Chronarchy started it!

[featherynscale]

*MEME ALERT*

The problem with LJ is that we all think we are so close, and really, we know nothing about each other. I'm going to rectify it. I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about.

Then post this in your LJ and find out what people don't know about you.

Comments

Re: Question

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Well, it went a little like this:

My introduction to the world of majoring in computer science came in a semester in which I only had room to take two major courses. So I started with the pre-reqs for the major, which were COBOL I and Business Computing Applications. The COBOL class was graded essentially on four programs and a final exam. I was pretty good at the theory of the thing, and wrote code without any difficulty. However, all programs had to be submitted in compiled form, and for the life of me, I could not get any of my code to compile. I tried different installations of the program, I tried other people's computers, I had other people check my code over and over again for errors, and nobody could give me any good answer as to why in the name of all the gods my code would not compile. I mean, it wasn't like it would compile with errors, it was like it would take my code, chew on it for a little bit and then output *nothing*. So I would turn in the uncompiled program, which would, of course, not do anything, and I would get no credit. So when it came time to take finals, I discovered that I had earned 0 of 80 points for the class, and the best I could possibly do in the class was a 20. So I didn't even bother to show up for finals. So, not only did I fail COBOL, I failed with a 0 average, which is pretty exciting, considering that I actually, you know, went to the class and learned stuff.

The confrontational part was in the other class, which I also failed. Now, keep in mind, this was a class in which they taught you about *how to use computers in business*, which is an area in which I'm pretty proficient. How did I fail this class? Well, it had to do with folders. All work had to be submitted in this yellow folder that the professor had given us at the beginning of class. And one day, toward the end of the class, I missed a class in which the folders were returned to us. There was another project coming up, and I needed that folder, so I asked the professor about it, and he said sure, he'd bring it to the next class. He did not do this. I asked about it again, and got the same answer. The next class came, and there was no folder. He says "I keep forgetting it. Why don't you come around to my office and get it tomorrow?" So the next day, I go up to the CS department office, and he's not there. So I see the folder sitting on top of his desk, and I ask the department secretary if she could get it for me, because I was running late for my class, and couldn't sit around and wait for him to get back, and the work was due like the next day. So she gives it to me, and I go on my merry way, finish my project, put it in the yellow folder, and turn it in at the next class. No big deal, right? Wrong, apparently. At the next class, he pulls me out of class into the hallway and rages at me for a ridiculously long time about how I was stealing things out of his office, and I couldn't follow the rules, and he was not going to accept this project because I was a theif, and he wasn't going to let me take the final exam, either, and see if that taught me. I tell him I was never even in his office, he says I'm a liar as well as a thief. You who know me know that I have very little patience for raving nutjobs. I left the class. I went to the Dean and filed a complaint, but between this crazy man and the fantastic way in which I was failing COBOL, I decided the whole thing wasn't really worth following up on. And that is how I did not graduate with a Comp.Sci. degree.

And, yeah, that stuff is pretty cool, but um... release of the first personal computer, and the Porsche 928. Heh.