5/11: What I Accomplished Today

1. Turned in grades. Our administrative assistant in the department is new this semester, and as I turned in grades, she exclaimed, "Well, look at your pretty bubbles!"

A discouraging semester; retention wasn't good. My final rosters had 123 names, 62 of which got W's or F's. Half. Yeah, Spring is always bad, and there will always be a certain number of students for whom I'm just not going to work; that's an inevitable part of human nature.

2. Went to assessment. We read samples of essays turned in from Comp I and Comp II classes and rated them on rubrics to ascertain whether the course outcomes are being met. This was most of the day. We always have interesting discussions as we clarify rubric issues that I think are the reason I do this rather heinous, tedious chore; I learn a lot from the other teachers and from reading other people's students (and therefore their interpretations of the various assignments).

3. Came home and took a nap. (I fell into a fitful sleep at about 5 last night, and I had to be up at 8. It was a long day.)

4. TV. We watched My Name is Earl (season finale, maybe series finale since I haven't heard whether it's been renewed), ER, and Scrubs. We primarily watch Scrubs because the first episode we ever saw of this show was last season's Wizard of Oz homage, and it was just so fresh, clever, and original that we were hooked. About once a month, though, Co-Vivant says, "Why do I know that woman?"

And I say, "That's Becky Two and Four." (She's a brilliant woman, but she doesn't waste brain cells on some items, I guess.)

Then we watched two episodes of Mad About You. We watched all the episodes we had today, and now we don't have any for the weekend. I don't think this will bode well.

5. Got my Pogo badges to at least 60%. Finished a Premium Badge. Won no prizes in the drawing from yesterday's PlayFest.

6. My Level 20 Night Elf Hunter and How She Grew: set out from Westfall with the 1- and 2-handed axes and the gun. While waiting for the Defias Messenger, I dinged 21, and then Woodsy dinged 20, so I could get him trained in everything. Got the Defias Messenger, turned it in, cooked the boars we'd killed on the way to bring the cooking over 50. Did the Defias Traitor and turned all my newly-won Defias Linen into Heavy Bandages, bringing First Aid over 50. I returned to Stormwind, got Leatherworking to 120, and exchanged my weapons for the one-handed sword, which I teamed with a dagger, and the bow. (I didn't need to level the dagger or bow, but I figured I may as well use the dual-wield, and I didn't want to use the gun anymore because I was low on shot, so I switched to the gun for the moment.)

I then returned to Redridge and turned in Return to Verner and Visit the Herbalist. I accepted and turned in Delivering Daffodils. Then I accepted and turned in Messenger to Stormwind, and then Messenger to Westfall, and then Messenger to Darkshire, picking up this flight path. I bought a crossbow and a staff; now I own one of all the weapons in which I am trained except a polearm.

Flew to Menethil because I really like the quest sequences there at around this level. Accepted the Greenwarden, Digging through the Ooze, Fiora Longears, Young Crocolisk Skins, and Searching for the Excavation Team. Then I started to have server problems, causing three deaths within about seven minutes, so I logged out. Those were the only three deaths for the night. The character is still in Rested and has not yet dropped to Normal ole purple.


7. Read the last two issues of The Week.

8. Today's BigFishGame is Coffee House Chaos. Not a bad game; a direct lift of the Diner Dash series, but not bad. However, the character moves slowly and clunkily, and it feels so similar that I felt a combination of deja vu and ennui; I think I only played the first seven or eight levels before I left the game and uninstalled it.

It really, really bugged me that, in seven or eight levels, the graphics still showed a leaky sink. That's going to attract bugs as well as being bad for the structural integrity of the building; eventually, this will lead to a series of health code violations, and I just didn't really want to keep playing in a place that didn't have the good sense to keep itself clean. I know that sounds stupid, but I just didn't want to be in that fake restaurant anymore, and it bein' a game and all, I had the option to leave and did so.

9. Hung up two loads of laundry (didn't put them away yet because there'll probably be more tomorrow).