Been a busy weekend of grading without much motivation, but now I'm in the home stretch. This blog entry is about the last reasonable distraction I can think of before I absolutely will have to go back in there and finish the rest of the grading.
I just got one answer on the exam (it's a short answer test) to the effect of: "1) I don't know this one, but I'm writing some stuff here hoping that you don't really read it and will give me credit. 2) I know this answer is supposed to have two parts, so here's something else." I wrote in the margin, "I tried that with my high school English teacher. It didn't work then, either." No credit.
Daniel (our 18-month-old) scribbled all over a couple of exams with red pen when I left the pile unattended. Oops. That'll scare the hell out of those two when they're flipping through their graded exams tomorrow.
Michelle has been using her time more constructively, finishing her new blog, which I will now update my link for in the sidebar. If Word Press works out well for her, I may switch over, too, depending upon what the next version of MT has in store. Transferring archives has to be done manually, though, and I really want to avoid that.
Oh, and while I'm thinking about it, I'd like to add good comments about the ongoing Sci Fi series "Battlestar Galactica". So far, it is developing very well. Some of it is kinda slow-moving, but with each episode, they're building in a little more background and raising the stakes. This has real promise. It's a hell of a lot better than the first season of ST:TNG or Babylon 5, both of which eventually became very good, in my opinion. But I still miss the music of the original series.
I'm also looking forward to the (Sci Fi) miniseries "The 4400" this week, which follows the stories of some of the 4400 alien abductees (from various times over the past 50 years) who are suddenly returned to Earth without having aged. Sounds like a neat premise.
Posted by Observer at February 20, 2005 04:19 PMComments on entries can only be made in pop-up windows while those entries are still on the main index page. Sorry for the inconvenience this causes, but this blocks about 99.99% of the spam the blog receives.
"Michelle has been using her time more constructively,"
I can't decide if I should take the statement offensively or what. ;) More contructively...as opposed to what? Cooking and cleaning? Heh
Posted by: felicity on February 20, 2005 06:01 PMAnything is more constructive when compared to my trying to finish a poor Piers Anthony series, reading blogs, updating or any of a number of distractions I've employed all weekend to avoid grading. :)
Hey, at least I didn't play any Clan Lord. I logged in as Siri a week ago and did some coin whoring. It was fun. For once, I didn't run into any competition in NW forest or north plains. Problem was, it didn't take long before I realized that there were about a million other real life things that I wanted to get done rather than accumulate resources in an on-line game.
I was glad to run into some old friends, but it sucked not having my sunstone to talk to people. Now I wish I hadn't given that away when we quit the game.
Posted by: Observer on February 20, 2005 07:40 PMI'm glad Humbaba didn't give anything away. Still had 4k in the bank, a sunstone, two orgaberries, a lilaberry, a museum space token...
Turns out keeping it all was the correct move, but I'm sure I could have gotten a sunstone from a clanmate.
B and I watched and liked the 4400 last summer.
Posted by: Humbaba on February 20, 2005 09:33 PMYeah, I pulled out Polerand and couldn't remember if i had given anything away or not. I hadn't, but I had way too much in storage ... sheesh.
Oh, and that's just TOO funny about Daniel marking up the exams.
Posted by: Polerand on February 21, 2005 12:59 PMThe 4400 was very good. Kirk & I are hoping Sci Fi decides to make it into a series. :)
We also like Battlestar Gallactica as well.
Posted by: Liz on February 22, 2005 07:35 AMHope to see more of you guys in CL. :-D
About Michelle's new blog: ok, I know you're trying to get rid of spam and stuff, but I honestly don't like being forced to register to read a blog. I know, I know, it's security and stuff and knowing who's reading. I just feel offput, like when I try to read an article from the NY Times that someone has linked to and I can't because I'm not a member of some elite club since I refuse to create an account. Just my 2 cents.
And then I go to the new blog and it seems spam is happening anyway and comments aren't working there until ya'll get it fixed. (thus the comment here.) THEN I find out there's ANOTHER section of "PRIVATE" posts that I have to go and get even ANOTHER pwd for?!? Ok, I like you guys and all, but now I'm starting to think fuck it, why bother? I'll just read someone else's blog who doesn't make me jump through fourteen hoops to prove I'm a worthy reader.
Posted by: Perkusi on February 22, 2005 08:51 AMThe registration issues and overhead are a big reason I'm going to try to stick with MT. WordPress has some anti-spam stuff plugins, but Michelle hasn't implemented any yet. For now, it is best to shut down comments until she has time to fix that. What else can you do when you wake up to get ready for work and find out that your blog was discovered by spam scripts during the night? Sorry about that.
As for the private posts ... maybe it would be better if for private posts, Michelle should just send out email updates rather than posting it to her blog. But then it kinda feels different, doesn't it? And then it's not all together for her convenience.
The private posts are necessary, though, for reasons that Michelle has discussed before (e.g. co-workers reading her blog without letting her know they found it). I try to keep my stories vague, my quotes paraphrased, and my job sketchy just so I am not so easily identified (plausible deniability). That way, I can tell stories once in a while without having to worry about people reading over my shoulder and potentially getting me in trouble.
Posted by: Observer on February 22, 2005 09:12 AMJust to clarify: I wasn't complaining about comments being turned off there. I totally understood that! Just letting you know why I was whining here instead of there. :-P
Posted by: Perkusi on February 22, 2005 08:10 PM