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Friday, March 28, 2008
Well, it's Spring Break... can you tell? I've been spending the past few days in Nampa, lying on a couch and watching Buffy with my friends. And now, I'm in Sunnyside with my aunt, lying on a couch and watching Gilmore Girls. It's a good vacation.
As you may imagine, I've been putting in a lot of hours on the road, which I love. My friend, Anna, lent me her copy of Anna Karenina on CD, which means I may, may, actually be able to finish that stupid book after like three years of trying and giving up. In fact, when I was in the sixth grade, I remember there was a reading program where you could earn points for reading and taking tests on different books. When you had earned enough points, you could exchange them for prizes, like erasers or extra recess or even--the highest prize--breakfast out with the teacher. The book at the top of the list, the book that--if conquered--could earn the victorious sixth grader enough points to have breakfast with Miss Parker all by itself, was...you guessed it... Anna Karenina. I begged my mom to take me to the library, thinking to myself, surely there is no book I can't conquer. I found the librarian, showed her the title I was looking for, and she took me to the T's in the fiction section. "Here it is," she said, and pulled out the thickest book I had ever seen in all my eleven years. "Uh," I said, backing away... "uh, nevermind," and headed for the door. And there it has stood in my mind, for fourteen years, the one book I could never finish. My print copy currently sits on my bookshelf, a bookmark stuck somewhere in the middle, where I lost interest. So anyway, I'm starting it again, on CD. Thirty-eight and a half hours, apparently, is all it will take to regain my dignity. We'll see. 2 comments
As you may imagine, I've been putting in a lot of hours on the road, which I love. My friend, Anna, lent me her copy of Anna Karenina on CD, which means I may, may, actually be able to finish that stupid book after like three years of trying and giving up. In fact, when I was in the sixth grade, I remember there was a reading program where you could earn points for reading and taking tests on different books. When you had earned enough points, you could exchange them for prizes, like erasers or extra recess or even--the highest prize--breakfast out with the teacher. The book at the top of the list, the book that--if conquered--could earn the victorious sixth grader enough points to have breakfast with Miss Parker all by itself, was...you guessed it... Anna Karenina. I begged my mom to take me to the library, thinking to myself, surely there is no book I can't conquer. I found the librarian, showed her the title I was looking for, and she took me to the T's in the fiction section. "Here it is," she said, and pulled out the thickest book I had ever seen in all my eleven years. "Uh," I said, backing away... "uh, nevermind," and headed for the door. And there it has stood in my mind, for fourteen years, the one book I could never finish. My print copy currently sits on my bookshelf, a bookmark stuck somewhere in the middle, where I lost interest. So anyway, I'm starting it again, on CD. Thirty-eight and a half hours, apparently, is all it will take to regain my dignity. We'll see. 2 comments
Monday, March 17, 2008
I should not drink so very many cups of such very strong coffee so late at night, she thought to herself, as she lay in bed at 11:50, her body humming with caffeine. Even if it tastes very yummy with my slice of chocolate raspberry cheesecake. Note to self.
Labels: coffee
0 commentsFriday, March 14, 2008
The Poetry Slam was a smash yesterday. It was actually really exciting how well it went. It's always a toss-up with events like that, whether students will get into it or not. But we did the best we could to create the right atmosphere: we decorated the library like kind of old coffee house. Some freshman helped me make "brick walls" out of long sheets of brown paper stamped with whiteboard erasers full of dark red paint. Then we hung up some abstract-looking art pieces from the art classes and strung white lights all crazy-like around them. It looked sooo awesome. I can't even express to you how awesome it looked, especially with the lights all dimmed.
So then students recited poetry all the way from 4th period to 7th. And a few teachers in between wowed us with some really great performances of "The Raven," "Jabberwocky," and some Blake poems. I read the Spiderman poem by Jim Hall, which the junior highers always love, and which, apparently, quite embarrasses my little sister. :) Anyway, it was so great because, although most students were required to recite, we had a period of "open mike" time, and once it got going, a ton of students wanted to read their favorite poems. There was just a really fun, good atmosphere--I couldn't have asked for it to go better for our first year. And a bunch of kids have said they really want it to happen again next year. So, yay!
And then there's just a half day of school today, so my unfortunate week is ending on a good note. Our school auction is tomorrow--which those of you with ELCA associations will be familiar with. I actually quite like the auction: it has lots of great childhood associations for me. I remember my dad always coming home with unexpected things and there being lots of good food, like fried chicken and cookies and things. It's not quite so exciting and fully of adventure these days, but I still like to go and see people and watch part of the auction. Besides, you never know what might end up coming home with you... 2 comments
So then students recited poetry all the way from 4th period to 7th. And a few teachers in between wowed us with some really great performances of "The Raven," "Jabberwocky," and some Blake poems. I read the Spiderman poem by Jim Hall, which the junior highers always love, and which, apparently, quite embarrasses my little sister. :) Anyway, it was so great because, although most students were required to recite, we had a period of "open mike" time, and once it got going, a ton of students wanted to read their favorite poems. There was just a really fun, good atmosphere--I couldn't have asked for it to go better for our first year. And a bunch of kids have said they really want it to happen again next year. So, yay!
