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| Saturday, November 22nd, 2008 |
laura47
|
4:53a |
twitter for today I twitter! twitter with me! I try to make my tweets accessible to people who will read them on LJ. Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter |
dpolicar
|
2:46a |
So, this doesn't really count as a recovery milestone, exactly, but I touched my toes today.
I haven't been able to do that since... er... quite possibly ever. Certainly since high school.
I guess those hamstring stretches are actually accomplishing something.
Who knew? |
| Friday, November 21st, 2008 |
hauntmeister
|
4:44p |
Dealing with two "won't dos"
During my internship at BAA, my special ed mentor made a special point of distinguising the "can't-do" students from the "won't-do" students. The can't-dos had some actual sort of limit, physical or mental, which prevented them from the school work. The won't-dos were completely capable of doing it, but for some reason of their own, refused to do it.
I've been dealing with two won't-dos this week. One, "Welton", a senior, is repeating Algebra 2. He failed first quarter, but turned in just barely enough make-up work, on the last possible day of our two-week grace period, to get himself to passing (and qualify for the basketball team). The only time he really does work is second quarter, to maintain his elibiility for the team. Otherwise, it's zeros all the way, and he's on track to fail senior year...of his own choice.
The other, a repeating freshman, was escorted out the door this morning by two school police. This was "Bison", who I mentioned a couple weeks ago, tremendously disruptive and full of himself. Ironically, he had spent an hour-and-a-half with me one-on-one after school yesterday, completely focused, making up one of his three missing lab reports for robotics. His family was moving to a different city, and he needed to get his GPA up to 0.9 (out of 4.0(!)) to qualify for the basketball team in New City. He'd been able to do the work all along, but chose to roam the halls and play computer games on other students' laptops instead. And today, his last day in the school, he apparently tried to goad a bunch of other students into walking out of class ... leading to his early, enforced, departure from the school.
I guess my point here, if there is one, is that school sports can act as a powerful incentive for students ... and that demanding minimum GPAs for participation can actually coax reluctant students to apply themselves, at least a little.
(But really, I mean .... he needed to get his GPA up to 0.9 out of 4?! Jeez) |
greenlily
|
12:19p |
[memes. yay friday.] I'm back from the conference, but NB is not, so I can has memes in peace. ( Read more... ) Current Mood:  lazyCurrent Music: p.com: "For What It's Worth" (Buffalo Springfield) |
coraline
|
11:12a |
omgomgomgomgduck. everyone i know is cooking duck. and i just came across a recipe for slowcooker confit which i think i must make. possibly this weekend. duck. and potato rosti to use up all the potatoes from the farmshare. oh yes... ( recipe, for my archival reference ) |
dzm
|
10:07a |
Stupid bidding tricks Yesterday was the first day of the North American Bridge Championships in Boston, and so we played in the 0-299 duplicate evening game. We tied for second-to-bottom for north-south in section WW out of nine tables, with a 44.64% score. Looking at our score sheet and the hand records, I can see a couple of things that went wrong, but it also seems like a more fundamental problem is that we only declared four hands of the 24. I haven't gotten to spend enough time to look for a pattern. ( Boards 9 and 13, or adventures in 1NT ) |
ozarque
|
8:06a |
Politics; becoming Terrans... I have always claimed that the only thing that could possibly persuade humankind to take even a first step toward world government -- toward becoming Terrans -- was an actual and imminent invasion by extraterrestrials. I believed that, right down to my toenails. I was wrong. And I am one very astonished little old lady. If anyone had told me that in my lifetime any president of the United States -- much less a rabidly nationalistic Republican president of the United States who promotes a doctrine of pre-emptive war -- would preside over a meeting of financial poobahs from all over Planet Earth to try to set up global [i.e., Terran] financial regulations, I would have told them they were out of their minds. The very idea of "world government," of being "a citizen of the world," has -- all my life -- been enough to get people labeled as wild-eyed wicked traitorous anti-American radicals. Never mind the fact that business has gone global; to real Americans, the only way to manage that global economy was for every individual nation involved to have its very own regulations, even when they were mutually contradictory. And