Did anyone else watch quarterlife last night? This may be an education blog, but it’s a blog all the same and so of course, that makes me a blogger, which makes dramedies about bloggers interesting to me. Originally, I thought quarterlife crisis had sold the rights to her blog or something to NBC, because is it a coincidence that there’s a TV show called quarterlife about a blogger, and a blog called quarterlife crisis in real life? But Jen says it has nothing to do with her or her blog, and I believe her after watching it.
I DVR’d the show, then totally forgot about it. Then I had a vague recollection that the show was going to be on last night, and sure enough, when I checked my DVR this morning, there it was. First of all, the girl, Dylan? She is a video blogger. I think there’s a big difference between being a video blogger and a um…. writer blogger (is that a good term?). Anyway, right off the bat, everyone finds about her blog, of course. All her roommates and her roommates’ friends. And what do they do? They get mad, then get on with it and she keeps doing it! Showing her roommates on the video (Mac’s ISight camera, of course!!), and talking about them. She didn’t even make the site private! Ok, I know this is television. Of course, I know this is television. But the control freak in me demands accuracy and reality. (I’m always the first one to point out erraneous subway shots in movies or shows that are supposedly filmed in NYC. Annoying, I know but there it is.)
Anyway, of course, I will continue watching the show because you know, I’m a child of 90210 and thirtysomething and my so-called life. Ensemble cast TV dramas about domestic life is what appeals to me, feels familiar to me, good or bad. I’m reserving judgment of this show until further investigation.
Also, I have a new personal site and I probably should’ve put this over there but everyone reads this and not that, and dammit, I want an audience. (Love you all!)
One of the reasons I think I’d like homeschooling my future children is because there is a wealth of awesome field trips to be taken, like the one Henry and I took today.
We have a National Parks Passport and how fun would it be to build a curriculum around visiting all these historic sites, and collecting stamps?! Today, we drove up to Hyde Park to meet our friends David and Lauri, and to tour the FDR National Historic Site. Today, we saw the museum and Springwood, the home where he grew up and lived. We got there too late to visit Eleanor’s home, Val Kill. We plan to go back in the Spring, so we can tour the grounds and check out the trail on the site, so we’ll visit Val Kill then. We capped off our day of adventure with a birthday dinner for David at The Beekman Arms, a very old tavern (to say the least) in Rhinebeck. It’s pretty neat to think that we ate dinner in the same place where George Washington watched his troops from a window, while planning war moves or something.
Call for New SLA Faculty – Practical Theory
(For Ms. Frizzle especially–it’s worth a thought!)
We planned to take advantage of Henry’s long weekend by going upstate for some outdoors time on Monday, but since the forecast calls for rain tomorrow, we went today. We drove up the Saw Mill to Rockefeller State Park Preserve. (Click the photo for more!)
We walked around the lake, then headed to the nearby Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture for a light lunch before heading home. I also picked up two new cookbooks from the store while there:
The Vegetable Dishes I Can’t Live Without by Mollie Katzen, and
How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman.
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this already but my friend Ben, down in Alabama, has started a website called TeachEng.us, which he envisions as a Lifehacker for teachers. It’s shaping up to be a valuable resource. Ben is looking for submissions to the website. Go ahead and write an article about your favorite teaching hack or tool, digital or not.
Contact Ben at davisbg@vestavia.k12.al.us.
(Cross-posted at Inquiry.)
In case you were wondering what I do with my days… I drive around a lot, which is good, because I need the practice (I just got my license in September…). I go to my sister’s house. I do laundry. I vacuum. I watch Martha Stewart. I cook my husband dinner. I diddle around on the internet. I work on the upcoming spring tech retreat (more information forthcoming).
And I invite my niece over to help me bake. (Click to see the whole set on flickr.)
Whether it’s my party or a party for someone else, I always suffer terrible anxiety. In this case, I’m throwing a baby shower for a good friend of mine, a work shower. It means I’m going back to my school less than a week after I left. I’m pretty sure that is contributing to my anxiety, just the general nervousness of being back there, of dealing with people’s questions and so on. I also have this horrible fear that people forgot about the party! After all, I wasn’t there to remind them. In case everyone did forget and no one brings any food (it’s a potluck shower), I’m armed with homemade mac’n'cheese, a cheese platter and a veggie platter along with cupcakes and non-alcoholic libations. I even bought the mama-to-be ANOTHER gift in case no one brings prezzies. I’m nuts, I know. I’m not a good party-thrower! I can plan the heck out of them but actually executing a party makes me itch.
