La vie d'un prof, c'est dûr

This isn't mine, thank goodness, but I sympathize.

Blogger has a list of "Blogs of Note", some of which I find interesting. I discovered one of these this weekend, and I was highly amused & will definitely be a return visitor. I completely sympathize; I bet it might even be sort of therapeutic from time to time. It's titled "Rate Your Students"; specifically, check out this post. I laughed. I also thought kindly of my professor this past semester, who spent two weeks demanding that we take this plagiarism quiz (click on "test" in the sidebar for quiz) and receive a passing grade.

I mean, I know high schoolers have a lot of trouble with committing plagiarism, often out of misunderstanding intellectual rights, but graduate students should already have "passed" some sort of standard. If they can't prove that they understand this, should they be allowed into graduate school to begin with??

The questions I find myself asking these days.

Bonnes Nouvelles

Mari is getting a sort of promotion. It's very exciting. He'll be doing somethin he'll enjoy way more and still do some of the things he already does from his current job. It's all very complicated, but we're happy. My biggest hope is that this'll mean less stress and more regularity in his hours.

A raise would be nice, too... ^.^

Savez-vous où elle est, votre serviette??

Are you a frood who knows where your towel is?

To quote from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have. Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you - daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

Yep, I'm going to carry one with me. A small one, mind you, because a normal sized one wouldn't fit in my purse. I mean, if a flying saucer offered me a ride today I'd have to say, "No, thank you very much, but I haven't finishd exploring my own small portion of the galaxy yet. Come back in a few decades, I'll be truely ready then." And since I'm not ready to take that journey, I see no reason to carry a full-sized towel with me today. Maybe in a few years...

For more information about Towel Day, including photos of all sorts of crazies participating, visit the official Towel Day website.

L'été a commencé

Summer's here. The weather has been what I call warm. Most people around here are saying "hot", but I just can't, not yet. The humidity has been pretty low still, and until that peaks and stays around 90%, it's not really summer yet!

Schools are out soon. All the kids are very excited, excpet the high schoolers, who are finishing their finals. Several of my teens are taking finals for the first time, this being their freshman year. I find that hard to believe, remembering how I took my first final in the 3rd grade. More & more I learn to appreciate the rigorous & thorough cirriculum I had as a child.

But what really makes it feel like summer are the following things:
I'm wearing my skirts again! ^.^
I have lettuce & tomatoes outside (in pots, of course, not enough room for a garden)
There are no more lessons for me to do with the youth on Wednesday nights. We will finish the series tonight. That makes me happy because of the small break, but the kids are sad. Oh, well, it's not that much longer until camp in June. That'll make up for it, I hope!

Joyeux jour des mères!

Il y avait une fois un enfant prêt à naître...

- Mon Dieu, est-ce vrai ce qu'on me dit? Que demain tu m'envoies sur Terre? Mais comment vais-je pouvoir y vivre, je suis si petit et sans ressources...
Dieu répondit:
- Parmi tous les anges, j'en ai choisi un spécialement pour toi. Il t'attend et prendra soin de toi.
- Mais... dit l'enfant, ici au paradis, je ne fais rien d'autre que chanter, rire et sourire... J'ai besoin de ça pour être heureux!
Dieu dit:
- Chaque jour, ton ange chantera pour toi. Tu sentiras son amour, sa joie, et tu seras heureux.
L'enfant continua:
- Commment vais-je pouvoir comprendre ce qu'on me dira? Je ne connais pas leur langage!
- C'est facile, dit Dieu. Ton ange te dira les plus douces, les plus merveilleuses paroles... et avec beaucoup de patience et de délicatesse, ton ange t'enseignera à parler.
L'enfant dit:
- J'ai entendu dire qu'il y avait sur terre des hommes méchants. Qui me protégera?
- Ton ange te défendra, même au risque de sa vie!
L'enfant regarda Dieu et dit:
- Et que vais-je faire lorsque je voudrai te parler?
- Ton ange te montrera à joindre les mains et t'enseignera à prier.
L'enfant devint triste et dit:
- Mais je serai toujours malheureux car je ne te verrai plus...
Dieu embrasse l'enfant et lui dit:
- Ton ange te parlera de moi et te rappellera que je serai toujours à tes côtés.

Il régnait au ciel une grande paix en ce moment. Des voix se firent entendre venant de la terre.
Sentant que le temps pressait, l'enfant demanda :
- Ô mon Dieu, je suis sur le point de partir, s'il te plait, dis-moi d'abord le nom de mon ange!
Dieu répondit:
- Le nom de ton ange n'a pas d'importance mon enfant.
Tu l'appelleras simplement... Maman!

Translation (selon moi):

There was once a child ready to be born....

"God, is what they say true? Tomorrow are you sending me to earth? But how will I survive there, I am so small and vulnerable..."
God answered: "Among all the angels, I have chosen one especially for you. They will watch over you and take care of you."
"But", said the child, here in heaven I do nothing but sing, laugh and smile...I need these things to be happy!"
God said: "Each day, your angel will sing for you. You will fill their love, their joy, and you will be happy."
The child continued: "How will I understand what is said to me? I don't know their language!"
"That's easy," said God. "Your angel will tell you the sweetest, most marvellous words...and with a lot of patience and sensitivity, your angel will teach you to speak."

The child said: "I heard that on earth there are evil men. Who will protect me?"
"Your angel will defend you, even when their own life is at risk!"
The child looked at God and said: "And what will I do when I want to talk to You?"
"Your angel will show you how to fold your hands and will teach you to pray."
The child became very sad and said: "But I will always be unhappy because I will not see You again..."
God hugged the child and said to him: "Your angel will tell you about Me and will remind you that I am always by your side."

At the moment a great peace reigned over heaven. Voices could be heard coming from earth. Feeling that the time was coming soon, the baby asked: "God, I'm about to leave, please, at least tell me the name of my angel!"
God replied: "The name of your angel isn't important, my child.
You will simply call her...Mother!"

Je suis...je sais pas où

But I'm here somewhere! I'll have to ask forgiveness for my prolonged absense. I've been terribly busy, mostly because there were some large and complicated last projects to finish for my class. Thankfully that is finished now, and my final grade is good. ^.^ So the plan for the summer? Catching up enough on things to get ready for my 3 week intensive class and church camp - all at the end of June. No rest for the weary, eh?

This weekend we're heading out of town for a friend's wedding. We're very excited about it - we haven't gotten to spend time with this friend for a long time. Plus, there'll be lots of dancing. I love swing cats!! And the best part is, they're all over the place.

I have pictures of random things that have been happening, and hopefully I'll get some of those up next week. Maybe even pics of the wedding and Knoxville. Maybe.