Circling the drain 🌵

@JonRothstein And Richie Saunders

My heart breaks for Joshua Jefferson. My heart breaks for Tyler Bilodeau. My heart breaks for Caleb Wilson. My heart breaks for JT Toppin. And my heart breaks for all of these fan bases. I hate injuries that derail teams during the NCAA Tournament. The Dark Side of March.

Three more pieces of advice from an engineer and former adjunct instructor: 1) Do all the problems and do them yourself without Chegg, AI, internet-pirated instruction manuals or YT videos. Your physics, chemistry, and math instructor assignment them to help you build mental muscle memory. And be able to show all your work, especially when doing homework online. We can’t read your mind and neither can the TA’s. 2) Hit up the study halls and professors’ office hours. Their purpose is to help you when you are stymied with No. 1. 3) Develop your scientific, technical and business writing skills. The rules of grammar are the same as your humanities classes. But your audience expects you to be succinct, provide facts, illustrate arguments and analysis with examples, and draw reasoned conclusions - quickly. BONUS: Co-op, co-op, co-op. And consider a pre-college post-HS gap to earn as much money for college in as many varied jobs you can handle to learn how to work and engage with the public. Older, work-wise students make better students.

To: Admitted Students on Ivy Decision Day From: UATX Congratulations. Getting in was hard and you should be proud. Now here’s some unsolicited advice so you don’t waste the next four years. Go to class. We know this sounds obvious. But as the New York Times reported recently, Harvard students routinely skip class, rarely speak up when they're there, and focus on their devices instead of the discussion. Faculty say few students do enough preparation to contribute meaningfully. The average college student spends about 20 hours a week on class and studying combined. At UATX, we aim for 50. That’s the difference between a part-time commitment and a full-time job. You (or your parents) are about to spend upwards of $90K a year. If you don't show up, you're paying roughly $250 per skipped lecture for the privilege of sleeping in. Read the books yourself. Your generation is the first to arrive at college post-literate — raised on short-form video, dependent on algorithms, and increasingly incapable of sitting with a difficult text long enough to let it change your mind. Ninety percent of college students use AI academically. This makes you more reliant on the authority of others. Most professors will also stand between you and the text. They’ll tell you what Marx “really meant,” what Aristotle “failed to see,” as though an academic in 2026 has outsmarted minds that shaped civilizations. The good professors do the opposite: they put you in front of the book and they work with you to find what a great mind has to teach us directly. Find those professors, and read everything yourself. Say what you actually think. Seventy-three percent of conservative students report withholding their political views in class out of fear their grades will suffer. Our advice isn't political; it's intellectual. If you spend four years learning to say what's expected instead of what's true, you’ll graduate roughly where you started — just older, more credentialed, and more practiced at self-censorship. One study finds that nearly half of students show no measurable gains in “critical thinking” after two years in college. Keep this in mind as you make decisions about which professors to take and how to do your assignments. Taking a small hit on your paper to gain integrity and wisdom is usually worth it. Ask for real grades. Sixty percent of Harvard undergraduate grades are now A’s. Twenty-five years ago, it was 20%. It got so bad that the legendary Harvard professor, Harvey Mansfield, started giving students two grades: the official one for their transcript, and a private one reflecting what they actually earned. He called the official grades “ironic.” So here's a suggestion: Take your A, but also ask your professors for a “Mansfield grade” so that you know where you stand. And don’t avoid difficult courses to keep your transcript clean for law school. Get work experience before you graduate. Forty-two percent of recent college graduates are working jobs that don't require a degree. Many employers are projecting the next few years to be the worst college grad job market in years. A degree alone — even from an Ivy — is not a job guarantee. Seek out apprenticeships, internships, and real work starting freshman year. The students at UATX are connected with entrepreneurs and business leaders from day one. Many will graduate with four years of work experience alongside their degree. You can build something similar at your school, but you'll have to do it yourself. Understand how debt shapes your life. If you're paying full freight or even half, do the math with your eyes open. Your decision to take on debt will quietly reshape the trajectory of your adult life through countless small surrenders: the job you take because it’s safe instead of starting the company. The city you choose to live in. The relationship you delay and the kids you don’t have. For women, a $1,000 increase in student loan debt lowers the odds of marriage by 2% per month in the first four years after graduation. None of that shows up in the college brochure. If you're going to take on debt, treat it like the constraint it is from day one: save aggressively and make sure every dollar is buying something that will actually compound in your favor. Find the people who take school seriously. The best thing about a great school isn't the lectures or the library. It's the handful of professors and students who are genuinely there to learn — who read ahead, argue in good faith, and push you to be sharper. Find them. UATX is a small community of those who seek a serious education. At a larger university, you have to build this community yourself. * The most dangerous thing about an elite university is that it is very easy to do nothing for four years and still come out looking successful. The transcript will say you excelled. The diploma with the fancy crest will open certain doors. Your parents will be proud. And yet you will have coasted — through inflated grades, unread books, and borrowed opinions. Getting in is an accomplishment. Making the next four years worth it will be harder, and the right decisions will change everything. We wish you luck.

