- o________________O (<-- me on your lawn)
-
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
mrsronweasley- December 11th, 13:42
- JON WALKER ACTUAL FAX SAVES CHRISTMAS FOR REAL
-
- skoosiepants
- December 11th, 8:36
I really really really wanted to write a cheesy romantic Hallmark Christmas AU! You know, where Spencer is having the worst Christmas Eve ever, and he has to deal with shit at work and seeing his ex (Patrick) at the holiday party and his best friend, Frank, who is SO ANNOYING even though he loves the little shit - and for the purposes of ANGELS, Ryan is dead and Jon Walker is MAGIC, because this is HALLMARK - and Brendon has a crush on him, only Spencer is totally not interested, Brendon drives him even more crazy than Frank. And Brendon's all, "What are you doing for Christmas?" because, see, Brendon's got no family, or at least none that want to see him, and Spencer just wants Brendon to leave him alone, so he's all mean to him - he doesn't know about Brendon's sad life, because Brendon's so HAPPY all the time - and Spencer has to do last minute shopping and he's all HARRIED and he doesn't HATE Christmas, but he really could deal without all the bustle this year. And ANYWAY, Jon Walker is the new coffee dude at Spencer's favorite coffee place, and he's all MYSTERIOUSLY AMUSED by Spencer and TOO AFFABLE and he knows Spencer's order before he gives it to him, and then, I don't know, Spencer runs into Brendon outside the coffee shop and he's SUPER MEAN to him for some reason and Brendon's all "...?" and TEARY EYED and he doesn't know what he ever did to Spencer to make him hate him so much, and Spencer's all sigh, whatever, "I'm sorry," and Brendon's all sad smile and, "It's okay," and he walks off and Spencer's like, "Shit, I suck," and the next day, Christmas Morn, he feels even WORSE about Brendon, just thinking about his face, so he looks up his employee crap at work and finds out where he lives and he goes over and Brendon's all ALONE, but he's all buck up, camper and he LIES THROUGH HIS TEETH and Spencer doesn't realize until later that night that he's basically made Brendon's holiday HORRIBLE, and he's UPSET and he finds himself outside of the coffee shop and Jon Walker's all, "Hey," with a cigarette and a cup of coffee, mysteriously THERE, and Spencer finds himself spilling out the whole story and how he feels sucky and his family's mad at him and everything's just WRONG and Jon Walker's like, "You could have a do-over," and Spencer's all, "...?" and Jon's like, "A Christmas do-over man, everybody gets one, haven't you ever watched the Hallmark channel?" and then he touches Spencer in the middle of the forehead and everything goes black, and Spencer wakes up in his bed on Christmas Eve morning and he feels like there's something OFF, and he gets deja vu all morning, and then he sees Brendon and it HITS HIM and he's like HOLY SHIT JON WALKER. AND STUFF GETS FIXED.
And then at the very end Jon Walker's in the coffee shop by himself, cleaning up, and he's all, "So are you happy now?" and Ryan MATERIALIZES because HE'S A GHOST AND JON WALKER'S HIS BEST ANGEL PAL, and Ryan's all deadpanned, "Of course," and everything is awesome again. AND THUS JON WALKER SAVES CHRISTMAS.
THIS IS ALL I ACTUALLY WROTE BEFORE GIVING UP:
( It isn’t that Spencer doesn’t like Christmas. )
- Classroom assistant school: alternative pedagogical methods week
-
- cimness
- December 11th, 12:28
On one hand, I am very interested in the things I'm learning about special education and pedagogical methods. On the other hand, much as I appreciate sharing the classroom entirely with mature adult women in a variety of ages who are serious about this, every now and then I am still (in a disturbing flashback to secondary school) plagued by other people's slowness or incompetence.
For example, this week out of 5 short presentations on alternative pedagogical methods by my classmates, two talked for twice as long as I had done in mine while failing to present both the central tenets of the philosophy and what the method actually does, which are kind of the essential parts. It seems fairly basic and hard to mess up, but the girl who talked about Steiner schools babbled for a good five minutes about organic food, but at the end of her three-page powerpoint outline, we had learned nothing about what goes on in a Steiner classroom and the lecturer had to take over and give a mini-talk about it. The woman who covered Vygotskij gave an excellent summation of how his methods are applied, but failed to include the key concepts related to his theories.
