Wild Wood Wanderer

I have to rant a little bit today. I am fed up with college students who act like pre-schoolers. It is ridiculous to not know where the Atlantic and Pacific oceans are. It is ridiculous to show up to lab for the first time four weeks into the semester. It is ridiculous to look suprised by a weekly quiz when the syllabus says “You will have a weekly quiz.”

Today I began lab by explaining some of the more important concepts they needed to know. I said “If you only remember one thing, remember to only use the Moist Adiabatic Lapse Rate when the air is fully saturated.” So why am I so suprised when a dozen hands went up at the same time, all asking how they were supposed to know when to use the Moist Adiabatic Lapse Rate?

For the map quiz last week, one student decided that eastern North America was actually bound by the Indian Ocean. Most do not know the difference between latitude and longitude. I even had one person decide that the northern hemisphere was in the south. I am not making this up.

It’s not a suprise to me that China and India are taking our jobs away. We’re practically dumming ourselves down and allowing anyone else with any responsibility or motivation to take the reigns of science, math, and intelligence in general. I cannot believe that some of these people here have actually made it to college. College should be a privlege, not a 24/7 beer fest. I even think I had one guy today who came to class on acid. He was shaking, couldn’t look me in the eye, and kept breaking his mechanical pencil until he had to ask me for another one. He was also one of the ones who showed up today for the first time.

How sad that one of my favorite companies is selling out to the evil mouse-eared corporation. Pixar’s movies have been original and well thought out. I’m afraid this latest merge will only result in more McMovies on the Disney homefront.

In “funny but oh so true” news today…Deborah Tannen has a new book out. I heard her talking about it on NPR this morning…I think I’ll have to pick up a copy

Great three day weekend…I took advantage by reading ahead in all of my books, finishing a couple of projects early and working on my thesis.

Yeah, right. I spent most of the weekend watching my season 1 box set of Lost and then being really freaked out at night while I was alone in my apartment. The dogs constantly barking next door and the sound of what I’ve convinced myself was a helicopter taking off outside my apartment and not a mass murdering chainsaw man did not help either.

If you don’t watch Lost, it’s probably true that you have more of a life than I do. But as someone who was bored by Friends after about the second season, this show has managed to keep me guessing. I think what makes a tv show interesting is the same thing that makes some people interesting: mystique…never showing your full hand and keeping the people guessing. If you read the message boards associated with the show, your apt to think that we are in a high school English class trying to milk out all of the symbolism in every shadow of the plot. But generally, Lost is about fate versus chance…the question that keeps most of moving. Check it out…tell me what you think. I recommend renting the first season to get you started…

One of my friends gave me a great book for my birthday called Julie and Julia. It’s about a gal who sets out to cook every recipe from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year, writing about it on her blog. I have not finished the book yet, nor do I want to because after it is done I will be faced with the less than suspensful Multivariate Statistical Analysis book for my quantitative methods class. So for now, I’m avoiding the last few pages of this wonderful book and the onset of the new semester.

BTW, the authoress - Julie Powell - had more hits on her blog on the first day than I seem to have gotten in the entire 3 or so months I’ve been up. I don’t know whether to be depressed or happy that I’m in my own little vortex of nobodyness.