Welcome to a New World

It's been awhile

2011-02-16T18:07:00.000+08:00

It's been awhile since I lasted posted. Too long. Since my last post I have worked in Ansan, South Korea for over 16 months and subsequently moved on to Hong Kong. Now I am living and working in Hong Kong perhaps I can get back into the habit of posting on my blogs. Yes, it is a habit.

Hopefully I'll do a better job of keeping it up.

Honduras - why are we trying to force them to accept a corrupt politician?

2009-07-04T03:15:00.003+08:00

Why is the US and other nations trying to force Honduras to accept a corrupt politician back as President? I have wondered this as I read news accounts of WHY he was removed from office. Yes the military removed him but how else were they to remove him? He had already defied the Congress, Supreme Court of Honduras and every other body that told him "no". What would we do in the US if the President insisted on breaking the law? Insisted on doing what the Supreme Court and Congress told him he couldn't do? What the people also rejected? We'd have him taken into custody also. No one is above the law.

The fact Honduras used the Military to in effect enforce the impeachment doesn't change the fact Zelaya was trying to use his post as President to force his will upon the people. He was trying to be a Chavez. We in the US should not be trying to force Hondurans to accept a corrupt leader anymore than we would accept him. He broke the law and as a result was removed from office. End of story or it should be.

We should support the people of Honduras in their decision to remove a corrupt official and use their Constitution to name his successor.

Oh hypocrites we are. We criticize Honduras for removing a corrupt leader and stay silent as Ahmadinejad and Khamenei murder, beat and torture innocents in Iran to in effect take office by a coup. That is a real coup; Honduras was not. Somehow it seems we have forgot what once made our country great - freedom and democracy - even as we prepare to supposedly celebrate it tomorrow. Have we forgotten what freedom really means? Have we forgotten that while the Declaration of Independence was signed July 4, 1776, it was not until the Treaty of Paris in 1783 that our right to exist apart from Britain was recognized. 7 years of bloodshed in a coup to decide our lives for ourselves. Today we seek to deny those same rights to people of Honduras and Iran.

Where are you now George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson? Is this the country you envisioned? I think not.

Looking for work - TESOL, TEFL

2009-07-03T23:45:00.005+08:00

On June 14 I received my certification from Oxford Seminars to Teach English to Speakers of other Languages (TESOL) / Teach English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). In some areas it is referred to as TESL (teach English as a Second Language) and others TELL (Teach English Language Learners). Regardless of the semantics employed, it is teaching a person English whose native language is not English.

Now that I have my certification, it is time to find a job somewhere in the world to use it. In the Western Hemisphere my interest lies in Brasil / Brazil, Chile and Ecuador. Since I now am partially fluent in Portuguese and Spanish, any of these countries would allow me to make a living and improve my existing language skills. I already know that I adore Brasil so it tops my list. I have spent some time in Ecuador working (legal work) but have never visited Chile.

If I don't go to South America, then I am looking at (in no particular order): Russia, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, Hong Kong and countries in the Middle East. Any of these would be new experiences for me, different cultures and languages than I have previously truly experienced. Yes I have eaten at Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, Japanese, Russian, etc restaurants and know people from these countries BUT it isn't the same as visiting the countries first hand.

Finding information on jobs in South Korea, Japan, China and Taiwan is easy. There in fact may be too many listings so it makes it hard to decide which ones to apply. I'm sure some are bogus.

Finding information on TESOL jobs in Brasil, Chile and Ecuador are more daunting. The jobs are there but the information about them isn't! I really want to have a job lined-up before I leave the country although I believe it when people tell me - just go and you'll have no problem finding a job. Oxford Seminars also has a job placement assistance service but I am hoping to find this first job without using it. Then I could use their service should I need it next year. They guarantee to find you a job BUT they cannot guarantee where it will be. So I am looking online.

IF you read this and know of a TESOL job in one of the countries I have listed, especially Brasil, Chile or Ecuador, leave me a comment please or email me at [ esl (at) timnew dot com ] I spell it out so all the net robots won't start spamming the account :)

Thanks

PS: I spelled Brasil with an "s" on purpose; it is how the country spells its name.

One-Third of Oxford TESOL Course is completed

2009-06-02T02:43:00.004+08:00

So far, so good

I just spent my weekend in the Dallas area (Plano) attending the first 2 days of an Oxford Seminar to be certified to Teach English to Speakers of other Languages (TESOL). It was a major relief to discover that my experience in Mexico was an anomaly. What do I mean? Don't misunderstand. I loved teaching in Mexico. I loved the kids (at least most of them). But the school there is not designed to properly teach English to students whose first language is not English. In my first 2 days of the Oxford Course I learned that:

1) Most schools where I could end up teaching will utilize text books designed to teach English as a foreign language or second language. That was not the case in Mexico where they are attempting to use Abeka Language books.

2) Most schools will have students assessed for their level of English and students will be placed in appropriate level classes. Again this was not the case in Mexico where students were placed in English class solely based on their Spanish level - 4th grade Spanish students were automatically placed in 4th Grade English even if their English level was not up to that level.

Both of these changes will make teaching English easier and more enjoyable.

Another change will be in the Teaching Methodology. This will take some effort on my part. The norm will be to teach English Grammar indirectly rather than through rules. You will use the English Grammar through context and activities and have the students pick up the correct usage rather than try to have them memorize rules or learn it by mimicry and repetition exercises. So the days of having students learn verb tenses by I run, you run, she runs, we run, they run, that I used somewhat effectively in Mexico will be replaced by usage in sentences and conversation. Did she run in the race? No, she didn't run in the race. Did they run on the beach yesterday? yes they ran on the beach yesterday.

I am also having to adjust to a class format of Warm-up exercise, Activity, Review with a common learning objective. Once I get it all figured out and use it a few times I think it will be easier. This is especially true since the text books I will probably be using will have the activity portion more or less laid out. I will just need to tweak it, supplement it and add warm-up activities and reviews.

All in all I am happy with the first weekend. Two more to go. In the interim I have a lot of reading to do, homework to do and need to begin deciding where I want to teach next year - that is the goal of taking the course after all.

From the outside, on the inside, looking around

2009-05-07T00:18:00.003+08:00

From the outside, on the inside, looking around

What has happened to the U.S. Education system? Why is it failing?

From 2006 until January, 2008 I was a substitute teacher at a local elementary school. I taught every grade from First Grade through Sixth Grade. From January 5, 2008 until February 6, 2009 I taught English to Hispanic students at an elementary school in México. I taught Third and Fourth grades. If you want to know why our education system is failing, substitute teach.

Lack of Discipline

Classrooms lack discipline. The lack of respect I have witnessed as a substitute teacher from students in the local elementary school is a sign of why our education system is failing. In the 13 months I was in México teaching, I did not see any similar behavior. At the local school the students mock the teachers, make fun of the teachers, talk back to the teachers along with blatant disobedience. This is in addition to talking in class and playing in class. Talking in class and playing in class occurred in México also if the teacher permitted it. The difference is that in México the children were respectful when the teacher admonished them for their misbehavior whereas in the U.S. the students resent the teacher for not allowing them to do as they wish. And most times they continue doing what they were just told not to do.

Apathy

Students don’t care.

I had one or two students in México who simply did not care about learning – it wasn’t important to them. This was especially true of students who were at the school to learn English but didn’t want to learn English. Their parents wanted it; they didn’t.

The problem has been more prevalent at the local U.S. elementary school. It seems to begin at about the Fourth Grade. Maybe it is just this school. But in the Fourth and Fifth Grades, the percentage of students who “hate school” or who just don’t care is staggering. I would estimate only one-fourth of the students in these grades want to learn, probably one-third have no interest in school other than to be with friends, and the remainder is somewhere in the middle.

Teaching Down / Lower Standards

Perhaps part of the reason for apathy is the manner in which our schools now teach down to the students instead of challenging the students to rise to the task. Students are grouped in classes based on age, not ability. Then it seems the policy of the schools is to teach down to those students who know the least. If you want a higher quality of education, aggregate the students based on ability. Yes I know this idea won’t be popular with the system, but I am confident it would improve the education level of our students. Put the best third of the students together and teach to their level and above. Put the middle third together and teach to the level of the best students in that division. Do the same with the bottom third. To a certain extent you see this done at the high school level with AP classes. Start in Elementary – maybe at Second Grade based on the performances in First Grade - and challenge the students.

Get rid of the CALCULATORS!

Did you know that elementary schools are letting their students in Third through Sixth Grades do their math on calculators? What is the result? Students in grades 4 through 6 who cannot do simply math without a calculator. I kid you not. I asked the question just last week of a Fourth Grade student “What is 4 x 5?” The answer? I only know my tables up to threes. This was more than some of his classmates knew. There are students in the sixth grade who are doing simple multiplication, addition and subtraction by counting on their fingers.

When I was in the third and fourth grades we learned (read that as memorized until we knew it) the multiplication tables at least to 12 x 12=144. Very few students today at the local elementary school can give you an answer to multiplication flash cards without hesitating. Those that can are in the same classroom with those that have no clue. Does that make sense?

Get rid of the calculators and teach children the basics of math. They need to know how to add, subtract, multiply and divide without using calculators or their fingers. They need to learn math. I can see using calculators in the higher maths – maybe Trigonometry or Calculus but not for basic mathematics of adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing.

Parental Involvement

It seems parents/guardians are less involved in their child’s education. They seem to think it is the school’s / teacher’s job to educate their child. When the child doesn’t do well, it is the school’s / teacher’s fault. Guess what? Most times it isn’t. If all the students are doing poorly, blame the school or the teacher. But if some of the students are doing well, chances are the fault isn’t with the teacher.

