What In Tarnation?!?!?

Not many posts here lately. It is not because I haven’t had time, I’ve had plenty of time what with cancelled school because of snow and cold weather. I just haven’t had anything to blog about, or at least anything that I thought I could add something new of value, though I have been following the events and issues that have been storming through the blogosphere.

Aside from all that, here are some things that have been going on:

-Each classroom is given a budget of $400 a year. We recently got notice that we need to use that money, if there was any left, before March 1 or loose the money. I went to the office to see how much I had left, I honestly didn’t know how much there would be. Evidently I have been very economical because I have $342 left. So I brought home some educational catalogs. The office staff encouraged to spend the money, so I will.

-My class in currently in the middle of a research project. I had planned that we would spend one week of intensive work on this project and then move on. With all the days that we missed last week, this thing is turning into a two week project. I have made the whole process as simple and a step-by-step as it can be but it is still difficult for many kids. I have been using a teaching method called Power Writing, which is basically new way to describe main idea and details. The kids love the research part, but the writing in not as fun. I have been trying to make them understand the importance of not copying another person’s work. It has been an interesting time.

-We also have been diligently working on our multiplication facts. I am trying to drill in to their head the importance of memorizing the facts. Some folk think that you shouldn’t force kids to memorize the facts, but it just makes school so much easier. Something that I am now only realizing. No I didn’t memorize the facts in grade school, if I had, I would have been stronger in math that I was.

-Cursive. Ugh. Probably what I was dreading the most about third grade is teaching cursive. I was recently reminded (like today) of how difficult the capital t is to make.

-Super Bowl - Yawn. Playing Halo on several linked X-Boxes - Who hoo! AND Michael brought a package of Coffee n’ Creme Double Stuff Oreo.

-Special thanks to Ganns for the kind mention on Mere Maddness.

-Just got finished watching the Alias that aired after the Super Bowl post-game quite simple rocked my world, it filled the hole left by the abscence of 24 last week.

-60% of the school year complete.

And that’s how the world looks from my side of the big desk.

My feelings about fitness and healthy food would be best expressed in a monologue, from the made-for-TV movie “Bran Muffins: The Healthy Life”. In this monologue I will recite an e-mail forward that I recently recieved.

Bran Muffins

The couple were 85 years old, and had been married for sixty years. Though they were far from rich, they managed to get by because they watched their pennies.

Though not young, they were both in very good health, largely due to the wife’s insistence on healthy foods and exercise for the last decade.

One day, their good health didn’t help when they went on a rare vacation and their plane crashed, sending them off to Heaven.

They reached the pearly gates, and St. Peter escorted them inside. He took them to a beautiful mansion, furnished in gold and fine silks, with a fully stocked kitchen and a waterfall in the master bath. A maid could be seen hanging their favorite clothes in the closet.

They gasped in astonishment when he said, “Welcome to Heaven. This will be your home now.”

The old man asked Peter how much all this was going to cost.

“Why, nothing,” Peter replied, “remember, this is your reward in Heaven.” The old man looked out the window and right there he saw a championship golf course, finer and more beautiful than any ever-built on Earth.

“What are the greens fees?”, grumbled the old man. “This is heaven,” St. Peter replied. “You can play for free, every day.”

Then next they went to the clubhouse and saw the lavish buffet lunch, with every imaginable cuisine laid out before them, from seafood to steaks to exotic deserts, free flowing beverages.

“Don’t even ask,” said St. Peter to the man. “This is Heaven, it is all free for you to enjoy.” The old man looked around and glanced nervously at his wife. “Well, where are the low fat and low cholesterol foods, and the decaffeinated tea?” he asked.

“That’s the best part,” St. Peter replied. “You can eat and drink as much as you like of whatever you like, and you will never get fat or sick. This is Heaven!”

The old man pushed, “No gym to work out at?” “Not unless you want to,” was the answer.

“No testing my sugar or blood pressure or…”

“Never again. All you do here is enjoy yourself.”

The old man glared at his wife and said, “You and your bran muffins. We could have been here ten years ago!

(Surgeon General’s warning: The previous was entry was not a true depiction of what heaven will be like.)

Class dismissed!

Well since Pressed can share about his needless spending, I can share about mine. I have been think about getting a gadget like this for a little while, and Pressed’s quest for the largest TV in Bourbon gave me plenty of time to look and them and I finally got what I have dubbed the Gadget of 2002…

Behold, the ReplayTV!

