* * * Iona Watson - A Blog, 2007-2010 * * *:

Showing posts with label - Not So Every Day to Day. Show all posts

Repost: Tiger Refuges

I forgot all about the old blog and reposting entries here. While I'm on blog hiatus, I'll repost more old blogs:

September 5, 2006

For some reason, my dad has an obsession with, or rather a serious passion for the welfare of, tigers.

I’ve never asked why, so I suppose I should do that.

Anyway, he says he wants to remortage the house and tag tigers in Thailand. My mom and I think that’s a little extreme.

But we’re looking into a trip to a tiger refuge here in the US. There’s one in Florida, one in Texas and one in Arkansas.

It’ll be an adventure.

Cute Little House

Mom and I are always remarking on "cute little houses" that we see while driving around town. She's looking to downsize.

Here's one in Winthrop, ME, which is a nice little town. A cute little white house with black shudders. I'd put a purple door on it, too.

There's a purple house with white and yellow trim on VFW Pkwy that I see on my way to work. It is always so adorable.

Obsessed with cute little houses....

Bicycle Bicycle

I'm thinking of getting a new bike. The foldable one isn't really ideal for the slightly hilly West Roxbury area. The small diameter of the wheels and the bumpy roads don't go well with my little bike. Plus, it's not very easy for me to port, even if it's supposed to be portable.

I found a very nice site with detailed information on bicycles and what type of bicycle is the right one for any given potential rider:

http://bikes.jump-gate.com/

I think that the best choice for me is either a street bicycle or the street/trekking hybrid. I need a bike that is comfortable to ride; speed isn't a factor for me.

http://bikes.jump-gate.com/bicycles_types/trekking.html

Only I'll have to look around for a deal, since I haven't got lots of discretionary fund laying around. Bicycle riding is so much fun, though! I can't wait until I can get back on the road...

Why I Became a Librarian*

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=55408523

Once upon a time, I was an English teacher. But now I am not. Watch this video -- starring my former students -- and see why, for now, I prefer to work at a library.

Special Report: Dead & Abandoned Theoretical Babies All Over West Roxbury

So, yesterday I took a walk around town and was stopped in my tracks because along Centre St (West Roxbury's main street) I almost stepped on a smashed white egg. I walked around it and wondered why it was there. Then there was ANOTHER egg, abandoned on a bench outside of CVS. This one was brown. A few paces down the road and I spotted a third smashed brown egg. I was wondering what all this peculiarity was about & then I remembered the episode of the retro 90210 Rene was watching before the debate on Tuesday. Some of the characters had to carry around these eerily real looking fake babies. That's when it hit me: the 8th graders at the charter school around the corner from the library were probably learning about how important it was to wrap it up, unlike those sluts up in Gloucester, and so they got their theoretical baby eggs. What I had witnessed around the CVS and the library were a bunch of FAILURE grades in health class, is what that was.

Repost: Homework Sux - there's proof!!!

September 18, 2006

I’m in the middle of a very intriguing book. I believe it’s major proposition will have prolific effects on education policies to come, so here’s your heads up.

On Alibris

To show off my skills (only because I’ve actually read/seen these sites already):

Here's the story from "Day to Day", which was the first time I heard about the book.

another thingy

FACT: about the person you fell hardest for?
Is busy. I don't know who I fell hardest for, but everyone I've fallen hard for is busy with their passions and interests.

WHAT: happened at 9:00 am today?
I turned off my alarm.

ARE YOU: wearing something you borrowed from someone?
No

WHAT: is the last thing someone bought you?
Stoneleigh.

WHATS: your current problem?
Has anyone seen my motivation?

LAST: person to lay in your bed?
Person = me.

THE LAST: food you ate?
Salad.

WHERE: did you last go?
Baltimore.

SOMETHING: you say when you are mad?
Whatever.

DO YOU: delete people off of myspace?
No, not really.

FAVORITE: drink?
Starbucks with lotsa soy.

DO YOU : crack your knuckles?
No.

DID YOU: cry at all today?
Not yet.

ARE YOU: ticklish?
Yes.

WHO WAS: the last person you talked to last night before bed?
Rene, about Joe Biden being picked as the VP nominee.

HAVE YOU MADE: a mistake this past week?
of course.

DO YOU: have a well stocked fridge?
Sorta

DO YOU KNOW: anyone with the same name as you?
A few.

WHEN WAS: the last time you really laughed?
All sorts of times this past week.

HAVE ANY: regrets?
No.

