Pickels, Doddles, and Webkinz R awsum

[ShinyGreenApple]

Elf, that reminds me of a story someone told me about the time they were waiting in line for tickets to Titanic. She had merely made the comment "Wow, look at all these people lining up in droves to see a movie about a ship that sinks!"

A young blonde girl turned around, pissed off to high heavens, and says to my friend:

"Well thanks a lot for spoiling the ending!"

[Tria]

While going around, we almost bumped into a kid who was walking down the sidewalk, with his nose buried in a book! He noticed us at the last minute, said sorry, and moved out of the way. my mom just laughed, and i said well, at least he's reading! Saw him later, standing outside a store, still with his nose in the book!

Heh, that was how I was with reading before I discovered knitting and books on CDs. *Just waits for the libraries to share their Deathly Hallows on interlibrary loan*

[Shabo]

So i'm telling her this story, and she had NO CLUE about all the restrictions of the last year re: flying, and carrying on liquids, how they have to be 3oz or less, and in a quart ziplock bag. She said, why can't you carry that stuff on? I told her, and said it was on the news, in the papers, she said, oh, i don't watch the news or read the paper.

Yeah, I didn't know about this either. I thought that if it was in the carry-on that it was ok. I only lost my hair mousse, which I didn't end up needing on that trip anyway, and it was an old bottle, so no biggie. But man, I wasn't happy when they were telling me all this in line. I hate flying anyway. Every time I get on a plane it's less and less appealing for me to try to go back again.

[protege]

"Well thanks a lot for spoiling the ending!"

I remember saying something to my then-gf...along the lines of "I wish they'd sink the damn ship already" BTW, didn't the idiot see the trailer for the flick? I could have sworn that at least part of it included the ship starting to sink.

[mariamousie1]

Ladies and gentlemen, the future rulers of America.

[Ill_Used_Heroine]

I refuse to type like that, even when composing missives on my telephone.

Thank you! It drives me insane when people type like that!

I remember when I started going online (1989) and you had to actually HAVE a brain to be able to use a computer and get online. People spelled correctly and only used the usual anacronyms (LOL, ROFL, BTW, etc.), which I still use.

It's the people that purposely spell words like werk for work and l8ter for later that really bug me, because they're not saving any time, and anyway, how hard is it to spell things correctly? Do you get charged per character or per text message? I have to admit that I've never sent a text message in my life, mainly because I never needed to. I mean, I hardly even use my cell phone. So, if it takes an extra 30 seconds to spell correctly, why not do it?

Back in the early 90s, I used to say that intelligence levels in people went down along with computer prices. That and AOL, which made it possible for people to go online without learning how to use their computer. It's almost like people are PROUD to be as ignorant as they can be (in my experience), and they'll let you know it!

[Princess-Snake]

My sister has to do two book reports during her summer vacation. When she found out that she had to read two books, it was a complete non-stop whine fest. And my parents wonder why I didn't spend much time over at their place this summer. Of course, I shouldn't be surprised at her behaviour. Back in high school, my class did the same thing. And that was just one book! Everytime the teacher introduced a new book to the class, you would have thought she told them that they would be sacrificed to the gods of the blood-thirsty crew of Davey Jones by being thrown into a pit of blast-ended skrewts and krakens. Whenever they complained about how unfair it was, I would tell them that it was unfair and we should be made to read ten books over the summer instead of one. Then they would shut up and back away as I continued ranting. The only time they were excited about reading a book was when the book in question only had about 50 pages.

[Rapscallion]

As John Mayer sings, "One day our generation is going to rule the population".

I weep for the future.

I scare people by pointing out that the current crop of youths are going to be paying our pensions. Never fails to get a result.

Rapscallion

[Tigress]

I seriously wonder what these kids do when they're assigned to read a book for English or History. Oh wait...just about every book is being adapted into a movie these days so I guess that takes care of the problem. But then I even doubt most of these kids even know that a lot of the movies they watch were books first which is very sad indeed. (Grant it, I do enjoy some of these book to movie translations but not without a bit of grousing on my part and most often the book is always better)

No, they read the Cliff's Notes! I knew several people in my Honor's English class that tried that. My teacher could tell almost immediately who actually read the book and who didn't and bitched at those that relied on Cliff's Notes. (Eventually, she banned the booklets from the classroom.) One of them even complained in class how she didn't "have time" to read three books over the summer, procrastinated like hell and then tried to read them all two weeks before school started.

I often got in trouble for reading books that were "too advanced" for me in school. The ones considered "age appropriate" I found too juvenile, but I enjoyed Greek myths with their murdering, raping, pillaging and incest. I actually had one teacher ask me why I wouldn't read "normal" books like Sweet Valley High. Because Edgar Allen Poe and Hans Christian Anderson is so much more fun!

I still weep about the time I bought Ferngully at the school book fair. Around the same time, the movie came out and I wanted to read the book before my mom took me to see the movie. A girl in my class insisted that the book was a novelization based on the movie, instead of the other way around. Neither pointing out that it said on the cover "now a major motion picture", which implied the movie was based on the book, nor that the book had British spellings (author was British), further implying the book came first, could pursuade her.

