April Daily Chit Chat Page 291

Started by aragornbird April 1st, 2006 3:40 PM
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Ryoutarou

Seen April 2nd, 2023
Posted December 29th, 2020
30,927 posts
19.3 Years
That school had to be awful...I'm really surprised that ours is even able to stay open as it is; we get little to no government funding and we get hit incredibly hard by the way schools are funded locally...bascially the way it happens in Ohio is that schools get the great majority of their funding from property taxes, so, naturally, rich districts get more money whether or not their students are performing. Compare that to my school where the most senior, tenured teachers may make upwards of $25,000 a year...they pretty much have to sacrifice everything to get our school up to the state standards, which are generally known to be insanely high thanks to our crackpot governor Bob Taft who believes that simply because he raises standards, children will automatically meet them, no matter what their educational circumstances are like, and if they don't, the government automatically comes in, basically fires everyone, and takes over the school. This isn't even counting the testing burdens that No Child Left Behind put on us...the school has to take a full month or two out of their normal teaching schedules for the sophomores just so they can memorize information for proficiency testing...and somehow we end up scraping an acceptable rating from the state every year; how we dp I have no idea but I suppose we're just lucky.

I can understand the way your teachers were though...if they're taking punishment into their own hands like that it sounds like they feel they're so close to having to close down the school that they shouldn't even have to care anymore. Admittedly I've always thought that teachers should have the right to be more aggressive toward students who are wasting class time and the teacher's efforts; kids should have the fear of living in poor conditions all their lives put into them somehow, though what methods could be used I have no idea. Really sucks that you had to go through that though...I think poorly-performing schools are more common than a lot of people realize, because most people who are even slightly concerned with it in the first place are the ones who have to go to them...nobody in the elite circles of society or the government could care less about it because either they're delusional, assume the best, or just couldn't care for being born with the proverbial silver spoon in their mouth.

We had an Iraq War veteran at our school last year; I accidentally made him furious because I was usually sarcastic about everthing in government class. We had some irrationally anti-American German exchange students and I never stopped mocking all the hateful things they'd say about us, so for some reason we were suppoed to write down the answer to "What is an American?" in class, so I, completely forgetting the vet was in the room, decided to lampoon the Germans as usual and wrote "Fat, smelly, retarded arab-killers" and he saw it when he was going around the room...not fun. Yeah, as long as you sign up in peacetime, the army isn't bad o_o; My one friend is joining the Navy after he graduates, and he was showing me statistics on a website about people who enter it...apparently they get a lot of free stuff from the government on top of making about $80,000 a year after five years or so, not to mention free college...and, usually seeing how the Navy is rarely used in combat anymore, it didn't look half bad. But, if you do decide to join, just make sure we aren't going to war with Iran first <_<;

Yeah...the media does cover most good news in Iraq up because the basic principle is that bad news gets more viewers...it's almost getting to the point of being subversive to our efforts now but as long as the people who are actually fighting know all of the good that's happening it really shouldn't affect them. I just hope we don't get to the point of treating them like villains like the last generations did with the Vietnam vets when they got home...admittedly it was far, far worse back then but, as always, it tends to be the governments and generals who are detached from the actual fighting rather than the soldiers who are to blame for anything.
Sounds like you were pretty lucky, it's probably a lot better than the school I went to. It wasn't that bad, it was just different, though I liked the way the teachers ran themselves and the classes. It seemed a lot more like they actually treated the students as equals and such. We also had the requisite mean teachers, but somehow those were the ones that liked me. Probably because I was a mute back then, still am somewhat. But meh, if you're school is only scrapping by, that should send some big signals to your local and state government that you guys need better funding...which like you said, is probably a big problem as it is. Though that's why I don't like plans like those, they're too "black and white".

Like I said, I liked the school, but most people wouldn't like it. The school did have it's share of things I didn't like, it was on some really low laying ground, so it floods easily and nobody bothers to clean it up. So we have to walk to dirty halls a lot. It's an old school and really hasn't been renovated or anything for at least fifth-teen years. It was supposed to be a really good school when it was first open, but that was more than sixty years. Eventually it just started going downhill and all the people that said they would help never really helped. They just gave us empty promises and then forgot about us, though I'd like to think not everybody in the government is that way. There are some richer people that give back to areas like the one I was in, mainly because their parents or grandparents lived in areas like that and they were always taught to be grateful for what one has. Though like you said, those are few and far between these days. The people that have money are usually born into it, so they never really had to worry about making a good person out of themselves because they could always buy themselves out of more or less anything really, such a shame when you think about it. The good people are good because they're poor, some people fear being rich because they think they'll forget the values that were instilled in them when they were younger. The teachers though, as tactless as they were, they were probably some of the best teachers I have ever had.

If I ever joined any form of the armed forces, it would be the Navy. A friend of my brother joined it when he turned eight-teen. That was about five years ago, he rose up pretty high in his rank. He got to live in a lot of great places too, Japan, New Zealand, Germany, England. That was probably the best part of it to him, that he didn't have to do any fighting really, and he got to travel all over the world. He was stationed in Japan for his first three years and became really fluent in the language and apparently met a woman there who he ended up getting married to. At first he was scared because he had never left the country before, but after a while he got used to it and said that the training isn't really that hard once you can get your body used to it. Plus, the perks of the job really helped him a lot, he was able to help his mom more or less pay off all her debt. He went to college for free, he met a lot of great people and got to stay in all those places all over the world. It really doesn't sound like that bad of an idea to join now that I think about it. As for the vet, yeah, even if you were joking, I can see why he got mad. How did that turn out though? Did you tell him it was a joke or what?

