Current Homework Projects

I have to design a series of art pieces for a hat store for the class in design and layout that I am taking at the USDA.* Apparently the computer lab is open on Saturdays, which is nice because I don't have hundreds of dollars to slap down for Adobe's Creative Suite 3. I just might spend all day in the lab tomorrow working on my project but also working on some movie posters in the style of the Master, Myers87.

I could have done a tattoo parlor or body piercing shop and may still choose that because my hat store ideas are pretty lame. Well, so are my tattoo and piercing lounge ideas. Some day, I hope to be able to match the brilliance of dontEATnachos:


* Yes. I am actually taking a class at the United States Department of Agriculture. They have a graduate school.

You Want My SAT and ACT Scores?

Huh?

This is the first time in at least five years that any employer has asked for those scores. I am no longer certain of my ACT score, except that I remember doing considerably better on that test than on the SAT. I am pretty sure I got a 1210 on the SAT and I think I got a 31 on the ACT. Or maybe a 29? That was...thirteen years ago. Or twelve.

In any event, what the hell is the point of asking for a potential employee's SAT or ACT scores when you require a BS or BA? You are not hiring any high school graduates, so how would tests from at least four years prior, and much education prior, help an employer determine whether you are worth interviewing? GRE or LSAT scores I could see being a very interesting number, but high school scores seem so pointless.

Doing My Homework

I fucked up my homework assignment for last Wednesday's editing class. I forgot about it over the long weekend and left it to try and do on the bus to class. We had been assigned an Aviation Magazine (or some such title) article to proofread at the lowest level of authority. This level of authority means that we query the author instead of researching and making changes and identify errors in spelling and grammar. We were advised to look for the really big mistakes more than the smaller mistakes, but the smaller mistakes are important as well.

In the second paragraph, the article said that Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) were used in Vietnam. I thought this sounded bogus, so I circled it to be queried.¹ I continued reading and scanning but only got to the end of the first page before I had to stop as the train had filled up and I had to fight to get off at my stop.

After being chided by the instructor for not completing the assignment, I felt like an ass. I was saved, sort of, when the instructor learned that most of the class had slacked on this assignment as well and gave us another week to work on it. I glanced at the article during the class break after our proofreading marks quiz and spotted the big mistake she had kept trying to get us to notice: the article has no conclusion.² The article cruises on discussing the merits, flaws, uses, and designs of UAVs but ends without a conclusion two paragraphs after starting a new topic in the UAV discussion. This article was not a draft, it was a final copy that was printed. Somebody got righteously shafted for this one.

1 Having just searched "UAVs used in Vietnam", I am surprised to say that I was wrong about that one. You learn something new every day.
2 I am still not sure whether I like editing and proofreading because it is a whole career that will be spent telling people how wrong they are or because it is a vital role in crafting pieces of art like Motherless Brooklyn or 1984, both of which I happen to reading now.³
3 I am also reading From the Notebooks of Doctor Brain. Fun stuff.