Wassup? I'm not Gay!
Dec. 14th, 2006 04:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
azuriteI'm not sure there's anything quite as funny as someone responding to "Wassup?" with "I'm not gay!" and a bright morning smile. Seriously, the Japanese can be so funny, without even trying. We have a few gems of people here at the dorms; one of them just said that to me and Holly as we were walking back from class.
Also, I clonked myself in the face yesterday with my Mac Book. I had so many windows open in Firefox, I didn't want to close it, so I went into the Apple menu and put the computer to sleep. It did that, but when I wanted to check something, I hit the space bar (which normally would bring the computer OUT of sleep), but I saw the "dimmed screen" again. That means the Sleep mode failed or something, and I have to cold-reboot... so I did. I wasn't sure if it turned back on when I hit the button though (i.e restart rather than shut down), so I picked up the computer to listen for the sound of the fan. I didn't hear anything, so I raised my head, and BAM! K.O'd by my own laptop. The corner of my right eye is a bit puffy and sore at the moment.
And yeah, I know I'm a klutz. Shaddup.
I updated the Elegance skin over at Dragonfayth. Check it out and tell me what you think, and if you find any sections with illegible text (too dark text, too dark background, etc.), then please let me know. I'm still working on getting the staircasing effect of the category columns worked out. I could also use some other ideas for color schemes, since Dragonfayth seems very... BLUE. Not that there's anything WRONG with blue, it's just there's a lot of it. Both CSS Zen and Elegance now use schemes of blue. I didn't like the old Elegance skin because it was this kind of pukey green to me; if you have suggestions for NICER color combinations, please send them my way.
Next up on the discussion block: the state of the American education system is inherently responsible for badfic. No, really. So the OP of the post I just linked to is an educator someplace in the US, and s/he said s/he went to a district meeting where s/he discussed teaching methods and the like with other teachers from other schools. And apparently, the other school teachers gave out good grades or passed students despite errors or bad work... why? Because they were afraid it would hurt the students'EGO FEELINGS.
There was a brief period about 4 or 5 years ago when I considered getting a Masters in Journalism, for the sake of returning to my own high school in San Francisco, and teaching Journalism like it SHOULD have been taught-- by someone who knows what the hell it's all about, who can encourage others to pursue it as a career, not just as some boring class. More than that, the teacher shouldn't be teaching the class because they feel obligated to fill up their lecture hours! But that's what it was like for me in high school, and it pissed me off.
But, looking at the state of the American education system, and all the stigmas that come attached to it, many people wonder "Why the hell WOULD you want to be a teacher in the US?" It doesn't pay well, you have a horrible reputation, and your life could even be in danger! Does anyone even care about learning anymore?
I remember when Gray Davis (former Governor of California) came to my high school in my freshman year, and he spoke to my school, encouraging the students to become teachers. I remember talking to one of my classmates in ROTC about how silly it was for him to suggest it-- the teachers around us complained every day; they didn't motivate us, so why would WE want to spend years of our life training to be something that never seems to show any benefit for anyone? How few people every year say something like "I want to become a teacher in America!" or "My teacher made a positive impact on my life!" It seems to happen so rarely these days.
If I do still become a teacher -of any sort- I doubt it will be back in San Francisco, or perhaps not even the United States. I'd like to try getting into the JET program and teaching English in Japan, but I know there are other possibilities out there as well.
But going back to the whole FFR, it somehow doesn't surprise me that teachers would cut students slack based on "hurting" the students' feelings. This is the kind of thing America (as a culture) propagates: that anything that you do will be recorded, remembered, and possibly used against you in a court of law. People will sue you if you drop a pen on their foot.
