Rilbur

Sergeant Major Jared Brent Warren bit his lip and forced himself not to snarl. His kids couldn't see the white knuckles he was getting from gripping the steering wheel too hard, but there was no doubt in his mind they'd notice and understand that their parents were fighting if he gave in and tore that bitch's head off. And maybe not merely in the figurative sense, either. If it weren't for the kids, he'd have hurt her long since. "And Angela has this simply wonderful diamond ring her husba

Alex loves Alyssa, but then she decides to take off with a strange note that almost invites him to come after her. He's not about to let her go... If he can just get there in time.

Alex sighed as he unlocked the door to the apartment. It had been a long, hard day at work and he just knew Alyssa was going to be pissed over his being late. "I'm home!" he called out, frowning at the lack of response. She must be out grocery shopping, he shrugged. Alex wandered over to the kitchen, ditching his tie on the way. He was over an hour late, but hopefully Alyssa had left him something for dinner. He wasn't expecting to find the note pinned to the fridge. Alex stared at the n

Are we talking CalTrans road worker orange, or prison uniform orange here?

True, he hit a cop. I forgot that one. As for it being TV... TV is supposed to emulate reality, isn't it?

He opened fire. Probably every single officer on the scene returned fire with a double tap to the chest (one shot to the chest will probably kill you; two will almost certainly kill you). I'd like to emphasize that he opened fire. In such a situation, lethal force is called for and appropriate. Opening fire on cops in a situation like that just reads as suicide by cop to me, and if it were a real event I'd only feel sorry for the poor cops who have to deal with having taken a human (if foolish) life.

That was incredible! A great laugh! Edit: And I suspect the problem is Guitar Hero just couldn't compete against Rock Band, if only because it was too expensive to develop new peripherals to match the new Rock Band ones.

Thanks for letting me know what you think!

The stories really need to be finished to be of any use. We experimented with allowing the first chapter of a longer story in, and it just doesn't work. And, unfortunately, the workshop ran it's course last week when we ran out of stories. Joining the forums at forums.rilburskryler.net and getting put into the writer's group probably isn't a complete waste, however, as I will probably try to revive it at some point in the future. If you're signed up, you'll get a direct e-mail notice when I attempt the revival.

Holy shit! How did I miss this happening! Congrats Nephy!

Less to do with Christa, may she rest in peace, and more to do with the fact that you don't often see multi-billion dollar national pride symbols blow up.

What school did you go to? We may not have covered every single crime of the past, but we discussed plenty of them. Slavery, and it's horrors. The shameful way the Native Americans were treated. 'Manifest Stupidity'. The Civil Rights movement. I'm not ashamed of what our nation is, however ashamed I am by it's past. We've grown so far beyond our roots, and have hope for growing further.

Some of us just have trouble forumulating long, complex reviews that go past the 'great work!' stage.

I don't get it.

Just with my 'spare time' I usually read something approaching 1 regular-length novel a day. Less when I'm reading 'extra-long' books like Wheel of Time, but even those I can finish one-to-a-day if I really want.

I think one reason I have an advantage is that I've managed to mostly avoid schools that don't understand that learning isn't just about the acquisition of knowledge, it's about learning how to use it -- how to reason, think, speak using the things we've learned.

I started with Nifty for... ah.. 'special' reading... then found my way to Cracker's Den as a result of a story being cross-posted there. From Cracker's Den I found the entire Fort Family series of sites, which actually ended up being my original 'home' for my writing when I got hosted at Castle Roland.

But when would you need cursive? The only time -- the only time -- I've used it in the last several years is to sign my name.

