My mom actually still has this video on Betamax... but figured the youtube version would be easier to share. :)

1985 Superbowl Champions Chicago Bears in "The Superbowl Shuffle."

Happy Football Season!

Well, first Sunday of the regular season, and da Bears are starting a little slow... apparently, Lovie had been getting a little irked by last season's criticisms of da Bears' defensive line and their inefficient work against the running game. Whatev. So, he shifted things around a little this season and, I think, has tried to fix something that wasn't really broken. We start with a loss, but hopefully things will sort themselves out for the Chicago defense. 

Regarding offense... puh-lease. This team relies on defense and special teams... and apparently still does. While Grossman didn't do as horribly as he did a couple of times last year (the three sacks in the 1st half really didn't help), he still seemed to get a bit stressed under pressure. His line did a good job of giving him time to throw, for the most part, but I'm still holding my breath to see if he's stabilized at all this season. He was a little erratic last year. Hopefully, he's gotten some quality practice in over the off-season. Better luck next week, guys, and well done San Diego. 

In other news... Got a new car! :) It's a 2007 Honda Fit Sport... in blazing metallic orange! It's so cute and fast and fuel efficient! 30-35 mpg! That's up from the 10 mpg I was getting in my old Explorer whose transmission was minutes away from exploding. (I exaggerate, of course) :-D I love it.

Also, school is going well. My angel-to-turd ratio is much better this year than last. For the most part, my kids are really great. Even if they still don't know how to formulate a complete, coherent paragraph as 8th graders. Lucky for them, I teach writing in my social studies classes. :) They hate me now, but they'll thank me later. :) 

And, of course, congratulations and much hugs and love to trillian4210 who has welcomed a new addition to her family. :)  

Well, first day back at school. The kiddies seem sweet--for the most part. But my class sizes are atrocious. The max capacity of my classroom (and this is with the kids packed in like little sardines) is 32. I have three classes of 34. I literally had kids sitting on the floor today, and the whole thing makes me sick, because it isn't necessary. My first hour class only has 13 kids in it! There's no reason why I shouldn't have less than 30 in each class! It's so not fair to them... It's proven fact that kids learn more in smaller classes because they don't get lost in the crowd. For all this wanting teachers to give kids individualized attention every day, they sure make it damn difficult for us. 

Anyway. :) I like them so far, though. We're embarking on a new adventure. And a bunch of my kids from last year came to visit when the high school let out. It was so great to see them. They all look so much more grown up. :)

It's already been a long, hot day. I woke up relatively early, because my mom wanted me to clean the bathroom before her man came over. Then, I sat at my computer listening to the week's Dennis Prager podcasts that I'd missed due to oversleeping whilst manipulating old powerpoints to use as new the first couple weeks of school. I've decided I'm not even going to try and use my ca. 2000 work computer for anything... I'm just going to make my laptop my primary computer. Works better with the projector anyway. :)

Then, I helped my mom clean the circulation filters in the pool pump and tie up the dead palm branches from the back yard trees to put out for next week's big brush and garbage collection. It was hot out. Really, really hot out. I got sweaty and I still smell. I need a shower.

I almost had to drive a 2 hour round trip to take my brother to work up at Saguaro lake... he got his licence suspended again... but got bailed out by his girlfriend. :) 

Unfortunately, the real treat of today, my triple-grande iced vanilla latte that my mom's man brought for me, was overly vanilla-ized... it was too rich. I couldn't drink it. :( I was sad. 

And now, I believe I shall take a nap. 

*snore

Thought this guy looked familiar. Watched the Shoes video on trillian4210's lj. It was hysterical. Then realized it was the same guy as in a video that one of my students showed me last year. :) Teh infamous muffin video!

So I go in to school the other day to try and get some work done in my classroom, hook up my new laser printer, get some work done on the *work* computer instead of my laptop, which is BAD for working primarily because of the lovely World of Warcraft icon right there on the desktop... taunting me... 

Anyhoo... I go in to work only to find... 

The City Recreation Department used my classroom all summer for KINDERGARTENERS!!! I had little ankle-biters messing with my stuff for two months and nobody thought to call and tell me about it so I could get more of my stuff out!!! Not even and email! Holy crap... 

