English writing.

Well, back to the old grind.  I probably should have warned that I wasn't going to post anything for over a month, but it's too late for that.  Anyways, let's get started.  I have never been a fan of English classes.  I don't care for literature, language arts, or whatever clever name teachers can come up with to disguise it.  I understand the point of elementary English, grammar, and vocabulary, but why do I need to know how to write a comparative essay about two novels?  I can guarantee that I  will never consider doing such a thing in my free time, nor will I choose a book to read based upon said essays.  Let's get real.  Make the grammar, spelling, and vocabulary classes mandatory, but leave the writing to those who enjoy sitting in front of a computer for 8+ hours straight typing.  Most definitely not my favorite pastime.

Large Scale Heating.

Apparently they just switched to natural gas boilers from coal.

So I know for efficiency purposes, large scale heating and cooling makes sense.  But obviously not everyone will be happy with the temperature.  Take for example my dorm.  This entire campus has steam heat (a novel concept for people from California like me).  But because most of the campus is run off one steam plant, it's not just an on/off procedure.  So basically, you don't want to turn on the plant for one cold night, then find out that it's gonna be 70 degrees tomorrow.  So you'd think that December in Kentucky would be cold enough to have the plant running?  Wrong.  For 3 days now, it's been unseasonably warm, and I can't turn the AC on.

People with stupid sleeping habits.

I found this picture humorous.

So as I mentioned before, this week is finals week here at WKU.  And I'm pretty sure I've mentioned how much I hate my roommate before.  Well one of the main reasons that I hate him is because of his sleep patterns, or lack thereof.  I went to bed early last night, around 9:45 (lame, I know), because I had to get up at 6:30 to be ready for my first final.  When did my a**hole of a roommate decide to come back to the room?  3:00am.  And guess what?  When I got back to the room after taking (and acing btw) two finals, he was still asleep.  Thank God I only have 4 days left.

Finals.

I've never really understood the fascination around finals.  I don't see the point in having a dedicated time for an extra long test to summarize an entire semester of class.  I feel that incremental tests along the way work just fine.  But why make such a big fuss over it?  Why not just spread it over 2 normal class periods, and not mess up someone's schedule?  Example:  Normally on any weekday, my earliest class is at 9:10am.  But on finals week, I have a Monday final at 8am, and the rest of my day is empty.  Why not just have every class meet at it's normal time and split the final between however classes it takes?

Touch Screen Keyboard 'Clicks'.

Ever been standing in an elevator, and the annoying person's phone goes off.  They read the message, and once they start to reply, your ears are filled with *click* *click* *click*.  My hypothesis is that most people don't know how to tun that setting off.  I mean, people can't be expected to know how to use the settings menu on their phones.  Even worse: I have had people in some of my classes with iPads (eww) with the clicking enabled.  They take notes all class with the constant clicking.  Also bundled in this post: People who don't mute their computers when they turn them on in class.  Countless times you hear the Windows Start-up sound, or the retro Mac sound.  Understand your electronics please people.

Scheduling classes.

So today I finished organizing my classes for next semester.  It took me 3 hours, 2 pieces of scratch paper, 2 computers with 2 browsers, and a lot of patience.  Somehow I am ending up with less credits than this semester, but more classes.  I don't know why there isn't a system where you just choose the classes you need, and it just fits them all together.  The worst part?  One of my classes has literally 1 spot remaining, and it's the only time I can take it.  Did I mention that I have the second-to-last registration date based on last name and year-standing?  Not to mention that 1 of my classes has to be a bi-term.  Ugh.  This all makes me sick.

Fine Friday XI: Open-book Quizzes.

So usually when a teacher says that a quiz or test is going to be open-book, most people feel relieved.  I however, feel that in much smaller amounts.  Most teachers try to keep their exams at least a bit challenging.  For example:  Once a week in my World Geography class, we have an open-book and open-note quiz.  Problem is, most questions are from the in-class discussions.  Almost never can you find the answers in the book or the notes you took (sadly, I take terrible notes).  But usually you'll find a couple questions where you find it's worth it to lug the overweight textbook up the hill to class.

People who don't know how to use a toilet. (Update)

Click to enlarge.

Self-explanatory. End of story.  I made the poster on the left, and posted it in my floor's bathroom.  I think it was a good use of my time.

