If you’re in some Internet Cafe in Europe, please post another message here. We miss you!
Meanwhile, any MBer who needs a big dose of Rosannity should check out the Ask the GAPAs thread that flourished on the blog back in January.
Still almost three more weeks to go…
In the unlikely case you’ll be in Lugano, say so. I live there.
I think she’s spending all of her time in Germany and Belgium, but you never know.
Nah, if she’s staying north of the alps, she’s probably not going south. Even if Lugano is beautiful.
CALLING ROSANNE!!
*tweets on the GAPAwhistle*
Yes i have a gapawhistle.
Rosannnnnne!! Come back to us!!! We misses you!
In the case you do show up, have a pie.
[}~
Key lime. Yum.
w00ty w00t! *pies in case she comes on*
three weeks? *dies of lack-of-Rosanne-itis*
wah! no Rosanne! I miss you, Rosanne! I hope you’re having fun in Europe, though.
is that picture of rosanne?
Yup! Hoping you are having fun in Europe. *Sends pie by air mail to rosanne*
Once Rosanne comes back, we will have four administrators. I think that will merit a celebration. Or a scellebraetschin.
9- who needs air mail? *sends pie virtually to Rosanne* we miss you!
8-well, yeah,.
lol
GAPAs need vacation. GAPAing is hard work , after alll.
12- they just need to have a million more GAPAs then it wouldn’t be as hard for any of them, plus things would get moderated a lot quicker.
Hope you’re having fun, Rosanne!
(8) That’s Rosanne, all right. Many MuseBloggers have told us that she looks just like their aunt.
Here’s my favorite picture of both of us, having dinner in a Chinese restaurant in California on one of our rare get-togethers:
15) Well, she looks PRETTIER than most of MY aunts…..
I have an aunt anmed Rosanne. But she doesn’t look like Rosie(wow, it’s been ages sence we’ve called them Bobie and Rosie, hasn’t it?) at all.
Nice pic. Best part is robert impaling rosanne with the chopsticks. He looks quite threatening. XD
Omg, I have an aunt that looks like Rosanne. I also have a cousin named Rosanne who I just slept over at her house. (She’s an adult)
Rosanne actually is an aunt. But even if she weren’t, I think she’d still be everybody’s aunt. She’s the quintessence of favorite-auntishness.
My aunts are all alot older than Rosie.
Yeah, she does look just like my favorite(only) aunt! Scary. Is there some kind of aunt gene that makes you look just like everyone elses aunts? Weird. BTW, you don’t look very happy in that photo, GAPA. At least Rosanne’s smiling.
13- if there were a million GAPAs we wouldn’t know everyones name and they wouldn’t be as special (except for the ones we have now)
i miss you rosanne
*is sad*
but Robert, it really isn’t nice to impale people with chopsticks. i wear a chopstick in my hair, and everyone keeps telling me that.
Oh, nonsense. Rosanne was perfectly safe. Besides, she was armed with chopsticks, too. See?
I’m not good at chopsticks, especially not rice with chopsticks.
Julieb (22),
I was smiling. That’s how I smile. See the twinkle in my eyes? I’m sorry, but that’s the best I can do.
26- thats the flash off your glasses.
eyes dont twinkle.
True, but they scrunch up in an amused way that, for want of a better word, we may as well refer to as twinkling.
Rosanne looks like 1)my mom 1)my aunt 3) my mom’s colleague/ two doors down neighbour. Weird.
Robert is smiling. It’s just a different style of smiling. It’s called “staring”. Very trendy. We’re all just behind on the newest fashions. Thank goodness we have Robert to keep us up to date on how to be hip and groovy. *is relieved*
Stop being so critical of Coontz-sensei’s facial expressions! He’s fine. It’s a cute picture. And I hope Rosanne is having more fun than if she electrocuted her pleasure center. Yeah.
29-“You’ve got me, baby. Don’t push your luck.” -Zaphod Beeblebrox
2: If she’s in Stüttgart, tell her to say “HELLO BIRTHPLACE OF THE GREAT WORLD DOMINATOR KOKOPELLI #13 THE KABOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” (I was born in Stüttgart)…
24- so thats why she had her hand unde rhte table before….
for the record, rosanne doesn’t look like any of my aunts.
rosanne looks like… noone in my family. noone has black hair, or curly hair (exept me), or hair that’s that long.