I have seen students at school write down answers for their schoolwork that was nonsense. The student was simply writing something down to create the appearance of “doing his work”. When I questioned one student, his response was “I don’t care if it’s right or wrong, I did it and I’m finished”. Now whose responsibility is that attitude? The teachers’? The school’s? I don’t think so. Clearly the child doesn’t care whether he learns or not and from my perspective that is something that must be corrected by the parent or guardian. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. I have seen it in Third Grade, Fourth Grade, Fifth Grade and Sixth Grade several times while substitute teaching in the past 2 months. When I asked one girl why her answers were so clearly wrong on her homework, she told me she wanted to do something after school the day before, and she couldn’t until her homework was finished. So she just wrote down something to finish. This happened to be one of the better students that usually did her work and did well on tests.

Parents/Guardians quit passing the buck. Accept responsibility for your child’s education. The teacher and school cannot make your child do their homework correctly, nor make them learn their multiplication tables, nor make them study for tests. Neither the teacher nor school can make your children take their education seriously. It isn’t the teacher who is letting your child play X-Box, WII, or PlayStation instead of studying. It isn’t the teacher who lets your child watch television or play ball instead of doing their homework correctly. The one girl's parents at least had a rule she must do her homework before doing other things. I suspect most of the time they check it. For many of the students who are doing poorly in school, I suspect there is less involvement by the parents or guardians.

I have had good teachers (thanks Mrs. Hart), and I’ve had some bad teachers (won’t name names), but I still did well in those classes with less than stellar teachers. The effort was up to me, and my parents ensured that I gave my effort. Quit passing the buck. Accept responsibility for your child's education; get involved!

In summary, there isn’t a single reason why our educational system is failing. Part of the blame lies with an educational system that teaches down to the students and lowers the levels of expectation (such as using claculators). Part of it lies with the children and their parents/guardians. Both need to be fixed if the U.S. is to raise it education levels back to the top.

That's how I see it.

ESL Certification is coming soon

2009-04-28T05:17:00.003+08:00

At the end of May I will begin the 60 + hour course to get certified to teach ESL. The course is offered by Oxford and will be 3 weekends (Saturday/Sunday) at my Alma Mater Hendrix College. I'm not sure where I will be going once I get certified but hopefully it will be fun. I have enjoyed teaching ESL and with a better grasp of the techniques (and classroom management) I hope it leads to even more fun somewhere - Brasil, China, Japan, Korea, Peru, Europe, somewhere I haven't been (unless it's Brasil).

Currently I am substitute teaching at Junction City Elementary and getting my vegetable garden planted. I don't expect to be going anywhere until at least late July or more likely August. I need to save every $ I can between now and then to get a laptop - preferably a MACINTOSH. Don't think I'll be able to carry this desktop Mac with me where ever I go.

If you know of some openings for an Attorney that teaches ESL drop me a line. I'm interested. Eventually I may try to get back into a corporate law department where I can work internationally but for now I'll settle for ESL.

Time to upgrade

2009-03-06T00:50:00.003+08:00

It's been a busy week so far - substitute teaching Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (that's good! I need to substitute teach every chance) and taking photos at church for a Childrens' Rally on each night from Sunday until last night (Wednesday) and PhotoShopping them. I shot at 1600 ISO so my colors were sometimes off using my Nikon D80 10.2MP Digital SLR Camera. It's tendency to over saturate the reds is my only complaint. It takes just a moment in PhotoShop to adjust the hue (+6 seems to work with the church photos) to get the red down to reality.

Anyway I just need to PS a few photos (last nights) to have that project finished. The Rally ended last night.

So today I hope to work on creating a new look for my websites using CSS templates. My site was way behind the times. Wait, not was but is. So I downloaded some free CSS templates to use, but customizing them to work with my themes - Photos, ESL, News, Fantasy Sports is taking more work than I thought. So today I hope to spend time getting some of that work done as well as catching up on other necessary work - I still haven't finished unpacking from my move from Mexico - since I am not Substitute teaching today.

So today is time to work on upgrading my sites to CSS. We'll see how far I get.

None so blind as he who will not see

2009-02-13T01:48:00.005+08:00

Lyrics to a song that seems to paraphrase Biblical verses

they also describe the situation where I was teaching English - Eagle College in Miguel Alemán, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Last week I resigned after being told I could not make any photocopies to use in my classroom. Supposedly some parents were complaining because I was using photocopied material to teach their children and not the textbooks they had purchased. Half-truths?

If it is a half-truth is it not a full untruth? Half-truths have been used for eons to deceive by those who wanted to be able to claim "but I didn't say anything untrue". It has been used by politicians, lawyers, and others who sought to avoid accountability while misleading others. I have no doubt some parents were complaining. The school had required them to buy the books after all. Here is the situation.

The school began last year as a "bi-lingual" Christian elementary school. The school had the parents purchase U.S. textbooks by A Beka and then attempted to use these books in classes based on a child's age and not ability. When I went there to teach in January of 2008, what I found was students whose conversational ability was at best U.S. second grade trying to do academic work in U.S. Third and Fourth Grade books. Some of the children are very intelligent and could spell any word I gave them by memorizing its spelling. They had no idea what the word meant. Glancing at the work they had completed before I arrived, I thought they had enough English to function. What I did not know was they had just copied the answers into the books. They were not actually learning anything.

The majority of the students did not even know the pronouns I, you, he, she, it, we, or they. They were lost and frustrated. I began a process to teach them basic English vocabulary beginning with Dolch Words and the words most frequently used in English. They began to learn English. I had parents and Aunts thanking me. Their child or niece or nephew was finally learning English. But I wasn't doing the books. That frustrated the administration who cared only about justifying selling the parents the books. By years' end (July, 2008), my Third and Fourth Graders had improved their English a lot but were still far below the level they needed to be at equivalent U.S. levels.

One parent asked me to please return at the graduation (6th grade) dinner. So I did. I knew that in returning I would be facing the same problems. Students placed in English classes not based on their English ability but based on their class in Spanish. Even students who failed English the year before were advanced. Many new students were enrolled who had never had any English. Once again, the school ordered the A Beka books. I had explained the year before that the students could not do the work in those books. They needed books that taught English as a foreign or second language. They didn't listen but rather persisted in the same way.

So I once again started teaching using word lists and material for learners at levels below their assigned grade but within their ability. The administration grumbled. I kept teaching and the kids kept learning against the odds. Finally last week the "Director" asked me through a translator if the kids were going to use the books the next year. Obviously they had not listened to anything I had told them. The A Beka books are not what the school needs at this time. In 5 or 6 years it may be possible to transition to an American based curriculum but not until the school had children at appropriate levels of English. I told her I doubted it.

I did not know until later that the school was having parents pay for next year's textbooks. Last Wednesday I was ordered to only teach using the textbooks and the board. I was not to use any more copies in class. So I resigned. Clearly my message was not getting through to the Administration who have shown a complete lack of understanding on how to teach a foreign language. Their restrictions in effect prevented me from teaching the kids what they need to know - basic English - apparently just to justify having the parents buy books that the kids can't use again.

I am posting the 500 Most Frequent Words lists we were using before I was forced to leave on my ESL page. I left the url with the kids, and told them I would have it all posted. I cannot pretend to teach them as the school demands so I could not stay. But I will do what I can from afar to help them. They deserve better than what they are getting, but I fear they will never get it with the current administration. The sad part is the Administration acknowledge the kids would probably learn more English my way. But apparently the best education isn't the top priority. Saving face is more important. So I do what I can from here.

I make my prediction here. If the school does not hire someone to take over as Administrator who understands teaching a foreign language, the school will fail within 2 years. The kids know the truth as to why I left and so do many of the parents. In the interim, the kids suffer. There is none so blind as he who will not see; none so deaf as he who will not hear.

If you are trying to learn English or Spanish, visit my ESL site. The Most Frequent Word List (in English and Spanish) is only one tool you will find there.

From History we learn man learns nothing from History

2009-01-12T10:03:00.006+08:00

Oh how gullible the masses are.

As I read through the news internationally I am amazed at how many people have swallowed the HAMAS "we are the victims" propaganda. HAMAS has intentionally attacked Israel. Their stated objective is to remove Israel from the world. They do not have the man-power to do it directly so they stage terrorist attacks daily against Israel - killing a few here and a few there. Launch a few rockets daily. For what purpose? To get Israel to respond with force so HAMAS can display dead and injured civilians to the world and proclaim "Look at how bad Israel is. They are hurting innocent children and civilians".

Oh how gullible the masses are.

World-wide people are demonstrating against Israel's use of force to stop the attacks. Why? Because the news media shows citizens and children being injured and killed.

Abraham Lincoln wouldn't have fallen for it.

He reminds me of the man who murdered both his parents, and then when sentence was about to be pronounced pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan.

The HAMAS has intentionally created the situation. They intentionally dress their terrorists as civilians and when one is killed exclaim "Look, Israel killed a civilian". They hide their weapons in hospitals and mosques and schools. And if Israel bombs one to destroy the weapons, HAMAS exclaims "they are bombing the hospitals, they are bombing our schools. NO place is safe." Propaganda.

Wise-up people. HAMAS wants innocent blood shed. That is why they place weapons and their fighters among the civilians. They want to show people that innocents are being killed and cast the blame on Israel. If Israel doesn't kill enough innocents, HAMAS isn't above killing them and laying the blame on Israel (such as the attack on the UN aid supply driver). Propaganda.

All of these tactics have been used before. William Lederer and Eugene Burdick wrote about it in a book "The Ugly American". That book illustrates how disinformation can be used as a weapon. It illustrates how gullible people can be.

Innocent people are suffering in Gaza even as I write this. They are suffering not because of Israel but because of HAMAS. Israel was much more patient in responding to the atrocities of HAMAS than any of you that are casting stones at Israel would have been. They have averted casualties to civilains as much as possible while at the same time attempting to take away the terrorist threat to their country.

How many of you would support a terrorist group conducting suicide bombs in your city, against your schools, your places of worship, your restaurants? How many of you would be quiet if a terrorist group was established just outside your city and launched rockets daily in the direction of your homes, schools and businesses?

