That. Took. Way. Too. Long.
Nov. 15th, 2004 06:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sniffnoyAbout two weeks ago Dr. Bajwa gave us an assignment. No, there was no question about the due date - that was quite definitely today. Just about the point.
The assignment was this: to, in groups of 2 or 3, make a brochure for a 5-day "ecology tour". We had to have our theoretical tour travel (no motorized vehicles!) to two different biomes. We had to make an itinerary, talk about the animals and plants we'd see, the ecology, recommended clothing, meals and accommodations, and - most importantly to Dr. Bajwa, it seems! - it had to be shiny and colorful. Oh, and just to make things harder for us, it had to be on legal paper.
Now the first part of any group project is, of course, forming groups. I didn't think to do this until about the beginning of this week, and neither did Avi. So we ended up in a group together. There was a 3rd person who didn't have a group yet either, but that was Dmitry, so it was me and Avi.
Of course, you know what we were doing last week - working on our lit essays. Or rather, that's probably what Avi was doing while I was looking for my spacing book. Regardless, neither Avi nor I thought to start till Friday. Did I start? No. Did Avi start? No. So that leaves Saturday and Sunday.
Now Saturday, as you'll recall, I went to SHP, math practice, and then was home for about two hours before people started arriving for my birthday party. So naturally I didn't do any work on it that day.
That leaves Sunday, or, yesterday. Now I should note at this point that back on Wednesday Avi and I had already decided what we were doing - the Sahara desert[0] (because deserts are nice and lifeless) and some point on the tip of Southern Italy (because it's close by). I was lazy and took the desert, which comprised the first two days.
And so Avi and I worked frantically Sunday to get all the information we needed and put it in the form of answering the various requirements for the assignment, which we pretty much managed to do successfully by 21:00, with one glaring exception, namely, that the only plant anyone seemed to be able to definitively say lives in the Sahara is the date palm, and they're really only found around oases. Now, I know from what else I saw that there are also various grasses and shrubs and whatnot - but the only one I could find specific information on was the date palm. But, ignoring that omission, it was compiling and formatting time.
(21:07:06) fensef: i think it's only practical for one of us to really compile the information and make the brochure. as agreed, can you eat that too?
(21:07:09) fensef: oops..
(21:07:29) Sniffnoy: yes, I can eat the brochure too :P
(21:07:33) fensef: what i meant to say was:
(21:07:38) fensef: can you please do that part?
(21:07:54) fensef: as agreed
(21:08:25) Sniffnoy: does this mean actually using some publishing program to make it look nice and all? because I have no clue how to do that
(21:08:39) Sniffnoy: I can integrate what I've got into your format, though
(21:08:40) fensef: no, you use microsoft word.
(21:09:04) fensef: i will send you my template from sophomore year and then you shall please do it, eh?
(21:09:25) Sniffnoy: OK
It soon becomes clear this is not the right template.
(21:20:21) Sniffnoy: So how does this template work, exactly?
(21:20:42) fensef: what do you mean?
(21:20:49) Sniffnoy: Isn't it a bit... small?
(21:21:05) fensef: what do you mean?
(21:21:19) Sniffnoy: there's 5 small boxes
(21:21:26) Sniffnoy: at the top of the page
(21:21:40) fensef: no....
(21:21:47) Sniffnoy: the first one says "Cirque du Cell"
(21:21:51) Sniffnoy: yup, that's what I see
(21:21:56) Sniffnoy: and this is MS Word I'm using
(21:21:59) fensef: yes. wait for the rest to load.
(21:22:09) Sniffnoy: um, it's not loading
(21:22:11) fensef: there is quite a bit of room there. not much, but some.
(21:22:18) Sniffnoy: that's all that's there; I can even edit it
(21:22:21) fensef: try scrolling
(21:22:42) Sniffnoy: There isn't anything there!
(21:22:46) fensef: ok, do you see a pic of Golgi? of mitochond?
(21:22:49) fensef: golgi on p. 2
(21:22:50) Sniffnoy: no!
