Today I was told by one of my students that I have a hefty little paunch. As much as it hurt me, I refrained from telling her I thought it would take her a week of deep thought to rival the befuddled musings of a monkey on the origin and uses of feces. Actually, she's bright enough to know that she'll more easily succeed in her non-ESL classes by playing dumb, so my hyperbolic incivility isn't wholly warranted.

Make fun of my belly will she...

holy cow

Coolest thing ever:

vogue
v. To dance by striking a series of rigid, stylized poses, evocative of fashion models during photograph shoots.

Also, here's a link to the funniest clip of a panda bear. Okay, perhaps saying the only funny clip of a panda would be more accurate.

shades of sunset II

shades of sunset II
Originally uploaded by dwain.

One of several photos I took of the sunset over Lexington. One thing I love and loathe about photography is the ability to focus on an image and utterly ignore its surroundings. You'd never guess I was standing in the driveway of my ugly house in my ugly neighbourhood in my ugly town, but I was. It's a lesson in finding the beauty amid the bilge. I could probably carry the lesson into the classroom and try to find the beauty in my difficult students, but that would be too Robin Williams-Stand and Deliver-a hundred other films.

I'm starting The Scarlet Letter next week. My plan for making it rigorous and relevant (our school's catch phrase) is to connect Hester Prynne's spiritual and social exile with the near-pariah status of immigrants in the US today. Too much?

heteroclite
n. a person or thing that deviates from what is considered normal

recent musical acquisitions

A brief list of ear candy I've chewed recently. What a horrible metaphor.

• Grant Lee Phillips - I really like his new album, nineteeneighties, because it covers some of my favorite New Wave songs very well and includes some lesser-known hits that should be enjoyed. Oh, and I like his voice.
  
• Gregory Douglass - I've never heard of this guy before last week, and the only song of his that I know is a cover of October Project's "A Lonely Voice." Beautful piano and harmony.
  
• The Jayhawks - Their cover of Alejandro Escovedo's "Last to Know" is a real pain in the tuckus to find (eMusic.com) but worth it for a mournful sound.
  
• Judy Collins - "Who Knows Where Time Goes." Nina Simone's is better, but she chit-chats too much at the beginning.
  
• Muse - Black Holes and Revelations. "Knights of Cydonia" and "Take a Bow" are my personal favorites so far, but there are several growing on me. It's like Radiohead crashed into an epic rock band and hit an innocent mariachi band as well. That'll make sense if you listen to "Knights."
• Patty Griffin - Her version of "Mary" (live) is beautiful. Again, eMusic.
  
• Syntax - I think this is a group that evolved out of the remains of one of my favorite electronica bands, Fluke. Unfortunately, no web page for these guys. If you can, though, take a listen to "Pride." (edit: found a Myspace page)
  
• Thom Yorke - I really like "Atoms for Peace" from his solo album. I'm just now getting into Radiohead, but I prefer his solo over most of what I've heard.
  
• Verbow - This group may or may not exist anymore. I can't find much about them, to be honest, and I'm amazed I ever heard them. "Sweet Felicity" is my new feel-good song. I had to buy it from iTunes. Angry...
• Soul Asylum - "Oxygen." I am ashamed.
  
  

aegis
n. a shield, protection
I've been digging the recent dictionary.com words on my google page. Yes, I know this word has no special meaning because there are a million other people who saw it today, but dammit I like it!

Some of you may have heard of the plane crash that happened in Lexington yesterday, though I doubt you've been pummelled with the footage of the surrounding chaos as we have. The local news earned their wages yesterday running around and improvising from behind the news desk from 6 in the morning until 8 in the evening and sporadically after that. Each death is tragic to the family, but I was most appalled by the mother who was scheduled to be in the flight with her 16-year old daughter but was bumped at the last minute. I cannot imagine.

