Comics Quagmire

[mamculuna]

I'm assuming most of you out there read "Doonesbury" and "Get Fuzzy." Interesting that both of them have suddenly brought the war home in one of its most horrifying forms. I saw this morning that BD's wound was a lost leg (maybe they showed that last week--our paper occasionally replaces current strips with reruns, no doubt for repressive reasons, and last week was an old one here). And of course that's the injury in Get Fuzzy. If the characters didn't have different names, I'd wonder if they were going to do a crossover. Is that a possibility anyway?

At any rate, it surprised me to see Get Fuzzy move away from the subtle commentary, bringing the hellacious reality one page closer to our consciousness...appears to be headed for a satire on the govt's trying to ignore the dirty truth about combat injuries and deaths. Seems certain that Doonesbury will go the same way.



In other news, I seem to be having a quagmire experience of my own at work. Just when I should be cleaning out my bookshelves and taking long lunches, all the nutcases find my office. Sorry to be so short on compassion, but a lot of what I get is attempts at manipulation. Like the ones (and I see them every semester) who turn in papers that can easily be located on the papers-for-sale sites and then try to convince me that it was just a coincidence, or they forgot to cite that as a source! Word for word, and it's a coincidence? Also obnoxious are the ones who think intimidation is the route to go--big guys who stand over me and shout. Like I'm going to say "0ooh I'm so scared! Of course I'll make your teacher give you an A."

And of I can tell it's this time in the semester when I have to keep a box of tissues by the guest chair in my office. "Oooh if you cry, of course I'll just have to give you credit for work you didn't turn in."

And the worst of it is, some of them are faculty.

Clearly it's time to go! Cynicism has overwhelmed me.

Comments

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

Sorry to be so short on compassion, but a lot of what I get is attempts at manipulation.

What does it say about me that, as a student, I liked to see teachers shoot people down (myself included) if they whined for higher grades?

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

It says you're a responsible student! And it's people like you, the ones who work hard at great cost to yourselves, that make teachers lose patience with the ones who are trying to get the grade and credit for nothing.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

And it's people like you, the ones who work hard at great cost to yourselves

Whoa! Who said I claimed to work hard? Actually, I wanted teachers and professors to kick my ass the most and be the least forgiving, precisely when I wasn't working my hardest or doing my best. In the absence of self-discipline, I was happy to take theirs.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

It says you're a responsible student! And it's people like you, the ones who work hard at great cost to yourselves, that make teachers lose patience with the ones who are trying to get the grade and credit for nothing.

I google personal statements now.

[ann1962]

A few years ago I received two graduate school applications from separate ends of the country and they had exactly the same personal statement. The odds of receiving them together, remembering the personal statement (it was interesting actually) was very serendipitous. Sadly, either of these students would probably have been accepted as all their other credentials were impressive.

So now I google to see what turns up.

Good luck by the way on your last few days. How many exactly? To the end of the semester?

Re: I google personal statements now.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

May 21 is the magic date! My husband keeps better track than I do of the dates, hours, and minutes--he retired in 1996 (at 54) and has impatiently waiting for me to turn into a playmate (note the small p)! Hope that's what happens...

Unbelievable to me that students think those who read their work are so dumb. I suppose you know about Turnitin.com Our administration is afraid that using it violates student's intellectual property rights (we're "publishing" their work, when it turns out not to be plagiarized) but so far is willing to take the risk with putting a sentence into Google. I can't get everything that way but it's amazing what I can get, and that they didn't think I would notice.

I think there was an article

[ann1962]

in the NY times magazine where that site was described. I use a sentence or phrase on Google right now. I don't know if our faculty use that site or not but I can see how these copyright issues?/property rights could come up. I assume the paper being checked would remain private. As long as that is the case, I don't know how strong a case it would be (but I'm not a lawyer).

[wombatina.livejournal.com]

the doonsbury/get fuzzy thing is very odd. i don't remember bd getting hit last week, just the start of the week with him wounded. when i saw he lost his leg today, well. this was bound to happen in doonsbury right? we're ignoring all the wounded. it's a crime. bush is such an IDIOT!! god it makes me mad. and get fuzzy going political? i guess this is how far the war has seeped into popular culture. and let's hear it for the draft, then maybe people will get up in arms again and not want to send their poor babies to war.

ARGHHH!!!

ok. better now.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Yes! The strips have been in the news as evidence of that attitude growing.

ARGGGG~

But the war didn't stop

[haytanbello.livejournal.com]

When I taught comp as a part-timer at Cal Poly Pomona and shared office space with other lecturers, my female colleagues would laugh at me because they said I was clueless about the tactics a few of the women students were trying on me during office hours. :-)