xaetos

The closest I've come to a computer science course would computer technology.. being in high school and all. We did a lot of coding, but it was taught in a way that you actually learned stuff. I had no idea about most of the types of code we did going in, and I finished the course with the highest mark in the class..The way my teacher did it was to hand out sheets with example code, which is not really possible for a large university class, but worked for the 30 people in my class. He also put the code in word documents for a lot of the things we did, instead of printing them out. We had to put the example code into whatever we were coding (mostly quickbasic and visualbasic..), and then make modifications to it. Once we got used to that, we had to make our own code from scratch for assignments.. It worked surprisingly well :/I can't imagine doing that course if the teacher taught through powerpoints and books o.O I never would have understood the stuff. The fact that you're paying so much to not be taught well makes it even worse..

Yeah, its stupid, but not for the reasons you think. Emo kids are the ones who do it for attention. They don't actually feel any of the "mental anguish" they claim to. You shouldn't try to figure out why they do stuff like that, because its only for attention. But there are people out there who do this kind of thing and no one knows.. its near impossible to understand why unless you've been in that situation yourself, and even then its hard because everyone has different reasons. It is a stupid thing to do, but if you don't understand what its all about, you shouldn't..generalize. I don't know how to explain what I'm trying to say, so sorry if this makes no sense.. Anyways, as for the whole goths thing.. Supposedly I'm goth, but I'm never given a hard time about it. I don't try to be a specific stereotype, so its actually kindof a shock whenever someone says something about it. The other day my art teacher was explaining how I could photoshop a picture to make it look cool, and mentioned how I could compare myself before and after I got all "gothy", and I just.. stood there. Maybe I do get singled out because of it, maybe I don't.. I never really notice o.O

The government won't make tobacco illegal because they make so much money off it. If it wasn't for that, the increased cost of healthcare (in Canada, anyways), along with the lobbying of the nonsmoking population, tobacco would have been made illegal a long time ago. Everything is about money. Whether you like it or not, thats the way the human mind works, and its impossible to change, especially within a huge entity such as a government, trying to shut down an even bigger entity of the production/market of/for tobacco. Unfortunately, its just not going to happen..

Alcohol.. is everywhere. Its impossible to avoid, especially as you get older and you have the odd friend who is legal to buy/drink it, and they buy it for everyone else as well. I don't understand why someone would drink, but its their choice.. just seems like a way to spend/waste money and make a complete fool of yourself. I guess it has to have some appeal to it, so its other peoples choice if they want to. Even if you don't drink, you have to get used to being around people who are, because otherwise you'll end up stuck inside a house your whole life.Drugs. Drugs are worse. Someone said earlier that weed was the worst. Weed is definately not the worst - if anything, thats the best of the drugs available. Drugs make you do weird things, its best to avoid them..As for sex, as long as its not a ridiculously young age (12-13ish), then I don't really see what the problem with it is. Its that persons choice. It doesn't cost money (assuming its within a relationship), its not addicting, its actually good for you.. I just never saw what the big problem with premarital sex was, assuming a stable relationship was present.

Horror movies are my favorite. I haven't had the opportunity to see many older ones, but I have noticed that the majority, if not all of the recent "horror" movies are more of something to laugh at than be scared by. I can't actually remember the last time I watched a movie and was scared.. actually, I don't know if thats ever happened.I'm not sure if its the special effects or the bad actors, or the complete lack of realism in the plot, or some combination of those reasons, but somehow, the movies that are supposed to be scary just..aren't. If I ever manage to find one that does scare me, it'll be my favorite movie..But I don't really see that happening any time soon.

I have an ATI card in my laptop (that I'm on now), and my desktop downstairs has Nvidia. Of the two, in terms of graphics quality and lagginess, I find my laptop a lot better. So I guess that makes my vote as ATI.. It could also be the distinct lack of spyware on my laptop, though, that makes it run faster. The desktop is full of the stuff, since most of the people who use it don't know how to get rid of it or prevent it from getting there in the first place.

First off, the whole elevator to space thing is actually possible. It would take an awful lot of work and a long time, but it is possible.Secondly, there is a chance that people might actually want to discuss this stuff. Kindof like how you must want to discuss how these people supposedly have no common sense, since you posted the topic. The way I see it, the topics you mentioned as being pointless had more of a point than this one.. but its the vent, so thats what ends up happening..Point being: Those topics have more potential for discussion than you realize. Let them talk about it if they want to :/

I was told by someone or other that these things actually work if you actually do all the stuff they require you to do. I never tested it, since I already have an iPod, but supposedly.. That being said, I don't see how they expect very many people to fall for the ads. I know my mom did once, but I got really upset at her afterwards because it put a virus on the computer.. it wasn't an iPod one, though. I guess the people who sponser the ads are the companies looking to distrubute viruses and the ones looking for email lists to sell to people looking to distribute viruses.

I played for agesss. I quit when my teacher basically told my parents that swimming was my life, not music, so they were wasting their money. I played the entertainer years ago, but I doubt I have the music for it any more. Its a pretty common piece, so you should be able to find the music for it fairly easily, at just about any music store.. shouldn't be too expensive, either.What do you want to know about chords? :\ I can't help you with the names of them and stuff.. I never did firgure out the names '

Vegetarians, too.. sometimes, anyways. They can seem pretty brainwashed.. I really, really disagree with this one. I don't think I'm better than any other race :\ Huge generalizations such as this one are not a good way to look at situations. Even the religion generalization was better than this one.. There are some people that fit into this category, but there are also black people that think they're better than anyone else, and same with indian people, and any other race. But none of these applies to every person in any race. If its any consolation to you, I was out last night in an SUV and it was full. Just a random point. Sometimes they do get used to their maximum capacity, or more.

