The worst grade you can consistently get

Most schools, colleges, universities, and other institutions of learning in the United States use a letter based system for grading. These Letters correspond with numbers used to calculate a students Grade Point Average (GPA). With all of the colleges and universities that I'm familiar with in the US, the grades for the individual courses are recorded as letters while the GPA is recorded as a decimal number. Without getting into the confusion this can cause students, I have come to detest the "Average" grade, that is the grade that indicates the middle position on the grading scale, often referred to as a grade of "C." A grade of "C" is, in my opinion, is the worst grade there is.

I'm not speaking about individual "C" grades, which are sometimes badges of honor that a student will proudly display for those classes that they struggled, toiled, and sweated through. There is significant meaning to a "hard 'C'" as opposed to an "easy 'A'". I know of several students who have prided themselves on receiving a "C" in a class that, based on their preparation, challenges, or mistaken enrollment, they would have failed without impressive growth or change on their part. Those "C" are hard earned battle scars on the academic body of a student's transcript and should be remembered as the reason for the better grades from that point on.

What I'm referring to are the "C" grades that pile up, for one reason or another, on a students transcript semester after semester and year after year. These grades may be because of a lack of effort, as is often thought of stereotypical college students focused on partying. They may be because the student has consistently run into road blocks that consistently derail them from their studies. Some of these road blocks are extenuating circumstances beyond the student's control such as family emergencies, medical problems, changes is employment, etc. Some students in these kinds of situations are so focused and determined to earn their degree that they enroll over and over again despite a lack of change to their situation. Many of these determined students end up withdrawing or failing their classes due to their circumstances, but others end the semester with a transcript full of "C"s. While this looks better than having a bunch of failing grades, there are situations where "C" grades are worse than failing. As these situations are subjective to each university I am not advocating failing a class over getting a "C". I will gladly advocate talking to an academic advisor whenever possible about the situation prior to action.

So why are "C"s the worst grade you can consistently get. They are often the minimum grade required to fulfill specific course requirements but are usually too low to allow a student to meet the minimum GPA requirement for the program. For example, a student may need at least a "C" in all of their major courses, but they have to have at least a 2.5 or 2.75 GPA. If the majority of a student's classes are "C"s that student's GPA will be tethered around a 2.0 GPA. This is because a GPA is an average - it hangs around what grade you have the most of. The situation above is why "C"s are the horrible, they are high enough that the requirement is met, so students don't have to / want to retake them, but they are low enough that they can sabotage a student's overall GPA. What's more, there is nothing in place to repair the damage they cause. At the colleges and universities I've worked at we have a provision for students that had been out of school for five or six years and that hadn't done well in previous years. It allowed the removal of grades of "D+" and lower to be removed from the students GPA calculations, effectively boosting their GPA. However, what happens when the student doesn't have any "D+"s or lower on their transcript, but instead have a plethora of "C"s? the only way to remove them would be to retake the classes. If that isn't an option, such as with transfer work, then the student would have to take additional classes and get higher grades to pull up their GPA.

If taking additional classes is the only option for a student it can be a disheartening one. Just to give you an idea. I recently ran the numbers for a student that needed to bring their GPA up 0.7 points. That's the equivalent of going from a "B-" to a "B+". In order to do so they would have had to take 14 courses with perfect "A" grades. What's interesting, is that if they had gotten "A-" grades instead they would need to have taken 26 courses. And if they got "B+" grades - 51 courses. A full Bachelor's program at my current institution requires approximately 40 courses. The number of courses that are required for each drop in grade received increases at an alarming rate. Even for smaller shifts in grades, it can be disheartening. Another student only needed a 0.15 increase in GPA, but they already had over 40 courses worth of transfer. They would need 5 courses with perfect "A" grades, 7 classes with "A-"s, or 16 courses of "B+" grades. Again, for each drop in grade, it increases the number of classes required by a surprising amount. When it comes to GPA, quality reduces quantity.

Now that I've ranted, what is my suggestion for students? For students who find themselves in the position I've described, all I feel capable of saying is that It is possible to bring up your GPA - only you can decide if it's worth the time and effort it will take. I'm more than happy to help them get the information they need to make the decision, because it should not be made lightly. For students that are struggling and who I see are in danger of starting on the slippery slop, I advise they evaluate their situation and take whatever steps are necessary to strive for quality of grades over quantity of courses. This usually involves talking to an advisor.

Thinking ahead

My sister gave me a solitaire chess set for Christmas.

Each puzzle is played on a 4x4 square and all pieces move as they normally would in a chess game. The rules that are different are that you have to capture a piece with every move and you win by only having one piece on the board. It doesn't matter what piece, so long as there is only one. I did this puzzle just last week. See if you can do it. It is one of the "expert" level puzzles. If you want a hint or two, the rook moves first and the king is the last piece on the board. (b2xb1, a3xc1, b1xa1, a1xc1, c1xc3, b3xc3, c3xd4)(highlight the white line to see the solution).


