In other random news...

[greybeta]

stealthcomic, I am biased against English teachers because they ruined me at a young age. My seventh and eighth grade English eachers just sat there assigning multiple choice quizzes. That's literally all I remember doing. Ninth grade teacher was fun. Tenth grade English teacher was evil. Pure evil. Junior AP English teacher hated me because I used too much passive voice. She broke me of the habit of using passive voice, but I am sad to say that my opinion of English lowered signficantly anyways.

Then there was Mrs. Kropp, my senior AP English teacher. The slavedriver Mrs. Kropp. The slavedriver who pounced upon unsuspecting seniors by forcing us to do a timed writing on the very first day of classes. I grumbled and silenty thanked God this would be my last English teacher ever. My scheming roommate (this was before I knew he was to be my scheming rooommate) was whipped by her lashes to the left at me. Lucky Andy and Random Jameson were to the right at me. But not matter how far back you sat, you could not escape the mind numbing pain of literary overanalysis. Sure, there is a metaphor in Heart of Darkness where Konrad is saying Africa is getting raped by Europe. Shakespeare wrote about sex in the most poetic ways...to both women and men. Poetry turns on the dime thanks to scansion, synecdoche, and metonymy.

I. Hate. English.
(but I'll get certified to teach English anyways, just because I can...and the fact that I owe Mrs. Kropp a large portion of the development of my writing abilities)
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In high school, Quiz Bowl was my favorite extracurricular activity by far. By the time I was a senior, I had become a bona fide Quiz Bowl ace. I was so good other teams called timeouts just to regroup after I went on a streak of six or seven questions on a row. Sometimes, the other team would be as good as me (My senior year, I was often a one man wrecking team because the my teammates were afraid to buzz in and miss something that I knew) but I was just a hair bit faster. Allow me to provide you an example.

Moderator: This John Paul Sarte work...
[buzz]
Moderator: Southside, Daniel.
D2: No Exit.
Moderator: Uh...correct! Next question.
Moderator: When a filibuster occurs in the U.S. Senate...
[buzz]
Moderator: Southside, Daniel.
D2: Cloture.
Moderator: Uh...[has to look down at the bolded answer] correct! Next question...

Even the judges went OMGWTF!!!111!!!1 in some of my matches. It's almost like I knew the questions before hand. Advice to those who do Quiz Bowl type activities: Read up old questions. The pool of possible questions is fairly limited. The trick is to have an eidetic memory that you can recall things at light speed with.
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The Democrats will take back the House of Representatives in 2006. They're too far behind in the Senate to make up ground. For now.

McCain stands the best chance for the Republicans to maintain their hold on the Oval Office. But the current Republican establishment doesn't want a moderate like him in power because *gasp* the Democrats might be able to get some work done. And we all know that liberals are teh 3V1L!!!!

The Democrats will select...Clinton? I have no freaking clue.
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Explanation of new default icon:
visgoth said his gift of a paid account gave me 100 user pics. He lied. I can only have 15. Guess not, athough I do randomly have 1 GB of photo storage on livejournal. I should learn how to use that.

It did make me want to get a new default icon, as I've been using Tylor for awhile. sundancetango showed me this excellent chibi making site. I was just messing around with it before, as usual, I started putting too much thought into it. It's the little things in life that I care about, I suppose.

I have decided to name my avatar "Angemon". He's an angel and a demon. I know, I know, not very original. I'm only good for rehashing old ideas, my fine friends. First off, he's got blue hair and grey eyes. Blue and grey are my favorite colors. He has grey eyes because he can peer into the souls of others, but few people can peer into his old soul. He wears an outfit because it's comfortable and easy to clean. His angel scarf grants him the ability to hide his emotions and feelings from others. His angel shoes allows him to be quicker on his feet than most people. His angel gloves let him get a good grip on things. His angel bracelet gives him the time of day and keeps him in contact with others.

