The Syndicate

I'm working up to it, juliets.

Right now, we're sort of battening down the hatches.

No thanks.

I've already read DharmaHelper's diary.

Tenth grade.

I am the whale rider and a very happily married man.

Sloonei wrote: ↑Tue Aug 28, 2018 8:20 pm
G-Man wrote: ↑Tue Aug 28, 2018 6:47 pm
Golden wrote: ↑Tue Aug 28, 2018 3:20 pm I can't leave the country except by airport - the idea of a border crossing in a car is utterly foreign to me.
Why not by boat?
WHY NOT BY SEAHORSE AND BUGGY!?

Fixed.

I want to go to Canada. I love Rush, and I love sandwiches.

Long Con wrote: ↑Fri Aug 24, 2018 12:48 am So we're starting a restaurant.

What should we name it?

The Hunger

Sloonei wrote: ↑Tue Jul 31, 2018 3:01 pm
Epignosis wrote: ↑Sun Jul 29, 2018 7:23 pm Perhaps the best article I've read all day.

Jesus, my parents would be serving life in prison for what they let us "go through."
I was just getting my haircut and there was a mother at the barber shop with her two young sons. While the older kid was getting his hair did, the younger brother was getting restless and wanted to go outside. It’s a nice day out there, I can’t blame him. But I heard his mother tell him, “If you go outside someone is going to snatch you up.” It brought me right back to this article.

I’m not a parent, I have no experience with bearing and raising children and don’t know what that’s like. But to me that brand of parenting seems more harmful than good. Of any of the myriad reasons you can give to keep a kid inside, that’s not one that I’d encourage. You’re instilling paranoia and anxiety in your kid by telling him that The World is out to get him, and by extension restrict his childhood independence. If we magnify that mindset, a kid will grow up afraid of what’s out there and remain dependent when they shouldn’t be. Maybe, i dunno, my stomach turned when I heard this woman I don’t know anything about say those words.

The paranoia is wrought by a constant attention given to the "media" (whatever passes for that these days); I submit that kidnappings and murders and what have you have always been a threat, but now you get to hear about every single one in every painful detail and see everyone's reaction every damn time.

It's increased parental fear of letting their kids do something relatively harmless.

What you don't hear about as often?

Fatal car crashes- and parents don't mind driving their kids around, even though that is one of the biggest threats to their kids' lives (and some parents will even be on their cell phones during the drive!).

Prevalent irrational parental fear bothers me for precisely the same reason you have articulated: Children become adults, and they will be afraid adults, dependent adults, and weak adults.

"If you go outside, someone is going to snatch you up."

Who is someone?

99.9% of the world wants nothing to do with your kid, lady. Promise.

juliets wrote: ↑Tue Jul 31, 2018 8:59 am Why is Golden now sanggolden?

He identifies as Korean.

For example: It's a cool day, and I see an older kid alone in a car. I would rather hang out and make sure the parent comes back rather than immediately get a license plate and call 911. That's an overreaction. I'd rather just let the other parent know, "Hey, it's cool- you did what you had to do and had another set of eyes looking out for you."

ColinIsCool wrote: ↑Sun Jul 29, 2018 7:42 pm I’d like to know what sort of childhoods the police officers involved in those cases had, but for them it’s probably more about being a bully than concern for the kids.

I think there's more to it than that.

We live in a shame-fueled culture. People seem to think they get "points" for calling somebody out. The definition of "hero" is soiled.

Police are stuck in an unenviable middle ground here in which a lawsuit awaits their department at any turn (and even if they make the right calls).

Some parents are neglectful, and some are intentionally trying to harm their children. Pretending to forget them is one way they go about it.

It's a shitty climate, but refusing able children their independence and ability to interact with the world freely is going to cripple them long term.

PS- if you can't open the article because of a paywall, right click and open it in a private window.

Perhaps the best article I've read all day.

Jesus, my parents would be serving life in prison for what they let us "go through."

nutella wrote: ↑Fri Jul 06, 2018 9:34 pm Do you guys have the same anniversary as LC and BR????? I just saw them posting about theirs on FB

They're July 5th, I believe. We're July 6th.

juliets wrote: ↑Fri Jul 06, 2018 12:44 pm
Epignosis wrote: ↑Fri Jul 06, 2018 12:28 pm Fifteen years in matrimony.

