Fear the Crab

It’s freakin’ hot.

I set up a web cam to take still photos of the fish tank. Unfortunately the shutter speed is so slow that moving objects become nothing more than a blur. Still, it’s a nice adventure into the land of web cams.

I used to have these live plants called anacharis. I had about 6. Trouble was, the leaves would start turning brown. I’m not sure if it was because of the under-gravel filter I was using, or I didn’t have the right conditions for growing live plants. Today I removed all of them and instead threw in 3 fake plants for color and to break up the monotony. The fish don’t seem to mind, but they might still be in shock after the trans-plant-ing and water change. Although, it’s only been about 5 minutes and they’re cruising all over the driftwood. I think removing the plants kicked up some stuff that was trapped in the gravel and it may have settled on the wood.

I still have living plants in the tank, except it’s java moss, stuff that apparently can grow anywhere. I stuffed two wads of moss into the driftwood, and I hope it secures itself and grows.

Enough fish news. This semester has me taking art history and narrative game design. The art history course is your typical history class, and we’re focusing on pre-history art up through the 15th century. There’s about 275 students, and I think a vast majority are sophomores. I say this because the prof had just finished going over the syllabus and opened the floor for questions.

She received her first question, “What is the test format?”

The prof answered, “Some short answer, some multiple choice. I don’t know, I haven’t made the tests yet.”

Then another student asked, “Are you going to have matching questions, with the answers to the side?”

“I don’t usually have matching,” said the professor, “but I don’t know. I haven’t made the tests yet.”

Yet another student asked, “How many questions will there be on the exams?”

The professor exhibited infinite patience as she answered, “I might have 30, sometimes I’ve had up to 50 questions, but I don’t know. I haven’t made the tests yet.”

Oddly enough, the syllabus has a section that states the tests will consist of multiple-choice or objective questions. Hello?!

Those questions had to have come from idiot sophomores, because freshmen are too naive to ask, and juniors and seniors know that it doesn’t matter what format the test is in. Only sophomores seem to believe that knowing the format of an exam enables them to better prepare themselves to pass.

Wise fools? Perhaps, but I think the emphasis would be on fools. If a student knows the material, the test could be in the form of an oral exam and there still wouldn’t be a problem. Rather than concentrating on studying for a multiple-choice exam versus a fill-in-the-blank exam, study the damn book and show up to class!

Aside from art history, the narrative game design looks to be fun. It’s a very small class of 10 or 11 students, including myself. There appear to be 5 ICS majors, with the rest of the class in fields such as filmography, art, and graphic design. We’re going to split into two groups, and each group will work on a “demo” version of a game concept the class will come up with. Hopefully my experience with software engineering and my recent work project will help me handle my share of the workload.

Speaking of which, my project went into production last week, meaning that it’s in actual “official” use throughout the UH system. I’m happy.