It pisses me off, too, because I firmly believe in merit being the sole qualifier for things like admission to college, grades in a class, and so on. Slackers don't deserve As, cutters don't deserve to graduate, and cheaters and plagiarists deserve to go to hell! This is coming from someone who HAS slacked off, is a KNOWN procrastinator, and CUT nearly half a year of school (in the all-important junior year, no less). But I paid the price, and I suffered dammit, and I don't think other students should get let off so easily. But it's not just a matter of "I suffered, so I think the other students should suffer too" (which is what I think a lot of teachers end up doing, thus making students even LESS motivated). I'm also a need-based student, but I know there are other students who are supposedly more "needy" than I am. But honestly, I think if you NEED something bad enough, you should be able to work for it. Prove that your need is so great, you can overcome all the other obstacles that face you. Prove that you genuinely deserve what you're applying for.
Some other posters on that FFR mentioned teachers who gave other students higher grades based on things like race, social class, etc. I was in the Digital Horizon program during high school, and my topic was "Reverse Racism," which ties into that oh-so-fun topic, Affirmative Action. It's like teachers have to walk on eggshells when dealing with people of other races (that is to say "races other than Caucasian) --even if in a given area (say, San Francisco), they're not the "minority" at all! Just because someone is black or Chinese or Laotian or Mexican or whatever DOES NOT mean they're oh-so-oppressed and should be cut SO MUCH SLACK in class over their white, supposedly upper-middle class schoolmates. It's B.S.
And you know what, it's true that this kind of attitude produces fanfic "writers" (I use that term loosely) that pretty much expect mindless praise, much like a letter grade is some flat determination of how "good" something is. It's almost like they'd want us to give their fics GRADES rather than reviews! Well, fuck that.
I hate the idea that writers have control over what sort of reviews they get. If you don't want to receive constructive criticism, then don't post in a public forum! Post in a moderated archive, on a private website, or to an exclusive mailing list!
More on that, don't try and use a "summary" or a "disclaimer" saying anything remotely along the lines of:
I'm/I have (X race/Y disease/Z language-native)
I tried (I used spellcheck/I proofread it) but if there's still errors HAHAHA TOUGH NUTS!
It's one thing to use that sort of thing to warn people about squicks like pairings, kinks, spoilers, warnings, that kind of thing. Not everyone wants to read about two guys shooting up heroin and smashing each other with maces. That's fine to put in the summary. But not "I'm a lazy asswipe and if you find errors, go fuck yourself." No, YOU go fuck yourself, dear author. There are better ways of phrasing the very simple phrase "No concrit, please." I think that request is idiotic, and again, ties back to where you post (for whom, and why), but at least if I saw a fic that said "No concrit," I'd nod and move on to another fic. If I read a fic that said NOTHING of the sort and simply had reviews disabled, or my "review" got deleted, I might get a bit mad.
I know fic-writing is not school, but if schools are teaching kids that they can get away with no effort, that they can graduate without technically DESERVING to, then why the hell should fic-writing encourage that attitude even more? Sure, for some people, it's just "fun" or a "hobby," but even so, that doesn't mean you have to dump your shit on the rest of the Internet, and then whine when others tell it like it is.
The world is not a pretty, happy, fun place all the time. People will not always like you, and they WILL tell you so. High school is supposed to help prepare you for that, not shield you from it. Teachers are SUPPOSED to teach, and you can't learn if all you ever hear from them is mindless praise. If you expect your teachers to explain why you got a lower grade than expected, then you should also expect reviewers on your fic to tell you the good and the bad. If you want just a flat "grade" of your work, don't share your work with the world-- fandom is the world's largest school, and we're all teachers, and we're all students. No one BNF is principal though, and there's no one person to hand out referrals or pink slips for the asswipes in fandom. You just have to live-- and learn.
I also had a cheesy idea that's probably been done before: The Twelve Days of Christmas, Fandom Style!
For example:
"On the first day of Christmas, (character name) gave to me (something from fandom)!
On the second day of Christmas, ..." etc. etc.
The 12 Days of Fandom Meme
1. Choose a fandom you're involved in.
2. Choose up to 12 characters from that fandom (the song works better if you stick with one character, but then again, no one said you actually had to SING this).
