Pet Peeves: Aka Things That Make You Go "Gah!"

[bilgistic]

That company name doesn't rhyme with "smears", does it??

Edited August 26, 2016 by bilgistic

[BookWoman56]

New pet peeve: grown-ass college students who think they are so clever in finding another student's assignment online and submitting it as an attempt to pass if off as their own. I work full-time as a tech writer, but on the side I occasionally teach online college English courses. The course I started teaching last week is more or less a business English course, meaning it's not the first course that students take when they enter college. Nor are the students the traditional 18-year-olds straight out of high school.  Most of my students are people already in the workplace who have realized they need a degree to advance up the career ladder, or stay-at-home moms who are getting ready to get back into a career track once the kid(s) are old enough for school. The point here is that these are people with adult life experiences, who might be expected to have some decent judgment. However, for the very first assignment, two students submitted papers that were 75% and 96% matches to other students' papers. The 75% paper essentially cobbled together sections from 3 or 4 other student papers, while for the 96% paper,  the only differences between his paper and the original paper were his name, my name as the instructor, the date, and about 5 miscellaneous words.

This stupidity is after giving them a heads up that I will run their assignments through the university plagiarism checker and encouraging them to use the plagiarism checker themselves to avoid any unpleasant surprises such as a direct quote they forgot to put in quotation marks and cite, etc. Apparently what they fail to realize is that when faculty use the plagiarism checker, not only does it check against online articles, but also student papers that have previously been submitted. What this means is that I have to give them a zero for the assignment, allow 2 days for them to offer an explanation of how space aliens invaded their computer and uploaded a plagiarized paper to screw with their education plans, and then file an academic violation report on them for the university to review and decide if they fail the course or get put on academic probation for a year. The thing that amazes me is that this assignment was simply a 700-1000-word response to roughly 5 questions on the assigned reading for the week. They probably spent more effort finding a paper to copy than it would have taken to have written the response themselves.  I am just failing to understand the mindset that would pay for a college class and then risk losing credit for that class and possibly being thrown out of the university.

[DeLurker]

You don't outgrow stupid.

[Bastet]

I cheated in high school.  The only C in my entire academic life came in Geometry, and if I hadn't cheated on the final to counteract my horrible average up to that point, I'd have never passed.  I had tried everything legit, but that part of my brain just doesn't exist. 

But that was my justification in ninth grade.  In college, and certainly in law school (which I attended as a second-career student, similar to the students being described), I'd have grown up enough to face the GPA consequences rather than cheating my way to a better grade in a difficult course.  So I can understand being particularly flabbergasted that people in this phase of life cheat (and do it so brazenly, stupidly, and needlessly).

[Sandman87]

On Thursday, August 25, 2016 at 8:37 PM, BookWoman56 said:

New pet peeve: grown-ass college students who think they are so clever in finding another student's assignment online and submitting it as an attempt to pass if off as their own.

Did they make any attempt at all to rewrite the text beyond substituting a couple of words, or was it all copy & paste?

[BookWoman56]

No, he changed the student name on the paper to his name and changed the instructor name to my name, and maybe 5 entire words in the paper itself. It was strictly copy and paste. And yes, I have had students submit an assignment in which they forgot to change it to their own name, to the current instructor name, somewhat current date, etc. As DeLurker so correctly stated, you don't outgrow stupid. The thing is, if he had simply taken the content and reworded it, I would never have caught that it was not his own work. I obviously can't post this sentiment in the classroom, but sometimes I just want to tell them, FFS, if you're going to plagiarize, do it intelligently. How the hell do you expect to keep a job if you are this clueless?

