As far as I can tell, almost nobody at my school who teaches first-year calculus gets good ratings for it.

This shocks me not at all.

So, Hil, got any ideas on points I should make about expectation and the St. Petersburg problem?

I'm imitating msbelle. I'm bouncing. Will probably be afflicted all weekend. bouncebounce!

Hil, I looked up my physics profs. They nailed one, but you can really tell who were the physics students and who weren't. Those that said he was a tough old bear but he rocked were physics majors. Those who called him a tough old bear perjoratively were not. And Rex is cantankerous. He expects you to work your ass off. He argues with you for the sake of making you think. And he's the same dude that when I was homeless, mailed me his keys so I could stay in his unoccupied house and then his WIFE found me a place to rent, from a distance. His thanksgivings for all the holiday orphans were legendary, in all their boozesoakedness(GROG! GLUWEIN!) and the fact so many of us slept on his floors. When one of the continuing ed students (in english, not physics) was having financial problems, he gave him a stern lecture of interest rates and financial planning...and then floated him an interest free loan (provided the guy wrote a comparative paper on interest.)

He could be a total bastard, but he always started out in your corner. You had to un-earn that.

Man, I need to write him. I think I got on with him like a house on fire because I know his type (just like my dad) but he connected with so many others. Screaming matches in his office were common, but those same screamers showed up in his hospital room after his hip surgery.

(he also pulled a whole pile of us on his lap and bawled along with us after the funeral of another beloved physics prof. How he fit 9 18-21 year olds on his lap at once, some of them not-small people, I don't know. We were just this pile of grief.)

While I'm waxing about my college profs, I gotta share this. In the department, Rex was the bull in that china shop, Sheridan (deceased) was some exotic cat-dancing crazily and upsetting nothing, but dazzling you nonetheless. Thom was the monkey, performing crazy tricks and incessantly poking at you. Rob, who came in to take Sheridan's spot, was the bloodhound. He'd seek out your talents and press them upon you.

It was a good team.

are you drunk?

I thought minearverse was the default procrastinator thread?

I've had one scotch, but that doesn't account for the bounce!

And why must me bouncing equal drunk, damnit! You KNOW my capabilities for out of character behavior. You confine my multitudes!

I think she's bouncy cause she's vacating.

I am SO VACATING. By monday, I won't even be futzed about work shit, I guarantee.

edit: now having scotch #2. You can accuse me of inebriation in about 30 minutes.

Man, I wish I were vacating. Instead I am taking time I don't feel like I really have to go hang out at my parents', which I like, but not right now. The fall semester is one big holiday clusterfuck. Bah. And I should be cleaning now, since there's some possibility that a friend wants to come over tomorrow, due to an OC malfunction. But I'm not. So there.

I've had 5 family trips in the past 12 months. This one is for me. Actually, last one for me was ...either NY or Boise, when my friend's daughter was born, which was.... over a year ago. Only? Seems longer.