One thing that's striking about the various alternative methodologies and theories (Montessori, Steiner, Vygotskij, Freinet, Reggio Emilia, John Dewey) is that they have a lot in common, and all focus on working with children's inherent curiosity and desire to learn, allowing them to direct their studies or set their own pace, and letting the teacher guide them instead of just reading textbooks out loud for them to then regurgitate in the form of a string of worksheets, unimaginative questions requiring in answer nothing but rephrased sentences directly from the book, and fill-in-the-blank and multiple choice tests (you can tell I'm still bitter: a better word might be traumatized). Practical applications, the real world, concretization... all of these are common ground probably because they're so close to the natural way children learn when given the chance, and as such are fairly obvious.
So why the persistent clinging to the "traditional" methods which are practically the worst possible way to teach anyone, not just children with alternative learning styles, learning difficulties, and above- or below-average intelligence? Why, when they've been empirically shown to suck for decades? I don't mean to imply that methods in school aren't changing, because I know that they had become more flexible already when I was in primary school compared to my mother's experiences 26 years prior (not enough to make school anything but exquisitely boring torture, but it was better than nothing), and in secondary school - in the classes aimed specifically and exclusively at "gifted" and advanced students - I was lucky to have more alternative learning methods than most, but usually on a small scale, nothing to the extent of student-directed independent studies or broad interdisciplinary theme-oriented units (with a few exceptions).
As a child I was often told by my mom that my paltry few hours a week of special "enrichment" classes, the sole interesting and exciting parts of my education (once exiled from Montessori paradise at age 6), were needed far more by my classmates who were excluded from them. It was her opinion that a determined and intelligent person can always learn if they try (projecting a bit there, Mom) and that the vast majority of "average" students are in need of help, and would be a more appropriate target for the better teaching methods and more personal attention. (I was never so self-effacing as to be able to wish to trade the saving grace of my school week away, however.) I always felt conflicted about this issue as a result, because my mom seemed to feel that I should feel guilty for benefiting above my classmates simply due to IQ testing - an arbitrary measure that doesn't actually measure intelligence blah blah Gardner being good at different things (already drummed into my head at a very early age) - and nothing to do with merit. My mom is nothing if not anti-elitist.
As an adult, though, I have seen through the conflict. Obviously there is still one considering the inadequate resources in most school systems which result in them having to undertake a kind of triage, so that it's not unbelievable that the question is either/or for "enrichment" or so-called "special education" (for learning disabilities, I mean, since provision for the physically/severely handicapped is to an extent mandated by law, and is less easily carved away - not that schools don't try. However, in my system, the physically handicapped or severely handicapped had no choice but to attend the one special needs school which was fully accessible, while children suffering from less visible disabilities like grave learning difficulties were frequently stuffed back into classes with everyone else to receive wholly inadequate help and attention and usually to fail and eventually drop out).
Morally, though, all students deserve to be taught with methods that actually are effective. Leaving aside the matter of extra resources, all children, the average, the high- and low-IQed, the learning disabled and the physically disabled, equally deserve to be taught in a way that makes learning interesting and fun, stimulates their own curiosity and motivation, and trains them to investigate and think critically - by which I mean with alternative pedagogical methods. I can't believe that there would be anything but improvement if all primary schools were Montessori, Steiner, or Freinet.
Original post on Dreamwidth at http://cimorene.dreamwidth.org/2786418.html. Comment there or read comments.
- plebefic warnings: outdoor sex, "mentions of having a hard on", "smexing", mpreg (if you squint)
-
- cimness
- December 11th, 12:21
- Warning: cussing, some touching, mentions of having a hard on [Definitely don't read this if you're offended by the thought of hard-ons existing. But then again, why are you combing plebe communities for slash?]
- Warning: kinda-NSFW but not really. Not very graphic but then again it depends on how sheltered you are... >.>
- Genre: Erotica
Warnings: Smexing. [translation: Warning: I am the sort of person who uses nauseating and stupid terms like 'smexing' and feels the need to warn for sex in a story already rated NC-17 and described as erotica] - [Warning] A hint of mpreg if you squint [DON'T SQUINT. DON'T.]
