Social Network Video

I thought this was cute.

Random Thoughts

More Random Thoughts

* Thanksgiving
Okay. Since it was the day after schools closed for the Thanksgiving holiday, I did what I usually did, I slept most of the day away. I went to my foster father's place. He was asleep, and other than the conversation taking place while I was eating about which "faggots" in the neighborhood were dead or dying of the AIDS, my Thanksgiving dinner was okay. I avoided saying anything. After dinner, I stayed in the kitchen reading the newspaper and playing Tetris on my cell phone.

* I finished reading Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials(933 pages). When the "Golden Compass" movie came out, I thought those protesting the movie were just religious fanatics who had nothing to be angry about. But having read the "Materials" trilogy, I can now see why they were angry. I'm not a religious person, but if I was, I would be highly offended at the book. Since I'm not religious, I took the book as a fantasy read. But still,...

The images and ideas really, I mean really didn't put the church in a positive light. In the story God, was a senile old man, who met a somewhat gruesome end. One character decided to take it upon himself to kill god. Angels were weak easily longing for "human contact". I could go one, but I think you get the idea.

If you are going to take the story as a strict fantasy with no personal offense of the "religious angle", then you might like the story. However, the ending wasn't very good. I like happy endings. Although, the ending was pleasant, it wasn't happy. It was a kind of "for the good of the universe, you must make a sacrifice" -- not the payoff I was looking for.

* Thanksgiving Holiday
I had 3 days to be productive, but here it is Sunday evening and I am wasting time on the computer with nothing to show for a four day rest. Now you see why I haven't been blogging for a while now. Nothing to blog about. Sleep and stress, the cycle continues....


Completion Date - Sunday, November 30, 2008 4:28PM
Post Date - Sunday, March 15, 2009 1:48PM

Popcorn Hoax

A very interesting (if not scary) video. Popcorn being popped using cell phones.

It turns out to be a hoax. I got so excited that I posted the video here without doing any (online) research. About a 30 second search revealed not only the hoax, but how it was done. I was tempted to delete the video, but I think it is a good lesson learned. Normally, I don't like to forward what I receive without doing some kind of (online)research. I'll have to be more careful in the future.

On second thought, I am going to delete the video from this blog entry. Hopefully, no one reading this blog was taken in by the video due to me being a bit lazy about doing some varification before posting the video. If anyone was taken in by the video posted here, I do apologize.


Reposted - Sunday, March 15, 2009 1:46PM

Behind the scene Obama Slideshow

I haven't been in a blogging mood, but this slideshow helped to put me in the mood.



Post Date - Tuesday, November 11, 2008 8:37PM
Reposted - Sunday, March 15, 2009 1:44PM

Where In the World Is Matt?

The clip below is a bit old (by internet standards), but I thought it was interesting.




Post Date -
Completion Date - Sunday, October 26, 2008 12:45AM

Corona Park - Queens

Since my epal (Vpal) has been meeting at places closer to my home for our walks, I thought it was time to chosse a walking event that was closer to where he lived. I chose a walk through the park with the World's Fair symbol "The Unisphere". The walk was nice. Another epal was suppose to come with us, but his kids got sick at the last minute, he had to cancel.

I arrived at the meeting spot about 2:45PM, Vpal arrived about 10 minutes later. I was very surprised. Vpal was actually early instead of late.

The walk was okay, not bad, and not great, just nice. The weather may have helped with the walking. We basically walked in circles. There were only two interesting pictures. One picture was of the Unisphere and the other was of a statue Colossus I think. We started walking about 3PM and finished about 5:30PM. I used my train time to correct some students' papers, so I would have less to stress about.

Post Date -
Completion Date - Sunday, October 12, 2008 10:51PM

Van Courtland Park

Another wasted weekend. Yesterday, I slept the day away. I think I got out of bed about 5PM. I did managed to go food shopping ($80). I had takeout Chinese food and a pint of Haagen Daaz butter pecan. I told myself that I would rejoin the gym next week, and those foods would be the last junkfood I'll be eating in a while. I wonder how many times I've said that.

