Humpin' it with Becker on the Day of the Dead

The following entry was inspired by the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. ( http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/ ).  My attempt at writing the worst fiction possible.  Maybe I'll submit it for next year.

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It was a dark and stormy night.  Lightning crashed outside like a 1978 Ford Pinto crashing through a pane glass storefront. I awoke with a start, my heart jumping a beat like a Mexican jumping a border fence. I fumbled for my glasses in the darkness.

"It's frickin' blacker than Africa in here," I muttered as a stubbed my toe on the dresser. It was a dark and swirly pine.

There was no way I was going to fall back asleep with my heart racing faster than a Mexican running for the border. Besides, there was still the matter of the Vanderberg case.

I slowly thumbed the wheels on my briefcase's lock until they reached my secret combination: 187. That's what I had to yell on a mothafuckin' cop once, back in the day. But that's a story for another dark and stormy night, only perhaps a darker, but slightly less stormy one.

I rifled through the papers inside, stopping like a nasty hair clog at a polaroid picture. The man was jovial and happy, like a clown, but in his eyes you could see he was a bit sad, like a clown. He had a lampshade on his head and a martini in his hand. Jack Vanderberg, the night before he went missing. He and Sharon (that's his wife, yo) were at a party celebrating her brother's appointment to the position of State Comptroller. Could there be a connection there? We all knew about the seedy underworld of Comptrolling. The last four men to hold the position all met their untimely comeuppance. They were comeupped with the force of a typhoon and the swiftness of a VW Rabbit.

I reached another photo and stared at it with the glassy-eyed stare of one of those dolls with glass eyes. Sharon was the kind of vivacious woman that made you feel vital and alive. The kind of flaming red hair that gives men whiplash on the street. Skin smoother than Superman's. And that dress. Oh, that dress. It clung to her like an individually sliced cheese wrapper. Nipples you could hang your hat and coat on, respectively.

My loins burned for her, but that might have just been the burning sensation when I peed. I just couldn't be sure about anything these days...

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Song Dowload of the Week:
Queen - Don't Stop Me Now

(Featured prominently in Shaun of the Dead)

Sundee's with Nando

Greetings. This is Nando, known to many as FERnando. AKA, the guy who used to write a heck of a lot more than he does nowadays. Regardless, I'm going to take a break from reading about people with mental problems to discuss a few things that i have been thinking about.

Firstly, The great minds that are running the James Bond franchise. Yeah, it took a while, but I'm finally going to unveil my position on this new Daniel Craig character and the direction I am hearing the new film will take James Bond. Firstly, when I heard that the new James Bond was going to be someone other than Pierce Brosnan, I was a bit saddened. I had enjoyed his take on the character- a Connery presence with a Dalton attitude. But, I got over it rather quickly. For several reasons.

To start off, I was rather upset that producers would take back their verbal promise to Pierce that he would be in one last film, however, after all the hoopla that went around in the media this summer, I came to the conclusion that Pierce was also somewhat to blame for the situation. If indeed, he did demand too much money and just assume that the producers would cave in to his demands, he doesn't deserve to pack the P99. I also don't want to be one of those rigid Bond fans who does absolutely nothing but talk about how great the Bond of his day was compared to these losers. Actually, come to think of it, those are mostly Connery fans. I think it's because fans of Roger Moore realize that the movies he made (sans For your Eyes Only) were all so silly, so you could never know if Moore was a good Bond or not since all this wackiness was going on around him that the superspy never encountered before. Fans of Dalton are just too scared of being ridiculed by Connery fans even though it is in my personal opinion that they were both just as good. And fans of Lazenby... well, who are we kidding, right?

Anyway, I started thinking, "this guy can't be James Bond... I mean, he has blonde hair!" As we all know, James Bond never EVER had blonde hair. Not in Goldfinger, not in Risico, not even in Mrs. Gilda's Red House. "It just can't work," I thought to myself. But when I heard that the story was going to be ... well, "not Die Another Day" essentially, I got my hopes up. As you all may remember, producers vowed to bring us "more of the same" after the success of that horrible, horrible film, which lead to many unforgettable inside jokes between Funk and myself.