- Warnings: Outdoor sex. [...]
Original post on Dreamwidth at http://cimorene.dreamwidth.org/2786228.html. Comment there or read comments.
- Etnies Women's "Myra" (olive) & Rocket Dog "Squeeze" (beige & brown)
-
- cimness
- December 11th, 12:08
Interesting euphemisms for animal print, there.
I'm going to start posting more ballet flats (and occasionally non-flat dress shoes when they take my fancy) for the next little while, since many people find themselves in need of those sorts of shoes at this time of year. I'm not going to any Christmas parties myself, but my thoughts have gone that direction anyway. I'm a firm believer that every woman should own black, red, and metallic flats at minimum (in which case, I'm kind of falling down, since in retrospect, my black ones are not adequate to be worn out of the house).
Original post on Dreamwidth at http://cimorene.dreamwidth.org/2785834.html. Comment there or read comments.
- rambles.
-
- saint_sorrows
- December 11th, 4:00
- Things for which I wish!
-
- mrsronweasley
- December 10th, 16:52
- Christmas Present Prompts!
-
- ivesia19
- December 10th, 15:01
restless
A list of drabbles from this post of Christmas present prompts!
Ryan/Spencer. Xmas love confessions with dirty kisses
Ryan/Brendon/Audrey. on a boat.
5 things Ryan Ross never said to Pete Wentz
ryan/alex. at a carol recital
RYAN/PATRICK AND RYAN/BRENDON advent calendar
Brendon/Ryan. Rain.
Pete/Mikey and something magical.
Dean/Cas, decorations
Dean/Castiel in a shopping mall in December
Merlin/Arthur verbal sparring
Brendon/Ryan fluffy first Christmas
Arthur's reaction to finding out Merlin is magical
Ryan/Brendon. Ryan decided he would cook the Christmas dinner. Fail happens.
Brendon/Ryan Christmas Lights
Pete/Ashlee coming home from tour
Jon/Eric Jon watching Black Gold
Jon/Spencer smoking
Possissve!Cas?/Deanneedstolearnhisplace!Dean
ryland/guy ripley Guy is lost in Central Park
- Brendon Urie, circus bear
-
- redorchids
- December 10th, 16:46
In case you haven't already seen this awesome video chat interview: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/2719848
Favourite parts:
- Brendon's favourite colour is cerulean (these are the kinds of statements that make me want to ship Brencer more than I do. SO EASY. lol)
- Brendon's favourite Harry Potter character is Severus Snape. \o/
- And he likes Wolverine!like all boys should
Soes anyone know if there's a transcript of this somewhere?Also, who is writing Snape/Brendon? Or possibly just snarky Snape&Brendon. Where Brendon joins the Order as some kind of American consult. Oh, and Harry gets jealous with Brendon sweeping in and stealing all the attention. y/y? :D
- Pink Studio - Bibliophile
-
- cimness
- December 10th, 13:34
Original post on Dreamwidth at http://cimorene.dreamwidth.org/2785407.html. Comment there or read comments.
- plebefic headers: all ryan ross's base are belong to us
-
- cimness
- December 10th, 13:31
- Summary: What happens when the twin daughters of David Cook and David Archuleta meet for the first time?
- Summary: Dean’s eyes are green. Mostly.
- Summary: Adam finds out about 'the pictures' and is sad, Kris fixes it..
- Summary: It wasn’t like Dean was expecting at all.
- Summary: Ryan Ross was involved in a car accident that erased his central base of memory. He remembers only the truly eventful moments of his life: his mother leaving, his father getting abusive, getting taken away, falling in love, the accident. Now, he's in a mental rehabilitation center to try and get his memory back.
Original post on Dreamwidth at http://cimorene.dreamwidth.org/2785172.html. Comment there or read comments.
- Fantastic.
-
- keraha
- December 10th, 4:36
Arthur Ganson's stuff is so damn cool.
While I'm sure they're amazing in person, there's a certain joy in watching video of his work because of the slow reveal.
