Scene from an exam

So I gave my first exam today. This is in a intro-level majors class; it's a class in which you have to earn the equivalent of a 70% to be able to take upper-division classes in my department.

It's also a challenging class. There's a lot of material. Oh, it's not impossible to earn an A; I have people earn As every semester. But a lot of people also can't handle the amount and speed of the material, because they either coasted in high school, or went to a high school that prepared them badly.

So we get lots of repeaters. I have three people from my last-semester class taking this one again, and one person who was in my lab section (but not lecture) last go-round.

So anyway, I gave the exam. And one of the repeaters, when he handed it in, went, "This is different from last semester's."

Uh, yeah. I'm not that stupid. And anyway, I know there are exam files floating around out there, and if you hand back your exams (some profs do not), you need to create new ones each semester.

But I am amazed at how some folks don't seem to learn from past mistakes. Maybe not so much Mr. "But you didn't just copy last year's exam," but I also have someone re-taking the class whose attendance was for crap last time, and it's bad again this time. Attendance correlates well with performance, and while it could be as much a measure of how much of a damn a person gives (that is, both attendance and performance are correlated with giving a damn, and that's what causes both to be high, rather than that attendance assures a better grade), still, he did pretty badly last time.

And I also once had the guy who plagiarized a paper, failed the class, retook it, and then plagiarized again. When I busted him, his response was, "I didn't think you'd check."

I just stared at him, amazed. I wanted to say, "Of everyone in the class, yours was the one I MADE SURE to check," but I didn't.

I don't know. I don't like to brag on how smart I am but I am smart enough to learn from my mistakes and not make them again. Hell, I'm smart enough to learn from OTHER PEOPLE'S mistakes, which is a much more fun way to learn.

The Waltons, again

I think I mentioned watching re-runs of this occasionally before.

I am quite sure my family watched it when I was a kid (when it was on in its first run) but I remember almost nothing of individual episodes....I just remember the "goodnight" ritual from the end, and the music.

(The music. The music is weirdly evocative to me; I think I remember music better than other things and I can hear the theme music and be 7 or 8 again....)

Anyway, I've been watching the re-runs the Hallmark Channel does of late, partly because there's so little current programming that inspires. (I once said to the television, "TV, stop sucking." It didn't listen to me.)

I find the show more interesting, and in a lot of ways, more uplifting (even though there's sad stuff that goes on) than a lot of stuff.

I also look at the family dynamic and wonder how different a person I would have turned out to be if I had grown up as one of seven children. (I was five before my only sibling, a brother, was born).

And I like the 1930s/40s era setting, it's inherently more interesting to me than a show set in a modern-day Everycity. (Even if I now find myself scrutinizing things in the background - there was a Red Cross poster in one of the episodes I saw last night that looked too "modern" to me; the typeface and style of how the wording was positioned seemed kind of 1970s.)

Another thing struck me last night: one episode featured Ma and Mary Ellen going to check on a young mountain woman whose husband was overseas in WWII and there was concern because she'd stopped writing to him. It turned out a scumbag guy had raped her. (I don't think "rape" was ever said, but it was pretty clear what had happened). And Ma tries to report him (though the lawman reminds her that the woman would be on trial as much as the man). And she does all this while worrying about John-Boy, who is MIA overseas.

And the scumbag guy shows up one day and harasses Ma, and looks like he might attack her, but she fends him off with a broom.

Ma Walton was pretty badass.

Of course, Pa was badass too - later on he goes and talks to scumbag guy and essentially tells him, "You're not going to trial because I think your victim is probably too scared and fragile to withstand what a rape trial is like, but you better get the hell out of here or I'll make your life miserable" and then picks the guy up and bodily throws him in a creek when the guy starts to get up in his face.

I think that's one thing I like about the show: the badass people (who are still good and decent and loving people) aren't afraid to be badass; they're not afraid to pick up a gun if that's what it takes to defend their families. But they're also very loving and can be incredibly gentle with hurt or damaged people.  (And also, on the Waltons - they weren't afraid to show the family saying grace over a meal).

(It's funny: I have absolutely zero interest in Duck Dynasty but from what I've heard, that family shares certain characteristics with the Waltons).

