Happy New Rants!!

The BBQ Pit
101

Another office-related rant:

For the first time ever, I have completely lost my voice thanks to a particularly bad cold provided courtesy of my husband. I’m working from home to avoid contaminating anyone other than my own flesh and blood, so happen to be on a lot of calls, most of which are of the “sit and listen” variety. When I started canceling meetings where I actually need to speak because I’m almost completely unintelligible today, I got the usual, “Hope you feel better! Talk to you next week!” etc. From all but one person who insisted we hold the meeting because he “has great hearing.”

I tried to explain vi IM and email that I’d be really hard - if not impossible - to hear because I cannot talk above a whisper, yet he wouldn’t stop referencing his fucking “bat ears,” so eventually I figured I’d just get on the phone with him to illustrate my dilemma. Imagine my surprise when he kept yelling, “OVERLY, I CAN’T HEAR YOU. SPEAK LOUDER!”

Um, no you motherfucker, this is actually the loudest I can speak. I have a cold and have lost my voice, remember? He finally conceded with, “Well. I guess you really CAN’T talk.” Holy fuck, you moron, do you really think I want to drag this shitty back and forth out any longer? And is it really your job to confirm that I’m not just canceling meetings because I can? You piece of shit. Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.

It’s probably best you can’t hear me.

Hugs & Kisses,
Overly

PS. Screaming in people’s ears when they can’t speak will not make them magically speak louder. You’re making my headache worse. Thanks.

102

They’ll only cover if there’s actual roof damage. The dangling part? It’s considered cosmetic and not covered.

Now comes the waiting…and waiting…and waiting…for roofing contractor call backs.

:sigh:

103

The lil’wrekker just turned 18, she was having a bit too much pm-s cramping, I thought The doctor gave her a one time hormone shot and a mild pain meds for the cramping. The doctor talked to her about sexual activity and birth control and std-s. I appreciated that, I didn’t know half of what she was talking about, so I was educated too. It was, altogether, a successful endeavor.

104

They delivered my new refrigerator first stop this morning!. It’s so clean and shiny, inside and out, and it has the quietest purr. It’s gonna be a great day!

105

Just got a brand new Danby fridge two days ago, and this one seems to be about, oh, 8 trillion times quieter than the old GE, which had a compressor that, as it wore down, started to create sounds that made increasingly strange, warbling frequencies that sometimes got really high-pitched like a dentist’s drill through your forehead, and then gradually waver down to a lower, buzzing frequency, similar to an obnoxiously loud flourescent light, and then back to dentist drill thing. Ludovico treatment any way you slice it, so along with a sudden absence of a week’s worth of blasting anti-flood fans going off continuously, the quiet is almost deafening. Not a complaint.

New fridge comes with light that illuminates everything in a trippy, dark blue light - very luminous, like I’m reaching for an incredibly posh, new age-y jug of milk.

106

Love them Danbys!!

107

So, I’m back at University as a mature student. About half the class are over 25, some into their 40s, and quite a few have not formally studied since age 16. It’s an applied Horticulture course, and the college makes a bit of a thing about the fact that it will take students from academic backgrounds that would find it hard to get on to many courses, which I think is great, because there aren’t many opportunities here to get back into education if you didn’t get good grades or choose the ‘right’ subjects at 16. It’s been pretty good so far, erring on being too simple if anything. Except one module.

The guy teaching that module quit just before Christmas. His mind appeared to leave quite a bit before the rest of him; he got increasingly vague, didn’t appear to understand what he was supposed to be explaining, and sometimes just started telling us stuff that was outright wrong. A few of us considered complaining then, but there didn’t seem much point, as he’d already said he was leaving anyway. The exam for the module is the first day back after Christmas, which is tomorrow.

So, over the Christmas break, I’ve been revising the stuff we’ve gone over in class. Reviewing the lectures (several of which don’t seem to be on the system, despite him saying they would be) and going through the college’s online resources for the module. There’s a ‘revision’ tab, which leads to an exam past paper, and a revision quiz. Great, I think, and go to look through them. Fully half the questions on the past paper, and several questions on the ‘revision quiz’ are about stuff that was not even mentioned in class. In depth questions about biochemical systems we’d not even touched on. The hell?!

