Neurotik
I’ve got a question. Regarding your first example, are you calling the kid a dipshit because of the argument that he made or because he didn’t understand the concept of the assignment?
Neurotik
I’ve got a question. Regarding your first example, are you calling the kid a dipshit because of the argument that he made or because he didn’t understand the concept of the assignment?
Hm. What about this one guy who doesn’t care about personal hygiene (including matters like combing and beard-shaving), has really really really annoying voice which he uses to either bore everyone to death with details of Marvel comics, making jokes that are the epitome of ‘nerd joke you have to be nerd to enjoy’ (I mean, I’m at least half-nerd and those jokes are amazingly unfunny) or explains all the jokes someone else has made that are better? And worst of all, no-one dares to say anything, since he’s known for… shows of emotion… which might involve violence.
And he has tendency to await for me just so he can sit next to me or at least nearby. Sigh.
No big bitches about classmates here, I just wondered if anyone else attends a college where they hand out ratty baseball caps during orientation. I swear to god, if a male in my class doesn’t wear a baseball cap to class, I figure that a new student just joined the class. I can’t identify fellow students by hair color or face usually–just baseball caps. “Jeez, Yankee cap sure has missed a lot of class lately. Hey, Eddie Bauer cap showed up for a lecture–halleluya!” Maybe it’s just me, but I only wear a baseball cap when I haven’t had a time to shower in the morning. Does that mean I’m perpetually surrounded by 20-30 people who haven’t showered yet? I can even understand not showering for the 8:00 AM class, but how about finding time for a shower by the noon class, guys? Being away from home for the first time does not equal freedom and release from all personal hygiene.
Unfortunately, there are quite a few people who don’t realize that.
I wear hat and cap. Not because of personal hygiene(I wash and condition my hair twice a week), but because it is the best way to keep my hair out of my face. Spray or gel works, but I forgot to bring them to my place and have adapted very well without them. Making a ponytail or something like that doesn’t work, I am not that great at hairstyling, and just a breeze is enough to mess my hair. Same goes for combing, I don’t want to be combing my hair every 5 minutes.
Sometimes I take off my hat during classes. I never take my cap off during class because I only wear it during lab, where it is important to keep the hair out of the way.
But yea, you can recognize me by my hat and my cap. Blue denim hat, beige cap.
For those of you who are in school fulltime, check out my “Pwincess Pwecious” thread to see what work-a-day horrors await you in the post-school world of Cubicle Rats . . . You will meet ALLLLLL your bête noires again.
[“bête noires?” “bêtes noire?” Hmmm . . . ]
I’m sure there were many, many more, but one guy always stuck out like a sore thumb.
Just one quick incident. I think all my cynicism with the state of human intelligence dates back to this.
We’re sitting in an epidemiology class, and the professor is talking about an outbreak of (IIRC) smallpox on the Faeroe Islands, in the North Atlantic Ocean.
Infuriatingly Stupid Guy raises his hand and asks (you can see this coming, can’t you?), “Were the Faeroe Islands settled by Egyptians?”
My lip curled and I experienced a massive wave of ennui and cynicism that has not left me yet.
To my smoking classmates:
QUIT PUTTING YOUR FUCKING SMOKING RELATED TRASH (butts, etc.) ALL OVER THE FUCKING CAMPUS.
Just because you don’t care about your lungs or the state of the environment does not mean the rest of us don’t care about our lungs or the environment. So, please, QUIT FUCKING SMOKING IN THE AREAS YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO SMOKE ON CAMPUS. There are little areas designated for your masochistic self-destruction ritual, USE THOSE. DON’T SMOKE STANDING IN THE FUCKING DOORWAY TO THE FUCKING CAMPUS BUILDINGS. Those are not the designated smoking areas.
DON’T BLOW YOUR FUCKING SMOKE IN MY FACE AS I’M TRYING TO GET INTO THE FUCKING BUILDING PAST YOUR INCONSIDERATE AND FUCKING STUPID ASS.
DON’T SMOKE ON THE FUCKING PATHWAY THROUGH THE GROVES ON CAMPUS. Some of us kind of like to get from the classroom to our cars WITHOUT HAVING TO INHALE YOUR FUCKING SMOKE AND THE PATHWAYS ARE SPECIFICALLY NOT SMOKING AREAS.
Lastly: USE THE FUCKING TRASH CANS TO DISPOSE OF YOUR CIGARETTE PACKS/BOXES. This may come as a shock to you, but THE GROUND ISN’T THE FUCKING TRASH CAN FOR YOUR FUCKING GARBAGE.
It’s the “not understanding the concept” that that Neurotik’s ranting about. Might’ve gotten lost amongst the exclamation points.
Yeah, zut’s correct…it was his not understanding the concept of the assignment that irritated me. I agreed with his argument in real life, it’s just not really what we were supposed to be doing.
Gotcha, thanks. Just wasn’t sure. While I side (somewhat) with the media, I certainly see the other side of the argument. If the guy can’t get that he needs to argue something he doesnt’ believe in, well, maybe the class isn’t for him.
Oh crap…that reminds me I’ve got to make a call to a local debate coach today. Ever talk to yourself through typing? Just me? OK.
Fortunately, other than those two examples I listed above, there really aren’t any standouts as annoying. Maybe I’m fortunate. Maybe it’s because I could be one of the people others talk about in their rants and so everyone else pales in comparrison to me. Sometimes I think I ask too many questions, but when I’m curious I’m curious.