Something that made me smile.

One of the classes I teach is a gen-ed class, which means we're supposed to take attendance so we can immediately report people who stop coming, so they can.....well, "they" so far haven't done much about it, but we're supposed to report non-attendance.

So I take roll.

(How I feel about enforced attendance policies is another rant for another time. It's enough for me to say that the vast majority of D and F earners I have are people who skip class a lot. Whether that's because they're missing vital material or because they just generally have a bad attitude I don't know, but I don't need to give or take away "attendance points" because it seems to sort itself out)

Anyway, one day in my intro-levels majors class, I was taking roll. I got to one guy's name, and when I called it off, he responded by doing "jazz hands."

I never know if it's okay or not for me to laugh about stuff like that in front of the class, but I did kind of smile.

one of my issues

I was listening to one of the Dallas talk-show hosts yesterday (I am in the Dallas radio market).

He was talking about the story that's come out on Wendy Davis, that apparently she was not the "poor single mother" she claimed to be. And he also pointed out that she "ditched" (his word) her kids with her then-husband, so she could go off to Harvard Law School. (There are several fairly well-respected law schools in the North Texas area).

Anyway, it got me thinking: this is one of my problems with modern feminism, or perhaps, a lot of modern attitudes. The concept that what you think of as your own fulfillment, your own happiness, is paramount, and that those who might depend on you don't matter so much. While I don't think Davis' kids were abused or neglected in the situation they were in, still - it would have been unhappy for me, as a child, to be told, "Mommy needs to go away for a while to go to school."

But I do think that's a "modern" attitude - that those who are depending on you, be they children, spouses, or other significant others (like aging parents), if they get in the way of your doing what you want, you scrape 'em off and move on.

Don't get me wrong: There are situations where you need to call in help. For example, with aging parents, if one of them develops dementia, or even just needs a round-the-clock care giver, it's probably a bit much to expect that of one person. But to lightly make the decision to put them in a facility, because it's easier for you to fulfill your dreams then....no.

This is something I've thought about. My parents are both closing in on 80, and while right now they are both in pretty good health and definitely of sound mind, if something were to happen - well, I'd see it as being two choices for me: first, I could quit my job here, move up there to be closer to them, and hope I could find sufficiently flexible employment as to be on hand to help them. Or (and this is what I'd think I would do, if they would agree) moving them down here, buying a small house close to mine, and being available as much as possible to help.

(Yes, I have a brother. But he has a family of his own depending on him)

I also think that some of the feminists are far too quick to dismiss stay-at-home parenting. I was thinking about this yesterday: my mom chose to stay at home with my brother and me when we were kids. Luckily, my dad earned enough money (and I think in some ways it was easier, in the 1970s, than it is now). Yes, they made sacrifices: we never went on 'fancy' vacations, we didn't get cable television until I was in college, we didn't have expensive clothes. But my mother wanted to stay home for my brother and me. And she will probably never fully realize how blessed we were to have her make that decision. I knew if I had a bad day at school and was sad when I got home, she'd be there, and she'd be willing to listen to me. Or if I got sick at school, I could have the nurse call her, and she could come right away and get me. And in the afternoons, after I got home, I could sit down at the kitchen table and work on my homework while she prepared dinner.

It made a huge difference in my life knowing that she was there and I could rely on her, that she wasn't going to have some meeting or conference or other duty that complicated things.

But I also realized yesterday: even though she may have said "no" to some things by staying at home (no to an outside career, no to her own paycheck, no to whatever prestige her working might bring), she also got to say "yes" to a lot of other things, things that mattered to her. First and foremost: a few years ago she mentioned to me that shortly after I was born, my dad said, "You know, I'm earning enough that we could hire a nanny and you could go back to work" and her response was "I didn't have a kid just to give her to someone else to raise." She didn't say that as bragging; it was more an explanation of why she chose that.

And I understand that lots of families today would love to be able to do that, but can't, either because there isn't a sufficiently good "breadwinner" job for one person, or because of taxes, or because of cost of living. And that's too bad.

