A Snowfall Kind of Love

We are having a pretty intense winter storm on the East Coast right now. And by right now I mean that there is an inch or so of snow on the ground already from the 2 hours of snowfall we've already gotten, that we are now in a sort of holding pattern as there is no precipitation of any kind currently, and that the worst of it is supposed to be this afternoon and evening.

And by worst of it, I mean best of it. :D

School was cancelled this morning, which is both a blessing and a curse. I was at school last night til almost 9 working technology for senior project presentations so not having to teach today is nice. I also really hurt my finger by getting it caught in the railing on the stairs at school and pulling really far out of place. And my head hurts. Thus, blessing. But we will have to make this day up, which means they will probably take a teacher work day away from us in February or March, when we have very few days off and the months just longer and longer.

OMG I just realized that since school was cancelled today, it is now officially the start of Winter Break!!!! YESSSSS! You know, if I were still in college I would probably already be a little drunk and I would definitely be out sledding on stolen cafeteria trays.

There are pictures in one of my many photo albums that would prove this, but they are not digital. Instead, here are some pictures of the last time I got to play in the snow, which was in the Alps in Lucerne, Switzerland.

Yeah. It was a bit more awesome than our current storm will be.

Also, it is currently starting to snow again.

Top 5 Travesties

And now for something a little different. These are the top 5 things that really disappointed me/pissed me off/were completely uncalled for/should never have happened/etc. in 2009.

5. The fact that Sarah Palin still exists

I'm not really going to go into detail on this one except to say that I had hoped that, after the election and her resignation, she would just fall off the face of

the planet. Alas.

4. It took Michael Jackson dying to make news sites crash because of the number of people trying to access them

I definitely listen to NPR every morning, and I check CNN, BBC, and various other news sites, including local ones (gasp!) fairly often, usually every day when I get to school. I feel like people should want to know what's going on more. The fact that it was MJ's death that caused sites to be overloaded is kind of ridiculous. Sure, the guy was a pop legend in his time, but really what had he done recently besides behave strangely?

3. The cancellation of Pushing Daisies

I think about this almost every time I watch TV. Pushing Daisies was a really unique show; it was what I imagine would happen if Tim Burton directed a Dr. Seuss story on film. It was the story of a piemaker who could bring things back to life with one touch, but every time he did it for longer than 1 minute, something nearby of equal "value" (for lack of a better word) would be sacrificed. He used old fruit in his pies and brought them back to life. Talk about sustainable energy! :) The story revolved around him helping a private detective solve crimes. It was also very well acted (I hope to see Lee Pace in something again soon) and Kristin Chenowith actually won an Emmy for it after the fact. Anyway, it was c

ancelled too early and without a chance to really end the story, which made me sad.

2. Cancellation of Dollhouse

Ok. Joss Whedon is a genius. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was amazing, once it hit its stride. Whedon keeps getting screwed by Fox though. I think he needs to move on to another network. Dollhouse has a difficult premise to explain as it's kind of scientific jargon. Basically, people volunteer, for various reasons, for a program in which their brains are wiped of memory except what "imprint" a client requests. The "doll" is then sent out as whoever they think they are to do whatever the client requested. The overarching story is the attempts to "free" these dolls. I can almost guarantee that A) a better timeslot and B) running all the way through season 2, would have sealed its spot as a necessary Fox show. The loss of my weekly dose of Eliza Dushku and Tahmoh Penikett is devastating, honestly.

1. Failing to go see the Rancid/Rise Against/Billy Talent show in Myrtle Beach

Ugh. This wouldn't hurt so much if I could just remember WHY I didn't go. In the meantime, it's possible that, after finally seeing Social Distortion, Rancid is my new if-I-don't-get-to-see-them-in-my-lifetime-I-might-die band. Crap and a half.

Honorable Mention:

Failing to see No Doubt in Charlotte: I DO remember why I didn't go to this one, and it wasn't worth it.

I need to start blogging on stuff that I could put up pi

ctures of, but all my pictures are old because my camera is broken.

So to keep you occupied, here are a couple of my favorite pictures of my parents.

At Lita and Grandpa's in San Fran over the summer.

And at BrewGrass in September.

I'm On a Roll!

I felt like a good teacher AGAIN yesterday! Actually, I guess I should clarify; I felt like a good teacher at precisely 2:28. But that's a moment for sure!

English is a hard class because you have to teach grammar, writing, reading, and everything that comes with those things. Grammar is usually the hardest. I teach grammar every other day (alternating with vocabulary) in two week blocks. We work with one sentence for 5 days and do different work with that sentence each day. It's really very easy, but it's like pulling teeth with the students.