There's just something about being able to recreate the world in such a way that lets other people see it the way you do. Each piece is like stepping into a thought.
- determine
-
- bexless
- December 10th, 9:31
I don't usually post the results of these kinds of memes, but this one cracked me up:Climb in the back with your head in the bexless,
and you're gone.
LOL. Amazing.
Non-fic recs:
I've been meaning to mentionfox1013's fabulous Yuletide collage countdown Each Peach Pear Fandom. It's so fun! And witty and smart and cool and there is/will eventually be something for EVVVVERYONE I am sure :D :D :D Go check it out! All the previous entries are linked from each new post. I love it.
Another daily joy-bringer is the Daily Puzzle over atmecurtin's Good Book of the Day. Today's is especially extra super-cute: I currently do the puzzles on medium but I think I am going to try to upgrade to hard (lol hard) soon. I like them because they have all the good parts of jigsaws but are a different picture every time, and plus it is impossible to lose a vital piece to the vacuum. \o/
- rambles.
-
- saint_sorrows
- December 10th, 4:00
- (beginning of) A Typography of Georgette Heyer; Georgette Heyer's Secret Playbook; Heyer recs
-
- cimness
- December 9th, 20:49
I've started making a list of subgenre/tropes in the Heyer books which are thus far in my collection, and you know, I think you could make a whole typology of these comparable to that Anatomy of Folklore book.
As I was remarking to![[personal profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
isilya the other day, reading a lot of Heyers is a bit like reading a large collection of SGA AUs, for example. One can have little doubt that it is the same cast of characters being recycled again and again, usually rotated through different roles in the story. So a good step there would be making a cast list of Heyer Types. An example will be a handful of recs for the Heyer neophyte who has read none of the well-known ones aside from The Grand Sophy and Cotillion (which are first recs of course). - The Masqueraders (sub-genre: London, Georgian, B-romance: brother) - this is the CROSSDRESSING one! In which the whole book contains two intertwined romances. A brother and sister, children of a con man on the lam and raised to be experts in his arts, decide to go into hiding in plain sight in London... by going in drag. The heroine assumes the guise of a gentleman, and she and the hero fall in love like that; and her brother assumes the guise of a lady, and he and the reigning belle of society fall in love like that. OMGSOAWESOME, though its originality of concept and plot means that it has little in common with the other Heyers in the typography.
- The Talisman Ring (sub-genre: country house, humor, mystery, B-romance: younger) (notable types: Sense of Humor Woman as the heroine; Spoiled/Stupid Young Beauty as the B-heroine; Fervently Earnest Foreigner as the B-hero) - a charming adventure story saturated with meta
- Friday's Child (sub-genre: London, post-marriage, sinister seducer) (notable types: Naïve Chit as the heroine; Charming & Airheaded Daredevil as the hero; Knowing One and Amiable Fool as the Comic Relief Sidekick Pair) - one of the most requested Yuletide fandoms due to a pair of extremely gay secondary characters, Gil Ringwood and Ferdy Fakenham. Actually starts somewhat before the marriage, but gets it over with inside a chapter or two.
- April Lady (sub-genre: London, post-marriage, gambling brother, B-romance: younger) (notable types: Earnest Girl as the heroine; My Child Man as the hero; Impetuous Spoiled Brat as the B-heroine; Worthy But Boring Man as the B-hero; Knowing One as the BFF; Charming & Airheaded Daredevil and Amiable Fool as the Comic Relief Sidekick Pair) - my favorite of Heyer's not-uncommon romances which start after the principals are already married, with some favorite secondary characters including the heroine's brother Dysart and his friend Cornelius "Corny" Fancot, who are less gay but sometimes funnier than Friday's Child's Gil and Ferdy. Corny and Ferdy are the same Heyer Type, but Gil and Dysart are different.
- The Reluctant Widow (sub-genre: country house, humor, mystery) (notable types: Sense of Humor Woman as the heroine; Man With A Plan as the hero; Worthy But Boring Man and Young Scamp as the hero's brothers) - one of the most hilarious Heyers by my lights and a favorite due to a cosy nesting atmosphere and a favorite secondary character in the hero's young brother Nicky, who is a prankster; although, fair warning, isilya dislikes this one because there's a bit of insanity/crack in the premise.