But she also had time to do other things - she had a huge garden when I was growing up (and that supplied a lot of the vegetables for our family - so we ate better and also saved money. And she canned or froze all of the surplus, so we had at least tomatoes and frozen corn and beans into the winter). She baked all our bread. She sewed. Those are all things that saved money for the family (that was back in the days when it WAS cheaper to bake bread at home, or to sew clothes). But they were also all things she enjoyed, and she got to do them.

I don't have kids. But I do work full time. It's a good week when I can find an hour or so, in total, to sew or knit. And gardening? I set out each spring with huge plans but once summer classes start up, forget it. I don't get around to weeding or tending as I should, and as a result I don't get as many tomatoes as I might, and I've never even tried corn, knowing the attention (in the form of regular irrigation) it would need here.

Yeah, some feminists would claim my mom's gardening was somehow oppressing her. I don't remember it as that - I remember her taking a lot of pride in how much her garden produced, in the unusual stuff she could grow (one year she even attempted cauliflower, which is kind of Gardening Level: Expert stuff). Life is full of trade-offs, and by saying "yes" to some things, you say "no" to others, but also, by saying "no" to some things, you get the chance to say "yes" to other things that might matter even more to you.

I'm really glad my mom made the choice we did. As I said, my brother and I were immeasurably blessed by it. But I also think now, as an adult, that my mom was probably blessed in some ways, and blessed in ways she would not have been out in the workforce. And it bugs me when people belittle women who have made that choice, because they are blinding themselves to that fact.

just thinking out loud...

So this year's Big Championship Game is going to be made up of a team from Colorado (which recently legalized small quantities of marijuana) and a team from Washington State (which did the same).

So, can we refer to this year's game as the SmokeABowl?

those are the choices? Really?

So, before the whole Bridgegate what-did-he-know-and-when-did-he-know-it, red-meat-for-the-media scandal started, some pundit on television was floating the idea of a Clinton vs. Christie 2016 presidential race.


And I just looked at my mom and said, "Wow. Those are some REALLY uninspiring choices."

I never went for the "I'm going to cast a protest-vote for a third party candidate" thing, because I figured that was throwing one's vote away (but then again: given the Electoral College and how it works, really, my individual vote for president in my state makes almost zero difference). But I may just do it in 2016, if those are genuinely our choices.

Sigh.

As I said earlier: there are so many good, honest people in this country. Why do we manage to send so few of them to Washington?

Ugh, finally back

The cluster of bad weather in the Midwest prevented me from getting home on time. So I'm playing catch-up in order to be ready to start teaching on Monday.

I do have a few posts brewing in my mind, especially one about a couple of diet ads I find somewhat offensive....

Almost done

I give one more final exam tomorrow, then I post grades, then I'm done.

Well, done, except we're expected to have syllabi for NEXT semester submitted by the 1st or so. Which is slightly ridiculous, as I don't know for sure which section of a class I'm teaching yet. At least I was able to set up my office hours so regardless of which section I teach, I have enough open office hours.

Luckily, I haven't had too many last-minute instances of snowflakery (at least until now). One person threw a fit at me when I refused to accept late work (after I had even e-mailed the entire class REMINDING them and telling them there was no way, no how, I would accept the work late).

I did have one person shake my hand and thank me after the final - and he wasn't even a top student.
I had another one, from my freshman class, come by and thank me and tell me that even though he didn't do that well in my class, it was "eye opening" for him and he now realizes how much you need to study to succeed in college. And he said that he learned a lot and enjoyed the class.

I take it as even more of a win when someone who didn't earn a top grade thanks me; I feel that sometimes when A students thank me it's partly jubilation over having earned a good grade. But when someone who earns a C thanks me, that means something. (It also means that that student has the maturity to recognize that their perhaps-not-stellar performance was not entirely or even largely MY fault, which is what some low performing students seem to assume).

It seems incomprehensible but in five days I head home for Christmas break.

Something that makes me sad

I suppose this is part of the lot of being an adult, but I realized it about me the other day and it makes me sad.

I watch a lot of Cartoon Network. (Yes, I know I SAID I was an adult...). They are running ads in heavy rotation for the "Skylanders" video game. One of the ads features video (I THINK it's home video shot and submitted, and not staged - if it's staged, it's done very well, it looks like home video) of kids receiving the game for Christmas or birthdays and going crazy with joy and excitement over it.

