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by Philipina A. Marcelo
While it's fantastic to see my students' solutions to tough problems, I was getting tired of hearing the woosh-wooshing sound of the ballpoint rolling over test papers, I shuffled through my CD collection and looked for something to mask the agonizing wosh... and my finger got stuck between something from Better than Ezra and the soundtrack of that '90s film, starring Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke and Ben Stiller (who also directed the film), "Reality Bites".
I first popped the BtE CD in the player... but it's too good, it's too distracting. :) I made a mental note to play the entire CD later, and maybe request my thesis advisee with a fantastic unfair-to-the-rest-of-humanity singing voice to sing "Porcelain" - in celebration of the end of this "grading saga". :)
I checked out the Reality Bites soundtrack cover... and found Lisa Loeb's monster hit in the '90s. I played it... and the woosh-wooshing sound disappeared (even when I continued grading, mind you), and warm nostalgic feeling lent enthusiasm to keep going. Hmmm.... but it's too realistic - and reality bites, indeed!
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Video credit: Thanks, YouTube, for the video links.
