The Venting Thread

[apl68]

Our expensive AV presentation system flaked out on us at the worst possible moment, when we were trying to show a video--our first movie event since before the pandemic, and one of our first special events since things opened back up.  And we had 11 kids in there, too!  The staff member responsible assures me that she had tested the system only last week.

Oh well, they liked playing with Legos as an alternative. 

[mamselle]

Ya gotta love AV.

I used to bring my own cassette player when the automated, installed system was supposed to be "enuf."

Three layers of backup seem necessary at times!

Glad you had a popular alternative.

That reminds me, one of the Real Estate agents where I am sponsors a monthly Lego night for kids, to get them thinking about how buildings are made.

They put the completed projects in their big front window....I don't know if they ever get any homebuyers out of it or not, though...

;--}

M.

[lightning]

Our expensive AV presentation system flaked out on us at the worst possible moment, when we were trying to show a video--our first movie event since before the pandemic, and one of our first special events since things opened back up.  And we had 11 kids in there, too!  The staff member responsible assures me that she had tested the system only last week.

Oh well, they liked playing with Legos as an alternative.

Stuff like this should be tested daily, but especially right before special events. This is a human failure on the part of the staff member who is responsible for keeping your systems running. Don't blame it all on the tech. On a positive note, you had a backup plan, and all tech-dependent activities need some kind of back up.

[fishbrains]

In my region of the country (US), if you even remotely know the person, you are expected to chit-chat for the first 5-10 minutes of a phone call before getting down to business. Seriously, one of my wife's family members will call, chit-chat for 5 or 10 minutes, and then segue into how your cousin just died in a horrible garlic press accident or something.

Why. can't. they. just. tell. me. why. they. called. upfront? ARRRGGGHHHHH!!!!!!

[mamselle]

In my region of the country (US), if you even remotely know the person, you are expected to chit-chat for the first 5-10 minutes of a phone call before getting down to business. Seriously, one of my wife's family members will call, chit-chat for 5 or 10 minutes, and then segue into how your cousin just died in a horrible garlic press accident or something.

Why. can't. they. just. tell. me. why. they. called. upfront? ARRRGGGHHHHH!!!!!!

I was raised in an area like that and live elsewhere now.

It took about 6 years to get over the buffering expectations of more banal conversation, about as long as it took me to get used to the cold, damp chill of the winters.

I wonder if there's a study to be done on the correlations?

I'm currently in touch with a friend who's only lived here a few years, and is working through a similar transition.

I remember what it was like having people cut me off and be (what seemed to me to be) rude, when I now realize they were under the same kinds of time pressure I'm now under: they needed to see things move along more quickly then, as I do, now.

But it's not only in the US. While not as long an expected buffering moment, I've described elsewhere and before what it's like being in France the first couple days....tapping one's foot waiting for a meal that WILL COME, when it's ready, and the server has finished chatting to the bartender, and the chef has finished their magazine article, and....and...and....

It will come, and it will be very good.

Likewise, entering a small store to buy a plant for a friend, I recall stepping up to the cashier and starting to describe what I wanted.

<<BON-JOUR, Mademoiselle!!!>> she said, pointedly.

I started over with the expected greeting and brief <<Ca va?>> discussion before placing my order--and I tried not to forget that lesson in a hurry, either.

In fact, now, back in the U.S.A., I try to remember to greet servers and clerks very briefly before we start our transactions, too.

It doesn't have to take long, but an affirmation of personal connection doesn't go amiss.

M. 

[fishbrains]

Yes, being a transplant has its frustrations. The same goes with people in this region and their lack of punctuality (except for church and doctor's appointments, of course), saying "I'm on my way" when the person hasn't even left their house yet, customers chatting with cashiers even if there is a line behind them.

And what the f*ck is sweet tea and why do they give it to their toddlers? Yech. Anyway, just venting.

[mamselle]

Yes, I think there's a dividing line somewhere over the Adirondacks in one direction, and maybe the Ohio River in another?

And there are intensities of individual expectations, like lines on a geodetic survey map, besides that.

I had a very hard time un-learning the idea that if you're late you're giving the other person more time to prepare for the meeting (the implied idea behind the procrastination and the tardiness, both, I think) and learning that you're giving them MORE time, after your meeting, to get to the next one.

It took a friend, one time, saying, gently, "You had 10 more minutes and then I was leaving," plus several other such messages, to realize my "easy time" was seen as rude and inconsiderate.

And it's hard to manage because it's seen as rude, outlander-ish, and just plain wrong to make the point.

I wish you ease in your transitions.

M.

[the_geneticist]

Look, if you want me to make the labs more like "other class with research project" then you have to be willing to SPEND MONEY to buy the equipment for that to happen.  I know that you have [minimal basketweaving supplies], but it's NOT enough.  It's like having 1 cake pan and thinking you can teach a class of 24 students how to bake cakes by having the instructor bake 1 cake in front of them.  I want 24 cake pans!  Just. Buy. The. Things.

