The Kiwi's Kinkily Knotted and Kookily Kickass Random Banter #114

[Player_Zero]

I achieve because I fear screwing up my life. I, like my parents, want what's best for myself. Mostly because I fear failure.

Hey, I learned about the A-U grading system because of Harry Potter.

You failed that grammar. Commas do not work that way. I have editted it to reflect my grammar policing ability.

Also, Harry Potter is not an educational book. Read something proper like A Brief History of Time.

[Fredthefighter]

You failed that grammar. Commas do not work that way.

Also, Harry Potter is not an educational book. Read something proper like A Brief History of Time.

I AM STEVEN HAWKING, I WOULD LIKE A PACKET OF CRISPS PLEASE.

[Em Blackleaf]

Sorry, I, have, comma, issues,
Also, Harry Potter is awful. I learned that about halfway through the sixth book.
Oh, my predicted grades:
Dance Class (PE)- A
ASB (Leadership)- A
Algebra 2- B (I hope!)
Advanced English- A
Advanced Biology- A (because that class is so much easier than it should be)
Advanced Drama- A

(comma, comma, comma, comma)

[Fredthefighter]

Sorry, I, have, comma, issues,
Also, Harry Potter is awful. I learned that about halfway through the sixth book.
Oh, my predicted grades:
Dance Class (PE)- A
ASB (Leadership)- A
Algebra 2- B (I hope!)
Advanced English- A
Advanced Biology- A (because that class is so much easier than it should be)
Advanced Drama- A

(comma, comma, comma, comma)

HARRY POTTER WAS A GOOD BOOK!
It was a good book, there are better ones *Cough* lord of the rings *Cough*, *Cough* Anything by R.A.Salvatore *Cough*.

[Alleine]

I don't fear failure. I expect it. That way when I do fail I'm not surprised, and when I don't I'm pleased. Plus if all I ever got was A's that would be all anyone would expect. Then I would inevitably get something lower and people would be disappointed and upset, and then I'd want to smack them for expecting so much from me.

[Dallas-Dakota]

HARRY POTTER WAS A GOOD BOOK!
It was a good book, there are better ones *Cough* lord of the rings *Cough*, *Cough* Anything by R.A.Salvatore *Cough*.

Hmm, the first one was possibly good. The two after that were possibly able of a potential to be nice and the ones after that just plain sucked.

[Rutskarn]

HARRY POTTER WAS A GOOD BOOK!
It was a good book, there are better ones *Cough* lord of the rings *Cough*, *Cough* Anything by R.A.Salvatore *Cough*.

Potter, I'll grant you.

That last item is...debatable. And by debate, I mean that we have a difference of opinion. And by difference of opinion, I mean that the chief difference is that my opinion, unlike yours, is correct.

Alright, Salvatore has done some competent stuff. Let's break down his Drizzt novels:

Dark Elf Trilogy: All decent. B+

Icewind Dale Trilogy: Eh. B

Legacy of the Drow: Aggressively mediocre. C+

Paths of Darkness: I'm going to need to break this down.

The Silent Blade: Pretty decent. B+

The Spine of the World: Hey, this was actually pretty damn good! A

Servant of the Shard: Also pretty decent. Is his work improving? B+

Sea of Swords: Oh hell no it's not. D+

Hunter's Blades Trilogy: And halfway through, I suddenly realize I need to read something else...like a telephone repair manual, or a medical analysis description of a leprosy victim, or an encyclopedia of disco songs, or...anything.

[Fredthefighter]

Potter, I'll grant you.

That last item is...debatable. And by debate, I mean that we have a difference of opinion. And by difference of opinion, I mean that the chief difference is that my opinion, unlike yours, is correct.

Alright, Salvatore has done some competent stuff. Let's break down his Drizzt novels:

Dark Elf Trilogy: All decent. B+

Icewind Dale Trilogy: Eh. B

Legacy of the Drow: Aggressively mediocre. C+

Paths of Darkness: I'm going to need to break this down.