I'll give this Daniel Craig guy a shot. After all, if the story really is that god, I'm willing to bet that he could be just as good as Dalton.

But last I heard, the producers were going way too overboard with this whole "no funny business" approach to Bond. There won't be a Q or any high tech gadgets... and to make matters worse, Moneypenny won't even show up. Yeah, I know you want to compete with really good spy thrillers like the Bourne Supremacy, but you can't just forget about what makes Bond movies fun. Well, they'll probably hire a chick with big boobs to fill the role of "Samantha Hardknock" or whatever, but that doesn't really appeal to me. To make matters worse, producers are going to take the "batman begins" approach and tell the origins of Bond. I'm pretty sure that after 40 years, we're all familiar with Bond - cool ass English spy, recruited out of the navy, parents died in a mountain climbing accident when he was young. etc. Do we really need to see that? I think that's what made him so mysterious- that we never actually saw any of that, unlike Batman who appears to be more tortured because we saw what happened to him when he was younger... in almost every single movie.

I'm not looking forward to the new Bond movie as much as when I hoped it would be Brosnan's farewell or before I knew that this was a 're-start.' I guess I might still see it, but after the horrible, horrible film that... no, that deserves a third 'horrible'... horrible film that was Die Another Day, you're going to have to convince me that you haven't sacrificed the fun side of Bond to cover your asses for the mistakes you've made with the last movie... which, as I have mentioned was horrible. Except for that brilliant theme song by Madonna...Sigmund Freud? Brilliant!

Let's move on to another topic.

I miss basketball.

Sure, my beloved Timberwolves suck now, but I still wanna watch my other favorite teams. I wanna watch Ben Gordon come in to the game and come back against Rookie of the last year, Emeka Okafor and trounce his Emekas...er Bobcats by coming back from a 25 point deficit. I wanna watch the Pacers destroy every team they play including the friggin heat and Spurs because it's pretty much their year now (so long as Artest can keep his anger in check).

Most importantly, I wanna hear Bill Walton's marvelous rantings on how brilliant the Lakers are and Charles Barkely vehemently state that he doesn't believe in aliens or that man never landed on the moon. The season barely started and already there is a great controversy revolving around comments that Kenny Smif and Chuck said about the Dallas Mavericks. I want to be there too when Charles says something like "Man, why we aint never do the show in Cleveland. Why we gotta stay in Atlanta [where] the Hawks ain't no good!"

Last night was not very kind to me, first the Bulls lost at New Jersey by one single point. I guess I can let it slide since the Nets have what most people will let pass for a team in Vince Carter (Mr. Glass), Jason Kidd (the Wifebeater) and Richard Jefferson (what the hell is he doing with those punks?). But then, Indy lost to AI's Sixers by two points. Funk tells me that for some odd reason, Indy has had difficult beating this squad since time began. My prediction that logically, the T-wolves would fall to the Clippers by 3 points failed to come true... because the wolves lost by a single point.

BBXXX-rated

Brown and Dutton (1995) have analyzed the relationship between self esteem and constant defeat. It's no surprise that there does happen to be such a strong negative correlation between the two. Generally, if you succeed a lot, you feel good about yourself. If you fail a lot, you feel bad about yourself. There's tons of stuff out there on coping with percieved defeats in life. However, I'm here today to talk about something that has rarely been discussed before. That, is the issue of 'undefeat.'

Now wait a minute, here. I know what victory is. I know what defeat is... but what in tarnation is 'undefeat'? Well, if you find yourself asking that question, permit me to explain. Undefeat, is a term that applies to sports teams that have gone unbeaten for a season. Now, this doesn't have to be an entire season, just the season up to a recent point.

