Scenes from my Day

1. Made 200 copies of calculus exam. Took longer than you would think because the new copier is slower than the old copier. I miss the scary-wonderful copier that we had at Cornell.


2. Wrote letter on letterhead paper. Filled out forms. Had forms signed by department head. Gah.


3. Worked on computer science homework. With this class it's impossible to tell what techniques we should be using approach the problem, so I searched around on the internet to see what I could come up with. Maybe it's not what he intended? Who can tell?


4. Talked to the scary computer science TA to find an answer to a specific question I had about the homework assignment. TA suggested that I should write a shell script to accomplish the task. I do not know how to write a shell script. This class does not teach us how to write shell scripts. Previous courses in the chain of prerequisites do not teach students how to write shell scripts. I realize that this is a junior level class and that we should be able to figure things out from available references. Yet, I'd at least appreciate some hints as to which direction to look in. All I'm looking for is the assignment to say "Hint: Consider a shell script." From that point I could probably use Google to figure out something.


5. Read some groff documentation because I think that I need to use it for part of the homework. Or maybe not? Also unclear.


6. Went to computer science class. Laptop stayed in bag the entire time. Guy sitting in front of me was watching video with the sound off. No closed captions. I sit in the back, so I can see all the laptop screens. One student had the class webpage in a window near the non-class stuff he was working on. Two guys were writing code. Hardly anyone with a laptop open was paying attention.


7. Graded the homework from my gen-ed class. When did I do that? Not telling.


8. My gen-ed class is so amazing! Just about everyone got the homework all right -- and they don't all know each other. I taught them about the RSA crypto-system. They seem to have got it much better than the honors students from the fall.


9. Eye doctor appointment in about an hour. I'm hoping that before I have to leave that I'll be able to write up a worksheet for tomorrow and maybe get started on writing the test for the gen-ed class.