The Venting Thread

[FishProf]

Two years ago, we registered you students using method X.  You f'd it up.

Last year, we used method x.  Still, you f'd it up.

This year, wanna take a guess?  Yup, YOU f'd up method X, again. 

And now you wan't to blame me with the "When did we discuss that?" email.

Your poor poor students.

[ciao_yall]

How many people have been telling you this was a bad idea for how long? Please don't circle back to me again on this.

[paddington_bear]

Chairperson, if you had been paying more attention to what's going on in the department, you would have done the committee  memberships 10 weeks ago instead of now!  Colleague, if you weren't either so self-centered or so egotistical, you would have checked what committee were you were on already, instead of waiting for 10 weeks! You know that every person has to be on a committee. What the f*ck were you waiting for ?!?!?!?!

[ergative]

I just had a meeting with a PhD student who's working on a project that is tangentially related to a collaboration I've got going with some people in a sort-of neighboring field. She met our project team and told us about her work. She was smart and enthusiastic, her project was great, and we all had a great conversation. Towards the end of the meeting, she was describing how a visiting lecturer offered to let this student use her classroom to test out some ideas she's developing for her dissertation, and that she was trying to think of how she could return the favor.

Girl.

Girl!

Girl

When someone says, 'sure, PhD student, I'm happy to do you this academic favor,' you say, 'Thank you!' and take the favor! You do not try to think up more work for yourself to do something that the nice visiting lecturer doesn't ask for! You get your work done, put her in the acknowledgments, and maybe offer her a co-authorship depending on the amount of help she gives you when you start publishing the work! If she needs a favor later, you return it when she asks for it. And then when you have your own lab or classroom or whatever, you do the same favor for PhD students after you. DO NOT MAKE MORE WORK FOR YOURSELF! Not at this stage. Let's be honest: lecturers and professors do not (or rather, should not) expect PhD students to be in a position to do them favors.

She seemed very surprised by this suggestion. Who is mentoring these children? How is her supervisor not telling her how to look after herself? I wanted to put my wing over her and pat her head and give her a fluffy blanket, but all I had to offer was advice.

[Parasaurolophus]

Yesterday, the class before mine overran by eleven minutes. There's a ten minute break between classes, so not a huge deal--it only cut into mine by one minute. But with two minutes to go before my class started, I popped into the classroom to let them know that my class was starting in two minutes. I apologized for the interruption, of course. They were completely unmoved and carried on, unhurried. Incidentally, it was a group of students presenting, meaning the instructor really failed at time management.

So they've eaten a minute into my class when they start shuffling out. Still not in any hurry. I get my powerpoint set up and start my class while people are still getting sorted. Finally, everyone settles down (and out), when a student from the previous class barges in. We're four or five minutes in at this point.

Student: "Are you the instructor?"
Me: "Yup."
S: "What's your name?"
M: "[Full name]."
S (confused): "What's your name?"
M: "[Full name]."
S (more confused): "OK but what's your first name?"
M: "First name."
S (in total incomprehension as it dawns on her it's not an Anglophone name): "OK. What's your last name, then?"
M: "Last name." (note: it's strange, non-Anglo, and the pronunciation bears no resemblance to the spelling)

By this point, my class is laughing pretty hard.

S: "OK." (starts to leave)
M: "Why do you ask?"
S: "Oh, well, you swore at us."
M: "I beg your pardon?"
S (gaining steam): "You swore at us and that's really unprofessional."
M: "I did no such thing."
S: "Yes, you did."
M: "I absolutely did not."
S: "Well." (walks out, talks to people around the corner)

I grabbed my ID and followed, and offered to let her take a picture of it because my name is apparently impossible for most people, even if they've (supposedly) had five to ten years of French-language education.

After a brief reiteration of the last exchange above, her friends intervene and say: "Oh, it wasn't him. It wasn't the instructor, it was one of the students." (I assume they mistook an older student for the me, because how could the instructor have a mohawk?)


I mean. Thanks for interrupting my class and publicly accusing me of unprofessional behaviour. That was fun. I apologized on behalf of my students, because she's right, they shouldn't have told the other class to "get the fuck out". At the same time, this isn't daycare, and I'm not here to police what happens in the hallways and out of my earshot.

But I'll end by noting that no apology was offered to me. Just redoubling on the misdirected outrage for another minute until I cut it short by returning to my class.

