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Pet Peeves v. 5.0

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Busty St Clare said:
Who exactly wrote this "Pool rule book" because I can tell you that across the blue globe there is a thing call "Local rules" that exists in any bar and as a visitor you need to determine these before you challenge the current winner on the table (some local rules require the coin on the table before you can challenge).

2 shots on a foul, one shot on the black, no shooting backwards from the D, foul on the black means a loss, foul shot anywhere along the line if there is no D....... there is no such thing as a official rule book unless you are playing snooker. If you are lucky you might have them printed on the bar wall but if you want to argue the fact you will soon be extracting your paper back from your arse.
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Obviously people can make up any house rules they want, anywhere, anytime. That's not what I am talking about.

I was making reference to the official rules, as published by the BCA. And though there are different governing bodies with slightly different rules, most of the rules are consistent.

I wasn't really referring to bars where there are unofficial house rules that differ from the official rules; I am referring to people in pool halls and also people in bars who have no idea what the house rules or official rules are but insist that their incorrect rules ARE the official rules.

I don't object to someone who says, "These are the house rules we play with here."

I object to someone who says, "( illegal shot) is allowed because that is the official rule."
 
Fjones said:
I don't object to someone who says, "These are the house rules we play with here."

I object to someone who says, "( illegal shot) is allowed because that is the official rule."
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Pool isn't a real sport in the same way that Dodgeball isn't a real sport. Some self appointed body may have made a rule book but pool (including 9 ball) is the peoples game and as such I will never bend to such conformity. ;)

Next you will be telling me there are standardised weights in drug dealing.
 
1) I hate when girls say "like" after every goddamn word. It's like one second of silence while they gather their thoughts is unacceptable. They have to fill the gap with a word that does not belong there.

2) People who deliberately spell words wrong while texting. Learn2spell.
 
^The text thing makes me nuts. What really bugs me though is that people in professional settings are using that kind of wording, like in advertising. Yes, great idea, lets celebrate bad spelling and lazy grammar! :!
 
ZomfgGerbil said:
1) I hate when girls say "like" after every goddamn word. It's like one second of silence while they gather their thoughts is unacceptable. They have to fill the gap with a word that does not belong there.

2) People who deliberately spell words wrong while texting. Learn2spell.
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Was this intentional humor/irony?

If so, well played :)
 
MAJOR PET PEEVE: This is something I possibly hate more than all my other pet peeves combined. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but anyway.....

RESEARCH PAPERS.

I HATE HATE HATE HATE research papers.

WHY do I have to write one !???????? What is the point? The Wikipedia page for my topic provides a far better presentation than I can possibly prepare. I am not expected or required to do any original research. Of course, I cannot use Wikipedia for my paper, so I need to hunt around on the internet to find other sources that say the exact same thing as the Wikipedia article. And for what? So I have a better understanding of the topic? Hardly. Collecting a bunch of pieces of information and organizing them together hardly seems worth the effort. Dozens of people with Phd's or master's degrees have already written thorough papers on this topic.

I find this especially frustrating because I am a skilled writer. I get an A on every paper I write. I TEACH writing. And yet I am beating my head against the wall over this paper that I have made little to no progress on. It is going to screw up my perfect grade in the class and ruin my 4.0 GPA for the semester.

I could write 15 persuasive essays by Monday if I had to. I could write satire or creative pieces. But why oh why do I have to write a research paper !??????? All it involves is trying to paraphrase other people's work in a way that isn't plagiarism but is clear enough to get the facts right and convey the appropriate information. And I am just not good at that!!!! I don't see why anyone would or should be good at it either! Research should be done to better understand a topic by READING the works of masters in the field. What do I gain by preparing a weak paraphrase of their works?

Seriously, someone please tell me why these papers are assigned. I am not asking rhetorically; I really want to know. I don't plan to ridicule anyone's answers like I usually do. I really would like some opinions on this because this stupid paper is 1/3 of my grade and I literally have a 100 average on the tests and quizzes, yet I feel like I will not get an A in this class, and that really irritates me!
 
