Dear Diary: Question Of The Day(s)

[Browncoat]

If it's a cold, dreary day, lounging on my sofa, wrapped in a quilt, reading a book.

If it's a warm (but not too hot) day, lounging on my porch swing, reading a book.

Too hot, and I'm back inside with the A/C on, wrapped in a quilt, reading a book.

[Moose135]

Grab the camera, jump in the car, and go find someplace to shoot - up to the mountains, down to the shore, or maybe just hang out at the airport and shoot planes.

[AgentRXS]

Spending the day on the couch cuddling up with the boyfriend and watching dumb movies or TV, preferably with the weather cool enough that I can leave all the windows open and catch a nice breeze.

If I'm feeling like I need me time, the perfect Sunday would lying be around in bed reading a good book and hanging out with the cats. In both scenarios, I would prefer my neighbors to be gone for the day so that I could have perfect peace and quiet.

Edited May 29, 2019 by AgentRXS

[ABay]

Steady rain from Friday afternoon to early Monday morning, just the right temperature and humidity that I can crack open a window to hear the rain, and nothing to do but read and nap and maybe watch something British on Netflix or Prime. 

[Kelly]

Oh gosh...working out together w my husband or going for a long hike together (we rarely get to exercise together)...both Sat and Sun.

Getting one of our projects COMPLETELY done over the weekend.  

Hanging out w friends at our house for drinks/dinner or going out to a favorite place, where there is no wait...

[Drogo]

Devil Lord, the Monarch of Men. 

...actually that sounds about right. 

[Annber03]

Red Professor, The Richest of Mars.

'Kay...

[FormerMod-a1]

Red Born, the Ruler of Hope

[formerlyfreedom]

White Doom, the Assassin of Men.

Women, children, and pets, you're all safe!

[AgentRXS]

Dark Killer, The Consort of Men. Okie dokie.

[GaT]

Star Tyrant, The Master of Earth.

There gonna be some changes made, yep, The Master has spoken.

[ABay]

White Tempter*, the Eviscerator of Earth. Do not attempt to thwart the Eviscerator, @GaT, or you shall feel the sting of my wrath!

*I thought it said Templar and got all excited about getting the Holy Grail.

[partofme]

Tri Whip The Reviled of Asia

[Mindthinkr]

Tidal Warrior Watcher of Metropolis

Almost fitting as I live next to the ocean. 

[Browncoat]

Star Lord, the Richest of Women.

If I'm Star Lord, do I get my very own trash panda?  (I also will admit to thinking about naming my new car Yondu, because it's blue and has a fin (even though the fin isn't red).)

[JTMacc99]

Killer Lord the Survivor of Law.

That’s terrible.

No wonder I’m a super villain. Anyone growing up with that name was bound to have some issues. 

[Drogo]

9 minutes ago, JTMacc99 said:

 the Survivor of Law.

You're like Elle Woods gone to the Dark Side

[Rose Quartz]

Star Killer, the Silencer of Hope

Whoa.  I'm a lot more hardcore than I ever realized.

[ParadoxLost]

Star Fist, the Hated of the Future

[raven]

Devil Lord, the Mercenary of the Future

if I still had the ex's last name it would be

Devil Doctor, the Mercenary of the Future, which is kind of funny.

[ratgirlagogo]

Red Killer, the Master of Europe.  

this seems so weak, somehow.  It's the Europe part that bothers me - so I'm powerless on the other seven continents?  That is beat.  Plus there are only two continents - C = Europe and confusingly both M and Z = Asia.

[ebk57]

Tri Fist, The Eviscerator of Hope.

Strong.  And kinda weird. 

[harrie]

Quake Lord, the Keeper of Earth

[BookWoman56]

White Doctor, the Survivor of the Future. The hell? Am I supposed to be Doctor Who?

[scarynikki12]

Tidal Lord The Mercenary Of the Future 

[GHScorpiosRule]

White Thorn, The Feared.

