A Few Complaints

The administrative team of my school constantly brags about how the school is one of the highest-ranked schools in the school board. However, these rankings are merely based on the scores on standardized tests, and in actuality have little to do with how "good" the school is.

This post is going to outline all the major flaws that I find with the school.

Overheating Issue

Ever since I came back to Toronto from Vancouver, my computer has had a worsening overheating problem. It would suddenly shut down when I browse the internet, when I let it sit idle while a browser is open, and even when I let it sleep during safe mode!! I mean, doesn't safe mode use a lot less processing than normal mode? And for the computer to overheat while one safe mode and asleep? The problem was clearly not negligible.

Olympics— It Doesn't Have to be All Canadian

Today when I was flipping through the channels, I saw CTV broadcasting the elimination race of men's omnium, in which every two laps, the slowest person would be eliminated. It was actually very interesting to watch because it was a very close race and each cyclist was constantly trying to pass each other.

However, just as I was enjoying watching the tight race, the one and only Canadian got eliminated. The camera then zoomed over to the faces of the disappointed friends and families, and then there was a sudden commercial break. Yes, a commercial break when the race was going to finish in a few minutes!

Annoyance

Today in math class my math teacher announced that we would have a math test on next Friday, and this meant that like last week, I will have three tests on the same day (along with chemistry and physics tests).

Obviously, having three tests on the same day is not particularly pleasant. Not only do you have to organize your time better and make sure that you allocate some time to study for each of the tests, you also have to make sure that you eat more and sleep better, for your brain will use up more energy on that day.

What's The Problem?

For some reason, the seats that we chose in math class are never permanent. You can sit at spot A on one day, then on spot B and spot C for the next two days.

Anyway, yesterday, I arrived at math class slightly earlier and chose a seat that was closer to the board. Then, some ten seconds later, student M—  who was on friendly terms with me— asked me if I could move to another seat. Since he asked me very nicely, and I knew that he had always sat in that seat, I agreed to move. I didn't care about where I sat anyway, so there really was no reason for me not to give the seat to him.

So I moved back by two rows, from row three to row five. Then, a few moments later, student S, who sat in front of me (in row four), asked me why I had moved from row three to row five. I told him what happened, and suddenly he yelled "Why didn't you just stay there?"

Really, what was wrong with him? We were in no way friends, so that yell was definitely not meant as a joke. And, I really don't see how this switching spot thing was any of his business, and why he should care at all. So, this incident just confirmed that he was obnoxious, and made me dislike him even more.

Internet Problems

This post was written yesterday, but I couldn't post it because my Internet connection didn't work...

Today my Internet connection had some problems, again. From 10 o'clock in the morning to 6 o'clock in the evening, I simply couldn't access anything on the Internet!

This problem is getting quite irritating, for it now arises at least once a week, and each time it can last from a few hours to a few days!

Really, what's wrong with Rogers? It's understandable if the Internet connection just stops working every few months. But every few days? That's far too frequent. At this rate, we should be getting some refunds!

EDIT: And when I was typing the post, it stopped working again! It's now 8:30, and let's see when it will work again...

EDIT: Didn’t work at 12 o’clock…

Blogger: Line breaks All Messed Up

Yesterday late at night, I suddenly noticed that blogger's posting page looked different. I remember how the "preview" button was gone, and how you the taskbar had fewer icons.

Then, I went to my Blogger page, and I noticed that my most recent post looked strange— the line breaks weren't working properly! At some places where there were supposed to be a line break, there were none, and on other places, the amount of line breaks got doubled! I quickly fixed the line breaks for that post and then went to sleep.

This morning, when I woke up, I noticed that my most recent post was reverted back to its messed-up state! Then I looked at my other posts, and found out that most of their line breaks were messed up too! I noticed that posts with pictures were especially likely to have this problem.

So I spent an hour going through (many of) my posts and fixing the line-break problems.

*sigh* Why do strange problems have to arise everyday?

I Hate Computers...

Arr!! Why do computers have to be riddled with errors, glitches and bad designs!? After I started using the new computer, I began to pay close attention to its various details, trying to fix any problem that I spotted and change any settings that seemed inconvenient or illogical. And I found that I probably spent at least one and a half hour a day finding solutions for these problems!

Five days ago, I spent hours trying get Microsoft Word to work. On the same day, the icons for certain files stopped displaying correctly, and it took me one to two hours to fix that problem. On the next day, I spent one or two hours just to change the colour of the taskbar. Yesterday, I had to to spend one hour before bed to fix a directory problem. And today, I spent nearly three hours to get the video thumbnails to display correctly, and one hour to find a way to edit the properties of certain glitched files!

