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Old 11-10-2010, 02:50 AM   #12 (permalink)
fluxquanta
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Join Date: Jun 2009
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This McDonalds argument was fucking stupid.

On the screenwriter jerkin' it during the writing of the script for the Depp/Jolie movie, I had the same thought once in college. I was assigned for one of my intro English requirement courses a novel written by a Cuban author, so the text was originally in Spanish. The translation to English was done by my professor. It was basically just a hobby of this professor to translate these things. It wasn't for publication or anything, he was just friends with the Cuban guy. There was a sex scene in that novel that was way too graphic for my tastes, and I couldn't help but think the whole time that my professor added some "original flair" of his own. Really grossed me out.

I also got the shaft (no pun intended) on that assignment because everyone else in the class was assigned famous works from "real" authors, so the professor could bend me over (again, no pun) with my assignment, since he knew the details of something he basically wrote himself better than any other book he assigned.

And the cell phone business Keith Alberstadt and Chemda mentioned is spot on. Another anecdote: I'm currently as substitute teacher, even though I don't get called in nearly enough (I've only worked twice since being "hired" first week of October). School's policy is that no cell phones are supposed to be on the students at all. If brought to school, they are to remain off and in the lockers. The first day I subbed was brutal as far as this goes. It was for a middle school language class. It seems like every kid had a cell phone that day. I was amazed by this, mainly because I only graduated from the very same high school 5 years ago, and back then nobody had cell phones. Now every 12 year old does. I told them straight, "Look, you guys know you're not supposed to have the phones, so if I see you with them you're getting an office referral," and went on to tell them that I personally didn't care, especially since I'm a sub and it's not like I'm teaching, but that it was school policy, and if the principal strolls by and sees a class full of texters it would get us all in trouble. So what did they do? Propped open notebooks on their desks in front of them, and continued to text. As if I was to somehow magically believe that everyone's studying all of a sudden, but they needed their books propped open on the desk for easy hands-free reading. The best part was that for this class my instructions were to play a movie for them, so there was a nice glow from about half the class room from behind the books. As the day progressed I found the best way to take care of this was just to walk around the room and, from behind, ask the students, "Hey, what'cha got there?" which usually solved the problem for that period. The second subbing day was for high school seniors, and they all had work to do, so this wasn't a problem.

Last edited by fluxquanta; 11-10-2010 at 03:26 AM.
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