Be It Resolved

• "Mid-Term" Exams
• You can not have more than one per term, otherwise it is not a mid-term.
  
• If you want to use the phrase to scare students, it doesn't work. And your loyal TAs are the ones that take the brunt of the anger.
  
• Unless it takes place in the middle(ish) of the term, and there is only one, just call it a 'test.'
  
• Advertising on campus
• Litering /= marketing.
• You cannot convince me in any more effective way that your product is not worth my time than by covering the campus with your pathetic 'guerrilla' marketing.

That is all.

For Crying Out Loud

Mini-rant:

Ok, I know you are terrified of the students coming back to argue grades. I know we must have evidence of all the ways in which we evaluate students despite the fact that we are in a very subjective course. However, I simply do not understand your eldritch tome of GRAADBUK. Seriously. I'm ok in excel, I'm good in all the possible online versions you could be using, I would even be happy with a pen and piece of graph paper, but ye gods, what we use is a monstrosity. I know it was lovingly crafted for you years ago by an OCD TA you must have truly loved, but well, I must simply fall far short of that person.

So after round one going over my grades, I am chastised. I return home to repent and call on the spirits above and percentages below to reform my numbers. I shall return to your office and begin round two.

Honestly?

Down the Stream of Consciousness Without a Paddle

Randomness of my life:

• I picked the 'make me happy' class, and I'm really loving it. I'm naturally in over my head, but it's in a good way. I'm spending nearly the entire weekend on the material and having a great time. I hope I leave time for the rest of my other stuff
• I simply love Simon and Garfunkel. I think Paul Simon is perhaps my favoritest of all singer/songwriters. Absolutely the bee's knees. However. I stumbled onto the 2004 reunion concert album and... well... I'll be charitable and say they might have needed a little more rehearsal time... Like a lot more rehearsal time. And I know I'm biased, but it was mostly Art. Poor, poor Art.
  
• That being said, I would have loved to be there.
• Was that last point deserving of its own bullet?
• I'm getting really close to post #1000 on this here blog. I was going to try to think of a way to celebrate or something, but I've missed every other blogoversary-type milestone, so I figure I'll probably forget about this one, too.
• Seriously. I'm on 997 or something.
  
• I can't believe Molly Ringwald's parents forgot about her birthday.
• It's even more unbelievable that she ended up with that big dim hunk-dude.
• Then again, she was pretty messed up, too.
• I despise what CNN has become, but I flipped it on this morning really quickly to see that Rosie O'whatsherface thinks that there were explosives rigged in one of the WTC buildings.
  
• Dear lord.
• That's just awful on so many levels.
• level 1 - I understand that some people need coping mechanisms to deal with the idea that we live in a world that seems to be very random and very dangerous, but when did Rosie's nutjob conspiracy theories become news?
• level 2 - Is Rosie a structural engineer now? I think she should stay a comedienne. She's good at that.
  
• level 3 fighters only can have 30 hit points unless there's something special about 'em.
  
• Or at least they could the last time I played.
  
• That was more than ten years ago.
• Rosie the Riveter I might trust, but that Rosie, no thanks. And I used to like her.
• That was also about ten years ago.
• Actually, I still think she's funny.
  
• Did I mention that I was working really hard this entire weekend?
• Yeah, I think I did.
• I worry now that you don't believe me.
• Because I highly value your opinions about me.
• Oh, you anonymous denizens of the intertubes, don't think me a liar.
  
• Even though I am.
  
• I like how my tags are completely useless and run miles and miles down the side of the blog. That makes me smile.
• What are the odds of my getting more "Molly Ringwald" posts?
  
• Ok, I think I've abused the good graces of the bullet point format as much as possible.
• And I need to get back to work.
• Did you actually read all of this?
• Tagging this is going to be fun
• You're procrastinating, too, aren't you?
• Get back to work.
  

Make Money At Home!

You guys know I'm always trying to help out, right? So I've got an invention that will make you billions of dollars. Because I'm a little busy at the moment, I'm giving it to you to develop and make your fortune. In return, I ask only for a ten percent from the gross.