[AmLitHist]

Not so much a vent as a, "Really? Seriously?" kind of day.

My 8 a.m. class had a full day of student presentations scheduled.  Since I'd have no prep, I decided to (for the first time all semester) NOT leave home my usual 15 minutes ahead of the "absolutely must leave by" time.  When I walked out the back door, I was greeted by a car covered in about 3/4-1 inch of ice (rain frozen to the windows and doors) and snow.  No, it wasn't in the forecast, and the car was completely clean when I went to bed.  So, I proceeded to scrape and cuss in the dark at 6 a.m.

I then headed for work, thinking, "I wonder if the roads are slick?" They were completely dry until about 10 miles into the trip, at which time it started sleeting like mad and continued for 10 miles.  The sleet then stopped, but the next 10 miles of interstate were wet but the car thermometer said 30 degrees, so we all crept along at about 55 m.p.h. in the dark.  Then the radio traffic report said all the ramps and overpasses on my main route were ice covered and treacherous, with major accidents blocking the primary 3-interstate exchange I have to pass through.  So, it was off the main drag and onto the country roads as a scenic by-pass, still in the dark. (Those roads were dry, at least, though the uni town I had to transit has many stop lights, all of which I hit on red.)

Fine. Figuring I'd be late for my 7 a.m. office hour anyway, I stopped for a fast-food breakfast sandwich to go. I swear they had to chase down the chickens to find the eggs to make my order, since I sat in the drive-thru 12 minutes.  Fast food, my foot.

All in all, I got here by 7:20, none the worse for wear except for some aggravation.

I set up the classroom at 7:30, went back at 8, and had a decent post-holiday crowd of 9 out of 13 students.  One woman said, "I thought this was due on the 11th."  Um, no, that's the final exam; you were supposed to present today.  And two of those missing were also supposed to present today.  So. . . . after 2 presentations, with nothing else left to do (after final papers came in yesterday), I did some reminders about final exams, registration, when grades will be posted and when classes resume in January, then let them out at 8:30.

Gee, that was really worth all the hassles of getting here today, right?  Like I said, it's not a genuine vent or really a major problem; it's just been a, "Well of course all this stuff happened--it's a MONDAY!" kind of start to the last regular week of the semester.

[citrine]

Oh, ALH, I am so sorry, but I had almost exactly the same day, complete with chipping my car out of the ice, but I also had a wiper blade pop off when I was trying to free it from its icy prison. Then I came back into the house to change for work and couldn't find my phone, which was concerning because Nephew is getting over a cold and I was worried that he might want to come home and have the nurse call me. 20 minutes of searching later, I found that it had fallen off the shelf where I put it on and ended up inside one of the shoes on the shoe rack. I finally did make it to work in time for some of my office hour, and my office was yet again a toasty 58 degrees Fahrenheit (we've been having temperature problems all semester) so I was frozen by the time I got to my classroom. My students are also doing presentations and I had a variety of them who were trapped elsewhere due to the storms or sick and emailed me at the last minute to tell me so.

So, I totally sympathize!

[ab_grp]

This is kind of a dumb vent, but I feel as though my head is about to fly off my shoulders right now at my own ineptitude.  Somehow, despite the many, many years of education (lots of technical know how! really!), the prior preparatory discussion with my spouse (who had just done the procedure correctly on his phone recently), the reading of the instructions numerous times, and the watching of many videos (some also numerous times), I still managed to put my &^#*&@%$*& new phone's ^@(#&@*(& screen protector on upside down.  I even googled this occurrence, and I guess the typical reply is to ask whether this is a joke.  Nope.  I know I can't be the only one (well, clearly that guy who sparked the reply did it, too), but although it didn't look quite right to me I went with it.  Seriously the hardest part of setting up this phone.   Feel free to laugh at me, or with me.  I am having a vat of wine and rethinking my abilities.

[archaeo42]

I have a PhD in digging and yet I still managed to screw up my back shoveling snow this week.

[downer]

I'm feeling a bit burnt out. 2 more lectures next week. And then there is the setting up of the LMS for next semester.

I think I can.

