When Judges Lie And Suck Toes.

I planned on talking one of the science fair folks about the science fair "comparison issue" today when I was picking my daughter up for a dentist appointment, but Kim decided to just do the project she was going to do anyway. This is probably good since her past projects (involving comparisons) have done well. This is also a good thing because I didn't want to confront someone about something that is probably due to a nine-year-old's misunderstanding of the issue. I can just picture myself getting snotty and saying something like "I have a Master's degree in science and I know science so there!" with the nasal nerdish voice I have been blessed with. This would have been met with a "Well I'm a professional librarian and in charge of the judges, so there back!" Within minutes this would have moved to "Liar liar pants on fire." and "So so suck your toe all the way to Mexico." So it's a good thing Kim decided not to worry about it.

Working in a university science laboratory building, one never knows what to expect when reporting to work in the morning. Sometime between 7:00 and 8:00 this morning, this "display" appeared in one of the common areas of the third floor. A previously toynapped inflatable cheetah appeared with another inflatable animal toy in this bed. The nightstands make a real nice touch. No, the bed does not belong there. I am now paranoid that vapors and fumes are accumulating in our climate controlled building and causing our graduate and undergraduate researchers to partake in pranks that are confusing even by science geek standards.

Seeing What I Want To

There is a tremendous amount of construction on campus these days ranging from repairing damage to a broken water main to finishing an addition to the dining hall at the student union. There are contractors vehicles, backhoes, front end loaders, and fences everywhere. This coincides with the arrival of various conferences, incoming students and their parents for new student orientation, and other activities that result with campus crawling with people who have not seen campus without construction. As I was walking along the pedway, one of the visitors was coming the other way and commented that we had a beautiful campus. It dawned on me that even with all the mess, NAU is in a beautiful location and I was able to see past the construction and see the trees, mountains, and all else that make NAU and Flagstaff a great place to be. I will need to remember this over the next few years as several MAJOR projects are slated to start. We also just finished 3 new 80,000sqf or larger buildings.

Pobre Citos

I can always tell when my diet has gone to hell and I haven't been to the gym by how little it takes to set me off. Such was the case this morning when I was at a use-tax training/information session for the business managers at the university. Everyone in the room could have easily fit in the first 4 rows, but most people were sitting 8-10 rows back. These are not high school students. These are 30, 40 and even 50 something degree holding professional university employees who should know how to set an example for others. As it would happen, one of the speakers had a soft voice and could not reach the microphone, which didn't work well anyway. The people in the back kept yelling that they could not hear her. As their frustration grew they began yelling microphone using directions to her, but nothing could be done to have her reach, let alone use the malfunctioning equipment. It took a whole flotilla of Viking warriors to keep me from telling them to move their bony/fat asses to the front. I did exclaim that they should sit in the front without mentioning anything about their bodily proportions. Fortunately nobody heard me, because my reputation in this crowd is already well circulated. This is pathetic that a group of educated adults sits far from the front then complains that they are deprived of the information presented. Pin heads. Twits. State employees. Vacuum headed, vestigal brained bimbos. The good news is I was able to make it to the gym and work off some of my aggrevation.

No More Pencils...

Kim finished the third grade today and is all set for her summer day camp which starts tomorrow. The program is called 'Mountain Jacks Kids Camp/Dolphin Day Camp" and is run by the recreation center of Northern Arizona University. She was in it last year and had a great time and is hoping for the same this year.

Because I Still Have A Turntable...

As I strolled past the "Records" office at the university today, I successfully fought the urge to ask the receptionist for "Led Zeppelin IV." I figured she had probably heard that joke many times.

Viva Polygamy

We had a pot-luck "breakfast" for the staff of the College of Engineering and Natural Sciences (plus Forest-tree) this morning. I soon noticed that the ratio of women to men was around 5 to 1; at one point it was over 10 to one prompting one of the other men there to comment that he felt he was in "that polygamist cult in Texas."

I Want a Do-Over

The tip-off should have been my inability to stay awake as my wife was driving us to work this morning. Not even the 2Km bike ride to finish my trip to work woke me up. My brain had the computational ability of canned movie-theater nacho cheese the entire day. The pinacle of the day occured this afternoon as I was working on converting and uploading a breakage charges file into PeopleSquash. I continually got a message telling me there was an error with the date. All involved agreed that the date was correct, and in the right format. After an hour or so of analysis by myself and two others it was determined that the problem was in the student ID number and not the date. After manually adjusting the ID number for each of the charges, I finally got the file to upload. I then posted it with no further problems. I pulled off the posted charges report and noticed a major problem - I posted the charges for last semester (fall 2007). So I quicly uploaded and posted the charges for spring 2008 and proceeded to check the new charges for Fall 2007. They weren't there. So I checked the post for spring 2008. Yep - double charged. In other words I thought I made a mistake, but I was wrong. I had pulled off the wrong post report the first time. Twenty minutes and three phone calls later the second post was reversed and the students were charged the correct amount. Because I am perfect, I'm blaming PeopleSquash, and everyone will believe me.

AN AWARD FOR IMPERFECT ATTENDANCE?

I've spent the past couple of days at home with my third grade daughter who hasn't been feeling well. Normally, I would have sent her off to school this morning, but it is standardized testing week at her school. It seems that is a student gets sick part way through a section and can't complete it, they fail that section. This may not seem like a huge deal when the test is not part of the grading process for the student, but one must remember that it is really a test for the school and if a student doesn't fininsh a section, the school gets "dinged." Given such, students who are not feeling 100% this week are encouraged to stay home. Students who otherwise would be told to "tough it out" are now told to go home and their parents are called to pick them up. I find it strange that a school winds up discouraging students from attending classes. I do not think this is what "No child left behind" was intended to do.