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To be honest I avoid social sites because the network security training I have makes me worry when I go to one that I will give bad guys a way to target me.
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Death threat? Did you contact the police?
What did you post to cause such strife?
IT wasnt' me, it was a friend of mine. YEARS ago, before Facebook was a household name. Some argument over nonsense had an acquaintance- someone we(circle of friends) all knew was not well mentally, but not a credible threat- threatening people's lives on their wall over something stupid. I think he got in trouble for it, not sure what happened with that actually.
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To be fair, there's a difference between a credible threat and obvious hyperbole.
The latter may be rude and childish, but it's mostly harmless... The former is a reason for concern and an actual crime.
Reading "You'll pay." after being sent pictures of your home is far more serious than someone writing "I'LL BEAT YOUR ASS, YOU F&$+ING A~~@%*!!" in all-caps.
Of course, as always, context matters.
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I mean, I'm not sure something like that can be pinned on Facebook, but if you want to talk about social media's problem with moderating harassment, I'm not exactly going to argue.
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Oh man. We are bringing down this ironically titled thread. Let's bring in some positivity, guys.
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Oh man. We are bringing down this ironically titled thread. Let's bring in some positivity, guys.
I'm positive that math is awesome! :D
(It's why I'm a math tutor!)
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Oh man. We are bringing down this ironically titled thread. Let's bring in some positivity, guys.
The trick is to bring it down enough, then multiply by even more negativity.
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Positivity? Sounds good! Whedon is the best!
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But seriously: I do tutor math, and I do understand why so many people have a problem with it.
I liken math unto a language.
Specifically English.
And it's very poorly taught, and it's really no-one's fault, especially not those poor people who teach it, even and especially if they understand it very well. After all, it's their native language. How would they know the problems non-native speakers have?
Frankly, even though I understand the problems, it's because of empathy, not because of actual experience - I like math. I think it sings a beautiful song - it runs everything we love, ranging from giant robots, to movies, to music, to the rhythms of our hearts and blood and flesh and sun and stars and planets... or at least the rhythms of those things create the harmonies that we take and build the language called math (and science) from (it's easy to get mixed up, and a lot of math and science afficionados do get it backwards and confused).
But back to math being a language.
One of the things that has helped me become a better tutor has been hanging out here on these Paizo forums. Specifically the rules arguments sections. Especially the alignment-rules and paladins-falls, and wizards-are/n't-broken-cum-[C/M-D], and rogues suck, and that-rule-doesn't-say-that-yes-it-does-you're-an-idiot-no-you're-mom threads.
Because those threads have taught me something very important: "plain" English and "common" sense isn't. Language is a very fluid concept and the once-seemingly "obvious" idea of an "ironclad" contract is so laughable now that I can't fathom why the myth still manages to propagate through modern fantasy literature.
English will deceive you. It's a master of deception. It will blind you, and trick you, and stab you in the back when you least expect it - pull the wool over your eyes, shove you down a dark ally, rob you blind, and dump your cooling body off the side of a road somewhere in the rain while chortling something about a "sucker" the whole way back.
And that sentence I wrote up there? Most people - most native speakers of English, and many non-native speakers - will understand it. But quite a number of non-native speakers (but still fluent in the language), or non-native speakers with translator programs, and possibly a few native-speakers from regions other than my own will be highly confused. Because English, of course, is a language - it cannot stab anything, it cannot shove anything, and it cannot rob anything. It certainly cannot chortle, and why would robbing someone make them blind? The obvious question the paragraph above brings up is, "Is it common in English-speaking countries for robbers to steal eyes along with other things?" (With an implied corollary of, "And if so: why? After all, if they left your body cooling, they wouldn't need to take your eyes to prevent identification, right? And what does rain have to do with anything? And what 'sucker' are you talking about - a creature that drinks something like a leach does blood, or perhaps a lollipop?")
