I love sushi. Most people start their adventures in sushi with something a little less intimidating than raw fish, opting to eat the faux crab in California Rolls. I grew up eating California Rolls, covered in wasabi, soy, and ginger. As I became more interested in nutrition, I started to appreciate raw fish not just for its taste, but the health benefits associated with the Omega-3 fatty acids in Tuna, Salmon, and Escolar. California Rolls might be cheap, but the fake crab is all carbs (it's made from wheat) and I like to maximize my buck going for All You Can Eat, so California Rolls are a no-go for me!

Carbs. Cheese. Tomato. I hope you enjoy these subtle (and often boring) flavors, because that's all Italian food can supply. Lasagna? Carbs. Cheese. Tomato. Carbonara? Carbs. Cheese. Tomato. Bruschetta? Carbs. Cheese. Tomato. Pasta bolognese? Carbs. Cheese. Tomato. Pizza? Carbs. Cheese. Tomato. Calzone? Carbs. Cheese. Tomato. The list is endless, but the flavors are limited. Great italian food can still be excellent and enjoyable, but it's certainly not my first choice. 

Education is largely based on modeling desired behavior. As an educator, I try to model the desire to learn, a willingness to improve, and dedication to hard work. Most celebrities seem to embody none of these characteristics. For a decade, I've had to counter these values for impressionable young kids. These insanely wealthy people seem detached from reality, entitled to wasting resources and promoting programs and ideas that hurt non-celebrities. I truly believe these 1 in  a 1,000,000 people mostly acquired their wealth and fame through manipulation and exploitation. While some are not famous for doing anything (or for pushing out sex tapes), there are some legitimately good artists that become famous and that fame seems to make them toxic. We should all be aware of these characters arcs so that we do not become villians ourselves.

My room is a culmination of years of acquiring materials and technology. I have personally invested thousands of dollars into many of the hardware pieces you see  in the class. The school has dumped tens of thousands of value into the classroom, with the assumption that those items will be taken care of for years and years of students.

Students that destroy materials prevent those future generations from enjoying those same experiences. Even if it is just a $3 frying pan, intentionally damaging any item in this class prevents me from investing in other materials.

Ditchers and those who skip attendance are guilty of denying our school funding, their own form of destructive behavior. Entropy controls the universe and everything naturally tends towards chaos - it takes hard work to build towards order. Be productive, not destructive!

"Gas is so expensive, it must be the President's fault!"; every boomer that drives a truck at 12 mpg acts astonished that gasoline prices keep going up, as if it isn't a finite resource that is affected by the basics of supply and demand.

My dad was a career iron worker and he always had a large pickup. I understand that some people have a legitimate use for a pickup truck. If you are hauling a ton of equipment around for work or need the heavy torque to trail something, a pickup makes sense. But, 75% of truck owners use their truck for towing one time a year or less (meaning, never), so that truck bed usually is empty and wasting space on the freeway and taxing our limited supply of gas. Pickups are also 2.5x as likely to be involved in fatal accidents, partially because of design and partially because of the driver population. I stay away from pickups, and I think you should too.

FB, IG, Snap, and Twitter all have something in common; I rarely look at any of them. These aren't bad tools, but the general public has made these sites and apps a central part of their daily being, which I'm not down for. People post snap shots of their glory moments, misadvertising the way their life is actually playing out. Social media can also be a dark place if you dwell too long in the past, looking at pictures of ex's and making unfair comparisons, or pictures of lost loved ones and wondering "what if." When this generation looks back on their digital life, they won't pine for more selfies. Social media causes depression, seriously. It's also brainwashed most of our population  (thanks Boomers) because of transparent political propaganda. No thanks to that. 

Antimaskers. Antivaxxers. Climate Change Deniers. Flat-Earthers. 5G Conspiracists. Homeopathy Peddlers.

All of these have something in common; they don't practice good science principals. All of these "theories" rely on debunked or nonexistent scientific data. Science is an objective observation of the world, with procedures that help us learn about how we interact with the universe. If you observe something that challenges your beliefs, you must re-evaluate those beliefs or consolidate the data with a new model. You can't ignore data or make up your own theories without some evidence for your claims. 

We originally didn't think COVID was a huge deal (myself included), but the data proved otherwise and now we know that people should be wearing masks in public. We were wrong, and it's okay to admit we were wrong. You can't stick your head in the sand and ignore new data because you don't want your ego bruised.

At the root, almost all of the things that bother me are based in anti-intellectualism. "I love the uneducated." This guy himself is the posterboy for this movement of devaluing education and intelligence. Movements or ideologies that rely on ignorance and tell you to stop asking questions (authoritarianism, religion, consumerism) are at the root of most of these problems. The most attractive quality in any individual (to me) is their intelligence, so a lack of desire to learn is absolutely ugly to me. Become the most intelligent version of yourself.

Based on our biology and the size and scope of the universe, we are alive for such a small period of time our individual lives are ultimately meaningless and almost nothing we do will matter in even 100 years. We would be lucky if our legacy endures for 1000 years, but no one will be remembered in 100,000 years. The only legacy we can hope to continue for eons would be life itself. In this way, I believe that our primary purpose in life is to help life itself continue.

When confronted with life-ending challenges, it will be necessary for our species to work together. Modern science is in agreement that climate change is one of those life-ending challenges. The concept of SELFISHNESS is antithetical to these goals. Selfishness prevents society from working together to defeat these challenges. SELFISHNESS is the root of most of my pet peeves.

If you ditch class, you are SELFISH. If you drive a truck, you are SELFISH. Capitalism is by it's very nature is SELFISH (CEOs have a much higher rate of psychopathy compared to average systems).

Science and education is by its very nature selfless. Science has helped propel society to new levels, enabling us to conquer those life-ending challenges (maybe we have to travel the stars if our planet is destroyed). Education is the tool by which we empower ALL of society. Education is dangerous to SELFISH people, since it is far easier to scam uneducated people. 

I have dedicated my life to education in the pursuit of eliminating SELFISHNESS. If you fail to educate yourself in my class, you are unlikely to provide value back to society. This makes you SELFISH. Never tell me you haven't learned, or I will be salty.