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Showing posts from October, 2006

Battlestar Galactica Season 3 Episode 4

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Oh my gosh, the Pegasus becomes a kamikaze weapon to destroy the Cylon's battleship. Starbuck kills her Cylon captor and the father of her daughter in front of her daughter. New Caprica is evacuated by Adama. Sharon and Agathon's half cylon, half human baby is recovered by Lucy Lawless and Starbuck finds out her daughter is not really her daughter but someone elses. Captain Adama: "I guess you didn't understand my orders." Apollo: "I could never read your hand writing." SO...I was wrong. I thought that the series was going the wrong direction. My favorite character Starbuck was playing mother in a holding cell, Apollo gained a ton of weight, Adama had a mustache, Gaeta was the pencil pusher for Baltar and the damn Cylons were in charge! Also, Saul- whom I never really liked, lost his eye and was leading the Earth's resistance in a very irrational non-Adama way. There seemed to be no nobility, no justice, in his actions and all of this added

Heroes and Battlestar Galactica Rock!

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So the TV season this year was starting to look blah, but I'm totally into two series that I had written off as kinda "not intriguing but enough to pass the time." I was wrong. Heroes had some awful acting quirks that took me out of the show, especially when Simone (played by Tawny Cypress) tells her heroin addicted boyfriend (heroine? wordplay for his choice of vice??? like Hiro and Hero???) "But I love you." It took me out of the show because the delivery was so fake and there was no buildup to establish there was love at all. The words were empty. The only reason I kept with the show was because of Hiro and Claire. Hiro was simply cute-in a non gay way; he kept me happily his anticipating his story. Plus his reparte with his Japanese buddy (sorry I forget his name) added a sense of Peter Parker quirky wit. Claire although she totally deep throats the popular cheerleader image that finds out she's a freak image, she is gorgeous and her acting brings

5th Grade Lesson 15, Can you join us?

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I recommend I play the song for the class it is SOOOOOOOO funny. It's like twist sung to these lyrics.

5th Grade Lesson 15, Can you join us?

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Back to school and back to making lessons for school :( No I mean :) No I really mean :() hehehehe. Hi Yea Jin! I miss you! Alright. I have 5 class periods to get through two chapters in the book. 1. Do the dialogue in the book. Show flashcards (pizza parlor, computer games, swimming,) and get one student to invite the other student to accept or reject the invitation. 2. Listen and repeat. 3. Do Look and Speak on page 122. 4. Focus on the sound differences of "Can" and "Can't." 5. The "Can you join us game?" and if time do the Bingo game. Dan

Korean idioms

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I highly recommend this book. It's well written and it gives a lot of insight into the Korean language and culture. These are some of my favorite idioms: 화장발/조명발 Cosmetic effect. Lighting effect- the girl( or man) only looks good because of the make-up or because of the lighting. 교편 잡다 - the love stick (the rod used to discipline students) 당근이지- That's the carrot- Of course! Right on! 고무신바꿔 신었다- She changed her rubber shoes- she found a new boyfriend. 필름끊겼다- My film stopped rolling- I passed out after heavy drinking.

Gold

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Gold is at 592.00 Maybe I should buy at $550?

Scary Story for Don-Jono

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Don-Jono (the name has been change to protect his identity) is eight years old- a first grader at elementary school and in Korea that's the first grade that children go to school (they don't have public Kindergarten in Korea.) Now Don-Jono goes to a hagwon (an education academy) to study English. Now a eight year old- Korean's age are one year older so in America he is 7 years old is expected to do homework everyday. He has to write a journal once a week, listen to a tape and read a book- and later memorize it in order to recite it for a quiz, and he has a workbook that he must do work in every night. Now, the thing is, and what is true for most of the students is that the mothers often do the homework for the children. The mothers aren't fluent, but they have an above elementary level of English. Of course, their listening ability is much better than their writing. The teacher at my school often asks me to write the journal entry for Don-Jono because she doesn&#

What's work?

