Nervous breakdown

I just came close to nervous breakdown after having looked at this weeks schedule of assignments. Apparently the school doesn't want us to hang loose and relax after the mid-terms.

What bugs me the most is that we have to turn in a 10 page paper for business writing and presentation skills class. A subject which could be highly valuable, interesting and fun.

Unfortunately, the course in its current setup, has ..um, still some "headroom for further improvement". Frankly, I'd say it really draws its main attraction factor off the mandatory class attendance rule (which, btw is enforced by a TA ticking off every student at the beginning of every lesson).

Last Saturday (YES, the %#*@ class is on WEEKENDS!) we spent half an hour looking at DVD footage of speeches and presentations with focus on the 1-3 second intervals where a shot of the audience had been cut inbetween the speaker shots. As the professor pointed out, if you thouroughly scrutinize the footage of "An inconvientient truth" there's actually one person sleeping in the audience while Al Gore gives his speech. Now that's what I call some serious take home value. I bet none of you guys has ever noticed this while watching the movie, right? You freakin' loosers were too focused on the discussion and main content and completely neglected to look at the really important stuff, the audience, that is...

In case you wonder what the frenzy is all about: CNN is coming to campus this Friday to shoot a discussion with us students sitting in the audience. And apparently, some people seem about to freak out by the thought that we could represent the school in a bad light. Apparently they assume the average CNN watcher to videotape and single-frame-forward the airing, especially the audience shots...