"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
Well i have done very little today as its been hot here, ive really just sat on my arse in various places lol. Here at the lanhouse and at CCAA too just to pass the time. I have no idea what i am going to do come the vacation as i get really bored very quickly when im not at work. Ill think of something though so not to worry :-)
I was reading some interesting bits about the Bible and the Qur'an today too, it talked about the differences between both of these religious books and the main points i typed out for you guys to read here if you want. You can just to go the usual News link
Im still trying to track down a copy of internet explorer 6 and hopefully someone will have a copy of it at work when i go there later on so i can install it and hopefully my glitches with Blogger will be at an end. If no ill probably try out one of the others until they get it sorted as it is really beginning to irritate me now :-(. I am confident though that ipgrading will be the end of my woes lol.
Anyway im off to get ready to go back to CCAA, maybre to mess around with the kareoke lol
Yes im back again lol. I got bored and thought id jump back on here for just a little while after checking out some other weblog tools that i read about in a magazine. I use one or two things to make my little weblog and keep it updated and running. The list includes..
1 - Blogger.. Of course i need this to create my site
2 - Tripod.. My weblog host
3 - Blogrolling.. Makes keeping my links updated real simple
4 - tag-board.. Great commenting software
I read about a few other tools that it said were great. These included Bloglet, Blo.gs and webcrimson. I will check out these over the weekend although the webcrimson is another type of weblog program similar to Blogger. I will have a look at it though just incase Blogger dont sort out the prolbems i have with the scroll bar in the new post page as it is really irrittating me now lol. Ill try updating to the latest version of internet explorer and see if that cures it tomorrow but we have 5.5 and it worked with all the stuff before. A quick few phone calls to try to track down a copy of the latest version and i think i have a student who has a copy of it and hes going to bring to the school for me later on :-). Hopefully that should cure my problems with the blogger interface... I hope ;-)
Ive been trying to figure out exactly what blo.gs and the other site actually do, do they track changes in websites? i think this is the function of the sites but im not sure. The bloglet one i know is a newsletter that tells people when i have updated my site and ill add the code for it to my weblog later this evening and see how it all looks. I like to try to keep things simple as i dont really have alot of free time to mess around always updating things but this one will just be a very quick addition which will be nice for the few people who visit my sites to know when i have added something new... Which is usually every day or a few times a day depending on how busy i am :-).I must remember to add the links for these sites to my link list in blogrolling too.
One thing i did discover today was that my ftp program had creased to work as it said it needed registering. Strange as it was supposed to be freeware so a quick visit to the website and it turns out that they have changed their minds and made it shareware so when i updated it last week it became shareware but no problem as they had a freeware version of ftpcommander which was just as good. One very quick download later and i am back in business. For people like me who dont host their weblog at Blogspot because they want to have pics etc as well as their diary an ftp program is a must and its a pain to have to buy one when we only use it once in a while so this simple free one is just great for all i need :-). Im not sure if i can put the exe file on my site itself to save people having to leave my site to go to download it so ill check on this and if their rules allow ill add it here with a link as soon as i get time okay? :-).
