Posts
*I have a crush on the guy who plays Puck on Glee. I've thought he was cute previously but his performance of "Sweet Caroline" did the trick this past week. Especially when he hit the low note on "strong." It is definitely not his hair I'm attracted to.
It cracks me up that I like bad boys in movies and on tv shows (Puck, Jess on GG, etc), but in real life I'm not usually attracted to them at all. Maybe because I see what they are like in the movies and on tv. Or maybe because I don't usually meet the bad-but-totally-cute-because-they're-into-a-girl type of guys in real life. They tend to like hot girls, and I have never been described as hot.
*Did anyone else not receive self esteem until their mid-twenties? I'm not sure if its because my body is filling itself out slightly (emphasize the slightly part because I'm not "filled out" at all) or that my brain has changed what my eyes see in the mirror and for some reason I like it more. Or am more comfortable in it. I can't decide. Don't get me wrong, I'm still pretty insecure but I feel more like wearing things that show off my body shape, rather than hiding it under ill-fitting, slightly baggy clothing.
*Went to the opera tonight. It only cost $25! Because students get day-of tickets for half off! Its great looking like a student. Sometimes. Mostly, though, I have to explain that I teach, I'm not still going to school anymore. The opera was Cosi fan Tutte, an opera by Mozart. It was pretty good. The sets were great, the singing was great, the costumes were off. It said that the opera was supposed to be set in 1745, but the costumes were DEFINITELY a mix between 1860s Civil War and Victorian. Whoops.
*It currently takes me about a month to get through a book right now. Because I'm so consumed in getting stuff ready for school. I have a big project to get ready this weekend: Getting ready for Letter of the Day stuff and making Toolboxes for my students.
*I can barely see through my contacts right now (suuuuper blurry). Gotta go.
This music might actually be better for Saturday afternoons. Anyway...
If you've watched any tv recently, you've probably seen the commercials for iPod nanos with the capabilities of video recording now. If you're like me you thought, "boy that song is catchy and great." And then when you found out who sang the song online one day, you took note. And maybe you even bought the cd it was on one Saturday morning off iTunes.
Well, maybe you didn't, but I did.
The artist is from Sweden (woo!) and her name is Miss Li. Or, her stage name is Miss Li. And she sings very quirky, catchy songs. I'm really enjoying the music I bought approximately 30 minutes ago. Some of the songs sound like something from a Tim Burton film (Stupid Girl for example). I'm not the biggest fan of Tim Burton, but I respect his song choices. She has a great voice as well- nice and on pitch for music snobs like myself, but with a unique quality that reminds me a bit of Anya Marina or Bjork (in a way. She's Bjork-esque.)
It's recommended for all people, in my opnion. And especially for indie music snobs.
The National Parks: America's Greatest Idea is playing on PBS this whole week. My family is really excited to watch it. And I became curious- how many national parks have I actually been to? At first I thought only one, The Grand Canyon. But here's the whole list:
DC:
Ford's Theater
FDR Memorial
Korean
Lincoln
Meridian Hill Park
National Mall
Memorial Parks
World War II
Old Post Office
Pennsylvania Avenue
President's Park (White House)
Jefferson Memorial
Vietnam War Memorial
Washington Monument
Massachusetts:
Adams National Historical Park
Boston National Historical Park
Cape Cod National Seashore
Minute Man National Historical Park
Salem Maritime National HIstorical Site
New Mexico:
Bandelier National Monument
New York:
Ellis Island National Monument
Lower East Side Tenement Museum
Niagara Falls National Heritage Site
Statue of Liberty National Monument
North Carolina:
Great Smoky Mountains National Park*
Oklahoma:
Oklahoma City National Memorial
South Carolina:
Fort Sumter*
Virginia:
Arlington House, Robert E. Lee Memorial
*seen it from afar but was close enough to count in my opinion.
Apparently I've been to more than I think.