Well, this won’t be on the level of other posts here, but:
At the age of 32, I don’t much care what a bunch of 19 year-olds think. So stuff your little comments back down. If I don’t understand something in a calculus class that I’ve never had before in any fashion, I’m going to ask. And if I ask something that’s conceptual, even if it turns out that I missed something before, just LET IT GO. It’s not like you haven’t missed things or not understood them before too. And no, I’m not a moron. I’ve scored in the 97th percentile on the MSAT, just to name one thing.
The scene: Today’s Administrative Law class
The characters: Ms. Touchy-Feely Champion-of-the-Oppressed, Mr. George-Bush-is-my-Personal-Savior
The discussion topic: whether welfare is a “right” or a “privilege.”
You know what? I don’t think I need to even describe any further. But it was ugly. Very ugly.
(I swear this is true - Ms. TFCOTO sits on the left side of the classroom, while Mr. GBIMPS sits on the right).
Ah, yes. Annoying classmates. Current favorite is Totem Boy, a trollish gimp who made an appearance in a graduate level course on Norse Literature I had some years ago.
He never came out and said so, but I strongly suspect he played a lot of Dungeons and Dragons. Just a guess. Why do you say that, slortar, you ask?
EVERY DAMN THING WE READ, he’d relate to totems and “shamanism.” Every hero, saga, myth we read would have animal symbolism in it. Did Bjerk Hjalfskallir trip on a squirrel in the woods? ANIMAL SYMBOLISM. The squirrel is obviously his spirit guide! Were there chickens on that homestead the main characters pass on the way home? OBVIOUSLY THE MAJESTIC POWER OF THE CHICKEN WAS A STRONG UNDERCURRENT IN THE SAGA.
It got so bad, the professor would just roll his eyes whenever he opened his mouth.
I hear you. At the U of Chicago there are all these wonderful Gothic arches in front of certain doors, under which many people congregate to smoke. Especially this building in which I have two (out of three) classes – every time I go there, I have to squeeze my way through a crowd of people and a cloud of cancerous goodness. (I’ve never tried it, but I bet it smells like that even when there are no people there… :eek: )
Clouds are not organic therefore they cannot be “cancerous”. HA!
My gripe is fucking kids, who don’t belong in college, who don’t want to attend classes and WHO WON’T LET ME HEAR THE PROFESSOR FROM THE SECOND ROW. It’s hard to learn anything at all like this, that background noise is insuferable. I swear I’m not exagerating, I can’t hear him clearly from what, 3-4 metres away? And the fact that anyone could laugh with some of the jokes that are thrown around and the smug “I’m da man” look on their faces because they misbehaved and oh yes, how could I forget, passing notes and throwing paper balls, GAH! I’d understand if this were still highschool but goddamn, it’s not a bar, it’s a classroom. And an interesting one at that!
OK, fine, carcenogenic goodness. Happy now?
There is this ancient woman, Helen, who appears to be about 80 or possibly older. She has appeared in every single one of my English courses in the past two semesters: 4 survey classes, a Shakespeare class, Literary Analysis 301, and The World of Language. Every class. In every single class she spent the first ten minutes of the very first class having a “private” discussion with the professor at the front of the room. Never mind the rest of us, never mind office hours. Usually her bitch extends to the small text of the assigned books (English anthologies, for those not familar, are about four inches thick, with tissue-thin paper, small text, and something like 3000 pages.) She also complains about her hearing problems and declares that she needs to sit in the very first row directly in front of the professor. Usually, she’s the only person sitting in the front row at all, but still she complains.
Finally, she sits down, the professor chats with us and hands out the syllabus. The woman immediately raises her hand and explains that her available hours do not coincide with the professor’s office hours. Can they decide on a good time to meet once a week? After class. Okay. Moving along.
We go over the syllabus. Helen again takes issue with the text in front of the class. After class. Okay.
As we continue: Why are the quizzes worth that percent of the grade? Will the tests be essay or multiple choice? Can we change the date of the paper from Tuesday to Thursday? Will there be assigned after-class study groups? Etc, etc.
In my Literary Analysis class, we dove right in to discussing a poem. It was Frost’s “The Silken Web,” a disturbing poem comparing a woman to a tent that is tied down: weird imagery, mixed messages. Helen raises her hand and declares that all men, and I quote, are “emotionally constipated” and “violent oppressors.” I kid you not.
Best of all? She never comes to the second class.
Oh man, this is going to kill you. Students at our school smoke in the elevator.
I go to a community college…
In my Basic Math class, we have the trio of Ditzes. They’re favorite activity is to talk amongst themselves about how drunk they’re going to get every night. Then, after the teacher is done talking, one of them complains that she has no idea what is going on. Maybe if you paid attention… Then they’ll spend the work time griping about how much they hate math, and how much the teacher does not make sense. Look, we all hate math. That’s why we’re in Basic Math! Quit your bitching and let me work.
In my Western Civ. class, I have this guy named Matt who sits to my left. Two seats to my right is his friend. Me and this other kid are in the middle. Matt feels the need to hold conversations with his friend. It never occurs to him to get out of his seat to walk over to his friend. No, they have to talk loudly back and forth, sometimes when the teacher is giving a lecture. I was hoping he would be dropped from the class because he’s missed so much, but alas…no!
In the same class, there are a few Chauvanistic Pigs. When the teacher was giving a lecture on how women were treated real bad in Greece, some of these CPs would giggle and say witty things like, “Yeah. That’s how it should be!” That’s real great, guys.
In the Campus Center, there’s this group that seems to think they own the building, and treat it as if it were their own club. They talk really loud, and sometimes yell. Sometimes one of the guys and his female friend will carry on some sort of play where he’s carrying her around and she’s giggling. Then they’ll wrestle on the ground. They act like a couple of 7th graders. I think they’ve also been seen throwing various pieces of trash at each other (the people in the group). Nobody every stops this behavior.