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mellifera33

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Posts posted by mellifera33

  1. A few weeks ago there was a link going around facebook that claimed Netflix offerings could be searched by code. Do the super secret codes differentiate between legit documentaries and "documentaries" put out by conspiracy theorists, ancient aliens guys, and other dubious sources? I roll my eyes when I look at the Netflix documentaries area and see that 2/3 of them are just junk. 

  2. I am a special educator, and love what I do.  The only things I can imagine possibly loving more would be speech therapist, developmental pediatrician or child neuropsychologist.  

     

    As far as jobs I would hate, I once went to A Day Out With Thomas the Tank Engine.  It was about 104 degrees in the shade, and there was a person dressed as Sir Topham Hatt, in a giant stuffed costume.  All day long little boys with heads just the height of one of his vital appendages (unless it was a female actor, I guess that's possible) were crashing into him, and dancing around his feet screaming with glee.  I'm pretty sure he couldn't actually see them because of the way his head was constructed and the fact that he had a giant belly and his neck was not bendable.

     

    Every so often, when I am having a bad day, I reflect on the fact that I am not Sir Topham Hatt, and this puts things in perspective.  

     

    In a former life, I worked in a bookstore, doing inventory-type stuff. I came in at 5 or 6 am and shelved books, pulled publisher returns, set up displays, ordered books, etc.  I wasn't terribly good at customer service, but I did enjoy the occasional opportunity to wear a costume for themed story hours. Something about wearing a giant fake head made it much easier to interact with customers. :)

     

    My dream job would probably be reference librarian in an academic library. I like searching for bits of information. 

    • Like 1
  3. Spring and Fall by Gerard Manley Hopkins

     

    The Emperor of Ice-Cream by Wallace Stevens

     

    Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens

     

    The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarrell

     

    One Art by Elizabeth Bishop

     

    Recuerdo by Edna St. Vincent Millay

     

    [You Fit into Me] by Margaret Atwood

     

    Sadie and Maud by Gwendolyn Brooks

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  4. Noo! I can't eat anything for at least a half hour after brushing my teeth. Especially not OJ. It tastes like...I don't know...but it gives me the same feeling as eating unsweetened chocolate.

    Is this where I admit that I also like unsweetened chocolate? Lol

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  5. I just looked at the new site, and I noticed that after you are in the bookshop, there is a UK flag at the upper right hand side. If you click on it, there are other flags to click. If you click on the US flag, then choose your book, the description indicates that the book is print on demand in the US. :)

    • Like 1
  6. Methodist, Episcopal, Presbyterian and Lutheran churches each have historic doctrinal distinctives with regard to how God is present in the Eucharist, how one can be saved, the role of ordained clergy and forms of church government, and all baptize infants, though none teach baptismal regeneration.

     

     

    The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod teaches baptismal regeneration. :) I'm not sure about the ELCA.

     

    I was ECLA. From my personal experience, communion is taken WAY more seriously in the Catholic faith. Perhaps it is the emphasis on transubstantiation, not just the Real Presence. It just wasn't talked about the way it is at the Catholic Church. Ymmv though

     

    When I went from ELCA to LCMS I was surprised at how differently communion was practiced and thought about in the two church bodies. My LCMS congregation took the real presence in communion much more seriously than the ELCA congregation in which I grew up. In fact, I remember my ELCA congregation referring to communion as symbolic. Looking back, it was more of a nondenominational church that happened to baptize infants, than a Lutheran church. 

     

    PS: Sorry for the derail. I read the beginning of the thread yesterday and the rest today, and lost the chain somewhere along the line. My only "conversion" experience was from one Lutheran church to another, and the worst I experiences was good-natured ribbing. 

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  7. Still inching through Neurotribes. Bettelheim was sure a jerk. I feel kind of dirty for having one of his books on my shelf. 

     

    I had to smile while reading the chapter about ham radio operators. We used to go to church with a man who talked about nothing but ham radio 24/7, and I have privately wondered if he has asperger's syndrome. 

     

    I was looking with interest at the mushroom logs in the Territorial seed catalog, but I wouldn't be able to babysit it properly. Anything in my garden has to thrive with benign neglect. 

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  8. Ha! My younger one is always amusing...or so he thinks. It's beyond annoying. 

     

    Do you like the book? Do you think it would work with a middle schooler who is very motivated and strong on some self-awareness traits (social not so much, but his own habits, yes)? My 11 y.o. likes to improve things and is driven to be more organized so that he has free time and because he loves developing new skills and competence in many areas. That takes time, and having more time means being more organized. He also likes the sense of control he gains from being more intentional. So, he will often fall short of what his goals are, but he's got great goals, great drive, and a reason to channel it all. 