My Kindergarten classroom. There's lots of things I'd like to change/make better (mostly things around my desk, but whatever). However, I think it's pretty good. What do you think?
Today I was sick. Last night, I registered a fever of 99.1. So I got out of helping my sister move apartments in Chicago. Not that I wouldn't mind not being sick right now. I've watched movies all day long.
I also watched much of the Ted Kennedy funeral. My father is a huge Kennedy fan- a fan of pretty much the whole Kennedy clan. He idolized Bobby and even has his funeral record from 1968. I've listened to it before when I was a kid. He told me that my grandmother (his mother) was incapacitated for two days when JFK died in 1963. The Ward family has always been a huge fan of the liberal democrats. My great-grandmother (my father's mother's mother) had basically a shrine to FDR in her home in Cadillac in the 40s. I can only imagine how she took his death in 1945.
He got choked up watching the funeral today and had me tape portions of it. I'm not really sure how much information I should reveal about that... just in case. Anyway, I did too, when Teddy Kennedy Jr spoke.
I always admired Kennedy, partly because it was a family requirement and partly because he was a great man. I've always believed in what he believed in- helping the working, the poor, the downtrodden, the ones that others in power tend to ignore/forget. I admire his tenacity in working toward what he believed in. Many of the things that have been said, were said today, and will be said about Ted Kennedy make him admirable. Sure, he had his faults, but don't we all? I'm sad he's gone, and I'm sad he didn't get his health care bill finally passed in his lifetime.
In case you can't tell, I'd like the health care bill to pass as well. We are the only major industrialized country that does NOT have health care for all its citizens. I have seen kids come to school with a mouthful of half sized black teeth. Or kids who have never been to get a checkup. It's horribly sad. Anyway, off my soapbox.
Teacher meetings start Monday at school. Open House is Tuesday, first day of school for kids is the following Tuesday, the 8th. I'm getting progressively more nervous. I want to be ready. I don't think I'm going to feel ready.
I hope to feel more ready soon. Like maybe October.
From left to right:
*The Crossword.
During the school year I don't normally have time to do the crossword, but in the summer I do! I love that. I'm glad I haven't lost the crossword touch. And in the example above, I had to fill in my own black boxes and all! It was a very exciting moment for me.
*The road to Silver Lake from my cottage. My favorite thing about Michigan summers is going up to my cottage by Silver Lake. I can read, do crosswords, jet ski, hang on the dunes, swim in a choice of two different lakes, and leave my normal world for a while. This is the view down the street in front of my cottage looking toward Silver Lake.
*Hamburgers on the grill.
I also like hot dogs on the grill, but these burgers were readily available for photographing. Basically I like grilling in the summer. We should do more chicken on the grill, though. That will be my recommendation for next summer.
*My computer.
I know, I know, it's not a summer thing, it's an all-year thing, but still. Up at the cottage this year I was able to pirate someone's wireless internet signal. Thanks silverlakecottage! And summer is the best time for me to catch up on some of my favorite cable tv shows online.
*Books.
In the summer I can read!!! It's one of my favorite things ever. Seriously. I love to go up to the cottage with two or three books and spend my days reading on the beach and my nights staying up late and reading in bed. This summer I read 29 books! That's more than half of the books I've read this year.
*Brownies.
I love dessert. Abby and I have made lots of brownies this summer. They are always amazing.
*The sunset as seen from the sand dunes at Silver Lake.
I love sunsets in general. But on the dunes it's one of my favorite things ever and is associated with summer because that's usually when we take off our shoes, hike up the dunes at 8:30 and watch the sun go down over Lake Michigan. I also love the sunset at Little Point Sable on the Lake Michigan beach, which I also have tons of pictures of, but the sunset on the dunes is usually what I think of.
Other things that are my favorite things about summer:
*peaches (Red Havens...)
