To start things off, I’m not Jewish. I believe in Christmas, but I also have enough world knowledge and common sense to know that not everyone celebrates Christmas or believes that Jesus is as great as I do. That being said, I’m not going to tell someone Merry Christmas during the WHOLE month of December. It’s not Christmas yet, and frankly after you’ve told me Merry Christmas 858593 times, by the time Christmas actually gets here, I’m over it.

I’m also not going to tell someone Merry Christmas if their religion focuses on some other holiday during the month of December. I would be just as offended if someone told me Happy Hanukkah when they knew I celebrated Christmas, or maybe I wouldn’t: when all my “people” are going around “yelling” that it’s Merry Christmas and not Happy Holidays, why should I be offended about someone else doing the same with a different holiday?  I was very confused a couple years ago when people started boycotting Target because they were saying Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. It’s silly. We don’t have a national religion, we supposedly don’t discriminate, so why should we get angry when a company strives to decrease that discrimination. The store is still decorated in red and green, sells Christmas trees and ornaments and is closed on Christmas, why are people so worked up about what the store allows their employees to say. It’s not like they’re requiring all the employees to say Happy Hanukkah or Happy Kwanzaa instead of Merry Christmas; they’re just trying to make a shopping experience a little more enjoyable for everyone.

With all this, I think people should just step up and realize that we live in a diverse country, people believe different things. By saying “Happy Holidays,” no one is trying to demean Christmas and Christianity, they’re just trying to be more accepting of everyone. Also, if you don’t want people to take Christ out of Christmas, you should think twice when you put up your Christmas tree and fight through the crowds to get the newest toy for your children, therefore promoting the very commercialization that is supposedly taking Christ out of Christmas. I’m not saying I’m a great Christian either, but I think if everyone stopped and took a step back and looked at how entitled and elitist you act during Christmas because you know the real reason for the holiday, you might just see why everyone hates Christians as much as they do.

I remember that time Sadie, Claire, Jessica, and I (maybe someone else, I don’t remember) went to see the Social Network with Jim Groom. That’s something I have that David and Kelsey don’t. Ha. Also, from that trip, I know where you live, Jim Groom.

Although my blog doesn’t speak to this, David, Kelsey, and I have semi-regular conversations about Jim Groom being a Food Lord and such. Speaking of that, I want a copy of the burrito picture. I miss ds106. How regularly do you have to do something for it to be 4life? Can I blog once every year until I die for it to be 4life? Or do I have to blog once a month, twice a month, once a week? Or can I simply keep the spirit of ds106 in my heart and call it a day? (I think the last one isn’t going to work. My blog for my History of Social Theory class reminds me of ds106, without all the crazy. Also, writing about theorists and not Head Start and practicum and how all that works (or doesn’t). One thing has stayed the same, I still do everything at the last minute. It’s kind of a problem. Still.

I agree with Kelsey though, the internet is a scary place when I can’t come to class twice a week and ask you how to fix things. It’s also not very motivating when there isn’t a grade involved.

Well, this was fun and actually didn’t take very long. Maybe it will happen more in the future. Near future.

this is how the food lord came to be

My second thought was, ” Oh, good. A class where I don’t have to draw or act. I got this.”

Little did I know, I would have to draw on every ounce of creativity that I had.

I did not do this nearly as much as I should. I got overwhelmed. I didn’t know what to do. I hit a point in the semester where I thought this was even more un-useful than knowing how to differentiate an equation. (I heard that term from my roommate and vaguely remember that word from when I *actually* took math classes.) Why do I  need to blog? Who really cares about what I have to write? The question I asked the most was: How in the world do I do this?

Throughout the *hundreds* (okay, maybe I rounded up a bit like Mina did in class)  of assignments, I often found myself having no clue what to do. Not just lack of knowledge with the technology, but lack of creativity. It takes a long time to think of what to write, what to say, and what to do. I did what I knew how to do first, which often happened to be my other classes.

