|
Jaeluni Asjil posted:We had this teacher that used to go around saying "if you're not going to get an A it's not worth doing the O-level" (A was the top grade back in those days and O-levels were still pass/fail unlike couple of years later when there was no such thing as 'pass/fail' but everyone knew if you didn't get C (or the equivalent in other exam boards - they were all different grading systems back then) you had effectively failed. Noone gives a monkey's about your O-level (GCSE/BTEC/whatever) grades or even most of the time your degree grades once you're out in the 'real world'. On our first day of sixth form the head of year 12 told us, and this is verbatim because it’s a sentence that hosed up my entire academic career so it’s burned into my brain, “You’ve all done your GCSEs now and that’s something of an achievement, but for the last 5 years you’ve had it drilled into you that they’re the most important exams you’ll ever take and it’s time for me to tell you that that’s actually a load of bollocks and the real learning starts now.” As a hormonal and rebellious 16 year old this was a terrible way to try and get me in the mood for higher education and I just sacked the whole thing off pretty much immediately, because in my mind they’d just bullshitted me through 5 years of hoops and I wasn’t in the mood for another however many years of it. Obviously as an adult I know it’s true and not only are GCSEs bollocks but so are most degrees, given the number of people I work with who have degrees in all kinds of weird poo poo and still ended up working an office job shuffling the numbers about, but I probably could have done something more interesting than bum about for a couple of years before getting a job in a shop without that speech  crispix posted:were you doing a cockney walk and loudly singing knees up mother brown at the time No I hadn’t slept for like 20 hours so I was mostly doing an exhausted lurching shuffle with resigned expression, which is another good way of spotting one of us I guess. History Comes Inside! fucked around with this message at 15:22 on May 27, 2023 |
#
?
May 27, 2023 15:20
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 25, 2024 21:58 |
|
|
History Comes Inside! posted:On our first day of sixth form the head of year 12 told us, and this is verbatim because it’s a sentence that hosed up my entire academic career so it’s burned into my brain, “You’ve all done your GCSEs now and that’s something of an achievement, but for the last 5 years you’ve had it drilled into you that they’re the most important exams you’ll ever take and it’s time for me to tell you that that’s actually a load of bollocks and the real learning starts now.” One of the things that persuaded me to go do a PhD when I was pushing 40 was seeing people with 1st class degrees who were actually not very bright (in extreme STEM 1sts were a rarity in fact 1sts were a rarity in just about anything when I were a nipper). I used to think you had to be a brainiac to do a PhD (and having stuffed my degree from predicted 1st to actual 22 due to nonacademic stuff including highly unsuitable boyfriend, horrible housemates - you know when you get a couple living together in a large houseshare and they ordain themselves Mummy and Daddy of the house yet think they're only one person when it comes to bills and cleaning rotas, beginnings of anorexia, horrible skin disease - why yes I was a complete fuckup in my 20s. Edit your ukmt.xlsx now) I thought I could never be good enough to do one. So anyway I was as it turned out. And I'm still getting cited 20 years later (I always say if Hawking's work is Latin, mine is Woodwork - older UKMTers may remember 'choices' at school).
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 15:40
|
|
|
my mum surprised me a bit this week: she loved the queen and watched the royalbabywillsandkate weddings and all that guff but i asked her why she didn't go to see the king when he was visiting here this week and she got a bit cross and reticent and would only say that that camilla was a horrible old slapper and not her queen
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 15:41
|
|
|
if there's a chance to ditch the monarchy it's probably during this one's innings
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 15:44
|
|
|
Jaeluni Asjil posted:horrible housemates - you know when you get a couple living together in a large houseshare and they ordain themselves Mummy and Daddy of the house yet think they're only one person when it comes to bills and cleaning rotas, beginnings of anorexia, horrible skin disease - why yes I was a complete fuckup in my 20s. Edit your ukmt.xlsx now) I once new a couple who tried to pull that bullshit during pub rounds. They were a couple so only one of them would buy the round but there two of them when it came to drinks? It was not stood for.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 15:57
|
|
|
yeah you don't shite out the same hole do you 
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 16:08
|
|
|
crispix posted:yeah you don't shite out the same hole do you Hollywood are gonna use this pub argument as the basis for a human centipede reboot
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 16:11
|
|
|
The guy that crashed into the Downing Street gates "isn't a terrorist" (hmmm), but he is a nonce.quote:Seth Kneller, 43, was arrested by armed officers on Thursday on suspicion of criminal damage and dangerous driving after a silver Kia ploughed into the entrance to the street while Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, was in residence.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 16:29
|
|
|
Well I've decided to mess about with ChatGPT and am asking it some questions in relation to the terrible chicklit novel I am developing with the idea of making a few bucks if my work contract finishes the end of this year. I asked it: "In UK-based chicklit, which pop culture references have been most popular in the last 10 years" It said: "As an AI language model, my knowledge cutoff is in September 2021, so I can provide information up until that point." (My bolding) So that was interesting. It has given me a list anyway. As I loathe chicklit it was reasonably eye-opening. It ended with: "It's worth noting that pop culture references can vary based on the specific time period and the preferences of individual authors. Since my knowledge is not up-to-date beyond 2021, I recommend exploring recent UK-based chick lit novels or consulting more current sources for the most up-to-date pop culture references in this genre." I'm simply not going to read chicklit. I read one last year by Fern Britton, it was atrocious and incredibly racist to Cornish men.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 16:30
|
|
|
Wait they mean he was literally charged with noncery after being arrested for the world’s shittest ram-raid, and not that he had a historical charge for it?
