Random crap with Uno.

[Rusty Edge]

I'm pretty good at making a fool of myself, and can enjoy a joke at my own expense.

Well, I don't think that would be funny. Probably just because I happened to traverse the great state of New York on 911, and dealt with people in shock or panicking because the phones were overloaded & useless and they couldn't find their children or other  loved ones.

Normally I worry before something happens, and get a grip when it does.  I'd probably be on the floor bracing for the shockwave to break the glass and planning on getting others safely out afterwords.

I think I'd be infuriated to learn it was a joke, and split some knuckles on somebody's face or put some furniture through that fancy screen, so that they would think before terrorizing anybody else. You could pull all kinds of pranks with a screen that's a convincing window. Why not do something that's actually funny?

[Buster's Uncle]

Except for the part about New York -I was in Texas watching CNN- you speak for me.

[Rusty Edge]

I was working and had an early start that morning. I always listened to NPR in the Bronco. The NYC coverage was excellent, because they had a Manhattan affiliate.  Granted, they thought the first plane was a small twin engine model at first , but I knew about it immediately. I thought, "Oh well, a plane hit the Empire State building once...." Strangely, they didn't know what was going on in their headquarters city of DC, just that there was a lot of smoke over towards the Pentagon.

[Unorthodox]

Was driving a yard jockey at the time, just doing my thing.  The radio went real quiet for a while and I caught up on my backloand took the truck in to the shop, who didn't know anything either.  Got back from that, and the plant had shut down and sent everyone home.  My boss leaving says "go home, we're at war"  Went home baffled as the radio in that car didn't even work. 

[Rusty Edge]

If I  had the setup with the fake window TV, fake job interview, Candid Camera thing...

 I might let the interviewer get weirder and weirder until the candidate is starting to wish it were over.
Then I would have the interviewer tell the candidate he'll get the job- When pigs fly!" Meanwhile, what should appear "outside the window", but a flying pig?

What would you do with fake window and job interview set-up?

[Buster's Uncle]

Hmm.  That is an evil thought.  Let's see if my subconscious comes up with something good...

[Unorthodox]

Not a fake window, but I've always to do a room:

You the TV at the end of a longish room, and a live-ish feed of the room playing, but it's tape delayed a few seconds.  PEOPLE, Especially kids, LOVE to play with this kind of setup.  They make faces at the camera, etc.  But, the tape delay gives you a chance to sneak up someone behind them, and by the time they SEE the person coming in the TV, they are RIGHT UP next to them, but the brain doesn't register that time delay, so it's a shock when they turn. 

Originally conceived as a "Blair Witch" room, updated to "The Ring", don't think there's a current fad theme that would be able to utilize it. 


Scifi did a show that was a TON of pranks, often on job interviews/first days, and fake doors/windows have become a staple of haunted houses,  I think I would honestly be mighty suspicious from the get go. 

[Unorthodox]

Chompy molted to 5th instar, and we took him over to the neighbors'.  Figure the more I get those kids to like bugs the less spraying is likely to happen.  I'd talked to the dad about it earlier when I was collecting eggs.  "I didn't know you could raise butterflies"

Seriously, what kind of childhood do you have if you never raised a butterfly?  I thought that was a basic class project.  How do you not know it's possible?

Anyhow, stopped it by, I guess they had released some butterfly at the presschool, but the kids were sick and didn't get to see it, thrilled to have their own.  First question.  "Is it a boy or a girl?"  "Let me know when it turns into a butterfly and I can tell you, before that it's pretty hard to tell." 

[Rusty Edge]

No. Didn't have much interest in butterflies. Monarchs were scarce on our farm. We had an ongoing war with milkweeds, because they were a problem to mechanically separate from certain crops, which cost us money.They tended to get pulled or cut on sight, if they survived the spray program. Had an ant farm when I was about 8.

 I did keep spiders. Jumping spiders were my favorites, because they were excellent hunters. That carried into adulthood, but the mrs can't share her home with any bugs.

[Unorthodox]

I understand not in the home, just baffled by the not in school/didn't know it was possible. 

Caterpillar>butterfly is like basic 1st grade science stuff.  We kept one over-winter in 5th or 6th grade, but that was mostly my doing at the time.  I was presenting the collection and answering teachers/student's questions by that point.  Probably lasted a week or so, my collection in the library, each class coming to see/ask questions. 

Recurring theme through biology class in highschool.  Biology class, collect 10 insects and we'll figure out how to scientifically group them in class...extra credit if you bring in more.  I didn't need to be in that class after that...but the teacher let me do weird things, like breeding giant water bugs, and I answered any questions on what something someone brought in was.  If only the physics and chemistry teachers would have let me explore on my own similarly, I might have actually attended their classes more regularly...as it was, I was just bored. 

[Buster's Uncle]

  Sounds familiar.  Public schools have absolutely no clue of what to do with the truly gifted students.  There is some bitterness to my laughter.

[Dio]

I understand not in the home, just baffled by the not in school/didn't know it was possible. 

Caterpillar>butterfly is like basic 1st grade science stuff.  We kept one over-winter in 5th or 6th grade, but that was mostly my doing at the time.  I was presenting the collection and answering teachers/student's questions by that point.  Probably lasted a week or so, my collection in the library, each class coming to see/ask questions. 

Recurring theme through biology class in highschool.  Biology class, collect 10 insects and we'll figure out how to scientifically group them in class...extra credit if you bring in more.  I didn't need to be in that class after that...but the teacher let me do weird things, like breeding giant water bugs, and I answered any questions on what something someone brought in was.  If only the physics and chemistry teachers would have let me explore on my own similarly, I might have actually attended their classes more regularly...as it was, I was just bored. 

I have never been particularly interested in biology or life science in general as a area of study. I have always been more interested in physical sciences like geology, chemistry and such.

[Unorthodox]

hEt had a free period during Physics...sure didn't help motivate me to attend class much...  The fact I could ace all the tests (every Friday) without attending the lessons during the week just sealed the deal.  Labs were rather disappointingly boring.  For the most part, nothing I hadn't seen. 


Really wasn't Physics teacher's fault.  I'd already taken Calculus, which had already covered all the same material.  Wish I'd known that before signing up. 

[Buster's Uncle]

I had this history course my first year of college where sometimes Friday mornings another student would ask me "Are you ready for the test?" and I'd go "We're having a test today?  What have we been studying?"  Then I'd ace the test.  Truth.

I did show up for class, but spent it writing long letters to my sister.  I'd read the text book at the beginning of the year, and it was enough.  In the third quarter, I made the experiment of completely stopping all paying of attention and doing the busywork, and it turns out that was enough to drop my grade for the quarter to a B.

The course and the tests happened to play to my strengths, but I don't know how anyone ever managed to flunk it, though I knew some who did...

[Dio]

What I think makes a subject interesting is less based upon what you know but rather how interesting and engaged a teacher allows the students to be. I know some teachers that are so boring while others in the same subject area are very interesting. One feature I think that makes for a good teacher is if they allow students to bring in materials that pertain to the subject. For example, there was a geology teacher I took that let students bring in rocks they found and then asked if they could identity what they were. If they could not, he would do his best to identity them. There are a few examples of where geology overlaps with and is useful in biology. Some include paleontology, paleoclimatology and structural geology.