*late nights
*warm weather
*t-shirts
I was so sorry to hear that Frank McCourt had died yesterday. I read it on the nytimes website while eating lunch at school. I have read parts of Teacher Man and enjoyed his sense of humor and his perspective. And I'm not biased being a teacher myself and a lover of all that is Irish.
It's been a tough month- Frank, Walter Cronkite, Michael Jackson... I'd mention Farrah Fawcett but frankly she's never been on my radar, ever.
Been in my classroom a lot lately, getting things ready for next year. It's insanity right now- a big mess. But soon there will be some order out of the chaos, I promise. I just wish I could tidy it up as well as Dumbledore in the new HP movie.
SPEAKING OF... I loved it. It FINALLY brought in some of the humor that is prevalent in the books but somehow never made it to screen. J.K. Rowling can be howlingly funny in her writing and yet somehow the screenwriters missed that when putting together a movie. It was really a sacrilige (sp?). I'm glad they finally found a good balance in this movie. And I also really liked the special effects of when they go into a Pensieve for a memory- the way that the drops of ink become places and things was really spectacular. Well done.
And Ron. Good lord, I love Ron in this movie. Rupert does a fantastic job the entire movie. Well done there. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that FINALLY it doesn't seem like Daniel Radcliffe was awkwardly acting in this movie. He seems to own the role as he finally should. I really enjoyed it, in case you hadn't noticed already.
I've decided that before the last two movies air in the fall of next year (2010) and summer of year following (2011), I want to read all 7 books again. I'd wanted to start the series from the beginning and read them through for some time. but I think that's a fairly reasonable goal. I think it will be fun to revisit some of my favorite literary places.
So, I posted about being a Janeite officially now. And today at the library I saw it: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I laughed a little to myself- I've seen and read reviews about the book for a while. Most reviewers said that for a spin off of Austen's novels, it was worth reading. I personally am not a huge zombie fan- I haven't seen Shawn of the Dead and in general avoid movies that feature zombies and no, I haven't seen an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (though its on my list of things to watch).
In fact, I kind of snubbed my nose at the idea of P&P&Zombies in the past year. I mean, come on? You can't improve on Jane! (Other than fixing it so that Marianne Dashwood ends up with someone better suited to her.) I'm not very warm to the idea of continuing character's stories, almost like fanfiction. Mr. Darcy's Diary, The Pemberley Chronicles, etc. No thank you. Fitzwilliam Darcy never wrote in a diary, any reader could tell you that. Plus, the limited amount of skimming I've done in those books proves to me that the author's writing style is far inferior to what Darcy might have written, had he actually been the kind of man to write in a diary.
But something moved me to pick it up and read the back. Plus, it's in paperback, and though I haven't gone on a rant on how much more I enjoy reading paperbacks than hardcovers, you should know that the book being in paperback is a plus for me as a potential reader.
I read the back, found myself smiling and chuckling a little to myself (yes, I chuckle) so I decided what the hell. I added it to my pile.
I have just finished Slaughterhouse-Five and feel I could use some cheeky zombie humor. Plus, Lizzy and Darcy. You can't go wrong.
Verdict as of 50 pages in- delightful. Funny, but definitely has quite a bit of Jane's original wording still in it- very impressive for a male writer (author is Seth Grahame-Smith.) Enjoying the addition of the undead or "unmentionables," much to my own surprise. The Bennets as zombie-killers. Great. It appeals to my strange sense of humor- I still want to see Jesus Christ: Vampire Hunter (a musical, yes).
However, if you're a Jane purist and you don't really like zombies in any way, shape, or form, and you don't enjoy Monty Python, don't read this book. It is not for you.
There are many classics in the world- many of them obscure, huge tomes that I don't really care to devote hours of my time to reading. Now, I love to read, and I love to read good books and usually the classics are books you, as a literate person of the world, are encouraged to read because they have qualities that make them better than average. However, I don't really care to read every single book that some list tells me is the creme de la creme. I feel like some classics are more worth my time than others. Not everyone will like the same kind of book.