Who’s “noone”? Old English for “noon”?
34- It means “no one”.
is rosie in mulich,germannee(sp?)? it`s octoberfest
Ermm… That would be Oktoberfest in Munich (or, as the Germans call it, München). With a “k”. Just because German is phonetic. But Oktoberfest is really mostly in… September. Sad, I know…
Hmm, is it just me, or does an unusually high number of mbers have curly hair?(including me) From what I’ve found, maybe 1 in 15 people has curly hair. On mb, it seems to be more like 1 in 5. But correct me if I’m wrong.
38- i have curly hair! maybe curly-haired people are somehow smarter or something.
15- wow. I’m not that surprised about Rosanne, but that’s absolutely nothing like how I pictured Robert.
39~ “I OBJECT!” shouted the muser with an abnormally high IQ and stick- STRAIGHT, BLONDE hair.
36: It’s “Germany”.
39: “I object too!!!!” shouted the MBer that is incredibly smart and can figure out most anything—STRAIGHT BROWN hair.
26, you wasn’t smiling! That was the camera flash reflecting off of your glasses!!!
Hmm, what I am wondering is how many musers have ADD or ADHD, since it’s much more common in people with large IQ’s.
41-same here, I’m smart with STRAIGHT BLONDE hair, Robert’s is straight too. (no one needs to know that I got a 68% on my math homework today because I didn’t see the last page, that has nothing to do with being smart… okay, that was pretty dumb of me)
Bwuahaha! Then you just aced it! I aced my science, worldhistory and choir tests! Whoohoo!
45- i hate when i do that. or when i misread the question (esp. if the test is in a foreign language). its so annoying.
46- so happy for you. you don’t have gloating rights until you can get an 100 average in a subject.
*pies Capricious the great and terrible*
How do you actually figure out your IQ? I don’t know mine…
44) O.o I wonder if Artemis Fowl has ADD/ADHD………….
That would be weird.
41, 42, 45- I didn’t say that ONLY curly haired people can be smart, but it could still be true in general. kind of like how left-handed people are i think smarter on average than right-handed people, though there are still plenty of smart righties.
49- you have to take an IQ test. I don’t really know mine either though. I once took one I found on the internet that said mine was 182, but i don’t think it was very accurate.
I don’t have ADD or ADHD fortunately.
as far as the lefty thing goes-, i knowfour lefties who i am sure are lefties. one is very smart, two are medium, and one is slightly below average.
52-it probably wasn’t. very few internet things are. but if your IQ really is 182, then you are a genius. (officaial genius IQ is 175).
I’m ambidexterous. Not naturally, I admit, but I trained myself to use my left had pretty much as well as my right. I still can’t write with my left hand very well, but it is just as strong. You CAN force these things, you know.
My sister is ambidexterous(sp?) naturally.
Official genius is over 160. Mine is 179. Draw your own conclusions. I’m right handed, curly-haired (more ringlety than Rosanne, though the pic might just be off) and just neurotic, not mentally impaired.
I think it’s bollocks to have an ‘official genius’ IQ rate. Genius should be judged by other criteria.
I’m right handed, vv curly haired, have add, and no idea what my IQ is, though I’ve taken the test before and was told it was abnormally high, go figure.
i can’t remeber my IQ either, but it was disproportionately high as well. We went all the way to Oxford to have some professor give me a 4 hour session with enunciation exercises, mental arithmetic, memory, all sorts of stuff… the conclusion was that although I have a very high IQ, I suffer short term auditory memory loss. And it’s true. I can’t remember what the chemistry teacher just said 5 minutes ago. Makes taking notes all the harder.
Did you know they used to have ratings on IQ’s? Like, if you IQ was 85, you would fall into the “Moron” category? Though today, I think they would classify you as mentally retarded.
my brother smiles like that.
48- I did that last year, in all 7 of my classes- Eng1 pre-ap, Geometry pre-ap, latin 1, spanish 2, bio1 pre-ap, and orchestra (well, okay, everyone gets hundreds in that unless they really annoy the teacher, which is pretty easy to do, but yeah.)
