I’d make some New Year’s resolutions, but I tend to never actually accomplish them. So I’m going to jinx my goals by making them resolutions.

Hope you had a great holiday season! And welcome to 2009!

Posted by Saphrym

Ok. So I got tagged. And everyone who has ever kept up with me knows I don’t follow the rules of tags. But I will at least let you know I was tagged by Pushhyarag2000 over at Evolve.Ever. So now I’m supposed to tell you 6 random things about myself. Hmmm.

1. I have never seen the Godfather movies. There. I said it. My shame is out there for the world to see. I feel so violated.
2. I love coconut. Well, at least I love the kind that is shredded, has sugar added, and is coated in chocolate. It’s my favorite kind. Tends to grow on special bushes out here in Kentucky. I’ve planted many of them in my yard. I’d show you pictures, but you’d only think they were Photoshopped.¹
3. I just took a sip of Diet Dr. Pepper.²
4. I’m thinking about how the 4 is going to show up on the left of this particular line even though I actually placed <li> at the beginning. The beauty of HTML, right?³
5. I love white tigers.⁴ I think they look cool:⁵
   
6. 01001001 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01101110 01101011 00100000 01100010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101111 01101100 00101110⁶

So there you have it. 6 random things about me. And if you didn’t read the footnotes, you should. They were even more random, and that’s what this is all about, right? Oh, and if you have any random things to say about yourself, feel free to leave a comment including them, or even a link to a post on your blog that has 6 of them already.⁷

1. And they would be because there’s no such thing as a bush that grows chocolate covered coconut. Although it would be a wonderful experiment in cross breeding. Somebody needs to work on that now. [«]
2. Can you tell I’m reaching already? [«]
3. Ok. Now I’m not only reaching but being a geek at the same time. Sheesh. [«]
4. I could never own one. Imagine the feeding costs and the cost to get them declawed. Ouch. [«]
5. Although I don’t think Zebras are cool. Hmmm. [«]
6. See? I’m being geeky again. Try this site to decode that message: http://www.nickciske.com/tools/binary.php [«]
7. Or 7, or 8, or even 172. [«]

Posted by Saphrym

So, I just finished watching the third episode of Leverage. It’s a new TV show on TNT. I have to say it has steadily moved to the top of my favorite shows list. Every episode is self contained, unlike shows like Heroes, and it’s a smart show that has managed to evoke some emotions out of me. Of course, this frightens me because every time a smart show that evokes emotions out of me gets on TV it’s canceled within 5 episodes. So I’ll have to see if this one continues.

As for the show itself, Entertainment Weekly called it “…better than the last two Ocean’s movies.” I’d have to amend that and call it “The A-Team meets Ocean’s Eleven.” That’s exactly what it is. But better. It’s about a bunch of crooks who are headed by an ex-insurance investigator that do good things for people. It’s very reminiscent of Ocean’s Eleven in it’s cinematography and style. It’s also like the A-Team when it comes to a group of people doing good for others but not necessarily following the laws while doing so. You’d have to watch it to form your own opinion. It airs on TNT on Tuesdays at 10/9c. If you want to see the first two episodes, go here: http://www.tnt.tv/dramavision/?cid=44213.

Do yourself a favor and check it out. There’s a line in the second episode that really got me. After you watch it, let me know in comments which line you think it is.

Posted by Saphrym

So, after getting our new jobs, my wife and I got a new car. Why? Because the old van was having a terrible time with coughing fits and nights of sleeplessness. Oh, wait, that was me. The van was guzzling too much gas. And it also was beginning to tremble at the thought of being driven. So, what did we get? The title says it all: A PT Cruiser. Below is a picture of it. We’re actually enjoying it quite a bit. It’s about 2 years old but has a 3 year warranty left on it. It’s got some nice features. One of my favorites is that it has an auxiliary input so we can hook up our mp3 players to the radio directly¹. Of course, the best feature is that it doesn’t have a dent the size of a small island nation on the passenger side door. That’s always a plus. Check it out:

It’s the same red all of our other vehicles have ever been². A coincidence? Probably. I like black and my wife likes blue. This one was in our price range and gets great mileage. So we got what we got.