@CCPISASSH0E @SouthwestAir 🤘

This makes me want to book a flight

@cougarsportsone @flatland_sports Big fan of that kid.

Kingston Flemings says that some people get “subservient” with Houston’s winning, but that it’s not easy. “Every single game we play, we’re playing other professional athletes. It’s hard. Making the (NCAA Tournament) is hard. Making seven straight Sweet 16s is hard… obviously we were hoping for more, I know we could’ve got more. But we’re just proud for everything we did.” “We tried our hardest. Trust me. We tried for sure. We got the shots that we wanted. But I can’t say that we didn’t try.”

When life spikes a lesson at your head and you say, “Okay, lesson learned,” and life says, “But did you REALLY learn the lesson? Let’s make sure.” Whack.

@jason_howerton This post hits home with every father @Jason. Prayers of strength for you and healing for young Colton.

Say a prayer for my son. His name is Colton. He’s 8 and loves the Lord. He is gonna be in the hospital overnight. I’m a believer in the power of collective prayer and I come with this request in humility as a father.

@RealRobReinhart @CottonCC_FFSN UNC and KU in the same cycle?

#BREAKING: Kansas head coach Bill Self is retiring, per sources. After 23 years and two national championships with the Jayhawks, the legendary coach has decided to call it a career. One of the hottest jobs in sports is now open.

Timeless

@DisrespectedThe Who vomits INSIDE a car? Are you impaired?

Surstromming anyone?

Coach offers the motivation that her player prefers, a breakdown

@bykevinclark Bless you and your family

🚨 Hey: UCF has set up a scholarship in honor of my late dad, James Clark, for students passionate about history at the school. This is close to our family's heart so I'd like to promote it here. The link to donate is below, anything helps, DMs are open. dayofgiving.ucf.edu/vip?campaign_i…

@DaveEDanna Consistency. Keep inspiring Dave

I know it’s minor, but whenever I’m in the office I take the stairs to remind myself that 3 years ago I would not have been able to walk up to the third floor. Now let’s do accounting! 🤣

@LibertarianMama @GavinNewsom When your soul is already part and parceled in the afterlife, the eyes are a window to an empty room.

@GavinNewsom It’s the deadness in the eyes for me.

For so many years people have been saying that Patrick Bateman and I look alike. Now this pic has been going all over the place. What do you think?

@FrankCaputo12 @TRHLofficial @grok

@TRHLofficial @grok Heard cause of death long monkey pox

Oh no. Hey @Grok, who is the largest funder of AIPAC?

I think the High Point band has identified the proper amount of cowbell.

@Inspirenaire Where is the application for admission to your family? You are my people.

Creating an environment where memories can be made will also put you in the authority to document them, catalog them, make them easily accessible in their hearts and minds. Memories are a forever medicine . facebook.com/share/1BENWpye…

Fantastic work

Not smiling cause I had just tried to choke him but his neck arm barred me.