'Democracy in Action' does not mean 'hack our listservs'

A succession of three emails from the Provost of George Mason. First:

Date: Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:41:05 -0500
From: Office of the Provost
Subject: Additional Info on Election Day
To: ANNOUNCE04-L@mail04.gmu.edu

To the Mason Community:

I hear some troubling rumors, so here are a couple of facts: 1. The election is Nov. 4, for all political parties. The notion that one party votes Nov. 5 is UNTRUE. 2. It is also UNTRUE that any student jeopardizes financial aid by voting.

Peter N. Stearns
Provost

Then:

Date: Tue, 04 Nov 2008 01:16:42 -0500
From: Office of the Provost
Subject: Election Day Update
To: ANNOUNCE04-L@mail04.gmu.edu

To the Mason Community:

Please note that election day has been moved to November 5th. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Peter N. Stearns
Provost

Finally:

Date: Tue, 04 Nov 2008 08:08:21 -0500
From: Office of the Provost
Subject: Urgent Voting Information
To: PROVOSTOFFICE-L@mail04.gmu.edu

Dear Colleagues,

It has come to my attention early this morning that a message was hacked into the system fraudulently stating that election day has been moved. I am sure everybody realizes this is a hoax, it is also a serious offense and we are looking into it. Please be reminded that election day is today, November 4th.

Peter N. Stearns
Provost

I spent exactly 30 seconds looking at the headers of the second message and found:

Received: from m154.prod.democracyinaction.org ([8.15.20.154])
by ironport2.gmu.edu with ESMTP; Tue, 04 Nov 2008 01:16:42 -0500
Received: from [10.15.20.114] ([10.15.20.114:39637] helo=web4.mcl.wiredforchange.com)

Apparently someone at Democracy In Action in DC wants to keep our browner students away from the polls today? Don't they know Mason is a commuter school?

Obama RSVPs

You may recall that I invited Barack to my graduation party. His response?

Dear John,

Thank you for contacting Obama for America and for inviting Senator Barack Obama to your event. Over the course of the campaign, Barack has met with or spoken to hundreds of thousands of Americans at kitchen tables, large rallies, small town hall meetings, and other events in every part of the country. He appreciates the outpouring of support he has received at every stop.

The unprecedented level of campaign activity since early last year speaks to the strong desire of the American people to reclaim their government. We consider every invitation, and Senator Obama values your interest in his candidacy. Due to time constraints, he must decline a large majority of invitations. After careful review, we have determined that Senator Obama will not be able to participate in your event.

We hope that you stay involved and engaged with the campaign, because we need your help. As Barack has said, “if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when… we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves, and our highest ideals.”

Thank you again for your interest and your understanding, and please accept our best wishes for a successful event.

Sincerely,

Team Scheduling
Obama for America
www.barackobama.com

=(

EA Sports: Gunston is 18th Lamest Mascot

According to an EA Sport's poll, George Mason's Mascot Gunston is 18th lamest:



Wow. Who cares?

Last Class, Last Final

So Close...

Paper and presentation went well, now for the final.

Hi. Remember Me? I'm Your Blogger?

Instead of the usual "woe is me"...

I had been extremely busy at work and at school. Last night, we submitted our group project and gave our presentation (I'm pleased with both), so the bulk of my school work is done. I'm less than a week away from graduating. Party planning and deck replacement are in progress; if you did not get an invitation, let me know.

Work has also calmed down a little, so you might actually see some blog posts from me. Who knows, I might even update my website that's been "under construction" for 18 months.

wh00t!!!

Spring 2008 Semester is Over

And good riddance.

Here's the rundown:
Business Law B+
Systems Analysis: B+

A very special fuck you to Data Warehousing. That final exam was ridiculous (though not as ridiculous as my online grade report from Blackboard):



That math doesn't add up to me, but I'll take my A- and run for the hills.

One class left, and I have until June 2nd to catch up with my friends and get my life back in order.

It occurs to me

While waiting to start my business law exam, I overheard some students discussing registration for their fall classes.

I realized this is probably the first time in 11 years I have not anticipated the new class schedule or chased my time ticket.

