414?: Bad Reasoning
I bought, on a total whim, AudioCatalyst, so I could grab songs off the CDs I've purchased and recompile them into longer, more varied compilations [as is legal to do]. I also bought, as recommended from Real [who apparently now own Xing], iolo System Mechanic 5, which is an awesome as hell program. It does all the system maintenance things that five or ten other programs do, like defragging, checking Registry integrity, finding duplicate files, stopping pop-ups [though Firefox does that for free ANYWAY], removing spyware, etc., and it's ONE program instead of five or ten.
Of course, I also got FreeMem Professional, but that seems to do the opposite of what it's supposed to do X/ because my computer runs even SLOWER when it's running... oh, well, live and learn 9_9
I forgot to mention that I also picked up Kanji de Manga, Vol. 3 [though "manga" isn't written into its kanji...?], because I realized other people have my original language books and CDs, and I need some kind of kanji/vocab practice. I don't have vol.s 1 or 2, because they didn't have them when I bought 3, and when I first saw #1, I had skimmed through it and saw that it was most of the easiest ones, which I had dismissed because I learned them all my first semester of Japanese. Vol. 3 seems to be more what I should be studying at the moment, though... except that the last kanji is (wata[ku]shi), which is really one that should have been in the first volume!!! 8B ...so I have to wonder how much thought the author is putting into it.
I'm adding images and reviews to Amazon at a glacial rate--as fast as I find something that hasn't been covered and/or is missing properly descriptive images--because it seems easiest and most beneficial to post them there than anywhere else. My [two] reviews to date are admittedly on the scathing end, but then I believe that honest negativity is much more helpful to the consumer than a potentially dishonest "glowing" review. [I'll add a third to the heap in a bit, as soon as Internet stops being stupid again.]
That in mind, it occurred to me that the best way to gauge one's own tolerance of something is to determine how what is perceived as "wrong" is hurtful [to oneself]. This is prolly DUH for most of you, but it's a good exercise nonetheless. Example: How is homosexuality hurtful to me? ...it's not. [I am tolerant of homosexuals.]
Counterexample: How is homosexuality hurtful to me? ...homosexuals don't reproduce, therefore dooming humanity to extinction! [I am intolerant of homosexuals.]
cont.: What about homosexuals who do reproduce, i.e. those who have had children before becoming homosexual, or who have children through other partners? ...it's wrong?
How does its wrongness hurt you? ...it offends me! ...because! [CIRCULAR ARGUMENT ...actually, I can't begin to properly reproduce a homophobe's "argument" as such, because it always sounds so STUPID]
Example 2: How is smoking hurtful to me? ...it creates carcinogens, which can give me cancers. [I am intolerant of smoking.]
For some reason, also [this should really be in multiple posts, to best utilize the Tags, but Comcast is a bag of retarded, so fuck it], I keep thinking of things that happened in high school. This time, it has to do with our sophomore English teacher, Mr. Campbell, and two specific things he did.
First, we had to take the PSATs or some stupid standardized test like that, and there was a series of questions about grammar and spelling in the usual essay dealie. I don't remember specifically what the essay was about, but one line mentioned something about the guy's:a) car, which is green.
b) car.
c) car, that is green.
d) car, which, is green.
I did remember that the car was totally irrelevant to the topic, as it was primarily about a job hunt or something, but what colour the car was added absolutely nothing to the essay--in fact, it interrupted the flow of the essay, so I chose b) car.
Mr. Campbell later went over the answers to that section of the test with us and pointed out that two choices for that question were obviously wrong. D) was obviously wrong, because it has a comma splice. The class was totally stumped about the second "obvious" answer [naturally], so he said, "B) car"! Why? Because it threw out information! |:o and so the choice was between whether "that" or "which" is the appropriate usage, so the answer could be narrowed down to a) car, which is green.
As it turned out, when we got our answers back, "b) car." was the correct answer [duh!], but--unsurprisingly--he failed to point out his mistake to the class. It burned into memory in particular because he made such a huge issue of it to us when it was flat out WRONG.
The second instance is one I've been meaning to write in to Marilyn vos Savant for her opinion, because it seems like a totally stupid practice, and I feel that at least most of us in the class were stiffed in the process. Our final for his class was THREE HUNDRED multiple-choice questions, all listing words that had to be matched to their definition. [Mind you that we had 55 minutes for class!] That meant that to guarantee a passing [70+] grade, in the fifty or so minutes we had left after he explained everything, we had to get 210 questions right... which I failed to do, because I have this obnoxious habit of *gasp* checking my answers!, and the pace at which we had to work didn't leave a lot of time to do that.
Here was his promise: If the whole class managed to get 210 right, no one would fail, because it wouldn't be fair to fail anyone who passed. However, this didn't happen--instead, he made a bell-curve of all of our grades and adjusted accordingly, so the top 10% or whatever of the class would get an A, the next 20% or so would get a B, and so on down to the bottom 10% getting a big fat F.
This basically guaranteed that someone in the class would fail, and not by any predetermined standard. It still seems quite unfair to me, though I can't put into words how--it seems that simply describing the situation perfectly exemplifies its unfairness, but I'm prolly biased in that respect. I think I unfairly ended up with a C or D, though I can't remember which because it really doesn't matter anymore. I'd hate to think that classes after us received or may receive the same treatment.