His black demon wear represents his offish nature. He does not let people get too close to him, as he is sort of a shadowy hedgehog that way. Even if they did, they could only see emptiness. That's how good he is at hiding who he really is. And while he has angelic qualities, his weapon of choice is a demon's three pronged pitchfork. Each prong is a sticking point of his personality that he uses to stir others up, and if he's not careful he can hurt then. For one thing, he is a very arrogant person. He is so confident in his ability that God has to humble him from time to time. For another, he is a very stubborn person. He is so obstinate that God has to place the right people to rebuke him in Christ's name. Lastly, he lacks remorse for his actions. His life of no regret often forces God to pain him with compassion so he can be sensitive to others.

It is very unusual to find a person who can wield both angelic and demonic powers, switching back and forth between good and evil personalities. Angedemon is one of the rare exceptions. He can dual wield both his angelic guitar and his demonic guitar at the same time. Like all creatures of God, he must be able to play a song that makes him in tune with his creator. He has the super rare (and fantastic ability) to play the two guitars at the same time. If Angedemon translated the song he played to you, you would understand he would be singing about a song about balance between light and dark (cue FFVI theme from World of Balance here). He believes in the First Law of Alchemy: To obtain, one must give up something in return. He believes that to save one life, you must kill another. He'd be make a terrible doctor, but he'd make a powerful philosopher. Or a terrific teacher...
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Random Jameson: Could we have won the Revolutionary War without alcohol?
D2: Could we have won the Vietnam War without alcohol?

Comments

[visgoth.livejournal.com]

Hmmm.... From the front page, dated yesterday

Starting today, when you buy someone a gift of paid time, you'll automatically give them the userpic add-on for free! That means when you buy a gift of 12 months paid time, the recipient also gets upgraded to 100 userpics for those 12 months. If you buy them a 2 month paid account, they get 100 userpics for 2 months, and so on.

You should look into that.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

Who do I complain to? LJ support? Or do they have someone specific when it comes to paid accounts?

[visgoth.livejournal.com]

I would go to the support team first. Worst case, they direct you to someone else.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

Support request sent. I asked if it went into affect after December 21st (the day they stop have their deal on paid accounts).

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

The Democrats will take back the House of Representatives in 2006. They're too far behind in the Senate to make up ground. For now.

For this to occur, the Democrats cannot lose a single one of their contested seats, and of the 18 or so unsafe" seats that the GOP has, the Democrats would have to win almost each one.

Maybe 2008 with some luck, but not 2006.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm. Then maybe 2006 will just be an indictment of Bush. Either way, if the Republicans manage to hold ground then the American people have failed us.

[genuinechris.livejournal.com]

??? No. The American people have failed YOU. Interpret the election however you want, but Bush is a better candidate than the Republicans fielded.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

I agree Bush was better than Kerry. I voted for W.

[genuinechris.livejournal.com]

i vvoted for barnadik

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

I couldn't bring myself to vote for a third party candidate like bednarik.

[odclay.livejournal.com]

Bush was better than Kerry because Kerry was pegging himself as Not Bush. We had a choice between Bush and Not Bush for the election. While I didn't want Bush, I also didn't want Not Bush. I wanted a presidential candidate, and those two were the best our country had to offer.

I guess it's good I wasn't old enough to vote last November. Jolly damn...

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

Jacob-chan, last election was not the choosing the lesser of two evils. it was choosing the lesser of two idiots. And sadly the village idiot was smarter...

[culculhen.livejournal.com]

I agree that the senate has a bigger chance of shifting then the house, but remember 1980 and 1994. There are no safe seats in politics. right now the republicans have a big chance to be just as surprised as the dems were then.

if that is all still true in 2006. a week can chance much in politics. With the time we've got left anything can chance 180 degrees. for all we know the republicans might even win it big. stranger things have happend...

Personally I believe that the amount of unsafe seats is far higher then normally may be expected. My problem with US politics is that the actual candidiate running lays so much wheight in the balance, that you can't go on national or even local trents securely. And to be honest I'm a bit more impressed with the democratic field then usual. (and a bit less impressed with the republican one)

I'd even put money on it if I got some favorable odds...

