I Got One!  

Posted by Wayne Bretski in

A handheld, cordless vacuum that is. $35 at Sears. The Shark, baby. (Mine's green).

Look out, small pieces of food and stray hairs. There's a new sheriff in town!

More kids pictures  

Posted by Wayne Bretski in

Also, an apology for the lack of recipe directions last time. I'll do better next time.

The first two are from this year, my students.

Felipe's workspace this year is Decked Out.

We did a puzzle together that he was quite proud of.

These next three are of my buddy Ismail. He's not in my class this year, but he does some hilarious things that we get pictures of.

Wearing Miss Bee's shades

Wearing Mr. Jason's shades

Wearing a pink toy on his head.

Students!  

Posted by Wayne Bretski in

I wrested control of the camera from Miss Bee one day last week and took the following photos of my students. To introduce:


Felipe is a 5th grader. He's wearing a bike helmet for no good reason.


Alex is a 6th grader, Anthony is a 5th grader. We were listening to "I Feel Good" by James Brown at the time.

Alonzo is a kindergartner. He's wearing a bike helmet because he's riding a trike.


Logan is a kindergartner with a tendency to turn away from the camera.

I also have been using the built-in camera on my computer as a tool for having some fun together. Here are some highlights.




Felipe looks awesome in this picture.

Ditto Anthony.


Miss Bee dropped by the room.

This didn't actually hurt, although it appears that Alex is ripping my head off.

This was a complete accident - I was trying to show Anthony's mom the pictures we had taken and hit the wrong button. It turned out relatively awesome though.

Foods!  

Posted by Wayne Bretski in

Been a hot minute since we had a good food post here, so I'll go two for one. First up was Miss Bee's contribution to Friday morning staff breakfast on the first week of school. She made whole wheat flour blueberry biscotti. I made some organic Ethiopian coffee to go along - the full 12-cupper!

The biscuits turned out really amazing.


Next was another Miss Bee creation: Belgian endives with quinoa, helped out by lots of spinach and Cheddar cheese. Lots of photos.

First the endives were sauteed a bit to soften them up.


Then the whole mess was baked for a while.


I'm not sure that any of these photos make the food look as delicious as it tasted. So you'll have to take my word.



For My 200th Post: Literary Criticism from Orwell  

Posted by Wayne Bretski in


Here's the best part:

I think the following rules will cover most cases:

i. Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
ii. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
iii. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
iv. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
v. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
vi. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

These rules sound elementary, and so they are, but they demand a deep change of attitude in anyone who has grown used to writing in the style now fashionable.
From "Politics and the English Language". I encourage everyone who writes words for others to read to peruse this short essay. Here's one link: "Orwell's Politics and the English Language".

Workin' out and goin' out  

Posted by Wayne Bretski in , ,

In an effort to clear the Inbox on my desktop along with a desire to prove that we do in fact leave the house, here are a few pictures of us hanging out in public places.

At Papago Brewing Company:


With our recently departed-to-grad school in Colorado friend Alex:

Back to Papago, where we mingle with other patrons, brawnily belt out drinking songs, get into the occasional dust-up, and of course do the crossword puzzle.


This was at Rosie McGaffrey's Irish Pub, where the sign above the door said "Best Fish n' Chips in Phoenix". I had to know, so I got them. It's not true.

Beautiful photo, I'm aware.

Classroom pictures to come. I never remember to take any.

David Byrne + Brian Eno: Whatever Will Happen Will Happen Today  

Posted by Wayne Bretski in

New album out by the original g's, Mssrs. Brian Eno and David Byrne. This track is a free download, available at their website here. I like the song a lot, I'm sure the album will be nothing but the best. Catch up to date.

The View From My Couch  

Posted by Wayne Bretski in

There are some photos of our new apartment on Miss Bee's blob.

Here's one of her:

The Old Apartment  

Posted by Wayne Bretski in

I had sort of been planning on posting some of the "old apartment" pictures here, but there's a lot so we're going with a Picasa set instead. Click here for some pictures of our old place and a few from our trip to Des Moines in July.

We've got some from the new apartment coming soon, and I'll take some pictures of my classroom once I get more settled. Cheers.

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