thing number one: college/university websites. i should stress that the forthcoming rant isn't directly towards any website in particular; these are just general observations in my now majordomo-level of experience when it comes to applying for schools. i understand that often when applying for a program, the Graduate School at the university and the department you're applying in have separate expectations, criteria, etc. but why the FUCK can't the department take the five seconds it would take to collect the Graduate School's criteria and address, stamp it into a generic-looking .html document and patch it with their own criteria on a page, oh i don't know, maybe linked directly off the "Graduate" part of the department website? the sheer amount of time i always have to spend just figuring out what to send to what department and where that department's address, or email, or .pdf submission form, or online application for aid is located is staggering. and of course requirements are always completely different for each school. i routinely have to call/email personnel in the department just to find out simple things like if there is an included cover sheet necessary for letters of recommendation, or what the zip code of the building address is. i don't understand why they could have someone in the department, upon conception of the department website, sit down and simulate the application-information-searching process for 20 whole minutes so they could realize how totally fucking whack it is and maybe take another 20 minutes to do something about it. i know that for the most part the idea behind applying to grad school is making yourself attractive to the school you want to get into, but seriously, it makes a huge difference when i'm trying to narrow down school choices whether you can just hop on to the school's website and go straight to an intuitive application page, or whether you have to run through the labyrinth for 2 hours before getting devoured by the minotaur at the end. i got rid of at least two really promising looking programs from my list this year because i simply could not figure out how to get information about applications off the website, and when i contacted the graduate english department asking for help, i was treated like i was obviously just too unintelligent to figure out the information on my own. i very nearly completed a BS in computer science...i have a pretty good idea that if that information had been readily available i could have navigated a simple webpage and found it.
i'm so glad blogs exist so that i can spew my impotent rage across the internet.
RAAAAAAAWR!!
the second thing that i hate is dad's weekend at WSU. first of all, i appreciate the idea that parents should come visit their kids at college (esp. during the first year) to see where they live, where they eat, which floormate they buy pot from, etc... but why can't they be expected to take the initiative to be interested in their son's/daughter's life on their own? why do all 30,000 sets of parents have to be encouraged to come to campus on the same week? and on a football week, no less. my god. i drove in circles around campus for 45 minutes earlier trying to find a parking spot, and not only did i not find one, i almost killed so many pedestrians because they streets were clogged like it was mardi gras and all the bars were closed. then there's the whole wonderful part of dad's and mom's weekends where all these really great, kosher, community-building exercises go on every day that entire week, essentially simulating what the university apparently wants itself to be seen as, rather than what it is. this morning, there were dads playing the piano in the old german-style frat house on the hill that i always walk by on my way home from work. quaint, yes...but compared to what usually goes on in that frat house at 2am...it's just weird. i guess i'm being cynical and i should think it's cool that parents come out and visit their kids, but it just seems sort of like another huge, well-orchestrated sham. and on top of that, it makes pullman nigh unlivable for something like five or six days. and if you're lucky, a parent or two will swing by your office and try to kick your ass for failing their son/daughter.
well, i just tested my amp in the fourth location after being assured by the local music shop that the hum was just feedback from a ground loop set up by the shoddy electronics in my apartment complex...yeah...apparently every other building in pullman suffers from the same problem except the music store. go figure. i'll have to break up my schedule of working on statements of goals and being bored as elephant testicles tomorrow to haul the thing back there again and see if they can't at least prove to me that it works correctly SOMEWHERE. i don't know what i'm going to do if it turns out their definition of "pristine" sound turns out to be what i've been hearing all along. because that's not 650 dollars worth of sound. that's like 100 dollars worth of sound. i get clearer tone out of my roland microcube and that's just disgustingly sad. i'd like to believe this thing works, but so far i've seen no evidence. i'm just never going to buy anything for myself ever again. every time i do it's broken, and then it ends up costing twice the original price before it actually works. well, time to play starcraft until someone comes by and makes fun of me for still being at work and then i leave.