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So...For the last month, I've come into school to work but I think I've worked a total of 8.25 full days. Today's date is October 25th by the way and it looks like tomorrow and the next day I'll have to work a total of 1 hour and 20 minutes. So my total work days for this month will be a total of 10.50. That's my estimate anyway. Let me explain. The first week our school had Chusak- the Korean Thanksgiving holiday so we had the whole week off. The week back I had to work the whole week but then on the third week the 3rd graders had a picnic on Monday and the 6th Graders had a picnic on Tuesday so those two days I had for "planning" then on that Friday the 3rd graders had a picnic so I had only 3 classes this week. Now this week, the week of October 23-27, the sixth graders had a Physical Fitness Examination on Tuesday, so I had no classes (all my 6th grade classes are on Tuesday). Tomorrow the 5th and 6th graders have examinations so I have only 1 fo

GOLD

Gold is currently at $580 an ounce. I would really like to buy it at $500.00 and with oil doing what is right now, I might have a chance. I think I'm going to have to settle for about about $520 before I buy a sizable investment.

My current obsession with lists

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Lists, Lists, Lists, Lists, I am currently making a list of all the things that I have to do during the day and scratching them off as I accomplish them. Yes, I know how utterly anal that sounds, but it's keeping my life in order and it's bringing a whole new level of productivity to my life. I am finishing about 80% of what is on the list and I'll go in spurts where I'll do 5 or six items in a row like calling a friend, sending an e-mail, checking for classes, etc. These items are small things that take a simple bit of motivation to do. I highly recommend you write lists. Scratching off what you've accomplished gives one a sense of....accomplishment. That's a good feeling. By the by, the new Killer's Album, Sam's Town is amazing! Current fave songs are Sam's Town, when you were young, and Read my Mind.

My Name is Earl: Season 2

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My favorite show from last year is back and expectations are high. The first season was nonstop hilarious and it's hillbilly wit tinged with progressive hippiness was simply irresistible for me. This season doesn't seem to have the charm of the first and is simply delving into toilet humor and sensationalism, but there are still moments where my kidneys feel like they're going to pop from laughter. Episode 1: The season starts out with Joy buying an entertainment system that is too big for her trailer. When she tries to return it the store refuses because gum has wiped off the UPC code. In retaliation she steals a supply truck and tries to hock it for the money she spent on the entertainment system only to find out that the truck she stole had a worker locked in the back. The show highlight was when Kenny tries to stop Joy from copying 100 dollar bills and screams, "I took an Oath...Copy responsibly, Copy responsibly." Episode 2: Since it's Joy's third

work? What's that?

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I have to teach only two classes today because my 3rd and 5th graders ar e going on a picnic. This week I've taught a total of 9 classes at my school. Monday and Tuesday I had off because of some school trip and Wednesday I only have 4 classes. I should plan lessons, but what the hey? I figure I'd rather sit and chat with y'all. So how's work? Are you have a good time? How's the boss? How's the daily grind and mindless repetition? Alright. Right back at you! Dan

Money Money Money

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Google is up $6.75 today to bring their stock to $426.00 Cramer from mad money thinks it'll go up to $560.00. Apple is kicking major ass. It's up $4.46 to bring it's stock to $78.99. It's going to pass it's previous highs and I don't think it's going to sink down again. Steve Jobs is a genius. His changes to the Mac line with the Intel Chip and the subtle changes and reversions(is reversion a word? I mean to reverse to a previous version. It sounds right so I'm going to stick with it.) so...his subtle changes and re-versions to the ipod line have made huge profits for the company. I wonder if there is a split coming for Google or Apple? I'm still holding the line with Adobe, Ebay, BMY, GE, MMM,Coke,Starbucks And Goldcorp. As soon as I have a chance I'm going to sell off RUTH, OVEN, and Hershey's Chocolate. I'm sure I can hold onto it and break even, but at this point it might be better to take a loss and reinvest it in something

Teacher! I drew this!

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I have a 4 year old student and usually I simply play games with him like tag or throw him about the room (NO! not literally.) Last class he really wanted to draw pictures so I drew this picture of Percy. I know, it looks like a 4 year old student drew it, but come on it ain't bad for not having drawn in years.

