Wish me luck lads, I'm going back in

[Matt88s]

I have Organic lab at 9:00 am.

I'm a bit nervous. Last lab Prof went on a rampage. Dunno why exactly, several theories exist ranging from a fight at home to anger that we did so poorly on the last Exam.

That morning I was in the restroom at school, bright and early, washing my face like I always do, when the Prof walked in. He saw me and went, "oh", or "grrrr" or something to that effect, and I got the distinct feeling that for some reason he was very disappointed that I was early, I didn't know why, but I also had the feeling he was peaved so I said, Good Morning Sir, and skedaddled. (I've been employed as a walking target since the start of the semester, and I've found avoidance to be a good countermeasure for students employed as walking targets to employ themselves)

So off to lab I went, it was early, lab hadn't started, prof was still in the restroom, we were all standing in the back of the lab, I was sipping a cuppa joe, trying to down it all before lab started.

Prof came in, looking around all beady eyed, saw me, my coffee, said, "GET THAT COFFEE OUT OF HERE" I said, yes sir, right sir, and got the coffee out of there.

It was then that I became fully aware, yes, someone had gotten up on the wrong side of the bed. He was .

So I sat down, put on my invisibility cloak, and tried to breath only as was necessary. I had the feeling that should I breath out of time, or perhaps breath at all, I'd be thrown out.

He started into procedure, then paused and locked the doors. I though, oh dear, I hope he doesn't pull a gnat out next. He finished procedure.

Someone appeared at the door, knock knock, let me in. Prof is behind me a ways, I'm like, negative comrade, no can do, save yourself, run! I turn around, Prof is making the grrr face and shaking his head back and forth. I look back and see a very puzzled amigo mouthing, is he serious, whats going on? Yes, he's serious, vamoose.

My lab partner was not there, and obviously wasn't going to be there, so I piped up and said, sir, please sir, might Jenifer and I work together as our lab partners are not here today? Grrr said the prof, no, you can do this by yourself.

So says I, righto sir, we will do this alone sir, sounds good to me sir.

PUT YOUR GOGGLES ON, said the prof, who incidentally didn't have his on either.

Lab mate to the left said, I left mine in the car sir, may I use a spare set sir?

Lab mate to the left got tossed out the door. Prof never knew how close he came to being kung foo'ed, Lab mate to the left was a ninja you see.

Prof at this point still wasn't wearing his goggles. No one pointed this out though, not even the ninja on his way out the door.

I was cool, calm, and collected, although my hands were shaking a bit, not because i was scared or anything, its just a hangover from childhood, my dad was a psyco and when I'm around people on rampages I get the shakes. I almost walked out, I can't stand being around people who are acting nuts like that, but my grade was on the line so I stayed. It was interesting though, mixing chemical with shaky hands, I spilled a bit of acid on the counter and myself, that was fun.

I was getting a bit peaved myself, I almost let him have it a few times, but I restrained myself, though I wanted to pull him in the corner and say, look here buddy, if you need to pull it together and get yourself under control, cancel lab, go take a breather, take care of whatever is riding your gullet, but don't take it out on us or end up doing something you regret later. I didn't though, I just smiled a lot and acted all cheery.

By the end of lab he was mostly calmed down. Great, good for him, glad we could help and thank you for making lab hell.

Found out later that day my lab partner had dropped out. It all was too much, he's sitting the year out and is going to apply to a different college next fall.

Great guy, always chipper and upbeat, just a great guy all around. Trying to work full time and go to school full time though and it just all got to him, crazy professors don't help that any either.

We were going to finish out and graduate together next semester. I'm just really bummed out right now. I've got to face Physic II and Stat alone now and try to finish out organic by myself as well. I don't know, the organic prof is really getting to me, I don't even want to go to class, you never know what mood he'll be in. Some days he's the greatest, some days he's a complete @. I've given up on asking for help with problems, I can't take the flip siding.

