What In Tarnation?!?!?

Frappr is a glorified guestbook. It will plot, using a zipcode where people who sign the Frappr Guestbook.

I have signed several of these and thought it was time to get my own.

So let’s see where WIT?!?!? readers are from.

Please sign my Frappr Guestbook thingy. Please… Pretty please…

One WITty point for each person who signs up!

I’ll sign yours…

Please… (Make it a New Year’s Resolution to sign my Frappr, it is a very attainable goal!)

You’re a peach. Thanks.

Class dismissed!

UPDATE: Well I am an idiot. I had the wrong URL. That has been fixed. Sorry if you went looking for a place to sign my Frapper and not finding a place to sign it.

My building got most of our new swanky computer lab up and running back in October. Many of the faculty are excited about it, we have never had a computer lab available to use before now, just the three (or if you were me five) computers in our room which is probably more that some district have. The lab is located right next to my room so in case something blows up, I will be close by (of course there is still that pesky classroom of kids that have to be watched but they have gotten used to the occasional interruption). The lab has 29 Gateway profile computers in it all connected to the network through a wireless connection. The day we left for Christmas break, the technology department installed a Smartboard (though there were some issues installing the Smartboard because of poor planning in the actual room). In an effort to make the computer lab a little more teacher friendly and to encourage teachers to bring their classes down to the computer lab, I created a web site I called eLearning. The site simply has a links to interactive, educational (for the most part) websites broken down in broad categories (but not by age group). The teachers who have braved this new feature of our building have been quite thankful for the resource. Some teachers have browsed through the links before hand and found a site that worked with what they were studying and other have told their class to choose a site out of the Math section to work on as they get a feel on how they can use the lab in the curriculum.

Over the break, I spent some of my time finding more sites that students might find fun, yet educational and adding those links to the site. Here is where you come in. I’m a little greedy and I want more links! More! MORE! MORE!

Excuse me.

Most teachers (especially those of the elementary kind) tend to be collectors of things they think they just might find useful (even if it is the most remote possibility) in the class. That includes websites. Do you have any good suggestions?

Let me be a bit more specific about what I am looking for:

I am looking for websites that would be interactive, engaging, and educational (the scope of the site can be small or large, I don’t really care about that). These links would not be “teacher” sites but sites that students would primarily use. I am only interested in sites targeted at kids preschool through fourth grade (ages 4-10).

Oh, and I am willing to share links too. (You can also click that link to see what I already have.

Let me know of sites that fit that criteria in the comments or if you would rather, you can e-mail me at .

Thanks, thanks, and thanks!

Class dismissed!

Oh dear, WordPress 2.0 is out. How long is that going to take to get up and going? Hope not long!!!

Oh dear, upgrade to WordPress 2.0 is done and it wouldn’t have taken so long if I had remembered not to delete the wp-config.php file. That was quick and this new version is slick. WOW. My last Christmas present of the season. WYSIWYG editing, Dynamic menus, upload command within the posting area (I no longer have to keep another window open for that). Let me just say I am extremely impressed with this. If you have WordPress, you need to get version 2.0 and if you don’t have WP, you should get it.

Previously on WIT?!?!?:

• 2002 in TV
• Best and Worst of 2003 II
• Top 10 List 2004: TV

Again, no top ten list this year. Just shows I liked and didn’t like.

TV Show I Like

• Prison Break (FOX) - With the momentum of 24 and an interesting but totally implausible premise makes for some fine entertainment.
• 24 (FOX) - Haven’t seen it for some time (it starts the new season in Jan.) but last season would be one of the best seasons of this fast paced program. Let’s hope that this coming season just improves the show.
• Arrested Development (FOX) - I initially avoided this show because of all the hype. When I gave in and actually watched the show, I learned that it deserved all the hype. The previous season will find its way into my Blockbuster queue.
• Bones (FOX) - This almost didn’t appear on this list until the Christmas episode.
• Lost (ABC) - Made some improvements over last season’s non-revelation season ender. The tailies will make things interesting on the island.
• Veronica Mars (UPN) - If I were ranking these, Veronica would again take the top spot in a tie with another series. This season has managed to be even better than last. I am impressed with how the writers have managed to bring last season’s mystery in to this season’s mystery. I can’t wait for more Mars.
• Invasion (ABC) - I think I have a soft spot for Shaun Cassidy series. I liked American Gothic too.
• Smallville (WB) - This show saw a bit of a come back with this season because they focused on Superman again. Of course, the presence of Spike (sans accent) helped quite a bit too.
• Bye bye Threshold. (CBS)
• The West Wing (NBC) really came back creatively this season as well. The campaign has really made things interesting. For the record, I am hoping that Hawkeye Peirce wins the election.
• Battlestar Galactica (Sci Fi)- The series that would tie with Veronica for first place. I eagerly await its return in January. If you need to catch up on what has gone on so far, fire up iTunes and download the free video that summarizes the whole series.