The vet that I got to talk to said that his grandfather's friend was in the war back then, and it is more or less the same. The media is in it for viewers and readers, they could hardly care about "getting the full story across" anymore. All the good reporters are dying or getting too old for the job and these new guys don't have enough experience to know what the correct thing to do is, in a journalistic sense. They have to be impartial to anything and everything yet they seldomly are that way anymore. Though the guys in the war don't really let it effect them, they just get distraught when they here that in of all places, America is more or less the same way it was back then. Looking for a name and face to place blame on and not getting the full story, which is something I thought would have changed long ago. Most of the people that are against things like this war and president and such don't really know the story. They believe what the media tells them to, they don't take the in initiative to go out and find out on their own what's really going on. I've seen people at those protest rallies, and it really is pathetic. The one I saw, the speaker couldn't even form good reasons for her thinking, yet when she said "George Bush is a monster because of this war that he started because he's a monster." people cheered her on. Though most of the people that do go out and find out what's really going on have the odds stacked against them too much. No one these days care what's right, they care about what they're told to care. Even the ones that say they have their own opinions, those are weakly formed opinions that make them treat other people as inferiors. But hey "we're all cool and stuff because we believe what MTV tells us too" is apparently the popular opinion so years down the line, they're going to realize how stupid they were and it'll be too late to make any change by that time.

Kura

twitter.com/puccarts

Age 33
Female
London, UK (orig. Toronto, Canada)
Seen August 30th, 2021
Posted August 24th, 2021
10,993 posts
18.7 Years
Reminds me of the school that I went to back in New Orleans. It sucked and was on the verge of being shut down because it had failed two inspection tests. The teachers there were just...okay, I liked the way they were, but most people wouldn't. These teachers were realistic...and they hit students that didn't listen to them. Seriously, on my first day, one of my teachers threw a book at a student and smacked him on the neck. "Oh hell...I'm going to die..." were like the first thoughts that popped into my head that day. These teachers though, most of them actually went to good schools, but I guess they were just worn down working at the school. I'm not sure, but I think it ended up getting shut down. I left a few weeks before their third inspection came back up. The teachers there didn't care about the students all that much, there were a few nice teachers, and I lucked out on having them, but they didn't really talk to us much about jobs and after school. They said it's just something we'll have to work out for ourselves.

Also, today in class, three guys that just got back from tours of duty in Iraq came and talked to us. It was kinda cool getting some of their insight and how much the media really covers things up. Apparently there was maybe at the most only 5% on the news of what really was going on. One of them said it isn't as bad as people make it out to be, a lot of the country is really safe now and he helped work on new schools and stuff. Then they talked to us about joining and stuff, and one of them really...really latched onto me and wants me to join the army. I've been thinking about it more and more lately now that I look back on it. o_o
I know this is a shorter post, but jeeze o_o Jorge, how many places have you lived?
>> Don't you dare go join the army. You have much more potential than that. Become an English Professor.

I respect those people who go to war, but not it's starting to become a niusance. You hear about war going on everywhere, and then "Oh, lots of people died. Let's have a new war to avenge them." Sort of vibe that I'm getting. Everything is about war now and I hate it.
>> Army people came to our school want wanted to recruit soldiers, too.
I think it's just low and ridiculous.

How do you know they're only paid to tell you that it's not as bad as it really is? Like those people when Hitler was ruling? They had to conform to Hilter's views otherwise they get shot and killed by him.
Same with Sudan.

>>; I don't really trust the goverment anymore. War just sickens me.
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Ryoutarou

Seen April 2nd, 2023
Posted December 29th, 2020
30,927 posts
19.3 Years
I know this is a shorter post, but jeeze o_o Jorge, how many places have you lived?
>> Don't you dare go join the army. You have much more potential than that. Become an English Professor.

I respect those people who go to war, but not it's starting to become a niusance. You hear about war going on everywhere, and then "Oh, lots of people died. Let's have a new war to avenge them." Sort of vibe that I'm getting. Everything is about war now and I hate it.
>> Army people came to our school want wanted to recruit soldiers, too.
I think it's just low and ridiculous.

How do you know they're only paid to tell you that it's not as bad as it really is? Like those people when Hitler was ruling? They had to conform to Hilter's views otherwise they get shot and killed by him.
Same with Sudan.

>>; I don't really trust the goverment anymore. War just sickens me.
Erm...let's see, I've lived in San Antonio, Kirby, New Orleans, Metairie, random city I forget the name of, Charlotte and Concord. All of those cities I lived in for a good while, so I've been around the block once or twice.

The people that make everything about the war are the people that want others to have a negative opinion on the war. It's a lot of propaganda, tell people enough bad things and they'll eventually hate the subject so much that they'll do whatever they can do to stop it. It's something that's been going on for ages sadly.

The reason that these guys came to our class was because they're new students, this was the college they wanted to go to...even though it's just a community college. This is stuff that the teachers asked them to talk about and they did. These are their personal experiences that they felt like sharing with people, and it's true that a lot of what happens isn't shown. The media is so secretive with what really goes on these days, they want to follow the popular opinion, but they do it in a manner that doesn't really make them seem like they're doing anything that isn't ethical. It's a known fact that a lot of places hide things, good things, bad things, they only let what they want people to hear out. It's a really sad but true fact, my brother's friend would call us and tell us a lot about what was going on where he was and he'd be surprised because a lot of what was happening simply never made it on the news, and it was usually something big that you think would be covered.
Age 31
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Seen November 30th, 2011
Posted November 30th, 2011
7,912 posts
18.6 Years
I know this is a shorter post, but jeeze o_o Jorge, how many places have you lived?
>> Don't you dare go join the army. You have much more potential than that. Become an English Professor.

I respect those people who go to war, but not it's starting to become a niusance. You hear about war going on everywhere, and then "Oh, lots of people died. Let's have a new war to avenge them." Sort of vibe that I'm getting. Everything is about war now and I hate it.
>> Army people came to our school want wanted to recruit soldiers, too.
I think it's just low and ridiculous.

How do you know they're only paid to tell you that it's not as bad as it really is? Like those people when Hitler was ruling? They had to conform to Hilter's views otherwise they get shot and killed by him.
Same with Sudan.

>>; I don't really trust the goverment anymore. War just sickens me.
To me, I see war as ridiculous. People only keep killing and killing. And then when will it end? By only continuing the war, people are risking even more wars breaking out and more killing. And for Remembrance Day, we had soldiers come and ask grade 12's if they'd like to join the Canadian army. o_o No one really said yes, but still, if you help the cause of war, you're only making more.

