Get Your Grump on Thursdays - Was (What's chapping my @ss today?)

[King Of Dirk]

1. The news. What they report ain't important, and what's important ain't reported.

2. People who pretend to be amazed when told I'm not "on Facebook."

3. People who are in fact amazed when told I'm not "on Facebook."

4. Up-to-the-minute reportage on Kardashian gestation developments (see 1.)

5. Corporate processes.

[Brandon White]

Dear Glass,
How do you make it in the bike lane? Do people discard you into the sidewalks and roads? Does the road germinate glass and sprout it seasonally? Why do you hate my tires? My tires are cut-up like an angst filled goth teen.

Also - Big Box Pet Store In-Training Trainer: Don't grill me on why I chose a Malinois. Don't tell me I need to keep him from barking because he'll be intimidating to visitors and dogs. Don't tell me he is a high-energy dog. Don't tell me he'll need training and try to sell me on your puppy socialization training program. Don't try to sell me on a Kong toy or Enzyme spray that I already own a stockpile of both. Don't act like you just taught him to sit in those 3 minutes because he's been sitting on command for a week already. Let my dog and I get our stuff and be on our way.

[davids]

I live in a condo (only 3 units), and hang my coats in my front hall.

Someone stole my winter coat.

[jmgorman]

I thought I had lost my commuting nemesis to the cold--but no, there he was this morning in all of his glory. Riding the wrong way along the bike/ped path on the S. Capitol bridge, huffing and swerving up the 3% grade, only looking up from his effort to see me at the last moment (ipod, naturally, was otherwise occupying his attention). Maybe after today's earful you'll freaking listen.

[David Tollefson]

This shyte has GOT to stop. Some one knows something. Hope they string the driver up by the balls.

[Zandr Martin]

My last day off was December 25th. Being an accountant this time of year (or, let's face it, any time of year) blows. I'm not going to be here on January 5th, unless someone will die because of my absence. Even then, I'm going to have to consider whose death it is before making my decision.

[mainemike]

me. that whats pissing me off. myself. i haven't the time nor you the interest to suffer the poorly written tomb i could puke out. but christ i can not get outta my own way sometimes, feather my own bed, lighten my load and all that helpful happy hallmark horseshit obviously sensible probably easy to do and would make my life easier more rewarding -- STUFF!!!!!! whhaaaaat tha fuck???!!!

[vertical_doug]

Kids these days! I teach CS in grad school, 40% of my students cheated on the mid term. Granted I turned them in, but I also gave them the opportunity to do extra credit. So I made sure no student got less than a B as a final grade, I was incredibly generous with my grading to make that happen. I also did not want to deal with the administrative headache of failing one of them.

Multiple cheaters have had the audacity to email me and ask to bump them up to an A-. Seriously, they cheated and I should have flunked them outright.

Lesson learned. I am too nice.

-Joe

How did they cheat? The universality of the global cheating culture is fascinating. The Stuyvesant High School cheating scandal write up was pretty interesting. I also saw how the Chinese were cheating on GMAT exams. How various students cheat the SAT etc.

But then again we have congressmen in Washington making investment decisions on prior knowledge of vote/committee outcomes. The fact the rest of the culture is on the moral slide should not be surprising. The fish rots from the head.

[Saab2000]

But then again we have congressmen in Washington making investment decisions on prior knowledge of vote/committee outcomes. The fact the rest of the culture is on the moral slide should not be surprising. The fish rots from the head.

And shit flows downhill. We had an honor code at my college. Caught cheating? Expelled. I would think that more colleges would have similar consequences. Apparently not.

I'd love to comment on this but I'm going to ride the Zank instead. That'll make me feel better.

[zetroc]

There was a kid at my high school who cheated on everything. Homework? Copied from someone else. Papers? Plagiarized. Tests? He'd look over someone's shoulder, or get the answers from someone who took the test yesterday. Guy had a 4.2 or something GPA and got into Stanford after graduation.

Six months after he got there he was back home at the community college. That was nice.

grump: cheating culture is rampant and there's no easy way to stop it.

[spopepro]

I'm grumpy about the way our educational reporting system is so fucking broken that it reinforces, encourages, and rewards cheating. But anytime you try to do something about it the kumonhelicoperparent army comes out and blasts you out of the water.

Don't know how to do something? Thatks OK... try again. Don't put everything on a one-time all-in assessment. Practice it again, do it again, try again and actually learn something, rather than being pressured to have the right answer on your page so you can have the right gpa on your transcript so your diploma can say the right name.

