(no subject)

You are the grammar Fuhrer. All bow to your
authority. You will crush all the inferior
people under the soles of your jackboots, and
any who question your motives will be
eliminated. Your punishment is being the bane
of every other person's existence, because
you're constantly contradicting stupidity.
Everyone will be gunning for you. Your dreams
of a master race of spellers and grammarians
frighten the masses. You must always watch your
back. If only your power could be used for good
instead of evil.


What is your grammar aptitude?
brought to you by Quizilla


The sad part is that this was all third grade level stuff, and most people out there who fancy themselves writers don't even know this.

Nah, I'm not saying this to be a snob. I'm just saying that Mrs. Foley, heavens rest her, would have torn her hair out if her students hadn't already known all of this by the time they got to her grade.

Mrs. Foley was my fourth, fifth and sixth grade English teacher (my grade school was tiny, only ten teachers, only nine children in my entire graduating class,) and she was very, very much like Professor McGonagall. Until she cut her hair when we were in sixtrh grade, we never, ever saw her with it out of the tight bun on her head. Ever. There were rumors that her hair was down to the floor when she let it down, but we never found out. She wore wire-frame glasses and button-down shirts and calf-length, dark skirts. One would see her once and say, "English teacher" without second guessing. She was very exacting, but not without a sense of humor. I remember that, all throughout 4th, 5th and 6th grades, we used to have grammar bees in her class, wherein we had to conjugate verbs: "Begin, began, has have or had begun." And one day she gave us the word "burst," and she got to Samantha, who said, "burst, bursted, has have or had bust," and Mrs. Foley laughed in this appalled, but still amused kind of way. I think she really liked her students. (Incidentally, I won that grammar bee, and she gave me a glass swan as a prize. The neck has been broken for years, but I keep taping it.)

It was Mrs. Foley who pretty much decided my future. She was a great teacher, and she encouraged us when we did well, but slapped us down when we needed it and she didn't hesitate to fail anyone who didn't measure up to her high standards. I am a lazy writer and speaker and my grammar lapses into pure Long Island when I'm with my friends or trying to be funny, but I've never forgotten the rules. She was really the reason that I was so good in English in the public schools I went to after St. David's. I had two awesome English teachers in high school, too, who inspired me to continue.

It makes me so mad that kids aren't getting classes like this anymore. chaotic_sins has probably never done anything like that in her life, and, at 25 or however old she is, can't even conjugate the simplest of verbs. That's sad, dude. Some of it has to be the fault of the teachers, right? Honestly, do they teach this stuff anymore? I mean, I haven't been in grammar school for a very long time, obviously, so I really don't know. I'm curious.

Mrs. Foley died last winter, and I didn't know about it until a few weeks after the fact. St. David's closed down a long time ago, but a few years ago, it re-opened as a pre-school daycare, and now my best friend's kid is going there. I haven't set foot in St. David's since the day I graduated sixth grade, so I wonder what it's like there now. I dream about it, oddly, more than I dream about high school (which was the deepest circle of hell and endless years of bruises and hiding under the bleachers,) and I'd love to send my kids there someday, should I ever be lucky enough to have some.

I don't mean for this to be some kind of "my education was better than yours" crap thing, because it wasn't; most of my education, from seventh grade until college, was dismal. I don't know half the things I wish I knew, especially when it comes to math and social studies and art. Mrs. Foley also taught art, and her sixth grade art class was the last one I ever took in my entire life. The public schools out here didn't require them if you took choir, which I did (and which I was good at, and loved. I used to be a halfway decent soprano.) And my sequence was in French, so I never had to take an art class, and I really wish I had. So, my education has holes in it, too. I guess I was just lucky to have learned the basics in at least one subject.

Isn't it sad, that we have to count ourselves lucky if we get a good education in something?

Oh well. Back to Triple Triad and other important things.

(no subject)

You are the grammar Fuhrer. All bow to your
authority. You will crush all the inferior
people under the soles of your jackboots, and
any who question your motives will be
eliminated. Your punishment is being the bane
of every other person's existence, because
you're constantly contradicting stupidity.
Everyone will be gunning for you. Your dreams
of a master race of spellers and grammarians
frighten the masses. You must always watch your
back. If only your power could be used for good
instead of evil.


What is your grammar aptitude?
brought to you by Quizilla


The sad part is that this was all third grade level stuff, and most people out there who fancy themselves writers don't even know this.

Nah, I'm not saying this to be a snob. I'm just saying that Mrs. Foley, heavens rest her, would have torn her hair out if her students hadn't already known all of this by the time they got to her grade.

Mrs. Foley was my fourth, fifth and sixth grade English teacher (my grade school was tiny, only ten teachers, only nine children in my entire graduating class,) and she was very, very much like Professor McGonagall. Until she cut her hair when we were in sixtrh grade, we never, ever saw her with it out of the tight bun on her head. Ever. There were rumors that her hair was down to the floor when she let it down, but we never found out. She wore wire-frame glasses and button-down shirts and calf-length, dark skirts. One would see her once and say, "English teacher" without second guessing. She was very exacting, but not without a sense of humor. I remember that, all throughout 4th, 5th and 6th grades, we used to have grammar bees in her class, wherein we had to conjugate verbs: "Begin, began, has have or had begun." And one day she gave us the word "burst," and she got to Samantha, who said, "burst, bursted, has have or had bust," and Mrs. Foley laughed in this appalled, but still amused kind of way. I think she really liked her students. (Incidentally, I won that grammar bee, and she gave me a glass swan as a prize. The neck has been broken for years, but I keep taping it.)

It was Mrs. Foley who pretty much decided my future. She was a great teacher, and she encouraged us when we did well, but slapped us down when we needed it and she didn't hesitate to fail anyone who didn't measure up to her high standards. I am a lazy writer and speaker and my grammar lapses into pure Long Island when I'm with my friends or trying to be funny, but I've never forgotten the rules. She was really the reason that I was so good in English in the public schools I went to after St. David's. I had two awesome English teachers in high school, too, who inspired me to continue.

It makes me so mad that kids aren't getting classes like this anymore. chaotic_sins has probably never done anything like that in her life, and, at 25 or however old she is, can't even conjugate the simplest of verbs. That's sad, dude. Some of it has to be the fault of the teachers, right? Honestly, do they teach this stuff anymore? I mean, I haven't been in grammar school for a very long time, obviously, so I really don't know. I'm curious.

Mrs. Foley died last winter, and I didn't know about it until a few weeks after the fact. St. David's closed down a long time ago, but a few years ago, it re-opened as a pre-school daycare, and now my best friend's kid is going there. I haven't set foot in St. David's since the day I graduated sixth grade, so I wonder what it's like there now. I dream about it, oddly, more than I dream about high school (which was the deepest circle of hell and endless years of bruises and hiding under the bleachers,) and I'd love to send my kids there someday, should I ever be lucky enough to have some.

I don't mean for this to be some kind of "my education was better than yours" crap thing, because it wasn't; most of my education, from seventh grade until college, was dismal. I don't know half the things I wish I knew, especially when it comes to math and social studies and art. Mrs. Foley also taught art, and her sixth grade art class was the last one I ever took in my entire life. The public schools out here didn't require them if you took choir, which I did (and which I was good at, and loved. I used to be a halfway decent soprano.) And my sequence was in French, so I never had to take an art class, and I really wish I had. So, my education has holes in it, too. I guess I was just lucky to have learned the basics in at least one subject.

Isn't it sad, that we have to count ourselves lucky if we get a good education in something?

Oh well. Back to Triple Triad and other important things.