orange!

sitting here, wasting time, as usual. today, instead of doing a write up of my presentation that was almost two weeks ago now, i instead decided that i needed to buy a new bed set. granted, i do need a new bed set (and the sheets happen to be orange... but in an awesome way) but i probably didn't need to buy it today. i am an awesome grad student. my awesomeness as a grad student is probably only surpassed by my awesomeness as a TA. (you might ask why i'm in grad school... i do, too. all the time. there is no real answer.)

but, here's a good TA story. So, about a week ago now i handed back some exams. immediately after, i recieved the following email:

"i had a question about this last test we had. looking back at one of my answers that i had received no points on i realized that i had misunderstood the question and technically i had answered what i felt the question was asking for. the question was number 3 on part two. i believe it was about why descartes presented the god argument. i felt it was talking about the fact that since people are not perfect beings the idea that we can grasp what a perfect being meant that a greater being had placed that idea in us, talking about the innate nature of knowledge. after asking someone in the class for what the question was actually looking for i was informed that it was talking about how the presence of god introduced descartes view that there was in fact a material world, that it was not just a deceptive dream. and since both god and i exist and he is all powerful i can conclude that other things exist also. if i had understood what the question was looking for i would not have concluded so early. i simply didnt take the answer far enough and i believe that i should at least get some credit instead of none at all. i got 60 out of 70 on the first part which i talked about descartes and full credit for number 1 in part 2. it was clear that i did understand the information i just misunderstood what the question was asking for. please reconsider the strict grade you have given me. i am trying to get a b in the course and i really need this grade."

note that during the course of this email he has admitted not only that he misunderstood the question, but that he also came no where close to actually answering it. and yet, he still expects that this email will somehow convince me to award him points for something that he might have done. i wrote him back telling him that his request was completely unreasonable. since then other possible responses have been suggested to me. my favorite: "dear ________, In the possible world in which you did answer this question correctly, I would of course have awarded you full credit for that answer. Unfortunately, that possible world is not identical with this world. All the same, congratulations to your possible self."

i only wish i had thought of it sooner.

i am cruel.