But, of course, that's because the sentence I created above is comprised mostly of colloquialisms and metaphors. To me, and (at least, I suspect) most native (and many non-native but fluent) English speakers, the meanings behind those colloquialisms and metaphors should be obvious and the intent clear. But there are many who will not and cannot understand - and it doesn't matter if it's translated into their language, or if they can read mine: it's just gibberish (from their perspective) because, honestly, the words, as-written, are gibberish. It's just that, because of our collective cultural weight, we can translate the gibberish into meaningful data.
But English has more deceptive sides than mere metaphors and colloquialisms - there are many so-called weasel-words and words and sentences that get so overly-specific and overly clarified that they can accidentally swing right around to being vague and confusing again. This can happen, even if we we're trying to be careful - because what makes sense to us and our more localized cultural collection even among the broader cultural collection we belong to.
So, as a Floridian, I might well be alien in some ways to someone from New Hampshire. But as someone from Ocala, I might be alien in some ways to someone from Orlando. As a Christian, I might be alien to someone who is not. As someone into nerd culture, I'm definitely alien in many ways to those who are not. And as a gamer, I'm also definitely alien in many ways to those who are not (and, as weird as it may sound, nerd culture and gaming are not as synonymous as they may appear to our gaming circle). All of these little subgroups can easily make it so that I use some turn of phrase that seems innocuous or kind (and is intended as such) that instead seems weird, alien, cold, or just uncaring - or worse, cruel or callous somehow - to people who are not part of my way of thinking. Not because I'm wrong, and not because they are, but because, though we both speak English, and though we're both part of the same broader culture, all of those little things can create all sorts of minor barriers to communication - in essence, in that instance where we've ceased communicating, we're speaking two different languages, even while we're ostensibly speaking the same language. Even when our denotations are supposedly exactly the same, the power of connotations - of our emotional connections to things - can be so great that we can sharply disagree about something even if we otherwise totally agree on everything else about that thing and everything related to it ().
So English can deceive.
How much more could an entirely different supplementary language meant to describe something so esoteric that both does and does not conform to our typical sensory experiences?
Math (and as a corollary, many kinds of science, notably physics and electronics) describe truths to us about the universe that simultaneously conform to what we experience and do not conform to what we experience - that run intuitively and run counter-intuitively at the same time; to make matters worse, the exact same principles that teach us both "this is the thing that makes sense: see, it works in real life" will later seemingly betray us and apparently go, "MUWAHAHAHAH~! YOU THOUGHT I WAS LIKE LIFE, BUT I WAS DOING SOMETHING ELSE THE WHOLE TIME~!"
It's why my very first lesson in math is always, "If you aren't careful, math will always deceive you. It's most dangerous problem, and the place where most people fail - and simultaneously it's most powerful tool - is the fact that any one thing can look like and transform into any other thing. It is all an illusion, a trick, a deception. Do not be deceived. If you learn nothing else, learn this: know how to make number (or piece of information, such as a word-puzzle) look like another, and you will have the tools - whether you realize it or not - to solve every math problem you will ever come across, so long as you have the time and information to do so."
(This presumes basic arithmatic, of course... but there's a llllllllllooooooooooooooooooot of basic arithmatic that's... well, it's problematic and colloquially, in terms of math-language, too - I mean, basically, division problems are more accurately expressed as multiplying fractions... aaaaand I'll stop. Sorry, Freehold.)
This concept, though, of course, never put into those words, is called number sense and is usually (i.e. more traditionally) taught with otherwise simple concepts like "anything times 1 = itself" and "anything over itself = 1" or similar.
This leads to pretty much every competency in the Florida Teacher Certification General Knowledge Test, for example - while it doesn't teach you the specifics of angle values and whatnot, it leads to the basic ideas of how to handle things.
When you see a problem, you can't take it at it's face-value. You must go, "Okay, what are they really going for." then, taking the tools and information you have and figuring which ones you can apply, and then which ones you want to.
