patgund | Well, that was a waste of a day:

Beyond this cut tag lie the ranting I wrote during my utterly useless communications class, day 1:

9:35am
I have never ran across such a load of quasi-psychological claptrap since I took The Training, (i.e. EST, i.e. massive waste of time)
What's worse, the people doing this seminar are being bought out by another group, so they have no interest in teaching something that is going to get junked in a few weeks.
Feh.
And now he's using 9/11 as a example. Sorry, inaapropriate at best.

10:10am
Here I've always thought that the term "bored to tears" was a metaphor. Guess I was wrong. Utter pain the butt.
And it was funny, during the break, to see all these wannabe idiot Type A personality types lunging for their cell phones, like the very concept that they may be out of touch for that long is morally offensive to them.
I'm glad it's $500 of the institute's money that's being wasted on this crap - I only wish I had enough money to blow on useless crap like this.
Yes, I know I'm too bloody cynical. Almost wondering if this is a type of punishment.
1. I>R = assertive
2. R>I = withdraw
3. I=R -> compromise
How about #4, who gives a damm?

11:00am
There is something worse than quasi-psychlogical bullshit.
Business doubletalk and catch-phrases.

11:30am
We have 42 people in a room that has a maximum occupancy of 35. This is absurd.

12:30pm
Okay.. Parking is a $12.00 extortion, There's no place to eat around here that doesn't charge an arm, a leg, and several vital internal organs. Gee, you think at $500 a pop they could score either lunch or in-out privledges to get something somewhere else?? I mean, they're clearing about $21,000 a day for this, and there's no way in hell the materials for this thing cost more than $50 per person.
Giving serious consideration to not showing up tomorrow. Hell, giving serious consideration to just going home at this stage. Completely useless this is turning out to me.
Yes, I'm cranky. Can't you tell?
It's the hammer and nail thing again. If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. In the lab, all they now is communications theory, so every bit of conflict there looks like a communications error.
And it's not. Most of it is simply the refusal of many to realize that their needs and priorities can't take place over the other researchers, and that the rules have to apply fairly and equally to all.
Main problem I have in my lab is responsibility and utterly no authority.
(Sigh) Pitzer College had a position simular to mine open. I sent off the application before I left home this morning.
Has to be better than the lab. Or sitting though this quasi-business claptrap designed by and for MBA's that realized that the more buzzword intensive a "business" class is, the more suckers will fall for it.
Bloody useless. I learned more in my psychology of communcations classes than I ever will here. Too much rah-rah, very little useful information. Or in other words, the noise to data ratio is too high.
Too high? It's astronomical. And we're in a too hot room, too crowded, too packed, and with the most uncomfortable supposedly padded seats I've ever sat in. The hard plastic elementary school seats I used to sit in would be an improvement.
Yes, the longer I'm at this thing, the less I'm impressed. What can I say???

1:00pm
Not only have 10 people bailed, but now we're being forced to play a bloody game of telephone. Gak.
I think we have another group of people to send off with the telephone sanitizers........
Dammed useless class. If he uses the term "corporate North America" again, I'll scream.

1:45pm
ARRRGH!!!! He said it!
At least we can go early. Thankfully, as I'm starting to get sick from the heat in this room. Large amounts of no fun. Blegh and blegh again.