I've always enjoyed strategy and tactics, even though I'm not as good at them as I would like to think I am. Games like chess, ticket to ride, and other board games steel panthers (and other turn based stratagy games), real time stratagies, and war games. They require me to think ahead and try to plan out what I want to happen. Invariably my plan will be foiled - (see "no plan survives contact with the enemy") - and I will need to pick up the pieces or come up with a new plan. While it is often frustrating to lose, games give provide a great opportunity to fail without serious repercussions. I can try my chess puzzles as often as I like and it doesn't matter how long it takes. (It occurred to me that it would have been good to record how long it takes me, just as a measure of my progress.)


What I find interesting about this solitaire chess set is that there is often such a limited number of moves. Often times some pieces have no purpose but to be captured. Of instance, the rook at d4 and the bishop at b1 cannot capture any piece, and so are just there to be bait. Their presence is necessary for the puzzle but their potential movement can be disregarded. Yet, despite such a limited scope, many of the puzzles take longer than I would think.

Full Moon

The other night when I turned the lights off to go to bed I paused, thinking I had missed turning a light off somewhere. The room was a lot lighter than normal. It took me just a moment to realize that it was because of the full moon outside. The next morning on my way to the bus the full moon was still hanging relatively high in the sky.  When I came into work I learned that several of my co-workers didn't sleep well last night. One of them suggested that it was because of the full moon last night. Doing a little bit of research shows that the words lunacy and lunatic are both from the Latin word for moon. There are plenty of other things blamed on the moon or its phases from sleep to fertility.

Regardless of what is attributed to the moon and what actually is caused by the moon (like tides and such), I've always felt a bit of a pull towards it (pun intended). There is a song by the Russian group Любэ (Lyube`/Lube`) called, Луна ("luna" - Moon). The song is the story of an old wolf who is facing the end of his life and his cry to the moon to come and take him. I have always been drawn in by the chorus - starts at 1:38 in the video in the link. The song concludes with a rather intense instrumental that seems at first rather at odds with the story in the lyrics, but how else would you expect a wolf to leave this world? (I particularly enjoyed listening to the song on my way home late at night. I would roll down the windows and turn the volume all the way up - one of the reasons my hearing may not be what it once was.)

Silver window in a pitch black wall

Silver window in a pitch black wall
Letting in the light of another world.
What can you see?

Mercury light radiating from the depths
Calling me to look into the beyond.
What will I see?

Radiant harmony and calm and peace
Shinning as a beacon for those who observe.
Where do you lead?

The maiden. The wolf. The dreamer. And me.
Your court. Your gang. Your admirers Your children.
Lead on and we follow.

J.I.C. (Just in Case)

"Be Prepared" Boy Scout Motto

"Весгда Гатов" ("Always ready") Communist Youth Pioneer's Motto

I always thought that the similarity between these two organizations' mottos was interesting. Perhaps it was just the shared goals of both, or perhaps the Pioneer's was based on the Boy Scouts (since the Boy scouts were organized first). Regardless, they both embrace the idea of Preppers - a community that looks at being prepared for anything. This is not necessarily the people that believe that the zombie apocalypses is coming, but people that are ready minor, everyday inconveniences to major disasters. The Survivalism wikipedia page it mentions multiple types of survivalists scenarios ranging from everything from Nuclear Winter to problems associated with global warming or overpopulation and the collapse of society. It also includes safety enthusiasts and wilderness survivalists. They also trace the movement back to the 1930s which makes sense considering the depression and threat of war, which rapidly grew into the threat of nuclear attack. Various disasters (both natural and socially created) have kept preppers' fires banked. With the disaster movies which have come out (with San Andreas being the newest one), not to mention the zombie movies and other films that feature End of the World scenarios that are spread across the genres it's not hard to see that popular culture has also kept preppers stocked with reasons to be prepared.

Interesting enough, Both the Boy Scouts and the Youth Pioneer's existed before the 1930s. It is possible that the youth who where always told to be prepared led the charge as adults. My own father has worked in the Scouting program for longer than I've been alive, or at least pretty close to it. He has trained hundreds of boys of many ages to be prepared and he lives what he preaches. He has emergency gear in his cars. He's carried a knife since he was my daughter's age (which as of this writing is 7), and his first aid kid could probably rival most EMT kits. Now that my sister is about to become an EMT I'll have to ask for an official comparison. In addition my parents have always maintained food storage and several years ago got their 72 hour kits finalized. However, these preparations were all taken without any membership in the "survivalist" community. They are actions promoted by his experiences with the Boy Scouts, their church, and their community. Perhaps they could be called preppers, but to me it is just part of life. While they are more prepared than I am, it is because they've had longer to to stock pile, learn, and employ survivalist principles.

