Five on Friday #141

EINS - Random things

-I was talking to the vets in my Calc class and admitted that I used to play World of Warcraft, to which they responded, so did we.  Then I also admitted that I was really having a "craving" to go mining in WoW and they completely understood.  #NerdsUnite

-Let's talk about rage for a moment.  My photoshop professor's grading and the inability to make a perfect score on any assignment.  Our most recent project was to create 3 panoramas in photoshop.  This is actually a very simple task and I have actually shot photos specifically for the purpose of making them into a panorama, so I was ready.  I stitched together my 3 panoramas, set the auto color/contrast/etc on all of them (because I am an over-contrastor and over-greener) because that's what he tends to prefer based on feedback from other projects I've submitted.  I actually submitted 4 instead of 3 by accident and still only made a 190/200 points.  He didn't leave comments on this one for me to know why I lost points.

Here's my real problem.  There is no grading rubric anywhere.  Not even the assignments are posted with a rubric of requirements.  So grading is completely subjective.  /RAGE

I let another student use some of my photos for her projects and I'm interested to see what grade she made.
Final note: The teacher let several students leave to take photos for the project during class time and didn't tell them how to shoot for a panoramic.  I was the one who finally brought it up after another student was asking me if I thought his pictures would work (no).  I know that this is an arts class and it's really a senior blow off class, but I feel like I've learned nothing and what I thought was going to be an easy A isn't because of the instructor's subjectivity.  My only goal is to get an A in that class because it's Photoshop.  I learned more watching YouTube videos than I have in this class.

-In lieu of a biology lab this week, I'm pretty sure we had sex ed, but used a microscope to look at what Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, yeast (like from a yeast infection), and a louse (head, not pubic) look like to call it "lab."  This isn't actually worth commenting on.. except that... The Citadel is more than 90% male, and that does NOT bother me in the slightest.

What bothers me is that probable-sexually-active adult males were asking questions about birth control because they don't know about it.  I was educating my instructor on Depo-Provera and he was using it as an in-class example of birth control.  THIS IS NOT OK.  I do not claim to know everything there is to know about being male, but I feel confident about my level of knowledge about male birth control options (yeah, I know they are limited), but here's my thing.  Birth control is a TWO WAY STREET, if you are using it responsibly as a decision NOT to have a child and/or a means to protect yourself from a sexually transmitted disease.  The instructor even pointed out that women have most of the burden when it comes to birth control, which kinda made me want to punch him in the face.

NEWS FLASH!
Sex isn't awkward unless you let it be.  I can (almost) guarantee that your parents had sex and so did your Granny and even your great-great-great-great-grandparents.  Based on biology, sex is not only completely normal, it's natural.  There are scientific reasons that we want to have sex.  All too often, people associate sex with shame and then it becomes a taboo and kids think they have to sneak around to have sex.

I believe that sex isn't shameful and normalizing sex will help reduce teen pregnancy.  It will also open lines of communication between teenagers and adults.  To villainize or shame feelings about sex is to make it more appealing to teenagers.  My thing is that teenagers (and even some children) are going to have sex no matter what.  To have open lines of communication about that means that teenagers/children can make educated decisions about their bodies with the help of an adult.

Obviously, I feel quite strongly about this.
PS.  If you want me to give your kid the birds and the bees talk, I'm available.

-Midterm grades:

• Photoshop - A (but barely, grrr)
• Computer Science 2 - A (because I do my homework)
• Calculus 1 - B (which is because I love derivatives)
• German 2 - A (but it won't last if I don't step up my game)
• Biology 2 - B (this is a blow off class for me to meet a requirement that my NCSU credits didn't fulfill even though I fulfilled it already, #DGAF)
• Biology 2 Lab - A (duh)

I'd like to pull both B's up to an A, but I'm not sure if it will be possible.  We shall see.
As always, passing is the minimum requirement, but all A's is preferable.

-Spring break is next week!  I've got the "spring break itis" so bad this I can't accurately describe it, but trust me, school is not where I want to be.