3. If Christmas were celebrated in that fandom, and you were there to receive gifts from the above-mentioned characters, what would you get, and from whom?
Yu-Gi-Oh
On the first day of Christmas, Yuugi Mutou gave to me a Millennium Puzzle piece!
On the second day of Christmas, Seto Kaiba gave to me two Kaiba Corp. card keys!
One the third day of Christmas, Mokuba Kaiba gave to me three parfaits!
On the fourth day of Christmas, Jounouchi gave to me four REBDragon figurines!
On the fifth day of Christmas, Anzu gave to me five DDR games!
On the sixth day of Christmas, Pegasus gave to me six Funny Bunnies!
On the seventh day of Christmas, Otogi gave to me seven Dungeon Dice Monsters!
On the eighth day of Christmas, Sugoroku gave to me eight ancient games!
On the ninth day of Christmas, Mai Kujaku gave to me nine bottles of perfume!
On the tenth day of Christmas, Isis Ishtar gave to me ten prophetic visions!
On the eleventh day of Christmas, Malik Ishtar gave to me eleven slimey slimers!
On the twelfth day of Christmas, Hiroto Honda gave to me twelve Cyber C.'s!
So this one's not really sing-able, unless you take out the names of the people that gave the presents on the day before, and some of the syllables for the longer gifts (i.e. the "REBDragon" part of the four figurines line). But it's fun anyway, ne? Give it a try!
Lastly, I need icons...
* Christmas/Hanukkah/Winter
* NANA
* Your recommendations
Come on, point me at the pretties!
Also, I clonked myself in the face yesterday with my Mac Book. I had so many windows open in Firefox, I didn't want to close it, so I went into the Apple menu and put the computer to sleep. It did that, but when I wanted to check something, I hit the space bar (which normally would bring the computer OUT of sleep), but I saw the "dimmed screen" again. That means the Sleep mode failed or something, and I have to cold-reboot... so I did. I wasn't sure if it turned back on when I hit the button though (i.e restart rather than shut down), so I picked up the computer to listen for the sound of the fan. I didn't hear anything, so I raised my head, and BAM! K.O'd by my own laptop. The corner of my right eye is a bit puffy and sore at the moment.
And yeah, I know I'm a klutz. Shaddup.
I updated the Elegance skin over at Dragonfayth. Check it out and tell me what you think, and if you find any sections with illegible text (too dark text, too dark background, etc.), then please let me know. I'm still working on getting the staircasing effect of the category columns worked out. I could also use some other ideas for color schemes, since Dragonfayth seems very... BLUE. Not that there's anything WRONG with blue, it's just there's a lot of it. Both CSS Zen and Elegance now use schemes of blue. I didn't like the old Elegance skin because it was this kind of pukey green to me; if you have suggestions for NICER color combinations, please send them my way.
Next up on the discussion block: the state of the American education system is inherently responsible for badfic. No, really. So the OP of the post I just linked to is an educator someplace in the US, and s/he said s/he went to a district meeting where s/he discussed teaching methods and the like with other teachers from other schools. And apparently, the other school teachers gave out good grades or passed students despite errors or bad work... why? Because they were afraid it would hurt the students'
There was a brief period about 4 or 5 years ago when I considered getting a Masters in Journalism, for the sake of returning to my own high school in San Francisco, and teaching Journalism like it SHOULD have been taught-- by someone who knows what the hell it's all about, who can encourage others to pursue it as a career, not just as some boring class. More than that, the teacher shouldn't be teaching the class because they feel obligated to fill up their lecture hours! But that's what it was like for me in high school, and it pissed me off.
But, looking at the state of the American education system, and all the stigmas that come attached to it, many people wonder "Why the hell WOULD you want to be a teacher in the US?" It doesn't pay well, you have a horrible reputation, and your life could even be in danger! Does anyone even care about learning anymore?