The Silent Blade: Pretty decent. B+

The Spine of the World: Hey, this was actually pretty damn good! A

Servant of the Shard: Also pretty decent. Is his work improving? B+

Sea of Swords: Oh hell no it's not. D+

Hunter's Blades Trilogy: And halfway through, I suddenly realize I need to read something else...like a telephone repair manual, or a medical analysis description of a leprosy victim, or an encyclopedia of disco songs, or...anything.

Well I enjoyed them.
I also enjoyed:

• The Gotrek and Felix books.
• The Percy Jackson books.
• The Orcs Trilogy.
• Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradoz
• The power of five series by Antony Horowitz (Book 5 isn't done yet)
• His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman.

As well as:

• All of the shadowrun books I've read so far.
• All of the Terry Pratchett books I've read so far.

[unstattedCommoner]

Also, Harry Potter is not an educational book. Read something proper like A Brief History of Time.

A Brief History of Time is not a text book. Read something proper, such as Weinberg's Cosmology.

\/: You fell into the trap, which I did not, of trying to correct P_Z's already corrected version.

[Illiterate Scribe]

nope. There's only mechanics and statistics 1-4, if I recall. And there are 4 extra modules (Differential equations, and... some other ones) There're 21 modules in total for 'Maths' (including further maths). Then again, I do MEI maths, so it could be different.

Ah well, I was fairly sure there were M5 and M6 at least. One of them was projectile dynamics, I seem to remember - maybe they got merged into M4. Anyway, we're still using the same books.

You failed that grammar. Commas do not work that way.

Are you sure?

I, like my parents, want what's best for myself. Mostly because I fear failure.

Dropping in a clause that's bracketed between a pair of commas is the correct way to do it.

Hey, I learned about the A-U grading system because of Harry Potter.

The colloquial, speech emulating nature of these posts (c.f. 'You failed that grammar') would suggest a pause, as represented by the comma.

Anyway, lotta mathematicians here - but what about the humanities?

I offer a brofist of respect in favour of all fellow students of history, politics (especially IR), and philosophy.

[InaVegt]

R. A. Salvatore's works and Harry Potter both suffer from series creep.

Series creep being defined as the tendency of serially written and published novels to become progressively worse as the series progresses.

[Player_Zero]

Are you sure?

Duh. I corrected it in my post.

A Brief History of Time is not a text book. Read something proper, such as Weinberg's Cosmology.

I don't think many 14 year olds study advanced texts beyond recreation and even then only in the cases of extreme nerdiness.

P.S. You smell. Stop pointing out semantic inconsistencies.

[Oregano]

I'm doing History and Geography at AS and I already have an AS in Sociology.

[Fredthefighter]

R. A. Salvatore's works and Harry Potter both suffer from series creep.

Series creep being defined as the tendency of serially written and published novels to become progressively worse as the series progresses.

Well, while there were 7 books in the Potter series, The Drizzt series has how many books? I lost count after "The Orc King". Still waiting for "The Pirate King".
The last Harry Potter just seemed to have a weird ending, Harry marrying Ginny, he wasn't even into her in any of the books, how does Ron feel about this? I can understand Ron marrying Hermione, but it was just to hackneyed and cliche.

[CurlyKitGirl]

To get into 6th form at my school you need at least 5 GCSEs grade A to C, then they reccomend you take no more than three A-levels, if you have 8 or more GSCEs grade A to C, they reccomend you take four or five A-levels.
EDIT: Strange, to get a C in Britain you only need 60%, to get a B you need 70%, to get an A you need 80% and to get an A* you need 90%.

Sixth forms suck. Big time.
Also: your school/sixth form's weird. Going to a (UK) college you can pick right off the bat (from application) what you want to do and how many. And it doesn't matter if you're undecided as long as you're timetabled for x subjects a that's how many you're getting.
I'd advocate going for five right off; and I do know people who got D/C in things and still take five A Levels/ND (National Diploma) and A Levels (very hard as an ND's a full time course without the A Levels)/rock school (all music qualifications) ans A Levels; basically really heavy workloads just because they want to.
All you have to do is prove you can handle it. Plus, by going for five it means you've got a better choice for dropping things. How many people I've spoken to who said "I wish I'd dropped a instead of b." or "I wish I'd ketp c instead of d." is amazingly high. Basically more vareity, so by being timetabled for five you can switch (for the first month or so) between courses.

