Dusty Chalk

Aren't cats supposed to wash themselves?

Whut? Remember, he's antisocial, you won't have to interact with him. Is he still on Head-Fi?

Doctor Doom is Latverian, and hence is disqualified.

Funny, that is almost verbatim what I did (I haven't been to school since 1986, though I do have two BS's [twice as much BS!]). Alas, not all employers feel that way -- a lot of them really put a lot of value in that sheepskin, if for no other reason so that they can sell it to their clients.

I understood your point even before that post, my point was that the teachers are also the ones coming up with the criteria for judging whether or not they are successfully teaching. You call that an inherent flaw in the system, I call it grading on a curve. Unless you have a solution (academic internal affairs?), I suggest you accept that it is the system, whether you like it or not.

Yeah, I'm the same way, hence why "get everything" is such bad advice. I totally burnt myself out on Spock's Beard that way, until Snow came out.

This is not good advice. C'mon, man, put some effort into it. Which ones do I get first? I just bought a shitload of SACD's, I need to go through them before I buy many more CD's, I'm not getting every single fochin' one of them.

I think you mean 75 (50 was theoretically the average == C), but you're still wrong -- it was still theoretically possible for a student to get a hundred (he always put problems on the test to see if "someone out there" had the brilliance to figure out the answer, and very infrequently did). So doing that would push the highest score way above 100. But what you're basically doing is getting semantic on me -- that's effectively preparing the numbers beforehand and not calling it a "curve". It was his choice that the numbers turned out between 25 and 75, so what you're saying is, if it had been his choice so that the numbers turned out between 50 and 100, he could have -- and I completely agree, but the whole point is to assign C's to the average students, B's to the above average students, and A's to the highest ranking students, and he did that and successfully. I don't disagree with curves. And "one student" ruining it for the rest of them should fit in a bell curve, too -- statistically, there should be one student way up there. What I disagree with is their implementation. If one student getting a hundred ruins the curve, then you're doing it wrong. The teacher I was referring to always drew distribution charts, and they usually more or less resembled a bell curve. (That first one was an anomaly, it was all distorted towards the bottom of the spectrum. Looked like someone had taken a bar graph and shaken it and tilted it backwards so that all the bars fell towards the bottom of the graph.) And then he would draw lines showing where the C's were, the B's were, and the A's were, and said, "if this were your final score for the class, this is what your grade would be." The tests were used both as part of the final score of the class, and as a gauge to tell you, the student, how you were doing in the class. My point is, teachers are human, and their ability to write a "perfect" test that the average student should get a 75 on is not necessarily perfect, hence the need for a curve. I admit that it could just as well be the inability of the students to learn the material, but that's where judgment calls come in. In the case of the above teacher -- he was usually pretty much right on the mark, so was beyond reproach. (Yes, even by you.)

Please. (Mebbe I forgot that last time.) I like some jazz, but I have to admit to not "getting" the less melodic stuff. The stuff I enjoy the most is the stuff that is the most melodic. That said, I'm willing to experiment, so don't take that as a hard-and-fast rule for recommendations -- just qualify. Please. I'm thinking I really need to see "Straight No Chaser" (the movie executive produced by Clint Eastwood). I picked up Brilliant Corners and ...with John Coltrane on SACD, what else should I get? Does he have any "Deluxe Editions", or should I stick with the RVG's?

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb6xL8xQrLg]Wang Wang[/ame]

Except that teachers are the ones writing the tests. What if they write the tests so that they have to curve? The most extreme example I can think of was one teacher I had at UMCP whose test had 4 questions: 1 was easy; 2 were hard; and 1 was impossible, so most of the grades went from 25-75% in an almost straight bell curve instead of 50-100%. He even explained himself that he liked it more spread out. One time he screwed up and made 2 questions well nigh impossible. Median grade on that one was 27 -- I got around 50 or 60 I think. It was my first test with him, and I was almost crying (I had never done that badly on a test before) until other people started talking to me (two girls -- ended up with many late night "study sessions" with both of them) and explained to me that I had one of the highest grades in the class, if not the highest.

It's the rapture.

hirsch, thrice, stevieo and I have all heard them, and I think the other three actually owned them for a while. They were a rather special headphone, but I never got into it, and don't really remember it that well. They might; I don't know, you'd have to ask them.

Pffft.

Amazon

I have A Go Go and the Medeski Martin & Wood collaboration under the name Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood, Out Louder, and enjoy them both immensely from a musical standpoint (I love fusion). What else should I get next?

A subconscious reference to our childhood, perhaps ("glow balls")?

How about Radiohead? J/K...

He might've been, I'll let him answer for himself, though. Also: Kimber PBJ, but they can have a hint of edge with the wrong systems.

I'll second the Cardas Neutral Ref recommendation. I don't know how "syrupy" they are, but they are warm without erring on the side of veiled.

Does that mean you finally have amplification, speakers, and wires, all set up together correctly? Huzzah.

I demand live feed!

I have globs of money, but they're mostly ones...and they're wrinkled, and sometimes if I've had Chinese recently, they stick together. Seriously: how much?

Awesome. What do you play? My first instrument (in both senses of the word, 'first') is the piano, but I play a lot of synthesizers.