Wednesday, September 5, 2012

You, sir, are an ass!

WHY DO ACADEMICS PLAY SO MANY GAMES??????????????
Here's what led to that statement:
My advisor is a psychotic egotistical manipulative ass, let's say my advisor's name is ASS #1.  ASS #1 wanted me to have an equally egotistical ass, let's call this one ASS #2, on my committee.  I worked with ASS #2 earlier on in the PhD process, it was not a good experience for either of us, lots of communication issues.  I expressed to ASS #1 that I did not want ASS #2 on my committee given xyz, ASS #1 basically said too bad, you have to nah nah nah.  So...I asked ASS #2 to be on my committee.  And ASS #2's reply?...Love to, but you need to improve your "writing ability".  So, never being one to shy away from a bully, I asked to meet with ASS #2.  After playing ridiculous games over e-mail to set up a meeting, I finally got my 10 min.  I marched in there and demanded to know what exactly was meant by "writing ability", was it grammar and punctuation, was it style.  I mean sure my punctuation isn't perfect I get comma happy at times miss a semi-colon here and there and I'm guilty of using the occasional run-on sentence but it's nothing major  (BTW writing that last sentence without punctuation took all the self-control I had).  Basically, what ASS #2 said, in a round about way, was that it was my style.  And no, ASS #2 was not willing to spend time with me to clarify things, but rather, suggested having friends or others read my work.  ASS #2 also said that they had communicated their hesitation, with regards to joining my dissertation committee, to ASS #1 a week ago.  ASS #1, being psychotic egotistical manipulative ass, did not inform of the conversation.  I told ASS #2 that in light of this information, and given the fact that I plan on graduating in May and am already so far along on the dissertation, I think it's best I take some time to think about my committee some more before getting the form signed; I was picturing Ursula's face after Ariel signed the contract and did not want that for myself.  After leaving the meeting I sent an e-mail to ASS #1 letting them know about the meeting and asking to meet next week to figure out how to move forward with a new committee member.  I don't understand what ASS #1's endgame was here...was it a political move?  Did ASS #1 just want ASS #2 to drop me rather than the other way around?  If so, why not just have ended all this madness a week ago?  Ugh...I HATE GAMES...unless they are of the board or physical variety.



From James and the Giant Peach:
Grasshopper: This is an outrage! You are a disgrace to you phylum, class, order, genus, and species!
Centipede: Say it in English!
Grasshopper: You, sir, are an ASS!

The full quote is here.

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