"It works like a web."

At a meeting yesterday for the local version of the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance, I got to listen in on the teen members' planning of a social event for members of the GSAs (Gay Straight Alliances) from various high schools in East Central Illinois (and those students from schools without GSAs who would be in GSA if they could).

When it came to advertisement, one of the teachers there wanted to know, if the plan was to blanket the coffee shops and other teen hangouts in Champaign-Urbana with flyers, how would they get the word to students who aren't in our area?

One of the teens from a Champaign high school explained, "Oh, we'll use Facebook. It kinda works as a web. So if I invite one person from Paxton, they'll invite others..."

Kids these days, huh? I'm crazy about moments like that when I get to see a kid explain to an adult, especially if the "adult" is me. I also think that the tone, pace and words that the explainer uses are sometimes funny. The talk slows down and becomes sort of gentle as the explainer thinks of "old" things to use for comparison: "Well, there are these things called blogs, y'see, and they're like journals, only on the World Wide Web for all to see!"

Thank you, Moe!

Moe turned me on to StumbleUpon.com, which is so cool.

Some sweet sites I stumbled upon today.

1. eventsinthesky.com
2. thru-you.com
3. artpad.art.com
4. serialno3817131.com
5. earthalbum.com
6. guerrillamail.com
7. freegan.info
8. isnoop.net/toys/magwords.php
9. Overflow Bathtubs from Käsch
10. thriftdeluxe.com
11. toiletmap.gov.au
12. newsmap
13. wordperhect.net (so cool)
14. uh

HI-larious.

Almost makes me want to have a kid. So that I can drug her//him, videotape it, and post it on the Internets.

25 things

I forgot vital stuff at school this afternoon, and decided to use that as a much needed excuse to fuck around online all evening.

I really like this new "25 Things" craze on Facebook. The thing is, I have super-interesting friends. I'm too scared to write one of these thingies myself, though, because I don't want people to think I'm totally narcissistic. (Um, hullo? Who am I kidding? I have a blog. Of COURSE I'm narcissistic.) But I'm not finding other people narcissistic at all. Au contraire. I find them cool. And I get really excited when a new one pops up on my mini-feed.

So because I've been big into time-wasting this last hour or so, and since I've been big into 25 Things for the last few weeks or so, I compiled a list. It's a list of 25 interesting things that people I like listed in their lists of 25 things.

1. First and foremost, I am ashamed that I am doing this. I usually laugh at such silly facebook things.

2. I like Wizard of Oz. It is probably my favorite movie, but I don't like it as much as my family thinks I do. I don't know what to do with all of the odd Wizard of Oz paraphernalia that I have.

Fact number four: Under pure pressure, I accepted Jesus Christ as my savior when I was 11 for Gummi Worms.

4. I was such a terribly behaved toddler that my parents had to go with me to an obedience school where they learned how to train me. Eventually I stopped being such a bratty kid and I really am sorry that I put red nail polish all over the face of my sister’s Rainbo Bright doll.

5. The most humorous, frightening, and heartbreaking concept I know of is when someone's belief in the Bible, Book of Mormon, or Qu'ran supersedes their belief in God.

6. When we lived in town, we knew the lock code to get into the Catholic church. There was 24-hour adoration, so we would sneak in and up to the balcony at 2 or 3 am and scare whatever old lady was down in the pews praying. If they caught us, we would just pretend like we were praying. Then we would sneak into the hall and eat the ice cream in the freezer. Yeah, I’m a terrible person. We did this with our neighbors, who I babysat. One of them was my age. If a kid out there comes upon this, the lock code is 1234.

6. Sometimes I think my Dad is hysterical, but I usually think his jokes are bad. For example, I was complaining to him that /Elizabeth/ is too long of a name especially with a last name like /----------/*. He looked up with the straightest face and said, "Girl, you were lucky to get name. I wanted to just call you girl. He called me /Girl/ for the rest of the night. I thought that was pretty good. *Removed by me for Eliz’s privacy

8. The day I turned 18 one of the first things I did was register to vote--as a Republican.

9. Due to the heavy and emotional influence music has had on me personally, my daughter and I only listen to Christian based music: rap, gospel, contemporary, rock. The funny thing is we still are exposed to other secular music (how can you not be exposed), but we do not dance or move our heads to it. Its weird I know. Sometimes I will wake up in the morning with a secular song in my head usually Beyonce or Lauryn Hill and I have to catch myself. I usually just start singing a Baptist hymn.

