rants
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Sparse posting and random thoughts
Sorry for the lack of posts recently, a happy development has taken up a my free time.
And the random thought – Obama’s new “Smarter government, somehow!” push could serve to keep the nags, parasites, and do-gooders busy and let creative people create things, instead of having them filter into the general population as seems to have been the case over the past several years.
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Frustration
Though I’ve said this before, never again will I try to fix someone else’s work, or deal with client’s at the end of a project if I haven’t dealt with them in the beginning.
An enraging day was had by me.
Update at 6:15 – it’s sad when a different server error is the high point of a (so far) 12 hour day.
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Bashing the education system
Reading the AJC’s education articles are always a source of malicious fun for me. The articles can be tedious, but the forums are always fun. For some reason people like to pretend that if only we could crack down on some group (the parents, the taxpayer, the students) the problem would solve itself. Grammar and spelling tend to leave quickly as well. This one was my favorite
I’m a career educator with more graduate degrees that the detractors of public education.
Let’s put it in a sports analogy so the neo-luddites can understand, break the legs of the starting offense of the GA Bulldogs and complain about why thy can’t win a championship.
He starts off with a misspelling, and then misuses “Luddite”. Luddite is a proper name, and has no sports meaning.
When one thinks about it, it’s amazing public education works as well as it does. When you have a system where the producer, the consumer and the financier are all different people, why should it work at all?
One other thing that annoys me is the pejorative refrain of “teaching to the test”. Of course, teachers should teach to the test the same way drivers should “drive to the road” and cops should “enforce to the law”. That’s their job after all.
As I’m in rant mode, I suppose I’ll share the other annoying shibboleth of the teaching establishment, which is saying someone is a good student “but doesn’t test well” which is like saying someone is very tall, “but doesn’t measure well”.
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V for Vendetta
I finally saw the V for Vendetta movie and found it soils my memory of the comic. Gone was the grit of Evie, the violent mystery of V, the looming menace of the state. Replacing it was corporate angst, an ocean of improbabilities, and a third rate parody of the Bush Administration. Gone was all the base motivation, the insight into human nature, and a believable origin of the crisis. Instead we got soap opera, pandering nonsense, and an explanation out of a Michael Moore movie.
Somehow they turned a potent story of pure anarchism into a theme of left-wing resentment.
All that being said, it was well acted, especially by Steven Rea, who caught the essence of Finch very well.
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Pecked to death by ducks
This would seem to be the month of work-related stress, aggravation and rage.
Failing to plan is planning to fail.
Why are people allergic to details?
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Grinding irritants
Before I go off on my little mini-rant, I should say that I’ve finally worked out that Tom Waits song for the open mic.
Now, here is what’s been irritating me today:
- I still haven’t heard from 3 people with impending projects
- I cancelled my photo shoot with my fiddle model after seeing a rainy forecast. Instead, it’s the proper degree of overcast. Curse you Weather Channel.
- I’ve managed to open up my leg cut twice today, once in my sleep, and then a few hours ago, I’m not sure how. In general it’s healing fairly well, but the deeper areas don’t seem to respond to time or reason.
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Rage
Take
1 stressful week
Add
5 ongoing projects
Mix in
3 last minute projects
Pour Over
2 deadlines
Blend in
1 newly configured (by someone else) server
Sprinkle in
2 foreseeable changes
Garnish with
1 instance of Microsoft Content Mangement ServerAnd you get a newly reached level of anger and frustration. About two hours ago I heard a strange noise and realized that it was me. Growling.
I turned into the Incredible Hulk for about 10 minutes, I really did.
I’m better now.