A Momentous Occasion

Today, I made use of a gear in my car that hasn't been used since it's birth 8 years ago. That's right everyone, my car hit 100,000 miles and it couldn't have been a better day to do it on! The weather was fantastic and the car ran beautifully. Here's to the next 100k.

An Open Letter

The following is an open letter. It is not addressed to anyone in particular because it is merely an outlet for my stress. Consider this the cluster bomb approach: I tried to hit everyone and everything without prejudice. If you are offended, then read it in this light: I will strive to never be on the receiving end of a complaint/accusation/comment such as this.

Dear Professor ______________,

I don't doubt that you have a lot on your plate right now, but I would like to burden you with these questions. Please mull over them and answer them honestly for yourself. I don't need to know the answers, although your feedback would be appreciated.

Did you ever consider the load of the schedule you proposed for the semester?
I don't want you to think I'm lazy, but it seems ambitious. Take for example the week where you were hoping to have a project due, a test, as well as the standard homework for the week. You have several other classes to prepare for, as do I, and that is going to be tough to handle with my other classwork and responsibilities.

Could you get back to me on the assignment I handed in two weeks ago?
It seems reasonable to me to expect that you provide me with feedback about the work that I submitted to you. I usually put a lot of time and effort into my work and it would validate that my time was well spent if you could spend just a few minutes reviewing it. It doesn't have fancy, a, "nice job," "I like your observations," or "you could have improved on this by..." would do fine.

Did you ever look over your syllabus/schedule to make sure that it was clear?
I've been reading over it so that I can do my best work for you and I'm really confused. The schedule doesn't seem to be arranged in chronological order and the third event doesn't have a date listed. I'm also frustrated because your rubric is based on hieroglyphics and doesn't match up with the requirements.

Why is this assignment so comprehensive?
I have been working at this assignment for several hours now and I'm really connecting with the material, however, I still have three more parts to complete. I have made the connections I think you were hoping for and now I'm just feeling overwhelmed. I can assure you, I don't have a desire to turn this into the thesis for my doctoral degree.

Could you liven class up a bit?
I know that planning lessons is difficult (you've had me present in class, so I know firsthand), but the lectures have been a bit dry recently. I understand the material isn't revolutionary or in your particular field of study, but perhaps we could elevate our study to a different level or pick a different angle to make it sufferable.

Could you please explain that differently?
I asked a question in class today not because I didn't hear you the first time, but because I didn't understand what you said. I need you to rephrase what you said in different terms or point me to a resource where I can find out more information.

You want to move class to when?
Thanks for moving the test outside of our class period so that I would have longer to work on it. The only problem is I have a night class followed by a meeting for my other class, and I need some time to work on my homework. I am going to have to break commitments that I've made because I didn't have enough advance notice to show up at the time you scheduled.

How am I supposed to communicate with you?
I need to talk with you about something that I haven't been able to figure out on my own. You haven't responded to my e-mails and you weren't in your office when I stopped by. This is somewhat urgent if you want me to complete the project on time.

Sincerely,
Nate Smith

Come get me Microsoft!

Since I came out and said that I was committed to keeping this blog alive, or at least beating it until I was sure it was dead, I figured I would post something. This story is several weeks old, but it frustrates me enough that I felt it was worth a post. Plus they say that confession is good for the soul, so here goes...

I pirated a copy of XP the other day and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Now before you call the software police or before Microsoft really does come to get me, let me explain my position. I reformatted a friend's computer over Christmas break. He had bought the computer from Dell and it shipped with a copy of Windows XP Home. In the process of moving, he had lost all of his Dell discs so I got ahold of a copy of XP Home used a burnt disc to install it using his legitimate product key. You wouldn't think that this would be an issue - I didn't use the same product key on two computers and I certainly didn't use the burnt copy of XP Home to pirate anything at all! It was a perfectly legitimate purpose - no different than using a backup copy of the software. That was until Windows Genuine Advantage caught up with me. Apparently, someone at Microsoft thought it would be brilliant to differentiate between the OEM and retail versions of XP. This would be fine and dandy, except the product keys for OEM installs don't work on retail installs and vice versa.

So I did the right thing and called both Microsoft and Dell to try and come up with a solution. Neither party would help me in the least and Dell tech support actually hung up on me. (I did provoke them, but the tech tried to make an argument which was just plain wrong. But I digress...) I suppose I could have downloaded an OEM copy of XP Home off of BitTorrent, but it would be time consuming and who really trusts BitTorrented OSes anyway? So I committed a crime: I used a copy of XP Profession that I am using on another computer. Ironically enough, Windows Genuine Advantage doesn't seem to have a problem with that.

Facebook traffic!

I see a few of you found that my blog is back now that my link on Facebook works. My nukes.explode.to redirect was shutdown without warning, so I'm linking it directly to my parent's webspace... hence the "honeysmith" in the url. Thanks for the hits!

Meet Frank

This should confirm all suspicions of my insanity: I decided to name my plant Frank. On a side-note, if you know what kind of plant Frank is, please leave a comment. I think he might be a ficus, but I'm not all-together sure.

Cheap vs. Cost Effective

I like nice things - there is no way around it. This probably makes me come across as spoiled or picky, but I'd like to point out that I generally buy the good stuff once instead of cheap stuff multiple times. Do I still spend more in the end, do I save money, or is it a wash? Who knows! There are just certain things that don't make sense to skimp on in my mind. As Dr. Adkison would often say in class, "When you go out and buy your first car, for heaven's sake get a radio in it. You can skip the navigation system, but don't brag about all the money you saved by buying a car without a radio. No, no, no, oh my. Folks, that's just stupid!"

My landlord decided to buy the cheapest refrigerator I've ever seen and it just blows my mind. I've seen dorm fridges that make more efficient use of space and it doesn't even have an icemaker. Based on some quick research, the average icemaker costs between $50 and $150. Given that the average life expectancy for a refrigerator is somewhere around 10-15 years, it's a small investment. If that's too much to ask, couldn't we at least get some trays that aren't cracked so badly that I have to trade a finger for a shattered ice cube?

Please people, for everyone's sanity, buy cars with radios and refrigerators with icemakers.

Welcome Back

It's ALIIIIVEE! (Or I'm just kicking it while it's down.) I brought back Nate's Nukes as an outlet for my stress this year. I'm going to make an effort to keep it updated this year. Let me know if you care in the comments.