!!!

Four weeks, then 1 class to go. I'll actually have my undergrad before I turn 30, and I can do whatever the fuck I want this fall.

A return to DJ school perhaps?

This Post Contains 100% Pre and Post-Consumer Complaining

First I want to pat myself on the back: I completed 62 credits since Summer 2006, have three classes on my plate now, and just one more stands between me and graduation. There's no doubt I'll be done in Summer of 2008, perhaps forever.

School has wadded me up and thrown me in with the dirty laundry.

Working a new, full time job, and taking three classes at night (Mon/Wed/Thu), my schedule is pretty rigid. I'm pretty good at keeping track and getting everything done, but unexpected events throw me for a loop. As soon as I get a syllabus, I add any tests or assignment due-dates to my calendar.

My Monday class is led by a professor I had last semester. He's a bright guy, and he really wants his students to 'get it' (by 'it', I mean an STD), but he's very disorganized and a little scatter-brained in his examples. He tends to dribble out homework assignments, give an unrealistic due date, then change the due date. I would rather that he either (1) post assignments AND due dates at the beginning of the semester, or (2) at least post due dates at the beginning of the semester, so I can PLAN well in advance for an assignment. All our assignments are done in groups, and everyone in my group HAS A JOB. He handed out our first on February 11th, and we were certain it was due Wed, 2/27. In fact, it was due 2/20, and we found this out when he gave us an extension to 2/21. That gave us only one day to collaborate and pull this thing together.

P.S. -- the assignment itself: asinine.

Of course we pulled it off and submitted it before midnight, but here I am: instead of doing my job, paying attention in another class, or sleeping, I'm trying to half-ass some assignment he half-assed himself. I'm paying for the pleasure of your unpreparedness.

Wednesday night was Business Law, where our professor (who works for DOJ, and used to be a DOJ trial attorney) scolded us for the grades on our first exam, and suggested that the lower quintile might want to consider dropping his class. I originally had high hopes for this class, but aside from some small legal details (understanding citations like 497 F.3d 955), it's been American history. Judicial review 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137 (1803) gives you a boner: I get it. I'm comfortable with the Bill of Rights, not just because I paid attention in 8th grade social studies, but I go to George Mason University. Dude may have been 5 feet tall WASP, but he was all BOR all the time. Blah blah blah.

Thursday nights are my required Systems Analysis class. Forget that I took a 200-level Systems Analysis class as a CS major (which was more difficult), or that I've done this professionally for the past 10 years, there is no mechanism in SOM at GMU to let me waive or substitute it. My professor is an adjunct who works for Oracle, and everyone who works for Oracle is a sales person. This is the first class I've had where the professor will be getting all 0s on his evaluation. I like Oracle's tools, but I don't need a 3 hours sales demo every week.

I'm at the end of the road, and I will finish, but I am exhausted, and it's pointless. I don't care about my professors, I don't care about my course work, I don't even care about my grades as long as I pass. I want out.

And...I'm sad because I want a puppy, but it would be lonely and die with my schedule. Most week days, I leave the house by 9:00am, and I'm not home until after 10:00pm. I'd rather have a puppy than school. George's new puppy, Maggie, is cuter than words:

Tell me: would you rather have that sweet face, or a business law test?

I thought so.

Liveblogging: Billiam Clinton @ Mason

Joey and Corey joined me in the Johnson Center at George Mason for Bill Clinton's pre-Potomac Primary rally for his cyborg proto-spouse.

