Here's how we look while "we" are going on 38 weeks (out of 40) pregnant.
Sunday, April 08, 2007
For the first time in my life...
people are amazed at how small I am!
Here's how we look while "we" are going on 38 weeks (out of 40) pregnant.
Here's how we look while "we" are going on 38 weeks (out of 40) pregnant.
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Grandma Lew's 80th.
Yesterday was the first time a stranger offered me a seat on the bus. Mind you, I was kinda working for it. I made sure to slouch and stick my belly out as far as it would go. When one side of the bus was not playing, I turned to the other side. It was going to be a long ride - Yonge to McCowan on Steeles.
We were heading to Grandma Lew's 80th birthday celebration. We were running late - a combination of the TNL show running late and my insisting that we absolutely had to stop for presents. Dion understood the need for some jewellery, which we usually get her at Christmas, but needed some convincing on the flowers. See the jewellery is nice but it goes in box. The flowers go on display; so, Grandma can tell all her neighbours that they were from her Grandson for her 80th when they inquire. She need not be so unhumble as to bring up the subject herself.
I'm just a bit concerned because there were a number of lilies, which might stink up her small apartment in a hurry. Ah well, it's the thought that counts and I think the presents had the desired effect. I think Dion's dad scored some points for arranging the celebration and even more for knowing to do it in the first place!
We were heading to Grandma Lew's 80th birthday celebration. We were running late - a combination of the TNL show running late and my insisting that we absolutely had to stop for presents. Dion understood the need for some jewellery, which we usually get her at Christmas, but needed some convincing on the flowers. See the jewellery is nice but it goes in box. The flowers go on display; so, Grandma can tell all her neighbours that they were from her Grandson for her 80th when they inquire. She need not be so unhumble as to bring up the subject herself.
I'm just a bit concerned because there were a number of lilies, which might stink up her small apartment in a hurry. Ah well, it's the thought that counts and I think the presents had the desired effect. I think Dion's dad scored some points for arranging the celebration and even more for knowing to do it in the first place!
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
good to know
One of my memory sticks made it through the washing machine alive. It didn't even have a lid on it. Phew. I'm glad it was in the pocket of pants that don't go in the dryer.
Monday, March 19, 2007
The sensible versus the ordinary
I was explaining to Dion yesterday how unthinking students can be in applying rules for significant figures. They try to memorise and apply rules of thumb instead of reason. Many will tell you that "Zeroes after the decimal point are significant; therefore, 0.00182 m has five significant digits." I suppose it would have eight if written in km. 0.00000182 km. No consideration of certainty or precision is to be found here. Dion's response was that they should just be using scientific notation, i.e., 1.82 X 10^-3 m. Indeed, scientific notation is superior to standard notation in this respect. Unfortunately, in everyday life and definitely in most Physics textbooks, most values are stated in standard notation.
This reminded us of an incident I meant to blog. At Chinese New Year with Dion's extended family, we played the name game. One clue provoked later discussion on the relative merits of improper versus mixed fractions. Most of us prefer improper fractions. Mixed fractions are computationally inelegant. We're snobs with engineering, science, accounting, ... degrees. However, as a math teacher, I felt obliged to point out that in everyday life, no one uses improper fractions. Would I say that I'm 15/2 months pregnant? Of course not. The paper is 17/2 by 11 inches? equally stupid.
Dion's cousin, who is in Grade 9, was in the game for the first time rather than just time keeping and recording scores. He had put in one clue then later picked it up himself. He was able to get his teammates to say, "improper fraction," but despite clear appeals to the equivalence of another form, they could not come up with "mixed fraction." After some time and several tries, he exasperatedly retorted, "Don't you guys know math?". Pwned.
This reminded us of an incident I meant to blog. At Chinese New Year with Dion's extended family, we played the name game. One clue provoked later discussion on the relative merits of improper versus mixed fractions. Most of us prefer improper fractions. Mixed fractions are computationally inelegant. We're snobs with engineering, science, accounting, ... degrees. However, as a math teacher, I felt obliged to point out that in everyday life, no one uses improper fractions. Would I say that I'm 15/2 months pregnant? Of course not. The paper is 17/2 by 11 inches? equally stupid.
Dion's cousin, who is in Grade 9, was in the game for the first time rather than just time keeping and recording scores. He had put in one clue then later picked it up himself. He was able to get his teammates to say, "improper fraction," but despite clear appeals to the equivalence of another form, they could not come up with "mixed fraction." After some time and several tries, he exasperatedly retorted, "Don't you guys know math?". Pwned.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Good Workout
For the first half of my pregnancy, I was heeding the old-fashioned advice of limitting my heart rate at 140 and doubling the during of my workout. But since that was about as boring as can be and I had done a little more research, I upped it to 160, which is the most conservative limit being suggested these days.
I had taken a couple of weeks off the treadmill since I'd been feeling a cold coming on. I never got sick but the feeling has been lingering. So when I went for a workout today, I decided to go easy, keeping my heart rate around 140. I control my heart rate with the pace and incline settings on the treadmill.
Well, today, I had to increase and increase the settings - way past the settings that normally get me to 160. I took me 30 minutes of increases to get to 140 and I was sweating buckets, so I just stuck with 140 for the rest of my workout.
Just a good day? or am I in the best cardiovascular condition I've been in all year - maybe since playing varsity? I felt like a machine.
I'd heard that pregnant women oxygenate better than other women and that elite endurance athletes who are mothers outperform non-mothers (I don't know if that is controlled for age/experience). I guess pregnancy is like altitude training.
I had taken a couple of weeks off the treadmill since I'd been feeling a cold coming on. I never got sick but the feeling has been lingering. So when I went for a workout today, I decided to go easy, keeping my heart rate around 140. I control my heart rate with the pace and incline settings on the treadmill.
Well, today, I had to increase and increase the settings - way past the settings that normally get me to 160. I took me 30 minutes of increases to get to 140 and I was sweating buckets, so I just stuck with 140 for the rest of my workout.
Just a good day? or am I in the best cardiovascular condition I've been in all year - maybe since playing varsity? I felt like a machine.
I'd heard that pregnant women oxygenate better than other women and that elite endurance athletes who are mothers outperform non-mothers (I don't know if that is controlled for age/experience). I guess pregnancy is like altitude training.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Technology in the Classroom
WARNING: Physics- and Pedagogy-Intensive
I’ve often liked certain specific technological activities for improving understanding. For example, I really like motion sensors with real-time distance-vs-time displays for various motion activities. A particularly cool one is the distance-vs-time graph for an object moving at constant speed in circles.
It’s a very graphic, so to speak, connection between the unit circle and sinusoidal waves and transformations thereof. Most systems will do v-t and a-t graphs also.
About a week ago, I was looking online for a simple demo for electric fields and/or the motion of charges in electric fields. We don’t have much equipment for this topic at the school, so I have struggled to make electric fields even somewhat concrete for the students. Lots of chalk-and-talk. But online, I found a great little simulation applet (http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/waves_particles/wavpart2.html) that shows the motion of an electron in the electric field of a proton. So, the next day in class, I connected my laptop wirelessly to the internet and to a data projector. I illustrated a 1-D calculation I was doing on the board and then later showed some of the 2-D possibilities and we talked about the shapes and energy transformations involved. I loved it but I had no idea it was going to be such a big hit with the students.
There are more such simulations (not all fields) indexed at http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/applets/ and many other websites.
But I experienced an enrichment of understanding through simulation for myself today.
I had asked my students to submit proposals for the fields unit test they were writing today. I like this exercise in that it often yields perfectly valid test and exam questions (not just bonus questions) and it gives every student the opportunity to think as deeply about the material as they are ready to. The winner this time was: “Sketch the electric field diagram for two positive point charges and one negative point charge fixed to the vertices of an equilateral triangle. All three have the same magnitude of charge.” A tough problem for grade 12s, to be sure. During the test, I spent a good 15, maybe 20, minutes making a pretty detailed sketch. And although I was reasonably confident that I had a good answer, I went online to try and find a textbook answer. I didn’t find one, but I did find an applet (http://ww2.slcc.edu/schools/hum_sci/physics/tutor/2220/e_fields/java/) that would let me simulate it. Here is the applet answer and mine.
Pretty much I got it but I didn’t have the “ears” or “heart-shape” exaggerated enough.
Aside: After the test, I overheard one student asking another, “Did your answer to the bonus look like a jellyfish?” Woah. I have no idea what a sketch of a jellyfish would look like.
Then I went home and started telling Dion the story above. He had no visuals to go on but when I said I had all the key features, and listed them including, “heart-shape,” he replied, “well, of course, that’s what I’d expect – a circle subtracted from an ellipse.” Uh, what the hell was he talking about? Turns out he was thinking of the equipotential contours, which are at all points perpendicular to the electric field we were supposed to be sketching. Ah, vector calculus. Something about the derivative of a changing vector being perpendicular to it. I truly do not remember sketching equipotential contours. I probably did, but I’m sure I forgot it all 10 minutes after the exam. Anyone remember when we did that – Dimi’s E+M? ODE’s with Smith? I never took PDE’s.
So, after showing Dion the applet and how it does both field lines and equipotential contours, I started playing around with various configurations. Some pretty patterns came out. And some mundane ones. But this one really caught my attention.
The red dots are positive point charges. The grey lines are the electric field lines. The fuchsia lines are equipotential contours and at all points perpendicular to the field, of course – that much I have solidly known for some time.
But I know that fuchsia pattern from something else. If those red dots were charges moving out of the page, then the fuchsia lines would be the net magnetic field they create (per Oersted’s Principle and superposition). I use this diagram in Gr 11 Physics to explain the shape and strength of the magnetic field created by a solenoid/electromagnet.
Hang on there. The (1) electric equipotential contours perpendicular to the (2) electric field lines created by (3) static charges have the same shape as the (4) magnetic field lines created by (5) motion of charges.
(1), (2), and (5) or (1), (4), and (5) are all mutually perpendicular.
MAXWELL!
If I could just remember all that div, grad, curl stuff, I could write this down much more concisely. Actually, the Cartoon Guide to Physics (Gonick and Huffman, Harper-Collins) has Maxwell’s equations. I’ll scan ‘em for y’all later. BTW I cannot recommend the Cartoon Guide to Physics highly enough.
Anyway, who knows when I might have reencountered these ideas so intimately without the simulation software, some unconstrained time to explore, and some “expert” input from Dion. I might be able to transfer some of this experience into my lesson/unit planning.
Problem is, I am me and they are not. If I give 17 year olds unconstrained time to play with simulations, how effectively will they use that time? Will they be inclined to think about what they’re playing with? How much time is needed before the probability of gaining a new insight becomes reasonably high?
