how going to the dentist got worse...

Ok, it's no stretch to say that most people don't especially enjoy going to the dentist. It's not much better if you often find yourself as the lucky recipient of a return trip to fill cavities as I frequently am.

Today, though, there were no cavities. Great, right? No return trip, no paying more money for expensive, painful, time consuming procedures. All is well. Until they decided I needed a "fluoride varnish" applied to my teeth. This is where things go down hill. (And keep in mind, I had three cavities on my last trip to the dentist and fully expected to match that this go around... And also, I own a toothbrush and am well aware of how to use it. Genetics doesn't work in my favor here...)

So, back to the fluoride varnish. When the hygienist and the dentist started throwing around terms like varnish that I only associate with staining wood and the accompanying horrendous odors, I should have prepared myself for the worst. Instead, I laid there waiting to get this last little formality out of the way so I could move on with my cavity free day.

Then, it began.

There were new tools involved (never a good situation at the dentist... I want to recognize what's there on the table for the hygienist to clean my gums... I mean teeth with... new is not good). With the new tools, she begins to paint (as best I can describe it) this terrible gunk onto my teeth. It feels somewhat similar to when you put a piece of gum between your teeth and your upper lip. The only difference is that this kind of has the texture of a melted gummy worm with dirt mixed in. Not cool.

About the time she finishes up, she starts in with the rules. No eating/drinking for an hour (fine, whatever...), and no brushing until late tonight (Are you kidding? You tell me this after you slopped glue all over my mouth???). I've never wanted to brush my teeth more in my life. If you asked me whether I'd rather participate in fluoride varnishing again or eat a dirt sandwich, there's really a 50/50 shot that I'd take either option.

6 hours to go...

Valuable thoughts on tracking in public school classrooms (or, evidently the verbal section of the GRE doesn't deter enough people from grad school..)

For those of you in the education world who haven't been sleeping through all of your staff development, you've heard all sorts or arguments about tracking. For tracking. Against tracking. Track and field. Tracking for these kids but not those kids. All sorts of arguments I mean discussions.

I'm not here to talk about tracking, but I thought you might like to see what some of my esteemed classmates in the pursuit of higher learning about learning are saying about the issue:

about this issue, at the end is depending what point of view do we see, negative or positive and how to minimize negative aspects

The wonderful thing about having AP credit is that a lot of colleges and universities will take these credits and apply them to a bachelor's degree. So, when they leave high school with several college hours, they are more likely to say, "hey, I have a head start, why not finish a degree??"

Adults change their minds so why wouldn't students change their minds as well?

Notice the insightful revelations, sound logic, and superb control of the English language employed to express these deep thoughts during a recent discussion. It really is remarkable. And to think, such advanced statements are being supplied by the students in graduate level studies! Imagine what those PhD candidates are capable of creating! It boggles the mind!

Don't think for a second that these jewels are one of a kind (or three of a kind or whatever smart remark you may have just thought). There's plenty more where they came from. In fact, there are more than 120 posts in each of my discussion threads filled with substantive posts (words of the prof) like these that provide a lively and productive discussion for all parties involved.

If one of my classmates shares another epiphany or two, I may post those as well. I've got to give myself some reason to read all those posts...

Finished

So... I just finished college. Pending the grading of my last paper, I'll be all finished up. It's a pretty weird feeling, and it's safe to say it hasn't sunk in yet. I even got the paper (my last remaining assignment) turned in a full 22 hours before the deadline. What's wrong with me? The procrastinating side of myself must be very disappointed with me. Maybe it'll get around to letting me know sometime.

The biggest lesson here is this: I shouldn't start blog entries after 2am... they tend to ramble... on... and on...

What I learned at school today...

Here's an excerpt from my professor's announcement today:

If you concern about your grade, make sure your exceed the expectations for online discussions and you can get up to 5 points of extra credit.

Now I understand bad grammar is more common than hot days in the Texas summer, and normally I try to give people a break on this type of thing. However, if you post the following in your syllabus, you have to be prepared to write grammatically correct English.

From the syllabus:

Edit your message before posting it. Numerous grammatical errors and spelling errors or a "stream of consciousness" approach makes reading your message tedious.

Yup.

(Inevitably, I've written something that's grammatically incorrect in my rant... pick on me, make fun of me, whatever. I'm not the one working on my PhD and teaching grad classes...)

the post about a future post

Until now, I've kept silent (at least on the blog... in person, totally different story...) about my lovely certification/grad program. I've just finished writing a nice little post about it. However, I'm going to wait to post it until I've officially wrapped things up here in a few weeks. I like what I've written, but it's not especially nice. Also, I don't have any intentions of changing it to be so. So look for that in the coming weeks, once I've secured my bump in pay and another framable sheet of paper.

Also, fyi, I'm not ripping into people too terribly or naming names of those who should be excommunicated from the department or anything. I just may have a few things to say that would hack people off, and I don't care to invite that type of fun into my life before the class ends. Whatever. Just read the post when it gets here, and decide for yourself...

the end of an era

I took my last test of my college career this morning. It went without a hitch, and everyone in the room passed their oral exams. The guys liked what I've been working on with philosophical chairs and such. Nice to feel like I actually did some meaningful research.

On my way home I had to take evasive action to avoid being T boned by a careless driver in an F250 (could have been an F350... it was a large white Ford truck moving my way quickly... you get the idea...).

Also, I avoided getting at ticket despite my illegal parking. I really felt like I stuck it to them.

Today's mailbox surprise

If you've spent any time at all looking for deals on the web, you've likely made your way to woot.com. It's a deal a day website that offers everything from electronics to useless toys to matresses. Every so often, the holy grail of woot.com pops up, the bag of crap. On July 12th, the bag of crap surfaced again. I was one of the lucky recipients who forked over $5 for some of their junk.

Why would I want a bag of crap, you ask? Well in every bag of crap the wooter (one who frequents woot.com) will find 3 "craps" from around the woot warehouses. The best crap ever received was a 40" flatscreen. For $5. You can imagine my excitement when this was in the mailbox today:

Side note: most bags of crap sell out in less than 5 minutes...

to make this last one more widely available, woot.com sold woot lights (seen below) and picked a tenth of the customers to also get bags of crap... end side note...

What I knew I was getting:

When I opened the box, I thought it would only contain the woot lights. I was fine with that. You can imagine my excitement when I saw other crap in there. (Ok maybe you can't. Work with me...)

Crap #1

The crappiest of the craps. Seriously, what am I going to do with this Christmas stocking?

Crap #2

A little screwdriver/flashlight combo. Not bad. A nice addition to the junk already living in my truck.

Crap #3

And what's inside of this mystery bag?

High-brow comedy :)

All in all, a good first experience with the bag of crap. Hopefully I'll have a chance at a few more.