Wow.
61: actually, 85 is “slightly below average” Here is an IQ scale for all of you:
below 67: retarded
68-78: slow
79-88: slightly below average
89-110: average (100 is officially average)
111-120: above average
121-131: superior (to what?)
132-149: very superior
150 and above: genius
There are probably levels of genius as well, but I don’t know them.
btw, i found that in the encyclopedia
FrigidSymphony is rightly skeptical about the use of words like “genius,” however. There are plenty of people with 150-plus I.Q.s who are so lazy that they never accomplish anything. Do they deserve to be called geniuses?
On the low end of the scale, in the early 20th century the words “idiot,” “imbecile,” and “moron” all were used to describe various degrees of mental retardation, again as defined by I.Q. Psychologists dropped them after they turned into insults.
Terms that are so fluid can’t mean very much, IMHO.
I hate IQ scores. They are vanity inducing and cause people who score lower to feel stupid and higher scorers to become overconfident, stuck-up, and (gasp) induce the dreaded self-esteem overload (SEO).
I think everyone can learn anything–it just might take longer for some people. I personally have never taken an IQ test, mostly because my parents feel the same way about it as I do, but I WAS offered to take the SAT in seventh grade based on the fact that I scored in the very top percentage in my standerdized tests. I declined. It’s an ego trap, mates, and I don’t belive IQ signifies anything important in real life.
Has anyone read Flowers for Algernon? It’s a great book and has several discussions about what IQ reflects–knowledge or capability. Or neither. The latter is my personal thought. For instance, asking whether Alaska or Italy has a more extensive coast is an easy question for a moron who has seen a map, but even a genius who has never seen a map will fail the question.
60 (FS)- Same here. Actually, I just have a terrible memory, period.
The term “mental retardation” is itself controversial, though still in use. More often, reference is made to developmental disabilities or delays. There is also more emphasis now on adaptive behavior rather than “intelligence” per se, and with it, an effort to create categories based on the level of support system needed for an individual to function.
Both the causes and expression of impairment vary so much, performance can fluctuate dramatically from day to day, appropriate interventions can have profounder consequences than were ever dreamed possible in the old days . . . how is it possible to encapsulate all that in a single number?
At the other end of the spectrum, people with high IQs can have specific and significant learning disabilities that are nonetheless disregarded because “you’re so smart, you just need to apply yourself.”
Count me among those who find IQ numbers woefully deficient, even harmful. But I don’t think the larger question is easily dismissed, either. Some of my students are very high functioning. They work, volunteer, take computer classes, compete in sports. But even the most adept of them would be at a severe disadvantage out in the world without a fair measure of assistance. To deny they have impairments — at least within the context of 21st-century civilization — would be cruel, I believe. Of course, since my students are adults, not children, I can’t say how much better off they might be now had more adequate opportunities been available for them years ago.
Shuttling back and forth between my students and MuseBloggers (not to mention my daily dealings with the tourist population at the museum) gives me abundant food for thought on the whole question: what constitutes intelligence, anyway? I am if anything more confuddled than ever. (Which is a few degrees further off the track than confuzzled.)
I guess intelligence is the ability to solve problems, learn from mistakes, and apply previous knowlege to unfamiliar ground.
(71) But there is something else . . . *rummages about for the right words* . . . something like: delight in the sheer exercise of itself.
i was told that i have a slight dyslexia. I don’t really know exactly what that means (it’s something to do with short term auditory memory loss) but I don’t tell people because of a likely misconception of dyslexia to emerge.
How come when I click on the GAPA’s name… a little boxpops up and says “The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded.”?