And now if I can ask a favour? Can anyone figure out how to get a working local copy of these applets? I’ve downloaded all the related source files (and the objects they call) I can find and maintained the file structure, but they just won’t run. Do they have to phone home? I’d like my own copy as the internet connection at school is flaky and who know how long these websites will be maintained. Thanks.
I’ve often liked certain specific technological activities for improving understanding. For example, I really like motion sensors with real-time distance-vs-time displays for various motion activities. A particularly cool one is the distance-vs-time graph for an object moving at constant speed in circles.
It’s a very graphic, so to speak, connection between the unit circle and sinusoidal waves and transformations thereof. Most systems will do v-t and a-t graphs also.
About a week ago, I was looking online for a simple demo for electric fields and/or the motion of charges in electric fields. We don’t have much equipment for this topic at the school, so I have struggled to make electric fields even somewhat concrete for the students. Lots of chalk-and-talk. But online, I found a great little simulation applet (http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/waves_particles/wavpart2.html) that shows the motion of an electron in the electric field of a proton. So, the next day in class, I connected my laptop wirelessly to the internet and to a data projector. I illustrated a 1-D calculation I was doing on the board and then later showed some of the 2-D possibilities and we talked about the shapes and energy transformations involved. I loved it but I had no idea it was going to be such a big hit with the students.
There are more such simulations (not all fields) indexed at http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/applets/ and many other websites.
But I experienced an enrichment of understanding through simulation for myself today.
I had asked my students to submit proposals for the fields unit test they were writing today. I like this exercise in that it often yields perfectly valid test and exam questions (not just bonus questions) and it gives every student the opportunity to think as deeply about the material as they are ready to. The winner this time was: “Sketch the electric field diagram for two positive point charges and one negative point charge fixed to the vertices of an equilateral triangle. All three have the same magnitude of charge.” A tough problem for grade 12s, to be sure. During the test, I spent a good 15, maybe 20, minutes making a pretty detailed sketch. And although I was reasonably confident that I had a good answer, I went online to try and find a textbook answer. I didn’t find one, but I did find an applet (http://ww2.slcc.edu/schools/hum_sci/physics/tutor/2220/e_fields/java/) that would let me simulate it. Here is the applet answer and mine.
Pretty much I got it but I didn’t have the “ears” or “heart-shape” exaggerated enough.
Aside: After the test, I overheard one student asking another, “Did your answer to the bonus look like a jellyfish?” Woah. I have no idea what a sketch of a jellyfish would look like.
Then I went home and started telling Dion the story above. He had no visuals to go on but when I said I had all the key features, and listed them including, “heart-shape,” he replied, “well, of course, that’s what I’d expect – a circle subtracted from an ellipse.” Uh, what the hell was he talking about? Turns out he was thinking of the equipotential contours, which are at all points perpendicular to the electric field we were supposed to be sketching. Ah, vector calculus. Something about the derivative of a changing vector being perpendicular to it. I truly do not remember sketching equipotential contours. I probably did, but I’m sure I forgot it all 10 minutes after the exam. Anyone remember when we did that – Dimi’s E+M? ODE’s with Smith? I never took PDE’s.
So, after showing Dion the applet and how it does both field lines and equipotential contours, I started playing around with various configurations. Some pretty patterns came out. And some mundane ones. But this one really caught my attention.
The red dots are positive point charges. The grey lines are the electric field lines. The fuchsia lines are equipotential contours and at all points perpendicular to the field, of course – that much I have solidly known for some time.
But I know that fuchsia pattern from something else. If those red dots were charges moving out of the page, then the fuchsia lines would be the net magnetic field they create (per Oersted’s Principle and superposition). I use this diagram in Gr 11 Physics to explain the shape and strength of the magnetic field created by a solenoid/electromagnet.
Hang on there. The (1) electric equipotential contours perpendicular to the (2) electric field lines created by (3) static charges have the same shape as the (4) magnetic field lines created by (5) motion of charges.
(1), (2), and (5) or (1), (4), and (5) are all mutually perpendicular.
MAXWELL!
If I could just remember all that div, grad, curl stuff, I could write this down much more concisely. Actually, the Cartoon Guide to Physics (Gonick and Huffman, Harper-Collins) has Maxwell’s equations. I’ll scan ‘em for y’all later. BTW I cannot recommend the Cartoon Guide to Physics highly enough.
Anyway, who knows when I might have reencountered these ideas so intimately without the simulation software, some unconstrained time to explore, and some “expert” input from Dion. I might be able to transfer some of this experience into my lesson/unit planning.
Problem is, I am me and they are not. If I give 17 year olds unconstrained time to play with simulations, how effectively will they use that time? Will they be inclined to
And now if I can ask a favour? Can anyone figure out how to get a working local copy of these applets? I’ve downloaded all the related source files (and the objects they call) I can find and maintained the file structure, but they just won’t run. Do they have to phone home? I’d like my own copy as the internet connection at school is flaky and who know how long these websites will be maintained. Thanks.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
start to second semester
After getting to 10% in almost 3000 games, I reset the stats. I'm playing a lot less but doing a lot better. In 500 games, I'm one game over 250. Does anyone say that? Or can one only say one game over/under 500.
Wrapping up first semester was really hectic but second semester is off to a good start. My classes are strong academically and I have some personalities, too. I have started out really on the ball. I'm trying to have everything in order for the sake of my replacement if I need to start my leave suddenly. This is probably the first weekend since September that I didn't have anything to mark. I'm also trying to be on the ball for the sake of Kaitlin, who is teaching 12U Physics for the first time. We're doing the units in an unusual order (starting with the hardest three of six) for a few reasons.
- I will be starting my leave right around midterm, so I'll be at school to help Kaitlin through the weirder stuff.
- This will leave the easiest half of the course for my replacement.
- The grade 12's usually go on virtual vacation as soon as midterm marks are in, as these are the basis for most university acceptances. (They'd really have to tank to have any offers rescinded.) This way, I have their attention and motivation for the tough stuff and more of them will learn something.
- These are the units I enjoy most anyway. Why leave them for someone else?
- I'm sending a message to all those students with 80 and 90 percents at midterm in first semester who drop the course and retake it second semester, thinking that they may as well get tested on stuff that they've been taught twice and never get tested on the tough stuff (at least before marks go in to the universities).
The only downside is that the actual instructional planning can be a little complicated. Until the students have covered circular motion and momentum, a number of applications need to be postponed, e.g., the Compton effect, cyclotrons, and calculations for Rutherford electron orbits.
Monday, January 08, 2007
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
I had photos,
so I thought, "what the hell, I'll post." and then it ended up super-long. grr.
SINCE LAST POST
junior girls' volleyball has been hit and miss. A nice group of girls (and nice to each other, which is rare) but a little immature. good athletes but underperforming. I think we're 1-5.
bought Gina's old car - a 2003 Echo 4-door manual. done all the paper work, plating, insuring etc.... Johnson's quoted us over 4000 per year, including condo. Got a State Farm Policy for about 2000 per year, including condo. (It's so high because I've never been insured before.) Here's a photo I found online. Same colour even.
Holidays have been very nice.
-Greyhound to Ottawa on the 22nd.
-all Christmas shopping accomplished in around 4 hours on Saturday.
-visited Doug and Mel (Mackenzie and Keira also) in the afternoon, Uncle Mike in the evening
-went to the Christmas Eve service at McLeod-Stewarton. Dion mostly enjoys ripping apart the organist. She improvises the harmony for the last verse of every song, making it impossible to sing any of the harmony voice parts as written. pretty self-indulgent, no? plus the unevenness of the right hand. appalling.
-snacks at Joan's after church.
-nice brunch on Christmas then on the road back to T.O with Dad and Ian for Christmas dinner on Goldhawk. built gingerbread houses after dinner - very fun. Let's do that again. Also very fun are Dance, Dance Revolution and the wii. I sucked at DDR but kicked butt bowling on the wii. Dion is a DDR natural, of course.
-saw the "new" Bond movie on Boxing Day with Ian.
-showed Dad and Ian the condo, went to Indigo with them. I restrained myself to 4 books. Ian bought closer to a dozen.
-went for lunch with Dion and 5 of his WOW DJ friends. no surprises really. a clean-cut, late 20s group.
-don't remember much more but did do some marking last week. I have SO much marking to do.
-New Year's Eve at Ann and Steve's. good fun. Sophia loves Dion. Opposites attract? I brought crudite and a cheese plate. Apples to Apples, the boardgame Becky gave to me for Christmas last year, was a pretty big hit. I really was just throwing "Gallbladder" away. Who was to know that Evan would think that a gallbladder was unscrupulous?
-Dion demoralised that Ann, Steve, Evan, and Daniella won at curling without us on the 22nd.
-lots of research into pantry/cabinetry/storage options for the hallway opposite the kitchen. Finally ordered wardrobes from Ikea.
TODAY
-did some marking
-bought some maternity pants. Don't need them quite yet. but soon, very soon.
-exchanged some bathroom accessories because they didn't quite match. kinda bold for me and Dion but I like it. Here's a photo of what I got in exchange. (the shower curtain plus stacks of coordinating towels. Our ensuite bathroom is painted the same colour.) colour doesn't always come out. walls - pistacio. towels - plum.
11 weeks I think. I can't find the 19 week one right now. This one's cuter anyway. I'm 24 weeks now. baby should appear around the end of April. front-runners for names are Adam and Jill.
MOVIES
Casino Royale (Bond). I like the new guy very much. I also liked the reduction in cheesy lines.
BOOKS
bought
The Giant Little Book of Science Facts
The Giant Little Book of Science Experiments
The Trouble with Physics by Lee Smolin
Vinyl Cafe Unplugged by Stuart McLean.
I've been reading the last one and I even read a couple of stories to Dion last night. best line so far: "Murder was in his house and it sounded just like someone trying to flush a cat down the toilet." italics by the author.
SINCE LAST POST
junior girls' volleyball has been hit and miss. A nice group of girls (and nice to each other, which is rare) but a little immature. good athletes but underperforming. I think we're 1-5.
bought Gina's old car - a 2003 Echo 4-door manual. done all the paper work, plating, insuring etc.... Johnson's quoted us over 4000 per year, including condo. Got a State Farm Policy for about 2000 per year, including condo. (It's so high because I've never been insured before.) Here's a photo I found online. Same colour even.Holidays have been very nice.
-Greyhound to Ottawa on the 22nd.
-all Christmas shopping accomplished in around 4 hours on Saturday.
-visited Doug and Mel (Mackenzie and Keira also) in the afternoon, Uncle Mike in the evening
-went to the Christmas Eve service at McLeod-Stewarton. Dion mostly enjoys ripping apart the organist. She improvises the harmony for the last verse of every song, making it impossible to sing any of the harmony voice parts as written. pretty self-indulgent, no? plus the unevenness of the right hand. appalling.
-snacks at Joan's after church.
