You know it's going to be a bad semester when...

...you get all of the following e-mails in one day:

Is the require book on the syllabus really required?

Ah yes snowflake. If it says "required" there's a damn good chance that you'll have to buy it, especially since you are in an online class. How else are you supposed to learn the material? Through osmosis?

(E-mail subject: Wrighting Assignment) i was wondering if there was a legnth for the asignments. how short and how long should they be.

Before we get to that, have you heard of something called a "spell check"? It's an integral part of getting a good grade in my class. Also, capitalization and proper punctuation are Good Things. As for the length of the assignment, why don't you read the bottom of the assignment. You see? Right there where it says "minimum of 3-4 pages"? Duh. Oh wait. That would assume you actually read the assignment. My bad.

I was just wondering what is the exact time limit we have on discussions. I can't figure out when they close.

If you read the lesson in big flashing red lights that says "Read Me First" you will see that the discussions end at the end of the unit. Oh wait. That would assume that you read the "Read Me First" (with the flashing red lights) before doing all the other work that hasn't even started yet. Once again, my bad.

Hello professor for sum reason it is not letting me upload the file it keeps saying error.

Um. Is there a question in there? WTF are you talking about? The worst part, when I responded to this kid asking what are you asking, he gave me an even more incoherent answer: "The file wit the questions we are suppose to answer and send it to you." I still have no clue what he is talking about.

I have a feeling it's going to be a long semester.

I'm Surprised...

...that a student hasn't tried this one.


Oh how I miss The Far Side.

My New Car....

Bear and I got a new car. Ironically, we weren't planning on buying one, at least not today. The plan was to look at various models to rule out some. This is what we ended up getting...


The 2011 Lexus LFA supercar
Engine: V10
Acceleration: 0-60 mph in 3.6 seconds
Price: $375,000

Oh wait. I'm awake. Ha! I wish that was my car but unfortunately I can't afford something like that on a state-paid professor's salary. Here is the actual model of car I bought:


The 2010 Toyota Prius
Engine: 16-valve VVT-i 4-cylinder
Acceleration: 0-60 mph in 9.8 seconds
Fuel Efficiency: 50 mpg combined city/highway

I pretty much wanted the Prius from the start because I drive so much (average over 16,000 miles a year). While it was a little pricey (around $25,000 not including all the extra stuff like taxes), in the next five years it will more than make up the difference in gas costs. However, one of the things that concerned Bear, as he is a big guy, was whether or not he would fit in the car. Ironically, he fits better in the Prius than in our SUV. Heck, even the back seat has some decent room as long as you're not over 5'7". Though, that wasn't a concern for me as we rarely have passengers and if we do we usually take the SUV.

Now I just have to remember to press the break pedal when hitting the power button to start the car...

Hope for the (Near) Future

Don't worry. No political rant this time. :)

I went into the office today to start getting ready for the new semester. It was my only free day this week so I wanted to get as much done as possible. After a few snags (e.g., lost syllabi), I had a very productive day. There were a couple of things that did surprise me, albeit it pleasantly.

The first had to do with a number of wandering students. That is a typical sight because a number of students tend to wait until the very last minute (literally) to register for classes. However these weren't that lot. Instead, as I discovered, they were "mapping" out where their classes were. They were actually taking the time to see where their classes were so they could find them on the first day without being late! OMFG! What a concept (attach sarcasm here)! One of the things that frustrates me to no end during the first week of classes is the stream of late students going "sorry, couldn't find the classroom." I've even learned to wait 15 minutes before starting during that period to deal with them.

The second thing was that my online students are already participating and the semester hasn't even started yet! It's just the introductory discussions but it's nice to see people showing an interest. And what's even better? They realize that there is more work in online classes than in face-to-face ones. That means they might actually pass my class! While this is only my second year teaching online, I have come to the firm conclusion that most students (at least at the community college level) sign up for online classes for all the wrong reasons. They think that not having to go to school means that the class will be cake. I always have to remind students that the opposite is true as they are having to teach themselves the material. I provide all the stuff they need to learn but they are the ones who actually have to do the learning. However, most of that group never learns that lesson and I have to endure the "she's a bitch," "don't take her if you like your GPA" comments on RateMyProfessor.com.