yet, in this very year, I have watched us take what looks like a first step away from that venerable tradition. And I have read story after story like this one: "World leaders agree on more financial regulation," [at http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/business/news/article_1443186.php ] Which says: " 'We are determined to enhance our cooperation and work together to restore global growth and achieve needed reforms in the world's financial systems,' said the Group of 20 (G20) leaders which includes the world's advanced economies as well as the leading emerging economies. Winding up the summit, Bush paid tribute to the efforts of the government chiefs in seeking to tackle the world financial crisis that has triggered global market turmoil." Who'd have thought it? It didn't take a fleet of Alpha Centaurian warships roaring toward us after all! Just a sufficiently grave threat to our pocketbooks. You cannot imagine how much this amazes me. ================== Nonfiction online: "How Verbal Self-Defense Works" at http://people.howstuffworks.com/vsd.htm ; "Why Are Old Women Older Than Old Men And How Can We Fix That?" at http://www.seniorwomen.com/articles/articlesElginOld.html ; Religious Language Newsletter archive at http://www.forlovingkindness.org ; Fiction online: "We Have Always Spoken Panglish" at http://www.sfwa.org/members/elgin/Story-Panglish.html ; "What The EPA Don't Know Won't Hurt Them" at http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/epa.htm ; "Weather Bulletin" at http://www.sfwa.org/members/elgin/Weather.html ; "A Quorum Of Grandmothers" at http://www.sfwa.org/members/elgin/QuorumOfGrandmothers.html ; The Communipaths at http://www.jackiepowers.com/SuzetteHadenElgin/TheCommunipaths.html . More stuff at http://www.sfwa.org/members/elgin/SiteMap.html ; LiveJournal blog index at http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=ozarque ; Art Gallery at http://www.bysuzettehadenelgin.com . |
laura47
|
5:02a |
twitter for today I twitter! twitter with me! I try to make my tweets accessible to people who will read them on LJ. Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter |
| Thursday, November 20th, 2008 |
bluesnapdragon
|
11:37p |
daily mass
for much of my adult life, i've said that i *would* go to daily mass, if only it were practical. (it's not *that* far-fetched... i did, one semester in college, go to tuesday noon mass regularly, and it was *so good* for me.) but my workday starts too early, no church near my school, etc. i've even periodically pored over masstimes.org, trying to find one i could go to.
well. i just now realized that the church 5 blocks from my school has weekday mass at 6:30 am -- plenty of time for me to get to school on time. oh, and at 5:30 pm -- even more manageable to get to. oh, and in case that doesn't work, there's liturgy of the hours at 7:15 am and evening prayer at 5pm.
so... am i going to find another excuse?
|
| Friday, November 21st, 2008 |
jbsegal
|
1:52a |
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coraline
|
12:20a |
#33: brass section
#34: trumpet
#35: violin |
| Thursday, November 20th, 2008 |
nacht_musik
|
11:41p |
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fclbrokle
|
10:23p |
Bidding on Vouchers, or Maybe a Little More Efficiency Will Help Those Struggling Airlines
When checking in online for Northwest Airlines, I discovered that when a flight is oversold they now allow you to bid on the value of a voucher in exchange for taking an alternate flight. It's very clever, and while it certainly does result in a lower value for the consumer, it's a good move on their part. Also quite cute. The problem is that the value of the voucher I'm willing to accept is seriously dependent on what flight I'm put on in exchange --- I'd be willing to take a flight later the same day quite cheaply, but not one that's two days later in a busy holiday season! |
laura47
|
10:31p |
Lost Promo Music Video: Woah.  |
coraline
|
9:57p |
odd moments from today: 1. coworker (known for odd and inappropriate pronouncements, particularly to women) approaches me at the badge turnstiles, tells me "you're so cultured," in tones of someone bestowing a great compliment, and continues on his way. 2. "rancid? no way, next you're going to tell me you like the band prodigy! no wait, i mean progeny. wait, wait, it was something like progeny... offspring! next you're going to tell me you like offspring!" 3. ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) lyonesse: quick, off the top of your head, what should i call my equestrian business? i need a domain name. me, sleep-deprived and punchy: omgponies.com? (.com turned out to be taken, so now she has .org. i am v. amused.) |
ocschwar
|
5:30p |
|
ocschwar
|
4:50p |
For $10K, you and a loved one can go on a Mediterenean 12 day "investor's cruise" with Steve Forbes.
