Technically it’s the first day of summer today, though everyone knows that summer either begins on the last day of school or Memorial Day, whichever you prefer, so it’s felt like summer for a while now. A bit on the cool and rainy side compared to recent summers, but I’m okay with that. My kind of weather really.
It’s been quite a summer so far.
Mostly busy. They all are these days, beating back the alligators, trying to remember that the initial objective was to drain the swamp. Honestly, I don’t know anyone with free time anymore.
Summers used to be about free time, way back when in the Jurassic Age when I was a lad. School would let out sometime in mid-June and there would be nothing in particular to accomplish until the first bell rang again on the Tuesday after Labor Day. Two and a half months of glorious unstructured time.
It was mostly what I liked about summers back then, since they generally tend to be far too hot for my taste.
This summer is just a blur. Classes to teach. Classes to revise. Far too much computer work, most of which seems to be scientifically designed to get on my nerves (you mean the new course software doesn’t actually allow you to make submodules? Seriously? What halfwitted never-set-foot-in-a-classroom misanthrope designed a piece of educational software that doesn’t allow you to make submodules?) and the rest just more work than advertised.
There are fun parts too, of course. All of us are home this summer and this will not be true after August so I’m going to enjoy that part immensely. That’s the thing about raising kids – they grow up and find things to do that aren’t nearby and then they’re off. It’s how things are supposed to work. So I’ll enjoy my time with them this summer.
The Women’s World Cup is on, and that’s also been good. I enjoy the women’s game, probably more than the men’s, since they tend to rely on thinking and tactics rather than simple brute athleticism. Makes a more entertaining game. And the Stanley Cup Finals were captivating as well. You have to love the “worst to first” story of the St. Louis Blues, and even more the fact that they kept the most drearily entitled sports fan base in America from claiming yet another championship. It’s the little things.
I haven’t had much focus on blogging this month, though.
It’s been hard paying attention to politics, for example, since der Sturmtrumper and his minions, lackeys, and enablers are systematically destroying everything worthwhile about the United States and turning this country into a national disgrace and an international embarrassment even as his supporters continue to see nothing wrong with opening actual fucking concentration camps inside our borders, aggressively pursuing bullshit wars (which they have no intention of rushing to the front lines for, you’ll note), and turning the place into a medieval society of nobles and peasants through a campaign of economic warfare and political suppression against everyone not rich, white, male, and so right-wing that Francisco Franco would tell them to ease off a bit.
Plus I spend most of my time in front of a computer as it is. I really need to stop that.
So I’ve been trying to read more, and planning some other activities that don’t necessarily involve the computer, at least to the extent that I can.
Posting may be light for a while, is what I’m saying. We'll see.
I just completed an online training course last week that is required by a customer in order to allow me to continue to my job. If you were paying attention, that was a horribly constructed sentence,
ReplyDeleteSixteen modules, each designed to be completed in about 15 -20 minutes, and each module had a ten question quiz at the end to check your, um, knowledge(?) understanding(?) actual presence in front of the computer screen(?). I don’t actually know what purpose the quizzes had. After the first few modules, It became obvious that whoever wrote the course had become jaded by the time they got about ¾ of the way through.
Each module took (roughly) an hour to complete due to the fact that the webpages were wonky as hell and had to be reloaded multiple times. The tell, the part that made it obvious that the author had become jaded, was in the questions. e.g.: Multiple choice (choose the correct answer):
A. [incredibly obvious correct answer]
B. Your mother’s cakes are better than Little Debbie’s cakes.
C. Shooting yourself while on company property is allowed on Tuesdays and Thursdays only.
D, Mars is known to have canals.
It should be noted that I inserted this >> [incredibly obvious correct answer] << because copying the actual answer and posting it here would probably get me in trouble. All of the remaining answers (B, C & D) were copied directly from question #7 in module 12, and posting them here couldn’t possibly get me in trouble - nobody would dare claim authorship. And it got worse by module 16 - seriously worse. As in, “If I used any of those as examples you would call bullshit” kinda worse. I shit you not!
And you think someone should think about submodules? (Sorry, I forgot. You’re an actual professional.)
Your Francisco Franco observation was worth the effort to wade through that paragraph. Best laugh I’ve had all week. Thanks. I really needed that.
You have reached an age where it is perfectly acceptable to do what you choose to do, as long as it does not include actually executing trump supporters outright.
Well, at least not without a moderately well thought out justification.
Like the one set forth in your post above.
Lucy
We have to do those online training courses as well, but none of them have had anything remotely as entertaining as those answers, more's the pity. Three cheers for the question maker being obvious about how useless it all is.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite recent online training session came from a unit of our system that will no longer exist as of July 1 but which insisted I complete the training by June 22 or else ... um ... not sure what else. Sigh.
I think they should think about submodules because that's pretty much ALL I want the software to do and I'm the standard for these things, right?
Well, I ought to be.
We are long since past the point where der Sturmtrumper and his GOP supporters need to be recognized as an existential threat to the survival of the American republic and treated as such. I don't condone political violence, but honestly I do predict it.
I'm glad you liked the Franco line. Not many people remember Franco anymore.
He's still dead, you know.
(Channels Yul Brynner): "So let it be written, so let it be done."
ReplyDeleteYou are the new standard for such things.
Actually, They say that as long as someone remembers you ...
So Franco lives on. (Channeling Obi-Wan:) "From a certain point of view."
(Channels Lucy): "Trust me, Charlie Brown!"
Lucy
I shall endeavor to use my power for good.
ReplyDeleteThis time I really will kick that football!