Why can't they find my box?

So with the start of a new semester I have a question. It is something I struggle with year after year and it defies explanation: Why can't students find my mailbox?

Inevitably during the course of the semester someone will have something to turn in and forget to do it during class. I always tell people that in that case they should put their work in my faculty mailbox at the front of the building. For some reason this instruction never seems to sink in.

First choice for people that can't find the box is to put work under the door. This of course means it is on the floor of my office and the cleaning guy from CPS is fairly likely to throw it away.

Next they either roll the thing up and tuck it into the door handle or lean it up against the door in the hallway. Inevitably this means the work winds up on the floor in the hallway and then we have the garbage problem again. Additionally this particular method leaves the work available for anyone who comes along to take it, or change it, or copy it.

Often in these cases students email me the work. This seems like a good alternative as it isn't vulnerable and it even comes timestamped. Unfortunately the creating of the output is part of the assignment, and if it is submitted electronically then they've never had to actually get the printer to do what I assigned. Also, this has a lovely tendency of maxing out my inbox so I can't get any email at all.

Sometimes, if they can't find me students turn in their work to another faculty member and ask them to give it to me. I guess this is better than some of the other ways - but they ought to know that sometimes its weeks before I actually get the thing.

Is it so hard to walk up to the lobby and use the mailbox? That's what its there for. I just don't understand.

WOOHOO!!!!

I almost forgot. I got this when I got up today:

OUTSTANDING way to start the day.

Play the blogsound, do a dance. Maybe I should have a party. Housewarming/Student loan payoff/Steeler superbowl party maybe.

It's so nice to finally own my own brain and its contents.

E-Sheets and Output Gods

In this day and age, is there anything that really has to be on an E-Sheet?

I do as much work as possible on C-Sheets, you know, something that might fit on a desk. E-Sheets are more appropriate for say covering your car when it snows. I ran some output the other day. A three drawing package, on 3 E-Sheets, a .pdf file, generated from Vectorworks - which would be a different rant.

If there are going to be 3 sheets wouldn't it be ok to to more, smaller sheets? I can almost understand trying to get everything on one page. Many people might tell you I am to a certain amount obsessed with trying to get everything on one page, but once you roll over the one page line can't you start thinking about smaller sheets?

I could understand an argument that goes "its a working drawing, and these things need to be in that relationship and in a reasonable scale in order to do the work." But if the drawings are computer generated it is possible to maintain those relationships in the model, and scale is moot. Neither has anything to do with output.

This is I guess one of those things that is simply tradition, and won't change. I should not be cranky about it. I probably would not have been set off if they had been vector files. But consider the file size of a 48"x36" raster image - even a fairly compact image like a .pdf. It took more then an hour to print three pages. rrr. Files that big anger the printing gods. I had to get out my chicken bones - and thank goodness nobody was there to see the dancing.

That deserves an explanation. Drawing output turns out to be a recurring problem. In a multi-platform, multi-user (especially student user) environment you just have to assume you're going to have problems. I explain to classes that sometimes things just won't work and even after you get it to work you won't know what was wrong. That happened to me this time. The first couple of times I sent the file it processed from the app, went through the network, processed in the plotter, and then simply vanished: poof! So I played with this and that and eventually got the thing to work, but I couldn't tell you what the problem actually was.

Inevitably it has something to do with the game of telephone that the app plays with the OS plays with the network plays with the output hardware, complicated by memory and processing restrictions for very large files.

Or, it could be angry output gods.

Seems like just as reasonable a reason sometimes. In class I sometimes explain that you're just as likely giving some sort of sacrifice or demonstration of faith to the output gods as doing anything else - strip down and dance around the plotter clicking chicken bones. It's a joke, but sometimes it really feels like it might be more effective.

I have a personal campaign against E-Sheets. In my classes I cap acceptable output at D-Sheets. Join my crusade, save a tree, pacify the output gods.

Calendar

I got my '05 Melissa calendar today.

