24 July 2008¶ Dumb drugs
I find it very frustrating to try to negotiate the different forms necessary for prescription benefit assistance (or whatever it is called). I can only imagine how tough it must be for poorly educated individuals to manage (which is to say, nearly impossible).
I don’t imagine that they do it on purpose. I think they’re probably doing it because they have legal obligations, but it kind of feels like even when they’re trying to make it easy the red tape is still overwhelming. I officially feel pity for pharm companies. How I can pity the heartless corporations that gouge me for $700/month?
OK, I only feel a little sympathy, but it’s more than I’ve felt before and perhaps more than they deserve. But I still do.
23 July 2008
I have just received my first ever student paper printed in Comic Sans. The syllabus says to use something boring like Times New Roman, and I will usually comment even when students ignore this for something sans-serif like Arial.
But Comic Sans? I’m tempted to give the student a D just for exhibiting such terrible judgement, and I haven’t read the paper yet.
Update: Turns out the paper is actually pretty good. Dang.
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9 July 2008¶ Google Docs, an appreciation
I just finished printing up a stack of happy little quizzes for my class that begins half an hour from now. I have become a big convert to easy quizzes as a way to ensure that my students a) come to class and b) do the reading. They know they’re easy quizzes, but only if you’ve done the reading,1 so they do the reading and, hence, can participate in class. I like them participating.
I used to write the quizzes on my own computer, because it is a gazillion times faster than the hand-me-down thing they’ve put in my office.2 I would write quickly (usually in iWork’s Pages or Mellel) and then export to MS Word format. Then I’d have to copy that file onto a little USB drive and carry it over to the slow-poke machine for printing.3
On a whim, I tried copy-and-paste the document into Google docs. You know what? It was just as easy as Word in which to type my quiz. I’m not saying it was amazing, but it was just as easy.
And then I hopped onto Slow-Poke (I’ve just decided that’s its name: you know, that slow computer. That’s Slow-Poke), eventually pulled up Firefox (faster than starting up Word) and edited and printed from there. Voila. And when I made a change (sometimes happens), I didn’t have to fineagle copying the now changed file back onto my computer. The whole thing was done, as they say in Googleopolis, “on the cloud.”4 And now I have a handy version of the quiz available for future reference regardless of my hard-drive shuffling (that’s a story for another time, friends).
In short, it’s my new go-to method for virtually all classroom related documents: I create on my computer in Google Docs and then print from Slow-Poke from Google Docs. I’ve got this term’s quizzes, syllabus, oral report calendar, final paper assignment sheet, midterm study guide, and more. Handy.
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Footnotes:
1 Sample question: “Why doesn’t Macbeth fear Macduff?” It is supposed to be easy if you’ve read the play (or, heck, watched an adaptation of it in a film or opera or puppet show).
2 I’m pretty sure it was a hand-me-down from an undergrad lab in the engineering or science departments. I can see their thinking, “This thing is too old to be useful; let’s give it to a literature grad student!”
3 University security has made it possible for only machines physically connected to the network to print. There’s only one ethernet jack in my office and it’s connected to Slow-Poke and jammed against the wall. Since I connect via wireless, I can’t print from my machine, alas.
4 On the cloud? In the cloud? Near upon the cloud? It’s a dopey metaphor and the preposition is annoying but not sufficiently annoying to look up.
3 July 2008¶ Lost and --
Fifteen minutes ago I got off the #2 Northbound bus that drops me a couple of blocks from my office. It was raining; I put up my umbrella and hurried to get into my building.
Once here, I started my routine: plug in computer, stack neatly-ish my files for today, put my lunch in a drawer for later. I opened the little pocket where I put my cell phone and iPod and…
oh no.
empty.
I was listening to my iPod while I waited for the bus, and I know I slipped it in there, and my phone was there too. I remember it clearly. I fell out on the bus.
Let’s see: replacement iPod = $150. Replacement cell phone = $50? Replacement headphones = $100 (yes, really)1. Suddenly, the cost benefit of riding the bus has, well, evaporated. Riding the bus every day this term was supposed to save me $160. Replacement cost of stuff I lost today is $300, so I’m in the hole $120.
Unless… unless someone kindly chooses to turn them in to the bus driver and they arrive in the lost and found tomorrow. That would be nice. That would be wonderful.
I suppose now is the time to exercise faith, but I’m having a hard time getting past panic. I’m kicking myself for not checking everything before I got off the bus; I’m blaming myself for not using a more secure pocket.
Mostly I’m aching that I probably won’t be able to replace the iPod nor the headphones. And I’m hurting because I have no one to blame but my own… I don’t know what. Stupidity isn’t the right word, nor does anything else seem to accurately describe it. I’m blaming myself just because.
Nuts.
UPDATE: The bus driver found the stuff, found Kate’s number on the phone, and called to tell her about it. I’ll pick it up tomorrow (if it is open on the 4th) or on Monday. Whew!
Prayer works.
UPDATE #2: Following the instructions from the bus driver, I went down to the lost and found today (Monday, July 7) to pick up my stuff. It wasn’t there. Because it was out of my way, I drove instead of taking the bus, so I couldn’t ask Ms. Bus Driver Lady about it.
Maybe tomorrow?
UPDATE #3: Not yet. And I have not seen the regular bus driver since the incident. Perhaps she’s grabbed the goods and has used them to fund a fugitive flight to Mexico?
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1 The headphones were expensive but they were well worth it. They were Shure e2c headphones that allowed me to in noisy environments (like, you know, my own home) and still concentrate on my work. A little quiet Arvo Part was just enough to keep the sound of whatever external disturbances away and to let me read or write with full attention. These headphones allowed me to have soft-slow-quiet music drown out the cacophony of my life. Now? Now I don’t know what I’m going to do.