Not a one. I write this with a certainty. You would be demanding that your government take action and protect you.

Yet, is this not what Israel is doing? Yes. And you dare to cry out against them. You hypocrites! You in your glass houses casting stones at Israel.

Grow-up. You are either for terrorism or against it. If you are against it, then you should not be ranting and raving against Israel. You should be applauding them. They knew that many of you would believe the HAMAS lies and propaganda when they took the heroic step to stop them. Yes Heroic. It is easy to do the right thing when people support you. It is difficult to do it knowing it will not be popular.

The people of Gaza deserve better than the world is giving them. They desrve to live a life free from hatred, free from fear, free from bullies. So do the people of Israel. That will not happen as long as HAMAS is allowed to attack Israel.

There will never be peace in the Middle East as long as people advocate the destruction of Israel and attack Israel just as there would be no peace where you live if some terorist organization sought to destroy your nation. HAMAS needs to be removed from power. They need to be treated for what they are: terrorists. They are not victims.

The cycle of hate in Gaza also needs to be broken. Get the younger generation out of the cesspool. Start a program that will let them live and learn abroad. Let them see there is another side of life. It is amazing how travel and education can break down barriers of prejudice.

Get economic reform into Gaza. They need infrastructure and jobs. Yes I now the world economies are reeling. But employing people to rebuild and advance Gaza will aid both Gaza and the economies of countries participating.

Stand up for the rights of the people of Gaza, not HAMAS. The people of Gaza can coexist with Israel and live in peace. But not while HAMAS attacks Israel and seeks to destroy them.

HAMAS is hoping you believe their lies and propaganda. They hope you blame Israel for the atrocities in Gaza and not the real culprit - HAMAS.

JOe the Plumber has it right. http://tinyurl.com/9ettf8

For a broader view of the Israeli - Gaza conflict, read the news from different sources. I maintain a news site on my website http://timnew.com/news

I currently read the Jerusalem Post, The Middle East Times, The BBC, Fox News, and the Jordon Times. The Middle East Times has some intriguing editorials and opinions. One is http://www.metimes.com/International/2009/01/09/a_way_out_of_gaza/4659/ and another is http://www.metimes.com/Opinion/2009/01/08/a_plan_for_gaza_demilitarization_and_internationalization/5110/

Don't fall for HAMAS propaganda. That is all it is. There can be peace in the Middle East, but not while organizations like HAMAS gets your support.

Back in Miguel Alemán - another ESL year

2008-08-14T06:47:00.005+08:00

I arrived back in Cuidad Miguel Alemán, Tamaulipas, México yesterday. The 700 plus mile trip was made longer by the torrential rains along the way. I stopped in Houston long enough to shop for posters and other class room materials at Mardel's.

Today I went to Eagle College and learned that there are currently three teachers for the six grades of English (I'm not sure what they have planned for 7th grade). The new teacher Erin will be teaching First and Second grade while I will have Third and Fourth Grades. Melina will again teach Fifth and Sixth Grades.

It is anticipated that I will have a dozen students in Third Grade (8 who were in Second Grade last year at Eagle College and four who will be attending Eagle College for the first time) and a baker's dozen (13) in Fourth Grade all of whom I had last year in Third Grade. Unfortunately two of my better students from last year moved over the summer along with two others. If I am lucky one more will also not show. He shouldn't be in Fourth Grade as he was unable to function in Third Grade. Why the school promoted him is beyong me. He doesn't need to be in a higher grade.

Classes start Monday, but I suspect that will be more of an orientation day. I know going in that the text books will be more advanced English than any of the students have to begin the year. My challenge will be to build their English WHILE also getting them through the text books. Science will be the most difficult for them.

And while they are learning English I hope to be learning Spanish. Time will tell.

It's been awhile

2008-07-23T05:07:00.003+08:00

It has been awhile since I updated my blogs. So today I hope to update at least a couple - this one and my fantasy sports blog. If you are into fantasy sports be sure and visit by website http://timnew.com/fantasy_sports I am adding content but there is plenty there now for fantasy football enthusiasts.

On other matters, I am back in Three Creeks for now. School at Eagle College (that is an elementary school) in Cuidad Miguel Alemán, México ended July 4 - that is when final grades were available for parents. Classes really ended a week earlier and I left a day earlier so I wouldn't be on the road July 4. When I left, I was not sure if I would return for another year or not. I needed to see how things were at home with my father and mother before deciding. I also needed to decide if I could afford to return. Teaching English at Eagle College isn't something you do for money but I don't want to be in the red either.

Anyway, I plan to return in early August to Miguel Alemán and teach a full year. I hope by starting the year rather than coming in the middle I can help elevate the English of the students to near or above the US levels. It will be a challenge since the students will begin the year below the US level for their grade. I do not yet know which grade or grades I will be teaching. But I know 3rd, 4th and 5th grades will all start behind the US levels.

So I am in 3 Creeks for about another 3 weeks. I have a ton of clean-up work to do in that time and hopefully will start some lesson planning also. Anyone out there who knows of a good test to measure elementary English proficiency, drop me an email or comment. I haven"t been able to find or devise a test that will tell me at what level a student is in their English. I can only tell they are not at the level they need to be.

Fourth Grade

2008-04-12T23:18:00.002+08:00

Here are my fourth graders:

Latest update - 4th grade added; chicken pox - varicella

2008-04-12T22:45:00.004+08:00

It's been awhile since I posted on here and I apologize. Eagle College (it still seems weird to me to refer to a k-6 school as college) had its spring break from March 14 through March 31. I returned to South Arkansas for most of that time and then returned via Austin, Texas and Big Bend Texas. My search for blue bonnets around Austin was a bust, but I enjoyed my day in Big Bend. I should have photos online sometime of Big Bend.

Back to Eagle College.

Upon arriving back in Cuidad Miguel Alemán on Sunday, March 30 I discovered that one of the teachers was not returning after the break. On Monday I discovered that another teacher was not returning. The teacher who had been teaching 4th grade had a sister involved in a serious car accident in San Antonio and stayed in San Antonio to be with her. The teacher teaching 2nd grade also had some family problems and, if I understood correctly, is in Florida.

So on April Fool's day, I added 4th grade to my class schedule. I now teach 3rd grade English from 8 until 10:30 every morning and after the 10:30 to 11 am break (recess and brunch) I teach 4th grade from 11 until 2.

There are only 8 students in 4th grade compared to my 17 in third grade but they are in a similar situation to my third grade - they need their vocabulary built up before they can learn 4th grade material in English. Plus I have 1 student who is ADD. His parents have decided they do not want him medicated. To say he is disruptive to the class is an understatement.

Added to this mix is chicken pox and 100 degree weather with no AC - at home or in my car. We do have AC at school thankfully.

This is the first time since my return that I have a sense of not being behind although in truth I am still a little behind. But most of my tardiness now is on projects unrelated to third or fourth grade. In addition to teaching I am also doing video for the local church. That includes funeral services for the Pastor's mother of which I have so far made 50 DVDs. I currently have one " 2 1/2 hour" video to get burned to DVD of a Church dedication (March 14) and this past Sunday's service. Once I have those on DVD, I will finally be caught up on DVDs except for making any copies requested. I am hoping a lot of people want the church dedication since the money from those could pay for my Car's AC.

Back to Chicken Pox or varicella in Spanish. One of the first graders had it when we returned from Spring Break. She did not come to school because of it. Another first grader soon had it. A replacement teacher came down with it and just this past Thursday one of my third grade students left class with it. As I understand from the internet, it takes 10 to 21 days after exposure for chicken pox to manifest itself. A person is contagious beginning 2 days before they show the itchy red welts (in other words before trhey even know they have chicken pox) until all of the welts are scabbed over. Chicken pox can be transmitted by both direct contact and by air. So I may have more students in a couple of weeks with chicken pox. Thew good news is my student had been vacinated for Chicken pox so her case hopefully will be milder than normal. About 2 out of 10 people vacinated once for chicken pox still contract the disease. Now they usually give a double dose of the vaccine - 2 different times - and that seems to be near 100% effective.

Normally a person does not get chicken pox more than once in a lifetime. I had them when I was a baby so hopefully my immunity is still good. Time will tell.

Oh and the Spanish word makes more sense than the English. Chicken pox is from the varicella zoster virus.

New picasa page

2008-02-21T12:43:00.003+08:00

A group is coming down from Michigan this month to do some volunteer work at the school. Talking to one of the volunteers who is already here, I thought creating a separate picasa page just for photos of the school or related to the school would be a good idea. Anyone from the group is welcome to post their photos to the page and I'll be posting some of mine. In fact, I posted quite a few tonight and divided them by schol year (more or less).

The new picasa page is: http://picasaweb.google.com/eaglecollege.mx

I'll try to get an updated posting about what is happening here tomorrow. It's late now and I have a test to create and some other work to do. So check back in the next day or two if you are viewing this around the 20th of February.

104 degrees in February

2008-02-06T06:52:00.000+08:00

When I returned from classes today the computer showed that the temperature in Roma, Texas was 104 degrees. That was at about 2:30 P.M. It is now almost 5 P.M. and the same computer shows the temperature outside to be 101. It is only February 5! And if you are thinking that I live in Cuidad Miguel Alemán, Mexico and not Roma, Texas I am not sure that 30 yards across the Rio Grande River makes it any cooler here.

Today is the anniversary of the Constitution of Mexico. Schools and businesses celebrated the holiday yesterday so today was the first day back to classes. Last week I tested my Third Graders on their knowledge of English pronouns. We also began studying 16 words from a list of the most frequently used words in the English Language. I had each students select a word from the list of about 260 words. I did not tell them when they were choosing that they would have to learn those words - learn how to spell them and learn what each word meant. Even my best students often have no idea what the word they spell or read means. For example, today they were learning the Scripture verse "...Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved ..." from Acts 16:31. I normally try to use more modern language such as "you" rather than "thou" and "will" rather than "shalt", but this verse was in their school material. Several students had memorized the verse in just a few minutes and could recite it to me very well. When I asked if anyone knew what "believe", "thou" or "shalt" meant, no one had a clue.