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 16:32
|
|
|
Yeah, it sounds like he got his hard drive checked for terrorist material and they found something else.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 16:33
|
|
|
Random but I know there's a bunch of warhams and vidya nerds ITT, there's a free warhams strategy game on steam at the moment cos of the event, grab it and you get to keep it. Kinda like a war centric civ game, played it a bunch and I enjoy it a lot. https://store.steampowered.com/app/489630/Warhammer_40000_Gladius__Relics_of_War/ Jaeluni Asjil posted:Well I've decided to mess about with ChatGPT and am asking it some questions in relation to the terrible chicklit novel I am developing with the idea of making a few bucks if my work contract finishes the end of this year. I am simultaneously fascinated by the idea of writing a type of book that you hate and also how it is possible to be racist against the Cornish.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 16:52
|
|
|
More to the point, racist against the Cornish in an erotic manner
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 16:55
|
|
|
I've only ever read one book that looked like chick-lit, found it in a holiday cottage. It started off with a woman obsessing over a celebrity and I think ended with her burying him under his pool, going home, and never speaking of it again. Was pretty good.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 16:59
|
|
|
Failed Imagineer posted:More to the point, racist against the Cornish in an erotic manner Maybe she assumed that "Wasson me cock?" referred to an activity.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 16:59
|
|
|
forkboy84 posted:Prefects weren't a thing in my school until I was in 5th year IIRC. Maybe 4th, but at least half way through High School. It was loving pointless, people only wanted to be a prefect because they got to go for lunch 5 minutes early, in theory because they were meant to spend lunch overseeing everyone else but in reality that absolutely did not happen. Seemed a waste of time but apparently universities liked it on applications i don't have kids so i don't actually know much about the uk school system, despite living here, but literally everything i learn about it just makes me want to both laugh and cry religion in schools, school uniforms, "free school meals" (?????), loving prefects and head boys and valedictorians, public schools, on and on e: also schools segregated by gender jaete fucked around with this message at 17:09 on May 27, 2023 |
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 17:04
|
|
|
At some point between me leaving school and the late 00s we also imported the idea of having “Prom” from the US and now it’s everywhere apparently.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 17:07
|
|
|
jaete posted:i don't have kids so i don't actually know much about the uk school system, despite living here, but literally everything i learn about it just makes me want to both laugh and cry we don't have valedictorians (yet). Or any of those weird american things like frat or soriety houses or freshmen or sophomores or all that weird stuff. And we most definitely did NOT have proms. That's imported from the US too. There's a shop in this town with 'prom dresses' prominently displayed. I guess it's the Prom season coming upon us soon. As is trick or treat. In my day you bobbed for apples in a big tub of water in the local church hall & cut faces into swedes or turnips to scare granny with.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 17:11
|
|
|
Now we cut our nose of to scare Swedes.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 17:13
|
|
|
jaete posted:religion in schools, school uniforms, "free school meals" (?????), loving prefects and head boys and valedictorians, public schools, on and on All schools are required to do a "daily active of collective worship" thanks to a 1998(!) act, but also it's no longer enforced so lots of schools don't bother. School uniforms are weird nonsense that in my experience about 80% of teachers will defend to the death, with some spurious justification about making everyone socially equal (utter bollocks). Basically they just like enforcing stupid rules. Similarly almost all schools require teachers to wear a suit and tie. Prefects and head boy or head girl are a thing, and they are still told that "it looks good on your university application", when in fact universities don't give the slightest gently caress about it and they don't do anything. We do not have "valedictorians" in England or Wales. Public schools are just old private schools, other countries also have private schools. Source: have been a teacher for 18 years
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 17:16
|
|
|
Oh lol, there's a memory. Our Head Boy was suddenly and unexpectedly picked to be the Richest Boy. Coincidence, I'm sure.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 17:20
|
|
|
The what
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 17:21
|
|
|
Just waiting for the day we start getting "homecoming queens" or Kings. I've asked American friends several times and still don't understand what they are or the point of them other than to increase the horrible cliquiness & psyops mastery of teenage girls.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 17:21
|
|
|
TwoShanks posted:All schools are required to do a "daily active of collective worship" thanks to a 1998(!) act Although that wasn't so much worship as stories and singing and sometimes big pictures. But they're not going to have primary school kids doing yajna so it's close enough.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 17:23
|
|
|
Jaeluni Asjil posted:Just waiting for the day we start getting "homecoming queens" or Kings.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 17:25
|
|
|
Thinking about it, whenever the prom thing happened it must have spread fast as hell. In my early 20s I went out with a girl who left school about 3 years after me and her parents still had a massive blown up portrait of her in her ‘prom dress’ on the wall in their house.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 17:27
|
|
|
I kinda defend school uniforms, because as a kid who wasn't having a great home-life and didn't have any decent clothes, at least the uniform protected against that somewhat. Proms and that though are insanity. I think at least though it's only for leavers?
