no more essays!

finally, the mockingbird essays are graded and ready to be added to the gradebook tomorrow morning. ended with four of the worst essays i've ever had turned in to me - one of which was plagiarized from this site. note to plagiarizers - if the idiot uploading the paper cannot even spell words in the title correctly, what makes you think it will be a decent paper? oh wait, i forgot - you're not thinking, which is why you're plagiarizing.

this is the second instance of plagiarism this week: earlier i had a miracle occur. two students from my first bell turned in papers that were almost exactly alike. when i confronted them, they claimed they had no idea how it had happened that they used the exact same quotes in their paper and just happened to both start their second paragraph with the exact same sentence. after some deep theological wrestling, they came to this conclusion: student A had helped a student in another class with his essay, who then in turn helped student B to write his. amazing. so now they're both writing new essays for me. i'm sure they'll get excellent grades on those...

yes, i'm a bit on the pissed side at the moment. it's an insult to my intelligence when students think i won't be able to tell they didn't write a paper. i mean, i'm sure some have slipped my attention, but they're not even trying to do it well.

here's an odd story: so monday i discovered the speakers on my computer no longer worked. no sound, no lights, nothing. i unplugged them. i checked the sound card. i turned it over and over. i contacted dell, who gave me a long troubleshooting diagnostic to run. nada. luckily, i still had three days left on my one-year warranty - looks like someone screwed up the built in obsolescence by about a week. so dell is sending me a new set of speakers. then, when i came up to check my email after finishing grading, my speakers suddenly started working. i did nothing different. one day they're working, the next they're not. weird. but am definitely happy they're working now. and this way i'll have a backup set for when these go out again. or i could hook them both up and have a REALLY loud computer sound system.

trying to decide what i should do now - feel like i should go get dinner, but it's awfully late and i'm not that hungry, though i know i probably will be later. thought about just taking a walk and hoping that would take the edge off, but it would probably just jump start my metabolism right before i go to bed, making me hungry and unable to fall asleep. ah, the major complications of my life.

tomorrow i have two parties to go to (which is why i had to finish my grading tonight) - one after school at beth's, celebrating the end of the school year with friends from school. and then after that, i'll be heading down to the establishment formerly known as hamburger mary's to catch up with allison, who's in town for just one night. could be a late night, but will definitely be worth it. not sure i'll participate in the maryoke portion of the evening - guess we'll see how i'm feeling - and if i've indulged in any adult beverages.

the end of school has taken any signs of depth right out of my writing. hopefully i'll get it back before owp starts in a week and a half. bleah. not terribly excited about it at this moment. hopefully it will be worth it in the end.

ok, my stomach has won. off to grab an ill-advised late night dinner. so much for my plans to wear a speedo this summer....
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tunes: american music club - another morning