Dammit, I wasn't grumpy, but now I'm all fired up. We know the answer to this, but no one wants allow us to fix it.

[David Tollefson]

One of the guys in the ME department of UofW (my school) had the dubious moniker "Mr Xerox" for his penchant to copy other's homework. I always wondered how me managed to pass the tests.

I remember a couple months after graduation, he called me up (I never gave him my number, so I have no idea how he found me) to ask for names to contact within the company for which I worked, hoping I could get him hired...

[Tom]

I'm tired and more grumpy than usual today. Blame it on my large cat who ends every sentence with "I must be hungry". She is cued to come in and demand food at the first noise in the morning. The coffee maker is set to go off at 4:40. That was it until heating season and the setback thermostat goes off at 4:00 so the furnace has time to get things warm - now the furnace noise makes her hungry at 4. Until the last two nights when it finally got cold and the furnace has to run now and then overnight to keep the house at 60. My wife can sleep right through a 17 pound cat tromping all over the bed, purring pawing and meowing. I can't. And the first guy that makes a joke about this....

Anyway, I'm frayed and not being able to escape a TV in any public place is making me grind my teeth. The doc's waiting room, the pt's treatment area, why is this necessary? Even with all the TSA business and uncomfortable cramped seats on the planes and overweight people spreading out in them next to me, the real reason I dislike air travel so very much is that you can not find any spot in a terminal that doesn't have a television playing.

That and what I hear around me in the office today - "it was at 10:00am in the morning..." and "if I did that I'd burn through those 500 calling minutes in a heartbeat" - that sort of thing.

[nahtnoj]

I'm spent the last hour or so looking at the websites of all the entries in the 2013 DOE Solar Decathalon. This is essentially a competition to design the solar house of the future.

The engineering is awesome. Very high levels of integration and automation. Modular.

The architecture and land use planning is stupid. Almost every entry is sited either in the desert or in the woods, has a green roof, some solar panels, and is a futuristic evolution of a 60's ranch style house.

Rebuild our cities, please.

[Matthew Strongin]

I'm spent the last hour or so looking at the websites of all the entries in the 2013 DOE Solar Decathalon. This is essentially a competition to design the solar house of the future.

The engineering is awesome. Very high levels of integration and automation. Modular.

The architecture and land use planning is stupid. Almost every entry is sited either in the desert or in the woods, has a green roof, some solar panels, and is a futuristic evolution of a 60's ranch style house.

Rebuild our cities, please.

I'm chapped that this post doesn't have a link. Ever since a vacation in Tucson a few years back where I toured a community of forward thinking, energy efficient homes I've been annoyed at every new development or home construction project in my town. I want a house of the future and I want to look at houses of the future...and now I need to use google.

[nahtnoj]

I'm chapped that this post doesn't have a link. Ever since a vacation in Tucson a few years back where I toured a community of forward thinking, energy efficient homes I've been annoyed at every new development or home construction project in my town. I want a house of the future and I want to look at houses of the future...and now I need to use google.

DOE Solar Decathlon: Teams

Here is a particularly stupid one:

ASUNM Solar Decathlon 2013

"Behind the team's design is the idea that by building environmentally sound homes on overlooked and abandoned urban lots, we can revitalize once-thriving desert landscapes while making room for a growing population. The team hopes to encourage a new direction for affordable, reconfigurable homes while encouraging biodiversity for a healthier ecosystem and peace of mind. Comfort will be maximized not only through flexible indoor-outdoor spaces but also through the development of advanced, regionally proven passive heating and cooling systems. Harnessed solar energy will supply power, and intensive water management—at the heart of the house's design—will catalyze a healthy and sustainable habitat."

Italics are mine.

[spopepro]

dammit. now someone just got me all riled up about Khan Academy and now I'm suuuuper grumpy.

Not a good day for a reform minded educator.


at least not this educator.

[Jaq]

Haven't written anything decent all day, nor have I been on my bike.

Fuck it. I'm going for a ride.

[Christian Fox]

I'm pissed because I've become an old fuck at 42. I've never been a barn burner that's for sure, but this shit is getting ridiculous. exhibit A: other day I caught myself telling a story about my cat to the lady cutting my hair. exhibit B: all I've been thinking all day is getting into bed and watching season 2 of Downton Abbey. holy shit.

[Dallas Tex]

I have to use a Windows phone until the contract is up.