The man clearly has never read Agatha Christie. |
bluesnapdragon
|
8:05a |
holiday gifts i honestly don't know what i want for christmas. i don't mean that i don't know which toy i want. i mean, i don't even know what kind of category of thing i want for christmas. here's what i know: i do want *something* for christmas. i like the concept of gift-giving. i like the feeling of getting something and i like the feeling of giving something. i don't want to lose that. (one year my then-boyfriend and i agreed that we wouldn't get each other anything, which was good for my wallet, but i felt like we missed out on a certain kind of bonding.) that said, in principle i'm opposed to (a) the consumer spirit of the season, and (b) the idea of getting/giving something that will just take up space. these are some things i could want, along with the upsides + downsides: - a goat in a third-world country (or equivalent). upside: clearly a net positive benefit for the world. downside: it's a very dollar-amount-focused gift. and i don't get anything to play with on christmas morning.
- something i was going to get myself anyway (like an electric mixer). upside: doesn't add to the consumer economy (any more than i would have. downside: i have to ask for it specifically, which makes it feel less personal and less likely that i'll remember who got it for me.
- something i want but wouldn't splurge on myself (like an expensive board game, or a magazine subscription). upside: it's something i want, and it'll always feel like a gift because i would never haver bought it myself. downside: it's a way to add to my consumption, footprint, etc.
- something handmade (like a blanket or a food item). upside: it's very personal and gift-like. downside: it would be very demanding of me to expect someone to make me something for christmas.
this is kind of a silly discussion, because there are really only about 5 people who are likely to give me any kind of present, and 4 of them are members of my familly, and i know which categories their gifts will fall in (because they always do). but i guess i was just trying to approach my gift-giving by thinking about what i would want and discovering that really, i didn't know. Current Mood:  awakeCurrent Music: she left the suds in the bucket and the clothes hanging out on the line... |
astra_nomer
|
10:06a |
I call upon the internets! I am looking for a piece of music, a song that I sang back in elementary school chorus. I can remember practically the whole thing, but I'm dying to have a copy of the sheet music. The chorus goes something like this: May your days and nights be a feast of lights
the eternal flame may it glow in you
and the holy one may he know in you only love.
May the light of peace shine and never cease
and the glow of wisdom illume in you
May you never hate, though it's human to
May you know love. Google only turns up queries just like this one. Can anybody out there help? |
ozarque
|
8:16a |
Recommended link; eldercare and other caregiving... My thanks to journeyrose for telling me (in a comment) about the website at http://www.lotsahelpinghands.com , which offers a way to coordinate caregiving online, for free. I wanted to be sure that those of you who don't have time to read all the comments know about it. |
ozarque
|
7:38a |
Personal note; thank you...
Thank you for all the birthday wishes! I'm surrounded by fancy birthday wishes! You are kind and good and thoughtful, and I'm grateful.
As for those wishes being belated, that's my fault, not yours. I didn't put my birthdate on my profile page, thinking that that way I'd save you the trouble of sending me Happy Birthday notes every year -- and then I wiped out the whole effect of that with a post saying that my trip to the city Tuesday was for my birthday! I forgot all about saving you trouble. [Demonstrating clearly that I'm not a bit wiser for being 72.]
Thank you. |
laura47
|
4:46a |
twitter for today I twitter! twitter with me! I try to make my tweets accessible to people who will read them on LJ. Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter |
rivenwanderer
|
2:40a |
Couple quick updates
(1) New job seems to be going pretty well--I am definitely still in the getting-up-to-speed process with the actual stuff I'm working on, but I like my coworkers so far :)
(2) I signed up for Intercon in the spring! I've never done larps at a con before, but I figure there's a first time for everything. I'm registered for: Intercon Zi; Muppet Purgatory; Dreams of Peace, Dreams of War; Masquerade; and Time Travel Review Board. That's a lot of things! I hope I can handle them all. Susannah and I will both need rides, I should figure that out. |
| Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 |
crs
|
10:32p |
Is it just me, or... Does this story add credence to the Question 8 proponents' paranoid rantings about the kind of intrusions into private life that its failure would lead to? What are the details behind this lawsuit, anyone know? What's the argument they used to force this? |
jbsegal
|
5:36p |
Knitters! Free book! I have one copy of Knitting For Good, by Betsy Greer available for adoption to a good home, courtesy of my cow-orker at Craftster. If you're interested - and local, because I'll _never_ get around to mailing it to you - let me know. I'm not sure why, but I'm going to screen comments. Current Mood:  quixoticCurrent Music: Frith & Kaiser: "It Sings" - Friends & Enemies |
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tired