lolowl

Good luck! Today I crashed a rocket. #newbieproblems

Yup. My fellow historians and I are not sure whether to break out the popcorn or hide under the bed. There are a couple of analogies being tossed around, like The Fall of Rome and Berlin in the 1920s/30s (which Cabaret the stage musical and movie capture perfectly). But the widespread cynicism and willing self-destruction of today is without true precedent. If you're trying to make sense of modern trends, I've found Timothy Snyder's recent books to be helpful. He's a professor of 20th Century Eastern Europe (super happy time!) who's great at picking out trends and undercurrents. I highly recommend his presentation on "what European history can teach us about [modern] America" on YouTube. (gets off historian soapbox)

Best of luck to you XB-70A -- restarting study can be a whiplash experience, but it tends to pay off in the end! For what it's worth, there is an invisible army of teachers and researchers out there -myself included- fighting to re-invent school so that it's less about "follow and obey" and more about giving students choices and allowing them to follow their interests. (Quick summary here for those interested.) Changing the status quo takes time, but if my compatriots and I have anything to say about it "memorize this, fill in this multiple choice quiz, and follow the rubric OR ELSE" education is going DOWN.

That exact wood-paneled model is sitting on my desk as I type. My parents bought it for me when I was a young 'un and it's still going strong. You may laugh, keyboard enthusiasts and mechanical pencil aficionados of the 21st century, but believe me: there is nothing as buttery smooth as a Staedtler 4B pencil sharpened to precision.

Ah, the drawing program of champions.

When I was a kid, you knew stuff was fancy cause it had wood paneling on it. Awww yeeeeeahh. SO CLASSY.

Scott Manley (my KSP youtube sensei) uploaded a "musical tribute to rocket crashes" last week. I don't see it on the forum - that needs to be fixed! They say space is hard So you know that it's ok That your rocket just crashed into the ground And you didn't go to space today I can't stop singing this to myself as I play. (Mostly b/c as a newbie I do not make it to space most days, hahaha.) Any other "unofficial" KSP theme songs out there?

Thanks for the warm welcome, @James Kerman Truth be told, I'm actively working on advanced degree number two. Degree no.1: an MA in History (post-1865 American, though I studied and taught modern Europe too). I did the obligatory archival research & monograph writing, but my primary area of interest was how to teach history effectively so that students felt they were learning something of value, something relevant to their daily lives. (After all, the reason we teach the past is so we humans can look toward the future!) That got me interested in the science of learning, particularly the uses of storytelling, data visualisation, and interactive materials. I started corresponding with a few professors who specialize in those areas, which led to... Degree no.2: Instructional Design (in progress) #noregrets I'm happy to nerd out about learning theory if anyone wants to know - otherwise I will spare you the deluge. If nothing else, I'm sure folks on the KSP forum can agree that learning is fun. ;D

Haha, I wish! There's a saying among us humanities grad students: "Studying, social life, sleep. Pick two." My top priorities were 1) graduate and 2) don't develop a sleep disorder, so... RIP social life.

Hi all. I'm new to KSP. Even better (worse?), my gaming skills are rusty thanks to four years in that all-consuming alternate universe known as grad school. Looking forward to gaming again (hooray!) and getting involved in the forum (double hooray!) Seriously though, this looks like a friendly and supportive learning space. I'm excited to spend some time with y'all and re-learn how to do that videogame clicky happy play play thingy in the process.