{"id":573899275,"date":"2026-08-19T20:09:44","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T00:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/?p=573899275"},"modified":"2026-08-20T19:54:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T23:54:54","slug":"pudding-would-have-been-a-just-reward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/blog\/2026\/08\/19\/pudding-would-have-been-a-just-reward\/","title":{"rendered":"Pudding would have been a just reward"},"content":{"rendered":"

Much work was done. Much progress was made. My second class of the semester is now squared away. I hope I did everything right. The proof is in the pudding, and instead of a tasty after-dinner treat I mean in how the class reacts to it over the course of the semester. It’s a good class. I’ve taught it several times, online, but this will be the first time I am offering it in person. I will have the class again next spring. It will be online once again. So the last four or five days of intense scrutiny will suffice through December. If I’ve done everything right. <\/p>\n

But now I want pudding. <\/p>\n

I need to revisit the first class to make sure it is also set. I have an extra day for that because of the way the schedule falls. I’ll do it next week. Tomorrow I’ll start diving into my third class, which was a last minute surprise. It will all be fine when it’s all underway.<\/p>\n

Anyway, the whole of the day was spent on that class, until about 6 p.m., when I decided I’d had enough of that. Feeling powerful in my sense of agency, liberated in my ability to tear myself away from the work computer I closed it with a satisfying click and watched the monitor dim and fade. This<\/em>, I thought, is not worth the spectacle you put on it later. Don’t write too much about it.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sometimes we give ourselves good advice. <\/p>\n

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Outside, I stopped to admire the awesome power of this one plant and its perfect spot in the yard with respect to nutrients, sun, and shade. And also this thorny vine, with which I am engaged in a duel to its death. <\/p>\n

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It has one trick, and I have one trick. It wants to see my blood and I want to see its roots. Both things may happen, but I can also wear gloves.<\/p>\n

After dinner this evening, a tasty little shrimp and edamame dish my lovely bride whipped up, I decided to finish off the fortune cookies from last week. These fortunes still apply. <\/p>\n

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I’m not running for office, but it is otherwise not clear what I will win in November. My determination could make me victorious in a battle of wills. I could win a fight. I could determinedly emerge victorious over a mortal enemy. (I don’t have one of those, because I am a polite person in a society, but there’s still time to develop one, I suppose.) I could win the lottery, the respect of my colleagues, I could emerge victorious over a particularly sticky jar lid. Maybe a verbal debate. Maybe it’s about those little plastic wrappers that are difficult to open. Maybe a long lost person will finally give in and reply to a message because of my determination. Who really knows? The fortune cookies know, but they’re not saying. My neighbors might know, but I am told to respect their privacy, which I am quite mindful of anyway. So that was more of a reinforcement cookie, but whatever; it did its job.<\/p>\n

Here’s the latest update in household minutiae. I have emptied and cleaned this little guy. What might I put in this delightful 12-ounce plastic bear. What is good enough to bother with, but sufficient at that volume? <\/p>\n

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So far the best answer is a homemade dry rub. But I don’t have a homemade dry rub. This could be, though, the reason to start. For beverages, I’d just use the original container, or a mug or some such. Maybe I could do something with that bottle and put it in a jersey pocket for bike rides. How fast would I go if I slammed 12-ounces of 5-hour Energy or the like? The internet tells me there are people that use these for crafts, and that’s great, but that will not be this plastic bear’s fate. No one hear needs plastic crafts. These are the dilemma of reuse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Much work was done. Much progress was made. My second class of the semester is now squared away. I hope I did everything right. The proof is in the pudding, and instead of a tasty after-dinner treat I mean in how the class reacts to it over the course of the semester. It’s a good […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,101,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-573899275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photo","category-rowan","category-wednesday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573899275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573899275"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573899275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":573899276,"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573899275\/revisions\/573899276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573899275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573899275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573899275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}