That is typical of my class. They can read words and spell words but at the same time have no understanding of the word. So we have began identifying each key word and identifying it. Often this means identifying the Spanish word that has the same or similar meaning. Today we did that with the 12 pronouns - he, she, it, you, me, us, which, I, we, they, her, him - and their 16 chosen vocabulary words. The vocabulary words are: about, be, big, black, color, friend, from, have, next, open, play, present (which can be pronounced 2 different ways and has combined about 4 meanings), run, some, they and under. Not a bad selection to learn first. I will have them chose 16 or 17 more words either tomorrow or Thursday. One student was absent the day they initially selected words, but abcteach.com handles 16 words well but 17 not so well. I may stay with 16.

Back to the 104 degrees. Last Thursday night/Friday morning it was about 36 degrees here. The forecast for tonight is a low of 52 degrees - 50 degrees cooler than the high. And you think the weather where you live is unpredictable? Since it was so hot today, I decided to go ahead and take my VW Jetta into the local dealership to have the AC checked. As my luck would go, it began "acting up" about a week ago. Everytime I switch on the AC there is a loud rumble. I am hoping it is not an expensive repair. If it is too expensive, I will just forego the AC and drive with the windows down. I am old enough to remember when lots of vehicles did not have AC and driving with the windows down was your air.

I'll close with another photo. Ok. Two photos.

I hope to begin adding photos to my picasa album soon - maybe tonight! Feel free to visit and bookmark my album - http://picasaweb.google.com/timdnew

It's been 3 weeks, and I'm still learning

2008-01-29T08:17:00.001+08:00

It has now been 3 weeks since I began teaching English to students whose native language is Spanish. When I made the 680 mile drive down to Cuidad Migual Alemán, I understood that I would be taking over a class of 10 second grade students. The class was one of two being taught by the other US citizen teaching here, Amy. She was teaching English to both first and second grade but really was having to short both since she was having to split her time. When we arrived for classes on January 7, the plan was that I would help her initially with the second grade class for a day or so just to learn where they were and what they were doing. Then I was to take over. That didn't happen. Both Amy and I learned just before classes commenced at 8 A.M. that I was to be teaching Third grade instead. The former teacher did not continue after the Christmas break. So I found myself suddenly teaching 16 Third Grade students. Talk about being unprepared.

I had no books for Third Grade except 1 planning guide. I was (and am) teaching from 8 A.M. until 10:30 am every morning. Then from 10:30 until 11 A.M. the children have "recess" and more or less lunch. It is not a cafeteria experience as we have in the states but the children can buy tacos and sandwiches and similar foods at this time and most do. From 11 until 12:45 on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday they have their Spanish language class. That is not taught by me (obviously since I am slowly learning Spanish). Then they have a recess break from 12:45 until 1 P.M. From 1 until 2 P.M. they are under my tutelage once again. On Tuesday they had Computer lab for 45 minutes carved out of their Spanish time. I say had because my class gained a student about a week ago (up to 17) and when it did, we suddenly had too many students for 1 computer lab. So now half of the students have lab on Tuesday during their Spanish time, and the other half have it on Thursday morning during my morning session. I had the teacher doing the Computer labs split my class so the students who need more help in English will have labs on Tuesday and I will have them on Thursday. That way I can focus some time on helping them learn the basics most of the better students know while those better students are taking Computer lab.

That is a general synopsis of the schedule. During the time I have the students, I am to teach not only English grammar and spelling but also reading, science, art, cursive writing, and science. Yes science falls to the English teacher and it is causing headaches. The students do not have a US Third Grade vocabulary of the English language, but the Abeka course material is designed for US Third Grade English. Many of my students have never had any English before. Suddenly they are presented with Third Grade US English. LOST. I have 6 to 8 students who are able to do the Third Grade spelling. Those students are not able to read and understand the science material. SO where does that leave the poorer English students? And this is a common problem in 4th, 5th and 6th grade also. The material is too advanced for students whose native language is not English.

For 2 weeks I did evaluations. I had no idea what the students knew nor what they had been taught the first half of the year. I did get the books but quickly learned that they were not comprehending them. So I am now going backwards in order to go forward. This week I am testing the students on pronouns such as he, she, it, you, me, us, we, him, her, they and which. The better students all did well on my exploratory spelling test using these words (I gave the class a spelling test without warning on these words). "Which" gave the better students problems, but that was the only word. The poorer students however knew some of the words but not all. So I will be having them learn these words this week rather than the Third Grade spelling words like preached, continually, several, etc.... Even the students who are spelling these words correctly are doing so without any understanding of what the words mean. So I am regressing to basics to build up their vocabulary and reading skills. I am also using Dr Seuss books and others that I brought. Each student had selected 1 book to read at his or her level (supposedly). I figure the weaker students need to experience some success. Hopefully by having them learn words they can learn they will start to gain some confidence.

If you are wondering why I haven't been writing much in the past few weeks it is simply because I had problems getting onto the internet. Initially it was because I needed a stronger wireless card in my computer. My computer was too far from the base router. Then once I got that solved, we lost our DSL service for over a week due to rain and a bad phone line. I finally got the internet back just this weekend.

Here is a photo of my students:

Moving across the border

2007-12-29T08:04:00.000+08:00

Teaching English as a Foreign Language or a second language -

A week from now I should be in Cuidad Miguel Alemán. I am moving there next week to teach English to a group of Second Grade children. I have substitute taught the past 2 years at the local elementary school here (Junction City Arkansas - Louisiana). But this will be a new experience (pun intended). No not the Spanish language environment. I have visited and even worked for short periods of time in countries that spoke Spanish or Portuguese. This will be the first time where I was primarily responsible for each day. As a substitute I simply take what the teacher has prepared and it is my job to execute it - in other words I teach what the regular teacher says I should that day.

Starting on January 7 it will be my responsibility to design and prepare each days work. This will be a new challenge. The fact it will be children who are learning a foreign language simply adds a dimension to the challenge. I have already been gathering a variety of "tools" to assist me. These range from Sight Word materials to workbooks and such that have additional phonetic theme work I can copy and use with the children.

One thing I learned as a substitute was that having "fill" material is important. Dead time is not good. Even the best of children with nothing to do will invariably start disrupting the class. Being in a position to give them material that will help them learn the concept we are studying is a goal of mine. A second thing I learned was "be flexible" Some days we will not accomplish everything on the plan. It is more important that the children learn the concepts than that I adhere rigidly to a schedule. And each child will learn at a different pace.

My first challenge on Monday, January 7, 2008 will be learning where each child presently is in their knowledge of English (and grammar in general). And to learn each child's name. It will be important for me to get off on a good relationship with each child. Even as I type this I am thinking of ways to accomplish these goals.

Between now and next Friday, I will be reviewing material and studying Spanish. I know some Spanish but most of it is at the outer reaches of my brain lying in the murky shadows. In other words, I haven't used it and as a result it takes time to recall. I need to expose myself to what I already know to get it familiar again and learn more. I will be teaching English but I want to learn Spanish and gain fluency.

I hope to update this blog weekly if not daily from Cuidad Miguel Alemán. Feel free to drop in and leave any comments. This will be a learning experience for all.

'Tis the Season for Giving

2007-11-30T09:28:00.000+08:00

Yes it is the season for giving with Christmas just around the corner. Have you wondered why we restrict ourselves to giving just this time of year? Should we?

This blog is about giving. It just so happens this is the time of year for giving. It could be any time and it would would apply.

14 year old starts Library in his town: needs Books donated!

I was reading through the website of author Lois Lowry (a favorite author of mine) and discovered an opportunity to give. A Young boy, age 14, is starting a Library in his town of Rollinsford, New Hampshire. He had written Lois when he was 11 and mentioned his town did not have a Library. Reminescent of Cicero, Lois responded "I told him then that a town with no library was like a body with no heart." Being a lover of books, I agree. And this is my small part of helping.

If you would like to help 14 year old Robert (or R.J.) Bolian and his efforts to start a Library, one can make a donation to:

This is the address to which book donations should be sent:

Rollinsford Public Library
Cutter Family Properties
Suite 214
1 Front Street
Rollinsford, NH 03869
RJ Bolian, the 14 year old boy who spent three years getting this library up and running—because
his town had none—tells me that they are especially short of children's books.

You can read the original blog of Lois Lowry on this and other issues at http://loislowry.typepad.com/lowry_updates

Give the Gift of Life!

Another gift that is always timely is the gift of life. I have been a regular donator of blood to the American Red Cross since I was 18 and old enough to donate. About a month ago the Red Cross called me. That is a fairly regular occurrence. Every 54 days for years they have called to remind me I was once again eligible to give. This call was different. This time they called wanting me to donate platelets. It is a longer process, but they need platelets for Cancer victims among others.

It took about 80 minutes for me to donate the platelets. They had a portable DVD player so I was able to watch a movie while my platelets were collected. One is able to donate platelets every 2 weeks or so compared to 54 days between blood donations. My blood is CMV negative which is the only blood newborns or peopre who are receiving an organ transplant can use. Now I must chose as two branches of the Red Cross compete - blood or platelets.

If you are healthy and able to donate blood or platelets, please do. Blood is truly a gift worth giving. You can save a life!

I have been Negligent

2007-11-11T02:43:00.000+08:00

Wow it has been so long since I last posted. I apologize to anyone who has visited and been disappointed.