How do people deal with 'undefeat'? Well, for this we're going to need an example. Ah, I know! Let's take the colts, who have recently trounced the much hyped Patriots. They are the only team in the NFL who are undefeated up to this point. I don't know much about fan dynamics when it comes to the NFL, but let's just take a very rigid, narrow view for now: You're either with Indy or not. Unsurprisingly, if you're a fan of Indy, you come to feel a sense of vicarious joy. There is this sense of "We" - "we rock", "we are awesome!" etc.

On the other hand, those who are not fans of Indy cope using the following defense mechanisms: 1) denial, 2) projection, 3) withdrawal.

Firstly, there are many who deny the greatness that is the Colts team. To them, the colts are a non-factor that just gets a lot of hype. If you ever encounter someone that uses this mechanism, typical statements that you will hear are: "yeah, the colts are all right, but they still haven't shown they can last the whole season without a defeat." Typically these people will remain naysayers until one of two outcomes occur. First: Indy loses a game. THis will solidify their belief that Indy is not good enough to be a contender. When an important game comes up, they will most likely make references to the few losses that the team has experienced in the past. "they don't have enough fuel" or other nonsensical phrases will abound.

Let's move on. THen there are those people that will project thier own insecurities onto the Colts. These people find reality so unnacceptable, that the only way to cope is by projecting what they perceive to be their (team's) flaws onto the Colts. Everything from, "Colts suck!", to "There's a conspiracy to help the COlts out at every play by the refs" and even, "Petyon Manning is gay". All of these expressions serve as cathartic releases for people's pent up rage by projecting their own fears and obvious flaws onto their rival. This way two things can occur simultaneously: firstly, they can belittle their rival, secondly, they won't have to realize thehorrible truth - that they're really talking about themselves and  even a third - they can be made to feel superior when there is very little reason to.

Finally, there are those fans who will withdraw. This I have found to be very uncommon in sports, but still, there may be the occasional fan who will pout and say things along the lines of, "eh, this doesn't matter anyway. It's just a stupid game, etc". Most of these fans have very little love for thier sports teams and might actually have a need to find success through their team because they cannot find it on their own. Because they feel themselves to be huge failures, these people look to bigger things for feelings of belongingness and success. When these turn out to be huge dissapointments, they dissasociate. In effect, they have been let down again and cannot find the strength to put their trust in anything anymore.

Here now is an excerpt from a convo Funk and I had earlier today:

Funk: My favorite part was when [Bill Simmons] admitted, apparently in all earnestness, that he theorized that the Pats were playing possum for the first half of the season so they could fool the Colts into a fall sense of complacency
Bossboy X: ha ha ha
Bossboy X: I FOOLED YOU!
Funk: those weeks when they sucked?  Just part of their Master Plan to thwart the Evil Peyton
Funk: lol
Bossboy X: see, when we refuse to acknowledge someone's ownership of the circumstances that lead them to their current position in life, we call that "enabling". By refusing to place the onus on Tom Brady and the Pats and instead externalizing the reasons, it takes away from the help that Tom Brady and the Pats can gain by realizing, "ehy, maybe we do kinda suck.. .maybe it's time to fix a few things "
Funk: lol
Funk: wow.  That's amazing.
Bossboy X: i know... this psych stuff is actually helpful for commentary

So there you have it. That's what undefeat can do for you. Note that undefeat evokes more in people than just having an opposing team beat on you, because of the fact that there is very little evidence in the past to support any theory that the undefeated team got lucky against your squad. Chance has increasingly less to do with victories the more you play.

NOw that that's out of my system, let's talk about some things tha have been going on with me. I found out that I wasn't a horrible teacher through the following exchange I had with a female student of mine yesterday:

Student: You know that advisors actually tell us not to take spanish here?
Me: really?
S: yes! They always say that they demand too much from you.
M: Well, there's nothing too wrong with that.
S: Yeah, but my parents are going to be upset if I show up with anything less than an A from a 100-level course.
M: Well, if that happens, you can just say you had a really horrible spanish teacher.
S: Well, that wouldn't be true.

Awe! can you feel the love?

