Rage, rage against BLOODY STUPID EXAM SCHEDULING
Fair warning: I am going to rant in a foaming-at-the-mouth way for a bit. Feel free to skip the cut.
So, a while ago I checked to make sure that I didn't have a cluster of three exams in twenty-four hours because that scheduling would be terrible, and I didn't, so I proceeded to relegate that schedule to the back of my mind for a while. Since exams are approaching, I checked the exam schedule today so I'd know which days I had to wake up at some wretched hour in the cold to go prove that I can pay attention. I discovered that I have two exams on Saturday, December 6th: symbolic logic at noon and English 121 at four. There's only one infinitesimal problem: the December is that night at seven.
What is the December, most of you ask? It's the really swanky Di Phi end-of-semester formal dance: white tie, great decorations and music, wonderful food, cheap tickets, and almost all my Di Phi friends. (Plus Ian, who I am now dating, in a tuxedo.) Picture the excellence for a moment. I was going to have a nice leisurely afternoon getting my hair done with friends and having dinner, and now my plan is deader than disco. Friday I wake up to be at an eight am anthropology exam and then try to go to sleep or study nitpicky symbolic logic rules or reread every poem that we've covered in English since early October. My English professor absolutely refuses to let me take his exam earlier or later because "I can't make any exceptions" (bull, every professor can move the exam for a few people if the scheduling is too heinous, it's in university policy) and lecture professors will not let you move anything without a form signed way back before November 5th.
I hadn't thought about this months ago because the December (amusingly enough) is usually in November when we don't have, you know, EXAMS to screw up our sleep and planning. It was, in fact, on November 15th until the event planner realized less than two weeks before the event that she had an equestrian competition that week and decided to move the dance to December 6th. I like the planner as a person, but in the name of all that is holy, why during exams? Mock Trial competitions (half of Di Phi or so is in Mock Trial) are blocking this weekend, but really? Gahhh. I am not the only one with this problem, but I am hugely frustrated that I'm going to have a cramming day followed by two exams to tire me out before a dance that traditionally lasts at least several hours and then has a killer afterparty. (hair-rip) Also, I have to cram getting to Aveda (the hair salon) somewhere in there without messing up the freshly done hair from running or cutting either of my exams short.
Mindless rage now. Dear UNC exam schedulers: what kind of idiots are you to schedule exams on Saturday? Seriously, Saturday is a tradition college student haven from all the demands of classes and whatnot. It is for RESTING from things like EXAMS. You are attempting to break my mind before a dance that I have been looking forward to for months, violating the protected no-schoolwork status of Saturday, and driving me insane. Go die in a fire. No, I'm serious. Go die in a fire. There is absolutely no way that it is necessary for you to lock in these ironclad dates a year in advance and make several of them on Saturday. There is REALLY no way that you need to pick two of the most common class times and put all the exams for those times on a Saturday. Ten and two are really common, so I'm sure that you are screwing over lots of people's attempt at a peaceful Saturday, especially when one of the really common Tuesday times (eleven) is on Friday at EIGHT. You evil bastards are ruining my sleep schedule two days in a row when you could have been decent and just put the more common exam times earlier or later in the cycle rather than putting the funky ones early and all the normal ones right at the weekends. I'm not kidding: I have four out of my five exams on Fridays and Saturdays. This is downright STUPID and there is no reason for you psychotic wankers to pull this sort of nonsense. In conclusion: A fire. Go die in it. Love and kisses, Laura
I really don't want to hear nice "reasonable" things about how I should take a few deep breaths or UNC administration knows what it's doing (ha). You're welcome to say them if you really want, but I'm not going to care in this state of glaring at everything.
/rant
Having waited several hours and had tasty dinner, I feel much more mellow. Mmm, goulash and biscuits.
Anyway, other things that are sort of floating across my mind:
-My Air Power professor moved the due date for the last paper in his nigh-identical class but not for the last paper in my class. What gives?
-Candy corn is delicious, especially when bought for half-price, which tastes like victory.