^I doubt you will find my justifications satisfactory. One reason is to show that you actually processed a subject yourself. A second reason is because situations come up in life and work that require a writing style that is style-less. I don't find them all that satisfactory.

Another reason for certain kinds of assignments is that that is what the instructor did in school and her instructor assigned that way because that was what he did in school.
 
fjones-- to learn how to search for, read, and incorporate primary sources into your writing. That's a vital skill in academic disciplines, as secondary sources like Wikipedia aren't overly reliable. They're excellent summaries, and I use it a lot for basic stuff (it's way easier to do a wiki search to find basic properties of common chemicals than other methods), but when you're studying something that's at the edge of human understanding, it doesn't come close to cutting it.

Yes, it is work, but like any skill it gets easier with practise. The tricky thing (IME at lesat) is to not get stuck doing searches within one subset of literature. I don't know what field you're studying (guessing it's not poker, because otherwise you wouldn't likely be annoyed with it ;) ), but most will have one subset of sources that are considered the 'main' subset. In chemistry, particularly in N. America, it's the ACS journals. They cover a huge range of topics, and the archives go back to the late 19th century, but they are far from the be-all-end-all of chemistry. Abstract aggregators are your friends, assuming that they exist for your field, and that you or your institution has access to them.
 
Dave said:
fjones-- to learn how to search for, read, and incorporate primary sources into your writing. That's a vital skill in academic disciplines, as secondary sources like Wikipedia aren't overly reliable. They're excellent summaries, and I use it a lot for basic stuff (it's way easier to do a wiki search to find basic properties of common chemicals than other methods), but when you're studying something that's at the edge of human understanding, it doesn't come close to cutting it.

Yes, it is work, but like any skill it gets easier with practise. The tricky thing (IME at lesat) is to not get stuck doing searches within one subset of literature. I don't know what field you're studying (guessing it's not poker, because otherwise you wouldn't likely be annoyed with it ;) ), but most will have one subset of sources that are considered the 'main' subset. In chemistry, particularly in N. America, it's the ACS journals. They cover a huge range of topics, and the archives go back to the late 19th century, but they are far from the be-all-end-all of chemistry. Abstract aggregators are your friends, assuming that they exist for your field, and that you or your institution has access to them.
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It peeves me that you have no avatar :)

Anyhow, I get the gist of what you are saying, but the problem exists with other sources as well. I've been using a vat array of non-Wikipedia sources - academic sources - but the fact still remains that I am trying to paraphrase and simplify their excellent work into a weaker, watered down version without committing plagiarism.

I think a better way to accomplish the goal would be to assign each student to extensively study a topic and then present orally to the class for a few minutes. When a student has to speak in front of the class, you'll be able to tell who has owned the topic and who hasn't.
 
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Enki said:
^I doubt you will find my justifications satisfactory. One reason is to show that you actually processed a subject yourself. A second reason is because situations come up in life and work that require a writing style that is style-less. I don't find them all that satisfactory.

Another reason for certain kinds of assignments is that that is what the instructor did in school and her instructor assigned that way because that was what he did in school.
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These are both good explanations, though as you said, less than satisfactory. Also, isn't it really boring for the professor to READ all these papers?
 
Only if the papers are boring. :) I'd shudder to have to read a class' worth of papers all on the same subject. Ugh. That's what TAs are for.

I agree with you: a proper presentation, including a Q&A period after, definitely shows better knowledge of the subject. But if you're doing it right, you'll still need to find and cite the same primary sources; the final output is just arranged differently. And really, both writing and presentation are vital skills. If it were easy, it wouldn't be worth doing.
 
Might have already been said before in the previous pages (didn't cruise through 'em)
But, working for someone much less intelligent. It's just a two man operation, easy as can be but the guy is a fucking mo-ran..........jackass.
 
slef said:
Might have already been said before in the previous pages (didn't cruise through 'em)
But, working for someone much less intelligent. It's just a two man operation, easy as can be but the guy is a fucking mo-ran..........jackass.
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It's time for you to stage a coup.
 
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