The Venting Thread

[ergative]

I really dislike purveyors of audio fiction who don't provide an easy way to download .mp3s of whatever you've bought. Case in point: Serial Box. I love their serials, and buy them with real money, but in order to download them onto my .mp3 player, I must either use their app---difficult, since I don't have a smartphone---or else go to the page source of each episode, search for '.mp3' in the source code, extract the url of the audio file from the page source code, and then download it that way. I mean, I do it, but since I've already bought and paid for the audio files, why can't I just have them?

On the other hand, when I borrow audio books from the library through Overdrive, I get the raw .mp3s with no difficulty, and can save them and transfer them with no problems, and keep them well after the loan period expires. That also seems wrong.

[AmLitHist]

My class schedule has changed three times in the last three weeks. Factors include classes being cancelled for low enrollment, grad students pulling out of their assigned classes, instructors who desire to change their delivery method (online to hybrid or vice versa), and administrators who change delivery methods of particular classes. This has been a poopstorm for our department scheduler, and I don't fault her. But I've gone from "you're teaching this new class three times a week" to "you're teaching that class once a week" to "I know you just finished setting up your class, but now you're teaching something else. It's a twice-a-week class, but you'll be teaching half the class a time -- make sure to double up your assignments."

And just now I've received an automated message from the Office of Institutional Effectiveness saying that I haven't uploaded my syllabus for a class. Well, I'm not officially the instructor of record for that class yet, so I don't have access to the online syllabus system yet.

I'm waiting for the same kind of BS to be pulled on me this week (classes start a week from Tuesday).  If/when it does, I'm going to my union to throw a conniption fit on my behalf. 

Admin generally pulls this crap here on people who've taught all the classes in the department and in both online and F2F--"we know we can stick you anywhere."  Since there are fewer and fewer of us left, after the huge RIF of 4 years ago plus all the retirements/resignations, the chance of this happening to me is increasing.  But I'll be damned if I get rewarded for seniority and service with a bunch of last-minute changes.  Hire some damned faculty and leave me alone.  (I used to be a team player.  Not much at all, anymore. I look out for me, since nobody else will--"I stick my neck out for nobody," to quote Rick in Casablanca.)

[Parasaurolophus]

I really dislike purveyors of audio fiction who don't provide an easy way to download .mp3s of whatever you've bought.

Oh yeah, this drives me nuts! (But with podcasts.)

[FishProf]

I'm sorry you are sick.  But we have a morning routine around here and you are disrupting it.  I can handle it; I do ever day of the week.  Stop "helping".  You are not.

[apl68]

Our IT contractor has successfully fixed our accounting software update problem.  When our accountant comes in tomorrow to start on our W-2s, I'll see if she can fix the glitches on last week's payroll.

[sinenomine]

My condo complex has a shared laundry room. Today was the third time in a row that a dryer failed to heat up/run long enough to dry my clothes. Adding insult to injury, the price for running a dryer doubled last month. I've called the maintenance team — again — and now have damp clothes spread all over my bedroom to dry. Grrrr!

[Cheerful]

My condo complex has a shared laundry room. Today was the third time in a row that a dryer failed to heat up/run long enough to dry my clothes. Adding insult to injury, the price for running a dryer doubled last month. I've called the maintenance team — again — and now have damp clothes spread all over my bedroom to dry. Grrrr!

That's awful.  If you're renting, you should get a reduction in rent for not having access to a working dryer for so long.  Doubling the price on a broken dryer is mean and wrong.  You and neighbors need to act collectively to demand working dryers.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Minor vent.

Why on Earth do people feel the need to reply all to an email with over 300 recipients? I've been getting these all day.

[AmLitHist]

Minor vent.

Why on Earth do people feel the need to reply all to an email with over 300 recipients? I've been getting these all day.

Same here.  Between that, and a zillion emails from Teams telling me about meetings that I have NO attachment to/reason to attend. 

I really dislike Teams.  So of course we're being forced to move to it.......I'm sticking with Collaborate for spring, even though it's not being supported.  (I don't love Collaborate, but better the devil I know at this late date.)

[EdnaMode]

Not even really a rant... more like general whinging. Canvas decided it was going to have a technical error for a couple of hours today so nothing could be edited; received an email from a student who wants in a closed section of my in-person course and thinks he should be the exemption to the Covid class size limits; made the mistake of looking at last semester's evals and they were not very good in a class that is usually pretty well received, and most of the complaints were about things I couldn't control like limited in-person lab time (again, Covid); my dean sent out an email with new stuff that's required on our syllabi, so I had to redo those (classes haven't started yet, thankfully) and it took forever to reupload them because of the aforementioned Canvas error. Ugh. That's all. Back to your regularly scheduled venting.

[downer]

Dear Dean
I am curious whether you really think it is useful to send out an email with 17 attachments for adjunct faculty to use and review. I can say that I won't be opening any of them. Maybe I will just email you if I have any questions.

[mythbuster]

Dear Bookstore,
   Does ordering an extra 100 copies of our lab manual one week into the semester with rush overnight shipping mean that I was right all along about you not having enough for course enrollment?

[marshwiggle]

Dear Bookstore,
   Does ordering an extra 100 copies of our lab manual one week into the semester with rush overnight shipping mean that I was right all along about you not having enough for course enrollment?

That's why I stopped using the bookstore years back, before I went to totally online lab manuals. By their policy for textbooks, they would only oder 85% of course enrollment due to the number of people who wouldn't buy the text normally. So the first labs were chaos with lots of students not having a manual.......

[Larimar]

Well, it looks like I have just finally truly lost the game of Roulette that is adjuncting. All my classes have been cut for low enrollment or reassigned to a full-timer. I know how the game is played; this is far from the first time I've seen this. What's changed is that always before I've been offered replacement sections. Not this time. OnlyGameInTown CC is going through major retrenchments, and there were no more sections. My supervisor wants to rehire me, but cannot. Weeks of unpaid prep work down the drain. In fact, sixteen years of experience down the drain, because the institution really is the only game in town and I am geographically immobile. Not that adjunct work pays enough to be worth moving for anyway.

I am going to have to start a new career. My field is creative writing. Companies aren't exactly hiring poets, novelists, or other writers in droves. I don't even know what else I'm good for, if anything. I haven't done a real job search in sixteen years, either, much less during a pandemic and economic near-collapse. I hate job hunting and haven't needed to do it, until now. Career counseling is expensive. Does anyone have any knowledge or experience or ideas regarding whether it is worth it?


Larimar

[Langue_doc]

Sorry to hear about your classes being canceled at the last minute.

I have no insights on job searches or how one would go about finding writing jobs, but you could look into temp agencies that specialize in writing/editing.