Case and point: no matter how many people tell me he's a genius, and I have tried his book of short stories (The Dubliners), but frankly, I don't care to read any of James Joyce's novels. They seem very obscurely written and full of unhappy subject matter. I can take dark subject matter if it is written accessibly. I don't find Joyce accessible.
Here is my list of "classics" that I actually do want to read sometime in my life:
* Slaughter-House-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (currently reading, which inspired this list) completed 6/29
*The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (yeah, I can't believe I've never been forced to read this either)
*The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
*Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
*Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
*Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
*The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
*The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
*The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
*The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
*Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
This list exists mainly so that maybe every once in a while I'll pick up one of these books to read in between the many other books I'd like to read.
I didn't want to add this to my Janeite post, so I'm making a new one. I don't update this nearly enough anyway, not that anyone really reads it.
I'm up to a total of 26 books read this year so far, thanks to diligent reading at the cottage yesterday. I'm proud of myself- not having a whole lot of time to actually read, I'm making good use of weekends. I hope to get some more in before classes start soon again.
For some strange reason, I feel compelled to put my two cents out there about this. It shouldn't be a huge surprise that I follow popular culture with mild interest. I say mild because I'm not addicted, but I do buy those trashy magazines by the checkout sometimes as a guilty pleasure. So I wouldn't say that I don't have an opinion about things that are happening in the celebrity world, though I am a little ashamed of myself sometimes. Like now. Yes, I am going to comment on the current hot mess that is Jon and Kate Goselin.
I'm pretty sure you know who I'm talking about- they have 8 kids and seemed to survive undetected under the celebrity radar for a few seasons on TLC until it seemed as though Jon was having an affair. Gasp. All of a sudden ratings were through the roof and both Jon and Kate were splashed over all the soft news shows as if this was actual news worth our time.
It's been this way for a few weeks now. I'm sick of the coverage. But mostly, I'm sick for those poor kids. I would never come right out and say that either Jon OR Kate were bad parents. Not even the spanking thing- I was spanked as a kid and I don't condone it, but I also don't think that they are bad parents for spanking their children, if they feel that is how they can discipline them.
However, I do feel badly that these poor 8 children, desperate for attention from their parents because they are normal children, have been thrust into the national spotlight and their parents' dirty laundry is flying from hundreds of flagpoles nationwide. Instead of being able to parent as they ought to in a family crisis, Kate and Jon are flying from TV studio to TV studio across the nation, talking dejectedly about their family's problems. Uh, hello? Problem numero uno: YOU'RE NOT THERE FOR YOUR KIDS AT THIS CRUCIAL TIME! Grandma, aunt, or camera crew just ain't going to cut it. If there truly is so much marital strife that it isn't going to work out, the best thing you can do for your children's mental health is to get them out of the national spotlight and try to deal with it AS A FAMILY. Which they claim to be and I hope they truly are.
I know there isn't a perfect family out there, but screwing your poor children up so that you can reap the monetary benefits of fame on a TV show is not right, in my opinion. If you are lucky enough to be a parent, and I do mean that people should feel it's a privilege not a right, you should make parenting your number one job. Children are so vulnerable. Period. And I fear those kids will be really messed up some day because of their parents' actions. I hope that this is not the case.
Speaking as a teacher, I see the effects of parental neglect. I'm not just talking about the Goselins anymore either. Parents all over the country are effing up. The only thing your child cares about, especially the younger they are, is your attention and love. That's all they ever want. Any parent who thinks that partying, or working tons, or pushing them off on relatives or babysitters constantly so they can live their life is failing their child. It doesn't matter what school they go to, what clothing they wear, or how many expensive toys they play with, all they want is their parents to pay attention to them, discipline them (yes they do) and love them. It should be the easiest and best job in the world, though the reality is that it isn't. But it should be parents' #1 priority. And it's sad that in so many cases, it isn't.