Ahem. 

So I want to do some work, but can't because there's a friggin blow up jungle gym and fingerpaint all over the place, not to mention the fact that none of the furniture maintenance I requested had gotten done because the room was being used... and I can't even get in until next week and school starts on the 13th gorram it!

*sigh*

On the other hand, my best friend and fellow teacher, Erica, is finally getting home from her summer-o-wilderness. For some reason, this woman has a great time out in the woods and got her wilderness first responder certification at the Grand Canyon then led a group of 25 17 year olds through the mountains of northern california. All in a matter of 2 months. And she wants me to go next year. She says it'll be fun... 

No internet, TV or cell phones for 6 weeks? Not to mention showers?

As if. :) 

But finally, I'll have someone to hang out with again... if only school wasn't starting back up again so soon. Wah. 

In other news, saw The Simpsons Movie the day it came out. I thought it was hysterical... but then, it was midnight and I might not have been in my right mind. I get a little punchy when I lack sleep... 

( Spoilers for The Simpsons Movie... )

I want. :)

When I was a sophomore in high school, my family went skiing for spring break up in Pinetop. It turned out to be a lot warmer than we expected, and instead of wearing my knit ski mask as I had intended, I ended up just in sunglasses, a sweatshirt and jeans. The next morning, my head was swollen. My face looked like i'd gotten botox-ed over every inch and i was the color of a tomato. Then, to top it all off, my mom takes me to the emergency room to get my sunburn looked at... the doctor gives me a petroleum-based salve to put on my second degree burns... which just locks in all the heat and turns my head into one giant blister. 

Upon returning to school and looking like a burn victim you'd find in the hospital, my best friend at the time, infintely amused by my situation, decided to conduct a little experiment. She told everyone that I'd been burned in an unfortunate camp fire accident in which my brother had flung a flaming marshmallow into my face. 

More people believed her story than the sunburnt truth. :) 

So I'm house-sitting for a friend right now, and I looked at my computer and started flipping through the internet, trying to find all of my old favorited pages from my last computer (which has been resting in peace since February) and re-happened upon the livejournal that I have so neglected. 

It's one of those things by now where I feel like I've been away too long to come back. And for a second, I considered cooking up some work of fiction to explain why I've been gone for so long. But decided that anything I could come up with would just smack too much of having a marshmallow flung into my face. 

I think of you guys all the time, even if I haven't written. It feels like it's been forever. 

I've just been dealing with real life... It seems like every time there's a dull moment, some new drama pops up to keep us all awake. 

I hope everything's going well for everyone. Trillian, did I read somewhere that you're gonna be a mommy? Alice, how are the graces doing? Kaarlo, hope everything's good out on the east coast. :)

Well, I'm tired, so I'll keep this brief.

Grossman: I'm going to wait on a final "have you achieved redemption" call until next week, just to be sure that tonight (the second half, anyway) wasn't a fluke. But rest assured, my dear Rex, that you are well on your way back from that dark, dark place you were in against Miami.

And speaking of redemption, my boy Devin Hester... I could watch that short FG return a million times, and it'll never get old! Been trying to find a downloadable clip on NFL.com or youtube, but I guess it's too soon. If you browse through the video library at www.nfl.com, though, I did find a 2 minute highlight montage in which it was included. Just look for the Bears/Giants game. It was absolutely brilliant, and I'd highly recommend checking it out online or at least catching it on Sports Center.

Da Bears are 8-1. Sweet. And, to smack down all those naysayers who attribute da Bears' success to quote: "an easy schedule..." You guys can just kiss Brian Urlacher's ass.

Also glad to see that the Chargers won... I know trillian4210 is a happy camper. :) And tomorrow, we've got the Bucs on MNF. 

In other news, I'm still sick. Even after taking Friday off and resting this weekend, the bronchitis is still buggin' me. I do, however, HAVE to go back to school tomorrow... I just can't call in sick again. I hope none of the little kiddly-winks are adversely affected. 

This weekend, I did get a new closet, though, and did some life-altering fall cleaning. My mom's man came over and built me a custom closet complete with new shelves, a side of double decker hanging space and a side of long hanging space... I got rid of a lot of the junk I had been storing in there and did a massive cleaning out of drawers and so on... I think my room has never been so organized. 