What makes me sad is that I can't think of a single gift - at least, not a physical item - that would make me feel that kind of over-the-top joy. I can just remember it from being a kid - the excitement, the this-is-the-best-thing-ever feeling.

I wonder if there's anything like that for an adult. I mean, if someone gave me a nice car, I'd certainly be grateful - but I'd almost be too embarrassed ("I can't believe they spent that much on me!") to be all over-the-top. (And I have a perfectly serviceable car. And I'm not a "car person"). Same with jewelry, and actually, some of the stuff I love most and wear most are some of the simple, less-expensive (like, rose quartz) stuff. The few nice pieces I have I don't wear as much.

The stuff that would make me go crazy with joy is not "stuff" - the one thing I can think of right now that would make me scream with happiness and squeal and jump around the room would be finding out that a friend diagnosed with terminal leukemia DIDN'T have it, after all, and was going to get better, or that she had some kind of miraculous recovery. (That's the one thing, if one of God's angels came to me, and said, "You get one wish, anything, anything you want for Christmas" that I'd say I wanted....).

Is this feeling common to adults - that the stuff that would make you really happy, like, beyond happy - isn't actual STUFF, or maybe even something you know isn't earthly possible? Or are there adults who are still blessed with the ability to go mad with happiness over a ring or a KitchenAid or some new gadget? Am I just jaded? I mean, all those things are nice and I'd be happy to get a KitchenAid or a new computer or something - but not happy like the kids in that ad are happy.

Thoughts on Black Friday

I generally avoid it. Well, many years I'm traveling home on that day, so I don't have any choice but to avoid it. But it makes me very sad to hear about what people do. One of the men at church today was saying he heard that one woman tasered another woman over a shopping cart at some store. And there's always the person who gets trampled, or pushed, or robbed of what they have bought.

I don't know but I can't imagine Jesus intended for our celebration of His birthday to include things like this.If I had to spend too much time around the craziness I suspect I'd become a no-gifts-for-Christmas advocate as at least one person I know has become. (Still - I like getting gifts and giving gifts. Even if it's something very simple. We did the "simplified Christmas" thing a couple years when I was a teenager, where as a family you set a strict budget for everything (gifts, decorations, the meal) and then donate the difference between your strict budget and what you would ordinarily spend. Oh, my brother and I still each got one "big" gift from our parents, and we didn't feel deprived....it was actually kind of nice. I think each person got one "big" gift and everything else was either small (comic books, for example) or homemade (it helps to be able to sew. And also, I remember one year I was taking woods shop in junior high, and was able to make something for my parents in there)

I also found out that a couple of my more-distant relatives have suggested ending the annual exchange of gifts we used to do. At first I was a little sad about that but then again, I realized - I can take the money I had budgeted for gifts for them and give it to the Salvation Army or somewhere, and I think I am going to do that, rather than spending it on myself or just leaving it in my household budget to get eaten up by incidentals.

I am not big on electronics, and in my family we generally have more modest expectations and budgets for gifts - I will go as high as $50 on a person but that's the most you're "allowed" to spend. And I really prefer mail-ordering stuff, and getting stuff that relates to people's hobbies - my sister in law is getting a "gardener's gift basket" that features some tools and also a bunch of Amish-produced heirloom seeds, and my brother is getting a pizza-maker's kit with a pizza stone and such, because he enjoys cooking and especially making pizza. The bonus is I can mail-order both of these items and I don't have to brave the malls or the big-box stores. I usually "shop" for presents by looking at catalogs as they come in and flagging anything I think might be good for someone I am buying for, and then after a while of looking, deciding, and ordering that thing.

Often, also, I buy stuff from small businesses. It just seems like a nicer place to shop, and I know small businesspeople sometimes have a rough go of it these days, so I figure if they have what I want, I'm going to send my business their way.

I think I've been to the Target (of the big-box stores, the one I am most likely to go to) for the last time until after Christmas. It was a couple weeks ago (not even official shopping season yet) and people were crazy and awful to each other. And I don't need that. As much as I might like some of their house-brand food items, as much as I can get things like paper towels for a better price from them, it's not worth dealing with the bad behavior of my fellow shoppers.