And here in Canada, we're all about not trusting our government! =D We dislike our evil little government! >:O

Kura

twitter.com/puccarts

Age 33
Female
London, UK (orig. Toronto, Canada)
Seen August 30th, 2021
Posted August 24th, 2021
10,993 posts
18.7 Years
To me, I see war as ridiculous. People only keep killing and killing. And then when will it end? By only continuing the war, people are risking even more wars breaking out and more killing. And for Remembrance Day, we had soldiers come and ask grade 12's if they'd like to join the Canadian army. o_o No one really said yes, but still, if you help the cause of war, you're only making more.

And here in Canada, we're all about not trusting our government! =D We dislike our evil little government! >:O
I know!! I seriously hate how the government is running things!! Especially health-care ;_;..
>> and yeah, same with us on Rememberance Day. *pouts*

;_; I hate war so much. I dont understand why people have to fight for ;_;~
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Ryoutarou

Seen April 2nd, 2023
Posted December 29th, 2020
30,927 posts
19.3 Years
To me, I see war as ridiculous. People only keep killing and killing. And then when will it end? By only continuing the war, people are risking even more wars breaking out and more killing. And for Remembrance Day, we had soldiers come and ask grade 12's if they'd like to join the Canadian army. o_o No one really said yes, but still, if you help the cause of war, you're only making more.

And here in Canada, we're all about not trusting our government! =D We dislike our evil little government! >:O
War is usually the last option implemented by a country, it's almost always used when diplomatic options are used up. Do you seriously think that people three times your age wouldn't know the severity of war? It's not "killing only leads to killing" it's defending a country when there are no other options. And most soldiers are told not to kill, leave killing as a final option when no others are available. They aren't ruthless murders, they're human beings that have seen what war can do and don't want it to spread. This is when people have to ask each other if the ends justify the means, which often times they don't.

Now in the case of the current war with America, Bush truly believed war to be the final option. Why? Because his "go-to" guy, the one that was trusted with compiling accurate information lied. And it's not like there was anyone else people could have gone to to get information simply because he is the other guy people go to for information. As for the current state of things, people think we can just pull out now, which can't be done. The Iraqi government is still realtivly weak and anyone who believes that the troops can be out of there in a year's time really has no idea how grand of a scale this is. At first I didn't agree with the war, I still don't really, but there is a job that was started and it should be finished. Iraq is still a relatively young government, they're depending on other countries to help them run their own, to show them the proper way to run a country. So things like this war don't have to happen again.

Chairman Kaga

living in the past

Age 35
Male
Kitchen Stadium
Seen March 8th, 2013
Posted January 31st, 2012
12,044 posts
19.2 Years
Sounds like you were pretty lucky, it's probably a lot better than the school I went to. It wasn't that bad, it was just different, though I liked the way the teachers ran themselves and the classes. It seemed a lot more like they actually treated the students as equals and such. We also had the requisite mean teachers, but somehow those were the ones that liked me. Probably because I was a mute back then, still am somewhat. But meh, if you're school is only scrapping by, that should send some big signals to your local and state government that you guys need better funding...which like you said, is probably a big problem as it is. Though that's why I don't like plans like those, they're too "black and white".

Like I said, I liked the school, but most people wouldn't like it. The school did have it's share of things I didn't like, it was on some really low laying ground, so it floods easily and nobody bothers to clean it up. So we have to walk to dirty halls a lot. It's an old school and really hasn't been renovated or anything for at least fifth-teen years. It was supposed to be a really good school when it was first open, but that was more than sixty years. Eventually it just started going downhill and all the people that said they would help never really helped. They just gave us empty promises and then forgot about us, though I'd like to think not everybody in the government is that way. There are some richer people that give back to areas like the one I was in, mainly because their parents or grandparents lived in areas like that and they were always taught to be grateful for what one has. Though like you said, those are few and far between these days. The people that have money are usually born into it, so they never really had to worry about making a good person out of themselves because they could always buy themselves out of more or less anything really, such a shame when you think about it. The good people are good because they're poor, some people fear being rich because they think they'll forget the values that were instilled in them when they were younger. The teachers though, as tactless as they were, they were probably some of the best teachers I have ever had.

If I ever joined any form of the armed forces, it would be the Navy. A friend of my brother joined it when he turned eight-teen. That was about five years ago, he rose up pretty high in his rank. He got to live in a lot of great places too, Japan, New Zealand, Germany, England. That was probably the best part of it to him, that he didn't have to do any fighting really, and he got to travel all over the world. He was stationed in Japan for his first three years and became really fluent in the language and apparently met a woman there who he ended up getting married to. At first he was scared because he had never left the country before, but after a while he got used to it and said that the training isn't really that hard once you can get your body used to it. Plus, the perks of the job really helped him a lot, he was able to help his mom more or less pay off all her debt. He went to college for free, he met a lot of great people and got to stay in all those places all over the world. It really doesn't sound like that bad of an idea to join now that I think about it. As for the vet, yeah, even if you were joking, I can see why he got mad. How did that turn out though? Did you tell him it was a joke or what?

