Frustration

Frustration: my weekend summed up in one word. Why?

First, Big Spring Jam. The Jam was okay, but they canceled the entire Sunday night program due to weather. Okay, I wasn't jazzed about going over to Huntsville and standing out in tropical storm weather to see Better Than Ezra yet again, but I wanted to have the choice to do so. Of course I wasn't surprised that they didn't offer some sort of refund to folks who bought 3-day passes, but I did think the woman on the news last night was a little cheeky in telling me that I was out of luck. She said,"Those of you who bought 1-day passes for Sunday can get a refund. Those of you who bought a 3-day pass, well ... You got to enjoy 2 days of good music." On the bright side, I did get to see Don Williams Saturday night. Who is Don Williams, you might ask. Well if you have to ask, then you're too young.

Speaking of my early onset of old age, I was AMAZED at the behavior and dress (or lack thereof) of the kids at this year's Jam. Yes, I know that young folk will be young folk, but what surprised me is just HOW young it starts. There were what appeared to be 12 or 13 year old girls wearing smiles and not much else. Oh, they were, of course, wearing cell phones. (I'll save that rant for another day.) Though it pains me deeply to type this question, "Don't these girls have parents?" Okay, I am old.

The second source of frustration was the first test in my MWF macroeconomics class. This was THE WORST test 1 I've ever graded. What really irked me was the performance on the "gimme" questions. There are certain little things that students tend to make careless mistakes on with some regularity (e.g., demand curves do NOT shift when price changes), so as we cover those issues in class I specifically tell the students that such a question will be on the test. I even tell them the common mistake that they might make and I make them pledge a solemn vow to me that this group, contrary to all past experience, will NOT make such a silly mistake. Come test time, though, they make the exact mistake I warned them about! Now this happens every semester, but this class was worse than normal. Even after being as "generous" as I could, the class average barely made it out of the D range. Though I'm really bad at it, I tried to give them a stern lecture on their devotion to academics. I'm now REALLY dreading the first test in stats. We'll see.

On the bright side, two good things happened this weekend.

First, I got my QPB books on Saturday. I know this marks me as a dork, but I really enjoyed looking through the thesaurus and the NY Times encyclopedia-type thing. As I mentioned originally, the thesaurus is much more than just a synonym finder. Each word has an example of its use in a sentence (so you can get a feel for the word) and many entries have extended discussions of slight nuances in choosing a particular word. I really stress about this and often will devote more time than any sane person should in trying to choose between avow and aver, for example. Anyway, this thesaurus has a discussion of when to use each. Okay, I don't think it actually has a discussion of those two words, but you get the picture. The NY Times thing is just a cool compendium of handy knowledge. You hear that Sat. NY Times crossword puzzle? I'm ready for you now.

Second, and another testament to my nerdiness, I got the LX 700 wireless mouse and keyboard combo for the office. CompUSA finally had it on sale at a price I could justify. I know, I know; you're all saying, "It's just a mouse and keyboard." Trust me, this is one awesome combination. I haven't mastered it yet, but I'm sure I'll have more to say later.

Okay, nothing really exciting to say today. Oh, Thailand Jeff is on his way back to Thailand as I type. Hope your trip is okay. He keeps telling me I should come to Thailand for a visit, but I'm thinking that would be disastrous. Can you imagine me and my weirdo magnet in such a foreign culture? It'd be the death of me for sure. Of course, if I did survive I'd have some really great stories -- perhaps I'd even top the man who showed me his gun in the laundrymat (no, gun is not a euphemism).