h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Something really happened today.

One of our profs was suspended recently, for a list of charges that basically boiled down to never showing up at work because he was drunk out of his skull, and then phoning up his female students at three in the morning instead.

Why did I take the semester's main course with this guy in the first place? He was the only one that was offering a course I still need, and though he gives little input, he leaves you enough time and gives relatively good grades, so I thought I could go easy there and just get in as many secondary subjects as I could this semester...

Now we've been reassigned to a different professor - the most strict and disagreeable one in the whole Uni. Fair but cruel, if that makes any sense. He taunts people whose work he doesn't like. I've had bad experiences with him before - in a course that cumlminated in my hallucinating falling down the stairs and nearly failing the semester - and have avoided him since.

He started us right off with a colloquium on Tuesday - where we're expected to show our designs so far as models, drawings, etc - the trouble was, we hadn't even had enough input from the other professor to really produce anything, no official description of the project or materials, so it was a mad scramble to find the official land-registry office maps of the area and get *something* drawn.

Oddly enough, we all survived, though he was dour and harsh the entire time, and we had a second presentation in another building at the same time - both required in order not to fail.

Today, we had to give ten minute oral presentations on various harbours - normally not a problem, except that he assumed we had already been given our topics by the other prof, and had had time to work on them, so we all had to pull them out of our hats in two days, next to regular classes.



And then, the strangest thing happened. He smiled. He didn't tear us to shreds. He gave us a little speech that while worrying in all that he demanded of us, was actually *encouraging*. He said that we probably only new his exam and colloquium persona, since he usually leaves the regular meetings about our projects to his assistants, and that actually, he can be quite relaxed if he needs to be. We came out of there with our jaws dropping, all psyched up and ready to get working and really, really confused, wondering which aliens had replaced *him* with a human being. None of us knew that side of him at all.



Ok, he's still arrogant and pompous, a real diva, and still talks *almost* like a lawyer - he chooses each of his words very carefully, and uses long words, but doesn't achieve any real precision, because he misuses them. And he still looks a lot like Robert Llewellyn, especially his facial expressions, which is a bit disconcerting - Kryten would not be my first choice for a professor.



All in all, I'm actually starting to be *glad* they suspended the other guy, even if it's going to be a *lot* more work this way - I even had to give up my favourite class to fit this in, and the exam will be much earlier and much harder. Of course it helps that he gave me a 2.0 - the best grade he generally gives out - on the presentation I knocked together in the wee hours last night.

It looks like I might actually *learn* something this semester, rather than learning how to get by without input!

it sounds quite good then

how did you manage to make two presentations at once though?

They say the first impression somebody gets is important, so as you seem to have made a good impression, I hope all will go well for you!

Two presentations at once with two profs both saying "surely *my* subject is a lot more important" means a lot of very careful timing - including asking difficult questions to make the lunch break of one later And volunteering to go first. And then running and hoping. But it seems to have worked.

Congrats!

That's our Mala, leading the way!

blimey, Mala, that sounds incredibly stressful.

At least it worked Though I've been using my newfound motivation mostly for mucking out old files on my computer - I need to do a clean Windows install, but I'm putting it off as long as possible...

I wouldn't even know where to begin with that.

Just when it was all going well, I got a letter from the City of Wuppertal.

Theyillegally forced me to pay 900€ of taxes recently - a tax that isn't applicable to students, according to the high court ruling. I assumed they were giving me my money back. Instead, they want more for the room in the flat I shared two years ago! They're threatening to come break into my house and steal things again.

How can they ask you for more money for two years ago?

bar stewards

What can you do about this? (apart from move everything out of your flat, just in case)

Well, I could pay them the 250€, but I'm ed if I'm going to do that

I think there's a lawyer I can talk to at Uni for advice - only they demand the money by Wednesday, they don't give much notice...

Blimey, that's steep.

Yes - and they never sent me a notice in 2006 because the notice forms weren't approved then, according to some research

Also, I just did the calculations. They want 10% of the base rent per month - which works out at 130€ for the six months, not 250€!

That's the way I felt about it. Add to that the fact that they're only open three mornings a week when normal people are at work or Uni, and that their e-mail address bounces everything back

Why the hell don't they try to get the money back from this guy who was in TV - head of a big german company (I cannot mention his name, as it wouldn't be fair) first (for all non-germans: he took a lot of money out to Luxembourg so he did avoid to pay tax on it - at least he is accused of it, if he didn't I do apologize)

You know what Leona Helmsley said about tax? It's only for little people (ie. Us)

This is the same principle.

Mala, I still know "people" if you need a hand.

Aha! Finally dug my way through to the statement that I can write a letter of protest, and then they'll sue for it instead Might win me time, anyway, and since they can't legally charge it...

Now how do I get the 900€ back?