Do I get out for good behavior?
Today is your anniversary? Congrats!

I'm taking her to a seafood restaurant. It's taken this long, but I've gotten her loving fish and tea and coffee.

Give me another fifteen years and I'll have her drinking whiskey.

Fifteen years in matrimony.

Do I get out for good behavior?

DrWilgy wrote: ↑Fri Jun 29, 2018 10:12 pm So what's new with everyone?

My drink.

Sadly, that's about it.

ColinIsCool wrote: ↑Sun Jun 10, 2018 8:11 pm That’s awesome. I think the Chargers are in a position take a step forward this year so hopefully he gets a spot on the roster and can contribute to it!

And I can roster him in fantasy.

juliets wrote: ↑Sun Jun 10, 2018 7:57 pm
Epignosis wrote: ↑Sun Jun 10, 2018 7:15 pm My former student signed with the Los Angeles Chargers.

https://www.chargers.com/team/players-r ... z-newsome/

I used to joke with him that if he ever went pro, to remember me financially. Now is the time to pony up.
Impressive!

I don't have stats, but things went like this:

When he was our running back, we won a lot of games.

After he graduated, we lost a lot of games.

My former student signed with the Los Angeles Chargers.

https://www.chargers.com/team/players-r ... z-newsome/

I used to joke with him that if he ever went pro, to remember me financially. Now is the time to pony up.

For you number hounds here, I developed a BvP (Batter versus Pitcher) model in Excel. I'm excited to see how it performs tonight. It has colors and everything.

juliets wrote: ↑Sat May 05, 2018 8:16 pm I don't understand the term "chalk"...

Biggest favorite.

Chalk won. Meh.

Brown family picks for the Kentucky Derby:

Simon- Bolt d’Oro
Abigail- Good Magic
Ephraim- Firenze Fire
Eloh- Vino Rosso
Me- Audible

RIP Barbara Bush

G-Man wrote: ↑Tue Apr 17, 2018 12:21 pm Email read receipts.

I have a long history with email read receipts, mostly negative. When asked to send one back to the person who sent me an email, I decline because, chances are, the sender also earmarked the email for a delivery receipt and should have gotten one.

One of my co-workers is now requesting a read receipt with every email she sends me. Not just for important tasks and questions, mind you. She is also requesting read receipts for one-sentence responses. My other co-worker has noticed this as well, so Ms. Read Receipt isn't just doing it to me.

What to do?

Get her to spit in a tube. It could be a genetic thing.

My five-year-old sits with me and I say to him, "What would you like me to teach you when you become a teenager?" (We had just had this conversation with his older two siblings).

He asks, "Are you a college teacher?"

"No."

"Then you can't help me."

DharmaHelper wrote: ↑Thu Mar 15, 2018 6:45 pm
Epignosis wrote: ↑Thu Mar 15, 2018 5:51 pm I didn't want to comment from a work computer, but I'm home now.

The comments section in the article are amusing to me. "I wonder if this would have happened to a white girl!" for example. The administrator who didn't let her ride home is black. Nothing was racially motivated.

By the way, the student in question is one of my students now. I am dying because, not only do I have three students I individually visit with in their homes after school, I was asked to take on a fourth class because of a teacher's medical leave. So she is now one of my students and I hope she comes to my funeral in May or June, whenever it is I give out.

At any rate, I detected nothing untoward about her dress, and I'm sure none of her other teachers did either. AND EVEN IF I DID, I wouldn't have bothered, and a lot of other teachers wouldn't either. Know how come? Because it's disruptive. It takes time out of my instruction to comment on a girl's outfit, call an administrator, send her to in-school-suspension (since that requires admin approval now), and document the incident in our online system. That shit takes time. You know who has time to bother with dress code violations? Administrators who have their own offices and don't have three or four classes a day to get through. I am not sacrificing the study of the American Romantics because of poor taste. Never mind the fact that I'm a male teacher, and there's a risk in someone of my sex commenting on an underage female's attire. That's the age we live in. If the dress code violation is egregious, that's different, and I'll deal with it by asking a female colleague on planning to address it, but a leg or shoulder is not going to stop my class. I've got too much to do and the administration already eats into our class time with fire / tornado / lockdown drills, assemblies, having us register students for next year's classes, etc.

