Mike Urbancic

Fuck.

After 13.5 years at UO, I'm starting to think that won't happen before my layoff becomes effective on June 18.

Still waiting for my wage to approach my marginal product of labor.

How long before Trump suggests demining the Strait of Hormuz with nuclear blasts?

It's an even more eyeroll-inducing offense when the institution that *awarded* me the title doesn't use it when they solicit donations.

Comrade Detective | official trailer (2017) Channing Tatum YouTube video by moviemaniacsDE

time to watch Comrade Detective again!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=60P5...

It's only 3:40pm in Eugene, but the office door is closed.

👍

"and though not quite in your voice, I'll say:"

😭😭😭

Cross-cutting fractures may form barriers to the propagation of major quakes along the Cascadia Subduction Zone. (Oregon Live) www.oregonlive.com/weather/2026...

"These are not decisions we make lightly. Given the financial realities we face, we must act decisively to preserve the high-quality, accessible education our students expect and deserve, while also remaining competitive in an increasingly hippo-driven marketplace."

Déjà vu!

(sans the hippos)

Right?!

bsky.app/profile/urba...

And despite the fact that the university hired you because you had a PhD, HR couldn't possibly be expected to tell the folks in development:

bsky.app/profile/urba...

To clarify--as I speak my truth into the void!--the bio of one of my accounts on the bird site included the phrase "infamous lachrymist".

I'm *completely* comfortable with the fact that I cry easily and often.

It's just that sometimes other people can be caught off guard and become a bit unnerved.

BREAKING NEWS: court issues order siding with protester and journalists; blocks use of tear gas at Portland ICE building

“This is a victory for every Oregonian who believes that exercising your constitutional rights should never put you in harm’s way.

We filed arguments and evidence in this case because what we documented was clear: unconstitutional behavior by ICE officers – targeting children, seniors, and peaceful crowds. Parents, teachers, union members, and some people who were just passing by – people who did nothing wrong. We received reports of children screaming in fear, and of senior citizens who couldn’t breathe.

This behavior is unacceptable and unlawful. Nationally, we’re seeing an administration that is perpetuating violence without justification, claiming immunity where none exists. We will continue to fight for Oregonians every day.

BREAKING NEWS: A federal judge in Oregon just issued a preliminary injunction, blocking federal agents from using tear gas and other chemical crowd control devices on protesters at the ICE building in Portland. #orpol #breakingnews

Head Above Water YouTube video by Men Without Hats - Topic

*"Head Above Water" by Men Without Hats starts playing on Pandora*

Glancing from my desk toward the open door, I think to myself:

"Sure, it's 6:20pm. It'll be fine for me to sob in my office at PLC with the door wide open."

youtu.be/4Eg5-hluEzE

IMPEACHMENT AND TRIBUNALS

I think this is about the temperature but honestly it works for decades as well

It's extremely weird that a Cybertruck owner might do something like this.

(Hopefully with gas cans, at least!)

If the context for this quotation in the WSJ piece is that it was unthinkable that anyone would be careless or foolish enough to *launch* a large-scale attack on Iran with these very predictable consequences foremost in mind, I'd say an article with that framing is at least eight days late.

excerpt from The Wall Street Journal article "The Long-Feared Persian Gulf Oil Squeeze Is Upon Us" published 8 Mar 2026 by Joe Wallace, Summer Said, Rebecca Feng, and Georgi Kantshev

ALT text for the image:

"In the whole written history of the strait, it has never been closed, ever," said JP Morgan Chase analyst Natasha Kaneva. "To me, it was not just the worst-case scenario. It was an unthinkable scenario."

The dire consequences to transit through the Strait of Hormuz were so transparently thinkable that they deterred large-scale attacks on Iran for decades.

"The Federal Reserve is pulling out all the stops to combat the rampant discotheque."

I love the idea of each of these (and other 11-letter '70s words) becoming euphemisms for stagflation.

"Jesus is ultimately responsible for every atrocity ever committed by anyone's hand. Thank goodness, because that means *we* could never be."

I'm struggling to even imagine a worse or more dangerous worldview.

It hadn't been my intention to experience so acutely one of the externalities I was going to discuss with them.

Although I lingered in the area for a quite while, I didn't have an opportunity to have that conversation.

And now the hearing in my left ear is a bit off.

😕

a spent canister for an aerial firework sits on the pavement of a mostly empty parking lot at night. in the background on the left is a university building several stories tall. in the background on the right is a multi-story apartment building.

Kid 1 and I decided to stop and chat with the youths lighting aerial fireworks at the parking lot across from PLC shortly before 2am to explain why that wasn't the best idea.

It didn't go as well as I'd hoped.

Before scattering they lit something like an M80, which went off 4-5 meters away.

💥🫨

if you don’t learn from billy joel’s ‘we didn’t start the fire,’ you’re doomed to repeat billy joel’s ‘we didn’t start the fire’

broke: DEI is taking over our country!

woke: PEI is taking over our country!