Tag Archives: update

Being Nibbled to Death by Ducks

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It’s been one of those weeks.  You know the kind.  Nothing really bad happens, but some many little things pop up that by the end of the day on Saturday you’re wondering why you didn’t accomplish what you thought you had sufficient time to complete.  It’s kind of like being nibbled to death by ducks.

WD-40Most of my disruptions were either work related or involved my son.  (I thought I had made it clear there was to be nothing further involving fire while I was at work.)  A wire in his braces popped loose, and instead of simply fixing it, the orthodontist went ahead and tightened everything.  This will save time later this month, but it cost most of an afternoon.  I finally figured out why one of the dogs was suddenly traumatized to the point of refusing to go outside. (Experiments to determine the flammability of WD-40 are expressly forbidden.  Which should have been obvious.)

Anyway, work was supposed to be quite slow this week.  As result I had intended to finish and post reviews of the latest issue of Weird Tales and the first installment of a new series by Joshua P. Simon, as well as finish a detective novel on my phone, Deryni Rising by Katherine Kurtz for for Black Gate, and a review for Amazing Stories.  Plus I had planned on commenting on Amazon’s announcement about pricing the other day.

The piece for Amazing Stories is done, uploaded, and should go live tomorrow.  I”ll start the BAF post for Black Gate either tonight or (more likely) tomorrow along with the review of the detective novel.  I’ll also try to the Simon novel and WT finished in the next couple of days.

All Over but the Crying

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Well, finals have been graded and grades turned in.  The great email deluge has begun.  (“Why did I get an F? I made a 76 on the mditerm?” Because that’s the highest grade you made all semester and your final/lab/homework/quiz grades were failing.)

Answering them takes time.  (“I feel I did better than a D in this class, even though my grades don’t reflect it.  What time can I come by your office tomorrow and go over my exam?  I’m sure I can find a few fractions of a point to push me over a 70.”  I really got an email like this.  My rule for this sort of time wasting is if you get to find points to add, I get to find additional points to remove.)

I’m thinking of having a tray of cheese nearby to go with the whine I’m finding in my inbox.  (“I think that your giving me a F in the course for cheating in lab, even though I was warned verbally and in writing in both lab and lecture and I signed a copy of the lab policies which included the cheating policy, is extremely unfair, harsh, and mean.  I look forward to hearing a decision from you that will be more in line with the grade I want rather than the grade I earned.”  I really got this one, too, although I’ve paraphrased and condensed its multiple paragraphs considerably.  This was a major case of academic fraud.  I can’t talk about the details yet, for reasons I can’t talk about either.)

Of course, hope springs eternal.  (“Dr. West, I see I earned an F in your class.  Could you please bump me up to a D?”  Considering that your lab grade was in the low 60s, all your other grades were failing, and your average was below 50, probably not.)

All of the quotes, while based on real emails have been changed, not so much to protect the identity of the authors, but to cover my ass in the extreme event one of them actually reads this blog.  It’s been a rough semester.  And, yes, there was a major case of academic fraud which I can’t talk about, and I really can’t talk about the reasons why I can’t talk about it, either.  At least, not yet.  But soon…

Anyway, I’m going to be posting either here or on one of the other blogs almost everyday until Christmas, starting tomorrow.  There will be reviews, opinions, and who knows what else.

Stay tuned.

Final Exams

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We’ve got one day of final exams left.  I’ve given mine, but I’ve barely scratched the surface with grading.  I spent the better part of the last week dealing with a major academic dishonesty situation involving a group of students.  It’s still ongoing, so I’ll not say anything more about it at this time.  Anyway, between that and getting the lab grades to the lecture faculty, I’ve been rather busy.  I failed to post anything at Amazing Stories for yesterday, the first time since I started blogging for them.

Anyway, it’s going to be a few days before I can get my head above water and post more.  I finished with Chuck Wendig’s latest Miriam Black novel, Cormorant, over the weekend.  The review will probably be the first thing I post.  Then some short fiction, and a review of Brian McClellan’s Promise of Blood.

Just so you know I haven’t dropped off the planet.