I would also like to mention that I have added yet another catchphrase to my repetoire to keep "When did heget super dino thunder powers?" company. Whenever anyone says something tha can be taken as just plain shocking or surprising, I will shout "By the hilt of Szczerbiak!" in sheer amazement. FOr instance,

"Hey, nando, did you hear about the Spanish Department awarding you the 'most awesome instructor' award?"

"By the Hilt of Szczerbiak, how I've waited for this day!"

and so forth.

So, now, let's talk a litle bit about today's headline.

What we have here, currently, is a goodnews/badnews situation.

I heard that someone in the psych department was looking for a TA for next spring's Human Sexuality course. So, I contacted this person, deserate for funding for my final semester at UW. Well, coming into the whole thing, I knew that the topic was going to be a bit... uncomfortable for me since I don't really discuss sex a whole lot... i guess that's something I never took advanatage of at Wabash. But, anyway, I had a brief meeting with the professor and she was pretty straightforward with me on the issue. Four fifty minute sessions a week on my part- very little work , except for the facilitating. And always having to keep ahead of the students in the readings. She'd even heard of Wabash! My experience and background really helped me as she said she was "impressed with me" and was ready to offer me the job then and there. I have two days to think about it.

So... what's there tothink about? well, as I looked through the textbook... it's really, really... REALLY graphic. I mean... we're talking Cosmopolitan sort of crap ("Try these sexy new techniques with your man") only with pictures... a lot of really graphic pictures. Maybe I'm a prude and that's wrong... lord, I just don't know what to do. I need the money, but this is certainly no going to be as fun of an experience as teaching spanish. ANd the only reason I would do it is because I'm pretty sure that I won't be called back for the Spanish Department.

If I say "no" to the offer, I run the risk of being left without funding of any sort. BUt it's still early so maybe there will be something a little less... graphic out there... but then again,I have no guarantee of that. Lord, I wish that I had more time to decide... like a month or so.

What should I do?

Wednesday, November 9th, 2005

Humpin' it cuz he can - BECKER!

Salutations and incoming quotations:

1.  The citizens of the United States of America... all possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the government of the United States, which give to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection, should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.
-- George Washington, 1790 letter to a Jewish community leader


2.  To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.
-- Theodore Roosevelt, 1918 newspaper editorial


3.  You never need an argument against the use of violence, you need an argument for it.
-- Noam Chomsky


4a.  Today, almost half a century after the publication of the encyclical, new knowledge has led to the recognition of the theory of evolution as something more than just a hypothesis. It is indeed remarkable that this theory has been progressively accepted by researchers, following a series of discoveries in various fields of knowledge. The convergence, neither sought nor fabricated, of the results of work that was conducted independently is in itself a significant argument in favor of this theory.
-- Pope John Paul II, 1996


4b.  We know where scientific reason can end up by itself: the atomic bomb and the possibility of cloning human beings are fruit of a reason that wants to free itself from every ethical or religious link.  But we also know the dangers of a religion that severs its links with reason and becomes prey to fundamentalism.  The faithful have the obligation to listen to that which secular modern science has to offer, just as we ask that knowledge of the faith be taken in consideration as an expert voice in humanity.
-- Cardinal Paul Poupard, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, 2005


5a.  To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.
-- Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe


5b.  The last person who should be President is the one who wants it the most. The one who should be picked is the one who should be dragged, kicking and screaming into the White House.
-- Mark Twain?  (paraphrased)


6.  Laurel and Hardy, that's John and Yoko.  And we stand a better chance under that guise because all the serious people like Martin Luther King and Kennedy and Gandhi got shot.
-- John Lennon


7.  When a thing has been said, and said well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it.
-- Anatole France


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Song Download of the Week
Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc

Scott's Thusty... so he's gonna drink this

[You know, scott, I really think you're slacking off a bit.]

