This weekend thus far has been filled with computer headaches -- which, even though I'm sure most of you don't care about, I'm going to tell you about anyway.
On Thursday, Ubuntu 11.10 was released. Those of you who know me well know that I have used Ubuntu -- a free, open-source Linux operating system -- on all of my computers since 2006, and haven't looked back. I started with 6.06 "Dapper Drake," and I updated with every new release all the way through 11.04 (my current OS, but we'll get to that in a minute). So, when 11.10 was approaching release, I did some quick research, found some workarounds to the new GUI that they were planning (so that I could keep the desktop environment I was used to) and updated on schedule. I went through the repositories, downloaded the old desktop environment, installed it, and was ready to move forward.
Except they changed too much. Way too much. Ubuntu 11.10 seems to be the Linux equivalent of Windows Vista -- bloated, slow, too many features removed, too many useless ones added, etc. I couldn't find my files. There was no trash icon. It didn't like my mp3 player when I hooked it up to charge/refill, and the upgrade had removed compatibility with a LOT of the programs I ran on a regular basis, as well as codecs, plugins, and game-related things. I tried to live with it; I figured that I could find workarounds or otherwise get used to it, but after a few hours, it was too much. I hated it, and I had to pull the plug.
I wiped the HD and installed the newest version of Debian instead. Debian, if you didn't know, is the operating system Ubuntu was originally based off of. It also offers a much simpler interface and is much more like the old-school Linux I was used to. I liked it. I knew where all of my files were, it was compatible with all of my peripherals (such as my mp3 player, camera, and flash drives) and the GUI was what I was used to in the old days when I first started using Linux on my computers.
Except.
Debian does not include any proprietary software, or at least it doesn't include software branded as such. This makes seamless compatibility -- at least when it comes to internet stuff -- damn near impossible. Because it does not come with and does not easily support Flash, Firefox, Google Chrome, Skype, or anything else online-based that I use on a regular basis, I was stuck. On one hand I had a very stable, secure operating system. On the other, I was forced to use Iceweasel (Debian's version of Firefox with a different name, perpetually stuck on version 3.6 with no way to upgrade) and with no Flash support for embedded videos, had no access to Skype because it's not offered on Debian, and couldn't even access software updates or the software package manager, I couldn't do it. I refuse to be able to do less on an almost brand-new computer than I can do on my seven-year-old laptop at work. After about eighteen hours of using it, I wiped Debian from my HD too.
Now I had a choice. On one hand, I could re-install Ubuntu from the 10.04 LTS (the long-term-stable release) disc I'd thoughtfully burned as a backup and work my way back up to 11.04 to be back where I started, or I could try something completely new and end up spending more time trying to figure out an operating system that wasn't mainstream enough to get the amount of support or documentation that Ubuntu has and may support even less of my programs and peripherals.
Keep in mind during all of this that I'm a graduate student with a veritable shitload of work to do on any given weekend, and don't have the time (or patience) for all of this bullshit. All I wanted was to upgrade my operating system with a few clicks and move onward with my life. And I really liked Ubuntu 11.04. For me, and for what I do, it was the perfect operating system. It couldn't get any better for my daily tasks.
So, with the bitter taste of wasted time and regret in my mouth, I installed Ubuntu 10.04, then upgraded to 10.10, then upgraded again back to 11.04. Each upgrade took me about three hours, during which I took care of tasks around the house like cleaning, laundry, washing the sheets and making the bed, making homemade applesauce (six chopped apples, 1/3c sugar, 1/2c water, blender on liquify), and began reading The Holder of the World, the next novel being covered in my Asian/Middle Eastern lit class.
When I was done, upgrading, finally, I had the same operating system I'd started with on Friday night -- though I had been able to upgrade to the 64-bit version to complement my computer's hardware. The only real differences I've noticed are that the the display is smoother and prettier, and in the upgrade I somehow lost the font of Times New Roman from the word processor/office suite I use (LibreOffice). As that can be easily replaced, I'm once more rather satisfied with my computer, but have learned a very time-consuming, important lesson about upgrades: as long as I have Ubuntu on this computer, I'm never going to upgrade its OS ever again.
There have been other things going on aside from computer issues, of course; Thursday night, we had our midterm exam in the Asian/Middle Eastern lit class I'm taking as my "special topics" course. I've had courses with this professor before, so I know how he likes to conduct his midterm and final exams, and I've mentioned it here before as well -- pick a question from each novel, write an essay on it as your answer, upload the file to his flash drive when you're done, and be on your way. Not incredibly difficult, especially as he allows us to use our books and any notes written in those books. If one plans for such an exam and has read the books/taken notes during the lectures, one should be fine.
The problem this time around? Up until this point we've always been allowed to use the entire class period for the exam (7:05 to 9;45), to better construct our essays for said exam. This time around -- for reasons inexplicable -- the exam time was limited to 90 minutes flat, despite the fact that we didn't have anything else planned for the remaining class time and we could go when we were done. The previous exams I've taken in his classes had three questions, and you only had to write on two of them. This one had six questions, and you had to write on three of them -- one from each novel. So, not only was it more difficult, but we had a time constraint for no given reason as well.