I would try to blog when I was bored of doing other work or when I didn’t have anything else to do. The assignments came crashing in like an avalanche.  Both in this class and my other classes. I have a class every semester that is my class that I put the least effort into; this semester it just so happened to be this one. Spanish was only one step higher, and sometimes it was even lower.

When I did *finally* do the assignments, I didn’t put as much effort into them as I could. Someone in class last night said something along the lines of it taking as much time as the quality of work you want to do. I guess I just wasn’t concerned about quality. I’m not trying to do this for a living so I didn’t feel like putting as much effort into mashing, editing, creating, and telling.

One thing I had a real problem with was the lack of a syllabus. Or one that gave an outline with the assignments we would have to do throughout the semester. If I knew what I had to do all semester, I probably would have been more prepared/willing to do things. I had a class last semester where we would get seemingly unanticipated, even by the professor, assignments. It was annoying. I had so much other stuff to do that I had already planned when I was going to do it and if I knew about all these extra assignments, I could have planned accordingly. The assignments we did have were not horrible and extremely difficult, but frustrating. More details in advance would be useful and very helpful.

I’m not saying I hated this class. I really didn’t. Maybe it would have been better if I took it a different semester when I had less classes, less practicum, and less stress in general. But honestly I don’t know. I don’t particularly enjoy anything about making my own media. I don’t mind blogging, but I don’t see it as something that I could do regularly ever, or at least in the near future. But who knows?

Suggestions:

1. More detailed syllabus.

2. Maybe combine the assignments into the Digital Story more. It might be useful to say at the beginning of the semester that you will have to incorporate these assignments into the Digital Stories and list what the assignments will be so that it may be easier to plan the story. It also might make everyone’s blog look cleaner and more organized. This might not work for some assignments, but others it would work great.

3. It would have been nice to have a day where we met each other again. Maybe after we proposed our Digital Stories. It would be a good way to get to know each other’s faces and not just the layout of the blogs.

My Digital Story:

This did not happen nearly as much as I had imagined. Once it got started, I realized it wasn’t really working how I had planned. Mostly, I didn’t like Head Start as much as I thought I would. I was burnt out on Head Start. I’m writing my final paper for Sociology on Head Start, I was in Practicum there, and I was going to blog about it. Bad idea, if there ever was a bad idea. I feel like I did teach the class something with the posts that I did do. I also learned a lot along the way. I got to the point where I was so far behind on my story and so far behind on my assignments that I just gave up. It almost felt like I was in 2 classes.

My final words to ds106:

“Farewell to the world of Digital Storytelling, I got what I needed out of you. An Art Process credit. It’s not you, it’s me. I may come back to you sometime in the future and knowing that the web is, in fact, not dead, you will take me back. Right now is just not the right time.”

I don’t really know if this is what we were supposed to do with the fanfiction assignment. I’m not super obsessed with anything, but right now my favorite TV show is Raising Hope. The basic story line is that a guy in his early 20s gets a girl pregnant, finds out she’s a felon, she gets the death penalty 6 months after the baby is born, he ends up with the baby – originally named Princess Beyonce – and has to figure out how to raise a baby. He lives with his parents, but they don’t really know much about raising a baby either. It’s just a crazy ridiculous show that I have to watch on Hulu because my roommates hate it.

I put this together in paint, but I couldn’t figure out how to get rid of the white around the edges of the image. If anyone knows how, let me know and maybe I can try to fix it.

This week on the Today Show (which my roommates and I watch in the mornings) they were remaking their favorite viral videos. Here are the 2 that I saw in the middle of running around and getting ready.

This first one is a guy named Mike Tompkins. He remakes songs using only his voice and mouth. It’s pretty crazy and you should just watch it.

Next is the version that the anchors on the Today Show made.

This morning was my favorite one. They remade a video that students at the University of Quebec Montreal made. Here is the original

Here is the one the Today Show anchors, crew members, and producers made

These last 2 videos were filmed in one continuous shot and the group from Canada had 2 rehearsals and 2 takes. I’m not sure how many takes or rehearsals the Today Show had.