Funky Fridays - the Everything or Nothing AT ALL! edition

Melancholy Mondays

Hey there, BBXsters, I'm baaaaaaaack :)  Sorry to deprive you of my wisdom and wit (yeah right) last week but my life is currently 100% Upside Down.  A few years ago I was going through a similar identity/life crisis and I reread what I'd written in my journal at the time, which was comforting and helpful.  A few key messages stood out to me:

1. I don't have to know where I'm going

2. Change is scary but if I take a risk and try something new, it's usually worth it

3. Just cuz I feel like everything is falling apart doesn't mean it actually is  (sometimes what feels like a breakdown can really be a breakthrough)

So yeah ? I can breathe a little easier this week and ?go with the flow? wherever that may take me (I still have no idea).  I may be somewhat inconsistent with my contributions for the next few weeks until things settle down again, so I hope everyone can understand.  In the meantime I still enjoy reading what you all write; even in my darker moods, it often makes me laugh.

Nady, how come you don't dance no more?

And I say, "ladies... ladies... it's because I'm busy as sin!"

In all of my wisdom, I have decided to add yet another occupation to my growing list of 'things that keep nady busy." For those of you keeping track, this would make four. We have the basic label of 'student' followed by the ever-time-consuming 'teacher' and 'counselor-in-training' which keeps me just as busy.

Last friday, I recieved approval from the IRB to go ahead with my cool thesis topic. Therefore, I jumped right away at the opportunity to conduct my interviews. Why? you may ask. Simple! I can use my precious students as resources. I asked if they knew anyone who came from a small town and within days I have pretty much everyone I need for my research. The problem is trying to fit these interviews into my schedule since it's already ridiculous. To make matters even more complicated, the center where I will videotape these interviews is only open until four. So what does that mean? NO CLASSES FOR NADY! The only time I can it people in is when I have class, so I took some initiative and have decided to skip class on Mondays in order to have a better chance of getting this done. But some people can't make it on Mondays, so I'm going to have to skip my tuesday course once. the scary part? Even after all this, there is STILL one person I need to schedule! I don't know what the heck kind of trick I'm going to pull with my schedule to have that one.

Speaking of ridiculous, today was most certainly eligible for 'National Ridiculous Day' due to the non-stop traffic. We have a test in Spanish class tomorrow, which means I had a ton of students begging for help. So what did I do? Did I tell them to slag off? Pfft, that may be par for the course in the spanish department, but i was raised with helping-skills. I got in early and had two office hours back to back. I even had to skip my stupid spanish class for the sake of helping out my students. Then, I went down to teach. Now, ordinarily, I would see students right after class if they were having problems, but today was the one day I had to observe a class - videotape it, no less. Yeah, that was an adventure in itself. First, I couldn't turn the damned thing on cuz the wires were all tangled up. Ten minutes into class, I start vieorecording, but there was no sound. Unfortunately, I couldn't tell this to the TA because she was in the middle of her class, so I had to wait while she gave out an activity. Turns out that even though she put the mic on, she hadn't bothered to put a battery in there. Oh well. At least we got 20 minutes of quality. whatever. I hate that class. If it weren't for thefact that this was for someone else's benefit (to write a paper based on what you see yourself doing) I wouldn't have cared.

Anyway, so after that, I rushed up to the office because I was late for my office hours. More students dropped on by and I wasn't done till 3:00. That meant that I was already half an hour late for my class. By its end at 4:30, I was dead.

To top it off, I came home and had to send off 13 emails to check on how my application materials were doing. I really hope they didn't lose any of it cuz we are way too close to the deadline.

Not only that, but I had to send my students some grammar rules to remember for tomorrow's exam.

I'm going to bed.

Humpin it with Becker?

Today I'd like to talk about something very near and dear to my heart and that issue is adenoid adlai stevenson, and the related problems it causes when in the throes of debilitating hunger.  Keep a cup of warm water near to the pressure valve at all times in case of rampant suitcase velocity, for if not, a crowning moment of sheer vengeance will rain down a reckoning all over the jukebox, into which you had just put another dime, baby.  When you have assembled the assembly and Tab A is inserted into Slot B, then and only then shall you achieve true enlightenment of being and a servitude the likes of which Moscow has never seen.  Moscow, Utah, that is - have you ever been there in the summer?  It really is quite a nice place if you can avoid the flying fish and other such propogators of wanton lollygagging.  Look me up in the phonebook if you can get your obfuscator to work, if you do, I'll have quite the yarn to spin around a ball of yarn, if you go in for that sort of mousepad.  The final step is to listen to the delicious click-clacking of the bric-a-brac, shenanigan the pan again, and keep your toes on their toes.  It's all about the Benjamins, from Netanyahu to net-in-yahoo, do the time when it's right and keep your chin ball peen hammer.