Me:😒

[MargeGunderson]

Infinity Tempter, The Hated of Men.

Not sure what the career path is for that....

[Drogo]

Who was your favorite teacher growing up, and why? 

What grade were you in / what subject was it? 

What do you remember most about them? 

[Mindthinkr]

I was lucky to have several great teachers. One was a beautiful young woman who was my Spanish teacher. After she moved and married, I went to go visit her and we played Jeopardy. She was like a mentor to me and I still do some things just like she did, but I’m not going to say what. She’d also come over to have dinner with my parents and I and we all had drinks. Things were pretty lax way back then. It would never be allowed to happen nowadays. 

Another was a chemistry teacher. He had to come to my house (parental supervision of course) as I was seriously ill and we used to sneak cigarettes together. He had a great sense of humor and made learning chemistry fun. 

Edited June 10, 2019 by Mindthinkr

[JTMacc99]

Ms. Griffith, 5th grade.

5th grade about when I started to get a sense of myself, but before puberty and girls started messing with my head. I remember become much more social in her class, getting to learn that when I was good at something academically, that a teacher could encourage me to look into it further with extra assignments.

I also spent part of that year with my desk facing the wall because I wouldn't shut up and pay attention when I was in the standard four desk clusters. For whatever reason (okay, I know exactly the reason) I actually enjoyed being one of the "troublemakers" who had his desk against the wall sometimes.

What I remember most about her was that she "got" me. Which is a pretty cool thing to figure out when you're like 10 or 11 years-old.

[Annber03]

I had a lot of cool teachers, too. Math wasn't my greatest subject, but I had a high school math teacher that knew how to teach the subject in a way that made me get a better grasp on it. And I had a lot of great English teachers-one reason of many why that was always my favorite subject in school.

My favorite teacher, however, was one that wasn't even my particular teacher. She taught the 5th grade class next to mine. But one day, our teachers opened up the divider between our classes and had us all working on some creative writing assignment. At one point, she looked at the story I'd written and complimented it. I'd loved writing stories as a kid, but that comment from her made me realize that I could make my writing into more than a hobby if I wished. I still like to write, and I'm hoping that someday I'll have my own stories published professionally. 

To make things even better, I ran into that teacher a few years back when I was working at the bookstore here in town, and I got to tell her how inspiring she was :). 

[Browncoat]

There was a teacher in the second grade who noticed I kept moving closer to the front of the class and squinting, and recommended to my parents that I get my eyes checked.  I'm not sure my parents would have noticed at that time.  That turned out to be pretty important -- I desperately needed glasses! 

I'm not sure I really had a favorite teacher, though.  There were several others throughout the years who had positive impacts (and more than a few who had negative impacts!) -- my Biology teacher in 10th and 12th grades, a couple of English teachers, and maybe one of my kindergarten teachers, who really fostered a love of reading, and helped tremendously with reading skills.

[AgentRXS]

The only teacher that stands out for me is Mrs. Thompson, it was either 7th or 8th grade math.

She treated us like the budding adults we thought we were. She tried to teach us about how to manage a checkbook, how to to keep a budget, buying vs leasing a car, credit, etc. We were too young to really get it, but I loved having after-class conversations with her about life.

[JTMacc99]

I’d also like to give a nod to my 7th grade English teacher, where my appreciation of grammar got its start. 

I still remember her lessons on the forms of the verb “to be”.

is/am/are/was/were/be/being/been

[ParadoxLost]

I'd characterize these more as my memorable teachers.

For AP Calculus, the class decided that Fridays where theme days based on the color yellow.  Mostly having to do with bringing yellow snacks.  I have no idea why.  I always thought it was nice of the teacher to put up with it.  One day, we had a substitute.  The AP Calc teacher left a note to just take us outside and let us sit out on the Football field as we were uncontrollable.

My AP English teacher taught me that all fiction written in first person is wrong.  It took me decades to let that go enough to read fiction in first person POV.  To this day, I find myself irritated with entire fiction genres for being dominated by first person POV even though I've been forced to grudgingly capitulate.