Anyway, where I’m going with this is, explaining that I don’t have much of an obsession with any certain thing, but rather an obsession with ridiculous things. The whole Twilight thing is ridiculous. I’ll admit, I went to see New Moon at the midnight premiere, but I do not agree with the parents who took their 11 year olds to the midnight premiere. I’m not really sure what Stephanie Meyer was thinking when she wrote this book for preteens. The fact that the main character *disclaimer* has a baby with a vampire when she is right out of high school is ridiculous to me. The movies and story line isn’t even that great, it’s ridiculous. Which is one of my criteria for watching a movie, it has to be ridiculous. I was recently discussing this with ___ (I don’t even remember now), and I decided that I like all the movies that make no sense at all, movies that have story lines that don’t even fit in what ever world they take place in. For example, I thought of the movie Deep Blue Sea. Completely ridiculous. Genetically altered “smart-sharks” who end up turning on the people there to guard them. I don’t necessarily love this movie, but I enjoy how ridiculous it is.

Mostly, what I’m trying to get to in this post is what anyone who knows me well enough has figured out. I obsess over ridiculous things. I find something that I think is ridiculous, obsess over it, rant about it, then get over it. I don’t really know that this fits in with what we’re going to have to do in terms of fanfiction, but it’s what I’m obsessed with. I don’t have a TV show, movie, or music that I watch all the time and know everything about, I don’t even know everything about what is ridiculous.

]]> http://lifeafterds106.umwblogs.org/2010/11/19/ridiculous-obsession/feed/ 2 http://lifeafterds106.umwblogs.org/2010/11/18/video-commentary/ http://lifeafterds106.umwblogs.org/2010/11/18/video-commentary/#comments Thu, 18 Nov 2010 13:11:06 +0000 tiffies0331 http://blog.thatisridiculous.info/?p=209 I chose to do my commentary on Mulan. I don’t usually enjoy movies but this is one that I am actually able to watch multiple times.

All these pictures came from http://9eyes.tumblr.com/.

Service Worker's Revenge

Dog Park Rejects

"Mom! There's a spaceship outside!"

Flowers do not equal happiness.

Best. Fort. Ever.

Madagascar 3: Escape to the Arctic

Lemonade: $1 per hour.

Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?

I can't do this while you're watching me!

"Are there no more cabs in this whole city!?!?"

Even heroes have the right to dream.

You may get there faster, but I'll get there fitter.

Honey, I Shrunk the Rockclimber

Hazards of Narcolepsy

9:00- Students get off the bus

9:10- Bathroom break (already)- The kids put their coats and backpacks in their lockers then we make a pit stop at the bathroom before heading to the classroom.

The lockers were there when the original school was built, and they use them since there isn’t much room for storage in the classroom.

9:20-Calendar

Go over what month, date, and day of the week it is. They also talk about what the weather is that day.

9:35ish- Breakfast in the classroom

The assistant teacher goes to the cafeteria to get the cart, which is also used for lunch, and brings it up to the classroom. One of the teachers then takes it down right before the kids are done eating.

10:00ish- Brushing teeth and some songs

They brush their teeth after breakfast and lunch. Because they possibly don’t do it at home, and they are trying to get them in the habit of brushing their teeth.

10:20- Choice Time

The kids get to choose where they want to work/play for that day. They can choose from house, blocks, writing center, shelf toys (puzzles and such), sand center (which actually has dirt in it now), or computer.

10:50- Clean up and sit back on the rug.

During this time, they can read a book for a few minutes until everyone is finished cleaning. Then we make sure their shoes are tied so they can go outside.

11:15- Head out to the playground or to the gym.

We also take a bathroom break on the way out to recess and if we are going outside, we have to stop and get their coats.

