Welcome to the Club

I'm of two minds when it comes to specialized vocabulary. That's what is so great about the English language: anyone can make up a word, and inside of a few months it can be part of mainstream speech. But that is why it is so difficult to learn - half of it is made up and new words are created when its convenient. This extends to any trade, be it engineering, farming, aeronautics, or even more abstract practices such as finance, economics, and the like (well at least abstract to me. I am damn clueless when it comes to wheelings and dealings). For example, today on the radio I heard a a lady talking about your "financial horizon". That sounds like something used to pitch time shares on Jupiter! Supposedly it refers to how long you will be holding onto a financial... piece, thingy, like a 401k for retirement. What's wrong with "long term goal"? Teaching and education uses an unbelievable amount of kerfuffle in its "scholarly" articles. Terminology includes "compulsively disruptive kids" (CDKs), "people-first language" (Good: student who is emotionally disturbed. Bad: emotionally disturbed student. Fired: fucking shitheel) and "University of California Riverside Graduate School of Education" (retirement home for washed up, self-important, day-late-dollar-short instructors.. except for one! Maybe two).

Le Sigh

I know this is old, but I just saw it. It's worth it, even stomaching Whoopi Goldberg for a minute, to watch to the end (2:23) when Sherri Shepard drops the biggest turd of ignorance after a bunch of moderately sized turds of ignorance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehWv_qlKxSg

Problem is, I watched this and wasn't even fazed. Daily I see jackasses of all shapes and sizes that I'm immune to it. I've been shell shocked, desensitized, jaded. And that's what is scariest, when you lose your anger at this sort of thing.

More Good News from Fabulous Fontana!

"Most Southern California residents are at less risk of contracting cancer from air pollution than they were in the late 1990s -- except in parts of the Inland area... [T]he study showed Fontana has the highest cancer risk from air pollution... of any residential community in Southern California... Fontana was the only location where the cancer risk increased since a similar study seven years earlier."

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_air05.2b338bb.html

Fontana - where it's actually safer to smoke indoors!

We're thinking about moving to a nicer area now that I'm rolling in big teacher money. Plus student loan money and dead grandmother money. UGA finished the year in college football ranked #2 in the AP poll and #3 in the coaches poll, giving USC about 10 points in the voting either way. And some guy already has us tagged for #1 preseason for 2008. Woo!

Just two more quarters, both in university and high school... June is zero hour. Has anyone seen the Daily Show now that it is just Jon Stewart writing? Is it funny? Not that I would watch it, I'm usually asleep round 'bout that time (I PARTY HARD!). Until we meet again!

Learning about Genetics

I'm grading student work covering an introduction to genetics. One of the assignments given as a "Do Now Activity" to get students in their seats and working at the beginning of class was "Write down 3 things you want to learn about genetics". Now, most people did well on this. There are no right or wrong answers, as long as you put 3 things about genetics you got the three points. Of course some students only put 2, or 1, or wrote down the numbers 1, 2, and 3 but left them blank. Nice. Then there is this one I just read and had to make as public as I know how. Remember, the assignment is: Write down three things you want to learn about genetics.

Response (verbatim):
"How feel when your wife have a baby and you can do sex?"
"What happen when two mans do a sex?"

Oh god I wish I could make this stuff up.