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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Lit Literature member interviews

Discussion in 'Literature' started by Point Given , Jun 6, 2013.

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  1. anakinfansince1983

    anakinfansince1983 Skywalker Saga/LFL/YJCC Manager star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Mar 4, 2011
    I'm glad someone else likes the cute cuddly creatures beating the **** out of stormtroopers. :D
     
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  2. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    It shows, too! You have a lot more energy these days, it seems. And from the looks of it, your niece and nephew are a ton of fun too. Kids are great for that.

    I'm definitely glad that things are on the upswing -- although I must confess that I do miss your gripes about some of the stupid answers your students would submit on papers and things ;)

    (edit: and notice that I'm ostentatiously NOT commenting on cuddly animals beating up stormtroopers)
     
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  3. instantdeath

    instantdeath Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 22, 2010
    I used to love giving intentionally ridiculous answers on tests in elementary and middle school. Good times.
     
  4. s65horsey

    s65horsey Otter-loving Former EUC Mod star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jun 24, 2006
    Yeah...mine were students actually trying...so not as good.
     
  5. Lugija

    Lugija Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 3, 2009
    Yep, when you had two options in exams:
    1) Give the correct short answer
    2) Say "I don't know" and leave it blank
    I changed the option 2 into dadanarchy.

    Then I grew older and the exams changed into "Pour everything you know about the subject onto this piece of paper". Dadanarchy would have cost me points so I had to stop it.
     
  6. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    I had an exam last semester where I didn't know the answer to one of the questions -- I literally hadn't heard of the case being asked about -- and so I wrote, essentially, "uh, I have to admit that I don't know the answer to this one, so let me tell you a bunch of stuff about something else instead." Somehow I still aced the final anyway :p
     
  7. instantdeath

    instantdeath Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 22, 2010
    I'm sure those are entertaining. Got any particularly memorable ones?

    (If that counts as a question, feel free to save it for after the first twenty)
     
  8. Point Given

    Point Given Manager star 7 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Dec 12, 2006
    I'll allow it. 7. As instantdeath asked: What are the most memorable answers that students gave you?
     
  9. CooperTFN

    CooperTFN TFN EU Staff Emeritus star 7 VIP

    Registered:
    Jul 8, 1999
    Answered your own question.
     
  10. s65horsey

    s65horsey Otter-loving Former EUC Mod star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jun 24, 2006
    But are we getting stories from those people? I thought they invented an entirely new set of characters for this.
     
  11. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    [​IMG]
    You are a politician!
     
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  12. Point Given

    Point Given Manager star 7 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Dec 12, 2006

    Marasiah, Antares, Stazi and K'kruk have shown up, though only for a few scenes.
     
  13. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    Horsey, check the trades thread - first trade of Legacy Volume II is due November. Or wait until then, I'll be doing an extensive review!
     
  14. Point Given

    Point Given Manager star 7 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Dec 12, 2006
    8. Besides Corran, who are your favorite characters in the EU? (I imagine there will be quite a few Legacy ones on there)

    9. When did you fall in love with Peyton Manning? :p
     
  15. s65horsey

    s65horsey Otter-loving Former EUC Mod star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jun 24, 2006
    7. As instantdeath asked: What are the most memorable answers that students gave you?
    When I was a teaching assistant (grad student) at Texas A&M I had a student draw a comic about how they were watching tv last night and that was why they didn't know the answer. That's probably the most clever one I've ever gotten. They got a bonus point from me. I assigned a 5 page paper for a freshmen (college) class and I had to drink heavily in order to be able to read 70 of those each semester. Some of the students, who had high school diplomas (I checked in disbelief on several students) could not even write one coherent sentence. I should have photocopied some of those for my records but it was a sometimes an exercise in interpretation to figure out what the student was talking about. I'm not even talking about being on topic, I'm talking about straight use of the English language and spelling.