-nice brunch on Christmas then on the road back to T.O with Dad and Ian for Christmas dinner on Goldhawk. built gingerbread houses after dinner - very fun. Let's do that again. Also very fun are Dance, Dance Revolution and the wii. I sucked at DDR but kicked butt bowling on the wii. Dion is a DDR natural, of course.
-saw the "new" Bond movie on Boxing Day with Ian.
-showed Dad and Ian the condo, went to Indigo with them. I restrained myself to 4 books. Ian bought closer to a dozen.
-went for lunch with Dion and 5 of his WOW DJ friends. no surprises really. a clean-cut, late 20s group.
-don't remember much more but did do some marking last week. I have SO much marking to do.
-New Year's Eve at Ann and Steve's. good fun. Sophia loves Dion. Opposites attract? I brought crudite and a cheese plate. Apples to Apples, the boardgame Becky gave to me for Christmas last year, was a pretty big hit. I really was just throwing "Gallbladder" away. Who was to know that Evan would think that a gallbladder was unscrupulous?
-Dion demoralised that Ann, Steve, Evan, and Daniella won at curling without us on the 22nd.
-lots of research into pantry/cabinetry/storage options for the hallway opposite the kitchen. Finally ordered wardrobes from Ikea.
TODAY
-did some marking-bought some maternity pants. Don't need them quite yet. but soon, very soon.
-exchanged some bathroom accessories because they didn't quite match. kinda bold for me and Dion but I like it. Here's a photo of what I got in exchange. (the shower curtain plus stacks of coordinating towels. Our ensuite bathroom is painted the same colour.) colour doesn't always come out. walls - pistacio. towels - plum.
11 weeks I think. I can't find the 19 week one right now. This one's cuter anyway. I'm 24 weeks now. baby should appear around the end of April. front-runners for names are Adam and Jill.MOVIES
Casino Royale (Bond). I like the new guy very much. I also liked the reduction in cheesy lines.
BOOKS
bought
The Giant Little Book of Science Facts
The Giant Little Book of Science Experiments
The Trouble with Physics by Lee Smolin
Vinyl Cafe Unplugged by Stuart McLean.
I've been reading the last one and I even read a couple of stories to Dion last night. best line so far: "Murder was in his house and it sounded just like someone trying to flush a cat down the toilet." italics by the author.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
delight and outrage
delight - senior boys vball wins north region championship 25-22, 25-23 on thursday. game not really as close as it looks. we were in control of the match except from 0-0 to 4-9 in the second set.
outrage - grade 11 physics class. got the sense that they haven't done homework in ages. took one entire 75 min period to take up two nights homework.
outrage - grade 11 physics class. got the sense that they haven't done homework in ages. took one entire 75 min period to take up two nights homework.
- each table assigned one question to copy solution onto chart paper.
- of course, most not copying solution but doing problem on chart paper.
- solutions posted around classroom.
- announce: open book quiz next day, 3 of these problems, one number changed.
- remainder of period: walk around classroom with notebook, read questions study solutions.
- solutions left posted over lunch time.
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
outraged
Yesterday, I had only 6 of 9 players at the Jr Boys Volleyball practice. And one of them showed up 40 minutes or so late. That was not what outraged me.
Today, the player who was late informed me that he could not play today. That was not what outraged me.
I asked the referee and was informed that I was not allowed to field only 5 players. I was forced to play players who had skipped/missed practice or default. I felt the latter option was unfair to the opposition who had travelled for a game and to the five players who had practiced.
The game started, I looked down the bench and saw my remaining two players. One was on the phone! The other was doing homework!
Not clear on the concept of team. Not even pretending to be interested in what their teammates were doing, cheering for them, supporting them, or even being prepared to substitute into the game.
I'm still seething.
Today, the player who was late informed me that he could not play today. That was not what outraged me.
I asked the referee and was informed that I was not allowed to field only 5 players. I was forced to play players who had skipped/missed practice or default. I felt the latter option was unfair to the opposition who had travelled for a game and to the five players who had practiced.
The game started, I looked down the bench and saw my remaining two players. One was on the phone! The other was doing homework!
Not clear on the concept of team. Not even pretending to be interested in what their teammates were doing, cheering for them, supporting them, or even being prepared to substitute into the game.
I'm still seething.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Spider Solitaire
I have clearly spent WAY too much time playing this game. It has taken me a LONG time to hit 10%. Especially since the stats always round down. I've been over 9.5% for quite a while. I believe it took me 60 or 70 tries to solve one.
Saturday, September 23, 2006
stirring the melting pot
One of my volleyball players told me yesterday that he'll date any type of girl but he's going to marry someone from Afganistan, as he is. Besides his mom would kill him if he didn't.
Where does that sit ethically?
Is it racist for his parents to insist that he marry a girl from Afganistan? I think it depends on the details of their motivation for it. But on the face of it, I don't think it's necessarily racist.
Would it have been racist for my parents to insist that I marry a white man? I think blatantly so.
Double-standard? absolutely. The world is subtle. Equality is not treating everybody the same.
Also, there must be a tipping point in the middle, right? How many generations?
Another example. Racist for whites to use the n-word? absolutely. Racist for blacks? I'd say no. Is it "good" for black people to use the n-word? not good but not racist either, IMHO.
Where does that sit ethically?
Is it racist for his parents to insist that he marry a girl from Afganistan? I think it depends on the details of their motivation for it. But on the face of it, I don't think it's necessarily racist.
Would it have been racist for my parents to insist that I marry a white man? I think blatantly so.
Double-standard? absolutely. The world is subtle. Equality is not treating everybody the same.
Also, there must be a tipping point in the middle, right? How many generations?
Another example. Racist for whites to use the n-word? absolutely. Racist for blacks? I'd say no. Is it "good" for black people to use the n-word? not good but not racist either, IMHO.
double Hugo and Nebula winner
I read Flowers for Algernon today. I remember talking about the premise in my Gr. 5 class with Mr. Seidenspinner. It's really good and a quick read. I confess that I cried through the last few pages.
Monday, September 18, 2006
We bought a condo.
exterior
living room
breakfast bar
master bedroom
2nd bedroom
dining room (the + of 2+)904-25 Maitland. 1200 sf. 2+ bedrooms. Everything's in good shape. Clean. Just move in in November. Close Oct.31.
Monday, September 11, 2006
Canadian Idol
I thought that the final two was going to be a coronation for Eva, who is consistently excellent. And though I've always kinda liked Craig, too, I didn't think he was up to it. He's been underperforming and nervous. But he really brought his A game. surprisingly good, especially on his first two songs. played to his strengths - super powerful. Eva, of course, did really well and deserves to win. I'm just glad Craig made a game of it.
Results are in: Eva won. 3% difference, I think I heard.
Results are in: Eva won. 3% difference, I think I heard.
Monday, August 14, 2006
interesting...
The Guardian has a noteworthy article titled: Websites that changed the world
I agree that these are all influential; however, some are better described as "websites that changed the world wide web."
1. eBay.com
2. wikipedia.com
3. napster.com
4. youtube.com
5. blogger.com
6. friendsreunited.com
7. drudgereport.com
8. myspace.com
9. amazon.com
10. slashdot.org
11. salon.com
12. craigslist.org
13. google.com
14. yahoo.com
15. easyjet.com
I agree that these are all influential; however, some are better described as "websites that changed the world wide web."
1. eBay.com
2. wikipedia.com
3. napster.com
4. youtube.com
5. blogger.com
6. friendsreunited.com
7. drudgereport.com
8. myspace.com
9. amazon.com
10. slashdot.org
11. salon.com
12. craigslist.org
13. google.com
14. yahoo.com
15. easyjet.com
Sunday, August 13, 2006
a good book
bought it Friday, read it Saturday, done by bedtime.
What Should I Do with My Life: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question by Po Bronson. ISBN 0-345-48592-0. $10.99 in Canada.
It's definitely a good read. It's a collection of human interest stories on how some people have made work work for them in different ways at least temporarily. The author admits that he doesn't have a representative sample of Americans - very few minorities, mothers, immigrants etc... mostly white boomers and GenXers.
I would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone, regardless of whether s/he is satisfied with his/her work.
What Should I Do with My Life: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question by Po Bronson. ISBN 0-345-48592-0. $10.99 in Canada.
It's definitely a good read. It's a collection of human interest stories on how some people have made work work for them in different ways at least temporarily. The author admits that he doesn't have a representative sample of Americans - very few minorities, mothers, immigrants etc... mostly white boomers and GenXers.
- There's a guy who gives up law to open a store that sells homestyle cakes (Becky).
- There are several people who find work in and out of their field overseas (Kern and Kristin).
- Several writers (Jaclyn).
- Many people who find or devote themselves to their cause. Why don't I know people who work fulltime for their cause?
- There's only one case of a guy who had spent his life preparing for one profession (marine biology), hated it, made an immediate switch to another profession (dentistry), and lived happily ever after.
- Otherwise there aren't really any fairy tales.
I would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone, regardless of whether s/he is satisfied with his/her work.
Sunday, August 06, 2006
This was in The Guardian. The Guardian!
"According to Levine, parents should take care not to pressurise their children to try to be outstanding at everything...."
pressurise. pressurise!
I believe in language growth and change. I really do. But I cannot accept this.
Woe is I!
pressurise. pressurise!
I believe in language growth and change. I really do. But I cannot accept this.
Woe is I!
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Photos from China
I actually have very few useable photos because of my camera's death and the number of times my film canisters were X-rayed. Which made the following compilation come together very quickly. To the right is my favourite shot and probably the biggest highlight of the trip - hiking the Great Wall at Simatai.
Our guides were invariable surprised that we went to the Great wall twice in Beijing. But they were very different experiences. Compared Badaling, Simatai is a little more remote (about three hours from Beijing versus 1.5 hours) and allows for more climbing. Simatai was restored during the Ming Dynasty and is more rustic than Badaling that has been more recently and heavily restored. There's no climbing the Han Dynasty wall near Dunhuang at the Western-most section of the Great Wall. It's made of straw and clay. This section is about the height of tall person.
| The Great Wall | ||
 |  |  |
| The Great Wall near Dunhuang Han Dynasty | Simatai. The Great Wall near Beijing Ming Dynasty | Badaling. The Great Wall near Beijing Ming Dynasty |
| The Forbidden City | ||
 |  |  |
| The Other Four shots that actually developed properly | |
 |  |
| The Seventeen-Arch Bridge on Kunming Lake at the Summer Palace in Beijing | Jiaohe ruins. There were at one time Buddhas in each of the cubby holes. Jiaohe was a stop on the Silk Road until it was abandonned during Mongol invasions. |
 |  |
| One of our stops on the Silk Road. This is the view from our hotel in Dunhuang | Yang, our favourite guide |
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
The prime directive.
Dion insists that Yolande and I violated the prime directive in Dunhuang.