Today my plan was to do....forget the plans, by now you know I am a chronic planner, but a poor follow througher.

Today arrangements were made for a walk with Vpal (vegeterian epal[electronic pen pal]) throught Van Courtland Park. The meeting time was 3:30pm. I arrived about 3:00pm. Vpal arrived about 4pm. He got off at the wrong train station. He arrived a bit flustered. He had me worried for a minute looking flustered, stressed and repeating that he needed his medicine but wasn't going all the way home. After a few minutes, he calmed down. The walk started out a bit uncomfortable with Vpal explaining how his week did not go well. He explained his worsening medical and financial condition. Luckily, after a while Vpal started to act a bit more high spirited. Unfortunately, we had to end our walk at 5pm. I now try to stick firmly to 5pm as my stopping time. I anticipate about 2 hours of traveling time for walks that occur downtown Manhattan (or further). Since I felt bad about Vpal having to come up north to meet me, I offered a walk around a park near Shea Stadium. Unfortunately, Vpal doesn't trust buses because of one incident, so he will be traveling to downtown Brooklyn, then traveling north to Queens, then travel to the eastern edge of Queens.

Anyway, we walked back to the Metro-North station where I took the MN back home. At home, I did my laundry and cleaned my bedroom. Washing down the surfaces, sweeping the floor than mopping the floor. Now, I was about to do my homework sheet but instead I started this blog entry.

Post Date - Sunday, December 14, 2008 2:59AM
Completion Date - Sunday, October 5, 2008 10:16PM

Rosh Hashanah

Here in NYC, schools are closed for the Rosh Hashanah holiday. I'm not Jewish, but I like their holidays.

So did I make the most of my time off?

Regular readers (if there are any) know the answer to that question. I slept most of Tuesday away. I got up about 4pm. Today, I tried to be a bit productive, but I didn't accomplish much. I went to the teacher's supply store in Brooklyn. My plan was to see if they had any materials for teaching to Non-English speaking students. I have a girl who has only been in the country for about a couple of months. The catch? She can't read in her native language (Spanish). I ran out of things for her to copy. Since she can't read in Spanish, she of course can't read in English. I have to start at absolute zero with the girl. I got tired of watching her color and draw. Anyway, the teacher's store had materials for teaching Spanish (and French, and other languages), but it did not have materials for teaching English. It took me a while to figure out English is the language of instruction. So, if I wanted to teach English, I would have to start with the basics, or materials at a lower grade level. Anyway, with the plan of only buying a couple of books, in the end, I spent about $100 dollars.

After the teacher's store, I went to Wendy's restaurant. After that, I rode the train back to Manhattan. I went to visit my foster father, but before that, I stopped in Staples to buy a few more binders. Now that I have 30 students, I needed a few more binders. I like the idea of my students all having the same binders, so I bought about 25 a couple of years ago. But now with 30 students, I needed a few more.

Well, I better wrap this up. I need to prep for tomorrow.


Post Date - Saturday, December 6, 2008 10:52PM
Completion Date - Wednesday, October 1, 2008 9:08PM

My Birthday

Today is my birthday, I am now 40 years old. If there are any readers of this blog, I would appreciate it if you could post a brief happy birthday comment. Yes, an anonymous comment is okay. It would be nice to know how many readers read this blog. I'm just looking for an informal headcount, nothing more than that, so an anonymous comment is just a good as an identified posting.

So, how was my birthday?

It was a quiet uneventful day. I had a bath earlier today. I met Vpal to finish our walk up Broadway. We picked up where we left off. The meeting spot was 168th street and Broadway. I arrived about 3pm, Vpal arrived about 3:30pm. Once we started the walk, we took a detour into Staples. I needed to copy my students' personal narratives. Admin asked for the originals, but sometimes they are forgetful.

Anyway, after Staples, we continued to walk. I stopped briefly in a hardware store to buy a heavy duty extension cord(about $20) for my classroom mini refridgerator. We ended up finishing our walk in the Bronx at the Metro-North station.