[mamselle]

This is kind of a dumb vent, but I feel as though my head is about to fly off my shoulders right now at my own ineptitude.  Somehow, despite the many, many years of education (lots of technical know how! really!), the prior preparatory discussion with my spouse (who had just done the procedure correctly on his phone recently), the reading of the instructions numerous times, and the watching of many videos (some also numerous times), I still managed to put my &^#*&@%$*& new phone's ^@(#&@*(& screen protector on upside down.  I even googled this occurrence, and I guess the typical reply is to ask whether this is a joke.  Nope.  I know I can't be the only one (well, clearly that guy who sparked the reply did it, too), but although it didn't look quite right to me I went with it.  Seriously the hardest part of setting up this phone.   Feel free to laugh at me, or with me.  I am having a vat of wine and rethinking my abilities.

The folks who set up my new phone a couple months ago got it so wrong it kept falling off.  I finally gave up bringing it back to be fixed and am using it without the added shield.

So far, I'm becoming strongly convinced it's just an extra piece of plastic they want to scare you into buying so they can meet their monthly sales quotas.

So, you're at least in good, robust company....

M.

[mamselle]

Doubling to say....

OK, Polly...you might have had a point there.....no gilets-jaunes at the moment but many greves(strikes), manifs(demonstrations) and perturbations(social actions/disruptions, like banging a loud kettle drum and shouting slogans in the echo-y halls of the Gare de Lyons for hours on end...just because Macron proposed rationalizing the patchwork quilt of retirement schemes that drain bureaucrats' brains dry in administering them (thus providing more bureaucrats with administrative jobs to retire early from...).

Pas mal (not too bad)...I know there will always be selective strikes to work around in late December in France...(when else would transport workers get their holiday shopping done?)

But I'm now creating backup plans A (rent a car and drive to all my library towns), B (Hang out at my cousin's in Belgium for two more days, maybe go back to Bruxelles, work in the library there and try to get to CDG at some point just before I have to leave) or C (call the airlines, see if I can leave from Bruxelles instead of Paris...)

Or, D, go as far as I can, do as much as I can, see what works each day as it comes (which is what I usually do, anyway...!)

Why couldn't he have waited until after I got home to take all this on, though??

It'll be interesting...

M.

[ab_grp]

This is kind of a dumb vent, but I feel as though my head is about to fly off my shoulders right now at my own ineptitude.  Somehow, despite the many, many years of education (lots of technical know how! really!), the prior preparatory discussion with my spouse (who had just done the procedure correctly on his phone recently), the reading of the instructions numerous times, and the watching of many videos (some also numerous times), I still managed to put my &^#*&@%$*& new phone's ^@(#&@*(& screen protector on upside down.  I even googled this occurrence, and I guess the typical reply is to ask whether this is a joke.  Nope.  I know I can't be the only one (well, clearly that guy who sparked the reply did it, too), but although it didn't look quite right to me I went with it.  Seriously the hardest part of setting up this phone.   Feel free to laugh at me, or with me.  I am having a vat of wine and rethinking my abilities.

The folks who set up my new phone a couple months ago got it so wrong it kept falling off.  I finally gave up bringing it back to be fixed and am using it without the added shield.

So far, I'm becoming strongly convinced it's just an extra piece of plastic they want to scare you into buying so they can meet their monthly sales quotas.

So, you're at least in good, robust company....

M.

Thanks, Mamselle.  I'm sorry you had a similar issue.  For what it's worth, the day after, somewhat recovered from the enormous tantrum I had because I was so mad at myself, I ended up taking the cover off so that I could finally use the microphone needed for dictation (the other mics worked but not for that).  Then I thought well what the heck, and I decided to just try to plop it back on.  I didn't even use the "ez" application kit.  And it went on fine! I had to adjust it a wee bit at first, but then it aligned and went on with no bubbles or other troubles.  Naturally, it has some dust under it because I wasn't exactly careful when I detached it and put it on my desk, thinking I would not be re-applying it.  But, I am satisfied for now.  It sounds as though you may have a different type? But I agree, they do charge quite a bit for them, and it seems like a racket.  Still, most of us tend to fall for the extra "protection" they may impart. 

[downer]

I don't know how Microsoft makes a profit these days. I'm moving to Chromebooks as much as I can and using Google docs/sheets instead of MS Office. It is a lot easier.

Presumably some of their profit comes from getting universities to use their Outlook 365 Onedrive packages. I have to say that at every step working with these is an exercise in frustration. I just was unable to download an image from an email. I had to forward it to my yahoo account to get it to work. Though I do concede that their Outlook app is working pretty well on my phone, and handles 3 simultaneous accounts better than gmail does.

[ciao_yall]

Too much for one post...