ARG! I need to rant. I have issues with incompetents in positions of power. And I'm not talking about President Bush either.
1) My professor for thermo this quarter is seriously mindnumbingly stupid. I'm sure he's actually really not ... but he just can't teach worth beans. Firstly he makes us take a quiz at the beginning of every class, which has GOT to violate some kind of honor code. Then he proceeds to lecture the material in an order that hardly makes sense.
He uses a model on a system that OBVIOUSLY does not fit it. So I sit there for 10 minutes trying to work out what he's trying to achieve... and then at the end of this long and lengthy process tells us that it doesn't work and that all we did was wrong. Why couldn't he tell us this in the first place, then proceed to work in the hypothetical case of "if it did work" instead of lying to us.
2) Why can't people proofread? Or at least sort things out in their head before they say it. When you write an equation, please make sure it is correct. I'm spending most of my mental capacity correcting errors in the textbook (excusable) written by the TAs (less excusable but still ok) and points made by the prof (very not excusable when you proceed to defend yourself.)
3) The next time I hear someone pronounce French names and phrases the way he does... I might just kill them. "Voilà" is pronounced "Wahller" and Antoine as "An-TOE-in". And the names of the other famous chemists are horribly mangled as well. And even his normal speech sends chills down my back. I'm sure it's an accent thing, and that I'm particularly aware since I still prefer English English, thank you very much... but still. (Side note, I wonder if there is an inherent speech bias, where Austrailian is considered vulgar and English (and not American) is considered upper class.) Anyway I find myself in a pissy mood when I'm in the class... I'm pretty sure it's also a factor of how much he actually cares about us and the material. It's a subtle thing but it's actually really easy for a student to tell when the really doesn't like the class, and if the prof doesn't want to be there, why should the students bother?
4) I think I have a need to learn something in my classes. Otherwise I don't go or sleep through them. I do a subconsious cost-benefit analysis and if there is no cost to sleeping, I just go ahead and do it. This is also why I tend to get low grades in lower-level classes while I'm doing really well in my graduate level classes.
--C.
Thursday, January 09, 2003
So I wrote up the following rant on the plane. I've been meaning to type it up but obviously haven't gotten around to it until just now.
I am sitting aboard an Asiana Air flight to, well, home and I'm constantly impressed by the insane difference one class upgrade makes in the level of service, comfort and let's not forget, food. (I suppose it makes quite an impact on your wallet, too... or your dad's or your dad's corporate account.) I'm not currently able to sleep due to the disturbing staring by some kids in the seat in front so some current musing instead:
Being old enough in most countries to drink, I've availed myself of this right before shortly losing it in the next 9 hours upon passing through immigration into the US. However, upon arrival on campus, I suppose my drinking can recommence uninhibited (well, as long as I don't pass out... and I don't intend to). -- Not that I drink much at all... (honest!). So anyway, after a (small) glass of wine with dinner, I've become rather verbose in a non-verbal, pencil-paper sort of way. Hence this rant. (As an aside, my handwriting is quite awful at this point, not sure if it's the alcohol or the fact that I was writing really fast... I suspect the latter... and general untidyness on my part anyway.)
As I was just served a multi-course dinner, I decided to see how far I could get on pure formal western upperclassness. While I know (thanks largely to my dad) which forks and knives to use, and how to hold them (prongs down, fork always in left hand) -- I was baffled by the many other choices I had to make. I was offered wine with dinner (a choice of five) and having decided previously to partake, I couldn't decide which would go (formally) with the steak I'd ordered. I did remember the old rule, red with red meat and white with fish and poultry but there were three red wines to chose from. In the end, I opted to hold off on the alcohol until the fruit et fromage course.
But come that course, the options for alcohol had expanded to include, port, scotch, rum and some cocktails. It was agonizing trying to make a decision and still look like I knew what I was doing. I'm sure there are books on stuff like this... I guess I need to do some background reading.
And the cheese course in itself was a whole other (pronounced, "nother") adventure. Having expended the Edam to go with the apple slices and the other hard cheese (I'm not sure what it was) on a couple of a rather interesting cracker, I was left with with a slice of pumpernickel and a generous serving of Brie. Now it felt wrong on so many levels to combine the dark German bread with the light French cheese but the alternative was dry bread or some leftover German butter that came with a toasty roll a few courses ago. So, in the end an ironic recreation of the last few hundred years of European history won out. All downed with a glass of American wine to complete the metaphor.
--C.