8:53 - left class early for the 9:00pm "start". Wait, didn't Bill make 50 nations wait to get food at McDonald's?
8:58 - Billary's staff: HOMELY
9:08 - found a spot to watch, too bad 1,000 sociopathic Asians think it's Chinese New Year, but instead it's ADA and VIPs only
9:15 - speech from campus democrats about how awesome they are for organizing this awesome event in this not-so-awesome venue. The Patriot Center worked for the final four, but not so much for Clinton.
9:43 - somewhere, the 42nd President is loose, and fat coeds are not safe.
9:50 - **cheers** Blah blah Clinton.
9:56 - "my case for Hillary": cute face, chubby waist, thick legs in shape

9:58 - "signing up poor Hispanics to vote"
9:59 - dumb whore falls off chair she's standing on. crowd cheers.
10:00 - "blah blah" something about Israel

10:01 - "you may remember"...no you don't, you were 8 when it happened
10:02 - "you may think NY is a Democratic state"...
10:04 - "last year she passed the student loan blah blah bill"
10:05 - "mortgage meltdown, recession" -- unbelievable!
10:06 - "90 day mortgage review" -- keep the munthly on ma house. booyah!
10:09 - "raise your hand if you know someone without health care", "the only major nation in world without health care". we know, we can buy the congressional health plan. we know 15 million won't want it. they don't have to. PARETO PRINCIPLE!!! everybody must be covered.
10:15 - "we were poorest first family in 20th century", but the booty calls were amazing
10:17 - vote for Hillary. xoxo
10:18 - "number 2 education. free pre-k, death to no child left behind", even though my wife voted for it.

10:18 - how does NCLB work? MORE TESTS FOR EVERYONE!
10:19 - "our kids are smart". amazing considering facebook.
10:20 - "the tests are a wink and a nod", like my marriage. ;) save the music, arts, and other nerd activities. "we are not good at replicating excellence". "5 tests solve nothing", even though my starbucks franchise example makes no sense (they don't franchise).
10:23 - "make college accessible to all. raise pell grants raise hope scholarship. give young people more opportunities through americorps". direct lending.

10:25 - work in a clinic, loans repaid. AIDS pays. hooray.
10:26 - is it happy hour yet?
10:27 - who can we convince to cut their greenhouse gas? green collar high school dropouts. clean -- green -- snogans.
10:29 - bill [hearts] iphone price cuts.
10:30 - other countries hate us? but...but foreign policy?
10:31 - two new nukes for every boy...except iran. nah nah nah nah nah nah!
10:33 - iraq...yawn. it's hot and crowd is thinning. i need Billary pictures.
10:34 - oh dear, big girl panty line. gross.
10:35 - "suppose your neighbors house burned down", wait that doesn't work. let's discuss how used the military is right now. more marines in afghanistan, if i hd them to send.
10:36 - Hil 4 prez == America is BACK! I have a name for my new facebook group.
10:37 - wrapping up, yawn.

Final Fall Grades

(2) A's, (1) B+, (1) B, and (1) Pass (for the dumb Excel class).

wh00t!

I'm Ready for College to be Over

I sick to-fucking-death of group projects.

I hate them.
I hate them.
Hate hate hate.

I ran out of time yesterday write comments on the course evaluation for my database class. I started with "the book is 10 years out of date" and got about half my bullet list of issues done before the turn-in volunteer wanted to leave.

I don't think I blogged that I registered for Spring semester: I found out earlier this month that I can't graduate until Summer because of the four classes I have left is a prerequisite for another. It's alright because it lets me stretch the last of my classes out over a little longer period, and affords me a tiny bit more personal life.

I'm very, very tired though. I know I'm close to the end, and I know I'll get it done, but I'm so very, very over it.

Employees of Chipotle might be stranger than me

Last week I sent this email to Chipotle:

From: theAlphaJohn
Phone Number:
Sent: 10/3/2007 7:47:30 PM
Store Visited: Fairfax, VA
Date Visited:

Comments:
If Fairfax City is a college town, and the last class gets out at 10:10pm, why is Chipotle closed at 10p and not 11p?

Which I thought was a reasonable question. This is the response I got:

From: Ken Marley
To: theAlphaJohn
Cc: Four Other Chipotle Employees
Subject: Reply from Chipotle
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 16:37:44 -0600

Hello John,

Thank you for writing us with your concern. Tell your professor that Chipotle gave you permission to leave class early to get you burrito fix. If he gives you any grief, have him contact me directly and I will set him straight. I got your back. We hope you will continue to find your burrito love with us.

Sincerely,
Ken Marley
Chipotle

...