Our guide, Vicky, was a sweet but mousy young woman. Late on our last night while we were waiting for the driver I decided to make some fun. I asked Vicky if on a night like that, when she gets home late, whether her husband has dinner waiting for her. Well, by the look on her face, you'd think I was from another planet. Of course not. He gets fed at his mother's house.
I explained that in general, Dion and I split the cooking. If I cook, he cleans up. If he cooks, I clean up. cook together, clean together. Vicky was astonished. Not only was I recounting this freely in front of my mother-in-law but even more shockingly, my mother-in-law seemed pretty happy about it. She's proud that Dion pulls his own weight. She pointed out that it's fair that way when both people work and that Vicky could tell her husband that. Vicky's response? "I will. Thank you?"
I also told her that she should teach her son (now 3 years old) to cook. He'll get any girlfriend he wants. Vicky's response? "I will try." I don't think she meant it.
Our guide, Vicky, was a sweet but mousy young woman. Late on our last night while we were waiting for the driver I decided to make some fun. I asked Vicky if on a night like that, when she gets home late, whether her husband has dinner waiting for her. Well, by the look on her face, you'd think I was from another planet. Of course not. He gets fed at his mother's house.
I explained that in general, Dion and I split the cooking. If I cook, he cleans up. If he cooks, I clean up. cook together, clean together. Vicky was astonished. Not only was I recounting this freely in front of my mother-in-law but even more shockingly, my mother-in-law seemed pretty happy about it. She's proud that Dion pulls his own weight. She pointed out that it's fair that way when both people work and that Vicky could tell her husband that. Vicky's response? "I will. Thank you?"
I also told her that she should teach her son (now 3 years old) to cook. He'll get any girlfriend he wants. Vicky's response? "I will try." I don't think she meant it.
making friends in China
On my last night in China, I discovered the easiest way to make friends in China. Sit in an internet cafe with English prominently displayed on your monitor. Eventually, someone will sit beside you and start reading and making conversation. Exactly as 19-y.o. Xiaolaoshu did in my case. It was particularly fun since Xiaolaoshu speaks about 10 words of English so we had to make do with my Mandarin. In fact, we've already exchanged a couple of emails.
Having internet access also facilitates conversation. Babelfish from Altavista is helpful. Google Earth is a big hit but, unfortunately, it doesn't cover any part of China I've looked up.
I was also able to find a way to display the images that I have previously posted on my blog. Several were a source of great amusement for Xiaolaoshu, including that little paragraph in pinyin and characters that I wrote about a weekend. I was pleased that the pinyin seemed funnier than the characters. Xiaolaoshu also had a good laugh at a picture of me and Dion, although, I think he was just laughing at Dion because that is when I pointed out that Dion does not speak Chinese.
Having internet access also facilitates conversation. Babelfish from Altavista is helpful. Google Earth is a big hit but, unfortunately, it doesn't cover any part of China I've looked up.
I was also able to find a way to display the images that I have previously posted on my blog. Several were a source of great amusement for Xiaolaoshu, including that little paragraph in pinyin and characters that I wrote about a weekend. I was pleased that the pinyin seemed funnier than the characters. Xiaolaoshu also had a good laugh at a picture of me and Dion, although, I think he was just laughing at Dion because that is when I pointed out that Dion does not speak Chinese.
Monday, July 10, 2006
so far - will be updating from here
Sorry, Big Brother sees fit for me to update my site but not view the final product or to view any comments from my readers. In fact, because the interface is all in Chinese, I cannot even tell if there are comments. Do comment though, I will reply when I get to an off-label machine or home, whichever comes first.
Style will vary based on queue for computer and connection quality.
Friday the 7th/Saturday the 8th: uneventful travel via Chicago and Tokyo. JAL seats tiny but luckily we had an empty seat next us - the only one on the flight from Chicago to Tokyo, I think. That 5 hour layover in Tokyo was deadly. Sooooo tired.
Sunday the 9th: forbidden city
Tiananmen (the gate, not the square) is awe-inspiring. The forbidden city is fascinating too.
Monday the 10th: climbed the wall at Simatai. incredible though visibility was not always good. In fact, there was a down-pour just as we started back down the mountain. Yolande has never been 5 hours away from dry clothes before.
Oddly enough, I think Yolande has experienced a lot more culture shock than I have. She finds the city quite dirty and our neighbourhood rather rundown. I haven't seen any parts as dirty as Chinatown or Kensington. I also think that she's a little put out by the traffic chaos and the complete lack of "the customer is always right" attitude in the city.
Tuesday the 11th: summer palace. perfect day to do it - hot and muggy. still big crowds even though it's a weekday. irritatingly, the long corridor closed for renovation.
We used public transit to get there. I was very impressed with the subway system. Extremely easy to navigate, all the information you could want clearly and frequently displayed. Unfortunately, we chose a simpler but longer surface route for most of the route. Not so enjoyable except that: there were TVs in the bus (got to watch some of the world cup highlights) and we went by some of the most important University campuses in Beijing.
We still haven't figured out how to get the TV in our room to work.
Wednesday the 12th: Ming tombs and great wall at Badaling. pretty nice tour guide but some required stops at Jade, silk, and tea "factories", i.e., guided shopping. very fun day. stayed up much too late chatting with Yolande.
Thursday the 13th: Tiananmen square but skipping Mao's tomb. WAY too many people.All afternoon in the Temple of Heaven. A very nice park/historica attraction. Some souvenier shopping in the evening and chatting with the hostel staff.
Friday the 14th: pretty much a day off. transfer to another (really nice) Beijing hotel to start the JBC tour. did some walking around. watched some older people doing some traditional dancing in a bank parking lot.
Saturday the 15th: fly to Urumqi (Wulumuqi), Xinjiang province. population 2 million, lovely climate, beautiful valley setting. city farther from the ocean than any other in the world. 5 star hotel. too weird. spend evening walking through the local market. kinda like the shabby parts of kensington but much larger.
strange tour system. It seems we're the only ones who signed up. So far it's just me, Yolande, our guide, and our "driver" in a big-ass Honda. Our driver is obviously some bigshot friend of the tour operator and he is treated like royalty in every restaurant we go. and we're going to nice restaurants.
Sunday the 16th: morning at heavenly lake and heavenly mountain. Just gorgeous. hope my photos turn out. afternoon in nice new museum. mummies made Yolande uncomfortable.
Monday the 17th: drive to Turpan (with same guide and driver), 3 hours away but near one of the lowest land depressions with some of the hottest temperatures ever recorded. waiting until 5pm to start touring when heat should subside. famous for grapes. hotel on the shabby side but email access under one Cdn dollar per hour.
Monday afternoon: Jiaohe ruins. An ancient city on the silk road. Fascinating and beautiful. Whereas I was a puddle of sweat and sunscreen in Beijing because of the constant 30+ temperatures and 90%+ humidity, Yolande really suffered in the 40+ heat and 0% humidity of Turpan. Poor woman doesn't sweat.
Tuesday the 18th: Gaochang ruins, Astana tombs, a vinyard, and a high-wire act [watching, not performing :P ].
Food in Xinjiang province (Urumqi and Turpan) has been delicious.
Tuesday the 18th/Wednesday the 19th: overnight train to Dunhuang in Gansu province. shared a cabin with two Hong Kong business men. slept great. new guide and driver in Dunhuang. still just the two of us in a Honda, but just a Civic maybe, not an enormous one.
Wednesday the 19th: Silk Road Museum in Dunhuang - small but effective. Several hours touring the MoGao grottoes (caves) with a bizarre but fascinating guide and two Americans. The MoGao grottoes is as LonelyPlanet says, "one of the greatest repositories of Buddhist art in the world". dinner first bad meal in China but our guide got us an apology, at least.
FABULOUS hotel in a gorgeous sand dune setting a little outside of town.
Thursday the 20th: drive out to the Jade gate (WuMenGuan) and the Western-most (I think) section of the great wall, both build during the Han dynasty. updating blog while waiting for the heat to break so that we can go climbing sand dunes. It's not even so hot, really.
Thursday evening: climbed sand dunes at Crescent Lake. I took a camel ride, Yolande took a slide on a toboggan.
Friday the 21st: pretty much just killing time. went to the white horse pagoda, which is a monument to a monk's horse, not the important white horse pagoda. helped our taxi driver change a tire on the way. just waiting for our flight to Xi'an.
Friday evening: arrive in Xi'an, Shanxi (aka Shaanxi) province, start of the silk road and capital of numerous Chinese dynasties, notably Han and Tang. quick dinner at the airport then about a one hour drive into Xi'an. Our guide, Yang, is terrific. terrific English, outgoing, intelligent, great conversationalist. laughs at all the right times. He is also a rabbit. It's a good thing he's one of our last guides. Anyone else who follows will/would disappoint.
Saturday the 22nd: Qin Terracotta Army Museum. amazing. Thousands of life-sized terracotta soldiers placed in battle formation as part of the tomb of the second last Qin emperor, Qin Shi Huang. roughly 2200 years old, rediscovered by farmers in 1974. I hope my photos turned out - no flash photography was allowed. Of course, I had my photo taken with a general. Please refer to my previous entry titled: If the shoe fits.... Also, Huaqing Hot Springs then the Shaanxi Provincial Museum, which has great artifacts and exhibits from Neolithic to Tang times. The post-Tang exhibits pale in comparison to those in Beijing.
Saturday evening: Xi'an dumpling banquet with song/dance performance of supposed Tang style. kinda entertaining.
Sunday the 23th: buddhist temple in Xi'an, fly to Chongqing. City has roughly 8 million, municipality has roughly 31 million. Ever heard of it? was completely rebuilt since being utterly destroyed in WWII. dinner, tea "ceremony", i.e., sales pitch, and quick tour of a park before boarding the MS Sunshine after dark for a 3 night, 2.5 day cruise to Yichang along the Yangzi, properly called the Chongjiang.
We learn that there will be Chinese, German, French, Spanish, and Canadian citizens on board. Seems odd. No Americans? In China, only some hotels are allowed to take foreigners, so maybe boats are only allowed to accept specific varieties of foreigners? We tried to guess the reason. I had two ideas. 1. They don't want Chinese people mixing with Americans for the same reason they don't want Chinese people reading blogger.com. seemed weak. perhaps 2. Americans attract attention and thus require more security to quell any lobbyist or protest activity that follows them. We were later told that it was simply a matter of marketing. Our boat targets European and domestic travellers. I'm still not sure what the deal really is.
Final count 120 passengers (2 French, 2 Canadian, 18ish Spanish, 30ish German, remainder Chinese) capacity 160, 110 crew.
