because I have a bad memory
I need to blog. Something about the lull of summer in July, when things are half over, and most of the initial excitement of the season ("vacation") has faded into a rededication to work and things that need to be done. Last week was spent mostly marking a stack of really badly written assignments for the summer Introduction to Human Geography class. It was pretty ridiculous. I'm all for ESL students, who try really hard, but most of these students - I mean, if your name was John Smith, you really shouldn't be writing like this. Mostly because I'm going to assume that if your name is John Smith and you're attending university, English really should be your first language, and there's no reason for you to be this bad at it.
I always think about how badly I wanted to impress my lecturers and markers when I was an undergrad, and how the paper needed to look good and read well. If you can't master the basics of the language, what are you doing in arts, social sciences, and humanities? It blows my mind that people think it's acceptable to submit 6-page papers that take me more than half an hour to read because it was so hard to comprehend the meaning of the things that they wrote. And students feel entitled enough to email us after they get their papers back and say they're "unsatisfied" with their marks. I mean, you have number 1 fail right there. If I can't understand what you're trying to say (and believe me, I try my best), than you have a problem. Not me. I don't have a problem. Students need to know that it's their job to communicate clearly to us what they think they've learned. This is the point of the essay.
Anyway.
A few days ago, we rented and watched Kalifornia. I thought it was a really awesome movie. Apart from having Juliette Lewis, Brat Pitt, and David Duchovny in it, it was a strong story, and very well acted. Just incredible performances, particularly by Brad Pitt. I think Pitt's a really under-rated actor. Maybe we just can't get pass the fact that he's ridiculously good-looking, but I'm really impressed by the range of characters I've seen him play. Certainly more versatile than, oh, you know, Christian Bale?
Heh.
Anyway, the movie was a great psychological thriller. It did get shockingly violent near the end, which came a tad too quickly. I was left slightly morose by the time the credits rolled though.
J and I spent the weekend up in Markham at his parents'. Their WinXP PC had some malware / virus on it. I fixed the main problem, but then something else turned up and was redirecting search results on the browser. I ended up spending the entire Sunday morning on the phone with a very nice guy in Chennai, India on the Microsoft helpline, but he couldn't fix the problem. Next step, Ubuntu.
btw, I also think it's super-cute and super-awesome that cheshirefeline and burbur are going out. :D
I always think about how badly I wanted to impress my lecturers and markers when I was an undergrad, and how the paper needed to look good and read well. If you can't master the basics of the language, what are you doing in arts, social sciences, and humanities? It blows my mind that people think it's acceptable to submit 6-page papers that take me more than half an hour to read because it was so hard to comprehend the meaning of the things that they wrote. And students feel entitled enough to email us after they get their papers back and say they're "unsatisfied" with their marks. I mean, you have number 1 fail right there. If I can't understand what you're trying to say (and believe me, I try my best), than you have a problem. Not me. I don't have a problem. Students need to know that it's their job to communicate clearly to us what they think they've learned. This is the point of the essay.
Anyway.
A few days ago, we rented and watched Kalifornia. I thought it was a really awesome movie. Apart from having Juliette Lewis, Brat Pitt, and David Duchovny in it, it was a strong story, and very well acted. Just incredible performances, particularly by Brad Pitt. I think Pitt's a really under-rated actor. Maybe we just can't get pass the fact that he's ridiculously good-looking, but I'm really impressed by the range of characters I've seen him play. Certainly more versatile than, oh, you know, Christian Bale?
Heh.
Anyway, the movie was a great psychological thriller. It did get shockingly violent near the end, which came a tad too quickly. I was left slightly morose by the time the credits rolled though.
J and I spent the weekend up in Markham at his parents'. Their WinXP PC had some malware / virus on it. I fixed the main problem, but then something else turned up and was redirecting search results on the browser. I ended up spending the entire Sunday morning on the phone with a very nice guy in Chennai, India on the Microsoft helpline, but he couldn't fix the problem. Next step, Ubuntu.
btw, I also think it's super-cute and super-awesome that cheshirefeline and burbur are going out. :D