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Unnecessary Complications: Dude, Be Aware of What’s Going on and Shut Up!

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Since you’ve all been reading this blog each and every day, you know that I’ve been engaged in a lot of activities lately. I’ve been working my day job, running my website company, volunteering to my fraternity’s foundation, teaching classes at two different colleges, and even taking a class in a graduate program. Well, in honor of the class that I was enrolled in coming to an end (and me obviously scoring an “A” for the term), I thought I’d bring you another serving of unnecessary complications derived from my time as a graduate student over the last semester.

This time around I’m pretty aggravated about this old guy that was in my class. Generally, I have no issue with old people enrolling in graduate courses – in fact, I encourage it! I hope to still be taking classes when I’m older. Why not? Who doesn’t love learning new stuff?

However, when I eventually take classes as an older guy, I have no intention of acting like this lunatic that was in my class this semester. This guy came off like a bumbling buffoon of an idiot with almost every comment he offered in the class.

You may remember that the last time I wrote one of these unnecessary complications diatribes I focused on an idiot girl in this same class. One of her major problems (aside from not being prepared for graduate study) was that she couldn’t properly communicate and she was enrolled in a communications program. Well, this guy has the same problem. Yet again I’m baffled by the severe lack of communication skills that the old guy in my class had. Frankly, I’m beginning to wonder about the level of rigor put into the application review for this program. Good Lord – it’s like they’ll let anyone in!

But here is an old guy who is enrolled in a communications-based program and he wouldn’t give presentations in front of the class. I repeat: he wouldn’t give presentations in front of the class! Meanwhile, his day job was working in a production studio teaching new hires for a local television channel how to operate the machinery and create graphics for the various screens. The guy worked as a presenter and instructor all day and he didn’t want to present or instruct for class assignments. What the heck type of sense does that make!?

Yet, that’s not the most aggravating part of this guy. No. In fact, what really bothered me about him was his obstinate attitude.

I remember one night when the Professor wanted to let everyone go 30 minutes early. We specifically didn’t take our regular “break” in what was a 3 hour class because we wanted to get out early. And just when the Professor was getting us ready to pack up and leave, this old asshole kept speaking and asking questions. Now, as an Adjunct Professor I would never discourage the continuation of a class discussion. However, as a guy with some common sense, I would have held my questions until after the class ended. Further, I would have asked questions that had some meaning. This guy extended our class by an additional 20 minutes (i.e. we only got out 10 minutes early) because he was asking about how the online message board system worked.

Seriously.

This guy kept us an extra 20 minutes because he wanted to talk about the finer points of an online message board! And what’s even more annoying is that the questions that he was asking were basic, easy to answer questions that had nothing to do with our topic of study. But still, the idiot felt the need to constantly repeat that he’s a cynic and he likes playing devil’s advocate. For what?! What exactly are you f’ing advocating for when you’re talking about whether or not an online submission gets to its final destination?! Honestly – what are you talking about you f’ing idiot?

This guy was a moron and I’m so glad that I don’t have to be in class with him any more. Idiot.

Unnecessary Complications: Snnngt! *Cough* Snnngt!

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For those of you that don’t know, I’ve created the word “snnngt!” to represent the noise that a person makes when they suck in their boogers instead of blowing them out into a tissue. Think about it and try to match the noise to the action. Go ahead, I’ll wait… There you go. Keep that in mind until I explain why it is relevant below.

Some of you may have picked up that I take a class on Thursday nights at the local college. It’s a great class and, though it’s pretty long and thus exhausting, I do think that I’m making some good contacts and learning some interesting aspects of communication theory. But as you might expect, there is an certain aspect of this class that completely irritates the hell out of me – the person who I sit next to seems to be constantly sick!

It’s ridiculous! This woman sits there with a variety of crumpled up tissues and “snnngt!’s” all throughout the class! Then she coughs and hacks up a lung every once in a while. And after all of that, she lets out these long, exhausted breaths – think of the sound that, “Uuuuuhhhhhhhhh…” would make. It’s gross!

What the hell is wrong with some people? Look, I understand having to “suck in” the snot if there is no tissue around, but if you’re going to be sitting in a classroom (that is a SMALL classroom, by the way) you don’t have that option any more! You’re invading everyone else’s learning environment by constantly sucking in your goobers instead of blowing them out! And then to sit there and cough along with it? Really?!

Here we are in the midst of a nationwide discussion on whether or not we are going to be hammered by swine flu and part of that conversation is how college students need to be particularly aware of their health since the swine flu attacks younger people more harshly than older folks. And this woman comes to a class on a college campus hacking and wheezing and coughing up a lung? Seriously?!

Anyway, this unnecessary complication probably bothers me more than it does the other students in the class because she and I essentially share the same desk space so I’m right in the combat zone. It’s gross and it makes me want to vomit. The moral of the story is that you should not come to class if you are sick – stay home and e-mail the professor for the work, damn it.