I do have my share of excuses. I have been busy with fantasy sports - I now have NFL, NBA and NHL teams, teaching elementary students as a substitute teacher and taking a 2 week trip through the middle of the US. Along with the latter, I have been working on getting the photographs I took on the trip online (some are now on my picasa page) and working on my mother's new computer and our network. Doesn't sound like a lot but when you realize I knew nothing about Hockey until after I joined the fantasy hockey league on Yahoo Sports, and take into account that I wanted to know what I was doing, then it becomes more understandable. I was learning as much as I could about Hockey and watching NBA games while I could (Dish Network had a free preview period). And I have been blogging on ScreamingSports.com

If you are a fantasy sports fan you really should be participating on Screaming Sports. It is free.

Today I added a blog on just fantasy sports. It is Fantasy Sportsaholic
If you are into fantasy sports, be sure and visit my Sports Blog and book mark it.

I'll try to do a better job keeping my blogs all up to date. And check my website for a photo journal soon of our trip through Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan (including the Upper Peninsula), Indiana, and Ohio. Hopefully I will get it online this next week. It will be in the Photo section of the website.

Busy with Fantasy Football

2007-09-02T02:16:00.000+08:00

I've been preoccupied with Fantasy Football so haven't posted anything here in awhile.

I never realized just how involved Fantasy Football could be. I say could because one doesn't have to do as much as I have been but I suspect the more you do the better prepared you will be.

If you want to know what I have been doing to prepare as a 1st year manager or any tidbits I may have learned, drop me an email. I'm not dumb enough to post it where my opponent managers can see it.

Fantasy Football! My team

2007-08-25T06:33:00.001+08:00

This is my first experience with any Fantasy team. and considering that I have not really watched Professional football in the past few years, it has been a challenge already!

Our Team draft has happened. The team is hosted on ESPN and is under standard ESPN rules. You have a 16 player team and start 9 - 1 QB, 2 RB, 2WR, 1RB/WR, 1 TE, 1 K and 1 Defense/Special Team. We have a 10 team league and use Head to Head matchups each week. I drafted 4th. My 16 picks were (not in order drafted but by position):

My Draft Roster:

QB Kitna - Det - Plays @ Oakland week 1
QB Losman - Buf - Plays Denver week 1

RB Stephen Jackson (Stl) - Plays Carolina week 1
RB Willie Parker (Pit) - Plays @ Cleveland week 1
RB Rudi Johnson (Cin) - Plays Baltimore week 1
RB Brandon Jacobs (NYG) - Plays @ Dallas week 1

WR Terrell Owens (Dal) - Plays NYG week 1
WR Donald Driver (GB) - Plays Philedelphia week 1 (assuming he plays)
WR Deion Branch (Sea) - Plays Tampa Bay week 1
WR Calvin Johnson (Det) - Plays @ Oakland week 1
WR Dante Stallworth (NE) - Plays @ NYJ week 1

TE Ben Watson (NE) - Plays @ NYJ week 1
TE Owen Daniel (Hou) - Plays @Kansas City week 1

K J. Wilkins (Stl) - Plays Carolina Week 1

D/ST Chicago Bears - Plays @ San Diego week 1
D/ST Denver - Plays @ Buffalo week 1

Since the draft I waived Hou TE Owen Daniel since both he and Watson had the exact same Bye Week (I had written down Daniel's Bye Week wrong on my draft sheet). I can add a player Sunday to fill that vacant position.

So what do you think? On paper it looked good, and then I started looking at the first week games. Ouch. Rudi Johnson at home but against Baltimore! I have a great #1 Defense in Chicago but week 1 they play at San Diego!

and my first week opponent has players who look good in their first round match-ups

Opposing Team Roster and week 1 opponent:

StL QB Marc Bulger car
SF QB Alex Smith ari

SF RB Frank Gore ari
NE RB Laurence Maroney @NYJ
Phi RB Brian Westbrook @gb
ATL RB Jerious Norwood @min
CAR RB DeShaun Foster stl

Was WR Santana Moss mia
Ari WR Anquan Boldin @sf
NO WR Devery Henderson @ind
NYG WR Plaxico Burress @Dal

Pit TE Heath Miller @cle'
SF TE Vernon Davis ari

Dal D/ST Cowboys D/ST nyg
Jac D/ST Jaguars D/ST ten

any suggestions? Who should I sit? Start?

Leave your comments or email me

"Words in Color" Puzzle challenge

2007-08-16T07:48:00.000+08:00

This is not original from me. My first disclaimer.

The Rules are simple. Look at the image below and say the color of the word - not the word. Understand? For example, when you see red you would say Blue since the color is blue even though the letters spell the word RED.

See how many colors you can say correctly before making a mistake. See how fast you can sat all the colors in sequence without saying the word written. Let the fun begin.

So how did you do?

And by the way, did you vote in the visitor poll? Please do.

Coffee! Benefits and risks

2007-08-14T09:12:00.000+08:00

I love coffee! The image above says it all.

These are just a few of the news articles on coffeee - 2 of the 3 in just the last couple of days.

Girl overdoes on espresso coffee

Is Coffee bad for you?

Coffee 'protects female memory'

It seems like I have been drinking coffee all of my life. My mother claims I started drinking it when I was just a few months old when she gave it to me mixed with milk in my bottle because I wanted what she was drinking. Today I prefer it strong and pure or black as some say. No sugar, no cream or milk or substitutes. While in Brasil, I shocked some people by preferring their strong rich brew without the traditional sugar and cream added. "puro, por favor!" Obrigado! I love it espresso strength. Now that doesn't mean I don't drink it otherways. I drink lattes, mochas, fraps, cafe au lait, etc. What I do not particularly like is "american coffee". Folgers or Maxwell House or some similar brand brewed so that one can see partially through the liquid. That is just colored warm water. I prefer it dark and rich. When I brew coffee, one can not see through it even a little. And one doesn't need an espresso machine to brew dark, rich, strong coffee. I start with high quality coffee (it doesn't have to be expensive - I found one at Wal-Mart at about $3 a lb that is excellent), I fill my filter full and then add 12 cups of cold water and let it brew. That is using a Krups drip coffee machine. As long as you have good coffee, it is great! Try that with folgers or maxwell house and you will have 1 bitter brew!

The first article linked above however highlights one of the risks of coffee. Maybe the only risk. Some people can not handle the caffeine. If 7 double espressos were too much for her system, she doesn't want to have mine. I drink my coffee by the "mug", at least 12 oz at a time and I can drink coffee anytime, 24/7. Caffeine has never adversely affected me. In fact I tried to use coffee from Puerto Rico (excellent coffee!) while in college to stay awake and study. It never worked. I could fall right to sleep studying Organic Chemistry with or without the coffee.

The other 2 articles highlights some of the benefits of coffee. I actually use to have a collection of articles similar to these (and probably still have the bookmarks) that show the benefits of drinking coffee. Warding off dementia is just one of them. I have a father with Alzheimer's and will probably post this same post on my Living with alzheimer's blog.

Just so you don't think I am prejudice against other hot drinks, I also love hot tea and Hot Chocolate. Unlike some other Coffee lovers, I do not despise tea. In fact, I love hot and cold tea especially hot green tea, herbal teas and oolong tea. I don't like English breakfast tea as well. And tea has been shown to be very good for you also with hot green tea probably drawing the most accolates as to health benefits. I am also a chocoholic and love hot cocoa as well. Chocolate (not the supper sugared versions but real dark chocolate) has also been shown to benefit ones' health.

But coffee is coffee. It has a special place. In November of 2000 I was fortunate to visit a friend in Slovakia. Before returning to the US, I stayed a couple of nights in Vienna, Austria. Coffee and chocolate on every corner! I highly recommend it to the coffee and chocolate lovers. If you don't like chocolate (how can you not?), you may want to consider a trip to Costa Rica. It isn't known for its chocolate but it has some of the best coffee grown anywhere. I can also recommend coffess from Brasil (there are a couple I really like) and elsewhere. Just avoid the coffees that are designed to be brewed weak if you want the real experience of rich, flavorful coffee.

PS: I just added the link to oolong tea, and I haven't even read it all myself. Discovered it as I searched "oolong" to make sure I spelled it correctly.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

2007-08-04T11:06:00.000+08:00

I just finished reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. This is his second novel. His debut novel was The Kite Runner which I have not yet read. However it spent something like 2 years on the NY Times best seller list.

I don't want to spoil the book for anyone, but the setting of the book is Afghanistan and spans about 50 years. You primarily view the history of Afghanistan during this time through the eyes of 2 women. It is a poignant and moving story and is not recommended for those who are looking for a light amusing book.

For fans of UK author, Joanne Harris ( Chocolat, Blackberry Wine: A Novel, Coastliners: A Novel, Five Quarters of the Orange), you should really like this book. And vice versa. If you like A Thousand Splendid Suns, you should also enjoy Joanne Harris' books. She is one of my favorite modern authors. You should also consider Purple Hibiscus by Adichie. Another book you may want to read if you like books on life in Afghanistan during the Taliban era is Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis. And yes I have read every one of these recommended books and would not recommend a book I did not think was very good. If you have school children anywhere from 4th grade and up, this last book is one they can read and enjoy.

IF you enjoy books and reading, I am adding pages to a section on my website devoted to books - one of my passions. I just finished adding Modern Library's 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century to the site. This is actually 2 lists (100 by the Board and 100 by the readers). How many of the best books of the 20th century have you read? Take a visit http://timnew.com/books/ and see. It is interesting to see how divergent the 2 lists are.

I have also listed some of my favorite UK authors and favorite US authors in addition to a list of authors and books fans of JK Rowling and the Harry Potter series may enjoy reading since the end of that series. My plans are to continue adding material so visit often to see what is new. If you have book suggestions, comments or questions about books I have recommended on this blog or my site, please leave a comment or email me. I love feedback and prefer dialogue over monologue any day.

