Hey everybody, Claudia and I are having a party. If you are reading this, you are invited.

Click “more” for more.

In case you were wondering about the future of this here section of Seeznet–I know I am–then rest “assured”. I think I will keep updating it with stuff, and continue to write the blog. But since the semester let out, I think I will take it down a notch and post less frequently.

But may be now would be a good time for me to start putting more informative stuff up on the site, as was the original idea yet sort of got sidelined by other stuff. Oops.

So keep posted, seamonkeys.

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That’s all for this here semester, kiddies. Thank you all, you’ve been a great crowd.

Some of you didn’t seem to understand the system as to how I was to tell you what grade you got. I had my reasons for doing things that way, but who cares. SO, if you did a Vortrag this semester, but for some reason did not learn what you grade was, but would like to, then click on the fuzzy teddy bear button to the left. Send me your name and matrikel no.

And if anyone out there has any question about your “Schein” or why your presentation grade was so low and what to do about it, follow suit. Drop me a line.

Oh boy! More robots soccer goodness!
Video

Whoo-wee. Finally finished writing tomorrow’s test. Bring your listening ears along with your comprehending caps.

On a lighter note, here’s a little funny TV.

Happy Bastille Day, folks.

This machine kills Fascists.
Today is also the birthday of Woody Guthrie, boxcar hoppin’ Okie Dustbowl Bard, hero of the common man and more than a few rockstars to boot. He wrote This Land Was Made For You And Me (originally titled God Blessed America) because he hated Irving Berlin’s God Bless America. I particularly like one of the lesser known verses:

Was a high wall there that tried to stop me
A sign was painted said: Private Property,
But on the back side it didn’t say nothing —
[God blessed America for me.] This land was made for you and me.

Here’s a recent article about Woody, Bob, the Folkies, and the times that are ever a-changin’.

Anyways, on a different note, Guess the Dictator or Sit-Com Character
is a fun little site which guesses the Sitcom character you are thinking of by posing yes-or-no questions… Boole would be so pround. I was impressed. It guessed correctly my character–Rochester, Jack Benny’s cheeky manservant–in about fifteen guesses.
Seeing as most of my students never heard about stuff from the seventies, like Styx or Christopher Cross or Boston, they probable have never heard of the penny pinching Jack Benny of the 40’s. So here’s a tidbit to make you sound in the know: Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy, Elmer Fudd, Porky, Tweety, Captain Caveman, was a regular feature on Jack’s show.

Wanna see the answers to last weeks reading comprehension tests? Click on “more”.

If not, then its more lifters for you, pal.

It’s always a real treat to sit down and grade a hundred tests, particularly when you yourself thought up the questions.
There are lots of little surprises, like, “oh, that question was too hard” or “oh, that question was too easy”, or better still, “ha ha! I knew everyone would get that question right,” or “tricked ya! Not feeling so smart now, are we, Mister know-it-all?” Of course I’m being facetious. But it is indeed surprising what turns out to be too easy and too hard.

Writing good test questions is hard, man. After all, that’s why those standardized tests involve enormous panels of knowlegable stiffs to poke and sniff every single question submitted by the hundreds and hundreds of educators who yearn to write just one time a question good enough to be included in said tests.

Anyways, I thinks I’ll have my L1 kids try them out on monday so as to have one more frame o’ reference before adjusting the curve.

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Here’s the update on the dangling preposition scandal from Monday’s class.

As stated before, preps should never end a clause or sentence. But… screw it. In normal spoken English, and even in decent journalistic English, dangling prepositions are okay.
What are you talking about? Technically wrong, but no red-blooded native speaker would opt for the more correct “About what are you talking?”
Let us not forget Churchill’s sardonic response to critics of his rhetorical style, ?That is the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put.?
Whoa there. Traps within traps. There are also verbal phrases, some separable and some not. Look in the back of the ol’ grammar book: Call on, hand in, look up, pick out, piss off. “When can I hand it in?” has no dangling prep.
So don’t worry too much about them, just look out for redundancies like “where are you at?” instead of “where are you?” Those are the kinds of sentences which make the speaker look quite the oaf.

And finally, here’s a nice little article which pretty much shares my opinion. Because I pretty much stole what he said and paraphrased it.

Guys and gals, I am so sick and tired of hearing my students mispronounce the word “developer”. No matter how many times I tell em, they always say “devil-loper”. Ooooh that makes me so mad…

Fortunately, my good friend Steve Ballmer put together this highly educational music video which will surely straighten out my little guys once and for all as to how the word “developer”–or rather “developers”– is pronounced. Right click to save!

Z 1 information

Attention all folks from the L1 classes: the Z1 will be offered next semester.

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