Damn. Glad you are ok!
I marked that as "I get that reference" not because I have had my gallbladder removed, but because Cranky had to have his gallbladder removed for much the same reasons, which I got to follow all the way from "I've had this weird pain" to "look at these scars."
Enjoy your new diet restrictions, I guess?
--Patrick
Enjoy your new diet restrictions, I guess?
--Patrick
My dad left some expired food and an open bottle of water in my cooler. I had a good sleep, I woke up, got my coffee, went to put some beers in the fridge, and THEN had to clean a mess my dad made because he leaves things half finished!!!
Maybe I'm just mad because I also made sure to dry his laundry,take out the trash and put the GOD DAMN dishes away.
Maybe I'm just mad because I also made sure to dry his laundry,take out the trash and put the GOD DAMN dishes away.
Dave
Staff member
Were the situation different this would NOT be in the minor rant category.
The wife and I went grocery shopping today. Filled one single cart and got food for 2 weeks. Planned the meals by day and made ingredient lists. $430.
This is a minor rant because we got our taxes and I got paid Friday so money was not an issue. But I KNOW it is for a lot of people and for a lot of people that would have been just too much. So I feel a little guilty but at the same time I gotta eat as well.
Minor caveat is that we also had dog food ($47), dog treats ($11), toilet paper ($17) and got a couple of t-shirts for St. Patrick's Day ($17 total). Still, that's only about $100 of the total price. The rest was one cart of groceries.
The wife and I went grocery shopping today. Filled one single cart and got food for 2 weeks. Planned the meals by day and made ingredient lists. $430.
This is a minor rant because we got our taxes and I got paid Friday so money was not an issue. But I KNOW it is for a lot of people and for a lot of people that would have been just too much. So I feel a little guilty but at the same time I gotta eat as well.
Minor caveat is that we also had dog food ($47), dog treats ($11), toilet paper ($17) and got a couple of t-shirts for St. Patrick's Day ($17 total). Still, that's only about $100 of the total price. The rest was one cart of groceries.
Food for two weeks for two people for (rounded) $350 is $12.5 pppd. If that includes lunches and breakfast that's downright cheap.
I know what you mean and all but... Our grocery bills are way higher than that. As in... €250/week if it's a week we're both mostly eating in (wife often eats at work).
I know what you mean and all but... Our grocery bills are way higher than that. As in... €250/week if it's a week we're both mostly eating in (wife often eats at work).
Okay update, apparently my dad thought said nasty food block was just ice instead of....a foul substance from time's past, so I'm less mad. Still a LITTLE mad as I'm going to have to wash off any beer I want to drink,but ya know.
Fist bumping those grocery posts. It's nuts, and the nuts are unaffordable.
Pre pandemic, if we were going over $200 it was because we were refilling things like detergent or TP. This is definitely more a commentary on how much prices have gone up in three years than a receipt measuring contest.
WELP, some idiot tried to buy a thousand dollar bus ticket with my credit info. Reported the fraud so it's no big, but still annoying.
Were they going to the moon?
Either that or around the world in eighty days. Said ticket was from a website to, not even a print ticket, total amateur.
I'm grading my students' papers right now, and I've observed that plagiarism has gotten much worse since the pandemic. Furthermore, the students are completely shameless about it. When I catch them they brush it off with, "I was in a rush and copied something down. That counts, right?" Or they'll ask to redo it. They were in high school when everything moved online and they grew accustomed to overworked and stressed teachers letting everything slide. It's like they are several years behind in terms of maturity, which is exactly what pandemic era schooling has done to students from elementary to college.
My syllabus is quite clear that the first count of plagiarism results in a zero on the assignment. A second count results in an automatic failure in the class. Nobody has ever gotten caught plagiarizing twice in my classes, but I seriously think it might happen this semester. This is a minor rant because I actually enjoy shredding a cheater's grade point average. Failing students who tried their best is my least favorite part of the job. But failing cheaters? That's a genuine pleasure.
My syllabus is quite clear that the first count of plagiarism results in a zero on the assignment. A second count results in an automatic failure in the class. Nobody has ever gotten caught plagiarizing twice in my classes, but I seriously think it might happen this semester. This is a minor rant because I actually enjoy shredding a cheater's grade point average. Failing students who tried their best is my least favorite part of the job. But failing cheaters? That's a genuine pleasure.
