First Day of School

Well Neya is settled into her new classroom and starting third grade today.  The new teacher seems very good and receptive to the special accomodations that Neya requires…

When Pat left she said Neya was smiling, relaxed, and chatting with the girl next to her.  Although she didn't see anyone she recognized from second grade, she did see some kids she remembered from first grade and hadn't seen much of last year.

Last night she confided in us that she was nervous about 3rd grade.  I told her not to feel bad about that because everybody was going to be just as nervous as her.  “You're all starting third grade together, all the other kids are probably a little nervous too.” I said.  “Even your teacher.  This is her first year teaching 3rd grade, she previously only taught 1st grade.”

Anyway, I'm not worried right now.  Lynnea is smart, smarter than she realizes, and she has been doing a lot better at reading lately.

Well I should get to work, I've got to pick Neya up after school (right about the time that the remnants of Katrina roll through our area with thunderstorms!  Hoooo boy.)


Google Earth

Amazing.  I should be working on Name That Movie but I'm having too much fun flying around the world with Google Earth.  If you have a broadband connection I definitely suggest you check this out.  It is a 3D rendering of satellite imagery of the surface of the earth.  From my house I looked at the surrounding hills and then flew to Escondido to view the beautiful hill behind Brian's backyard.  Looks like your neighbor has a nice swimming pool, Bri.  Then back across the country to Somerset to visit my friend James, and from there I went everywhere… Japan, Australia, Germany, India, Hawaii, Washington DC, Roswell New Mexico, my office in Burlington, my childhood home, and many other places. What a blast!

Google Poetry

Here's an odd idea.  I heard a guy discussing this on WBUR's On Point today: you go to Google and type in a phrase in quotes like “Last night I dreamt” or “When I grow old” or “Now I realize that”, then with the resulting excerpts from websites that google returns, try to string the matching lines together into a poem.

Danish poet and radio producer Pejk Malinovski tells us, the search engine has spawned a new genre of contemporary literature: Google Poetry.

Add no original text to the poem, just the lines, minor edits are probably okay.  Pick and choose the lines you like, and arrange them as you see fit.  Here's a weird one I did (remember, I did this as a lark, it's not a window into my soul, these are just lines I found and strung together into semicoherent text):

There Was A Time When

There was a time when I could fly at speeds beyond speed.

There was a time when people asked me if I ever was not here.
There was a time when I might have said yes to that question, but not anymore.

There was a time when I checked items off a list; I filled binders with schedules and worksheets. Ticked and tied. I got things done.

There was a time when I knew just what I was living for.
There was a time when I cared about how others may see me.
There was a time when I wanted my ideas and thought to be accepted and acted upon by others.
There was a time when I wanted to be one of the cool guys and fit in.
There was a time when I believed in people's inherent goodness.
There was a time when I knew what my people needed.
There was a time when I was going to sacrifice everything for the cause.
There was a time when I wanted to be a hero.

There was a time when I was an idealistic dreamer…

There was a time when I believed in the story and the scheme of salvation.
There was a time when I would have said that with great pride.
There was a time when I knew that no matter what happened I would be taken care of.
There was a time when I wanted to believe there was fate or a destiny, where things happened for a purpose to get you somewhere special.
There was a time when I wanted to believe in miracles, but felt I needed to see one in order to believe.

There was a time when I couldn’t lay flat or turn my head in a certain position or the world would frantically spin like a nightmare merry-go-round.
There was a time when I wanted to shoot myself.
There was a time when I cared about her.
There was a time when I wanted to have a threesome with her and some other girl.

There was a time when I wanted vengeance.
There was a time when I cared about things I could not change.
There was a time when I cared about my own existence but now it's a show of improvement to everyone except for myself.

There was a time when I wanted to be written about. Now, I am scared that I might be coming out of people's ears.

There was a time when I counted the days that went by, then the months and finally the years. Now I count only my breath.