Basically, the first 4 days introduce or re-teach different grammar rules and on the 5th day we do practice, where they will apply any of the rules (very often comma rules) that we have learned thus far. The 5th day is usually god awful, so around halfway through the year I try to come up with ways to make it go faster or make it more fun. I tried three different things with my first three classes yesterday, and they didn't work.

Finally, what I did with my last class, which we completed at 2:28, went really well. I won't explain except to say that I felt like an idiot for not trying it a little earlier and that it basically consists of them teaching the class how they got the answer, and if it's wrong, the class helps them get the right answer. I felt like an idiot because I know better than anyone that the easiest way to learn something is to teach it. I'm the perfect exam

ple; I was terrible at grammar before I had to teach it. I could tell you where a comma went but not why. Now I know why. And I'm kind of crazy about making sure it's right.

Genius.

On a related note, I really hope I don't make too many mistakes in these posts. I don't usually read them again before I post them.

On another related note, this is from the plane Mom and I were on when we went to see Renee in Paris. I've still never figured out what it means.

Top 5 Movies

So up today is my Top 5 Movies of the year. I'll get past this pop culture BS eventually and get into lists that actually recall my year. This is much easier.

Actually that's a lie. This one was really hard. That's why I've had to include some honorable mentions at the bottom.

5. Up

Ok, so honestly, when has Disney/Pixar ever let the world down? Seriously. The Incredibles is one of my favorite movies ever. Wall-E? Genius. Toy Story? Epic genius. Oh my gosh, Finding Nemo. This list is just unbelievable. Up is no different. Yeah, the story is cliche, there is a talking dog, an oddly friendly wild bird, and intense sadness. But you end up in love with the characters, including the talking dog, who you will quote more often than any other character, and you will also laugh as hard as you cry. If you haven't seen it yet, do so. You will not regret it.

4. The Hangover

What made this movie so good was the cast. Good grief. Zach Galifinakis is a hilarious man. I'm pretty sure that if I ever met him in real life, he would be able to make me pee my pants. I can't remember Andy from The Office's real name, but following anyone's name with "from The Office" is a surefire sign that they are hilarious. Observe: Dwight from The Office. Stanley from The Office. Creed from The Office. And then there was the cute guy whose name is also escaping me. Anyway, this movie was intensely funny. The cast was great, but I'm sure the writing helped at least a little. There were some really, really smart lines.

3. Inglourious Basterds

Listen. Say what you will about Quentin Tarantino; the guy can write some movies. Sure, there was only one bloody fight scene in this one, making it his least bloody movie ever, but it was a really, really well done bloody fight scene, and it was hilarious to boot! What made this movie fantastic was the dialogue and the characters that Tarantino created and then mashed together without ever even putting on screen at the same time. Brad Pitt is given a chance to do some real acting for once, and he delivers. Ryan from The Office (hey! see #4) plays his minor role quite well. The chick who played Shoshanna was fantastic. I don't know what else to say. Sure, the movie is not in the least bit historically accurate. Who cares? If for no other reason than to see Brad Pitt sport a mountains-of-Tennessee accent and kill some Nazis, this was a great movie.

2. Star Trek

Oh. Wow. I have never seen a single episode of Star Trek. Nor have I seen any of the previous movies. Literally, I knew some of the characters names, but nothing about them. This did not matter, as it turns out. This movie was apparently a re-imagining, or something along those lines. I don't know how else to say that this movie was flat out awesome. I thought (coming from someone with no prior Star Trek experience at all) that the casting was spot on. That guy from Shaun of the Dead as Scotty? Genius! Do I have any idea if he was supposed to be that silly? None whatsoever. Zachary Quinto as Spock? Genius! That guy from Harold and Kumar as Sulu? Genius! Follow good cast with a smart script and storyline, as well as really solid action, and I think you've managed to properly re-imagine a franchise and gain a new fan while you're at it.

1. (500) Days of Summer

This movie flew under the radar but it's well worth seeing. Joseph Gordon Levitt is a revelation. My childhood crush on him in Third Rock from the Sun probably doesn't help, but he is in fact a really fantastic actor. This movie is real life and I left it feeling good about life in general, even though I was in a really bad place at the time. Yes, life may be awesome sometime and suck other times, but it will always work out for the best. This is being released on DVD soon. See it immediately.

Honorable Mentions

Fanboys: It kind of hurt to put Star Trek on that list over a movie about a group of Star Wars fans who cross the country to try to steal a copy of Episode I from Skywalker Ranch before it's released in theaters in 1999. In fact, I feel like a traitor. It was very funny and very poignant, with some superb cameos, including Bill Shatner. I began asking "Was Bill Shatner involved in this?" every time something went wrong in the spring.

