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2005-06-27 00:50:40
My vacation starts on Monday.
Really, two weeks paid vacation. So, what big plans to I have for this glorious period of time? I'm going in to work. Bleh. Seriously, wer're adding like 100% of our existing population to the campus, so I have to go in and set up all the new (old crappy) computer systems, and make it work.
On top of that, I'm losing my computer room to some other stuff, so that It's supposed to be like half computers half english. WTF? Anyway for monday (jury duty is OFF)
Create an isolated secure wireless network for 20 student computers that allow simultaneous streaming fansubs to all the classrooms.
Move a crapload of bookshelves, all the books, and install wiring for said 20 computers where the bookshelves used to be.
Tuesday (Jury duty maybe)
continue where I left off, and REFORMAT 30 computers.
re-install windows, office, premiere, photoshop, bryce, terragen, poser5, and the AMVapp of all of them.
Wednesday (Jury duty maybe)
I'll assume that tusday doesn't go to plan and continue from there.
Thursday, (Jury duty... yadda yadda)
test stuff, make sure all the programs work, and configure the THREE networks for cross compatability, while at the same time maximizing security. bleh. Why the hell does the fucking accountant get to decide what the setup is for the network. Does that make sense to you?
Friday... (jury duty?)
Fuck work
I'm going to see a movie... or maybe I'll take my wife to the zoo... she likes that.
The following week, I need to plan transportation and dispatch routes to all of our drivers for 90 people. You ever try to plan transportation for 90 people so that everyone arrives at the same place, and the overall time is less than one hour? probably not. Don't., it sucks. I also need to make sure everything is running 100% since people don't really care how much work goes into making something as long as it works. Do you normally care how much work the cook has to do in a resturaunt? NO, you just want your food to get done quick and taste good. Its the same with I.T. nobody gives a shit.
All I know, is that when summer session rolls around, and not one other person is ready, I'll have spent the last two weeks prepping. MY SHIT WILL WORK. If you are my student, and reading this: expect an assignment on the first day of summer school. Expect one every single day, and we'll get along just fine. You can also refer to me as 'Sir'.
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We had a lizard die today. It was our big water dragon. My wife is all upset about it... the thing is I sort of feel guilty since it's probably my fault and all.
I had put in one of those fogger things... where it makes this cool fog that fills the bottom part of the tank.
The next day, dead lizard.
Sometimes you can't win.
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IM buddies, Spleen in the Sky, Stereos,and SHIT. (really)
2005-06-08 00:59:40
I've been spending more time on IM recently, helping people learn how to use avisynth. I think the guides need to be a bit simpler for the people that just want to be able to go: Step A Step B step C.... edit.
On the other hand I've been meeting some pretty cool people that I wouldn't have normally so that's cool too.
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I'm going to upload my Spleen in the sky video.
I know the quality is absolutely awful, but I can't see myself making another one.. and this one, while quality wise is crap, has a certain cheesy appeal to it.
William Shatner baby... William Shatner.
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So this weekend a friend comes over from work and we spend the whole day installing his car stereo stuff.
He bought the car brand new and he's deathly afraid of messing it up at all. So every time we had to do something I'd be like "ok, take off the door panels while I solder these connections." and he's all afraid to do it, so I go "ok, you solder while I do that". He doesn't know how to.
Then it comes time to actually start slicing into the sheet metal with a saw.. again, all me. It's a new car, so it's all plastic panels with little pop out tabs and stuff.... so again, I'm like ok, tear these out and I'll run the wires... nope. All me. Essentially I wound up doing like... 98% of the work while he stood and watched with angst.
So we run the wires, install the crossovers, install the tweeters, the new, larger speakers and every thing. Then we go to install those freakin huge woofers in the trunk. TWO 15" speakers. They weigh about 17 lbs each. Again, it's all me shoving these things around. Then we get everything in place. I run the wires, set upthe power, install the fuses.. mount that amp and as soon as I attatch the battery cable I hear POP. It's a fuse. FUCKING fuses man... so we go, and being LA, you know one of the largest cities in the entire U.S. you'd think there would be a place to get a simple goddam auto fuse. Noooooo It's after 7PM everyplace is closed. We finally go to a Wal-Mart to find them. I hate Wal-Mart. It's dirty, and crowded, and the people that are in there are all weird looking. It's like suddenly being back in Nebraska, except in the real Nebraska, they're just country-fied. In Walmart their redneck and mutant looking. I hate that place.
