Pet Peeves: those things we really hate

[Kimra]

All my projects this semester are creative writing! Excuse me while I go strut around in pleasure.

[Kaharz]

Ugh all this talk of group projects is reminding me that one of my subjects this semester is literally a giant group project where we have to design a psych study. There isn't even an exam.

Same situation here, although it is civil engineering so we have to design a profitable high speed rail system for the east coast of the US. In an intro class that is only 2 credits. Usually this is the kind of class where you build a popsicle stick bridge or something.* We have an hour of lecture and an hour of group time a week. Thankfully modern communication technology makes it possible for us to avoid having to meet outside of class much. No exams, the project is 50% of our grade.

I've somewhat assumed the role of 'boss.' I'm not assigning what each person needs to do because I don't want to be pushy and piss everyone off. I've learned that does not work well in school projects. It isn't like the real world where people get a paycheck and can be fired. But I'm breaking each part down into different tasks and having everyone pick a task and then send their work to me to be put together. Since it is an intro class, no one is really paying attention. One group member actually thought we were building a bridge.

* But apparently they have to do that in statics for 25% of their grade, which is also ridiculous since that is a math/physics class and not a design class. I'm glad I took that at a different school.

[Edminster]

we have to design a profitable high speed rail system for the east coast of the US

hahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahhahahaaahahhaha

[Liriodendron_fagotti]

Amtrack is the Future, Ed.

[Lethal Interjection]

Hey, if it is good enough for Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrook, it's good enough for the East coast.

Ugh all this talk of group projects is reminding me that one of my subjects this semester is literally a giant group project where we have to design a psych study. There isn't even an exam.
I've actually done this subject before, but this is the one that counts, so I hope I get a good group again. Last time when everyone had to present with their group I saw one woman really upset, by herself. No one else in her group had turned up. So fingers crossed that's not me this semester!

My sister is paired with a worrier in her Master's program. Which is irritating for her because her partner is constantly concerned about everything and is spending way more time than should be spent on various things. She also regularly contacts my sister for help.
My sister, on the other hand, has pretty much figured out exactly how much effort she needs to put in to get a passing grade. She's actually a little irritated because the program description indicated you can do the Master's and work full-time. However they don't seem to have recognized that this might not be the case if you are talking about someone who is more than a support worker where you have your 9-5 and are done, where my sister manages two group homes.

[Edminster]

Amtrack is the Future, Ed.

amtrak only got ~80% farebox recovery in 2010 and is desperately in need of fat stacks of cash for maintenance and repair

america has prioritized rail for freight over passengers, so any passenger service running on existing rails must give way for freight cars which leads to delayed trains and dissatisfied customers which snowballs further and further until everyone hates rail and putters along in cars everywhere

trying to build new independent rail is fucking suicide because the costs are astronomical

hell, the preferred method of expanding your rail network in the early days was 'wait for whatever sucker is building rails to go bankrupt and buy the rights to whatever got built for pennies on the dollar'

i don't understand why such a sisyphean task is being assigned to something which already requires herculean effort. might as well go for the mythological trifecta and add some live eagles devouring your liver to make it promethean as well

kaharz does your teacher actively hate all of you or what

[Kimra]

I had a group project last semester, in an english lit class. Got paired with someone who didn't speak the language very well (and was studying something else entirely but this class fit into his timetable) and then had to babysit him all the way through the process. It was the single most irritating thing I've had to do in a long time. He wanted to meet up two times a week over the course of several weeks, and the only purpose of this (that I could tell) was so he could imprint on me and turn me into his free local knowledge / english teacher. -___-

He also took us being put into a group by the teacher as a reason to sit next to me in class at all times afterwards. I had to employ arriving in class late so as not to be sat beside because he would spend the entire class asking me to translate things.

Kimra does not like being used and is a bitch. (An unapologetic one.)

[Liriodendron_fagotti]

Having to route most cross-country trains through Chicago also puts a damper on travel times.

There are five French people in my apartment, so I'm helping them with their English. I get to practice my French, too, so I don't mind it.

[Lethal Interjection]

If only someone would create a Kerbal Rail Program.

[Kaharz]

kaharz does your teacher actively hate all of you or what

He is a transportation engineer, which the rest of civils joke about being the engineering program you go into when you can't pass multivariate calculus and differential equations. So maybe he is just trying to get revenge for getting made fun of so much. Transport really does get the short end of the stick. Way less jobs, less pay for the jobs there are, and they tend to be looked down as mere 'planners' sometimes. It isn't really fair, but that is how it is.

When they told us the project, I decided I'm going to take 'profitable' to mean "massively huge amounts of government subsidies." All forms of transportation in the US are subsidized to some degree, even walking. Although you can argue about how much because things like a gas taxes can be considered 'usage fees' that reduce the subsidy amount. And while passenger rail gets a rather small dollar amount compared to other forms of travel, the percentage amount and amount per user is way higher if I remember correctly. The numbers are constantly in debate though.

We probably do need high speed rail for regional travel soon though unless someone figures out how to make air travel for regional distances economical again. Flying anything that is about 400 miles or so is ridiculously expensive and time consuming. Unless you are flying between hubs you either pay through the nose for a direct flight or get routed so far out of the way that it is just as fast to drive after all is said and done. But we also can't keep expanding the interstates and paying to maintain all that shit. We are already doing a crap job at that and continue to fall further behind. But trying to make high speed passenger rail as a profitable private enterprise would be ridiculous.

[Liriodendron_fagotti]

When my housemate watches terrible TV programs. I would rather do everyone's dishes than watch "Charmed".

[Apocalyptus]

Well, at least Charmed is better than some soapie like 'Neighbours' or some shitty reality TV show like 'The Bachelor' or 'Big Brother' or something.

[Kaharz]

One of my old roommates would have the only TV on whenever she was home. There were only a few shows she actually watched, the rest of the time it was just background. But she loved terrible reality shows. Especially the fashion competition ones. I'd just go stream something on my computer in my room or read. And even though she had terrible taste in TV, she would change the channel if charmed was on. She tried watching it, but after a few episodes, the terribleness made her stop.

[Liriodendron_fagotti]

I really don't get it. She's also a big fan of "Once Upon a Time", which has an interesting sort of premise but some truly dreadful screenwriting and acting. It might as well be a soap opera with witches.

Part of the reason I feel so strongly about this is that growing up, television and movies were watched at the end of the day as a family, after everyone's work was done. They were never background.

[Kaharz]

We almost never watched TV as a family. My parents would watch a few shows here and there and we, the kids, would watch cartoons in the weekends. There were occasional exceptions. My dad and I would watch the old Sherlock Holmes with Jeremy Brett and occasional other shows. Mostly PBS/BBC stuff since it was less racy and vulgar.