and the terrible news drought continues

That was, ummmmm, supposed to be my title for the last entry. Hence the "I’ve been listening to Firesign Theatre!" remark. Which I’m sure made no sense whatsoever, and everyone is like, "Well, okay then! Good for you! {WhatEVER!!!}"  I have no idea why it vanished. I used quotation marks, since it IS a quote. Maybe that made it vanish. Who knows! Obviously, the news drought continues still.

And while I’m pointing out weird things that happen to my entries, I’d love to know why I keep getting logged out for "inactivity".  How irritating. Almost as irritating as how I’m trying to eat my chili with a fork, and it is REALLY not working. Because it’s soup, not actual chili. Dried soup. And it’s pretty good, but is very soupy and thin. Not fork food.

At work, taking my lunch break. Because it is pouring rain outside, and is massively nasty, and I do not want to go outside. I also do not want to continue to work. We’ve got the Big Student Teaching Seminar tomorrow, and although New Person J is handling it this time, I still keep getting asked constant questions. It’s well worth it, of course, not to be dealing with all this myself – especially since Insane Boss has made it about ten gazillion times more involved and complicated than it used to be – but it’s still a world of distractions. And when is it not??

Insane Boss does get points for being less insane than usual today. Which is quite amazing, as this is Big Meeting Eve and she has been in New York for an entire week, and this is her first day back. Maybe she’s experiencing a walking coma. She sure is being awfully calm and pleasant and agreeable.

Well, since I have no news, how about a Job Whine? That’s always fun!

We’ll start with this guy who has been emailing me for about two months now. He is currently a student at another college fairly nearby. He is going to graduate in the spring and wants to see what he needs to get his teaching license. The first time he emailed me, I told him he has to have received his degree and his transcripts have to show the date he graduated before I can evaluate his transcripts. State requirement, dude. You have to hold a four year degree from an accredited college before we can even look at them. I told him where to find the application, and told him to wait till he graduates to send his stuff in. So a few weeks later he emails me again and he is basically asking me the same questions he already asked me, like how housing works and what tuition is blah blah blah which I’ve already answered (by giving him links to the appropriate departments) and since he sounds like it didn’t quite sink in that he has to graduate before we can look at the transcripts, I remind him again. (And I’ll note here that the instructions on the webpage with the application make this very clear as well.) 

So yesterday I get another email from him. He says, "I’m ready to send all my stuff in! What do I do about housing? Do I need to send you anything but the application and my transcripts?"

Yet again I send him a housing link. And yet again I tell him that I can’t evaluate his transcripts until he graduates.

I’m sure you can guess what I get in the mail today! Yes, his application! Yes, his transcripts showing that he is still in classes this semester and has no degree! AAAGGHH!!! I sent it right back to him. With the instructions. Circling the whole YOU HAVE TO HAVE A DEGREE thing. 

Almost as good is the guy who showed up down the hall at 4:30 yesterday afternoon,  wanting someone to tell him what classes he needs if he decides to transfer in here as an elementary ed student. An office assistant down the hall calls me, because he’s turned up in her office. Oh, poor little thing, he drove all the way up here, three hours!!!  And has to leave and can’t find anyone to help him! Boo hoo hoo. We aren’t advisors, so no, I can’t help. I suggested he go downstairs to the Curriculum & Instruction department, where all advisors are and where he should have gone to begin with. Oh, she’s already called down there for him. Nobody is answering the phones. She’s called everyone she can think of. She gives me a long list of names she’s called and nobody is around.  Wah wah wah. I suggest he just go down to C&I himself and find somebody, instead of having her calling all over the place for him. And next time maybe he won’t drive all the way up here without making an appointment to meet with an advisor, or at least call to find out what exactly he needs to do and where exactly he needs to go first, instead of just showing up in some random office at 4:30 expecting to find someone to do that. Okay, okay, I feel a little sorry for him, but this is exactly the kind of thing we encourage way too much of – doing everything short of breathing for them! Which just makes them all even less inclined to do anything at all for themselves. Because someone will always do everything for them, and someone will always fix all their problems for them, and none of them will ever have to be responsible for themselves! Yeah, it annoys me. Because it always ends up causing me five times as much work. 

And on that note, I’m out of here.

 

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March 1, 2007

i haven’t listened to Firesign Theatre in almost forever. for some reason it reminds me of trying to stay current when i was married. ah, yes, the good old days!! but i did like Firesign. kind of forgot about it until you brought it up. the people you deal with face to face at the college..i speak with their parents when they are calling about their insurance. i feel compelled to get up ona Bell tower sometimes…i know how you feel!

March 1, 2007

Don’t you hate knowing that “lack of prior planning on (their) part does not constitute an emergency on (your) part,” but getting sucked in anyway? arggh!

your job would drive me batty! wait! i already am! nevermind. heh.

March 1, 2007

No news is good news.

Whenever I try to put quotation marks in my entry title, the title disappears. It’s an OD thing. It’s annoying. You have to do it a few times to get it to take. The guy who drove up without calling first….Ummmmm there’s a name for him in the dictionary. A few names actually. I think you should start sending people to a bogus dept., just for the fun of it. The other person who didn’t quite get they have to be graduated….well it’s kind of like that new Sharpie commercial they have out. You should have started out with a professional letter to him, then crossed it out and wrote “YOU HAVE TO GRADUATE FIRST STUPID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

March 1, 2007

Why is it that everyone else’s lack of planning always becomes someone else’s emergency? No wonder there are so many seminars concerning violence in the workplace!!!!!

March 2, 2007

I love your job! Well, I really hate it. But I love reading about it!

March 2, 2007

Working with the public. What a joy. NOT!!!!!!!! MS CHEFFY is so right.

March 2, 2007

The your lack of planning is my emergency not, but oh wait I guess it is is my nervous breakdown. I like the idea of creating an imaginary department (on say floor 2 1/2) where you can send all these people. It would be cool too if there was voicemail there too and an automatic reponse system to email saying something like, “Thank You, we have received your inquiry and will be happy to respond just as soon as you graduate…”

March 2, 2007

Oh man, does that note make any sense?? Response, automatic response system. Please forgive me, apparently I have gone off the deep end.

March 2, 2007

I guess you could eat chili with a fork if it were really cold. Yuck.

I think it is anxiety that can drive these people. I was always confused when I was in regular university. I was so relieved to be able to go to a private college in America. You had a set four year program with a BA at the end. Picking all those courses with constant checks probably drives them into craziness. I’m glad that you get a break from the entire student teacher thingie.

RYN: Bubbles is my favourite character on Trailer Park Boys. I cannot believe that I actually like the show. Bubbles cracks me up in almost every show. Art said that it was all about music in the store (being a music store). He was trying not to totally stare. He did get to shake his hand. Art thought it was totally need to meet him.

March 3, 2007

Such a typical day in our worlds, isn’t it? Only we get to eat everything-spaghetti, chilidogs, chicken patties-with a spork. You know that mutated spoon/fork combo? Just try to eat pasta with that little gem. Does wonders for one’s mood.

March 5, 2007

RYN: If there were a prison for stupid people, it would be very, very large!