What do you assign to Mordor?

[Lathriel]

Bad scripts should be send to Mordor. Right now the most common complaint I read in the newspaper movie reviews is that the acting is good but that the scripts are terrible. I agree, the scripts aren't intelligent and they are usually too safe and therefore bring.

[Orominuialwen]

Whoever thought it was a good idea to make the Packer game and the UW men's basketball game on at the exact same time needs to take a trip to Mordor. That was not a smart idea on their part.

Also, whoever was behind the decision to move Monday Night Football to ESPN next year should go to Mordor. Not all of us have cable, you know.

And finally, my beloved Green Bay Packers should at least temporarily go to Mordor for managing to lose to the Vikings despite leading for a good portion of the game. They can come back from Mordor once they finally win some games!

[Laitoste]

Originally Posted by Orominuialwen

They can come back from Mordor once they finally win some games!

And when will this be, Oromin? Next season? Next decade?

I want to send whoever thought it was a good idea to raise our county sales tax to pay for the new stadium for the Packers. Also annoying people who care too much about pro football and thus are willing to physically attack anyone wearing Viking colors. And my family members who try to make me interested...

Also history seminars about subjects you THOUGHT you were interested in but really aren't and now have to write a 10 page paper about (I don't care about the Albigensian Crusade, I really don't). There goes the history major (maybe, unlikely...).

EDIT: On that note, also send bad attitudes and exhaustion to Mordor! But wait, it already has a copious amount of both of those...

[the guy who be short]

You may remember my rant about the pervasive media and how they had now reached the point of advertising on stairs - on the actually steps themselves, those things you walk on to move up or down. It is with immense glee that I report to you all that they are now covered in mud and grime.

[Lhunardawen]

The dark circles under my eyes <-- Less than six hours of sleep <-- Having to do homework late at night <-- Procrastination <-- The Downs

[Cailín]

My argumentation teacher has officially earned an uncomfortable home in Mordor yesterday... I cannot believe he seriously failed me. I’ve never failed anything in my life. Also, not really sure whether I find his grading strategy of ‘everything over a B is for fellow teachers and an A is for God alone’ at all acceptable. Quite discouraging, come to think of it.

Also, I’d like to assign

- People who do not believe in the philosophy that when something is boring you make it fun, and when it’s still not fun after you tried, you drink lots of tequilas and dance on the bar.

- People who think that - just because you dance with someone in a flirty manner - you are in love and destined to be married and have many babies.

- People who find love no proper motivation to move to Scotland.

all to Mordor. Blah.

[Nerindel]

Summarily banished to Mordor by me are:

- Annoying telesales people who do not seem to understand the meaning of the polietly phrased no thanks!

- British telecom for refusing to update our exchange so that our village can finally get broadband like the rest of the World!!!!

- And stupid ignorant people who think writing is a waste of time and effort!!!

[littlemanpoet]

Originally Posted by Cailín

- People who do not believe in the philosophy that when something is boring you make it fun, and when it’s still not fun after you tried, you drink lots of tequilas and dance on the bar.

- People who think that - just because you dance with someone in a flirty manner - you are in love and destined to be married and have many babies.

- People who find love no proper motivation to move to Scotland.

Now now now. There are stories to be told here. Out with 'em!

all terrorists

[Formendacil]

I am most distressed... my name has been sent to Mordor, and I want it back!

The plethora of Michaels in this world has never bothered me, despite being known in early school years as "Michael J", or in church as "Michael Joosten Jr." (to differentiate from my grandfather), or simply jumping everytime someone says Mike...

Meanwhile, it is 1:30 in the morning here, and I am haranguing about my name...

I assign to Mordor (that is correct, linguistics masters, I am giving this ugly thing an assignment to the land of Mordor) having to work until 12:30, 1:00, or 2:00 in the morning.

I don't care if those drunk college kids are hungry or not! Let them eat cake!

I also assign those chronically drunk college kids...

[Orominuialwen]

Originally Posted by Formendacil

I am most distressed... my name has been sent to Mordor, and I want it back!

The plethora of Michaels in this world has never bothered me, despite being known in early school years as "Michael J", or in church as "Michael Joosten Jr." (to differentiate from my grandfather), or simply jumping everytime someone says Mike...

