Things That Annoy Me, But Shouldn't

For higher level mathematics I'm sure RPN is superior, but surely not for primary education?

 

As said, I'm a physicist. Which means that I am qualified to teach math and physics (upon self-reflection, I am not a very good teacher. But I am qualified with no extra pedagogic training ).

I also kinda collect calculators, and have used a lot of them.

If it were up to me, I would take an RPN calculator – something like the HP-15 – over any of the modern scientific calculators any day to teach kids math (that's the basic- to mid-level math. On the high level, there's graphing calculators, which are a whole different kettle.)

See, the HP-15 is the ultimate calculation tool. It helps you to do calculating numbers quickly, easily and error reduced. Which is what it should do, and that's actually what it should be doing for math education. Give the kids a tool to do the boring stuff after they have learned to do the boring stuff themselves.

The algebraic calculators that are now common are not. Yes, you can type in calculations like they are on paper, but it's more complex and more error-prone than RPN. They also have additional (heavily advertised) features – like natural display of formulae, and 'apps' for solving various problems like quadratic equations – but they're almost completely useless. The 'natural display' entry is way too complex (the user interface is based on PC equation editors and does not work well with the small keyboard and display), and the 'apps' are too specialized. They simply solve that one problem given in the way as it is given in school – but not more. They're inflexible, and do not teach anything. If you want to use them as calculating tools – just giving you a decimal number – they're infuriating slow and complex to use.

But the algebraic ones are the only ones which are sold as new. If you go into shops here, they have the TI-30 ECO, and an expensive and a less expensive Casio. That's it. And of those choices, the Casios are way better, simply because they make life easier for the kids, even if they're not very helpful at actually teaching math. And, as said, TI makes better calculators, about the same as the Casios, but you won't find them here in the stores where average parents and kids do their back-to-school shopping. (There's also some no-name calculators, too. Which are actually not bad and to me still a better choice than the ECO– the innards and the user interface are the same as brand name calculators, but the kids won't have a better life with them, in particular if they are the majority who are not math nerds.)

 

Seems like if you have 'reverse' and 'Polish' in the same name, you're asking for trouble.

 

I’ve always been a slow reader but I seem to be getting slower with every passing day. Only I’m not really getting slower, so much as finding it impossible to read for longer than 5 minutes a day. I’ve been reading Heat Moon’s Blue Highways every day during my lunch break, for the last 3 weeks or so. It’s a book I should be loving, and yet I’m only on page 55 (of 426). I can’t do the calculation, but at that rate it’s going to take me a long time to finish.

 

That one neighborhood cat that's a complete asshole.

There are a couple of community cats that I feed. Scrawny little things, but I've gotten them to trust me and let down their feral guard (within reason). One of them has clouded corneas, so I worry that he's not catching food on his own. But there's another cat, a large all-white cat that's forever covered in battle marks because that's the only way he engages any of the rest.

He's a dick.

 

And why can’t anyone below the age of 40 hold mobile phones normally anymore? You know, as in up to the ear? Why do they hold them away from their face like they’re a walkie-talkie?

 

Enough dude, just hit the "report" button

 

Personally? Touch screens suck. Holding a call to my face has resulted in hangups and added people to an ongoing call.
I hate it. Walkie-talkie it is!

 

They're too wide, slim, smooth and sensitive to be used like a traditional phone.
I received one today, and I already loathe 98% of it. I'm not confident I will acclimatise.

 

Get a drug dealer’s phone.

 

Modern technology; when it works its great. When it plays up then its a pain in the gluteus maximus

 

Because they are virtually bricks of radiation in all but name?

 

earpiece, dudes.

 

Subway: we toast our flatbread, is that okay?
Me: absolutely!
Subway: *gives me a sandwich on damp floppy warm bread*
Me: OHHHHH, you meant blitz it in Satan's hot breath, okay. Thank you. Just what I wanted.

 

The Subway in Cascade is fine enough except in 2019 they were closed one spring Saturday afternoon BECAUSE ALL OF THEIR STAFF HAD TO GO TO PROM AND I'M SORRY I TRY NOT TO WRITE IN ALL CAPS BUT I WAS HUNGRY THAT DAY AND COULDN'T EAT AT SUBWAY BECAUSE OF PROM.

 

Fair point.

But it's the principle of the thing. Not sure what that principle is, but...

I think I did go somewhere else for a burger.

 

Damn. I'm sorry for the loss of your sandwich.

 

Well, I was irrational about it because I wasn't much of a prom or any dance person when I was a high schooler.

 

my prom would have pissed you off royally, then.... the highway was basically shut down

 

Please explain.

 

The Beltway around Washington DC is notorious for illegal street racers. On my way to prom, the highway was overrun with like 30 souped up cars. It looked like a scene out of the Fast and the Furious franchise. Cars were pulling over, slowing down, getting out of the way as the cars raced on by with their neon under carriages and booming stereos.
....... theeeeeeeeeen they all pulled into the hotel parking lot where our prom was being held. all of that was just to escort this couple to prom....

 

^ Fancy Schamncy!