Random Thoughts

[Masquerade]

I think at this point it should be a certainty that you will visit the doctor. Stop putting it off.

[Twitch]

I'm very much the put-off-going-to-the-doctor-unless-it's-serious type. Sleeping on a harder mattress has helped before, sometime last month or so. It'll be about a week before I could possibly go, but if nothing I do helps it in that time then yes, I'll be going if at all possible.

Granted, the doctor will probably just send me across to hall to have a chiropractor punch me in the spine, but hey.

[Emma]

Uh, yeah.

I kept getting these random pains in my leg for no reason.  I kept ignoring it, because I figured it would go away, it's not serious, blah blah, it's probably from playing DDR, whatever.  But it stayed there.  For months.

Finally went to go see the doctor.  It was arthritis.

Go see a damn doctor, noob.

[Twitch]

Knowing my luck, my spine has been slowly eroding since I fell onto the winch for the trailer when I was a kid.



Note that I'm not serious. Though it does hurt in the same spot, coincidentally.

[Akero Leafrunner]

I found out I had a hernia for almost three years when I went to see a doctor. It was one sneaky motherfucker of a hernia too, normally I hear those are a smidge more painful than 'occasional slight pain'. Doctor said she was surprised there were very few actual problems caused by it.

[Harley]

I'M IN MY NEW HOUSE AND IT IS AWESOME.

I also have no internets for two weeks, so am posting from my phone.

And...a message a girl from work sent me earlier:

"An imperial guardsman, a space marine and an inquisitor walk into a bar. The guardsman says "ow." The marine breaks right through the bar with his reinforced skull. The inquisitor accuses the bar of heresy. When the bar refuses to confess or even move despite sustained torture, the inquisitor executes the guardsman for failing to defeat the bar in combat in the name of the emperor!"

[Akero Leafrunner]

"An imperial guardsman, a space marine and an inquisitor walk into a bar. The guardsman says "ow." The marine breaks right through the bar with his reinforced skull. The inquisitor accuses the bar of heresy. When the bar refuses to confess or even move despite sustained torture, the inquisitor executes the guardsman for failing to defeat the bar in combat in the name of the emperor!"

Lmao that's... that's amazing

[OHCOMEONROBBIE]

http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=50916.0

...
 

[Masquerade]

RT: I have an idea. I've beenw riting in my notebook all fucking evening. I'm going to be writing all night. I don't want to go to bed or I'll lose this idea, I think.

[Poil]

http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=50916.0

...
 

Holy crap that's one impressive fort!

[Poil]

random thought:

Just found this SA thread. One on hand it sounds too outrageous to be true but on the other hand the thread is full of people who confirm similar things and it is in America*.

Today I began student teaching at my old high school. I'm still not entirely sure what I saw was real.

When I attended, we had our share of bad students and bad teachers but it was still strictly organized, run fairly, and I was pretty proud to be a student there. Today, however, was the equivalent of finding that your childhood home has been turned into a crack den.

When I walked into my room, the teacher greeted me and we talked a bit about who I was and who he was and what was expected of me. His words exactly were, "You can come if you want, but you really don't have to. I'll fill out whatever you need." I mistook this initially as pure laziness on his part with not having to deal with me but I was proven wrong soon after.

As students began to file in for his first class I noticed that a quartet of sagging pseudo-thugs immediately sat in the corner and produced a pack of cards and rolls of money. Every other student that entered was talking openly on cell phones, and eating and drinking and throwing their trash wherever.

When the bell rang, the teacher told them continually to sit down and stop talking so they could begin fucking 9-week testing. It was 15 minutes before anyone was quiet enough for him to be heard, and still they continued gambling, talking on phones, and I saw one kid taking swigs out of a Jack Daniels bottle in his bookbag. He passed out the tests (which was 15 questions on the shape of the earth, I shit you not), and halfway through the class an assistant principle knocked on the door and had a hush-hush conversation with the teacher. What was the conversation about? The students gambling? The cell phones? The LIQUOR??

No. The administration found it appalling that these students were being tested and the answers weren't being displayed on the expensive new projectors that had been installed. I was flabbergasted that he was being required to give the answers to the tests.