I am sitting aboard an Asiana Air flight to, well, home and I'm constantly impressed by the insane difference one class upgrade makes in the level of service, comfort and let's not forget, food. (I suppose it makes quite an impact on your wallet, too... or your dad's or your dad's corporate account.) I'm not currently able to sleep due to the disturbing staring by some kids in the seat in front so some current musing instead:
Being old enough in most countries to drink, I've availed myself of this right before shortly losing it in the next 9 hours upon passing through immigration into the US. However, upon arrival on campus, I suppose my drinking can recommence uninhibited (well, as long as I don't pass out... and I don't intend to). -- Not that I drink much at all... (honest!). So anyway, after a (small) glass of wine with dinner, I've become rather verbose in a non-verbal, pencil-paper sort of way. Hence this rant. (As an aside, my handwriting is quite awful at this point, not sure if it's the alcohol or the fact that I was writing really fast... I suspect the latter... and general untidyness on my part anyway.)
As I was just served a multi-course dinner, I decided to see how far I could get on pure formal western upperclassness. While I know (thanks largely to my dad) which forks and knives to use, and how to hold them (prongs down, fork always in left hand) -- I was baffled by the many other choices I had to make. I was offered wine with dinner (a choice of five) and having decided previously to partake, I couldn't decide which would go (formally) with the steak I'd ordered. I did remember the old rule, red with red meat and white with fish and poultry but there were three red wines to chose from. In the end, I opted to hold off on the alcohol until the fruit et fromage course.
But come that course, the options for alcohol had expanded to include, port, scotch, rum and some cocktails. It was agonizing trying to make a decision and still look like I knew what I was doing. I'm sure there are books on stuff like this... I guess I need to do some background reading.
And the cheese course in itself was a whole other (pronounced, "nother") adventure. Having expended the Edam to go with the apple slices and the other hard cheese (I'm not sure what it was) on a couple of a rather interesting cracker, I was left with with a slice of pumpernickel and a generous serving of Brie. Now it felt wrong on so many levels to combine the dark German bread with the light French cheese but the alternative was dry bread or some leftover German butter that came with a toasty roll a few courses ago. So, in the end an ironic recreation of the last few hundred years of European history won out. All downed with a glass of American wine to complete the metaphor.
--C.
Sunday, January 05, 2003
I'm in Korea and let me tell you it is a really cold place. Getting here was nice in the sense that I was flying Business class for the second time in my life and I always forget how awesome the service is each time... Linen tableclothes and a 5 course full ... lunch. (and really really good cheesecake.). But I have a cold and that makes flying miserable... always... as well as leaving my passport on the plane when I got off... which was a little adventure.
But more about Korea... the people seem really nice, although I can't speak a word of korean. Ah well... that's the way it goes. The Technology here is incredible... but you expect that...
Let me give you a few examples of what I've noticed in the oh... 20 minutes I've been here. This will be quick.. my flight boards in 10 mins. The escalators are sensor controlled. The computers come with Natural Keybaords... and are TINY... and have HUGE LCD screens... and the elevators have cool displays and all... fun stuff... OK... boarding call... Talk to you all at Stanford.
--C.
But more about Korea... the people seem really nice, although I can't speak a word of korean. Ah well... that's the way it goes. The Technology here is incredible... but you expect that...
Let me give you a few examples of what I've noticed in the oh... 20 minutes I've been here. This will be quick.. my flight boards in 10 mins. The escalators are sensor controlled. The computers come with Natural Keybaords... and are TINY... and have HUGE LCD screens... and the elevators have cool displays and all... fun stuff... OK... boarding call... Talk to you all at Stanford.
--C.
Saturday, January 04, 2003
Thursday, January 02, 2003
Wednesday, January 01, 2003
I'm no longer in a philosophical mood so the rest of this stuff on this kind of stuff will have to wait.
I'm posting here, if blogger will let me a conversation I had with Dave over AIM after posting the below...
ok... nevermind, blogger doesn't let me.
I'd like to make one last thank you to Dave, Jim, Mike and everyone else who helped me sort things out in my head.
--C.
I'm posting here, if blogger will let me a conversation I had with Dave over AIM after posting the below...
ok... nevermind, blogger doesn't let me.
I'd like to make one last thank you to Dave, Jim, Mike and everyone else who helped me sort things out in my head.
--C.
