It’s rather interesting, though, attending a ladies’ college. And by interesting, I mean, you really get to see how much more open and relaxed women can be when there aren’t male competitors flitting about. And hell, even I feel a little more liberated in this setting. Not only is the social environment different, but the educational environment is different. Take for instance, my Psychology of Gender class. Of course, we’ve touched the “this is what feminism is” subject, but that was all. There was no “AND HERE IS WHY IT’S RIGHT!!1!” and “PATRIARCHY, RAAAARRRRR!!” Christ, who knew that you had to hang out in a sea of estrogen to escape the feminist agenda that stinks up most major universities?

I dropped out of the University of Kentucky, because I had had it up to my eyeballs with their bullshit. I was rather tired of feeling like my money was more important to them than my education (how many times had I been told by my professors that “the grades don’t matter?”), and it made me vomit a little whenever I realized that the education gimmick was really just an excuse to have SPORTS!!1 After being dicked around by multiple agencies for which I needed to volunteer in order to fulfill my the requirements of Social Work classes, and being screwed over the TA in my German Cinema class, I came home one day in tears, crawled in bed and cried for an hour or two, while repeating “I’m not going back. This place just isn’t worth it.” This was sometime back in March, if I do recall correctly.

Soon after, I scheduled an appointment to tour my mom’s alma mater… a nice, tiny, private college in the middle of bumfucked-Egypt. I invite her ride along, as I figured it’d be nice for her to have the chance to “go back home”, as it were. And dudes? It was fantastic. So I immediately applied, sent in my transcripts and scores, and waited to hear back with what kind of scholarship package I’d be getting. I mean, this place isn’t cheap… we’re talking, twice the cost of UK. Even though I knew I qualified for a legacy scholarship, having three generations in my family walk in and out of their doors, I didn’t know if they had exhausted their scholarship awards for the year. So I was sweating bullets until my letter arrived. And I didn’t get the Legacy scholarship (boo!)… I got a better one (YAY!).

The usual routine occurs, where you register for classes, some get canceled, things get fucked up, things get fixed, blah blah etc. Which brings us to today, my last day of freedom before class starts tomorrow.

Other updates? Well, let’s see. I got a little job, which earns me even smaller paychecks. Saw VNV in NKY back in March. Started reading the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. Flew cross-country to visit some friends a few weeks ago. Some hellacious family drama occurred at roughly the same time as that travel adventure, and is still unfolding on a continuing basis. And… ehm. I think that’s about it, really. Exciting, right? Obviously, we haven’t missed much in my non-updating mood. But maybe I’ll update more now that I’m not so filled with hate and rage about the school situation.

This semester, however, has been a horrific experience. I have seen so many unsettling things, and I honestly loathe the fact that I have three more school-terms to survive (four, if you count the summer session… and I don’t, just to keep my blood-pressure within normal range).

TL;DR version: If you’re thinking about going to the University of Kentucky, don’t. Do yourself a favor and mark it off your list immediately. If you’re at all interested in reading the reasoning, though… click through.

First, the professors. Out of five professors, I’ve had serious complaints about three. First, the Religion professor. Most of my complaints about this professor are down to personality quirks, therefore, have no real relevance to the University itself. However, I was greatly disturbed when I learned that he was attending a conference in Denver, where he was to present a study of churches in Lexington, KY. What was disturbing about this was the fact that in his presentation, he called Lexington a “Midwestern City”. I was just dumbfounded by this, as Lexington is neither culturally nor geographically Midwestern. Here is a doctorate-holding professional, attending a conference for other professionals, presenting a study which was completely invalidated by this one incredibly obvious mistake. That a professional could misinform fellow colleagues is bad enough — that this person is allowed to teach young adults is just terrifying.

Second, the Gender professor. This one could have been fair enough, even if too much time was wasted with assuming we were all freshers who had never read or written for college before (which, to my knowledge, none of us were). It would have been okay, until she screwed up the scoring on our first exam. Rather than restructure the grading rubric to make up for the mistake, she decided to throw those points she misplaced onto other exams. Where each exam was supposed to be worth 45 points, they were now split 30, 52, and 53. I scored perfectly on the first, and rather terribly on the second… which wasn’t a problem, until you really did the math. My perfect score was worth less than the bad-score I made on the second exam. In expressing my concern, she insulted my intelligence by saying my math and logic were flawed. When I presented her with the math — which proved that her mistake cost me 1% of my final grade — she insulted my intelligence again by suggesting that the numbers didn’t matter. Clearly, if you’re at all interested in getting into grad school, the numbers [i]do[/i] matter. The fact that I was one point’s distance from falling from an A to a B does absolutely matter. The difference between making dean’s list, and not making dean’s list, does absolutely matter. And though I presented a very clear case with valid evidence, she refused to admit to her mistake.

