10/5/06

This morning certainly seemed to start off right. While driving the dog to the groomer today, some guy flipped me the bird while passing me on the right. If I had done something to provoke that, I might have been less puzzled. I hadn’t changed lanes, sped up, or slowed down recently. I was keeping pace with the car ahead of me, so I have no idea what provoked it. It didn’t really affect me other than the bewilderment. I passed him as he exited a couple of minutes later and he was smiling. I couldn’t quite tell if he had a passenger or not, but at least it didn’t appear to be road rage. The only thing I can figure is that he didn’t like one of my bumper stickers. I don’t have that many on my car yet, but maybe it was enough. Oh well, go figure.

I’ve been meaning to write about my classes this semester, but I haven’t had much time. I’ve been too busy trying to get stuff done before it gets cold and helping with my grandfather’s house. The classes have been going pretty well so far. They are both irritating in their own way, but they’re not that hard. After my General Psych class last night, I ended up walking out with a guy I went to high school with. I had no idea he was in my class, and I didn’t even recognize him when he told me he knew me. We didn’t get to talk long since we parked in opposite directions, but maybe we’ll catch up later. I didn’t know him that well in high school.

The General Psych class is pretty boring. The professor is under the impression that this stuff is difficult to learn, so he spends a loooong time on every topic. He is extremely thorough. He makes all of his class notes available at the library for photocopying, so I don’t have to work on getting hand cramps while trying to listen. He tried giving us pop quizzes on the reading, but he stopped after the average score was 56 on the first one. That’s not a very thorough experiment. He said he would drop the lowest quiz grade, but instead he has quit after we failed to do well. I dropped a note in his suggestion box that taking away the quizzes takes away the incentive to get the reading done on time, and that he could have just made the quizzes less valuable overall. If they are only work 10% of the grade, then someone who averages 50% on the quizzes but does well on the exams still has a chance of getting an A. This was his first attempt at giving quizzes in the fifteen years he has been teaching and I think he gave up too easily. So I spend the three hours listening and taking notes on him or changes to the schedule.

The Ethics class is a bit frustrating because the professor isn’t very good at teaching. He is Korean, and the language and accent has definitely been a bit of a barrier. He may speak five languages, but he needs to polish his English a lot more. After teaching for 19 years, I would have expected him to be a lot clearer. Students misunderstand his questions, and he misunderstands their answers. It’s positively maddening to listen to, and it also discourages what could otherwise be lively discussions. And sadly, he is the head philosophy professor.

That’s all for now, I have tons of work to do. One of my coworkers is on another five month maternity leave, so I have been swamped – as if I wasn’t already overloaded. We hired a consultant to pick up the slack, but he hasn’t really made a dent in it yet.