The right is the updated poster.

How I'm early for everything.

My netbook.  Be jealous of the slime.

So I wake up at around 7:30am on most weekdays.  Why does this bug me?  Well my first class isn't until 9:10 (9:35 on Tuesdays and Thursdays).  I guess I just underestimate how efficient I am in the morning.  By 8:00 I have gotten up, changed my clothes, brushed my teeth, packed my backpack, checked Facebook, Twitter, and Google News, looked at the weather for the day, checked my Email, and eaten a Pop-Tart.  I leave my room and start walking to class and it's always a ghost town.  Then I sit in the hallway outside my classroom for almost an hour.  "Well Thomas, why don't you wake up later?".  I've tried.  My alarm clock is set to 8 am every day.  I wake up before it.  At least I have my netbook to keep me entertained for an hour+.

Poorly designed buildings.

Ever been travelling, and waiting in an airport?  Most of you have I'm guessing.  This being the 21st century, we all have some sort of mobile device or laptop that we use to entertain ourselves.  But said device runs on a battery that has (quite) a limited life.  So you need to find an outlet to charge it.  But, chances are that the airport you're sitting in was built before 2005.  Sadly, electrical outlets are scarce and widely spaced.  Either that or you have to go sit in a little "charging booth".  This post also covers buildings which are built in 2009 and don't have ethernet wiring in the walls (talking about you DP PAC).  Another example: my math class is in a brand new building, and the classroom is really nice.  It has 2 projector screens!  Right next to each other.  Want to lower just one because there's only one projector?  Too bad.  The switch lowers both.

When they clean my dorm's bathrooms.

Another one about my dorm?  Geez Thomas, why don' you just switch dorms?  (I'll save that for a later post)  So it seems like everyday around 1 or 2 o'clock pm, I'm usually in my dorm and I have to go to the bathroom.  But you know what sucks?  They clean every bathroom in the building daily (thank God), starting with the girls floors.  Then they work down from the top to bottom.  When they get to the bottom, they start the guys floors working up.  So as far as I can tell, my floor is the last one to get cleaned.  What time do they end up getting to my floor?  Around 1 or 2 o'clock pm.  Know what else sucks?  If I have to go to the bathroom while they're cleaning them, that's a no.  The people who clean the bathrooms are only women.  So I have to go down either 3 stories to the next guy floor, use the lobby guest bathroom, or venture to the University Center.  Yesterday, it took them 2 hours to clean the bathroom because someone thought it would be funny to throw talcum powder everywhere.  They had to bring in a floor scrubber or something that was ridiculously loud.  I hate this dorm.

People in dorms who can't cook.

Last night, at around 9:30pm, the fire alarm with the creepy voice in my dorm went off.   Now at first we all just thought it was another drill, because when the first drill happened, the top 7 floor's alarms didn't work.  But as we started walking down the 26 flights of stairs, we started to smell smoke.  Around the 21st floor, the smell started to go away.  So we all get to the bottom, and walk the 100 feet away from the building and wait as the 5 firetrucks pull up and the firefighters go in... blah blah blah.  So 30 minutes later, the finally start to let us 850+ residents back in (remember, 4 elevators for 26 floors).  Later, on the class Facebook group, someone reveals that some guy on the 21st floor left his food on the stove, it burned to a crisp, and filled the 21st floor with smoke, thus setting off the alarm.  So the moral of the story is:  If you go to college, get a meal plan so you don't have to cook burn your own food.

How hard eating healthy in college is.

Except my floor doesn't have a kitchen.

I've been trying to lose weight for the past month, and I've discovered just how difficult that really is when using a meal plan at a school in Kentucky.  Everything, and I mean everything has saturated fats.  I would go out and buy more healthy foods, but I already paid for the meal plan. *excuses*.   I have been forced to eat at Subway every other day and get a sandwich with ham, lettuce, olives, and vinegar.  Not even cheese.  I do however find solace in that since this is a Pepsi school, every soda machine has Diet Mountain Dew (caffeine without sugar).  Luckily, I feel as though I am able to burn off most that I east by walking all the way around campus everyday (2 miles, with a large elevation gain).  Here's the worst part though: both my mother and grandmother have sent care packages to me.  Full of what may you ask?  Food.  Mainly candy and Slim-Jims. Sigh.