-Waking up on Wednesday mornings kind of sucks, especially since I'm opening on Thursday mornings next semester, but this pile of unhappy waking up means that I absolutely will not have to open my junior and senior years. This is easily worth it.
-I will be running for Di Phi historian at the Monday elections and Ian has stepped into my spot as Di President, essentially meaning that he now carries the cactus and we've switched desks.
-Sarah has a face-hickey: she blushes quite brightly every time it's mentioned and it cracks me up. Also, her habit of randomly biting her boyfriend's shoulder to get his attention is quite excellent.
- I locked myself out of my dorm this morning and had to get a janitor and my roommate to get me back into the building and my room, respectively. However, I still got to work only a minute late and it was not a problem. Win!
-Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book is my first official recommended book at the Bull's Head. A space finally opened up on the recommendations shelf and the manager heard me raving about it, so now hopefully people will buy more copies. Gaiman is awesome, so I approve of this plan.
-I thought that some of my relatives had Southern accents until my linguistics professor played a video of some old people living in the rural areas of NC talking about Yankees and Southern culture. Everyone in the class was howling at this one lady saying "we take them Yankees in and they have such harsh speech, don't you think?"
-Seriously, UNC dining services, stop closing the dining hall with the edible food on the weekends and leaving the one that will give everyone stomach disease and death open, kthx. If you're going to have the lame one open then for the love of cheese at least start serving decent sweet tea. Given that neither of these things has happened, I will continue to avoid you on weekends. (fist-shake)
-Ashwin sent me a copy of Snood (very addictive game) and I beat all 50 puzzle levels. I'm now burned out on it and back to playing Speedy Bubbles. which is even more addictive.
-Di Phi elections are going to be long and miserable, but I have friends running for a number of things and it really matters to me that the most qualified but less popular candidate for president gets the job.
-Dear UNC creative a capella and standup groups: why are ALL OF YOU having your performances this weekend? Even if I didn't have plans I could only see two of you: as it is I will be very lucky to see one. Seriously, I have long papers to write, an election to help organize, work, homework, studying.... I would be able to appreciate you guys so much more if you spread out your showtimes. As is, you do this roughly twice a semester at busy times and I don't get to see as much as I want. Grrrrr at all of you.
-Twilight fans are scary scary people sometimes. Apparently some people are scratching open their necks so they're bleeding when they go get autographs from the guy playing Teen Love Idol Vampire Man. Let that sink in. With me now: ewwwwwwwwwww.
-Sweet tea is delicious and I am addicted to its heavenly sugar: I don't know how I'd open on Wednesdays without it.
-I saw The Dark Knight for free at the student Union with Sarah, Ashwin, Marie, and frowny-face Sarah on Friday and it was just as awesome as it was the first time. Curse you for dying, Heath Ledger!
-Somewhat belated- Dear Obama supporters: I'm happy for you. However, when you're coming in on the morning after the election, please be polite enough to wait the two minutes it will take me to count the papers and get a register open. Trying to snatch a paper, glaring, tapping your toes at me, and looking pointedly at your watch are all incredibly rude and I'm sure that your big hero would be ashamed of you.
-UNC's basketball season has started and I kind of want to see us win just so I can storm Franklin Street for a huge impromptu party.
-Elyssa's habit of ending all e-mails with "peace through superior firepower, Elyssa" makes me grin.
-Halloween was both really fun and really cold, alas: having the "secret" midnight graveyard ceremony with Di Phi really didn't help with the cold, but it was interesting to see and I liked watching all the people on Franklin Street. Some people's costumes were amazing. I saw a few Dr. Horribles and said hi to all of them: they were startled and happy that people recognized them.
-Ian comments that this is turning into an epic post. The fact that this made me think of both Homer and D&D leads me to the conclusion that all these nerds are rubbing off on me. (Yes, pot, kettle, other implement of cooking, I care not.)
