1.2

Happy to say that I think I'll keep posting for a while. I like the newsletter-ish format I have going on with the mini posts within my posts. I had a lot of time to write today because my car was in the shop and I had to crash at my mom's for a few hours. Today I offer not two, but three blurbs:

The Revision, Revised (update! & on getting that appeal approved)

I got my response back today! While my professor disagreed with some of my concerns, they're willing to let me do the one assignment I missed to push my grade to a B-! The best outcome would've been not having to do any more work for this class but I'll take this as a learning opportunity as well as a win. It's nice to get a second shot at something I struggled to understand, and, not to sound like a soulless LinkedIn post, but this whole issue has taught me a lot about being professional and working with difficult professionals. If you're also a dumb college student that got an unfortunate grade, you might find the following helpful. I think I've got the method set after seeing my appeal accepted and my friend's declined. I went back and read both of our emails and the responses we respectively got and made this list:

How to appeal a grade when you know you messed up here and there while also knowing the professor sure as hell messed up here and there too:

1. OWN UP TO YOUR MISTAKES!! Your grade is a group effort between the professor and you. Their job is to teach you the material so it's possible to get a good grade, and your job is to absorb and correctly apply that information to earn that good grade. What I'm trying to say is, don't ask for them to change your final project grade from 50 to 100 when you know damn well you probably deserve an 80 instead. However, fight for that 80! Or even just a minimum passing grade! Your chances of getting it go up when you can be humble and acknowledge the mistakes you personally made that pulled you away from that 100. 
2. Be as objective as possible about their mistakes. If they really fell off from their syllabus, quote it in your email and explain how your course's taught curriculum doesn't add up. Always back up any claim you make with evidence. You're basically writing an argumentative essay on why you deserve a higher grade. Treat this as such. 
3. Your tone matters So Much. When accusing them of a mistake, write in as passive of a voice as possible. I found it best to avoid using second-person pronouns entirely when I explained my concerns because saying "you" all the time made my email sound aggressive. I only used you/your in my email 6 times (see the mini list!), saving it for only positive and neutral statements. I spun every negative thing I had to say in a way where "I" or "we" (my classmates) felt that some syllabus plans never came into fruition, or that some project topic wasn't discussed enough in class, etc. It was never, "you failed to do/teach this."  There's honestly no need to be aggressive. Do you really want to start shit with one of the few faculty members in your program's department? Maybe this isn't the case for you, but my professor is genuinely a very kind person, and I wanted it to be clear that these feelings were strictly professional concerns and not personal ones. And also, even if they're your stereotypical higher-ed ego-driven asshat (who's always tenured somehow?!), your appeal probably won't get them fired, unless they REALLY fucked up. If there's even a tiny chance you might have to deal with them again in the future, why set yourself up for more trouble? Putting a ton of emotionally charged thoughts in your email will most likely give you a similar response back. Then you're both upset, and now you have to get your chair or dean or worse involved. And when this whole thing ends with you both holding grudges, you get the gift of seeing them again down the line. Here's the mini list I mentioned earlier:
1. I hope this email finds you well.
2. I am writing to you to formally request a grade appeal for [class] from a C to a B-.
3. First of all, I appreciate that you still gave me points for the assignment, despite my total misunderstanding of [some instructions for the assignment].
4. Please do not take any of this criticism to mean I have something personal against you.
5. Thank you for reading. 
6. I appreciate your time and am looking forward to [next semester's class that they're also teaching] in a few weeks.
4. ALWAYS HIGH BALL (within reason)! There's always a chance you could get it, and I actually did! If they say no, this leaves room to negotiate for a slightly lower, but still better, grade. I thought I could only push my grade of a 74 to a 78, but I also took a risk and included an argument for 4 more points (of 100 total) on my final project, worth half my grade, which would've pushed me right to an 80.

I'm just so happy this worked out. As long as this assignment goes well (which it should, as I'm allowed to ask any questions I have along the way), my retention GPA will move from a 2.88 to a 2.995. As long as I stay on top of things next semester, I see myself hitting that 3.0 in May :)

Vinyl Update

After moving my favorite records from my mom's to my apartment, I realized that I didn't actually own any crates at all after swearing up and down to myself that I did. That means I'm using part of my kitchen pantry as vinyl storage now.  

 They're propped up on some empty CD cases (I have all my CDs in a special thing for my car) because, with the door frame in the way, it'd be hard to pull them out if they were all the way against that side wall. I have a lot more at my mom's but I really need to go through them and decide what records I actually still care for. I might do some more in-depth writing about my collection in the near future!

See ya, Instagram...

The final thing I want to say today is FUCK INSTAGRAM. On Sunday I realized something honestly terrifying: I kept finding myself on Instagram despite having no memory of clicking on the app. After that, I'd notice that whenever I tried to do other stuff on my phone, I'd subconsciously click on Instagram the second I saw the icon on my screen. Even when I left the app, I'd immediately reopen it without thinking. How long had this been happening, and why did it take so long for me to notice? I decided that was fucking scary and announced I'd be gone for at least the spring semester. I have a second account just dedicated to seeing hardcore show flyer announcements that I'm only allowing myself to use on desktop.

I'm already annoyed at the comments I'm gonna get from my friends. There's no holier-than-thou complex I'm hiding. I'm not even anti-social media. I don't think it's that damn phone. I've actually had pretty positive experiences on the other platforms I use, those being Tumblr, YouTube, RateYourMusic, and now Blogger. I use Reddit too but I don't really know what to label that. The point is, I don't feel addicted to any of these places despite the content on them often being so much better and more meaningful than probably anything I've seen on Instagram in the past year. I just really don't like that I got addicted to Instagram of all things without even realizing it. It feels embarrassing, but I know that this can't be an original experience. We'll have to see how my personal ban on Instagram affects me this year!

That's all I have for now. See you tomorrow. -G