Monday the 24th: meet our table mates: a middle-aged French passengers, three middle-aged Germans who were travelling together, a 28-yo German woman, and us. 5 speak French well. 5 speak German well. 6 speak English well. 2 speak Spanish well, 2 poorly. based on talkativeness and assertiveness of the personalities, most group conversation was in French or German. Side conversations were had in English and Spanish. We came to like each other very much.
excursion to Ghost temple. kinda boring actually. after 3 meals, we conclude that the food is going to be mediocre for the whole cruise. "Fashion show" by a dozen or so of the cruise. good sports. takes a lot of humility. A drunk HK business man made an ass of himself by joining in several times.
Tuesday the 25th: findout that Herr Professor Ralf has sprained his ankle. cannot join us on the excursion to Badong, where most locals are from the Tojiao (sp?) minority. I overheard our local guide complain that she had so many foreigners but luckily she was able to switch and we got John, an adorable Tojiao guide with good English. At one temple, he tried to convince me to pray to a goddess who is supposed to grant sons but I refused.
On the way back to the boat, four of us split on a kitsch cane for Ralf. Also, I had made a tiny bit of small chat with some Spaniards earlier and then when one Spanish lady asked me to translate what the English guide was saying, my brain hung. Insufficient memory error. The cache was full. Although I'm not sure whether to say my head was full or empty. But I was paralysed.
Early in the day we entered the Three Gorges. Right when we entered, my camera went kaputt. ah well. No more photos from here on out.
talent show by the crew and passengers. Passenger portions we three karaoke songs and the limbo, which a german group taught to the crowd, who had never seen it before but ate it up.
Wednesday the 26th: excursion to see the locks and dam just upstream from Yichang. pretty impressive. no amount of reading or listening can do justice to a structure that can produce 84 GW of electricity. yes GIGAWATTS, 84 of them.
Before we left, Ralf gave me a small present. A Chinese painting that the onboard artist had made. Carolina, the younger German got one too. I think he was very touched by the cane and wanted to reciprocate.
find out that the French couple received their very first communication in French from the boat. There was no French guide. There were Spanish and German guides and the Chinese guide doubled as an English guide as necessary. The handouts were available in German, English and Chinese only. What is the first communication they get? A handout explaining how and how much to tip. We were horrified. They even asked us to label our tip envelopes with name and room number!
disembark at noon at Yichang. lunch - where we happened to meet up with Carolina. embroidery "factory", where we again meet up with Carolina. but that's it. She's off to Wuhan, we fly to Shanghai. Like Dunhuang, Yichang has only one gate at its airport.
flight late arriving in Shanghai. traffic is insane. Like Beijing only lanes are narrower and streets are more irregularly shaped. Nothing close to a grid, lots of intersections. just enough time to make it to dinner and then an acrobatic show, which was very, very entertaining.
Thursday the 27th: silk "factory". souvenir shopping. Yu Yuan garden. lunch. walk along the Band (river side boardwark). Yolande had a small rest in the afternoon at the hotel and I walked around the hotel. very cute area. A short pedestrian street called duo lun lu. The restaurant at our hotel is called duo lun duo or Toronto.
5 minutes after we arrived at a vast but empty restaurant for dinner, who appears but the three middle-aged Germans? too strange. Our guides don't even know each other or work for the same company.
After dinner we had free time to stroll along (one of?) Shanghai's most famous shopping street(s), Nanjing. We killed tons of time and spend the last of our RMB at Shanghai's biggest bookstore. This place was huge. You can take the teacher out of the school but... Anyway, I left with 13 books (including three Chinese language textbooks) but spent under 50 dollars.
Now, I'm just killing time updating the blog. There's plenty of time for sleeping on the flights home.
Style will vary based on queue for computer and connection quality.
Friday the 7th/Saturday the 8th: uneventful travel via Chicago and Tokyo. JAL seats tiny but luckily we had an empty seat next us - the only one on the flight from Chicago to Tokyo, I think. That 5 hour layover in Tokyo was deadly. Sooooo tired.
Sunday the 9th: forbidden city
Tiananmen (the gate, not the square) is awe-inspiring. The forbidden city is fascinating too.
Monday the 10th: climbed the wall at Simatai. incredible though visibility was not always good. In fact, there was a down-pour just as we started back down the mountain. Yolande has never been 5 hours away from dry clothes before.
Oddly enough, I think Yolande has experienced a lot more culture shock than I have. She finds the city quite dirty and our neighbourhood rather rundown. I haven't seen any parts as dirty as Chinatown or Kensington. I also think that she's a little put out by the traffic chaos and the complete lack of "the customer is always right" attitude in the city.
Tuesday the 11th: summer palace. perfect day to do it - hot and muggy. still big crowds even though it's a weekday. irritatingly, the long corridor closed for renovation.
We used public transit to get there. I was very impressed with the subway system. Extremely easy to navigate, all the information you could want clearly and frequently displayed. Unfortunately, we chose a simpler but longer surface route for most of the route. Not so enjoyable except that: there were TVs in the bus (got to watch some of the world cup highlights) and we went by some of the most important University campuses in Beijing.
We still haven't figured out how to get the TV in our room to work.
Wednesday the 12th: Ming tombs and great wall at Badaling. pretty nice tour guide but some required stops at Jade, silk, and tea "factories", i.e., guided shopping. very fun day. stayed up much too late chatting with Yolande.
Thursday the 13th: Tiananmen square but skipping Mao's tomb. WAY too many people.All afternoon in the Temple of Heaven. A very nice park/historica attraction. Some souvenier shopping in the evening and chatting with the hostel staff.
Friday the 14th: pretty much a day off. transfer to another (really nice) Beijing hotel to start the JBC tour. did some walking around. watched some older people doing some traditional dancing in a bank parking lot.
Saturday the 15th: fly to Urumqi (Wulumuqi), Xinjiang province. population 2 million, lovely climate, beautiful valley setting. city farther from the ocean than any other in the world. 5 star hotel. too weird. spend evening walking through the local market. kinda like the shabby parts of kensington but much larger.
strange tour system. It seems we're the only ones who signed up. So far it's just me, Yolande, our guide, and our "driver" in a big-ass Honda. Our driver is obviously some bigshot friend of the tour operator and he is treated like royalty in every restaurant we go. and we're going to nice restaurants.
Sunday the 16th: morning at heavenly lake and heavenly mountain. Just gorgeous. hope my photos turn out. afternoon in nice new museum. mummies made Yolande uncomfortable.
Monday the 17th: drive to Turpan (with same guide and driver), 3 hours away but near one of the lowest land depressions with some of the hottest temperatures ever recorded. waiting until 5pm to start touring when heat should subside. famous for grapes. hotel on the shabby side but email access under one Cdn dollar per hour.
Monday afternoon: Jiaohe ruins. An ancient city on the silk road. Fascinating and beautiful. Whereas I was a puddle of sweat and sunscreen in Beijing because of the constant 30+ temperatures and 90%+ humidity, Yolande really suffered in the 40+ heat and 0% humidity of Turpan. Poor woman doesn't sweat.
Tuesday the 18th: Gaochang ruins, Astana tombs, a vinyard, and a high-wire act [watching, not performing :P ].
Food in Xinjiang province (Urumqi and Turpan) has been delicious.
Tuesday the 18th/Wednesday the 19th: overnight train to Dunhuang in Gansu province. shared a cabin with two Hong Kong business men. slept great. new guide and driver in Dunhuang. still just the two of us in a Honda, but just a Civic maybe, not an enormous one.
Wednesday the 19th: Silk Road Museum in Dunhuang - small but effective. Several hours touring the MoGao grottoes (caves) with a bizarre but fascinating guide and two Americans. The MoGao grottoes is as LonelyPlanet says, "one of the greatest repositories of Buddhist art in the world". dinner first bad meal in China but our guide got us an apology, at least.
FABULOUS hotel in a gorgeous sand dune setting a little outside of town.
Thursday the 20th: drive out to the Jade gate (WuMenGuan) and the Western-most (I think) section of the great wall, both build during the Han dynasty. updating blog while waiting for the heat to break so that we can go climbing sand dunes. It's not even so hot, really.
Thursday evening: climbed sand dunes at Crescent Lake. I took a camel ride, Yolande took a slide on a toboggan.
Friday the 21st: pretty much just killing time. went to the white horse pagoda, which is a monument to a monk's horse, not the important white horse pagoda. helped our taxi driver change a tire on the way. just waiting for our flight to Xi'an.
Friday evening: arrive in Xi'an, Shanxi (aka Shaanxi) province, start of the silk road and capital of numerous Chinese dynasties, notably Han and Tang. quick dinner at the airport then about a one hour drive into Xi'an. Our guide, Yang, is terrific. terrific English, outgoing, intelligent, great conversationalist. laughs at all the right times. He is also a rabbit. It's a good thing he's one of our last guides. Anyone else who follows will/would disappoint.
Saturday the 22nd: Qin Terracotta Army Museum. amazing. Thousands of life-sized terracotta soldiers placed in battle formation as part of the tomb of the second last Qin emperor, Qin Shi Huang. roughly 2200 years old, rediscovered by farmers in 1974. I hope my photos turned out - no flash photography was allowed. Of course, I had my photo taken with a general. Please refer to my previous entry titled: If the shoe fits.... Also, Huaqing Hot Springs then the Shaanxi Provincial Museum, which has great artifacts and exhibits from Neolithic to Tang times. The post-Tang exhibits pale in comparison to those in Beijing.
Saturday evening: Xi'an dumpling banquet with song/dance performance of supposed Tang style. kinda entertaining.
Sunday the 23th: buddhist temple in Xi'an, fly to Chongqing. City has roughly 8 million, municipality has roughly 31 million. Ever heard of it? was completely rebuilt since being utterly destroyed in WWII. dinner, tea "ceremony", i.e., sales pitch, and quick tour of a park before boarding the MS Sunshine after dark for a 3 night, 2.5 day cruise to Yichang along the Yangzi, properly called the Chongjiang.
We learn that there will be Chinese, German, French, Spanish, and Canadian citizens on board. Seems odd. No Americans? In China, only some hotels are allowed to take foreigners, so maybe boats are only allowed to accept specific varieties of foreigners? We tried to guess the reason. I had two ideas. 1. They don't want Chinese people mixing with Americans for the same reason they don't want Chinese people reading blogger.com. seemed weak. perhaps 2. Americans attract attention and thus require more security to quell any lobbyist or protest activity that follows them. We were later told that it was simply a matter of marketing. Our boat targets European and domestic travellers. I'm still not sure what the deal really is.
Final count 120 passengers (2 French, 2 Canadian, 18ish Spanish, 30ish German, remainder Chinese) capacity 160, 110 crew.
Monday the 24th: meet our table mates: a middle-aged French passengers, three middle-aged Germans who were travelling together, a 28-yo German woman, and us. 5 speak French well. 5 speak German well. 6 speak English well. 2 speak Spanish well, 2 poorly. based on talkativeness and assertiveness of the personalities, most group conversation was in French or German. Side conversations were had in English and Spanish. We came to like each other very much.
excursion to Ghost temple. kinda boring actually. after 3 meals, we conclude that the food is going to be mediocre for the whole cruise. "Fashion show" by a dozen or so of the cruise. good sports. takes a lot of humility. A drunk HK business man made an ass of himself by joining in several times.