I also got a non-student related surprise: a co-worker's daughter is selling Girl Scout cookies. Oh, I am in heaven! Every year I buy like ten boxes of the cookies to savor over the next few months (if they last that long). I am heartily addicted to all of the peanut butter ones. And no, it won't throw off my diet. After looking up the nutritional information, I found out that one serving of my fav cookies equals 3-5 points. This means I can enjoy a couple of cookies and not suffer without them. Though I may not buy as many boxes. They are so good!

Need to get this off my chest...

I am a bleeding heart liberal. I have been for a number of years. While I will admit that during the late 1980s and early 1990s, I considered myself a liberal Republican (liberal social views, conservative financial views) there were some rather difficult personal issues I had to deal with in the late 1990s that completely changed my point of view on things. Now, I'm about as left-wing as you can get without being a member of the Socialist Party.

One thing that has been really annoying me lately is the amount of crap that has been thrown around in the political arena the past couple of weeks. While I am a card-carrying member of the Democrat Party, I am open-minded to people of differing political beliefs. Voltaire once said "While I many not agree with what you say, I will defend to death your right to say it." I'm a firm holder of that belief. However, that belief is starting to fracture over a lot of crap I've been hearing recently.

I don't mind if you have a differing opinion as long as you are making an EDUCATED opinion. I don't care if you are a conservative, liberal, libertarian, or a Marxist. As long as you know why you are that way, it's fine by me. Don't just listen to the political heads on places like Faux News (intentional typo) or even CNN. Research what they are talking about and make your own opinion. Don't just take those things at face value. Hell, I'm a liberal and I can't stand CNN or MSNBC because of the way they idolize the Dems to a point they are almost considered god-like. If I have to watch the news, I turn to BBC America which is much more neutral than the U.S. news channels.

So what is the problem here? If I hear one more person state something as fact that is either taken completely out of context or a complete farce, I am going to scream! Either that or beat the person silly. Case in point (and these are true references I have seen in places like Facebook and comments on various news articles):