First off, you're better off not living with someone like that, anyways. Yeah, it does leave you with a bit of a situation as to where else you can live, but in the long run, you're probably a lot better off. As for the stupid people part.. they're only messing themselves up, really. They'll be the ones living by themselves (or with an abusive guy/girl such as "bob"), no friends, some minimun-wage job. The faster you get away from ending up in the same situation, the better off you are. People like that never do change.. you get used to it after you meet so many of them.

It always amuses me when people try their best not to conform to standards because not conforming is the cool thing to do. Its like they're conforming to nonconformity, which is a complete contradiction on their part. Thats what most of the people who follow random trends like goth and stuff like that are doing. As an example, camoflauge material has now taken over the mall here. Before, you had a pretty hard time finding anything with that type of design, so it wasn't so widespread. But with the increase in people conforming to the opposite of what they used to, camoflauge stuff is everywhere. It kindof takes away from the look of the people who wore it before. But on the other hand, if you don't wear the stuff, and you do actually like it, just because everyone is wearing it, you're just as bad as them..I really confuse myself with this stuff. The best idea is to just do what you want, whether that be a certain type of music or clothes or speach.. If you change because of other people, you're not really doing anyone much good, especially not yourself.

I'm going to try and avoid turning this into a huge debate over who should be allowed to say when a parent is doing something wrong, so after this, I'll leave it. But I've just got to point out that I'm not some random fifteen year old who has done no research into this stuff, who has no idea what they're talking about. I know I'm not an expert, but I also know that I can tell whats normal for a kid and whats not, at least to a certain degree, and I know that a child who spends more time out of the water with their parent for no particular reason but they need to constantly be next to them is not something thats normal or healthy..As for what goes on in the kids home.. no, I can't really tell. Not in any amount of detail. But even if the kid acts differently at home, chances are the parents method of discipline is pretty constant, or at least all the people I know who have younger siblings and from when I was younger. Maybe I'm just looking at this completely wrong.. it wouldn't be the first time. But its not like I'm never around kids, not like I haven't been teaching them since I was old enough for them to bother listening to me. In that experience I've figured out what makes them listen and what doesn't. That proves something for my side, anyways.

I don't think I'm qualified to give advice, not on the level that an experienced parent would be. But I have been responsible for 6+ kids for almost an hour for each group for thirteen hours a week for the past year. Although its nothing like being a parent, full time, it does give you a very good idea of what happens in each kids home, in terms of discipline. You have kids who listen all the time, try to understand what you're telling them to do and try to do it. You have the ones that listen just so you won't get mad, and then go do exactly what they did the first time. You have the ones that run off to their parents every chance they get to say nothing more than "hi". You get kids who won't do anything for you because its hard. You get kids who don't talk at all. You can tell how these kids are raised and treated at home because a swimming instructor is just as much an authority figure in a five year olds life as a parent. If they act that way in the water towards a minor authority figure, why would they be acting any different at home? You can also tell because you see how they talk to and look at and act around their parent figure when their lesson is over. At that point in time you can also tell how the parent treats and disciplines them. The thing is, kids know what they can get away with and they know how to get what they want. I saw a kid cry once because he was two feet from the ball he was playing with. As soon as the ball was put back in his hands, he stopped. And you're saying that was genuine crying? Not a chance.. There are some exceptions.. or at least some kids whose personality didn't make sense when I saw how the parent disciplined them. But a lot of the time, only one parent takes their kid to swimming lessons, so you have no idea what the other is like. I taught a three year old once who did nothing at all but grind her teeth at me and try to play with toy ducks, and her mother appeared to be pretty strict with her about how much she misbehaved.. all the time. But then one day her dad showed up, and she acted like the sweetest kid ever (once she was out of the water walking towards him) and he walked her off to Tim Hortons to get a cookie or donut or something. And you're telling me thats not encouraging that kid to act the way she does all the time? I'm going to stop now, but my point is.. even though I'm not a parent, and most people here probably aren't parents, there is a chance that we've had enough experience with kids and their parents to know what works and what doesn't. Not saying it'd be easy to enforce those things when raising a child, but we still might know what we're talking about.

I teach swimming lessons to kids anywhere from 2 - 15ish. You don't really realize it so much when you're just watching, but there are an awful lot of kids there who you can tell get away with anything at home. For one thing, theres a Tim Hortons in the same building as the pool, and almost every single tots (ages 2-4) parent uses that place as some form of motivation for their kid to listen. Thats alright in itself, but the thing is, the kids get their donuts even if they don't do a thing the whole lesson.Then you get the kids who won't do anything the whole lesson besides try to talk to their parent. This is actually a parenting flaw. If your kid is socially developing in a healthy way, they will have no problem being away from you as long as they know you're still there. They don't cry or constantly need to talk to you or refuse to do anything without major coaxing from the parent. Parents never realize these things aren't normal..The thing is, though.. since the parents are paying to put their kid in lessons, you can't exactly advise them on parenting methods.. being eighteen and all. So you have to watch the kid become a complete spoiled brat, for lack of a better term, that you know you would hate to be around when they grow up. Blegh.