1. Have a much-needed four-day weekend ahead of me. I'm starting to get more into the routine of teaching full-time, at least so that it's less like I'm building a railroad as the train is rolling over it and more like I'm building it as the train is within sight. 2. In my US History … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Rand, Tucker, ‘The Crow’
Poetry – ‘Sonnet 61’
Is it thy will thy image should keep openMy heavy eyelids to the weary night?Dost thou desire my slumbers should be broken,While shadows like to thee do mock my sight?Is it thy spirit that thou send'st from thee So far from home into my deeds to pry,To find out shames and idle hours in me,The … Continue reading Poetry – ‘Sonnet 61’
Friday Flotsam: Mongeese, Kiki, and Computers
1. First full week of teaching. I feel like I'm starting to find my feet and it's becoming less stressful and uncertain. 2. I'm still waiting for Alice in Wonderland to arrive, so my sixth graders are reading short stories while I pretend this was the plan all along. This week was Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, which was … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Mongeese, Kiki, and Computers
Poem – “Lilly Pond”
"O for a heart likeThe lotus that springs stainlessFrom the mud, the dewOn its leaves like precious gems.”-Sojo Henjo
Saturday Flotsam: Random Thoughts
1. I made it through my first (almost: we had the Feast of the Assumption off) full week of full-time teaching. The short version is that, while there were some rough patches, I survived. 2. Are there any browsers left that let you toggle the 'tab-close' buttons off? Because I find those very annoying for … Continue reading Saturday Flotsam: Random Thoughts
Poetry – “A Dream”
In visions of the dark nightI have dreamed of joy departed—But a waking dream of life and lightHath left me broken-hearted. Ah! what is not a dream by dayTo him whose eyes are castOn things around him with a rayTurned back upon the past? That holy dream—that holy dream,While all the world were chiding,Hath cheered … Continue reading Poetry – “A Dream”
Vintage Tribute by the Decade
I found these excellent video tributes to pop culture by the decade. I would say they tend to draw too much from the same sources (e.g. the 1980s one has about ten clips each from Aliens and The Breakfast Club and not one from Nightmare on Elm Street or Return to Oz), but the editing … Continue reading Vintage Tribute by the Decade
Friday Flotsam: Teaching, Napoleon, and Oz
1. Well, I made it through my first week of the new teaching job. It was overall easier than I expected; it felt like slipping back into a somewhat familiar routine, the same sense of just standing up and talking to the class. 2. That said, it did feel a bit like building a railroad … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Teaching, Napoleon, and Oz
Poem – “The Rainy Day”
The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;It rains, and the wind is never weary;The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,But at every gust the dead leaves fall,And the day is dark and dreary. My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;It rains, and the wind is never weary;My thoughts still cling to the … Continue reading Poem – “The Rainy Day”
Friday Flotsam: Melancholy and Random Thoughts
1. I had my first teacher meetings this week. Next week starts classes, though with shortened days. 2. In a rather melancholy mood for one reason or another. 3. Reading Dickens, I occasionally stumble across moments that show how masterfully understated he could be, when he took the trouble. Most of the time, when he … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Melancholy and Random Thoughts
Serpent's Den 