Long story short: I can understand why math is hard, yo. It's not hard for me (though making math happen on a computer is a terrible experience I wish on no one, ever, and never ever on a text-thing like this, ever), but if you're not a native speaker, even if you're hypothetically fluent, it can take years of research and study (and even then) before you "get it" and some people simply never will because the native speakers are busy talking gibberish at each other - gibberish that happens to have a commonality of "sense" to those who naturally "get" it due to a shared set of reasoning and background in thinking and histories and training.
I really wish we could shed some of the cultural baggage associated with our math language. Common Core is trying, bless it's misbegotten little heart, but it's failing something fierce, as, from what I can tell, no one's ever taught anyone how.
They gave the teachers the very reasonable mandate of "Here: do it the better way." but then forgot, "Oh, yeah: no one knows how to do it the better way..." so now everyone's left scrambling and parents and administrators alike are left glaring at lawmakers who pass the buck to teachers with, "Uh, figure something out: you're smart and being paid, probably enough, to do all that extra work; 'sides, you get your summers off, or something."
:I
Yeah. That's a grrrreeeaaaaat idea, everyone.
(Technically, it is a great idea. Just the worst conceptual execution I can come up with in my mind.)
The... uh... the end... of that... that post... uh... that... got away with me. Oops.
GOOD JOB BRINGING POSITIVITY HERE, TAC. >:I
ANYWAY!
FREEHOLD: my wife's birthday is tomorrow!
Some of the things she loves:
- Firefly! And Serenity! And R. Tam Sessions!
- And Avengers! And Avengers 2! And Captain America! And Winter Soldier!
- And Toy Story!
- And Whedon's version of Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing! (though, to be fair, she likes Shakespeare and variants and different takes on it in general, so... that one might not count)
- And Dr. Horrible!
FREEHOLD: in reference to the above listed things that she likes, what are you going to do to celebrate her birthday?!
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[Looks at own futile post]
[initiates Terminator protocol]
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[Looks at own futile post]
[initiates Terminator protocol]
No-no.
When you can't beat things, you favorite them, my dude.
Remember the thread title. Remember. It's okay. It's ooooooooookay. It'll all be jjjuuuuussssst fffiiiiiiinnnnneeeee.
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There can only be one Highlander.
Resistance is futile.
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Oh man. We are bringing down this ironically titled thread. Let's bring in some positivity, guys.I'm positive that math is awesome! :D
(It's why I'm a math tutor!)
wow.
I'm positive that your mere touch would cause my skin to blister and burn.
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The longest post I have ever read on math, ever.
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The... uh... the end... of that... that post... uh... that... got away with me. Oops.
GOOD JOB BRINGING POSITIVITY HERE, TAC. >:I
ANYWAY!
FREEHOLD: my wife's birthday is tomorrow!
Some of the things she loves:
- Firefly! And Serenity! And R. Tam Sessions!
- And Avengers! And Avengers 2! And Captain America! And Winter Soldier!
- And Toy Story!
- And Whedon's version of Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing! (though, to be fair, she likes Shakespeare and variants and different takes on it in general, so... that one might not count)
- And Dr. Horrible!
FREEHOLD: in reference to the above listed things that she likes, what are you going to do to celebrate her birthday?!
Go to terrificon, and prep for a convention weekend where I will meet Fred perry and get his autograph.
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If it helps, I hate James Cameron.
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This concept, though, of course, never put into those words, is called number sense and is usually (i.e. more traditionally) taught with otherwise simple concepts like "anything times 1 = itself" and "anything over itself = 1" or similar.
I wish to clarify, that my two off-the-cuff examples in no way encapsulates the entirety of "number sense" - not even close.
Instead, it is merely meant to represent two minor (and often confusing) aspects of number sense and how things relate to each other.
The longest post I have ever read on math, ever.
What's funny is that it can't - because it's already made of energy, so it's not flammable.
