break" is going to involve a lot of grading. At least, I managed to squeeze in a platinum trophy this week. #Veilguard was good. That said, NG+ or Golden Nug would improve replayability a lot.

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Albert S. Fu @novumsimulacrum.com · 16/11/2024

Students got me this cactus last year, and it's blooming now. I'm not a plant person, so the fact it's still alive is pretty neat.

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