Friday, January 05, 2007

Segue? What's That?

Welcome to the most random and disjointed post EVER. Transitions are meaningless today. We’re all about quantity – just getting as much info out there as possible. It doesn’t matter that nothing I’m talking about relates to anything else I’m talking about.

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Did you notice the blogolicious makeover? No real reason for it, except a desire to look at something new for a while. The previous green was awfully bright, and I was ready for something a little more subdued, while sticking to the green color scheme. I’m pretty pleased with it – what do you think?

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I have a confession to make: I love countdown shows. All those stupid VH1 shows? “101 Biggest Celebrity Oops.” “50 Most Outrageous TV Moments.” Or on TVLand – “100 Greatest TV Quotes and Catch Phrases.” And of course, the classics of AFI: Heroes and Villains, Film Scores, Memorable Quotes (go Casablanca!), or Best Movies of All Time. I will shamelessly watch them over and over and over and over…

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Sometimes my kids catch me off-guard in their essays, when I’m reading innocently along and I find something that speaks to me so directly I wonder if they don’t know much more about my personal life than they let on. Yesterday, while grading papers, I read this:

“No one and nothing can force happiness or peace. To be at peace with one’s self, forgiveness need to be stablish. Forgiveness of pass mistakes are only given by you alone. If you comit something bad and someone gets hurt emotionaly or physicly and apologies are made and accepted, you still trouble by your mistake the forgiveness of other people does not give peace of mind but it helps you forgive yourself of your wrong doingings.”

Horrendous grammar and spelling aside, his thoughts aren’t bad. And probably what I need to hear these days.

Of course, in the very next essay, I read the most profound student sentence ever: “Nothing is just nothing, but something is everything.” Wow. Deep. No, wait - the most profound is still this one: “If you’re a hobo with no friends, I think of that as absolutely no success. But if you’re a friendly hobo, then that is success, but not much.”

Keep that in mind, y’all.

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Metablognition anyone? First of all, after my first Thursday Thirteen yesterday, I have to say that I really liked it! All the people are so nice and friendly, and it’s a good way to organize thoughts on a given subject. But apparently, Thursday Thirteen is not the only weekly meme out there. Some of you are probably thinking, “Duh!” But I didn’t realize. They aren’t all that great, but one in particular sounds good for me. Wordless Wednesday is basically the quickest and easiest meme ever: You put up a picture, title it, and… that’s all. No describing it, no discussing it. Just let the people admire it. I like this one. In fact, when school starts getting really busy, maybe it’ll be time to do this a few times a week. Half-photoblog, half-rambling? What do you guys think?

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Speaking of the ultimate time vacuum of my school, I started back at my high school this week, and my university classes start up next week. So I can’t promise the daily posts will be able to continue for much longer. Maybe they will – who knows? But if they do, you can expect they’ll be quicker posts, less substance, and probably more whiny. Or, like I said, maybe more photos and less text.

Along with my worries about time management with my own blog, however, comes a concern about the other blogs I read. I now have three full tabs of blogs on my personalized Google page. I’m beginning to get to the point where I struggle to read the posts every day. Is it time to cut out some of the blogs I read? Who appreciates my readership enough that I should keep reading? That is to say, who notices and appreciates my comments, the time I spend reading and thinking about the posts? Also, whose writing do I appreciate enough that I should keep reading, even if they completely ignore me as a reader? Who doesn’t even notice that I read AND isn’t very interesting? (Well, if I had any of those I wouldn’t be reading them in the first place.) I don’t want to have to give up my reading and commenting, but it’s very time-consuming, and I do need to prioritize school over blogs (sad though that is). We’ll see what happens.

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Still with me after all that disconnected babbling? Awesome!

Day 5 of SaBloBoMo: The Book of Questions by Gregory Stock

As long as we’ve had a totally random post anyway, how about some random questions? #142: “What, if anything, is too serious to be joked about?” #84: “Would you have one of your fingers surgically removed if it somehow guaranteed immunity from all major diseases?” #217: “If you were guaranteed honest responses to any three questions, who would you question and what would you ask?” And so on and so forth. It’s a fun book to read through and think about your own answers, but the book is really designed to learn more about other people. Ask your friends to learn their deepest secrets. Ask a family member to learn something totally new and surprising. Ask an acquaintance to decide if this person is someone in whose presence you should fear being alone. It’s a tremendously fun book to have around. Just for shiggles.

13 comments:

Big Sis said...

