Stacy Runs

Reading John Locke for school. :) http://amzn.com/k/2GP7821PN8ZM4 #Kindle

I’ve sent 3000 IMs using @digsby! http://bit.ly/r2d24u

ran 2.8 mi on 8/31/2010 at 12:08 PM http://go.nike.com/6fvbhb8

…you might want to do your students a favor and actually understand both the demographic your teaching and the tools you’re using to teach it.  Good grief. 

Right now, I’m taking two classes.  I’ve taken numerous other classes through this online system and the previous system they’ve used.  I’ve navigated third-party sites set up by the textbook publishers to submit assignments, even.  I’ve had no problems with any of them.  It’s usually not hard to find the information I’m looking for.  Then comes THIS semester. 

The two classes I’m taking are Poli-Sci 101 and Oceanography 110.  My Oceanography professor is incredibly organized, has clearly done this before and had all of the information we needed up and running on day 1.  I was immediately able to print out each and every module and he had a great spreadsheet listing each assignment, each assignment’s due date and giving us space to fill in what score we got on each one.  It’s a dream for a college student who’s also working full-time.  I’m fully prepared. 

Then there’s the Poli-Sci instructor.  This is his first online class and he’s obviously baffled by technology.  Every time he refers to it as online he does so with quotes and a dah (“on-line”).  He waits until the week an assignment is due to post the assignment up on the assignment section and then he posts due dates in three separate places.  Assignment due dates are placed on the assignments themselves.  Discussion due dates are placed on the discussions themselves (and change from week to week apparently).  Both of those are SOMETIMES placed on the course calendar, but as I learned this week, you can’t solely go by the course calendar because some things AREN’T on the calendar.  

So, this weekend I completely missed a date.  What I thought was due on Sunday was actually due on Saturday.  The assignment I though was due on Sunday disappeared on Sunday because it was actually do on Saturday.  I can’t even complete it now for partial credit because it isn’t visible to me in the system.   

Furthermore, when I did the FIRST assignment, I only got 14/20 because I apparently didn’t make the answers long enough - a requirement I didn’t hear anything about until he told me that “everyone else” did it that way.  I guess I was supposed to be read minds to figure it out.  He helpfully attached a document telling me what he expected that I can’t find anywhere else in the course and now, suddenly, my graded assignment has completely disappeared, so I can’t get at it to look at it a second time.  

On top of all THAT, in order to get an A out of the course, you have to do a book report, however that’s as much as he’s explained about it.  He hasn’t told us what sort of book to get, hasn’t told us what he expects to see in the report, nothing.  Just ‘do a book report’, and apparently we were supposed to select one this past weekend with no more information than that. 

So, frustrated, I sent him an email on Sunday.  I pointed out that the dates are scattered, nothing is consistent and for the first time in my college career I’m having difficulty understanding what’s expected of me.  I asked some pointed questions about where my original, graded assignment disappeared to and where the assignment I’m supposed to complete is.  I also asked what sort of book we should be getting to do the book report on. 

His answer was frustrating and now I’m near tears.  All he did was basically tell me that this is how he’s running the course, the technical staff is telling him he’s doing it all the right way and I should just check everything frequently to make sure I get the right dates.  He even suggested I talk to tech support if I don’t understand how the software works.  I bet I understand it better than he does!  I’d drop the course and retake it with a new instructor later, who might be a little more on the ball, but the drop date was last Friday, so now I’m screwed and I just have to make the best of a perfectly shitty situation. 

I wonder, though … should I complain to the college administration?  I pay for these classes.  I’m not just a student, I’m a customer.  I feel like I should have some sort of complete expectation of where I should be at any given moment in the class, not assignments that are posted willy nilly with similar due dates.  

*sigh*  Sorry, just had to rant to release the stress at least.  Time to figure out a strategy for this.  

Top 10 Fitness Tips and Tools (via Lifehacker)

I like that the first ‘tip’ is to drink a Slushie if it’s hot out to keep you hydrated and cool.  I’m all for that!

OhGizmo! » Archive » Philips New Airfryer Fries With “Little Or No Oil”

No telling, yet, when it’ll be available, but … “Rapid Air technology to circulate hot air around a grill component, creating delicious meals with up to 80% less fat.”

How awesome is that? 

I have to agree with a lot of the posters here that this list is A) Not really funny, and B) Kind of offensive in it’s own right. It’s time Huffpost (and likely the rest of the progressive movement as a whole) drops the old feminism that tells us we have to wear unappealing clothes, ignore our sexuality and only engage in becoming powerful, rich businesswomen to prove that we can hang with the boys. We CAN be sexy and feminists. We CAN take pole dancing classes for fitness and fun and not have “low self-esteem”. We CAN have babies all we want, and, yes, we can clean up after ourselves.