My complaint (which echoed the sentiments of several classmates I know well) was, in essence, what the fuck's the hurry? In the British Modernism class I took with this professor last spring, even with only two essay questions to answer on the exams, there were many students who took until the very last minute of the full class, right up until 9:45, to carefully craft their answers. For the final exam, I was in there typing up my essay until around 9:15-9:20ish myself. This time, while one or two of us finished before the 90-minute mark, my remaining classmates were feverishly typing out their answers to their last question when time was up. What's supremely ironic is that a majority of those classmates had him last semester for the British Modernism class as well, just like I did, and found the time limit not only frustrating but hindering to our thought processes, as it was always something lingering in the back of our minds.
Yes, I realize that 90 minutes = 30 minutes per essay, but I challenge you to write a compelling, comprehensible five-body essay on a given theme of any dense novel in thirty minutes. Let me tell you, it's not exactly easy, even for us English majors and creative writers.
"I just hope he grades leniently," one of my friends said. "By the end I was really struggling and rushing through everything."
"All of us were," I replied.
Yes, I can understand a time limit if we're going to have a lesson or anything else afterwards. But we weren't. It just really threw me off my game. I'm confident I did moderately well, of course, but I'm convinced I could have gotten a perfect score had I been given the full time period of the class session. I'm pretty sure many of my fellow students would echo my sentiment. So, yes, maybe he will grade leniently, maybe he won't. I'm not too concerned about it either way, to be honest -- this semester, I've decided to forgo the quest for perfect grades and focus on the quest of simply getting everything done and turned in on time.
After looking at my lesson plans for Unit 3 for my own students, it appears that this is almost exactly what I'll be forced to do -- as there's a TON of work that I'll be doing just for them throughout the month of November and the first week of December. I've made up my lesson plans in advance and covered everything I need to cover, but with this weekend's fall break, the Thanksgiving break, workshops, conferences with me, and two big paper assignments all over the course of a month, everything important is crammed in all together very tightly, and I had to rewrite/revise my timeline and lesson plans several times last night, taking almost two hours to complete it. We lose almost three weeks of instruction days during the last half of the semester due to fall break, library day, a full week of conferences during class time, Thanksgiving week, and workshop week.
Fall semesters are always like this not just for my students, but for my own classes as well, and it can't be helped -- everything is rushed through November and crescendos around the first week of December, when everything comes due in all classes, before finals week. I'd rather have classes/finals run through Christmas Eve (because, obviously, it's not like I have a social life or anything to do) than cram it all into one month and not only end up shortchanging my students on time to do things, but shortchanging myself on the tasks I must complete as well. As I've mentioned many, many times before, fall semesters suck, folks. They suck more than you can possibly imagine. And they suck more when you're taking two lit courses at once.
There is still a lot I have to do on the remaining three days of my long weekend -- tonight I will be writing a paper on narrative and the omniscient narration in Madame Bovary, for lack of anything else to write about in a paper for my Grad Studies in Fiction class, and tomorrow/Tuesday I will be reading not only the rest of The Holder of the World for the Asian/Middle Eastern Lit course but getting started at least on Crime and Punishment for the fiction course...as well as finishing up that paper if I don't finish it tonight. Those are my three main tasks I must take care of, and I'm trying to give each of them a day(ish) to complete. They'll overlap, I'm sure.
At least I'm not alone with a weekend vacation full of work; Suri told me she's doing nothing but work this weekend as well, and she's just as burned out as I've been (if not more). It's more stressful for her, as her longtime boyfriend has children and she is functionally a stepmother-like figure to them when he has them for the weekend. To make the situation a little better for her, I've offered her some of my applesauce when we both return to campus, as I'm nothing if not a good friend.
As for me, I will unfortunately have to leave the house and do at least some shopping over the course of the next few days, plus get gas in the car. I'm out of nearly everything in the house due to my refusal to get groceries until I absolutely have to, and the car will need gas again before I return to campus on Wednesday morning. Luckily, I did just get paid on Friday, so I should be relatively okay budget-wise to get some stuff I need. Of course, I still have to shop cheaply so that I can keep an eye on the expenses of rent and bills. I do feel lucky, however, that I'm not as bad off budget-wise as some of my friends have been -- friends who have told me that they have a whopping $33, or conversely, $17 in their bank account between paychecks. My financial situation isn't that bad yet, but damn, if it ever gets that awful I really won't be able to survive. My car uses about $30 of gas every week on its own, for example, and I still have to find a way to budget to pay the $300 in car insurance I'll owe all at once at the end of December, because that expense is coming up faster than you realize.
Anyway. Off to work now. Here's hoping I can get the vast majority of it, if not all of it, done by Tuesday night. As I've said many times before, I may not have a social life of any sort to speak of, but I get shit done.
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