Einstein Was Here

I wish I was better at explaining things…

Enjoy!

Life as a Coffee

I found this at Amazing Posts and found it interesting.  I hope you do too:

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university Professor.

Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the Prof. went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, some plain-looking and some expensive and exquisite, telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the Prof. said “If you noticed, all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. That all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the better cups and are eyeing each other’s cups.”

“Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn’t change. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it.”

So friend, don’t let the cups drive you…enjoy the coffee instead.

 

Enjoy!

School of Rock – Altered Trailer

We’re all back to school today (after nearly three weeks away due to snow, then vacation), so this seems appropriate.

My kids and I love School of Rock and really like watching Jack Black in movies.  This altered trailer is funny – in a creepy way:

Enjoy!

English is Crazy

Does the English language sometimes drive you nuts?  We have done some fascinating things with this language.  You really must be almost a native speaker to understand all the nuances of the language.  For example, I had a friend of mine from Chile who had trouble understanding the concept of “breaking wind.” 

The examples below might be even more subtle that that.  You can find the original here:

Crazy English

1. The bandage was wound around the wound.

2. The farm was used to produce produce.

3. The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4. We must polish the Polish furniture.

5. He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7. Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8. A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9. When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10. I did not object to the object.

11. I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

12. The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

13. How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

14. There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

15. They were too close to the door to close it.

16. The buck does funny things when the does are present.

17. A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

18. To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

19. The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

20. After a number of injections my jaw got number.

21. Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
Let’s face it – English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat.

We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm goes off by going on. English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn’t a race at all). That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

Enjoy!

Rules for Writing Wicked Good Papers

Writing seems to be a minor theme this week.  I found these wicked good rules at the Union College site.  They were posted by the Biology Department.  I hope they will help:

1. Shun and avoid the employment of unnecessary, excess extra words.
2. Make certain all sentences are full and complete. If possible.
3. Avoid cliches like the plague.
4. Take pain’s to spell and, punctuate correctly.
5. BE Consistent.
6. Don’t approximate. Always be more or less precise.
7. Sedulously eschew obfuscatory hyperverbosity or prolixity.
8. Avoid pointless repetition, and don’t repeat yourself unnecessarily.
9. Always try to remembr t he/E extreme importance of being accurit; ne at, and carfful.
10. Don’t use no double negatives.
11. Don’t never use no triple negatives.
12. All generalizations are bad.
13. Take care that your verb and subject is in agreement.
14. A preposition is a bad thing to end a sentence with.
15. Don’t use commas, which aren’t necessary.
16. “Avoid overuse of ‘quotation’ marks.”
17. Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.
18. And don’t start a sentence with a conjunction.
19. Reserve the apostrophe for it’s proper use and omit it when its not necessary.
20. Avoid run-on sentences they are hard to read.
21. Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.
22. Never use that totally cool, radically groovy out-of-date slang.
23. Avoid those long sentences that just go on, and on, they never stop, they just keep rambling, and you really wish the person would just shut up, but no, they just keep on going, they’re worse than the Energizer Bunny, they babble incessantly, and these sentences, they just never stop.

Good writing!

Writing to Intimidate (or Academia, Here I Come!)

I had a professor during my teacher education days who loved to use many obscure words (I really do mean many) in very long sentences, then summarize what he just said by saying “…in other words,” and then use about five or six (simple) words to summarize.  Now, I realize that he was likely trying to increase our vocabulary by adding context to unfamiliar words, but I couldn’t help but think, “couldn’t you just use the other words?”

Although I believe the vast majority of professors really do have the best interest of their students in mind, I do believe there are some academic bullies out there as well.

 

The cartoon below seems to capture my thinking:

Enjoy!

The World’s Largest Book (at 5×7 feet)

The book is entitled, Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Last Himalayan Kingdom and weighs 133 pounds and is more than 5 x 7 feet. It is the largest published book in the world – and can be yours.  Each copy is printed on demand, uses a roll of paper longer than a football field, over a gallon of ink and takes 24 hours to print.  The 114 pages of photos feature life-sized (or bigger) people.

http://www.2spare.com/item_94351.aspx

More information here.

It is currently for sale on Amazon at $30,000.  The purchase price is a donation to Friendly Planet . Each copy is numbered and can include a personal dedication message.

Five For Friday – Lean On Me Videos

I like hearing and singing Lean on Me – it’s fun, it’s encouraging, it’s just a good time.  Here are five video versions of Lean on Me for your Friday enjoyment.

This is for Sanity Found (Happy 30th Birthday – yesterday), Leaving Evangeline’s friend Amy who undergoes surgery on Monday, and Amber (weathering her own storm, but still celebrating with friends).  Here’s to friends!

The Original by Bill Weathers (likely the best version):

Club Nouveau (probably my favorite version):

How about Steven Tyler of Aerosmith singing with a church choir (never thought I’d see it):

The African Children’s Choir (we had them sing at our high school when I was principal):

From the movie Lean on Me (1989)( I would have liked this to happen at my high school):

A Principal – Life in a Shark Tank

I haven’t written about my bucket list lately.

One series of goals that I set at 30 was to earn a teaching credential, a master’s degree and a doctorate.  So, at 33, I went back to school to begin work on my teaching credential.  I then reentered the workforce as a novice – again (this was my third career).