Bastet, I had a similar experience in college in an analytic geometry class. I was in a car accident that semester and missed a couple of weeks of class. In addition, the instructor was notorious for being unsuitable for freshman classes. In our class, he would be demonstrating how to solve certain problems and then would say, well if you were in calculus 3, there's this neat shortcut we could do. But we weren't in calculus 3, so we didn't know the shortcut. And if he couldn't solve the problems without resorting to the shortcut we didn't know, how the hell were we supposed to solve them? I missed a major test while I was recovering from the accident. When I got back, I made arrangements to take a make-up test. Up to that point, I was not doing well in class, which was a serious blow to my ego because I had never had problems with math classes before. There were math majors in that class with me who changed majors as a result of this class. Anyway, in the regular class, the instructor handed back the tests that the rest of the class had already taken and proceeded to go over every single problem and explain how to solve it and what the correct answer was. So I naturally assumed that I would get a different version of the test. Instead, less than an hour later he gave me the make-up test, which was the exact same test he had just reviewed with the entire class. He knew I had listened to the review. And so I blew the top off that test, which is a good thing because my grades up to that point were abysmal. In retrospect, I probably should have pointed out to him that he gave me the exact same test that we had just dissected, but at that time, I regarded it as a very welcome mistake on his part.

[zxy556575]

When I was a senior in college I gave a copy of one of my old tests to some of the juniors in the program as a study guide. The professor then gave them the same test. Wonder how many years she'd been recycling it.

[Blergh]

Not sure if this is a pet peeve or just an observation re cheating: When I was in Old Millennial School, we weren't allowed to pass notes in class because the teachers thought we could use them to cheat on tests. So how come New Millennials get to text in class with  teachers rarely going down on them and what's to keep them from using Smartphones to cheat?

[Quof]

In my observation (friends' kids), they have to leave bags and phones at the front of the room during tests.  

[janestclair]

39 minutes ago, Quof said:

In my observation (friends' kids), they have to leave bags and phones at the front of the room during tests.  

If it's a standardized test, that is for sure a requirement. We are given brown bags for them to put their names on and phones in (turned off) and they're kept at the front of the room until we collect all the test materials back again. The last test I proctored, we also checked for smart watches.  

In my classroom for a regular test, I make them turn it off and put it on the floor under their seat so I don't have to deal with collecting them, and then someone taking the wrong phone.  There's a headache I don't need.  We do have a BYOD policy at my school, so there's not much we can do about them texting during class really, except again, I tell them to turn it face over on their desk unless we're using the internet, or they've finished their work for the day.  Then I don't care. If I'm teaching though, I can't stand it when they have their cell phones out and are texting.  Unfortunately, there aren't too many consequences handed out from administration, so it's not worth writing it up, which they know.  

So there's my peeve: toothless discipline policies. I hope this year is better than last.  Last year the inmates ran the asylum.  We have some new VPs this year, so maybe it'll be better. I can dream. 

Edited August 28, 2016 by janestclair
can't spell

[Quof]

My friend's teen daughter had to leave her handbag at the front of the room for an exam. The teacher spotted it and asked "Who owns this (designer) bag?  I'm more than twice your age, with a job, and I don't have a (designer) bag!"   The teen claimed ownership, and gave appropriate credit to Auntie Quof for the hand me down.   It's why I'm her favourite auntie, much to the annoyance of her real aunties.

[DeLurker]

How do household essentials up and wander away?  I understand why my scissors, sticky notes and tape goes missing, but how and why do my toaster tongs get misplaced?  There only good for one thing and that thing is always in the same place?

[Bastet]

I can't believe kids are allowed to have phones in class!  Not just for tests, but in general.  Yeah, we wrote notes during class, but that's because it could look like we were taking notes rather than writing our friends who we just saw in the hallway before class and are going to spend every break and lunch with.  Having a phone out would be so obviously not for class purposes, I'm surprised schools don't prohibit it.  Or is that how kids take notes these days, by pecking away at a smart phone?

[TattleTeeny]

24 minutes ago, DeLurker said:

How do household essentials up and wander away?  I understand why my scissors, sticky notes and tape goes missing, but how and why do my toaster tongs get misplaced?  There only good for one thing and that thing is always in the same place?

