- Statistics.
- Houghton-Mifflin, purveyors of the textbook of said statistics. Who decided that even though I spent nearly $150 purchasing their textbook, I could only download it once, and then only to one computer, and only then using Adobe Digital Editions. Who the hell uses Adobe Digital Editions? And seriously, I get the new Coldplay, I rip it to my computer, I can listen on any device I want, but I spend nearly ten times as much and you lock me in? It’s a statistics textbook for a business course, and that business model makes me question just how damned authoritative you actually are. Business is about relationships and transactions with your customers. I am your customer, and you totally and completely failed me.
- PUMA supporters. Which, apparently, stands for “Party Unity My Ass.” Have you heard of this? All the sad supporters of Hillary who are upset she lost and decided that Obama is the antichrist, and that McCain/Palin is a good choice because Palin is, like, a chick? God, I’m so tired of everyone backhanding Obama and treating McCain/Palin like they wouldn’t be 8 more years of the same. Dear female PUMA supporters; take your heads out of your collective twats long enough to acknowledge that feminism is about more than simply voting for anyone in a skirt.
- McCain/Palin. McCain had his shot in 2000 and blew it hard, and it’s honestly a damned shame that the past 8 years weren’t a McCain administration, but his time is now gone. He sold out every ounce of integrity he ever had for the nomination, and when once he valued straight talk he now can’t speak without a teleprompter. Add to his equation Caribou Barbie, who is a non-issue and whom I will now begin treating as one, because calling her a Tina Fey-lookalike is a total insult to Tina Fey. Take your polar bears and your bridge to nowhere and your $20 million in debt for Wasilia and retreat to your northern hinterlands, because a view of Russia is not foreign policy.
They’re full of more fail than Houghton-Mifflin’s textbook.
- Lulu.com, printers of my collection. Between their basic nadir of customer service (which seems to spring from a complete and utter lack of respect for their customers/authors), their total unprofessionalism in moderating their user forums, and their completely ambiguous cover-their-arses clauses they disguise as a “terms of service” contract, pretty much the main reason I’ve decided to remove my collection from availability via their site is that my readers are my highest priority, and you deserve better (I assume you are a reader if you are reading this).
- The self-publishing community, which is largely (though with some notable exception) filled with self-righteous amateurs who couldn’t produce a salable manuscript even with James Patterson writing every other paragraph. Dear authors: publishing doesn’t owe you any-fucking-thing, and neither do readers, and if you’re not finding either, chances are it’s because you think you’re entitled to both and you’re simply not.
- People who invoke Shakespeare in the ‘genre v. literary’ debate even though it seems that they never read anything the Bard from Avon actually wrote (I’m looking at you, IO9). Dear bloviators: just because old white guys completely out of touch with anything awesome wet their collective knickers at his mention, let’s not forget Shakespeare wrote not a single play that didn’t include sword fights, fairies, witches, or romance, and often got ’em all at the same time.
Know why? Because Shakespeare was awesome.
September 21, 2008 at 6:57 pm
I took Statistics 3 times. The first time I took it was at GW but it was during my spiraling decline of any inclination to go to class so I dropped out of it halfway and got an F. Then I tried taking it online at my community college but within the first week, I was ripping my hair out…but I had to take it for a core credit. A year later, I signed up for it again and I had to basically self-teach because it was an online course. Needlessly to say, I barely passed with a C-.
As far as textbooks for classes such as statistics, let alone the insanity of the price of textbooks as a principal, they are horrendous. Professors need to do a better job of selecting textbooks for classes such as statistics but I wonder if they have a lot of variety to make a good choice in the matter.
September 21, 2008 at 7:02 pm
I love you for “calling her a Tina Fey lookalike is an insult to Tina Fey.”
Among other things, of course.
September 21, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Agreed.
Now, can we please run off to the mountains and frolick like Obama the day after he kicks that old coot’s ass?
September 21, 2008 at 9:07 pm
I am thoroughly enjoying reading your blog. I am also in Denver; I moved here from Milwaukee, WI in May after receiving an MA in Creative Writing and an MLIS in library science.
I am planning, someday, in applying to DU for the PhD.
… hmm …
Reading now: Lots of student papers and Joan Didion, The Book of Common Prayer.
September 21, 2008 at 10:43 pm
*What is it about the class other then the book that bugs ya?
*I go to a commuinity college so baring that in mind the teachers try to choose books that help people on a budget and help people who may not have read a text book in ten years (or the students who are high as a kite half the time).
