AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
Please please please please make this not suck please please please please!!!!!!
Monday, January 28, 2008
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
If Harry Potter ran General Electric.
True book title. So popular I've ran into its translated version at a bookstore today. Business advice from children's literature that doesn't take into account the laws of physics. This should be interesting.
A few questions-- Is there a limit to the dumbness of "leadership" books? Does anybody take this seriously? Is there a Saruman guide to nasty takeovers? The Picard handbook for diplomacy? Who took my lightsaber?
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Branching out
I've decided to open yet another blog, just to keep the English posts separated from the Spanish posts. I guess it makes sense. Kinda.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Friday, January 18, 2008
The Fed-up-o-Meter
I've finally come up with a pretty efficient method for keeping my students silent during an exam. You would think "well, it's an exam, they're supposed to be quiet", right? Wrong. It's taken me a year and a half to come up with my efficient method. It consists on the following points:
a) Stare at them with the exams in your hands until they shut up.
b) Give them the precise time when they will be listening to the CD for the listening test.
c) Give them the date and insist that the exam must be done in pen, not pencil (yeah, I know, but believe me, it must be done).
d) Deliver the exams once and only once there is total complete silence in the classroom.
e) Once the exams are on the table, patiently explain how to do absolutely every question in the test. Include the total number of points and how many points they need to pass.
f) Refuse to say any other word for the remainder of the hour. Believe me, this is hard. But I've become the Mime from Hell.
g) The Amazing Fed-up-o-Meter (Aguantómetro). This has been intelligently described by one student today thus:
"Mira, ese es el aguantómetro de la profe. Primero va a por el boli rojo. Luego, le quita el capuchón. Y luego, te quita un punto."
"Look, that's the teacher's fed-up-o-meter. First she goes for the red pen. Then, she takes off the lid. And then, she takes off one point"
That was so accurate I had a seriously hard time trying not to laugh. I told you, (f) is hard.
a) Stare at them with the exams in your hands until they shut up.
b) Give them the precise time when they will be listening to the CD for the listening test.
c) Give them the date and insist that the exam must be done in pen, not pencil (yeah, I know, but believe me, it must be done).
d) Deliver the exams once and only once there is total complete silence in the classroom.
e) Once the exams are on the table, patiently explain how to do absolutely every question in the test. Include the total number of points and how many points they need to pass.
f) Refuse to say any other word for the remainder of the hour. Believe me, this is hard. But I've become the Mime from Hell.
g) The Amazing Fed-up-o-Meter (Aguantómetro). This has been intelligently described by one student today thus:
"Mira, ese es el aguantómetro de la profe. Primero va a por el boli rojo. Luego, le quita el capuchón. Y luego, te quita un punto."
"Look, that's the teacher's fed-up-o-meter. First she goes for the red pen. Then, she takes off the lid. And then, she takes off one point"
That was so accurate I had a seriously hard time trying not to laugh. I told you, (f) is hard.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
The teaching profession, an allegory
- How was your day in high school?
- Complex.
Ahhhh... I've said it before, and I'll say it again... gotta love Forges....
Today, I've had a conversation with a student that considers I deserve better than to be a high school teacher. But as I sincerely told her, you can really love this job as long as you keep your sadomasochistic streak. And then I run into this...
Ps. Minutes after posting this, Windows Media has randomly selected the MP3 version of this. Heck I didn't even remeber I had an MP3 version of it.
Syn-chro-ni-ci-ty!!! Syn-chro-ni-ci-ty!!! Syn-chro-ni-ci-ty!!!
Monday, January 7, 2008
"Even socialist dictators have an interest in gorgeous supermodels"
Naomi Campbell interviews Hugo Chavez for GQ | Media | Guardian Unlimited
... but the supermodels prefer them on the right... or at least, some do...
Sarkozy and the Supermodel - TIME
Report: Sarkozy to Marry Supermodel - TIME
Truth is always stranger than fiction...
Eeeverybody say "NA-PO-LE-OOOOOON"
This looks like a bad movie
[I don't even know what I feel about this. Carla Bruni is a very talented, beautiful woman and has proven this in spite of dating SuperSarko -- who is someone I can't really make my mind about --sometimes he looks clever, sometimes he acts like a complete ass. Same goes to cellphone-throwing Naomi. It's refreshing to see her doing good stuff like caring for poor kids and interviewing politicians. Then again, Shut-up Chavez aka "El Rey"... is he an Evil Tyrant or simply a loudmouth pain in the butt of capital? Who knows? Who cares?
I just couldn't resist the synchronicity]
Blogged with Flock
Sunday, January 6, 2008
what I'd rather be talking about on a Saturday night...
