Group Projects Are Fun
May 08, 2008

Group projects are so much fun. There always seems to be at least one group every semester where there's at least one person who doesn't pull their weight. Our MGMT 453 class has a paper worth around 50% of our grade due on Friday and two members still haven't contributed their final versions. Oi.

It's a good thing that I don't play GTAIV or anything, or I might get some terrible ideas about becoming Russian and eating hot dogs (Draz, who bakes their hot dogs? Really.) to regain my health. Oh well, this semester will soon be done with and I won't have to worry about this kind of pewp anymore (I'm assuming that Summer courses won't have this stuff built in). Hooray!

Graduation So Close...
December 19, 2007

One of my real life buddies e-mailed me today telling me that Summer classes were posted. Alas, registration has not yet begun - but something utterly awesome happened while I was there. I happened to flip back to Spring 2008 semester to check on my courses and loe! One that I needed was there and fit within my schedule. I've got five classes lined up for next semester, but if I play everything right I can definitely be done half-way through Summer! Fantastic!

St. Cloud State University; Oh teh Course Offerings
November 29, 2007

This semester's registration was a little different than most. Rather than waiting until the week before class to register (and face whatever stupid problem SCSU invented this time over breaks rather than during finals), I decided to get a jump start and register close to when my window opened up. Four days after window opening, I hopped onto the SCSU wob-site in an attempt to locate classes for my second to last semester and loe - there were none. "Hwat?", says you, "but you should have a much sooner window than everyone else! You've been going there since time began!" - Why yes young grasshopper, but SCSU lacks business sense.

With further frustration I began going through the entire course catalog attempting to locate professor's so that I could petition for overrides into their classes. My dismay grew with every "ding" from FireFox notifying me that there were no courses. I finally tracked it down, and out of the sixteen management electives - only seven were being offered this semester. That's right, only 43% of the courses were actually being offered. One of the four management core classes was even being offered only once during the daytime. Something had to be wrong, I thought to myself - but alas, I was wrong in thinking that they were wrong.

I met with the chairperson this morning and found the terrible truth - SCSU actually only runs half of its management electives every semester. Wonderously fantabulous! Despite this, I've managed to get my needed four classes this semester but with the absolute most terrible schedule ever imagined - a night class, an 8A and a noon class all fall on the same day. Oi.

So, if I'm a little grumpy during the Spring - you'll know why. With all luck , diligence and SCSU fighting I'll be able to finish this Summer though.

Update - Whole New Levels of Professionalism

It appears that the issues I was having with the SCSU registration web-site earlier this week were just a precursor. Tonight they broke the authentication portion of the site and nobody (myself and two other people, at least) seems to be able to login. Bravo boys, this is your outward facing PR representation that collects thousands of dollars from people - and you can't handle something so simple as a login page. Oi.

St. Cloud State, Oh teh Grammers
November 16, 2007

A choice quote from some comments that one of my professors left on my latest paper;

"There are some problems with word usage. ... You suggestions are quite general and more detail is needed."

Update

Lulz, too good... this one is presumably from the President of SCSU. SCSU only uses the highly insecure and easily impersonated form of communication known as e-mail... so nobody can be sure... but it's funny nonetheless...

" I am writing to encourage you to join me in denouncing bias- motivated acts which threaten the well-being and security of groups targeted by this despicable behavior. We must do more than deal with racism and its impact on our students, faculty and staff. We must become known as a campus that is expert in building community. "

Yes... I will be known as a person that is expert in building community.

St. Cloud State, Oh the Safety
October 22, 2007

There was a robbery on campus this last Friday. That's really nothing terribly new, except that this one happened over by the old Business Building at 11:15A. That makes the third robbery on campus in the last month or so, and its really starting to bug me. I seriously have to wonder what is up when this sort of thing can happen at 11:15 in the morning on a school day while properly on campus.

Oh well. I should be done soon enough.

St. Cloud State's Image
October 10, 2007

This is what's found on the front-page of St. Cloud State University's web-site at the moment. Am I the only one afraid that this guy is a short moment away from destroying the cameraman with his wand of maki-maki-maki? Incidentally, this maniacal conductor's image is entitled "composer.jpg".

ING Actually Mentioned in College!
September 18, 2007

Something rather amazing happened yesterday while at school. One of my professors actually demonstrated a bit of real world knowledge! The professor was discussing the inanity of government taxation on ordinary savings accounts and actually dropped some props to ING! Working everything out, your typical brick'n'mortar bank yields around 0.001% monthly interest on your savings - meanwhile (I believe, it's been awhile since I ran the numbers) ING actually offers you 0.01% monthly interest - meaning that you actually accrue a meaningful amount of money from saving for Uncle Sam to tax as compared to the tenths of pennies that he tries to dig out ordinarily.