*I think the mind set isn’t nessesarily that she has a skirt and there for would make a good leader. I think some are hoping that for four years she won’t be so bad and then Hillary will run again and win.
If Palin was saying things that would help women’s rights I would get it. Like clinics for women who are prostitutes. Most prostitutes don’t become prostitutes because one day they thought to them selves “I can make some money by fucking.” Almost all have a history of problems with home and many (I won’t say most because I don’t have the statistics) are “recruited” by a pimp who offers them the affection they aren’t getting. I’m not saying it’s a complete exscuse for women who do this, but is it really justice that a prostitute whose caught by the police is sent to jail longer then the guy who hired her? Sometimes the guy only has to pay a fine depending on where he’s arrested.
*The fact that nutty republicans, like the ones who say homosexualls are responicible for 9/11, still hate him to me is a sighn that he’s not all bad. They think he’s too libral.
*You will be able to terminate your service with them with out a hitch right?
*Okay, what “self-rightious-self-publishing-jerk-wad” started this today?
*What Shakespeare didn’t invent he imortalised forever. I’m certain that as great as he was not all of his creations were orginal but I’m certain that had he not put them in plays they would be forgotten. If you can’t like his written works this one fact you can’t deny.
September 22, 2008 at 9:39 am
@Princess: C- is actually the minimum I need for the class, and anything beyond that is gravy, so far as I’m concerned.
@6 degrees: I love me for other things, too, of course! Heh.
@Alma: does Obama frolic? I’ve never seen that, but I wouldn’t doubt it. He seems like a genuinely happy dude.
@Sarah: thanks. Glad you’re enjoying it. Congrats on those degrees, and believe me, I know from student papers!
@Gotham: Probably the math bothers me. I wish my course did that. And but for four years, it’ll be McCain, whom PUMA idiots seem to forget about. I used to like McCain, but now I don’t see any sign that he hasn’t gone all bad. And yes, I pretty much will be able to simply pull everything from Lulu without regard for much in the way of consequences, and it was nobody today; by lately, I mean the past month or so. I’ll be writing some post or other about my experience with self-publishing, which was positive in my experience with readers and publishing but overwhelmingly negative in terms of my experience with that particular community in general. And yah, Shakespeare was rad. I was just trying to make the point that a lot of people seem to tend to forget that he wrote a lot of action/romance/bloody murder/etc.
September 22, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Nice post. I find your comment on the disposition of self-publishing authors dead-on, sometimes. Sometimes irritatingly feels like infinite times though.
I do think that general perspective will take an inverse trend as self-publishing continues to gain footing in the book publishing world – I am admittedly defending the intentions of my own blog, which offers self-publshing advice to for publishing and published authors.
I’ve actually consulted with many who have had less than positive experiences with Lulu and changed direction completely.
You’re right though there is some notable exception though – a refreshing contribution to this growing community. I’m all for growing that demographic. The link below includes part of a cool case study on that if anyone is interested.
I’m assuming you count yourself among those comprising the notable exception? What direction are you taking with your work after Lulu?
http://selfpublishingadvice.wordpress.com/2008/09/19/excellence-in-self-publishingand-beyond/
September 22, 2008 at 2:52 pm
@Karl: yes, I know your site and like it a lot, in fact. As for how I count myself, I generally try not to, and I’ll bet there are as many who would say that I’m a similarly self-righteous amateur as there are those who would say I’m an exception.
As for direction: forward. Which might sound glib, but I’m concentrating less on my collection than I plan to keep my eyes on the ball that is my novel, The Prodigal Hour. I’m sure I’ll do something with the collection, but figuring out what is low on the priority list.
September 23, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Will, you did not separate your subjects in your reply. It confuseded me. (the extra ed is for emphasis) If you want to save on space use the star thingy, *, in between sentences.
It would be four years of McCain and he wouldn’t be drastic enough in changes to fix everything that’s gone wrong.
The whole “I love Shakespeare Campaign” started during the romantic period by people like Edgar Allan Poe if I’m not mistaken. In his own right Edgar Allan Poe was a great writer and a blunt, if not rude, editor. He liked Shakespeare and I think that sys something.
I thought PUMA was a sneaker company. :p
September 29, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Found your blog while doing a Google search for other Regis MBAs.
I wholeheartedly agree that the Statistics textbook is a sham. And just wait, it gets worse. If your digital book is anything like mine, it will stop working entirely in about six months.
Fortunately, I am halfway through the program now and all the books have been physical copies since the first class.
Anyways, just nice to see someone blogging intelligently about their experiences at Regis. Take care!