Tag Archives: ramblings

Saturday Morning Ramblings

May 1, 2010 D.A. Adams Leave a comment

It’s the end of the semester crunch. There are essays, exams, and journals to grade, and then final grades to calculate. During this marathon of grading, there are also panic-stricken students who finally realize that all of the dicking around in February and March means they’ll be reattempting the course in September and October. They stream by our offices, armed with excuses and pleas, begging for extra credit and extensions. The ones who need to learn lessons in accountability receive little sympathy; the ones who’ve shown interest in their own education get a little slack.

Once this mad dash is over, we get a nice vacation until summer school begins, but it’s hard to explain to people who’ve never done it just how stressful and taxing this last three weeks of a semester can be. It’s part of the job, and we get through it because we are professionals and are dedicated to profession, but it’s not easy or fun.

By this time next week, I’ll be on vacation and hopefully back to work on book three. Then, I’m gonna head to Florida sometime this month to see my boys, so the reward is worth getting through this crunch.

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General Posts

Thursday Afternoon Ramblings

April 29, 2010 D.A. Adams Leave a comment

If you’re looking for a laugh today, you’ve come to the wrong place. Today’s blog is not humorous in any way.

Not that any part of my life has been “easy,” but the last two and a half years have really taken their toll on me. The stress of the divorce, the separation from my sons, the struggle to survive on less than half my salary, the frustrations with education, and the disappointments with my writing career often feel like more than I can handle.

Once upon a time, I had faith and certainty. Not so long ago, I believed that I was working towards something and doing work that was necessary and important for the future of our society. With the latter, I’m talking about the education side of my career, of course, not the writing. I believed that an educated populous capable of thinking for themselves was imperative for the survival of the Republic.

Now, seeing how dumb this generation is, barely capable of abstract thought and absolutely addicted to electronic stimuli, I no longer believe there is much hope for this nation. In another twenty years, when these illiterate, attention-span deficient fools are asked to shoulder the burdens, I have little hope that they will be able to do it. I know my generation has its issues. We have been stunted by the looming presence of the Boomers, the most selfish, self-absorbed generation possibly ever to roam this planet, and we’ve been betrayed by a broken system that has strangled entrepreneurship and stifled the American Dream. But many of us in my generation still have a work ethic and pride. This current generation of students lacks both.

The fighter in me, the guy who decided to put it all on the line and start my own publishing company, wants to dig in my heels and fight to fix this system, but there are so many problems and morale is so low that I don’t even know where to begin. No one really listens anyway.

My spirit has paid the price for the last two and a half years, and I distinctly feel the weight of everything I’ve been through. I wish I still had the faith I once had, even if just for a few hours, but it’s gone, unlikely ever to return. There’s simply too much evil, too much ignorance, and too much hate in this world for me to believe that any higher power gives a damn about us. We’re just insects in a hive, and in this nation specifically, our hive is heading for a terrible end.

Welcome to the New Dark Ages, where fear and superstition reign supreme.

Humor

Education Ramblings

April 28, 2010 D.A. Adams Leave a comment

The FDA released a new report this week, warning of the catastrophic dangers of finals week. While anyone who has successfully navigated one understands the sleep deprivation, caffeine over-stimulation, and short term memory taxing, the study sheds new light on the less known side effects of finals week.

It turns out, grandmothers are more likely to pass away just before or during this time than any other period of the year. In fact, the average student will lose 8.7 grandmothers over the course of their academic career during finals weeks alone. While death is common, grandmothers are also more likely to suffer hip-shattering falls, strokes, and heart attacks, leaving them in critical condition in ICU for the entirety of this seven day span.

Grandmothers are not the only ones at risk, however. According to the study, cars are 2,874% more likely to break down on a trip to class during this week. Most prone seem to be tires, followed by batteries, alternators, and fuel pumps. Fortunately, cars rarely suffer catastrophic failures during finals week and are usually repairable by Friday afternoons.

“These data are troubling,” says Dr. Lottastatz, who pioneered the study. “Instructors all across the nation indicate that the stress of finals takes its toll on innocent victims. Something has to be done to stem the tide of this horrific pandemic.”

Skeptical of the devil-worshiping scientist, Fox News conducted its own study on this phenomenon and came to a startling conclusion.

“We determined that the socialist regime of Barrack Obama has been forcing euthanasia on these grandmothers for decades,” says Dr. Fullofshitz, graduate of the Oral Roberts School of Spiritual Science. “And because the government now controls the entire auto industry, the CIA is sabotaging cars to force people to buy new ones.”

When told of this theory, Dr. Lottastatz was outraged.

“Dr. Fullofshitz is full of shit,” Dr. Lottastatz insisted. “Our data go back for decades before Mr. Obama was even born. Where do they get this bullshit?”

However, both scientific rational thought and superstitious paranoia are at a loss for how to stem the tide of this hidden terror that shrouds finals week. It seems that as long as unprepared students are faced with the challenges of final exams, grandmothers and cars will be in harm’s way.