I had a Healthy Choice meal for dinner. Just now, I ate the candy out of the gift bag I received yesterday. Yesterday went to the movie to see the "Burn After Reading" with a new social networking group. The group leader gave each new member a gift bag. I thought that was very nice. I really didn't like the movie, but I liked the group.

Well, I better go. Now that I'm 40, I better stop the procrastinating I've been doing and get my act together. I'm going to try rejoining the local Y on Wednesday, October 1st. And try once again for a new me, new beginning.


Post Date - September 28, 2008 8:13PM [My Birthday]

Burn After Reading

I slept most of the day away. I missed my MN train. I took a taxi to the subway station. The taxi driver was a bit talkative, but very nice (also very honest). He gave an honest estimate for the fee to the station, I suspect he was new on the job. He took out a book that gave distances and the fees to charge. I arrived about 7:15pm the meeting time was 7:30pm. I signed up for one of those social networking sites. It has groups all over the world. Basically, you type in an interest, and the site will provide a list of groups that meet with the same interests. The group I joined this evening was a movie/dinner group. The group meets for dinner than a movie. I signed up just to have a reason to get out of my apartment on the weekend.

Dinner
During dinner the host gave handmade gift bags for the members. I thought that was very nice. Other groups I've joined tended to be very informal, everyone shows up for the activity, the host doesn't usually put that kind of personal touch into the group. For dinner, I had linguine with spinach and shrimp. It was good.

The movie.
The group went to see "Burn After Reading". Although I did chuckle a few times, I didn't like the movie. And, I hated the ending. In the movie, nearly everyone was sleeping with another person. It was also violent at times, but the movie was a comedy. Since, many of the people in the theater was laughing hysterically, then I know it was me. I was just not getting it. After the movie. The other two went home -- One of the problems with the social network group are the people who are "no shows" and can't be bothered to to RSVP whether they will come or not. Of the 6 who posted that they would come, only two came. In total, there were three of us. After dinner, the other two went home, but I walked to the Waverly Diner for dessert.


Post Date - Sunday, November 30, 2008 4:45PM

Random Thoughts

* My school has started its afterschool program. Even though I am not interested in doing after school, my room will be used.
* Using my room will be two of the schools "coaches"; one has better classroom management than the other. Basically, my students will be wild with one and (relatively) quiet with the other.
* The Spanish girl who can't read or speak any English, I discovered can't read in Spanish.


Post Date - Thursday, November 27, 2008 10:44AM

Highlights

I haven't blogged in a while. Here are a couple of hightlights:

* More online shopping for for my classroom. I bought:
- a mini fridge for myself,
- 30 clipboards for my students,
- a couple of cases of Japanese green tea.

* Cafeteria lady asked to borrow $300 on Tuesday. I only had $200. Yes, she did pay it back promptly.

* I'm still leaving later and later from school. Yesterday 10pm was the latest -- still, with not much to show for my efforts.


Post Date - Thursday, November 27, 2008 10:37AM

Continuation of Our Broadway Walk

Not a very exciting walk. We basically walked through the lower income neigborhoods. There was nothing to take a picture of.

Weekend. Saturday, I did a couple of errands. I went to the bank, then I went to the post office. each was at opposite ends of my city. I took a train ride to the bank. A train ride back to Yonkers, then I bus ride to the post office. by the time I returned home, I was tired. After a nap, I graded papers.


Post Date - Thursday, November 27, 2008 10:32AM
Completion Date - Monday, September 15, 2008 2:58PM

Coney Island Walk - Slideshow

Below is a slideshow of photos I took on the Coney Island walk I mentioned in a previous blog entry. There wasn't much to see, and the weather wasn't great for walking.

At this time, Coney Island is in the news because it will probably be closed down.





Post Date - Friday, September 12, 2008 5:28AM

Errand and Walk Day

I'll have to keep this brief. It is almost midnight. I would like to be in bed by then.