If people want me to clarify or post about anything in particular then poke me, I suppose, but for the moment I'm off to write my English paper. Bleh. However, it's on Yeats, so not bleh. Yeats is the man.
So, a while ago I checked to make sure that I didn't have a cluster of three exams in twenty-four hours because that scheduling would be terrible, and I didn't, so I proceeded to relegate that schedule to the back of my mind for a while. Since exams are approaching, I checked the exam schedule today so I'd know which days I had to wake up at some wretched hour in the cold to go prove that I can pay attention. I discovered that I have two exams on Saturday, December 6th: symbolic logic at noon and English 121 at four. There's only one infinitesimal problem: the December is that night at seven.
What is the December, most of you ask? It's the really swanky Di Phi end-of-semester formal dance: white tie, great decorations and music, wonderful food, cheap tickets, and almost all my Di Phi friends. (Plus Ian, who I am now dating, in a tuxedo.) Picture the excellence for a moment. I was going to have a nice leisurely afternoon getting my hair done with friends and having dinner, and now my plan is deader than disco. Friday I wake up to be at an eight am anthropology exam and then try to go to sleep or study nitpicky symbolic logic rules or reread every poem that we've covered in English since early October. My English professor absolutely refuses to let me take his exam earlier or later because "I can't make any exceptions" (bull, every professor can move the exam for a few people if the scheduling is too heinous, it's in university policy) and lecture professors will not let you move anything without a form signed way back before November 5th.
I hadn't thought about this months ago because the December (amusingly enough) is usually in November when we don't have, you know, EXAMS to screw up our sleep and planning. It was, in fact, on November 15th until the event planner realized less than two weeks before the event that she had an equestrian competition that week and decided to move the dance to December 6th. I like the planner as a person, but in the name of all that is holy, why during exams? Mock Trial competitions (half of Di Phi or so is in Mock Trial) are blocking this weekend, but really? Gahhh. I am not the only one with this problem, but I am hugely frustrated that I'm going to have a cramming day followed by two exams to tire me out before a dance that traditionally lasts at least several hours and then has a killer afterparty. (hair-rip) Also, I have to cram getting to Aveda (the hair salon) somewhere in there without messing up the freshly done hair from running or cutting either of my exams short.
Mindless rage now. Dear UNC exam schedulers: what kind of idiots are you to schedule exams on Saturday? Seriously, Saturday is a tradition college student haven from all the demands of classes and whatnot. It is for RESTING from things like EXAMS. You are attempting to break my mind before a dance that I have been looking forward to for months, violating the protected no-schoolwork status of Saturday, and driving me insane. Go die in a fire. No, I'm serious. Go die in a fire. There is absolutely no way that it is necessary for you to lock in these ironclad dates a year in advance and make several of them on Saturday. There is REALLY no way that you need to pick two of the most common class times and put all the exams for those times on a Saturday. Ten and two are really common, so I'm sure that you are screwing over lots of people's attempt at a peaceful Saturday, especially when one of the really common Tuesday times (eleven) is on Friday at EIGHT. You evil bastards are ruining my sleep schedule two days in a row when you could have been decent and just put the more common exam times earlier or later in the cycle rather than putting the funky ones early and all the normal ones right at the weekends. I'm not kidding: I have four out of my five exams on Fridays and Saturdays. This is downright STUPID and there is no reason for you psychotic wankers to pull this sort of nonsense. In conclusion: A fire. Go die in it. Love and kisses, Laura
I really don't want to hear nice "reasonable" things about how I should take a few deep breaths or UNC administration knows what it's doing (ha). You're welcome to say them if you really want, but I'm not going to care in this state of glaring at everything.
/rant
Having waited several hours and had tasty dinner, I feel much more mellow. Mmm, goulash and biscuits.
Anyway, other things that are sort of floating across my mind:
-My Air Power professor moved the due date for the last paper in his nigh-identical class but not for the last paper in my class. What gives?
-Candy corn is delicious, especially when bought for half-price, which tastes like victory.
