Learning Your Numbers+How NOT to Read!

Rant time!

Since school's started, I've noticed a few trends in my World History class: lack of knowledge of Roman Numerals and decent reading skills. I'll admit I'm not always a strong reader (even though Coach always calls on me and makes me read an entire page instead of a paragraph like everyone else. Gah, some people...) but at least I'll stop and look at the word so I don't have an HB moment.

This is part actually a funny story. This girl in my class (just HB for security's sake) was reading one day and the page said something about eternal damnation. Well when she read it, she said "eternal Dalmatian," so apparently we're all doomed to little spotted dogs.

OK, so Roman Numerals. Learn them! I = 1 (one), V = 5 (five), and X = 10 (ten). XIV = 14, XVI = 16. VIII = 8, XIII = 13. Believe it or not, someone actually made the last mistake.

Larger numerals come first. If there is a smaller one in front, subtract it from the next. Only ONE can go in front of a larger. IIX is NOT 8, you've just slapped some crap down and I have no idea what you were saying.

I'll tell you how I learned it -- I grew up on Disney cartoons and at the beginning of ever cartoon there's a "title page," if you will, and it has everything like "Walt Disney Production" and "Donald Duck Cartoon" along with the date in Roman Numerals. If it says MCMXL, I know the cartoon was made in 1940. (M = 1,000, C = 100, L = 50. Subtract the C from the second M and you have 1900. L minus X is 40; add it together and the year is 1940.) Cartoons got me started, but when I started playing the Final Fantasy games the whole thing was reinforced since they're all about some Roman Numerals.

Now take this sample from Wikipedia (my best friend):

"...sights on establishing a studio in the movie industry's capital city, Hollywood, California.

Hollywood
Disney and his brother pooled their money to set up a cartoon studio in Hollywood. Needing to find a distributor for his new Alice Comedies — which he started making while in Kansas City, but never got to distribute — Disney sent an unfinished print to New York distributor Margaret Winkler, who promptly wrote back to him. She was keen on a distribution deal with Disney for more live-action/animated shorts based upon Alice's Wonderland.

Alice Comedies
Virginia Davis (the live-action star of Alice’s Wonderland) and her family were relocated at Disney's request from Kansas City to Hollywood, as were Iwerks and his family. This was the beginning of the..."

Yes, it is the article on Walt Disney, because the man was a genius. "Hollywood" and "Alice Comedies" are headers for a section of the article. You do not have to read them! My real pet peeve is this one guy who always gets called on to read and I simply despise the way he reads. I can't type how it's said, but it grinds on my every last nerve to hear him read. Like I said, I'm not that great either. Sometimes I get to going too fast and the words jumble up in my head. (Mild form of dyslexia?)

OK, rant over. Now please excuse me while I write my English II paper...

....

I lied a little. I made ensemble! It's so exciting to get to sing and dance! Anyway, we've pretty much gotten our first song at least decent. Here's the real thing. BTW, our theme is Glee. How great is that show?!