Until next hirsute, keep your head above lofty and don't go thanking me all in one place.



Song macaroni of the week:

Guster - Parachute

Thursday, November 17th, 2005

Scott's back and thusty as ever!

Scott: I will write for you

Scott: but short as I am not in the mood

Bossboy X: awesome!

Scott: but just going to do it over aim

Bossboy X: awe

Scott: So the last two days I was in Huston, Tx (spelling...).  So inorder to be ready for the two days, I spent the last week just doing more work so I could take off those two days.  So besides working my ass off and getting very little sleep...

Scott: so... when I arived Sunday Afternoon/evening in Huston

Scott: I was told a shit load of wierd things about Schlumberger, and this kept me thinking all night.  It was so bad that I ended up get maybe 3 hours of sleep.  So Monday as we wondered around looking at lots of cool stuff, I probably looked stoned out of my mind.

Scott: Luckly I did not have my interview that day... but to my supprize, I was being interview all the time (Well watched).

Scott: The 4 guys showing us around, answer all the questions turned out to be 4 of the 5 guys that interviewed me

Scott: I was getting a long very well with two of them

Scott: so after a long but fun day of looking at drills and cement... and having to ware a hard hat all day long with the smallest jump sute that could have given me, I came back to my hotle tired and beat

Scott: (shair a room with a guy too, some one from Penn state)

Scott: so woke up a little bit before 8am on Tuesday

Scott: where we had to give a pressentation to the Schlumberger guys.  Every question they asked every one I could answer, and yet most of them got them wrong

Scott: I got up there and that is when it started

Scott: I got very nervious, and then sat back down right away

Scott: they called me up for an interview in an other room

Scott: and all 4 of them where there and some other guy

Scott: first question "What are you thinking right now?"

I answered: "I am very nervious."

Scott: 2nd Question: "Define leader ship?"

Me: The abblity of one person to bring the most out of people under him/her to finish a job as well as they all can... blaw blaw blaw... I pulled a little bit more of JROTC deffintions out of my hat

Scott: then one guy, the guy I had thought I got a long best with

Scott: asked "So, how would you lead a group of men that have a good 15 to 20 year of experance on you?"

Scott: I just completely blanked...

Scott: and that was the end of that...

Scott: So after that, wait for about an hour for my bus

Scott: got to Bush Internation Airport!!  Yeah... Bush...

Scott: but... it was raining like crazy

Scott: luckly the early flight was delaid so I was able to get on that

Scott: but ended up sitting on the run way for about an hour, during which I some how fell a sleep reading my control systems book.  They finally got in the air, and a little less in 2 hour I was in Chicago (just to note, that is the fast I have ever seen a plane go to Chicago, usually it is 3 to 4 hours)  We had a nice tail wind and he was booking it due to delays

Scott: but when I got to Chicago... long story short, I got screwed over by one of the AA people at one of the desk

Scott: and end up sitting in O'Hair from 7pm to 12am.  I got home at 2am.  I was just so tired, I just skipped all my classes today, but it was not because of that

Scott: I woke up around 9am, when I read the bad news... well the news I kind of figured I would get

Scott: **********************************************************************************

Please do not reply to this email. Unfortunately e-mails sent to this address cannot be answered.

********************************************************************************

Dear Mr. Block

Thank you for your interest regarding employment with Schlumberger. After carefully considering your background,qualifications and our current requirements, we feel that at the present time we do not have a position available that would satisfy both our needs. However, we will keep your application details on file for one year and if a suitable opportunity becomes available, we will not hesitate to contact you.

Sincerely, Schlumberger.