Serious funny FAIL, Huffpost. Feminism is about letting women do WHATEVER they want, not saying that, then making judgment calls when it isn’t what YOU’D do.

(edit:  this was in response to this article on Huffington Post, apparently they let you tumblr your comments, but then give no context about it)

Homework between work-work.  Ugh.  Less than an hour before I get to leave this place and go home, probably to do more homework.  I’ve lost two followers in the last couple of days … I somehow feel like a failure.  What, am I too mouthy?  Probably. 

This is for my Oceanography class.  The professor is … strange.  He had us all take a survey at the beginning of the class where we answered questions about whether or not we had jobs and real lives.  23% of us apparently work 40+ hours a week (of which I am one).  He gave us all a stern warning that we had to really pay attention and buckle down because we’re all so busy.  *sigh*  I really don’t need someone to remind me of just how little spare time I already have and how I’ve devoted that to actually earning a degree. 

Honestly, I stopped saying stupid shit like this when I left elementary.  It went out the window along with, ‘If you like it so much, maybe you should maarrrrryyyy it’, and ‘OMG, you have cooties!’, and, ‘If you step in that hole, you’ll become gay!’. 

I don’t even think we knew what ‘gay’ was. 

Ah, to be 14 and to think you know everything…

Setting: Running class, girl in front of me discussing her weekend run with her boyfriend.

Girl: Then he just stopped running. He said, “This isn’t working” and ran away. He broke up with me then ran away!

(Sounds of shock and dismay come from running coach)

Girl: Should I call him?

via: Well, That’s One Way To Do It | Social Workout 

Where are these running classes?! I want to take one!

Pretty much every time I post or read something on Tumblr I have some sort of user interface issue that pisses me off.  Here’s my list right now: 

1. Like and Reply issues OFF of the dashboard. A week ago, I used a little tool that let me pull all of the people I follow into an OPML file so that I could import it into Google Reader, supposedly to make my life a little more convenient.  I really would rather read all the stuff I read in one place.  I figured the biggest inconvenience would be that if I wanted to reply to someone’s post or ‘like’ their post, I’d have to click on the permalink instead of doing it right from my dashboard.  No problem, I figured …
   
   Problem.  While you can ‘like’ on a permalink page, you can’t reply unless that person uses Disqus comments, and then only through Disqus.  WTF?
   
   
2. The Dashboard just kinda sucks all together.  All I can view on my Dash are my Twitter feed and other Tumblr blogs … that’s it.  Any fitness blogs I like to read OUTSIDE of Tumblr, I have to go somewhere else for … but Tumblr makes it difficult to do that (see number one, above). 
   
   
3. The Tumblr Bookmarklet Bites.  The bookmarklet is *almost* really cool.  I like being able to click on it from some article I’m reading somewhere else and being able to make quick, easy posts… but there’s no option to let people answer the post if it’s in the form of a question … unless, of course, I’m missing something. 
   
   
4. Asking Questions - neat idea, poor execution. Speaking of asking questions, this one is the worst of all.  First, when your questions are answered, you don’t get an email notification, you have to go and look it up on your Dash again (so you can’t get away from using it).  Then, if you ask a question via the bookmarklet and want to go back and edit it to click the checkbox to let people answer, you can’t!  You’re screwed!  All you can do is remake the post. 

Really, in this day and age, is it too much to ask for full functionality for a site that’s supposed to be super-easy blogging?

Tara Stiles, as we’ve noted before, is a new kind of yogi, all slick and modern with not even the faintest whiff of patchouli about her. We’ve also noted that she’s really, really skinny. And this week, she’s out with her new book Slim, Calm, Sexy, which promises to make you skinny too. 

Tara Stiles Is The New Tracy Anderson | SocialWorkout.com

I absolutely admit that I have a love/hate relationship with Tara Stiles.  Full-page Nissan ads in Women’s Health?  Annoying.  No-nonsense, no spiritual-fuddy-duddy approach to yoga?   Cool.  Being super-skinny like she is and promising skinniness through yoga?  Eh… I’m not so hip on… neither do I really like the cover design of the book or the title, but … I’m still considering buying it. 

So, Tumblrites … go or no go on Slim, Calm, Sexy Yoga?  Anyone gotten it yet?

People are passionate about yoga!  If only I had this many questions in my ‘ask’ box to entertain myself with during breaks at work. ;)  I was rather surprised to find this many answers awaiting me.  I don’t suppose any of you know a good place to get started in the San Diego area, particularly either Escondido or La Jolla?  Sounds like a good idea, and I might be able to just summon up the courage to go to a class all on my lonesome … or maybe I can find a friend to go with me.  Hmm… just need to find a place! 

I’ve been thinking about giving yoga another try (I’m not sure I really like it, it doesn’t produce the changes I want to see rapidly enough), though this time I want to couple it with weight training on light cardio days. 

What’s the best way to learn yoga?  From a book or from a class?