Picasa sucks big old dungballs

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I don't like Picasa because I tried to use it to upload a picture to my blog and after I took the time to write my little blurb explaining the whole picture and telling a cute little story, it simply vanished up in cyberspace, nowhere to be found. This was 4 hours ago that I tried to upload it so my conclusion is this: Picasa hits the toliet bong filled with elephant dungballs while wearing a stained grey tutu and spouts nonsensical blasphemy about Princess Diana: that she isn't really dead, but simply eternally getting it on with TuPac and Biggy Smalls in the back of a silver Honda CRV. In short, I wouldn't recommend using Picasa to upload pictures to your blog. Save the pict to your desktop and then attach it using the Dashboard in Blogger.

You shouldn't play with your food^^

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But sometimes it's so funny^^ Hi Yea Jin! Did you know that you're my favoritist favorite flavor? he he.

Game with Magnet Cards

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I found all these really cool magnets and I'm trying to make a game with them and I need to do it today because they are all scattered over my desk. See... I'm trying to sort out all the words into Nouns and Verbs and then add articles in order to first teach sentence structure on the board and then I'll introduce adjectives and adverbs. The game will be a magnetic sentence race where the students have a series of words on the board and they have to be the first to make a sentence with as many words as possible. First day I'm going to do Present and Past tense. Here are the words that I have selected and have put in categories. I grouping them as well as possible because I know that some are in the incorrect groups. I plan on changing a lot of the words by taping a piece of paper over it and writing a new word. Nouns: Outside/Boy/Grandfather/Girl/Puppy/Snowman/King/Bag/Oranges/bike/doll/candy/grandmother flower/teacher/baseball/basketball/badminton/table tennis/weath

3rd Grade: How many...Wait what is this? NO CLASS???

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I'm going to start with a quick review of the "How many game" from last week. No I'm not. Today the third graders are going on a picnic so I don't have any class. The halls are ghostly quiet and the only sound I can hear is the soft crescendo of a straw broom on the floor. It seems, through it's monotonous one note beat, to be sweeping up all remnants of the third graders. It's so quiet that I can even hear the breeze outside. It's so fricken awesome! Oh, and tomorrow the sixth graders are going on a picnic, so no class then either. he he he. Yea Jin, are you jealous? I'll write all about it in our journal^^

Tired.

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I've been tired all day and I think it's because I've spent the entire week fighting over rested kids - my elementary school students had the previous week off for holiday . You would think they would have had a lot of fun and would have come back focused and ready to be edjumacated...but...all they've done this week is make me yell and make me make them write sentences. I'm exhausted. I'm looking forward to this weekend^^

5th Grade Lesson 14, "Is Peter there?" Game

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I just thought of a good game. It's called Telephone Number. (I'm quite aware that the name is lame.) There is a team of 6 and 1 person from each group comes to meet me to get their number and when I say go, they must go to their team and whisper down the line until the last person gets the number and they have to write the number on the board. The team that gets the fastest and correct wins the round. Make sure that teams don't yell the numbers out when the last person has to write the number on the board. If they do that team will be disqualified.

4th Grade Lesson 6. Is this your cap?

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First of all, Blogger is giving me problems these days. Uploading pictures is mercurial at best. Bear with me and hopefully Blogger will get its act together soon. Hi Yea Jin^^ Lesson Plan. Since today is going to rain I'm going to start out with a chant and then get the students to insert their names in the third line. Here are the lyrics. 1. Rain, rain, go away Come again some other day We want to go outside and play Come again some other day Optional lyrics: Change third line to say: [child's name] and [child's friend's name] want to play 2. I'm going to do the book- pages 60 and 61 and quickly play the game on page 61. 3. I'm going to do Look and Listen 2 on page 62 and 63 because I won't have enough time this semester to finish the book. 4. I'm going to finish with Tag Game from the book. Here are the instructions. - Let's play tag. 【 materials 】 classroom objects 【 Grouping 】 Group work 【 Expressions 】 Is this your ?