1. instead of using one of those FM modulators that only sound like bad radio stations [«]
2. except for the van, which was white [«]

Posted by Saphrym

You know, I forgot all about showing you guys the cake my students made for me for my last day as their substitute teacher. Hmmm. I may not have even told you guys about that. I was a substitute for a teacher who had her baby. I taught the same class for about 8 weeks. During that time, I claimed them as my students. And actually, I still claim them as my students.¹ Although I have new students, I miss those students very much. So without further ado, here’s a picture of a cake they made for me for my last day.

1. I just can’t help it. I got to know them all so well. [«]

Posted by Saphrym

“Huh?”

Yeah. That title would confuse me too. At least maybe. See, I came up with this tweet on my Twitter¹ account a few minutes ago:

Polishing off produce while pondering and postulating pixels for a purchaser.

And it reminded me of one of the tools I use to increase my vocabulary for writing. I pick a random letter of the alphabet and try to use alliteration to create some silly sentence.² For example, if I would have wrote the tweet³ in normal English I would have said, “I’m eating fruit while thinking about the graphics I’m doing for a client.” Instead, I decided to use alliteration to make it sound funnier and/or more interesting. Alliteration is good for that. But it’s also good for “waxing your word wisdom.”⁴

Sometimes you just don’t have enough words in your head to cover the words needed for creating the alliteration. So you look to a thesaurus.⁵ While doing so, you are naturally increasing your vocabulary.

Try it for yourself. Pick a letter of the alphabet and use it to create alliteration in your comment to this post. You’ll see what I mean.

1. Make sure to follow me: http://twitter.com/Saphrym [«]
2. Hey. I used it again! [«]
3. Not everything must be typed of course. You could use some promotional pens to write it by hand. [«]
4. Which means increasing your vocabulary. [«]
5. I use thesaurus.com. [«]

Posted by Saphrym

3 Things I’m sorry for¹:

1. I’m sorry I haven’t been around much. And no, I’m not stuck in Fallout 3. On the contrary, I haven’t played it since the post I wrote about it. I’ve been busy with the new job, college, and multiple website and graphic clients I’ve been working with. I just haven’t had enough time to work on the blog. Hopefully that will change soon. And hopefully I’ll get more sleep too.²

2. It seems that when I updated a setting in one of my plugins, it decided to mass mail everyone who has commented on my site. I’m very sorry about that and have removed the offending plugin. For those of you with Word press, the plugin is called Comment Relish. If it’s going to spam people, I’m not going to use it³.

3. I’m also sorry about causing an end to a friendship a couple of years ago. I never meant to hurt anyone.

No, I’m not in a 12 step program or anything. But I needed to apologize to my readers and the third one was for me. I’ll be back tomorrow with more posts that might actually be of interest to you guys.⁴ I’ve collected a few pictures I want to share and I have some good news.

1. There may be others, but I’m too worn out to think of them right now. [«]
2. If I wasn’t male, I’d say I have symptoms of fibromyalgia right about now. [«]
3. I hate spam. So I’m very sorry about this one. I’ll do my best to make sure nothing like that happens again. [«]
4. Might is the operative word of course. [«]

Posted by Saphrym

¹

It’s what I imagined it was. I haven’t gotten that far into it right now as I’ve been quite busy with work and home life. But still. Just playing the character creation and tutorial storyline to the game was quite amazing. The choices I made effected things around me. And the story immersed me right into the game from the very start.

I’m currently at the normal “Fallout” beginning of the game. If you’ve played the first 2, you know what I mean. It’s when that big round door² has just closed behind you and you’re out in the rad-filled world. But before that I started to feel for the characters in the game. Not just my own, but those that he grew up around. That’s a sure sign of great authors. And when a great literary piece can be experienced, rather than just read, I think that makes it even better.

