Showing posts with label professor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label professor. Show all posts

Sunday, April 22, 2007

*can't think of title*

Today isn't a holiday, but I forgot to mention that yesterday was the Palilia, which besides having a cool name was the festival of Pales, a god of shepherds. It was celebrated by offerings of the saved blood from October's sacrifice of a horse to Mars, and the ashes of the calves sacrificed to Ceres. There were no bloody sacrifices that day.

Shepherds burnt sulphur, rosemary, fir-wood, and incense, and made the smoke pass through the stables to purify them. The flocks themselves were then purified by the smoke too. After that, there was feasting and merriment and drunkenness, as all the best festivals have.

It was also somewhere between the 2,800th and the 3,000th anniversary of the founding of Rome. Happy belated birthday, Rome! I'd say you don't show your age, but... Dude. You're kinda smelly. No offense. I mean, it's not like Venice or anything. Now there is a city that needs a good bath.

While you're at it, I'd get rid of the street vendors. They're kind of annoying. Don't they itch?

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I had a teacher in high school who, when a student fell asleep (and especially if said student snored), would quietly gesture to all of us that we should stand up, without making a noise. He would then gently pull down the projector screen enough that the clock was covered. As the students would try to suppress their giggling, he would lead them into the hall, close the doors and turn off the lights. He would then go next door, borrow their phone, and call his own classroom, letting it ring only once so the student would be woken up.

Upon seeing the classroom empty and not being able to see the clock, the student would assume class was over-- in fact, school was over-- and would freak out before he remembered the teacher mentioning this trick at the beginning of the year. One time the teacher even got the vice principal to go in and "discover" the student there.

Only worked a couple of times, though. And we were usually too busy for it. Thus he resorted to throwing stuff at the boys who did it, and banging the desks of the girls. Yes, double standard, whatever.

I've had teachers who slammed your book down on the desk, who would bark your name out, who would call on you to ask you a question. Some, especially here at college, just ignore it. Some ignore it until after class and then they pull you aside to talk about your sleep habits-- that's the worst, because you don't really want to admit that you're tired because you were staying up late reading a blog written by a cat, or a webcomic about a doctor who is also a ninja. So you have to come up with a lie or just cite the fact that you can't have caffeine, despite the fact that people survived for centuries without caffeine and you don't drink coffee anyway...

If I were a teacher I would keep containers of Red Bull in my desk. I wouldn't drink them-- that stuff could kill small mammals-- but I would have them there. Every time a student fell asleep in class I would slam one down on their desk, loud enough to wake them up. Then, though, thirsty students might pretend to fall asleep...

Also, I might get in trouble for distributing drugs. Maybe I should use Vault instead. Except that's no better... I could just liquefy crack...

Anyone got any good sleeping-in-class stories?

No, I don't know why I was thinking about this...

Monday, December 4, 2006

Snow Dance Time

So I've been informed that the airport is NOT a place to go canoodle, since the cops drive by a lot. I was then informed that it IS, by two sources, which outnumbers the one that said it wasn't. This, while interesting, is actually somewhat irrelevant, since The Brother is not nearly as dumb as I was implying in last night's post. Sorry to anyone who took me seriously. I forget that some things don't translate as well into print as they should.

I don't know The Brother's girlfriend really well, though I do know her and we hung out and talked before school when I took the bus in. I know that she seemed quiet and reserved, at least around me, but nice. She used to complain about The Brother sitting behind her on the band bus and drumming/kicking her seat/sticking stuff in her hair/tapping her on the shoulder and pretending to have done nothing, then giggling when she turned back around. This is why I was somewhat surprised to learn they were dating.

I didn't mean to paint a negative image of this girl; like I said, she's a nice kid. Good people. If I did, I'm sorry. I was making fun of my brother, not her. Even if I don't know for sure what she would do in a parked car, I do know that my brother is reserved enough to not do anything, and from what I know of her, she would be the same way. They strike me as weird enough to sit out in a car and look at planes for fun.

Even though neither she nor my brother will likely ever read this, I figured when I saw a comment posted by "anonymous," the world's most prolific writer, which seemed to indicate that I was taken a bit more seriously than I had intended, that I should clear that up, lest I spread false ideas.

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Okay, retraction over... I think I will recover from the crushing disappointment of Theoi.com closing down. I have a startling amount recorded on my computer, and though I don't list sources, it should be enough to know the characters at least. The rest will take a little extra research, but the Perseus Project at Tufts has information on the myths themselves, and I might actually open a book at some point. Or maybe not. That's a big step for me.

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My Chemistry teacher is proof that some teachers actually do hate certain students. Question Girl, the girl who asks the world's stupidest questions, rather than pay attention today, was reading a text for another class- AGAIN. When the professor noticed this, he rolled his eyes and pantomimed- silently- stamping his foot and swearing profusely. She didn't notice. Then she fell asleep. This did not improve his negative mood. We were all giggling...

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It snowed today, but nothing stuck. That was mildly disappointing. And it won't snow again until Wednesday of next week, when the snow shall be mixed with rain, freezing rain, and sleet. Oh, joy. But luckily MY dining hall, the one that's a five second walk away, is open...

They think it'll snow and sleet again on the 15th, sleet on the 17th, rain on the 18th to get rid of the remaining snow, then that rain will freeze on surfaces. Wow. Incredible.