I had a Latin teacher.  He was in some kind of love triangle with the Herr German teacher over the French teacher.  He used to gossip about it to the class a lot.  Once he even took the class from his room to the German teachers room (who was on a break) and proceeded to go through all his drawers.  I remember a loaf of bread being pulled out of the desk.

I would like to take a moment to apologize to all the great teachers I had that this is what I remember with the most clarity.

[Annber03]

2 minutes ago, ParadoxLost said:

I had a Latin teacher.  He was in some kind of love triangle with the Herr German teacher over the French teacher.  He used to gossip about it to the class a lot.  Once he even took the class from his room to the German teachers room (who was on a break) and proceeded to go through all his drawers.  I remember a loaf of bread being pulled out of the desk.

...wow...

Any word on how that whole situation resolved itself, if it did? 

[ParadoxLost]

7 minutes ago, Annber03 said:

...wow...

Any word on how that whole situation resolved itself, if it did? 

I don't know if it ever did.  It hadn't by the I was done with my foreign language requirements.  

I always got the impression that they were vying for the French teacher's attention rather than anything going on.  There was something that pathetic about it,  The Latin teacher would complain about the Geman teacher buying a certain new car to impress the French teacher.

Now that I'm grown I'm kind of surprised that no parents or administrators heard enough about that to ever shut it down.   It was totally inappropriate.  We must have had an instinctive understanding that gossiping about it would have shutdown the entertainment. 

[formerlyfreedom]

Oh, so hard to choose....

Sister Marjorie put the fear of god into me in first grade. Scared the bejesus out of me and made me pick exactly one way to spell my name (there is a variety, you see). Mrs. Hoffmann was my fifth grade teacher, who had the lovely habit of waving her finger around, pointing at everyone, accentuating every point - completely oblivious that she was using her middle finger, which made a HUGE impression on a classroom of fifth and sixth graders. And of course, Sister Wilfred was freshman year algebra - she'd taught my uncle a few decades earlier, and mine was the last class she had. She had no issue with picking her nose while teaching equations and then inspecting her find.

But the two that made the biggest impression were Mrs. Klenske (3rd grade), who was still actively teaching just a few years ago, and had my nephew in third grade at a different school. She was so kind and supportive of me, and listened to whatever I had to say. And Mr. Brimeyer, AP English my senior year who got me to read and discuss Billy Budd, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and Great Expectations; he had the most wicked comb over ever. I heard a few years later he 'parted' ways with it, which is shame.

[ebk57]

Oh my, where to start... 

My math teachers through junior high and high schools.  I was in an experimental class that didn't break out math into segments (algebra one year, trig one year, etc.), but just went through all 3 years at each school with the same class and the same teachers and all the maths mixed up.  It was wonderful, even if I need a calculator to add anything up now. 

My English teacher in high school.  My journalism teacher in junior high school.  

But the teacher who had the most impact on my life was Mr. Anzalone, the drama teacher in high school.  He totally turned my life around and instead of becoming a teacher myself, I became...  a bank teller, then a finance person for athletes because I needed a day job to make rent (I'm still paying bills for the athletes - that's kinda fun). The day jobs allowed me to keep my "real" job - the stage doorman at the National Theatre for 35 years where I've made the most wonderful friends and met my wonderful husband.  I still see Mr. Anzalone sometimes.  I'm forever grateful to him.  

And then there was the most important teacher of all - my mother, who was a  substitute teacher all through my elementary school years. She was good at her job and didn't let the kids slack off just because she was a sub.  Sometimes, they didn't like that, but I somehow made it through without anyone beating me up.  Some of the kids actually came to appreciate her and I appreciated that.    I miss her. 

[ABay]

I had many memorable teachers in K-12, and later at universities.

For example, the Classics dept at UB* was composed entirely of enthusiastic smokers. When the campus buildings became no-smoking zones, they would huddle in one professor's office with the window open so they could puff away. From the ground, it looked like they'd elected a new pope. 

