My Shit

I passed the question I originally failed during my comprehensive exams.

My faculty, however, continue to be a bunch of sissy, ninny, too sensitive bitches.

Here in the ATL, I think I have access to one of the best run junk yards in the nation. The junk yard is Pull A Part. Having an '86 Daytona and a '68 Sweptline, I often take trips to the junk yard. I've even found that there are some parts I can buy and resell on eBay for a profit.

Today though, I found a piece of exhaust pipe that is a nice upgrade for my car. I got the pipe for $4 including tax. People that sell them online charge about $104 (and that doen't include shipping. So there's a nice bit of savings for a nice performance upgrade (that should also help with fuel mileage too!).

The last two times I've been to the post office I've been stunned by the lack of service. I refuse to go to the post office behind the North Lake Mall because the line is almost always to the door and the clerks are blindingly slow.

I decided to try a post office near campus. The line was out the door with people waiting to ship packages. The clerk at the counter, even though the line was out the door(!!) packed up his station and left once his time was up. He was the only clerk working and then he was gone. It took him about 5 minutes to pack up, he never went to the back to get anyone else or anything. Finally, after a few more minutes, someone did come out and started checking people through.

Yesterday I decided to try the post office in Tucker. Once again, the line was out the door with people waiting to ship their things. Luckily, there were 4 clerks working. But even with the line out the door (!!!) one of the clerks packed up her station and left. No one took her spot.

In both instances people ended up leaving without shipping their items. I don't know if they went to UPS or what. The lack of service is just stunning. I thought the post office was in a big campaign to improve their customer service. If this is the improved service I would have hated to have seen it before.

After hearing about my comps I spent a couple of days just being angry. Then I spent a couple of weeks doing research. I'm pretty sure I've got most of what I want to write about for my "new" question figured out. I only have a couple of more articles I want to read. I'll likely start writing tonight.

This afternoon though, I needed a diversion. It is good to let thoughts and information rattle around in your brain a little bit before you start writing. Yeah, some times I forget a few things, but the articles and books are all right there so I can go back and look at them if I need to. But the rattling is good. Sometimes I make connections between things that I never thought about before. Better yet, some of the thoughts that had real hard edges on them start to round out a little bit.

For my diversion, I ran over to the machine shop where I like to get work done when I break stuff. At Digger Don Dixon's he let me help him put some of the finishing touches on a 440 for a Charger. Too much fun. Now I have to get back to work. And better yet, since I'm broke, this was a free diversion.

It isn't uncommon to fail a question on comprehensive exams. I did just that very thing. Unfortunately, I made the grand mistake of answering the question as it was written and not as the faculty intended it to be interpreted. They, graciously, rewrote the question for me and now I get to write a paper. I was given 3 weeks for the task and I have just under 2 weeks left. I am not at all happy, but I do plan on flaming the crap out of them with my answer. If they are going to waste my freaking time and push me further back in the program, they are going to see how I really think about things. It is always so much better when you can use their own words against them too.