Bear in mind this is the first science exam some of the class have had in 20 years. The one they assured the class wasn’t going to be hard, but an introduction to the topic, more designed to get people used to studying and taking exams again. Did the syllabus change drastically since the past paper and quiz were written, or did he only teach us a chunk of the syllabus? Who knows?

I’m not very worried about passing myself, a lot of this is stuff I’ve done before, and several of my friends did not, and really were already freaked out about it. I just don’t think that’s acceptable; the lectures were already crap compared to other modules, and they’re followed by ‘revision’ materials that include a large amount of stuff not on the damn course. This on what was supposed to be a gentle reintroduction to scientific study.

It’s like advertising riding lessons for people who’ve had bad experiences with horses, then leading them to some clapped out jittery nag with one eye and 3 legs.

Did I mention the exam’s tomorrow?

108

I have no patience for pompous boors who act like everyone in the world should be speaking English.

109

This is something you need to bring before an administrator because it is an absolutely unacceptable condition to be graded on material you weren’t taught. I’m sure the faculty is well aware that guy had issues before he flamed out, and are likely to be understanding. It would probably be best if more than one student brings up the issue, either as a group or separately, in a way that is not combative but clear you were all put in an unfair situation.

110

You should email the dean today. I teach a lot of “returning students”… Any competent admin/dean/povost should immediately go into Damage Control mode, and NOT proceed with the test like nothing ever happened.

111

Well, everyone would be able to understand each other.

112

:dubious:

I’m going to go with “No” for $500, Alex.

113

DAlLY D0UBLE

114

The problem is, I don’t know if we are going to be graded on it, or if he’s just stuck inappropriate revision material up. I’m hoping the latter, which is only pretty crap, not total crap. The more I’ve looked through the online module stuff, to try and work out what’s going on, the more I’ve realised it’s a total mess; the official module handbook doesn’t even mention an exam being part of the assessment in the grade points weighting, though it is listed on the timetable. In May. After several lectures we haven’t had. According to the handbook, instead of the exam, there’s 40% weighting given to a project that we’re not doing and isn’t mentioned anywhere else.

As it happens, the lecturer had been there for 10 years, and I’ve already, as the student rep for the course, had discussions with the course leader about some minor issues with the tutor not updating online stuff properly, and he reacted then with total surprise, saying the guy was normally good at that sort of stuff. The module started off fine, then he got his new job arranged and apparently just stopped giving a shit, so no, I don’t know if faculty do know there was a problem. Second years said he was OK.

It’s a tiny college and very new, fewer than 100 students total, so we don’t have a dean, the course leader would be the guy to talk to in house. Above that, it’s a really complicated set up; they’re part of a group of colleges, running courses in partnership with a University, so it’s really hard to know who’s responsible for what.

The course leader is also teaching one module, which is Tuesday morning, so I think I’m going to have a word then, which will be after the exam, but at least then I’ll know for sure what the problem is.

The thing that’s really worrying me is the fact that I’ve already been on Facebook half the day trying to calm my best friend on the course down via messenger, because this is the first exam she’s done since she was 16, and that one was a disaster due to other reasons. I’m worried she’s going to have a panic attack and walk out if stuff’s on the exam we haven’t studied, rather than realising that if that happens, it’s their problem, not hers.

115

You shoulda gotten an air horn and learned Morse code…

116

That’s good!

117

Who is this Alex you speak of? No, wait, you speak TO him… is he there in your home with you?
And does he say No if you give him $500? Will he say longer sentences for $600?

(see how easy it is to not understand, even given a common language…)

118

Thanks a lot, Will’s gym, for changing the lockers to now be auto-allocated when you come in.

Previously, I could just choose whichever locker; so I’d pick some peaceful spot in the locker room where I have lots of space.
Now, even if there’s only a handful of guys in the locker room, their lockers are adjacent, so you have to crawl under some guy’s taint to put your stuff away. Progress!

119

:smack:

Now that REALLY doesn’t make any sense at all!

120

I could see how a locker allocation system would make sense, if there were a problem with locker space at peak times. I would suggest they need a better algorithm for allocation, so the lockers are more spread out at non-peak times.