I remember when Gray Davis (former Governor of California) came to my high school in my freshman year, and he spoke to my school, encouraging the students to become teachers. I remember talking to one of my classmates in ROTC about how silly it was for him to suggest it-- the teachers around us complained every day; they didn't motivate us, so why would WE want to spend years of our life training to be something that never seems to show any benefit for anyone? How few people every year say something like "I want to become a teacher in America!" or "My teacher made a positive impact on my life!" It seems to happen so rarely these days.
If I do still become a teacher -of any sort- I doubt it will be back in San Francisco, or perhaps not even the United States. I'd like to try getting into the JET program and teaching English in Japan, but I know there are other possibilities out there as well.
But going back to the whole FFR, it somehow doesn't surprise me that teachers would cut students slack based on "hurting" the students' feelings. This is the kind of thing America (as a culture) propagates: that anything that you do will be recorded, remembered, and possibly used against you in a court of law. People will sue you if you drop a pen on their foot.
It pisses me off, too, because I firmly believe in merit being the sole qualifier for things like admission to college, grades in a class, and so on. Slackers don't deserve As, cutters don't deserve to graduate, and cheaters and plagiarists deserve to go to hell! This is coming from someone who HAS slacked off, is a KNOWN procrastinator, and CUT nearly half a year of school (in the all-important junior year, no less). But I paid the price, and I suffered dammit, and I don't think other students should get let off so easily. But it's not just a matter of "I suffered, so I think the other students should suffer too" (which is what I think a lot of teachers end up doing, thus making students even LESS motivated). I'm also a need-based student, but I know there are other students who are supposedly more "needy" than I am. But honestly, I think if you NEED something bad enough, you should be able to work for it. Prove that your need is so great, you can overcome all the other obstacles that face you. Prove that you genuinely deserve what you're applying for.
Some other posters on that FFR mentioned teachers who gave other students higher grades based on things like race, social class, etc. I was in the Digital Horizon program during high school, and my topic was "Reverse Racism," which ties into that oh-so-fun topic, Affirmative Action. It's like teachers have to walk on eggshells when dealing with people of other races (that is to say "races other than Caucasian) --even if in a given area (say, San Francisco), they're not the "minority" at all! Just because someone is black or Chinese or Laotian or Mexican or whatever DOES NOT mean they're oh-so-oppressed and should be cut SO MUCH SLACK in class over their white, supposedly upper-middle class schoolmates. It's B.S.
And you know what, it's true that this kind of attitude produces fanfic "writers" (I use that term loosely) that pretty much expect mindless praise, much like a letter grade is some flat determination of how "good" something is. It's almost like they'd want us to give their fics GRADES rather than reviews! Well, fuck that.
I hate the idea that writers have control over what sort of reviews they get. If you don't want to receive constructive criticism, then don't post in a public forum! Post in a moderated archive, on a private website, or to an exclusive mailing list!
More on that, don't try and use a "summary" or a "disclaimer" saying anything remotely along the lines of:
I'm/I have (X race/Y disease/Z language-native)
I tried (I used spellcheck/I proofread it) but if there's still errors HAHAHA TOUGH NUTS!
It's one thing to use that sort of thing to warn people about squicks like pairings, kinks, spoilers, warnings, that kind of thing. Not everyone wants to read about two guys shooting up heroin and smashing each other with maces. That's fine to put in the summary. But not "I'm a lazy asswipe and if you find errors, go fuck yourself." No, YOU go fuck yourself, dear author. There are better ways of phrasing the very simple phrase "No concrit, please." I think that request is idiotic, and again, ties back to where you post (for whom, and why), but at least if I saw a fic that said "No concrit," I'd nod and move on to another fic. If I read a fic that said NOTHING of the sort and simply had reviews disabled, or my "review" got deleted, I might get a bit mad.
I know fic-writing is not school, but if schools are teaching kids that they can get away with no effort, that they can graduate without technically DESERVING to, then why the hell should fic-writing encourage that attitude even more? Sure, for some people, it's just "fun" or a "hobby," but even so, that doesn't mean you have to dump your shit on the rest of the Internet, and then whine when others tell it like it is.