- Venetia (sub-genre: adult, country house) (notable types: Sense of Humor Woman as the heroine; Rake as the hero; Young Genius as the heroine's brother; Worthy But Boring Man and Infatuated Puppy as the heroine's previous suitors) - one of the nicest of Heyer's romances which deal with two mature adult characters, with an amusing cast of characters including the heroine's memorably disabled brother
- The Unknown Ajax (sub-genre: country house, mystery) (notable types: Sense of Humor Woman as the heroine; Young Scamp, Dandy, and Sarcasm Man as the hero's cousins; Magical Noblewoman as the heroine's aunt) - one of Heyer's most successful adventure and mystery plots, plus a very unique hero who puts on a hilarious fake Yorkshire dialect when he realizes that his snobby family think he is a hick; also notable for gay secondary characters (Scamp/Rake! I ship it!).
- Bath Tangle (sub-genre: Bath, adult, B-romance: older) (Spunky Woman as the heroine; Sarcasm Man as the hero; Worrying Woman as the B-heroine; Not!Col-Brandon as the B-hero) - my favorite of Heyer's books set in Bath because the secondary characters and plot are funniest in this one
- Sprig Muslin (sub-genre: cross-country quest, taking care of others' teenagers, spoiled/stupid beauty, invisible heroine, humor, B-romance: younger) (notable types: Man With A Plan as the hero; Earnest Girl as the invisible heroine; Spoiled/Stupid Young Beauty as the B-heroine) - a rollicking madcap adventure, one of my mom's all-time favorite Heyers, and probably my favorite of the ones where a beleaguered hero ends up, simply due to his gentlemanliness, saddled with some exasperating young teenager/runaway and spends the whole book trying to dispose of them again. I actually like all the books in this sub-genre fairly well, but they also all have in common the Invisible Heroine, which means she barely appears on page and certainly barely interacts with the hero. There's some kind of Iron Law of Heroines Staying at Home While the Hero Deals With These Annoying Kids in Heyer's Secret Playbook, I'm pretty sure. Anyway, while I like the books on their own merits, I do hate that about them. I actually like the romance in the quite similar Charity Girl better, but I find Sprig Muslin a lot more fun.
Original post on Dreamwidth at http://cimorene.dreamwidth.org/2784866.html. Comment there or read comments.
- plebefic warnings: Disney spoilers, mild porn, "shot", bad physics & French
-
- cimness
- December 9th, 14:42
- Warnings: Spoilers for Beauty and the Beast, Alice In Wonderland, and Pocahontas.
- Warning: Uhhh. *Mild* sexytimes? Porn, porn, porn.
- [Warnings] shot as f**k.
- WARNINGS: Mansex, a high-school understanding of physics.
- [Warnings] Badly translated French.
Original post on Dreamwidth at http://cimorene.dreamwidth.org/2784546.html. Comment there or read comments.
- New Balance women's WR993 pink
-
- cimness
- December 9th, 14:41
Original post on Dreamwidth at http://cimorene.dreamwidth.org/2784505.html. Comment there or read comments.
- ily miss manners
-
- cimness
- December 9th, 13:59
Dear Miss Manners:
What is a proper response to a compliment bestowed upon one's pet? Because of his striking appearance, my dog receives numerous compliments when out in public.
"Say 'thank you,' Fido."
lollll.
Original post on Dreamwidth at http://cimorene.dreamwidth.org/2784040.html. Comment there or read comments.
- rambles.
-
- saint_sorrows
- December 9th, 4:00
- fundamentalism: a foreign (?), but surprisingly relevant concept in Finland?
-
- cimness
- December 8th, 23:43
Today in class, the lecturer made this speech:"In first grade my daughter was taught that the universe started with the Big Bang and everything, but then in second grade religion class she was taught that God said 'Let there be light' and all, and she was like, 'I don't really get how these two things go together.'"
She elaborated that that is the typical age at which children are taught Genesis at public school, provided that they (like the vast majority of Finns) are members of the state Lutheran church (despite the fact that Finland is a vastly areligious and non-churchgoing country, mind)1.