11:50- Come inside

Put coats away, the assistant teacher goes and gets the lunch cart (same as breakfast). The kids sit on the rug and the main teacher will read a story while the assistant teacher gets lunch ready. Then they’ll wash their hands and go sit at a table.

12:20 Lunch

12:50 Clean up

The kids have to throw away their trash, brush their teeth and go sit on the rug

1:00- Lesson

During this time there is usually some sort of lesson. They use these puppets called Al’s Pals, which are pretty cheesy but get the job done. This is usually the time where they will play the song that the kids have been begging for all day, if they’ve been good.

1:30: Get ready to go out to the buses

This is the trip to the lockers to get coats and backpacks and head out to the buses.

After writing this, I feel like I have the times messed up a little, but the events are in the right order.

I wasn’t really sure what to do to make this story more interesting than it already was, so I added in some sound effects. I think it’s somewhat difficult to find someone who will tell you an uninteresting story because whenever we do tell an uninteresting story, we don’t get the feedback we get from an interesting story. The sarcastic remarks are enough to keep us from telling a story that we might think is uninteresting.

First, you have to apply to be in the first Education class, which is just an intro class that’s meant to teach you the concepts and theories of teaching. All the elementary and secondary students are lumped together in one class so it’s also the point in which some people decide that they want to switch one way or the other.

If you decide you want to stay in the program, you take more education classes the next semester. After you finish these next classes, you have to apply for Formal Admission. The hardest part about that is actually filling out the application, which really isn’t that hard. Once you get formally accepted, then you’re in for life.

During this time of taking classes, you have to do Practicum. Some classes don’t have practicum, most of the ones that do require 20 hours of practicum, while 1 has 30 hours. This requirement is from the State, and you can’t pass the class if you don’t get all (or pretty darn close to) of the hours required for that class.

A little math:

If you take 2+ education classes with practicum requirements, you have to do the practicum for both classes.

20 hrs + 20 hrs = 40 hours.

Which has been my life for the past 2 semesters. But I successfully avoided taking the 30 hour class with another class that requires practicum.

If you have 2 practicum requirements, you only get placed in one classroom. Which leads me to the question of how we get placed.

The wonderful computer geniuses here at UMW created a program where all the education students can put in their schedule, number of practicum hours needed, past placements, and a nice note to Dr. McCall if they so feel the desire.

Dr. McCall then looks at all the schedules and requirements and places everyone in a practicum and with a driver if they need one. This is the 2 or 3 weeks in the semester when it is not acceptable to go to Dr. McCall and distract her from making placements. (I think this is how people get bad placements ) Just kidding though, Dr. McCall is great for doing all this and we would never learn how to teach without her placing us in practicum.

Usually, she tries to make sure everyone has experience with every grade. Some classes require you to be in certain grades, like this semester I have to be in prek-2 (or3) and next semester I will have to be in one of the upper grades because of a sequence of classes I’m taking. She also puts you in the subject area of the class you are taking. If you are taking the science class, it’s best if you’re in a practicum class while they are teaching science.

In practicum, you are required to do a certain number, or type of lessons. For the science class you have to teach a science lesson.

In the Spring semester of your senior year, you apply for the graduate program and a specialization – science, math, special education, literacy, technology, social studies. If you get accepted, you get to come back another year. During this year, you do a lot of things that I don’t really want to think about right now. Sorry.

When I got there on Tuesday, it was quiet. By quiet I don’t really mean quiet, but I mean the closest you can get to quiet with a group of 4 year olds when they are not directly being read to or taught something. They were all sitting around the carpet reading their books they had just gotten from the library. Books in their eyes are treasured things, at least I think that until they throw them at each other. Most of them don’t have access to books at home so teaching them even the simplest things such as how to hold the book and where the title is are as important, if not more important than teaching them to actually read. This being said, when one boy, in a very matter of fact tone, told the girl sitting beside him that she has to read the title first I was shocked. He was reading a version of Humpty Dumpty, I’m not sure which one, and he actually read the title. At first I felt naive that I was surprised by this fact until the teachers in the classroom were also very surprised and took no delay in writing it in the notes of achievements that the students make.