DO YOU USE: an alarm clock?
I have three.

ARE YOU: social or antisocial person?
Social social social.

DO YOU: have a tan?
yes

WHO WAS THE LAST: person to disappoint you?
People: the 4x100 mens and womens relay teams for USA. Tee hee.

DO YOU TRUST: people ?
Eh...

WHAT ARE YOU DOING:
Listening to Obama

WHAT WERE YOU DOING at 5 in the morning?
Watching Olympic diving.

Had a loss recently?
Job.

Last movie you saw?
Chocolat, which reminds me, I must update my favorite, since it is one of them

Something you want to accomplish in the next 5 years?
Whoa. I have a crapload to do in the next five years! MLIS degree, MFA, find a husband, get married, have children, buy a house. No pressure though. Yikes.

What was the last thing you said out loud?
This question.

Last person you hugged?
Someone in my family.

How is the weather right now?
Beautiful. I'm going to Starbucks to get coffee, then take a walk then go to Roche Bros.

Who was the last person you talked to on the phone?
Erin.

What is the first thing you notice in the opposite sex?
Face.

What do you have handy next to your bed?
Eye glasses, ipod doc, pens, fans, lights, moisturizer, stress ball, journal, books, books, books.

Are you afraid of the dark?
No.

First thing you'll save in a fire?
the people inside.

What do you always take with you?
Everything, have you seen my purse?

Has a boy put their arm around you in the past 5 days?
Yeah, all these dude from South Philly that came into the bar in Baltimore where I was updating my travel journal-- a few of them were drunk drunk drunk and put there arm around me to hiccup and tell me stories.

How about called you beautiful?
Yeah, obv.

Ever turned a boy down you shouldn't have?
No one I shouldn't have.

Do you straighten your hair often?
No.

Are you a jealous person?
Not that much.

Do you like to make the first move?
I don't really think about that.

Do you hate the last girl you had a conversation with?
Of course not

What's most stressing right now?
jobs hunting

Do you swallow gum when your done with it?
Ew.

Do you like messages or comments better?
messages

Last non-relative you hugged?
A Fournier or Meliss a.

The next person you'll hold hands with, will it mean anything?
Probably not.

Are you someone's best friend?
uh huh

Do you cuss?
oh yeah

Are you a bitch?
No. Not always. But b*tches get sh*t done. Just ask hillary!

Repost: The Beginning of the Year?

August 21, 2006 @ 1:14 pm

Well, we’re coming upon September, the beginning if the year.

Wha????

For my entire life until this year, the beginning of the year always begins in September, since I have worked or studied at some school or another and school begins in September. It’s weird that I have no beginning of the year event: no first day of school, orientation, lesson plans or shelves to read for continuity.

It’s just weird to me that entire chunks of the population don’t consider September the beginning fo the year, and I hadn’t really thought about it until now, when September isn’t the beginning of the year to me.

If I get a job at a school soon or at a college, maybe September will mean beginning of the year, still.

PS I did. It was. But in 2007, it wasn't because I was at the online store. Now it is again. There's a 2 week break for the end of summer session. I'm going to Baltimore. See next post.

Check It Out

I just took a brain break from poetry things to read the NYT. Here's an interesting Op Ed piece from David Brooks. I often times don't agree with Mr Blinky (sweet cripes, I'm meand) but in this case, I think he make some very valuable points.

David Brooks Op Ed piece on building skills foundation in education for students, starting pre-K and up.

Oopsy

No cellies in the library-turn to silent always! And I do practice what I must enforce but, oopsy, my alarm, which is not shut off, happened to sound while I was in the ladies room. Bad wannabelibrarian.

Here's a picture of me feeling bad about that:

(Can you tell I'm overly tired and things are very slow?)

Side Note: It All Adds Up to Nine

'Ne and I were talking about the things we like to teach & learn, writing being the top, as she is teaching writing for the summer and I am going to "writing school" (leaving for my love, Maine, tomorrow night) for part of the summer.

But we also agreed that it is fun to teach math to elementary school students, especially the nines tables:

Did anyone else watch Square One when they were little? I freakin' loved this show, especially the last section, which was "Mathnet" a spoof of Dragnet. They'd solve cases using math. Awesomeness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtRm8VVpmVI&feature=related

After a Night of Movies on TV Binge - Walk the Line & Troy

After a Night of Movies-on-TV Binge - Walk the Line & Troy

I just added some Johnny Cash to my iTunes library. Never had any before, though I feel like I know half the songs by heart already.

