My Own Thoughts

[G]rooming and personality were stronger predictors of academic success in high school for boys and girls, respectively.” from the Univ of Miami study on “Do Good Looks Get High School Students Good Grades?” (And the answer to that is yes/sometimes.)

I loved Josta. I went to fb today and clicked “5 Favorite Sodas” and put in Josta as my first one. It hasn’t been available for ten years, but it is my favorite soda, still. Found this site which tells how to make a Josta-like drink. Loving it. Gotta go to the store.

My husband thought this mistake on the part of our government was “no big deal.” I watched a short video of people running and I cried. I could see how scared they were. Bound by Grace has a quote from someone who was there. It shows it was a big deal to the people who [...]

I am receiving a Kindle for Mother’s Day. The boys each gave me a book on the Kindle, one of which I have already read and taken notes on. That was very cool, since they only ordered the books yesterday. I don’t have to wait for delivery or pay for expedited delivery. I just ordered [...]

For four classes, which started at 80 students and ended way less than that, I got 11 As 21 Bs 3 Cs 7 Ds 5 Fs If Bs were my most common grade, does that mean I was too easy. I don’t think so. Those 33 students I lost would probably have heavily weighted the [...]

Quotes from Walker Percy: “You can get all A’s and still flunk life.” “A good novel is possible only after one has given up and let go.” “We love those who know the worst of us and don’t turn their faces away.” “The only road is the Little Way . . . the only way [...]

related to Greek mythology, specifically of or about the Underworld I found the word in an article on the differences between Greek and American heroes. I am looking at the hero in Angel, perhaps even the extent to which the story is an epic story.

Smile!

I read and write English well. I have a large and varied vocabulary. I know grammar. I am not tied to grammar. I have taught everyone from tiny babies to grandmothers. I have learned who I teach best, young adults to adults. I talk well. I am not afraid of talking. I enjoy public speaking. [...]

“The most important thing is not what the author or artist had in mind to begin with but at what point he decided to stop.” –D. W. Harding

Is writing my art? Or is teaching? I think of writing as my art and teaching as my craft. But really, teaching is an art. It’s what I remember first as a creative action, teaching my family a new song. Perhaps I need to look at those two and think about them more together. How [...]

Knowing where you want to go isn’t the same as getting there.

Tharp suggests reading backward through a writer’s works. It lets you see how things have changed from a different perspective. I think this would be a good way to deal with the Sookie paper. Start at the end and go backwards. I’m looking for three different sets of things, maybe four eventually. But I could [...]

muscle memory virtual memory sensual memory (I would say sensory memory.) institutional memory (tapping into older thoughts, through review of information) ancient memory (what has gone before, also known as genetic memory) I think information may stay around and when we get a sense of deja vu it is because we have sensed the thing [...]

The act of copying helps us learn from other people. Artists copy great artists. Chandler copied Hemingway. Proust copied John Ruskin, Balzac, and Flaubert. Benjamin Franklin copied the writers of his day. Whose work would I most want to copy? Whose work would I most want mine to be like? First line… Miller and Lee. [...]

“Metaphor is the lifeblood of all art, if it is not art itself.” –Twyla Tharp As an English teacher, I especially love this. I’ve always been a word hoarder and metaphor is one of the points I love the most, after alliteration.

Not as much as you might think.

She suggests going a week without mirrors… How can you do that when you have to work? I honestly don’t use the mirror except to put on and check my makeup and some people might say I need to use it more often. Clocks. Again. How do you work without clocks? Now, it is true [...]

I read and write English well. I have a large and varied vocabulary. I know grammar. I am not tied to grammar. I have taught everyone from tiny babies to grandmothers. I have learned who I teach best, young adults to adults. I talk well. I am not afraid of talking. I enjoy public speaking. [...]

“When Marcel Proust dipped his petite madeleines into his tea, the taste and aroma set off a flood of memories and emotions from which modern literature has still not recovered.” –Twyla Tharp