Looking forward to Thursday already

[andrewducker]

Julie's away until Thursday evening, on an intensive PhD-related course. She's only actually 45 minutes up the road, but the course starts at 7:30am and finishes at 9:30 at night, so she's residential there for the three nights. I expect her to be exhausted, and I'll be lucky to get a 15 minute phone call in. So I shall be missing her, and intermittently grumpy.

Meanwhile:
[Poll #1378848]

Comments

[chuma.livejournal.com]

Naan bread.

[nmg.livejournal.com]

Narn Bread was only actually made by Narns during the time of the great Centauri Empire, as ane fule kno.

[andrewducker]

What about it?

[andrewducker]

We're just at the start of season three, which is what sparked the silly conversation that the question comes from.

[davidcook.livejournal.com]

... obligatory "your poll is missing the 'all of the above' option".

... and I don't mean for the Narn :-)

[chuma.livejournal.com]

:rolls eyes:

[andrewducker]

"Londo's Traditional Narn Bread - made by Narn, from Narn, for hundreds of years."

[andlosers.livejournal.com]

No, Narn bread. Aslan-fired.

[andrewducker]

Are you saying you'd rather have Naan bread than Narn bread? Because I'm sure that's some kind of deathly insult to the hard-working Narn.

Or are you saying that Naan bread is the cause of teenager unhappiness? Might be tricky to get funding, but it'd be bound to get an Ig-Nobel...

[chuma.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I got from other people's comments that it was something sci-fi/fantasy crap related rather than a typo.

[andlosers.livejournal.com]

Oh, I didn't get that at all. I thought I was making a funny :(

[chuma.livejournal.com]

I'm saying I thought you made a typo and got a flippant response.

[henriksdal.livejournal.com]

Feels to me like it's just Narn bread (i've never heard of it before) like Stottie bread isn't made of stotties (that doesn't make sense) and there is no Mr Stottie. It's just stottie bread. Is the name of Narn bread the same?

[henriksdal.livejournal.com]

*sigh* i read the comments and it's yet another scifi/fantasy ref I'll never understand yet has managed to make me look stupid, again.

[andrewducker]

Aslan? What's the Aslan/Narn ref?

[andrewducker]

Quick! Delete your comments! Nobody ever has to know! The secrecy can be maintained!!!

[andlosers.livejournal.com]

Narnia! It's clearly bread from through the wardrobe.

I am beginning to realise there's a reference here I'm just not getting.

[andrewducker]

Oh, Narn/Narnia! That makes sense.

One of the major plot threads of Babylon 5 is the Narn regime. If you haven't seen B5 then you're going to be sadly lost.

[henriksdal.livejournal.com]

haha, that actually made me lol :D

[robling-t.livejournal.com]

I am inordinately amused by the first question of this poll, because my Mum's been calling it that for years and has actually used option #2 as a justification for doing it...

[andrewducker]

Which just goes to show that these conversations happen everywhere :->

(Julie was on the "by" side, I was on the "from" side)

[johncoxon.livejournal.com]

[x] Teenagers aren't a nightmare and insisting that they are doesn't actually help solve any problems

[andrewducker]

Except that they (on average) definitely have larger issues with self-control, decision making, etc. than either pre-teens or adults, and pretending they don't doesn't actually help anyone (either them or people around them) to deal with them.

[johncoxon.livejournal.com]

I'm not arguing that they're fully-fledged adults, but having said that, labelling them as 'nightmares' is condescending, patronising and extremely likely to put you on the wrong side of them. Once you've established yourself as someone who likes to pigeon-hole/discriminate against their segment of society, what makes you think they're going to listen to your opinions on their conduct?

Just curious as to how you feel this label helps you deal with what you see as a problem.

[andrewducker]

Aaaah, gotcha.

I probably should have put the word "nightmares" in quotes. I don't follow the Daily Mail "All teenagers are evil" line - and I don't expect others on my journal to do so either, so I expected people to take it as hyperbole.

If I was to lengthen it it'd be something like "Why are teenagers largely so frustrated and prone to outbursts of emotion and the making of risky decisions?"

[johncoxon.livejournal.com]

BECAUSE NOBODY UNDERSTANDS THEM AND THEY'RE ALL ALONE [sweep fringe and exit]

[andrewducker]

I just got some odd looks for giggling in the office :->

[communicator.livejournal.com]

Teenagers aren't a nightmare in cultures where they aren't marginalised, aren't expected to be bloody celibate, and they have something to be proud of. Heck, half the kings of England in the Middle Ages were teenagers IIRC, and they kicked ass.

[andrewducker]

Looks like a vote for option (1) then :->

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

Agreed!

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

I don't believe this. Or rather, I don't think their issues with self-control or decision making are worse than pre-teens; in fact, I think they're substantially better at both. The issue arises because their desire for self-determination is much greater than that of pre-teens, and while their self-control, decision making and articulation are much improved, they're not sufficiently much improved to handle such complicated negotiations.

[andrewducker]

Aaah yes - the frustration definitely seems to come from wanting more self-determination and not being able to get it. Watching my two-year-old nephew is fascinating, because he'll get as frustrated as it's possible to get - but is overridable with sufficient authority. Teenagers are evolving out of that, but the process is clearly a hard one.

There does seem to be a fair amount of evidence that the processes taking place in the brain at this point do make it harder for them.

[communicator.livejournal.com]

Yes, I just felt so strongly about it that after I clicked the poll I had to comment too