Comedian Jim Gaffigan has a bit about DVDs & how it's hard to talk about the ones you watch that are old, because then people are like, "Didn't that come out in 1987?" Or something like that. I feel that way now, because I remembered to buy me some Johnny Cash tunes after viewing the tail end of "Walk the Line" on FX last night, during my first TV binge in weeks and I'm sharing the news with y'all & you're like, "der that movie is so old wtf", (that's what you'd be like if you were 16, at least).

After "Walk the Line", I watched "Troy" on AMC.

I was all about the blockbusters of the mid-aughts. (That's what I've decided to call this decade: "the aughts". Spread the word, let's start this trend. --Someone prob already has though. --But, anyway, I'm calling it. I say you put that in Wikipedia and attribute it to me.)

Seeing the movie loosely based on the Iliad made me nostalgic for teaching the Odyssey.

One of my best moments teaching was when two girls cried after reading about Odysseus and Penelope sleeping in their marriage bed for the first time in 20 years. That was a neat-o moment (for Odysseus & Penelope and for me...in very different ways) -- that the girls were so involved, so touched by the story and I had introduced it to them and all that. It's pretty much the moment you live for as a teacher. So, thanks Brad Pitt, for the trip down memory lane. And also thank you for being so ruggedly handsome.

Repost: Teaching & the BSQ

Teaching and the BSQ

July 27, 2006 @ 11:16 pm

If you ever consider working in the field of education, it is important to think about your BSQ before you pick what level you want to teach.

The three main levels are elementary, middle and high school. But there’s also pre-school, adult ed, college, ESL, etc. In regards to the 3 levels most thought of— elem., middle and high school— you should determine your BSQ early-on, then set out on the correct education path.

What’s the BSQ? The BSQ is a term I made up. It is short for the “bull shit quotient.” That is, what type of bull shit can you tolerate on a daily basis?

Can you tolerate unprovoked attitude or relentless apathy? Then teach high school.

Can you tolerate baby talk, tattle-tailing and whining? Elementary school is your game.

An insane combination of both? You’re one of the chosen ones: a middle school teacher.

Honestly, I’d rather vomit everyday than listen to little kids piss and moan about teasing and name-calling. “Timmy said I was stupid.” “Jeanie pulled Johnny’s hooded sweatshirt.” Ugh. Seriously, shut the eff up and deal with it.

Now, constant shrugs and replies of “nothun’” to any given question. Pshaw, that’s easy. Mostly what I did was ignore such apathy and keep chipping away at the wall until it came tumbling down. Don’t ask me why I cared; I just did.

Same with the unprovoked attitude. I just addresed it, instead of ignoring it or giving attitude back. I did— and still do— simply call the little PITAs on their BS shoulder-chips. I stress politeness and respect. I explain I will always give it, so I always expect it. I hold myself to it and also offer much praise when the little rays of sunshine shoot from behind the attitudinal walls.

And the next thing you know, half your friends on myspace are former students of yours! Magic.

But give me a kid slipping extra ”sshhh,” “sss” and “thhsss” in his words, like a baby, and I’ll show you a woman libel to smack ‘em around. Well, not quite that harsh, but that’s what I’d like to do.

For Posterity's Sake

Photo Posting, for Posterity's Sake

I just wanted to post this photo of me that pops up when you search my name - cause, yeah, I search my name to see what happens. Don't you?

This one only pops up every once in a while, though. Since it's so old, I"m afraid it's going to go away, so I am reposting it here. It's Steph Hayward on the right and my face on the left, reading at Bumstock in 2001, when UMaine still had Bumstock and opted to do a poetry reading in the second tent. We knew it was going to be tricky to get drunkass Bumstock goers to pay attention to us, so we read some funny sexpoems by e e cummings and then threw candy out into the crowd but only if they clapped. That captivated people and got more people in the tent. And that's when read our own stuff. Tee hee. Ah, college.

Purdy

Okay, this is very very bad. I know. I took it. And I didn't delete it. Here's the thing though: I wanted to put it on my blog for posterity's sake. Because it makes me laugh at myself. I think everyone needs a purdy picture like this of themselves in public view on the internet to take themselves down a few notches when they're feeling mighty fhine.

You hear that, Anderson Cooper?

If I Were to Join E Harmony

If I were to join E-Harmony, this is what I would submit for my photos. Anyone who knows me, know this is the best you'll get:

Repost: The Original Valentine's Day Sucks Poem

Repost: Journals from Tenth Grade (Oh my Lordy Lordy.)