The vet that I got to talk to said that his grandfather's friend was in the war back then, and it is more or less the same. The media is in it for viewers and readers, they could hardly care about "getting the full story across" anymore. All the good reporters are dying or getting too old for the job and these new guys don't have enough experience to know what the correct thing to do is, in a journalistic sense. They have to be impartial to anything and everything yet they seldomly are that way anymore. Though the guys in the war don't really let it effect them, they just get distraught when they here that in of all places, America is more or less the same way it was back then. Looking for a name and face to place blame on and not getting the full story, which is something I thought would have changed long ago. Most of the people that are against things like this war and president and such don't really know the story. They believe what the media tells them to, they don't take the in initiative to go out and find out on their own what's really going on. I've seen people at those protest rallies, and it really is pathetic. The one I saw, the speaker couldn't even form good reasons for her thinking, yet when she said "George Bush is a monster because of this war that he started because he's a monster." people cheered her on. Though most of the people that do go out and find out what's really going on have the odds stacked against them too much. No one these days care what's right, they care about what they're told to care. Even the ones that say they have their own opinions, those are weakly formed opinions that make them treat other people as inferiors. But hey "we're all cool and stuff because we believe what MTV tells us too" is apparently the popular opinion so years down the line, they're going to realize how stupid they were and it'll be too late to make any change by that time.
Good student-teacher relationships aren't really all that frequent here...many of our teachers are distant and detached from their students, assume the worst of them to their faces, and openly hate them behind their backs...a lot of them, especially the junior high ones, are there just because they need the money to barely be able to live but aren't really specialized enough in anything else to go to a better job. In fact, because our school is so poor, we hire teachers first and foremost on the basis that all other schools have turned them down...it's ended up getting us a few surprise successes but mostly mediocre teachers who need the job for a few years as a throwaway credential they can put on a resumé to get a slightly better job somewhere that pays more. The woodshop teacher, God rest his soul (was killed in a motorcycle accident last week), told me once that he makes less money here after two decades at this school than he would if he transferred to almost any other school in the vicinity as a first-year teacher. Even last year they tried to fire the calculus teacher just because they thought he was too expensive to keep, and he had only been here five years. We actually had to have a very large, student-lead protest to convince the board to keep him... not to mention that now that the woodshop teacher is dead, the board of education is seeing it as a morbidly-convenient way to get rid of woodshop altogether...usually, whenever an elective teacher leaves, they cut the class that they taught...when my French teacher left to get married to a man in Virginia, they uncerimoniously cut the French program and all people who were already in it were forced to take computer classes just so they could get their honors diploma. When the computer programming teacher was fired for having marijuana and pornography in his room, they scaled back the class to the point where there are only two classes, each of which all the kids do is sit around and play Quake III in...it's infuriating that they continue to do this, especially since they added an extra period to classes after implementing block scheduling on a whim this year...it puts an enormous strain on the few elective teachers we have left because not only did they have to invent new classes but they had to make extra periods of classes that they only have the resources to teach one class of at the most. It seems like even the people who run our school at the local level don't even know what's going on.

But I know how it is for the problem of the school being in disrepair to be an apparent problem. Our school was only built in 1987, but it's in such horrible disrepair now that we had to rent run-down modulars, portable buildings one step above trailers, to run all classes in for most of this year...we had no heat, air conditioning, widespread mold infestations, peeling paint, etc; and I have no idea how, even with a rather dedicated janitorial staff, this could all happen in less than two decades. It was even worse at the place we used as high school before our new one opened, though; until 1987 the students used a five-story building that was built in the 1890s, complete with large, wobbly staircases, broken windows, filth-coated halls, and even a belltower that reeked with piles of dead birds and bats from ages past. I imagine, like your school, that it was an amazing facility when it was new, but no school should be allowed to fall into disrepair if everyone knows that there's no chance of a new one being built in the near future. Pretty much all funding for renovation our high school could have had has been divirted to the grade school, because our property taxes were doubled recently so construction could begin on a new grade school, even though the one we already have is large and accomodating enough despite it being built in the 1950s. Even when I was in it in the mid-late 1990s it was perfectly spic-and-span, warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and sparkling clean. I don't know how that was considering the state of our high school, but I'm glad it was. Most of our grade school teachers are crusty, bitter old hags anyway so I suppose good facilities can't prevent a child from having their education ruined, but it's still an important part of any school.

Even though there are other branches of the armed forces that travel to distant bases, Navy is still definitely best because it's useless in a land war except for relatively-safe transport and supply missions. I think the only Naval officers to die in a long time were the people who died when Al-Qaeda bombed the U.S.S. Cole a few years back, but that aside there are no conflict deaths I can think of since probably before the Vietnam war. I love the idea of travelling the world; the possibility of being able to live in another country (Japan especially) appeals to me, though I doubt I could ever become fluent enough despite my affinity for linguistics to find someone to marry...I know a girl at school whose brother is in the army and guaraded the U.S. Embassy in N'djamena, Chad and the U.S. consolate in Shanghai, China and he eloped with a Chinese girl, so I suppose it's not that hard if someone who graduated from my school can do it, but it's still a strange thought. I...suppose people get lonely when they're on a base full of men for years at a time XD If I were more fit and less interested in a domestic career I'd definitely be considering joining right now, the money is definitely appealing and I hate the idea that my parents will probably be dead before I get to make their lives better through a good job...it's definitely the fast track to getting your financial matters settled if that's what's a burden on you at the moment. The person from school that I know who's going is almost definitely going to get accepted into the Naval academy in Annapolis, though, and it's basically the Navy equivalant of West Point, which might be why he's talking about getting so much money so quickly, though, but I've always thought that active duty army careers in general were lucrative.

Regarding the incident with the Iraq war vet, I very respectfully explained to him after seeing his reaction that it was sarcasm...I even pointed out to him a poster that I did on the wall that said "America sucks" on the wall that had a drawing of a fat man in a cowboy hat in a hummer running over an arab while drinking a cup of grease, but I'm not sure he was the type that appreciated satire. It turned out okay, but I still think he was pretty mad at me. There's been no real journalism practiced by the media since the 1960s...back then newspaper readers still outnumbered television viewers so reporting was still based on words alone, not shocking visuals. Since then the media has come under the impression that they somehow have the right to control our minds and our opinions, and, in many ways, they do...the majority of Americans choose who they want to be the leader of the free world on the basis of a few thirty-second soundbites they pick up over the course of the election; reason basically gets thrown out of the window. Just look at what happened to Dan Rather during the last election...he tried too hard to discredit Bush and got caught for it, and it would be wonderful if it could happen to more people (not just about politics and the presidency, but people who spin the news in general) but it's not going to because media tycoons are some of the most biased and wealthy people in this country, which is a deadly combination when hearts and minds are on the line. Nobody has a real reason to be against the war because they're either indiscriminant peaceniks who have their head in a bong all day, conspiracy theorists, who have always existed and rarely been correct and yet are given more airtime than rational people who are actually telling the truth, or people who hate the war just because they hate Bush...no one really cares about terrorism anymore; we've all sunk to the low of politicizing death and misery just because it's convenient to make a blanket statment based on the absolutes the media feeds us...you're right, they'll realize they're idiots in time, but there'll be a new wave of irrational voices to drown them out depending on what the nation's involved in at the time. It's always the young versus the old in this country, and it's always going to be like that.