Oh, and actually in Britland the scoring system for exams goes:
A* - top 2% of grades in the country
A - top 10%
B - top 25%
C - top 45%
D - I don't know
E
F
G
U - got less than 18% in your final marks
X - being you missed the exam/failed to score even 10%

Technically, only U and X are failures, but everyone knows that it's Cs and above which count as passing.

Also:
I'm actually posting again! Curse my rebellious computer for not letting me post or ven access most pages and threads in the entire forum even after the thread purge.

EDIT:

Still Potter?
I'm giving that series overall a borderline D/C grade. Mediocre really.
LoTR: C grade. Ground breaker for fantasy, but so much stuff that shoul have been cut, revamped, rewritten or frankly had "OH PLEASE GODS NO!! NOT ANOTHER FREAKIN' HISTORY LESSON." scrawled all over it in manic red ink.
[/book review]

[Fredthefighter]

Sixth forms suck. Big time.
Also: your school/sixth form's weird. Going to a (UK) college you can pick right off the bat (from application) what you want to do and how many. And it doesn't matter if you're undecided as long as you're timetabled for x subjects a that's how many you're getting.
I'd advocate going for five right off; and I do know people who got D/C in things and still take five A Levels/ND (National Diploma) and A Levels (very hard as an ND's a full time course without the A Levels)/rock school (all music qualifications) ans A Levels; basically really heavy workloads just because they want to.
All you have to do is prove you can handle it. Plus, by going for five it means you've got a better choice for dropping things. How many people I've spoken to who said "I wish I'd dropped a instead of b." or "I wish I'd ketp c instead of d." is amazingly high. Basically more vareity, so by being timetabled for five you can switch (for the first month or so) between courses.

Oh, and actually in Britland the scoring system for exams goes:
A* - top 2% of grades in the country
A - top 10%
B - top 25%
C - top 45%
D - I don't know
E
F
G
U - got less than 18% in your final marks
X - being you missed the exam/failed to score even 10%

Technically, only U and X are failures, but everyone knows that it's Cs and above which count as passing.

Also:
I'm actually posting again! Curse my rebellious computer for not letting me post or ven access most pages and threads in the entire forum even after the thread purge.

Welcome back Curly.
*Hugs Curly*
We missed you.

[Kaelaroth]

... Hm.
Short-Haired NovoKaela has short hair.
Meep.

[Phaedra]

Anyway, lotta mathematicians here - but what about the humanities?

I offer a brofist of respect in favour of all fellow students of history, politics (especially IR), and philosophy.

I study English/EC law and was horribly forced lucky enough to study some philosophy, politics and various other social sciencey things last year. But I like the maths talk. Reminds me of my A-Level days, when I could still do a quadratic equation.

[Dallas-Dakota]

Sixth forms suck. Big time.
Also: your school/sixth form's weird. Going to a (UK) college you can pick right off the bat (from application) what you want to do and how many. And it doesn't matter if you're undecided as long as you're timetabled for x subjects a that's how many you're getting.
I'd advocate going for five right off; and I do know people who got D/C in things and still take five A Levels/ND (National Diploma) and A Levels (very hard as an ND's a full time course without the A Levels)/rock school (all music qualifications) ans A Levels; basically really heavy workloads just because they want to.
All you have to do is prove you can handle it. Plus, by going for five it means you've got a better choice for dropping things. How many people I've spoken to who said "I wish I'd dropped a instead of b." or "I wish I'd ketp c instead of d." is amazingly high. Basically more vareity, so by being timetabled for five you can switch (for the first month or so) between courses.

Oh, and actually in Britland the scoring system for exams goes:
A* - top 2% of grades in the country
A - top 10%
B - top 25%
C - top 45%
D - I don't know
E
F
G
U - got less than 18% in your final marks
X - being you missed the exam/failed to score even 10%

Technically, only U and X are failures, but everyone knows that it's Cs and above which count as passing.

Also:
I'm actually posting again! Curse my rebellious computer for not letting me post or ven access most pages and threads in the entire forum even after the thread purge.