This leads me to the complete bipolar-ness of an elementary classroom. This behavior quickly turned into hitting each other, running down the hallway, jumping down the stairs, and putting straws in bananas. For a short, but wonderful, 15 minutes while I was reading them a book about the life of a pumpkin from the perspective of a pumpkin they were quiet. Then it all ended again. Until they went out and got on the bus it was pretty chaotic. Really, right before they got on the bus, the main trouble maker of the class came running down the hall to where the rest of the class was in line, failed to stop in time, and knocked 3 other kids over in the middle of the hallway.

In all the classrooms at Headstart there are 2 teachers, 1 main teacher and 1 assistant teacher…one is intimidating enough for me. It turns out that having 2 teachers is extremely beneficial for my purposes in Practicum. When I need to talk to the main teacher about having to do a lesson or interview her (which I will have to do in a couple weeks) there is another teacher who can be in charge of the classroom while we are talking. Also, 18 four-year-olds are just a tad overwhelming. When those 18 four-year-olds come from families with incomes below the poverty line, it’s even more overwhelming. (As an aside, in order to enroll in the Headstart program a family must have an income below the poverty line. I’ll have more information on that once I actually do some real research for my Sociology paper.)

The room is also very colorful. I don’t mean the colors of the rainbow, but colors of race, ethnicity, background, and personality. Many new teachers say that they are “colorblind” and don’t treat their students differently based on race, ethnicity, or culture. As Dr. Wright as told my Classroom Management class multiple times, “It’s impossible to be colorblind.” Also, being colorblind would be doing these students a disservice. If teachers never accounted for the differences in students, these students would not be in an environment conducive to learning. If students are not comfortable in their classroom environment, they will not be motivated to learn. In the classroom that I am in and all around the Headstart building, there are labels on important things in English and in Spanish to accommodate the large number of Spanish speaking students in the school. Headstart is also all about feeding families. Not necessarily with food, but with the resources to keep healthy. They set up appointments with doctors and dentists, counsel the families in the way to receive welfare and tell them job opportunities and give them opportunities to be substitutes in the school. They also provide counseling services for the parents and the students. The goal is to get parents involved early on in their child’s education with the hope that they will then continue to be involved throughout the rest of their education.

The first day I was there I ate lunch with them in the classroom. (They always eat lunch in the classroom to give the kids an opportunity to have a “family meal.”) I ate some of the questionable chili and peaches and salad. After I was finished, the boy I was sitting next to elbowed my tray and peach juice spilled all over my pants and my hand. Good thing I wore my pants that I bought when I got a job at KFC this summer. Then the next day that I was there I was in charge of the table where the kids were painting fire trucks. Red paint. Luckily it didn’t get on me, but it got all over the table and the floor.

At the beginning of Friday, after the students got off the buses, one boy had a conversation with me about how he didn’t think that I was in his class. After I told him that I was, he said that he didn’t believe me. Then at the end of the day he came up to me and said, “I really didn’t think you was in my class, but you are.”

While they were sitting on the rug on Friday, I overheard the funniest thing I’ve heard in the whole 2 days I’ve been there. One boy leaned over behind the boy he was sitting next to and got the attention of one of the girls in the class who was playing with her hair. He the proceeded to say, “I like your hair today.” She was very polite and said thank you, then he went on to say, “Do you like mine?”

Needless to say, I can’t wait to go back tomorrow.

Extra note: This is not about practicum, but it is about another 4-year-old. Monday, I was babysitting a 19 month old and a 4 year old. While the 19  month old was taking a nap the 4 year old wanted to play with my hair. I couldn’t tell what she was doing so I said, “Are you gonna make me look funny?” Her response? “No, I’m makin’ you look hot!” My response? “What?!” She then says, “But I don’t know what that means, so don’t tell me.”

