Odds and ends

As time goes by, I think I'm becoming more accustomed to the idea of Aaron taking the job in Worcester - pronounced by the natives as "Worster". (Note: I know I've been saying Boston all this time, but it's actually Worcester - I figured nobody would know where I was talking about if I just said that.) Anyhoo.... so yeah. Maybe I'm over the initial panic, but it would (most likely) be a good move for Aaron.

So it's Friday - and Aaron should have been in Worcester now, except that after Aaron had taken the day off and everything, the guy who was going to interview him left town. So, now Aaron is at work and he'll have to reschedule everything with Chung gets back in town. I do think it's very rude of him to tell Aaron that he wants to fly him out for an interview ASAP - heavily stressed that fact - and then when Aaron gets the time off, Chung is nowhere to be seen. I'm sure this is just bad timing and not significant of what to expect if he takes the job... at least, I hope so.

As Aaron has more time to think and talk to his colleagues at work about what to expect when he flies out to Worcester, he's becoming more realistic about what they'll offer him. Like, initially Aaron was saying that oh sure, it's common for these big bio-tech people to put you up in a house a part of the resettlement package. Now, thanks in large part to my realistic butt (never pessimistic, no never!), he's realized that typically all a relocation package means is that they'll pay for the moving out process and maybe help you find an apartment. I hate it that Aaron's got his hopes all up... I'm terrified that he'll just end up being disappointed. It's so much easier to have lower expectations and be happily surprised than to have high expectations and end up shocked and disappointed.

On a completely different topic, I'm trying to finish up my digital portfolio with embedded research paper. All a complete waste of time and energy. They teach us to create meaningful assignments, and yet to graduate you have to create a HUGE (mine's 110+ pages) document that signifies NOTHING. I'm currently working on the lovely 1.1.2.1.1 NCTE standards as part of my evidence that I have met performance indicator 1.2.1. Ok, let's draw this out clearly. I have to write reflections for 10 performance indicators. Now, within the indicator 1.2.1 I have this NCTE standards crap which consists of 11 more reflections. Interestingly enough, these 11 abominidable reflections are nothing but repeats of the 10 performance indicators. And on top of that, it was never clearly stated that I had to do these additional 10 - not until recently. Is there any real reason that I have to repeat myself over and over again? Yep - I have to jump those hoops to graduate. Oh wait... I said real reason. Oh no, none of those. Just hoops. And the crap that I have to prove! Get this - the very first NCTE standard that I have to prove is "Uses standard spoken and written English" Oh, COME ON!! I've just written 110 pages for you - is that competent enough?!

I hate having to pretend that I care about any of this. Do they actually expect us to believe that we're doing something of significance? Moreover, do they actually believe it themselves?