Really, why couldn't the developers make the interface a bit more user-friendly, and make more effort to ensure that the system worked without glitches? It is just unacceptable that so many problems arose in just a few days! Even worse, all these problems were difficult to fix, and they all had some obscure solution!

I am exhausted by all the Internet-searching, program-downloading, registry-editing, and rebooting needed to fix the problems. Arrrrrgggg!!

Google Dictionary: No Longer Available

I have always relied on Google Dictionary when I came across words that I didn't know. It takes shorter to load than dictionary.com, and the layout is much simpler than all the other dictionary websites.

However, today when I typed the URL of Google Dictionary into the address bar, I saw the message that's in the above screenshot—Google Dictionary is no longer available!

So I began searching the Internet for more information, and this is what I found:

Google Dictionary was recently integrated into Google Web Search. Simply search for "define X" where X is the word you want to look up. Clicking on the "more" link (or on the toolbelt "Dictionary" link on the left) will give you practically the same experience that was available on dictionary.google.com.
We're working hard to make the dictionary experience even better on google.com so it will be easier for our users to get the dictionary experience without the need to go to a separate property.

This is just stupid. By incorporating Google Dictionary into the Google Web search, Google is making the dictionary feature much harder to use. Here are the reasons:

1. Poor Accessibility
It's much harder to access now. In the past, the URL for Google Dictionary was so simple that one could just type it into the address bar. It was google.com/dictionary

Now,the typical URL of a dictionary search page is: http://www.google.ca/search?q=best+dystopian+novels&hl=en&safe=off&prmd=ivns&ei=scY0TvPXHMGcgQeX27yEDQ&start=10&sa=N&biw=740&bih=396#sclient=psy&hl=en&safe=off&tbs=dfn:1&source=hp&q=hello&pbx=1&oq=hello&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=858l107460l2l107610l7l7l1l0l0l0l174l707l2.4l6l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=dfa68eb25e59583b&biw=740&bih=396.

See the difference!? Now it'd be impossible to type the URL into the address bar! Instead, one has to go to google.com→ type "define (word)" → press the "search button"→press the "more" link! 

The dictionary has become so much harder to access!

2. Bad Layout
Originally the layout of Google Dictionary was great because the page was extremely simple:

With this layout, you can see the definition(s) and synonyms very easily

However, after it is integrated into Google Web Page, the whole page becomes cramped because of the annoying tool-belt thing on the left:

Click to enlarge image

This may not seem that bad if you view the page at 100% zoom. However, if you view the page at 200% zoom, it would become a huge problem. The page would become too wide, and the synonyms will  come off-screen. At the same time, a huge portion of the page would be occupied the useless tool-belt.

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Conclusion

Why would Google do such a terrible thing? By doing so, it clearly isn't doing the users any good! Not only does it become harder for the users to actually reach the dictionary page, it also becomes harder for the users to use and view the page! 

Also, why couldn't Google keep the Google Dictionary page even if this new feature was added? Is it because the cost is too high? Or is it because they actually believe that no one will dislike their poor, new feature?

Shame, Shame, Rogers

Rogers is the Internet and cable provider of my family, and unfortunately I have a few (well, two) major complaints to make.

The Occasional No Connection
Every time there is some sort of extreme weather, our Rogers Internet connection wouldn't work. It didn't work during the two snow storms last winter, and neither did it work during a recent thunder storm. And obviously it didn't work today, when there was extreme heat in the city.

What's really bad is that when the connection doesn't work, it usually goes on for a really long period of time. For example, today there was no connection for at least thirteen hours, from 8 o'clock in the morning to 9 o'clock at night (and that's why I couldn't make any blog post despite having no homework). This could really cause some inconvenience.

Poor Website
Because of the plan that my family has chosen, there's a 60-gigabyte limit on our Internet usage; and once we exceed the limit, we would have to pay extra money. Therefore, my family frequently go onto our Online profile to check how many gigabytes we have already used.

This is where the problem arises. About a third of the time, Rogers would be "experiencing problems" and we wouldn't be able to see our stats! How are we supposed to monitor our usage if we can't see the stats? And really, this kind of problem coming from an Internet provider?
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I have made this post relatively short and have excluded many of the details. However, even from these short descriptions, I think Rogers' problems are clear.

No Worksheets, Please!

To be honest, most worksheets  that we get in school are not well designed. They can often be tedious and repetitive, contain stupid questions, and even be impossible to complete.

