Masa's Massively Masterful Message Medium - Random Banter #146

[CurlyKitGirl]

No, actually (well, Fresher's Week is at the end of September, but my course starts in October)

. . .

Possibly - I'm up for it. *checks term times* I'll be there from the 26th September to the 17th of December. I'll be pretty close to where you live actually, since I'm going to the Cornwall Campus (near Falmouth).

Awesome.
You. Me. Meetup. End of September good? If not, December?

Wow... you must be the first other person I've spoken to who taught themselves to read. I thought I was the only one!
I'm not so strange after all, then.

According to anecdotal evidence I was reading when I was three or four. Apparently the KoorlyParents were buying me KS1 prep stuff when I was in nursery.
I doubt that, but I know I was reading when I started Y1 at six (I don't actually think there was a reception at my school until I was in Y2). And I know that because I got The Chronicles of Narnia as a present in December 1997, so I would have been six and three-quarters.

Drama. DRAMA! The concept of wuv confuses and infuriates me. So I call it drama instead so then the bad words go away.

He sounds like a helluva guy!

So people can drama you?
Hmmm, Bath, we of the Playground drama you.

Hells yeah. Admittedly my paediatrician thought I might have brain problems because I didn't speak for ages and was generally a pretty sickly baby to begin with. So maybe everyone does develop the english language from scratch as a child and I'm just dumb.

How late is late? King Charles I, for instance, didn't speak until he was six years old.
And yes, there is a language centre in the brain, and most language theorists (there's a proper name for this, but I forget) say that for most children language skills (grammar and vocabulary) are almost fully acquired by the age of two. By the age of four a child should have the rough skills of an adult. Obviously not all the finer grammar or the vocabulary; but all the essential skills are there.
The main part of language acquisition should be done before the age of two.
I have several chapters of this kind of thing if anyone's interested in further detail.

Good. So I still have the right address, then.

Yup.

Yes, you really should read H2G2. One of the best endings to a chapter in a book ever is found in H2G2. Just one sentence that has nothing to do with anything else in the chapter.

Also, I have to admit it actually took me a few seconds to re-arrange the Star Trek reference and to make it make sense. But I got there in the end.

Doi. Iust remembered where the H2G2 reference came from.
And I'm quite happy that the original Enterprise reg had the same number of letters and numbers as a Britlander postcode.

The log usually confuses us too, and we were the ones who wrote it. It usually starts off pretty informative about who shows up when and where, and what we plan on doing, and then, as we start getting inebriated, we just jot down random thoughts or out of context comments.
It's great fun, though.

That's the best part of having a log. You can track how things such as common sense disintegrate and where in-iokes take over everything including comprehension.

Also, the DD from the H2G2 group is Demon Drawer, and not Dallas-Dakota.
The fact that I've met two distinct groups from the internet and both of them have a DD was actually discussed during the H2G2 meet.
Also, the DD from H2G2 commented on Thufir's pics from the UKitP meet posted n Facebook during the H2G2 meet, and mixed things up so he thought the pics were posted by one of his mates that I didn't know. It was a pretty weird and slightly confusing moment.

Hehe. A fun coincidence though. If a little meta that the discussing of coincidental DDs is brought up at a meetup and on a thread for the other guys.

Why is everyone complaining about A-Level reuslts!? I'd like to see these fat middle-agers who got paid to do uni and sat much eaiser A-levels get an A*.

Ah, newspapers. They do love to hate. With exams it's always either "Exams are getting easier!" or "The educational system is failing!"

Both annoy me in equal measure. I'd like to see the writers of those frankly insulting articles take an exam, just to see if they're up to scratch, and in most cases to expose their own staggering hypocrisy. They seem to adore cheapening the achievements of students across the country.

It always happens.
They never take into account that the exam format has changed, as has the marking system and the syllabus. Basically, the only thing the new A Levels have in common with the old ones is the name, and some of the subiects. Plus they didn't have coursework like we do.
And when it comes to comparing A Levels to O Levels it makes me angry.

They also never consider that the teachers have had more experience with teaching the subiects, and they can roughly predict the type of questions that will show up, or at least certain themes that are most likely to appear based on examing every exam paper since 2002. Or how about that because many of the books (for the literary exams) have been offered up for exams and coursework have been so for multiple years. This means the teachers will know the books backwards and forwards and will do their best to show their pupils what they know.

I think this sort of thing is typical only to Britland, it's as if we can't comprehend a positive.
A Level results are better than ever!
Then the exams are too easy; make them harder.
A Level results have gone down 2% compared to last year!
Then the education system has gotten worse and the children are stupid now. Teach them better.