Here's the idea:

So, if we can get a V-chip in the TV that is supposed to block out violence in tv shows, the next obvious step is to implant tags in programming - violence, sex, adult language, breaking news, information that may upset your worldview of the US at the center of the universe, etc... This way, your TV or TV or whatever could check these tags against a master list of user-defined no-fly list. For example, if I like the old new Star Trek, but dislike Wesley Crusher, even though my Tivo or Media Center knows to record it, I can tell my tv not to allow him on my screen.

The reason I think this would be a good idea, and the reason I would buy it, IS TO GET BRITTANY SPEARS AND ANNA NICOLE-SMITH OFF MY F(*&^ING NEWS. There is nothing even remotely newsworthy about the legal struggles of her newly shorn newly tattooed corpse.

Until this invention is put into wide practice, ummm... if Ted Turner, or the someone in charge of programming from CNN is watching this. Please, for the love of all that is good in this world, repeat you yourself, "it's a news channel, it's a news channel , it's a news channel."

Runs, iPods, and Bears - Oh My!

Full disclosure - there are no bears mentioned in this post. Except that one.

Well, first off, I haven't been publishing my runs recently because it got a little when there were more run posts than other kinds, but I am still running. The marathon is coming up, so I'm increasing my mileage a little bit. Today I made a big move and ran about 14 miles. I didn't even really think about it until I got home. That's more than a half marathon. Yea me!

See, the thing is that I should be working off of one of those charts that tell you how many miles you should be doing to hit you goal time when you do the marathon, but frankly, I'm just aiming at finishing safely. If I can do that, I'll be just fine, thanks. I am looking at the charts though, just to see by what kinds of increments it's safe to increase mileage, but that's about it.

Anyway, my legs hurt.

Beware - Here begins a huge rant and venting of steam.

On a related note, iTunes and iPod are getting on my last nerves. The only reason I caved and picked up the iPod was so I could use the Nike+ system (which is actually getting better - they just added route mapping - yea!). I immediately was unhappy with the way that iTunes wanted to control my library and not let me listen to my music like I actually owned it. I bought a couple of tracks from iTunes, but then realized how restricted the usage rules were. I mean, yeah, I could strip the DRM if I wanted to, but I'd like to be at least mostly legal. The iTunes selections were ok, as long as you only listen to music in English or Spanish. And so long as you don't want to listen to the Beatles (although that too is changing I hear). Oh, yeah - and the playlist system seems to be completely broken - I tried to put a couple of podcasts together on a playlist for today's long run. Cool, until it just repeated the first podcast and wouldn't let me skip forward. And of course you can't actually choose your music during a run - only playlists or shuffle all. And don't even get me started on how every month or so I have to reset to factory settings because the silly thing just decides to not turn off any more, or the fact that I have to politely ask iTunes to eject it before unplugging it, lest the poor little iPod brain completely frazzles (in fairness, these last too problems may be related). And finally, it seems a little disingenuous for them to say that iTunes doesn't work well with Vista. They had plenty of time to work out the bugs - heck I was using Vista months ago. It just seems like they don't care. They know you're hooked in. It's like they want you to believe that it's Vista's problem - just another example of how Vista doesn't work. And while I'll admit that Vista has plenty of problems (including the DRM system in question), the fact that iTunes doesn't play iTunes purchased music looks to be mainly the fault of iTunes.

On the other hand, I really liked the podcast support in general, which I hadn't used with my last MP3 player. And it is a really gorgeous piece of hardware, too. I look back at that last paragraph and perhaps I've been a bit too venomous. It has actually done mostly what I wanted it to, and with a little research, I probably could have found out about all the problems before I bought it. I just really wanted it to be as wonderful as everyone else seemed to think it was.

As a side note, I'd been using the Yahoo Unlimited Service to stream music based on my tastes, but because of iPod's moats and battlements, I couldn't move the subscription music to it and listen to new music on the road. Now Yahoo is falling apart too, so I guess I'm heading over to Pandora until I can find something better.

Wow. That turned into a lot more of a rant than I thought it would. I guess I was repressing all of that. Or maybe it's the testosterone rush post-run and pre-Super Bowl. Hm.

Huge long boring post, but here's the upshot - The rumor mill says that Nike is going to push out a new watch that'll let you bypass the iPod altogether. I'll buy that. Then I'll get a MP3 player that doesn't shackle me to a player. Heck, even the Microsoft Plays For Sure would be better than this because they license it out. That way you get options in hardware and in software. There are no options with the iPod. Except color.