-Waking up on Wednesday mornings kind of sucks, especially since I'm opening on Thursday mornings next semester, but this pile of unhappy waking up means that I absolutely will not have to open my junior and senior years. This is easily worth it.
-I will be running for Di Phi historian at the Monday elections and Ian has stepped into my spot as Di President, essentially meaning that he now carries the cactus and we've switched desks.
-Sarah has a face-hickey: she blushes quite brightly every time it's mentioned and it cracks me up. Also, her habit of randomly biting her boyfriend's shoulder to get his attention is quite excellent.
- I locked myself out of my dorm this morning and had to get a janitor and my roommate to get me back into the building and my room, respectively. However, I still got to work only a minute late and it was not a problem. Win!
-Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book is my first official recommended book at the Bull's Head. A space finally opened up on the recommendations shelf and the manager heard me raving about it, so now hopefully people will buy more copies. Gaiman is awesome, so I approve of this plan.
-I thought that some of my relatives had Southern accents until my linguistics professor played a video of some old people living in the rural areas of NC talking about Yankees and Southern culture. Everyone in the class was howling at this one lady saying "we take them Yankees in and they have such harsh speech, don't you think?"
-Seriously, UNC dining services, stop closing the dining hall with the edible food on the weekends and leaving the one that will give everyone stomach disease and death open, kthx. If you're going to have the lame one open then for the love of cheese at least start serving decent sweet tea. Given that neither of these things has happened, I will continue to avoid you on weekends. (fist-shake)
-Ashwin sent me a copy of Snood (very addictive game) and I beat all 50 puzzle levels. I'm now burned out on it and back to playing Speedy Bubbles. which is even more addictive.
-Di Phi elections are going to be long and miserable, but I have friends running for a number of things and it really matters to me that the most qualified but less popular candidate for president gets the job.
-Dear UNC creative a capella and standup groups: why are ALL OF YOU having your performances this weekend? Even if I didn't have plans I could only see two of you: as it is I will be very lucky to see one. Seriously, I have long papers to write, an election to help organize, work, homework, studying.... I would be able to appreciate you guys so much more if you spread out your showtimes. As is, you do this roughly twice a semester at busy times and I don't get to see as much as I want. Grrrrr at all of you.
-Twilight fans are scary scary people sometimes. Apparently some people are scratching open their necks so they're bleeding when they go get autographs from the guy playing Teen Love Idol Vampire Man. Let that sink in. With me now: ewwwwwwwwwww.
-Sweet tea is delicious and I am addicted to its heavenly sugar: I don't know how I'd open on Wednesdays without it.
-I saw The Dark Knight for free at the student Union with Sarah, Ashwin, Marie, and frowny-face Sarah on Friday and it was just as awesome as it was the first time. Curse you for dying, Heath Ledger!
-Somewhat belated- Dear Obama supporters: I'm happy for you. However, when you're coming in on the morning after the election, please be polite enough to wait the two minutes it will take me to count the papers and get a register open. Trying to snatch a paper, glaring, tapping your toes at me, and looking pointedly at your watch are all incredibly rude and I'm sure that your big hero would be ashamed of you.
-UNC's basketball season has started and I kind of want to see us win just so I can storm Franklin Street for a huge impromptu party.
-Elyssa's habit of ending all e-mails with "peace through superior firepower, Elyssa" makes me grin.
-Halloween was both really fun and really cold, alas: having the "secret" midnight graveyard ceremony with Di Phi really didn't help with the cold, but it was interesting to see and I liked watching all the people on Franklin Street. Some people's costumes were amazing. I saw a few Dr. Horribles and said hi to all of them: they were startled and happy that people recognized them.
-Ian comments that this is turning into an epic post. The fact that this made me think of both Homer and D&D leads me to the conclusion that all these nerds are rubbing off on me. (Yes, pot, kettle, other implement of cooking, I care not.)
If people want me to clarify or post about anything in particular then poke me, I suppose, but for the moment I'm off to write my English paper. Bleh. However, it's on Yeats, so not bleh. Yeats is the man.