(21:23:02) Sniffnoy: I see nothing but boxes and "Cirque du Cell"
(21:23:06) fensef: what? no corrupt, i hope.
(21:23:12) fensef: what boxes? do they say anything?
(21:23:17) Sniffnoy: no!
(21:23:23) fensef: reload it.
(21:23:28) Sniffnoy: reload it?
(21:23:37) fensef: redownload, reopen
(21:25:39) Sniffnoy: btw, what is the size of the template supposed to be?
(21:25:47) Sniffnoy: I have it as 19kB
(21:26:19) fensef: too shmall, about an order of magnitude off
(21:26:44) Sniffnoy: ...still the same size
(21:27:40) fensef: oh sheet
(21:27:41) fensef: wrong one
(21:27:48) fensef: i resend in minute. thanks.
Avi tells me I don't have enough on my itinerary. (Day 1: Go into the desert. Day 2: Return.) I change it to say the same thing with more words. Dr. Bajwa most likely won't complain.
(21:44:30) fensef: make the itinerary bulletpoint.
(21:44:37) fensef: it will probably take you another hour or two.
(21:44:49) fensef: or more; if you're me, it would take 3 or 4 hours.
(21:45:10) Sniffnoy: just to make the itinerary bulletpoint?
(21:45:16) Sniffnoy: how would that take nearly an hour?
(21:45:29) fensef: to do a good job will take well over an hour.
He doesn't explain further.
(21:46:48) fensef: find pictures on the sites i sent you at the end of the file
(21:47:03) fensef: there exist many
(21:47:49) Sniffnoy: what do you mean, find pictures on them?
(21:48:03) fensef: the websites will have pictures in them.
(21:48:38) Sniffnoy: how about you send me pictures for your section? :P
(21:50:49) Sniffnoy: that's kind of, well, your section, you know :P
(21:51:08) fensef: but that be pain to upload. could you please?
(21:51:31) fensef: please? i'm sorry
(21:51:49) Sniffnoy: but I don't know what I should get pictures of
(21:51:56) fensef: ok, here is list:
(21:52:11) fensef: Map (i will send you, at bottom of word doc)
(21:52:29) fensef: pic at top of 1. http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/med_chaparral.htm
(21:54:43) fensef: as many pictures as will fit in the appropriate places, from 2. http://www.parks.it/parco.nazionale.circeo/Epun.html
About 21:55 we decide that while it would probably be more practical to travel by night, I had been looking it up assuming we'd be traveling by day, and so, we would be. Fictionally, anyway.
About 22:00 I start actually doing the brochure.
(22:03:14) Sniffnoy: ...oy, I have to rework this whole thing?
(22:03:21) Sniffnoy: look, I really have no idea how to make a brochure
(22:04:34) fensef: but you must. dude, i really can't. please?
(22:04:44) Sniffnoy: why can't you? you seem to have a much better idea of what to do than me
(22:05:08) fensef: you just put one thing after another and it wraps automatically and it makes itself pretty and you tweak it until it's a little prettier and then we fine tune it tomorrow. ok?
(22:05:27) Sniffnoy: um, well that's not what you did in the original brochure :P
(22:05:49) Sniffnoy: also I have no idea when to include things like "rated #1 whatsit by whatsit" and things like that
(22:06:04) fensef: that's on the front page and back page.
(22:06:19) Sniffnoy: And in the middle, just go ahead normally?
(22:06:20) Sniffnoy: OK
(22:06:33) Sniffnoy: I'll do the middle, then send it to you to do the front and back, OK?
(22:06:36) fensef: otherwise, the inside is supposed to be like the info i described. bg info, and then itinerary.
(22:07:12) fensef: i will do them now, and you add them, ok?
About 22:30 I realize Avi only provided enough itinerary for 3 days total. Avi sends me a new file, and I continue. Meanwhile we have another assignment due for bio.
(22:48:04) fensef: harry, help. what is format for current events?
(22:56:40) Sniffnoy: yikes!