The only thing relative to yourself and that post that can "burn" (regrettably), then, is the screen you're looking at when you fire those "torpedoes" ().
Whoops~! Sounds expensive~!
(Also, your "descriptive text" is, by definition, in this case, mathematical in nature, whether or not it uses classically-recognized "numbers" because, as noted in the post, math is, ultimately, merely a language used to describe universal phenomena. Often confusingly to certain people.)
Also the post was almost half about the failures of the English language. Like, 13 of those paragraphs were dedicated to the problems with English, with 15 others referencing math. So, you know, you could stick to those, if you like.
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If it helps, I hate James Cameron.
If it helps, I like James Kirk and James Cameron, but I hate Kirk Cameron.
If it helps, I like Michael Welham and Old Bay seasoning, but I hate Michael Bay.
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If it helps, I hate everyone.
And it's very poorly taught,
For the record, that's math that is very-poorly taught, not English - and it's certainly neither the math teacher's fault (as they're taught the way they were taught to teach it; or else teaching it the way they weren't taught to teach it - neither of which ends well when you, you know, have a life).
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I's done good is my English.
Rarely is the question asked: Is our FaWtLies learning?
I's done good is my English.
I'm not even.
Rarely is the question asked: Is our FaWtLies learning?Always!
('cause I keep forgettin' what I already lernt)
Also.
EDIT: Well, I wasn't gonna do this, either, but...
EDIT 2: ... Daggum ninja-liches...
EDIT 3: ... crimped me in the middle of crimping my own style...
EDIT 4: ... why'd they have to leave those lousy immunity to Assassination rules? Bah.
Rarely is the question asked: Is our FaWtLies learning?
Always!
('cause I keep forgettin' what I already lernt)
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Rarely is the question asked: Is our FaWtLies learning?
They'll learn when the emotionally complex sparkly teenage Zombie Apocalypse cuts off their only route to the Twinkie factory.
They'll learn indeed!
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Oh man. We are bringing down this ironically titled thread. Let's bring in some positivity, guys.
"Ironically titled"... wait...
Freehold DM's Joss Whedon's Fan Club
Hm.
Freehold DM's Joss Whedon's Fan Club
hhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
OH! I understand, now!
This isn't a thread about how FHDM loves Joss Whedon!
This is a thread that FHDM is hosting for Joss Whedon's personal fanclubs so FHDM can fan-squee over them and bond with Joss in a personal and manly and legally binding sense with him! :D
Congratulations, all~!
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I would reply to Tacticslion's wall of text with one of Aranna's simple sayings: I love Math... most of the time.
In my experience math has always been super easy... well not always. Have you ever had those moments where you reach the limit of your intelligence? That you have to just keep bashing your head against the problem, eat, sleep, and live the problem till you FINALLY just get it? At that very moment when it all becomes clear and you realize you just increased your intelligence stat. Yeah? That happened to me in math. When I went from algebra (something I could do in my sleep... literally) to calculus... I hit that wall hard. Like slamming a fighter jet into a mountain side. I could read a novel or sleep in math class and still ace every test but NOT in calculus. I had an emotional breakdown over it. Going from A+ to D instantly was emotionally devastating. I wish I had a tutor like Tacticslion back then but I was SO smart that I had never needed to ask for help I didn't know how to ask for help. So my grades, my scholarship, and my finances crashed and burned. When you DO GET IT it is like complete freedom. But I got it too late to save my grades for that semester.
NEVER underestimate the value of outside advice like a tutor. It can save you.
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Rarely is the question asked: Is our FaWtLies learning?They'll learn when the emotionally complex sparkly teenage Zombie Apocalypse cuts off their only route to the Twinkie factory.
They'll learn indeed!
Verily, they shalt, that they should have invested in ye Longears Camboxfordbridge Legitimate Internet University's Zweihander Correspondence Course, before the collapse of Civilisation made both electricity, and words, thoroughly illegal.