Cleaning up, rearranging

2007-08-03T00:21:00.000+08:00

I've been cleaning up and rearranging the blog. It is still a work in progress as I experiment with layouts and elements. 2 Polls closed - Which of the New Wonders of the World would you like to Visit? and How Harry Potter affected your Reading Habits. Taj Mahal won the New Wonder of the World most of you readers would like to visit followed by Michu Pichu and the Great Wall of China, then the Roman Colaseum and Brasil's Statute of Christ, and the Jordon's Petra and finally Mexico's Ruins. On Harry Potter, most of you already loved to read before Harry Potter was discovered by you.

I have removed the games. I'm not sure if anyone was playing any of them or not. If you were, you can still play them by visiting my website and selecting games from the left hand frame. The Harry PotterGames, Tic-Tac-Toe, and Sudoku (my favorite) are all there.

I think everything else is still here just rearranged. 3 Polls on Harry Potter are still open. If you haven't voted yet, there is still time. The polls are located on the left side - just scroll down.

As I am posting this, I am also cleaning up, rearranging and adding elements to my website. One new section deals with books. IF you like to read, you will want to check out that section. It is still having pages added but I already have suggestions for fans of Harry Potter on books they may enjoy reading and suggestions on US and UK authors. I plan to add genre sections, Best 100 Novels sections, Non-US, Non-UK authors sections, and others as time allows. I am including links to authors' websites so it takes time.

I have also added a section on Alzheimer's and a section on Global News sites in English (listed in left hand frame).

I am also in the process of scanning photographs and adding them to my photo section of my website. I have literally hundreds of photos to process that are already scanned and plan to scan more. I am also adding photos to my Picasa albums and Flickr albums. I have more on picasa than flickr. IF you do not already have a picasa album, I would recommend it. It is FREE and part of the Google Pack. You can get it by clicking the Google Pack banner on the side menu. There are several items included in the Free Google Pack in addition to picasa. Flickr is by Google's competitor Yahoo. I have not yet done as much with it but it is also free. Why not get both and see which you prefer? Just do a quick search for Flickr above in the search box and you'll find it. I will be adding more photos to both of my accounts as time permits.

I think that about covers it. Let me know what you think.

Saving the environment

2007-07-31T23:46:00.000+08:00

one tree at a time.

The Indian state of Uttar Pradesh is attempting to set a world record by planting 10 million trees in a single day on Tuesday- July 31. It is an effort to be applauded whether they set the record or not. The previous record by the way is 852,587 trees, planted in 6,284 locations in Tamil Nadu state in 2006.

Trees and vegetation provide us with the oxygen we breath. Just as important, trees and vegetation inhale the carbon dioxide we exhale. It's a nice cycle as we provide what the other needs to live.

But as the earth's population of humans continues to increase, the earth's population of trees continues to decrease. That isn't a formula for success. We hold the future of the world in our hands today. It is nice to see the reforestation effort by India and others.

There are no easy solutions to the world's problem with environmental pollution. Countries that are poor are often asked to bear a larger portion of the social costs of preventing deforestation. Why? Because the richer nations have already cut their trees and profited by it -- at least in some forms -- while the poorer nations did not and still have their trees. They are now asked to not cut theirs so that the damage can be halted. The solution? Support reforestation and support efforts to slow down the cutting of the rain forest and other old wood forests that remain. But recognize we are asking those nations who have the rain forests such as brasil to do what many of our nations did not -- protect our forests.

Planting trees like the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh is doing is a step in the right direction. If the world is to survive, we must learn to live in harmony with nature. We must give back and not just take. Economic interests of today must be weighed and balanced against the costs to the future generations of tomorrow. And those asked to make the economic sacrifices of today, should in some way be compensated. But the costs to the environment of economic development should never be ignored. We should all bear the burden of saving the environment.

So say a big Thank You to India and its officials for bearing some of the burden we all owe to life here on Planet Earth. And if you have the opportunity, plant a tree.

A Journey into Forgetfulness

2007-07-28T21:40:00.000+08:00

A Journey into forgetfulness

Have you ever had an experience where you knew …

The name of the person, it was on the tip of your tongue as they say, but ….it just eludes you, just stays slightly beyond your grasp.

Or you just had those car keys, sun glasses, …. but now what did you do with them? Where did you put them?

Now imagine …. that is your life. 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, that is your life.

You just can’t quite recall. It is something you should know but. …. It eludes you.

And day by day, week by week the things that slip just into the shadows of your mind where you can sort of glimpse them but can’t quite make out what they are grow and grow and slip further and farther away.

Alzheimer’s

I had promised my next blog would have a more serious subject - Alzheimer's. After thinking it over, I decided to create a stand-a-lone blog just for Alzheimer's. My father has Alzheimer's. If you have a family member or friend who has Alzheimer's or cares for a victim of Alzheimer's, please visit and participate in this blog. It is truly a debilitating disease. The blog is called Living With Alzheimer's and the above post is identical to the first post there.

One last Harry Potter blog - It's the Little Things

2007-07-25T23:49:00.000+08:00

One last Harry Potter blog --

at least for now. The next blog is planned to be about a more serious subject although it does have a Harry Potter connection. Alzheimer's. The connection with Harry Potter? It is the model JK Rowling uses for Neville's mother.

Back to Deathly Hallows. Some people have questioned WHY? Why are you and others disappointed. So I have decided to try and answer. This next part is from what I posted recently on orkut's Harry Potter for Adults
(with a few modifications):

If you were the parents of Hermione, would you be excited if she suddenly had test scores that were acceptable rather than outstanding? Wouldn't you be just a bit disappointed? Wouldn't you expect more from her?

Never in 6 books did JKR write anything that was not completely consistent with what she had previously written. She was no average writer. She excelled at writing a story that was interesting yet complex. She gave details and dropped hints and clues and always when you looked backward you could see how everything aligned and made sense.

Book 7 departs from that. Suddenly things that should not happen, happen; things that should, don't.

IF this had been the first book I had read of JK Rowling I would be happy. It is better than most of the books I read. But it is not to the higher level she has previously written. It is like Hermione getting a mediocre grade rather than outstanding. Something is just out of whack! It doesn't fit.

Entertaining? Sure. Just as the movies are entertaining. Are the movies as good as the books? No. Do they make as much sense as the books? No. Is this book as well written technically as the previous 6? No. Does it make sense as the previous 6 books? No.

There are parts of the book that are signature JK Rowling. Maybe 90 percent or more. But it is those bits and pieces that just do not fit that bring it down for those of us who loved her because of how well she wrote, how consistent she was.

It's the little things. JK Rowling has always been a master writer of the little things. It is one of the reasons I loved reading her books. In book 7, the little things are what disappoints. They are no longer consistent. The story is still good but not as good as if the little things remained as before -- consistent. For example, in previous books we learned that James fought Voldemort in an effort to give Lily time to escape with Harry. We were told he put up a valiant fight. But not in Deathly Hallows. In Deathly Hallows, there is no fight. James does not even have his wand, and Voldemort simply kills him. Little things like this in the past have always aligned and made sense with her previous writing. In book 7, it doesn't. They are out of alignment. They contradict.

I loved to read before JK Rowling ever wrote the first Harry Potter book. I read more than the average person, and most of what I read is not nearly as well written as Deathly Hallows. One day (hopefully soon) I plan to add an extended book section to my website that lists some of the authors and books I find to be worth recommending. JK Rowling will still be there. So don't take what I have written out of context.

JK Rowling is like Hermione. She is brilliant enough to always get Outstanding. But here she doesn't write to her normal standards. The Little Things that have in the past bolstered her writing now magnify the short-falls. It's the little things we have come to expect from her. That is why I and others are disappointed with Deathly Hallows. It's the Little Things.

Polls - updates

2007-07-25T01:11:00.000+08:00

Many of you have voted on the various polls I have listed: New Wonder of the World you'd most like to visit; How Harry Potter had afected your reading habits; Whether you were disappointed with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows; Which of the Harry Potter books was your favorite and which was your least favorite.

This is just a snapshot look at these polls.

Of the 7 new Wonders of the World, which would you most like to visit?

18 Votes

India's Taj Mahal leads with 7 votes

Peru's Machu Picchu and China's Great Wall both have 3 votes

The Colosseum in Rome and Brasil's Statue of Christ the Redeemer both have 2 votes

Jordon's Petra has 1 vote and

Mexico's Ruins of Chichen Itza has received 0 votes.

I wish there was some way to match up the votes with geography -- where the voters reside. Without any comments on why they chose the ones they did, can't really say alot. Machu Picchu would have received my vote IF I had voted followed by the Great Wall of china. Why? I love remote locations away from the crowds. The Ruins of Chicken Itza would probably have been my third choice for the same reason -- away from the crowds.

How has Harry Potter affected your reading habits?

20 votes

This one surprised me. I had heard so much about how Harry Potter and made people who did not like to read into readers. But the poll shows that of the 20 votes, 14 loved to read before ever reading Harry Potter. I would be in this group also. The other 6 liked to read some but Harry Potter increased their love of reading. Maybe the ones who started to read because of Harry Potter still don't like reading other things including my blog?

Did Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows disappoint you?

13 votes.

The early votes were all disappointed but later voters not as much. Currently 8 of the readers are disappointed, 4 are not (2 of whom loved the book) and 1 neutral

What is your Favorite of the Harry Potter Books?

9 votes

I was surprised here. Half-Blood Prince leads the way with 3 votes; Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire both received 2 votes; Order of the Phoenix 1 and Deathly Hallows 1.

Which is your least favorite of the Harry Potter Books?

10 votes

Again I was surprised. Chamber of Secrets and Goblet of Fire tied with 3 votes each. Order of the Phoenix received 2 and Deathly Hallows 2.

Polls are still open so if you haven't voted, feel free to vote. If you have voted and want to explain your choices, just send me a comment and I'll add it.

