What In Tarnation?!?!?

Your CD collection is almost as big as your ego,
and you can most likely play an instrument or
three. You’re a real hit at parties, but you’re
SO above karaoke.
What people love: You’re instant entertainment.
Unless you play the obo.
What people hate: Your tendency to sing louder than
the radio and compare everything to a freaking
song.

What Kind of Elitist Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Thanks to Bene.
____

I did go see The Village last night. I do want to discuss it further but doing so would ruin the movie for those who have not seen it. So I shall postpone the discussion till later. If I were to rank the M. Night’s movies that I have seen in order from my favorite to least favorite the list would look like this:

- Signs: A
- The Sixth Sense: A-
- The Village: B-
- Umbreakable: D-
____

I just noticed that I am a Large Mammal in the TTLB Ecosystem. Hmmm. Wonder how long that will last.

Class dismissed!

It is BlogSwap time again.

Today, WIT is proudly hosting Marisa from Simple Games.

Blog-style

Different people blog for different reasons. At first, I thought a blog was supposed to be a public diary, full of one’s daily movements and thoughts on places and people. I quit keeping a journal a couple of years ago because all that I recorded seemed completely immature and of no value later. I realize that someday, someone may want to read my diaries, as a clue to my personality because they didn’t know me in life. I would like have some way of knowing long dead ancestors, to see what their life was like and if their lives were in any way similar to ours. Anyway, having simply a public diary didn’t appeal to me, since I had quit writing a personal one and thoughts that normally go into a diary are usually to personal to be shared.

There are lots of articles on blogging that make it seem like the genre is only for professional journalists or columnists. These types of blogs chronicle news stories with commentary by the author. Other blogs are about daily life, others concentrated on a specific topic, such as Christianity or music. Then, there’s another kind of blogging. The emotional release valve. Most people have a need to disclose their problems and some use blogging instead of a sympathetic friend, and often to gain sympathy from their online friends via comments.

I don’t really like talking about my problems on the blog. Maybe that’s not being “honest,” but I assume that everyone knows that I have problems. Only a few of my friends have blogs, and so most of the ones that I read are written by total strangers. Focusing on the problems of someone I don’t know is rather depressing, and makes me think only on that side of their life. Surely good stuff happens to them too but they don’t share that. I don’t share much daily life on my blog either, such as, went to the library, had chicken for dinner. Too boring. I prefer to write about subjects or opinions. My blog is also a way to talk with friends through the comments. Among the blogs I read, daily life probably fills the majority, but my favourites are subject oriented, art or Christian themes, for instance.

The act of reading a blog is a totally anonymous look into someone’s mind and life. I’ve read that the internet is replacing the civic center, the social gathering places in modern life. The fact that I look into the lives of complete strangers is disconcerting at times, and I wonder why I do it. Maybe it is the very sense of community, that you can choose who you wish to know about, who to make friends with.

However, you don’t have any responsibility to interact with the person, although you can if you wish. I have made friends with bloggers by e-mail, but mostly I keep quiet and just read. A post can give me the inspiration to make a good meal, think about my spiritual life, or develop my writing, among other things. It is helpful to see the thoughts of other on topics that you may be thinking about yourself. It’s the autobiography of anybody.

by Marisa, at Simple Games, which is a mostly random blog, dwelling on Christ, photography, friends, and life.

My entry will be posted on Sober Minded.

To view the rest of this week’s entries, click here.

Would you like to BlogSwap? For more information visit Challies.com.

Class dismissed!

Late Sunday night I lost most of the hearing in my left ear. Sound suddenly became muffled. There wasn’t really any pain however I could occasionally feel feel pressure in the ear. More than anything it was annoying. Having to live with mono in a stereo world was quite aggravating.

I lived with with the hearing loss through Monday. I couldn’t figure out what could be causing it. I hadn’t been swimming to get anything like swimmer’s ear, there wasn’t really any pain that is normally associated with an ear infection, I keep my ears clean so I didn’t think that it was ear wax but that was the only thing that I could think of. I got an ear cleaning kit, the kind with the drops that you put in your ears and tried that. Nothing changed. I finally caved and got an appointment with the doctor for Tuesday. I went to sleep that night and when I woke up I had gained most of the hearing back. How odd. With the urging of my mother, I went ahead and went to the doctor.

After telling the doctor my symptoms he suggested that I had Eustachian tube dysfunction. If I understand it correctly, the tube that is behind my ear drum has become swollen and won’t allow the fluid to drain properly. He prescribed a generic Pseudoephedrine for a decongestant to dry everything out and Methylpred a corticosteroid that is an anti-inflammatory. The Methylpred was given so that on the first day I have to take six pills on the first day, the second five, so on and so forth.