My friend's wife is a grade 5 teacher and she literally told me yesterday most of her class is at a sub-grade 2 level. The pandemic really fucked up kids and school. She mentioned attendance is ass-trash now too. Most students barely make it in 80% of the time.
I don't default to assuming cheating any more, though I used to adopt such a hard line stance. Between the pandemic giving students a piss-poor education compared to previous standards and writing assignments that are utterly banal, students haven't really been challenged to write an actual paper more than once when they come into my class. They don't understand the iterative process involved, don't understand the intent of the assignment, view it as busy work, etc. I shouldn't have to teach them all of this, but if I feel like a writing assignment is important in my class, then it is what I need to do. So I either make the space to teach them the process of writing a paper or I don't include a paper. I also make sure my writing assignments are novel and interesting (when I can make them interesting) and that my rubric pushes the students to perfect their papers over time with a high standard that plagiarized content will utterly fail on (due to the terrible way that scientists habitually write and the novelty of the assignment.) By the time I am done with them, they aren't even quoting prior work.
To be fair, I always felt like "papers" were just busy work, especially ones that came with an assigned minimum page limit. But then my writing style has always been to agonize over choosing and arranging the specific words that will maximize information/communication density.
--Patrick
I teach Freshman English at a high school, and I can confirm that the kids are super immature since the pandemic here as well. They act like I would expect 6th or 7th grade kids to act - dumb little jokes, when they break something they try to hide it and walk away, struggling to understand concepts that should be basic for their age ("How do I quote a book?"), and so on. And we're seeing lots of AI "assisted" writing for assignments.
Three-quarters of high school seniors can't write. I mean, they can read but they don't know how to form a proper paper. Most of my freshmen also hate to read anything longer than a Yelp review. I blame smart phones and shitty parenting.
I provide a rubric, a list of writing tips, and a link to a Chicago/Turabian formatting site with all my writing prompts. I am also diligent in providing writing samples so they have a decent idea of what to do. I teach a liberal arts subject where writing is always expected.
I learned how to write in college, and I really learned how to write in grad school.
I would hope that most teachers would see this as a teaching moment rather than a "I'm gonna enjoy destroying their gpa and maybe even lose their scholarship" moment, particularly when dealing with low level college right out of highschool. If we're talking a PhD program then sure.
Especially when acknowledging that covid's impacts are likely a fairly sizable factor in why they ended up where they are as far as expectations and skillsets go.
I always give them a chance to explain themselves. If it turns out they just didn’t cite their source, then it is indeed a teachable moment and we go over what citations are. Then I adjust their grade because it was an honest mistake. And on the other end of the spectrum you have the students who turn in 99% plagiarized papers that were bought from some sketchy website. Honestly, I would rather read a nearly incomprehensible scrawl of a paper so long as it’s genuine.
Back when I was a TA, I sat in on some of those “your doom is nigh” meetings where the professor told the student they were being reported for academic misconduct. The reactions my colleagues and I saw ranged from “yeah you got me” to full-blown panic attacks. I also have had professors who would actively push to have cheating students expelled.
Here's one for the shitty morning history books, I notice my back tire is a little deflated,so I hook it up to my electric pump. After not inflating I think " Son of a bitch, it's got a leak" so after swapping it out, I plug the new tube into the pump.... and it also doesn't inflate it. Turns out both tubes were fine, my PUMP was busted somehow!
My wife teaches at a Title I elementary school. So many of the kids are chronically absent. When they do show up, they're ill. When the school tries calling the parents they either get no response at all or a perpetually overstressed, unhealthy, overburdened single parent who is juggling three jobs and taking care of five young children. Christ, this country is the worst place in the developed world to raise a family.
Fair, and at least I got a story out of it.
Also got another one, last delivery of the day, THIRTEEN bucks ,less than a mile, YES... until I read the address. It was for the Walnut Street MacDonalds, whose building was torn down YEARS ago! Am I delivering to god damn ghosts?!
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Nothing can kill the Grimace, we're done here.