Monday, February 19, 2007

I'm a brat and my laser pointer is out to get me

So I realize I sound like a total brat in that last post. I guess it bugs me when my mom is hurt or otherwise not well because she acts just like my mom-mom. And we had to take care of her for my whole life. And my mom usually rails against that behavior. So when she gives in to it, I just... lose it?

Anyway, on to bigger and better things. See, I'm having technical difficulties in class. In all my classes. The piece of technology is rather simple- it's not a projector issue or a computer issue. It's my stupid frickin laser pointer.

See the worst thing is that it only. acts up. at school. Ya know, when I need it. I was teasing the cats with it just last night! But today, when I was giving the world's most boring lecture on castles, it gave up on me.

I've tried batteries. I even bought new ones, forgoing the cache of batteries we found in mom-mom's house when she passed, even though they're dated to 2007. It might be that the new batteries are from the dollar store?

But it's so so embarrassing because they're not that expensive. But since it works when I'm home, I never go out to get a new one. I swear I'm technologically literate. Swear.

Saturday, February 17, 2007

CAA or my mom busted her ass

The College Art Association conference was this week in New York. I had plans to go on Thursday and Friday- cancelled class and everything. I went last year, too, in Boston, and it was...ummm...interesting? I guess? As interesting as conferences get. I've only ever been to this one, but I assume that all these professional conferences are the same deal- go to be seen, attend lectures on other people's research, and schmooze. Bleh. The best way to tell if a person is an artist or an art historian is to check the shoes- art historians wear awful shoes. As a discipline, we are very frumpy people. (Except yours truly, of course!)

This week was the week of SNOW, glorious, class cancelling, snowday-creating SNOW! It also made my parents' front steps really really slippery. Unfortunately, my mom fell on Wednesday and hurt her back.since I'm the one in the family who a.) will put up with her bed-ridden orchestrations of housework and b.) doesn't have a conventional job, with the days off already and everything, I had to stay with her.

Oh. my. god. My mom is a pain in the ass! She very much likes to boss me around- this is nothing new. She and my sister have been bullying me around since, like, forever. But my mom's requests are just too much. For instance- she needed her covers adjusted so that the extra comforter was a perfect right angles to the mattress! And she asked me to do a load of whites for her today- 7 times in the span of a half hour. The same half hour that I was cleaning up her kitchen and folding her darks!! Demanding doesn't begin to describe it!

I'm looking forward to Monday- even though I have to talk about castles, it'll still be a relief to get away!

Thursday, February 15, 2007

No longer locked out!

Praise jeebus! I was locked out for a bit, but now I am back. Part of the problem may have been that I sort of forgot my username. And now that I have a gmail account, I am sort of confused about which user name to use.

But who cares about all that? You just want to know what it's like to prep three classes at two different universities. Or do you?

Truth be told, I'm reading textbooks and taking notes like a crazy person. I'm just about to the part of the semester where my two intro classes start to overlap, and coming up after spring break, the class I designed myself will discontinue lectures and start with student presentations.

But that's not what I want to talk about either! I have some crazy students this semester, y'all. And? I think I can blog about them in non-specific, threat-of-doocing-free terms.

For instance- a student made it known to me that she has some sort of social anxiety problem. It makes it very hard for her to get up in front of class. She says it's on file, so I contact Disabilities Resources. The by-the-book thing to do, right? Because in-class presentations count for a total of 40 percent of the grade, and I really didn't know in what way I could adapt these requirements and still have them be fair to all involved. So I tell her of the procedure, which she as the student needs to initiate.

Nope, she just wants to handle it the old fashioned way- "Well, this is something I'm just going to have to deal with. I'm a senior and I can't get many accommodations in the working work (to some extent, I agre- but she is an art major... so in what capacity she'll deal with the regular working world, I don't know) No, I think I'll just start my anti-depressants again." And it was one of those things where I reacted like, oh, okay, because I mistakenly thought she'd made a REASONABLE suggestion of solution.

What the hell?!