And then there's just a half day of school today, so my unfortunate week is ending on a good note. Our school auction is tomorrow--which those of you with ELCA associations will be familiar with. I actually quite like the auction: it has lots of great childhood associations for me. I remember my dad always coming home with unexpected things and there being lots of good food, like fried chicken and cookies and things. It's not quite so exciting and fully of adventure these days, but I still like to go and see people and watch part of the auction. Besides, you never know what might end up coming home with you... 2 comments
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Sorry for the radio silence. I've had a rather trying week, although none of it is stuff I can post about, (and oh, it's only Wednesday!), plus my internet has been spotty, plus I've found the perfect place to drown my troubles--the new DVDs of Lois and Clark that have arrived in my mailbox this week, which I love, love, love. So anyway, not that much bloggable so far this week--at least not whole stories. But I'll see if I can scrounge up enough news tidbits to warrant one mediocre post:
--Miss Kitty Fantastico continues her charming habit of bringing in small animals, both dead and alive. I try to monitor what comes and goes into my bedroom, but she sits at the window and scratches until I let her out, and then she hangs by her claws from the windowsill until I let her back in, after she's had her fun. I can't always tell in the dark whether she has anything small and bloody in her mouth until after I open the window, at which point it's too late. I don't want her to have to become an exclusively outdoor cat (because I love having her curled up on my lap when I'm reading on rainy days--it's the whole point of having a cat, of course), but we really can't have this whole waking-up-to-find-MKF-playing-with-a-dead-mouse-on-the-carpet thing anymore.
--I've been invited to go swimming some mornings with a friend of mine at the community pool. She has free passes, so that can't be beat. Exercise without sweat--it's like a dream come true.
--I finally started reading Tamora Pierce's Terrier, which I think I listed on my Christmas To-Read list--oh well. Anyway, it's lovely, once I got past the journal-entry style of it. I love Tamora Pierce because you know you're in for a guaranteed feel-good emotional payoff at the end, but the book still has a fair amount of substance to it nevertheless.
--I went with a friend to Goodwill this evening. I'm sorry, but Goodwill is a total racket. Do you know they had a dress there for seventy dollars! And not a wedding dress or amazing formal dress--just your basic Deb prom fluff, barely worth $70 brand new. You can get better deals on a Maurice's clearance rack. And they sell VHS movies for $4. Like, who would buy that? Even if there was a great movie there that one might possibly really want to 0wn, like, say, Dirty Dancing, and even if one was tempted to actually buy a VHS even though it will be completely worthless as soon as that person's video player dies because of course it won't ever be worth replacing, it would just be wrong on principle to pay that much for a VHS at Goodwill. Seriously. Even for Dirty Dancing. 2 comments
--Miss Kitty Fantastico continues her charming habit of bringing in small animals, both dead and alive. I try to monitor what comes and goes into my bedroom, but she sits at the window and scratches until I let her out, and then she hangs by her claws from the windowsill until I let her back in, after she's had her fun. I can't always tell in the dark whether she has anything small and bloody in her mouth until after I open the window, at which point it's too late. I don't want her to have to become an exclusively outdoor cat (because I love having her curled up on my lap when I'm reading on rainy days--it's the whole point of having a cat, of course), but we really can't have this whole waking-up-to-find-MKF-playing-with-a-dead-mouse-on-the-carpet thing anymore.
--I've been invited to go swimming some mornings with a friend of mine at the community pool. She has free passes, so that can't be beat. Exercise without sweat--it's like a dream come true.
--I finally started reading Tamora Pierce's Terrier, which I think I listed on my Christmas To-Read list--oh well. Anyway, it's lovely, once I got past the journal-entry style of it. I love Tamora Pierce because you know you're in for a guaranteed feel-good emotional payoff at the end, but the book still has a fair amount of substance to it nevertheless.
--I went with a friend to Goodwill this evening. I'm sorry, but Goodwill is a total racket. Do you know they had a dress there for seventy dollars! And not a wedding dress or amazing formal dress--just your basic Deb prom fluff, barely worth $70 brand new. You can get better deals on a Maurice's clearance rack. And they sell VHS movies for $4. Like, who would buy that? Even if there was a great movie there that one might possibly really want to 0wn, like, say, Dirty Dancing, and even if one was tempted to actually buy a VHS even though it will be completely worthless as soon as that person's video player dies because of course it won't ever be worth replacing, it would just be wrong on principle to pay that much for a VHS at Goodwill. Seriously. Even for Dirty Dancing. 2 comments
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Facebook is a time-waster, true, but a fun time-waster (unlike Myspace, which pretty much just wastes your time without any actual entertainment) mostly because of two things: online Scrabble (aka Scrabbulous) and online Boggle (aka Prolific). Both of these games have gotten heat from Hasbro, the company that owns the rights to the original board games. In fact, for awhile, the online Boggle game (then called "Bogglific") was taken down from Facebook--to my extreme distress. But it has been recently resurrected under the new name, "Prolific." So don't be surprised if I start challenging all of you Facebook friends of mine to a game--I want to get as much playing time as possible, in case Hasbro shuts them down for good.
1 comments
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
It's also National Music in Schools Month (or something)... so I did a lesson today in Geometry about the ratios of musical notes. It pretty much bent all most students' brains (and mine, I might add), but I think it's so interesting. I was telling the ones that came in for math lab that you could use the ratios to make a wind chime that had a nice, harmonious sound. Like, if you had a length of pipe that was cut to a G, then you might want the other pipes to be at the lengths that would create B, D, and G' notes. Or, let's say, I decide someday to build my own pipe organ--this information might come in handy.
Labels: teaching
2 comments
Happy National Grammar Day!
Check out this site and especially look at the SPOGG awards link.
Check out this site and especially look at the SPOGG awards link.
Labels: grammar
0 comments