I had better stop now as i have to get my stuff ready for the exam later this evening. If i start late then we will be late finishing too so i wanna get there early and get it all setup so we can start as soon as everyone has arrived. Maybe ill get time to correct them before i go home if they are very quick finishing everything.. We will have to wait and see right :-)
"I came to America because of the great, great freedom which I heard existed in this country. I made a mistake in selecting America as a land of freedom, a mistake I cannot repair in the balance of my lifetime." - Albert Einstein
Well im back!!!!!!!! lol did ya miss me?... not even a little bit ? :-(. Oh well lol, i spent around 2hrs there playing at the lanhouse just for something to do, they were trying out some new levels they had downloaded which were quite good for small amounts of people so we messed around with those for a while and then went deathmatching in halflife just to do something a little different. Itll be better in the holidays as my students will also go there more often which will iven things up alot :-)
Im sitting here with my ice cold pepsi lol.. its roasting here at the moment and after walking just from the bus stop i was soaked through and had to get showered but the pepsi is the best way to cool down ;-). Im toying with starting preparing the stuff for the beginner students but dont know whether i can be bothered at the moment to print it all out as the ink is getting low in the printer lol. Ill download it later on i think and just print it off at work instead. after all its for their classes anyway right? ;-). I must get hold of the bosses too so i can find out what levels of students will be having conversation classes at the new school i will teach in around august time. Im quite looking forard to it but not to the 40km trip to the school... we are talking around 80km round trip. Ill have to make sure i have a couple of good books i think for when i am teaching there to read on the way lol. Ill try to get the GS students more interested this coming semester too, well thats if i can get the Planaltina secretaries to not kill off the classes before they have even got rolling like they did this semester, i might just talk with the bosses instead as they probably didnt know that there were many students trying to find out which time the classes were because the secretaries were telling them that the classes didnt exist :-(. Why they did this i have no idea but in one week attendence went basically from a good 12 or so students to just 2, not good is it? :-(. Next semester though i am going to deal personally with the bosses and keep the secretaries out of the loop as much as i can to get things off the ground. Watch this space for details okay? lol
I have just about read all the interesting books here now and yesterday had to start on Great Expectations... i hope that its at least good enough to last until i go downtown again lol. Alot of english lit is very boring.. for example Jane austin is very tedious but i liked alot Jane Alcott. The great gadsby wasnt too bad although a little short for my liking but most of it is just so so boring that i can usually use it to fall asleep lol.. Try it and youll see what i mean :-) I need to get some interesting books, maybe i should ask my brother to send me some over from england as it would be alot cheaper than buying books here when they are four or sometimes five times the price.
I have managed to find myself a little place to live for next month too which is great news as i was getting a little pressed to find somewhere small for me but in a nice place and luckily i landed one here in Planaltina and im just waiting for it to be painted through and then its all mine :-). Im going to have to get myself a computer though as this one wont be here by july as Adriana will move downtown and her computer will go with her. I can always go to one of the Lan houses though and use the internet there if i really wanted. Ill have to get the papers and see whats going in them as well as a tv too so i have something to watch at night when im not at work. Funny though i dont really watch alot of tv because Brasilian tv is so boring lol. Trust me on this its terrible unless you have either cable or satillite where you can at least find something to watch and some are in english as well. Ill worry about it later once i have moved in :-).
Okay time for me to get something to eat and then i might spend an hour sleeping as when its really hot i always feel so tired lol. Im Outta here :-)
"I'm the one that has to die when it's time for me to die, so let me live my life, the way I want to." - Jimi Hendrix
Good morning... Good morning lol, before i start i just wanna say congratulations to my MEC students who are doing really well in their final exams and oral tests too. Ispent the afternoon yesterday giving them all tests and they have all done really well so Congratulations going out to Lucas, Narinha, Janine, Ana Juliana, Edmar and Rosana :-)
This morning i dont actually have anything here to correct, it must be a miricle lol. This means that i have more time to go over to the Lan house today so ill spend a few hours there until this afternoon messing around. Later though are exams again so i will have to make sure i have a good book to read so the time passes quicker as there is nothing more boring than sitting supervising a writen exam lol. I think that my OM2 group will do just fine though ,we will see later on when i correct the stuff after the exam :-)
While reading the news this morning online i read that the music bigwigs are going to try to make even more money from people by sueing ones who have been using the peer to peer network software and claiming damages from them. What a crock of shit this is, i have read some stupid things online but this has to be one of the worst. Its about time to music industry realised that people dont use this program just to get music, its because people cant get enough of their favorite musician and bands and the music industry isnt giving people what they really need. Of course groups like the RIAA will try anything they can to stick to their old ways and to keep the money rolling in but people now adays want to listen to other music not britney spears all the time and the internet provides this service 100 percent better than any music store. For example where to people in say brasil get english music from as its very hard to find here. Does Sony sell it here? no they dont so people have to get it from the internet. Also when english music is available here its four times more expensive than brasilian music and remember this is a poor country so people just get it either from the internet or pirated copies from the streets. The music industry is going to crash big time and they will never try to change how they do things so the internet becomes more and more the tool of peoples needs. In a few years we wont even have to use cds anymore as most music will be online.