I can guarantee you what happened was that when the school let out, so did her shoulders. That is a kind of shirt I see all the time and girls will often wear the shirt normally during the school day and when the bell rings, they figure the dress code doesn't apply and they slip the garment down.

What kills me was this happened on a Friday, and I can't understand why the administrator didn't just say, "Hey, listen. You're violating dress code by exposing your shoulders. Could you pull your top up the rest of the way? Thanks. Have a great weekend." How difficult was that? Is it any different from telling a sagging boy to pull up his pants?

Instead, he wouldn't let her ride home and this made national news. Way to go. People need to learn to pick their battles.
Enjoy that frivolous lawsuit I'm sure is coming

Nope.

It'll blow over. This wasn't the first time we made the news.

I didn't want to comment from a work computer, but I'm home now.

The comments section in the article are amusing to me. "I wonder if this would have happened to a white girl!" for example. The administrator who didn't let her ride home is black. Nothing was racially motivated.

By the way, the student in question is one of my students now. I am dying because, not only do I have three students I individually visit with in their homes after school, I was asked to take on a fourth class because of a teacher's medical leave. So she is now one of my students and I hope she comes to my funeral in May or June, whenever it is I give out.

At any rate, I detected nothing untoward about her dress, and I'm sure none of her other teachers did either. AND EVEN IF I DID, I wouldn't have bothered, and a lot of other teachers wouldn't either. Know how come? Because it's disruptive. It takes time out of my instruction to comment on a girl's outfit, call an administrator, send her to in-school-suspension (since that requires admin approval now), and document the incident in our online system. That shit takes time. You know who has time to bother with dress code violations? Administrators who have their own offices and don't have three or four classes a day to get through. I am not sacrificing the study of the American Romantics because of poor taste. Never mind the fact that I'm a male teacher, and there's a risk in someone of my sex commenting on an underage female's attire. That's the age we live in. If the dress code violation is egregious, that's different, and I'll deal with it by asking a female colleague on planning to address it, but a leg or shoulder is not going to stop my class. I've got too much to do and the administration already eats into our class time with fire / tornado / lockdown drills, assemblies, having us register students for next year's classes, etc.

I can guarantee you what happened was that when the school let out, so did her shoulders. That is a kind of shirt I see all the time and girls will often wear the shirt normally during the school day and when the bell rings, they figure the dress code doesn't apply and they slip the garment down.

What kills me was this happened on a Friday, and I can't understand why the administrator didn't just say, "Hey, listen. You're violating dress code by exposing your shoulders. Could you pull your top up the rest of the way? Thanks. Have a great weekend." How difficult was that? Is it any different from telling a sagging boy to pull up his pants?

Instead, he wouldn't let her ride home and this made national news. Way to go.

People need to learn to pick their battles.

Our school made the news.

Hooray!

dunya wrote: ↑Sat Mar 10, 2018 4:31 pm
G-Man wrote: ↑Sat Mar 10, 2018 2:19 pm Toys R Us might close its doors soon. Another childhood staple at risk of disappearing before my kids are old enough to appreciate it.
Online shopping has killed toy shops how sad. Toys R Us was me and my brother's favorite place, after the arcade.

Toys R Us' markups killed Toys R Us.

RIP Billy Graham

How crazy is it that I wrote a story (beginning of a book I never finished, actually) about a school shooter setting off the fire alarm before wreaking havoc.

I had told my wife about my unfinished story just last night.

That mask on King Hiss is probably the most frightening thing there. Well done! It reminds me of those masks Crusader kings wore.

Modulok was an amazing piece. There's been a MOTU movie in the works for like 15 years now but it keeps getting tabled or shuffled to new writers. I would not mind at all if this artist got hired to work on the project. Bravo.

Gene Steratore

My second cousin.

They'd have to ask you how to spell "Turd" first.

Teaching feels like hosting Celebrity Jeopardy.