I hate, hate, hate when, at work, someone nearby needs a pen or a stapler and grabs it off my desk (fine), uses it (also fine)...

and then leaves it wherever s/he is as opposed to where s/he just took it from (NOT FINE)!

[backformore]

When did "Oktoberfest" come to mean "celebration with beer, food and music taking place in SEPTEMBER?" 

All the towns around here are having Oktoberfest events, and none of them are happening in OCTOBER.  

[backformore]

51 minutes ago, DeLurker said:

How do household essentials up and wander away?  I understand why my scissors, sticky notes and tape goes missing, but how and why do my toaster tongs get misplaced?  There only good for one thing and that thing is always in the same place?

Children, that's how. 

I used to buy a roll of scotch tape and hide it in a place where the kids couldn't find it.  Why?  Because they liked wrapping presents, making things out of paper, goofing around taping their faces. They  would invariably use an entire roll of tape.  So when I needed about two inches of tape to wrap a present, there was none.  So I had a secret stash.

Oh - and I never had band-aids when I needed them, either.  They used all the superhero ones, then used the plain ones.  That problem was solved when I started buying, just for me, pretty princess type band-aids.  My boys wouldn't touch them. 

Toaster tongs?  I had some once, cool orange ones made by Tupperware.  No idea where they ended up. 

Edited August 28, 2016 by backformore

[Quof]

Quote

Having a phone out would be so obviously not for class purposes, I'm surprised schools don't prohibit it.  Or is that how kids take notes these days, by pecking away at a smart phone?

They're using the calculator (you know, for math that we used to be able to do in our heads), or doing "research" on the internet.  

[bilgistic]

Funny, we did research in the library with books. I'm positive there are still books and libraries, albeit fewer than when I used them.

However! I did genealogical research a scant few years ago, and had to go to my ancestors' hometown libraries because--shockingly--not everything is on the internet! There is literally tons of archival info that will never be digitized. I don't care what "kids today" think. Learning to conduct "old-fashioned" research in a library is an invaluable skill, and one they WILL need in college and life beyond if that's the route they choose.

[auntlada]

1 hour ago, Bastet said:

I can't believe kids are allowed to have phones in class!  Not just for tests, but in general.  Yeah, we wrote notes during class, but that's because it could look like we were taking notes rather than writing our friends who we just saw in the hallway before class and are going to spend every break and lunch with.  Having a phone out would be so obviously not for class purposes, I'm surprised schools don't prohibit it.  Or is that how kids take notes these days, by pecking away at a smart phone?

That's why I take the iPad instead of paper to meetings.

I agree about libraries, @bilgistic, but some (many?) schools don't have very good libraries and have had budgets cut so they can't update, and many small towns, at least around here, don't have libraries at all.

[BookWoman56]

1 hour ago, auntlada said:

I agree about libraries, @bilgistic, but some (many?) schools don't have very good libraries and have had budgets cut so they can't update, and many small towns, at least around here, don't have libraries at all.

It's pretty typical for small towns to have either no library or a very poorly funded one, so that often when students first start college, they have no experience with doing library research. Back ages ago well before the internet, when I was teaching freshmen English in a traditional university, we had to arrange tours of the library as part of our class because we couldn't assume that the students knew their way around a library. However, while I enjoy going to libraries, when it comes to doing research for a college paper, many times the students are better off using digital resources for certain subjects. There is often a requirement to use scholarly articles and so forth that have been published in the last 5-10 years, and generally those are going to be available online and very often not available in print version at all. There are searchable databases where you can enter a few key words, specify the time frame on publication date, and limit the results to peer-reviewed articles. At this point, I'd be more worried about a college student who didn't know how to do online research than one who didn't know how to do research in a physical library.