Today turned out to be better than I thought it would be. Those of you regular readers know, I tend to do only one thing per day. Today I was up about 9:30AM. I showered. I did my laundry for the week, including hanging up my work clothes. I also walked to the supermarket to do my grocery shopping ($139). I also stopped at the imitation Five and Dime store to buy some brooms. Yes, I did say some brooms. I brought a couple of hand held dust brooms for my students. I brought a couple of cheap regular sized brooms. One for the students, and one for "borrowers"; Ms. Across the Hall often borrows my brooms. I also brought a cheap mop. I already had one spill with more (I'm sure) to come.

After shopping for about 30 minutes, since no train would be arriving in time, I walked back home. About a 23 minute walk each way to and from the supermarket. I had about 7 minutes to put away the food before it was time for me to catch my train to NYC.

The plan was to meet Vpal to continue our "Broadway Walk". The meeting spot was 42nd street and Broadway (where we stopped at the last walk). I arrived about 10 minutes early and Vpal only arrived one or two minutes late. We walked uptown (or north for you none New Yorkers). There wasn't much to take picture of, so I don't have a lot of good photos.

Well, it is time to go. It is almost midnight.



Post Date - Tuesday, November 25, 2008 9:06PM
Completion Date - Sunday, September 7, 2008 11:39PM

First and Last

Today was the first day of school. I haven't posted in a few days due to getting my classroom ready. After wasting the 3 day headstart, I was still in the pack of other teachers trying to get their classes ready. Since I did not finish on Friday, I signed up to come on Saturday, something I said that I would not do this year.

Saturday
Well, after arrived in the building, I was informed that we only had a half day to finish. I had arrived about 9:45am. After putting up wall and window coverings, knowing that I had to be out of the building at 12noon, I made sure to be ready. Well, when noon arrived, I was ready to leave. After chatting with Ms. Across the Hall, and the new second grade teacher (a former 5th grade male teacher, who was tired of the nonsense of the upper grade students and wanted a lower grade, but had to settle for second grade. An annoucement was made that all staff had until 1pm to be out of the building. Great, I had already shoved what could be shoved and put things away, so it wasn't worth touching anything at that point only to have to start putting things away again.I spent the remaining time chatting and helping Ms. ATH with her things.

Sunday
I was invited to my foster father's daughter's BBQ. This is a very nice family that often consider me a part of the family even calling me brother as if I've always been a part of the family.

Anyway, I decided to take public transportation. However, what is about a 16 minutes car drive from my apartment to my foster sister's place, would take me about 90 minutes by public transportation. The area I live in is mountainous with lots of rolling hills. Since most of the transportation traveled in north to south directions, I had to travel south then cross east before traveling North again. When I arrived at the closest bus stop, I then had to walk up a steep mountain road without any sidewalks (about 12 minutes). I arrived at FS's place, but the hostess or host were not home, but there were a lot of people. On my hike up the mountain side, I stopped off at Pathmark. I bought a large soda, large grade juice, granola bars, and a box of donuts. I was a bit annoyed that I just put the bags on the table with the "other things" without the hostess seeing that I did not come empty handed. Anyway, I spent most of the time on the upper deck, while most of the action was down on the ground level. Since I'm not really a party person, I did what I usually do, I just sat and watched the action pass me by. I left about 6:15pm to catch the bus. But the 6:33 bus just passed me by. I was so busy playing Tetris on my cell phone, that I did not see the bus until it zipped by. It didn't even slow down with me being the only one at the bus stop. I starting walking and waited for the next bus a couple of stops down the road, and again, it almost did the same thing. Apparently, you have to wave your arms like a madman to get the bus to slow down and stop.

I stopped off at the local area mall to do some clothes shopping for "Back to School" for myself. I bought a couple of white dress shirts, a couple of black slacks and a pair of black shoes.

Monday Labor Day
Monday should have been my errand day, but it was my procrastination day. I didn't do much but watch the clock knowing that school started the next day. Until the evening, I really couldn't get my mind to think about school related tasks. Finally, in the evening, I was able to type up my letter of introduction and my supply list. I emailed the letter of introduction hoping that I would beat the last minute rush so that I could send it out on the first day. Here, letters of introductions (as well as most communications have to have admin approval). I shaved (my head), showered, and ironed my clothes for tomorrow. I was in bed by 1:30am.