Anyway to read about this you can click on this link Here
Im deciding what music to listen to while i am getting read to go over to the Lan house, i really need to get some new music cds again. Of course there are hundreds of people in the streets of Brasil selling illegal copies so its just finding one with music that i like ;-). Hopefully my new cds will come from England today as my family got loads of stuff and posted it to me lol.. Lets keep our fingers crossed okay? :-)
Oh in the news it appears Margaret Thatchers husband in the Uk has died. God this guy must be happy to get away from her as she destroyed most of the big industry in england when she was prime minister. He must be celebrating wherever we go when we die and knowing that he is free of her for the rest of his existence :-). It amazes me though why there is so much coverage on the internet about him as in real life he was in the shadows perfering not to be seen alot with his dominating wife. If you wanna check out this story its all over yahoo Uk :-)
**Now playing - Red Hot Chilli Peppers**
Nothing like a bit of loud music in the morning ;-). I guess i had better think about getting around to doing something now or ill be still sat here at mid day lol. The problem is that there isnt really anything for me to do until i go over to the Lanhouse and i have nothing for work to prepare either although i have to check out some stuff later on for my conversation classes for beginners from a site i found out about online the other day. its japanese stuff for ESL but i can easily convert it to use with my groups, after all i adapted quite a few things for my classes lol. Ill download it later on as i cant do it at the school in Planaltina as the modem cable has a habit of disappearing and only re-appearing when the bloody secretaries want to use the internet :-(. Mind you i can just use the internet at the other school as it is always available and i wont have to play around trying to convince the people at my school to let me get online without having to suffer fifty questions first.
Okay time for me to haul arse and get ready to go out, maybe if i get time later ill get online here.... Youll just have to wait and see wont you? ;-)
"I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill." - Mahatma Gandhi
Im taking a break from correcting things here.... you wouldnt believe how happy i will be when the semester ends and i have a few weeks of no exercises to wade through lol. By the end of next week though i will be into my stand by time thank god and just have to sit around watching films or sleeping and getting paid for all of it too......YEAH!!!!!!. I had to give oral tests this morning to just three students which left me with an hour to chat with the childrens group who were having an end of semester party this morning with kareoke and music and stuff. Isnt that nice? :-)
This afternoon i have exams for both of my MEC groups, written and oral too. This will get a little boring in the writen part as for me its just sitting on my arse but the oral test will be good as my students in these groups already speak good english so this test will be a good chance for them to show their skills ;-). Of course then i have the hassle of correcting everything which is goingt o be the highlight of my whole day as you guys can tell right?... Im so enthusiastic about correcting the exams lol.
Later i nmight go to the video store as i havent watched a video in a long time, it will depend if the store is open after i have taught the classes though as sometimes he closes very early and he is the only video store i have found that has english language films even though they have portugues subtitles. If not ill just grab another book and fall asleep reading it as i did last night. I woke up this morning with the book still in front of me lol i had finished it anyway and it wasnt too bad although a little on the short side for my liking. I usually read books the size of loaves of bread that take a couple of days not these thin paperbacks that take a couple of hours. Ill have to try to get hold of the new Harry Potter book as i read that its supposed to be really big and might last me a little longer than usual :-) I will see if anyone i know has got it yet and borrow it from them as the english version of the book here is frighteningly expensive.. i was told nearly R$1oo to buy the book here :-(. I doubt many people here in Brasil will buy this book as there are alot of poor families here that cant afford this luxury. Its sad though that people here cant enjoy even the simple wonder of reading a book because the price is so expensive isnt it?
