iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

when will we get Nobel Prizes that aren't for organic chemistry?!?

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I'm 100% prepared for a "that's biology, not chemistry!" year

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Our first term at WPI ends next Friday suckers.

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

(I've lost track of all the voting) Our town also has one of the lowest tax rates in the state, so we're not even contributing to public goods at a level that's normal.

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Long-term, the new school is even the cheaper option, but there's been a vocal movement to reject the grant & keep the status quo. As far as I can tell, the people against lean strongly toward those with grown children & a handful of home schoolers. We vote for the 4th or 5th time Tuesday

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

You'd love our town. We have a $90 million grant from the state to build a new school to replace the +100 year old middle school & +70 year old elementary school, both with chronic, expensive maintenance problems. All the town has to do is vote to pay the balance of the cost ($9 million).

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

The only use case I'm interested for AI is a chatbot that students are forced to install on their phones that answers their emailed questions before they hit send. It's powered by a SLM (Syllabus Language Model).

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

My goal for the next school year is for everyone else to get their shit together

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

The shortest distance between Springfield MA and CT is through Anchorage, AK. Go home USPS, you're drunk

Tracking a package from Michigan to Connecticut via Alaska

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Our was like a Lowes or HD pre-fab thing for a linen closet. As these things go, I'd recommend this system. If you can level the bracket the shelves hang off of, it wasn't bad by my standards. Good luck

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

I completely lack the patience to do model kits, or work around the house that mimics that kind of skill set. There was much cursing when we hung some blinds and closet shelves.

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

I do have a plumbing company that's very reliable, but that largely is the end of the list of service providers I'd recommend to someone else without reservation

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

I'd throw all this on top of hounding a variety of other contractors & service providers to at least schedule some jobs. Oh, and trying to do some actual work every now & then

static.klipy.com

Lethal Weapon Old

ALT: Lethal Weapon Old

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

*possibly b/c I was treated, but IDK if the 2 infections in a year was properly communicated. Meanwhile, all I see are commercials for medical providers & their awesome facilities, so I'm really getting mixed messages

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

As I don't want to go through this again, I want to consult with a Lyme specialist. Called for an appt. I was told I needed a referral. Called my PCP & got a referral. Never got a call to schedule the appt. Through a series of phone calls, I was told the specialist rejected the referral*

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

When my blood test came back, I was Lyme positive, so I went on antibiotics again & I'm doing much better. For a variety of reasons, I'm less than 50/50 that this infection was caused by a new tick bite. You can knock the infection down only to have it come back later

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

D. Last summer, I found a classic bullseye rash indicative of an early Lyme infection. I got antibiotics & never had additional symptoms. About a month ago, I felt awful enough to go to the walk-in clinic. They were biased toward a heart issue (no diagnostics showed this)

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

I requested, and paid for, the report 4 months ago. It still shows that it's in process & when I called to inquire, I was told they handle the requests in the order they're received. I have heard horror stories of people waiting 18 months to get a police report. JFC

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

I suspect it was an impulsive decision & I might have been more vigilant if I'd know the ring was out. Regardless, we filed the police report. The guy refused to talk to the state police, which I didn't know was an option. To complete the insurance claim, we need a copy of that police report

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

C. Long story short, while our house was under construction, an HVAC worker stole my wife's engagement ring out of the master bathroom. I was in the house at the time, but we also had multiple people working inside on a daily basis. He had no work in that part of the house

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

They also want to take that opportunity to change the contract about how much we benefit from the excess electricity we produce. Of course, the change benefits the power company who has invested nothing in my solar system

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

If we switch the solar on, we pay for the energy we make as well as what we use. Somehow, the power company also closed our old account & opened a new one in my name without authorization. Now, they want to treat our (exact same system) as a new installation, which will require their approval & $$$

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

B. The aforementioned problem with my solar continues beyond the Tesla headache. I still can't use my panels despite them being ready for service. During our foundation replacement, the power company took the bidirectional meter we had & substituted it for a standard meter

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

The end result is that university support offices are pushing a lot of their regular workload off on us; however, they have maintained or increased staff. A lot of these decisions seems to be based on them using any means possible to reduce their workload (if no one buys anything...)

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

4. Adding complication to all these issues, our department support staff often can no longer work (or work effectively) as proxies b/c they can't see information on grants. etc. they the used to be able to. Their clearance to see information in Workday has been reduced

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

3. If an ongoing grant is scheduled to renew/reapproved in the middle of a fiscal period, they want to set up payroll to roll over to another source (often nonexistent) & then have a new authorization processed when the "new" grant account is set up. This doubles the work with little justification

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

2. They (likely the same people) declared we couldn't use grant money to buy things from our (modest) stockroom. Of course, they also throw a fit if you try to buy supplies in bulk. So, I have to go through a tedious acquisition process to get supplies on a week-to-week or month-to-month basis?

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

A. I could do a mega thread on frustrating, nonsensical things at work, but here are my highlights: 1. The university declared we couldn't use grant $ to buy gloves as well as a variety of other supplies by arguing that these things could be used on other projects too

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

I don't even feel any nostalgia for "the way things used to be". At the same time, why are we making things objectively worse?

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

In the grand scheme of things, I feel fortunate about the overall state of my life, but by god I am getting tired of the dealing with BS. I can only imagine how frustrated people with fewer resources & support must get

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Everyone knows that I seldom go on social media to complain, but I'm going to make an exception today. Enshitification has historically been used to describe degradation of products and services in the digital space, but I believe it applies to everything right now

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Tariff the Pacific Northwest!!!!!

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

that was the confusing part to me. What students are lugging around a bunch of heavy books in 2026? The electronic devices are small. It feels like the bulk of what they're hauling around is not essential. Unless they're making the football team carry all their pads & helments.

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

It might discourage prospective students

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

IMO this is the definition of being tone deaf with tuition exceeding $60k

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

I am told this stock ticker showed on the side of the university building next to the student center over the summer. Who is this for? Our undergrad students who have a stock portfolio to manage between exams?

Stock ticker on the side of a university building

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Don't know anything about that

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Red Sox win 13 straight. 4 strait sweeps. From 14 games below 0.500 to 2 games over. Breathing down the Yankees' necks & in the wild card hunt. No bigger story in sports right now.

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

The talking heads on TV say Trump's taint on the game will set the sport back in this country. It may be the only part of his legacy I endorse. Let's get it back below tractor pulling where it belongs!

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

we have a Boone County in WV. Going there would not have been considered exciting unless you were looking for country bumpkins or two different rivers named after coal.

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

AI is hot right now, so we need to do it with AI* *applies to everything.

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

20-30 years ago, nerd. Present day, I don't think this comes close to clearing the bar.

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

one summer interning the AC failed in July during a heat wave. The big boss determined that as long as the lab temp didn't exceed 32/33 °C, it wasn't too hot to work 🙄

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Shawn Burdette @scburdet.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

It's S4. I stopped using most objects when assigning point groups b/c students have trouble visualizing movement. Pretty much identical to visualizing movements with molecules. But they can google the point group for most molecules.

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