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Monday, 30 June 2008

Random Ramblings from My Life

    I am taking a break after mashing my brains over postmodernism for about 5 hours. I spent about the same amount of time on this last Friday and wasted a lot of time. I shall share my new knowledge with the rest of you. When researching a literary criticism DO NOT start with the academic experts. You'll only find your self looking up words like aniconic, mimesis, liminary, peripety, indeterminacy, and lots of other words that don't even exist because some jerk (otherwise known by ruder names I won't mention here) made them up and then didn't bother to explain himself. After lots of research I found I still had not the foggiest idea what this was and I suspected no one else did either. My last read of the day, was The Language of Contemporary Criticism Clarified. I opened the academic hardback to discover a lighthearted cartoon-like paper back cover. Those sneaky librarians made a criticism book for dummies look serious! After five minutes with the very readable William Homer, I understood postmodernism and had a new hero. So go for the dummies book, and then tackle the unreadable smart asses (sorry, but no other word will suffice).

    So today I began with E-notes and a more detailed read of my beloved Homer. Once I had a basic description down I could assimilate the more complicated stuff. I have encountered some variation of "postmodernism is difficult to define because no one agrees about it" in every article I have read.Very telling I think.

    I am finally reaching that point where I am getting excited about what I am doing. I understand and can even see through the fog enough to form my own opinions. I have also finally decided on a book to use as an example of postmodernism. I've chosen a Series of Unfortunate Events. (You were right Bekah, I did love the movie!) My presentation is coming together and I no longer worry about trying to fill up the time. I certainly won't be boring.

    I need to treat you with an embarrassing moment in the life of me: Grad student and seventh grade teacher. After church I was meeting people and as often happens forgetting their names as soon as their mouths closed after saying them. The pastor's wife walked up with her son and daughter. We talked for a bit about school, both were going to Covenant seminary in the fall. However I soon got confused as to their ages, and said the following:
"I would love to have a brother with me in grad school. So which one of you is older?"

    You guessed it. They were married, not siblings. I wanted to erase, rewind, delete, or otherwise sink through the floor. Open mouth and insert foot. Oh well, I think they are leaving town so I won't run into them again.

    I had a good time after church yesterday as I went out with two girls and the intern and his wife. She went to Covenant and we are really hitting it off. She was friends with all my roomies ' older siblings which is fun. The other girls are younger, but also very nice. So I have some Christian fellowship. I didn't know I needed it so much until I experienced it. Christian friendships are on a whole different level. Few of the people I am getting to know really know much about my faith yet. Most don't seem very Christian friendly so I've been trying not to slap them in the face with it. Or perhaps I'm just a coward. However, they know something because of where I'm living. It is interesting explaining my living situation. To the non Christian inviting a perfect stranger to live in your home is plain crazy.

    For those who may be interested, I saw Wall-E with a group of grad people. I truly enjoyed it, despite the fact that if not for the social aspect I may not have gone to a movie about robots. The first thirty to 45 mins have no words and it wasn't until about halfway through that this even occurred to me. The sound track, the majority of which is from Hello Dolly, was a stroke of pure genius. It also contained a stronger political message than any of the previous Pixar movies. I walked into Target afterward and felt guilty. Great movie! I recommend it highly.

Friday, 27 June 2008

Because they threaten

Xanga sent me an email about how I need to post on my blog or they will erase my account. I'm suddenly saddened/guilt ridden by my inability to even keep up a decent blog. Please let me know if you have any good photos of me. I don't and I'm tired of being a loser without a picture.

So I'm currently in Roanoke Virginia, and I might just start putting my Grad School sagas on here instead of email. I've got two huge, and I mean huge, projects that I need to get underway. One is a paper giving a post-modernist critic on a children's book. Oh, I didn't choose this literary criticism; I drew it out of a bag. When I asked the Dr. S for a better definition of what post-modernism is, he didn't help much.

Dr. S: It's kind of like this....., and kind of this...., but then you can't forget......, and remember.....

Me: So it's.....?

Dr.S: Well yes kind of, but not exactly. You might want to just do a google search.

Thank you Dr. S. Can you tell me why I am paying 6,000 for someone to tell me to go do a google search? So far Dr. S has not impressed me. I have a hard time doing an extensive paper and 20 min presentation on a method that I think sounds mostly like hogwash. Anyway, while I see what he is trying to do with the assignment, as a teacher I don't think it makes much sense. A smaller assignment maybe, but not a huge term paper. It seems artificial to me, because I have yet to read a paper which focuses only on one type of literary criticism. Such papers can hardly present a balanced view. Oh, the difference between being a teacher and being a student! If I get bored with an assignment as a teacher, I can just cut my losses and move on.

On the happy side of things, I put in my deposit for the 2009 UK trip! The second happy moment of the day came when someone asked me for directions to a certain building and I could tell them where it was!!
Well, I'm off to post-modernism.

Hey, the spell check just wanted to change post-modernism to postmortem. How appropriate.

