Glieuaeiel's DJ

Wrecking Ball

The dorm I live in is about to undergo some major remodeling. They want to add more bathrooms, so they're going to demolish and rebuild an entire wing. A friend and I are sitting with a map of the place in front of us, trying to work out where they're going to find room for all of the people who currently sleep in that wing. It's not easy. I wonder if it's wise to be reducing sleeping room at a time when this university should really be building new residence halls to house the growing undergraduate population.

I need to go to the bathroom, but the bathrooms are all in the wing that's being destroyed. Still, I haven't felt any thunderous booms from the wrecking ball hitting the building, so I decide to go over there anyway. When I look out the bathroom window, I see that the wrecking machine isn't even on right now. (You can tell because when it's on, the wrecking ball swings back and forth like a pendulum, gradually sweeping wider and wider arcs.) However, apparently there's been some work done on the inside of the building, because none of the toilets work. Notwithstanding this, I spend some time in the bathroom. At one point I wonder if all of my changes of clothes are in the wing that's soon to be destroyed. Then a guy comes running into the bathroom to tell me that I'd better hurry up because the wrecking machine's started warming up! Sure enough, when I look out the window, I see the wrecking ball swinging back and forth a little. I do hurry. But it turns out the machine is aimed at another part of the wing, where some students are currently eating lunch on the roof. As I watch through the window, all of them soon leave, all except one, who's either trolling the machine operator or just very stupid. The machine operator can't start working until this student leaves, and he's visibly annoyed.

Math Meeting

Someone in the math department is telling us that Prof. S has released the results of his annual "Favorite Teachers" survey, and as always it "just happens" that he tops the list. The announcer apparently thinks that the second-place professor (whom I've never heard of) is a better one. I decide to see if I can take a class with this other professor and form my own opinion. Anyway, it only makes sense for Prof. S to put himself at the top of his list. It's a demonstration of self-confidence, or something.

Now Prof. S himself is leading the meeting, and he's gone through a list of important characteristics for any math teacher to have. He's taken a break from talking so that the listeners can discuss these ideas among themselves. I wasn't paying the closest attention, so I look over at Prof. B's notes, which he's been typing on his laptop. It's a list of five desirable characteristics in a math teacher. Suddenly Prof. S calls on me and asks what I think of what he just said. I try to keep my voice calm and formulate an intelligent response--something about trying to work out which teachers in the department have which of these five characteristics he's just mentioned.

"Characteristics?" says he. "What characteristics?"

I read off the first two items on the list, and he interrupts me to say that those are not characteristics but "methodologies." Oops. Now it's clear I was reading from Prof. B's notes. I hope he doesn't mind too much. Thankfully, Prof. S soon changes the subject.

Frags:

• Something happens inside a convention center.