Let me share some irony. All day we watched footage of the scene and heard theories about the crash and how the people burned to death. Then, at 8 o'clock, the Emmy's started. The first "scene" was of Conan O'Brien on a plane that crashed, a lá Lost. I'm surprised our local station didn't yank it immediately.

habitue
n. one who habitually frequents a place

There was an attempt on my soul by one of my students yesterday. We've been reading and talking about creation myths, and I continuously referred to the Xian creation myth, not out of spite but to be fair for calling other religions' stories myths. Nobody said anything for the first couple of days, then yesterday after class this student--a freshman new to the school--brought me a pamphlet in Spanish that had a drawing of a giant hand over the world and the word "Creador?" on the cover. The student said "I thought you might find this interesting since we were talking about creation. This has a lot of interesting information" (paraphrase). All I could do was nod and say, "Sure, I'll take a look through it, thank you." It's put out by Watchtower, and I'm amazed at how many of our students are Jehovah's Witnesses and try to get us to go. My roomie from last year has even been invited to a conference in Chicago by another student!

proselytize
v. to convert or attempt to convert or recruit

I had never heard of this:

"The term Demiurge refers in some belief systems to a deity responsible for the creation of the physical universe and the physical aspect of humanity." (from Wiki)

I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure — that is all that agnosticism means. ~ Clarence Darrow

it begins tomorrow

Tomorrow is the first day of school in our district. It's not really an instructional day because of all the forms that have to be filled out (I have a total of 13, an ominous beginning). Oddly, I'm not even slightly apprehensive about it. Last year I woke up sweating in the night for almost a week before classes. I feel much more prepared this year, both emotionally and structurally (I've been drinking lots of milk). Wish me luck. More importantly, wish my students luck!

nadir
n. the lowest point; the time of greatest adversity
(from The Highly Selective Dictionary for the Extraordinarily Literate)

Saw this paragraph in a story about a power outage in Tokyo. What the heck?

Some Tokyo subway lines temporarily allowed men to ride in special "women-only" cars to ease crowding after service resumed. The special cars were introduced to spare women the aggravation of harassment from male passengers.

boscage
n. sylvan scenery

Not the "prettiest" of words, but it's close enough to "bosque" (forest) in Spanish not to be totally foreign.

weekend at the cabin

Here are some pictures of the cabin where MSLF and I stayed last weekend.

The upstairs bedroom. The right side of the picture looks down into the kitchen. I was afraid I would wake up in the middle of the night, wander over to the knee-high bannister, and tumble. Worse, Maxx is none too bright about ledges.

A moth hugged the window and I took advantage. I felt like a voyeur. I love how the spots on his wings contrast.

This is where we spent most of our time doing exactly this. We read for three hours straight Sunday morning.

The tiny kitchen without a ceiling.

The front.

back on the chain gang

It's somewhat good to be back and I'm less stressed about beginning than before, but walking the halls at school is a little disappointing. Not enough has changed: I have to deal with the same red tape, the same hellions, the same apathy, and the same problem of supplies. At the same time, I refuse to fall completely into the trap of constant complaint that so many teachers do. We're quite a contentious and whiny lot, really, and though some of it justified, teachers often find fault with the nugacious details and overlook the fundamental pandemic problems. It's almost enough to make one go into politics or administration. Almost.

Today's weird word isn't from the book source but from one of my notebooks from college that I was reviewing. Randomly placed amid my notes, the word obviously caught my attention (though I haven't a clue where I heard it) for a moment. I'm going to try to use it more as a figurative word than a scientific one.

anabatic
adj. of an air current or wind; rising especially up a slope

I have meetings all day today at a local hotel. To say I'm excited would be hyperbolic; to say I'm annoyed beyond belief would be an understatement. One possible highlight would be if they don't serve us lunch and make us go get our own. I say highlight because my favorite sushi house is next door, and nothing would redeem this affair more than having a bite of hamachi (yellow-tail tuna), unagi (eel), and maybe a bit of maguro (tuna). How odd to be craving raw fish in the morning...

I really like today's word. I wish I were mundivagant (I'm not sure how this is a noun).

mundivagant
n. wandering over the world

Yes, it's true: Billy Ray Cyrus, Kentucky's pride, has a song called "I Want My Mullet Back."

olamic
adj. Infinite;eternal

uncanny

Screw Tony Hopkins; biopic starring Gregory Itzin or bust!

Slate has a photoessay on Bolivia in honor of their "Dia de la Independencia," yesterday. Most of the photos are dated, but change comes slowly to the remotest regions. The photos aren't great, but something about them pulls at my heart, to stoop to sentimental cliches.

