Lesson One: When your boyfriend is in Sears in order to steal a bunch of tools, don’t be waiting in the car. I realize you may not have known he was going to steal. So, sure go ahead and claim ignorance, but it won’t get you any less arrested. And if you are in the driver’s seat when he comes running out, gunning the engine, well, that doesn’t look good either. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Lesson Two: On another thought-train, I’ve found that I am much easier to annoy when I’ve had a sleepless night. Yesterday, after one such night, as I sat in the Commons cafeteria at school, I became aware of one of the most annoying laughs. The super-loud “manly” giggle. Yes, an actual giggle. The skinny guy’s belly was actually jiggling inside, his throat was waving like a bowl-full of shaken jello. I wanted to slap some seriousness into to him, because otherwise I felt I might rip out his vocal cords. If the giggle was quieter, if it didn’t sound like it was coming out of a loud speaker, then maybe I wouldn’t have minded the ho-ho-ey-ness of it (as opposed to the he-he-ey-ness of a girlish or childish giggle), and maybe if he wasn’t the one cracking the jokes and therefore making himself giggle (if someone else was joking and forcing the obscene noises to eminate from his every oriface), then maybe, just maybe I could have tolerated it. But, I doubt it. So, if you’re a man, for the love of all that is sacred, don’t giggle at your own jokes.
Lesson Three: In an educational environment, there are various forms of communication. One of these can be a message board dedicated to a specific class, and even to specific groups within the class. There is one of these that I’m am to utilize this quarter. Already, I am wanting to clutch two people by the shoulders and shake some sense into them. (I’m not sure what this violent streak is about, but you can trust it is figurative, and not literal.) Each person is to post on the topic/question for the week, as well as give one response to someone else’s posting. That is fine and good. Here comes the trouble. When posting a response, I feel a person can disagree, agree, or add to the person’s original posting. Those are all well and good. Critiquing the person’s posting by saying what they could have added and/or saying that the person didn’t touch on some point (not asked by the original topic) isn’t good. I’m not sure if I’m making this clear, but I’ll try to give an example.
The topic is, say, apples. Person A writes about Golden Delicious and Granny Smith apples by describing their color, flavor, and the best climate for optimum growth. Person B responds by saying that person A should have mentioned Pippen and Macintosh apples as that would have made the posting more complete, and to next time put more thought and effort into the posting.
Person B can feel this way all she wants, but the response wasn’t at all constructive or helpful to the class. Here is a helpful response: Person C could say that Person A really knows about Granny Smith and Golden Delicious Apples, and that the qualities of Pippen and Macintosh apples are...such and such, etc. Now, that is a good response. Person A isn’t derided for what they didn’t say, acknowledged for what they did contribute, and the person responding is contributing as well, and not just being snide or seemingly trying to act as a stand-in for the actual teaching assistant who is judging and grading the discussions.
Deep breath. Heavy exhale. Feels good to get that off my chest. Happy Thursday all. Oh, and smile, sometimes it drives them mad wondering what the hell you could be smiling about! (Oh, right. The smiling is Lesson Four)