     

    (And if your answer is yes, what book do you have?)

     

    I am not the OP, but I am using the Linguisystems Executive Functions Training Elementary book with my 8 y/o and it is very helpful. We are only on the first section, working memory, but his ability to hold information in his mind is much improved. There are five units: working memory, time management, planning and organization, flexible thinking, and self-monitoring. The strategies are very concrete and practical. I might need to implement some of them for myself. :)

     

    The elementary book is indicated for ages 6-11, or grades 1-6. There is also a secondary book--there are sample pages available at the Linguisystems website, so you could compare the two and decide which would be more appropriate for your son. 

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  9. I have finished two books so far: Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, and The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee. For years I have been meaning to read Rushdie, but I was put off by false impressions gleaned from the television news when I was a child. I thought that Rushdie would be dry, political, and...I'm not sure. Maybe a conspiracy theorist? I think that maybe I associated The Satanic Verses with the mid-1980s hobby of finding evidence of Satanic symbols in everything from cabbage patch dolls to the Proctor and Gamble logo. Anyway, I was delighted to have my expectations smashed by a lovely magical realist tale--lightly political, yes, but far from dry and very enjoyable. 

     

    The second book, The Emperor of All Maladies, is subtitled A Biography of Cancer. I was a bit apprehensive to read a "pleasure" book about such a heavy and scary topic, but it was actually strangely comforting. What I liked: the scientific and clinical accounts of cancer and its treatment through the ages. What I could have done without: the political and public relations bits. Snore. 

     

    Now I'm on to Neurotribes. I'm about 1/3 of the way through it, and I am finding the history of the study of autism heartbreaking, fascinating, and frustrating. Asperger certainly comes across as a far more sympathetic personality than Kanner, at least so far. 

     

    I almost forgot: I have SWB's HotAW in my stack too. I read a bit here and a bit there, but I get bogged down in Mesopotamia. My 8 y/o son was appalled to learn that I'm just not that into the Mesopotamians--he thought mom/teacher had to enjoy every subject.  :lol: I think that he was relieved to know that he's not the only one who is less than enthusiastic about certain subjects. I do enjoy SWB's dry humor, and find that her asides keep me interested enough to keep picking it up, so it's a win on that front. 

    • Like 16
  10. I need to do this too. My problem: my dh thinks that all our of financial woes will be over when he gets a new job. I find it frustrating to try to make headway when he doesn't see it as a priority. And paying off our credit cards should be a giant priority--our balance is ginormous after a major home repair last year. We never carried a balance before that, and now...well, I don't like it. Grocery shopping seems like the natural place for me to reduce spending, but dh is very picky and if he doesn't like what I cook, he goes out for fast food. grrr. He does like cheap, salty, unhealthy frozen dinners, so I will keep some of those in the freezer for when he doesn't like the healthy food that I cook. I am not a bad cook--he just doesn't like food unless it involves a big hunk of meat or is so salty it makes my eyes water.  :glare:

     

    So I will focus on trying to keep the grocery bills reasonable, staying out of the craft stores  :closedeyes: , and planning our vegetable garden. Not very specific, I know. When I grocery shop, I am trying to make the less expensive choice when possible--in season fruits and veggies, generic pasta and rice, etc. We are somewhat limited by food allergies, so I can't always make the cheapest choice (peanut butter  :scared: ). I will be experimenting with new inexpensive dinners--dh likes the biryani from one of the local Indian restaurants, so I will be trying my hand at that tonight. 

     

    We currently track our spending with Quicken, but I don't find it very helpful. I need to find a different system. 

  11. For those of you doing geology with your students, I want to recommend the recent NOVA series on the geology of North America. It was really nicely done, and there is usually good bonus material on their web site.  I'd also recommend books by Simon Winchester -- The Map That Changed the World or Krakatoa or for California, A Crack in the Edge of the World.  He studied geology at Oxford and is a terrific writer -- a very nice combination!

     

     

    Thanks for the suggestion. We did a geology unit over the summer, but can't quite let go--it's become a perpetual back-burner unit study. :)

     

    Have you checked out the Roadside Geology series?  We just acquired our Oregon one a few months ago and it's been a great compliment to our Hiking Oregon's Geology book (thanks to Correleno), which we have used for a few years for some memorable excursions.  It's part of the Hiking Geology series.  

     

    Can I ask what you are using for meteorology? We start that in two weeks.

     

    We like the Roadside Geology series too. We got pretty good at spotting basalt in road cuts. lol. We also like the geology books from the Built it Yourself series. We used Geology of the Pacific Northwest as the spine for our summer unit. 

    • Like 8
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