In my spare time today, I wrote some practice CLEP exams. Stick around, and I’ll give you the somewhat surprising results. Could you go back and write your college exams? I believe that most people could not, which is a system I disagree with. All degreed people should have to regularly prove they’ve retained the knowledge. Mind you, I could almost name those who would find retesting a horrifying concept.
I wrote Humanities, Liberal Arts, Microeconomics and College Math. At the Hollywood Library, where some lady in the far corner let her bratty kid scream for the entire two hours I was there. How utterly rude and visitors to Florida libraries quickly learn that the locals don’t even consider it polite to shut up when they get inside. Oblivious, inconsiderate ignorance is the standard around here. Plus, chain your bike up twice outside, the police do not appear to chase or arrest or even deter bicycle thieves. The library has a gang that hangs out right at the bike racks, see picture.
Part of the quiet day was because apparently the meeting with the factory owners went so well y’day, there was little to do at the shop. Wallace also had an easy day, spending the morning on Dania Beach. He is considering going back a few days early. He’s seen the sights around here, some of them twice over. Pudding is used to him and starting to bother him all day long as well, but Wallace is a dog owner.Which reminds me, Cancer Steve is supposed to be out by now. Nobody at the shop has seen or heard any news. I’ve grown a bit attached to the cat [Pudding] myself, but out she goes at the first opportunity. Besides, there is a lady asking for me at the shop, a French-Canadien, who wants to discuss sharing a place. If so, the cat would drive her crazy. I thought the lady wanted me to look after her place while away, but she is here year-round. The guys say she knows who I am. I’m drawing a blank.
Matt, the guitarist called and we are on for Sunday. He is from New York, so I’ll have to make sure he has no illusions about the music scene down here. Every Florida musician I’ve know has over-promised and under-delivered, some drastically so especially concerning their ability to get along with others. Sorry news for some people, but when your personality is so bad you use if for birth control, you are not going to make it in the performing industry no matter how talented you are. These people do not learn from experience and you could not define ignorance any better. Worse, when you don’t treat them badly in return, they act like they’ve won an argument.
I’ve already been re-contacted several times by guitarists who at first said no, and who went on the get burned on Craigslist. I’ll give some of them another chance (at their own expense) but only because I wasted a couple of my own years on what turned out to be the least successful guitarist-vocalist I have ever met. (And hey, I get around.) Nor do I just mean musically – even groupies avoid that guy.
Actually, that is interesting, because that guitarist considers himself a humanist and that I am unsympathetic to mankind. Interesting, because of the CLEP practice exams. I got 100% on the Humanities and Liberal Arts, 94% in Microecomonics and 54% in College Math. This is exactly the opposite of what he would have predicted, yet he fancies himself a good judge of people.
I will admit to stabbing on one question (I correctly guessed a portrait of George Washington had been done by a French artist) but the fact is, this type of “knowledge” just does not interest me. I consider many things useless. However, it is a complete fool that thinks that therefore I know nothing of the subject. Now I will explain the low math mark.
Easy, it was the “new math”. I missed it by one year in school. Trust me, math has not changed in centuries (excepting integral calculus and, did you know, there is still an unclaimed $100,000 prize for the first math theorem discovered on a computer). I went over the answer key twice to seek the source of my errors. I was unfamiliar with the “new math” terminology and flubbed some questions using strange terms.
What I would call a prime number, the test called a “non-compound” number. What I call the roots of a quadratic, the test says “x and y intercepts”. What I call a Venn diagram, they call a “circle set”. Therefore, I failed a math vocabulary test. That will be taken care of within the week.
It is now too late for a group of Broward teens to get into my Spring music class. Tonight, the class was jamming to Blues, Country and Pop music. The reason is that the class was set up for four more people than arrived, thanks to softball practice. The remaining students got tons of personal attention, relatively. They surged ahead. Since I get paid the same, so I have no intention of waiting for anyone to catch up. Maybe I’ll start another class.
The fact is, I am making so much at teaching music, I’m going to place an expensive ad soon. (I changed my mind on that.) This will diminish computer teaching time but it is a question of finances. My plan is to not spend a penny of my own on another college degree. Calculating non-humanist anti-social dirtbag that I am. Teaching music is a margin extra enjoyable over teaching computers; now it is also paying more.
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