I can’t remember which thread I saw it, but someone mentioned a number of “humorous measures” such as a Scaramucci (10 or 11 days). I’ve determined, thanks to one of my students, a shorter measure of time. We now have the plaje which is 36 minutes. Why that term and length of time? The students had an assignment which they were supposed to be working on for the majority of the semester. The assignment was due this morning. So, of course, at 6:30 this morning, I get a message from the student asking, “What’s my topic?” Although that’s one of my triggers (asking the topic the day it’s freaking due? Get serious!), I politely sent him the question he was supposed to research. At 7:06 this morning, I get another message from him, asking “Is this okay?” along with a PowerPoint presentation which was obviously created by a ChatGPT clone given bad instructions. So, there you have it. Plagiarism at light speed, er, in 36 minutes. Or, one plaje.
Another thing that has me ranting at July is I’ve been living in this city for just over ten years now. For that entire time, and beginning well before I got here, the city’s subway system has been saying “We’ll open the Dongba Station soon”. The latest rumor, which I just heard this morning, is “soon” is “September 2024”. The year’s half done. I don’t trust that rumor although the exterior of the station seems to be getting spiffed up for something.
Will you at least give him a B+ for being enterprising?
My rant: Wow, it’s freaking July already! The same Forces of Evil that are making me older must also be accelerating the flow of time! I bet that next week it will be November. Or at least, it will feel like about week.
When I was a kid summer was so awesme and seemed to meander like a slow winding river. There was swimming, picknics, ice cream, playing outside 'till dark or after. Now it’s a bunch of hot sweaty days, mowing the lawn, (until the grass dies from lack of water) and rushing to button everything up for winter. Bummer.
I was joking, of course. I’d fail the lazy, cheating bastard with no further questions, if only out of fairness to all the other students who worked hard on their projects.
That sadly reminds me that the last day of school around here was last Friday. Which means the little hellions will be running around shrieking all summer. God, I love winter!
Yes, this is my real July rant: summer is the Season of Noise – shrieking hellions, roaring lawn mowers and weed-whackers, loud garden parties, all kinds of pounding and whirring of power tools as everyone does their little projects, and of course insufferable heat. Winter is the season of peace and quiet, occasional gently falling snow which brightens the night and absorbs what few sounds there are, and cool temperatures that turn my garage into a sort of extended refrigerator while I’m cozy and warm inside.
The ones who’ve submitted something submitted rubbish, all of it copied wholesale. I’ve long gotten over it. I view it (hehehe) as a matter of perspective. My western viewpoint is don’t plagiarize. Their Chinese viewpoint is, “But that’s the answer; I found it!” Grrrr! NO! That’s not what they were asked to do. The kicker is this assignment is for a research proposal for research to be done next semester. But that’s not how they view research. Research is “I found it!” on, sadly, Baidu.
For one assignment for the seniors I teach (they’re in the groups which failed the other high school sections of this school’s 11th grade (“Year 11” as they call it here). I explained one assignment rather well, I thought, and why it’s not possible to fetch something off the Internet for it. One boy was bold enough to ask how I was so sure. My response: “Because I created this. It’s never been done before. If you don’t do it and put it online, then it’s not online. I guarantee you, I’m not putting it up there for you to copy.” So what was the result? One person, that boy, did the assignment. He actually did a a mighty good job of it, too. Yep, one person. I guess I explained it to well and scared them off.
Another rant. I’ve been in the habit of using gigantic 2500-ft restaurant-style plastic food wrap for many years. This all started when consumer products like Saran Wrap changed their formulation to be “food-safe” (you have to imagine air quotes here) and consequently were no longer clingy. The commercial stuff was better and much cheaper in the long run, too.
I used to get my plastic wrap, called “Resinite”, from a restaurant supply place. Later on they stopped carrying that brand and had some knock-off, but it was great, too. I remember the great big box being labeled “extra-cling”, and it was! The place closed down, so I ordered my next box from Amazon, and hurrah! They had the original Resinite!
No. I should have known. This was indeed a 2500-ft commercial package, but it was labeled “food-safe”. It clings no better than Saran Wrap. It’s the “safe” formulation (again, imagine air quotes here). The one that no longer uses PVDC because in 0.000000000000001% of cases it can be an endocrine disruptor.
What has become of this world? I’m all for better health. I’m all for safe practices. I’m all for getting drunk drivers off the road. But I want “cling” in my plastic wrap, not “food-safe”! I want, if you will, “food-dangerous”! I’m not going to eat the goddam stuff, or let it melt into my food. I want plastic food wrap that wraps food, motherfuckers! I’ve been using “food-dangerous” for more than two decades and it hasn’t killed me yet!
Time for my latest rant on trying to get my passport. I called the passport office last Monday to see if they received the birth certificate that I had mailed them on June 15. I was told that there was nothing on my file yet, but that there should be an update posted by Wednesday or Friday. I verified that they have my email address for sending me updates. I don’t hear anything by Friday, and over the weekend I check online and it’s still showing as pending. So I figure I’ll check again today. I go online and am told that the system is down.I figure this means there’s also no point in calling, since I had the impression that the person I spoke to wasn’t checking the physical file, just the same electronic record I could see online.
I’m scheduled to fly out on August 2. I had told this to the person I spoke to last week, and he assured me that there would be no problem getting me my passport before then. Of course, this is what I was told back in March, and as a former government worker myself I have no faith in statements about how long something will take to process. So I’m in limbo, since I’m not sure I should commit to spending more money on a trip that might not happen, but not wanting to have to run around like a decapitated chicken doing things at the last minute.
You might want to look into contacting either your congressperson or one of our senators about speeding this thing up.
I did that years ago when I was having trouble getting some paperwork confirming the dates I worked for the federal government, which I needed to roll some funds into the state pension fund. I’d been waiting about 6 months for it when I contacted my congressman. A week later it came in the mail.
A famous old comic, who was about eighty at the time, said that when you get to his age it seems like every fifteen minutes is lunchtime. It was George Burns or Mel Brooks or someone like that.
OK, sorry, NPR and Oregon Public Radio, I do not nee to hear another story about the Iranian election or Sudanese refugees, when my own country may be turning into an authoritarian state… There is only one story now.
Due to an evidentiary rule included ìn yesterday’s dreadful Supreme Court ruling, Trump’s lawyers are moving to have his NY State conviction thrown out, and they might very well succeed.
