I haven’t posted in a few days. It wasn’t due to having a boring week. There was one thing of note which I want to get into, and classes have been stressful, especially one. I’ve been backlogged on the term papers and another essay for this freshman composition class. A little more on that later. Plus, most of my holiday shopping is over.
I got to meet Chris this past Saturday. I actually had a very good time hanging out with him and showing him about town. As he mentioned in his post, it was finally nice to meet someone I’ve been corresponding with for the past few months. Actually, it’s been a good part of the year. He does have the same kind of biting wit that’s displayed in his blog, but he’s definitely a good guy. We had some good conversations as we got acquainted in real time.
Brian’s was diner where we ate and hung out for a while before heading to Sole Luna in Downtown for a couple of beers. Chris said it best about Brian’s being the gayest diner in San Diego and mentioning the P-Flag mom and her son walking in for dinner. Of course, Brian’s is also one of those gastronomically incorrect places, as many 1950′s styled diners are, and even the modern menu items aren’t good for your waistline. Not the place to be if you’re a skinny bitch on a diet.
Sole Luna is near where I used to live in Downtown, so I still know many of the people in Cortez Hill. Chris got to meet a few including Karen, who stuck around for a bit and was actually good company.
The next time Chris is in town, I’ll have to take him to one of our several outlet malls if he has an afternoon free. I’m definitely game to seeing Austin in the future, especially to see if it lives up to its reputation as one of the weirdest cities in the US. Plus, I’ll definitely take up Chris’s offer to show me around town.
I’m in the midst of grading hell with the freshman compostion class. Somehow, I can’t seem to move fast enough when it comes to their papers. Most of them are done. They’re not great, but what can I expect from term papers. I take the first comment back. Some of them are very good, but others are not. The thing that gets me are that many of the papers don’t conform to MLA (Modern Language Association) style (despite having gone over it with the class and even giving them a handout of where to look in their reference books for what they need to do). For the future, I have to figure out how much of this problem is me and how I go over it, and how much they’re paying attention. Regarding this class, I never saw a pen move when I went over MLA style or anything else for that matter
I had the final class session with another class this morning. This one was at the school out in the mountains. I brought some coffee (Starbuck’s traveler) and some of my students brought some goodies. It was an informal wrap, and I felt really good about seeing this class off into the next semester. I’ll miss them for sure (can’t say the same for the other class, though I’ll be happy to see some of them on an individual basis).
I picked up some DVD’s this week. BSG’s Razor was released on DVD this Tuesday, and there are some additional scenes, but no healthy sex as I hoped. Maybe I’ll recap it later. Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet was released as a DVD some time ago, and all I can say is, “About time.”
I saw Project Runway last night and I’ll do my recap tomorrow. Culture clash and meltdown (easy to guess between who) in this episode.
Tags: blog friends, students
most students have some weird, scientific aversion to MLA formatting. Especially Works Cited page, which they tend to call a Work Cited Page, or a Work Citied Pager or worse. Even though I practically write the thing for them I still get Work Citeid pagers with numbers before each citation, i.e.
1. Smith, Joe. “How to Write a Worked Shitied Page.” New York Times. …etc.
or not in alphabetical order, author first name then last, no indents (that’s an all-time favorite).
No matter what I tell them or do (we’ve gone over Worky Shitied pages at least 4 times in class and i’ve had them do in class activities with them), they just don’t get it. They don’t get that… NO, you don’t ever have to memorize this crap, you just copy the format OUT of the MLA Guidebook exactly how it looks there. See how easy that is? Yes?
No.
Sorry to rant. It was my last day of teaching today and i’m facing a mountain of papers with Worke Shiteid pages. hmmm, maybe i’ll blog about this today?
I feel better already!
Not to belittle your frustrations, but I work with college educated people who can’t cite things properly (one of whom has finished a doctoral thesis). I mean, for gawd’s sake, after writing a thesis you ought to be able to do Chicago Manual of Style in your sleep.
Given all the web plugins and stuff that generate ready-to-go works cited pages (not to mention that the Chicago Manual of Style is actually online now), there’s no excuse.
I say we round ‘em all up and shoot ‘em. (I’m in Texas. I can say things like that.)
P.S. You finished your holiday shopping??? Ugh. I haven’t even started mine.
@rob: Worke Shitied page – got to remember that. A round of beer’s on me when this semester’s officially over.
@khowaga: amen to rounding them up and shooting them.
My policy’s always been to mainly shop for immediate family, and that’s done. As for anyone else, it’s up in the air, but I won’t lose much sleep over it.