At the moment there seems to be something wrong at Blogger because when i try to post the messages they appear on the blogger site but not my weblog itself. I get a Java error all of the time so i guess they must have some sort of problem either at Blogger or Tripod . The messages and postings etc are being stored though at Blogger so they arent going to just disappear, i hope they will be all posted soon. I checked the help sites but nothing there to say there is a big problem so i ran off a quick email to the help desk to see what they could tell me, i hope good news :-)

If i get time today i will go and visit Rosa at work, i dont get to visit this friend very often as usually i am doing something either at one of the schools or at home for one of the schools so itll be nice to drop in and just say hi :-). I text messaged her already to warn her of my impending visit, i dont really like dropping in unannounced because brasilian people always seem to get embarrassed when i do this. Its wierd though as brasilian people will call on each other any time day or night without a single phone call but when i get there its a little different, the accent or tattoos i dont know what it is hahaha. It makes it a pain in the arse though to find people to go to the movies with me :-(. And you have no idea how tired i get of hearing things like "Wow your english, you must have a lot of money" or "If we date you can take me back to England right?" See why i find it hard to get people to go out with?, Sad init when its only about money or wanting to leave Brasil and believe me i dont think England is a much better place to live

I was reading an interesting piece in an old newsweek magazine last night about the new space station and the old russian MIR station, about how little money the russians spent on it and how well it performed with people staying there for months at a time on missions compared to the couple of weeks for the shuttle and ISS missions. I wonder why that is? lol I guess its interesting to see how they managed to have that thing floating around in space for 15yrs when it only had an original 3yr lifetime. I think its a shame that we couldnt have done something with it as MIR was a huge part of space exploration and history too, perhaps they could have made it into some sort of hmmm business venture etc. Now that the chinese have successfully got a man into space i think they might have liked the idea of partnering with MIR. Still its too late now right as its gone but was still interesting to read about it. Maybe if you guys visit the Newsweek site there will be the story still in the archives..

I wonder how much longer it will be before the modem is back up and running at the school in Planaltina? hopefully it wont be too long as i have alot of standby hours to do that i hope to do just in Planaltina so i can avoid having to be at the other school after the semester has finished. Oh i must remember to email lucas with the websites that he wanted with infor from teaching sites etc. Some of them have some nice games he can try with his students. Let me write it down here on a post-it hahaha

I have a tendency to forget things sometimes ;-)

I have to create a new game to play with my conversation group on friday, well i know what it is we are going to do, i just have to prepare everything for it now. We are going to work on Paraphrasing to help some of them from having long spaces in their conversations. Paraphrasing is to give a short description when you can remember a word. If you cant remember the word 'Elephant' you could say something like.. 'Its a big grey animal with large ears' etc. I think it'll be fun to see what descriptions the students will invent for some of the words hahahaha I just have to prepare some words now for them to try this little game out with, i have a couple of days yet so plenty of time :-) If i get time i'll create a photocopy that i can pass to the students as well so they have something they can read if they forget. Ill perhaps do this at the school while i wait to go visit Rosa at the Job Center as it wont take too long.

Ive got another game i want to play with them too, another sort of roleplay game that involves one of them pretending to be a native speaker and the other a visiting foreign tourist who is trying to find or buy something that i think will be good for a laugh as well. I have created the situations cards for this one already but havent really found the time to prepare the class for the activity yet as something always comes up lol. Ill try it out though before the end of the semester just so i can see where it works and see if the students have alot of fun with it :-)

Anyway time for me to get stuff ready here if i wanna go to the school and then call in to say hi to my friend, maybe the website will post my mesages with i click publish.. what do you think? ;-)

posted at 7:07 AM by john |   

Tuesday, November 18, 2003

Lord Of The Rings - To Celebrate The New Film

posted at 9:49 AM by john |   

I think its going to rain!!

The sky here at the moment is slowly turning black so i think its going to piss it down soon, i hope that i waits until i get to the school as i dont fancy the idea of teaching soaking wet through lol. The rain itself doesnt bother me , how can it i am english and we have rain there most of the year round lol. The nice thing is that the rain will kill the dust so it doesnt get into your eyes all the time when its windy here

I have to get another copy of my Adobe Acrobat, for some reason no matter what i try installing it on it refuses to install saying that it needs a better operating system. I tried windows98 and ME but no luck. I wonder if its memory that it needs, ill try to find someone who has a shitload of memory in their pc and get them to try to cd before i take it back to exchange it for another one.

I think today is the start of the Film festival of brasil or brasilia lol, if i get time i might go check out some films but it will depend as i already agreed to attend many things this saturday and sunday with one of my students and her group. I think itll be alot of fun but they shouldnt expect me to dance as i cant wiggle my arse like brasilian people can. I think its a sign of my impending old age hahaha

Suprise today too, my cell phone hasnt been buzzing with text messages, i have been getting quite a few the last few days but not even one today. Maybe everyones batteries are all flat lol. I got some really nice ones though from Rosa Maria, thanks alot for those okay? they were very sweet :-) It always amazes me though how much time people spend on these messages, my fingers are a little slow though for sending them as fast as some of my students can. But then again i guess they have had a lot more practice than i have.

