A Baby Story.

]]> http://steveandmccall.com/steve/hes-here/feed/ 5 http://steveandmccall.com/steve/moab-09/ http://steveandmccall.com/steve/moab-09/#comments Wed, 22 Apr 2009 02:52:16 +0000 skivy http://steveandmccall.com/steve/?p=169

http://theworldinpolaroid.blogspot.com/

(sorry WP broke my links)

Thanks xkcd.com.

Background: Basic Audio Recording assignment due. I go over the top and send the Professor a full fledged recording of my band. I figure that insted of sending him 15 minutes of work I send him 3 days.

From: Professor
Subject: Sound 8 assignment not correct
Date Sent: July 31, 2008 8:32 AM
To: Stephen

Stephen,

Very nice tunes from your band, but you didn’t do the assignment. I need a .zip file from you that contains three sound files: one recorded at telephone quality, one at CD quality, and one at radio quality. See the audio_assignment.pdf file for detailed instructions.

Professor

I decide to push a little, and throw in two more assignments that I failed to turn in on time. Also, the assignments are improperly formatted.

Professor,

I can appreciate that you would like me to go through the motions required by the assignment. However, I pose this question: At what point is the illustration that I understand the concept supersede the requirements asked by it?

If there is anywhere in which principles should be demonstrated in “real world” application rather than the minimum required application to get a grade, it should be in college.

I am not looking for an A. A passing grade will do.

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pztw2TK0_5Q
I am in the blue shirt on stage right. (your left)

Website:
http://steveandmccall.com/steve
Feel free to comment on anything of interest.

Stephe

The Professor responds.

From: Professor
Subject: RE: Sound 8 assignment not correct
Date Sent: August 8, 2008 9:29 AM
To: Stephen

Stephen,

OK, I will respond. I am not a philosophy teacher and so I do not feel qualified to respond in a philosophical way. I believe computers are used to accomplish work. At least part of the purpose for [Computer Class] is to train students to acquire/demonstrate minimum computer competencies so they can accomplish work for themselves or for an employer.
When doing work for others in the arena of CS/IS/IT, there are program specifications. This is a way of saying that the work you deliver should be based on what they asked for, the way they asked for it, and by the deadline. Meeting the program specifications is required in order to get the reward. The reward might be money, a grade, accomplishment, etc. The reward isn’t based on your interpretation of the program specifications.
When grading, I try to grade fairly. This means I have to be objective. I have to ask: “Did the student do what was asked and by the deadline?” The grading standard is applied the same to all students.
Providing a URL for Assignments 9 and 10 is not what you were asked to do. All work was due August 2nd.
Providing a single .mp3 file for Assignment 8 when you were asked to provide 3 different files of different quality is not doing what you were asked to do. Follow the program specifications and you get the reward.

Professor

I throw in a childish remark.

Professor,

I can respect how you feel about the subject, and one day I hope we can all do what we are told.

Stephe

I’m a little kid. What can I say? I just wanted to push his buttons.

]]> http://steveandmccall.com/steve/sidpwwo-sometimes-i-dont-play-well-with-others/feed/ 1 http://steveandmccall.com/steve/problems-with-living-in-a-condo-community/ http://steveandmccall.com/steve/problems-with-living-in-a-condo-community/#comments Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:46:53 +0000 skivy http://steveandmccall.com/steve/?p=112

I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure.
- Clarence Darrow

]]> http://steveandmccall.com/steve/problems-with-living-in-a-condo-community/feed/ 6 http://steveandmccall.com/steve/come-and-see/ http://steveandmccall.com/steve/come-and-see/#comments Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:36:34 +0000 skivy http://steveandmccall.com/steve/come-and-see/

Picture from www.illustratorworld.com

*(French: “never seen” opposite of Deja vu)

“Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.” -Marie Curie

My most recent insights have been from an educational film from a Professor at the University of Massachusetts named Sut Jhally . I watched a graphic but extremely enlightening interpretation of how the media (particularly the Music/Music Video Industry) and our culture are intertwined and interact. The film is called Dreamworlds 3.

The film discusses how music videos have moved from a cultural fringe to the mainstream, and how this change has effected our society in the form of cultural stories and cultural acceptability. The film shows footage of riots and group molestations caught on film and the startling, almost exact, similarities in some music videos.

The most moving and, and to be honest, the most disgusting part of the film discusses how the objectification of women in the media (in the makers opinion) is changing the inner understanding of how young girls view themselves and the world.

I would suggest it to any adult.

This film deals with subjects and content that is not for children or adolescents.

The film brings a type of accountably and rational that I have sensed lacking from our “mainstream” media. We should be holding makers and broadcasters of this content accountable for what they are encouraging.

This is you Viacom (in the form of MTV and BET), Sony BMG, Warner, and Universal.

Watch at your own risk, anything you watch.

Thank you Mr. Sut Jhally. I appreciate your thoughts.

I have way too many things that I think I want to do. Besides reading Bram Stokers Dracula, purchasing and installing a new over-the-range microwave and Refrigerator (not over-the-range, silly rabbit), and installing Gusty on my lappy (thanks Karl); I have decide I need to learn how to be a “real man” and install tile. My buddie Dustin is the king of all that is know as “building” and so I recruited him to help me because I have never done anything like this before.

The back bathroom in our condo has been crying to me for a while now and all it talks about it tile. So I said, “Damn you bathroom, if I give it to you will you leave me alone!…” It agreed and I started.

As some of you have noticed by now I must have a Mohawk when working on projects.

After the walls were stripped of their precious Sheetrock, they received the new Hardybacker with all the love and tenderness that a child can give a parent. And with a whine asked when it was going to get its tile. Walls are so impatient.

As my Yachting partner Mac-tastic blurted out when she saw it, we have a brick pattern on the walls with a windmill on the floor. The product is Slate from Lowes. Oh, Lowes how you make my projects accessible.

Well, I am about a week out from grouting with what I have left to put up, plus the Grand mal seizure of a holiday that is Christmas, and our little trip to Cali for 4 days. Hopefully it will be done before the new Semester. (Thats right I have a bachelors and I’m going back for more undergraduate work, in one word- Masochistic.)

The Band: A Sweet Bitter Winter 

How you pick me up when I’m down!

Good job Sir Mike.