My Programz are _The Popular_

I'm taking this "E-Commerce/eBidness/iWasteTime" class, since it's the only 400-level MIS class being offered this Fall. The class is taught using ASP.NET 2.0: I've never programmed in it before, but I've done web programming in PHP, Perl, and ColdFusion, and I've done development in Visual Basic (ASP.NET lets you write the actual code in either VB or C#).

Same difference.

Mason is not all that Microsoft technology friendly, so our professor made us get ASP.NET hosting accounts to publish our homework to. He recommended this site called Somee, which is free.

I setup my account a few weeks ago and published my homework there. The first assignment is due tonight, and this afternoon I got this email:

Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2007 12:50:50 -0500
From: Support@somee.com
Subject: Your web site has been deleted!

Your site was deleted by our automated verification system. Reason: CPU overuse.

Somee International
http://somee.com

><

Somehow I doubt that my ASP.NET-based wage calculator was the top item on Digg today.

Final Summer Grades

Didn't make Dean's list, but I did better than I expected.



(1) A, (2) A-, (2) B, (1), B- for a term CUM of 3.34

I've already sold all three books on Amazon, and I'll have bought all my books for Fall by Thursday.

Thanks to everyone for your support, and putting up two months of a very tired, cranky, stress-out me. I slept about 14 hours on Sunday and I'm on the short road back to being my old, rested, cranky self.

Look...I'm done!

Two tears and a bucket...mother fuck-it!

Too tired to die

1.) MGMT301 Final Exam: check [25 minutes]
2.) FNAN301 Final Exam: check [2 hours]
3.) DESC301 Final Exam Review Packet: check [3 hours 20 minutes]
4.) DESC301 Take Home Final Exam (4 page paper): not started

I mean, who can't pull a 4 page paper out of the ass after midnight, after a month of sleep deprivation where you constantly just shove things into your brain and squeeze them out on demand again and AGAIN AND AGAIN??

My left pinky is numb, and the tendinitis is my left wrist is so inflamed I can't type at full speed.

Radio Silence

Some may have noticed more than others, but current radio silence will probably extend into Friday.

For Management, I need 900 points or more for an A. Right now, I have 450 points. The final is worth 400 and the paper I already turned in (and get back graded tomorrow) is worth 100. There are no +/- in there, so 800-999 is a B. The fun begins at 9:30am tomorrow.

My last two Finance homework assignments are done: 10/10 on both. I ran some quick numbers, and these are the break points:

58 on the final: C
70 on the final: C+
80 on the final: B-
90 on the final: B
100 on the final: still a B

I'll shoot for 90 and hope for 80. Final is at 1:30pm tomorrow.

As for Operations Management, I have a total of 76 points and need at least 90 for an A. There is a take home final and a take home review packet due Friday for a possible 25 points (15 and 10 respectively).

I'm going home now to make a very large adult beverage and review five chapters of Organizational Behavior: Group Dynamics and Teams; Individual and Group Decision Making; Managing Conflict and Negotiation,;Influence Tactics, Empowerment and Politics; and Leadership. Try to control your jealousy.

::crackle::

Iota Kappa Awesome Fall Events

theAlphaJohn: we need to start planning out IK=) activities for fall Will
theAlphaJohn: let's find a guy with HPV and 9 guys without. we'll line then up and make them pull down their pants
theAlphaJohn: girls have to kiss the guys junk and wait a week to find out "prince or frog"?
Will: bahaha
Will: man
Will: you are all over it
theAlphaJohn: im in the spirit dawg
Will: yeah you are

Facebook presents: George Mason's Class of 2011

President's Park is the freshman housing at Mason, and apparently now has its own Facebook Group:

The rooming people of GMu are sending e-mails out starting today informing everybody of your roommates and such things :)

The "rooming" people...?

I wonder how these scamps feel about this exciting life change they're about to embark on. Let's ask lil' Alexander Barrett:

Well thats good... cops wont notice anything about me because I'm just gonna be drunk 100% of the time. It's when I'm sober that you have to be suspicious

Oh Alex...we expect great things from you. We'll check in later and see how you're doing in your academic endevors!