After three periods of this I had heard plenty of stories from him (and a total of 4 partially completed tests). Students were not allowed to fail. All answers were to be provided to them during test taking so that no one failed. Even if someone turns in a blank page, the lowest grade you can give them is a 70. The month before the teacher next door to him had been hospitalized after being assaulted by a student after she told the student to put out a cigarette. As he was beating her, students were cheering him on and it took security ten minutes to get there and stop him. The student in question was sentenced to 30 minutes of after school detention.

The teacher told me that he has no control over his class and his first class was actually the best class he's had since he started teaching there two years ago. He said that it is impossible to teach them anything as they don't listen. You can't tell them to be quiet or stop doing anything because they turn violent and security is no help. He said he has written up about 30 students in the last month but the administrators do nothing but send them back to the classroom.

It was then that I understood why he had told me he would just fill out any form and I didn't need to come: because my effort at teaching would be pointless. I wouldn't be able to teach them and nothing would be accomplished. I thought surely it's not like this all over the school. I peeked into every classroom on my way to the office to sign-out and it was the same story in every room. Students doing whatever the hell they pleased while the teachers uselessly tried to restore some semblance of order.

Is this what has happened to my high school? The high school with the unbeatable education, sports, music, and arts programs? Has it really become a stereotypical poor-SES urban school from a touching movie? Is this what No Child Left Behind does to schools? I've been sitting here all day convincing myself that I didn't imagine all of it.

Are all public schools turning into this? I'd heard the horror stories of NCLB, but now that I've seen it firsthand I'm horrified and terrified that my future as an educator will involve me simply babysitting the dregs of society.

Someone tell me this isn't true and that I have a future.

TL;DR: Went back to my old high school to student teach and found it has transformed into a horrid urban school stereotype and am now worried about my future as an educator.

*Seriously, it doesn't matter what crazy and screwed up things I've read on the internet that I've told people about, when I mention that it happened in the US they just go "ah, that explains it".

[OHCOMEONROBBIE]

...

Good ol' U.S. of A. leading the world to a better tomorrow.

[Masquerade]

I'd need more than his word on things. 

[Emma]

Yeah, no kidding.  I don't believe it.

[Rook]

RT: The Thrift Store near me has a librarian on staff to handle it's sizable collection of book, she is this really crotchety old woman that seems resentful of anyone that so much as walks though her section... I'm tempted to go up to her and yell "Stop reinforcing a bad stereotype!!"

But I have to wonder, Library Science is a Masters level program; just how many 'Librarians' actually have degrees in Library Science?
I've actually noticed for the last few days books on economics and business being put in the sci-fi section. First I assumed that they were misplaced or someone was carrying them around but then decided they didn't want them and didn't bother putting them back, so I just moved them to a more appropriate section. The next day they were returned to the Sci-Fi section and I'm just trying to understand the reasoning behind it because it's not like the two sections are even that close to each other

[Delfina]

RT: SO! i'm back from chicago and had a blast. Don't worry, i'm safe and sound in my room.. I know you all missed me. Must of been painful.. its okay, it'll soon pass. Cause i'm home

btw.. chicago style pizza is the shit.. at least Giodano's pizza.. <_< Havn't tried any others  yet.. Lol ^_^;

[Ollie]

Emerald City Comic Con was today!

I wanted to meet Stan Lee, Leonard Nimoy and Felicia Day but... the tickets you had to buy to be in the autograph line cost as much or more than my Saturday pass for the convention.

Got to see Cricket/Mike and met a friend from WoW for the first time, and saw a whole bunch of cool artists, and I hung out with my buddy Trevor for the first time in awhile so it was still a great day.

edit* Also I got to try out a Cintiq. Slightly hampered by the old laptop that it was hooked up to causing the pen to lag somewhat, but after working on it a few minutes to adjust it was really really cool. Not that I can afford one right now but it's good to know my options.

[Emma]

....Did you go see Shannon and Sam?

[Ollie]

Of course. Sam n Fuzzy were right next to Jeph Jacques, so as soon as I got to the front of that line I asked him if Shannon came with him so I could say hi. Only after did it occur to me to offer to hang out on Sunday if she had any free time before going home, but oh well.

[Emma]

RT:

Oh god.  Just watched the most depressing episode of "Extreme Home Makeover" about a family with an 8 year old cancer kid battling her second recurrence.  I was bawling my eyes out at the end.