Researchers have finally caught up with Dobson and Falwell, the vanguard of social scientists:

Teens whose iPods are full of music with raunchy, sexual lyrics start having sex sooner than those who prefer other songs, a study found.

Whether it's hip-hop, rap, pop or rock, much of popular music aimed at teens contains sexual overtones...

Teens who said they listened to lots of music with degrading sexual messages were almost twice as likely to start having intercourse or other sexual activities within the following two years as were teens who listened to little or no sexually degrading music.

There are too many money quotes to include in the post, so if like me you were subjected to countless hours of seminars on the evils of rock 'n roll, give it a read and see why you listening to Boston behind your parents' backs lost you your cherry.

servants of the evil one

I'm sitting around counting the minutes until I go to the dentist for my triannual cleaning. If that last figure grosses you out, bite my shiny metal arse (Bender for prez!). I feel that I spent a great part of my adolescence sitting in a faux leather chair waiting for a dentist. Some things never change, it seems.

mogigraphia
n. writers' cramp

So, we're off to a cabin for the night. One of MSLF's profs owns it out west from us, and she gave us a free night, so we celebrate our anniversary. By celebrate I mean we will say, "Hey, isn't our anniversary sometime around now?"

We went to the art show/sale last night and bought 3 pieces, all of which are quite cool. Two of them, a painting and a clay piece, are of a mother and child that reminded me how much I regret not buying a painting on leather we saw in Bolivia but weren't sure we could afford. The Virgen de la Leche (Virgin of the Milk) was apparently a very popular subject for a while.

lalochezia
n. Talking dirty to relieve tension

MSLF recently purchased a book for me called Word Lover's Dictionary: Unusual, Obscure, and Preposterous Words. I will try to remember to include one at the end of each post, or at least once a day for those days when I have too much time on my hands.

I will never forgive Peter Jackson, that geektard, for how he decimated the characters of Lord of the Rings. As I read back through it, I have found that I'm able to forgive him some of the plot variations that he puts in, though few enough of them. I think he gives filmgoers too little credit when it comes to our attention span, and I think that many of Tolkien's original story lines would have better suited the films than Jackson's crap. One thing I will never forgive him, though, is his massacre of the characters. Aragorn, Gimli, Galadriel, Faramir, and Sam are the most egregiously wronged, though there are a slew of others who he butchered. Angry thought for the day is done.

Palingraphia
Mirror-writing

teaser

This is one of my favorite movie teasers ever. The movie itself was pretty bad, but this teaser thrilled me with it's music and beautiful filming. It's a slow file to load (quite large), but be patient if you're on a fast connection.

The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc

my Viking name

My Viking Name is...

Dufniall Strongbear

Heheheh, my name is Dufniall... What's yours? Post a reply with your name.

benefit art

To anyone in the Lexington area who is interested:

RALLYING FOR A FRIEND AND MENTOR

Former UK student organizes two art-sale benefits for a beloved professor with advanced cancer

What: Food, live music and student art sales to benefit Zirkle.

When: 7 p.m.-midnight Aug. 4.

Where: The Ice House, 412 Cross St.

Admission: $2.

Note: Cash and checks only.

The proceeds are for Ross Zirkle, for those of you too lazy to skim the article. MSLF has taken a couple of courses with him (including one this summer that he obviously had to hand over to someone else) and thinks quite highly of him. It was in his class that she learned the printmaking technique she used to make our wedding invitations, and I believe they were actually one of her projects! We'll be there circa 8.

blair v. bush

Tony Blair is so much more articulate and aware than Bush. The latter's rhetoric revolves always around "freedom" and "terror," like a broken record. Here's a link to a CNN article about a recent speech by Blair.

Also on CNN, a despicable move by Stephen King and John Irving. It's not their book!

Two of America's top authors, John Irving and Stephen King, made a plea to J.K. Rowling on Tuesday not to kill the fictional boy wizard Harry Potter in the final book of the series, but Rowling made no promises.

mxc

This is a clip from a show called MXC that appears on Spike. I've only seen it a couple of times, including during the infamous Super Bowl when Janet fueld the fantasies of millions of young boys, but I've loved what I've seen. In case it isn't obvious, it's dubbed over an old Japanese show.