Scott: so after reading that... I just went back to bed and woke up at 11

Bossboy X: wow

Scott: after eating and taking shower, I got to the libary around noon to start studying (just a note: it is imposible to get any studying done in airport...)

Scott: stoped around 5 to grab something to eat

Scott: took test from 6 to 9

Scott: and then talked to group from 9 to 10 about something I talked to them last week...

Scott: READ THE FUCKING COMENTS!!!

Scott: after the nice meeting

Scott: I came home... and well now I am home... lon tiring trip... crapy day... crapy test... crapy readers... balls ass cold weather... what else can go wrong today... oh yeah... can't watch any tv... winamp is acting up...

Scott: well going to take a long hot shower and hope for a better day... but that won't happen have another test friday...

Funky Fridays - Nando Style

actually, I don't have the same motivation as Funk does to go online and read stuff which usually ends with him linking from one page to another until he stumbles upon BBX gold (the rent is too damn high... priceless). Instead, I will talk about the only thing I have been able to focus on this whole damned semester - me.

So, today was probably the worst Spanish class ever. And it was actually very little I did to have it end up that way. Well, yesterday I had someone from my stupid "how to teach spanish" class do the video recording for my spanish section. Boy, that was fun! everyone was pretty active, they enjoyed the lesson, despite the fact that I really didn't know if it would be very effective. Today: not so much. I had a non-coordinator evaluate me (someone within the spanish department), and right from the start i knew it was not going to go well. Only 12 of 23 students showed up for some reason - and one of them was drunk! sigh. I couldn't ask her to leave because the spanish department has this stupid 5 absence policy where if you miss more than that, your grade suffers. It was bad... but it could have been worse, I suppose. Anyway, usually when I explain grammar, we can get through it in 20 minutes tops. What happens when half your class is missing? You don't have as many people shouting out correct answers so that we can move on. Thus, it took me about 35 minutes to get through the Double object Pronouns and we didn't have any time to do the activity I had planned.

I had actually toyed with the idea early on to not do the lesson that day. Not to let them leave, but to just do something else and this was mostly because the evaluator was late too! Regardless, I got some feedback from her which was pretty helpful. And it was the kind of feedback I would consider to be real feedback, unlike the crappy I-don't-know-what-that-was that my coordinator gave me back a few months ago.

The basic message this time was "you did a good job as an instructor- your lesson was good, here are a few things you can do to make things a little better." Compare that to my coordinator: "Here's what you did okay. Now let's talk about what you shouldn't have done" Almost the same basic message no? Just changes in the delivery.

I was really frustrated because half my class was missing. It wasn't that I care that much for them to HAVE to be there every day... I guess maybe I would have just wanted some sort of warning so that I could modify my lesson plans accordingly. I mean, even if we had gotten to the activity I had planned, it still would have been hard to do. I needed seven different groups (ordinarily containing 3 or more students). Today, I wouldn't have even gotten 6 sober pairs.

Whatever, I'll take the compliment I got and just move on. Speaking of compliments, while I was talking to my departmental supervisor yesterday, I couldn't help but develop somewhat of an inflated sense of awesomeness. He actually echoed something that my other supervisor, Kuldhir said once before. Back then Kuldhir said that I usually end up eliciting deeper conversations with him than any of his other supervisees. Similarly, Patrick my new supervisor put it a different way - "usually, our conversations are up here" he raises his hand and puts it on level with his eyes. "And I forget that your experience is more here," he raises his other hand to chest-level. "I just wanna make sure  don't forget that and can provide what you need in this session."

That's pretty cool that I can engage my supervisors a bit more than the average supervisee.

I end this with a note from scott...

Scott: well going to play now :-)
Bossboy X: what
Bossboy X: don't you want to talk to me
Scott: gaming time
Bossboy X: I'm nando
Scott: gaming time
Bossboy X: NANDO
Scott: I know you are nado
Bossboy X: bah!

Scott: nando
Scott: sorry
Scott: sistracted

Saturday, November 19th, 2005

Funky Saturdays