Also falling into the broadband trap into which I swore I would never fall... trying to decide which mmorpg to commit to. Of course, WoW is at the top of the list... followed closely by Everquest and Star Wars Galaxies. I've heard rather mediocre reviews of Galaxies, though... but I *love* the Star Wars universe and think I could have a lot of fun with that one. Any suggestions? 

Gotta call it a night. Time to take my Wal-tussin, prop up the ol' pillows and try to get some sleep. :) Buenas noches todos! 
august_baby27

Yay broadband!

And that's all I have to say about that.

P.S. Ron Livingston is teh HAWT! :) [/regression to teenager]

Well, amazingly enough, for once, one of the networks was carrying a Bears game even in west-coastish Arizona. Unfortunately, I kinda wish they hadn't so I could have been spared the horror of my 7-0 team having their asses neatly handed to them by Miami.

I think it was a karmic return for the game Chicago shouldn't have won in Arizona. It has to be. Just like with the Cardinals, the Bears were facing a very losing team at Soldier Field... the all-important home-field advantage. Da Bears were cocky, especially Mr. Grossman, who I could strangle with my bare hands, and anticipated an easy win. Where they made that mistake with Arizona, they managed to slip by with a win. Not so against Miami.

Good. I hope the Bears offense learns a lesson from this. And I hope Lovee spent a fair amount of time bitching out Grossman and my man Deven Hester of punt return fame. The rookie definitely BLEW IT on several occassions this afternoon.

On the flip side, Miami played a great game. Offense was tight, giving da Bears' legendary defensive line a solid run for their money. The Dolphins' defense was also fabulous, doing their job admirably not only in holding back the Bears' offense, but in taking it a step further in interceptions and scoring.

The Dolphins deserved to win and, while I'm a Chicago fan and wish they hadn't won, it was a good game and I hope the Bears turn this into something good for next week. Come back with a vengeance guys!

And for God's sake... Rex Grossman... spend some time on the practice field this week! Please! And start stepping into your throws instead of throwing from your back foot. And by God... start finding OPEN receivers! And ones wearing the same color uniform as you are!!!!

Well.

The good news is that I have not been spending all of my spare time on Youtube.

The bad news is that I have been spending an inordinate amount of time on iTunes.

Damn. Why couldn't I get addicted to the free one?

I was talking to one of my kids today in class... I was saying how excited I was that I'd found some good documentaries on iTunes that I downloaded hoping to show them in class. He shakes his head at me and says, "Oh, man... itunes is a total rip-off... you just... buy stuff."

And I'm like... "Well, yeah, I know. I get some stuff for free, but some stuff I can't find on my *coughcough*p2pservers*cough*..."

"No, Ms. A... you don't understand. I've bought like, 1,200 songs..."

I gasp.

"How much did that cost you!?" I exclaim.

He looks at me with this "duh" expression. "Um... about $1,200."

"Who paid for that?!"

"My mom."

I walk away shaking my head and another kid gets my attention and whispers, "Don't worry... they're loaded."

And yet I think... daaaaaaaaaamn.

Don't ever let me get that bad.

On the plus side, I downloaded the Rob Dougan album "Furious Angels." I first heard Rob Dougan's stuff from the Matrix Reloaded soundtrack and I loved it, so I bought the whole CD. Anyway, there's this amazing, dark, heart-wrenching song that he sings on it called "Left Me for Dead," which has inspired wild ruminations on a potential dark!fic about Revan and Carth...

I have no life. :)

Tee-hee! The joy of broadband!

Well, got home late on Wednesday night, and I must say:

Best. Vacation. Ever.

We had a fantastic time! Did *everything* at Disneyland. (Except the Matterhorn, which is always closed when I go...) And California Adventure ROCKS! On Tuesday, we also did the Lilo & Stitch character breakfast at one of the Disney resorts, which was great... good food... and we all got pictures with Stitch! (He is to me, like Pooh is to Alice. *g*)

The drive there and back was pretty easy, too. Except the whole driving in L.A. thing. California drivers are insane! (no offense, Tril) You're either going 80 or 0, without any warning in between. And the freeways have this unique quality where the concrete doesn't seem to be exactly level, so the whole car will vibrate uncontrollably for miles at a time.