And don't get me started on the battles I had over Dracula. Yes, I've seen the Coppola movie. No, I didn't get to the sex scene because there is no sex scene in the book! This was written during Victorian England! Stoker would have been drawn and quartered if he wrote a gratuitious sex scene in the book! The most Dracula does to Mina is make her drink from his chest. And she doesn't want anything to do with him! People insisting otherwise, when it's obvious that they never touched the book, made me want to punch them.

[Princess-Snake]

I can read three books in less than two weeks. Hell, I can read them in less than one week if I really commited myself. They actually thought there was a sex scene in Dracula book? I remember my old high school class had to read Frankensein and one person asked where Igor was and when he was going to come in. I died a little inside.

p.s. I love Greek mythology! But, I'm more interested in the gods and goddesses than the heroes.

[Andara Bledin]

I enjoy reading. I don't read as much as I should, but I do enjoy it. I used to hate being forced to read in school. That to me, took the fun out of reading that book.

I didn't mind being forced to read in school. It was being forced to dissect the books afterwards and try to second-guess the authors that really destroyed things for me.

While I haven't enjoyed every book I was assigned to read for school there have been some that have become favorites because the teacher made reading then incredibly enjoyable.

I had one teacher that when it came time for us to read Rime of the Ancient Mariner, she also brought in the Iron Maiden record to play for us. Being a metal head, I loved that particular session.

While going around, we almost bumped into a kid who was walking down the sidewalk, with his nose buried in a book! He noticed us at the last minute, said sorry, and moved out of the way. my mom just laughed, and i said well, at least he's reading! Saw him later, standing outside a store, still with his nose in the book!

That was me all through high school and still is when I'm walking to and from the bus.

When I was growing up, my parents had to take all my books away because I was reading too much. Twice. I wouldn't do any of my chores, and if I was ever sent to clean my room? Well, I would find a good book, open it... and an hour later, mom would be yelling at me to stop reading, lol.

That was me, too. I'd get most of the room organized, but nowhere near clean, and then I'd find a book I liked in the closet and I'd just sit in my closet reading for most of the day. Of course, I'd intersperse it with actually doing work so that I wouldn't get in trouble for not cleaning my room. It would get done, just not quickly.

It's the people that purposely spell words like werk for work and l8ter for later that really bug me, because they're not saving any time, and anyway, how hard is it to spell things correctly?

[snippage]

That and AOL, which made it possible for people to go online without learning how to use their computer.

Argh, I hate when people use "alternate" spellings for words that are the same length or longer than the correct spellings. Oh, and I hate the term "intarweb" with a passion, just on general principle.

I call AOL "the Internet with training wheels," and have for, well, as long as I've been on the Internet.

I scare people by pointing out that the current crop of youths are going to be paying our pensions. Never fails to get a result.

That thought doesn't bother me in the least. I have a 401k that is quite robust.

p.s. I love Greek mythology! But, I'm more interested in the gods and goddesses than the heroes.

I have always loved mythology. And I, too, have a particular fondness for the deities and the like.

^-.-^

[BookstoreEscapee]

When I was growing up, my parents had to take all my books away because I was reading too much. Twice. I wouldn't do any of my chores, and if I was ever sent to clean my room? Well, I would find a good book, open it... and an hour later, mom would be yelling at me to stop reading, lol.

Are you me? I used to hide on the other side of my bed with a book when I was supposed to be cleaning.

This thread is making me appreciate all the more that one of my "tools" to keep my cousin's kids (ages 11 and 9) in line when I babysit is threatening to take away their reading-before-bed time...Heck, last time I sat for them, the 11-year-old actually asked if we could turn off the TV so she could read a book instead!

[Gurndigarn]

Ladies and gentlemen, the future rulers of America.

Not really. Most of the people who don't read also don't vote.

Sadly, the few that do vote are complete sheep, voting the same way their neighbors do just because their neighbors put a sign in their yard.

[Sonoma]

I was reading books without pictures by myself by the 1st grade. One of my teacher's complaints in elementary school was that I would read when I wasn't supposed to be, or that I "read too much". My mom asked her how that was even possible? The girls in the OP make me die inside. More than a little.

When I was in 8th grade, our school implemented a 'reading period', about 15 minutes between 3rd & 4th periods, for free reading. I LOVED it, because it got me out of my hideous algebra class (hated the instructor). We stayed in the classroom, but were supposed to be reading. At one point during the term, there was an issue with that instructor, and he was on the phone with my dad. His complaint, I was reading during READING PERIOD, rather than doing my algebra homework. Duh, what is reading period for

Of course, after that phone call, my grade shot up from a D to a B. Hmmm. The only course he enjoyed teaching was the computer section (this was back in the early 80s, when not everybody knew much about computers). During that section, I got an A. He had been teaching algebra for many years, and was just waiting for retirement.

I now return you back to your regularly scheduled thread.

[scruff]

someone mentioned earlier that the "who's hitler?" girl must have slept through history lessons.
despite taking history for O and A level exams (age 16 and 18), I only was taught up to the causes of WWI.
I.e. no history after 1916.
and this was a _good_ school.
(means I lose any game of Axis and Allies...)