I am in the Elementary Education program so each semester I am required (but really, allowed) to go into local schools and do Practicum. Basically, each education class has a required number of hours you must spend in the classroom in order to get credit for that class. Some classes don’t require any, but most require 20 with one requiring 30.

My assigned practicum this semester is in Head Start (aka 3 and 4 year olds). I’m also writing a paper for my Intro to Social Welfare class in which I will be writing a term paper about Head Start. Crazy.

Basically, Sadie said something along the lines of “People know that ya’ll have to do practicum, but they don’t really know what it is or what it involves.”

So I’m going to tell you, whether you like it or not. I’m also going to probably tell you all the things I learn about how Head Start works. My idea of it now consists of “preschool for underprivileged kids.”

There will probably also be funny, ridiculous things the kids say or do sprinkled throughout the rest of the semester.

This is what my dining room table regularly looks like. With my stuff and my roommates’ stuff, it gets a little crazy.

Note: in this picture most of the stuff is mine…

]]> http://lifeafterds106.umwblogs.org/2010/09/20/daily-shoot-4/feed/ 1 http://lifeafterds106.umwblogs.org/2010/09/19/dailyshoot-2/ http://lifeafterds106.umwblogs.org/2010/09/19/dailyshoot-2/#comments Sun, 19 Sep 2010 17:46:12 +0000 tiffies0331 http://blog.thatisridiculous.info/?p=100

Fountain in downtown Fredericksburg

Some of the remaining flowers that have now been on my dining room table for 2 weeks+. My roommates and I have been slowly taking the dying ones out, but these leaves have managed to stay very much alive looking the whole time. I guess it was that fancy plant food that they put with the flowers.

So after looking through my cousin’s facebook pictures of her baby discovering and playing in the giant ocean I wanted to make a photo narrative of  the best of the 100+ pictures in the “1st time at beach” album . I just think it’s ridiculously adorable to see her from being scared of all the water to loving it. I wish I knew this kid more than just from Facebook pictures…

That other person in some of the pics is my cousin.

All the screenshots are from a Movie Screenshots blog that I found while trying to search for pictures of movies.

I like this movie for no good reason except that every time I watch it I think that it will turn out differently and he won’t find her in time.

A quintessential love story. A couple from childhood to death’s door.

Tiffany, Claire, Ashley

I think a better, although more boring, title could be “The Web is Changing.” I really believe that the Web is still alive, it is just alive in a different way. People use the Web for different reasons than they used to when the Web first became popular. I agree with the quote in the article that says “at the end of the day we favor the easiest path.” I’m taking a tennis class this semester and our coach says that unless we practice all the time, we will just revert to getting the ball across the net in any way (the easiest way) possible. I think this is true of the Internet and the Web, we live in a time when people want results fast and in the easiest way possible. It is much easier, and faster, to be constantly logged onto e-mail or facebook through an app on a phone or Ipod. I became aware of the extremeness of this when I tried to get a new phone at the beginning of the Summer. My dad had told me that I can’t get a phone that you have to pay for a data plan per month. As I was looking on the Verizon website, I was shocked that my options consisted of 2 phones, only 2. All the other phones had a minimum data plan of $10/month or more, except the prepaid phones. I cannot even count the number of e-mails I get that say at the bottom, “sent from my Iphone” or “sent from my Blackberry.”

I don’t think that We are the Web+The Web is Dead=We are Dead. I think we are missing a huge part of the picture. The part of the picture that acknowledges that we are accessing the Internet in a way that is much simpler and convenient. With Apps on phones, we can get on the Internet from anywhere we have cell service. I think at this point we are surpassing the Web and moving on to bigger and better things.

I don’t understand a lot of the language in the article, but I do understand the idea of connecting different sites and having cooperation among Internet users. I also agree with increasing the simplicity of adding content to the Internet.

