Another lazy day. Last night, I got hung up on the dancing prisoners. After watching the videos, I did an Internet search to learn more about them. I even tried to post the web link, but my lack of techknowledge came back. The web link just wouldn't set on the page, so I gave up. Long story short, the dancing was done as a way to promote exercise. And yes, at first the prisoners were reluctant to dance, but (according the Yahoo News page) they were persuaded the dance. I am not sure what that meant. Anyway, my plan for an 11:00pm bedtime, became a 1:00am bedtime. As a result, I was in my lazy mode this morning.

I got out of bed about 9am. I immediately got online with the plan of being finished about 1:00pm, but once I started procrastinating, it was all over. I was wasting time for about 2 hours, when I finally decided to eat breakfast. Now, it is about 11:30am. I ate a couple of bowls of cold cereal, and...I went back to bed. I got out of bed about 3:30pm.

I decided that I would eat lunch before doing a couple of online lessons. I had the last leftover pork chop, a couple of slices of wheat bread, and about a quart of orange juice. I got online, and....I started procrastinating again. I was looking at movie trailers. I meant to see Spiderman 3, but I waited too late, so now I'll have to wait until it comes out on DVD. I also watched all of the Transformers' movie trailers (about 15 to 20 minutes).

I finally got to my online lessons. I finished about 7:45pm. The lesson was about the differences between great teachers and ineffectual teachers. It was interesting. It made the almost 2 hours fly by. I decided to take a break from the computer, so I walked up the hill -- one of these days, I will take a photo so that you can see what the "hill" looks like. I am not exaggerating think of a 45 degree angle.

I returned about 8pm. Oh, and I checked my mailbox. My completion certificate for the technology class arrived. To be honest, I was not very impressed with the look of the certificate, but it was still very nice to see. Having a physical reward is nice, no matter how cheap it looks.

Well, having that certificate put me in a good mood. I was now motivated to do another online lesson. I printed out the objectives. I read the objectives. I had my notebook ready for taking notes. I did the pretest questions, and I started the video lesson....The guy talked about the same things he mentioned in Part 1 (there are five parts to this lesson [but 20 lessons in total, plus a midterm and final questions to answer]). The camera angle was different, his clothes were different, but he was saying the exact same things he had said in Part 1. I decided to speed up the video. I finished the 90 minutes presentation in about 30 minutes. Since I managed to finish the second lesson at about 8:45pm, I decided to do another lesson. And....

The guy was repeating himself again. But this time, he kept asking the audience to tell him if he was repeating himself. I thought it was a bit strange for a professor doing a workshop on "great teachers" kept repeating himself, and not knowing what he covered in class. Shouldn't the lecturer know. I can understand it happening at the beginning of the lecture, but for the entire 90 minutes to be basically repeated twice, just seemed a bit strange. I didn't see it as a total waste of time, repetition does have its benefits. And the third time was not totally repeated, but with a title like "Great Teachers" I was expecting a bit more.

Anyway, I finished about 10pm. I have two more 90 minute lessons for this online course. Then there is the midterm question section and the Final question section, then I will be finished this course. Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy!
Well, it is time to end this. Since it is late, I am not sure what I will eat before calling it a night. Oh, a few things before I go.

Since I have been focused on my online course, I have not downloaded an IM (Instant Messenger) program. Just for those wondering why they haven't seen me online.

Harry Potter. While procrastinating online. I read the entire synopsis of the final book. Yep, the one that is in my hall closet that I was soo excited to received. I did an Internet search to find out what happened. And one website was very, very through. Now, the eagerness and excitement has dissipated. Now, I'll probably wait awhile before I read it. I don't think I've mentioned this, but I have a bad habit of jumping to the end of a book to find out how the story ends. I haven't done it with the last couple of books I've read, so I hope it is something I've outgrown (or am out growing).