As a classroom teacher, one of my goals every day was to be the bright spot in each student’s day.  I thought if I could help 30 kids enjoy school, maybe they would enjoy learning.  The problem was that when I was busy earning my teaching credential, I thought I would be a fourth grade teacher.  Instead I spent my entire teaching career at middle schools.  So, my influence on 30 students extended to 180.

After several years of teaching, I began to think that maybe I could extend a positive influence to an entire school of students (or from 180 to 1,000).  So, I earned my administrative credential and M.A. and was promptly asked to begin working as a principal at an elementary school.  As I spent the summer preparing to take the helm of a school of about 500 students, I decided that I was going to learn each student’s name by October (I did) – it really wasn’t that hard.  We had a great time together and I believe we made great strides – in fact I just ran into one of those students and his parents this past week who still remembered me (he was a kindergartner my last year at the elementary school and is now in eighth grade) and they made some positive comments about my knowing all the kids at the school.

I had a wonderful time with elementary students, but eventually moved back to working with middle school students and again learned every student’s name (about 1,500 this time).

Middle school is a nice euphemism for shark tank.  Kids are going through so much as middle schoolers and we (adults) tend to marginalize the emotional, physical, social, intellectual, and moral changes they are experiencing (and ages 11-14 tend to be at their lowest point of self-esteem).  As a result, many (most) kids tend to pick on others in order to feel better about themselves (I’m generalizing due to time constraints).  I tried to make each day bearable for them and did whatever I could to make them feel that they had at least one advocate.  However, if they needed to be disciplined, they were (we expelled about 20 kids each year).

My favorite story to hate about middle school happened one year on the first day of school.  I watched a new sixth grader walk onto campus with his father.  The kid was wearing a sweater vest, tie, dress slacks, and dress shoes (he looked pretty sharp) and was holding hands with his father as he entered campus.  My first thought was “well, you don’t see that anymore, how nice.”  My second thought was, “he’s dead” (socially).  Sure enough, he only lasted two more days before checking out and going to a private school.

There were many great stories as well.  Like the students who earned a place in space camp in Huntsville, Alabama, or the students who created a welcome program to help assimilate new students into the school, or the students who went on to earn scholarships to universities or military institutions, or just the great kids who would come back to volunteer on their days off after moving on to high school. 

But the one student who couldn’t be himself – couldn’t just be a kid – still haunts me.

Anyway, I eventually moved on to become a principal of a high school (with some of my middle school kids) and now a university (educating teachers, counselors, and principals), always with the goal of making school more enjoyable for students, with the hope that they will enjoy learning.  Only now, instead of a goal to be the bright spot in the lives of 100 or 1,000 students, my goal is to create many bright spots who will enter classrooms and school all across Southern California, becoming a positive influence on (literally) millions.

Welcome to middle school!

Submitted for Your Approval – Our Conversations in August

Here is a photo and commentary summary of who I’ve been talking with during August – submitted for your approval (a nod to Rod Serling).  It’s something new I thought I’d try as a month ender.

Submitted for Your Approval

A Brit in California and Sanity Found talked about gas:

...self interest has been added." - A Brit in California

"Meditating while dogs fart." - Sanity Found

A Canadian in Norway had me thinking about the Olympics, while Airtightnoodle  set me to thinking about school starting, Mssc54 made me hungry during his trials at Outback, Sister Julie made me consider basketball playing nuns, and Unfinished Person made me not want cookies anymore – particularly at a funeral.

"Canadians...really nice do-gooders that say'eh'..." - A Canadian in Norway

"Just wanted to wish all the fellow teachers out there good luck..." - Airtightnoodle

"That may be a $40 iced-tea..." - Mssc54

"I'm talking some 3-on-3 basketball..." - Sister Julie

"...a man they knew pulled the cookie out of his pants pocket and gave it to him while he was at a funeral." - Unfinished Person

Trish at Hey Lady! Whatca Reading? and Chartoose at Bloody Hell, It’s a Book Barrage are trying to turn me into a prize pig as they give books away individually or by the box (although I never win).

"...anything for the shibbiest sis on the planet!" - Surfer Dude (Chartoose)

"I will assume you are a prize pig..." - Trish

Stacy  at Stacy’s Book Blog and Doug  at Doug Geivett’s Blog are helping me figure out some people.

"Who am I?" - Stacy

"Who is Sarah Palin?" - Doug

 Leisure Guy at Later On and Dave at Guy Named Dave have helped me take better care of myself.

"Leisure Guy's Guide to Gourmet Shaving" - Leisure Guy

"The 100 Thing Challenge..." - Dave

Leaving Evangeline and Amber Moon are traveling in the country this month.

"A relaxing, quiet time in the country is just what I need..." Leaving Evangeline

"The weather has been steamy..." - Amber Moon

I celebrated with some award winning blogs, like Books on the Nightstand, Literate Housewife, and My Friend Amy.

I know I’ve commented with others of you, but didn’t squeeze you in this time.  Some don’t have a blog (like Tanya).  It’s late, I’m tired, I’ll do this again sometime and be sure to cover everyone.  Thanks for the fun.