when people stop being polite, and start getting real

In a conversation about what kinds of hobbies we could take up in an effort to make our lives less boring, Jess said this:

"I'm just trying to pass some goddamn time before I fucking die."

big plans

Sydney and I went on a school-supply quest this morning. We need all these things for our students to learn to write. Except for the pretzels. The pretzels are for eating.



---

"Oh! We could use one of those big containers like the ones they sell cheesy poofs in!"
"Yes!"
"That's a lot of cheesy poofs. Do you eat cheesy poofs? I do not eat cheesy poofs."
"I eat cheesy poofs."

Eoin's birthday present

I just licked my plate clean.

In the past eight days, Jessica and I have had this recipe four nights. I cannot stress enough how delicious it is.

ingredients:
3 pints of grape tomatoes
6 shallots, quartered
1 tbl spoon of olive oil
1/2 cup of dry white wine
2 tbl spoons of capers

makin it:
Sautee the shallots in the olive oil for a little while until they get soft and, you know, cooked. Then add the tomatoes. Leave them for a few minutes until two-ish of them burst because of the heat. Then, add the white wine, and wait for it to evaporate. Stir in the capers.



So. Good.

insight

I received the following playlist from one of my students as part of our totally optional not an assignment class mix CD exchange.

1. "Get Me Bodied" - Beyonce
2. "Flaws and All" - Beyonce
3. "Upgrade" - Beyonce
4. "I'm So In Love" - Beyonce
5. "Vans" - The Pack
6. "Dumb Diddy" - The Pack
7. "Go Stupid" - The Pack
8. "I'm Shining" - The Pack
9. "Promise" - Ciara
10. "Rain On Me" - Ashanti
11. "So Much In Love" - The Tymes
12. "Water Runs Dry" - Boyz II Men
13. a K-Ci & JoJo song the name of which she did not list
14. "Almost" - Timia
15. "Never Had a Friend" - the artist of which is unlisted
16. "Suffocated Like You" - J-Holiday
17. "Love You More Everyday" - Ginuwine
18. "You've Go That Love" - don't know the artist

something I like

is when people say "correct" to mean "cool." Or "good."

good taste

So I finally did my grading today. Ugh. So boring. But one interesting thing I noticed was that a significant majority of the students who chose to write about the Tupac Shakur text we read ("Keep Ya Head Up") focused their analysis on the same set of lines:

And since we all came from a woman
Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman
I wonder why we take from our women
Why we rape our women do we hate our women
I think it's time to kill for our women
Time to heal our women, be real to our women
And if we don't we'll have a race of babies
That will hate the ladies who make the babies
And since a man can't make one
He has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one

These happen to be my favorite lines from the song as well, but our class discussions really didn't go in their direction at all. Or at least not more that they did towards other parts of the song. Maybe it's because discourse on the need to respect women is sort of a common and comfortable thing in terms of what-we-write-for-school. Don't know. It could be the repeated long "a" sound followed by the repeated "woman/en" that drew them all in. That's what does it for me anyway.