Okay, Who Stepped On the Butterfly?

I just received an e-mail from the ominously named "Michael Blood," instructor for the anthropology class I'm taking. Or rather, I received two e-mails from "Blackboard," an online bulletin board service for the college. The first e-mail informed me that "Upda" had been added to the course. It took me a moment to realise "Upda" wasn't the name of a South American tribesman or something but rather that the word "Update" had been degraded somehow for some reason. The second e-mail bore an announcement that Blackboard exists, and this was followed by an e-mail directly from Blood which reads, in part;

The college has scheduled multiple 1 hr learning sessions for
Students who have not mastered utilizing this on line format. If you
Have not used BLACKBOARD in previous classes and feel comfortable
With your skills in doing so, I strongly recommend you attend one of
The 1 hr classes available throughout the first week of classes (via
The link below).

Now. I realise he's not an English teacher. But is it too much to expect a certain standard of professionalism from teachers of any stripe? The standard reply I used to get to this from teachers was a variation on, "You're still a student, I'm not! I've earned the right to be sloppy!" It's all the more irritating knowing that he's likely to impress upon us the need to adhere strictly to MLA format on our papers. While the students may be underlings of a sort, it seems to me such a hierarchy is only good insofar as it facilitates learning, and sloppiness like this can only inspire disrespect.

I'm pretty sure this is the same teacher I had when I failed the class in 1998. I'm really going to need to swallow my sense of superiority if I'm not going to get sidetracked this time. Oh, but, it's so hard.

Maybe I ought to bear in mind this chess game from yesterday;



The guy I was playing against resigned, but I'd moved twice without noticing my pawn threatens his Queen. Pretty silly of me--but my mind was too busy on the more complicated things. Look what a nice, but thin, net I've got advancing on him. Normally when I overlook something obvious it's one of my own pieces hanging out in the open. I find it hard to think offensively and defensively at the same time.



I finished watching "The Ribos Operation" to-day, one of the nicer looking Doctor Who serials I've seen, in terms of sets and costumes. I saw that the show had gotten a new production designer during "The Talons of Weng Chiang," which seems to have manifested in a trend toward the less garish. It's such a shame it was all filmed on videotape or this serial would look absolutely gorgeous. I particularly liked the costume and makeup for this seer;




I was extremely pleased to learn to-day that Anne Hathaway has been cast as Catwoman in the next Christopher Nolan Batman movie. When I heard the finalists for the part were Hathaway, Jessica Biel, and Keira Knightley, I began petitioning the gods vehemently for Hathaway. It's true I haven't seen her in many good movies, though she was fine in Brokeback Mountain and was one of the few good things in Tim Burton's adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. I do admire her acting talent, almost as much as her gorgeous breasts and the fact that she doesn't mind taking her clothes off for a role. Though I guess that's probably not going to be relevant in The Dark Knight Rises, regardless of what that title suggests to the gutter minded among us. I know Christian Bale was lobbying for a Rated R Batman movie after Begins, but sadly I think his creative input regarding aspects of his films apart from acting is unlikely to be taken for some time.