TV Shows I Don’t Like

• The Amazing Race Family Edition (CBS) - I didn’t think it was bad as some have put on but it certainly wasn’t my favorite edition and I am look forward to the return to normal racing.
• Supernatural (WB) - They took themselves too seriously, I couldn’t make it past one episode.
• Alias (ABC) - Officially found itself at the bottom of the crapper with the beginning of this season. I have some hope that things will turn around now that the writers have to end the series.
• The Triangle (Sci Fi)- It had a promising beginning but fizzled in the second hour of this miniseries.

TV Shows I Like But Never Get Around to Watching

• The Office (NBC)
• House (FOX)
• My Name is Earl (NBC)
• Commander and Chief (ABC)
• Everybody Hates Chris (UPN)

What do you think? Got your own list? Tell me about it in the comments. This list is brought to you by the letter T (as in TiVo).

Class dismissed!

Previously on WIT?!?!?

• 2002 in Movies
• Best and Worst of Movies 2003
• Top 10 3 List: Movies 2004

As is the tradition here at WIT?!?!?, I like to look back at the year in POP culture and share with the world what my favorite was, because that is all that really counts, right? In the past, I have ranked my choices using the ubiquitous top ten list. This year I throw off the constraints of the top ten list. I do this for several reasons. First, I haven’t seen all the movies that I think would make a top ten list for 2005. Second, this year seems to have made up in the lack of movies that I lacked last year and to rate them would be difficult. So this year we have two groups, Movies I Liked and Movies I Didn’t Like. If a movie didn’t land in either list it doesn’t appear. See how simple this is going to be! Enough with the talking, let’s get down to business.

Movies I Liked

• Phantom of the Opera - The movie had a few missteps including the casting of the Phantom but it held pretty close to the original.
• Million Dollar Baby - Well made movie that went in a direction that I wasn’t expecting.
• Constantine - A movie that I rented on a whim. Turned out I really kind of enjoyed it.
• Millions - I just watched this movie last night. What a delightful movie about a family dealing with the loss of the mother. The boys find a bag full of money that flew off a train. From Roger Ebert.com:
  

  Danny Boyle’s “Millions,” a family film of limitless imagination and surprising joy, follows the two brothers as they deal with their windfall. They begin by giving some of it away, taking homeless men to Pizza Hut. Damian wants to continue their charity work, but Anthony leans toward investing in property. They have a deadline: In one week the UK will say goodbye to the pound and switch over to the Euro; maybe, thinks Anthony, currency speculation would be the way to go.

  The only reason I wouldn’t recommend this as a “family film” is a scene of the older boy looking up some things on the Internet that I don’t consider appropriate for a family film. Other than that, this movie is a real treat.

• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - One of my favorite books turned into a very funny movie. At least I found it funny. It did end up on a Worst movies of 2005 in Entertainment Weekly. No accounting for taste I suppose.
• Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith - It certainly doesn’t live up to episodes IV and V but is wasn’t as bad as VI or II. It barely finds itself on this list.
• Batman Begins
• March of the Penguins
• War of the Worlds - The first half of this movie belongs on this list, the latter half (from the moment that Tim Robins appears) belong on the Movies I Didn’t Like list. This movie avoids most of the typical disaster movie cliches. Now if I could just fix the ending.
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Not as good as the original but still good. Dragonflies?
• Sky High - I just recently saw this on Christmas. It found it to be a clever and funny take on the superhero genre. A nice mix of Harry Potter and Superman.
• Flightplan - A fun thriller that reminded me a bit of Panic Room, but I liked that movie too.
• Serenity - If I was ranking the movies, this one would probably appear as number one on the list. As a huge fan of the TV series Firefly, I am forced to. The movie wraps up several plot points that were left over from the series while still leaving some questions open for future movies. However, it was recently reported in EW that more movies for the crew of Serenity isn’t likely. Whedon has made his peace and is ready to move on. Too bad I’m not.
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - This sequel continues the quality movies from this series. This movie brings a fun sense of humor that is quite unexpected in the film that is the darkest to date.
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe - I hope to write more about this later.