(continued from below... )
3) My views on existence ARE consistent with a J-C God (Judeo-Christian-Islamic). They are also, hopefully, consistent with a number of other religions, and even atheism. They probably aren't consistent with a number of more interesting philosophies, including existentialism (which I must admit, I really really liked at one point until I couldn't stand it anymore). I'm not saying that they aren't true but they aren't how I chose to live my life. You may all be figments of my imagination but I don't chose to live like you are.
4) A remark. I've been criticized (by my parents) for not using complete sentences. I'm sorry if that annoys you and I'll try to do better.
That said... next installment on moral philosophy soon.
--C.
3) My views on existence ARE consistent with a J-C God (Judeo-Christian-Islamic). They are also, hopefully, consistent with a number of other religions, and even atheism. They probably aren't consistent with a number of more interesting philosophies, including existentialism (which I must admit, I really really liked at one point until I couldn't stand it anymore). I'm not saying that they aren't true but they aren't how I chose to live my life. You may all be figments of my imagination but I don't chose to live like you are.
4) A remark. I've been criticized (by my parents) for not using complete sentences. I'm sorry if that annoys you and I'll try to do better.
That said... next installment on moral philosophy soon.
--C.
I slept well last night for the first time in DAYS. So I guess this ranting is helping... thanks again to all my supportive friends for reading this.
Now that I've had a chance to mull over what I said in previous posts, I'd like to make a couple addenda (I think that's the plural for addendum) and a few remarks.
1) None of what I'm saying is fantastically new. Please don't think that I'm somehow making terribly insightful observations about the world. I'm just selecting points that I've read and forgotten the source to.
2) I don't believe that the only purpose that religion serves is to offer a support or somewhere you can put your faith... It serves a multitude of others, many of which are not as relevant in this day and age, and many which are more so (and the degree to which these purposes are currently relevant determines the success of the religion). For example, religion is sometimes a way of explaining the world (How we got here, why is there a sun... stuff like that), it is (was) a way of controlling behaviour and introducing ethics (If you're bad you have bad things happen to you.), it serves, through ritual, as a means to unite the community and to bring order and discipline to one's life (Islam is a prime example), it also served as a vehicle for the transmission of history (especially so for the Jewish), it was a way (sorry to be cynical) of creating society by enforcing absolute leaders (priests, brahman, ... back in the day, the pharoh), it offered congregation points for the community and lastly it inspires self-reflection (to a certain degree). I'm not saying this list is complete either but you get the point. Contrast this with modern day, where a lot of these functions are split up... the government provides the leaders, science provides the explanation of the world, more and more learned people transmit stories, education provides a good part of the other duties of religion, law provides an enforced ethics. I'm not saying that religion is entirely not relevant these days, only that a number of its original roles have been taken over (especailly by education and science). Religion is still here to serve as a support for those who need that kind of support, a source of community and a basis for ethics (which is sorely lacking sometimes.) But these roles are no longer crucial to the functioning of society and so thus the decline of religion.
-- rest killed by blogger... next post! --
Now that I've had a chance to mull over what I said in previous posts, I'd like to make a couple addenda (I think that's the plural for addendum) and a few remarks.
1) None of what I'm saying is fantastically new. Please don't think that I'm somehow making terribly insightful observations about the world. I'm just selecting points that I've read and forgotten the source to.
2) I don't believe that the only purpose that religion serves is to offer a support or somewhere you can put your faith... It serves a multitude of others, many of which are not as relevant in this day and age, and many which are more so (and the degree to which these purposes are currently relevant determines the success of the religion). For example, religion is sometimes a way of explaining the world (How we got here, why is there a sun... stuff like that), it is (was) a way of controlling behaviour and introducing ethics (If you're bad you have bad things happen to you.), it serves, through ritual, as a means to unite the community and to bring order and discipline to one's life (Islam is a prime example), it also served as a vehicle for the transmission of history (especially so for the Jewish), it was a way (sorry to be cynical) of creating society by enforcing absolute leaders (priests, brahman, ... back in the day, the pharoh), it offered congregation points for the community and lastly it inspires self-reflection (to a certain degree). I'm not saying this list is complete either but you get the point. Contrast this with modern day, where a lot of these functions are split up... the government provides the leaders, science provides the explanation of the world, more and more learned people transmit stories, education provides a good part of the other duties of religion, law provides an enforced ethics. I'm not saying that religion is entirely not relevant these days, only that a number of its original roles have been taken over (especailly by education and science). Religion is still here to serve as a support for those who need that kind of support, a source of community and a basis for ethics (which is sorely lacking sometimes.) But these roles are no longer crucial to the functioning of society and so thus the decline of religion.
-- rest killed by blogger... next post! --