Assorted Thoughts 27: Sadly I Cannot Make Odd Noises In Text Form

• My style of online gaming is such that I find it is just as easy to respawn as it is to reload.
• Grading speed runs: great for my desire to do other things, great for my students' GPA, bad for my conscience.
• At this stage in my life, I own two near-identical Red Sox caps.  One is nice and new, and reserved for formal occasions, such as baseball games.  The other is grungy and beat-up and used for everything else, like fieldwork, yardwork, and days I can't be bothered trying to contain my hair's anger.
• Until my nearly-new phone decided that a usable 7 key was for the weak, I really hadn't thought about how difficult it is to compose text messages that avoid the letters p, q, r, and s.  Is the answer "circuitous sentence structure"?  Turns out you can't say that either.
• The dead key has made me very glad I have at least a reasonable fluency in 1337.  Or 133t, because that damn key doesn't work.
• It's surprisingly awkward trying to figure out what to do when walking towards a sporting event, while still outside the stadium, and the national anthem is playing.
• After a recent experience at a Target with plenty of howling little monsters, I propose that a group of young children be referred to as an "infestation."  Aren't collective nouns fun?
• While talking to my advisor today, he told me that he was impressed by my willingness to admit that I'd screwed up.  I don't expect anyone who knows me personally to believe this anecdote.