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 17:31
|
|
|
Dabir posted:The One is only a descriptor, sorry.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 17:35
|
|
|
I think the closest UK analog to Homecoming would be when your town or city's team wins the cup or league and the tour bus comes back home somehow crossed with the Oxbridge swan harassing event. It's very tied up historically with extramural school sports leagues and pep rallies and 'school spirit' and other things that don't really exist here.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 17:40
|
|
|
I left school in 2005 and there was a prom then. No idea if anyone took it seriously because I hated the place and never went.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 17:51
|
|
|
Red Oktober posted:I once new a couple who tried to pull that bullshit during pub rounds. They were a couple so only one of them would buy the round but there two of them when it came to drinks? Buy them one drink to share.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 18:03
|
|
|
I don’t think a prom is an American import in anything other than name. It’s just that ‘the first mass piss-up where most of us are legally allowed to drink’ wouldn’t get the same endorsement from the school… My proof for this is that we had two: one at sixteen, where people did do the whole wear tuxedos, awkwardly pair up thing and it was one of the lamest experiences of my life. Then one at eighteen, where there was none of that shite, just total carnage, which was markedly better.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 18:03
|
|
|
We never had head boy / girl or prefects or any of that at my school, I thought that was all finished in like the 50s outside of weird public schools  TwoShanks posted:All schools are required to do a "daily active of collective worship" thanks to a 1998(!) act, but also it's no longer enforced so lots of schools don't bother.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 18:08
|
|
|
with medical school applications the joke is that everyone applying is a head boy or girl, so it counts absolutely nothing, but you get points for volunteering at an old folks home which actually does have a postive impact on society
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 18:09
|
|
|
TACD posted:Why the gently caress did I have to sing hymns in primary school in the early 90s then Dysgenesis posted:Buy them one drink to share. 
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 18:11
|
|
|
TACD posted:
I went to a C of E so this was just ‘normal’, as was the monthly assembly with the woman who’d come in and tell a bible story while painting lines into these white boxes to make them into letters so it would spell a proverb by the end of the story or some stupid poo poo.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 18:14
|
|
|
I think I can remember having to sing hymns at primary / junior school (1984-1991), but don't recall that carrying on into secondary school. We had prefects and a head girl and boy at secondary school once we got into Years 10 / 11, my best mate at the time was head boy. There were end of year dances. I do sometimes wonder if 27 years on, I haven't been invited to some reunions, but I don't know if that's a thing here.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 18:18
|
|
|
Dead Goon posted:I do sometimes wonder if 27 years on, I haven't been invited to some reunions, but I don't know if that's a thing here. My parents had school reunions and I’m pretty sure it’s because the internet was just taking off and there were websites like ‘friends reunited’ or whatever the gently caress forming some kind of proto-social network to spur it on. My wife left school the same year as me and her school did one a few years ago that she didn’t go to because why the gently caress would you?
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 18:21
|
|
|
I think a lot of the American school spirit/pep rally stuff has its origins in the 1962 ban on mandatory prayer in public (state) schools. Absent any collective worship of any god or gods they went all in on the worship of the flag and football team. The 1998 ruling in the UK seems to have replaced an earlier law or custom specifying Christianity/Anglicanism with just a non-specific "collective worship" which in practise usually ends up as extremely generic Christian songs about raindrops for most of the country, but allows for other faiths. That this happened around the same time that the Human Rights Act came in makes sense. idk why more schools don't do the Unitarian hymns, that's like the one religious group that every faith seems more or less okay with their kids being adjacent to as long as they're not converting to it. (of course the correct hymnal for schools is the IWW Song Book)
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 18:26
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 25, 2024 21:58 |
|
|
Jaeluni Asjil posted:Well I've decided to mess about with ChatGPT and am asking it some questions in relation to the terrible chicklit novel I am developing with the idea of making a few bucks if my work contract finishes the end of this year. I’ve been thinking of a slightly similar concept, but just getting GPT to write the whole thing. I reckon it might work with a bit of training.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2023 18:27
|
|