Freaky huh?  I was intrigued at how easy it was to string the lines together.  Obviously I can't claim authorship, each of these sentences was written by a different person. Check out Pejk Malinovski's blog to see some of his Google poems.


Shades of Back to the Future

At the end of one of the Back to the Future movies, Michael J. Fox's character is horrified to see his scientist friend vanish unexpectedly in a flash of lightning.  Almost immediately afterward he is approached by someone bearing a package for him that was sent nearly a hundred years ago, it turns out the letter is from his friend who has been transported back in time to the old west.  I was reminded of this the other day when I read this story about a man in Vancouver who recently received a postcard from 1955…

From the AP story Postcard takes 50 years to arrive (via USA Today):

…Peter Symons noticed something odd about a postcard he received in the mail from Florida.

“When I looked at it, I saw it had 4 cents in stamps and I said, 'Well, that's sort of strange,'” he said.

Then he noticed the postmark: Nov. 7, 1955…

Freaky, huh?


Now There's a Switch

Image

Usually it's the toads eating the insects!  This rather large toad was drawn to the insects drawn to our porch light.  When he saw us, he freaked and jumped through a hole in the bottom glass pane of the sunroom door and was then stuck in there.  I got this picture at that time.

Later in the evening it occurred to me that he would never get out of the sunroom himself and in the daytime he would bake in there, so I went out around midnight to rescue him.  I asked Pat for a paper towel because I didn't want to touch him with my bare skin.

That got a huff, an eyeroll, and an “Oh Charles.”  Upon which she picked up the toad and carried him out to the lawn herself.

Whatever!

It was only later when looking at the picture that I realized he was being bitten on the back of the eyeball by a mosquito.  Ouch!

Anonymous Comments Disabled — Thank the Spammer

Until further notice, anonymous commenting is now disabled on Unbecoming Levity.

I apologize to those of you who preferred to not go through the hassle of setting up a reader account and having yet ANOTHER password to remember, but I just spent like 40 minutes deleting 30+ spam comments posted by a spambot to articles all over my blog.

I am not going through that again.

I implore my anonymous regulars to please set up a reader account and continue to be a regular contributor.

I Love G4 TV

It's great for background noise when you're working on something else, and very entertaining to watch in it's own right. I'm referring of course to G4 Video Game TV, the channel specifically for gamers. I don't get to watch it often, but I almost always enjoy it…

The programming on G4 is a real mixed bag, some of it is very good, and some is very bad. Plus the constant ads for the armed services trying to recruit youngsters hooked on first-person shooters is annoying. But the channel definitely has its highpoints.

Like X-Play, featuring the zany Adam Sessler and the attractive Morgan Webb. When I first saw this show I figured it would basically be paid advertising for various games. But since then, having heard Adam and Morgan rip a new one in more games than I'd care to mention, I feel a lot safer putting stock in their reviews. Harsh, sarcastic, and funny, both of them often make me laugh at the same time they are saving me money by warning me away from games that suck. I cracked up just the other night when Sessler concluded his review of a dreadful PSP game by saying “…it's about as much fun as having a root canal… through your ass.

While not as funny as Sessler, Webb has her moments and as an added bonus, is fun to look at. What is it about women who play video games, and play them well, that is so attractive? I loved her pictorials in Maxim Magazine (not safe for work, duh.)

Another halfway decent show is Cheat with Kristin Holt. Cheat is basically walkthru-TV, giving you tips and advice on how to beat certain levels of certain games. This is one of those shows that makes good background noise, but can give you strategies for beating games.

G4 is adding a new block of late-night programming called Barbed Wire Biscuit starting August 29. I've seen some previews and some of this looks pretty funny, as well as offensive and crude. Right up my alley basically. I'm particularly fond of Happy Tree Friends wherein animated forest creatures face grisly demise and injury. You can see some videos of this on the HTF site, but be warned, it's very nasty. My guess is that Barbed Wire Biscuit is basically an answer to Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.

Anyway, I'm enjoying G4TV. Check it out sometime if you haven't already.