Anyway, I'm still continuing to love my ING Electric Orange checking account in addition to the kick-ass savings account that I've got. I can't believe how much money I've lost over the years by not choosing a good banking institution. Goooo meaningful interest!

College Textbooks and the Monopoly Thereof
September 14, 2007

I bought a few of my textbooks for this semester. Man, that hurt and happens to be textbook (hah, pun!) example of why monopolies (even localized) are terrible for the consumer. Two used textbooks combined cost $235 and each had at least ten editions before it. Why? Both St. Cloud State University and the professors working for it support and enforce a monopoly. Amongst the two or three major textbook publishers, there is so little competition and so much price fixing that a fair deal can never be struck between a consumer (student) and the firm (publisher) that they are dealing with.

The one book that I definitely will not be purchasing through normal channels is a basic book on HR. How much is this book for a basic survey class, you may ask? It would cost me $160 for something that on the free market costs considerably less.

Is this really the outright murder of semi-free-market capitalism in higher learning institutions? The real reason that I'm paying $160 isn't because it costs that much to manufacture the textbook. It isn't for the Indian editor to add a few sentences and re-arrange homework problems to make this a new edition. It can't be for the raw materials used. It certainly isn't for the rigorous fact checking.

What is it for then? What explains the difference between the free market on educational books and the closed market on college textbooks other than a monopoly?

Back to SCSU and What to Put Stuff Into
September 06, 2007

School started again yesterday, joy. Everyone knows about my love of SCSU. I do, however, only have about one semester of SCSU remaining. I'm excited to finally be graduated from this place and be able to move on with my life. Hopefully they don't come back to tell me that they decided to add a class, like they did with Andy...

I've also noticed how woefully decrepit all of my bags have become. My beloved blue Gap messenger bag, while lasting more than 4 years, is starting to show it's age in the many Winter stains and frayed edges. My backpack is nice and all, but it just doesn't have enough pockets and... well, it's a backpack. I've been eyeballing the Classic Messenger bag from Timbuk2 for quite some time, but I just find it hard to part with $85 for a bag. I know that I'll get years of service out of it... but it's hard to pay that much.

So, does anyone have any suggestions of alternative locations to search for more economically feasible yet still attractive bags?

Congratulations Andy!
May 10, 2007

Congratulations to Andy on finishing yet another semester as SCSU. What's so special about this semester? It's his last! Congratulations my dear sir!

Enjoy the life of a Public Relations / Marketing dude! Also, enjoy your ability to generate your own public relations by this lovely photo.

Picture Very Related - No more ramen for Andy!

Political Correctness
May 07, 2007

From my BCIS exam; "The recent trend in less rich countries is to adopt free ____ software to avoid high costs.". Apparently it is incorrect to say "poor" now.

That is all.

Finals Week
May 01, 2007

Well, next week is finals. We don't even get any time to study this semester - so wish me luck. I'll be hunkered down for the rest of my free-time this and next week, so don't expect any posts. After that though - I'll finally have more than a fleeting moment of free-time! JOY!

One other great thing, I never have to hear another lecture by my BCIS professor! Last week he told us all about the joys of SDLC (or "Waterfall" design methodology) and how it is revolutionizing the software industry, but how Object-Oriented "design patterns" were becoming more prevalent. *knock-knock* 1993 called, it wants its design patterns back.

Technical Knowledge of SCSU BCIS Professors
March 20, 2007

In my continuing SCSU rants series, I present to you a question that appeared on a recent quiz given by my BCIS professor...

2. Every time you download a file from a Web site or attach files to e-mail, you are using an ____ application.

a. TCP

b. NNTP

c. FTP

d. POP

Update: Wow. This is a quote from the book; "Every time you download a file from a Web site or attach files to e-mail, you are using an FTP application. The file transmitted can be of any type: text, graphics, animation, or sound. FTP is embedded in browsers and therefore is 'transparent to the users'.". Oh wow. Another choice quote; "Music lovers can use FTP to download music files.".

I Need a Break
March 19, 2007

This last month has been hell for me. Our primary collocation site screwed up some routing, and then even more problems started cropping up in our main servers when at our backup site.

The cake taker though, is my marketing exam that I had scheduled for this last Friday. I showed up for the exam a half hour early and tried to get the Continuing Studies staff to let me take it early - no dice. So, I wander around for a half hour and return. Upon stating what test I was there for, I'm greeted with "Oh, other students have been having issues with that one.". Great. I go ahead and try it and sure enough - our professor input the wrong dates.