I wonder what would happen if there were a genuine shortage of something needed to live. You hear of people getting shot over televisions, which, while they are a nice luxury to have, are not essential to life. But what if medications became hard to come by, or food? It's scary to contemplate. I want to believe that many people would help those weaker than they are and would try to get enough to share with them - but the way things are now, I don't know.

I enjoy all the trappings of Christmas, I enjoy picking out gifts for the people I love, I enjoy receiving gifts. But it makes me sad that some people can apparently let avarice or selfishness or - I don't know what - override the love they are feeling for that person, and turn into cruelty to other people in the store or working at the store.

Thanks Joel, thanks Kate

And thanks to anyone else who sent up a prayer or a good thought.

It's above freezing right now, it's only supposed to get better as the day wears on, so the trip is back on.

I knew it was going to most likely be okay when the morning radio weather dude said, "Looks like we dodged a bullet."

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

sad panda

I may not get "home" for Thanksgiving.

Oh, I've got my tickets and all, but there's a "Southern Plains Storm" coming in on Monday - my tickets are for Monday night, and at this point I could not change, only cancel, them.

So if the weather's unsafe to drive to the station (which is some distance away) on Monday, I will be staying here. That makes me a little unhappy. (But not as bad as some years back, when my parents were planning on coming down, and then my father was told not to travel for Medical Reasons (which later turned out to be nothing). I did manage to get last minute tickets then but I think my huge distress over missing Thanksgiving with my family was worry over my dad.)

I don't know. I guess I have alternate plans now; I will get a small chicken and cook it and I bought a can of cranberry sauce this morning and I do have sweet potatoes. I suppose someone at church would invite me if they knew I couldn't get home, but you know? I think it would almost make me feel worse to be with someone else's family - where I was the only non-family member - than I would being alone. I'm pretty resourceful alone. I could watch old movies and cook my chicken and I'd be okay. I might be a little teary or overwhelmed in a crowd of people, most of whom I didn't know.

But I hope it doesn't come to that.

If you're the praying type (and you believe in praying for stuff like this), could you send up a little of the good stuff that this storm isn't as bad as they're saying it might be, and by Monday afternoon the roads will be safe enough for me to drive? Or at least that I have the wisdom, if they are really bad, to go "Nope. Not gonna risk it." (My parents already know of the possibility of my not coming, and they understand totally, so there's no problem there)

End of semester is approaching

A few scenes:

1. Several students coming in asking me "Is there anything I can do to raise my grade at this point?" (alternate question: "Is there anything I can do to pass at this point?") The sad thing about this question, and the thing I hate and have a hard time offering constructive responses to - if the student in question had come in and asked after the first or even the second exam, the answer would have been "Yes, and here's how...." But when anywhere between 2/3 and 7/8 of the points for the semester have already been assigned - it's kind of late for that. And yeah, I've told people that but I don't know if that will change their behavior for next semester. (I even up-front, in one class, posted a short powerpoint about "keys to success" and one of them was COME IN TO SEE ME AS SOON AS YOU REALIZE YOU ARE STRUGGLING. I suppose I need to add the hint that earning a 50% on the first exam counts as "struggling.")

2. Student comes in the day after the drop deadline wanting to drop. I told him the deadline was past. Sad face: "Can you DO anything?"

Um, no. I'm not a Timelord. There was a deadline, you knew about it, it got away from you. This is how you learn.

3. Except, there actually apparently is: Got a call from the advising-help-center place. One of my students "needs" to drop even though it's after the deadline because her parents JUST NOW found out she was failing and want her to drop. (Siiiiiiiiiiiiigh. I posted their grades online all semester; she should have told them how she was doing earlier). Can she come over and have me sign something? Well, seeing as it's within half an hour of my planned going home time, yeah, but she'd better hurry. (I didn't say, "I'm going home in 30 minutes," I said, "I have to leave campus in 30 minutes" which is less open to manipulation). Suddenly the guy calling realized he could just call the registrar and have them take care of it. (Seriously? I can get to Next Biggest City in just about 30 minutes. The office the student would half to walk from is less than a half-mile from me. And the student in question is perfectly able-bodied. She cannot get to my office in half an hour, that's an unreasonable burden?)

