Fun in the Classroom and some links

Teacher, to presenter: So, Student1. Whaddya wanna do? You wanna go first? You know what? Toss the Boss. *produces coin and flips it*
I, sitting beside him: Hey Teacher, you forgot to say what the stakes are for each side.
Teacher: No, it's Toss the Boss. I toss it, she calls it.
Student2: Teacher, do you know what that means?
Teacher: Yeah, I got to do it in the pub the other day. You play Toss the Boss and if you win, you get a free beer!
*class roars with laughter*
Student3, in a matter-of-fact tone: It's refering to an Act of Fellatio
Teacher: NO! I used it on my other class, they told me it means "toss you bartender, i get a free beer!"
Student3: no, it doesn't.
Teacher: It... I didn't... They said...
Student3: We know you're innocent...
Student2: You've been had. They told you that so that you'd use it again and again. Don't. Just don't.

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So that's what we did in class this morning.

in other news: Hypoallergenic Kittens! proudly brought to you by Point of Know Return.

Curtis Dickson, aka

mangelbojangel , has his own entry on IMDb

Intact Viking Boat found under British Pub, over at News For Medievalists.

Bede's Venerable Vernacular, an address by Melanie Duckworth of Northern Lights, who specialises in "Medievalism In Australian Poetry"

Also, check out Indexed for cool graphs summarising important issues of the day- for example, the commonality between dreamers, suffering, and cockroaches

And finally... at long last, after a year or more of flirtation, i have fallen in love with XKCD comics.
Some recommendations (hover your mouse over them for extra humour):
"There's no choir of angels when you meet the right person"
On remembering names
"No one told you because you're so cute when you get into something."
Good Advice for life: Why are you looking so dignified?
Wikipedian protester damn, i think i'm going to make an icon of that one.
The Tape Measuring Championships
OH HI I'M FROM THE INTERNET
and why is coldhearted me so fascinated by this nerd's romantic side? huh?
Finally- the definition of LJ addiction

 

Heroism for Dummies- Part One

I'm working on The Dream of the Rood at the moment- an awesomely amazing poem. An English translation can be found here, for those interested. It doesn't look too shabby, based on a quick glance at the first few lines. Anyway, in the process, probably due to the extensive conversations I've been having with goblinpaladin about Christian mythology in general, and Satan in particular, I was struck by the similarities- and contrasts- in the inversion of Þegnshipe and heroism in the portrayals of Satan and of the Rood.
Unfortunately, this won't fit into my essay. There's definitely scope here for an essay on heroism and it's inversion in Anglo-Saxon Christian poetry- which would be appropriate for my Anglo-Saxon course this semester, "Heroism and Christianity", except that I've already written Melanie an enormous Satan essay, and we're not studying either the Dream of the Rood or Genesis B this semester.

Instead, I am going to subject my blog to my thoughts on heroism. No claim to absolute academic accuracy is made. This is another of those projects where I attempt to explain the interest of a topic in layman's terms.

So. Welcome to....

Part One. 

( Step One: Find Yourself Some Beer-Mates )

Further Publications in this series will be forthcoming, including (eventually) "How To Play with Heroism- Advice for Religious Poets"