One day, Zanzibar packed up her things and went to Hydrology Class. Due to a variety of factors, not least of which that her Hydrology Text is deadly boring, (but mostly because she totally forgot) she had not done a bit of the reading for class.
Her good friends Teresa, Gareth, and Sam were leading the discussion of the day so she felt like she could reasonably assume that they wouldn't call on her if she pretended to be engrossed in looking through her papers. However, as the discussion began, Teresa asked several question to which nobody seemed to know the answer (perhaps nobody else had done the reading either!) Zanzibar began to feel uncomfortable, and felt like she should answer a question for her friend Teresa. She waited for her opening. She needed a question that was a little open-ended, that didn't refer to any specific terminology. Teresa said that she had read a little part about the center of mass of the watershed, and she didn't really know what they were referring to. Were they referring to the center of mass of the landforms, or the center of mass of the water itself as it fell across the landforms? Perfect. Enter the first person singular.

I answered that it was an interesting question... I talked a little bit about my understanding of "center of mass" from physics class, and since we were talking about how long it would take for a drop of water to flow through the watershed to the outflow point (and thus how big we'd have to make our storm sewers or whatever), perhaps they were referring to how the mass of the actual water was distributed, because then you could get at the flow time, and thus the lag time on the hydrograph (a graph that shows you amount of discharge in a stream through time) between the peak of the rain event and the peak in the stream. I added a "but I don't really know" to the end.

The prof said that ending an answer with "but I don't really know" wasn't a very good way to end it, because you just gave a whole answer and then you undercut it. He asked Teresa if they'd said "center of mass of the water" or "center of mass of the watershed" and she said it was of the watershed which made her think that maybe it was of the topography. I shrugged to say that I would allow that interpretation as easily as mine.

Then the prof said in his deep, booming voice, "There class, did you see what Laura just did?"
A pause.
"Because Laura is a graduate student, she is very excellent at..." This sentence was starting out pretty good...
"BSing her way through a question to which she has no idea what the answer is."

Pause.

Oooh SNAP. I just got so TOLD.

An undergraduate piped in, God bless her, "And an undergraduate can't do that?"

"Why don't you answer the next question and we'll find out?" I said evenly.

Stunned, my ass having been taken to school, I became quiet as the period progressed. But I was not cowed. Questions were asked and answered and I was calmly flipping through my book, having no idea of even the range of pages that we ought to have read. Sam asked a question with a bunch of technical terms in it, and as the words were coming out of his mouth, I flipped to the page that had, in bold, the answer. I raised my hand and answered his question, dwelling on various points I found to be important and pontificating a little while on the ramifications of the answer on the planning of urban watersheds as a whole. The professor asked the engineering side of the room if they ever considered the things I had said when they planned their drainage systems. They hadn't. He said that maybe they should, and that it was a question we would be sure to come back to later in the term. He made a mark on his paper.
Later on, as he was handing back assignments, he apologized to me for his earlier remark.

Which goes to show you, kiddies... not even this professor, the one guy to ever be so bold as to call me out on my shit (I could feel nothing but awe for him, by the way).... not even he knows the full EXTENT OF MY POWERS. I would like to thank the Lord, who looketh down upon his little sheep who hath gotten Told, and giveth her the page number and the bold-faced type to so that she may be redeemed.

And that's why they say that you get your Phd when you want to take your B.S. to another level.

Eeh.... mean professor. :S
» randomjunk on 2007-02-13 06:52:41

Prompt reply)))
You recollect 18 more century order xanax online without prescription Very valuable information buy xanax online cheap Cold comfort! cheap ultram It seems excellent phrase to me is green xanax bar It is already far not exception xanax xr 2mg 07afe7
» Zackary (202.164.211.76) on 2011-06-09 02:56:22

Name.

URL.

[to enter your email, use "mailto:[email protected]"]
Subject.

Comment.

Word verification.

Copy the first 4 characters only.

If you are a member, try logging in again or accessing this page here.