I was surfing through the archives and found this page. It made me laugh.

Our fundraiser is going really well! We're up to $66.76 in the account, which is $70 in donations minus the Paypal fees. I haven't gotten any info about the discount yet so I don't know if we have enough or not. I think we are pretty close though.

Today's Penny Arcade Comic is about Troy. I really liked the movie, but the same thoughts about Legolas and the Hulk went through my head while I was watching it. Yeah, I'm a geek.

Speaking of geek, I realized today that I am currently the total geek stereotype right now. I'm posting this from a computer in my mother's basement and the highlight of my week is going to be the release of the ROTK DVD tomorrow.

Geek and proud, baby.

Okay, I think I have my travel plans figured out for next month. Once I have my flights booked I will be e-mailing my itineraries to people who need to know.

June 8th: Fly into LAX
June 12th: Drive with friends to San Diego
June 16th: Take train back up to Fullerton
June 18th: Birthday
June 19th: Benefit Concert, details still being worked out
June 22nd: Fly to Phoenix
June 29th: Fly back home

So there it is. I was going to stay in L.A. for the 4th and head up north to visit my brother, but I don't think I can afford to stay that long and my brother is super busy. I'm excited for the trip though!

Our dogs are turning out to be quite the cold-blooded killers. Not satisfied with devouring four baby birds, they managed to catch and kill a rabbit that had the misfortune of becoming trapped in our fenced-in yard. It was late at night, and we had just let the dogs out in the yard one last time before going to bed. We investigated a terrible screeching that we heard from inside the house, and found the dogs standing over the body of the poor creature. So, at 11:30 pm, we ended up having to dispose of a dead rabbit and give the dogs a shower on the deck (to wash the blood off). I don't know how our innocent little puppies became such ferocious predators.

I would put a direct link to the TMBG video, but it just opens up in the main menu. Not much else is going on with me. This is probably the highlight of my day. I'm working on finalizing my travel plans for next month.

My sister sent me this Commentary.

I find it perfectly appropriate that there is now a computer program to scientifically evaluate the five-paragraph essay. After all, that form of writing has more to do with following a predetermined pattern than it does with effective communication. I am reminded of someone (whose name I can't recall) who told about a teacher who was simply ecstatic because, after 20 years of teaching the five-paragraph essay, had actually found an example of one written by a professional in the real world. That's one in twenty years of teaching.

In the fall I was observing an area English teacher for a couple of months, and she had me going through some essays written by students. She had already put grades on them. I was surprised at how little the grades on the essays had to do with their quality. Most of them had very poor grades. When I saw one that earned an A, I decided to read it so I could determine what the essays were being evaluated on. The student followed the five-paragraph form to the letter ("say what you're going to say, say it, then say what you said"). The essay was simple, very repetitive, and said very little. This was the A essay. As I read the rest of the essays, I found one that was well-written, demonstrated a clear understanding of the material, and effectively expressed the author's ideas (Yes, this student had the nerve to place more than just one single idea in an essay!). It pained me to see that this essay, which failed to follow the five-paragraph format, earned a C.

Since Kristen asked:

We "met" this morning when my supervisor basically started addressing me without letting the other ladies know what was going on. She started by asking how I could've handled it better, and I honestly didn't know. I never went through training for this crap. I said that I'd been treated badly by the lady every time she came in, and my supervisor was still trying to point out my mistakes (while admitting that she hadn't even listened to the entire conversation - yeah, that makes sense!). So finally, the other two caught on to what we were talking about and suggested ways to approach evil students, and we all agreed to back each other up when a "situation" arises, and if anyone feels incredibly uncomfortable, they can pass the situation on to someone else and leave the room to calm down. We also want to document these kinds of occurrences, so I'll probably adapt my summary I posted here for a more G-rated audience and hand it in.

Overall, it was okay, but in the next week or so, I still want to meet with both supervisors to discuss other issues that have left me hating the thought of going to work lately. I did tell you all that I am not supposed to play WebBoggle at my computer even during breaks, didn't I? Or that when a supervisor (who is unobservant and can't see that you've got TEN MILLION things to do) asks me to do a frivolous errand, I should always find a way to get it done (this was passed to me as "advice from an older working lady to a younger working lady" when for the first time ever working here, I said, "I don't think I have enough time"). Or that it's okay for everyone to joke around, but whenever my supervisor (the biggest joker) is suddenly in a sensitive mood and wants to be treated as a supervisor, it's suddenly disrespectful???

i guess i still hold resentment because he was ingraffia's favorite.

How utterly evil!