Hmmm.....Curly Posts....
*smothers with hugs and duc tapes to the playground*

[unstattedCommoner]

I don't think many 14 year olds study advanced texts beyond recreation and even then only in the cases of extreme nerdiness.

I was suggesting you should read it.

Unrelated item: The British are coming.

[Illiterate Scribe]

Duh. I corrected it in my post.

You could have demonstrated it, using bold or something.

[Fredthefighter]

I was suggesting you should read it.

Unrelated item: The British are coming.

Yes, yes we are. We are watching always. Like the Mysterons.

[Sub_Zero]

I don't think many 14 year olds study advanced texts beyond recreation and even then only in the cases of extreme nerdiness.

Some of the people in our year got prizes to going to what we have called celebration evening where we celebrate people who are awesome such as myself. If you go three years they order a book for you, and one of the people I know got a science revision guide as their free book

[CurlyKitGirl]

Re: the Potter grading system: I remember reading in one book, this is one reason why it me me off the series, the grading system was:
A - Awful
B - Brilliant
S - Stupid
G - Great
etc.
What. The. Hell? Whaaaaaaaat?
Why couldn't she simply use the ordinary British grading system. It wouldn't even need to be adjusted for any country really. It doesn't take much to know that A is more than C.
But no.
She had to say A actually meant something. And how ridiculous!
I know of at least four children, pre - school/pre - knowing - what - those - grades - really - meant asking if this was true when [sibling/relative] came home from GCSE result time saying straight As and being jubilant and said young child saying, "But that's really really bad. You could have done better."
What a stupid thing to put in a book.
Either use a completely made up one or a real one, not some foolish jokey half and half one.[/rant]

@Fred: aaah, for the old (and good) Captain Scarlet. And not nightmare fuel at all with the end credits or the violently brutal deaths. Nope. Not nigtmare fuel at all. Especially not if you listen to the lyrics:
They smash him
But they know he'll return
To live again
Almost as good as the old Thunderbirds. Stingray was another good show.

[Fredthefighter]

Some of the people in our year got prizes to going to what we have called celebration evening where we celebrate people who are awesome such as myself. If you go three years they order a book for you, and one of the people I know got a science revision guide as their free book

We have to buy our revision guides.
Science: £2.50 to £3.50 each (Usually £5.00 each)
French: £2.50 each (Usually £5.00 each)

@Curly: I figured it out! Captain Scarlet must be an ancestor of Kenny from South Park! They both survive numerous deaths and injuries!
And now for some music And yes, I remember Stingray and Thunderbirds, I have one of their videos (yes VHS) somewhere.

[Dallas-Dakota]

Ha! I don't have french anymore!

[Player_Zero]

I was suggesting you should read it.

I don't read books, don't be silly.

You could have demonstrated it, using bold or something.

You could've read my post or something.

Use your mind's eye. See the invisible. Do the impossible.

Row row fight da powah.

[wadledo]

I don't read books, don't be silly.


You could've read my post or something.

Use your mind's eye. See the invisible. Do the impossible.

Row row fight da powah.

And the wit just doesn't stop.

[Fredthefighter]

And the wit just doesn't stop.

No it doesn't, because Player Zero was born to be wild.
I think that's the 5th or 6th time I've linked that song today. Yay for Steppenwolf.

[Coidzor]

Re: the Potter grading system: I remember reading in one book, this is one reason why it me me off the series, the grading system was:
A - Awful
B - Brilliant
S - Stupid
G - Great
etc.
What. The. Hell? Whaaaaaaaat?
Why couldn't she simply use the ordinary British grading system. It wouldn't even need to be adjusted for any country really. It doesn't take much to know that A is more than C.
But no.
She had to say A actually meant something. And how ridiculous!
I know of at least four children, pre - school/pre - knowing - what - those - grades - really - meant asking if this was true when [sibling/relative] came home from GCSE result time saying straight As and being jubilant and said young child saying, "But that's really really bad. You could have done better."
What a stupid thing to put in a book.
Either use a completely made up one or a real one, not some foolish jokey half and half one.[/rant]

Ah, but that's why she did it.

To mess with people. Because there's nothing more fun than being a prat.