That’s right, today was my first ethics class that shouldn’t be about ethics. :-I

The only thing interesting to report was that of the 12 I have enrolled, only 8 showed up.  I understand that the first day of class is usually nothing to write home about, but considering it’s when the professor goes over the syllabus – why the heck wouldn’t you show up?  Especially in one of these abbreviated summer classes.  I don’t get it.

I did get to share (somewhat gleefully) that 50% of the student’s grades will be based on participation.  As I said to them, “If you plan on just showing up and not saying anything, then you should plan on getting an ‘F’”.  This is so fabulous.  It’s a senior level ‘capstone’ class, which means I can run it more seminar style – which means less lecturing from me, more discussion from them – and the discussion does not in any way, shape, or form include a persuasive or a demonstrative speech.  I can’t even tell you how excited I am about this.

It’s really fun for me to read the things I’m having them read and think up prompting questions.  I’m excited about case studies we’ll go over – this week I’m going to have to do a review of ethics, ethical principles, and law things (you know, copyrights and other things that you can get sued for), and then I get to move right into a discussion about news in the online world – you know, what the other person thinks the entire class should be about?  Except I’m going to spend 2 days talking about how the world of news is constantly a’changing, and from there, I can interweave that back into whatever ethical topic we’re talking about.  Hmm?  See how I did that?  I can talk about new things and still make it a class about ethics!

Genius.

I finally got paid today, and that was a fun adventure that still isn’t over.  I went after class to get my check (you know, the one that is now a week late because some people can’t do their jobs?), and was told “Oh, the machine we use to print the checks is broken.  We won’t have them until after 3.”  Haha.  Are you kidding?  And then they actually wondered why I was pissed?  So I got the check, ran it to the bank to try to make a wire transfer to my main bank and beat the hold, and was told all wire transfers had to be done by noon.  Which means I’ll never beat the hold, because my class goes to 11:45 in Tuscalooser, and the closest credit union branch to me is about 40 minutes from there.

But – I have the money, it’s being transferred, and if I get desperate, I guess I can share the cat’s food. 

I don’t understand, in the age of electronics, why this is so hard.  Computers and technology are supposed to make things simple, aren’t they?

And can anyone with a WordPress blog tell me why WordPress is sucking so bad and not letting me embed video from anywhere?  I’ve been able to do it before, but I’m having no luck now.