12. I believe the '80s produced just as much good and bad music as any other decade in European and American history.

Fact number twelve: I called Bush a vacuous twit at his train tour stop in Bloomington, IL in 2000. Unfortunately, I was humped by a middle aged Republican who didn't like what I was saying and felt that this was appropriate retaliation.

13. I like to find common ground in conversations, but I won’t compromise about my dislike of diamond engagement rings

14. My dream job would be a host of a show on HGTV.

Fact number fourteen: Over the years I have worked as a bagel maker, paralegal, baker, musical violinist, skateboard shop gal, museum archivist, and anti-death penalty organizer.

15. On January 5, 2009 I celebrated 3 full years of abstaining from sexual intercourse. For those of you who feel as if this is something you are struggling with I read Lady in Waiting several times. I prayed and read my Bible every night (and still do). I cried hard for the first SIX months. It was extremely hard, but after those six months God made it easier for me. I do not know if that is the same for everyone. The hardest thing was waiting for God's answer regarding marriage knowing that confirmation is not permitted to everyone.

16. I lived in Sevilla last year. I could live in the country in Northern Spain forever I think, but I don’t get Sevilla and Sevilla doesn’t get me. This made me embarrassingly patriotic, and in love with English. I’m sorry about this, and confused by it.

17. I use to have a jerri curl that I loathed especially when the movies House Party came out. "Follow the drip." It made my hair grow though.

18. My dissertation topic is on paternal presence and adolescent sexual behavior in adolescents living in extreme poverty.

18. I met my husband, Broch, on eHarmony.com.

22. I lose everything, and I don’t ever care, and then I always find the things again, and I don’t care about that either. I drove my car into a flash flood a few years ago, and had to make an emergency escape onto the roof while my car floated downstream, and all my possessions were in the car, and I had no more car, and I laughed. I was talking to my mom on the phone in the rain and she thought I went temporarily insane. Then again, I’ve never really owned anything. I think I am renting my body.

23. I want to open a dorm for people with disabilities someday.

23. I once watched a U of I basketball game at a Scottish Bar in France. Some guy pulled a live pet rat out of his shirt, and it was weird.

23. My dad used to play a lot of Stevie Wonder. One of my favorite songs was "I Just Called to Say I Love You." While at a writing workshop for local elementary school students one weekend, we had to write a poem or something to share with the audience (mostly parents). Thinking I could do something people would recognize and laugh at, I changed the words of Stevie's song to "I Just Called to Say I Hate You." I proudly stood up to recite the words to everyone and when I was finished, everyone just stared at me, no applause or anything. It didn't really bother me at the time but I felt bad for my mom because she was the parent of that weird child who hated people. I've made several calls over the years to tell people I hate them, in honor of that song I wrote :)

25. I played Abraham Lincoln’s wife in a play in kindergarten, because I was really tall so that somehow made sense, and I don’t know what Lynice Lemenager was, but we both peed our pants.

Fact number twenty-five: I have worn glasses since I was five years old and my first pair of frames said “Battlestar Galactica” on the side.

By the way, I'm pretty sure everyone's just copying off of Susan.

"Do we use dial-up?"

That's what a student asked one of the other teachers the other day, sincerely, because our Internet at the school is SO slow.

That's why I got so excited that I just HAD to snap a photo when I saw these workers laying the fiber-optic cable through the neighborhood.

!

reading materials

1. Requiem for a New Orleans Neighborhood
2. Woman faces jail for hacking her virtual husband to death
3. American Blackout
4. No Dropouts Left Behind: New Rules on Grad Rates
5. Dept. of Disputation: Red Sex, Blue Sex
6. Campaign for Teen Safety
7. Emo for Obama
8. Ten guilt-free ways to say no
9. Reevaluating the Peace Corps
10. A Saggy-Pants Furor in Riviera Beach

...you know. If you're bored.

getting my Lit on!

The first email I received in my new work email inbox was subjected, "Getting your Lit on!" and as I read it my nerd-heart skipped a bit.