I guess i had better go eat and shower and get off to the school, i have to go to the post office too to post a xmas card to my family so itll get there for xmas :-). Oh i have a couple of pictures to post too fore my students who love lord of the rings, yes Ariel, Larissa and Fabiana there is a picture of Orlando Bloom for you too :-)

posted at 9:45 AM by john |   

Monday, November 17, 2003

In These Arms - Bon Jovi

You want commitment
Take a look into these eyes
They burn with a fire, just for you now
Until the end of time
I would do anything
I’d beg, I’d steal, I’d die
To have you in these arms tonight
Baby I want you like the roses
Want the rain
You know I need you
Like a poet needs the pain
I would give anything
My blood my love my life

If you were in these arms tonight
I’d hold you
I’d need you
I’d get down on my knees for you
And make everything alright
If you were in these arms
I’d love you
I’d please you
I’d tell you that I’d never leave you
And love you till the end of time
If you were in these arms tonights

We stared at the sun
And we made a promise
A promise this world would never blind us
These are my words
Our words were our songs
Our songs are our prayers
These prayers keep me strong
It’s what I believe
If you were in these arms tonight

If you were in these arms tonight
I’d hold you
I’d need you
I’d get down on my knees for you
And make everything alright
If you were in these arms
I’d love you
I’d please you
I’d tell you that I’d never leave you
And love you till the end of time
If you were in these arms tonights

Your clothes are still scattered
All over our room
This old place still smells like
Your cheap perfume
Everything here reminds me of you
And there’s nothing that i
Wouldn’t do to be in your arms

And these were our words
They keep me strong
I’d hold you
I’d need you
I’d get down on my knees for you
And make everything alright
If you were in these arms
I’d love you
I’d please you
I’d tell you that I’d never leave you
And love you till the end of time
If you were in these arms tonights

Yeah i know they are different lyrics from my last post but i like the lyrics to this song alot :-)

posted at 9:36 AM by john |   

Printers out of ink!!!!

dont you just hate it when you wanna use the printer and find out that it hasnt got any ink left? It looks like i will have to make a trip to PW to get some stuff printed off again. I will have to ring and see what time they open or maybe i can find one of those refill places not to far from the house as i dont really have time to go running into Planaltina this morning. Its a pain here as in the Uk i could get four cartridges for $20 but here one can cost up to R$100 or more if you want to have a color one :-( How can they expect poor people to have the advantages of using computers and stuff when things here cost so much? Its quite sad to see how people here use everyone else to try to get rich in less than a week, a vicious circle that goes round and round in a feeding frenzy that takes advantage of every poor person they can find so they can do it :-( You know here they even took money from the public hospitals for dirt poor people and used it to build a bridge so a few rich people didnt have to drive from a place they had chosen to live and build their houses to the city. I wonder how many people suffered or died because of this or if the rich people even cared, i very much doubt it :-( The best bit is that the politician that decided to take the money was one that promised dirt poor peasants bread and milk if they voted for him and then pulls some shit like that. I think it will be a long long time before Brasil will be able to try to fix all the problems that it has, dont you?

Anyway went to watch Matrix Revolutions again last night as there wasnt anything new on at the cinema that i wanted to watch apart from Legally Blonde 2 but it wasnt going to start until some crazy time at night. This time around i got to see the bits that i missed visiting the snack bar last time i went :-). There isnt really anything new though at the usual cinemas although plenty at the others like Academia De Tenis, it will be great when it gets to vacation time so that i can go visit some of the other places to watch some stuff there too. Still next semester i will only work at two schools so that will give me a bit more time to have a social life, hmm are teachers allowed to have a social life? hahaha :-) Lord Of The Rings - The Return Of The King i definately want to see so ill go opening night to see it. the trailers are excellent, i think its going to be the best film this year hands down :-)

I have to go to Sobradinho this afternoon, i cant wait to see how bad things will be today. The end of the semester isnt much longer though and then like "Mr. Smith I Will Be Set Free" hahahaha. The worst thing is that all the stunts they pull dont bother me, how can they as i already quit and at the end of this semester i an gone never to return but of course the students it bothers alot and these guys are the ones who pay right?. already i heard from a few of my students that they are unhappy and a couple asked for the phone number of the Planaltina school to see if they can get in a group there and one told me that she is out, had enough :-(. Very sad as i know these guys, they are nice and great students too. It never rains just pours right?

Been playing Tombraider this morning, funny after all the times i played it i still cant remember where everything is lol. I must be getting old, well actually i am getting old arent i? We all are from the very moment we are concieved. Although its an old game i still get a kick out of playing it, a little bit of nostalgia coming through, god i am getting old hahashaha

**Bon Jovi - Wanted Dead Or Alive**

Wow i havent heard this song for ages, in fact years now i come to think about it. Its from the Crossroad cd that i borrowed from my friend to make a copy from as english cds as i have said before arent easy to get here. Ill post the lyrics to this song later i think, i can even remember the words too, must be cause i eat all of my veggies at dinner time ;-)

Okay i had better go and get something done here and also send some text messages too, yeah i must send loads of them every day, my cell phone company must love me i reckon as we have to pay for every one of them, not like in england where they tend to be free if you have a contract as i do. Its a shame that TIM cant sort out their Sms Service though as in the morning it works fine but at night its terrible and i keep getting a stupid 'The message wasnt sent, please try again' which is so annoying. Oh before i go, a big hi to my friend Rosa Maria :-) Right im outta here..

posted at 9:20 AM by john |