I used to run after school programs for "at-risk youth", and incorporated writing whenever I got a chance. I felt guilty getting so much personal pleasure out of their profound (and sometimes hilarious) statements.

Anonymous said...

Ahhhh! I use this book all the time in classes.

I also find it very useful to use on old friends, as well as new people (read: guys) I'm seeing. It's usually a very eye-opening discussion that follows one of those questions, and I love your choice today!

Anonymous said...

That *was* disjointed, but of course still made perfect sense. :)

I think I need that book - always a party starter, no doubt!

Your kids samples are great - I can't wait until I take the Year 5/6 kids this year, to see what they come up with.

LaLa said...

Those essays are BRILLIANT. Just what I needed to cheer me up.

I like the makeover, the text is much easier to read, the other one kinda made my retinas itch.

Anonymous said...

Makeover is indeed blogolicious. I really like the new look and feel of the page

I also love countdown shows! It's one of the great things about new years, because there are so many of them.

The quotes from your students are great. You should post those more often. When I was in high school, my friend's 4th grade brother wrote this gem: "I would rather live as a free man in a tent than a slave in a nice house. So let there be free men forever and no slaves." The logic? Impecable =)

Good luck with classes starting. Let me know if you have time (unlikely but possible) to meet up on campus at some point.

Segues are overrated!!

Dallas Blue said...

I had to make the decision to just cut some off my list at one point, because it got so huge and overwhelming. Now, I basically have a list that I read every day, every weekend, and then whenever I have gobs of spare time.

But alas, I am a geek.

Caffeinated Librarian said...

You'll find a balance with blog reading/commenting. You can't be everywhere or do everything...you just can't. Look at me - I didn't feel like reading or commenting hardly at all this past week with everything that's gone on with my family. So I'm just now getting around to doing the blog walking that I would normally be doing during the week. *shrug* It happens sometimes.

I don't know how Google does it, but if all else fails get Blogline so that you can at least see how many entries have been published from the folks you normally read so you know how much you have to catch up on.

Lara said...

jill - hey, i enjoy the profundity i sometimes find in their work. what i feel more guilty about is laughing at their horrendous mechanical errors. but if i didn't laugh, i'd probably cry, so i guess it's better this way. ;)

teacher jane - yeah, i've used this book for essay topics and discussion topics before. it's very useful. and yes, getting to know people better? so much easier with this book.

aly - yes, the book is a classic. you must buy it. let me know what your kids come up with!

lala - glad to hear i could help cheer you up! also glad i no longer make your retinas itch... :-P i'm pleased with the makeover also.

tali - your friend's brother does indeed have much wisdom for his young age. though i think i'd rather be the servant in the nice house. i don't like tents. :-P

sassy - yeah, i may need to pare down soon. we'll see. for now i'm surviving, but only because many of the blogs i read don't update daily. that makes it a bit easier.

CL - yeah, it's true, i know it. i will say that i'd missed you around here, but i definitely understood why you weren't making your usual rounds. am i even part of your "usual rounds"? if so, i'm honored, 'cause i imagine you already have a number in the normal blog walking route. i hope you've been feeling a bit better lately - i've been sending lots of good thoughts your way, as have many others, i'm sure. glad you're back. :)

Dee said...

I love that book! I bought it when I was in college and used it to spice up the conversation during a spring break road trip. It was fun for a while...until some of the people participating started arguing. I have also used it when I needed a little help with blog topics. I love the questions that really make you think.

Lara said...

dee - ooh, yeah, some of those questions can definitely spark arguments. especially among close friends or significant others, as they sometimes bring up very unpleasantly surprising things from the past. yipes! i never thought of looking in it for blog topics, but it seems so obvious now that you mention it! thanks for the idea! :)

Anonymous said...

Andiclaus and I call VH1 "VH100" because all they ever run are the top X of Y.

And we love it!

Teacher Anonymous said...

Hmm, I think I'd give up my pinky for immunity to major diseases, and perhaps even my middle or ring finger. I'm rather find of my thumb and pointer finger, though. It took us a long time to evolve that pincer grip.

Lara said...

bethiclaus - VH100 is sooo accurate. but yes, i also love them all. i'm most excited about the tvland countdown shows, 'cause i love classic tv.

teacher anon - yeah, i'm pretty sure i'd actually be willing to give up any one of my fingers, but probably not my thumb. but don't you just know that if you didn't do it, you'd be kicking yourself when you got cancer later. and if you did do it? sure enough a bus would mow you down within a week.

that's life. :-P