Dam amp we bought on Ebay doesn't work anyway so all that running around was just a waste.
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You know what hate? Fucking rude students. They sit there and talk about butt sex right in class. I have another student that comes in every once in a while, he's a true dickhead. If I was still a student I'd have beat him up myself. He'll do innapropriate stuff, like looking up naked pictures of shit that he's emailed himself to get around the filters, or he used to click on the links in his email so he could do it that way. One day I cought him red handed looking up Shit eater sites.
For those of you with actual class, you probably don't know, as I didn't know; shit eater sites are web sites where they show people eating actual shit. So, like guys will take a crap on some cute girls face, and she'll eat it. WHAT THE FUCK!!! I swear, I'm not making that up. Why the fuck would someone want to see, or even think about that? So I catch the guy.. and he's all "Oh, I didn't know what it was" Riiiiight. I save the proxy logs and show his dad that not only did he attempt to go directly to several related sites, but that he tried a whole bunch of times to search for it on google. I tell you, if I had a kid... and he was looking up that stuff... and getting emails of it.. and so on... I'd kick the living (no pun intended) shit out of him right then and there.
I think I need to calm down.
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You know, I'm always surprised to hear that people read these things.
It's kind of cool, so feel free to drop me a PM if you're inclined.
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Small snapshots of time.
2005-06-02 01:52:36
The end of the year is rolling around again for me, where my students begin to graduate and move on.
So, I've got a lot of students with developing senioritis. Plus, I've got a lot of teachers that seem to have reached the burnout stage. Most of the people that are failing don't have enough time to make up the work, and absent days that they missed, most of the passing students could probably pick their nose for the rest of the year and still pass.
With my class, and unique perspective on the students, since they can request passes to my room, where it's quiet, and safe I usually start seeing the same people over and over. There is one guy, he's this big hulking gang member looking guy, he's always in there. He says that it's the only place where he doesn't have to deal with crap. So he does his work, and quietly sits playing Need for Speed Underground2. Another guy seems to want to finish off the entiire Naruto series before he leaves. He keeps complaining about not having learned anything. (till I remind him of the photoshop, premiere, 3D modeling and animation, CD artwork, landscape design, spreadsheets, computer building, and woodshop lessons. Then he gets sort of sullen about it. "But I don't REMEMBER all fo that". Sorry guy, I can only do so much. )
You know. When you're a teacher, for several years you start to realize that High School is just a fleeting snapshot of time. Students are in a unique period of their lives, still learning, yet filled with a yearning desire to go on into the world and shout out "here I am!" So many times I see awkward young boys arrive... and leave as awkward young men. (heh, sorry) Sometimes the transitions are startling, other times they are amazing. I always try to tell my students that time passes by so much faster than they always imagine it. Cherish all the small moments that make up their lives and pass them on to others.
The things I try to teach are sometimes easily forgotten. Click on this, drag on that. That isn't the point of the lessons, remembering what to click and drag on. The point, is to learn that being able to do some thing is sometimes as easy as just learning the right steps to do it. Life is like that, once you figure that part out the whole world is open.
Think of me as a train conductor. The journey is underway, I'm just here to make sure you notice what out the window on the way.
In short, I'll miss my guys but at the same time I'm glad to see them move on. -
random randomness.
2005-05-11 03:17:35
Today in class I told three of my students how to totally and completely laze through a whole semester.
In a nutshell: Take the book, Do the WHOLE book over a long weekend. Presto! Since most of the assignments, and homework are gauranteed to be out of the book you're done. Just take something that you actually want to read, or a newtype or whatever to class and relax since you can just usually hand in the assignment. As long as you're quiet the teacher won't really care. You might not get an 'awesome grade' (talking c+ to d- here) but it beats failing, and means you can chill.