    8. Besides Corran, who are your favorite characters in the EU? (I imagine there will be quite a few Legacy ones on there)My all time favorite Star Wars character is Artoo. I stand by my belief that he is the true hero in Star Wars. As far as the Expanded Universe goes I adore a lot of characters actually. In no particular order: Wedge, Tycho, Wes Janson, Hobbie Klivian, Ooyrl, lt. Kettch, Mirax Horn (and the Horn children), Face Loran/Ton Phanan interactions, Zakarisz Ghent, I have a soft spot for Gavin Darklighter, the younger Kyp Durron, Cade Skywalker, Nat Skywalker, Morrigan Corde, Jariah Syn, Deliah Blue, Antares Draco, Vestara Khai, Lanoree Brock, Xesh. I'm sure I'm forgetting people. I think Anakin Solo was becoming my favorite EU character (possibly even more than Corran) when he was killed off. I was laying down my Star Wars future hopes on his shoulders before Star by Star. I wasn't on the forum during that time but I remember having to discuss what happened with my mom just because I needed to talk to someone about it.
    More on my Cade Skywalker love. So I think Corran and Anakin Solo fulfilled my need to like wholesomely good characters. I've never been a fan of 'bad' guys but I love to hate them. I actually still hate Ben so much from LOST that I can't stand watching the actor in anything else. I think that is a phenomenal story that can cause a reaction out of me like that. So what Cade gave me was the sorta bad guy who ultimately did what was right and expected of him. Up until that last comic though I still wasn't sure what J&J were going to have him do. Legitimately he could have done something different and it still would've worked in the story. Would I have been as happy? Probably not, but it still would have fit his character and been something completely different for Star Wars. I enjoyed the agony I felt at some of his decisions throughout the series and really felt like I was on the emotional roller coaster of life that he was experiencing.
    I remember being distraught when I thought Wes Janson had been killed during the X-wing series. Thankfully, Corran's almost death was shorter than the Wes thing or I may not have survived that series. :p Right now I'm having some severe issues with Game of Thrones. Spoiler alert if you haven't read the books (specifically ADWD) do not click on this.
    Jon Snow is my favorite character there and I am so mad about his death in ADWD. I was going to stop reading about halfway through the book because I saw the writing on the wall (lol I crack myself up) and knew he was going to bite it in that book. I asked the Lit chat to tell me to stop if he dies and they were like "Nah, keep going." So I read the rest thinking I was wrong and then he died! I'm still mad at them about it.
    But the point is that I like to fall in love with the characters as I'm reading and that's really all I ask out of the author. I'm willing to forgive a lot of plot issues if the characters are themselves and I can feel a deep connection with them. I think that is something I've been missing from the books lately. Though Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void was one where I was able to get that connection to Lanoree which is why she makes the list. But I think the last two series have been trying to cram so much in and the multi-author use made characterizations so different book to book that I was really turned off from Star Wars EU for awhile there. Legacy was the only thing keeping me going at one point.

    9. When did you fall in love with Peyton Manning? :pSo I grew up in Wisconsin and most people hear that are are like "How are you not a Packers fan?" Truth be told I was a Packers fan when I was little. I remember going to a Bears/Packers charity basketball game and getting autographs and being completely starstruck. I don't like Favre, however. So when my family was deciding on who to cheer for (none of us cheer for the same team and I don't understand families who do.) My family is very competitive and one thing we like to bust each other on is football. So there are text message flying if our teams are playing against each other and frequently shots of alcohol are bet on the games as well as various other things in life.
    I decided to pick a team with a horse relation, so I picked the Colts. I could only name one player on the team (Marshall Faulk) until Manning showed up. My true love for football didn't come out until I went to Texas A&M. There I was brainwashed and became a diehard college and professional football fan. So 2005 is when I really fell in love with Peyton Manning. I adore his seriousness on the field and it is amazing to watch him pick apart defenses. I think the complete collapse of the Colts when Manning got injured really proves what an amazing player he is (was).
    I'm still a Colts fan, but I will cheer for Manning on whatever team he is on until he retires. I am hoping that Andrew Luck can become my new QB crush but he's got a ways to go before he jumps Aaron Rodgers and I don't think he'll ever jump Manning. There's something about your first crush that you just never get over. :p
     
  16. krtmd

    krtmd Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 5, 2012
    s65horsey ADWD SPOILERS within

    If it's any consolation, Jon Snow might not be dead. I'm not sure ASOIAF characters who seem to die in their own POV chapters are really dead. I'm hanging on to that.
     
  17. instantdeath

    instantdeath Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 22, 2010
    On A Dance with Dragons: well, that's a complicated issue...

    GRRM has dropped some pretty heavy hints, both in and out of the book, that we haven't seen the last from Jon Snow. I wouldn't be surprised if his body is dead, but I'll eat GRRM's hat if he isn't alive in some form in Winds of Winter. Personally, I think that the entire purpose of the Warg prologue was to set that up.

    I believe a popular theory is that he's hijacked Ghost's form, or at least moved in on him.