The world is not a pretty, happy, fun place all the time. People will not always like you, and they WILL tell you so. High school is supposed to help prepare you for that, not shield you from it. Teachers are SUPPOSED to teach, and you can't learn if all you ever hear from them is mindless praise. If you expect your teachers to explain why you got a lower grade than expected, then you should also expect reviewers on your fic to tell you the good and the bad. If you want just a flat "grade" of your work, don't share your work with the world-- fandom is the world's largest school, and we're all teachers, and we're all students. No one BNF is principal though, and there's no one person to hand out referrals or pink slips for the asswipes in fandom. You just have to live-- and learn.
I also had a cheesy idea that's probably been done before: The Twelve Days of Christmas, Fandom Style!
For example:
"On the first day of Christmas, (character name) gave to me (something from fandom)!
On the second day of Christmas, ..." etc. etc.
The 12 Days of Fandom Meme
1. Choose a fandom you're involved in.
2. Choose up to 12 characters from that fandom (the song works better if you stick with one character, but then again, no one said you actually had to SING this).
3. If Christmas were celebrated in that fandom, and you were there to receive gifts from the above-mentioned characters, what would you get, and from whom?
Yu-Gi-Oh
On the first day of Christmas, Yuugi Mutou gave to me a Millennium Puzzle piece!
On the second day of Christmas, Seto Kaiba gave to me two Kaiba Corp. card keys!
One the third day of Christmas, Mokuba Kaiba gave to me three parfaits!
On the fourth day of Christmas, Jounouchi gave to me four REBDragon figurines!
On the fifth day of Christmas, Anzu gave to me five DDR games!
On the sixth day of Christmas, Pegasus gave to me six Funny Bunnies!
On the seventh day of Christmas, Otogi gave to me seven Dungeon Dice Monsters!
On the eighth day of Christmas, Sugoroku gave to me eight ancient games!
On the ninth day of Christmas, Mai Kujaku gave to me nine bottles of perfume!
On the tenth day of Christmas, Isis Ishtar gave to me ten prophetic visions!
On the eleventh day of Christmas, Malik Ishtar gave to me eleven slimey slimers!
On the twelfth day of Christmas, Hiroto Honda gave to me twelve Cyber C.'s!
So this one's not really sing-able, unless you take out the names of the people that gave the presents on the day before, and some of the syllables for the longer gifts (i.e. the "REBDragon" part of the four figurines line). But it's fun anyway, ne? Give it a try!
Lastly, I need icons...
* Christmas/Hanukkah/Winter
* NANA
* Your recommendations
Come on, point me at the pretties!
Tags:
- christmas,
- domains,
- dragonfayth,
- fanfiction,
- icons,
- japan,
- memes,
- ow!,
- rants,
- school,
- study abroad,
- websites
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-12-14 08:48 am (UTC)That is so bloody adorable. And oy! I'm a clutz too, so much sympathy about the laptop. I know what that's like, though with various objects. I've not done it with a laptop yet.
Oy...that bit about teachers trying to avoid hurt feelings? Wow, that explains A LOT of the crappy fanfiction. Tons of it, in fact. =/ What is America coming to?
no subject
Date: 2006-12-14 10:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-14 02:18 pm (UTC)As for teachers, I had a lovely batch of them in high school. They explained things better so I knew what was going wrong, instead of just marking things incorrect. The ones I remember best had good attitudes, didn't hold back on letting us have "fun" days where we could just rest our minds, but poured on the work the rest of the time. They listened, they joked around with us, but they could easily be very serious. Still, that side of them never seemed necessary. Most of the kids in the class WANTED to be there and wanted to learn. I guess it just depends.
Point is -- you could make a difference. It just depends if you get in the right place, and know how to handle these kids. Of course, most people abhor change.... *points to reaction over the new lj update page for example*