There are so many different sites and resources for people interested in prepping. They all have their own take on the basic essentials of life: food, water, shelter, and health. Some break it further down into cooking, hygiene, security/protection, transportation, and other sub-categories, but the four main ones tend to stay the same. Each of those come in different forms and each prepper has their own method to ensure them. My goal here is not to discuss all of the possibilities. As a backpacker I know the importance of having food, water, shelter, and being healthy and I can also appreciate the amount of space and weight of those things. The most difficult aspect is knowing when to stop. It is not possible to be prepared for anything and you have to balance preparedness with practicality. You cannot carry your Bug-out-bag "BOB" (think supped up 72 hour kit) everywhere you go. You have to think about it.

A big part of being a prepper, it appears, is the mindset. I mentioned my father and scouting. When he leaves the house he looks at what he's planning on doing, where he'll be, and what he might need. The common outcome of this decision making process is that he tends to always have a coat or jacket with him just in case it rains. It means that he also has a pair of walking shoes and some basic food at his desk at work just in case he has to walk home. It means that he has basic tools, water, and a wool blanket in his car just in case it breaks down or he has to spend the night in the car. It means that he throws a extra tent in the car when they go camping just in case he needs it - which he has twice. For me prepping and survivalism is having a Just-in-Case (JIC) mentality. Yes, it can be taken to extremes, but it's just thinking about what you are likely to need and making sure you have it - just in case.

A movie with unresolved issues

Last night my family went and saw Hotel Transylvania 2 and while I enjoyed it, I was discontent with it. It may be the influence of the "media smarts" class I took in college, or the time I've spent listening to the Writing Excuses podcasts. The following blog contains spoilers.

First, the idea that "Human, vampire, unicorn. I'll still love you" a.k.a. love you for being you. Drac, wants Dennis to be a vampire and tries everything he can to help Dennis' fangs come in. Just as Drac accepts Dennis for being human Dennis gets his fangs. While I'm glad that Drac had accepted Dennis before his fangs, Dennis' transformation pulls the teeth out of the whole "accepted for who you are" message - We love you even though you are not special but it turns out you're special so no problems." See what I'm saying.

And this idea of special. Dennis is a cute kid and I would have to say pretty normal. We see that he is picked on a little by his cousins. Nothing that I wouldn't expect from ignorant kids who are interacting with a younger relative who is a different and who they don't see often. He gets into danger when one of Vlad's minions comes after him and Winny. And as soon as his fangs pop in everything is fixed. The cousin's respect him and he is able to beat his captor but lays waste to him and all of his friends. This is a common theme in movies and books - the transformation fixing all problems. I don't have a huge problem with it, but it does get monotonous and predictable. What's more, it's just lazy story writing.

Continuing the idea of being special, the human characters were all portrayed as boring, slacking, insulting, and insensitive. Johnny was practically no-existent as a character and his problems weren't ever taken seriously (more on that later). His family was so two-dimensional that if they turned sideways you wouldn't see them. For all intents and purposes they could have been removed from the script and nothing would have changed. So the message is, be special or be invisible. Special people can protect others. Special people can do anything. If you're special everything will be okay. Great message for kids especially considering the "Human, vampire, unicorn" message they were trying to build the movie around.

While Dennis' transformation seems to solve his problems, there were other issues that weren't resolved and weren't addressed. Mavis and Johnny for instance. Johnny has clearly been booted to the back seat with the arrival of Dennis and while he loves his son, he craves attention from his wife. Yet, despite acknowledging this, as some kind of joke, they focus on his desire to stay at the hotel. They brush what I consider the greater need, under the carpet. It is never resolved but everything appears fine between him and Mavis at the end when Dennis gets his fangs. This is strange considering that the first movie focused on their relationship and on Drac's loss of his wife.

Another issue that I think they could have taken a lot farther was Mavis' over protectiveness of Dennis. They could have easily done a scene where Drac accuses Mavis of being just as overly protective of Dennis as he was of her. Maybe it was one conflict too many, but it seemed an important part of the plot, maybe even critical, and yet was unresolved.

Again, I enjoyed the film. Yes, I would watch it again. I won't lobby for it to be added to the collection, but if it ends up there, I'll be okay with it. I just couldn't help thinking about these things. With all this said there are some pretty big flaws with the movie 10,000 BC but I still really like watching it.

Ready for School?

As I work in education the month of August is very, very busy for us. In fact, if I had known that I couldn't take vacation days in August (because of how busy it is) I probably wouldn't have gotten married in August. As it is, I'll be celebrating my anniversary in October, but I digress.