HEADPHONE UPDATE: Um, I guess I didn’t lose the headphones after all. I found them in the bottom of my bag. The cellphone and the iPod, however, were undoubtedly left behind on the bus.
Comment [1]
30 June 2008¶ Money update
Last week I made $0.87 on this blog, thanks in big part to all your dedicated clicking. It’s not too late! I’m at $96.96 right now: only $3.04 worth of clicking before Google sends me some money.
Thanks for your help; don’t give up the fight yet.
Comment [1]
27 June 2008¶ People in your neighborhood
People I saw on the bus yesterday:
- A homeless guy carrying a whiffle bat (for protection?) and wearing a motorcycle helmet
- A man wearing rhinestone-studded, star-shaped sunglasses with yellow lenses
- Two different women in their mid-forties both of whom had no teeth
- A man wearing two pairs of pants (pajama pants over his jeans)
- A guy with hair twice the size of his head
- An angry gang-banger who jumped up and offered his seat to an old black woman
Comment [2]
26 June 2008¶ Make Money on the Web
A couple of years ago I thought I’d spend a bunch more time fiddling with this blog and I thought I’d say some topical and constructive things. I thought I’d write every day and that I’d build a dedicated readership who would make me a regular part of their lives. I thought I could write a popular blog and be a successful grad student at the same time. I quickly discovered I was wrong.
When that realization came to me, I changed the site’s busy layout to this nice — somewhat stark — version we have now. The ads (yes, there are ads) were hidden behind an expanding link to the right. Yes, that one over there: the one that says “[+] ads” that you’ve never clicked on before. I didn’t want to sully my nice clean layout with something as crass as advertising. It’s all so ugly.
But it is still there. The thing is Google Adwords sends out a check every hundred dollars. For the past year, I’ve been hovering at just about $95 dollars: just five measly dollars short of actually seeing some money from my website.
I’m torn, frankly. Part of me wants to get the hundred bucks and then kill the link. Make a clean break from capitalism and go forward in my blissful academic bubble. That would be nice if only for the moral superiority I’d get from being above the whole money thing.
Another part of me wonders if I should rejigger my site where ads wouldn’t seem so out-of-place. I wouldn’t mind having an extra hundred bucks every six months or so. Is that too much to expect? Yeah, yeah, I’d have to write more. But look: I’ve been good the past few days at least. I might always discover some heretofore undiscovered discipline that makes blogging a useful part of my daily routine. It seems to work for SEK and Adam Kotsko. SEK has finished his dissertation (I think. Or at least he was offered a job. Which means if he hasn’t finished, he’d better), and Kotsko just successfully took his quals. Couldn’t I do the same?1
I’d promise to use that money for no good purpose at all. I’d buy stuff for my bike. Or books. Or books about bikes. Nah: there’s only “one book vaguely about bikes”: I’d buy, the rest would probably be more renaissancy and drama-y. And bike stuff (I need some panniers. Actually, I need an A. Homer Hilsen, but that’s going to take a few years at $200/year).
I dunno: clean, pure and ad-free, or should I embrace commerce and schlock it up for a mess of pottage? Oh, and while you’re thinking about your answer, why not click on one of the ads to the right? (Yes, you’ll have to expand it by clicking on the word “ads” in order to see those ads. I am still partially-pure. My own indecision is a wonder to behold.)
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1 Yes, I recognize that neither of those guys has seven children nor a calling to administer to the spiritual needs of a large group of men and their families. Whatever.
Whadda ya think? [1]
25 June 2008¶ Writing on the bus
This morning I opened up my computer and got some writing done on the bus. This is what it looked like, via wordle (click the image to view larger). I’m not ashamed of 1800 words during my bus ride, even if they are 1800 words of crap. Hey, it’s 1800 words!
Comment [1]
25 June 2008¶ Macs and the Church
In the July 2008 issue of the Ensign (not yet available online) is an article entitled “Making Church Magazines.” It’s a fine article, lots of nice images. What’s interesting, though, is that every computer shown is a Mac.
Does that say something about the popularity of Macs or is there a deeper message there?
Comment [2]
24 June 2008
Lit 101 Class in Three Lines or Less
Paradise Lost
ADAM: Paradise has arbitrary dietary restrictions?
DEVIL: They’re really more like guidelines.
GOD: Incorrect.
(I tip my hat, as the kids say, to Kottke.)
23 June 2008Security Garbage
21 June 2008Heaven? Heavens.
15 June 2008Happy Father's Day
4 June 2008On Allergies
In which I whine about my head, because it’s Spring and apparently that’s what I do.
8 May 2008Why I'm not yet sleeping, or the bureaucratic bane
17 April 2008Me, publicly.
In which I discuss my distaste for anonymous blogs and link to my very non-anonymous Blogger profile.
16 April 2008Ohio
In which I wonder about the logic of sports in a midwestern public school.
16 April 2008My writing
6 April 2008Masterpiece's Sense and Sensibility on PBS
4 April 2008Friday: Rzewski's Pocket Symphony - C
In which I discover some unexpected joy in some wacky modern classical music.
1 April 2008Poetry Tuesday: Herbert's "Prayer (I)"
In which I first mostly misunderstand and then (thanks to some students’ comments) mostly understand a nice piece of early modern devotional poetry.
24 March 2008Mondays on Writing: Cohesion and Coherence
21 March 2008Primary Source Thursdays: A Woman Killed with Kindness
In which I wonder about a little postmodern bit in a early modern play.
18 March 2008Poetry Tuesdays: Lycidas
In which I embarrass myself with some recording and then spend a few lines playing around with a pretty famous poem.
17 March 2008On writing every day