Then I opened it and found a link to the Send Your Name to the Moon project. Act now! Don't wait! This offer ends Friday!

whoa

This is cool. My Dad sent me a list of sweet things to do with Flickr, but I really like this one: retrievr.


Using a Paint type thingy, you sketch the image you're looking for, and then it loads and displays a ton of images that are similar. I'm not exactly sure what I would use this for, but it sure is neat.

The other gadgets, in case you're interested, are Mirrr, Phrasr, Tag Galaxy, and Notifyr. And wow, they are all so cool.

best email I've received this week

Here's a closer look (click to enlarge):

I've been wanting to blog about these since before blogs.

Are these or are these not the names of an elderly couple sitting on rocking chairs on the front porch?

I stopped and took Buckley's photo Saturday afternoon on my way up to Chicago, but I had to ask Katie and Moe to stop so that I could snap Onarga today on our way back to C-U.

They weren't happy; they don't think this is as funny as I do.

see what I mean:
[ellen (7:23:36 PM): i'm about to blog about your shit
moe (7:23:49 PM): what about?
moe (7:23:54 PM): my awesomeness?
moe (7:23:57 PM): or sexiness?
ellen (7:24:26 PM): no, your lack of a sense of humor
moe (7:25:00 PM): are you FREAKIN kidding me?
moe (7:25:11 PM): I am fucking hilarious
moe (7:25:15 PM): that IS my bag
ellen (7:25:31 PM): haha
moe (7:25:32 PM): so you can shove your blog up your ass
moe (7:26:33 PM): you really don't think I'm funny?
ellen (7:27:10 PM): moe, im blogging about how you dont think my photos are funny
moe (7:27:23 PM): the couple bullshit
moe (7:28:09 PM): blog about how our shower will not turn off
moe (7:28:33 PM): its freakin hilarious]

pretty sweet PowerPoint, yo

Came across this little gem while preparing Monday's lesson on the functionality and disposability of everyday writing like AIM conversations and hall passes. Click the image below to view.

Cool people whose emails I have:

1. Howard Zinn
2. Russell Simmons
3. Marian Wright Edelman... 's agent


Yeah.

instant communication

I promise to return to regular programming soon.

"Together we can build a world that's just and inclusive for all."





With the tizzy that I've been in over Super Tuesday, I almost forgot about this misguided buffoon.


Moving on, or back I should say, look at us two *young* *under 30* voters communicating instantly via the Internets:

me (9:37:04 PM): haha mitt romney's fans are holding up "change" signs
me (9:37:08 PM): change how?
Moe (9:37:17 PM): haha
Moe (9:37:24 PM): his son is named tagg
me (9:37:52 PM): he said that its important to him to preserve the kind of nation that we've had because we all want our children to grow up with the kind of prosperity that we've had
me (9:37:58 PM): um who's "we" motherfucker
me (9:38:13 PM): tagg and mitt. boyhood games
Moe (9:40:47 PM): dog names
me (9:41:10 PM): ha
Moe (9:41:20 PM): yes, I want my children to grow up with racism, homophobia, no separation of church and state, and with a war going on
Moe (9:41:29 PM): what a motherfucker
me (9:41:38 PM): mmm yes and lots of poverty, too
me (9:41:43 PM): and failing schools
Moe (9:41:56 PM): yes, poverty and a giant fence around our country
me (9:42:00 PM): NOW that's the america i'd like to see my non-existent children grow up in
Moe (9:42:04 PM): and no health care!
me (9:42:05 PM): oh yes!
Moe (9:42:33 PM): how can people even buy that shit?
me (9:42:33 PM): and while we're at it
Moe (9:42:42 PM): yes?
me (9:42:43 PM): let's chain chastity belts onto our daughters
Moe (9:43:00 PM): and strip away roe v. wade
me (9:43:10 PM): and stop teaching evolution
me (9:43:21 PM): i'm not related to a monkey!
Moe (9:43:35 PM): haha
Moe (9:43:57 PM): god breathed life into adam and then made eve for child bearing purposes
me (9:44:14 PM): and laundry-doing purposes
Moe (9:44:35 PM): [Moe's ex-boyfriend] (9:44:54 PM): u see my guy huckabee mopping up
Moe (9:44:40 PM): AAHHHHHHHHHHH
me (9:44:48 PM): NO WAY
Moe (9:44:57 PM): huckabee is below the mason-dixon line conserv
me (9:46:33 PM): he fried squirrels with a popcorn maker in his dorm in college