We were in the parks on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and, while Sunday was *packed*, Monday and Tuesday were absolutely delightful. The whole trip, we never waited in line for anything for more than 45 minutes, and I think on Monday and Tuesday, we waited the longest for the rollercoaster at California Adventure for 30 minutes, and that was our worst line.

Best rides: Tower of Terror--OMG, I could not stop laughing on that ride! It's so much fun! The Grizzly River Run... one of those rides where you're in the round 8-seater raft and go through white water and stuff. Loved it. Aside from those two, also loved the rollercoaster, Splash Mountain (of course) and Space Mountain. Also went into Pirates of the Carribbean thinking that they'd changed it a lot to match the movies, but was pleasantly surprised to find that all they'd done was change some of the voice acting and added in Johnny Depp/Jack Sparrow in three places.

The hotel was lovely, too. We had a nice (expensive) dinner one night, did an hour in the pool and hot tub one night, and never had to drive anywhere... they have this convenient shuttle service that goes around to all the hotels and drops you off at Disneyland. That was nice. :)

All in all, a great experience. And now I've promised my sister that I'm going to take her on a vacation there this year... probably Spring Break. Maybe winter break. We'll see. But can't wait to go back. *g*

All the pictures are in my friend's camera though, and will be forthcoming. :)

Okay, kids... so here's the moral of the story for today: If your router is too complicated to get your wireless network working, go back and exchange it for another one.

Went to Best Buy this morning and exchanged my Netgear router for a Linksys one (that was $20 cheaper anyway) and had the wireless network up and running within FIVE MINUTES of plugging everything in.

I am now updating my livejournal from my living room. :) Tee-hee! It's glorious!

Anyway, now that this whole thing isn't a total headache anymore, I'll shut up about networking and just start enjoying what the world of high speed internet has to offer. I'm sure you're all very sick of hearing about this by now. :)

So, on another note, on to Battlestar Galactica! ( Read more... )

Okay, have to go do some laundry for my trip so I have clothes to wear. Disneyland is a family locale, and I don't think they'd take kindly to me running around nekkid. ;) Leaving tomorrow morning around 5am, then getting home on Wednesday night.

Well, I must say... this is absolutely brilliant. Back in the day, one might have had to sit at the computer lab at the university with a couple of blank CDs or a Gig jump drive to download large files and take them home.

But alas, now I can download and watch cheezy Star Wars fan films from the comfort of my own bedroom! Score! It's a whole nother world.

Unfortunately, I am still tethered. The installation guy did an awful job and I actually had to buy new network cables (because he did not properly splice the ones he made) and spent much of last night troubleshooting the network. My "wireless" router is supposed to be really good as well, but for some reason, 4 hours yesterday and today on the phone with Netgear tech support still has not gotten me a wireless network. So tomorrow, I'm going to exchange it for another brand. I'm sick of dealing with it.

So tonight, rather than continuing to kill myself with this whole networking issue, I decided to clear a spot off on the floor (my network cable doesn't reach very far) and take advantage of my new speed. :) It's delightful.

Oh, of course, I did watch BSG first. :) More on that tomorrow. All I'll say is... man... the beginning with Tight... that was the most *emotional* piece of any television show I have ever seen. I was sobbing and angry and couldn't believe what he was doing. Man.

Anyhoo... just checking in. And for all of those interested parties, my email address is still the same for now... but *much* faster. So Kaarlo... bring on the multi-MB files, man. :)

Bed now. Before I get completely addicted to youtube.

Well, ladies and gents, this is my last official post from dial-up purgatory. Woo-hoo! My poor students are so sick of hearing about it. I'll be standing in front of them talking, when all of the sudden, I'll break into a little happy-dance, singing "I'm getting broadband! I'm getting broadband!!!"

I am such a loser. :-D

In the mean time, I've just discovered a really, really fun game! Now, I am NOT a fan of racing games, but my brother borrowed Forza from his friend, Danny, and I played it this afternoon after I got home from work... I love it! My rides all pimped and everything... Bitchin. :)

Say bye-bye highstream! It's been real.

Tee-hee! Great find, Kaarlo! :)