Zombieland: Woody Harrelson needs to be in more movies where he gets to play a pseudo-crazy zombie killing machine. End of story. Also, more cameos by Bill Murray would make life happier. P.S. This movie was hilarious.

My Bloody Valentine 3D: I have to give a nod to this movie as it did scare the bejeezus out of me. It actually wasn't terrible, and it was really fun to watch because of the 3D. Here's my rendition of how this movie got made: Two guys write a lame script that's just like every other lame Hollywood horror/thriller movie. They take it a Hollywood exec who says "My Bloody Valentine is just like every other lame horror/thriller movie we've ever made. Sorry boys." So the guys go home dejected and smoke pot for three weeks straight. Then one of them looks up and says "I've got an idea." They take the same script back to the same exec who is confused and says "This is the same script." And the guys say "No. Now it's My Bloody Valentine 3D." The exec gasps and says "Oh my god. We've been making kids' movies 3D for ages. Why oh why haven't we done horror movies?!?"

Next up: My Top 5 Travesties

Top 5 Books

In beginning to think about this year in retrospect, I've decided to make some Top 5 lists to help me remember all the things I accomplished this year, as well as share some of my favorite moments with everyone.

I'm going to start with my Top 5 Books of the year. I actually did an amazing job of reading over last winter and then an even more amazing job over the summer and continuing into the school year. I could have put a lot more than just these 5 because I only finish books that I like. So there's something good about every book that I read. I ended up choosing these ones because they stood out in some way.

5. Persuasion by Jane Austen

This book made it on here almost solely because it's the first Jane Austen book I have made it all the way through. I think for some reason the topic and themes of this book appealed to me more than Austen's others. She's the original chick lit and that just doesn't do it for me very often (see #4). But this particular Austen takes it a bit backwards in that it asks for forgiveness in a relationship where love has always existed, rather than asking for love to exist in a relationship between two unlikely characters. I think it's possible that I was hoping for that in real life at the time, so it appealed to me. That said, I will be reading the other Austen books because I'm pretty sure my mom will disown me if I don't.

4. The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Again, normally, chick lit is not my thing. Renee digs the chick lit, and I stick more to...well I don't know what to call it really. I think I read more "literary" things, but that makes me sound like a snob. I just don't usually like chick lit. That's what I assumed this book was, and in a way, it is. But it's chick lit with a twist. Yeah, it's about love that transcends time and age, every girl's dream. Henry cannot control his existence in time and space. Claire can. They fall in love and make it work, though he appears and disappears at random times during her linear life, starting when she is very young. This in and of itself makes the book interesting to read. You actually have to pay attention to what is going on because of the dates and there are twists you don't see coming. It's way better than most chick lit books because it's so well thought out and put together.

3. The Kite Runner by Khaled Housseini

This is a book that I have been hearing good things about for years. No one ever told me what it was about and I just never picked it up. I'm glad no one ever told me what it was about because I probably wouldn't have read it for the depressing storyline. I would have been missing out, and was missing out for several years, if I had never read it. Housseini is an amazing writer. This story captures the fragility of the human spirit in astonishing ways. Yeah, it's depressing, but it's also intensely uplifting. The world around us exists, it's harsh, but we love each other, and we take care of each other, and we forgive each other. I finished this book in a matter of hours, then promptly picked up A Thousand Splendid Suns, his other book, without even intending to.

2. The Princess Bride by William Goldman

Obviously, I've been watching the movie version of this book for many, many years. I have been loving it just as long. I had no idea that it even was a book, and upon learning that it was, I was convinced that the book would be nowhere near as good as the film. How could a book get across the same tongue-in-cheek humor as a film? Well, I was wrong. This is a fantastic book. Goldman purports to have taken the original script by S. Morgenstern and abridged it in the manner that his grandfather read it to him when he was little. He adds his own commentary throughout. This serves as the basis for the film as well. This is, of course, is false. Goldman wrote all of it. Anyway, this book was just as great as the film.

1. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

What an amazing book! I had no idea! I have had a copy of this book, intending to read it, for almost 5 years and had never been able to bring myself to do it. I finally started it and got into it. At first, I wasn't that into it. In fact, throughout the vast majority of the book, I kept thinking "Well, this is good, but it's not great." Then I got to the end. HOLY CRAP! Anyway, it's the story of a third child (rare in the future for a family to be allowed to have a third child) named Ender who is one of the best military strategists ever. He goes to school and trains to be the commander of the army that hopes to save humanity. Wow. That's a really bad summary and does the book no justice whatsoever.

