Ridiculous as his schtick may sound, Paul is one of the nicest, least selfish people I've ever met.
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 3:20 PM on October 28, 2007

The girl who makes them was my roommate in DC. She really puts a lot of time into them, although I don't own one because I doubt its ability to survive happy hour with me. Too delicate.
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 9:50 AM on October 4, 2006

"Do Not Go Quietly Unto Your Grave" by Morphine
"Thank You Friends" by Big Star
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 11:24 AM on October 3, 2006

I was in NYC for 9/11, a disaster whose scale paled in comparison to what's going on in LA right now. Yet within hours, half of the country was there to help. The National Guard was asking me to show ID to get to my house below Houston St. It is painfully obvious to me that the rhetoric of the administration does not match reality in t his case. I heard the govvernor pleading for help at a press conference with tears in her eyes, backed by Senators Vitter and Landrieu. If that is not... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 12:11 PM on September 4, 2005

.
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 11:48 PM on August 21, 2005

Yeah as soon as my coworkers heard "bomb" everybody started freaking out and talking about terrists. Blah. I am too hungover to have been alarmed. [I'm in downtown SF]
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 11:38 AM on August 19, 2005

Bashing Pitchfork is like kicking three-legged kittens.
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 7:33 PM on August 8, 2005

TALK TO THE CLUB. I'm sure you are not the first person to have done something like it considering the house is so close.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aGreatNotion at 11:41 AM on July 6, 2005

Happy Independence Day, America! And kudos to you, Justice O'Connor, for your phenomenal timing!
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 9:54 AM on July 1, 2005

This is far from being a moral condemnation---because jesus knows my morals are not exemplary---but the first thing I thought when I read his post was, "Hey, whoa there douchebag." Yuck. Poor wife.

And I don't think that "seek therapy" is an obvious or condescending comment. I mean, the guy came to metafilter for advice before going to a therapist. That's sad.

Sorry if this offends, but man... come on...
posted to MetaTalk by aGreatNotion at 4:54 PM on June 22, 2005

Having a helper monkey is one of my strange dreams. They're so awesome.
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 1:17 PM on June 17, 2005

Goddamn activist medical examiners... sheesh.
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 12:15 PM on June 15, 2005

Rick Santorum is a strange and confused individual.
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 10:14 AM on April 21, 2005

thank you for refueling my JFK assassination obsession with this post.
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 12:58 PM on April 18, 2005

Forget fleeing the country, I'm just going to go into hiding. Somebody send for me when the nightmare ends. Or when Jesus comes back.
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 12:49 PM on April 15, 2005

this is the best blog ever, seriously.

this entry includes the MP3 of Serena getting fired... "Is this because I'm a lesbian???"
posted to Ask Metafilter by aGreatNotion at 10:28 AM on April 13, 2005

They're both idiots.

She, obviously, for randomly IMing strangers to write papers for her.

He, for finding himself so damn funny. Because he's not. I didn't even chuckle reading that.

So I think the hate should be equally distributed across the two involved parties because they are both retarded.
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 9:59 AM on March 29, 2005

I think any discussion of principles is moot when the whole thing was started by a girl who couldn't even write a FIVE PAGE PAPER ON CASTE SYSTEMS. How frickin hard would that have been to write??? Not very. FIVE PAGES.

She ought to be kicked out of school not for plagiarism, but on account of her being a lazy idiot.

I do, however, quite like the investigative journalist theory. In that case, it'd be fun to see good old Nate get his.
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 10:14 AM on March 29, 2005

Ruby Skye is great if you like hanging out in a meat market of adolescent 20-30 somethings.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aGreatNotion at 4:27 PM on March 24, 2005

Also, I second the Mission booze crawl. A friend of mine is currently planning a bachelorette party for a friend of hers and that's what they are probably going to do.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aGreatNotion at 4:29 PM on March 24, 2005

one boring saturday afternoon, i watched a discovery channel show about relocating koalas from one part of new zealand to another and was totally freaked out by the fact that mother koalas become evil furballs with claws when you mess with the babies. obviously he has never seen a koala try to claw someone's face off for touching her babies. but i think maybe salad spork has!

