Years ago, a former girlfriend who was into the Eneagram — an ancient Sufi personality model — said I was type 9. Which happens to be the same personality type of Pope John Paul II. Perhaps what we most have in common is a passion for humor. Link goes to a great article commemorating 25 years of laughs with the pontiff.
Happy Reformation Day to you
Happy Reformation Day to you,
Happy Reformation Day dear Protestants,
Happy Reformation Day to you.
Now go reform something. As for me, I am going trick-or-treating. It’ll be awesome. I’ve got a pillowcase, and a costume. Of course, nobody in the Neustadt will be expecting me. That’s the beauty of it all; guerrilla jubilation. I’ll have to rile em up into holiday spirit. One door at a time.
I’m going dressed as a pimp, although it might prove to be a tad too chilly for that. I only have Summer pimpware, and my white floppy hat certainly offend –it is, after all long after Labor Day.
New textbook 1, Mr. Seezen 0
I was pretty annoyed with one of the exercises we covered on Mondee, that being the one with the present perfect versus simple past. I could not sleep. So I showed it to a few colleagues, and they were all, “what the heck is going on here?” All agreed that the exercise was totally ambiguous in some spots.
Ron suggested I push my students to use more simple past whenever it fits, because –and he is absolutely right– German folks tend to way overuse the present perfect out of habit. The little punks.
Another teacher reflected that anyone who devises a solid method for teaching presperf to foreign speakers will become a millionaire. Yes, that really was said; such are the lively conversations amongst shop-talking teachers.
So I thought I’d give it to y’all straight from the horse’s mouth, and cite Murphy’s take on present perfect. Exercises included just in case you feel extra frisky.
US Postal is looking to require a valid photo ID–and a stamp–in order to send mail. So says Wired. Privacy advocates are peeved again. Are you? I for one haven’t mailed a physical letter since 1993, when I got my first email account.
Many friends and students ask me about this kind of thing all the time, and since I am a bit of a scholar in the matter, I may as well send along the 411. When I last visited stateside I heard a great little documentary series on public radio about Music Americana. I finally found a link to that series today online where one may hear all the parts online. It’s pretty swell.
A few names to look out for are:
Jimmie Rodgers, “father of Country”. In my new band we mix his “Blue Yodel” with Led Zep’s “Whole Lotta Love”.
Carter Family; Sister Maybell happens to be the Mama of June Carter Cash, late spouse of the late Man in Black.
Doug Wamble. He’s a salt-o-the-earth kind of Gavin Degraw.
Gatemouth Brown, Zappa named him as a major influence. He has his own mix of pipe tobacco.
Thomas Dorsey, father of modern gospel, also composed “Tight Like That”.
My good buddy and esteemed Ron “24” Fro will be joining me now and again as a guest blahgger on seeznet. So there. Welcome aboard Ron.
Pablo Picasso was the shizznit. Born on this day long time back, he pretty much did for modern art what Miles Davis did for Jazz. I would like to do a little tribute, but I don’t have time for that. Instead, {{popup shutthefckup.jpg shutthefckup 473×584}}here is a sketch meant for one of those in-flight magazine articles. They didn’t buy it.
I have the theory that the distortions of the face in his cubist work probably stems from the fact that he was–I heard–a ladies’ man. Because when you are very close to an object, like five inches from your face, you stop focusing you eyes on a single point and let them look independently. Thus you have two overlapping images.
Cubism is after all a very logical progression from the blurry, hazy images of impressionism. I totally dig both schools. I’ve been trying very hard to get more cubism into my Flash stuff. One project on the back burner (I must have like fifty back there) is a cubist Eval Kneival film. I need to check that spelling.
With a birthday party yesterday and today, and a shortage of scratch to boot, I killed two boids with one boulder and baked a dozen bagels. People are always asking me, “Mr. Seezen, how do you do it?” Well, little buddies, this here is the best recipe that I could find. But the website’s layout is ugly as a monkey’s butt and not printer friendly in the least. I do a few things differently:
–I add two eggs. Just because I like cracking eggs. So you’ll need a bit more flour.
–I double the salt. Baker’s dirty little secret: always double the salt. Of course this will slow down the rising a bit. Just make sure to keep the gneaded dough real cozy. I set the bowl on a wet towel on my Dauerbrenner and keep an eye on it. The towel is wet so I will hear it sizzling if it gets too hot.
–I shape the bagels (I subscribe to Tak’s “hula hoop thing” methodology) first then let them sit 20 minutes. This gives the little bastards time to ease into their new shape and smooth out. As you can see {{popup bagel.jpg bagel 300×317}}here, my bagels are a lot better looking than hers for that very reason. I don’t know if she knows it but you know her mother-in-law noticed it and casually mentioned it four of five times to the son/husband, right after taking one look at their house on that last visit and declaring it “could use a woman’s touch”.
–I brush on eggwhite to make the toppings stick. Duh.
–Use bread (550) flour, not flour (405) flour. It makes all the difference in the world, yo. Remember, it’s 550 or fight (that’s why we almost went to war with Canada).
–Let em boil longer if you want. I listen to Mp3s on the computer in the next room and go by verses, not seconds.
Remember, If it ain’t boiled, it’s just a roll with a frickin’ hole.
Online Tour for the VW Glass Factory. I went on the guided tour just last Saturday with the English Club. ‘Tis a silly place.
Yet another person being sued by a business for simply posting her grievances on a website.