JK Rowling Disappoints

2007-07-21T22:26:00.001+08:00

Many fans of JK Rowling and her Harry Potter books are disappointed today. The final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows did NOT continue her previous dazzling ability to write both cleverly and logically. In past books, everything made sense - at least in hindsight. There were no giant leaps of logic, no major inconsistencies in the plot. That ended in Book 7. Harry Potter carrying around a piece of Voldemort's soul for 16 years unaware? Let's face it - that is completely inconsistent with a Professor Quirrel who could not even touch Harry without enduring intense pain in book 1 because he was possessed by Voldemort's soul OR Voldemort possessing Harry in Book 5 and having to flee because of the Mortal agony it caused for Voldemort's soul to be in contact with Harry's. IF a piece of Voldemort had been embedded in Harry, that piece should have been constant pain for Harry -- if the plot was to be consistent. In fact, it should not have been able to survive the contact. IF the magical protection given to Harry by Lily's scaricfice was sufficient to block the Avada Kedavra curse AND prevent Voldemort from touching Harry, then no piece of Voldemort should have been able to enter Harry either and certainly not survive without pain. That was the biggest inconsistency and biggest disappointment for me personally. But there were others.

JKR does a complete reversal in book 7 on the fidelus charm and how it works. This is NOT an inconsistency within the books as much as an inconsistency with her explanation on her website which her many fans relied on for information between books. On her websites she says:

Result of F.A.Q. Poll

(SPOILER WARNING)

What happens to a secret when the Secret-Keeper dies?
I was surprised that this question won, because it is not the one that I'd have voted for… but hey, if this is what you want to know, this is what you want to know!

When a Secret-Keeper dies, their secret dies with them, or, to put it another way, the status of their secret will remain as it was at the moment of their death. Everybody in whom they confided will continue to know the hidden information, but nobody else.

Just in case you have forgotten exactly how the Fidelius Charm works, it is

"an immensely complex spell involving the magical concealment of a secret inside a single, living soul. The information is hidden inside the chosen person, or Secret-Keeper, and is henceforth impossible to find -- unless, of course, the Secret-Keeper chooses to divulge it" (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)

In other words, a secret (eg, the location of a family in hiding, like the Potters) is enchanted so that it is protected by a single Keeper (in our example, Peter Pettigrew, a.k.a. Wormtail). Thenceforth nobody else – not even the subjects of the secret themselves – can divulge the secret. Even if one of the Potters had been captured, force fed Veritaserum or placed under the Imperius Curse, they would not have been able to give away the whereabouts of the other two. The only people who ever knew their precise location were those whom Wormtail had told directly, but none of them would have been able to pass on the information.

from JK Rowling FAQ

IS this how the fidelus Charm is depicted as working in book 7? No. Suddenly with the death of the secret keeper, Dumbledore, every person who previously knew the secret became able to reveal the secret. There suddenly became multiple secret keepers any of which could reveal the secret. Why the reversal?

And why did Fred have to die near the end during a lull of the battle? How did his death further the plot? Especially in such a manner? Having kept all of the Weasleys alive until then, was it really necessary to have one of the twins die? Was that required to have Ron go beserk or for Molly to duel Bellatrix? It's the only death I really question other than I wish Harry's owl Hedwig hadn't died. Dobby's death at least served a purpose.

But once again, the deaths were largely one sided until the end. How is it that death eaters never died during the battles with Order of the Phoenix members? Was it because the Order was not seeking to kill, just disarm? Even during the final battle at Hogwarts? And once disarmed and disabled, why were they constantly able to escape and resume fighting?

Having started the article negative, let me say JK Rowling has achieved a lot. Writing a 7 book series with hundreds of characters and not having a lot of inconsistencies is remarkable. This is especially true since book 1 was indeed her first book. I just got the impression in reading book 7 that she finally realized that she had too many loose ends that should be closed but did not know how to close them and stay consistent. How to explain the connection between Voldemort and Harry without it conflicting with the "Voldemort can not touch Harry" protection established in Book 1 and Book 5?

Other loose ends and inconsistencies:

How did Voldemort get his wand back after being Vanquished in book 1? (She never explains this). There were a lot of questions by fans before the book about HOW Hagrid was able to get Harry in the first book. If the location was protected by a fidelus charm, then how was Hagrid able to go to Godric's Hollow and retrieve the baby? Obviously Pettigrew the Secret Keeper did not reveal the secret since no one but James, Lily and Sirius knew James had switched to him as the secret keeper. So how did Hagrid find Harry in book 1? And how did Dumbledore and all of the others suddenly know Voldemort had Vanquished or that Harry had survived? Why did it take so long for Hagrid to get Harry from Godric's Hollow to Privet Drive? What did James and Lily do for a living? Why did Snape who supposedly loved Lily treat her son like trash? Just because he resembled his father James? Is that how you would treat the child of someone you truly cared about? So many questions remain.

Thank you JK Rowling for giving us the World of Harry Potter. Because of you, many children today enjoy reading who otherwise probably would have gone through life not reading books for enjoyment. Maybe we as fans came to expect too much from you. Maybe it is our higher expectations that have left us feeling disappointed rather than your ending. Did we expect too much? Sort of like Harry being disappointed with Dumbledore because he had not lived up to how Harry viewed him. There were flaws in his past. Maybe after the dust has settled, the disappointed will likewise settle.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Discussions

2007-07-21T09:25:00.000+08:00

This post is more of a warning for the Harry Potter fans out there who will be reading the books over the next few hours and in some cases days. Many of you will read the book virtually non-stop once you have it and many of you will wait hours at some store tonight to get a copy as soon as you can. I had originally planned to drop in a Wal-Mart at about 2 or 3 am local time and get a copy and then try to read it. BUT it turns out, a copy of the book was "leaked" and this time the leak was authentic. I received photos of the book about 2 days ago and the first 10 chapters in pdf. SO I admit, I have already read the book. After I read the photo version of the last 20 or so chapters, the complete pdf version appeared. It has some typing errors but the text of the book was clear enough

Which is why I am posting a Spoiler warning. Over the next couple of days, I will be posting some thoughts about the book and some polls to get your opinions. SO please, if you have not read the book and do not want to learn what is going to happen, avoid reading this blog until you are prepared to discuss book 7 or at least hear about what happens in book 7. I won't begin posting anything about it until sometime tomorrow (saturday) which is when I would have finished reading the book anyway. And yes, I am buying the book! I just won't be visiting Wal-Mart in the wee early hours of the morning to do so. In fact, I have already bought 2 copies from Amazon UK and they are enroute as I type. I hope to save up and get the deluxe version also. So if you have read the pdf version, or the photographed version, please go ahead and get the book also. Fair is fair.

Spoilers * Photos of Deathly Hallow

2007-07-15T00:26:00.000+08:00

*Spoilers*

Read no farther if you do NOT wish to have any advance knowledge of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Someone has taken photographs of the Table of Contents of Scholastic's version of the book. Below I transcribe those photographs except I use a : rather than a period since the period in the photos is elevated to the midpoint of the text - I couldn't figure how to replicate that so I use a colon instead. The Photos show the Table of Contents beginning on Page *VII* and ending on page *X* . The font and typeset appears very similar to that used in Order of Phoenix - I checked one recent book to compare.

Yesterday I wrote about avoiding being spoiled. And there are different levels of "Spoilage". To me, knowing the Table of contents is minor. I don't mind knowing which is why I don't mind sharing the information. But in fairness, if you don't even want that small bit of tainting of book 7, please don't read this post.

For months people have been circulating a fanfic by Melinda as the real book. It isn't and she had no involvement in the scam. There have been other efforts by people to fool everyone with fake versions of the book or fake versions of the Table of Contents. This may be yet another fake, but it passes my intuition test. I think it is the real book's table of contents. This list is directly from the photos posted.

Contents

One
The Dark Lord Ascending : 1

Two
In Memoriam : 13

Three
The Dursleys Departing : 30

Four
The Seven Potters : 43

Five
Fallen Warrior : 63

Six
The Ghoul in Pajamas : 86

Seven
The Will of Albus Dumbledore : 111

Eight
The Wedding : 137

Nine
A Place to Hide : 160

* VII *

Ten
Kreacher's Tale : 176

Eleven
The Bribe : 201

Twelve
Magic is Might : 223

Thirteen
The Muggle-born Registration Commission : 246

Fourteen
The Thief :268

Fifteen
The Goblin's Revenge : 284

Sixteen
Godric's Hallow : 311

Seventeen
Bathilda's Secret : 330

Eighteen
The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore : 350

Nineteen
The Silver Doe : 363

* VIII *

Twenty
Xenophilius Lovegood : 388

Twenty-One
The Tale of the Three Brothers : 405

Twenty-Two
The Deathly Hallows :424

Twenty-Three
Malfoy Manor : 446

Twenty-Four
The Wandmaker :477

Twenty-Five
Shell Cottage : 502

Twenty-Six
Gringotts: 519

Twenty-Seven
The Final Hiding Place : 544

Twenty-Eight
The Missing Mirror : 554

Twenty-Nine
The Lost Diadem : 571

* IX *

Thirty
The Sacking of Severus Snape : 589

Thirty-One
The Battle of Hogwarts : 608

Thirty-Two
The Elder Wand : 638

Thirty-Three
The Prince's Tale : 659

Thirty-Four
The Forest Again :691

Thirty-Five
King's Cross : 705

Thirty-Six
The Flaw in the Plan : 724

Epilogue
753

* X *

That is a transciption of the photos. I did not post the photos here. I can not verify they are true photos of the book but they seem to me to be. If you want to see the actual photos, drop me a note with a valid email address and I'll try to email you the links.

Friday the 13th! -- 1 week to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

2007-07-14T12:11:00.000+08:00

Yes today was Friday the 13th! But Jason was no where to be seen at least around here. I guess he still has about 20 minutes to make an appearance. That is for you horror film movie buffs. I have to admit I was never a Friday the 13th movie fan. But Friday the 13th as a day has always been good to me.