Yeah. I hate it when I overhear people talking about ADD who have no idea what they’re talking about. The misconceptions include pictures of someone saying “I don’t have AD… OH LOOK! A BUTTERFLY!” or overhearing someone ask if people with ADD belong in a mental institution. I struggle every day with ADD trying to focus and concentrate to be able to get things done that “normal” people take for granted. I am actually, not to brag, incredibly intelligent and much more mature than most of my peers, but when it comes to solving a math problem I really have to think things through. I learn by knowing the foundation and building up. When researching for Sci fair, I couldn’t just accept that this is what enzymes do, but I wanted to know, on a atomic level, why. Thats the kind of person I am, yet those who really excell at school are those who blantently accept the rules and don’t ask why. Those people may be thought of as intelligent, but they will never be able to make their own discoveries or come up with new theories if they just acquiesce and accept everything they’re taught without further explanation. So I really find it offensive when people make fun of things they don’t understand, and I think people should know the whole story before automatically responding negatively because it is “foreign” something they don’t understand or have ever gone through. Sorry, but this anger has been building up for a long time, and I just had to say this. Every time I hear someone making comments about ADD or ADHD I just want to scream at them, tell them that they have no idea what they’re talking about and tell them they should try a day in my shoes. One of the theories for the causes of ADD is that the brains of people with this disorder(it is NOT a disease) takes in so much information about their surroundings they can’t process it all, sort of like autism. The only reason I’ve been able to make it through school is that I was blessed with an excellent long-term memory, otherwise, instead of the gifted program, I would probably be in remedial classes right now. So, getting back to my point, people need to understand that intelligence doesn’t just mean good grades or the ability to do quadratic equations in your head, but for a thirst for understanding and a love of learning. Sorry if I got a little off topic, but I completly empathize with you, FS, people judge rashly and don’t really understand what constitutes a learning disorder.
Julieb, are you familiar with Thom Hartmann’s theory about people with ADHD as “hunters in a farmer’s world”? I don’t know whether I buy his whole argument, but he helped me reframe the matter in very useful, even inspiring ways. ADHD has many gifts as well as many struggles.
I completely agree with you about the love of learning as a key ingredient of intelligence.
I do think there are a few benifits to ADD
1) meds suppress appetite so I stay relatively thin even though I do no sports
2) meds keep me up, and when I was younger I needed something to fill the time, so I read. And read. And read. Up to the point where, instead of my parents urging me to read, they yell at me saying “Julie(not completly real name) turn off the light, stop reading, and go to sleep. Its 4 o’clock in the morning for gods sake!” Reading=knowledge. I learn most of what I know through books, not school. Almost every time they introduce a new topic in almost any class, I immediatly have a source to draw on, maybe a book I’ve read or an article in muse, etc.
3) necessity for a 504 plan=close bonds with guidance counselor=(hopefully) good college recomendation
I would also like to point out (not to offend you or anything, Ms. Lasley, it’s just a fact) that there are two types, ADD and ADHD. People with ADD (like me) don’t show the hyperactive symptoms of ADHD(except when hanging out with my best friends, when god only knows what can happen) but people often classify all under “ADHD” as it’s more common.
Has anyone read about parents who take their kid to the doctor, tell the doctor they think he/she has add, and when the doctor explains that the kid shows no signs, the parents admit they just wanted rittelin so their kid could get better grades? It’s disgusting, and shows no respect for the kids who actually need the drugs just to function at the same level as a “normal(meaning has “attention surplus disorder”)” person. Not to mention dangerous. There’s a reason prescription medications are prescription.
Just to cite an example of wanting to know vs. memorization,
I’m taking honors chem, and since my heart really belongs to bio, I was very interested in the origins of life from elemental form. So all by myself I look up all the information on abiogenisis, which the class “geniuses” (aka Jack Shu, who went to the gifted program in elementary school with me, whom I also happened to know stuck his finger in a light socket on the night of the school play and had to be taken to the hospital) never would have done. And they still get better grades, but thats life and I have learned to accept it, knowing that I will always be on a different level. Not I didn’t say higher, but intelligent in what would be different way than that of most peoples perception.
Sorry for long rant, but as I write I am realizing that I have much *ahem* longer views on the subject than I realized.
whoa, i did not mean to insult anyone with my copied iq scale…
I also have ADD and when i read ppl’s stories about wht happens to them bec. they have ADD I noticed that i had very similar experiences. Thank you for making me feel companionship!!
77- please don’t dis all people wiith good grades. i happen to get good grades, but that does not mean i have no couriosity. i do reasearch the things i am interested in, but that is, quite simply not everything. i am willing to grant you that perhaps the ppl you mentioned do not, but that does not mean we all don’t.