Daily Work of a Sort

I finally gave up on the GIC blog publication as it was and put the blog on my other server. So now available for your perusal is tengrrl @ gic.blogshares.com. Other than that, I watched the Oscars and mainly lamented my lackadaisical existence.

Daily Work: Lazy Disappointment

I’m such a wastoid today. I never managed to get any of the things done that I should have this weekend. How do I manage to accomplish so little? I know. By sleeping all day. But I just can’t manage to do anything other than sleep. I did watch the Oscars, and I finally gave up on the GIC blog, which means that I choose somewhere else to put it. I tried and tested over and over, but it just won’t publish to my regular site. I ended up putting it on the Lists of Ten site, but at least it’s live and published now: tengrrl @ gic.blogshares.com.

For Windows: Free! Icons for your website or application at MaxPower

Not sure that I’ll ever need a huge collection of Free! Icons for your website or application at MaxPower, but it’s one of those things I figured that I better save or I’d never be able to find it again.

In the News: Bloggers on the Reasons Behind Their Daily Words

Bloggers on the Reasons Behind Their Daily Words—I’m sure that I’m supposed to comment on why I blog if I link to this article. The answer, sadly, is who knows; but I’ll try to come up with something more reasonable:

  • to record various things I’m doing for later use (like this article)
  • to describe events and thoughts that are significant to me
  • to think about why am I how I am
  • to prove I exist

I hope that’s good enough, cuz that’s the best that I can come up with right now.

Daily Work: Dreaming

It seems that the bad thing about sleeping all day and all night is that there can be very strange dreaming that confuses the bejeezus out of the sleeper. Every inch of insecurities and anxiety seemed to spill out into that freaky dream. It was some strange thing that started out with me in some odd sort of room-apartment under my mother’s house, with a rented apartment in the room beside. There was some creditor calling and calling and calling about a bill that I owed and had forgotten. The thing was they were calling this next-door neighbor, who was now thing to find me. And I was trying to hide and pretend it wasn’t going on. I couldn’t deal with the idea that there was a bill outstanding that I needed to pay for, so I was in my room-apartment with the lights all out, trying to move as little as possible so that no one would see me and no one would find me. The additional problem was that there was a surprise party for my brother’s birthday and all the firefighters that he works with were going to come to mom’s house to celebrate, though the party wasn’t to start until 2 AM when they all got off work. They were sure to discover me, and even if they didn’t, I was going to have to come out for the party and then the neighbor would find me for sure. I could hear her and sometimes even see her talking at length to her boyfriend about these phone calls and how worried she was that I didn’t come out of my room-apartment. She was certain that she should have someone come break down the door. I was inside, terrified and petrified. Then somehow in the way that dreams work, I ended up kidnapped and in the middle of a terrorist plot to be executed the day after Thanksgiving. The evil mastermind of this plot was Gary, and if I didn’t cooperate, I was to be killed. The target was a large mall. They slipped in while Gary talked to the deejays from a local radio station that had a big mobile home at the mall for the big shopping day. As the mall opened, people swarmed in, and the supporting terrorists secured all the doors and rounded people up as hostages. People who didn’t cooperate were shot. In the rush, I tried to get to a phone, to call someone for help; but the terrorists kept sweeping and and I was afraid I’d be caught. I found a place to hide in an oddly-shaped bathroom stall. If I crammed over to the side, climbed up on the step, and crouched down a bit, I couldn’t be seen. I stayed there, terrified and hiding, waiting for the terrorists to finish clearing the room and leave so that I could emerge and do something. When I finally had my chance, I was out no more than a few minutes before Gary found me. There were SWAT teams and police crawling all over the place outside. I made some excuse for where and how he’d found me, and he took me to some candy store that he’d chosen for the headquarters. We all had to crouch down behind the tall bins of brightly colored candies to keep out of the police officers’ sight. Still, somehow I got away, and I was trying to save my father. To get him moved and hidden, but we couldn’t find the crutch that he’d dropped. Kerri suddenly showed up to help, but Gary was lurking again, so I had to hide them and come out to distract him before he found daddy and Kerri. He took me to a beauty salon, which he’d moved headquarters to. Oddly, the salon was still operating, doing facials and highlights. Gary insisted that we all get our hair colored for some reason. I tried to barricade myself in the salon bathroom, a small closed room where I thought I’d be safe, but Gary saw me and wouldn’t let me close the door. The police eventually broke in and started shooting at people, but Gary got away and dragged me with him. I managed to get a gun and tried to threaten him, but he laughed at me. I shot him anyway, and the police swarmed in. Somehow he escaped and he was fine, as if I hadn’t shot him at all. I shot him over and over, in a half-dozen different places; but every time, he was unharmed and found me and made me go off with him. I was unable to get rid of him, try as I might. At one point, the police had even covered him with a sheet; and he was up again and off. Over and over. I would shoot him point blank in the head, and he’d still be fine and dragging me with him to the next hiding place. I never escaped. I woke up, but with a horrible feeling, all these things hanging over me—the unpaid bill, hiding from everyone, and that inability to get rid of Gary. Maybe sleeping isn’t helpful after all. I wish I had ambien. That is a sweet, silent, deep sleep. I could have avoided all this.

Daily Work: Sleeping

The best thing about a day off, for any reason, is that you can focus all your attentions on the important work of sleeping all day long. Okay, so it’s a depressive thing to do, but sometimes avoiding everything that is grinding against you like sandpaper by sleeping all day is the only way.

Daily Work: Bleh

A rather boring day for readers. My back is all achey, so I’m taking tomorrow off to try to rest it before it gets any worse. Still working on the GIC blog, but the damned thing just won’t publish. I don’t understand how I can copy the settings exactly and fail to have it publish. Gave up on it a bit and did some moderating. I have notes on the book cover interactive to pass on, but I just wasn’t up to working on them. I’m supposed to be taking time off :)

ReadWriteThink: Three Lessons!

A content report was due today, so I made a last-minute push to get things online. Finished up the lesson I have been writing for several days now, and edited and posted two others:

From Dr. Seuss to Jonathan Swift: Exploring the History behind the Satire

After exploring the historical allusions behind Dr. Seuss’s The Butter Battle Book, the whole class discusses the history behind a passage from Gulliver’s Travels. After this group exploration, students research further historical allusions in Swift’s work and share their findings with the class. (This one I wrote)

Alphabiography Project: Totally You

Instead of writing their life stories in a linear fashion, students write their biographies from A to Z in this nontraditional autobiography activity, which was inspired by the book Totally Joe by James Howe. After the entry for each letter in their alphabiographies, students sum up the stories and vignettes by recording the life lessons they learned from the events.

Finding Common Ground: Using Logical, Audience-Specific Arguments

Using a hypothetical situation, students generate arguments from opposing points of view, discover areas of commonality through the use of Venn diagrams, and construct logical, audience-specific arguments in order to persuade their opponents. Students also have an opportunity to role-play with classmates in order to refine their arguments.

For Windows: HDClone Free Edition

HDClone Free Edition download and review – copy data to a larger hard drive from SnapFiles—another good thing to have around for future use. I haven’t tried it out, but it looks as though it could be a good tool.

Inbox: Celebrate Dr. Seuss and Read Across America Day!

Better known to most readers as Dr. Seuss, Dr. Theodor Geisel was born 102 years ago this week. The Ideas Section for this week’s Inbox is titled Celebrate Dr. Seuss and Read Across America Day!. The column includes lesson plans and ideas that focus on reading Dr. Seuss books in the classroom, including a lesson that uses The Cat in the Hat to discuss id, ego, and superego.