Same here. I would have read regardless of the incentive, but that was at the height of my mother's tofu, no sugar, all organic diet craze and I needed some trans fat desperately. I remember a classmate confiding in me that she read so she could get a break from all the ramen noodles they ate in their trailer home. She had to share that tiny little pizza with her mom. I also remember a kid yelling that she "smelled like three week old period." Now I am sad. I wish I remembered her last name so I could look her up and see if she made it past 30. I probably don't really want to know...
I've always been a voracious reader, even as a kid. Growing up out in the country on the lee side of a mountain we didn't get TV reception, so once the sun went down reading was it for entertainment. And Scrabble. My grandparents wouldn't even let me win at Scrabble, I had to earn it. I think I was 12 before I actually won a game. Since then I can't actually remember anyone beating me at Scrabble. I'm like a hillbilly savant at that game.
My school did the Book It! program, too. I know I earned at least two or three pizzas a summer, but I'll be damned if I can remember a single book that I read. I'm sure there was some Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, and Shel Silverstein in there, but I can barely remember any of the books at all. I was also one of those kids that 'loved learning.' I was in advanced classes and did math problems for fun. In third grade my friend and I had a competition in math. It was 'math at your own pace,' so we'd get a folder per chapter with all the worksheets, and we'd do them on our own. If we needed help, we'd ask, but otherwise we just worked. My friend and I competed to see who could get further. This caused some problems and resulted in some funny outcomes. First, the teacher aide (who graded everything) hated us, and after the first month or so forced us to never do more than a chapter in a week. Before that, we'd crank out a chapter a day easily. I'd go home and work on math for four or five hours, for fun. That was besides the 45 minutes to an hour we had in school. Second, we finished the entire third grade math book. We were given the 4th grade math book around late November, and cranked through that by March. Apparently, no one had gotten that far before, so (according to my parents) they had to ask for permission to give us the 5th grade math book, which we got about a third of the way through before the end of the school year. Third, 4th and 5th grade didn't do math 'at your own pace,' or even 'at your level,' so we were basically re-doing everything we had done the year before. By the time I hit 5th grade, I flat out stopped doing math because I was so sick of doing the same shit I'd been doing for the past two years, and in 5th grade I was getting D's in math because I refused to do the work. I'd ace the tests but never turn in anything, because I found it so fucking tedious to be re-doing shit I had literally done two years earlier. They also stopped doing math 'at your own pace' after that year. Can't figure out why.
I'm too lazy to go finding the research, but there is plenty that says those incentive programs do more harm than good in the long run.
Nothing makes me sadder/happier than suggesting a thread, going on vacation for 5 days, coming back, \seeing it 11 pages deep and locked with a very disappointed Nom post. I love you guys. I miss anything?
Yea, apparently you missed the finer points between fisting and the duck. Apparently a few of these people like to flat out punch a vagina, while others prefer a more James Bondish technique.
Oooh ooh. 95% of you will be totally indifferent to this comic, but for the remaining 5%... Order of the Stick is as nerdy as it gets, but if you're an RPG player / gamer, it is downright hilarious. The characterization is better than most novels, the plot is intricate, and the jokes actually make me laugh out loud. I love this comic more than I love my fellow man.
I guess another question that came to mind, and fuck me I'll ask, pleasure and pain do they go together? People have always thought I was a little nuts that I play goalie and figured I like pain a bit, as a kid I blew it off. I remember I was at the HofBrauHaus vegas and we got some slap shots. A slap shot was jager followed by getting paddled, I think I enjoyed that a bit more than I should have.
Explain what "James Bond Technique" is when it comes to shoving your entire hand into a place where a single finger usually causes or moans (or fake ones). Is it done in a tuxedo? Or maybe sex toy her with a silencer-equipped Walther P99? Or do you just force yourself on her like James always does? I must consult Q immedietly (the old dead one, not the current Vampire Weekend fan club president).
When I think James Bond technique I'm thinking two fingers followed by the thumb and the the third and fourth fingers come in after. And before you know it, wham, you're fisting. I'd say Bond would be more of a fan of punching though because he seems to be a no nonsense guy who get what he wants when he wants it and does it confidently.
It's shark week, bitches. Sharks + Mark Cuban = I'm not studying for my Practice Mgmt III bullshit final exam wheeee!
There's no better way to end the night than with a science smack down. Warning: Music video in the spoiler. Why not in the music thread? BECAUSE SCIENCE, THAT'S WHY. Spoiler
I read The Three Musketeers in 4th grade because of Book It. You got a certain amount of points for different books, and that point list was my reading list. I destroyed the rest of my class as far as point totals. I also ate a fuckload of free personal pan pizzas. Also, C&H is the greatest multi-panel strip of all time, while Far Side is far and away the best single panel. But comparing the two is impossible. It would be like comparing the best Metal band of all time to the best Bluegrass band of all time. While they are both music, the styles are so radically different as to be in different families.