sielwolf's Journal: A Comedy of Errors!

Well the fun just doesn't stop! Previously on Sielwolf's Life: AT&T made a planned tech visit today between 8am and noon. Which is great when you consider I have to be on campus at noon. But regardless the tech came out and fixed my problem at around 9:20 or so. So after all of this service outage what was the final problem? "Well I guess somebody just accidentally disconnected you."

Ahhhhh... great.

So I turned on my TV (fine) and then checked my email (fine). And what did I see in my inbox?

"Sielwolf, you missed our meeting time yesterday. I plan to be in my office from 9 to 12 this morning. See me."

Ahh yes... I just mised another meeting. Why? Well when I checked my email yesterday (Wednesday) I got that first blistering email (see yesterday's post). Of course when he said "tomorrow 3-6pm" I thought Thursday. Especially since he has scheduled office hours at that time. Well it turns out he meant Wednesday.

[So Sielwolf goes jetting off to campus to try and catch his prof]

How did it all go? As well as expected. He was very understanding of my story. Of course I might have embellished a bit (what was it Goebbels said? It is easy to hide a small lie between two large truths?). So now we decided that I should keep his and the lead TA's phone numbers on hand (i.e. not in my campus email.) and other than that I'm off the hook (well until next time I inadvertantly piss him off. Sound's like I'm a damn battered wife).

Of course I didn't blame or try to pass the blame. Mainly because I'd be pointing the finger at him and that's not how it works. My Dad offered me a Worst Case Scenario solution (ala the book and TV show):

Don't be surprised if the good Professor threatens you with withdrawal
of support. Money's tight and he thinks he has you by the proverbial
short hairs this close to your graduation. Just don't call his bluff.
That's questioning a faculty member's manhood, and you know how touchy
they can get.
 
It may be his basic managerial style for dealing with lower (read:
untenured) life forms. It may also be little more an attempt to
micromanage your job. And it may be an attempt to identify somebody they
can use to decrease their TA salary budget.
 
Remember, Grasshopper, be forthright but polite in documenting your
attempts to meet job responsibilities. Ask for (and propose) specific
things you could do to assure acceptable job performance.
 
In other words, serve out your time.

In the end I think his final statement is the most appropriate. I'll keep my head down, kow-tow profusely, and count the minutes.

family

[subgeek]

sounds like things are working out, although not in the easiest way possible. i'm glad you have a supportive family. the beauty is they'll still be around for you next year, but this prof of yours will be an ever increasingly distant memory.