Now take this Friday the 13th. Doesn't the title of JK Rowling's last Harry Potter book, Harry Potter andthe Deathly Hallows just seem to go with today? I mean Friday the 13th and Deathly Hallows? Has a ring to it, doesn't it? A kind of symmetry? I thought so anyway. Too bad they didn't decide to release the book today. I think it would have been appropos. Maybe they thought it would be too close to the Order of the Phoenix movie release.

Anyway, today marks the 1 week milestone. One week from today, at about this time many of you will be gathering at bookstores such as Barnes & Noble, or Borders Books, or a local Wal-Mart and queueing up to get your hands on the last of the Harry Potter series. I may also. I still have not decided. For Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince I did the midnight trip to our local Wal-Mart, bought the book, got home at about 1 am and proceeded to read the book more or less non-stop. I finished it sometime early evening that day.

This time around I already have my order in at Amazon UK for one of their Adult and one of their Children's edition just as I did last time. But as I type, I am tempted to wait until about 3 or 4 am to go to my local Wal-Mart. By then all the frenzied crowd will be gone. I should be able to walk in, get the book and leave.

And what about spoilers? You know people who scan the book looking for key moments and then go around telling everyone the information before they have a chance to read it for themselves. How many of you will take precautions in the upcoming week and continue until you finish the book to keep from learning what happens from others? I know I will, but since I live in the middle of nowhere, I more or less just have to be cautious on reading what is posted on the internet and avoid anyone shouting inforamtion when I go to book. I don't plan to rush through this one but still if I get it early saturday morning I suspect I will have it finished no later than sometime Sunday afternoon.

So here is to one more week of anticipation, one more week of avoiding spoilers, one more week until the end of one of the best written series in history.

Then I'll have to wait for her next book in a different genre. Yes I will read it also. I'll have to post a blog here just on books and authors sometime. JK Rowling is an exceptional writer but there are others out there worth reading also. But that is for another day.

Photography -- time to change from 35 mm to digital?

2007-07-13T08:10:00.000+08:00

I love to take photographs. I guess it was something inborn since it is something I have always enjoyed doing since as long as I can remember. BUT I was not always good at taking photographs. There is a difference in loving to do something and being good at doing it. As long as the lighting was perfect, I tended to get some good pictures. However, I knew absolutely nothing, nada, about why a photograph was good or was bad. I snapped and I got what I got - good or bad. Sound familiar to any of you? Shutter speed, aperture, ISO, focal, all were foreign words. I knew camera, film and click the button.

Then in December of 1997 I attended a Christmas concert featuring Christian music group Point of Grace. I was excited. I had decent seats and center stage. I had my little Fuji point and shoot camera. I was all ready. At least until the photos came back from the lab. Something was wrong. They were all blurry. Not a clear picture in the bunch.

So while I was working in Calgary, Canada I decided I was going to get a camera that would take a decent photograph at concerts. Remember at this point I knew literally nothing about the fundamentals of photography. I just knew that if I bought a good enough camera, I would get good photos. It had to be the camera, right? (I'm sure I'm not the only person who ever had these thoughts).

So I began my research. And after checking and rechecking, it all came down to 2 cameras. The Nikon F5 and a Canon 2E or something like that - it had a feature where the focus point was determined by where your eye looked. That feature sounded a little freaky to me so as you may have guessed, I bought the Nikon F5 by ordering it online from a New York camera store. And it has been a love affair ever since.

It was February of 1998 and I had a concert to attend the same day as the camera arrived at my home. It was some friends of mine, Nickel & Dime (now disbanded) opening for Caedmon's Call. Either Bebo Norman or Andrew Petersen or both were also playing. I arrive at the venue, and for the first time I realize I do not know even how to load the film. Where is the release? I had not had time to read any of the instruction manual.

With such a begining you'd think the photos that night were a complete disaster. But I made a great selection in cameras. The F5 knew much more about taking photographs than I did and for the most part the photos were great! Much much better than my Christmas concert effort.

Since February of 1998, I have managed to learn some of the basics of photography. Books by John Shaw - including Landscape Photography and Nature Photography helped a lot as did a tutorial on Ansel Adams' zone system of exposure. Now I have others asking me for advice on taking photos! However to some extent the world of photography has passed me by. I am still using the Nikon F5 and taking film while the vogue now is digital. And I am now beginning to take notice. Luckily, Nikon has some decent digital SLR cameras. I am seriously looking at the D200 IF the sale price I saw advertised for it is correct. If so, I may gravitate that direction but I doubt I will ever totally abandon film and slides.

In the interim I have been scanning slides and negatives and photos. So I am beginning to understand the appeal of digital. At the rate I am going, it will take me a year to scan my existing images. With digital, it is USB plug and upload. Even the editing is reduced. My scans get dust or a hair or such and that requires editing out. With digital images, very little editing in my experience is required. Usually one is just cropping, or editing a little for exposure or color or shadows. It takes seconds compared to sometimes minutes for scanned images.

So if any one out there has a Nikon F5 and a Nikon SLR, (or a Fuji SLR that is compatible with Nikon lenses) drop me a note on how the digital compares to the F5. My impression is that converting from the F5 to one of the upper Nikon SLRs will be easy for me since many features are similar and it will accept my existing lenses.

For those who are new to photography or are seeking answers to why that camera of yours didn't take a good picture (like I was in 1998), come back and visit. I have recently been asked by someone for my advice on how to take good photos. I am no expert, but I soon hope to post a topic on what I have learned since 1998 - some by reading but a lot by trial and error. So drop in again and say hello.

Drago Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus

2007-07-11T00:11:00.000+08:00

Drago Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus

is one of the first phrases a reader of the Harry Potter series sees. It appears on the title page of Book 1 - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in the UK and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the US but doesn't really make an appearance in the series up to now. Does its significance await book 7, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows? My guess is that it does.

Scholastic has released the Cover Art for the deluxe version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and, surprise ...

it shows the heroic threesome, Harry, Hermione and Ron riding a dragon!

That suggested to me that the Hogwarts' Motto may have meaning for Book 7. Then today I was reading some of the promotional material from Amazon UK and they have included an audio teaser from Stephen Fry, the voice behind the Harry Potter Audio series. And the teaser he offers is "Drago Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus" or "Never Tickle a sleeping Dragon."

So with 10 days remaining until the official launch of the final book in the Harry Potter series, we have something new to ponder. Is that dragon depicted in the deluxe cover Hagrid's pet dragon Norbert now grown? Or is it somehow Hogwarts' Motto come alive?

More on Harry Potter later

Poll Added: Which of the 7 New Wonders of the World would you most like to visit?

2007-07-09T02:55:00.000+08:00

7 New Wonders of the world have been recently voted upon. They are:

The Ruins of Chichen Itza in Mexico
Brasil's Statue of Christ the Redeemer
The Colosseum in Rome
The Great Wall of China
Peru's Machu Picchu
Jordan's Petra
India's Taj Mahal

Which of the 7 would you most like to visit? Or how would you rank them 1 to 7 of places to visit?

Internet News - 70 year old lady arrested for not watering lawn!

2007-07-09T01:09:00.000+08:00

I don't know about many of you, but I use the internet for my news. That is, when I want to know what is going on about me in the world, I rarely opt to physically read a newspaper or magazine. I go on-line. My favorite news sites are the BBC and the New York Times but the internet offers so many options for news that when I want a fresh perspective, it is readily available. For middle eastern views I will often visit the Jordanian Newspaper site or other regional English Language Newspapers online. I would prefer to read the Arabic versions but since I haven't learned Arabic that is not possible.

But back to the news. How many of you have read the story linked above? A 70 year old Utah female residence is arrested for what? Failure to water and maintain her lawn? You have got to be kidding! I guess I am fortunate that the good Lord has been providing the water for our lawn (7 straight days worth so far) otherwise I would probably be as guilty as that poor lady.

I have heard of cities imposing a ban on watering lawns during times of draught. That makes sense since water is scarce. But I have never heard of a situation where it was illegal NOT to water your lawn. That seems to be a bit over reaching to me. Is the city going to pay the water utility bill? Or maybe for the elderly or disabled, the city will pay to install a lawn spinkler system so the lawn will be watered to their satisfaction?

I am sure that Orem city officials today are embarassed by the news. But shouldn't they have thought about these issues before having police arrest people for not watering the lawn? It probably isn't a good day to be the Mayor of Orem or the Chief of Police.

rain, rain and more rain

2007-07-08T03:19:00.001+08:00

For the past week it has been raining and raining and raining. I was starting to look around for Noah it was raining so much.

And with the rain storms also came no internet service. You see, we live in the middle of nowhere, USA. After years of tempermental and slow dial-up service, we recently switched to Satellite Internet. It is a lot faster than our previous dialup service - that is when it is functioning. Like all satellite signals, the internet satellite does not perform well in stormy weather and most of the day yesterday we did not have service. I have lost track of how many straight days of rain we have had (I think either 7 or 8) but yesterday was unusual in that the rain didn't pause. It was continuous. I think we ended up with about 4 inches total from that front and we still have a 30% chance of rain forecasted for the next few days.

So as a result of the rain and other things such as scanning slides, negatives and photos, I did not post to the blog yesterday. So that answers one question. It isn't a daily blog. At least not yet.

What subjects can one anticipate appearing here? Well almost anything is fair game. I love to read so books or authors may appear as subjects. As mentioned I am scanning photos so photography is likely to appear from time to time. I try to keep up with current events and I have a father with Alzheimer's. So there is no telling what subjects may arise from day to day here or post to post -- who knows some days I may post more than once.

For now, back to scanning slides

First Post

2007-07-06T11:15:00.000+08:00

Just an introductory post

No idea what this blog will be

How often I will post

what I will post

I am sort of testing the waters

discovering what it is about as I go

So feel free to join me

maybe you can help me discover what it is I do not know I am seeking

or maybe discover yourself along the way

Welcome to a New World

my world