Kura

twitter.com/puccarts

Age 33
Female
London, UK (orig. Toronto, Canada)
Seen August 30th, 2021
Posted August 24th, 2021
10,993 posts
18.7 Years
Good student-teacher relationships aren't really all that frequent here...many of our teachers are distant and detached from their students, assume the worst of them to their faces, and openly hate them behind their backs...a lot of them, especially the junior high ones, are there just because they need the money to barely be able to live but aren't really specialized enough in anything else to go to a better job. In fact, because our school is so poor, we hire teachers first and foremost on the basis that all other schools have turned them down...it's ended up getting us a few surprise successes but mostly mediocre teachers who need the job for a few years as a throwaway credential they can put on a resumé to get a slightly better job somewhere that pays more. The woodshop teacher, God rest his soul (was killed in a motorcycle accident last week), told me once that he makes less money here after two decades at this school than he would if he transferred to almost any other school in the vicinity as a first-year teacher. Even last year they tried to fire the calculus teacher just because they thought he was too expensive to keep, and he had only been here five years. We actually had to have a very large, student-lead protest to convince the board to keep him... not to mention that now that the woodshop teacher is dead, the board of education is seeing it as a morbidly-convenient way to get rid of woodshop altogether...usually, whenever an elective teacher leaves, they cut the class that they taught...when my French teacher left to get married to a man in Virginia, they uncerimoniously cut the French program and all people who were already in it were forced to take computer classes just so they could get their honors diploma. When the computer programming teacher was fired for having marijuana and pornography in his room, they scaled back the class to the point where there are only two classes, each of which all the kids do is sit around and play Quake III in...it's infuriating that they continue to do this, especially since they added an extra period to classes after implementing block scheduling on a whim this year...it puts an enormous strain on the few elective teachers we have left because not only did they have to invent new classes but they had to make extra periods of classes that they only have the resources to teach one class of at the most. It seems like even the people who run our school at the local level don't even know what's going on.

But I know how it is for the problem of the school being in disrepair to be an apparent problem. Our school was only built in 1987, but it's in such horrible disrepair now that we had to rent run-down modulars, portable buildings one step above trailers, to run all classes in for most of this year...we had no heat, air conditioning, widespread mold infestations, peeling paint, etc; and I have no idea how, even with a rather dedicated janitorial staff, this could all happen in less than two decades. It was even worse at the place we used as high school before our new one opened, though; until 1987 the students used a five-story building that was built in the 1890s, complete with large, wobbly staircases, broken windows, filth-coated halls, and even a belltower that reeked with piles of dead birds and bats from ages past. I imagine, like your school, that it was an amazing facility when it was new, but no school should be allowed to fall into disrepair if everyone knows that there's no chance of a new one being built in the near future. Pretty much all funding for renovation our high school could have had has been divirted to the grade school, because our property taxes were doubled recently so construction could begin on a new grade school, even though the one we already have is large and accomodating enough despite it being built in the 1950s. Even when I was in it in the mid-late 1990s it was perfectly spic-and-span, warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and sparkling clean. I don't know how that was considering the state of our high school, but I'm glad it was. Most of our grade school teachers are crusty, bitter old hags anyway so I suppose good facilities can't prevent a child from having their education ruined, but it's still an important part of any school.

Even though there are other branches of the armed forces that travel to distant bases, Navy is still definitely best because it's useless in a land war except for relatively-safe transport and supply missions. I think the only Naval officers to die in a long time were the people who died when Al-Qaeda bombed the U.S.S. Cole a few years back, but that aside there are no conflict deaths I can think of since probably before the Vietnam war. I love the idea of travelling the world; the possibility of being able to live in another country (Japan especially) appeals to me, though I doubt I could ever become fluent enough despite my affinity for linguistics to find someone to marry...I know a girl at school whose brother is in the army and guaraded the U.S. Embassy in N'djamena, Chad and the U.S. consolate in Shanghai, China and he eloped with a Chinese girl, so I suppose it's not that hard if someone who graduated from my school can do it, but it's still a strange thought. I...suppose people get lonely when they're on a base full of men for years at a time XD If I were more fit and less interested in a domestic career I'd definitely be considering joining right now, the money is definitely appealing and I hate the idea that my parents will probably be dead before I get to make their lives better through a good job...it's definitely the fast track to getting your financial matters settled if that's what's a burden on you at the moment. The person from school that I know who's going is almost definitely going to get accepted into the Naval academy in Annapolis, though, and it's basically the Navy equivalant of West Point, which might be why he's talking about getting so much money so quickly, though, but I've always thought that active duty army careers in general were lucrative.

Regarding the incident with the Iraq war vet, I very respectfully explained to him after seeing his reaction that it was sarcasm...I even pointed out to him a poster that I did on the wall that said "America sucks" on the wall that had a drawing of a fat man in a cowboy hat in a hummer running over an arab while drinking a cup of grease, but I'm not sure he was the type that appreciated satire. It turned out okay, but I still think he was pretty mad at me. There's been no real journalism practiced by the media since the 1960s...back then newspaper readers still outnumbered television viewers so reporting was still based on words alone, not shocking visuals. Since then the media has come under the impression that they somehow have the right to control our minds and our opinions, and, in many ways, they do...the majority of Americans choose who they want to be the leader of the free world on the basis of a few thirty-second soundbites they pick up over the course of the election; reason basically gets thrown out of the window. Just look at what happened to Dan Rather during the last election...he tried too hard to discredit Bush and got caught for it, and it would be wonderful if it could happen to more people (not just about politics and the presidency, but people who spin the news in general) but it's not going to because media tycoons are some of the most biased and wealthy people in this country, which is a deadly combination when hearts and minds are on the line. Nobody has a real reason to be against the war because they're either indiscriminant peaceniks who have their head in a bong all day, conspiracy theorists, who have always existed and rarely been correct and yet are given more airtime than rational people who are actually telling the truth, or people who hate the war just because they hate Bush...no one really cares about terrorism anymore; we've all sunk to the low of politicizing death and misery just because it's convenient to make a blanket statment based on the absolutes the media feeds us...you're right, they'll realize they're idiots in time, but there'll be a new wave of irrational voices to drown them out depending on what the nation's involved in at the time. It's always the young versus the old in this country, and it's always going to be like that.