One more thing. I've just watched McCain's speech, and then Obama's, and something has sort of come to me. Their rhetoric is so vastly different, and it's not just a Republican/Democrat, progressive/conservative thing. McCain spoke about the campaign, and about his opponents, and about being the Republican front-runner; his speech was focused. And his audience was supportive but subdued. Obama doesn't have the focus. He talks about the abolitionists and the suffragettes and the freedom-riders and the woman in New Orleans who was told her city won't be rebuilt; and his audience speaks back to him as he speaks to them. It's dynamic. Reminds me of the call-and-response phenomenon in African American English that I looked at in a few of my classes last semester. I wonder what implications the success of Obama's campaign, which must be very much related to his inspiring speeches, might be for the status of African American English in relation to "Standard" English. Although really, he doesn't follow that many of the linguistic rules of African American English (habitual be, absent copula, etc.).



If it's not blaringly obvious to you, my dear reader/s, I've updated this post at various points during my viewing of the primary coverage. Hence the hodge-podge-ness.

Euro keyboard

Look at all the characters that I have access to on this here keyboard español:

ñ,€,¬,Ñ,Ç,¨,ª, and º

And Caps Lock is "Bloq Mayús."

"My So-Called Life"'s on-line!

And Jordan Catalano is like, so hot.

a short found poem from a few minutes of AIM converstaion/a display of questionable blog ethics

Thank you, H, C, E, and A, for your non-consented participation in my found poem!

H (10:26:37 PM): it should be a fun weekend.
I need to get something to wear to the christmas party though.
I had a christmas sweater, but dumb me forgot it at home.
C (10:38:32 PM): once and awhile I can hear their nails
scratching against a hard surface in the walls
E (10:47:18 PM): yea, and I always have my mom,
which I know is lame,
but she can be cool
...sometimes
E (10:47:30 PM): and those cats cant live forever
A (10:47:12 PM): I felt really comfortable at home
until my mom started making passive aggressive comments about me
without ever making eye-contact with me
E (10:51:27 PM): if I get an amazing job,
the rest will fall into place
E (10:51:35 PM): I am looking at internships in NYC

Awesome!

sweet websites, man

I'm working on some lesson plans that look at graffiti, and I came across this site that features Palestinian graffiti photographed in Gaza. Pretty moving, I think.


I find ratemyprofessor.com a little disturbing. It just invites all kinds of mean-spiritedness. I've never actually consulted it before registering for classes, but when I heard about it, I perused it to check out some of the ratings of profs I've had. Actually, most of them got great ratings and positive comments. Most, but not all. I'm all for constructive criticism, but there's something decidedly not-constructive about a forum wherein those being critiqued have no space for feedback or defense. There's no dialogue, just one-sided attack, which might be okay in other venues like movie reviews, concert reviews, etc., but to me, that's just not what education should be about.

"Way too difficult for a #00 level class, for the tests you have to memorize over 150 terms and only 15 are actualy on there. the lectures are really difficult to take notes on and he focuses on history rather than the texts themselves, they aren't letting him teach ### anymore, thank god, but now [another prof] is and shes a giant snob"

"STOP TEACHING NOW PLEASE"

"My third class with [prof's name], I used to dislike her but now I get her.She NEVER hands anything back and you won't get a grade till you're final one, but if you participate alot and keep up on the reading you should be okay in the end or maybe not as the class smarties got B's.Shes really loopy and we have a theory that she comes to class ****"

This kind of thing just makes me sad. I didn't find any "this prof is so hot"-type comments, which would have been even more depressing, but I know they're there because there's also Professors Strike Back on which many (mostly female) profs say thanks-but-no-thanks to their moron "complimenters." Ugh. Profs Strike Back is hosted by MTV and is just about as unproductive as its student counterpart. (But admittedly, a little funnier.)





Finally, this to-do list blog is pretty sweet.

Normally, I'm not a Reuters fan,

But I find these pretty interesting:

'"Best mom' chosen as face of currency"

"Waking up to nosebleeds in super-dry autumn"