Duprass, assassins, golf umbrellas and course evals

Here is a collection of all the random thoughts I've had this week.

I don't know why, but lately I've remembered/been thinking about that concept in Cat's Cradle by Vonnegut about the karass and duprass.

Karass: a group of people who, often unknowingly, are working together to do God's will. (-Wikipedia); If you find your life tangled up with somebody else's life for no very logical reasons that person may be a member of your karass. (-www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/personal/bokonon.html)

Duprass: a karass that consists of only two people; the two members of a duprass live lives that revolve around each other. Never die longer than a week apart.

In the book, there's a married couple on the plane to the island, Horlick and Claire Minton, who are such a strong duprass that they die in the same millisecond.

Sounds nice.

A friend's cool away message:

"Though Bond and Bourne dwell in the same cloak-and-dagger genre, they are diametrically opposed. Bond is self-assured; Bourne doubtful and troubled. Bond is a seductive womaniser; Bourne a monogamous novice. Bond takes pleasure in killing; Bourne feels only guilt and seeks redemption for his past. Bond serves a moral authority: Bourne a corrupt establishment. Because Bond’s license to kill is justified, his films avoid questioning means and ends. Because Bourne’s license is phoney, in his films ends vs means becomes the central moral issue. Bond is a modern version of the hero with a thousand faces. Yet in an era of debatable identities, distrust of governments, and dysfunctional agencies, the faceless Jason Bourne may be just the right stuff to represent the times." I don't know where it's from, but knowing both Bond and Bourne, interesting to read.

It's been rainy almost this entire week, and I have to vent about something. Golf umbrellas are meant to shield two people from rain, one of whom is supposed to be swinging a very long, heavy, metal, end-weighted club. The golf umbrella hypothetically has enough room for this crazed bludgeoner to swing the thing and for the second person, the umbrella holder, to be out of the rain and also not get hit in the face with the club.

With that in mind, does it sound like the kind of umbrella others would appreciate you using in the intensely crowded, very small little alleys of the Financial District? Where most of the sidewalks have tiny stalls of mini-bamboo, guys hawking illegal DVD rips and fake Gucci purses from plastic bags? Where you WILL hit someone in the face with the pointy end bit of one of the umbrella spines?

No?

THEN STOP USING THEM.

As a reference to my last post, they did give us some course evaluation forms, and oh did I rip the snot out of that "professor". It felt good.

Not funny.

Like, seriously. Come on. Get a life.

* Do not cheat, I have computer automated advanced robotic geosynchronous satellite guided fully self aware methods that can read your mind and your homework to verify that you are not cheating or copying. If you the method thinks your cheating it will automatically send cyber-modified part-cheetah ninjas raised in bad neighborhoods to your house to “take care of the problem”.

Sigh. I wish they had student feedback for professors...

Unavoidable.

So, not to badger this subject to death, but...

As I may have mentioned before, my lab is technically a single room with a narrowing in the middle that serves as the barrier between the two sides. Actually, it's two labs... I don't know and have nothing to do with the things that the other side is doing and vice versa. As a side note, I don't think anyone outside of the research lab knows this little fact, since everyone assumes I know exactly where the other girl is, what she's doing and how to reach her - an assumption that is actually the exact opposite. The girl who works over there is really nice and I would love to talk to her more, but since the boss can hear everything I'm doing, I can't really just go over and start up a conversation. She's rarely there, anyway. Since she's rarely there, their phone rings over and over (I KNOW I've mentioned this before... *smiles wryly*) and this morning was none the different. But alas, their phone rang a bunch of times and then my phone immediately rang. So I knew it was the receptionist from downstairs, who I love dearly and is very amusing. I pick it up, extremely hesitant, because I know she was trying to get in touch with the other people and will now ask me about them. She says that there's a box downstairs and is the other girl there? I say she's here today, but not in the room. She asks me if I could just tell her that there's a box downstairs when she comes back in. Now, I know my boss can hear what I'm saying, and as we've been through this, I am NOT ALLOWED to do ANYTHING for ANYONE else. "It's THEIR job, not yours." So... I grit my teeth and say no, that she'll have to keep calling the other side. There is a silence, and she goes, "ok" and hangs up. Sigh.

Later, at lunch, I sit with her and some other people and she immediately brings it up, saying, "I should tell you not to be so rude!" in a sort of joking voice, mostly for the mixed company, but we both know she wasn't joking. Since I was sans boss, I apologized and told her the jist of it. She understood my position, but still couldn't understand why - a feeling I am very familiar with. I guess she still felt a little put-out, because she kept mentioning how an embryologist even brought up the package to the other girl, and he was so helpful, and yadda yadda. I could only look down at my food.

I'm really stuck between a rock and a hard place in that situation. Damned if I do, damned if I don't. I guess in the long run the most important thing is doing what your boss tells you, but I hate being snobby/unhelpful/"rude"... there is just really no reason.

I should just tell everyone beforehand to please, please don't ask me to do anything, because I won't do it and not because I don't want to.