This is some remarkable chutzpah. A student emailed me to ask if he could take a make-up quiz, because he'd be missing class the day of the quiz. (His reason for missing class was not all that great.) I told him he could, if he took the quiz on Monday, or Tuesday morning, because I'd be handing back the graded quizzes and going over the answers in class on Tuesday. (The quiz was last Friday.) He said he'd be out of town until Thursday. So I said no. Then he emailed me back, asking me to reconsider, because he can't have another zero on a quiz because he already has one zero. The reason he has one zero? He got that zero because I caught him cheating on a quiz. And he's lucky that I just gave him a zero, rather than filing a formal report.

And he's lucky that I just gave him a zero, rather than filing a formal report.

That'll teach ya. Next time file the report.

I had a student once who I caught cheating, as in cribbed the bulk of his paper from various sources. I generously called it "unintentional plagiarism" even though the only bit I suspected was unintended was the getting caught part. But then he went to my boss and protested my F saying he should get a D. Boss said F was more than generous, and then directed me to formally submit the student for plagiarism.

Take your slide and be more careful in the future, doofus. They know what you did, and getting pissy makes other people angry.

He's been giving me attitude about this before, too. I'd consulted with my supervisor about what to do with the cheating, and she said to give them a zero and a warning this time, and to tell them that, for all future quizzes and exams, they had to sit in the front row, not next to each other. The other guy was apologetic, and just asked if he could sit in the second row instead, because he wasn't comfortable sitting in the front row, which was weird, but he looked really uncomfortable asking, so I said OK. This guy sat way in the back during the next exam. I went up to him and told him to move to the front, and he started arguing with me about it, while a girl who was sitting near him and could figure out why I was telling him to move started giggling. Dude, you wouldn't have to do this in front of everyone if you'd just sat in the front row like I told you to in the first place.

I am home sick today. It's 1/2 really feeling like I'm getting sick, and 1/2 mental health day. Which may get awkward because my boss is my handyman and is supposed to come fix our dryer today.

I really feel weird, and I'm not sure why. Like, suddenly very depressed or something, but it's not exactly that. I don't know what's up. Maybe I'll do some meditation. Or just sleep some more. I don't know. E is out of town so work has been total chaos for the last two weeks.

smonster, I'm sorry you feel of the ick.

smonster, sounds legitimate reason for a day off to me. Do you have allergies? I'm a big believer that when my allergies start to kick in my depression gets worse.

So, the changing doctor thing just took care of itself without me having to do anything. Current doctor is retiring, and I can move over to the doctor of my choice starting next month.

Catching up ...

Satire only really works from the bottom up. Satire is making fun of the rich/powerful; making fun of the poor/weak is just mean.

Allergies are terrible at this point (in general, not just me); the other day I walked out of my building and every car up and down the street had a visible layer of green pollen. achoo!

I'm not sure if it's allergies, or smoke drifting in from a Siberian forest fire (true fact, our weather people tracked the gunk), or dust kicked up from construction sites and badly placed sand volleyball courts, but my eyes are burning and my sinuses hate me.

I don't usually have allergies but I am sneezing like crazy this week.