o__o Christ, Alan~ There's one thing about having a good lengthy discussion, but it's another thing when you're writing an essay~

X3; We should have like.. a big-discussion DCC for posts like this or something..
then again, it'd be something else I'd have to moderate~

o_o Honestly, I dont know that much about Bush or the US governemnt to reply to that ._.~
You seem so political, though~

And I find I get along a lot better with younger teachers (Mrs. Estabillo, Mr. Chetty, Ms. Vena) to name a few :3 They're really nice~

o_o anyways, I know this might be a bit offtopic, but do you like major/ want to major in history or english or something, Alan?
o_o 'cause your writing style and stuff is really good <3~
~Yuugiou Fan~
~Kamen Rider Fan~
♡(´・ω・`)LOVE! ☆

TRIFORCE89

Guide of Darkness

Age 33
Male
Temple of Light
Seen November 25th, 2017
Posted October 21st, 2016
8,122 posts
19 Years
Nobody has a real reason to be against the war because they're either indiscriminant peaceniks who have their head in a bong all day, conspiracy theorists, who have always existed and rarely been correct and yet are given more airtime than rational people who are actually telling the truth, or people who hate the war just because they hate Bush
*applauds* I agree with that 100%. Honestly, I'd write more. But I only read your post (and quoted within Adri's for that matter.) So if I comment then it might be off topic... Is the topic schools or politics?

I respect those people who go to war, but not it's starting to become a niusance. You hear about war going on everywhere, and then "Oh, lots of people died. Let's have a new war to avenge them." Sort of vibe that I'm getting. Everything is about war now and I hate it.
>> Army people came to our school want wanted to recruit soldiers, too.
I think it's just low and ridiculous.

How do you know they're only paid to tell you that it's not as bad as it really is? Like those people when Hitler was ruling? They had to conform to Hilter's views otherwise they get shot and killed by him.
Same with Sudan.
XD I've never heard of a war to avenge people who died in a war. At least not recently, anyway.

And... Cause if you actually look at stats and information and go beyond liberal-biased media (it sucks that Fox is the only conservative one, 'cause they're messed up big time.) then you'd see what the truth is.

War is sadly always going to be around. People would rather conflicts be solved with peaceful discussions, instead of warfare. But sometimes, that's just unrealisitc. If we politely asked Hitler to stop and gave him a cookie...nothing would've happened. He would've continued. War is sadly needed sometimes.
Age 30
Ontario, Canada
Seen November 19th, 2012
Posted November 30th, 2011
4,612 posts
17.4 Years
AAAGH! Too many super long posts! *drops dead*

Oh well, at least DCC is active. The last time I went on (and the time before, the time before the time before, and the time before the time before the time before... etc) it was dead.
i know, i just don't feel like reading long posts and posting back in paragraphs >.<

its not that active...

Arcanine

There is no "-tina"

Age 34
In your fridge eating your food o.o
Seen November 9th, 2012
Posted October 31st, 2012
24,271 posts
19.7 Years
Ok I haven't read a lick of the posts above (I'm too lazy). But from what I heard the topic is about war. Well I won't say much, just a few things.

War isn't a pretty thing, war isn't a nice thing, and war isn't liked.
No one, and I mean no one likes war (you're loony if you love war). The men and women that goes to war likes war even less. But they know that sometimes it's needed, they know that for the right thing to be done they have to go to war. They fight for what they thing is right. Wars back when Washington's day is no different then wars in this day. Sure the fighting style and wepons and all that is different. But back then they fought for what was right, just like today.
No on likes war, but sometimes it's needed to do what's right.

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My PM box is full so if you really have to PM me send it here.

Ryoutarou

Seen April 2nd, 2023
Posted December 29th, 2020
30,927 posts
19.3 Years
Good student-teacher relationships aren't really all that frequent here...many of our teachers are distant and detached from their students, assume the worst of them to their faces, and openly hate them behind their backs...a lot of them, especially the junior high ones, are there just because they need the money to barely be able to live but aren't really specialized enough in anything else to go to a better job. In fact, because our school is so poor, we hire teachers first and foremost on the basis that all other schools have turned them down...it's ended up getting us a few surprise successes but mostly mediocre teachers who need the job for a few years as a throwaway credential they can put on a resumé to get a slightly better job somewhere that pays more. The woodshop teacher, God rest his soul (was killed in a motorcycle accident last week), told me once that he makes less money here after two decades at this school than he would if he transferred to almost any other school in the vicinity as a first-year teacher. Even last year they tried to fire the calculus teacher just because they thought he was too expensive to keep, and he had only been here five years. We actually had to have a very large, student-lead protest to convince the board to keep him... not to mention that now that the woodshop teacher is dead, the board of education is seeing it as a morbidly-convenient way to get rid of woodshop altogether...usually, whenever an elective teacher leaves, they cut the class that they taught...when my French teacher left to get married to a man in Virginia, they uncerimoniously cut the French program and all people who were already in it were forced to take computer classes just so they could get their honors diploma. When the computer programming teacher was fired for having marijuana and pornography in his room, they scaled back the class to the point where there are only two classes, each of which all the kids do is sit around and play Quake III in...it's infuriating that they continue to do this, especially since they added an extra period to classes after implementing block scheduling on a whim this year...it puts an enormous strain on the few elective teachers we have left because not only did they have to invent new classes but they had to make extra periods of classes that they only have the resources to teach one class of at the most. It seems like even the people who run our school at the local level don't even know what's going on.

But I know how it is for the problem of the school being in disrepair to be an apparent problem. Our school was only built in 1987, but it's in such horrible disrepair now that we had to rent run-down modulars, portable buildings one step above trailers, to run all classes in for most of this year...we had no heat, air conditioning, widespread mold infestations, peeling paint, etc; and I have no idea how, even with a rather dedicated janitorial staff, this could all happen in less than two decades. It was even worse at the place we used as high school before our new one opened, though; until 1987 the students used a five-story building that was built in the 1890s, complete with large, wobbly staircases, broken windows, filth-coated halls, and even a belltower that reeked with piles of dead birds and bats from ages past. I imagine, like your school, that it was an amazing facility when it was new, but no school should be allowed to fall into disrepair if everyone knows that there's no chance of a new one being built in the near future. Pretty much all funding for renovation our high school could have had has been divirted to the grade school, because our property taxes were doubled recently so construction could begin on a new grade school, even though the one we already have is large and accomodating enough despite it being built in the 1950s. Even when I was in it in the mid-late 1990s it was perfectly spic-and-span, warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and sparkling clean. I don't know how that was considering the state of our high school, but I'm glad it was. Most of our grade school teachers are crusty, bitter old hags anyway so I suppose good facilities can't prevent a child from having their education ruined, but it's still an important part of any school.