Im still having problems with my screen for the blogger new post. i think ill stop here and go and send them a quick email to see how i can solve this problem okay and be back later on :-)
Just posted something i found interesting about Spam Emailers.. Just click on the link okay guys?
"The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right." - William Safire
Well back finally from the Lan house and for a change today we were deathmatching with a bunch of kids who had wondered in to spend their pocket money lol. It was good fun though and a couple of hours passed there very quickly so i can home to rest a little before going to work later this evening. As you can see my idea of relaxation is to type away here while drinking my Orange juice :-).
Its really hot here at the moment, i hope that it will be cooler for later on when im at work as i hate being stuck in a place where its muggy even with the air conditioning running full power. I was hoping that maybe today my cds would arrive from the Uk but as you can guess they still arent here yet. I wonder if they have got lost in the post or if some crummy little police official at the customs dept has taken them for himself as i have been told this is very common here :-(. Looks like i will have to get onto my brother to send them all again.
I need some music... let me see what we have laying around in here okay?. most of the decent cds are in the other room but i canna be bothered to go in there and get a hold of them lol. One bad thing about buying pirate cds here is that they usually get the names of the songs and groups wrong lol
Hmmm well theres not alot in here but the Ac/Dc cd is still loaded from yesterday so ill just have to listen to that i guess :-)
**Ac/Dc - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap**
Yeah now this is something that the neighbors must really be getting into as i only really play heavy metal or rock music lol. Alot better though than that cracker shit they listen too as it drives me up the wall sometimes ;-). I think we need a few Metallica concerts here in this part of Brasil so the folks here can see and hear what they are missing :-). Unfortunately though i dont think they will come here to the capital as its really mostly business here and not pleasure lol. I heard that Capital inicial are coming here though... they are some semi popular brasilian group but we there ill go to see them i dont really know as they dont speak any english ;-). If they had some brasilian heavy rock though now that would be different i guess lol.
Im trying to think of some stuff i can use when i start the conversation groups in Gama, im not sure how many classes i will have or have to plan for but i think that the material i have will be good for a few weeks but if there are alot of groups then i am going to need more stuff. well i have the stuff it just needs to be typed and converted from the ESL stuff to something i can use easier with intermediate groups although advanced i have loads of stuff especially for the MEC people. It will be good fun trying out this stuff with the new groups as they will have never met me before so i can see how it works with them and change it where nessasary. I have a couple of other books to look through here for some new ideas too and got a couple more web sites to check out at the weekend too. I wanna try to get enough for about thirty classes i think so i have plenty to fall back on if i get snowed under at the busy times of the semester so thats really my target to prepare over the break next month.
God most of the day has already gone and its still red hot here, im going to need a cold shower and its not for looking at girls arses either lol. By the time i go for class though it will be dark so it will start to cool down a little and its just a review class so i can sit still without any jumping around or being crazy for once lol. Its getting to the semesters end and i am getting a little tired now... i must be starting to feel my years.. All 36 of them ;-). After all those classes at the start of the semester with the groups that werent mine that i was running around in while i waited for my groups to form must have wore me out lol. I like the kids groups though as they will try anything you suggest.. so long as its not methodology of course ;-). I dont get kids groups though as there are alot of advanced students and next semester will be three MEC groups although whether i will get all of them i do not know yet. Im curious to see who i am going to get but we wont find out until near the start of the new semester.
I guess i had better think about doing something or i will still have got nothing done by the time i have to go to CCAA. No rest for the WICKED lol
"Imagine the people who believe such things and who are not ashamed to ignore, totally, all the patient findings of thinking minds through all the centuries since the Bible was written. And it is these ignorant people, the most uneducated, the most unimaginative, the most unthinking among us, who would make themselves the guides and leaders of us all; who would force their feeble and childish beliefs on us; who would invade our schools and libraries and homes. I personally resent it bitterly." - Isaac Asimov
Okay found a few quotes to use that are supposed to be sort of freedom and justice etc lol. Ill get the randy sexual ones next time okay guys & gals? ;-). I couldnt find the sites that i usually use, i dont know wether they are out of action or just that our Isp is playing up but ill try and get some more as these ones wont last very long as i got just fifty or so lol. I was toying with the idea of getting just a few translated into portugues but then the only people who read this understand english anyway so there wasnt really much point lol.