So many people that I started school with are gone, couldn't take it, decided not to take it, couldn't afford it, etc. It's kind of depressing, I don't know anyone from my gen ed classes who's still around. I'm the only one, I feel like the last dodo bird. It's a kind of sad lonely feeling.

I suppose there's only one thing to do.

I'll have to find a super hot lab partner to replace him with. (:

All joking aside though, I'm feeling really disenchanted with everything at the moment.

[Gingermick]

I'll have to find a super hot lab partner to replace him with.

Careful though, It's the super hot ones that burn ya

[Wood Butcher]

I know the feeling.

I had a lecturer decided that he wanted to change the specs for an assignment. Which normally wouldn't be a problem except this was after the submission date and he returned all of the assignments and asked for them to be re-submitted after making the changes to suit his new criteria.

I was but I did it anyway. Long story short I found out soon after that there is a new "Dean of Students" at uni who's job is to look into cases like this. Why get mad, get even!

[Greg Q]

Does your University tolerate bullies? If I were you I'd get a copy of the dispute resolution guidelines and leave them prominently displayed on the lab desk. Consumables in the lab really isn't a good idea, as you know by now.

Anyway. Perhaps a trip to the Dean's office is in order? If not, I'd be calling him on his non-verbal communication style. Tell him to speak up or shut up.

My Organic 201 guy got the fright of his life one day when he saw my Beretta nine in my briefcase (I was a cop at the time, and shoehorning a lab between court and duty, the weapon was required equipment for all official business). I somehow conveyed the impression that I didn't suffer arseholes gladly. A lot of explaining to do after that one...

Good luck.

[AlexS]

Sounds like the prof. has sniffed a few to many solvents over the years.

[bsrlee]

Wild mood swings? Maybe an anonymous call to the local Police drug line might be in order - that is a real possibility with those sort of actions, and he obviously has ready access to a wide variety of 'interesting' chemicals. Really.

[Matt88s]

Sounds like the prof. has sniffed a few to many solvents over the years.

You know, I wonder if this isn't part of the problem. It's not like he means to be such an @ sometimes, he just is. Other times he's a really nice guy. A bit short on patience, but likable and you just don't ask too many questions.

Today, I really didn't need to go to lab, I'd finished the experiment last lab, but I wanted to show up and make sure he wasn't jacking around with the people who had gotten locked out, you know, make procedure drag on just long enough they wouldn't have time to finish the lab or something like that. If he was I was going to lend a helping hand and help them get the experiment finished in time, you could do it in one lab period, you just really had to hustle and know what you were doing.

I walked in, he said hi, I said hi, mood was very relaxed, only two people had showed up, he was helping them do the experiment, it was like a total about face. So I just pulled out my notebook and made sure I had the mechanism for the reaction written down correctly, last lab I'd just scribbled it down as fast as I could. He'd added a few little things and notations so I wrote those down.

He wanted the mechanism in the lab report, and since he was so friendly I verified that he only wanted the mechanism (the part written in black) and none of the other notes or arrows showing where things went and how.

He said yes, in fact, just show this part here, (the latter half of the mechanism). I said ok, and wrote that on my notebook. Then after reflection, he said, and this part here. (that part was on the other side of the mechanism, so I thought for a bit, then tentatively said, shall I just show the whole mechanism then?

He said, well, you can't just show bits and piece it together, you have to show the whole mechanism, blah blah blah. I'm just smiling and nodding and agreeing but inside I'm going, ?

Inside of two minutes, he managed to tell me three or four different things, correct himself, correct me, tell me that I couldn't do what he just told me to do, and it wasn't like he was trying to screw me around or jack with me, that is just how he is. You ask a simple question, "Do you just want the mechanism by itself", you get a half dozen answers, then he tells you your wrong when all you did was put what he said.

It's like, you can't just show pieces. Ok, I didn't plan on showing pieces, you are the one who did pieces.

I want to like him, he seems like such a likable fellow somedays.