in conclusion, koalas *are* bitches, yes, but they are HARD bitches, especially when you fuck... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 11:31 AM on March 24, 2005

That would be Australia. *sigh*

sorry, i was hungover when i watched it. but i swear New Zealand was involved somehow.

i didn't mean to offend you or the koalas with my lack of knowledge on the subject.
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 2:28 PM on March 24, 2005

i do know, though, that they are being sterilized to control the population
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 2:33 PM on March 24, 2005

heh he was joking about LOTR :)

you're not inconsequential at all.

you're just not the purveyors of freedom we are here in the States! (jk)
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 3:24 PM on March 24, 2005

Is this somehow a stage sequel to The Passion?
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 2:41 PM on March 24, 2005

I'm looking forward to my inevitable mid-life crisis when I will probably decide to become a cabaret singer in sleazy hotel lounges. Live the dream, man. Live the dream.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aGreatNotion at 9:27 AM on March 23, 2005

The other thing about the writing addition to the SAT I, as Jay Matthews points out in the WP article linked in the first post, is that it's pretty much the same thing as the SAT II Writing test, which I easily got a perfect score on when I was a senior in high school. I mean, easily. So it's not like it's going to be very difficult.

Regarding the e-rater link I posted, I want to take the GMAT for the sole purpose of using the basic elements of essay structure to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 3:14 PM on March 1, 2005

In March of last year, The Atlantic Monthly did a pretty funny tongue-in-cheek piece called "Would Shakespeare Get Into Swarthmore? How several well-known writers (and the Unabomber) would fare on the new SAT." (subscribers only) They used Princeton Review stock questions and found passages from famous authors that most closely relate to the questions.

To illustrate how the essays on the "new" SAT will be scored, The Princeton... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 3:48 PM on March 1, 2005

Oh, the prompt for the Stein essay was:

Assignment: In an essay, discuss your opinion of the quotation above. Support your view with one or more examples from literature, the arts, science, politics, current events, or your personal experience or observations.
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 3:49 PM on March 1, 2005

This is how salesmen and middle-managers are born.

I remember being even more astounded when I started working and realized that the same HS style stuck for many people long after they left Academia.

I also remember being astounded at how poorly many of my peers in college wrote, and it was largely due to the Topic Sentence/3 Supporting Sentence Form shoved down kids' throats for most of their high school careers, and now... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 4:29 PM on March 1, 2005

Er, as evidenced at my last post, the one thing I've never been really good at is editing myself.... maybe they could add that to the test in a few years.
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 4:32 PM on March 1, 2005

jscalzi: It was my essays and my SATs that got me into college (I maintained a fine 2.8 GPA all through high school), so you won't hear me trashing the SAT or getting worked up over an essay portion being appended to it.

SAT essays are a far cry from College Admissions essays, though. The idea of a College Admissions essays is to make yourself stand out. The idea of a College Board/SAT essay is to prove you know the cursed 5 paragraph form.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 4:43 PM on March 1, 2005

mrbarrett.com I understand what you are saying 100% and I do not completely disagree with you.

The problem with this particular application of the 5 paragraph format is that, from my experience and from the articles I've read regarding its implementation, and from what Kaplan taught me about how to take the SAT II 7 years ago, anything that is NOT the 5 paragraph format will NOT be acceptable.

So basically, advanced writers will have to dumb... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 5:02 PM on March 1, 2005

Following jb's link to that horrid slideshow, here's another "guide" to teaching kids the 5P form....

The Five Paragraph Essay

*cringe*

I think that since so much emphasis is placed on its importance in judging one's potential to succeed, people just assume that it is the only way to do write an analytical essay or something.
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 1:15 PM on March 8, 2005

pitchfork is the worst. judge the music for yourself. don't take some fucking conceited indie hipster geek's word for it. swallow that vitriol.

Or read pitchfork for what it is: the greatest example of editorial conceit in all of music writing.