After I got the medicine I went home and forgot about it until about 10:30 when I was getting ready to go to bed so I took the six Mythylpred pills and the on Pseudoephedrine. Not a good idea to take the largest dose of my steroid right before I went to bed.

I read for a little bit and then I turned on the TV. One of my favorite X-File episodes was just coming on. The Unnatural which is written and directed by series star David Duchovny. The Unnatural some how mixes the X-Files mythology, Roswell, NM in 1947, and baseball. An alien comes to earth and falls in love with the game of baseball. He runs from his fellow aliens and shapeshifts to look like a human in order to play baseball. The story is told by a sheriff who was sent to protect the African American (but really alien) baseball player. While the sheriff was telling his story, Mulder is trying to put all the pieces together to see how they all work together, when the sheriff turns to Mulder and and basically tells Mulder that sometimes the point of the story is the story itself, the telling of the story. It reminded me of the movie Big Fish. I also enjoyed the following exchange about Passion and what it does to a human:

Arthur Dales: “What you fail to understand in your joyless myopia, is that baseball is the key to life — the Rosetta Stone, if you will. If you just understood baseball better all your other questions your, your… the, uh… the aliens, the conspiracies they would all, in their way be answered by the baseball gods.”
Mulder: “Yes, sir, that may be true. I’m thinking that your experience in Roswell could be germane to a conspiracy between men in our government and these shape-shifting alien beings.”
Arthur Dales: “Oh, don’t bore me, son. My brother Arthur started the X-Files with the Federal Bureau of Obfuscation before you were born. He was working for the FBI and hunting for aliens when you were watching My Best Friend’s Martians. You say ’shape-shifting’. Agent Mulder, do you believe that love can make a man shape-shift?”
Mulder: “I guess… women change men all the time.”
Arthur Dales: “I’m not talking about women. I’m talking about love. Passion. Like the passion you have for proving extra-terrestrial life. Do you believe that that passion can change your very nature? Can make you shape-shift from a man into something other than a man?”

Passion that changes… Hmmm.

Then the almost pitch perfect episode ends with a great scene between Mulder teaching Scully about baseball.

After the episode, I turned off the light and stared at the ceiling until four in the morning. I could not go to sleep. No amount of pounding my head against the wall would allow me to sleep. My mind was racing, thinking about a million things. It was like watching a TV while someone was constantly changing the channel. It must be something like a child or adult with ADD experiences. It was insane.

I took my medicine much earlier today and I have just taken some Tylenol PM so hopefully that will combat some of the effects of the steroid. Hopefully.

At least I can hear in stereo again.

Class dismissed!

Well, we’re back. Jetlagged, craving McDonald’s cheeseburgers, and sore from hauling baggage across multiple airports, but we’re safe again on US soil.

The trip was fabulous. I am always amazed at how close strangers can become in 2 weeks.

It’s almost 5 and I’ve been up since 3. I think I’m still functioning on Russian time, which is 8 hours ahead. That would explain why my tummy is rumbling–it thinks it’s lunchtime!

I will post more slowly and will try to include some pictures (I may have to have Christopher help me out with that). I will be visiting my grandparents for a few days and then it’s off to Vanderbilt. I will post as time allows (and maybe as I have internet connections!). Thanks so much for all your prayers. It was encouraging to know that people all over the world were lifting up our 2 weeks in Belarus…

Last week I attended The Second Annual Handheld Computer Conference. There were about 300 in attendance, many of them curious to see what this handheld thing was all about, some where getting handhelds in their rooms next year and still other have had the handhelds in their class for a year.

The conference was a little surreal for me. I should state that all education conferences that I have been to are surreal if merely for the fact of the male to female ratio, but this was was odder still. First the male to female ratio was more in my favor this time. I guess being a technology conference helped get more guys to the conference. Second, everyone there, of course had a handheld. You would see clusters of teachers here and there beaming applications to each other.

To make the situation even more bizarre there seemed to be an unspoken caste system established depending on which model of Palm the person was carrying around. Those with the newer Zires and Tungstens were looked upon with great admiration. The few people who were carrying around the T3 where looked upon in the highest esteem. I felt sorry for the folks who were carrying around the very distinctive M130 and the poor gal who pulled out the Palm Pilot III… well it was bad. My Palm M515 put me closer to the bottom of the ladder.

With the exception of one of the session that I attended, the conference was excellent. The one I didn’t like was geared more for high school age students so very little of it was applicable. I should have left when I heard the presenter was a high school teacher.