Putting Kim Jong-il into perspective

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So...how do I feel about Kim Jong-il and his kookie North Korean Comedic Communist Regime? Yes. They've got the bomb, but they only have "one" and it wouldn't be advantageous to attack anyone. I think the bomb is only purpose is to strengthen Jong-il's weakening regime in his own country. It's a symbolic bomb, not an actual bomb. Propoganda can feed a person, right? I have other thoughts, but I have to get ready for school now. Dan

Play Nintendo through the internet

Check this out! It's called vNES and you can play nintendo through your browser. Firefox works the best. Dan

6th 백합 and strange customs around the world

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Although not enthusiastic, they sure make through the motions like an actual class. It was kinda endearing. Yawn. So I'm doing strange cultural customs around the world. Here are excerpts from a cool essay I found on the net. In Australia the light switch is turned down to switch on the light or utility. In the United States the switch is turned up. The latter makes sense. If the switch becomes worn then, when it fails, the power is turned off. In Australia the power would be turned on when a switch fails. In Indonesia it is considered extremely rude to point with the forefinger. It is especially rude if the pointing is towards a person. When pointing the Indonesian uses his thumb. It is a common sight in Indonesian to see people with a very long fingernail on one or the other finger of the left hand. The purpose of this is related to the fact that public toilets are extremely rare and often non-existent making it necessary to use whatever facility is available. As a consequen

6th Grade Lesson 14. Would you like to come to my house?

I'm going to do lessons 1 and 2 in the book and finish up with Anagram race with the word "Happy Thanksgiving Day. " 6 백합 is next. They better not mess with me because they're just aching for a smack down.

5th Grade Lesson 14, "Is Peter There?"

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I just found out today that a supervisor is coming to my school to evaluate my school this week and my Thursday 5th Grade class is going to be evaluated. I have to make a lesson plan today. So brainstorming a bit/ Is Peter There? I have an idea for a telephone paper cup game that might be fun. The book is a bit sparse. I should get them to talk about what they did over Chuseok to start. I should review, "What did you do yesterday?" I could do this with a magnet character like Mozart or something, but the supervisor might think it's just strange. Hmmm...I could use Suzy. This is what I wrote on the sheet that the supervisor will see. 단원: Lesson 14. Is Peter There? 학습목표: Lesson Objective To introduce how to communicate on the telephone. 학습활동: Lesson Plan *Review, "What did you do yesterday?" *Go over textbook- pg 112, 113. *Role Play a conversation using cup and string phones. *Play telephone bingo. 평가: Evaluation *Students should be able to properly dica

3rd Grade: How many Cows?

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The unit is on How many...? 1) Start out the class asking students how many ricecakes they ate over the holiday making sure they answer, "I ate... seong pyeongs..." Then ask "How many times did you eat bibimbap?" and "How many times did you play games?" 2) Distribute the numbered pictured flashcards to 15 students and then ask them to line themselves up in numerical order. 3) Go over the picture flashcards. 4) Turn the pictures over on the black board- showing only the number and then ask them, "How many...butterflies/rabbits/bags/erasers etc." They should answer by saying, "There are..." 5) Go through the computer lesson on the computer. 6) Play the secret number game. Secret number game. Teach them, "Is the magic number 5/6/7?; No, the magic number is higher/ lower." Get one student to write the number secretly and the other students have to try and guess the number. Make sure that the number is between 1 and 15. Dan

Monday. I'm back in School and I need a game

Start by asking about Chuseok. How many Seonpyeong did you eat? How many relatives did you meet. etc. 3rd Grade and I think I'm going to do High or Low and a guessing thing of how many pencils in their pencil boxes. "How many pencils are in your pencil box?" "Are there 5 pencils in your pencil box?" "Are there 3 pencils in your pencil box?" Other questions I can get them to ask are "How many notebooks are in your bookbag?" How many brothers do you have? How many sisters? etc. Game: High/Low I'll get the students to write their number on the board and the students have to guess it by asking, "Is the number 5?" No, the number is higher/lower.