Tuesday the 25th: findout that Herr Professor Ralf has sprained his ankle. cannot join us on the excursion to Badong, where most locals are from the Tojiao (sp?) minority. I overheard our local guide complain that she had so many foreigners but luckily she was able to switch and we got John, an adorable Tojiao guide with good English. At one temple, he tried to convince me to pray to a goddess who is supposed to grant sons but I refused.
On the way back to the boat, four of us split on a kitsch cane for Ralf. Also, I had made a tiny bit of small chat with some Spaniards earlier and then when one Spanish lady asked me to translate what the English guide was saying, my brain hung. Insufficient memory error. The cache was full. Although I'm not sure whether to say my head was full or empty. But I was paralysed.
Early in the day we entered the Three Gorges. Right when we entered, my camera went kaputt. ah well. No more photos from here on out.
talent show by the crew and passengers. Passenger portions we three karaoke songs and the limbo, which a german group taught to the crowd, who had never seen it before but ate it up.
Wednesday the 26th: excursion to see the locks and dam just upstream from Yichang. pretty impressive. no amount of reading or listening can do justice to a structure that can produce 84 GW of electricity. yes GIGAWATTS, 84 of them.
Before we left, Ralf gave me a small present. A Chinese painting that the onboard artist had made. Carolina, the younger German got one too. I think he was very touched by the cane and wanted to reciprocate.
find out that the French couple received their very first communication in French from the boat. There was no French guide. There were Spanish and German guides and the Chinese guide doubled as an English guide as necessary. The handouts were available in German, English and Chinese only. What is the first communication they get? A handout explaining how and how much to tip. We were horrified. They even asked us to label our tip envelopes with name and room number!
disembark at noon at Yichang. lunch - where we happened to meet up with Carolina. embroidery "factory", where we again meet up with Carolina. but that's it. She's off to Wuhan, we fly to Shanghai. Like Dunhuang, Yichang has only one gate at its airport.
flight late arriving in Shanghai. traffic is insane. Like Beijing only lanes are narrower and streets are more irregularly shaped. Nothing close to a grid, lots of intersections. just enough time to make it to dinner and then an acrobatic show, which was very, very entertaining.
Thursday the 27th: silk "factory". souvenir shopping. Yu Yuan garden. lunch. walk along the Band (river side boardwark). Yolande had a small rest in the afternoon at the hotel and I walked around the hotel. very cute area. A short pedestrian street called duo lun lu. The restaurant at our hotel is called duo lun duo or Toronto.
5 minutes after we arrived at a vast but empty restaurant for dinner, who appears but the three middle-aged Germans? too strange. Our guides don't even know each other or work for the same company.
After dinner we had free time to stroll along (one of?) Shanghai's most famous shopping street(s), Nanjing. We killed tons of time and spend the last of our RMB at Shanghai's biggest bookstore. This place was huge. You can take the teacher out of the school but... Anyway, I left with 13 books (including three Chinese language textbooks) but spent under 50 dollars.
Now, I'm just killing time updating the blog. There's plenty of time for sleeping on the flights home.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
for later reference
I'm just putting these together for when I'm using internet cafes.
Weather in Chinese Cities
gmail
canada.com
tel
Indy One long streak was broken and one was maintained. Follow the link for more info.
Weather in Chinese Cities
gmail
canada.com
tel
Indy One long streak was broken and one was maintained. Follow the link for more info.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
I should just retire now.
I should take my 6% pension and go out at the top of my game. This year has been unbelievable. Was it perfect? No. But I cannot see how it could possibly get better than this year. This year's grade 12s are just phenomenal. I wondered out loud about this to Bill Huang, who replied that they're mostly Dragons. "A superstitious lot you are." "Yes," he replied, "but you have to believe in something, right?"
Marcus Chan once commented out of the blue that I must have had a really great year, with the volleyball team and my classes. That is quite a perception from a student. Marcus is a very good student and musician and a very good-natured, down-to-earth, mature person. He came to see me today and brought me a present. Books. He gets me, obviously. Marcus is really into the history of science, and so, he has had really enjoyed storytime in my class (I read to my classes for the last 3-5 minutes of every period). He wanted to get me the two books he first read that got him into science but he was having a hard time finding or ordering copies. So, Marcus gave me his own copies.
Are you kidding me? This is too much! I should quit now, right?
Marcus Chan once commented out of the blue that I must have had a really great year, with the volleyball team and my classes. That is quite a perception from a student. Marcus is a very good student and musician and a very good-natured, down-to-earth, mature person. He came to see me today and brought me a present. Books. He gets me, obviously. Marcus is really into the history of science, and so, he has had really enjoyed storytime in my class (I read to my classes for the last 3-5 minutes of every period). He wanted to get me the two books he first read that got him into science but he was having a hard time finding or ordering copies. So, Marcus gave me his own copies.
Are you kidding me? This is too much! I should quit now, right?
Saturday, June 17, 2006
My Mandarin class is over.
I can't believe it's over already. But I was in a state just before class started on Thursday. I was just a mess. I had just emailed out my part of the skit we were performing the night before so I figured it was going to be pretty tough for my group mates to get the lines memorised. Plus I happened to look at the syllabus, which said that there was an exam on the last day. EXAM? He never said anything about an exam. Although I had skipped Tuesday's class to do the bridge PowerPoint presentation. And I hadn't studied in a week. Yikes.
Well, it was all for naught. There was no exam and nobody was memorising their skits. We just read them. My group had the shortest skit by far. We stuck to the suggested 8-10 lines of 8-10 words per person. But I think it went as well as could be expected. Here we are in character as Kramer, Elaine, and Jerry. Oh and Jerry left me hanging for quite a while. Elaine "dances" in the skit.
Keep reading. I did about four entries this week.
Well, it was all for naught. There was no exam and nobody was memorising their skits. We just read them. My group had the shortest skit by far. We stuck to the suggested 8-10 lines of 8-10 words per person. But I think it went as well as could be expected. Here we are in character as Kramer, Elaine, and Jerry. Oh and Jerry left me hanging for quite a while. Elaine "dances" in the skit.Keep reading. I did about four entries this week.
Open Gym
I stay after school on Fridays so that some of the kids can play in the gym until the caretakers kick us out around 6. It all started during the senior girl's volleyball season when I had had it with absenteeism and made a Friday afternoon practice optional and asked a couple of the senior boys to come to give some one-on-one instruction. And it just grew from there but still it's mostly varsity volleyball players and their close friends.
The students are always very appreciative and since yesterday was the last open gym of the year, they got me a little something. I wish I had a photo of the giant thank you note, but it's still at school so that I can laminate it. But here is what the got me. It's too much! I was definitely touched.
They said that they were disappointed that they couldn't get me a pair of the team shoes (the boys all have the same ones) but they didn't have them in my size. Anyway, these fit perfectly and I jumped pretty high in them.
The students are always very appreciative and since yesterday was the last open gym of the year, they got me a little something. I wish I had a photo of the giant thank you note, but it's still at school so that I can laminate it. But here is what the got me. It's too much! I was definitely touched.
They said that they were disappointed that they couldn't get me a pair of the team shoes (the boys all have the same ones) but they didn't have them in my size. Anyway, these fit perfectly and I jumped pretty high in them.
If the shoe fits...
On Wednesday, my gr.12 superstar was signing yearbooks and I looked over to check out his handwriting. His English penmanship is pretty bad. So a brief discussion of handwriting followed. Later in the period he asked me to sign his yearbook and suggested, hahaha, that I could sign in Chinese. Well I signed in English but added my name in Chinese.
Well something just felt wrong about the last character. I couldn't figure out the stroke order, which is weird because I knew that there was nothing exceptional about it. But I gave it back to him. When I got home, I looked it up and saw that I had forgotten the third stroke, so the next three felt weird.
On Thursday, I mentioned this to Mindy and showed her what I wrote. And she looked a little surprised and said, "Do you know what you wrote?" Uh oh. I was hoping it was something random, like "bench" maybe. But no, it was much funnier. It was very apt.
I asked for the yearbook back so that I could correct it - I like it when things are right. And I insisted that it was an honest mistake, that I wasn't trying to be funny or arrogant, so I needed to demote myself to my proper rank.
Instead of Teacher Lew, I had written Old General Lew.
Well something just felt wrong about the last character. I couldn't figure out the stroke order, which is weird because I knew that there was nothing exceptional about it. But I gave it back to him. When I got home, I looked it up and saw that I had forgotten the third stroke, so the next three felt weird.
On Thursday, I mentioned this to Mindy and showed her what I wrote. And she looked a little surprised and said, "Do you know what you wrote?" Uh oh. I was hoping it was something random, like "bench" maybe. But no, it was much funnier. It was very apt.
I asked for the yearbook back so that I could correct it - I like it when things are right. And I insisted that it was an honest mistake, that I wasn't trying to be funny or arrogant, so I needed to demote myself to my proper rank.
Instead of Teacher Lew, I had written Old General Lew.
Monday, June 12, 2006
They looked good before...
but now they're toast. We're doing destructive testing. The bridge must take a load of 300X its own weight for full marks. The largest was just under 500g, the smallest around 120g. With Kevin's help, I created an award for each bridge.
I did a Power Point Presentation with these photos and their group shots. I had to do a preamble for almost every award because they're very language- and culture-rich. But I think that I pulled off some humour. The kids got a really big kick out of the presentation.
In no particular order:
I did a Power Point Presentation with these photos and their group shots. I had to do a preamble for almost every award because they're very language- and culture-rich. But I think that I pulled off some humour. The kids got a really big kick out of the presentation.
In no particular order:
 The brute force award. 150 kg wouldn't break this 480 g bridge. |  The most elegant bridge. held 551 X its own weight. really good use of material and colour. |  The most patriotic bridge. Apparently, there is a story behind the flag. |
 Close but no cigar award. Held 270 times its own weight. |  The never judge a bridge by its cover award. This 120g bridge held 90 kg. I also considered the biggest over-achiever, the little bridge that could, and the ugly duckling. |  It looked even better in real life but it wasn't especially strong. It held only 153X its own weight. Best eye-candy award. |
 All that glitters is glued. |  The Mark McGwire award. The box they bought did say "popsicle sticks" although the rules explicitly said no tongue depressors. |  Most original bridge. Cable stay? out of popsicle sticks? |
 The less is more award |  the more is more award. |  The little bridge that could. held almost 400 times its own weight. |
 The quality is job 1 award. This was meticulously designed and constructed. Using steam and ammonia to create the arch. |  best supporting actruss |  The wood wide web award? I love this photo, more for the seamless than anything. |
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Did I really do this?