[Perhaps thankfully?, he later ended up getting sued about possession of pornography--of boys in the school!!--so I doubt his reign of terror lasted much longer after us. Of course, that's a disturbing way to go out, regardless of my own personal feelings in the matter.]
...I've only had two bowls of Neojank cereal, and I'm sick of it
Of course, I also got FreeMem Professional, but that seems to do the opposite of what it's supposed to do X/ because my computer runs even SLOWER when it's running... oh, well, live and learn 9_9
I forgot to mention that I also picked up Kanji de Manga, Vol. 3 [though "manga" isn't written into its kanji...?], because I realized other people have my original language books and CDs, and I need some kind of kanji/vocab practice. I don't have vol.s 1 or 2, because they didn't have them when I bought 3, and when I first saw #1, I had skimmed through it and saw that it was most of the easiest ones, which I had dismissed because I learned them all my first semester of Japanese. Vol. 3 seems to be more what I should be studying at the moment, though... except that the last kanji is (wata[ku]shi), which is really one that should have been in the first volume!!! 8B ...so I have to wonder how much thought the author is putting into it.
I'm adding images and reviews to Amazon at a glacial rate--as fast as I find something that hasn't been covered and/or is missing properly descriptive images--because it seems easiest and most beneficial to post them there than anywhere else. My [two] reviews to date are admittedly on the scathing end, but then I believe that honest negativity is much more helpful to the consumer than a potentially dishonest "glowing" review. [I'll add a third to the heap in a bit, as soon as Internet stops being stupid again.]
That in mind, it occurred to me that the best way to gauge one's own tolerance of something is to determine how what is perceived as "wrong" is hurtful [to oneself]. This is prolly DUH for most of you, but it's a good exercise nonetheless. Example: How is homosexuality hurtful to me? ...it's not. [I am tolerant of homosexuals.]
Counterexample: How is homosexuality hurtful to me? ...homosexuals don't reproduce, therefore dooming humanity to extinction! [I am intolerant of homosexuals.]
cont.: What about homosexuals who do reproduce, i.e. those who have had children before becoming homosexual, or who have children through other partners? ...it's wrong?
How does its wrongness hurt you? ...it offends me! ...because! [CIRCULAR ARGUMENT ...actually, I can't begin to properly reproduce a homophobe's "argument" as such, because it always sounds so STUPID]
Example 2: How is smoking hurtful to me? ...it creates carcinogens, which can give me cancers. [I am intolerant of smoking.]
For some reason, also [this should really be in multiple posts, to best utilize the Tags, but Comcast is a bag of retarded, so fuck it], I keep thinking of things that happened in high school. This time, it has to do with our sophomore English teacher, Mr. Campbell, and two specific things he did.
First, we had to take the PSATs or some stupid standardized test like that, and there was a series of questions about grammar and spelling in the usual essay dealie. I don't remember specifically what the essay was about, but one line mentioned something about the guy's:a) car, which is green.
b) car.
c) car, that is green.
d) car, which, is green.
I did remember that the car was totally irrelevant to the topic, as it was primarily about a job hunt or something, but what colour the car was added absolutely nothing to the essay--in fact, it interrupted the flow of the essay, so I chose b) car.
Mr. Campbell later went over the answers to that section of the test with us and pointed out that two choices for that question were obviously wrong. D) was obviously wrong, because it has a comma splice. The class was totally stumped about the second "obvious" answer [naturally], so he said, "B) car"! Why? Because it threw out information! |:o and so the choice was between whether "that" or "which" is the appropriate usage, so the answer could be narrowed down to a) car, which is green.
As it turned out, when we got our answers back, "b) car." was the correct answer [duh!], but--unsurprisingly--he failed to point out his mistake to the class. It burned into memory in particular because he made such a huge issue of it to us when it was flat out WRONG.
The second instance is one I've been meaning to write in to Marilyn vos Savant for her opinion, because it seems like a totally stupid practice, and I feel that at least most of us in the class were stiffed in the process. Our final for his class was THREE HUNDRED multiple-choice questions, all listing words that had to be matched to their definition. [Mind you that we had 55 minutes for class!] That meant that to guarantee a passing [70+] grade, in the fifty or so minutes we had left after he explained everything, we had to get 210 questions right... which I failed to do, because I have this obnoxious habit of *gasp* checking my answers!, and the pace at which we had to work didn't leave a lot of time to do that.
Here was his promise: If the whole class managed to get 210 right, no one would fail, because it wouldn't be fair to fail anyone who passed. However, this didn't happen--instead, he made a bell-curve of all of our grades and adjusted accordingly, so the top 10% or whatever of the class would get an A, the next 20% or so would get a B, and so on down to the bottom 10% getting a big fat F.
This basically guaranteed that someone in the class would fail, and not by any predetermined standard. It still seems quite unfair to me, though I can't put into words how--it seems that simply describing the situation perfectly exemplifies its unfairness, but I'm prolly biased in that respect. I think I unfairly ended up with a C or D, though I can't remember which because it really doesn't matter anymore. I'd hate to think that classes after us received or may receive the same treatment.
[Perhaps thankfully?, he later ended up getting sued about possession of pornography--of boys in the school!!--so I doubt his reign of terror lasted much longer after us. Of course, that's a disturbing way to go out, regardless of my own personal feelings in the matter.]
...I've only had two bowls of Neojank cereal, and I'm sick of it