(22:56:43) Sniffnoy: current events!
(22:56:50) Sniffnoy: I didn't even do those
Avi eventually sent me the front and the back, but only the front - the back, he said, would be more middle-type stuff[3]. Meanwhile around 23:00 Avi signs off and goes to sleep.
About 23:45 I finish and send Avi the file. No, I don't print it.
Now for today.
I encounter Avi before IGS and learn that he spent his morning[4] redoing the entire brochure, as I clearly 1. hadn't included enough of his section, B. hadn't included enough of my section, Γ. hadn't included *any* references, IV. put stuff in entirely the wrong order, and five. generally had no idea what I was doing. We go to print it and Avi suddenly realizes, he doesn't have the file at school! He says he'll call his dad and have him email it over, but he's afraid he won't be awake yet. (Something seems backward here...)
He does so during Comp Sci, which he spends the rest of tweaking it further, while I do my current events. But where to print it? We have legal paper, but we need a color printer. (No way Bajwa would accept black and white.) Fortunately we are told Mr. Samarakone's room has a color printer we can use. However, Avi does not print it until the very end of lunch. Rather, he gets it all set up to print, then finds me and says I should watch it print while he goes on to class. I do so. However, we are printing on both sides. I do not know this, and as soon as it comes out of the printer, I pick it up - now we don't know which way it should go back in for printing on the other side! But, by luck, we put it in the right way. I arrive at math very late, hand it to Avi, and he folds it. Done.
Avi, however, did not get his current events done.
-Sniffnoy
[0]On camels, of course. Not that you can get very far on a camel in one day, but...
[3]Woah, deja-vu.
[4]I have to wonder what he was doing up that early - no, wait, I know that. I have to wonder why he was up that early.
--
} "The early Bird gets the Worm; the late Bird gets the fat and juicy
} Beetle that did not emerge from under a rock until the Sun heated the
} ground; both Birds will choke on their Meals and die."
-A rejected saying for Poor Richard's Almanack, Oracularity 1223-03
The assignment was this: to, in groups of 2 or 3, make a brochure for a 5-day "ecology tour". We had to have our theoretical tour travel (no motorized vehicles!) to two different biomes. We had to make an itinerary, talk about the animals and plants we'd see, the ecology, recommended clothing, meals and accommodations, and - most importantly to Dr. Bajwa, it seems! - it had to be shiny and colorful. Oh, and just to make things harder for us, it had to be on legal paper.
Now the first part of any group project is, of course, forming groups. I didn't think to do this until about the beginning of this week, and neither did Avi. So we ended up in a group together. There was a 3rd person who didn't have a group yet either, but that was Dmitry, so it was me and Avi.
Of course, you know what we were doing last week - working on our lit essays. Or rather, that's probably what Avi was doing while I was looking for my spacing book. Regardless, neither Avi nor I thought to start till Friday. Did I start? No. Did Avi start? No. So that leaves Saturday and Sunday.
Now Saturday, as you'll recall, I went to SHP, math practice, and then was home for about two hours before people started arriving for my birthday party. So naturally I didn't do any work on it that day.
That leaves Sunday, or, yesterday. Now I should note at this point that back on Wednesday Avi and I had already decided what we were doing - the Sahara desert[0] (because deserts are nice and lifeless) and some point on the tip of Southern Italy (because it's close by). I was lazy and took the desert, which comprised the first two days.
And so Avi and I worked frantically Sunday to get all the information we needed and put it in the form of answering the various requirements for the assignment, which we pretty much managed to do successfully by 21:00, with one glaring exception, namely, that the only plant anyone seemed to be able to definitively say lives in the Sahara is the date palm, and they're really only found around oases. Now, I know from what else I saw that there are also various grasses and shrubs and whatnot - but the only one I could find specific information on was the date palm. But, ignoring that omission, it was compiling and formatting time.
(21:07:06) fensef: i think it's only practical for one of us to really compile the information and make the brochure. as agreed, can you eat that too?
(21:07:09) fensef: oops..