I must remember to add my email link to this new template as i noticed the other day it isnt there now but keep fogetting to add it. by the weekend i guess i will have it up and done as i will have more time then to mess around with it. Oh we found out why the scanner didnt work too, it had the wrong driver cd with it so ill get the cdrom later in the week and then fingers crossed maybe it will work. Well i hope that it will anyways lol.
Hmmm the dogs going crazy... let me see if someone is here before he eats them lol. its dragging a huge log around the garden and barking at it lol, this log is around 6ft long. Bloody animal is losing it big time i think :-) He has to play with something big as he chews up most things in a matter of minutes so you can imagine that new toys for him are really a waste of time right? lol
For once i have nothing to correct which is nice for a change although you can be sure that later on i will have a pile of stuff as usual lol. I also have to put up with the miserable secretary too who is bound to still be a little pissed at me, i never have a complete day where there isnt anything that spoils it lol.
Okay time for me to go and kick arse at the lanhouse before it gets too full and i have to wait for a computer to become available. Bye bye lol
There should be a law against waking up before 9am
Im just reading the news here online at the moment, it amazes me how so much boring news gets onto the internet although i guess someone must find it interesting right? lol. There was some interesting stuff on Affirmative Action though that wasnt too bad but mostly its just the same news just under a different title. I had a quick look at the page for the new Tombraider film, Mmmmm Lara Croft in rubber ;-). Ill go watch it on the big screen when its released later on i think just to pass a couple of hours.
Here people were watching a brasilian film city of god and i watched a bit of it but to be honest although alot of people told me it was supposed to be really good i stopped after fifteen minutes of watching it. To be honest its so unbelievable in parts that you cant enjoy any of it. Yeah i know alot of films have unreal things in them but this film is supposed to be real life in rio de janeiro about the drug gangs but personally i thought it was crap lol. There were scenes of children in the street firing high caliber pistols single handed and of course this would be impossible as even an adult wouldnt be able to bo that without any recoil happening so are we really supposed to believe that these children can hold a magnum pistol single handed and take out more people than in a Rambo film? lol Cmon Brasil surely your film guys can do better than this right? :-). Watching it was as painful as watching a Ivette Sangalo concert (And no you dont wanna know who she is for those of you not living here in Brasil.. Trust me on this okay?)
**Gone to get more coffee...Be Right Back**
Okay thats better..... its looking like being a beautiful day here now, suns up and blue skies too. Ill go over to the Lan house this morning later on i think for a couple of hours just for something to do as later i have to sit and give a review class for my OM2 group which will be a little boring as they speak good very well so i dont expect to have many questions about the grammar etc to answer. Plus they tole me they are going to have pizza in the lesson although this remains to be seen lol. I wont have pizza though as i usually go to the restaraunt on tuesday nights or to the sandwich place as they are the two only good places to eat here in Planaltina (we dont even have a Mcdonalds)
Now we are using the new version of blogger i have been noticing a few small things that dont work properly here. For example there are some buttons where the mouse doesnt change when its over them so its a pain sometimes to make them work and also in the´space where i type there is no scroll bar at the side so i can move up and down my typed text. Nothing major but it can be a bit of a pain in the arse, ill have to try emailing the help thing and see if it is a glitch or something with the new pages. But i like the new stuff alot now i am used to it, we need more templates though i think as there are only seven or eight different ones... maybe people will create some new ones later on and post them on the site for us to use :-)
Okay im off to finish reading the news and also to find some new quotes for my weblog too as i cant be bothered to think of some myself lol
Congrats to MEC2 for passing your Final Exams :-)
Yeah!!! my first group to take their exams have passed with good scores, so WELL DONE to Lucas Narinha Ana and also Janine :-) I stayed at the school after everyone had finished so i could mark them and get the scores to the secretaries so they should be really happy come wednesday or whenever the secretaries tell them their final scores. Also i got asked to go to a sort of end of semester party by one of the other groups too which will be fun as i dont think my group from this time slot will be able to attend this little party. Of course ill go though as its a good escuse to have a bit of fun and also to have contact with students that i dont meet very often so they can talk with me a little and get used to the idea of a native speaker being around them :-) I wonder what sort of goodies they are going to have there? Mmmmmmm maybe chocolate cake or something just as good... What do you think? lol
