I want to crawl under my desk and curl into a little ball
I never realized before how incredibly frustrating and upsetting it is to think you're done something - something that's taken you four years - and then not be. I'm not talking about anything major, really. I'm still going to graduate and everything. But thanks to a phenomenal asshole with the city, I still have work to do.
Backstory? I've been working for the last several weeks on a website about the Halifax Public Gardens. One of the considerations was graphical, which meant one of the things I needed to do, since the time of year kind of precludes taking pictures myself, was secure pictures from someone else. This problem was apparently solved when one of my interview subjects said he'd make me a CD of pictures. At the time, I had time, so I wasn't worried that it wasn't going to be right that second. However, when I did try to get a hold of him about the CD, suddenly I couldn't. At this point, it was kind of too late to change subjects, and the other likely source of pictures, the archives, require written requests for permission, and my timeline was too tight for that. So I tried, for several weeks, to get a hold of this guy, and nothing. So I went ahead and did my site wihtout pictures, and finished it on Thursday. I was pissed off with this guy, but what can you do? It was done.
Then, the next day, what should arrive at the school but the pictures. And now Tim wants me to add them, telling me that he did point out that such things would be part of the mark, and that it is a university and he can only mark me on what I actually submitted, not what I tried to submit.
He does have a point, which kind of sucks, because it's always easier to be mad at someone when you think they're being totally unreasonable. I understand the whole can-only-get-marked-on-what-one-actually-produces thing, but you know? I really do think journalism is slightly different, or should be. For a history paper, for example, you go to the library, you find the books you need, you do your research, you write your paper. You don't have to worry about whether or not the books will get back to you. For journalism, you are completely dependent on other people coming through for you in order to produce. On the other hand, that doesn't change once you get out of school. The deadline doesn't care how much trouble you had tracking people down. So it really does make sense for journalism students to be marked thusly, too. I do appreciate that. But of course, that's why I hate it, and can't wait to be done with it.
Which I guess, is really what's upsetting me so much: I thought I was done with it. But I'm not. And to get pulled back into something that you thought you were finally done really really sucks, and is really really upsetting.
But hey. At least the work I have left to do doesn't involve trying to track down people who can't be bothered to respond.
Backstory? I've been working for the last several weeks on a website about the Halifax Public Gardens. One of the considerations was graphical, which meant one of the things I needed to do, since the time of year kind of precludes taking pictures myself, was secure pictures from someone else. This problem was apparently solved when one of my interview subjects said he'd make me a CD of pictures. At the time, I had time, so I wasn't worried that it wasn't going to be right that second. However, when I did try to get a hold of him about the CD, suddenly I couldn't. At this point, it was kind of too late to change subjects, and the other likely source of pictures, the archives, require written requests for permission, and my timeline was too tight for that. So I tried, for several weeks, to get a hold of this guy, and nothing. So I went ahead and did my site wihtout pictures, and finished it on Thursday. I was pissed off with this guy, but what can you do? It was done.
Then, the next day, what should arrive at the school but the pictures. And now Tim wants me to add them, telling me that he did point out that such things would be part of the mark, and that it is a university and he can only mark me on what I actually submitted, not what I tried to submit.
He does have a point, which kind of sucks, because it's always easier to be mad at someone when you think they're being totally unreasonable. I understand the whole can-only-get-marked-on-what-one-actually-produces thing, but you know? I really do think journalism is slightly different, or should be. For a history paper, for example, you go to the library, you find the books you need, you do your research, you write your paper. You don't have to worry about whether or not the books will get back to you. For journalism, you are completely dependent on other people coming through for you in order to produce. On the other hand, that doesn't change once you get out of school. The deadline doesn't care how much trouble you had tracking people down. So it really does make sense for journalism students to be marked thusly, too. I do appreciate that. But of course, that's why I hate it, and can't wait to be done with it.
Which I guess, is really what's upsetting me so much: I thought I was done with it. But I'm not. And to get pulled back into something that you thought you were finally done really really sucks, and is really really upsetting.
But hey. At least the work I have left to do doesn't involve trying to track down people who can't be bothered to respond.