(21:07:29) Sniffnoy: yes, I can eat the brochure too :P
(21:07:33) fensef: what i meant to say was:
(21:07:38) fensef: can you please do that part?
(21:07:54) fensef: as agreed
(21:08:25) Sniffnoy: does this mean actually using some publishing program to make it look nice and all? because I have no clue how to do that
(21:08:39) Sniffnoy: I can integrate what I've got into your format, though
(21:08:40) fensef: no, you use microsoft word.
(21:09:04) fensef: i will send you my template from sophomore year and then you shall please do it, eh?
(21:09:25) Sniffnoy: OK
It soon becomes clear this is not the right template.
(21:20:21) Sniffnoy: So how does this template work, exactly?
(21:20:42) fensef: what do you mean?
(21:20:49) Sniffnoy: Isn't it a bit... small?
(21:21:05) fensef: what do you mean?
(21:21:19) Sniffnoy: there's 5 small boxes
(21:21:26) Sniffnoy: at the top of the page
(21:21:40) fensef: no....
(21:21:47) Sniffnoy: the first one says "Cirque du Cell"
(21:21:51) Sniffnoy: yup, that's what I see
(21:21:56) Sniffnoy: and this is MS Word I'm using
(21:21:59) fensef: yes. wait for the rest to load.
(21:22:09) Sniffnoy: um, it's not loading
(21:22:11) fensef: there is quite a bit of room there. not much, but some.
(21:22:18) Sniffnoy: that's all that's there; I can even edit it
(21:22:21) fensef: try scrolling
(21:22:42) Sniffnoy: There isn't anything there!
(21:22:46) fensef: ok, do you see a pic of Golgi? of mitochond?
(21:22:49) fensef: golgi on p. 2
(21:22:50) Sniffnoy: no!
(21:23:02) Sniffnoy: I see nothing but boxes and "Cirque du Cell"
(21:23:06) fensef: what? no corrupt, i hope.
(21:23:12) fensef: what boxes? do they say anything?
(21:23:17) Sniffnoy: no!
(21:23:23) fensef: reload it.
(21:23:28) Sniffnoy: reload it?
(21:23:37) fensef: redownload, reopen
(21:25:39) Sniffnoy: btw, what is the size of the template supposed to be?
(21:25:47) Sniffnoy: I have it as 19kB
(21:26:19) fensef: too shmall, about an order of magnitude off
(21:26:44) Sniffnoy: ...still the same size
(21:27:40) fensef: oh sheet
(21:27:41) fensef: wrong one
(21:27:48) fensef: i resend in minute. thanks.
Avi tells me I don't have enough on my itinerary. (Day 1: Go into the desert. Day 2: Return.) I change it to say the same thing with more words. Dr. Bajwa most likely won't complain.
(21:44:30) fensef: make the itinerary bulletpoint.
(21:44:37) fensef: it will probably take you another hour or two.
(21:44:49) fensef: or more; if you're me, it would take 3 or 4 hours.
(21:45:10) Sniffnoy: just to make the itinerary bulletpoint?
(21:45:16) Sniffnoy: how would that take nearly an hour?
(21:45:29) fensef: to do a good job will take well over an hour.
He doesn't explain further.
(21:46:48) fensef: find pictures on the sites i sent you at the end of the file
(21:47:03) fensef: there exist many
(21:47:49) Sniffnoy: what do you mean, find pictures on them?
(21:48:03) fensef: the websites will have pictures in them.
(21:48:38) Sniffnoy: how about you send me pictures for your section? :P
(21:50:49) Sniffnoy: that's kind of, well, your section, you know :P
(21:51:08) fensef: but that be pain to upload. could you please?
(21:51:31) fensef: please? i'm sorry
(21:51:49) Sniffnoy: but I don't know what I should get pictures of
(21:51:56) fensef: ok, here is list:
(21:52:11) fensef: Map (i will send you, at bottom of word doc)
(21:52:29) fensef: pic at top of 1. http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/med_chaparral.htm
(21:54:43) fensef: as many pictures as will fit in the appropriate places, from 2. http://www.parks.it/parco.nazionale.circeo/Epun.html
About 21:55 we decide that while it would probably be more practical to travel by night, I had been looking it up assuming we'd be traveling by day, and so, we would be. Fictionally, anyway.
