Wa'chUtalk'n'bout

( This makes no sense )

I have never been (or at least only briefly) to most of the regions listed. Now, I suppose expecting actual linguistic analysis of regional phoneme and word usage across the US from a livejournal meme is a bit much, but completely ignoring both the distinct Californian dialects and the usages common to most of the rural west (including the Northwest) seems, well, like a livejournal meme. I think I am just annoyed because this would actually be really interesting if the questions were designed by someone other than a 19 year old from New Jersey.

Ya, whatever man.

So, today was the last day of the Semester!

I wonder if the students realize how much us instructors look forward to the breaks...

I went to lunch with Mary the painting instructor. She is really fun and we had a great time gossiping about the students and talking about how much we love teaching there but really hate the commute. We both agree that it would be nice if they could offer us medical benefits (I'm tired of paying so much for insurance that I can't afford to go to the doctor when I'm sick) but the school is not big enough to afford it so that's not going to happen.

I gave almost all "C"s and "D"s this semester. It was ridiculous. Especially the final test in History of Graphic Design. I really want them to appreciate the scoop of history and all the amazing contributions our profession has made to it so I try really hard to make the class fun and interesting. How many other history classes do you get to design a typeface in? In the lectures I very carefully make sure during the course of the Semester to ask them all the questions that are going to be on the final and we talk about those points (or at least I talk about them since I am the only one who does the reading...) at length. So, on a final test, open note, short answer, what would you guess the average final score was? There are 100 points possible with 10 points of extra credit. And many questions have two parts so if you don't remember all of it, you can still get partial credit. Plus, as an added benefit, if you can't remember someone's name but remember who they were and why they were important, (i.e. Who was considered the first industrial designer?...It was Peter Behrens, but if you can't remember his name, but remember that he was responsible for the design of the first component based electric teapots (and you should since we talked about him at length and I did my spiel about how electric teapots where high technology at the time and that all the gadget geeks had them) you get full credit!

So now what would you guess the average score was now? Remember, it is open note and I have been feeding you the answers all semester....

( The anwer is: )

I could have shown music videos all semester and gotten the same result.