Movies I Didn’t Like

• Elektra - It may cause drowsiness.
• Man of the House - I like the part about the A/C… that’s about it.
• The Ring Two - What a lame follow up.
• Bewitched
• Fantastic Four
• King Kong

See that would have been difficult to squeeze 15 movies into the top ten. What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments.

Soon to come… TV of 2005.

Class dismissed!

Yeah I watched King Kong. Artistically, especially when discussing the CGI ape, the movie is probably pretty good. I do have a few issues with the movie.

• Casting - Jack Black was a joke and I have never understood the appeal of Adrian Brody.
• Editing and camera movements - All the quick cuts and the camera movements as if you are in the ape’s paw, annoying and headache inducing.
• Length - 3 hours! Really! I would classify it as overindulgent. The first hour could be cut in half, the ape/dino battles in the second hour become a bit repetitious and could be trimmed, and in the third hour, the first 20 minutes with the corny narration should have been cut.

There are several things I like about the movie, Naomi Watts for one, did an excellent job acting against very little. The CGI effects that I mentioned before are unlike anything I have ever seen. The whole movie works on an emotional level that I didn’t anticipate. If I were to rate it from an artistic and technical standpoint I would probably give the movie a B+.

When I grade a movie, I also consider more subjective criteria, however. Did I enjoy the movie? Do I want to see the movie again? Did it feel like the movie was overtly trying to manipulate my emotions? Does movie give me feelings that I have to deal with in my career that I don’t want to feel while being entertained? My grade for the Luigi-less Kong? F.

King Kong falls into that rare category of movies that make me feel icky. Another movie that falls into this same category is Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings: Two Towers. Initially, however, I couldn’t figure out why the ape made me feel horrible like Gollum from the Two Towers. Kong wasn’t following his wicked desire like Gollum, the two really had very few things in common. Like many things, the answer came to me in the middle of the night (I hate when they wake me up). In the movie, Kong is really an innocent in the action of the movie. He reacts to what is going on. Eventually, society takes advantage and abuses the innocent, something that I see more often than I would care to in my job. So will I be going to see Kong again, even on video? No way. (I haven’t watched LOTR:TT a second time either.)

King Kong: F.

Class dismissed!

From Jen:

Your Elf Name Is…

Sassy Twinkle Wink

You Are a Minimal Christmas Tree

You’re not a total Scrooge, but you feel no need to go overboard at Christmas. Less is more, and your Christmas reflects refined quality.

The results of this last quiz are pretty appropriate. It describes the little Christmas tree that I put up every year.

Class dismissed!

I the interest of not offending anyone, I would like to wish everyone a Happy Festivus which is traditionally celebrated today (the date of celebration may vary).

As is the tradition, the Airing of Grievances will take place in the comments: During the past year, you have disappointed me in the following ways…

Feel free to use the comments to brag about your Feats of Strength.

In honor of Festivus a donation has been made to the Human Fund under your name.

Class dismissed!

I have gotten a little tired of the “Tuscan” theme that is the default here at WIT?!?!?

So I surfed around Alex King’s Theme Browser and found a few themes that I liked and could modify easily. I found Blueberry Boat and played around with. I know Tim really liked the original logo so I decided to dig through my old Windows machine to find the logo, I reassembled it and plopped it on a grey background and just like that I have the new theme WIT - Original Recipe just for my buddy Tim. You can change to that theme in the sidebar.

I also added a theme that is all text so the only pictures that would appear would be in the post themselves. Hopefully less pictures loading on a page means less load time on slower connections. You can change to the Low Bandwidth theme in the sidebar as well.

Neither are how I want them, I will play with them as I find time.

Enjoy. I hope they enhance the WIT experience.

Class dismissed!