• Lincoln was a Republican and it was the Democrats who had him killed because he freed the slaves! - Yes, Lincoln was a Republican but if he were alive today, he would most likely be a Democrat. Not only were his ideas incredibly progressive for the time period, he supported a growing involvement of federal power. The Dems of the 1800s were the conservatives while the Republicans were the liberals. That changed in the early 20th century. And also, just because one nutcase was responsible for killing Lincoln doesn't mean the entire party was responsible for the assassination. That's as blatantly stupid as saying the "Jews killed Christ" (when in actuality, it was a Roman who gave the death sentence, not a Jew) and that all Jews then and now are responsible for that.
• It was the Democrats who implemented Jim Crow Laws! - Well, duh. Southern Democrats were for the most part racist shits in the late 1800's and early 1900s. However, do NOT use that argument when discussing Democrats today. See above argument.
• The Democrats are more racist than the Republicans because they feel that minorities are unable to take care of themselves and need a handout. The Republicans, on the other hand, think that we are all the same so no handout or affirmative action is needed - My God. Do people actually think this? Unless you ever faced discrimination or lived below the poverty line this argument is just moot. Going back to the incidents in the late 1990s, I faced both. If anybody tried this one in my face I would laugh so hard I would probably fall over. The Dems aren't just helping minorities, they are helping those who are struggling. If it wasn't for the initiatives of things like Social Security, Medicare, and improvements to education including increased public funding of grade schools and expansion of financial aid, a lot of people in this country would be screwed, both white, black, Hispanic, etc. Oh, and yes, these were put forth by Democrats.
• The stimulus package is going to hurt the economy more than help it! - While I'm not a big fan of bailing out such companies as Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, without the stimulus package we would be royally fucked. A friend of mine teaches Asian history and economics and he gave a brilliant lecture on the role of the Asian nations in this financial crisis. The amount of money spent by the U.S. government to bailout companies and promote an economic stimulus is only a small part of the money spent by other nations. Specifically the G20 Nations are responsible for $692 billion in total economic stimulus packages in 2009. On average, the U.S. spent 1.9% of its 2008 GDP which might seem like a lot. However, China spent 2.4% which was significantly larger and they technically didn't have to push for stimulus money because their economy is actually doing quite well. The whole thing is that you need to look at the larger picture. What would have happened if we didn't provide some kind of stimulus package? I have bad news for you boys and girls but we would have headed for a global depression that would have been worse than the Great Depression. This stimulus package was not just a "U.S. thing" but a global one. It was all of the participants who kept the world from going down the economic drain and following in the footsteps of Iceland. In case you didn't know, Iceland declared bankruptcy last year. The country went bankrupt. Imagine if, for example, Brazil went bankrupt or Russia? Imagine how that would screw up the entire global economy! Heck, I remember watching a "documentary" back in the 1980s analyzing how World War III would start. Guess what? They predicted it would start with all of the South American countries declaring bankruptcy. How do you think that would screw up our economy? Ya, it was bad.
• Socialized medicine doesn't work/kills people/costs too much money, etc! - I could spend a month going over this argument. Just think of it this way: we are the only civilized western country that does not provide some sort of state backed health care system. While yes it will cost money, you are going to pay no matter what. Think of all of those people who don't have health insurance. They aren't going to go for regular check ups and will wait until they are truly ill before they see a doctor. By then, the cancer may have spread too far, or what started out as a simple curable illness turns into something fatal. The uninsured can't pay for it so everybody else does in the form of higher doctor bills. Also, if you have health insurance, you do you think is paying for it? If you said your company, you are partially right. How many of you would take a lower paying job if it provided health insurance over one that paid better but didn't provide? We know all of you would. You pay for it in many forms. Some may be paying for it out of pocket in terms of monthly deductions out of your paycheck or you are receiving a lower salary so that your company can afford to give you health insurance. Death panels? Who the fuck came up with that one. All of my friends who live in Europe and Canada love their health care system. While they have to wait a smidge for "unnecessary" surgeries, they don't have to worry about paying for important, preventative measures. Heck, if you have the sniffles, you don't have to worry about not affording your doctor visit. And I'm sorry, if you don't think affordable health care should be a right in this country, our founding fathers would disagree. If you don't believe me, look at our own Declaration of Independence (which happens to mention life...I think health and life go together):
  

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

/gets off soap box and goes to bed.

More Team CoCo Love

Even Hitler is getting involved:

Proud Member of Team CoCo

I am not a huge TV watcher. To me, the best form of entertainment is found either in a book or in a video game of some sort. However, as a night person, I like to wind down my day by watching the local news and then one of the various late shows. Personally, I can't stand Jay Leno. I don't know if it was his west coast style humor or the fact that he always made rather nasty fat jokes about people. Either way, I never found him funny. To be honest, for a long time I watched Letterman at the 11:35pm slot. That is, until Conan O'Brien got the Tonight Show. I've always loved CoCo on the Late Show but I was rarely up that late to watch it. I sort of enjoyed having bad insomnia so I could catch at least the opening monologue and would even stay up late just to catch an episode of Triumph the Insult Dog. Him on the Tonight Show was the equivalent of a mental orgasm for me, even though the 11:35 version of him was a lot more tame than the Late Show one.

Now with all this crap going on at NBC I'm really pissed off. One of the reasons why I don't enjoy TV any more is because all of my favorite shows got canceled (e.g., the Dresden Files) or played on for so long that they are just either way too predictable or too similar (e.g., the Law & Orders and the CSIs). The Tonight Show with CoCo was one of the few that I made an effort to watch. NBC is shooting themselves in the foot with this one. Leno might have been funny ten years ago. The failure of his 10pm show proves he no longer is. And don't blame CoCo for low ratings for the Tonight Show. With the pitiful Leno Show as a lead in, what do you expect?

If you can believe it, I actually wrote an e-mail to NBC. I usually don't do things like this unless I'm really pissed. I know it won't do any damn good but it was cathartic. Basically I told them if they put Leno back, they just lost yet another viewer to Letterman or wherever CoCo goes.