TU Cent Thoughts, 12-16-05

First off, thank you visgoth and stealthcomic. This wonderful couple has bought this budding teacher a paid account for one year. Twenty bucks doesn't sound like much, but it does to a college student who needs to buy his anime save every penny. Fifteen user pics is LEET! I will explain what I will do with my paid account features after I tell you some good news.

First, I have cleared my vaccination hold without having to face a needle. Woot! Second, I am now officially enrolled for next spring. I will return better than ever, with the eagerness of a freshman. Third, my education chair informed me that I will only need one bachelor's degree to enter the alternative certification program. This is the best piece of news I've heard in awhile.

You see, there are three tests you have to pass to be certified to teach in Oklahoma. The first is a minimum competency test. It checks whether or not you are as competent as a high school student (well, a little more competent hopefully as you do not want the teacher to be usurped by the student). Translation: Can I breathe and blink? The second is the subject matter test, which in my case is social studies. Hmmm, I was a geography bee champion as a fourth grader, so I think I probably could have passed the test then. Translation: Can I sleepwalk through this test? The third is the pedagogy test on the theories of education. Okay, this one won't be too hard as long as I study up on my definitions. Translation: Can I be studious enough to memorize a bunch of education terminology?

Then I asked about if I needed a math minor to teach math as well. What math have I taken? Well, I made it all the way through differential equations when I was an engineer. I should be fine because I do not need a minor to teach math. Nope, after I get my main certification, any double or even triple certification can be had simply by passing the subject matter test. And you know what the "advanced" math test goes up to? Calculus I. Which I APed out of...as an 11th grader. Boo yah! I can so be doubly certified to teach math and history. Now that's an unusual combination. Heck, I bet I could do chemistry and biology as well (as I made 5's on both of those AP tests). I could be a one man AP guy in a rural district. They'd pay me good money to do that.

And for you, stealthcomic, I will even do the English test, despite the fact that being an English teacher was the first profession I marked off my list of possible occupations. I will explain that in my promised post dedicated to you (it is now first in my queue).

One day you just might hear about the guy who teaches AP American Government/American History/European History/World History/Geography/Calculus AB/Calculus BC/Biology/Chemistry/Psychology.

Convo of the Day:
Tearsa: So, are you a Buddhist or a Christian?
D2: I would say that I am a Buddho-Christian.
Tearsa:...huh?!?
D2: I'll let you in on a little secret. My parents always taught me to never let other people know what I am truly thinking. I might say what I think you want me to say. Or I just might say what you would never expect me to say. I'm strange like that. See, my purpose in life is to never let you know what I am thinking. Instead, I am always trying to make you think.
Tearsa: Wow, that is the perfect philosophy for a teacher to have. I think my class valedictorian will be the most awesome teacher ever.
D2: Your class valedictorian already knew that.

Quote of the Day:
Clarity is defined as "how people read it," not "how I constructed it."-Ferrett-sensei with his best editing advice ever

Link of the Day:
theferrett talks about how people hate him because of the LJ drama of discussing his writing. It is about how people read you, no matter what you mean. I am learning this for myself, ever so slowly. And stubbornly.
------------------------------------
The 8-5 Pittsburgh Steelers face the 8-5 Minnesota Vikings this Sunday. Yes, those same "Love Boat" Vikings. Where's all those calls for Mike Tice to be fired now, huh? Oh yeah, the NFL is a business where winning is everything. And the Steelers need to win this one. I'm a bit afraid of Big Ben's thumb, though. C'mon Iron Curtain, shut those Vikings out!
------------------------------------
The red headed Brigid's horoscope the day she finished Paulo Coehlo's The Alchemist (which I insist all my friends read if they respect me):
There are two types of people in this world. Those who are afraid to realize their dreams, and those who are afraid they have realized their dreams.

(And yes, that was a sneaky way to get another quote in)
------------------------------------
Wine and cheese thing at Tearsa's went mindbendingly awesome. Most used phrase: "Let's be Facebook friends!" I met valdreag, an opinion writer for the Collegian (Mr. Ahern for my TU peeps). He's rooting for me to become the opinion editor as he knows I am open minded enough not to change his words (and he's so talented anyways that I am fairly sure I will have to do little editing on his articles). I also met the pledge father of my scheming roommate. My scheming roommate's pledge father happens to be dating Tearsa. He is also in the graduate history program at TU. I remember my scheming roommate telling me that his pledge father knew his stuff, but I didn't realize how good this guy was until I met him in person. He does know his stuff. He can be an @$$, but he knows his stuff. And, mysterious wldntulk2knwwho, he has the perfect solution to our allocations problem.

Brilliant, my scheming roommate's pledge father is.
------------------------------------
It is time to explain the two major activities I will use my paid account features for. One of my roles in my student senate is to tell stories as the Senate Storyteller. I chose fables or parables that spoke to a certain situation in Senate. I had an uncanny ability to unearth a random story for the right situation. I am also a fan of and Scat Hed Obsidian's Word of the Week. I shall do D2's Story of the Week by phone post. Hey, you'll get the privilege of hearing my voice! Plus, it will be excellent practice for telling the story in Senate.

My other paid account activity is dedicated to one of my favorite LJ friends, the now deleted jinzi. She got caught up in some kind of blogging drama and just went up and left. I was sorry to see her go, for she was an excellent conversational writer and a kindred spirit. She did these awesome Friday polls that are as long as this post. So, I will also do a lengthy D2's Weekly Friday Poll in honor of her. I am a big fan of continuing tradition, you see. I will cut today's poll only because this post is already too long.

( jinzi's tradition continues )

Feel free to comment with any other ideas.

In other random news...

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)
----------------------------------
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.
----------------------------------
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.
----------------------------------
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...
----------------------------------
Random Jameson: Could we have won the Revolutionary War without alcohol?
D2: Could we have won the Vietnam War without alcohol?