Perhaps I've just been spoiled by the fact that my first name is so unusual I've never met anyone else with it and only one other person in the world (my brother) has the same last name as me. (It's hyphenated, so even our parents don't have it.)


Back on topic, I conassign excessively hard math tests. I didn't even answer two of the questions and there were several ones I did answer that I know couldn't possibly have been right. I thought that was really bad, until I talked to someone else after class, and he said he didn't get to seven questions! That test was just was too hard and long to do in 48 minutes, especially with the very distracting smell of ham cooking throughout most of the period.

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Everything currently wrong with my term paper.

Passive voice. This kills me. For years my teachers have harangued me for use of passive voice and I haven't got the faintest idea of what they're talking about. They mark me off for it without properly explaining what it is.

Apparently one small error of MLA format (a double space in one place that should be single) can get 1/4 of the Grammar grade cut.

Use of acedemic language. The expletive was part of a quote, and the quote was to show how stories are perceived differently based on words chosen to tell them.

Citations. I could easily find some person somewhere that's said everything I've said before and cite them to augment my sources, but if I add more citing then it ceases to be my paper and becomes a jigsaw puzzle of other people's words taken from context and made to seem like they're all talking about the same thing.

Theses. Yes... my thesis has an issue: when the professor said that "the thesis on a research paper is found at the conclusion of the introduction," I totally missed out on the "of the introduction" part of the statement. My paper's official conclusion is currently playing host to my thesis and my professor thinks it's non-existent because it's not on one of the first two pages of my paper.

My professor's issue with my friend's paper can also go to Mordor. I can assign this issue because it's because of me that she's got the issue, and I don't find it to be an issue at all. In her term paper, she discusses linguistic taboos. She uses profanity, but she uses it acedemically in terms of why these expletives are considered taboo. Our professor wants her to bleep out the words, or at least most of the words. It's not like she's randomly swearing for the heck of it, she uses curse words in terms of "And in England, 'X' means something entirely different than it does in the States." How lame is that? I want to go argue my friend's case to the professor to convince her to let the words stay in all of their naughty splendor. Besides... it's not like we can't use words like "transubstantiation" and "cannibalism" and "bubble" and "acetone" and "rhetoric". Words are words. Anybody who has an issue with a certain word can go become a Knight of Ni and hang out in Mordor.

So there.

[Gurthang]

Agreed, Fea, agreed. I can't stand all this MLA or APA or whatever they want us to do. I'd like to toss them into Mount Doom.

I'd like to add portfolio projects to the general homework hate pile.

[Cailín]

And Fea just listed all the reasons why I failed argumentation. Silly stylesheets.

Also, to Mordor with Alexander Pope's entire oeuvre. Endlessly dull.

[Roa_Aoife]

Originally Posted by Fea

Passive voice. This kills me. For years my teachers have harangued me for use of passive voice and I haven't got the faintest idea of what they're talking about. They mark me off for it without properly explaining what it is.

I'm a little rusty, but I believe passive voice is when something is being done to the subject rather than subject doing an action.
Passive voice: "The bag was carried along by the little girl." (something done to the subject (the bag))
Active voice: "The little girl carried along the bag." (The subject (the little girl) doing something.)

Passive is acceptable in small doses just to change the tone when necessary, and to add a little variety, but it's not supposed to be used to excess. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Back on topic, to Mordor with PC. Merry Christmas.

[Lalaith]

PC?
Personal computers? Police Constables?

[Kath]

Political Correctness.

There is this thing at the moment about not calling the winter celebration Christmas because it is insulting to other religions. To me this seems the tiniest bit insane, but then I already assigned overzealous political correctness so I can ignore it

[Farael]

Oh Fea, I hear you!! but I think we should cast all essays to Mordor. Specially for us, science students. I know, I have to learn how to comunicate but.... do I REALLY have to write an essay on something I don't care about written by someone who is not really THAT relevant?

Also, I'll cast essay writers who try to sound really smart and use big words to say simple things. For example "the subconscious tendency of the main character in this segment of the plot..." to say "What Frodo really thinks...


Edit, posted at the same time than Kath

Politically Correct speech should skip the Mordor stage and be sent right to heck!! (see? I should have said hell yet I'm censoring myself because someone might find it offensive) The "Winter Celebration" is obviously Christmas... and hey, Jewish people have Hanukah usually around the same time of the year (and it really upsets me that Hanukah has become a Jewish Christmas) and I don't really think other religions would find it offensive. If anything, they'll enjoy the day off work!!

