I'm likely rare among higher education faculty in that I don't take off points for late work and I allow students to make up assignments if something has happened in their lives and they've missed class. There are a few philosophical reasons behind this (one of them being my ubiquitous "they need to be safe to work at my bank/hospital/utility/school/defense contractor, etc." - and if they don't practice the thing I can't guarantee they'll be safe), but there's one very concrete reason: I'm paying it forward.

You see, when I was an undergraduate (in the previous century) I had a health event that resulted in missing classes for two weeks. It hadn't occurred to me when the health event started to contact my professors/teaching assistants (I was 20 and this was a big state school and we didn't have student email back then), but after it was over I did go and see each one of them in person to ask whether I could make up the assignments. 

They all said "yes". All five. And I ended up getting all "A"s that term (I believe that was the only term I got all "A"s - I used Acceptance as a risk management strategy a lot before I knew that it had a name...) I will always be grateful to those folks for allowing me to make up the work. I have led a charmed life.

So, I pay it forward. And I'll keep paying it forward.

Don't let your whole life be governed by HOAs, however they manifest. Sidewalk chalk needs to exist, physically and metaphorically. 

Twitter is going through some stuff, as is said. Frankly, I'm not sure that stuff makes it sustainable in the long run, and as I've said in other places, I have reevaluated how much time I waste on social media. So, I have locked my Twitter account and created a Mastodon account. I'm not promising to be that active on Mastodon - because I try to not promise anything and because I don't know how useful Mastodon will be. I have set up my Mastodon to require my permission to follow me, because what sort of Computrix would I be if I didn't require folks to ask for permission? 😏

You can find it here The Computrix on Mastodon

I am not the biggest hashtag user - I find them about as annoying and distracting as in-text APA citations - but I will attempt to use them on the toot...no, I can't say it. Posts. The posts. I will continue the tradition of posting classical music pieces I enjoy in addition to cybersecurity and ethics - again, when I'm in the mood - no promises.

Update: First, a sort of backstory. My undergraduate degree is in psychology. I got a BA because that was perceived to be the harder degree back then because it had a language requirement (although I have forgotten more Spanish than I learned). I could have had the BS because I had a bunch of lab classes - I was pre-med for my first two years - but I liked how the BA sounded harder so there it was. I did not continue on in psychology because I realized I wasn't a good fit for the culture. So, I switched to history, and then technology. Before picking up the graduate degree in cybersecurity I explored whether I wanted to look into doing clinical counseling. I took 15 graduate hours before realizing that, nope, still wasn't a good fit for the culture. Some folks are. I was/am not. It's important to know that about oneself. I've always felt like I was a good fit for technology. I am not always the best fit for "academia", but it has its moments.

So, Mastodon...I'm probably not a good fit for it. I'm keeping my account to keep track of some folks over there, but in addition to the realization that my time is better spent offline than online I have realized that my personality is not suited to all the rules of Mastodon. It feels like an HOA, frankly. I can't say that it's because I'm too old, because I've always been this way. I'm not HOA; I've never been HOA. 

Blogging seems better for me (and Tumblr for my non-work musings).