Monday, May 29, 2006
My new cousin.
My cousin John and his wife Sophie have just brought a son into the world. He's awfully cute, you must agree. James Qi John Li Iveson. 8 lb 4 oz, if I recall correctly.
Saturday, May 20, 2006
3 angry coaches
The jury is still out for Sr Boy athlete of the year at my school. Beth, Peter, and I are the committee. I'm holding out and lobbying hard for one of these two. Let me condense our HOURS of discussion to a few lines:
Eric Tsui (I was going to use a fake name but I'm being so specific that there's no not knowing who it is if you're from AY)
- vball: #4 or 5 on a team just short of OFSAA. consistent and effective but no flash.
- tennis: can't recall, never saw him play, but this is "his sport"
- badminton: 2nd in North York in boys' doubles (an extremely competitive league). lost only to one team ever - twice in a massive double knock-out
- ultimate: most skilled thrower, leads an effective and aggressive offense, solid defensively
Matthew Lezon
- vball: #1 on a team just short of OFSAA. student of the game, cornerstone of offense, positive leader technically and socially
- bball: #3 on a team that finished 2/7 in North York East league play, did not advance very far in playoffs. able to finish, held his own against some extremely competitive competition
- ultimate: natural leader, capable thrower, leads a solid offense, great read of game, anticipation on defense
This is just too close. At first, I thought I would be happy either way but I'm just not comfortable with our decision yet. I think that both of these kids are terrific but they are very different types of athletes.
Who should be athlete of the year? Why?
Don't forget to read my next entry too - I had two entries this week.
Eric Tsui (I was going to use a fake name but I'm being so specific that there's no not knowing who it is if you're from AY)
- vball: #4 or 5 on a team just short of OFSAA. consistent and effective but no flash.
- tennis: can't recall, never saw him play, but this is "his sport"
- badminton: 2nd in North York in boys' doubles (an extremely competitive league). lost only to one team ever - twice in a massive double knock-out
- ultimate: most skilled thrower, leads an effective and aggressive offense, solid defensively
Matthew Lezon
- vball: #1 on a team just short of OFSAA. student of the game, cornerstone of offense, positive leader technically and socially
- bball: #3 on a team that finished 2/7 in North York East league play, did not advance very far in playoffs. able to finish, held his own against some extremely competitive competition
- ultimate: natural leader, capable thrower, leads a solid offense, great read of game, anticipation on defense
This is just too close. At first, I thought I would be happy either way but I'm just not comfortable with our decision yet. I think that both of these kids are terrific but they are very different types of athletes.
Who should be athlete of the year? Why?
Don't forget to read my next entry too - I had two entries this week.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Help me with my homework...
For my Mandarin course I am to choose and investigate 8 of the following questions. I want to see what generates some good discussion. Comment on any (as many or few as you want) that seem interesting to you. Although some are posed as yes/no questions, I am expected to elaborate.
If applicable, please also tell me
a) if you are of Chinese descent
b) whether your mother tongue is Mandarin or Cantonese
c) how long it has been since you lived in "China" or any version thereof
d) which city or region in "China" is "yours"
If applicable, please also tell me
a) if you are of Chinese descent
b) whether your mother tongue is Mandarin or Cantonese
c) how long it has been since you lived in "China" or any version thereof
d) which city or region in "China" is "yours"
- In general, how do Chinese prefer to say "No" (as in, no, I don't want to do what you're asking of me)?
- Would Chinese prefer to be introduced to strangers or to meet them casually?
- Do Chinese bow at the waist like Japanese or Koreans? What do they do?
- Where do you put someone's name card after they give it to you? Why?
- What's the appropriate resonse when someone flatters you? Why?
- How impartant is the Welcome and Send Off for the Chinese? Why?
- Do most Chinese preer a phone call or a face-to-face visit? Why?
- Are individual expression and rugged independence praised by the Chinese?
- Do some Chinese have an Us-Them view of foreigners? Why? (My addition: how is the affected by marrying in or marrying out?)
- Is China a classless society? How can you see this? Explain.
- Name eight of the confucian values which are still important for many Chinese in the 1990s. (I guess he's been using this assignment for a while.)
- How important is Mianzi (saving/giving/taking face) to Chinese today? Explain.
- Explain the term Reciprocity (huxiang). How important is it?
- How do Chinese deal with the concept of "privacy"? Why? (My addition: within the family? outside the family? for children/teens? This one really hit a nerve for one student in my class.)
- How different are Canadian Chinese from other Chinese? Explain.
Saturday, May 06, 2006
Why did I wait so long?
So, I'm loving my Mandarin course. Things I thought were going to be ridiculously hard haven't been so far. I love learning languages. I really should have done this such a long time ago.
Don't worry, the novelty will soon wear off and I'll started posting about topics other than Mandarin. Anyway...
I think I'm not bad at word attack, word recall, and the meta-game. For example, the instructor pointed to his nose and asked the class what type of nose (bizi) it was. I had no idea what he was getting at but I came up with the answer he was fishing for - mostly by luck. I've only encountered about 50-100 words, and I figured he must be looking for one of them. So I sorted through my adjectives (which are a small proportion of my vocabulary) and said out loud the only one that came to mind - da bizi (big nose). His wasn't even a large nose. But hey, you can call a nose big, right? He was so pleased and asked if anyone had ever called me da bizi. No, I've never heard of this before. Apparently, this is a reference to white people (makes sense). I also know that America (Meiguo) translates roughly as beautiful country so maybe one could call a nose mei but big definitely seems like the better answer.
I've had to ask one of my students for help with my homework once, which was an interesting moment/role reversal. I asked him to keep this Mandarin thing to himself. One, I'd be humiliated to respond if a native speaker wanted to hear me speak, which I can assume s/he very well might. Two, I want to be able to eavesdrop surrepticiously. Three, I don't want my admin or guidance to know or I'll spend hours talking to parents.
On a related note, the topic of mahjong came up in one of my classes today. I told the story of Tiffany's purchase of my contraband set and confessed that I play pretty poorly - my inlaws usually relieve me of my money when we play. To say the least, the class was very amused. I wonder how far the cuteness of a foreigner will take one?
Also, our instructor is really into language as culture, culture as language. And I do find those things interesting, too, but a part of me just wants him to get on with it give us speaking drills and feedback. You can never get a short straight answer on anything with any cultural implication at all, e.g., which title to use for a stranger of a certain sex who is clearly older/younger than you are). It always depends - where are you? where is the stranger from? how long has it been since s/he lived in China? how educated is s/he? But I'm thinking this culture focus is a good thing. Any Mandarin-speak to whom I've mentioned this has a quick and positive response to this description of the instructor. I'm just so pragmatic about most things. I figure that my appearance is going to let me get away with all kinds of minor or even major breaches of protocol.
Don't worry, the novelty will soon wear off and I'll started posting about topics other than Mandarin. Anyway...
I think I'm not bad at word attack, word recall, and the meta-game. For example, the instructor pointed to his nose and asked the class what type of nose (bizi) it was. I had no idea what he was getting at but I came up with the answer he was fishing for - mostly by luck. I've only encountered about 50-100 words, and I figured he must be looking for one of them. So I sorted through my adjectives (which are a small proportion of my vocabulary) and said out loud the only one that came to mind - da bizi (big nose). His wasn't even a large nose. But hey, you can call a nose big, right? He was so pleased and asked if anyone had ever called me da bizi. No, I've never heard of this before. Apparently, this is a reference to white people (makes sense). I also know that America (Meiguo) translates roughly as beautiful country so maybe one could call a nose mei but big definitely seems like the better answer.
I've had to ask one of my students for help with my homework once, which was an interesting moment/role reversal. I asked him to keep this Mandarin thing to himself. One, I'd be humiliated to respond if a native speaker wanted to hear me speak, which I can assume s/he very well might. Two, I want to be able to eavesdrop surrepticiously. Three, I don't want my admin or guidance to know or I'll spend hours talking to parents.
On a related note, the topic of mahjong came up in one of my classes today. I told the story of Tiffany's purchase of my contraband set and confessed that I play pretty poorly - my inlaws usually relieve me of my money when we play. To say the least, the class was very amused. I wonder how far the cuteness of a foreigner will take one?
Also, our instructor is really into language as culture, culture as language. And I do find those things interesting, too, but a part of me just wants him to get on with it give us speaking drills and feedback. You can never get a short straight answer on anything with any cultural implication at all, e.g., which title to use for a stranger of a certain sex who is clearly older/younger than you are). It always depends - where are you? where is the stranger from? how long has it been since s/he lived in China? how educated is s/he? But I'm thinking this culture focus is a good thing. Any Mandarin-speak to whom I've mentioned this has a quick and positive response to this description of the instructor. I'm just so pragmatic about most things. I figure that my appearance is going to let me get away with all kinds of minor or even major breaches of protocol.
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Mandarin Lesson 1
Woah! That was really fast.
We covered
- a few statements (most about belonging to national groups)
- forming questions in two different ways
- negative statements
- a vocabulary word for each "letter" or group of "letters" that appear in Pinyin
I understand better now why Mandarin sounds like "sure, sure, sure, sure". I think it has a lot to do with the verb to be.
We covered
- a few statements (most about belonging to national groups)
- forming questions in two different ways
- negative statements
- a vocabulary word for each "letter" or group of "letters" that appear in Pinyin
I understand better now why Mandarin sounds like "sure, sure, sure, sure". I think it has a lot to do with the verb to be.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Cantonese vs Mandarin
I've been using this debate to put off learning to speak Chinese. But I think I've finally decided. At risk of offending my new family (sorry, guys!), I've decided on Mandarin. Let me be a little defensive. On the side of Mandarin we have:
- only four tones vs SEVEN
- daily practice at school
- eavesdropping on my students
- increasing Mandarin proportion of Toronto's Chinese community
- more usefulness for travel
I'm going to take an interest course or two this summer.
- only four tones vs SEVEN
- daily practice at school
- eavesdropping on my students
- increasing Mandarin proportion of Toronto's Chinese community
- more usefulness for travel
I'm going to take an interest course or two this summer.
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Mozilla rocks.
I just discovered the "open in tabs" feature. I used to right click and select "open in new tab" for each of the blogs I've listed above. Now, I have them all bookmarked (plus a link to comment moderating) in the same Mozilla directory and open them simultaneously with one click. I know it saves me less that a minute but I still love it.
Saturday, April 15, 2006
mea culpa
um... It would seem that the absence of comments since September is my own fault. I wasn't aware that my blogging service now "required" me (by default) to moderate comments. But hey, even still, my ultimatum generated more comments than anything else I've written.
Thursday, April 06, 2006
ultimatum
Start leaving comments or this blog has had it. In one year, I've had eight comments from three people (Thank you, Kern, Kristin, and MarkMark) and none since September.