Or for example, a topic I always struggle with. A person with black skin is called an "African American" yet what if they are from the Middle East? or if they came from Europe? furthermore, what do you call an "african american" who does not live in America? African? so you'd have an European African woman or an Asiatic African man? I mean, I honestly don't know if being called "black" can be found offensive but at least, find a different word to replace it for!!

[/End_rant]

[the guy who be short]

Teachers who memorise long words to sound intelligent, and use them repeatedly or out of context. E.g. "My notes today aren't very expletive."

Teachers who manage to bring their children into every single cursed topic. Sigh.

[Firefoot]

English teachers who do not understand the English language. The sentence was something like "During the Revolutionary War, some colonists wanted to break away from England, while others did not." My English teacher was trying to tell us that the dependent clause "while others did not" was also an adjective clause modifying the infinitive "to break" - no! Dependent clauses don't modify anything! And when I tried to explain this to her, she basically told me I was wrong and that she could understand why I was confused.

[Cailín]

Originally Posted by the guy who be short

Teachers who manage to bring their children into every single cursed topic. Sigh.

My Phonetics teacher does that and I actually love it. Anything not directly related to phonetics is a most welcome relief during those lectures...

To Mordor with my vocal coach (though just for a day, I suppose). Even after casting him several wounded looks and sniffing desperately, he still insisted I should be able to produce a clear high 'C', which is hard enough as it is and becomes quite impossible when you have such a bad cold you can only speak in a whisper.

Also, my pronunciation teacher who turns out to be quite an evil dictator. His teaching methods seem to be taken straight out of My Fair Lady, he looks at you as if he will smash your head in when you accidentally say laft instead of left or fail to voice your final d-s and called me 'silly' and said I sounded like 'a valley girl'. I'm not quite certain what a valley girl is, but I don't think I should feel flattered.

I seem to be sending a lot of people to Mordor lately. Perhaps I should try meditation.

[Lhunardawen]

Significant figures in solving Chem problems (especially stoichiometry).

Seriously! Why can't they just be contented with two decimal places?

[Farael]

Originally Posted by Lhunardawen

Significant figures in solving Chem problems (especially stoichiometry).

Seriously! Why can't they just be contented with two decimal places?

How about calculating the standard deviation for chemistry? I mean COME ON, IT'S A TITRATION NOT A STATS PROBLEM.

Also, to Mordor with the profs who will give you four answers in the multiple choice varying only on the sig. figs.... I mean, COME ON... my answer is 0.856 and the options are
0.85
8.5X10^-1
0.855
0.856

Is it not all the same????

[the guy who be short]

Originally Posted by Farael

Is it not all the same????

Only the first two, so you know it's not them. And seeing as you got 8.56, that would have to be the answer.

Hmm, I have nothing I'm angry about... How about sending teachers' timekeeping to Mordor?

[Farael]

Ahhh The Guy Who Be Short!!! you need to review those sig figs!
-0.85 - two sig figs
-8.5x10-1 = .850 -- three sig figs
-0.855 perhaps I made a rounding error?
-0.856

[Orominuialwen]

Originally Posted by Farael

Ahhh The Guy Who Be Short!!! you need to review those sig figs!
-0.85 - two sig figs
-8.5x10-1 = .850 -- three sig figs
-0.855 perhaps I made a rounding error?
-0.856

Actually the second one is only two sig figs. 8.5*10^-1=0.85


I conassign getting yourself all worked up and angry at somebody, only to find when you go to yell at them that they haven't behaved nearly as badly as you thought they did. You have no way to release all that pent up energy and you feel more than slightly foolish for getting all worked up when the person didn't even really do anything wrong.


I also conassign the City of Madison, for never, ever plowing my street when it snows. We got somewhere between 2 and 3 inches last night, and as of right now (5 pm) the street has yet to be plowed. If they ever do get around to doing it (which isn't very likely), it won't make a difference, becaus the snow's already been driven over and packed down so much that the plow won't move it, so it all just turns into a two-inch layer of ice on the street for the whole winter. For the first 5 years or so that we lived in our house our street was always one of the first to be plowed because a member of the City Council lived in our house before we did and it took the city a long time to figure out that he'd moved. Once they finally realized that, they stopped plowing our street! (Suck ups!)