But oh man... postrock? Are you kidding me?
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 11:01 AM on March 8, 2005

I thought Palestinian reform had more to do with Arafat's death than Bush's----

What? No shit? Lincoln and Kennedy died on the same day?
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 3:25 PM on March 7, 2005

You've forgotten one very important achievement of the Bush Years: Bryan Adams and Def Leppard are going to tour minor league ballparks. Together.
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 4:14 PM on March 7, 2005

So back to this sky falling thing... shouldn't someone also notify the Department of Homeland Security so they can change the color wheel of doom Threat Alert to Tangerine or whatever color would be appropriate for the end being nigh?
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 1:10 PM on March 7, 2005

Seriously, though, I don't think posts about new whacky appointees are about the sky falling. I think it's "Oh shit, not another one..." We're all waiting to see how many crazy lunatics will it take to change the course of America forever and each new addition to the collection of nuts really is worth noting.
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 1:13 PM on March 7, 2005

The first thing this post made me think of is a terrible 80s movie called Just One of the Guys where this girl is convinced that she lost a journalism contest because she is a hot girl so she starts going to a new school pretending to be a boy.

Anyway, this hits a little close to home because I recently found out that my 5 year old cousin is turning into a super brat who likes to dress up in girl's clothing (his favorite Christmas present last year was a princess... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 12:02 PM on March 7, 2005

Oh yeah, kudos to the superintendent for handling this the way he's handling it. It's nice to see an administrator who cares about more than keeping his or her job.
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 12:11 PM on March 7, 2005

I've found that some of my friends either hate it or become obsessed with it. I fall into the latter category. Whenever I feel shitty, I pop it in. It's better than alcohol when it comes to cheering myself up. Well, okay, not quite... but close!

One of many... Napoleon Dynamite Soundboard [flash]

I caught you a delicious bass.
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 9:31 AM on March 3, 2005

No, really, I caught you a delicious bass.
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 10:13 AM on March 3, 2005

I dunno, I identify me-as-a-kid with Deb a whole lot so maybe it just strikes a chord for me.
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 10:51 AM on March 3, 2005

Jeez, it's a movie, not a nuclear armistice agreement.

You like it, cool. You don't like it, cool.

I don't see the point in holding it against people who like it as an indication of persistent bad taste, just as I don't see a point in lambasting people who don't like it.
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 12:12 PM on March 3, 2005

odinsdream: I'm with lazymonster, if you liked this movie or quote this movie in my presence, you're indelibly marked in my mind.

This is so silly. I like Napoleon Dynamite AND Citizen Kane. Does that mean Citizen Kane is somehow less of a movie because I like Napoleon Dynamite too? I mean, since you would doubt my taste after telling you I liked Napoleon... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 2:47 PM on March 3, 2005

See hellbient? The similarities are striking, really.

The only reason Citizen Kane popped into my head is that it's sitting on my desk next to me.
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 3:06 PM on March 3, 2005

odinsdream: Silly or not, I'm just giving you some information on how my brain works. I didn't choose to mark these people because they liked ND, it just happens. It says nothing about your taste for other movies... I don't even know what the mark in my head means.. but I can assure you, you're now marked.

Don't get me wrong... I know what you mean. I feel the same way about people who still talk about how great The DaVinci code... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 4:38 PM on March 3, 2005

I got dumped by my boyfriend senior year of high school (a month before the prom) for a girl who wore a tux to their prom. That hurt. I've held a grudge against girls who dress like men for special occasions since.
Down with chicks in tuxes!!!


Seriously, though, what a retarded principal. Let the girl wear a damn tux if that's her thing.
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 2:41 PM on March 2, 2005

Whoa, awesome links.

After a friend of mine and I saw Riding Giants, we becamse fascinated with the idea of a big wave surf spot 40 minutes from San Francisco. The next weekend we were trying to figure out where to go for a nice day trip outside of the city and decided we were going to drive down Highway 1 and find Mavericks. We knew the waves weren't very big at the time, we just wanted to *see* it for what it was. It is pretty impressive, and so were the sea... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by aGreatNotion at 10:56 AM on March 2, 2005