I Am Neglecting You

Get used to it. End of the semester.

Hi, Pete

I better post something before someone has a breakdown and decides like a total dumbass to wear a ski mask to class in April after VT and cause a lockdown.

Pete wanted to read the abuse commentary that would result from the following story, so here goes...

My computer locked up (damn you, Microsoft!) and I was going to hit the power strip button to kill it when the chair I was leaning on gave way and I fell into the corner of my desk...breaking my sternum. Lamest broken sternum story ever, I know, but I am considering filing suit against Bill Gates. In the meantime, feel free to offer cookies and gifts to soothe my owie.

1991

In 1991, the University of Iowa had a shooting. It was my senior year of high school, after I had decided I would attend UI the following fall. I remember the sites of the killings creeped me out back then--I never liked Van Allen Hall in particular, and was more than happy to successfully avoid entering Jessup until 2005.

I still don't like Van Allen Hall (but have been stuck in classes in it all year), and whenever I walk on the T. Ann Cleary Walkway, I remember why it got its name. Most of the students now don't know about the Gang Lu shootings. It was horrible, but it has been mostly forgotten. Other than a small plaque and wreath that nobody pays attention to, there's not much left to remember it by.

I don't think Virginia Tech's horrific incident today will be forgotten by that campus in the decades to come. The scale of it is just too big. My heart breaks for the victims, their families, witnesses, and the rest of the university community.

A Quote

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

-Benjamin Franklin

I've always liked that one.

Ten Minute Exam

Have you ever felt ripped-off by an exam? Like you studied for the hardest thing they could throw at you, and then they lobbed a total softball? Like you left thinking, "Damnit, every idiot in that class could get an 'A'."?

Oh well. At least it's not curved...so it doesn't hurt me if everyone else got an "A".

(And, yes, I do tend to think of the other people in my classes as idiots. Except for my upper-level courses. I'm a jerk.)