The institution I work at has open enrollment which means that we don't have admissions standards that students need to meet (other than completing high school/GED and paying the admissions fee). We also don't have deadlines for admissions or registration - although we always recommend doing it before classes start. Classes are starting on August 31st this year and it always seems that as soon as August hits, everyone who thought about going to school, but hasn't done anything yet, suddenly panics and starts the process of getting admitted and registered.This translates into a very busy advising office with lots of students asking what classes they need to take and why they aren't able to.

This is strange to me because it was not the kind of  student that I was. My roommates and I would log on to the computer at midnight with our classes all chosen and would be registered in less than two minutes. I always bought a copy of the schedule (this is when they printed it like a huge magazine), and would eagerly look through the classes with a pen, circling the ones I wanted and comparing days and times. Then I would sit back until the start of classes and not have to worry about it.

I know (because I am constantly reminded of it every August) that this is not always possible for some students. We always have a large number of returning LDS missionaries or current/former military service personnel that are anxious to get into classes, but may not be available until August. We have first generation students that don't know how early they can apply and register. While it can be draining to work with any student who is anxiously trying to get into a class, it is easier to be patient and helpful to these students.

The students that really get to me (although I do everything I can to keep from showing it) are the ones that are returning and know how registration works and just didn't do anything until August. Many times they will also come in to our office, often aware that we work on an appointment only basis, and ask to meet with an advisor to "sort out their schedule." We had a student in last Friday, 10 minutes before we closed, desperate to meet with someone. He confessed that he had slacked on his classes and hadn't checked his E-mail about his waitlist classes until it was past the opportunity. I was glad I wasn't at the front desk because I would have found it difficult to keep my impatience with him out of my voice. With that said, I feel that I'm generally pretty good and not letting my impatience or dislike impact my interactions. It is something that I actively try to prevent.

With all that said, with as busy as life gets, and with the hectic nature of my work at this time of year, I really enjoy the start of school. I've always enjoyed school and the excitement that comes from starting a new year with new subjects and new teachers. My kids are excited to start (2nd grade and kindergarten). At back-to-school night my son's teacher asked him what he was excited to learn about in kindergarten. He said, "Science! Like volcanoes and space!" She gave a small grimace and said, "Well, we don't actually study science in kindergarten, but I bet you could teach me about volcanoes." Which prompted him to start sharing what he knew about volcanoes. It made me proud.

So, all in all, when people ask me if I'm ready for school to start, Yes. Yes I am.

To my daughter's future dates/boyfriends

I saw this "application to date my daughter" on Facebook and it got me thinking. I've had a variety of ideas on what I'm going to do / how I'm going to act to my daughter's dates. My sister-in-law's friend's father required all of his daughter's dates to write their name on a shotgun shell and kept them in a basket in his room. For a wedding gift he gave them to her husband. Angel says I can do that if I want and I am sorely tempted. I've also thought that if one of her dates picks her up by honking the horn from the driveway I would simply walk out and ask him to try again. I had a Young Men's leader who would introduce his daughter's dates to "Jaws," a cast iron nutcracker with inch long teeth. You can bet what he threatened if anything untoward happened.

The idea of the protective father and "little princess" has been around for a while. The more I think about it, I would be happy to play that role and I'm sure I would enjoy it. However, rather than threaten my daughter's dates with a shotgun I would rather that my daughter know how to handle herself and inspired her dates to treat her well. I don't want her dates to be afraid to treat her wrong. I want them to want to treat her right. This will mostly be her responsibility.

She will need to the sort of person that brings out the best in others. That means kind, gentle, fun, witty, and intelligent. She'll need to have an interest in others and be able to convey it. I want her to be someone that is good company, someone that is "good people." She will be a force unto herself, but a force for good.

She should also be astute enough to seek out like minded people to date. If my daughter is going on a date with someone I object to, I'm going to wonder what was her part in the decision. Why is she with someone I (or she) has an issue with? I want her to have a fine sense of other people and make good decisions about friends.

This doesn't mean that if something goes wrong that it's her fault. It is more than possible that she, her mother, or I make a bad call on one of her dates and he tries to take advantage of her. While I would want the guy to know that if anything happens should he do anything to hurt my daughter, I again would rather that she can take care of herself. My daughter will be armed on her dates. Like my father before me, I believe everyone should care a basic pocket knife and the one I get for my daughter will be sufficient to deter any one with an intent to harm. I'd just as soon she never have to use it, but I want her to have the option. There may even be a time when she may have a conceal carry weapon. In short, any violence that I threaten her dates with will be nothing compared to what I want my daughter to be able to inflect if the need arises. If I really wanted to mess with someone, I would have them write their name on a bullet and then hand it to Kanga who should then load it into a gun she is taking on the date. That is how you encourage good behavior on a date.

In short, as much as I want to protect my daughter, and as much as I will do everything in my power to protect her, the best protection I can provide is by teaching her how to protect herself and then be there to back her up.