THE RANT THREAD!

[Shahaku]

Re: THE RANT THREAD!

I generally like the smell of frshly cut grass.

I don't like the smell of fresh cut grass because the backyard door was left open and now is mixed with the smell of delicious lemon cake.

Why does everything make me want to hurl these days. (And just to squelch the mention of anything related... I am not pregnant so don't even go there.)

Didn't even think of that till you said it... but hey, it makes sense. I was going to suggest you see a doc and hope you get well soon.

[Maria de Luna]

Re: THE RANT THREAD!

Spilled boiling marinara on my hand..... Whee blisters on my fingers..... Wheeee...

[Denarius]

Re: THE RANT THREAD!

Windows 8, that is all.

[Medusa]

Re: THE RANT THREAD!

Springpad is shutting down. Now I have to find another easy site. I migrated to evernote. It's 'ok'. But I really liked the layout of the little notebooks on Springpad. And I hate putting my books on goodreads. It's way too damn cluttered a site for me. Plus I also had private notebooks of budgets and stuff.

Meh. I guess evernote is fine for now.
boohiss.

[Denarius]

Re: THE RANT THREAD!

Well, I've now officially been up for 24 hours straight. Normally I sleep fine, great even, but once a month or so I just get antsy and can't sleep for a day or so. I just don't even get tired, only cripplingly bored.

Case in point: I just watched Gangnam Style eighteen times in a row.

[volcaniclastic]

Re: THE RANT THREAD!

I'm annoyed. I offered to help someone out with an AMA on Reddit about pagan naturalism, and there's this atheist who keeps telling me that without 100% belief in something, I clearly can't be pagan. And now it's turned into the age old talk of "well, if the gods are fictitious but you still recognize them, do you worship Harry Potter and Superman, too?"

Which to be honest, it's something I felt like discussing this morning. Why is there so much hate for modern gods? And if you don't believe in them anyhow, why the eff does it matter to you?

[anunitu]

Re: THE RANT THREAD!

It is almost as though he wants to "Convert" you to his way of viewing the world. atheism,can be for some as much of a religion,and they feel the need to "enlighten" everyone to their world view. I feel,what you believe is always valid if it meets your spiritual need,but you can't expect others to really buy into it,not in a world as we live in.

[Denarius]

Re: THE RANT THREAD!

if you don't believe in them anyhow, why the eff does it matter to you?

Intergroup bias. Humans are fundamentally tribal. We like picking sides, and the Other almost always becomes the Enemy.

We attach to groups and ideologies, and define ourselves within those contexts. I am american, I am an atheist, I am a nerd, I am x, I am y... The more deeply ingrained those self identities are, the more personally we take things that challenge those notions.

Explicitly or otherwise.

My position is OBVIOUSLY correct and anything that argues against that is, even if only remotely, an ATTACK against ME.

[Medusa]

Re: THE RANT THREAD!

I stay away from r/atheism. They once wanted me to do an AMA on Satanism. I was like HEll to the NO! Though r/religion seems to do better.

[ChainLightning]

Re: THE RANT THREAD!

Thankfully, I haven't succumbed to reddit, as yet. I still have enough trouble, coping with false accusations, here. I'd never get a break, I think, joining reddit. I'd have to take a sledge hammer to my computer, at some point.

[Gleb]

Re: THE RANT THREAD!

I hate it when our dog & cat fight... It's annoying and they make a lot of noise.... ><

[Corvus]

Re: THE RANT THREAD!

I hate myself because I'll write three sentences on this essay and then check tumblr for 5 minutes. I'm so terrible. Gosh I need help

[B. de Corbin]

Re: THE RANT THREAD!

I just finished reading Journalism articles on an Obama speech about Syria an chemical weapons. In twenty years of teaching, this is the absolute worst bunch of papers I have ever been forced to wade through - better than half the class couldn't even grasp that Obama was justifying a military strike on Syria. And they can't spell even simple words...

Meanwhile, I am reviewing simple grammar issues with 9th grade students, like whether to use to, too, or two, and whether to use they're, there, or their, and how to use apostrophes to make nouns plural. The practice sheets I am using were written for third graders, and the little shits still can't do them...

I pity the future, and hope to be long dead before these "students" try and run things...


I want to buy a pound of heroin and retire to my couch forever.

[thalassa]

Re: THE RANT THREAD!