Oh, and I got my first chance at V.A.T.S. It’s the “turn-based” aspect to the game. You hit the “V” on your keyboard³ and you get this neat little green aiming system. You pick a few body parts while the game is paused, hit the “E” key to tell V.A.T.S. you’re done picking, and the slow motion starts up. Your shots come slowly out of your gun⁴ and the huge cockroach goes >splat<. It was quite cool.

Now, I will say this game is not meant for children. It’s mature for a reason. So, parents, be careful about buying this for your kids. I know I would not let my daughter play it or even watch me playing it. But for the older gamer, the storyline looks likes it’s going to be great⁵ and the graphics look quite awesome. So I’ll be playing this one for a long time to come. After all, it was created by Bethesda, and their games are always epic in length.

1. Banner image comes from the official website. [«]
2. Must have took tons of linear motion parts to make that happen. [«]
3. I have the PC version. [«]
4. or the bat moves slowly in your hand [«]
5. when I have the time to play it through [«]

Posted by Saphrym

Ok. The Splenda thing is cool. Johnson and Johnson may own like half the companies out there, and people may think they’re the “devil,” but you have to admit they have some pretty cool healthcare products. I mean Splenda is a dieters dream.¹ It gives you sweet stuff without calories and carbs. So it’s also great for diabetics. And now they have this flavored water stuff that comes in lemon and raspberry. Gotta love it.²

But then you have those other two. One is a quick shower and shave thing and the other is a stress reliever. They are both geared towards women. Why? What about us guys who want our own quick shower and shave. I’d love to be able to wash my hair, bathe my body, and shave my face using the same stuff from the same bottle. I think any guy would. But no. They have to market it to ladies. Well, I’m going to try it anyway. So nyah!

And that stress reliever. Sheesh. I work at a middle school. I could use a little stress relief myself. And no, I don’t mean the kids. The kids are awesome compared to other schools I have had the, um, pleasure to work in.

The same thing happens with some books. The Uglies series is a great young adult series with action and sci-fi. But it’s marketed to girls. I have no idea why. Boys would love it to. But since it’s called “Uglies,” and has a picture of a girl on the front, guys shy away from it.

Well, here is the feminine side of me saying just because you may be a guy doesn’t mean you have to stick to only guy stuff. We’re allowed our guilty pleasures just as much as women. And other than the xBoxes, PS3s, and Guitar Heroes of the world, I see nothing wrong with using some stress relief after a quick shave in the shower to make myself feel better.

So those environmental minded people over at J & J better watch out. I might start a trend and have guys buying products geared towards women more often. Then they’ll have to make even more of it, and maybe change some packaging.³

1. At least in my opinion. [«]
2. I’m a fan of raspberry. [«]
3. I know. I know. The trend will never happen. This is one of those times where I’m dreaming that I have much more influence than I ever could. [«]

Posted by Saphrym

(The following was in response to a discussion question at my University’s forums.)

Some of my favorite quotes can be used to describe the “perfect” teacher.¹

“The mind is a terrible thing to close.” - Saphrym

Yeah. I said that one. It’s a play on the old slogan of the mind is a terrible thing to waste. But it means that we should always keep an open mind. And that goes double or even triple for teachers.

“If you capture kids’ hearts, you have their heads. If you don’t capture their hearts, you have no business messing with their heads.” - Menville Flippen

Teaching is not just about spitting out information for students to learn. Teachers are role models whether we want to be or not. Students will come to us for advice. They will want us to understand them as people. If a teacher doesn’t want that part of teaching, they should probably pick a different career.

“Know your students.”

I have no idea who said that, but it is the foundation of teaching. How can you possibly provide the best education for a student without knowing about that student? Sure, a mediocre education can be provided to just about anyone, but the best education can only be provided when the teacher knows how to teach each individual student. That requires knowledge of the student.

Those are the 3 quotes I live my life and professional life by. Of course, I’ve recently added another one to that:

“Risk more than others think is safe. Care more than others think is wise. Dream more than others think is practical. Expect more than others think is possible.” - Claude Bissell

It may be a common cadet quote, but I think it fits the teacher profession quite well too. Don’t you?

1. Although there is no such thing as a perfect teacher because there’s always more to learn. [«]

Posted by Saphrym