So there it is. My top 5 books of 2009. Please note this is not books published in 2009, but books I read in 2009.

P.S. I finished The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It was also depressing, but uplifting, kind of like The Kite Runner. I didn't think it was unbelievable or anything, but I definitely enjoyed it.

I Felt Like a Good Teacher Today

So. You may or may not know this about me, but I get seriously irritated when things aren't done in a logical or practical way. Ironically, I spend much of my time at school irritated not with the students, but with the powers that be. Usually it isn't anyone in particular but just a general thing.

Today was kind of cool though. I actually got my ideas across and was listened to by people in positions of power. You see, I used to think I was a good teacher. I may have been, but every year gets better in certain regards. This year, I'm really bad at patience with students, but I'm really good at keeping up with the workload. It's a trade; I don't think you can be good at everything all at once. Anyway, because this year I've been so comfortable with the workload, I've been trying to get more actively involved at school, in clubs and sports and stuff like that. I was sort of involved before, but not by own choice.

Anyway, the point of this is, I got more actively involved today and my head is still attached to my body. I volunteered to take on more responsibility within the Graduation Project Committee. I usually help with the technology aspect of Project Presentations (as a young teacher who is good with computers, helping with technology was kind of thrust upon me), but I heard something at school the other day that worried me, and as I am a huge proponent of the Graduation Project, I decided to take on more there in order to hopefully help bring logic to a huge school-wide program.

I also made a suggestion that I thought would help our meetings run more smoothly and I was met with enthusiasm, rather than anger like I was afraid of.

And now the part where I actually felt like a good teacher. My English I classes are through Act I of Romeo and Juliet, or most of the way through it anyway. We did a worksheet on Act I sc v (the party scene where Romeo and Juliet first meet and kiss). I felt like a good teacher because the worksheet I have for this scene is sheer genius. It's a table that breaks the scene into beats/rows and has 4 columns about each beat: the characters speaking, that character's attitude, a quote to support that attitude and sum up the main point of the beat, and the main point or the consequence this moment has to the action of the play. For each row, at least one of those last 3 columns is blank and the students have to fill it in.

This works really well because Act I sc v has a two big moments that have a big effect on the outcome of the play. Romeo and Juliet meet and fall in love, thus setting up the entire conflict. Tybalt recognizes Romeo at his party, hence wants to fight him/kill him, which he attempts to do but ends up killing Mercutio instead and then being killed by Romeo. This causes Romeo to be banned from Verona, which leads Juliet to fake her death, which Romeo does not know about...

You all probably know the story.
It's also a good sheet because it requires the students to both provide and interpret "textual evidence," a phrase that appears literally hundreds of times in my Standard Course of Study.

Anyway, the students did really well with this, even the ones who don't do that well in general. And I was patient with them! So I was good at two things at least today. They all actually seem to be really into the story, which makes me happy.

In honor of this, here's an old video from my trip to Italy over Spring Break this year. Haha do you think I should show them this video? They think I'm crazy already, so it probably wouldn't hurt much...



And also some pictures from around Verona...

At "Cassa di Giuletta." Please notice the statue of Juliet in the background. Guess which part of her body is touched the most.

Nice little market.

Ancient Roman ruins. Apparently Verona was a Roman hotspot. Who knew?

The world goes by so fast...

A Fresh Start

Recent events required me to detach myself from any previous records of my comings, goings, and doings. Here's to a new beginning.

I've moved into a house in West Asheville with Sarah So far it's going great. I of course brought Jack with me. :)

We had our first party a couple of weeks ago. It was an Ugly Sweater Party and it went quite well.

Sarah and me.

And my good friend Sam and Me. Sammy had a whole outfit. My horrible teacher sweater was quite fitting.

Other than that, nothing has been up. School is in and everything that entails is back of course. The difference this year so far has been that I FINALLY have far less planning to do and actually have time to read stuff FOR FUN! Incredible! I will try to keep this up to date with that as you all know how I love to share good books. Most recently I enjoyed The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and I am currently reading The Road.

I went to my first college football game a couple of weekends ago at App State in Boone. It was totally fun. There is an unfortunate lack of pictures, however...

Thanksgiving with La Familia was fantastic, though my sister, Renee was super missed. Actually, the funniest thing happened. We hit pretty late on Thursday night and we're all sitting around watching a movie and I realize I want a rum ball. Duh. It's November. Of course I want a rum ball, but Mom hides them. Renee is always the one who finds them. My brother, Zak and I hadn't even thought to look. Mom had to tell me where they were. It was totally disappointing.

And that's where I will stop for now. I think that about covers it anyway. :)