I would reply to Tacticslion's wall of text with one of Aranna's simple sayings: I love Math... most of the time.
In my experience math has always been super easy... well not always. Have you ever had those moments where you reach the limit of your intelligence? That you have to just keep bashing your head against the problem, eat, sleep, and live the problem till you FINALLY just get it? At that very moment when it all becomes clear and you realize you just increased your intelligence stat. Yeah? That happened to me in math. When I went from algebra (something I could do in my sleep... literally) to calculus... I hit that wall hard. Like slamming a fighter jet into a mountain side. I could read a novel or sleep in math class and still ace every test but NOT in calculus. I had an emotional breakdown over it. Going from A+ to D instantly was emotionally devastating. I wish I had a tutor like Tacticslion back then but I was SO smart that I had never needed to ask for help I didn't know how to ask for help. So my grades, my scholarship, and my finances crashed and burned. When you DO GET IT it is like complete freedom. But I got it too late to save my grades for that semester.
NEVER underestimate the value of outside advice like a tutor. It can save you.
Nah, I'm still here - I never actually got my hypothetically pending INT increase no matter how hard I struggled at daggum geometry and chemistry... though, to be fair, geometry wasn't because it's hard to understand so much as I was a high-schooler riddled with attention deficit and an awesome teacher burdened with a kid who just rediscovered the wonders of socialization (sorry, Mr. Chupka - I sincerely apologize), while for Chemistry, I'm pretty sure that requires a very specific mindset (i.e. "class") that I simply do not have.
(*)
* (Though I did create a new hypothetically (hopefully?) stable molecule through covalent bonding one time, because of D&D. I should really do a research paper on that some day and see if my D&D game idea-cum-FF7/FFT total rip-off idea er, I mean, "loosely inspired homage" actually holds any water**~! Now I just need a grant. And, you know, the actual will and time to do it. But I'm pretty sure if people were willing to just throw money at me in the name of "science" that it'd get done. Eventually. Probably. I am fairly certain it wouldn't all get spent on visiting FaWtLeans...)
** ((GET IT?! IT'S A PUN~! Oh, wait, no, you guys wouldn't get it, because you don't know anything at all about my molecule, the idea, the homage, the concept or pretty much anything at all. Whoops~! Nevermind~!))
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This concept, though, of course, never put into those words, is called number sense and is usually (i.e. more traditionally) taught with otherwise simple concepts like "anything times 1 = itself" and "anything over itself = 1" or similar.I wish to clarify, that my two off-the-cuff examples in no way encapsulates the entirety of "number sense" - not even close.
Instead, it is merely meant to represent two minor (and often confusing) aspects of number sense and how things relate to each other.
The longest post I have ever read on math, ever.What's funny is that it can't - because it's already made of energy, so it's not flammable.
The only thing relative to yourself and that post that can "burn" (regrettably), then, is the screen you're looking at when you fire those "torpedoes" ().
Whoops~! Sounds expensive~!
(Also, your "descriptive text" is, by definition, in this case, mathematical in nature, whether or not it uses classically-recognized "numbers" because, as noted in the post, math is, ultimately, merely a language used to describe universal phenomena. Often confusingly to certain people.)
Also the post was almost half about the failures of the English language. Like, 13 of those paragraphs were dedicated to the problems with English, with 15 others referencing math. So, you know, you could stick to those, if you like.
as it is energy,it is perpetually aflame. So no need for burning screens.
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Why no love for Whedon?
because he is wrong.
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RE: MATH --
Shame on you, Tac. :)
We know that in six days God created the universe and all that is in it (bear with me for humor's sake, nonbelievers), and on the seventh day He rested. We also know, with absolute certainty, that on the eighth day Satan said:
Let's put the alphabet in math.
Therefore:
Find x.