Repetition/Tediousness 
Many worksheets that I have done are very repetitive: they are repetitive to the point that you would literally have to repeat the same line over and over again! For example, once there was a math worksheet about the four different transformations of the graphs of functions. These transformations shall be named as A, B, C and D in this post for convenience. Anyway, the purpose of the worksheet was for us to understand the differences between A, B, C and D, and guess what it asked us to do? Well, I would list the steps in point form for simplicity:

1.  Investigate A. 
2.  Investigate B
3.  Compare A and B. 
4.  Investigate C
5.  Compare A, B and C
6.  Investigate D
7.  Compare A, B, C and D

No System Sounds After Using Skype

Oh gosh, what is wrong with Skype!?

Every time after I run the program and call someone else, my system sounds would all be out. I wouldn't able to watch Youtube videos, or hear the sound effects of the games that I play (which are actually important in my pinball game)!

In order to re-hear the system sounds, I would have to restart the computer, which actually takes a very long time. Even if the computer takes a short time to restart, I still think that this is a ridiculous problem for such a popular and mainstream program like Skype. I am also very disappointed in Skype, as I have had this problem for years (I didn't use Skype very often back then, so wasn't bothered so much by the problem) and they still haven't fixed it during the program updates!

What's the Point?

In Ontario, every student is expected to take the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) in grade ten, and passing this test is mandatory for a student to receive a high school diploma.

Since the OSSLT is so important, schools need to ensure that their students are properly prepared for it, and one way that my school does so is by adding a "literacy component" in almost every grade ten class. The literacy component is basically a small portion of the mark that requires students to practice doing things that may be encountered in the actual literacy test, such as summaries and short essays.

Last week in math class, I started getting a series of assignments that are part of the literacy component. These included a short summary, an informational paragraph, as well as a short reading passage. And today, I got another one, which is writing a news report.

Hmm, this seems as if we are getting well prepared for the OSSLT right? No. Not at all. We have already written the OSSLT three months ago, and all these assignments are simply given so that we could have some entries in the literacy part of our mark!

To me this is not understandable. Doesn’t the teacher know that these assignments should be given before the OSSLT? Doesn’t he know that if we do these assignments after the literacy test, these assignments will just be meaningless and irrelevant to the class? What’s more, he is giving all these assignments when he isn't supposed to! During this time, only culminating activities are supposed to be given, and clearing these assignments are not part of the culminating activity! Also, if we need some entries for the literacy component, wouldn’t one or two assignments suffice?

I don't think putting a literacy component into grade ten classes is bad at all. In fact, I believe that even though the assignments in the literacy component can be annoying, they are actually beneficial to students because they allow students to be more familiar with the types of tasks that they may have to complete in the OSSLT. However, if teachers only give out the assignments after the OSSLT, the the whole purpose of the literacy component is defeated. I mean, isn't the sole purpose of the literacy component to prepare students for the OSSLT?

Stupid Assignments

Many text books have utterly stupid questions that are unnecessarily elementary and/or repetitive. For example, in my math text book, there is a section where you need to "explore" the different transformations for different types of functions. It asks 8 questions, which require you to predict the look of 48 functions, draw them, and describe their transformations. As you might have suspected, it's easy, yet repetitive and time-consuming.

That's how text books always are. They always assume that students are morons , and they always have "investigations" and "explorations" to help students learn. Yes, "investigations" and " explorations" are helpful toward students' learnings, but only when they are not on frivolous matters. Unfortunately, textbooks always take the easiest concepts and turn them into these investigations and explorations. They always assume that students are three-year-olds who cannot understand easy concepts just by reading them.

Oh gosh, I feel that if I haven't written this, I would have had slammed my text book onto the ground.

NOTE: part of this post was taken out!

Relevance

My math teacher is known for her annoying tests. What she usually does is that she takes a normal test and add extra components to it to make "more fun and more challenging." However, none of these extra things are relevant to the subject and they just make the test super long and difficult to be finished in time. For example, during a unit in which we needed to use the formula of a circle, all the questions were supposed to be somewhat easy because they were all quite simple and straight-forward, and involved at most three steps. However, my math teacher had to turn almost half of the questions into questions that asked for the equations of the incircles of triangles, and this made the test extremely long because the questions became ten-step questions, with every step being quite long. Doing one such question would have had taken about 11 minutes (and that's if you wasted absolutely no time), and imagine doing five of these questions plus five other questions in 75 minutes!

There was a better example in grade nine. During one unit where we were supposed to find the volumes of various shapes, my math teacher made all the measures into variables, and in order to to obtain the measures, we would have had to solve systems of equations first. This made our test very, very long as another "solving systems of equations test" could actually have been made just from the first steps of the questions.

I really wonder if my math teacher understands what's important or not, as all these extra stuff that she adds onto our tests are pretty irrelevant to what we are learning. By adding all these stuff, not only does she makes our lives a lot harder, she is also diverting the focus of our learnings. I just don't get it. What's the point?