... intelligent conversation or at least intelligent bullshit... it's been soooo long....
Review: How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read by Pierre Bayard | By genre | Guardian Unlimited Books
Bayard's approach is Derridean: a focus on the relation between objects and the systems that support these. He perceives books themselves as a 'system', important only in so far as they are received within society: the gossip that they generate; the ideas that they spawn; the conflicts that they provoke. 'Relations among ideas are far more important than the ideas themselves,' he insists. Thus, it is only ever necessary to get a rough sense of what any particular book is about - and where to place it in the 'collective library'.
Review: How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read by Pierre Bayard | By genre | Guardian Unlimited Books
Bayard's approach is Derridean: a focus on the relation between objects and the systems that support these. He perceives books themselves as a 'system', important only in so far as they are received within society: the gossip that they generate; the ideas that they spawn; the conflicts that they provoke. 'Relations among ideas are far more important than the ideas themselves,' he insists. Thus, it is only ever necessary to get a rough sense of what any particular book is about - and where to place it in the 'collective library'.
Blogged with Flock
Saturday, January 5, 2008
I really have to record this before going to bed
Location: Flamenco concert at a small bar, 1AM
Excerpts:
"You don't look like yourself in your pictures. I mean, if they told me to look for this person in the camera in this bar, I would never think it was you"
"I don't know what's wrong with gypsy women, they get so fat after 25... I guess they have their kids and let themselves go"
"I don't listen to music, I don't see the point. I have a stereo in the house, but I don't use it"
"Opera? Well I heard in a movie that you either love it the first time or you shouldn't bother. Me, I don't bother"
"I find Indian women disgusting... I mean, physically. They have a right to live of course"
To make matters worse, none of these statements were uttered in an obvious state of drunkenness. Loud enough to make heads turn, yes, but drunk, I don't think so.
Prescription: read this every time you think being single is the worst thing that could happen to you.
Excerpts:
"You don't look like yourself in your pictures. I mean, if they told me to look for this person in the camera in this bar, I would never think it was you"
"I don't know what's wrong with gypsy women, they get so fat after 25... I guess they have their kids and let themselves go"
"I don't listen to music, I don't see the point. I have a stereo in the house, but I don't use it"
"Opera? Well I heard in a movie that you either love it the first time or you shouldn't bother. Me, I don't bother"
"I find Indian women disgusting... I mean, physically. They have a right to live of course"
To make matters worse, none of these statements were uttered in an obvious state of drunkenness. Loud enough to make heads turn, yes, but drunk, I don't think so.
Prescription: read this every time you think being single is the worst thing that could happen to you.
Blogged with Flock
Friday, January 4, 2008
Maybe I have no reason to be happy about this, but, heck I AM. I totally am.
He reminds me of Kennedy, a little. Maybe he's all about the image he projects, but surely the US need a serious image change, and he's the kind of rare politician that seems to speak his mind and not go into tired-old-slogan city. So I don't know, I'm hopeful.Obama's Historic Victory - TIME
[...]That day has now come, at the highest level of American politics. A black man with a dangerous-sounding foreign name trounced his opponents in the nearly all-white state of Iowa. And he did so because, after spending months getting to know him, the people of Iowa stopped seeing his color and began to admire his character. In an election where the word "change" became an almost meaningless talisman, Iowa's triumph over race is a message to the world about the real nature of America — and a ratification of Obama's belief that this will be an election year where everything is on the table, where all the conventional wisdom can be tossed aside, where anything, including decency, is possible.[...]
Blogged with Flock
Thursday, January 3, 2008
no, 2007 didn't really suck volumes
Around this time last year I hit rock bottom. A number of things that had been going badly with my life went, well, worse. So I guess my perception of last year has been tainted by what happened in December 2006 and the awful Christmas that ensued; and how hard it's been to recover emotionally from that. But looking back from today's perspective, I realize that in the process of recovery I've gained a great deal of experience, insight, perspective and a good bunch of new people in my life that I should be grateful for. Not to mention that yes, as the quiz below made me realize, I'm healthier, wealthier and yep, wiser.
So.
So.
You Had a Fantastic Year! |
 Compared to most years, last year was definitely great. Overall, you're living a much better life than you were twelve months ago. And nothing is a better mark of a good year. Here's to hoping next year is even better! |
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Back from Amsterdam
... with a full New Year and a clearer head. I've been feeling like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders and I'm not very sure exactly why. I guess it has to do with
I also found a way to work the idea for a story I had in my head into a story. I might even, finally, put something to writing. Which is very exciting.
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