I have mixed feelings on cell phones in class, but I think it's a losing battle. The kids use the calculator function, insert reminders about homework, etc., and I'm not really seeing any difference between using a cell phone to text your friends as opposed to passing notes, other than not wasting paper. If a kid is hellbent on cheating with a friend on a random quiz, does it matter if the info is passed via physical note or text message? For many classes in middle and high school, the assignments are posted online and so the kids are expected to be able to access them at home via laptop or tablet. In their place, I'd want to be able to access the class materials and assignments using my phone during class in case I had questions. My attitude is essentially that technology changes, and I see no point in expecting students to use technology that is outdated. I am old enough that I had to learn how to use a slide rule in school but I would be taken aback if a random teacher insisted that students now use a slide rule instead of calculator.

[Quof]

My favourite part of the yogurt shop - the tip cup.  Could the employee possibly do less work, yet a tip is expected? 

[DeLurker]

5 hours ago, backformore said:

Children, that's how. 

I used to buy a roll of scotch tape and hide it in a place where the kids couldn't find it.  Why?  Because they liked wrapping presents, making things out of paper, goofing around taping their faces. They  would invariably use an entire roll of tape.  So when I needed about two inches of tape to wrap a present, there was none.  So I had a secret stash.

Oh - and I never had band-aids when I needed them, either.  They used all the superhero ones, then used the plain ones.  That problem was solved when I started buying, just for me, pretty princess type band-aids.  My boys wouldn't touch them. 

Toaster tongs?  I had some once, cool orange ones made by Tupperware.  No idea where they ended up. 

As a child, I was the band-aid offender.  Every little mar needed a band-aid.

My daughter was the tape fiend in our house.  I eventually put her on a "tape allowance" and got her her own rolls, but there was another one kept in the kitchen junk drawer that was off limits to her under severe penalty.  It actually worked.  My niece is trying the "tape allowance" now with her 5 year old, but she caves too easy.

I am most likely the offender for misplacing the toaster tongs.  I get terribly distracted sometimes and things end up randomly placed.

Edited August 29, 2016 by DeLurker

[Guest]

Was annoyed with the special snowflakes who decided its ok to go through the 10 items and less line at the grocery store with two shopping carts to buy $270 worth of groceries while eating fruit sold be weight that they hadn't paid for.

At least have the decency to feign shame.

Edited August 29, 2016 by ParadoxLost

[Demented Daisy]

16 hours ago, backformore said:

When did "Oktoberfest" come to mean "celebration with beer, food and music taking place in SEPTEMBER?" 

All the towns around here are having Oktoberfest events, and none of them are happening in OCTOBER.  

Munich Oktoberfest

Quote

Why is Oktoberfest called "Oktoberfest" when it actually begins in September?
The historical background: the first Oktoberfest was held in the year 1810 in honor of the Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig's marriage to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen. The festivities began on October 12, 1810 and ended on October 17th with a horse race. In the following years, the celebrations were repeated and, later, the festival was prolonged and moved forward into September.

By moving the festivities up, it allowed for better weather conditions. Because the September nights were warmer, the visitors were able to enjoy the gardens outside the tents and the stroll over "die Wiesen" or the fields much longer without feeling chilly. Historically, the last Oktoberfest weekend was in October and this tradition continues into present times.

[Qoass]

I have tried to customize my homepage after the latest "upgrade" and it's not working. Fuck it.

[JTMacc99]

On the topic of Oktoberfest, one thing that bothers me is that I never enjoy the special Oktoberfest beers. I mean, I like October. I like Beer. I like fests. How is it that the combination of the three things isn't one of my favorite things?

[Bastet]

It annoys me that pumpkin starts showing up in everything every October, including beer.  Pumpkin this, pumpkin that.  Go away!  (I know, I know -- all I have to do is not eat/drink it.  It just annoys me that for an entire month pretty much all the food and drink specials everywhere involve pumpkin.)

[ABay]

The website of one of the local stations has a Christmas countdown. 117 days.

