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2005-05-11 - 2:48 p.m.

I just turned in my final paper for �Corporations and Global Cities�. I wrote about logistics firms (companies that specialize in moving stuff around, a professional industry which didn�t really exist even 20 years ago) and the current tendency for the military to outsource supporting its forces to the private-sector. I looked at the extent to which this is a public-private cooperative effort and to what extent it�s a competitive situation. One of our reading used the gimmicky term �coopetition� to characterize such a relationship�s dual nature.

Feh. I don�t think it was very good. But then, I didn�t think my last paper was very good, and I got an A on it. I thought the paper before that was good and I got a B. Logistics was a hard topic to research, because it doesn�t exactly make the news much and show up on Lexis-Nexis. I mean, it�s kind of boring.

But I was quite taken with the idea when it came up in class, because I had never even conceived of the idea of outsourcing operations. But most companies now do just this. It�s a lot more efficient (and cheaper) for, say, UPS to figure out transporting and warehousing all your products and deal with the import/export permitting than for, say, Johnson & Johnson to do this in-house.

So I hope my teacher at least recognizes that this was hard to do (in retrospect, I wish I�d picked an easier paper topic) and cuts me some slack for it. I wish I could say that I don�t care what I get on it. For a long time, I was expecting a B in the class anyway. And my no-grades high school should have sufficiently beaten the idea that grades somehow trump learning out of me. But it�s still important to me. Sad, I know.

I have one last final paper and presentation for Monday. Plus for that same class (�City Texts: Understanding the Modern Urban Landscape�), I have to revise already-written short papers for Friday. Then I had hoped I would be done. But I won�t be. Fuck.

I�ll still have a remaining incomplete from a fucking year ago. Perhaps my idea of finishing it concurrently with my finals from now was just foolish. Still. The New York City public schoolteachers� contract. It still hadn�t been successfully renegotiated a year ago, but I�ve long since stopped paying attention or caring. I expect I�ll be working hard to the bitter end, into next Thursday.

I had the vague idea that Friday, 5/20, was the �drop-dead� date when all work had to be in. But when I emailed a dean to ask about this, he said he wasn�t sure. Now, if he doesn�t know, I can�t imagine who does. I�m going to stick with my instinct, finish for Thursday, and give my professor (actually, more likely his teaching assistant) a day to review it and submit my grade.

I hope she�ll take me out afterwards, like I�m taking her out after her last final on Saturday. But in the meantime, bring the pain.

� 2005 Geoff Gladstone

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