I WANT SNOW! I'd snow dance, but poor Chione (goddess of snow) would put out her eyes at the sight....

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Study time.

Added later: Just got the following email:

Hi Zenny,

I've put the site back online. Some people have suggested it might have been hacked, and malicious content added or diverts to dubious websites which prompted the google ban. If you browse through it and come across anything unusual please let me know.

Thanks for the really nice email. Nice to know the site's appreciated!

Cheers,

Aaron
Theoi.com

This makes me SO HAPPY YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE IT. I am happy-dancing in my mind.

Monday, November 20, 2006

They Were Out Of Fortune Cookies. It Was Sad.

It's just another Mercatus day on the Roman-holiday front. Don't worry, there's some good holidays later this week. Of course, those of you using the holidays to get out of class/work/whatever will ask, "Gee, what good is that? Thanksgiving is this week, anyway!" But oh well. Sorry 'bout that.

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My Chemistry professor, a fairly young man for whom this is his first semester both teaching, and out of graduate school, came to class with a baseball cap this morning; this was not particularly out of the ordinary, despite it's dorky backwards status, as he tends to dress on the "youthful" side. Nevertheless, the reason for the hat quickly became apparent to those of us in the front row, as bits of black hair were peeping out from under it.

Last Friday, he was a blond.

So the truth was gradually teased out of him (oo, double entendre!); there had been a bit of an accident involving hair dye, you see. He wasn't very specific. But judging by his Facebook pictures, and what I can derive as the usual weekend proceedings for this man, I have this to say:

Learn from this story, kids. Never drink and dye.

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In other news, I managed to finagle my schedule so as to have no classes on Wednesday, and I'm going home tomorrow. This means that technically I could go home with Make A Mistake and her dad at 8:30 pm tonight, if we could work it out; however, that's like five hours after my last class and Closer's going too, so the car might be a bit cramped. Instead, my daddy's picking me up somewhere between 3:00 and 5:00, depending on when his car tuneup is over.

The Shrewd One, my sister, shall be retrieved on Wednesday. My grandfather is arriving on Wednesday or Thursday. Then there shall be turkey. Much turkey.

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I'm going to be having clothing issues tomorrow, I know it. We're still conserving water here, as a part of a competition to see which dorm can be the most energy-efficient, and I figured I should wait until I get home before I clean the laundry. This is especially true because I think my dorm's winning, and we get a pizza party.

Never say no to free food, unless it's in the hands of a creepy leering guy or it's cafeteria food.

Anyway, the issue arises in that I have no socks and no clean pants. So I guess I'll smell tomorrow.

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Speaking of which, a girl I know was sitting by me in class today and OH MY GOD HER BREATH SMELLED SO BAD. It was like she hadn't brushed in FOREVER. But I couldn't figure out how to discreetly like, offer her mint gum or something, because I had just put mine in as she sat down, so it would invovle throwing out perfectly good gum on the pretense of it being too "stale" and then getting a new piece and offering one to her. And then I would have had to press the issue if she'd refused... So I tried not to breath in when she talked. But honestly, what do you DO in that situation?

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My friend Libentra (I guess I can call her that; we have almost all the same classes and consequently eat together and do homework together a lot, and I think she's introduced me as her friend once or twice) and I grabbed lunch together, which really meant that she got a glass of lemonade and waited for me to finish eating so we could go work on our Latin translation together. She eats earlier on Mondays. Anyway, Libentra and I were sitting together and then Rachel's friends started coming over... first a guy who I've met before, he eats with us a lot... then two girls I didn't know... then ANOTHER girl I didn't know... By the time I finished my cheese enchilada lasagna (cafeteria food is WEIRD), the table was full.

This is why I need to hang out with Libentra more. She attracts friends like a lamp attracts moths, minus the zappy doom at the end. Most of the time, anyway.

Alas, a side effect of a table full of people that all know each other but not me is that they try to talk to me, because I'm the new thing; I consequently have to actually talk to them, and the shyness kicks in and I start saying the one-word answers or worse, sound stupid because I'm nervous. BUT. I did talk! I had an actual conversation about RAs (two of the girls were RAs) and how they have to go into people's rooms and check to make sure everything's unplugged during the break (and the stupidity of people leaving alcohol bottles lying around). I actually contributed, not a lot but some, to the conversation and I didn't get really nervous or anything.

I'm quite proud of myself. I'll have to remember this and mention it at Group.

It's a little weird at Group, because I'm so much worse off than the rest of the kids there. They're all talking about how they can't say no or they talk too much or they don't know how to talk about the important things. I can talk about the important things, it's the small talk that gets me. And because I'm trying so hard, I almost always have something positive to report... but it's like, "I talked to my lab partners in Bio about something not related to the lab" or "I talked to a guy I know from class... outside of class!" So I'm sure the other kids in Group are sitting there scratching their heads thinking, Damn, how bad off IS this girl? But I'm giving myself positive reinforcement. I have to take life one step at a time, and if that step is the difference between a one-word answer and a five-word answer, I'm gonna celebrate it.

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But. I have to study. I have a Chem test at noon tomorrow and a Latin test immediately after it. Latin I'm not worried about, I'm better off than most of my classmates- but Chem is evilness. Next time I write, I'll be at HOME!