Elliot Stolloway, CEO of GoKnow, had the keynote address where he tackled the question “Why Palms?” The key is one to one computer/student ratio. The effectiveness of technology comes only through ubiquitousness. The Palms are priced in such a way that it is more likely that a school could achieve that when compared to laptops of desktop computers. The Palms provide opportunities to children and because of their size the opportunities don’t have to take place just at school the Palm can be taken home as well. The children in school right now are a product of the digital age. They are more likely to look up movie times on the Internet than in a newspaper. It is just a different way of thinking. Palms can help tap into that. Stolloway also argued that Palms provide a task appropriate technology that desktops and laptops can not do.

I got all kinds of great ideas and programs to use for next year. One thing I would like to try is to implement GoKnow’s HLE (Handheld Learning Environment) for next year. Unfortunately it costs about $20.00 per handheld. So for my class it could cost about $500.00. Ouchy.

I sent the following e-mail to my principal to inquire about funding. I call HLE PAAM in the e-mail, though HLE is correct.

The Palm conference was really good. I got several idea for next year.

I did want to tell you about PAAM (Palm Archive and Assessment Manager). PAAM (http://goknow.com/Products/HLE_palm.php#PAAM) is an online tool to help teachers, students and parent that are in Palm classrooms. PAAM costs $20.00 per Palm, in in a class of 25 students it would cost $500.00.

PAAM does several things for the class.

First all students synchronize all their Palms to one centralized location that can be accessed through the Internet, meaning I can view student’s work anywhere there is an Internet connection instead of having to lug around 25 Palms. I can then assess student work and post it to the archive. Parent can then use a user name and password to view their student’s work and any comments that I make. Parent can even comment back from their password protected website. Parents and students can of course only view their account.

PAAM also allows me to see what is on each Palm including programs and if I see programs that shouldn’t be there I can delete them from the student’s Palm right from the website. I will also be able to upload programs and documents as needed instead of going through what can be a lengthy beaming process.

All work ever done on the palm is kept there creating a portfolio of student work that of course can be accessed by parents.

Along with that you get four pro versions of software that we used to be able to get for free. FreeWrite, Sketchy, PicoMap, and FlingIt. As long as we have this service we will always have up to date versions of these programs, they come with PAAM.

In addition we get access to handheld lesson plans.

I think that PAAM would be a great asset to the Palm classrooms, especially in the areas of assessment, parent communication, and overall management of the Palms.

I would be willing to use part of my classroom budget to cover expenses however that would not cover all of it. Would there be money anywhere to get this program.

I really hope we can find the funding, it could be a great asset to me and those parents with access to the Internet.

Class dismissed!

1. What is your favorite mode of transportation when traveling?
Quick and safe are what I like in a mode of transportation. Anything that fill those criteria are fine with me. I’m not all that picky.

2. If you had the means to travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Europe and Australia (including NZ). Both places are beautiful and so full of history.

3. Have you ever been to another country?
I have been to Canada three times. I enjoyed each visit.

4. If time were not an issue, how long would could you stand to be away from home?
Of late, I have become more and more a homebody. After about a week I want to be back, however, as I discovered this June, I only have to be back for a couple of days before I am ready to leave again.

5. What is the funnest or most interesting trip you’ve taken?
All mission trips are funny and interesting. At least the ones that I go on. I don’t think I could choose one over the other.

Leave brunch in the comments.

Class dismissed!

Previously on WIT:
June 2004 Part 1: Uncertainty
June 2004 Part 2: Disappointment and Nothingness
June 2004 Part 3: Tax Waiver
June 2004 Part 4: Court
June 2004 Part 5: On the Road

I have actually written about my experiences at the Southern Baptist Convention, just not here at WIT.

Read about my experience trying to meet a fellow blogger here.

Here are some good recaps of the convention that I did not write.

The thing that I was most interested in was a proposed resolution (which is an expression of the will of the convention, it isn’t binding at all) that would recommend that all Southern Baptist pull their children out of the public schools. The resolution was ruled out of order because the committee on resolutions didn’t feel it was the convention’s place to be dictating to parents what they should and shouldn’t do. I thought that was the end of that and was a little disappointed because I wanted it to come to a vote so that it could be handily voted down.

The gentleman that proposed the resolution was not about to give up there, however. During discussion on another motion that spoke to the secularization of our culture he made a motion that we add what was essentially his anti-public school resolution with some change in wording to this resolution on the secularization of our culture. There was discussion and debating on the subject. The same old arguments where given on each side. One saying that parents must protect their children from those evil public school who are hostile to Christians and those saying that Christian students can be a salt and a light in the public schools. A few people who spoke in favor of the motion gave examples from their local schools. In their defense, those schools sounded nothing like the one I attended and the district that I am working in now. Surely they must realize that not all schools are like theirs. That is why the decision of schooling, whether it be public, private, or home school should be made by individual parents. (BTW, I have no problems with any of those methods.) Long story short, the motion came to a vote and it was voted down without a ballot vote.

