- Grading: Well, I finished grading the first assignment in CIS 560 by class time on Thu 27 Apr 2006, and it's as I wrote: instructors' marks are not model solutions, nor are they stack traces, nor even segfault error messages. Sometimes a score is just a score. Let's face it, though: asking for marks is really just a way for some students to ask "where they lost points", which is really just a way to ask for more points. I know whereof I speak: I was neurotically grade-conscious as an undergrad, and while I may arguably have no room to talk about grade-grubbing, I know almost every line in the book, whether it came out of my mouth or someone else's.
- VOIP: Lycos Phone works from phone to computer, and quite well at that, giving me total of 5 VOIP solutions in addition to my cell phone: iTalkBB for voice-to-voice, SkypeOut for IP-to-voice, Lycos Phone for voice-to-IP, and Skype and Google Talk (plus Lycos and Yahoo) for IP-to-IP.
- Nanowrimo: Halfway between Nanowrimo 2005 and 2006, 100000 words (and two challenges in), I have finished the first two "books", but I'm not quite satisfied with the turns of events; the last few chapters in particular feel more like a series of vignettes with loose ends, and I'm not sure how to wrap things up for the 2006 sequel.
- Chat: There is no way in the Eleven Hells I can catch a person who sails in and out of the chat room within 30 seconds; sometimes we go that long between responses during an active conversation.
- WOW detox: Still wishing World of Warcraft would stop swallowing grad students whole. So,
zengeneral, tell me about those withdrawal symptoms!
And how are you all?
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Banazir