[janestclair]

Does anyone even really want pumpkin waffles, pumpkin cereal and pumpkin marshmallows?  Someone must, but it's definitely not me.  I have one serving of pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving dinner and I'm good.

[JTMacc99]

1 minute ago, janestclair said:

Does anyone even really want pumpkin waffles, pumpkin cereal and pumpkin marshmallows?  Someone must, but it's definitely not me.  I have one serving of pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving dinner and I'm good.

As with anything, I like it in moderation.  I definitely like the pumpkin pie spice blend of cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and so on. 

I saw a limited edition Life Cereal pumpkin something or another, and was really tempted to buy it even though I don't really eat cereal for breakfast any more. 

[Qoass]

The pumpkin pancake/waffle mix from Trader Joe's is actually pretty good.

[DeLurker]

18 minutes ago, ABay said:

The website of one of the local stations has a Christmas countdown. 117 days.

If I could give you a thumb's down for this I would.  Not you, but just the crapastic concept that we should be aware of the countdown before Labor Day - ugh.

On a marginally related note, one of my friend's from days of yore was always ridiculously excited about her birthday.  On any given day of the year, she could tell you without hesitation how many days it was until her next birthday.

[Bastet]

Before Labor Day, nothing - I can't deal with it any time before Thanksgiving.

[Demented Daisy]

RIP Gene Wilder

I hope he and Gilda are having a good laugh right now.

Edited August 29, 2016 by Demented Daisy

[bilgistic]

Trader Joe's pumpkin spice coffee blend (ground beans with which to make coffee) is good. I'm afraid I'm one who loves pumpkin food and drinks. I certainly don't go bananas over it or proclaim it from the rooftop or even to others besides y'all just now, but I indulge.

I agree that the craze is out of control. PSLs at Starbucks have been available for at least two weeks now. It's still in the high 90s here. I don't want pumpkin until October.

Edited August 29, 2016 by bilgistic

[Qoass]

My birthday is coming up soon and maybe it is childish but I do wish somebody would be a little enthused.  Cake and cards are fun.

[auntlada]

One year, a nearby motorcycle place (Kawasaki, I think, but I'm not sure) advertised it had pumpkin spice motorcycles. It was the best pumpkin spice advertisement I've seen.

[MargeGunderson]

3 hours ago, janestclair said:

Does anyone even really want pumpkin waffles, pumpkin cereal and pumpkin marshmallows?  Someone must, but it's definitely not me.  I have one serving of pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving dinner and I'm good.

Yes, please. Send your pumpkin my direction! Except pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks. Do not want.

[backformore]

The thing with all the "pumpkin" food and drink is that people think it's pumpkin, but most of it is not.  Instead, it's flavored with the spice mix that is traditionally added to pumpkin pie.  Hence pumpkin spice flavored.  It's ok, but, hell, you can add the same spices to stuff yourself, no actual pumpkins needed.  Muffins and breads have pumpkin, but most of the other stuff does not.

I think the trend peaked last fall, with everyone posting online about the lattes, it seemed to be something people had to either love or hate.  I'm kind of indifferent.  I make pumpkin cake,  But not for me as much as for other people.  I prefer chocolate.  

As for Starbucks, they had a caramel brule latte last fall that was delicious.

[Quof]

My local coffee shop makes a pumpkin spice latte, but it's chai tea rather than espresso.  And they add a scoop of canned pumpkin pie filling at the bottom of the mug.    It's awesome, and they start a countdown on September 1, with a big sign out front.

[bilgistic]

I love pumpkin pie filling, but that sounds gross. No offense to you, @Quof, since you didn't make it. I'd try it if someone else bought it. I'm envisioning slurping up warm chunks. Just no.

[Quof]

No, they stir it so it dissolves, just leaving the drink a little thick and spicy.  And you'd want someone else to buy it, since it's almost 7 bucks.

[ratgirlagogo]

I love squash and I love coffee, but squash in my coffee sounds terrible.