4. Student e-mails me a paper late. Except, it's not the assignment I assigned, it's something totally different that might JUST be something written for a previous semester and recycled. (I still haven't found how to look up when a document was created and such in the new version of Word, which annoys me. That used to be useful for catching "recycled" papers). So I sent an e-mail explaining I could not grade the item because it was (a) late and (b) not the assignment I assigned. I'm waiting to hear back. Because I know I will hear back.

5. Just the endless parade of "I made bad life choices and I expect you to either fix it or to put yourself out in some way to mitigate it, even though it was my life choice and not yours" problems.

Book-hoarder

Oh, I admit it. One of the things I am not good at exercising control over is my book-buying habit.

(Yes, my town has a library, but it's small, and it often doesn't have a book I hear about and want to read).

And I don't care for reading off electronic devices, all of my Luddite concerns about some wireless hacker going into them and changing or deleting "my" books aside, I want my books to be ink on paper.

This is also my favorite time of the year for reading. The nights get cold, it gets dark early, I can pile up quilts on my bed and crawl in with whatever I'm reading at the moment. There's something very private about a book. It's just you and the page.

Right now, I'm reading Antonia Fraser's history of The Gunpowder Plot, and I have another book on the topic by a different author (I forget which one) for a later time. (I realize that some history carries the biases or opinions or the hypotheses its author supports most ardently, so it works best for me to read a couple different authors on topics like this).

I have a huge stack of books by my bed - The Manga Guide to Calculus, so I can reteach myself the one math topic I admit I never fully understood (but I think I need to review some algebra first; that may be where I went wrong in calculus - didn't have a good grounding in algebra). I have something called Operation Mincemeat, which is about WWII in Britain (a favorite topic of mine). I have "Quiet" - that book about introverts which I keep planning to read and then other things jump in front of it in the queue. I have a couple books on Shakespeare (I've been trying to read a Shakespeare play a year, to make up for not having read many in high school, and not really having much literature coursework in college). I have Simon Winchester's "Atlantic" (I love those huge, sweeping histories that incorporate lots of different narrative threads). I have "Shop Class as Soulcraft," another one of those books like "Quiet" that I say I "should" read and somehow don't quite get to. (I've read part of it before). I have "The Monks of New Skete and the Art of Happiness."

And on, and on. And I bought a bunch more this weekend when I was at the bookstore - Thomas Cahill's newest (I have all his other books and have read most of them, so I want to read this too). Another book on Shakespeare, this one called Shakespeare's Restless World. And the newest one from the person who wrote "How the Scots Invented the Modern World." (another one of those huge, sweeping history books - this new one promises to go from Aristotle to the Internet, or somesuch).

Most of these are in hardback. I know, more expensive and take up more space, but you know? I love hardbacks. I love their heft, I love their permanent feel.

I just have to find somewhere to store them. Or perhaps weed my collection pretty ruthlessly and donate to the university library....they have taken donations of scholarly books from me before and incorporated some of them into their collections. (I figure, if I'm unlikely to want to read it again, might as well give it, and make the room for something else. And then maybe someone else can benefit from the information).

I admit, I love buying books almost as much as I love reading them. My town doesn't have a proper bookstore but Next Biggest City does, and of course there's Powell's and Amazon and Bas Bleu and all of the little independent sellers who sell online or by catalog...

Thanks to the veterans

Just, thank you. You did what I could not do.

I am safe and I am free because men were willing to go into other parts of the world - some of them hellholes - and do things probably most of them would rather not have to do, in order to defend our freedom and our way of life.

I am very humbled by that. That I go to bed every night not worrying about my safety, that I travel about my town without fear, that I go to church freely and openly, in part, because of those men's efforts.

Good lord, what messes

I've seen a number of things (not just nationally, but locally) lately that makes me think that people either aren't trying to do a good job, or don't care who gets screwed over by missed deadlines, bad product, etc., as long as they get their paycheck.

And I find that deeply frustrating. I was raised to do the best possible job all the time - I have a really hard time doing anything in a half-assed way, even if I know I don't have time to do it right and that my "half-assed" is most likely someone else's "good enough."