Next, my own dear major, Social Work. I don’t even know where to begin with the class I had this semester. The instructor was a PhD student, so not yet a professional in that regard. However, this should never reflect on a person’s ability to be an effective teacher — I have had a great many student teachers as instructors, and they have been wonderful (my German instructors are a prime example). I assumed that this instructor had no previous experience, and was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt as I struggled to understand how she could make such a convoluted mess out of relatively simple concepts. That is, until the results of our midterm exams came back. I received rather good marks on that exam (45 out of 50), but the rest of the class did not fare so well. People were pissed. People were crying. People were giving up. People marched right up to the COSW and lodged their complaints — which were at best ignored, or at worst, twisted around to reflect badly on on the students, rather than the instructor. After drafting a long letter of complaints, and gathering signatures, the instructor changed her tune. Class improved. Our grades recovered, thanks to a rather drastic extra-credit scheme. We were feeling much better, and became much more firm with the instructor when we were not clear on how to decipher her horrible syntax. Then, with finals drawing near, she did it again. Though it says on the syllabus that the final exam would be open book, she told us that only two pages of notes would be permitted. Next, she told us it would be open book only, no notes. Then she said the first half would be closed, and the last would be open book, open note. Then she went back and changed it again, saying the entire exam would be open book only, no notes. Just as soon as we thought we had a handle on what was going on, she changed it, and made it clear that we were being unreasonable when we expressed our frustration with being jerked around. It is clearly our problem, not hers.
Thankfully, this instructor has been taken out of core-curriculum teaching. Unfortunately, though, she is still teaching next semester. I am terrified for her future students.

Finally, as I am meeting more people who have graduated from this university, I am more and more disheartened by their total lack of knowledge in their respective fields, their inability to accept any new ideas, and their lack of respect for current students who challenge the status quo. I’m currently engaged in a rather heated argument with an old Marketing major, trying to explain to him how social media marketing works, and how his expectations in a certain marketing ploy are entirely inefficient. It’s just… frustrating to see how badly this University has failed its students. Frustrating to see that this tradition of failure has been part of the university for 30+ years. Every time something like this happens, I am made more ashamed of my choice to place geographical accessibility so high on my priority list.

I wish, from the bottom of my heart, that I had listened to all the people who told me that I needed to go somewhere else. I wish I had made my education the real priority. I wish I had made the bold choice to find a place where I was not in a constant state of culture shock and toxic disappointment. But here I am, three terms left (we’re still not counting summer, for the sake of my sanity), stuck. Stuck wondering and worrying if anyone can take a degree from this place seriously. God knows I wouldn’t. I really, really wouldn’t.

You bet your sweet ass this is going on the fridge.

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

It’s a right horrible ordeal to go through.

But I think it should be noted, right here, right now, that the almost zenlike feeling of finally making it to your personal potty party is really, very worth the wait.

I feel like I could solve some problems now. I feel like I could save some people now. I feel… like I could change the world. I really, honestly, truly could. One poo at a time.

Thank you and God Bless.

I’m a “supersized megabitch”.

Because you cheated on me more than once.
Because you “fell in love” with multiple others while we were together
And you blamed me for it.
Because you tried to throw me out of your flat multiple times
While I was four-thousand miles from anywhere to go.
Because you accused me of not caring
When I sacrificed my friends for you
And sacrificed my funds for you
Sent you food when I was afraid of you starving.
Because somehow, I didn’t get that it was a joke
When you told me to “fuck off” when I would try to talk to you.
Because you called me a whore, repeatedly, for no good reason.
Because you got angry with me for wanting to talk to you
While you were off doing your role-playing games.
Because you let your friends convince you
That I was “probably” cheating on you,
When I never once did, even though you did it to me.
Because you listened to your Mom say
That I just got raped to make you feel guilty.

Because I dare think I have a right to be hurt, I’m a bitch.
I’m way out of line.

You’re still just as pathetic and clueless as you were on the day I left.

I hope this is the end of the whole “Johnson” debacle, because the next time this happens, I’ll likely be carted off to jail for defacing a mailbox.

The news of the day isn’t all bad. I finally got around to dropping by sQecial to pick up a carton of cloves. I really wish I could’ve bought a second, but hopefully we’ll find a friendly overseas supplier before we run out entirely.

Yeah yeah, I really need to post more than just videos every now and then, but there are some things that just need sharing. And as soon as my bank account recovers from paying last month’s mobile bill, I’m snagging that track off Amazon and making it my new obsession.

I love The Guild. Love.

Anyway, news… news. Eh. School is coming up next week (gasp, oh noes). Later this week, I have “pre-employment testing” to go to, for whatever that means. I don’t even rate an interview. I just get tested. THE REAL WORLD IS JUST LIKE COLLEGE LOL. Oh, and I love a guy who hits you with flowers, chocolates and love notes, all on separate occasions, but well within a week’s time. Ok, so the chocolates were M&M’s, but I LIKE THEM OKAY. THEY WERE YUMMY. And also a surprise, so I count them! Officially. Hehe.

PUNCHLINE: These Are My Twisted Words  (Advance / Leak / 2009)

Well. If this is really genuine, at least Phil still knows how to play drums.