Sometimes it's good to keep a journal, so you can go back to it 14 years later and laugh at yourself. It makes the current moment seem a little more "This too shall pass" and a little less "ugh."

Here is a repost of when I found my journals from 1994, including the poem I wrote on Valentine's Day, after Na te C orddry dumped me. (See the entire "I Hate Valentine's Day" series here.) Now, I was being sarcastic when I wrote this. It as a bad-on-purpose/making fun of my sadness poem. Pretty clever for a 15 year old.

So, here is my repost about discovering my journal from sophomore year of high school...

Journal Discovery: Getting Dumped on V-Day and more

July 18, 2006

actual pages from one of my 1994 journals

It’s funny how we perceive memories of the past and they’re totally wrong. I mean, I thought I was a lot more innocent when I was a sophomore in high school, but apparently, I wasn’t.

Also, every journal entry from sophomore year during the one act drama competition, I talk about how much I hate Mrs. Smith, whom I have come, since becoming a high school drama teacher, to admire and respect and find nice compared to, say, me.

Another thing that’s funny is the people I talk about in the journal entry from twelve years ago: Jesse, Danielle, Katie, Kara, Danielle T, Keri…all people I have spoken to at least once in the last three months, if not more. How weird. Part of that is thanks to the magic of myspace and facebook. Who would have thought?

Also, I wrote about wanting to be a writer, even back then. I said I didn’t know what I wanted; one thing I thought of being was an actor on SNL, but I also said maybe I’ll by a screenplay writer or a freelance writer. And I wondered what I’d be when I grew up. Twelve years later, I’m still wondering but I think I have a firmer grasp. [Note: it's now almost 14 years later, and I'm almost sure of what I want to be when I grow up, but double check in two more year and we'll see...]

I used big words appropriately and I wrote well back then, especially for a 15 year old. I wrote poems, too. And re-reading them I find I didn’t hate them, which is always nice. To not completely hate the poems you wrote during the thick of adolescence says something. Here’s a poem from 1994. It was done with a whole heap of humor, mind you, but also with honesty:

2/14/94

Rarely does one speak of the
Nose tear
Snot from the same sadness
As the tears of the eye

It dribbles, sneaking out
Along with the tears of the eye
Which are hot
and speed, elegantly, down the cheek

Yet the nose tear creeps and falls down
Slowly, along the path of the miserable frown

And how lonely this very tear is!
For, you see, it comes alone
With no similarly depressed other

Unlike the eye tears, which follow each other
In support down to the solemn chin

The cold nose tear’s
Worth no help to anyone

But to remind
Of how slow, cold, lonely and
Sneaky a person can actually be

Photo from Flickr

So, that’s the poem I wrote after being dumped on Valentine’s Day (not that I cared that much because I kept making out with the kid for weeks after this incident until I met Scott H. at the Freshman/ Sophomore track meet and then he became my cute surfer/skateboarder looking country boyfriend from Bridgewater -- I remember we’d talk on the phone and he’d see cows out his window and I’d see ambulances rushing by...whew, major high school digression there...) So, I hope you laughed as much as I did.

Ah high school drama.

The Trouble with Parking

The trouble with snow, Maine and the tourist-drenched town of Freeport is that you can never tell what is a legitimate parking spot and what it made up.

Behind the Rite Aid, where I'd stopped to buy some forgotten items from home, I parked next to a car that was behind the building.

In all honesty, it was probably wishful thinking on my part, that the place was actually a spot. And I, with my loathsome MA license plate, was looked upon with disdain, when I returned to my spot after my errand, by the pepe unloading trash into the dumpster situated next to my made up parking spot .

I smiled at him and said, "Hi."
He looked at my car and said, "Chuh, this is a bad spot," in his Lewiston-y French Canadian accent (hence my naming him a pepe).

A crunchy, compact layer of snow is compressed onto all lots, so it's "use your imagination" time when in comes to parking.

I'm so self conscience, having a MA license plate here in Freeport. And staying at the relatively "swanky" Hilton. I want to holler to all prejudiced locals, "But I worked at M a st La ndin g! I'm relatively local! I know this area!"

'Tis no use. With the license plate from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts comes all its inherent Mass-hole prejudices, no matter the fact that I've driven down Bow St a bigillion times to get to work, no matter that I lived in five different towns and worked in 12 different towns of Maine. I have the dread Mass plates. I am guilty of being not from here.

Sad.

And also a microcosm of my feelings on being in Wey-boring again, instead of up here.