My name is Not-Kate and I'm just tryna be a better person....(and other ramblings)

KARMA, YOU FICKLE WOMAN! BE NICE TO ME AGAIN!

I feel like Earl. Karma has it in for me for some reason. I'm trying to think of what I did wrong....... Maybe I need to make a list like Earl did. Anyone wanna volunteer a reason I need to add them to my list? I wanna get on Karma's better side (I am of course only talking about karma in the sense that the wise Earl Hickey understands it. I'm sure those people with philosophy degrees reading this will be shuddering).

I think I'll start by doing something nice for my brother. I bit him when I was three. Then I'll do something nice for a girl from college. I teased her about her speech impediment. At the time, she scratched me and drew blood in retaliation. I thought we were even, but maybe deep emotional trauma contributing to self-confidence issues wins over superficial tissue damage.

I'm also coming down with some kinda cold and we lost our netball. And I've lost my drink bottle again. I'm getting my eyebrows waxed tomorrow - if that goes wrong I'm gonna look like a freak for weeks..... I need to reverse my luck quickly!

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NETBALL RAMBLINGS

But it was a GOOD game of netball. Clean and winnable, for the most part. And my team is just lovely. I don't think anyone has so much as given anyone else a dirty look all season. off-black gives HIMSELF dirty looks, but I don't think that counts.

I'm leaning towards calling us 'Groosh' next season. It's a word one of my students came up with when I suggested she needed to make up an onomatopoeic user-name that she could always use, 'cause nobody else would know it. That's what I do, I told them! (I like to remind the kids of just how geeky I really am every now and then, just in case they start thinking I'm 'cool'.)

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BRAINWASHING THE YOUTH OF TODAY USING BLOGS

I have, incidentally, decided to use blogs as a classroom tool. My media classes have set them up now and I have linked them all together so they can post their articles and give each other feedback..... So far they think it's a novelty and kinda silly, but I think they'll warm to it. And it means I can give feedback from the comfort of my laptop without having to collect in work every day and risk losing it! I let them do the '100 things about me' entry as a warm-up post, while the slower girls were still finding unique user-names and choosing templates. We are two or three lessons into it now. Several girls have forgotten their user-names several times and had to start over again.....

We had some lady talk at a staff meeting and she suggested we utilise ontologies more in teaching. She told a story about how some English teacher had used it and it was a great way for that good advice you give one kid to be of benefit to MANY kids, rather than only having an audience of one. I also think peer critique is good and that it's nice to get positive feedback from each other on a frequent basis.

Also, I let them use it as a 'cheats' way to get some early interviews done. I said they could write a few questions as an entry, and people in the class could make comments that they could use as quotes if they wanted to. I think it was really useful.

Next year I'll have them set it up from week one, and get them used to expressing their ideas about media issues once a fortnight maybe, about something topical. Not worth any credits - but a good critical exercise and sometimes I think that's more valuable. We are, after all, trying to produce 'good citizens'.

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QUIZ, ANYONE?

Me and off-black are possibly going to forge a team for a pub quiz on Thursday night. While he is amazing, we may need more than two people. Anyone keen? (Chiphead, you live far too far away - so you can't play.)

Four useful quiz in-joke terminologies:

1) 'to pontiac' (verb) is to steal someone else's glory by publicly pretending a correct answer or idea was yours, when in fact it wasn't.
History - It comes from an incident at The Office where Nicky, upon finding out that the brand of American car named after an Indian tribe was in fact 'Pontiac', pumped her fists and said, 'Yeeeeah! Pontiac!' loudly and did that 'look' to the group which means, 'Didn't I do well, team? Give me some recognition!' In a kind of delayed reaction, about ten seconds later and after everyone had said 'Well done, Nicky!' I said rather quizically, 'Nicky.... YOU wanted to put 'Cherokee'.... Pontiac was MY idea!'. She then shrugged and said, 'Was it? Oh well, too late sucker! Everyone in the pub thinks it was ME now!'
Example - You can also just use it as a general exclamation in such a situation eg - Point your finger accusingly and say, 'PONTIAC!'

2) 'loomis' (noun) is the largest fry in the bowl.
History - Nicky once stopped an entire pub quiz by, when the quiz-master made a comment about having found the biggest chip, raising her hand and saying, 'Um, excuse me Dean, but did you know that's called the 'loomis'?' He didn't hear her the first time and got her to repeat it. He then kinda frowned confusedly and said, 'Uh, moving on....question eight....' (apparently finding that hold-up totally pointless and not worth reacting to).
Pronunciation - To properly pronounce the word, you have to speak out of the side of your mouth with a mock-American-geek accent. Much like when you talk about 'giant lasers'. It helps if you are wearing 'smart glasses'.
In general, it can be used as a term to imply someone has said something very dorky in order to show off to the group, but been SHOT DOWN.

3) 'veto' (noun) is something you can earn by having been over-ruled by the group on an answer that was in fact correct. It means that in the future, at your discretion, you may over-rule the group and dictate your own answer. It is a way to placate righteous people.

4) a 'Micheal Buble' (noun) is an answer that comes from an inspired place deep inside of you, and you have no idea quite why you knew it.
History - It comes from an incident where, just AFTER we had handed in our picture round, Ken yelled out, 'Michael Buble!' as he suddenly remembered why that sultry faced brunette man in picture #8 was familiar.
Alternative - In a similar vein, in my family that is called a 'Macho Grouch' after a Pictionary incident where, as a youngster, my father had just started drawing the outline of a face and I had randomly yelled out, 'MACHO GROUCH!' Everyone on the other team suspected cheating, but to this day I say it was an act of God. I don't think I even knew who the man was, as shown by my butchering of his name........ (it was really 'Groucho Marx', but I hadn't given Dad a chance to even get to any distinguishing features).

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THE SUN'LL COME OOOOOUT.....

Tomorrow is gonna be GREAT! I have a lot of clean clothes and a nice new bed. As one of my nicer flatmates said, rather philosophically, when I broke the news to him about the not-so-nice flatmate - 'A change is as good as a holiday!'. I get to have BOTH!

PS - no progress. I have not seen the not-so-nice flatmate since this morning, at which stage I hadn't run my decision past the other flatmates (which I thought would be a courtesy). We really are ships in the night sometimes, so the nicer flatmate has offered to tell her himself if he happens to see her when I'm not around. Gallant of him. He was really great last time we had to look for a flatmate too. I should be more appreciative of him! I'll put him on my Karma list.