I've had the '03 calendar up in my office on December for a whole year. Then people at MEIN didn't do a regular calendar last year, just a poster. This one is half "Lucky" tour shots and half set-ups. Pretty cool. Some of the pictures look like ones I took on the tour after "Breakdown." Although I'll never really know, as the best shots I got were on the roll they took from me at The Joint at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas.

Is being a fan like this dysfunctional? Is there something wrong with me? I looked for an online quiz to help figure it out...

Tomboy:
You dress pretty casual and you have short hair
that's pretty easy to style. You are probably
frequently mistaken for a young boy. You are
very passionate and fall in love easily.

What Kind Of Lesbian Stereotype Are You???
brought to you by Quizilla

Well, I guess that's the best I could have hoped that to turn out.

HR&I End Phase One

So today we put things back together. Whatcha think:

There's still stuff to do. The curtains are temporary, we're going to do the plantation blinds. We need to hang pictures; and there stuff to buy: a rug, a chair, a new cocktail table, matching end tables, and some lamps. But it is livable again, and I think about 1000 times better than before.

Political Leanings

This was is particularly good because it identified Marisa as a Republican.

You Are a "Don't Tread On Me" Libertarian

You distrust the government, are fiercely independent, and don't belong in either party. Religion and politics should never mix, in your opinion... and you feel opressed by both. You don't want the government to cramp your self made style. Or anyone else's for that matter. You're proud to say that you're pro-choice on absolutely everything!

What political persuasion are you?

For the record, I am a registered independent.

Home Repair & Improvement V

Today Mr. Hines came to be a special guest home improver. While he called people to deal with the squirrels in his attic, we pulled up the carpet.

And just like that... Hardwood floor. The angsting may end, the floor is in pretty good shape. At least as good as we could have hoped for, no surprise holes, no chalk outline; just a bunch of staple holes, a few scratches, and some goo from the carpet pad.

Add outlet covers and white paint on the baseboard and you come up with a very successful day on the job.

David Trivia

How much do you know about David? Match each of the pictures to the corresponding name below. Post your answer as a comment and I'll post the key soon.

Here's a bunch of cool women I know:

1. 2. 3.
4. 5. 6.
7. 8. 9.
10. 11. 12.
13. 14. 15.
16. 17. 18.
19. 20.

a. April__b. Cami__c. Carrie____d. Celeste__e. Christina
f. Debi__g. Donna__h. Heather__i. Hedge___j. Jessica
k. Katie__l. Kelly___m. Lisa____n. LJ_____o. Melissa
p. Peg___q. Steph__r. Stevie____s. Traci___t. Trinity

Have the big fun!

Home Repair & Improvement IV

We're getting there. Today we pulled the masking, did some touchups, pulled up the dropcloths and picked up some new outlet faces.

All in all coming on very well.

I think tonight we made a decision on blinds. Tomorrow we're going to take up the carpet - cross you fingers. Except for one corner we have no idea what they look like.

Can anyone tell me what's going on with my camera? Each of these pics has had blobs on them. The blobs are in different positions, so I don't think its crap on the lens. Is it possible that this is a lens flare?

Spilled Milk?

Did you see any CSPAN today? I was flipping this morning and stopped on the confirmation hearings for the new attorney general. They then broke in on that to go live to the House for the joint session for the certification of the electors ballots in the Presidential Election. Since every political talk show I listened to yesterday had said something historical was going to happen I resisted the temptation to flip to DS9 on SpikeTV and watched the festivities.

First off, this was a real boring session, but eventually they did get to Ohio and the objection was raised and unlike 2000 there was a Senator attached to the objection. The count stopped and both houses retired for two hours of debate. I stayed with the House debate, although I have to say "debate" doesn't fit here any more comfortably than it did for the Presidential Debates earlier in this cycle. If there was even a shred of a chance that any voting member's opinion was going to be changed by today's discourse you couldn't see evidence of it watching the proceeding.