[clean]

es, being a transplant has its frustrations. The same goes with people in this region and their lack of punctuality (except for church and doctor's appointments, of course), saying "I'm on my way" when the person hasn't even left their house yet, customers chatting with cashiers even if there is a line behind them.

And what the f*ck is sweet tea and why do they give it to their toddlers? Yech. Anyway, just venting.

Fiddle dee dee, I think I detect a Yankee!   Bless your heart!

So, How's your mamma and them?


For what it is worth, I was born in the Sweet Tea Zone, but to this day, I dont know who "and them" is/or are!

[apl68]

Small-talk expectations and such can be most frustrating when you're in a hurry, all right.  Being the impatient person by nature that I am, I get it.  But they also do a lot to humanize interactions.  Personally I wouldn't want to live in a society where all interpersonal interaction was purely instrumental and conducted with maximum efficiency and minimum humanity.

[fishbrains]

es, being a transplant has its frustrations. The same goes with people in this region and their lack of punctuality (except for church and doctor's appointments, of course), saying "I'm on my way" when the person hasn't even left their house yet, customers chatting with cashiers even if there is a line behind them.

And what the f*ck is sweet tea and why do they give it to their toddlers? Yech. Anyway, just venting.

Fiddle dee dee, I think I detect a Yankee!   Bless your heart!

So, How's your mamma and them?


For what it is worth, I was born in the Sweet Tea Zone, but to this day, I dont know who "and them" is/or are!

I was a military brat for my first 18 years of life, mostly in the Midwest. I've learned not to point out that same-sex marriage has been around longer than the Confederacy was. Anyway, I remember some of my first culture-shock encounters at work occurred when I would ask someone if they would complete a task and received something like, "It don't make me no nevermind" or "I don't care not to."

Not trying to be too negative. There are plenty of good things to say about this region as well. 

[clean]

In Grad School, I used the "how's your mamma and them" on a professor.  He was particularly rude - at least by local custom.  I had a question and I was not about to be treated rudely another time, so I began with a double dose of pleasentries.  After a while he asked if I wanted anything in particular.  I showed him the work that I had done  so far (it was a 'math type' class), and how I was sure I had a mistake, the steps I had taken to correct the error and that I was stuck.  He helped me through the mistake, but after that, he knew that if I was coming to visit, that I had already done my homework and that I was not coming to him as the first step in the process of finding and fixing an error and he was far more polite and helpful!

Also, I want to point out that historically, the Sweet Tea Zone is reportedly an area where "he needed killin" is a defense, dueling was an appropriate response for a challenge of honor (and rudeness!) and many have the weaponry handy enough to carry it out, so being polite is a form of de-escalation.   And it is usually HOT here much of the year, so slowing down to discuss the pleasantries provides a much needed relief. Otherwise, it would be back on the hot horse to spend more time in the hot sun! 

[clean]

Vent...

My current online class was required by the 'experts' to have a 'student interactive component' to be approved for online delivery. (Classes have to be approved for content by both the chair (for topic) and the online expert office for methodology and compliance with ADA or whatever.)  So I have a requirement that students write 5 original MC questions. That they submit them to their group, and then the group will evaluate the questions and eventually nominate the 'best' questions. The best questions are then compiled and used to make practice tests.  There are questions in the back of the chapter, though.  Unfortunately, these questions are NOT in the list that Safe Assign uses to check for plagiarism. 

Well, a student has been copying these questions, word for word and submitting them as his own.  The bottom Reader's Digest version is that his defense is that he ISNT PLAGAIRIZING ANY WORSE THAN ANYONE ELSE!  So WHY IS HE BEING CHARGED??

idiot. 
Part of me hopes that he fights the charge and tries to convince an Academic Integrity hearing of that. 


I am now in the process of getting the end of chapter questions copied to Word so that I can submit them to the data base. 

He came to my attention because his work was being flagged as copying a student from 2 years ago, when the new edition came out) to too high a degree.  So it seems that the student from 2 years ago did the same thing, entered the questions into the database, and that is what is being caught.  Though there are 20 questions at the end of each chapter, these 2 seemed to be picking the questions that required the least typing! 

Anyway, it takes a few hours to process an Academic Misconduct form, which is one of the reasons we went to Grad School, right?  And it will take several more hours to get those questions posted into the database!  And THEN the book is now at the age that a new edition is on the horizon, so I may have to deal with this yet again pretty soon!  (the only good news is that the end of chapter questions probably wont change much with an edition change).

[mamselle]

One wants a bumper sticker that says,

JUST DO THE WORK

Yeah....

M.

[San Joaquin]

Hey, how about we just accept the existing "work" of the committee, shower them with the public acclaim they so crave, and then take it from here?