The Diary Of John

Thursday, December 02, 2004

Spaces..

Well well, Msn have brought out a blogger now. I'm not sure what its like but had a look at the ones that list on the recently updated part of the website and they are all just getting going as the new service was released just this week. It appears to have just about the same sort of things as Blogger, photo service but according to the press release it can be integrated with all of the other Msn stuff. I have an Msn account and i am trying to get in just to have a look around the site but all i am getting is an error. It says:

Este espaço não está disponível temporariamente. Tente novamente mais tarde.

Great, looks like they are off to a good start, doesnt it? hahaha! I'll try again later on just to see what its like. I guess they need to work on some reliability first before they get anything else going on. also the site is incredibly slow, its like being on dial-up even though we have dsl here. Now the whole site isnt working apart from the homepage. Sign-up etc just gives the same error. If people wanna go look around you can click Here and its best if you already have an Msn account so you dont have to sign up for a passport and stuff first.

Today i get to watch a film with my OM1 group, we are going to watch hmmm well in English i think it was called Loveboat starring Cuba Gooding Jr. There wasnt really many comedies on the shelves so they will have to watch this one. Mind you, i have already watched it and i thought i was really funny :-) Just got to hope that my students remember that they have to be here 30 minutes earlier so they will have time to watch it all before the school closes. We have popcorn and coca cola coming too so it should be good fun. Tomorrow is review day for all of my groups as next week they start their final exams, itll be interesting to see how many of them pass this time around. I'm hoping that they will all pass with flying colors ;-) gotta remember to finish preparing the stuff for the review classes too, ive got some activities and stuff we are going to do if i have time for reviewing comparisions and superlatives and also the conditionals as well.

Just reading an advert here that says they have found evidence that God didnt kill all the firstborn of Egypt. Its a shame that i dont have sky as i would like to see this program. I love watching all this to and fro between scientists and religion. I think its really funny to read about people asking scientists to help them find the skeletons of the giants mentioned in the bible hehehe!

Oh, looks like someone wants to use this computer, time for me to go and find a place to hide :-)

posted at 11:08 AM by john |

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Installing..

Just finished installing a load of stuff that was missing from this computer, things like Adobe reader, Messenger and believe it or not Office too hahaha! It was because of a huge update they did on the computer to install security updates and service packs (noone had installed ony of them since Win2000 was installed). Now at least i can type some stuff up ready for my groups review classes the end of this week and beginning of next. Then they are onto their final exams and finally i get some vacation time :-) Well just a little as in Jan i have a VIP MEC4 class thats going to run for one month just to learn the final book as they wanna start uni in Feb next year. More money in the bank, thats always nice to see ;-)

My students are running a little late as they are usually here by now, maybe its because of all the rain we had this afternoon. Still if they are here or not i still get paid hahaha!!

I still have to prepare some stuff that i am going to use friday in revision class. Some stuff for comparatives and superlatives and also conditionals as well. Hopefully my students should find it alot of fun as we already reviewed alot of vocabulary and just have grammar friday. Tomorrow class is a video, i have no idea what film we are going to see yet but i think something like a comedy or an action film. They are going to watch in portugues as it'll be nice for them just to have a break, to relax and stuff themselves with popcorn and coca cola and have a laugh before they take their final exam next tuesday.

I can here the buzzer so i guess some of my students must be arriving, time to go..

posted at 4:45 PM by john |

Promotion..

I just returned from a sort of promotional visit to one of the public schools in Planaltina De Goias. It was sort of interesting, a little wierd really as people were getting ready to leave for lunch so we had to rush a little but i think the students at the school found it fun if nothing else hehehe! We wanted them to take part in a sort of competition to win a free semester of studying at CCAA and out of it we got around ten compositions why people thought English was important and are going to hit other schools later on too. For a Brasilian public school it wasnt too bad, shame that there isnt more money to put into the school system, well there is money but corruption is rife in the politicians and they just steal money from all the public funds to build their expensive houses or like Roriz to build a bridge for his rich friends in Lago Sul. I spoke just in english and then got the girls to translate just to have a bit of fun in the school, hopefully some of the students will come and drop by just to get to know the school. Just have to wait and see i guess.

I was watching an ad for a private college here on the TV just. For the last few days they have been advertizing saying that today is the final day to make subscriptions for their school and that they are the best in Brasil. If thats the case why are they still trying to fill places in their college? Surely if it was the best in Brasil they would have filled their places weeks ago, right? They actually make themselves out to be more than a little desperate to get some people signed up from their ad campaign, maybe they didnt get as many people has they had hoped they would. Who knows lol

It looks like its going to rain here yet again, a sign that thew wet season is starting, i hope it holds off until i get to the other school this afternoon as i dont wanna spend the whole afternoon soaking wet. Something tells me that i should buy a brolly hahaha! I'll see what they are selling in the bus station later on as sometimes there are guys selling brollies dirt cheap.

Oh finally i have a photo of the poetry display that my students and i made a few weeks ago. Someone at the school had a digital camera and i managed to get a photo taken of it. You can click ..HERE to see it okay?

My stomach is rumbling here, its time for me to go to the restaurant i think. I found a decentish one near to the school, they dont have loads of chice but its nice, quiet and clean and the food tastes good

posted at 8:19 AM by john |

Thankfully..

Posh Finally Ditches Singing Career

Posh Spice has finally admitted what many of us have known for some time - she was never the best singer. The former Spice Girl, 30, has announced she is cutting short her ongoing, and often painful, bid to become a pop star.After several ill-fated attempts at launching a solo career, Posh is planning to concentrate her efforts on clothes design.

She told the Daily Mail: "I think it will be difficult for me to continue with my musical career. The industry is not what it was.

"I know I could never become the best singer in the world. I am conscious of that.

"However, everything to do with fashion comes naturally to me. I live in Spain and have two sons. This takes up most of my time.

"The rest is taken up by design, which is my great passion."

Posh last released a single a year ago but it only reached No3 in the charts despite a huge amount of promotion work.

An album worth of songs she recorded with US producer Damon Dash was also axed and she has been ditched by her record label, Telstar.

I could have jumped for joy when i read this story, thank God we wont have to suffer this spoilt, skinny, anorexic, child-exploiting bag of shite any more. When both her and Beckham have faded from the limelight it will be blessing for everyone the world over. Now maybe we will get some peace from that squalking she calls singing. Hmmm lets make her some sort of new role in life, like never to be seen again!! The perfect ending to a far from perfect career..

posted at 6:19 AM by john |