Shadowgirls

On the teacher question: I had a middle school health teacher who misunderstood basic genetics.  She would do a Mendelson square, and the results were the ONLY possibilities – she never accounted for recessive genes correctly.  For example, if you had two parents with brown hair, all of their children would automatically have brown hair.  When I pointed out that both of my parents were brunette and I had white-blonde hair, she told me that either my mother dyed her hair, or I was adopted and my parents just hadn't told me yet.  I calmly explained to her that my grandfather had been blonde, and I'd received the recessive gene.  I was sent to the office for "backtalking".  <eyeroll>

As for movies, I LOVE cheesy romantic comedies.  I don't care how terrible the storyline, if the two main characters fall in love, I'm all over it.  I don't even know what the most recent one was.  I watch them too often.

Continue!

Shaun of the Dead was advertised as a "So bad, it's good" film.  It turned out to be good in its own right after all.  Beyond that, The Fifth Element is one of my favorites that actually fits the category.

@Inara, Re backtalking:

My brother had a professor in college who would not accept correct answers on a test that were not exact matches for his on the answer key, unless you could prove the answer key to be wrong.  Considering this was a mid-level Computer Science class, and that everyone in the world solving a problem the exact same way as each other results in copyright infringement lawsuits, suffice it to say this is something of a problem… but that doesn't stop this guy.  I went to the same place for grad school, same major, but was fortunate not to have this particular professor as either his student or his TA.

My parents discovered late the actual authority that parents have with the regular schools.  It turns out a visit from an angry parent is a principal's worst nightmare.  And while I'm not saying that they historically have not always been "in the right" when doing so, it is a parent's right and prerogative to pursue little injustices like that before they can become big ones.  Other examples include a child named "Lew" being punished for refused to falsely put down "Lewis" as his legal given name, or for citing additional references on a term paper besides those specifically assigned by the teacher.  (Parental authority successfully exercised in the first case; the kid was the father of someone I know from grad school.  Not attempted in the latter, but that incident is actually fictional.)

On the flipside, parents also have quite a bit of authority to make the schools let their kids escape punishment for anything, from vile racial slurs towards other students and towards teachers, to physical assaults, bodily injury, and even attempted murder.  If you want specific incidents (all of which are real), PM me.

@Pujardov, re inappropriate teacher behavior:

Had a biology teacher in 7th grade who had a few quirks.  Everyone's notebook was required to have his dictated notes verbatim.  He'd read them during tests to check.  All assignments were to be written out in full, including the explanatory text of all laboratory reports as well as questions and answers, with no spelling or grammar mistakes.  Everything had to be handwritten.  If it was typed, that meant that the parents had done it instead of the kid, and thus not acceptable.  My typing speed at age 12 was probably around 50 wpm; my handwriting speed, about 5… and my parents (and others) ripped into him on parent-teacher night for this one.  Fast-forward 12 years to last summer, I ran into someone at a wedding who had the same guy about 5 years ago, and apparently he was still up to his old tricks… including one I'd forgotten about.  Apparently he liked to play with girls' long hair as he was pacing the room dictating notes.  It seems like he never took that any farther though, as no one has ever called him on it.  (Not that he'd have likely been able to take that any further; every single kid hated him, not one would have let him get close enough outisde the classroom to try anything.)

Both questions, keep going.

No, you're not the only one.  I've had more good ones than bad, but that 7th grade bio teacher isn't the only one.  Roomates, on the other hand, I think I've had one in five who was actually good.

Continue the questions about cluless teachers and so-bad-they're-good movies.

A unicorn.

Not the sparkly, rainbow-farting kind you see in fairy tale books, but the beasts of legend.  Pure and innocent, but also capable of quite a bit of force in defense of the pure and innocent.  Creatures who were simultaneously terrifying and beautiful.  And inherently magic, to boot.

And don't even think of trying to ride one.  That level of insult is akin to confusing Chinese and Japanese cultures, then saying "Whatever, they're both Oriental." (Side note, I actually worked with a teacher once who said that of one of her Japanese students.  The child was so pissed she could hardly speak.).

Again!

Dave Reynolds said:

I would be a Jackalope. They just have cool sounding names.

Same Q.

so a bunny with a brain tumor?

i'd be bigfootcause you know what they say about men with large feet……

they say that they are generally very tall.

I regularly dream (and feel free to apply some silly-ass fashionable contemporary ghost-hunters theory to this if you like – I know this is pure braincandy, not something weird) that there's a dead woman sat on my bed. She's like a reverse version of the woman from room 237; she starts off withered and emaciated but becomes more heathy and youthful. Oh noes – dream vampire! She used to creep me out when I was younger, but now… ah, I roll over and ignore her usually… I know she's not real, I'm half-asleephalf-awake and imagining it all.

As for bad dreams… I've had some, but it's rare they wake me up. I tend to ride them out; they nearly always turn into something else. On the rare occasions they don't, though, they're doozeys. I remember one where I was underwater; pitch black water, open ocean at night. No idea of up or down, but I can breathe underwater, so it's fine… just this deep, relaxing, cool sense of suspension in darkness, swish of current in my ears… and that's when something brushes past me; something soft and gliding, as gentle as a cat winding around your legs… and that's when I realise that the ocean is filled with things that I can't see, but can see me… and I must look awful tasty. Cue the waking up in a sudden frantic panic with the bedclothes wrapped around me like a cotton octopus.

This is a really good one to let run, so… who wants to confront their dreams next?