    Ninja'd.
     
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  18. Point Given

    Point Given Manager star 7 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Dec 12, 2006
    10. What movies and TV shows do you like outside of Star Wars?

    11. What are your favorite Star Wars eras? (NJO, Clone Wars, New Sith Wars etc) Are there any you dislike?





    instantdeath That was my reasoning when I told her to continue on with the book. She's still mad at me :p

    Anyway I think that's enough for any Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire spoilers, just to be on the safe side. (And to stop Horsey from yelling at me) :p
     
  19. Barriss_Coffee

    Barriss_Coffee Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 29, 2003
    Saw must be right up your alley then.

    I'm not sure if this is the case everywhere, but at both my undergraduate and graduate universities, you could get away with skipping any form of writing course if you had taken Advanced Placement English/Lit in high school. But you didn't even need to take a whole AP class -- you could just take the AP exam, pass, and get away with it. And while the exam and high school course may entail a certain amount of grammatical effort, the quality of any high school course (including AP) varies widely, and the AP exam isn't the most difficult of standardized tests to pass. If this AP loophole is prevalent at other universities, I suspect it's contributing to the horrific writing skills observed in many college students and graduates.

    (That and, of course, not enough people read, but that's been a problem since the dawn of time...)
     
  20. anakinfansince1983

    anakinfansince1983 Skywalker Saga/LFL/YJCC Manager star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Mar 4, 2011
    I taught high school from 1993-2001 and I remember one year in particular when we were given student writing samples and asked how we would score them from 1-4, with one being the worst and four being "outstanding." One sample I looked at, had every grammatical error imaginable--misspelled words, incorrect punctuation, run-on sentences, fragments. I gave it a solid 1. I was told a few minutes later that the state writing assessors gave it a 3.5. To my "WTF?" response, I was told, "They're more concerned about content than grammar, and the student covered the topic."

    Well damn, I guess we can't expect students to cover a topic in a way that's readable.

    I won't derail the interview any further with a discussion of Common Core State Standards but I will say that the good news is that I think the trend is shifting, simply because employers have complained that they are getting potential employees who can't write a complete sentence.
     
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  21. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    Oh, you won't even find competent grammar in graduate school. I edited student articles in one of our law journals, and I have to tell you that I spent so much time hammering grammar, usage, and syntax that I wondered if I even had room to insert substantive comments. Of course they tended to be legally and rhetorically incompetent too, so I had plenty of room to give comments in that regard. I don't know how one can graduate high school, much less undergrad (and it's not like they're all math and science majors who found a way to get out of any classes that involved real writing -- the majority of law students are allergic to such things and tend to be poli-sci types).

    My undergrad required writing courses and you couldn't test out of them -- I started with 101 credits worth of AP and IB credit (that put me at junior status right off the bat, with senior status after my first quarter--which was AWESOME in terms of priority class selection, let me tell you) and I still only got to skip the first of three writing requirements. The second writing requirement was about rhetoric and persuasion, and it was my first experience with the general university population and I never felt more out of place. I wondered if these people had been pulled straight off the street, because their lack of seriousness and their inability to string together more than a clause or two really shocked me. It got to the point that when I missed class for surgery, the professor emailed me telling me I had to still go to class even though it was probably beneath me. :p

    Thankfully, if you got a B+ or higher in that class (apparently a real challenge for many!) you could skip the next writing class -- research papers -- and take a creative writing class (either prose or poetry). I elected to take poetry writing instead, and had the absolute time of my life. That class was run because I was surrounded by emos who wanted to write confessional love poetry, and I said fie to that and decided to adopt classical epic dactylic hexameter to English qualitative verse forms (which is hard as hell, let me tell you). Our first submission, just to get us used to the genre, required us to write a short stanza or two about a pineapple; the task was mostly to flex our creative muscles and get us to be more figurative and descriptive in our language. I wrote an epic called the Cynarad about ants attacking the battlements of a pineapple like Homeric soldiers. Allowing people to do creative writing instead of regular writing classes was a good incentive -- sadly most people weren't skilled enough to partake.

    One of the students who I peer graded in a history class had sentence fragments -- fragments! -- comprising the majority of his paper. How is that possible at age 18+??

    I feel like there's such a huge focus on math and science these days (and our test scores aren't even that good!) that the humanities are neglected. Education needs some real, systematic work in this country. The stories you hear from teachers are just appalling...
     