[culculhen.livejournal.com]

I should really remember to check the box for preview before I hit post...

[renough.livejournal.com]

Hah, I remember doing Academic bown from 5th-7th grade. We usually got 2nd or 3rd in the State competition, and there were only 4-6 of us usually. After being around the questions for long enough, you begin to notice trends. At least I did. When our team didn't know, I was always the "go-to-guesser". I'd wager that my guesses were 33-66% of the time correct.

Good times, good times.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

I got to the point where I literally got nine out of ten guesses right.

[kidsis.livejournal.com]

Explanation of new default icon:

Your default icon is now a gaian avatar. But I guess you could have known that.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

It says on the avatar making website that it is for Gaia Online. Suppose I coud have mentioned that.

[stealthcomic.livejournal.com]

Ironically, after having to write a research paper that used literary criticism, I swore I would never be an English major. I think that two English degrees and a career change later, I have become a good example of situational irony.

Actually, I'm kind of surprised at the number of teachers I've met who report that they either didn't like high school or weren't stellar students. I think many people go into teaching because they think they can be the teacher who makes a difference--like the one teacher in high school they actually respected. That's just an opinion, though.

I never had to take an AP class--they weren't offered at the schools I attended. I suspect I wouldn't have enjoyed them because I didn't really get into literary criticism until I was a sophmore in college. Then, I was hooked! But I'm still not as hardcore as many of my peers. I'm probably the worst-read English major I know, actually.

Pardon my dramatic topic shifts...long week...brins is skipping a bit.

Are you close to your requirements for licensure to teach English? As I understand it, English licensure is fairly easy to get compared to some of the others. I never had to worry about the courses, really. I had more than enough credits between the BA and the MA to blow the requirements out of the water.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's a good thing that you never had to take an AP class...you may not have turned out to be an English teacher otherwise.

I'm probably not close to my requirements to teach English, although I did go through the honors program (more of a great books program). I figure I can pass the test anyways, though.

[stealthcomic.livejournal.com]

On re-reading your previous post, there's something that occurred to me. You Oklahoma certs might not be portable if all that is required is a test. Some states will require that you have coursework to back up the tests, so you'll probably bne ok in history and likely math...

Just a thought!

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

I think you're right. It's because Oklahoma and Arkansas are so desperate they're willing to settle for people who know just a little more than the students rather than people who have gone through rigorous coursework. That's what happens when you're in the bottom ten of teacher payroll...all the good teachers you train go to Texas to make more money. Simple economics.

I'm fairly sure I will be okay in every state as far has history goes. I've taken up through differential equations so I don't think most states would mind me teaching algebra or geometry at the very least. English...I went through the honors program/Great Books study at Tulsa, plus with my writing ability I think I could teach people how to write. I admit biology and chemistry would be more difficult for other states to swallow since I only made 5's on AP tests.

It doesn't matter since I want to stay in Oklahoma or Arkansas (whose standards are even looser than Arkansas). And heck, if another state doesn't want me, they can just go suck on a flamethrower. :D

[fourstrifes.livejournal.com]

We have knowledge bowl, which is simiar, but with a few differences. Once a team buzzes in, then the team gets 15 seconds to confer and only the team leader can answer. Amazingly fun time.

Yeah, you sorta realize that they can only be talking about one thing after a few words.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

That sounds familiar to the Panasonic Games format I played once as an Arkansas Quiz Bowl All Star my senior year. You got penalized 5 pts for getting the answer wrong however. And there were these team worksheets in between round. I did not like how there was only one buzzer for four people in that format though.

[fourstrifes.livejournal.com]

You don't get penalized in knowledge bowl. But sometimes you do worksheets as a team.

There'a a pair of metal bars that go down the width of the table. You slap/touch both and then the machine registers as your hand completes the circut.