This was my second convention to attend and I have enjoyed both of them. The preacher’s conference before the convention has been excellent on both occasions and the business side of the convention is always interesting to me.

Over all it was pretty cool. Other than missing Bryan.

Class dismissed!

Via Jen (who I am soundly trouncing in the Amazing Race League).

1. WHAT COLOR ARE YOUR BEDROOM WALLS?
I rent, they’re white.

2. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?
I am currently reading Black by Ted Dekker, Shadowmancer by G. P. Taylor, and One for the Money by Janet Evanovich.

3. WHAT’S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?
I don’t use one but I do keep my Mr. Bean mouse pad close by.

4. FAVORITE BOARD GAME?
I enjoy the Game of Life.

5. FAVORITE MAGAZINE?
Entertainment Weekly.

6. FAVORITE SMELL?
Freshly brewed coffee.

7. FAVORITE COLOR?
For the one millionth time green, one of the darker shades.

8. LEAST FAVORITE COLOR?
Razzle Dazzle Rose. It is my least favorite crayon.

9. HOW MANY RINGS BEFORE YOUR ANSWERING MACHINE PICKS UP?
As few as possible.

10. MOST IMPORTANT MATERIAL THING IN MY LIFE?
Corduroy. Did I answer this question correctly?

11. FAVORITE FLAVOR OF ICE CREAM?
Coffee flavored from the Marble Slab.

12. DO YOU BREAK THE SPEED LIMIT DAILY?
That would depend on what kind of music I was listening to at the time. Generally on the highway, I drive 4 to 5 over. In town, I drive the speed limit.

13. DO YOU HAVE A STUFFED ANIMAL IN YOUR ROOM SOMEWHERE?
Actually I have a huge reindeer that I put in my classroom at Christmas. I have nowhere else to put him in the mean time! View a picture of him here. (Child not included.) I have many stuffed animals in my classroom. They are reading buddies.

14. STORMS - COOL OR SCARY?
Way cool unless I am at the Muny.

15. FAVORITE DRINK(s)?
Coffee, sweet iced tea, and water.

16. WHEN IS YOUR BIRTHDAY?
March.

17. FAVORITE VEGETABLES?
I like Jen enjoy a potato in almost every single way it can be prepared.

18. IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY JOB, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Movie director.

19. IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY COLOR HAIR, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
What I have now is fine but I have always wondered about black…

20. HAVE YOU EVER BEEN IN LOVE?
I hope so.

21. TOP THREE FAVORITE MOVIES (IN ORDER)?
How ’bout my favorite 20?

22. DO YOU TYPE WITH YOUR FINGERS ON THE RIGHT KEYS?
mpy s;; yjr yo,r.

23. WHAT’S UNDER YOUR BED?
Probably old magazines.

24. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE NUMBER?
218.562

25. FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH ON TV & IN PERSON?
Baseball and evidently poker.

26. WHAT IS YOUR SINGLE BIGGEST FEAR?
Not being a good teacher.

27. FAVORITE CD OF ALL TIME & RIGHT NOW?
All time: 40 Acres or In the Company of Angels
Right now: Hold You High

28. FAVORITE TV SHOW OF ALL TIME & RIGHT NOW?
All Time: To name a few: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Seinfeld
Now: Good Eats, The 4400, Monk

29. HAMBURGERS OR HOT DOGS?
Hamburgers will all the fixin’s… except mustard.

30. THE COOLEST PLACES YOU’VE EVER BEEN?
Up in the Casper Mountains was pretty cold this summer. That’s what they mean right?

31. WHAT WALLPAPER AND/OR SCREEN SAVER IS ON YOUR COMPUTER RIGHT NOW?
I have a wallpaper with AB on it and it says, I’m just here for the food. The computer I am on currently has the blue Windows XP wallpaper. Both have the Windows XP 3D screen saver cause I like watching it.

32. DOES MCDONALD’S SKIMP ON YOUR FRIES & DO YOU CARE?
What an odd question kinda stuck in the middle of everything. No, I don’t think so. I just want them to be hot.

33. FAVORITE CHAIN RESTAURANT(s)?
I choose three: Pasta House, Olive Garden, and Joe’s Crab Shack. I think my answer changes every time I answer a question like this.

34. IF YOU HAVE A BOY (OR HAVE ANOTHER BOY) WHAT WOULD YOU NAME HIM?
Xavier.

35. IF YOU COULD LEARN TO PLAY ONE INSTRUMENT OVERNIGHT, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Guitar.

Class dismissed!