They were all: No way, that would never work. The teacher would see that we weren't doing work and give us MORE work.
I'm all: Noooo.... the teacher has to grade you on the same stuff that he grades everybody else on. Other wise it's just a 'pass whoever you feel like it' class.
nobody believes me.
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At work, one of the teachers learned that I know how to do stereo installations. I never thought it was all that complicated but there you go.
So I check out his car. New, bone stock, and some of the crappiest sound I've heard in a long time. I asked him what he listens to (Rap) so on and so forth. Took him over to my car, which has a 12 speaker setup in it. My system is tuned for clarity and balance IE: everything sounds great. Not too loud, basically, it'll shake all the mirrors with the bass (you can feel it nicely) but not going to break one like my brothers car, which I'll get to in a minute. He's all "it's not loud enough" When I ask about the quality, he's like "it's not loud enough". So I have a pretty good idea on what's going on in his head now.
He wants what my brother has. My brother drives an Eclipse, and it has a system in it that has so much bass he actually damaged his moonroof. You know those guys that piss everyone off at the stop light with the bass? His destroys them. I've seen it shake the windows of buildings (you can see the image shimmer in the plate glass) that's how powerful it is.
Looks like I'm gonna be 'pimpin' a ride soon. Should be fun, it's been a while. The last time was when I put in a pair of 15"s in my truck.
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Home project: I'm building a set of fourth order bandpass subwoofers with integrated isolates for my theater. Each speaker has a built in 250W power supply for the sub, and three separates for the uh... separates.
So I get it all planned out, and build one over the weekend. You know, router out all the holes, glue everything, mount the massive woofer.
F-king thing weighs over a hundred pounds now. I'm a weightlifter, normally a hundred pounds isn't a real big deal for me, heck I can arm curl that much no problem. But a big four foot tall box with nothing to grab onto is another story. My wife is all: "This better work."
Frequency 25-400
fs 28
spl 90.2
vas 1.35
qms 9.55
qes 0.43
diam 9 1/8
woofdisp 0.08
xmax 0.63
Sd 52.7
Vd 32.83
qts 0.407
What does all that mean? It means that you need about 1.3 cubic feet of space above and below the speaker, since its a fourth order system. and a crapload of power to run your sound down to 25hz. That's subsonic.
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More personal shit. As usual, I over spent on buying gifts for my wife. This time, it's a massive lizard cage, two frilled lizards, and a bunch of set up stuff. One of these days I'm gonna surprise her with something that costs less than a thousand bux.
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Ever wonder if people actually read these things? I do. -
Report Cards.
2005-05-04 01:11:37
You know what I hate?
I hate passing students that suck.
Seriously, when a student has say... a 4th or fifth grade command of the english language, they really shouldn't be able to pass ANY High School level classes. Let me give you an example: I have some students that are assigned to do 'independent study' during a couple of my periods. No big deal really, it just means that no one is currently teaching a class that they need to graduate. I give the independent study students a syllabus, and a list of expectations, just like all of my regular students. Typically, I'll also give them a book that is 'slightly' easier to work out of since they won't be getting a whole lot of feedback and lecture time.
You might expect that about ONE lesson per day, and ONE homework assignment is appropriate for a high school student. These lessons can typically be completed easily within a 30 min time period (less if they just look at the questions and find the answers) and the homework is normally a one page essay on some topic like say... the freedom of the press VS Law enforcement.
Almost NONE of my students has managed to handle this. Even though the book is actually a grade or two below where they should be to graduate they still never manage to get it. It's actually worse in some of the other classes. FUUUUUCK! If I follow a standard scale, and grade based on the usual shit like attendance, participation and actual work turned in almost all of the students in the school should be getting a FAIL. So, do I see the students that are out in the hallway loudly talking about their cocks, or shoes, or basketball, or anal sex getting fails when the report cards come around? Heh... no.
Oh well, this happens four times a year, you'd think I'd be used to it by now.
JOURNAL: madbunny
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