I'm sorry, but I don't see the connection between the two. Lets break this down part by part. Spelling and printing aren't part of penmanship. Penmanship is the absurdity of asking students to learn and practice a second script -- cursive -- that has little relation to the primary script -- printed text -- that they are expected to learn. Cursive made sense once because it's quicker to write with, but in the modern era there is little to no point. I can type as fast as most people can speak, and I can type far faster than even the best hand writer can manage in cursive. Learning to write in print is a basic, grade-school level task that I wouldn't expect to last past 3rd or 4th grade, about the time typing takes over. Spelling would remain just as important as ever. Arithmetic on the other hand is important because it's a fundamental building block to types of higher math. If you don't understand addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division you can't hope to learn fractions, algebra, trig, calculus... Each layer of math is build on the layers that came before it. Simply because a calculator can do it for you doesn't mean you don't need to know how to do it yourself, because if you don't understand it yourself you aren't going to be able to set the equations up for a calculator to crunch. Basic arithmetic is also a skill that needs to be ingrained at such a level that we don't need machines to do it, true, and the good news is that for most people, that's true. There are some, I will admit, who don't get it, but most people in my experience can make change without help. Percentages depends on the nature of the numbers involved -- if it's an easy one, sure, if it's not grab a calculator or paper and pencil. Square roots? The only way I know of to get to a square root is a calculator, or tons of guess and check. I prefer the former.

[qoute] I think, since we're losing ground in Math and Science, we need to phase out the History/Government and the Social Sciences.. make it more about the area of studies. Lets not. Do you really want more people who think impeachment is throwing peaches at the president, or that it actually means removing him from office completely? How about people who don't know what Rome was, much less Carthage? Hell, who don't know who the puritans were, and how they f**ked our country up royally. (OK, so the latter part is PURE OPINION). How about more people who think Abraham Lincoln was black? We need to buckle down and understand that learning is work, and that it's work no one is going to do unless society and their elders makes them do it, makes them understand how important the acquisition and use of knowledge is important and that they are darned well expected to do it. Which starts, frankly, by tearing down the 'no child left behind' standards in favor of something more realistic. Not everyone can be educated to the same level, so your goal should be to educate the greatest number of people to the greatest standard possible, not dumbing everyone down to the lowest common denominator.

"The saddest words of tongue or pen, are simply these..." (Well, if it's a good story anyway)

I should point out that I couldn't diagram a sentence properly if my life depended on it. I understand the basics, but I just never picked up the skill. That said, I certainly understand your point -- high school education has gotten incredibly watered down in many areas, though I'd like to point out that some of them, like penmanship, are a skill of diminishing importance. Fact is, computers are taking over, and typing is a far more valuable skill. With the advent of 'texting' developing the ability of people to function without a full keyboard, I'd expect to see typing-based skills to become vastly more important than they are now, to the degree where they obliviate the need to write out by hand in most situations, and unlike arithmetic where you need to understand the operations to get best use out of a calculator, handwriting really will be a stone age skill with no importance to the modern lifestyle. In fact, I'd like to see the time spent on it reduced, in favor of general computer classes. The fact is, no one with a modern education should fail to recognize a 'Hello World' program, or understand what it means. (It's the most basic program possible, and is the introductory point for virtually any computer language. If a programming book doesn't start with 'hello world', DON'T BUY IT.) That said, I'd like to reiterate that not all degrees are fluff. Go get a math degree instead of a business one. Or a computer science one like I am. The snipped of C++ I used above is something you're expected to understand by the end of the first 'real' day of class in a programming class. You won't understand all the details, but you'll understand the basics, and be able to work with it. Maybe you should recognize it before you even get to class -- I'd certainly urge schools to increase their computer-based education, and I'm not talking about word-processing-for-idiots!

Sorry, I just don't buy that. I have the right to have who I want in my bed, without it getting posted all over the internet because my roommate thinks its funny.

#include stdio using namespace std; int main(void) { cout << "Hello World!"; } My vote is that my degree is certainly advancing my skill set! That said, I have definitely taken classes that I'd rather have skipped for all the good they've done me... (Hell, I'm retaking one of them right now just because there's a new teacher who might actually teach me the shit I took that class to learn!) Edit: My perspective may be skewed. Fact is, I actually learned how to write in High School, and took a 'real' writing course my freshman year, and I haven't needed to work on my writing skills -- in a technical sense -- since. (In a story-writing sense, oh boy am I still working, but that don't count, no siree!) Also, I'd like to point out that 'snuck' is entering the language, whether the high-and-mighty professors who are the gatekeepers of 'properness' like it not. Just like alot of other words, and ain't it a shame?

"The saddest words of tounge or pen, are simply these: [The End]"