Even though there are other branches of the armed forces that travel to distant bases, Navy is still definitely best because it's useless in a land war except for relatively-safe transport and supply missions. I think the only Naval officers to die in a long time were the people who died when Al-Qaeda bombed the U.S.S. Cole a few years back, but that aside there are no conflict deaths I can think of since probably before the Vietnam war. I love the idea of travelling the world; the possibility of being able to live in another country (Japan especially) appeals to me, though I doubt I could ever become fluent enough despite my affinity for linguistics to find someone to marry...I know a girl at school whose brother is in the army and guaraded the U.S. Embassy in N'djamena, Chad and the U.S. consolate in Shanghai, China and he eloped with a Chinese girl, so I suppose it's not that hard if someone who graduated from my school can do it, but it's still a strange thought. I...suppose people get lonely when they're on a base full of men for years at a time XD If I were more fit and less interested in a domestic career I'd definitely be considering joining right now, the money is definitely appealing and I hate the idea that my parents will probably be dead before I get to make their lives better through a good job...it's definitely the fast track to getting your financial matters settled if that's what's a burden on you at the moment. The person from school that I know who's going is almost definitely going to get accepted into the Naval academy in Annapolis, though, and it's basically the Navy equivalant of West Point, which might be why he's talking about getting so much money so quickly, though, but I've always thought that active duty army careers in general were lucrative.

Regarding the incident with the Iraq war vet, I very respectfully explained to him after seeing his reaction that it was sarcasm...I even pointed out to him a poster that I did on the wall that said "America sucks" on the wall that had a drawing of a fat man in a cowboy hat in a hummer running over an arab while drinking a cup of grease, but I'm not sure he was the type that appreciated satire. It turned out okay, but I still think he was pretty mad at me. There's been no real journalism practiced by the media since the 1960s...back then newspaper readers still outnumbered television viewers so reporting was still based on words alone, not shocking visuals. Since then the media has come under the impression that they somehow have the right to control our minds and our opinions, and, in many ways, they do...the majority of Americans choose who they want to be the leader of the free world on the basis of a few thirty-second soundbites they pick up over the course of the election; reason basically gets thrown out of the window. Just look at what happened to Dan Rather during the last election...he tried too hard to discredit Bush and got caught for it, and it would be wonderful if it could happen to more people (not just about politics and the presidency, but people who spin the news in general) but it's not going to because media tycoons are some of the most biased and wealthy people in this country, which is a deadly combination when hearts and minds are on the line. Nobody has a real reason to be against the war because they're either indiscriminant peaceniks who have their head in a bong all day, conspiracy theorists, who have always existed and rarely been correct and yet are given more airtime than rational people who are actually telling the truth, or people who hate the war just because they hate Bush...no one really cares about terrorism anymore; we've all sunk to the low of politicizing death and misery just because it's convenient to make a blanket statment based on the absolutes the media feeds us...you're right, they'll realize they're idiots in time, but there'll be a new wave of irrational voices to drown them out depending on what the nation's involved in at the time. It's always the young versus the old in this country, and it's always going to be like that.
Wow, that really does sound like a bad school to be at. Why don't you guys ever try reporting them to the state or something? At least then, if the state did have to come in, they'd bring in better teachers. I don't see how a person can get a good education at a school like that, I know I wouldn't be able to. Sorry to hear about the teacher that did though, I had one that died as well, back in the seventh grade or so. She was my English teacher and for the entire year that I had her, she was going through chemotherapy and you could really see the strain of it on her. Once she came in and we could all see how thick her veins had gotten from everything they had done to her. She was a really good teacher too, she used to live in Japan and was probably the one that got me so interested in Japanese things. She used to teach me and another student a bit of Japanese every couple of days that she felt like doing it. She seemed to be getting better during the end of the year and I didn't hear much about her in the summer. Then when school started up, she was there for three days at the most, then gone for a week, then they made the announcement that she died. Not many people liked her because she was strict, but she was one of my favorite teachers and I felt really bad when she died. Though most of the other kids didn't care, they just went on with their life. I can't blame them though, it's not like they actually knew her so they had no real reason to be sad I suppose. I left that school shortly after and I heard that the English department really started to go downhill because of her death. She was the vet teacher of the school, even though she was only in her 50's. They did end up cutting the other class she thought, it was another elective, one of those home-making ones.

What type of area do you live in? I know that most governments tend to forget about schools when they're in smaller areas and such. That's sorta happened to the last high school I was at, or second to last, I've lost count by now. The one I went to in New Orleans was probably just as bad as your school I would imagine, a lot of the windows were broken and no one would care to fix them. It was a real hassle to deal with in the winter and made it hard to focus on what we were being taught...that is if the teacher felt like teaching that day. Sometimes we would just come in and we wouldn't have anything to do. These teachers almost never had any study plans or classwork ready for us, they would give us what they think we should do, not what the state said we should do, simply because the state seemed to forget that the school was still operational. They never sent their work guides or anything like that to the teachers, so I would imagine it would make the teachers get less than enthusiastic about teaching us when even the state wouldn't help us out. The restrooms in there were just...bad. I once caught two people having sex in one of them, just walked out when I saw that, and they usually smell like something died in them. Our water fountains just sucked, someone even peed in one of our fountains. And a lot of the new kids would end up finding that out the hard way, and of course they would get sick. I still find it odd that no one ever bothered to clean it, I ended up doing it one day, took five hours to totally get it clean, and people still wouldn't drink from it. Then again, I guess I wouldn't either knowing what happened there. I still find it sick that someone would actually pe in a fountain, right out in the open. Though no one ever found out who did it.