It's been brought home to me, lately, though: Why do I even try? Why do I keep putting in long days and forgoing doing "fun" stuff? Why do I stress myself out over "Is the exam I wrote good enough? Does it test over the concepts the students need to know, is it too simple, is it too hard?" Because it feels more and more like no one else gives a crap how good the product they are putting out is, and if something really fails, they just shrug their shoulders and find someone else to blame.

And what this does, at least in my mind, is it continues to beat down the responsible people, the ones who care. Really: Why should I spend multiple hours doing something and making sure it's "right" when someone somewhere else just slaps something together, says, "good enough" and then goes off to watch a basketball game or something?

And yet, I can't just shrug off my duties and do a crap job at stuff because everyone else is. It kills me to do stuff half-assed, as I said earlier. What I want to see is greater accountability for the people who are doing crap jobs....to see some people genuinely get reprimanded and lose their jobs and have to make what's wrong right for no additional pay....and to stop harassing the people WHO are doing a good job and who do care.

And another thing is, sometimes there feels like a double standard. Let a high muckety-muck screw something up, even in a way that looks as if it might be intentional, and people look the other way. Let someone like me make a genuine mistake because we're ill-informed or because we honestly forget Thing 3564 of the 3565 things we're supposed to do, and OMG THE WORLD IS ENDING! And YOU ARE A HORRIBLE PERSON! And OMG HOW ***COULD*** YOU NOT DO THAT ONE THING?!?!?!


I don't know. I just get very discouraged by the way some parts of our society act these days.

I tried, guys

So I heard this stuff about Russell Brand in the news. About how he hates profit and hates capitalism and is a dangerous man.

And I admit, I've never particularly liked his comedy. I liked Despicable Me, which he did a voice in, but that's about the only thing he's been involved with I cared much for.

So I thought I'd rant about "these celebrity bastids who go around telling the rest of us how it's just dandy for the state to redistribute our money, because they figure that  they will be exempt, being CELEBRITIES!!! and also right-thinkers and all."

But, in the interest of knowing what I was going to be talking about, I went over to the New Statesman and tried to read the article he wrote, so I could see what he was really saying.

Emphasis on TRIED.

It's a big mess, guys. It jumps around a lot. In it, Brand confesses he's never voted (which immediately makes me give a bit of the stink-eye to anyone fomenting big political change. Okay, okay, that's probably a bit harsh. I admit there have been times I've threatened not to vote in state or federal elections because the choices I had were just so damn bad. And most of my adult life now, sadly, I've voted for the "lesser of two evils" than "a candidate I can really support").

I will say Brand really needs an editor. Or perhaps ADHD medication. I found his arguments really hard to follow. And I admit my comments in the next paragraphs jump around a bit, but it's because there's so much in the article and it's so mixed up that it's hard to organize my thoughts. (I also feel like I may have lost a few IQ points upon reading the article; I don't know)

That said, I think he's more a bit of a pillock (to use UK terminology) than really dangerous; I get the sense he's saying stuff he knows will sound extreme and transgressive and will get a lot of attention. I get the feeling he's upset but doesn't have a good thought of how to do concrete things to help others, other than talking about how bad banks and some corporations are. Somewhere in the mess he elucidates that noooo, he doesn't hate PROFIT (which, I suppose, is good, because one of my questions to him would be, "Well, then, if you hate people making money, have you sold all you own and given the money to the poor?"). But he hates big banks. And ummmm....some corporations. But Apple is pretty cool, except when they are like abusing their factory workers and stuff....

He speaks approvingly of winding up in the center of a "riot." I don't know. Based on the riots I've seen on the news, I'd be terrified for my life to wind up in the middle of one. He speaks of revolution and as I said before, I fear any big revolution (at least in the US and probably also in the UK - heck, perhaps MORESO in the UK) would be more like 1950s China than 1776 America. And, as someone who'd be tarred and feathered as an "intellectual," I have no desire for a Great Leap Forward or a Cultural Revolution.

A lot of people who talk about taking "corporations" down don't really think it through, I think. Do you enjoy growing most of your own food? Dealing with shortages? Having limited choices as to clothing and such? Going back to the kind of third-world, subsistence existence that he saw on his African trip?