Korea is becoming curiosier and curiosier

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I was walking in Olympic Park today...It's out by Monchondaesan???- transfer to the pink line from Jamsil for one stop; the park is gorgeous. And I kept on seeing these odd signs with squirrels on them. I mean there were everywhere hence I thought it was some sort of squirrel festival or something, so I asked my friend, "So is there like a Squirrel festival or something happening?" Of course she answered, "Mwo e go?" which means what? I pointed to one of the signs and she laughed and then told me the signs were telling people in the park to STOP STEALING THE ACORNS! That's what the signs mean. Apparently Koreans go to the park and steal the acorns from the tiny cute squirrels. And what do they do with the acorn? They make dotori muchim with it. It's kinda like an acorn jelly (it's delicious.) Here's a pict and a link to how it's made. Someone else told me the squirrels were "good eating" (sorry that was my Tennesee transpl

Cooking for a picnic

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Today I'm going to be cooking a picnic for a couple of my Korean friends. So what do you need in order to have a successful picnic?\ Me. In Delaware I used to do quite a catering business dealing with picnics. Mind you, my most popular lunch was southern style- cold chicken, potato salad, pecan or sweet potato pie, an Amish cauliflour and broccoli salad, and biscuits. Lots of biscuits. Having been in Korea for a couple of years now, I've grown to like their bento style lunches. Yes, I am aware that bentos are from Japan, but the Koreans seem to have adopted this picnic style and it's very managable and delicious. This is a very simple lunch- green curry beef with vegetables. There are kimchi and seaweed salad as sides and the silver packet is a Lindt's 99% cacao chocolate. The kim bap is a true inspiration. Well, maybe not an inspiration, but a creative twist on a familiar original. It is a Philly Roll. Yes, it has cream cheese and smoked salmon. But I put le

iPod Games Tetris Review

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Beautiful but the controls lack control ***/***** 3 out of 5 First of all, the game is gorgeous. It's an excellent redux of the classic game. The blocks are vivid game! VIVID! The problem is that the controls are too sensitive and the slightest touch will cause the block to do EXACTLY what you don't want it to do. The soft drop lulls the game into a nap and it's simply not intuitive. They need to take this game back to the drawing board.

iPod Games Zuma Review

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*****/***** 5 out of 5 I bought Tetris, Mini Golf and Zuma and Zuma is my favorite out of all of them. It makes time fly by. It's challenging and intelligent; it makes me feel like a kid again. Buy this game and forget about the rest! The iPod wheel is perfect for this game!

iPod Games Mini Golf Review

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**/***** 2 out of 5 I wish they did a golf game like Mario Golf for the Gameboy. That was kick ass. This is simply not creative and the controls and gameplay are unrealistic. Often if you simply hit the ball hard it'll ricochet off a ton of stuff and you'll magically sink a hole in one. A WASTE OF MONEY! Get Zuma- now that's a kickass game for the ipod^^ Oh and you wankers complaining about not being able to play it on a Nano, DUH! Read the instructions and stop buying on impulse! Apple or EA should be able to make a real golf game for the ipod. It's easy enough and the controls could be intuitive. They need to take this one back to the drawing board OR make a game specifically for the iPod instead of taking a made product and tweaking it for a different format.

Daily Musings.

I'm thinking of buying shares in GE. GE owns NBC and at this point, NBC is the lowest ranked of the 4 networks- I always thought it was CBS. Anyway, GE has holdings all over the place and although it's a tech and industrial company. I'm reading the "The Coming Economic Collapse" by Stephen Leeb. It's insightful. It suggests how to safeguard your money with the coming? energy crisis. These are what Leeb suggests and doesn't suggest as sound investments *Don't invest in Cash. Inflation causes the money under you mattress to lose value over time. *Don't invest in Bonds. Bonds don't rise with the rate of inflation. *TIPS- Treasury Inflation Protection Securities are the only bonds worth owning because the bonds go up with the rate of inflation. *Don't invest in STOCKS! I don't know about this one. Investment Jetpot 1 *Gold *Oil stocks i.e. Oil service companies. He recommends buying SLB. *Real Estate *Chindia or China and India. I&