Thursday, May 29, 2008

Is that a fact?

Does a book really need to tell the story of a change coming about in a character?

I mean, really.......

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Moderate to midrange.

Hello.

This evening I helped Lesley sneak a camera into Hard Rock Live and the Kids in the Hall live performance we were attending, this against the wishes of the establishment who instructed her that she was not allowed in the venue with a camera in her purse and would need to dispose of it or check it for $3.00. It wasn't to take pictures, this little fisheye camera with no film, more like an purse-normal oversight. So, I went in, walked down a partition, had her slip the camera over the wall into my jacket hood, and back in. As I walked by the security guard, he asked me to empty my pockets (again), and checked my jacket pockets. Not the hood.

I feel a little guilty, but they were being unreasonable. The camera didn't even have film in it. Ridiculous.

Last night I attended a reading at Infusion Tea in College park. Reading were the writers Lisa Pasold, Dottie Horn, and Illyse Kusnetz (a poet, professor, and friend).

I read, later, as part of the "open mic" section. People liked my stuff, I think. The organizer asked me to come back as a featured writer on June 4th, and I said yes, of course. I'll have 25 minutes to read my work in (as opposed to the 5 allotted for the open-mic readers).

Hopefully people can come out, though recently I have sensed a bit that my "writing" has worn a little on my friends. It is difficult to face that fact, but some folks just can't be supportive. Perhaps it isn't in their nature, and I'm okay with that because I have to be because that's just how it works.

Lesley's and my anniversary is coming up.

Congrats Man Utd on the double - prem and champions league - hell of a game!

Sunday, May 11, 2008

merry mum's day

today is a fine day to thank your mom for giving birth to you. You were an awful rotten brat, after all. Call her now.

We went to an awful tourist trap called Dinosaur World. It featured giant dinosaur sculptures of questionable accuracy. It also featured a small staff that didn't pay attention to the visitors enough to notice that we were crossing the ropes and taking pictures with the dinosaurs (notably, me punching one). Maybe I'll post pictures later. It was silly, certainly. We also had dinner at Columbia restaurant in Ybor, this all for Lesley's birthday.

Tampa reminds me so much of a transplanted northern town. I fully expect to see highway signs directing me to Indianapolis, IN or Erie, PA instead of Ocala and Orlando and Miami. Why do I get this feeling? Maybe because of the way the highway is designed.

School is very taxing this semester and is causing me to evaluate how my time is being spent. I'd love to go to school full time and devote all of my efforts to learning. Just think what i could accomplish with that much time... Like two more things a day. Hehe.

Congratulations Manchester United, prem champs 07/08.

Friday, May 02, 2008

Teacher.

Today I have encountered the following awesomethings (yes, that's a word - I just made it up):

1.) Student's voting for the best student project - one student drew a... "John Thomas" and "Balls" as their score. I made an announcement that whoever drew the dick had clearly voted for their opinion not mattering, and the class thanks them for it.

2.) Student sent an email from an ambiguous AOL account asking "hey can you give me my grade? Thx" - no name, no id, no information about who they are. I noted that, yes, I could give them their grade... if I had any flippin' clue who they were. They could, perhaps, be a 70 year old woman in Miami who is very confused. They could be a Martian spy. They could be a student from my class. Also, they spelled "Wedding" wrong - "weding" - nice! I hope they manage to pop out a kid soon so their kid can be awesome, too.

3.) A student that just HAS to get a B in the class to be able to move on to the next degree program (by maintaining a decent GPA). As usual, I have to calculate his grade to 8 decimal places and determine what exactly he needs, and if he fails to achieve I get to be the one to be begged for makeup work (not 8 classes before me that he got D's and F's in, no, he begs for points from the teacher of the class he got a high C in simply because it's the last one!), and if he succeeds, I will never hear from him again because I'm like toilet paper that way. No thanks, just flush.

So, yes, as you can clearly see, I'm very satisfied with being a teacher at this particular institution at this particular moment. Go me.