Let's sweeten this... I've just spent the weekend setting up a new server (which works without issue! JOY!) and I decide to check my SCSU email and discover an email from the professor (who's been deleting all of the threads in the discussion forums)... she wants me to reschedule the exam for Monday. When was the email sent? Sunday at midnight. This is a test covering eight chapters and she wants me to reschedule without even a business day's notice because she fucked up. Hah.

SCSU, I Love You. Not a semester goes by without a royal screwup.

Semi-Related: I got an 80% on my MGMT test, phew!

Update: After a few volleys of email tennis it was determined that I will be able to take my test on Friday. Joy!

Post-Tuition Blues
January 09, 2007

Man, as I'm browsing Newegg, attempting to replace my array of tiny disks with one giant one, I'm reminded of how much I hate the few months that follow paying tuition. All of my spending money quickly goes out the door and I'm left to try to do everything on the cheap. I bought a few used games this weekend with the hopes that they'll keep me from wanting to go out for awhile and keep me from feeling the need to buy anything else. I do miss having access to those files though. :(

It's also a pain in the ass since far before tuition payment I've cut almost everything unnecessary out of my budget. I manage to save almost 50% of my income (barring that big tuition payment) - so that should give an idea of how much I cut out.

Happy Day!
January 04, 2007

Ok, so I went over to the pre-business advising center this morning. After 15 minutes of back and forth about not bending the rules at all, the person I was speaking to let me know that they couldn't cancel my classes because I had an override in place. Thank God! I'll be perfectly able (*knock on wood*) to get the 2.65 cumulative next semester.

Entry Denied
January 03, 2007

Sad day. I open my email and find that they've denied me entry to my major based on my being 0.01 units below their minimum. I'm really not sure what I'm going to do now. I have nothing that I can take. Sad. I'm going to go in and talk to them tomorrow.

ALL B'S!!!
December 29, 2006

Phew! I got my grades today and found a delicious surprise; not only did I pass everything - but I got ALL B's! This is phenomenal since I took both Accounting 292 (Managerial Accounting) and a stats class this semester. Two hard classes, both with cumulative finals and the Accounting final not letting us have ANY notes, formulas or even a decent calculator.

*does a happy dance*

In honor of this joyous day, you may all listen to schnappi and view the mortgage bear of fortune for some happiness.

Another Day of School Down
September 12, 2006

Wow, I'm finally done with another day of classes. Eight AM classes really do kick my ass; getting up before the sun is never a good thing for a human being like me to do. It makes me drag for the whole day. Everything's shaping up well though, this shouldn't be a bad semester for me. *knocks on wood*

Currently I'm getting up at 06:30A and not getting home until around 07:00P. How late do you guys usually stay out of the house?

Refund Check Collected!
September 08, 2006

Well, I finally managed to get my refund check out of SCSU. I wandered over to the Business Services Dep't yesterday and told them about the situation, after some grumbling from the secretary about how unprofessional the Continuing Studies Dep't was (Apperently, they do this alot) - she told me to "come back tomorrow (today)" for my check. I came back this morning, and loe. There it was! Amazing!

St. Cloud State, a Tradition of Idiocy
September 05, 2006

I have so frequently encountered such idiocy and incompetency from the faculty of Saint Cloud State University, that I regret not having recorded it all. Today I begin chronicling.

MNSCU, the entity responsible for governing all bodies receiving state funding for higher education, has recently changed due dates to occur a number of days prior to class starting. This Fall semester it puts the due date at August 22nd. This is all well and good; they are a state body and the ability for a state body to move is that of a 3000lb man who ate too many Snickers bars. I would rather that they got a head start on things.

This semester I'm taking an online course, which is administered by the "Office of Continuing Studies" here at SCSU. A lovely branch that I have tangled with many times. This time however, takes the cake.

On the 22nd of August (that's the date of tuition due, for those not paying attention) they issued an amendment to the cost. My course went up by $150. Mind you, SCSU can't be bothered to tender notices by mail or phone. They will only send it to a terrible webmail account that they setup. Akin to me saying "All notices will be posted under my desk" to all I consult to. Anyway; I only barely caught the change by checking on the 22nd that they still registered my payment. Sure enough, I notice that my balance remaining was at $150.

I scrambled to make payment, and succeeded with an online transaction. Thankfully I had reserves, and wasn't putting myself right to the bottom of my checking account.

On the 25th of August, that's three days after tuition due, the Office of Continuing Studies issued another change to their tuition due. At this point, I can't be sure if it increased or decreased - but my Tuition by Term is now showing a negative balance of $107. The main tuition page has been taken down, and I'm still awaiting response from the university as to whether this is money owed to me or them.

Oi. To sum up, they had to issue a fix to the fix of the original problem. Of course, my accounts show that I have payed in full (which they did when I was $150 short) and that "No furthur (sic) action is required". "Furthur", eh?