Two hours of "you are such sore losers" and "it wouldn't matter anyway" and "this is about the process and not this election" and "Its obvious to everyone that things are fine" and "Its obvious to everyone that the election was stolen." On some level the whole thing was a little bit embarrassing.

The Senator opposing the election has said she only did so to force a debate about election reform on a national stage. Opposition congressmen in their speeches said that the debate was a waste, degraded the process, and wasn't wanted by the public.

For the record, as a small slice of the public, I didn't have any problem with a two hour delay to talk about something so explosive.

But really, was this just so much spilled milk? I feel less jobbed this time than in 2000. At that time I couldn't understand the rush. We were constantly told that "the country needs to know who their president is!" Why? I mean, I think we knew at that time that Clinton was the president until we settled the election. How is it that "there isn't enough time" could ever be an excuse to live with a winner that we couldn't verify? 2000, however, is real spilled milk, spilled, curdled, dried out and hardened.

It seems, at least listening to the Kerry camp, that whatever did happen in Ohio would not have tipped the election. I can trust that they were the most motivated party involved, and if there had been something to find they would have found it. Plus, this time around W did win the popular vote, so there seems to be at least a hint of validity behind the whole thing.

So yes, I think the results of the 2004 election are at this point so much spilled milk. But, I agree with several speakers today that we really ought to be looking at just how it got spilled in the first place.

Two things stand out prominently in my eyes. First, the election, even though both sides claimed to be uniting, turned out to be about consolidating and energizing. Both parties seems to abandon any hope of winning over people of other persuasions and concentrated on getting out as many of their base as possible - particularly with an eye toward electoral math. This is sad on so many levels. I want to be convinced and inspired, not whipped into a froth for something I already believe in. I want to see governance and compromise, not louder shouting and piling on. Moreover, this produced a profoundly split electorate, and that leads to the other standout problem.

This is the second election in a row where the candidates have relied on gaming the system, looking at the states that are in play and trying to get out more of their guys than the other guy. There's no discussion here, no new ideas or conversation, just a process of wholesale get out the vote. This is bad for the ideological reasons above, but also because in the situation we had, where neither candidate is really compelling - no Reagan, no Clinton - it means that the results are going to be close. The standout problem here is although we're the world's greatest Democracy it appears that we're really not all that good at elections, and on top of that we have an incomparably voracious media to report on our crappy elections. This has to be fixed.

Problems with voter rolls, voting lines, election day electioneering and intimidation sound like they were pretty prevalent around the entire nation and working in favor or either party. The losing party in a close election cannot help but hear about this in the present day and age and would be irresponsible if they didn't pursue it. It doesn't make them sore losers. Denying the problems and "just moving on" doesn't make one patriotic; like an ostrich with its head in the sand it makes one ignorant. These things must be fixed. Conflicts of interest that don't pass the sniff test don't celebrate our democracy, they make people uncomfortable. Two elections in a row now we've had a bitterly contested state where the Secretary of State, the official charged with insuring the process of the election, happened to be the chair of the winning candidate's state campaign. Doesn't pass the sniff test, ought to be fixed. Suspicious mechanical and electronic voting and tallying systems are simply inexcusable. In the course of their election day voters likely interact with hundreds of reliable systems for the other aspects of their lives. Why does the system for voting continue to be problematic? Electronic systems with unreviewed code, open communications protocols, and no receipt or paper backup don't pass the sniff test - and neither for that matter does any system produced by a company with partisan ownership. These issues make what should be a transparent process an opaque one. These are winner's issues or loser's issues, they are not Democratic issues or Republican issues. They are American issues and they should not be ignored.

And so, not because I feel as if the results of the election are wrong, but because I do believe them to be tainted I salute those members that raised today's objection and participated genuinely in the debate. I hope that the momentum is not lost and that we together strive for a confident, defensible, and transparent election process even if it means breaking into precincts of 50 and having people raise their hands. Although an even more attractive idea would be to find the kind of candidates that are inspirational enough across the electorate to render this kind of problem moot.