Answer Key to Opinion-Based Questions

I really couldn't think of an appropriate title for this post, so I'll start this post by apologizing for that.

Anyway, today I was doing a career assignment for which you have to interview your parents and learn about how the society has changed since the time when they were teenagers. You have to describe all these changes , plus answering some questions such as "What did you learn by doing this project, particularly as it relates to the Career Studies course and career planning?"

This really ticks me off. Haven't the people who made this assignment ever thought about the possibility that students might not learn anything from this assignment at all? Yes, I know you are supposed to talk about how it is important to be aware of the changes in society and blah blah blah, but I seriously doubt that anyone who puts this as their answer would actually believe in what they are writing. I mean, this is almost like common sense! Yet if you are honest and actually write something like "I have learned nothing at all," you will probably receive a very low mark. 

School has created an environment in which you must be dishonest to achieve something high. It has created answer-sheets for even opinion-based questions, and if your answer does not match with the one on the answer-sheet, you'll probably lose some marks. Most often, the correct answer on the answer sheet is the cheesiest one and the one that no one believes in, yet it is usually the one that is written down by most students because all these students have already memorized the correct formula for writing opinion-based questions.  

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I hope it made a bit sense to you. It's just another of my angry and rambling posts. 

Related: Doing Things That are Contrary to What I Believe?

Rules

Rules influence people's behaviors in ways that allow our society to function. Without them, there will be no order in the world, and the world is going to turn into a complete chaos.

So why are rules effective in altering or influencing people's behaviors? I think this is quite obvious--people follow rules to avoid the bad consequences. In other words, the negative consequences serve as a disincentive for breaking the rules. For example, the possibility of getting fired precludes workers from not arriving at work on time, and potential imprisonment stop people from stealing items. 

However, what if a rule had no consequences for breaking it? Would it still be effective? I do not think so. For example, if there were no penalties for using hands while playing soccer, all players would naturally want to use their hands as it would be much easier to score that way. In fact, they would have to use their hands as it would be the only way to defeat the other team. This means that rules would equate to nothing if there were no negative consequences for breaking them.
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Finally, I am getting to my point. As something similar to rules, due dates would also only be effective if there were consequences for not meeting them. In school, the most common consequence is getting a few percentages off of the final mark, and to me this is a reasonable and essential penalty because this makes it fair  for people who have handed their work on time and this is the only way to ensure that most students do not hand things in late.

Unfortunately, my career class happens to be a class where the due dates do not seem to be significant. Today we were supposed to be handing in our career wheels, but many people had not even start on theirs and the teacher extended it to tomorrow, with no penalty at all. What upset me was not the fact that they could hand the assignments in tomorrow, but the fact that the teacher did not seem to care at all and seemed to be ready to give out one-month extensions without penalties.

I wanted to ask him, "what's the point of having these due dates?"

Blog Tags/Labels

Just realized how to do this. I feel so embarrassed...


I just found another thing that Blogger should improve on— its tag/label system.

Blogger has made it so that if you want to change the name of a label, you would have to go through all the posts with that label and change them one by one. Also, say you want to add a new label and you want to use it on a few pre-existing posts, you cannot just select the titles of those posts and add them to under that label. Instead, you will have to add the posts individually. This is highly inconvenient and inefficient, especially when you have a large amount of posts. 


Fortunately I only have 25 posts so far, so changing the labels of the posts individually is still not a big problem. 

I Hate Career Studies!

Career classes should be abolished in schools. Not only do students do nothing in career classes, the assignments are also meaningless. They are a waste of time and energy.

So what made me decide to make a post just to complain about career classes? Well, it was because of the criteria for the assignments that I received. There was one assignment where you needed to write a one-page report about your personal achievements and how they were meaningful to your life. As if the assignment wasn't stupid enough, there were four marks out of thirty-five allocated to creativity. Let's look at what exactly these four marks are for:
/2  A unique thought, a famous quotation, an idea, a drawing, a cartoon, etc.
/2 Cover page, page borders, graphics, etc. 

To me this was just unbelievable. Are these things really necessary for a written report? Urrgh.

(Yes, even drawing this image was more meaningful than doing the assignments in career class)

Obvious? It's subjective.

In English class, we are asked to be "clear" in our writings. This means that we should always explain what we say, and make sure that any reader can easily understand our pieces of writing. This is a reasonable expectation because without clarity, a piece of writing will be harder to understand and therefore less effective. However, how can we define "clear?" Doesn't the word "clear" have a different definition for everyone? Isn't it a subjective thing that all depends on each person's understanding or interpretation of the subject?

Consider these two sentences: