Useless excuse for a grad student

Dear EoE TA,

You are the most useless TA ever. Assignments were never graded on time, it was impossible to find out if you'd even received our homework, and you came to class approximately four times over the course of an entire semester.

We took the final exam in the class three weeks ago. It was composed entirely of multiple choice answers, meaning there's nothing subjective about the grading and you should be able to whiz through them. There were approximately 70 students in the class, which still doesn't justify not grading the exams sometime in the last three weeks. There is absolutely no reason why the grades should not be up by now.

No love,

Me.

Study Hall Etiquette

I'm noticing that there's a specific way that people sit in a study hall. Isolated desks near power outlets are the most desirable, while central worktables are the least wanted. So if this is the study lounge:

Then the most desirable desks are the ones along the wall, furthest from the door which presents a constant source of distraction. Typically, however, this is divided by which desk is easiest to reach. The result is that the first desk occupied is usually one of the wall-side desks on the lower left hand side, and the second desk occupied is the desk directly across from it.

Once these two desks are occupied, a sorting algorithm is established. You cannot sit back-to-back or next to someone until a certain density is reached, otherwise it's regarded as rude. So the next person to enter takes the wall desk nearest the door, because seeing that there are others already in the study hall, they take the first desirable desk that they see. Once this desk is occupied, the fourth person to reach the lounge takes the top righthand desk against the wall, because it is intermediate between the easiest desk to reach and the most isolated desk, that fits all the requirements - ie, not back to back or next to another person, and not a table.

The desk back-to-back with the lefthand wall desk fills in fifth. Sixth is the desk across from the top lefthand desk.

Seventh is the table closer to the door, because the set of desks in the corner furthest from the door is awkward. It is only occupied once all other desks and one other table have been ruled out, and the bottom right desk is taken first.

From this point on, all desirable desks have been occupied and studiers must choose at their own risk. Back-to-back is always preferable to next to someone, and typically the remaining table will be unoccupied until a large, loud group of Stern students come in to work on their Econ. project. They'll probably be speaking Korean and you'll hate them because they are loud and don't seem to realize that there were other people in the study lounge before they took over.

Once all seats are occupied, anyone else attempting to use the study lounge will be subjected to bored glares until they get the hell out of dodge.

Yours truly avoiding studying for finals,

Leez