However, the one I've been thinking of lately is Dr. Charles Cazeau. He taught, among other courses, GEO 101: Great Mysteries of the Earth, in which we learned to apply critical thinking skills to urban legends and pseudoscience. Not only was he a fantastic and funny lecturer, but the course has inspired me to do something similar in the critical thinking course I'll be teaching in the fall. I'm going to use conspiracy theories and "fake news" examples. That's the plan, anyway.

*University of Buffalo/SUNY Buffalo/University at Buffalo...more name changes than Zsa Zsa Gabor.

[scarynikki12]

I've been fortunate when it comes to teachers. I didn't encounter a bad teacher until I got to college so picking a single favorite is impossible.

Special shout out to my mom, who I never had, but who I know is on many of my classmates favorites list. She knows tons already about American History but is always eager to learn even more. She also can't work a VCR or DVD player which has brought her students endless joy.

On my list I'd have to start with Dr. Lavine. I had her in both Western Civ and Social Conscience and she was fantastic. To this day Western Civ is the hardest class I've ever had and the single best preview of what we could expect from college. Nothing else we did to prepare for our college years came close to her class. She retired a few years ago and all the subsequent Western Civ classes are poorer for not having her.

Next is Mrs. Coble in Classical Lit. Our course load was standard: Aristophanes to Shakespeare. What makes her stand out were how she made the readings contemporary and her personality. When we studied epic poetry she showed us the original Star Wars trilogy to drive home the longevity of that storytelling format. She was also a great sport and funny. This was the year her husband had his midlife crisis so we heard many stories about new hairstyles, outfits, and one memorable one being the day he bought a Porsche. She rolled her eyes as she told us about it and said she was going along with his process of accepting his age as long as he didn't end up in jail. He's since gotten over his crisis.

[Drogo]

It's happening: we're playing F/M/K with the FRIENDS characters.

F:

M:

K:

*bonus points for explanations why.

[AgentRXS]

If I loathe Friends, can I still participate?

 

[Drogo]

Just now, AgentRXS said:

If I loathe Friends, can I still participate?

Only if you follow the rules. 

F:

M:

K:

Go

[JTMacc99]

F: Rachael. I’m sure the thought crossed my mind back in the 90s, to be honest. 

M: Phoebe. Cool, independent, and the kind of crazy I would enjoy. 

K: Sorry Monica. I know how to cook, and clean and organized is just not that important to me. 

Note: Totally different order if we are sorting out the actors instead of the characters. 

[auntlada]

F: Joey. It was apparently the thing he was good at.

M: Chandler. I like the sarcastic sense of humor. It goes well with mine.

K: Ross. The whining. And whining. And whining. Gah!

I'm not into women, so I don't want to marry any of them, but could I hire Monica as a housekeeper?

Edited June 12, 2019 by auntlada

[scarynikki12]

F: Joey. By all accounts he's quite talented in bed.

M: Chandler. I find him funny, he's responsible with his finances in general, and his personal growth during the series points to him being a great partner.

K: Ross. Without question.

[Drogo]

F: Phoebe.  She was a massage therapist, for crying out loud.  And I quote:

M: Monica.  I love some good food and a clean house, but I would never say that to my wife.  Monica would just do it and enjoy it.  She could have all the hoarder closets she wants...

K: Rachel.  The best thing about the show ending was that Rachel would finally shut the fuck up. 

[MargeGunderson]

F: Joey. As long as a no speaking rule could be enforced. An exception for the question “how you doin’?”

M: Chandler. We could snark together, and he seems not to mind if someone else takes charge. As a control freak not quite at Monica’s level I can work with that.

Ross: No question. Not even close. Shut up, you whiny man child. 

[JTMacc99]

16 minutes ago, MargeGunderson said:

F: Joey. As long as a no speaking rule could be enforced. An exception for the question “how you doin’?”

Seems reasonable...