A new rule

I don't have many commenting rules on this blog, but here's one:

If you are commenting anonymously, and you do not "sign" your comment, I will feel no obligation to post it.

Apparently someone is spamming blogs - or maybe just mine - with anonymous "call your representative over this and that" comments, and, faugh, I don't like non-sequitur comments on posts, so they have gone where the goblins go, yo-ho, yo-ho.

(Sorry. Still cranky because my allergies are bad and I now realize that whatever joint pain I seem to have - mostly in knees - is noticeable on days when my allergies are bad. I had to run up and down the stairs a couple times for various supplies for lab today and now my knees aren't happy)

Speaking of cranky, this picture ran through my Twitter feed yesterday:

It had the caption, "Poor li'l cranky wrinkle goblin" which makes me laugh, but also:

that cat's expression.

it's perfect.

It's like, one of the best summings-up of "Current Mood" when I am really angry and lashy-out-at-the-world and I just want to hiss at everything.

But: if I'm in that mood, saying "poor cranky li'l goblin" to me (I omit "wrinkle," because I really don't have that many yet) would get you hurt.

(Also, this is one reason why I don't want a Sphinx cat even if people tell me they are less allergenic. The other two reasons are:

a. they don't feel like a proper cat
b. the males, at least.....there's stuff there my eyes don't want to see when they walk away from you. If I had a male Sphinx cat in my vicinity, I'd make him wear pants)

***

Also, in the annals of my (not) exciting life....a student stopped me after lab today (it was a short lab, thank goodness, seeing as I have a meeting at 3:30)

"You know my lab partner [let's call him Jeff Spicoli]? Have you noticed how he seems to miss every week?"

Me, rubbing my forehead, "Yes, I have" (and not adding that Mr. Spicoli has also failed to hand in a moderately-important assignment, and that Mr. Spicoli was also the one with the audacity to e-mail me seeking a topic less than 24 hours before said assignment was due)

Student: "Well, I don't know what to do, and I don't know if you'd be okay with this....but Jeff lives right here in town and I commute an hour to get here...."

Oh man. Yes, bring up all your hardships, why not, even though I'm already going to the place you want me to. (And immediately my super-ego reminds me to be kind, because everyone is fighting some kind of hard battle)

I reminded him that I told the class at the start of the semester if someone chronically skipped lab, and it wasn't like an illness issue, their lab partner was perfectly justified in refusing to give them data. I told him I noticed Mr. Spicoli's skippage, and I was aware of it.

And of course, he had to add: "I talked to your colleague [Let's call *him* Big Mac] last semester because he was my partner in Big Mac's class and he always skipped then."

Me, rubbing my forehead again: "Yes, okay, as I said, you don't have to give Mr. Spicoli the data." (And I'm thinking: you don't have to bring Big Mac into this, though I know his opinion is the same as mine on class-skippers.

But anyway: this is why professors have gray hair. And this is why I'm so tired at the end of the week, because I'm fundamentally having to manage a bunch of other people's emotions in various ways, and yet, I have no one (other than this little blog) that I can really dump MY emotions on.

But yeah, I'm wise to Mr. Spicoli and I'm about done with him, after having had him in other classes where he pulled this kind of a stunt. (And anyway, Mr. Spicoli, at this point, will be repeating this class if he needs it to graduate)