Cheap, Cheaper, Cheapest

I took myself out for coffee tonight to the Broadway Roastery just down the street from my office. Everyone I know whom I usually spend time with had their optical nerves sucked into the tractor beam from some kind of electronic device, so I bought a newspaper, a coffee, and had a nice time by myself. I'm such a cheap date!

As I sat in the cafe, I perused a local newspaper. You know, by the way, most people use the word "peruse" as if it means to "glance over." Actually, the word means "to examine with great care." Anyway, as I perused the newspaper, I noticed a couple of things.

First of all, Darren Bernhardt had an article in the paper about age and Pokemon. Is he the same Darren Bernhardt who wrote the positively atrocious article recently about a U of S student who was raped on campus? I can't link to the article because it's not in the newspaper's online archives for some reason; however, you can read it, as well as commentary on it at this site, which I found by searching for "Darren Bernhart" in Google. I must admit that the name of the site gave me the willies, but the commentary on the article is worth reading.

Anyway, I got to thinking about the broad range of topics a journalist might write about over time. When I used to teach composition, I used to tell my students that good writers write about what they know. I reflected upon this in relation to the requirements of daily newspaper writing, as well as the ethics of the various news organizations in Canada. It seems to me that, to be a journalist, you either have to know a lot about a topic already, spend a lot of time learning about a topic in order to cover it responsibly, or be comfortable taking big risks. Then again, I'm not a journalist, so maybe there are tricks of the trade I just can't appreciate.

Also, while perusing the paper, something else captured my attention. Salaries. I was looking over the career ads, and my mind started comparing job possibilities and associated salary potentials (click to see the full image):

Looks like some of the most promising jobs are in administration, animal feeding/c**p shoveling/fence fixing, and newspaper delivery. Working with children, teaching bright young minds, and training future leaders take a definite back seat in comparison, along with pigs 'n' plastics. The university lecturer salary is based on 24-hours per week because that's considered "full-time" for a sessional; in other words, sessionals typically are only allowed two courses per term as a maximum.

A side point, the university lecturer position advertised was for a course that, during the regular session, has an enrolment of anywhere from 52 - 310 students per course. At 52 students per course, the instructor is getting paid $82 per student ($20.50 per student per month). At 310 students per course, the instructor is getting paid $13.76 per student ($3.44 per student per month). The student pays about $482 for the class. By the way, I thought this was interesting, too. It wasn't in the paper...but I found it when I was looking up how much that class might cost:

If you are a Canadian student in Agriculture (degree program), Arts and Science, Commerce, Education, Engineering, Law, Nursing, Pharmacy and Nutrition, or Kinesiology, or if you are an Unclassified Studies student, your tuition is assessed on a per credit unit basis. There is no longer a maximum tuition for undergraduate students. Each class that you take will fall into one of 6 tuition categories. (from the University of Saskatchewan's undergraduate fee sheet, 2003-2004)

I didn't realize that there's no ceiling on tuition anymore. The sky's the limit. Obviously, a nanny could never afford costs for university tuition, based on what a nanny gets paid. Hmf.

So, all in all, it was a very interesting evening, the company was great, and the coffee, well, fantastic. Plus, what could be more intellectually stimulating than coming home to blog, which costs about .50 per day, cheaper than coffee.