"You know what?" *Rips up questions* "Just write a number. Any number. You could write a two. Or perhaps a three. Maybe even a four? Any number."

I have a student who habitually copies and pastes things from the Internet and turns it in. No, I never give her credit for any of it. She just Googles whatever questions I pose and goes from there. No matter how many times I've addressed her, she insists on doing it.

Today I caught her searching, "How does this piece make you as the reader feel?"

The district says it's my job to get her to pass a state standardized test next month.

What the fuck am I supposed to do with this?

I greeted a former student of mine who is now a senior. She was wearing scrubs. It was first thing in the morning, and I was putting my lunch in another teacher's refrigerator. She came in and dropped off her things. While I was making small talk with her she took off her pants. Nothing underneath but skin and little yellow panties.

Apparently she'd put her pants on backwards that morning, and chose that particular moment to remedy the situation.

Remember that this is the lot that will be graduating high school in about six more months.

JaggedJimmyJay wrote: ↑Sun Oct 01, 2017 12:27 am FUCK GRADING PAPERS

The latter, although if I can work out potentially game-breaking strategies, it could move into more serious territory.

I have invented a board game prototype.

Our family played it tonight. I'd say it's good stuff.

It's a sci-fi game that can be as cooperative or as competitive as you like depending on the number of players you have.

We have 5 players, so we ran a 4 vs 1. We only got 30 minutes in due to bedtimes, but so far, I think it's great.

My commute isn't long, so I only got hear a few songs, but...

The radio display in the car was advertising a number people can call to send money to Harvey victims.

The musical selections during this stretch seemed to me increasingly...troll-like.

"I Can See for Miles" by...not The Who, but Styx (named after the river of the dead)

"The Rain Song" by Led Zeppelin.

Followed by "Born on the Bayou" by CCR.

My main microphone is a MXL 880. My secondary microphone is a Shure SM58.

Epignosis wrote: ↑Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:58 pm Two days back and I'm ready to throw my hands up.

Our county leadership is so results oriented they can't recognize a good process when they see one.

juliets wrote: ↑Wed Aug 23, 2017 6:45 am What happened Epi?

In a nutshell:

They told us not to teach grammar because it isn't tested by the state.

You know what does test grammar?

The ACT.

Th ACT scores tanked last year.

Well duh.

So now if we don't get ACT scores up, we're in trouble.

It's the usual bullshit.

Two days back and I'm ready to throw my hands up.

Our county leadership is so results oriented they can't recognize a good process when they see one.

The street lights came on for a minute here, and some crickets chirped. That was about it. And I'm in NC.

4% of the sun is pretty bright.

For those who don't know, Simon is autistic.

Or something like that. Autism is a funny spectrum.

Today he hurt his sister accidentally and then laughed at her when she yelled at him.

We, being the parents we are, laid into him about that sort of behavior. I was ready to take away privileges.

After spending almost half an hour with him, I finally understood why Simon was laughing.

He wasn't laughing at his sister- it was just that her yelling at him reminded him of a character from a recent show he saw on Netflix in which a female character yells at things and is apparently really, really funny.

Even when we mentioned the show to his sister (who was still half in tears), she started laughing.

I didn't punish him.

++++

In a related story, we are in the midst of a game of Risk.

After half the competitors went to bed, I showed Simon a live performance of "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Tears for Fears, a song he likes. I figured he'd like to see the players behind the song.

He said, "They're just copying what we're trying to do tonight. Copycats."

Hmm?

It took me a moment.

Everybody wants to rule the world.

Risk.

I love the way this kid thinks.

Ten years old, and I'm only beginning to unravel his process.

Maybe everybody wants to rule the world.

I just want to understand his.

Golden wrote: ↑Wed Aug 16, 2017 1:38 am Jay passed the Turing test.

juliets wrote: ↑Sat Aug 12, 2017 3:56 pm
Epignosis wrote: ↑Sat Aug 12, 2017 3:22 pm Eloh is downstairs having a consultation with a customer who wants to get her son a "titty cake" for his 21st.
O wow. Is she going to do it? And a mom wants to get it for her son? That seems a little...odd.

Yep. It was a thing to hear.

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