The ReplayTV is a Digital Video Recorder (DVR). The easiest way to explain it is it is everything you wished your VCR was. The ReplayTV will record TV signals on its internal hard drive. You can select the quality of recording, on the standard quality, on my machine, it can record 40 hours of TV programing. The features include:

-Commercial Advance - with a decent accuracy it will automatically skip over commercials during replay. NO COMMERCIALS!
-You can program it to record all episodes of a series through a TV listing. To program just push a few buttons.
-If I forget to program the ReplayTV and I have an internet connection I can program it over the internet.
-I can swap video with other ReplayTV users.
-Progressive scan output.
-It can pause live TV and replay that while still recording.
-The feature that sold me on the ReplayTV rather than the TiVo was that the ReplayTV can access TV Guide info over a broadband connection rather than dialing in, incurring possible long distance fees, depending on where you live.

So far I really like it, and after all the rebates and gift cards it will only cost me $5 for the actual box. I like my ReplayTV.

Class dismissed!

2002 in TV

It is not 2002 anymore, but I didn’t get to finish up my year in entertainment. In this post I will take a look at cool and not so cool stuff from television.

Here is the post on 2002 in Movies in case you missed it.

BEST

1. 24 (FOX) - I have sung the praisesof this show a few times in this blog. 24 is what I truely call appointment TV. Each episode covers one hour in the insanely tense day of CTU agent Jack Bauer. 24 comes with some many plot twists and shocks that it is very difficult to predict what is going to happen. I hope the creators of this show can figure out how to keep 24 ticking for another year. What an awesome show!
2. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (UPN) - Last season Buffy almost lost me as a very loyal veiwer. It plundged to the depths of ickiness and stupidness that I decided to give it only one more chance this season. We it won me over, big time. The show seems to have rediscovered what I loved about the show in the first place and lost all the kinkyness that I hated about last season. Now I just wish I knew what will be the fate of the show for next season.
3. Monk (USA/ABC) - The cop/detective show on TV had either become boring or too risque to care about. Then along came Monk, quite unexpectedly. Monk is probably my favorite character of the season. Monk has obsessive/conpulsive disorder, that is not overly played but still provides ton of laughs. Read my review over at the Screening Room (may she rest in peace).
4. Boomtown (NBC) - I initially didn’t think I would like what appeared to be another Law and Order rip off. How many shows can we have that tell the stories from all the branches of the criminal justice department. Boomtown takes this idea a step further, it tells a single story from different view points. Many times the story is even told out of order, making the viewer piece the story together. Some folks find this type of story telling frustrating but I find it exciting.
5. Firefly (FOX) - A series that actually lives up to the idea of a “wagon train to the stars.” This series is actually more western than it is sci-fi. The characters where interesting and seeing them interact from week to week was always fun. Now why in tarnation did FOX decide to air the show out of order? Veiwers where thrown into the series without any back story on the characters, which I think made its veiwership drop off. Silly TV executives.
6. Farscape (Sci-Fi) - The other great space show that was putting some of the finest sci-fi stories on the small screen. This series was truely imaginative. Leave it to the folks at Henson to come up with some of the greatest alien creatures to be featured on TV.
7. Enterprise (UPN) - What would one of my lists be without some incarnation of Star Trek on it?
8. Alias (ABC) - The coolest spy on TV right now is the double agent Sydney Bristow. This poor girl has one messed up family and personal life. At the center of this disfunction is her job at the CIA and in a secret underground agency that is merely pretending to be CIA. Dad is also a double agent and mom who was thought to be dead is actually a former KGB agent who was also a double agent. Don’t trust anyone on this show. Oh, and I like all of her cool costumes.
9. CSI (CBS) - This show continues to fascinate me. The cool camera movement, zooming in and out of wounds and bug carcases is too cool. William Peterson is excellent in his role and his supporting cast in not to be ignored.
10. The Dead Zone (USA) - Based on the Stephen King novel, this series about a former teacher who see visions of the future (and very few of the visions are pleasent) as a result of an accident that he had, is engaging, especially with the addition of the super evil politician (is there any other kind?) that will play an important role in the coming episodes. Don’t want that politician to cause the apocalyps!