The part of the article that stood out to me the most was the section on “Blogging and the Wisdom of Crowds.” I never thought about a blog being a “personal home page in diary format.” I have always been against keeping a diary for no real reason, however, I now realize that I enjoy blogging and basically keeping a diary on the internet for anyone who pleases to read. Granted, I’m not going to write about my most personal thoughts or my 6th grade crush, but I am writing about things that matter to me, or else I wouldn’t write about them. When I think further about it, I’ve been keeping a diary of sorts on Facebook for years and years: a dairy of one sentence updates of what I am doing or thinking, of things that I tell people, of people that I am friends with, and of pictures that either I post or that I allow other people to post simply because I have a Facebook. My information, the things I love, the things I hate, the things I don’t care about are all on the Internet for people to see.

The quote from Tom Coates saying that the Web is becoming “a conversational mess of overlapping communities,” is 150% true in my experience. I often find myself in this “conversational mess” on an almost daily basis. Whether it be reading Facebook updates, blogs,  or different opinions of news events, I sometimes get completely and utterly confused. I have friends from one side of the country who have almost the same name as friends from the other side of the country, friends who have the same profile picture of someone else, or friends from different sides of the country who give into the “repost if someone you love is addicted to water” status updates. I get so mixed up about who said what and when they said it, or even if they did say it.

This “conversational mess” ends up extending into “real” life because I see someone and think “Did they tell me that, or did I read it when I was “Facebook stalking” them last night?” I also find myself with “Facebook friends” who I see on a daily basis, but never talk to, ever.

So, I guess you could say I struggle with the thought of “is the Web going to get to a point where it isn’t distinguishable from what is happening out in the real, green, oxygen filled, breathing world?” Will we get to the point where personal contact is no longer necessary?

I want to know who was “ridiculous” enough to eat half of a grilled cheese sandwich (minus the crust), decide they didn’t like it, then leave it in the Pop-tart bin and not pay for it.

Maybe I should write a Passive Aggressive Note about it- which I have done in the past. Although, they often end up in the trash and not in the hands of the intended target. I guess my passive aggressiveness turns into just plain passiveness.

This makes me think of the school guidance counselors and parents telling you to write an angry letter or email then ripping it up or deleting it- which really does nothing to solve the problem, but it does get the anger off your chest and helps you move on from the smaller problems that really aren’t that big of a deal in hindsight.

In reality, someone leaving a grilled cheese sandwich in the Pop-tart bin is not what I should be worried about- no matter how ridiculous it seems. What I should be worried about are the bigger problems that are actually harmful to people- my mind fails me right now to think of an example. I guess this is what you call choosing your battles, which, if I’m going to be an elementary school teacher or have children (or even a husband ), I’m going to have to do every day of the rest of my life.

I was struggling to think of a name for my domain and also for my blog and I finally thought of “That is Ridiculous.” I often find myself in a situation or overhearing a conversation and thinking, “that’s ridiculous.” So, throughout the semester I will try to keep up with posting things that I find ridiculous.

To start, I recently found out about all the Eagle Landing problems: lukewarm shower water, over sensitive fire alarms, $550/ year parking passes, the forever sound of toilets flushing. I just think that’s ridiculous. They pay more money for more problems. I know there are granite countertops and stainless steel appliances and an attendant in the lobby 24/7, but really, that’s pretty ridiculous too. Let’s be real, stainless steel and granite are not staples of a recent college graduates first apartment in the real world.

I’m done ranting about that now. I think ranting is a little ridiculous too, but hey, why not, I’ve got the perfect outlet right here and my apartment mates will thank me for sparing them.

I then read Campbell’s argument that if most professors want students to be creative and come up with their own thoughts and ideas, then creating a personal cyberinfrastructure would be the most logical and, in my new opinion, fun way to be creative. In my “striving to be an elementary school teacher” brain, I want to encourage students to be creative and make connections to previous knowledge and experiences. I think that having a personal cyberinfrastructure is a great way to make those connections and constantly build on previous thoughts. I don’t, however, think that this is feasible for elementary students at this point, but I think that it’s very doable for college or even high school students.