Shocked, I asked wasn't it true that Lutherans were taught that the Bible isn't meant to be taken literally? The teacher just looked at me blankly. Because they're not actually fundamentalists, and it's fundamentalists who take it literally? I said. She still seemed confused, and could only offer that there are different people who interpret it with different amounts of literalness. Naturally, but I was taught that the whole POINT (like, salient feature) of fundamentalism was taking as literally true things that according to the doctrines of older classical Christian denominations... weren't considered to be (such as creating the universe in exactly one week, and the world being 6000 years old, and pi being 3 exactly). So I was kind of in a state of culture shock.
I was determinedly inattentive to Christian mythology as an Atheist, half-Jew child; but I have vague theoretical knowledge of these different sects, mostly historical, that encompasses their basic Thing, like Catholicism = the Pope and the Trinity and the saints damn near verging on the polytheistic at times; and Episcopalian = Henry VIII's divorces; and Martin Luther = transubstantiation, the Lutheran work ethic, the Bible in German (?); and Presbyterianism = hardcore predestination, etc. I don't care super much about such differences, but it passed before my eyes in European history a couple of different times and was occasionally interesting. And I really thought that your typical Christian denomination has an official doctrine, comparable to the Vatican's but usually not as determinedly stupid and backward, and wouldn't that lay out how literally or not the Bible is to be taken? Because it's not like that doesn't make a difference.
Then she capped it all off with this:"Whatever it's called--Fundamentalism--I don't know what that might be, if that's what you call it."
-_- So now I'm like, okay, can ANYTHING she says about religion be trusted? Or is the question of whether you take the mythology literally or not really that foreign to the Finnish notion of religion? Or is she simply so unfamiliar with the concept of fundamentalism (or indeed crazy USA-style Christians by any other name) that she was thinking I meant that Lutherans don't literally believe Jesus to be the son of God or something, instead of that they perhaps don't literally believe that it took God exactly six days to create the universe?
Although it wasn't as gobsmacking as the time at ÅA a few years ago in Folkloristics when we were supposed to be having a lecture on (yes, really, no lie) anthropological methodology and the lecturer didn't know who Jane Goodall was...- She also remarked that she didn't know how parents could respond to such a tough question, and I am also puzzled by that. How the teacher could respond, yes, that's something that you could legit agonize over, not that I would, but a parent? Simply telling the child which one the parent believes is probably perfectly adequate, though not as good as a complete basic explanation of the issue, which also isn't that hard to do. By grade 2 most children are well able to handle the concepts of 'fictional story', 'true story', and 'belief', even if their understanding isn't complete.
Original post on Dreamwidth at http://cimorene.dreamwidth.org/2783860.html. Comment there or read comments.
- Page Summary
-
- mrsronweasley — o________________O (<-- me on your lawn) — 46 comments
- skoosiepants — JON WALKER ACTUAL FAX SAVES CHRISTMAS FOR REAL — 17 comments
- cimness — Classroom assistant school: alternative pedagogical methods week — 1 comment
- cimness — plebefic warnings: outdoor sex, "mentions of having a hard on", "smexing", mpreg (if you squint)
- cimness — Etnies Women's "Myra" (olive) & Rocket Dog "Squeeze" (beige & brown)
- saint_sorrows — rambles.
- mrsronweasley — Things for which I wish! — 35 comments
- ivesia19 — Christmas Present Prompts!
- redorchids — Brendon Urie, circus bear — 11 comments
- cimness — Pink Studio - Bibliophile
- cimness — plebefic headers: all ryan ross's base are belong to us
- keraha — Fantastic. — 1 comment
- bexless — determine — 4 comments
- saint_sorrows — rambles.
- cimness — (beginning of) A Typography of Georgette Heyer; Georgette Heyer's Secret Playbook; Heyer recs
- cimness — plebefic warnings: Disney spoilers, mild porn, "shot", bad physics & French
- cimness — New Balance women's WR993 pink
- cimness — ily miss manners
- saint_sorrows — rambles.
- cimness — fundamentalism: a foreign (?), but surprisingly relevant concept in Finland?