Staples. In the blog entry from Thursday, I'd mentioned that I went to Staples, but I forgot to mention what I bought. Actually, I'm not sure at this moment of everything I bought, but I do remember a couple:

* 2 desk organizers (one for the bedroom and one for the living room. I decided that the card table in the bedroom will be my bill-paying personal workspace. The card table in the living room would be my schoolwork space table.
* PC TUTOR - Learn Windows Vista and Office I really want to integrate my computer into my lesson planning, assessment, and instruction.
* Typing Instructor Deluxe I was planning on getting Mavis Beacon (the one with the African-American lady on the cover), but this one has games that might motivate me to stick with improving my typing skills. Hopefully, I will be able to finish my Masters (starting in the Spring), I know I will be having pages of papers to type.

Well, I think that's it for now.


Post Date - Saturday, August 4, 2007 11:31pm

Not bad. I just finished a couple of my online classes (a total of 4 hours here in front of the computer). The last lesson was about teaching gifted students (part 1). I have to say that lesson was fairly interesting. When the lesson is interesting, I don't mind sitting and listening. I still did not manage to start at 6am. I did manage to wake up at 5:20am, but since I still felt tired (and I did not really have any place to go), I went back to sleep.

Yesterday, I really was not in a study mode. I did not start my online lesson until about 3pm. I finished about 7pm. I realized that I have not really been taking care of myself these last couple of weeks, so I forced my self to cook some fish for dinner. It was prepared frozen fillet fish, that I only needed to put in the oven for about 20 minutes. 20 minutes later, I was eating fish, green beans, and microwabable rice. I started to watch Austin Powers - Goldmember, but I already saw it, so I decided to watch one of the dozon or so DVDs that are just piling up. I watched "Spirited Away" by Hayao Miyazaki, I enjoyed the movie very much. The artwork was very nice. From time to time, it was like looking at a moving painting. Miyazaki is known for his attention to details.

Well, I think that is about it. I really need to get up out of this chair, the aches and pains from being seditary for days on end are returning, so I need to do something physical today. Hopefully, I will be able to motivate myself to get on my rowing machine. I also would like to do another lesson for my online lesson course. If I do 3 lessons per day, I could be finish by next week.

It is lunchtime now. I think I will have some sardines over a cup of microwable rice. I also need a shower.

Post Date - Saturday, July 28, 2007 1:01pm

A lazy day. Today, I finally started my online class. I sat for about 2 hours listening to a lecture about using games to teach students. I also downloaded my legal copy (from Amazon.com) of Microsoft Word. So how was it. It took me about 3 or 4 minutes to find the margin rulers that used to be automatic. My Tool Bar is also too busy, as well as too many messages that seem to pop up after almost each key stroke.

Well, I'm tired, so I am going to cut this short. I was at my computer for most of the day. Since I ate breakfast around 11pm, I did not eat lunch. UPS delivered my Amazon order. I bought a THERMOS-vacuum insulated bottle with a pump. It is suppose to keep cold drinks cold for 24 hours, and hot drinks hot for 12. they seemed to be everywhere in Japan. I've been telling myself that I would be drinking more hot green tea -- yes, they do drink hot green tea in Japan during the summer. Oh, and without sugar! Having gotten used to drinking green tea without sugar, coming here and having American green tea, it was like drinking sugar water. Anyway, I have not been drinking green tea lately. Yes, I've been too lazy to microwave a mug of water.

I also bought another DVD. This one is Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki. I actually watched this movie in Japan in Japanese (even though I didn't understand a word of Japanese). While browsing on Amazon, the idea that it might be available. I bought it on an impulse. But then, you probably already knew that.

Another day of no exercising. Tomorrow, I am going to try to get up about 6am to do a double online lecture. That means my day would still start about the same time as it has for the last couple of weeks. Also, it would mean that I would be finished my online class in about 6 days, and I would be finish before my other class starts.

Well, that is about it. I'd better call it a night. This time (unlike last night), I won't eat a half gallon of sherbet.

206.8lbs.

Post Date - Wednesday, July 25, 2007 11:39pm.