About 22:00 I start actually doing the brochure.
(22:03:14) Sniffnoy: ...oy, I have to rework this whole thing?
(22:03:21) Sniffnoy: look, I really have no idea how to make a brochure
(22:04:34) fensef: but you must. dude, i really can't. please?
(22:04:44) Sniffnoy: why can't you? you seem to have a much better idea of what to do than me
(22:05:08) fensef: you just put one thing after another and it wraps automatically and it makes itself pretty and you tweak it until it's a little prettier and then we fine tune it tomorrow. ok?
(22:05:27) Sniffnoy: um, well that's not what you did in the original brochure :P
(22:05:49) Sniffnoy: also I have no idea when to include things like "rated #1 whatsit by whatsit" and things like that
(22:06:04) fensef: that's on the front page and back page.
(22:06:19) Sniffnoy: And in the middle, just go ahead normally?
(22:06:20) Sniffnoy: OK
(22:06:33) Sniffnoy: I'll do the middle, then send it to you to do the front and back, OK?
(22:06:36) fensef: otherwise, the inside is supposed to be like the info i described. bg info, and then itinerary.
(22:07:12) fensef: i will do them now, and you add them, ok?
About 22:30 I realize Avi only provided enough itinerary for 3 days total. Avi sends me a new file, and I continue. Meanwhile we have another assignment due for bio.
(22:48:04) fensef: harry, help. what is format for current events?
(22:56:40) Sniffnoy: yikes!
(22:56:43) Sniffnoy: current events!
(22:56:50) Sniffnoy: I didn't even do those
Avi eventually sent me the front and the back, but only the front - the back, he said, would be more middle-type stuff[3]. Meanwhile around 23:00 Avi signs off and goes to sleep.
About 23:45 I finish and send Avi the file. No, I don't print it.
Now for today.
I encounter Avi before IGS and learn that he spent his morning[4] redoing the entire brochure, as I clearly 1. hadn't included enough of his section, B. hadn't included enough of my section, Γ. hadn't included *any* references, IV. put stuff in entirely the wrong order, and five. generally had no idea what I was doing. We go to print it and Avi suddenly realizes, he doesn't have the file at school! He says he'll call his dad and have him email it over, but he's afraid he won't be awake yet. (Something seems backward here...)
He does so during Comp Sci, which he spends the rest of tweaking it further, while I do my current events. But where to print it? We have legal paper, but we need a color printer. (No way Bajwa would accept black and white.) Fortunately we are told Mr. Samarakone's room has a color printer we can use. However, Avi does not print it until the very end of lunch. Rather, he gets it all set up to print, then finds me and says I should watch it print while he goes on to class. I do so. However, we are printing on both sides. I do not know this, and as soon as it comes out of the printer, I pick it up - now we don't know which way it should go back in for printing on the other side! But, by luck, we put it in the right way. I arrive at math very late, hand it to Avi, and he folds it. Done.
Avi, however, did not get his current events done.
-Sniffnoy
[0]On camels, of course. Not that you can get very far on a camel in one day, but...
[3]Woah, deja-vu.
[4]I have to wonder what he was doing up that early - no, wait, I know that. I have to wonder why he was up that early.
--
} "The early Bird gets the Worm; the late Bird gets the fat and juicy
} Beetle that did not emerge from under a rock until the Sun heated the
} ground; both Birds will choke on their Meals and die."
-A rejected saying for Poor Richard's Almanack, Oracularity 1223-03
no subject
Date: 2004-11-15 06:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-15 06:39 pm (UTC)It's the desert! What more can you do?
And it took me a bit to understand that that was a gamma.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-15 06:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-15 06:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-15 07:08 pm (UTC)