Go stick your head in a pig: Annoyed complaints

[G.C.R]

20 pages! We sure churn through annoyed threads.

My RRRRGH today: I cannot for the life of me figure out when i can finish my degree, and what I need to take next term in order to getting close to finishing my degree, and I really don't want to fuck up and end up taking anything unnecessary. I need to sit down and explain all my problems to someone, but the "request for BA audit" forms don't give enough room for me to explain all the complicated shit about what my situation is and what I want to find out. I just need someone to say, "you need to complete x number of papers at x level to finish". Why is this so hard?

[Ignatius]

Can you set up an appointment with one of those wonderful secret office people to discuss it? At the end of the process, there's someone reading those forms, right? Is it possible to get into contact with them directly?

[auto-da-fey]

holy FUCK I have dug myself into a hole with my several weeks' worth of procrastinating. I didn't get home till 10 tonight after spending all day in my office, and then, thinking I was finally in the clear, I realized there were 15 more ungraded papers sitting on my floor. now it's fucking midnight and I'm still grading, and have yet to begin thinking about tomorrow morning's class. I would love to say there is at least a lesson to be learned from all of this, but it is one I've long known and never acted upon, so whatever.

and Grace, administrative bureaucracies are the worst--I had to have my call forwarded twice today just to find out if the writing center could also provide reading-comprehension tutoring for a student whose grasp of written English is a little tenuous--but I agree with Ignatius, with a little perseverance you should be able to get someone to address your concerns.

[Ignatius]

You just blew my mind, adf. For some reason, I've never considered that my professors came up with a plan for class on the fly. Not that I assumed they've all had lesson plans and discussions drawn up for the full semester well ahead of time, but I've just kinda figured that a bad class was entirely the students' fault for failing to do the work and thoughtfully consider the reading. That's bonkers. I'm an idiot. Maybe tomorrow should be one of those days where you break the class up into as many groups as you can provide a unique ambiguous open-ended question about the text, and then have them report back towards the end... H'm...

[diesel_powered]

Maybe tomorrow should be one of those days where you break the class up into as many groups as you can provide a unique ambiguous open-ended question about the text, and then have them report back towards the end... H'm..

Bizarrely enough, ease of preparation aside, this is an immensely effective way of teaching provided you can keep everyone engaged and moderate well.

[hannah]

Haha Iggy that's what I did today.

But I am a ta! And I have to say why is this tenured professor being such a dick, like, at what point do you get tenure, is it before or after you fellate the administration

Sorry, that's all for now

[auto-da-fey]

I've never been able to do that; then again, I don't think I've ever drawn up a real lesson plan either. my natural inclinations are to make self-deprecating comments about how I'm just kind of a failure, but reality is, profs everywhere are faking it all the damn time, without question, from adjuncts to the full professors who teach Am Lit but haven't opened Whitman or Fitzgerald or Baldwin since the late Carter administration. Thing is, I don't really think this makes the whole Ivory Tower a sham exactly, because I'm not sure student learning hinges on teacher preparedness per se. Though I guess many other things make the Ivory Tower a sham independent of this.

[auto-da-fey]

also hell, I'd fellate the admin and the whole board of trustees just to get on the damn tenure track, but noooo, my velvet tongue and soothing lips just aren't good enough.

[Ignatius]

They're good enough for the State University of Me, adf.

[diesel_powered]

Honey, you can work on my tenure track any day.

[Ignatius]

I like it when professors teach a book they haven't read since their grad school days and they tell you they didn't remember how fucked up it is.

[auto-da-fey]

does that mean you've reached the Delany book?

[Ignatius]

No, sorry, that won't be until the end of the month, I think. That guy's young, anyway, I doubt his grad school days are more than five or six years behind him.

[G.C.R]

My tutor for American Literature is constantly telling us things like, "Well I'm sure you're right, I haven't read any Kerouac since I was a student myself", and "Gee, Invisible Man was pretty good, eh? I read it for the first time last night" and "So, what do you guys want to talk about? I haven't prepped anything." He has also sung us "Lemon Tree" twice, and most of the sections he chooses to discuss in tuts are sex scenes. He's kind of my favourite and least favourite in the English department at the same time- his classes are half embarrasing and awful, and half fantastic.

[mixed cats]

The vending machines here suck: two kinds of Doritos (Nacho Cheese and Buffalo Wing/Ranch), two kinds of Cheetos (puffy and crunchy), some weirdo Burger King "fries and ketchup" flavored potato snacks.. But no Cheez-its. Grumbles. I want some neon goddamn orange crackers.

[Snarfyguy]

The vending machines here suck: two kinds of Doritos (Nacho Cheese and Buffalo Wing/Ranch), two kinds of Cheetos (puffy and crunchy), some weirdo Burger King "fries and ketchup" flavored potato snacks.. But no Cheez-its. Grumbles. I want some neon goddamn orange crackers.

This may be heresy, but I find the White Cheddar variety (in the green package) even more compelling.

[jm]

I think we can all agree that when it comes to cheez, Its > Nips.

[mixed cats]

I think we can all agree that when it comes to cheez, Its > Nips.

FACT.

[davy]

I can't recommend the spicy variety. They're like the opposite of Tums.

[mixed cats]

I embrace all Cheez-it flavors, but the spicy ones are low on glory.

[Killdozersnakeboy]

Bus drivers have been locked out. 40 minute walk to work this morning. Sucks.

[Bernard]

Was watching Colbert, waiting for tMG to come on. Waited, waited, waited through commercials. Finally had to go to the bathroom. Came back to last few bars of song.

 

[jess]

The vending machines here suck: two kinds of Doritos (Nacho Cheese and Buffalo Wing/Ranch), two kinds of Cheetos (puffy and crunchy), some weirdo Burger King "fries and ketchup" flavored potato snacks.. But no Cheez-its. Grumbles. I want some neon goddamn orange crackers.

They restocked the vending machines in our building today, and not only are there no more Cheez-its, but they now have pork rinds. Yet another "oh man, I really am in KY now" experience.

[hannah]

Man, I really am stressed out to the point of almost no return, golly: students are upset, papers are ungraded, administrators are exploitative, emails are unanswered, applications are unfilled, research projects are unraveling. And I kept thinking today was Thursday. It isn't! Oh ho ho no.

[diesel_powered]

Deep breaths, Hannah girl, you're gonna be fine.