Angloesque

The concept of negative tips in Consumer Issues JoeUser Forums

Fiance and I went out to eat yesterday evening. It was a bad day and we went to his favorite place, where we usually get great service from our usual waiter. The price is a little over $12 each, plus drinks, so it's middle of the road. I don't know what kind of management changes they'd had but our waitress and host were definitely new. Our waitress was horrible. It took her 10 minutes to take our order, which is pretty bad since we go there all the time and pretty much know what we wan

Reply to Holy Crap, I'm a professor now in Blogging JoeUser Forums

Wow. Thanks. My favorite was the teacher who didn't hand out a syllabus and was kind of disorganized. Very opposite of me. But he taught by indirection--we never knew we were learning until we compared what we wrote at the beginning to what we were putting out by the end. It's interesting. I figure since I'm teaching writing, the best way for them to learn is to, well, write. Anyway, thanks. Cheers.

An open letter to people who overuse capital letters in Blogging JoeUser Forums

DEAR EVERYONE WHO OVERUSES CAPITAL LETTERS, IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU'RE YELLING. Don't you think that a writer sounds calmer when you write with the correct capitalization? And maybe to emphasize a word, you could put asterisks around it (at least that's what *I* do) or, better yet, reword your sentence. That's how I would change the e-world. And for what it's worth, from a typographical viewpoint, it's really hard to read all caps. If I could change the real world, it woul

Critics and teachers in Blogging JoeUser Forums

Partially because I'm a masochist (according to its secondary definition), I go through every single comment anyone ever posts on anything I've ever posted. I analyze it to pieces, get mad, write a stinging reaction which I then e-mail to myself, wait a few hours or days, then write a reply which I post. Then I sit nervously, wondering if I accidentally pissed anyone off, and my heart beats a little too fast when I see that there is a new comment. Another reason I hate my field of study

Reply to The Dean Scream in Politics JoeUser Forums

Follow up to initial post: Interesting report on ABC news last night. Diane Sawyer, who interviewed Dean & wife Monday(?) night, played different footage from other cameras in the room that night. Apparently Dean used one of those hand-held mics that block background sound, much like the ones Sawyer et al use on their morning show. Anyway, in the room, you couldn't even hear his scream because the crowd was so loud. There's another take for ya. Moreover, a letter was sent (don

Reply to The Dean Scream in Politics JoeUser Forums

Huh, funny. You heard a lot about the scream, but not so much about those gaffes AR-15 mentioned: the book of Job in the New Testament (whoops, though in his defense there's a lot of malcontent on the actual era the book was written in), the confederate flags, or any of those other things. Perhaps they'll come out now, in the post-scream era. That's right, boys; knock him down, and then kick him with those past whoopsies to make sure he doesn't get up again. Atta boys. Well, that sounds

The Dean Scream in Politics JoeUser Forums

Having majored in communications, I generally just snort when someone suggests a vast liberal media conspiracy. As if we journalists have time to get together every day and say, "So, BobLindaMikeMitchFitchBobthesecondGeraldandGeraldine, whom shall we crucify today?" And we go through the video clips and sound bites and decide to make someone sound and look stupid. --Oh, wait, no. Sorry. No time. Doesn't happen, though I'll grant that people attracted to journalism tend to have similarities. That

Holy Crap, I'm a professor now in Blogging JoeUser Forums

Day 1: Official Teacher-reads-the-syllabus-while-students-struggle-to-stay-awake-day Bleak outlook. Students are tired. Worse, Professor is tired. It's 8 a.m. far too soon after New Year's and no one, least of all me, cares to hear what I have to say in the syllabus. So I finish quickly and have them free-write for 20 minutes to give me an idea of their grasp on English, which might be better than mine. Preparing first lecture for day 2. Do I really have to talk for an hour? Stud

We love them, but we love them better in Las Vegas in Blogging JoeUser Forums

Okay, see, isn't is usually the *girl* who wants to have/plan/revolve life around a wedding? It's the girl 'cause she wants a dress, flowers, pretty hair, pictures, etc., right? That's what conventional stereotypes tell me. They also whisper in my ear that I could use more propriety and that I could stand to wear nylons once in awhile, which is why I hate conventional wisdom and feminine stereotypes AND, as it happens, wedding planning. So fiance and I are getting married, theoreticall

Reply to Witticisms & wedding toasts in Home & Family JoeUser Forums

thanks. :)

Reply to Laws of Mass Stupidity in Consumer Issues JoeUser Forums

Amen to that. My opinions on stupid laws are the ones that require children to wear helmets. Don't you think that evolution would work better if the ones dumb enough to *not* wear helmets when they're skateboarding/whatever crashed and hurt themselves enough/killed themselves so that they couldn't procreate? Hooray for Oregon, yet another state to regulate our lives because we can't do it ourselves. Though I have to say, that question about WMD takes the cake. If I could get that quest

Witticisms & wedding toasts in Home & Family JoeUser Forums

Ah, the wedding toasts. Also known as my family's big chance to embarrass me/get me back for all the times I was the obnoxious youngest child. Not that I don't somehow deserve it, but perhaps the wedding isn't the best place, hmm? So Dear Old Dad will get up and say, Well, Tullola will hate me for saying this..., and launch into a most-detailed account of the embarrassing highlights of my life, beginning with peeing all over my grandpa when I was four, including the episode where I went

Reply to Vile resolutions in Misc JoeUser Forums

Yeah, I don't know what I'd do if I had more or less toes or fingers. That might just push me over the brink.

Vile resolutions in Misc JoeUser Forums

1. Remember passwords to all e-mail, blog, bank, ATM, etc. accounts 2. Decide if Vile Boyfriend should be sacked for failing to remember to come to family dinner, which am currently hiding from in effort to avoid showing red face, puffy eyes, and extremely pissed off mood 3. Stop writing in Helen Fielding/Bridget Jones's Diary style 4. Stop reading Helen Fielding/Bridget Jones's Diary-like books in effort to (1) read more important books and (2) sound more knowledgeabl

Reply to Five Products That Were A Complete Waste Of Money in Consumer Issues JoeUser Forums

Very clever. Here's my list. 1. Anything from Bath & Body Works. Smells fake, clumps after a few weeks. Current status: gathering dust under sink 2. My last dump (I mean, apartment with the meth lab neighbors beneath). Current status: occupied by family with three small children. Yech. (Okay, it's not a product....) 3. Grow-it-yourself amaryllis. Current status: (Amaryllis: please, please, just let me die in peace! Me: applying shock paddles a la ER to insert

The NRA and Nerf in Home & Family JoeUser Forums

Not only did I give my brother, who just turned 26, a Nerf gun for Christmas, but a *rapid-fire* Nerf gun. Am constantly dodging from wall to wall to avoid bruises. House sounds like plastic battlefield. Feel like real soldier. Who knew you could enjoy such clutter in your twenties?

T plus three days from Christmas in Misc JoeUser Forums

My bloody father likes to elicit reactions from me. In short, he likes to piss me off, then say, relax, geez, you're so uptight, to which I respond by walking away or ignoring him (a rabid fear of heights prevents me from taking the high road). Today we're watching football, my team fails to block a goal, my bloody father says oh bravo! let's see that again, and I say oh hell, must shower, and turn the telly off in a fit of disgust. Bloody Father says Tullola, that was very rude. I take the high