Frustrations with a professor

So, I'm going to vent about a professor. I'm not going to mention this professor by name, or gender, or even list my current professors (and though I suspect a sufficiently motivated person could find out, I don't think it's really that much of an issue, or a risk). And I'll point out, at first, that this professor is a decent teacher, widely considered to be rather helpful, tries to be nice, et cetera.

But there are a lot of Rules and Directions that this person sets. And I will demonstrate with one example.

We have now had two tests in this class. There was a directive on the tests that we ought to use a pen, instead of a pencil, due to potential issues surrounding cheating - and that if we used a pencil, we would not be able to contest anything on the test. Okay. So I brought a pen. And halfway through the exam, it dried up. Oop. Well, I wasn' about to disrupt an entire classroom full of testing students in an attempt to locate another pen. And I did have a pencil. So I used it.

The next - no, not the next class, but two classes later, I think, when we got back the exams, the professor proudly announced a set of four new rules for the class, regarding conduct on exams. These included restrictions against hats (?), a directive to place bookbags/backpacks at the front of the room, to turn the exam in immediately upon the end of class, and specially hilighted here for this post, no pencil. Furthermore, the professor specificially hilighted that if your pen ran out halfway through the text, that's "not an excuse" and is "unacceptable" and next time people should consider bringing two pens just in case, and...

Well then. Okay. I will refrain from further direct commentary in this context.

Re-activating this blog

I'm sort of re-activating this blog after just not posting for a while. I'm not going to explain why I haven't been posting, either.

I'm just going to post a small Experience.

It's about 5:15pm. I am leaving Art 118 Intro to Drawing a little early. There has just been a brief but spectacular downpour. However, the sky is now clear and the sun is shining from behind me. The flowery bushes by the path are laden with a thin film of water which sparkles in the sunlight. The sidewalk and edge of the parking lot are covered in a layer of mist at least a foot thick which is being blown along uphill across my path. Looking up the hill towards Wait Chapel, there is a very large, very white cloud visible just over the treetops. The chapel's carillon is playing a rather airy tune, which fades away...

Then, out of nowhere, the marching band strikes up in the field to my side with Heartbreak Hotel. Oop.

Poughkeepsie would be a decent place to live.

Well! Let's see... dang, I haven't posted in what, three weeks? Goodness.

I started my job. It's going well. I'm working on developing [IBM CONFIDENTIAL], using [IBM CONFIDENTIAL] - it's really spiffy. I do like working in Linux much more than Windows, and Perl is easier to toss around than Java any day of the week.

More time in New York! I went down for Labor Day Memorial Day, this time with a bunch of other interns. It was fairly warmer, which didn't help as we walked all around the place... but it was a lot less crowded. Well, except for Chinatown - that was crowded. And it made for an interesting lunch environment. But I survived. The leek dumplings were all right. We ended up taking a round trip on the Staten Island Ferry.

Oh yes! Pictures. I have a bunch of pictures, from both my first trip and my Memorial Day trip. The bad news is, they're all a lousy cell phone camera, a mere 640x480, and plenty of them were blurry from movement.

I didn't do anything the weekend after Labor Day. I was in a bit of a funk, but I'm feeling much spiffier as of Thursday evening, and today (Saturday) I went out a bit, went shopping, picked up some groceries and a few minor art supplies, and then randomly drove up along US Route 9 until I happened upon the FDR Historic Home - which costs money to get in, so I just strolled around the grounds and down to their little tidal marsh and through the woods and meadows. It was neat.

I've been considering things- as it stands, I think there's a really decent chance that I will come to work in Poughkeepsie after I graduate from college - there's IBM, I kinda like the place (when I'm not feeling generally blah), decent summers, and a variety of things to do nearby (including, of course, visiting New York City). It's all rather grand, I suppose. Of course, I've not seen the winters, and things are a bit expensive up here, and there are plenty of caveats of tha nature; it's all far from certain, and I shall probably apply for work with Google and Apple and others as well as IBM, so we'll see how that works out before Declaring anything.