Yes, some of the labor practices used by many corporations are awful. Yes, we probably should try to (a) change things and (b) buy from companies that treat their workers better. But most problems like this require solutions implemented over time, not a "BANG SMASH DESTROY" mentality. And not a sitting around and wringing one's hands and going "My fellow man is so blind and so selfish, and I am the only enlightened one"

I will also say the level of crudeness and rude-words that Brand inserts in his diatribe don't really make me any more inclined to listen to what he's saying. Yes, I'm a square and unhip, but you know, there are a lot of us out there who are put off by the use of a slang term for ejaculate in a situation where any other word....or no word at all....would have worked as well.

Brand describes a trip to Africa where he sees the poorest of the poor. Apparently this was not a mission trip or anything with an aid agency, it was tourism. He returned disgusted at his "santized" life....yet the thing is, I see no mention of concrete attempts to help, other than saying "All you lot here should feel very guilty that you sleep in a safe warm house and in a bed."

I may not be able to do much to change policy in my nation. But I can donate money to groups that help with, for example, education of children in some of the poorer nations of the world. Or to groups trying to give help after natural disasters. Or groups helping to improve agricultural practices for subsistence farmers. I realize in the grand scheme of things it may not be much....but no single person can do "much." We can do what we can. I think of the old story about the kid walking down the beach after a storm, throwing starfish back in the ocean, and the man who confronts him: "Stupid kid! You aren't big enough to save all the starfish. You can't possibly make a difference" and the kid throws another starfish back, and says, "I made a difference to that one."

I also think there is a certain sense of individual responsibility. Some of the things Brand is saying give me the sense that he thinks money should be taken from banks and corporations and just given to people, with no expectation that they use that money responsibly or go to work in the future. To quote a late countrywoman of Mr. Brand's: "The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money"

I would much rather choose to give a portion of my paycheck (and I do) to various groups doing work I can support, and whose work I can check up on and withdraw my support from, if, for example, I find there seems to be corruption or abnormally high salaries among those at the top. I cannot do the same with my tax dollars. I am sure some of those are used wisely, but I also am quite sure some of them are going to groups or individuals of questionable desert.

I have no idea if Mr. Brand gives money to charities trying to help with the issues he is concerned about. I hope he does. But it frustrates me to see someone who earns more than I do apparently trying to tell me what I should do with my money, and also implying things should change so there is more governmental control of people's lives.

Presented without comment

(Honestly, it's bad enough having to eat lunch at work without having to carry on a conversation with people. I like my colleagues and all but after 3 lecture classes in the morning, I'm done with talking for at least an hour, thanks)

something I wonder about....

How does Giorgio A. Tsoukalos (the Ancient Aliens guy) feel about the fact that he's an internet meme?

I can see three possibilities:

1. Ticked off and insulted. Aliens are serious business! People are not believing his research!

2. Laughing all the way to the bank....maybe more people watch the show now because of the meme, and it doesn't matter whether or not he believes the alien stuff

3. Really laughing at his epic trolling of people, because the whole Alien thing is a giant joke he's been playing for publicity

I suppose there's a fourth one, "Meh, it happens when you're famous," I don't know.

I don't watch the show so I don't know how earnestly he seems to believe that every breakthrough technology in the ancient world is the result of alien intervention.

Personally, I'd hate to become an Internet meme/joke, but I may have an overblown sense of dignity or something.

Something I think faculty need

A "Samuel L. Jackson-izer" microphone.

For those times when you need to say something a certain way.

I gave an exam in one class today. As another class uses that room the next hour, and as we have been informed that under some subsection of the new ADA laws we are not permitted to give any extra time on exams unless the student specifically has an accommodation (I suspect that's an over interpretation on the part of the lawyers, but whatever), I had to turf the last few students.

So first, I was polite: "Please finish your exams and hand them in in the next three minutes."

Then, I was less polite: "I need the exams done now. Please hand them in."

Finally, I went and stood near the two people not done and waited. Finally they finished.

But if I had the Samuel L. Jackson-izer microphone, I could SAY into it, "You need to finish your exams now" and the microphone would convert it to "HEY! Finish yo' asses UP and hand in the MFing exam, sumbitches!"

of course, I'd only get to use it once before losing my job....