Wednesday, 24 October 2007

Uppers and Downers

I never cease to be amazed by how expressive kids can be when given the chance and motivation. I’ve been giving my students regular writing prompts. Sometimes they hate them, “make mashed potatoes interesting” was not the most popular, but sometimes I hit on something. I can sense when this happens. The room becomes quiet with a certain intenseness as they scribble away. I simply have to brag on my kids and point out how much improvement I have seen since the beginning of the year. I am getting fewer and fewer blank looks from kids these days when I give them a prompt, because they are learning to take any topic and go with it. Anyway, these are with original spelling and sentence structure. Hope you enjoy them because they are pure middle school!

Little Uppers (three things you love)

      Wacking up in the morning. Really early in the morning and knowing that you have about five more hours to sleep. In the mornings when your hoping that you have more milk and opening the frige and seeing that you do when you open the frige. When your in the shower and your just about to put shampoo in your hair and you just got the last bit of it, then you know that your lucky.

      One is when I score a touch down. And the coach says go take a break. Two is when I do my Job on the football field and Go to the side line and coach yells That a boy. And when I Tackle The Running back. Is when I hear my name on the P.A. in the morning for the 100 time. And my friends all say Good Job.

      Mine is when a pizza is just pulled out of the oven & the cheese is real gooey & it’s steaming. If I’m waiting on my food I’ll sit outside & listen to all of the noises animals make. I also like when my daddy starts a bonfire & we jump over it. I don’t like the smell of it though.

Little Downers (three things you hate)

      One thing that gets me down is going to school. When my grandma gets me up she turns on the light, so I can’t go back to sleep. Another one is when I get soap in my eyes. I have to get out of the tub to get a towel and when I do it’s freezing cold. The last one is when your trying to read in the car. Everytime you hit a bump you loose your place and have to start over on the same page.

      Three downers that annoys me is one, when my brother drinks out of the mild jug. He puts it back in the fridge and expects other people to drink out of it. Two, when my brother loses the remote. It always takes forever to it, but he mostly hides it. Finally three, when I can’t get the toothpaste to squeze out. It is so annoying when it takes forever to get a dot of toothpaste on my toothbrush. Those are my three downers. Hope they don’t happen to you.
      My teeny-tiny downers are when I’m walking down the hall and a bugger falls out. Then I have to figure out how to get my bugger out of my nose. Another one of of my teeny-tiny downer is when I get a paper out. Its like a razor cutting skin. Immeditly blood squirts out and makes me sick. Finally my last teeny-tiny downer is when I smell bad. I notice I stink when I’m talking to a hot girl. That really bothers me a lot.

Wednesday, 11 July 2007

Orange Juice and Quick Sand

    I heard about a week ago that "Aunt Mildred" had died. Mildred was my grandmother's best friend. She lived her whole life in a small Vermont community. It's a little strange to our modern sensibilities to think of someone living in the same house where her parents and grandparents lived and died. She never married and so she was kind of adopted into my grandmother's family.
    There is really only one way to say it. Mildred was a character. She was a terror behind the wheel; I mean the kind of terror that always gets lost, backs into things, and absentmindedly runs red lights. These driving abilities are legendary in my family as she was always, even in her youth, just as bad. I remember the annual Christmas call from Mildred saying she didn't know where she was. We have lived, as my relatives have, in the same house for more than ten years.
    A few times my sisters and cousins drove down to see her on our vacations. We'd take her out for lunch, and we would be treated to the last hundred years of gossip. This is no exaggeration, as she jumped generations from sentence to sentence. After a few minutes, I never really knew whether she was speaking in the present or fifty years in the past. These people were all just as alive to her! Likely as not she would then point out, in a not so quiet whisper, the rich and important person at the next table. Aunt Mildred was incredibly deaf, but thanks to having grown up with deaf from birth parents she could read lips like no other.
    When my whole family visited we always ended up at Friendly's (cheap Northern family style). My dad always thought it was her favorite. Eventually I realized that she didn't want to make us spend a lot of money. She didn't have much to give, but she remembered all eleven of her friend's grandchildren in her will.
    The land behind her house fascinated me because of a spring and a lot of honest to goodness quick sand. To get to the thrillingly dangerous quick sand, you walked through a field of mint. Ever wonder what happens when mint has its own way for a decade? She would also always show us the hooked rug that ran up and down the staircase.
    I could never remember just how old she was, because on this topic she remained uncharacteristically silent. I think she was somewhere around 80 for about 20 years. All this to say, it's odd to think of the fractured memories that remain when someone dies. It isn't always what you think, but sometimes they sum up that person's character better than the most detailed and sterile of obituaries.
    I was reminded of this when I heard of the death of another man who I knew growing up. He would teach classes for the staff at the Bible Camp I went to as a staff brat, then camper, and eventually as staff. Three things stick out in my childhood memories about him. He was a gentleman through and through. He always mixed and poured the orange juice in the mornings. He truly loved his wife. I didn't realize until I was sitting in a Bible class at Covenant that he was a well known theologian. When it comes down to though, I wonder whether he would rather be known for what the child saw.
Just a thought for you.