LWPops

Is the DVD version different from what is on Hulu? This seems different from what I remember. In short, what's the best version?

How does the second weekend of the Spoon River Scenic Drive compare to the first? Are the numbers of vendors the same? I can only go Sunday and was wondering if it would still be worth it.

Wow, Let the Right One In really did it to me. What a book! But much like NOS4A2, it freaked me out with a lingering stench of wrongness. But what a book! How do Lindqvist's other novels stack up? Which should I read next?

Three days into the semester, many students are pinging me on Canvas by leaving messages in the Comments section. It's so frustrating because I receive notifications on my phone. I am going to tell them not to leave comments (that won't stop them). But how do you deal with this?

Most of the comments are frivolous. Why did I get a zero? (Because you didn't turn it in or because it was done incorrectly.) I am already frustrated.

I actually finished it, which says something. (I've stopped reading five straight "horror" novels halfway through.) But I just didn't feel the horror.

The story was decent, but I think Paver missed a few opportunities. I would have liked to have heard more about the nameless trapper, for whom I felt great pity. He seemed like that bullied Stephen King character you see in many books, and my heart went out to him. Of course, it being told as a journal, we don't get much. Several other characters were two-dimensional, but I certainly got a sense of place here. Finally, in many ways (despite the opening chapter), it was a study of low self-esteem or loneliness. I'd love to read this written no

Halfway through, and the story is not unenjoyable, but I'm waiting for the horror to kick in. I've heard it is one of the best, one of the scariest books out there, but I'm wondering if I should keep going.

Yeah, it's weird to ask, but I've got so many other books...

Finals week. I clearly told them we don't have class during finals week and that we don't have a final exam. (This is a sophomore-level lit survey for majors.) They have a final essay instead that is due tomorrow. Yet they came to class anyway. Last Tuesday was marked "LAST CLASS" on the syllabus and Canvas, and I mentioned it in class.

They are such awful students.

And then came the passive-aggressive emails: "We are here, but where are you?" and "Where were you? There were four of us here waiting around all morning. We let the deans (sic) office know just to make sure you are ok."

I supposed it's possible they were concerned, but 13 other students were not there, either, which should

Students in my two first-year classes (composition and Phil 104, ethics) are not responding to any of my other material, so I was thinking of asking them to write an argument on the trolley problem or some other thought experiment. Has anyone done this? I don't know if I am walking into a disaster here.

Last three or four years have been rough. These students don't want to do anything. It's so demoralizing. Now here I am in March changing things up. Always good to be flexible, but this means I have less time for my own work.

The worst part about being an adjunct for me is witnessing the human misery. As much as I have enjoyed it and found it personally meaningful, I'll never adjunct as a grunt (101 or lower levels) again. I'm lucky enough to be able to make this decision. But I cannot fucking deal with the human wreckage left behind by the adjunct system any longer. I can't do it. Another man about my age (early 50s) I taught with at a local CC leveled me with what follows (he gave me permission to share--it was my idea--and I changed the particulars):

**Sorry to hear you are leaving, too. I am going to work at some temp agencies. I hate the work, the life. Everyone here knows more than I do, but I know that w

Do these things work? I am pretty sure a student ChatGPT'd his final exam. I asked students to write them using blue books, but a few students whom I trust asked to use their laptops. I said yes. A few others asked, so I said what the heck. Two of them had cheated before.

Anyway, one turned in an essay that clearly seems ChapGPT: The stupid fucking headings, the stilted diction, the impersonality. I'm gonna give the writer a zero, but it would be nice to be able to verify it, though I don't think I can?

Ok, so where do I lubricate? I just can't figure out what needs to be lubricated. Where on the wheels?

So I am teaching developmental, and we only have one developmental for the entire (community college) campus, which means EFL students, students with learning disabilities, and students who are simply awful at writing are all in the class (alongside decent students who are working on it). That's all fine, but I'm starting to notice that a few students seem to be having someone re-write their essays for them. Their final revisions are suddenly wonderfully clear, using verbs like "amalgamate" and "strategize" and even thoughtful asides that most of the students are not capable of (and would think are completely beside the point). I know these students; most cannot use the right tense or the ri