Don't worry though, I'm not buying a Zune. I may be frustrated, but I'm not crazy.

Another Brick in the Mall

Yeesh. It's been a long time since I've been at the mall. random comments:

• Lots of creepy people hanging around at the back of the video store looking at Japanese cartoons
• The video store - weird. I guess it's been even longer since I've been in a video or movies store. Haven't they already been eaten up by iTunes and Borders yet?
  
• mannequins... um... what the hell is up with their boobs? I realize that surprise at the sexualization and commercialization of children is pasee, but holy crap! If the store is selling clothes to pre-teens, I don't what to see nipples, thanks.
• Do people really buy all those cell phone cases and accessories? By the look of the dude next to the little cart there, I can't imagine business is brisk.
• There was a Wii set up at the games store. It actually looks like a lot of fun.

Whooooooo Are You? Who Who - Who Who?

Sheepish mentioned this, and as long as I'm ranting, I'd like to add my voice to the clamor. I have a few Google accounts. I've got one for blogging, one for classwork and dealing with student-types, and then one for personal use. It's important to me that they each stay separate.

This wasn't a big problem with old blogger, but with New and Improved Blogger eXtreme 2.0 Plus Executive Edition, it seems to choose the login that it wants to use all by itself. I've already accidentally posted from the wrong login once, and almost done it again two or three times.

Blogger, I love you folks, but could you get on that for me? Thanks.

Open Letter to CNN

Dear CNN,

For a very long time, I've watched and enjoyed you. I've been with you since the days when Bernie Shaw was Bernard. I used to keep the TV on in the background, tuned to CNN, so that I could keep track of what you were reporting.

I have to say, I can't do that anymore. I've tried. I would say that 'it's not you, it's me,' but let's be honest, it's you. You've steadily gotten worse and worse in your reporting and choice of stories to air, so that now it seems that I can tell what isn't newsworthy simply by flipping to CNN and seeing what you are talking about.

I've tried different ways of telling you what I feel has gone wrong, but you haven't changed your ways, you continue to deteriorate. However, I will try one more time to help out. I do this not out of a generous nature, not out of compassion or high minded ideals, but because I want a news channel, and I'm just not getting it.

Therefore, I present a few (by no means comprehensive) bullet points that might help you out.

• Popularity does not equal news.
  
• If you absolutely must, make a 15 or 30 minute side show about all the actors and their freakshow lives, but there is no reason whatsoever to announce what award they've won or who they're sleeping with as news. It's not. It's gossip and other channels do it already, better.
  
• Lay off the criminal cases
• Fire Nancy Grace. Do not hire a replacement
  
• 99% of all criminal cases are not news. The only real news-worthy cases are the ones that reinterpreting laws in ways that are important to understand
• If you must, announce verdicts in high-profile cases, but there is no need whatsoever to send out a team of reporters to find out what the man of the street thinks about Martha Stewart or Kobe Bryant and his wife. It's not news. It's barely even gossip.
• Stop chasing FOX
• Fire Glen Beck. Do not hire a replacement.
• You can't beat them at their game. They've got way more flag graphics and over-inflated blowhard egomaniacs.
• Start doing investigative reporting
• Follow the money. Remember that? It's not just from a good movie.
• Cover international news besides wars
• By all means cover wars - but if you are going to cover wars, cover the ones involving brown people, too.
• Let Americans know about the world around them. News is also education.
• An argument doesn't have two sides.
  
• sometimes there is no argument.
  
• When a person presents a specious argument call them on it. Ask hard questions. When someone starts spouting talking points, call them on it. Don't allow people to use your shows simply as a venue to publish their daily hot phrases. Don't worry about not getting invited to the next press conference
• Sometimes the argument has more than two sides. If everything is dumbed down to a right-wing and left-wing position, the original issue gets mangled beyond recognition.
• Don't be afraid of trying to explain complex things.
  
• Take your time and explain them as best as you can. Then do it again in a different way. There are important yet complex ideas that are worth the time.
  

Thank you for your time and attention, CNN. I will drop in occasionally to see how things are going, but I've got great hopes for my next big move. See, I'm moving somewhere where there's a bigger market, and if there are other options out there, you don't stand a chance.

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