I have exams all week this week and i will try to keep on top of them so that i dont have to give up all my weekend with correcting stuff so at the moment i am on top of everything :-) I have four more groups to go and their results to post and then hopefully that should be it until the start of the next semester apart from the stand by hours i have to do in the break. I like the stand by time though as i get paid to just sit around and do nothing or watch videos and stuff like that but i hope that i will get to use a couple of days to go to the CCAA in Gama so i can find out where it is and how to get there too and maybe to meet some of the people who work there as well :-) I wonder how many students there will be wanting conversation classes? with a bit of luck there will be loads of them lol
Well im going to get my ass outta here and get something to eat and then read a little before flaking out lol. Im reading The Great Gadsby at the moment... its not too bad i guess but will be better once ive got into it a little more. Anyway its nite nite time lol
Just when you think it cant possibly get any worse......
Christ my morning has been just shitty lol. I had a students trying to pick an argument with me about how he thought the class should be taught even though he never takes part in hardly anything. I don’t know if he liked the answer I gave him that maybe he didn't have enough level to be in that group but it shut him up for the rest of the lesson. He seems to have this idea that I should be the only one to speak for the whole lesson while the students sit in silence… weird isn’t he? Lol. After about fifteen minutes of listening to his stupidity I finally got him to just shut up so we could start with their final exams and I could get rid of him lol.
This afternoon I have review class and then another exam to sort out but its my MEC groups so I am feeling happy now as they are lovely students ;-) I have already got some books to read during their exam as 90 minutes of sitting watching people writing can get just a little boring lol. I finished my Alcott book and it was quite interesting although it was written a long time ago and the ending is quite funny too although I got the impression there was supposed to be another book following after it. I will have to see if she wrote it just so I can read the end of the story to see if what I think would happen actually happens in the story lol. I like to read some of the older authors like Wells or Conan Doyle as they are sci fi or adventure writers etc and I remember reading them a lot when I was younger at the junior school and thinking why don’t we have something like this is the lessons lol.
**Listening to Ac/Dc - Back In Black**
I went to the fair yesterday afternoon and the guy there had a couple of new cds for me Metallica and Ac/Dc too so you can guess my neighbors are listening to it right now too cant you? ;-). It will be good for them, a sort of cultural exchange of music… my rock for their gospel lol This guy.. I think his name is joao always has something new when I go there as I have loads of trouble finding anything decent in English here and my cds haven't yet arrived from England too. I will have to ring them and get them to make sure its been posted here to Brasil as it has been weeks since my brother said he had posted them to me.
Awwwww this morning as I walked up the street from the bus stop my little friend from one of the little stores came out to say hi to me. His name is joao and he says hi every day without fail although he is very shy. This morning though he was showing me his school work and telling me all about it although I only understood a little of it ;-). He's really sweet and usually he just says hi and then disappears because of his shyness but today was the first time he had decided to show me his pics from school although he had his gran with him I think to give a bit of support ;-). I've met his mum a couple of times but never his dad, I wonder if he works a lot or maybe he just isn’t around. Whatever though hes very funny and without fail he is always there every morning or afternoon. I think the world would probably stop if he wasn't there one morning ;-)
Well I guess I had better do something here, I just don’t really feel like getting off my arse at the moment though lol. Maybe I need some coffee or some Pepsi? Ill have to get up though or ill be late for class this afternoon which means ill be late with exams and wont have time to go to the restaurant at night.
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