The Sound of One Head Screaming

What is it they say? Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you?

That would be life right now. I'm almost thinking that I'd've been better off not finding a place to do my doctoral study. Yes, who would have ever thought those words would cross my fingers? Not me. But there you are. Why you ask? Where do I start?

First off, apparently the teachers who are "helping" me have problems understanding numbered lists of step-by-step instructions. So that had a major hiccup that I had thought we were remedying...until two weeks went by and we're now at the mid point of the study and, oh yes, no one in the experimental group has actually received the experimental treatment.

I'll wait a minute for you to collect your jaw up off the floor. My head still randomly implodes when I realize that this is the case.

Why is this the case? Apparently because I didn't tell them that they needed to do it. Because, "Be sure that the students all complete the tutorial within the first week of class (date x to date y)" was not clear about the fact that students needed to take the tutorial in the first week of class. Not sure how else I was to have phrased it, but maybe I should've used the universal translator. Or hired a mime. Interpretive dance, maybe?

So yes, here we are at the midpoint and I have opened up the midpoint survey, though I'm not sure why, because really I just have a huge control group - maybe I can tell which teachers are more effective when I analyze my data, because that's the only difference that I'm going to uncover.


I'll be in the corner whimpering. It's the only thing that seems to ease the stabbing pain behind my eye.