I’ve wanted to post this video since the first time I saw the commercial, but I couldn’t find it online… until tonight.
Filed under: General
As I was nearing completion of my paper tonight, I could tell that my thoughts were rapidly approaching incoherent, so I decided to put it aside and finally go shop for groceries.
So there I am, roaming the aisles of the Tuscaloosa Super-Target, and who do I run into but the professor whose paper I’ve been working on? I assured him that the paper was “all but finished,” and he kind of laughed. It was only at that point that I noticed what he was carrying: a bag of candy (presumably for trick-or-treaters?) and a six-pack of Stella Artois.
I got the eerie impression that his social life hasn’t changed a bit since graduate school.
Filed under: General
I just cooked myself a big ol’ brunch: cinnamon applesauce, bacon, fried eggs and cheese, grits. Now I need to do some hardcore work. Enough procrastinating. Seriously.
Filed under: General
I’ve become a tea junkie. Not a tea snob, mind you–I buy whatever is cheap. It started out this summer when I discovered peppermint tea as a cheaper (and healthier?) alternative to my usual hot chocolate, but it’s gotten to the point where I drink anywhere from 2-5 cups a day.
Peppermint is still my favorite, but I’ve added decaffeinated green tea to the shelf, and I’ve gotten a couple of cups of apple spice black tea at the library a couple of times. I don’t love it, but it’s a good change of pace, particularly this time of year.
I’m considering branching out into the wider world of tea… any suggestions? Keep it somewhat simple and, of course, the cheaper the better. Charlottesvillains (or former Charlottesvillains), let’s not have any bizarre Tea Bazaar suggestions: I will not drink mushroom pu’er and the like.
Also, keep in mind that, as a “son of the South” raised on Mama’s sweet tea/syrup, I find it impossible to drink tea–yes, even hot tea–without sweetening it first. If it’s bitter and wouldn’t work well sweetened, don’t recommend it. It would be a waste of your time and mind.
Filed under: Past
In an attempt to procrastinate, I just did a little mental exercise. I wanted to see if I could remember the names of all of my high school teachers (at least in the four core subjects for the three years I was at Courtland), and indeed, I could. I have a pretty good memory, so that didn’t really surprise me, but after taking the exercise in procrastination a step farther, I discovered something considerably more interesting.
After I had listed them all, I went through and cut out all of the “poor to mediocre” teachers. As it turns out, there were six teachers left: all three of my English teachers and all three of my math teachers. No science teachers or social studies teachers made the cut. Not surprisingly, English and math were my favorite subjects in high school, due in no small part to the teachers I was fortunate to have.
I like to think that one of the reasons I decided to pursue teaching as a career was because of the great teachers that I had. I want to be remembered as fondly by my former students as I remember my former teachers. But this all begs the question: how in the world did I get into history? Shouldn’t I have pursued math* or English as a major?
Funny how life works.
* Those of you who know me well may know that I originally listed mathematics as my “academic area of interest” when applying to college. So I guess, at one time, I did plan to pursue math as a major… until I took calculus. But in four years in Charlottesville, I took exactly one English course, and that was a utilitarian choice: “Advanced Academic Writing.”