Tuesday, September 2nd
I was hoping to take a early train to arrived in school to do some last minute set up, but I missed the early train by about 30 seconds so I had to take my regular train that would put at school with about 15 minutes before school starts. Unfortunately, dragging the granny cart full with books I didn't use for lesson planning, and my gym clothes, I was dripping with sweat this morning. I was too hot to put on my jacket. So how was the first day?

Actually, it was okay. Despite poor planning, and an incomplete classroom set up, with boxes still unpacked, the day was nice. Even "Wild One" (the second grader who spent much of his time last year out of the classroom was [relatively] nicely behaved. Would you believe that he arrived to school on the first day chewing gum with nothing but a handful of wrinkled loose-leaf paper. Oh, I also had to revise my letter of introduction, because AP1 told me that it was too formal and needed "more fluff" (more please and thank yous). That surprised me. I'm a bit too soft and usually say please and thank you too much. I don't think I've ever been told that I have a rough edge (usually it is the opposite). I also couldn't send out my supply list because Admin had one for the whole school. On the last day of school back in June, an announcement was made to send down a supply list that we would be using for the coming school year. Since that was the first (and only) annoucement, I put it off, until it was too late. As a result, I now have to send out this crappy list with half the things I don't want my students to have, and missing items that I wanted to ask for. "Two packs of loose-leaf paper (wide-ruled)" is just asking for an endless supply of drawing paper and paper airplanes.

At about 6pm, I was expecting the firedrill bell to go off, but it didn't. Anyway, I left the school and went to the boxing gym with the plan of signing up for a 1 month package of group boxing lessons. When I arrived at the gym, The owner (or the wife of the owner) commented about how I had gained weight, and she wanted to know what had happened that I missed two weeks and I had been doing fine and making progress. Did I tell her the lessons were crappy, and I wasn't motivated to come? No, I just said that I was a procrastinating. As I took out my money to pay for the listed price of a one-month fee for group lesson, the lady told me, "oh no, the cost for changing from private to group lessons was about $180. With the "about $180" cost mentioned, and feeling I did not get what I paid for with private lessons, I told the lady I would think about it, but in the meantime I would clear out my locker. I should have taking my gym bag into the locker room, because coming out of the locker with my shower things and gloves, I felt like a quitter without several people stopping to see what I was carrying out. So, what did I do after? I went to Subway's restaurant; I ordered a foot-long sandwich and three macadamian cookies, with a couple of refills of soda. I came home hot sweating a tired. I fell asleep. Now, at 1am. I have to plan my lessons for tomorrow, and shower of course. Hopefully, I'll be in bed by 2am.


Post Date - Tuesday, November 25, 2008 8:52PM
Completion Date - Wednesday, September 3, 2008 1:02AM

Tired of this and that

And it starts again.

Here it is Friday, August 29th at 4:14AM. I'm back!!!

I had a whole week to set up my classroom, and I wasted three days doing not much of anything but moving this or that. Thursday, while most of the other teachers were trying to get their classes back in order, I was right along with them, the only difference was that I was one of the very few who came in on Monday, but had nothing to show for it. What's the school's schedule for the two (official) days before school starts? Thursday was classroom day, with Friday reserved for all day staff developement.

How about lunch? Since I've been back, on Monday I had a Healthy Choice Meal, Tuesday, a turkey and cheese sandwich from the local bodega; and yesterday, I had a hamburger and fries with an iced bun. My face in a matter of days is already about to go into acne overload.

So why am I on the computer at now 4:23am? I arrived home about 7:00pm. I ate the last of the leftover spaghetti -- I bought a small jar of sauce on my way home. I dumped about half of the jar over the leftovers before zapping it in the microwave. I was too tired to do anything but eat and sleep. But, assistant principal 2 asked for a copy of my Goals for the Year sheet. I (think I) was the only one who had it typed, so she wanted to use a blank copy of mine as a template for everyone else. But instead of just emailing her a copy, I had to make it look just right. However, after about a couple of attempts (while fighting sleep), I logged off forgetting to email it. I went to bed (clothes and all) only to wake up about 4am to send it and shower. And maybe catch a 90 minute nap.

