TU Cent Thoughts, 12-13-05

[greybeta]

You know what stinks? Waking up, and realized you're hyperfocused on the ticking of the clock.

Tick. Tock.

Tick. Tock.

Tick. Tock.

Maddening, to say the least.

I have a good freshman friend who goes by the name Monsieur Maine. Why do we call him Monsieur Maine? D2, the Nicknaming Bard, knows a bad poem...
In the tradition of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,
I tell you a story about the main man mellow,
Both men born in the state of Maine,
Causing their mothers great pain.
Now see most in Maine are blue,
For those liberals have no clue.
But our Maine man James knows he's red
Precisely because he's well read.
Since he likes to study France
Let him do a little dance.
Well, he is a red lobster who will not feign
loving his new nickname...MONSIEUR MAINE!

I offered to help peer edit the papers of Monsieur Maine's girlfriend. Ah, freshman writing. Now I remember all the mistakes I made when I was a freshman (not so much mistakes as poor choices):
1. Two sentences make not a paragraph.
2. Too much passive voice is bad. Yes, passive voice is very bad when used to much. Passive voice is good at weakening your writing.
3. Active voice rocks. Yes, active voice loves being used for the bulk of the paper. Active voice captures your attention.
4. However, you still need a mix of passive and active voice, but the more active voice the better.
5. Stay in the same present/past tense...at least within the same paragraph.
6. We tend to get wordy when we're put on a word count. That's why we should aim higher than the min and cut down after that.
7. Must...resist...temptation...to...rewrite...paper...for...her...

Quote of the Day:
"A witty saying proves nothing, but saying something pointless gets people's attention." -The Italian Stallion

Link of the day:
A while back, tdj pointed me out to Porno for your Scripture. In the words of kimmaline, effin' brilliant! (yes, yes, I know, but didn't I already tell you I consider myself a near heretic in the BSU?)
----------------------------------
Crumpler, nice job DROPPING MY FANTASY SEASON for me. Oh well, my Sundays just got a lot freer! C'mon Steelers!
----------------------------------
Anime Mike bought Romancing Saga for the PS2, apparently yet another remake. Why, thief, why? Why torture yourself after the evil that was Unlimited Saga (most cruel RPG ever). I suppose he feels the need to challenge his leetness. But can leetness overcome the gayness (sue me for using technically correct gamer language) that is modern Saga?
----------------------------------
You know how teachers are supposed to hang motivation posters in their classroom? I would be the type of teacher to hang demotivation posters...


Ask stupid questions!




Hey kids, we all procrastinate! At least this poster tells you the truth!




Another classroom winner!
----------------------------------
Go to Despair, Inc.! Then tell me, find readers, what is your favorite demotivator?

Comments

[kimmaline.livejournal.com]

I seriously love inflicting my lexicon on people. :)

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

The downside of an eidetic memory: You start spouting stuff you hear over and over, i.e. the vocabulary of your friends. This is why I say random too much and raise my hands up when I get excited to this day...someone in my high school group did that too much.

[thanoslug.livejournal.com]

I love despair.com. I've been buying their demotivational products for .. ummm, senility here... three or four years now.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure I'll buy one of their T shirts. :)

[baronbrian.livejournal.com]

I always loved the Pessimism poster.

Every dark cloud has a silver lining, but lightning kills hundreds of people each year who are trying to find it.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

Yet another one I covet for my college dorm. :)

[tessbelle.livejournal.com]

I love the Potential one. I've never seen it before you put it up. I think it was a little too true for the school I used to teach in.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

You should really go to despair.com. It's very leet.

And really, it's true for most schools we'll be teaching at...

[purplkat.livejournal.com]

In my freshmen year of college, I got stuck in the bonehead english class because they gave me my test at 8am and I'd been up since 6 doing a SPANISH test. My poor brain wasn't able to switch over.

But I really didn't belong in the class and the teacher, bless her heart, realized it in the first 20 minutes. From there on out, I became the secondary TA. She gave me people's essays to mark.

Each essay, all two pages or so, took me between 30 mins and an hour to do, and when I was done, it was COVERED with little scribbled notes and suggestions. There were people who would not allow anyone but me to mark their papers because I was A) good at it and B) nonjudgemental. I'd offer as much praise of what I liked as suggestions of what should be changed.

I would have liked to be in a more advanced class that honed my writing skills a bit more, but at least I was able to learn a lot about editing.

(Passive voice is my greatest writing sin. That, and a strangling number of adjectives.)

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

My greatest sin is rambling. All my professors complain that I write well but I stray off topic too much. :(

[aritei.livejournal.com]

The "Potential" demotivator is a classic here at med school.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

Well, I can see why! ;)

[jeremyarc7.livejournal.com]

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

That persistence one hits home, doesn't it?