Meanwhile, I am reviewing simple grammar issues with 9th grade students, like whether to use to, too, or two, and whether to use they're, there, or their, and how to use apostrophes to make nouns plural. The practice sheets I am using were written for third graders, and the little shits still can't do them...

I'm not surprised. I've noticed that the most of generation behind me (I'm on the cusp of Gen X-->Millenials, depending on who does the math) didn't get that memo in school. I learned all of this stuff in school (also the amount of reading (of actual books, and not Joe Schmoe's barely legible txt spk opinion on the net) I did, probably didn't hurt) but my brothers seem to have missed quite a bit of it (I was helping one of them write an essay not too long ago).

Was there some change to how English and reading and things were taught? Because, I can surely tell you that when I was in grade school, reading was phonics, phonics, phonics, with some memorization of irregular words and weekly spelling tests...and the only phonics Chickadee knows is what her tutor and I have been working on, and I've yet to see a spelling list. My kid can read because (on top of reading with her and reading to her) we pay an old-school retired school teacher to do phonics (also math facts) with her, and then she sends home "homework" for us to practice with...because they don't a) seem to wait for kids to master anything before moving on, or b) teach any sort of memorization---its all just conceptualization. Maybe its just me, but it seems there should be a balance there.

Anyhow...I always get confused with the proper way to apostrophe a posessive when the word ends in 's' but is singular (ex. Mr. Barnes's poodle or Mr. Barnes' poodle). And the precise circumstances for semicolon use are somewhat hazy. It doesn't matter how many times I look it up, its like I can't retain the memory of how to do it properly when I need it. Plus, because I'm either blogging or doing technical writing, I tend to have lots of bad habits (over use of the comma, a love of parentheses, and I'm elpsis-happy).

I have a question for you though--do you find that you have alot of kids that took journalism thinking it would be "easy" compared to a more traditional composition course? I ask this because, in high school, I took creative writing and it seemed to me that there were two types of students--those who genuinely loved writing and those that thought it would be easy...and unfortunately, I think the latter outnumbered the former about 5:1.

[B. de Corbin]

Re: THE RANT THREAD!

Was there some change to how English and reading and things were taught?

Yeah... there was, and it is stupid...

Many (or most) school districts went to the newest and coolest theory, a thing called "Whole Language." I honestly do not understand this - at the high school level, you need a specific certification to teach reading (kids are already supposed to know how to do it, if they don't, they need special teaching methods. That's not to say, though, that we don't teach reading techniques in the classroom, if you understand me...) - but, it looks to me like the idea is that kids will "explore" and "discover" how language functions through practice.

While that is a great way to teach most of science because you can do experiments and measure results, it doesn't seem like it would work as well with language. I can't figure out an experiment that will allow you to arrive at the correct spelling for "discipline" (for example) - other than writing it wrong and having a teacher correct it. And with standard grammar... if you were raised where everybody says "That just ain't right," then saying "That just isn't right" is going to sound intuitively wrong...

So I really don't understand how it works.

A big problem in education is that it should be science/research driven, but it tends to be politically driven instead. Someone comes along and wants to make a name for his/her self, claims loudly that education is failing, and lays out some new fangled BS plan that will instantly fix it. But nobody really pays attention to whether the fix really works or not. They stop listening after the words "it's broken and I will fix it" are spoken, and the election ends.

(I'm still in the rant section, aren't I?)

I have trouble with "its" and "it's" - not because I don't know, but because I read so much student writing that neither looks correct any more...

I have a question for you though--do you find that you have alot of kids that took journalism thinking it would be "easy" compared to a more traditional composition course? I ask this because, in high school, I took creative writing and it seemed to me that there were two types of students--those who genuinely loved writing and those that thought it would be easy...and unfortunately, I think the latter outnumbered the former about 5:1.

Honestly? I have to explain to them what the term "journalism" means, usually. They have no friggin' idea what class they've signed up or been signed up for. But, yeah. Usually an elective class is filled with kids who don't belong there. Its true of writing classes, and art classes. There's very little pleasure in teaching a subject one enjoys, 'cause the classes are generally filled with jerks.

P.S. - if it ends with s, add an apostrophe (because otherwise, it's unpronounceable)

P.P.S. there is no such word as "alot." It's "a lot." (giggle, giggle, giggle ).