The Vent and Rant Thread

[GeoffC]

<<<<<<<<<<you think you've got problems !!!!!!!! [miaow]

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

<Left foot - yellow>

Which left foot?

My Left Foot

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

My Left Foot

Ow! Watch out - I've got an ingrown toenail on that foot!

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by kazbates

I honestly don't think there is as big a cultural gap between the US and Western European countries as you think. We all want the same thing, punishment for the guilty (which is really the whole reason behind the justice system). I lived near a maximum security prison in Illinois where people like John Wayne Gacy were allowed to live and express themselves through art and have that art displayed in art shows and put up for sale, through years and years of appeals, all paid for with my tax dollars. He was never going to be rehabilitated. If he were released, he would have continued with his heinous acts. Why should he be allowed to live, even behind bars) when he had taken the lives of so many? I don't have an answer to capitol punishment, but I do know that if he had taken the life of someone I loved, I would have wanted him to die.

I don't think a maximum security prison will help rehabilitate a person at all... People are amongst others with the same ideas... And about capitol (I already wondered if it was with an a or o :0) punishment, that's one part of the American law system that I know most Dutch persons find barbaric...

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

People used to beat the crap out of dogs, horses and more sadly, wives and children. It was considered bleeping normal and encouraged by authorities!!!

I read a story by Tolstoy (you can find it here) about the life of a horse (Strider, The Story of a Horse). Don't read it if you're softhearted... But it really shows what you wrote here...

But as long as people see animals as things to own, you'll see animal cruelty. Luckily, there are always people who are nice for animals (I always find it fun to watch my across the street neighbour working with his cows...)

[phenomshel]

Online college classes that were adapted very poorly from "live" classes. My Speech class this semester is driving me crazy. It's an online branch of the school, for heaven's sake. How the heck am I supposed to know the demographics and extrapolate how that is going to affect them as an audience? Online students come from all walks of life, are all ages, cultural backgrounds, etc.
There are all sorts of scenarios we're supposed to discuss about how we'd react in different classroom situations if we were giving a speech. I haven't been in a classroom in 25 years! Nor do I want to be, that was the main attraction of online classes for me in the first place. *Bangs head on desk*.....

[kazbates]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

Online college classes that were adapted very poorly from "live" classes. My Speech class this semester is driving me crazy. It's an online branch of the school, for heaven's sake. How the heck am I supposed to know the demographics and extrapolate how that is going to affect them as an audience? Online students come from all walks of life, are all ages, cultural backgrounds, etc.
There are all sorts of scenarios we're supposed to discuss about how we'd react in different classroom situations if we were giving a speech. I haven't been in a classroom in 25 years! Nor do I want to be, that was the main attraction of online classes for me in the first place. *Bangs head on desk*.....

I've been thinking about taking online courses to get my Masters in Education (to get recertified every 5 years, I have to take a minimum of 6 credit hours or 180 points). I wondered how they would play out and would love to get an update from you as you go along.

When it came to writing papers, I told my daughter, who just received her BA in Global Affairs, to use her background knowledge and observations of human behaviour for guidance, but at the bottom line to just make something up! Basically, that's what we tell young writers when they are faced with at times bizarre writing prompts on standardized tests. It seems to have worked since she did graduate with a 3.0 average.

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by kazbates

I've been thinking about taking online courses to get my Masters in Education (to get recertified every 5 years, I have to take a minimum of 6 credit hours or 180 points). I wondered how they would play out and would love to get an update from you as you go along.

When it came to writing papers, I told my daughter, who just received her BA in Global Affairs, to use her background knowledge and observations of human behaviour for guidance, but at the bottom line to just make something up! Basically, that's what we tell young writers when they are faced with at times bizarre writing prompts on standardized tests. It seems to have worked since she did graduate with a 3.0 average.

Kaz, seriously, I have adored online classes up til this point. It's just they didn't adapt this one well to an online environment. I don't know if they were sloppy in taking the course material from the physical classroom and didn't revise it, or whether they just didn't think it through properly. Personally, I think Speech as a required class for an office administration program is kinda out there - but in a physical environment, yes, I can see it. However, in an online course? No. I think they should have left it out of the online curriculum or at least made it an elective.
For your Master's classes, you should be ok online.

[badgoodDeb]

Mindy's looking awful sharp these days! Cool duds, fairy friend!

[Mindy]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

Mindy's looking awful sharp these days! Cool duds, fairy friend!

Awww, thanks! I'm experimenting with background LOL

[phenomshel]

Krisk, I should add karma to you in sympathy - my job just got a LOT more retarded. I don't know what my store director is thinking, even after an hour meeting with the man, I don't have a CLUE where he got this harebrained idea. My schedule has been set for the last 8 months or so, and it was darn near perfect. Well, he just UNset it, and now it's a freakin' nightmare. I have complained to everyone that will listen and a few that didn't want to listen, but of course it's not doing any good because the buck stops at the store director's door. I have SO got to find another job. And in this economy and in this area, that's not going to be easy. *sigh*.

[Dylrob]

I had a little bit of a scare today. I left the room for a moment and when I can back I heard panicked scratching. It turns out Cassandra had gotten herself stuck in one of the holes cut into my entertainment center for cables to pass through; she managed to get half way through before she realized her hips were too wide! And with the way her rib cage is shaped, she couldn't back out the other way. Finally after about 30 minutes, a cut monitor cable, and plenty of buttery lubrication later I managed to work her out.

[zelda_pinwheel]

oh no ! i'm so glad she is okay. i know just how you must have felt. i used to have a mesh folding laundry basket with two cloth handles. although i tried to discourage her, my cat loved to sleep in there. one night i was woken up by a strange scuffling noise ; somehow she managed get *both* the handles wrapped around her stomach, so tightly she was completely stuck (and really scared). it was so tight and so tangled that i had to cut both of them to free her, and i was really afraid when cutting them i might hurt her. it really scared me, and i was so glad it happened when i was at home ! i don't even want to think what would have happened if i hadn't been there (and been a light sleeper). now i am really careful to make sure there is nothing around she could get tangled in. i hope she learned her lesson and won't try to fit through any more tiny holes.

[Patricia]

Oh my. It seems as though if there is a tight space then some pets will just head straight for it.
Dylrob's story reminds me of the time (decades ago) when I used to babysit the nursery school hamster, during the school holidays. She was an accomplished escape artist too. At the nursery she seemed to be quite content in her cage. At my house she'd escape on a regular basis and turn up in all sorts of strange places. In the end I had to wire the cage shut, and would take her out every evening for a few hours in my daughter's playpen.
(Mind you, a hamster is not the best pet for a nursery because it is liveliest at night.)

I wonder whether ferrets have nine lives, like cats?

[zelda_pinwheel]

wait a minute, didn't you have a cat, as well ? was that hamster suicidal ?? please tell me that no harm came to it !

[badgoodDeb]

I suspect the hamster was quite content to stay in her cage at the nursery, because it looked DANGEROUS on the outside!@!!! All those little fast-moving bodies ..... grasping hands .... Much better to stay safely *in* my cage, thank you very much!