New Plan -- Time wasting professional developement and classroom set up. Which means this weekend will be lesson planning, and probably coming into class on Saturday to finish what should have been done by Thursday at the lastest.

No, I'm not in a good mood.


Post Date - Monday, October 27, 2008 11:22PM
Completion Date - Friday, August 29, 2008 4:33AM

Set Up - Day 3

I'll have to make this fast. Tomorrow is the official first day back. So, spending a extra 3 days in schools before the official day, how much have I accomplished.

Not much.

The first couple of days were basically moving days for me. Monday was about moving boxes and furniture. Tuesday was about moving my personal teaching materials from home to school, and moving 6 students desks from the third floor to the second floor for the increased class size I'll have this school year. And today?

Last night I went to bed about 11:30pm only to wake up about 1:30am with a runny nose, a dry cough, and serious case of sneezes. I didn't return to sleep until about 3am. When I woke up again I wasn't in the mood to handle my classroom. I managed to finally get out and catch the train at about 11:30pm. I arrived to school about 12:30pm; my day was about half over when I arrived. Other than shuffling books in my classroom library, I didn't do anything.

Revised Plan

Thursday will have to be classroom set up.
Friday - It would be nice to say that I will be spending the whole day lesson planning for the month of September, but a more realistic plan will probably be finishing up decorating the room and doing my lesson plans for the first week of school. Hopefully, I will be able to have my supply list and letter of introduction revised.


Post Date - Sunday, October 28, 2008 2:58PM
Completion Date - Wednesday, August 27, 2008 8:40PM

Back to the Salt Mine

Sorry, I was too tired to post yesterday. Yesterday was suppose to have been moving furniture and unpack the neatly labeled boxes. Well, that was just hopeful dreaming for me. First of all, I got started later than planned. I arrived to school about 11am. After I moved the furniture to their approx. locations, and cleared off the back cabinets, I was exhausted. Even though I had a fairly concrete idea of where I wanted everything to go, and my boxes were labeled so that I knew exactly what was in them. I still had to deal with a bit of a mental block (a kind of "where do I start, or what do I do" kind of thing). So instead of doing anything substantive, I kind of fritted away the time.

Today, I had a reservation with a mover to help me move my things back to my classroom. To make sure we were on the road as quickly as possible, I moved my things from my apartment to the sidewalk before the mover was supposed to have arrived; the guy was about 40 minutes late. He was a very nice guy though. When we arrived, the side area gate was locked, and the side door was locked as well. My classroom just happens to be the last class by the side exit. If the side entrance had been opened, it would have been a single flight of stairs to my classroom. The only available space was a fire hydrant further down the block. Since the mover couldn't leave his van unattended (and risk getting a ticket), and not knowing where to take the boxes, it fell to me to move my things into the building. Once in the building, I had to take the approx. 10~15 boxes up one flight of stairs. I was exhausted again. I was too tired to do anything productive like unpacking boxes, so I sat and organized the classroom library books. I took a break for lunch. I ordered a turkey sandwich from the local bodega. On the way back, the security guard was either off duty or on a lunch break, so Mr. Gruff (one of the custodians), came to the door...reluctantly (making sure to remind us[those trying to get into the building] that Thursday was the day we were suppose to return).

About 5:40pm, the fire alarm when off. In this school, that's the custodian's way of saying, "get out, now".


What's the attached photo? I took this picture while I was moving my things. On Sunday, someone on the first floor of my building left that trash right in the middle of hallway. They could not even be bothered to put it near the incinerator closet. Where my foster father lives, signs have to be posted to remind residents that they should not through soiled diapers and trash out the window. Amazing...and not in a good way.


Post Date - Saturday, October 25, 2008 11:53PM
Completion Date - Tuesday, August 26, 2008 9:48PM

Broadway Walk - Slideshow 1

Below is a slidshow of pictures I took along a walk up Broadway (NYC).



Post Date - Saturday, October 18, 2008 10:32PM