3^2+4^2=x^2
3^2+4^2=x^2
------------ ^ -- It's right there.EDIT: Three times, 'cause math sucks. Make that four times, 'cause math is worse than that.
as it is energy,it is perpetually aflame. So no need for burning...This concept, though, of course, never put into those words, is called number sense and is usually (i.e. more traditionally) taught with otherwise simple concepts like "anything times 1 = itself" and "anything over itself = 1" or similar.I wish to clarify, that my two off-the-cuff examples in no way encapsulates the entirety of "number sense" - not even close.
Instead, it is merely meant to represent two minor (and often confusing) aspects of number sense and how things relate to each other.
The longest post I have ever read on math, ever.What's funny is that it can't - because it's already made of energy, so it's not flammable.
The only thing relative to yourself and that post that can "burn" (regrettably), then, is the screen you're looking at when you fire those "torpedoes" ().
Whoops~! Sounds expensive~!
(Also, your "descriptive text" is, by definition, in this case, mathematical in nature, whether or not it uses classically-recognized "numbers" because, as noted in the post, math is, ultimately, merely a language used to describe universal phenomena. Often confusingly to certain people.)
Also the post was almost half about the failures of the English language. Like, 13 of those paragraphs were dedicated to the problems with English, with 15 others referencing math. So, you know, you could stick to those, if you like.
That is neither what energy is not what "aflame" means.
Why no love for Whedon?because he is wrong.
About?
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RE: MATH --
Shame on you, Tac. :)
We know that in six days God created the universe and all that is in it (bear with me for humor's sake, nonbelievers), and on the seventh day He rested. We also know, with absolute certainty, that on the eighth day Satan said:
Let's put the alphabet in math.Therefore:
Find x.
3^2+4^2=x^2
3^2+4^2=x^2
------------ ^ -- It's right there.EDIT: Three times, 'cause math sucks. Make that four times, 'cause math is worse than that.
You broke three rules, my dude. First, you made a math problem on a text system (I mean, the computer is bad enough in general, but non-math-specific systems is worse and mere text systems like this are... well, I'm wondering if you might have gotten in contact with a certain entity referenced in your post*...); second, you DIDN'T USE YOUR BRACKETS/PARENTHESIS - while not as important (sometimes) in official publications or written work, it is daggum essential when making a problem for others to see in any other format (and even more so text-based); and three you DARE make PUN of math-okay, I really can' go through with that part one: that was pretty funny. :D
(Also, we know God uses math. He references it a couple of times in the Bible.)
*
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You're going to talk rules to an avowed math-hater???!!! Really? That's gonna be about as effective as saying that Freehold does actually like Joss Whedon . . . .
I'm just gonna sit back and wait for this one . . . .
EDIT: 'cause we need a post-script on this one.
James 1:17b, in the STATV Bible (Syrus Terrigan's Absolutely True Version) -- " . . . the Father of lights, with whom there are no variables of the mathematics or delusions of algebraic change."
So there. :)
Too late!
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About?Why no love for Whedon?because he is wrong.
everything.
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everything.About?Why no love for Whedon?because he is wrong.
You type it like e e cummings, but I imagine you saying it like Stansfield.
everything.About?Why no love for Whedon?because he is wrong.
Considering he likes Japanese things, it seems you may have to rethink things you hold very dear to yourself, then...
You type it like e e cummings, but I imagine you saying it like Stansfield.everything.About?Why no love for Whedon?because he is wrong.
One of the better moments in Superman Returns, actually!
(Yes I know the clip you linked has nothing to do with that clip; it just reminds me of it. :D)| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
.......
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Quiet you. I will hear no whedonian platitudes.
|
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Oh man. We are bringing down this ironically titled thread. Let's bring in some positivity, guys.
A proton and a neutron are walking down the street.
The proton says, "Wait, I dropped an electron, help me look for it."The neutron says "Are you sure?"
The proton replies "I'm positive."
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This might be my fav alias ever."Freehold DM"-brand Whedon-flavored Haterade ingredients listStay tuned for Good Eats
I'm still wondering what's on that list . . . .