  22. Skywalker8921

    Skywalker8921 Jedi Knight star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 9, 2011
    I assume you're talking about the United States, correct?

    My mom works as a sub at one of our local middle schools in NC, and she has to deal with kids who can't understand writing or even math quite a bit. Education has become a joke. Many kids can't read at their grade level, know their times tables, or do math without using a calculator. I don't consider myself a good writer by any stretch, certainly not as good as some of the great authors, but I could no doubt write circles around many of the people my age or slightly older.
     
  23. The Loyal Imperial

    The Loyal Imperial Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 19, 2007
    Myrmidons? That's perfect.
     
  24. s65horsey

    s65horsey Otter-loving Former EUC Mod star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jun 24, 2006
    Pretty sure PG is a little busier than usual, so feel free to hijack the thread with education horror stories! I taught a low level match course for the 2 year majors that was teaching them the same things my mom was teaching her 6th grade class. I think the true issues come from teachers at the lower levels. The horror stories I've gotten from my students sometimes made me want to drive to their school and verbally assault the teacher in question. Hearing things like "My teacher told me I was dumb and that I'd never be able to do math" and "If you weren't a girl the teacher wouldn't come help us" makes my blood boil. I spent half the semester building up their confidence and then attempting to teach the concepts. Absolutely ridiculous.

    10. What movies and TV shows do you like outside of Star Wars?
    Movies: Harry Potter, Armageddon, Die Hard Movies (I'm a big Bruce Willis fan), Star Trek (with the new cast), Thor, Iron Man, Avengers, Horse movies (Black Stallion, Black Beauty), Batman (with Christian Bale). I adore Channing Tatum and Chris Hemsworth right now so I'll go see anything with them in it. I also like Disney/Pixar movies such as The Emperor's New Groove and Monsters, Inc. I am super excited to go see the new Monsters movie on Friday and I'm even more excited that I can take my niece and nephew to it.

    TV shows: My all time favorite TV show is Hercules the Legendary Journeys with Kevin Sorbo. It is the only one where I own all the DVDs for it and I rewatch it almost ever year. If you've never seen it you should. It is ridiculously campy but I love them for it. For anyone who has seen it, my favorite scene is this one where all the actors are in the bathroom and they start whistling the theme. I could talk about this show for hours. Besides Herc I like Charmed (girl power!), Bones, Psych, White Collar, Once Upon a Time, LOST, I recently watched all episodes of The Wire and have to agree it is an amazing series.

    I'm a sucker for reality tv. Yeah I'm one of those people who is the reason it still exists. [face_blush] So shows like the Bachelor/Bachelorette are a great competition for my family. We each pick who we think will be the winner on the first episode and then if our person gets eliminated we have to do a shot of Kracken (our penalty alcohol of choice) and pick a new person. Whoever has to take the most shots by the end of the season is the loser (or winner depending on your definition.) I'm fascinated by shows like Mythbusters and River Monsters.

    I grew up watching Saved by the Bell, Fresh Prince, and Batman the Animated Series. I could always watch an episode of any of those three shows.

    11. What are your favorite Star Wars eras? (NJO, Clone Wars, New Sith Wars etc) Are there any you dislike?
    I'm not sure I have a favorite era. I love the X-wing books. I really liked the Legacy comics. I enjoyed the NJO. I know a lot of people on here didn't, but that era kind of helped rekindle the romance of Star Wars for me since it was, you know, a war and people died. The books had gotten away from that for the longest time. I think that is part of why I liked the X-wing books as well. They felt more real to me, if that makes sense. I am really loving the new era that J&J and Tim Lebbon have created for Dawn of the Jedi. They've got some really different force uses, creative planets and creatures as well.

    I don't want to say I dislike the Clone Wars era, because I like some of the stories, but for the most part that's the one era that I definitely don't rush out to buy new books/comics from. I watched the first season of the tv show and then stopped. I have a hard time connecting with the clones for some reason. I like the parts that concern the Jedi and Obi-wan but overall I just have a hard time with books in that era. I think I have a Karen Miller book from that time frame that I can't get through. I was disappointed at the rest of the RC series after Hard Contact and most of Triple Zero. I was so sure those books were going to give me something similar to the X-wing series and it just fell flat. I'm not sure that that soured me on the rest of the era or not.

    As long as they keep writing about the big three and their relatives I will keep reading and enjoying those stories.

     
  25. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    Given the shows you like, tried Fringe?
     
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