You don't need a login. Just sign in as "anonymous" and leave your name in the body of the comment, if you want.
You don't need a login. Just sign in as "anonymous" and leave your name in the body of the comment, if you want.
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
an ungodly speed
On a recent unit test, I asked my grade 12s to
(a) calculate the orbital speed MIR (or the Hubble), (3 marks)
(b) the period of its orbit, (1 mark) and
(c) explain whether their answers to (a) and (b) were reasonable. (1 mark)
The purpose of part (c) is to train the students to think about the meaning of their work during the test. I do this check every time I do a problem on the board. Some students do this instinctively but I figured the mark for checking reasonableness would motivate the others, especially since they could earn full marks for the question even if (a) and (b) were wrong but part (c) was good. It was also an opportunity for a discussion about good test-taking skills.
I've had good laughs over students' answers before. And I got another laugh this time when a student got answers of 10^40 or more for each of parts (a) and (b) in m/s and s respectively. At the very least he conceded that 10^43 m/s was - and I quote - "an ungodly speed" and that it would take "several centuries" for MIR to orbit the Earth. Well, the universe has only existed for around 10^18 s. The laughs continued because I wrote "LOL" next to "ungodly." Well, the student thought that this was the greatest thing that any teacher had ever written. The camera phone was whipped out. Another fun answer: an orbital period of 0.3 s. Imagine three times a second: "There it goes... There it goes... There it goes."
Aside: I had another student use a camera phone to record a demonstration we did in class. It's a different world, eh? Interestingly, technically speaking, the students aren't even allowed to use cellphones in the school, let alone in classrooms. But clearly, there are great uses.
Keep reading... I have a second entry today.
(a) calculate the orbital speed MIR (or the Hubble), (3 marks)
(b) the period of its orbit, (1 mark) and
(c) explain whether their answers to (a) and (b) were reasonable. (1 mark)
The purpose of part (c) is to train the students to think about the meaning of their work during the test. I do this check every time I do a problem on the board. Some students do this instinctively but I figured the mark for checking reasonableness would motivate the others, especially since they could earn full marks for the question even if (a) and (b) were wrong but part (c) was good. It was also an opportunity for a discussion about good test-taking skills.
I've had good laughs over students' answers before. And I got another laugh this time when a student got answers of 10^40 or more for each of parts (a) and (b) in m/s and s respectively. At the very least he conceded that 10^43 m/s was - and I quote - "an ungodly speed" and that it would take "several centuries" for MIR to orbit the Earth. Well, the universe has only existed for around 10^18 s. The laughs continued because I wrote "LOL" next to "ungodly." Well, the student thought that this was the greatest thing that any teacher had ever written. The camera phone was whipped out. Another fun answer: an orbital period of 0.3 s. Imagine three times a second: "There it goes... There it goes... There it goes."
Aside: I had another student use a camera phone to record a demonstration we did in class. It's a different world, eh? Interestingly, technically speaking, the students aren't even allowed to use cellphones in the school, let alone in classrooms. But clearly, there are great uses.
Keep reading... I have a second entry today.
Did this really happen to me? or did I do it to myself?
Friday morning, I woke up before my alarm, needing to use the washroom - around 6:10. I sat up and something that didn't seem quite right. But I didn't think about it. I wasn't in any state to think about anything. I stood up. step up with the right foot. "step" with the left foot. Except that my left leg was entirely asleep and bore no weight at all. So next thing I know, I'm on the floor swearing. Lucky I didn't hit my head in my tiny, furniture-stuffed bedroom.
Well, my left knee had gone through a range of motion unknown to it for almost a decade. I landed hard on my left heel, which felt a little bruised. I was more worried about my knee but it didn't hurt. So I proceded with my day but investigated a little when I got to school. My knee seemed perfectly fine, not even any swelling which I can get from regular exercise. But the "bruise" on my ankle happened to be right over my ligament. By the end of the day, it was somewhat swollen, stiff, and lightly discoloured. Definitely a sprain.
It's pretty much okay now. I curled Monday and yesterday without any trouble.
Well, my left knee had gone through a range of motion unknown to it for almost a decade. I landed hard on my left heel, which felt a little bruised. I was more worried about my knee but it didn't hurt. So I proceded with my day but investigated a little when I got to school. My knee seemed perfectly fine, not even any swelling which I can get from regular exercise. But the "bruise" on my ankle happened to be right over my ligament. By the end of the day, it was somewhat swollen, stiff, and lightly discoloured. Definitely a sprain.
It's pretty much okay now. I curled Monday and yesterday without any trouble.
Sunday, February 05, 2006
crock pot
I got a crock pot for Christmas. It's awesome. I made stew and chili last week. I don't know if the best part is having a hot dinner ready when I get home or leftovers. Most recipes feed 6-10 people. I think my next effort will be a chicken. Ingredients: 1 chicken. 1.5 cups barbeque sauce.
Saturday, February 04, 2006
second post in a day
So, look what they have at the Geography Challenge now. I am shocked that in my first three tries I got 6, 6, and 7/10. Same idea as for countries. They give you the capital. You click on the country. This IS a challenge.
Darn it. After playing for a few hours and pretty much getting the capitals down, I just discovered a good feature. If you click on "give me a detailed analysis" after your game. You get a list of the questions and your answers. What I didn't know is that each entry on the list is linked to the map. Click the word and they show you where it is on the map. That would have been helpful. I think it's too late now.
I haven't been posting ...
because I don't think I really have anything to report.
I guess I could have been doing my routine reports of daily activities but that started to bore even me. So I'll use Becky's Coles' Notes approach.
The Christmas holidays started off hectic because the last day of school was the 23rd. Dion and I Greyhounded to Ottawa that night and came back to Toronto with Ian and Dad, who stayed for a few nights. Chi was in town and it was nice to spend some time with him and Seewan also, whom I didn't know at all before. They really are everything that is great about Americans. I enjoyed three days over New Year's up at a colleague's cottage near Norland. very easy going. lots of sleeping, reading, and eating. Then I still had a whole week to do more sleeping, reading, and eating at home. I did not crack a book, not even Sunday before classes resumed.
I hope that everyone can say this but I think I got the best present in the Toronto-residents-of-Manning Christmas exchange. Becky bought me a game called Apples to Apples. It's so fun that Dion could not sit and watch, which he prefers to do for most games. We also played it at Chinese New Year, althought the group was a little big. 13 players means that there is always at least one good match.
I really had fun a couple of weeks ago when I went to play volleyball with Kevin's highschool buddies. The level was just about right for me. Luckily, the net was a little saggy, so if I jumped as high as I possibly could, I could just hit a quick. Three hours. I was tired but felt really good. I'll go again, for sure.
I'm starting to curl well - or at least better - again. That beginner clinic early in the season taught me a lot but also messed me up a little.
I was shocked that on the first day back almost my whole grade 12 class turned in a little assignment I had given them. It was assigned as seatwork for the last day of classes but I allowed them to hand it in after the holidays if they preferred to sing Physics carols, which they did. This was an incredibly hard-working and nice group. I told them so at the final exam. They did really well on a tough final. The average was 68%, including two zeroes, 74% otherwise. The other sections averaged 55% and 64%, I think. One of my students told me that the "joke/rumour" going around was that I was teaching enriched Physics. Which is a good thing, I think. Several of those students need enrichment. And I still ended up with a number of marks in the 90's and a median in the low 80s. But on the other hand, I do so many evaluations that anyone who has handed in all the assignments and put in a decent amount of work does pass. Completely fair I think. My only failures skipped the final (giving up and planning to try again for a better mark).
I have hated the weather this "winter". damp and grey, mostly above freezing. yuck.
My new semester classes look promising. I have a couple of characters in both gr12 Physics sections and I'm in a more intimate classroom.
I'm sure I've forgotten stuff. Remind me if you think of anything.
BOOKS
For Whom the Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway. loved it. I've never read any Hemingway before. I can see why he's a big deal. ;)
Fifth Business Robertson Davies. I liked it. It dragged for a couple of chapters, I thought. For a little while, I didn't know why the book continued. It felt like everything was resolved.
I guess I could have been doing my routine reports of daily activities but that started to bore even me. So I'll use Becky's Coles' Notes approach.
The Christmas holidays started off hectic because the last day of school was the 23rd. Dion and I Greyhounded to Ottawa that night and came back to Toronto with Ian and Dad, who stayed for a few nights. Chi was in town and it was nice to spend some time with him and Seewan also, whom I didn't know at all before. They really are everything that is great about Americans. I enjoyed three days over New Year's up at a colleague's cottage near Norland. very easy going. lots of sleeping, reading, and eating. Then I still had a whole week to do more sleeping, reading, and eating at home. I did not crack a book, not even Sunday before classes resumed.
I hope that everyone can say this but I think I got the best present in the Toronto-residents-of-Manning Christmas exchange. Becky bought me a game called Apples to Apples. It's so fun that Dion could not sit and watch, which he prefers to do for most games. We also played it at Chinese New Year, althought the group was a little big. 13 players means that there is always at least one good match.
I really had fun a couple of weeks ago when I went to play volleyball with Kevin's highschool buddies. The level was just about right for me. Luckily, the net was a little saggy, so if I jumped as high as I possibly could, I could just hit a quick. Three hours. I was tired but felt really good. I'll go again, for sure.
I'm starting to curl well - or at least better - again. That beginner clinic early in the season taught me a lot but also messed me up a little.
I was shocked that on the first day back almost my whole grade 12 class turned in a little assignment I had given them. It was assigned as seatwork for the last day of classes but I allowed them to hand it in after the holidays if they preferred to sing Physics carols, which they did. This was an incredibly hard-working and nice group. I told them so at the final exam. They did really well on a tough final. The average was 68%, including two zeroes, 74% otherwise. The other sections averaged 55% and 64%, I think. One of my students told me that the "joke/rumour" going around was that I was teaching enriched Physics. Which is a good thing, I think. Several of those students need enrichment. And I still ended up with a number of marks in the 90's and a median in the low 80s. But on the other hand, I do so many evaluations that anyone who has handed in all the assignments and put in a decent amount of work does pass. Completely fair I think. My only failures skipped the final (giving up and planning to try again for a better mark).
I have hated the weather this "winter". damp and grey, mostly above freezing. yuck.
My new semester classes look promising. I have a couple of characters in both gr12 Physics sections and I'm in a more intimate classroom.
I'm sure I've forgotten stuff. Remind me if you think of anything.
BOOKS
For Whom the Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway. loved it. I've never read any Hemingway before. I can see why he's a big deal. ;)
Fifth Business Robertson Davies. I liked it. It dragged for a couple of chapters, I thought. For a little while, I didn't know why the book continued. It felt like everything was resolved.
Friday, December 16, 2005
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
nerdiness
Wow, if I don't score really high on a nerdiness scale, there's something wrong. The reference game, anyone?!
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