WORST

1. CSI: Miami (CBS) - I HATE the gal that they got to play opposite of David Caruso. I can’t stand watching her. Now that she is gone, I might have to give the series another chase.
2. ER (NBC) - Isn’t it time for this show to die already. It is like old rotting fish. Why, then, do I keep watching it?
3. Without A Trace (CBS) - Too many CSI spin-offs in one season. Burn out!
4. Firefly (FOX)/Farscape (Sci-fi) - And who in tarnation are the idiot TV Execs that are cancelling these super cool shows!!!
5. The last episode of Taken (Sci-Fi) - Well I liked the mini-series Taken until the very last episode, and then it transformed itself into a predictable and overly mushy mess. Way to leave a sour taste in my mouth.

Feel free to tell me what I have wrong in the comments.

Class Dismissed!

Best

1. 24 (FOX) - I have sung the praises of this show a few times in this blog. 24 is what I truely call appointment TV. Each episode covers one hour in the insanely tense day of CTU agent Jack Bauer. 24 comes with some many plot twists and shocks that it is very difficult to predict what is going to happen. I hope the creators of this show can figure out how to keep 24 ticking for another year. What an awesome show!
2. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (UPN) - Last season Buffy almost lost me as a very loyal veiwer. It plundged to the depths of ickiness and stupidness that I decided to give it only one more chance this season. We it won me over, big time. The show seems to have rediscovered what I loved about the show in the first place and lost all the kinkyness that I hated about last season. Now I just wish I knew what will be the fate of the show for next season.
3. Monk (USA/ABC) - The cop/detective show on TV had either become boring or too risque to care about. Then along came Monk, quite unexpectedly. Monk is probably my favorite character of the season. Monk has obsessive/conpulsive disorder, that is not overly played but still provides ton of laughs. Read my review over at the Screening Room.
4. Boomtown (NBC) - I initially didn’t think I would like what appeared to be another Law and Order rip off. How many shows can we have that tell the stories from all the branches of the criminal justice department. Boomtown takes this idea a step further, it tells a single story from different view points. Many times the story is even told out of order, making the viewer piece the story together. Some folks find this type of story telling frustrating but I find it exciting.
5. Firefly (FOX) - A series that actually lives up to the idea of a “wagon train to the stars.” This series is actually more western than it is sci-fi. The characters where interesting and seeing them interact from week to week was always fun. Now why in tarnation did FOX decide to air the show out of order? Veiwers where thrown into the series without any back story on the characters, which I think made its veiwership drop off. Silly TV executives.
6. Farscape (Sci-Fi) - The other great space show that was putting some of the finest sci-fi stories on the small screen. This series was truely imaginative. Leave it to the folks at Henson to come up with some of the greatest alien creatures to be featured on TV.
7. Enterprise (UPN) - What would one of my lists be without some incarnation of Star Trek on it?
8. Alias (ABC) - The coolest spy on TV right now is the double agent Sydney Bristow. This poor girl has one messed up family and personal life. At the center of this disfunction is her job at the CIA and in a secret underground agency that is merely pretending to be CIA. Dad is also a double agent and mom who was thought to be dead is actually a former KGB agent who was also a double agent. Don’t trust anyone on this show. Oh, and I like all of her cool costumes.
9. CSI (CBS) - This show continues to fascinate me. The cool camera movement, zooming in and out of wounds and bug carcases is too cool. William Peterson is excellent in his role and his supporting cast in not to be ignored.
10. The Dead Zone (USA) - Based on the Stephen King novel, this series about a former teacher who see visions of the future (and very few of the visions are pleasent) as a result of an accident that he had, is engaging, especially with the addition of the super evil politician (is there any other kind?) that will play an important role in the coming episodes. Don’t want that politician to cause the apocalyps!

WORST

1. CSI: Miami (CBS) - I HATE the gal that they got to play opposite of David Caruso. I can’t stand watching her. Now that she is gone, I might have to give the series another chase.
2. ER (NBC) - Isn’t it time for this show to die already. It is like old rotting fish. Why, then, do I keep watching it?
3. Without A Trace (CBS) - Too many CSI spin-offs in one season. Burn out!
4. Firefly (FOX)/Farscape (Sci-fi) - And who in tarnation are the idiot TV Execs that are cancelling these super cool shows!!!
5. The last episode of Taken (Sci-Fi) - Well I liked the mini-series Taken until the very last episode, and then it transformed itself into a predictable and overly mushy mess. Way to leave a sour taste in my mouth.

Feel free to tell me what I have wrong in the comments.

Class dismissed!