I guess I can see why he would still be mad at you. Even though it was a joking matter, for someone that's actually lived the war, it's hard to see things of that matter in jest. I know I probably wouldn't be able to, and it's not him being weak or anything, it's just that war does effect people in a negative manner sometimes. But I think he got off lucky if that's all he came out of there with, other people get stigmas that last them their entire life. I would hate it if something like that ever ended up happening to me, sometimes when I do seriously think of joining, I get scared because I've seen some people that just couldn't handle it. They come back battered and scarred by their experiences that they've had over there. It's a horrible thing to think about, but for some people it's the only viable option if they really want to carry out their dreams. For me it probably will be as well, since it would take me forever to save enough money to get into a good college on my own and I don't really qualify for any scholarships at the moment. My brother's friend met some people like that, but he said it's something you just have to get over. You can't let it take over your entire life or else you'll be in regret for the rest of it. It's mainly because a lot of people go into the armed forces without knowing what they're about to go through. My brother's friend said he learned things the hard way but he was able to cope with it better than most others he met were. He said even though it's probably some of the hardest things he has seen or ever will see, the rewards of being able to go through it all are great. A better life for himself and his family, a better education, it's the type of thing a lot of people are willing to risk their life for. Of course a lot of people just rush into war not knowing what they're getting into, like he did, but some of them do overcome the odds and come out on top. It is sad to see the disarray of the current state of journalism, like you said, it really wasn't until the TV came into wide usage that things started to go like that. But money's a big part of what makes people do the things they do. People who don't even need to the money yet are willing to divide a nation or matters that shouldn't be as big. It's just discouraging when people stop thinking for themselves and go along with whatever they're told is right. Popular opinion has taken over common sense, and that's just pathetic. We're at the point where even generals are fighting with other members of the government, the country shouldn't be that divided, especially at that level. But it's the type of people that need a face to slap onto some cause, be it hating Bush or one of his cabinet members. Come to think of it, I doubt half the people that voted even care about them. All they cared about was Bush, they don't that he has good cabinet members, responsible ones. A lot better than the last administration had and they really are helping the country. We aren't as bad as we were four or five years ago and we are getting slowly back on track. But that won't keep up if mindless propaganda keeps infecting the minds of the votes, which it likely will. People don't care to think for themselves anymore, they just follow what they're told is right. Like you said, they hear a 30 second clip and assume that's all there is to a story, there hear things from a negative side and don't even care about the other side because they've already been stained with the idea that the other side is nothing but a war-monger when that just isn't the case.
Age 31
I'm everywhere. Believe it.
Seen November 30th, 2011
Posted November 30th, 2011
7,912 posts
18.6 Years
AAAGH! Too many super long posts! *drops dead*

Oh well, at least DCC is active. The last time I went on (and the time before, the time before the time before, and the time before the time before the time before... etc) it was dead.
There's nothing wrong with long posts. Although, they tend to get a bit boring when you have to read so much. XD
And yay~! And the DCC is active~! :>
*Hands out mallets*
Age 36
Seen August 8th, 2008
Posted April 3rd, 2008
1,109 posts
18.9 Years
i know, i just don't feel like reading long posts and posting back in paragraphs >.<

its not that active...
Well... it's definitely more active than the last time I was on. (the last time there were llike 15 members on OMG)

Edit: Shikon no Tama, be assured I have more than enough to read. XD (Oliver Twist, B.T.R. (aka my own novel which is under construction), Watership Down, Pride and Prejudice, The Sign of the Beaver... etcetera)
New Account: Voltaire/Klavier. Talk to me there.
Age 30
Ontario, Canada
Seen November 19th, 2012
Posted November 30th, 2011
4,612 posts
17.4 Years
There's nothing wrong with long posts. Although, they tend to get a bit boring when you have to read so much. XD
And yay~! And the DCC is active~! :>
*Hands out mallets*
ya, they get boring... what would we need mallets for? =/

Karasuma

It's beemo time!

Male
Onett, NJ
Seen June 1st, 2021
Posted May 6th, 2018
6,455 posts
17.7 Years

War is sadly always going to be around. People would rather conflicts be solved with peaceful discussions, instead of warfare. But sometimes, that's just unrealisitc. If we politely asked Hitler to stop and gave him a cookie...nothing would've happened. He would've continued. War is sadly needed sometimes.
There will always be wars, I don't think that the world will get along because so many countries are after each other. The only thing that could make this world unite is if martians came and destroyed our planet. There would be a conference in the United Nations in which the Presidents will put their differences aside and unite as one. That is one solution that they always show in sci-fi movies. People may not believe it, but we are possibly living in a WWIII now. There are soldiers still in Iraq. My father has a friend and he's a sergant, he hasn't seen him over 5 years now and her wife thinks that he may not be alive because he hasn't called him and she's really worried about him. He's a nice guy that has a great house, I do pray sometimes for him and hope that he is still alive and well.

I don't know about you but I would never become a soldier. There's a difference between bravery and stupidity. I try to avoid the soldiers who sometimes come to my school and talk to others who may interested in becoming a part of the army. They say that by joining, the army will give you a scholarship so that you can go to the university, but you may never get the chance to go if there is war and lose your life. I think about everyone and watch the news sometimes to see how its going over there. With rumors like weapons of mass destruction, I guess there will always be wars, no one has the power to penetrate it.
| Who wants to play video games? |
Age 31
I'm everywhere. Believe it.
Seen November 30th, 2011
Posted November 30th, 2011
7,912 posts
18.6 Years
Oh man, somebody help me make a page 295! It's a pure PAIN to scroll down all this!

And what are mallets anyway?!
この訳者が吸ったら私を、私あり公正が許しそれを試みる。
Mallets are like big gigantic wooden hammers. They're painful. That's all you need to know. XD

MegaDitto

Windsor ™

Seen June 27th, 2013
Posted July 7th, 2011
8,495 posts
18.4 Years
Actually, now there are 7 members. And I'm sure this post won't end up right next to Kyouraku's. I could bet my limited edition neopet. XD

Wow.... so many staff members are online.


Edit: Painful? Okay...
A oversized hammer. They are basically wodden. You can see butchers tendering meat with them at delis,etc.
~Paired with Miyu-Chan~