2 hours ago, backformore said:

The thing with all the "pumpkin" food and drink is that people think it's pumpkin, but most of it is not.  Instead, it's flavored with the spice mix that is traditionally added to pumpkin pie.

Yes, because who wants SQUASH flavor in their whatever.  Like anyone could detect a "squash" flavor.  Unless of course if you go dumping actual squash in my drink THE WAY SOME PLACES ALLEGEDLY DO..........

Edited August 30, 2016 by ratgirlagogo

[bilgistic]

Howling with laughter over here!

[DeLurker]

5 hours ago, bilgistic said:

Trader Joe's pumpkin spice coffee blend (ground beans with which to make coffee) is good. I'm afraid I'm one who loves pumpkin food and drinks. I certainly don't go bananas over it or proclaim it from the rooftop or even to others besides y'all just now, but I indulge.

I stock pile TJ's Pumpkin Spice and Wintry Blend so I can have them year round.  I mix a scoop of the flavored coffee in with my regular coffee (usually Kona or Jamaican Blue Mountain because I don't indulge much so choose to do so in my caffeine).  Pumpkin Spice the mix I had this morning.

[AgentRXS]

Yes, the overzealous Christmas people work my last nerve. Saw someone post "Only X more Sunday's till Christmas" and cringed with disgust. I cannot stand the holiday season. Never have, never will.  Living where snowbirds vacation means the holidays are nothing but one big traffic nightmare. I wish I had a FF button from the beginning of October all the way to Jan. 2nd.

I hate that Starbucks best drinks seem to be limited time only. I loved their PSL and I loved the Butterscotch latte that they literally put out for only about a month or so. Starbucks is so heavy on the mocha/caramel coffee flavored drinks......I like when they experiment with new flavors.  But I'm not so crazy about the Pumpkin Spice flavor that I think it needs to be added to all sweets/drinks. In fact, I don't even like pumpkin pie all that much. I much prefer sweet potato pie.

[zxy556575]

9 minutes ago, AgentRXS said:

I wish I had a FF button from the beginning of October all the way to Jan. 2nd.

Hey now! Then you'd miss my birthday.

I'm a non-coffee drinker in a coffee world, so all y'all can bite me.

[bilgistic]

Pro tip: after Starbucks has "ended" their season/run of whatever holiday drink you like, your local store likely still has the mix/ingredients on hand for a while. They don't throw them out; they use them up. Just ask if they still have it. They'll make you the drink. I do it every year.

[janestclair]

And isn't most canned 'pumpkin' not actually pumpkin, but some other squash? 

I love me some coffee, but I want my coffee to taste like coffee, not pumpkin spice.  

[Sandman87]

On Saturday, August 27, 2016 at 6:48 PM, BookWoman56 said:

Bastet, I had a similar experience in college in an analytic geometry class...

You just reminded me of the thermodynamics class (generally speaking, the most difficult class that an underclassman has to take for a bachelor's in physics) that I took. Worst. Teacher. Ever. Let me count the ways:

1. Chose to use the densest, most impenetrable textbook available because it "had everything we needed to learn", never mind that we had to shell out $150 for the damned thing.
2. Raced through the lectures at a breakneck pace. Good luck taking notes.
3. Stood directly in front of the blackboard while he was writing on it, all 600 pounds of him, and immediately erased everything as soon as he was done, despite the fact that there was another board available to write on right next to it. Good luck Reading anything from it, let alone writing any of it down.
4. Was incapable of showing us how to do the homework, which we naturally needed lots of help with. About 90% of the time he'd take the entire class period to get the wrong answers, then say something like "well, it's all there in the book", then give us the new homework assignment.
5. Was unavailable about 1/2 of the time during his supposed office hours. I ended up getting my faculty adviser and two other profs to help me out once in a while during their office hours , because they were the nicest professors ever.
6. Was tenured. There was nothing we could do to save future classes from him.

It was hell.