-Teh Running Bestie will be here next week!  She's bring FOUR dogs with her and I'm excited and I'm not telling Teh German because, 1- I'm an asshole, 2- I don't want to deal with his stress about "all the dogs" until they arrive (ugh, just no on the drama llama), 3- I kind of want to see his reaction when he comes home to SIX dogs in the house, 4- I am excited to have 6 dogs in the house, 5- There will be 4 humans and 6 dogs, we can handle it.

-Teh Advising Sister is coming over Easter weekend and I'm puuuuumppped.  She was here for the wedding, but she made the commute and before that, she was here when House was in-progress, so she gets to see the final results!

-70 days until we start our honeymoon adventure(s)! 

-Meri's 4th Gotcha Day was this week and that fuzz-bucket is a decision that was an easy choice once it was right in front of me.  It took me a while to warm up to the idea of 2 dogs, but once she came home, it was like she was exactly what we'd been missing.

My Monkey-Doodle still has that Podenco crazy, but she's changed soooo much in our 4 years together.  When she came home, she was full of puppy terrorism (to include losing all her baby teeth everywhere and then I'd step on them and cuss) and an addiction to stuffed mice.  Despite Phil's resistance to playing with her, she never bothered him.  Today, she's terrorized by Pax but she has to charge her batteries sometimes, which wasn't always a requirement.  She has never stopped dripping water all over my floors or whoring for butt scratches and she's definitely part cat with her desire to curl up and snuggle always.  I look forward to a decade more with my Wiggly-butt-doodlebug.

ZWEI - Money spent

• Annual vet visit for the Beasts
• Groceries, groceries, groceries, and more groceries.
• pest-control payment 
• water bill
• monthly homework assistant bill
• Sunday brunch
• new Camelbak since I lost mine on the dive trip and my old Nalgene doesn't have a straw 
• new laptop, wireless mouse, and case for Teh Granny.
• Eye doc appt + new glasses.
• Sentinel Spectrum for Pax
• Postage to mail Teh Granny her new tech
• probiotics for myself and the beasts.
• dog food auto-ship
• lunch on weds since a group of vet students were going to a place I hadn't been before. 
• It was an overpriced hipster shop and I won't make that mistake again.
• Dresser for the guest room (from FB marketplace)

DREI - Things from my phone

Cadbury, why you do me like this?
PS.  I used this as an opportunity to strengthen my immune system.

I got to select the colors...
Blue laptop, purple mouse, yellow sleeve.
#NoFavoriteColor

Took Yurtle through the car wash on Weds afternoon.
Parked here on Thursday morning...
Thanks Citadel for the "car wash" to collect all the pollen...
Please note, ONLY my car was in the direction of the sprinkler.
#FML

That probably looks like a bird or dot to you, but it is an E-2 Hawkeye and I'm 100% sure it doesn't live in Charleston and it's probably drunk and needs to go home before too many VX-1 bumblebee memories flood my brain.

Eye appointment on Tuesday for Teh German and I.
We got dilated!

If you've been around for a while, you probably remember my posts about finding the most ridiculous sunglasses.  Well, that game has now spread into the word of vision correction.  #NOTSORRY

If my teeth were worse, I'd look like Megan from Mad Men.

Lookin' like Teh Mom circa 1986-1997.

Lookin' like Teh MD-Teenage Roomie

I liked this color

EPIC NERD POWA!

I don't know why these are making a come-back, but no.

I told Teh German no on these for personal reasons.

I really loved the color of these, but I could see the green from the inside and it was very distracting.

Final selection.
I went with bigger lenses since my current glasses are a bit too narrow, which wasn't an issue before school.

VIER - Things from the Internet

FÜNF - 10 things that made me happy this week

1. Ideas for Wednesday blog posts..
2. SPRING MOTHERFUCKIN' BREAK
3. Lower anxiety med doses and having feelings and being clear again.
4. Getting Granny's laptop set up the day I received it and getting it mailed off the following day.  GETTING SHIT DONE.  BOOM.
5. Monday and Tuesday going quickly.
6. Classes ending early and decisions to skip certain classes on Friday.
7. A notable lack of homework over spring break.
8. Getting the laundry done in an afternoon.
9. 4 A's and 2 B's as my midterm grades. #LikeAFuckinBoss
10. Making plans for visitors!

Happy Friday, Gentle Readers.