So Glad I'm Not Midwestern.

Your Linguistic Profile:

70% General American English

20% Upper Midwestern

5% Dixie

5% Yankee

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Ooooh, Refreshing

It's the new and hopefully improved look!

So something was wrong with the Comment This comments... and I tried to switch over from that to Blogger comments, but somewhere along the line I was missing the code that actually erased the little "Comments" line... so I switched formats.

But when I cut and paste the tagboard and links in, the sidebar sunk down to below the main blog body. I fixed it this morning. Yeah.

What do you think of the new look?

IMDB is Really Cool

Was playing around on the Internet Movie Database and looked at the top 250 films, according to user votes. I was amazed at how many foreign flicks were on the list… so I decided to make a quiz.

Here’s a list of 16 foreign films that made the IMDB top 250 list. Without looking, (or cheating too much), what is the original language and English title of each movie?

The Movies I’ve seen:
1. Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo
2. Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi
3. Wo hu cang long
4. La Vita è bella
5. Det Sjunde inseglet
6. Mononoke-hime
7. Hotaru no haka
8. Hable con ella
9. Trois couleurs: Rouge
10. Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Le

Movies I’d like to see:
11. Shichinin no samurai
12. Cidade de Deus
13. Untergang, Der
14. Ying xiong
15. Ladri di biciclette
16. Diarios de motocicleta

Seriously More Exciting

Considering last week, which was the week from H. E. Double Hockey Sticks, this week has looked up. I only just got sick over the weekend and have felt gicky ever since. I missed choir because I sound like a little frog.

Liz came back from her holiday last night and brought me a picture. Of me. And Ed. For the life of me, I don't ever remember Dave being in my apartment to take the picture... but it was obviously a David photo, and it was obviously my ceiling in the photo. Not to mention the fact that Ed doesn't get out much.

I'm just glad that I've escaped Wednesday without any sunburns, arsonists, condoms, or picking of a Really Bad Parking Spot.

There's still Thursday! Tomorrow I have to drag my butt out of bed at an indecent hour to have a pre-school meeting about next week's state testing. Oh Goody.

Tattoos and Fire Alarms

So today was the Spring Fair. Theme: Treasure Island.

Argggghhh!

Anyway, we were on a minimum day schedule where we only have about an hour of class instead of 90 minutes. During first period, I helped Ars Poetica, the creative writing club, set up their temporary tattoo booth.

I had been back in my classroom for less than 5 minutes when the fire alarm went off. As we had a drill less than two weeks ago, standard procedure is for teachers to poke their heads out the door, rather than evacuate. Finally the principal comes over the intercom and says to actually evacuate. After about ten minutes outside, we learn there was an actual fire, but it's out, and, if we can stand the noise, we can go back in. They were apparently having problems turning it off.

Fast forward to 5th period. In the middle of class, a staff assistant asks one of my students to step outside with his backpack. As they retreat out the door I see 2 cops and a vice principal out in the hall waiting. Five minutes later, Student comes back into classroom and on his way in manages to loudly exclaim three (I counted them) profanities. "F--k! Somebody f---ing ratted me out. F---ing cops. I hate them."

I simply opened the door and called out the the group and had him removed from my class.

Fast forward to 12:30. Ars Poetica hawked their tattoos, eye patches, and had a relatively good time doing it. We made $46.50, which is pretty good. During the fair, Vice Principal walks up to me and says I won't be seeing my jewel of a student again. He was hauled off to Juvy for arson in the boy's locker room.

He's the second student in my 5th period to be hauled off to Juvy... though I suppose arson is better than attempted murder.

On a happier note, we had our California Distinguished Schools Visit yesterday. We've been approved! - The only high school in Long Beach with this honor.

Finally - House of D Post

Wrote this Monday night, only to find Blogger down. Here it is:

Liz and I went to see House of D last night at a special screening at the West Side Pavilion. When I first heard about this movie, I was terribly afraid it was only going to be a vanity piece, as David Duchovny, wrote, directed and starred in it.

I was really pleasantly wrong. This really is a great story. And I might add that I think he’s more talented as a writer/director than an actor. The story, told in flashback form, revolves around a 13 year old named Thomas (Anton Yelchin) and his efforts to keep his depressed mother (Tea Leoni), his “retarded” best friend (Robin Williams), and his newfound love interest (Robin William’s daughter Zelda) in balance. When he takes up the cause of one, the rest seem to fall, and he ends up blaming himself when he can’t keep all three balls in the air. The story is wrapped by older Thomas (David Duchovny), and his need to explain the damage done to him as a teen in order to repair the relationship with his wife and son.

The movie was followed by a Q&A with Anton Yelchin and David, who was hilarious as he helped set up the really out of date microphones. The highlight of the talk was when they handed around a microphone to audience members and a guy in the back started asked questions about his brilliant work on the Larry Sanders Show. I turned around and hey, it was Gary Shandling. Apparently David and Gary have a good friendship and David often runs scripts by Gary for feedback. I wish I had Gary Shandling on a list to hand my scripts to.

Anyway, I got up the nerve to get Liz to snap a picture of me and David. How’s that for coolness?

Look!

Blogger was down last night and I so desperately wanted to post that I couldn't wait and wrote it in a word doc... then forgot to email it to myself... so I'll include it later... but now... shall include this: Which Says It All



And Gary Shandling was there too!

Good News Bad News

Bad News: Spring Break is over!

Good News: Only ten more weeks of school!

I jumped online to read and update blogs, as I have been lacking in the posting department... and I have some news.

I hopped on to Mel's site and saw that David Duchovney has his own blog... which is rather X-Files strange, as I am going to see David tomorrow... on an appearance and screening that aren't on his publicity tour. Technically his movie, House of D, doesn't open until the 15th in LA and NY, but we're going to a special screening. Oh the joys of being an Angelino. Along with the drug shootings, and car chases, there are some perks.