Unlike most students, seniors are a special category. On top of being ‘regular’ students, they generally get quite a few other exams dumped over them, on account of… well them being seniors: you’re grown up now, so we can safely dump another load on top of you without feeling guilty. Isn’t that just great?
Keeping this in mind, it comes as no surprise that some ground rules should be established. Since most people have enough intuition, these are not written down. For those of you unaware, read and remember:
- Thou shall state your request clearly to seniorsSeniors have enough guesswork expecting them at the end of the year, and as such you do NOT offer them more. Your subject is not only not required for their licentiate exam, but it’s also optional.
- Thou do NOT wish to challenge seniorsHaving to re-learn carefully skipped/forgotten (depending on their luck) subjects is challenging enough, without needing more. As a result, unless you’re harboring some sort of death wish (you never know when a voo-doo doll crosses their paths), it is advised not to challenge seniors.
- Thou shall not hold an introductory course which lasts 3 weeks…especially if the exam is not going to include said introduction.
- Thou shall not speak about irrelevant biological developments during said course(s)…not even if the terminology of the course is inspired by this field.
- Thou shall NOT expect answers to unformulated questions…seniors (or any student for that matter) have trouble answering ‘proper’ questions, so don’t torture them unnecessarily; you might piss them off… R-O-Y-A-L-L-Y.
If you feel you’ve put your senior students through all the above, don’t be surprised if your students get restless in the last few seconds of the lecture and answer their phone, and conducting a mock whispered conversation.
No really: we - seniors - don’t find you funny, not even a LITTLE bit.
Browse Happy… L-I-T-E-R-A-L-L-Y
...on Sat, October 14, 2006 at 1:48 pmFiled under: Coding, Internet, Rants
If I see one more “Browse Happy” button, while using Microsoft Internet Explorer, I might very well scream… well, more likely mentally; still I’ll definitely be one annoyed ‘net surfer, that’s for sure.
Oh and just for the record:
MY FAVOURITE BROWSER IS MOZILLA FIREFOX, and I KNOW INTERNET EXPLORER IS UNSAFE.
… thus it stands to reason, that 95% of my online I use Firefox or Opera.
Unfortunately for me/you/the world (and whoever else might be concerned) I can’t/won’t always use these browsers. Reasons, as to why, vary, but the most frequent are:
- My university computers limit the access of Firefox (e.g. can’t access my yahoo account) and Opera is not installed (and we’re not allowed to install software on uni computers).
- BestAnime[dot]com requires Internet Explorer, for me to be able to listen/download its audio and video files.
- I’m checking a site (mine or someone else’s) for cross-browser compatibility.
- Internet Explorer is the only browser installed on the computer I’m using.
In light of the above-mentioned reasons, I get increasingly angry when I’m told that I should switch to a smart way of browsing, since I’ll find myself browsing happier. I sincerely feel like strangling the next person to tell me that.
I don’t feel happier simply because I’m using a certain type of browser. I browse happily when… :
- I visit interesting sites (however subjective this might be)
- I don’t need to change my browser/resolution in order to view a site
- I don’t need to wait eons for a site to fully load
- my browser doesn’t ‘crash’ (i.e. closes unexpectedly)
Does that seem like I’m asking too much? How can you achieve these?
Easy:
- design sites using correct (X)HTML and CSS
- minimise the scripts you use (these increase loading time)
- have a layout width no larger than 775px (I prefer vertically scrolling layouts to horizontally scrolling ones) or specify it in percents
- write about things YOU came up with, not something that is trendy and can be found on 10517495 other sites
In conclusion: STOP telling me that browsing your way will make me happier. Chances are that you’ll just annoy me, and I’ll do it differently just to spite you.
Today I realized that I’m either completely clueless, or beggars these days have become increasingly intelligent. Which is it? I’ll let you decide after reading the following entry.
After agonizing over crappy trainers for more time than is decent, I finally decided to go and buy some good ones (which will be hideously expensive, but will at least last more than 2 weeks). Being in a hurry, I decided to take a shortcut, one I don’t normally take due to lots of beggars and stray dogs. Nevertheless, the road had been modernized in the last two years, which in turn reduced the aforementioned problems, quite drastically. I should’ve kept in mind that “quite drastically” does not mean “completely”.
The shortcut, consists in using a set of stairs built into a hill. So instead of going round the hill, as I usually do, I can take the stairs to descend the hill. When I neared the stairs, I noticed a small girl/boy (wasn’t particularly certain about the gender) loitering about and looking quite interested in me.
Vera (i.e. me) is immediatelly imaginning 384394 scenarios which result in rebuffing the girl’s/boy’s request for money, after all she is an expert in being an insensitive…(we don’t want to insult animals here). Slowly, she approaches the stairs…
Girl/Boy: You’re beautiful miss.
Vera’s jaw metaphorically hits the floor,”Wha –?”
Me: Thanks, you’re swe - *mumble*-et.1
Girl/Boy: You have very nice long hair. I wish I had such hair.Vera establishes the person as a girl. Little boys don’t wish for long hair.
Me: It’s not all that fun. I have curly hair, which tends to frizz up a lot.
Girl: But it’s very nice. I have short hair.
Me: I often wished I had straight hair like yours. But one must be happy with what one has… otherwise it’s crap.Vera mentally gags, “Did I just SAY that?!”
Girl: Yeah… You know miss, I was actually wondering: could you please give me 20 bani2?
Vera is flabbergasted… then smiles “Right… I’ve been had: R-O-Y-A-L-L-Y.” Vera gives the girl 1 RON3.
Girl: Thank you miss.
In retrospect I should’ve realized that complete strangers (be it small girls) don’t compliment you out of the blue. Then again, I guess I’ll know better next time.
Notes:
1: Adjectives in Romanian have genre (feminin or masculin); So sweet would be translated as “draguta” respectively “dragut”. I chose to mumble the ending, not wishing to offend the person.
2: 100 bani = 1 RON
3: 1 RON = around 1/3 of 1 USD