where is satan sockpuppet?
why there he is! he’s in cincinnati making fun of the tyler-davidson fountain!
silly satan! don’t you know that inanimate objects can’t be damned for all time??
where is satan sockpuppet? vol. IV
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Monthly Archives: December 2008
more reading recommendations, with a caveat
i finished reading Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close a couple nights ago and what a wild and exhausting ride. it’s an almost stream of consciousness narration by a ten year old of higher than ordinary intelligence and personality as he searches for answers. the story starts with our protagonist having been sent home early from school in NYC on 9-11-01 and finding 4 messages on the answering machine. it’s his father calling from the top of one of the towers. the ensuing journey comes after he finds a key a couple years later in his fathers belongings – his quest, the people he meets, the pain, hurt, and compulsions he experiences, the dynamics with his mother and grandmother, the interlaced narratives of his grandfather and grandmother, and the continuing aftermath of 9-11 – it’s exhausting and exhilarating all at once. Jonathan Foer uses pictures in unusual and creative ways in this book that ultimately add much to the storyline, but are initially confusing.
i rarely cry over books and even more rarely have to put a book down for a couple days because of the emotional impact (as well as the insomnia the subject matter caused). this book did all that and more. i recommend the book, but only if you can handle a pretty intense level of grief and pain in the writing.
my second recommendation comes with no warning: Persepolis is an excellent read, and in graphic novel format, similar to Maus by Art Spiegelman. it’s an excellent telling of one woman’s perspective on the iranian revolution – the drawings go a long way in helping to tell the tale and her writing (or the translation of it) is clear and to the point. her relationships with her parents, grandmother, friends, and lovers all shed light on attitudes and the struggles faced during this time. the bottom line was that a face was put to the enormous sacrifice paid by the people.
the movie is also good, but the books go further and deeper.
my current reading list over the christmas break:
- a thousand splendid suns by khaled hosseini
- flags of our fathers by james bradley
- under the banner of heaven by jon krakauer
happy reading!
and the answer is…
thirteen.
that’s the magic number of pronouns in the extra credit question posed friday.
“how so?” you might be thinking. let’s break it down, shall we?
panel 1: “you” “me” “you” “they” “you”
panel 2: “it” “you” “someone” “your”
panel 3: “I” “you”
panel 4: “I” “I”
final tally = 13
for those who guessed 15, i am assuming you added “these” in panel 1, and perhaps one of the instances of “that” in panel 4. both of these words CAN be used as pronouns, but “these” is an adjective modifying “assignments,” and the word “that” is used as an adverb (showing extent or degree).
my two winners? kate (a way cool chick and junior at U of Maryland) and rachael (another way cool chick, and a junior at Miami University). i’ll have your prizes in the mail this week!
one thing i learned here is: this extra credit question will be virtually impossible for my students to get. 15+ people responded to this via comments, facebook, text messages, and in person, and only two got it right (and at least 40 others clicked on the link but refused to answer the question, making me suspect those folks didn’t know it either). i may need to modify this one and make it multiple choice.
thanks for participating!
last hurrah (or hurl) of gross youth ministry games
after the post about the greatest camp picture ever, i’ve gotten several hundred hits on that one story. it’s spurred numerous conversations about games designed to make kids puke at youth group and most discussions include note-taking on good ideas for future gross games.
but i’ll never forget the last time i played a gross food game during youth group.
travis and i had been out earlier that week having lunch together when we realized we’d never been to the huge asian supermarket over by sharonville. after a tasty meal, we hit the store and were blown away by gross possibilities presented in the form of snacks and prepared foods comprised of creatures we thought to be inedible.
the most intriguing of these items?
prepared, shredded jellyfish with a spice packet. it looked exactly like cooked ramen noodles and the spice packet looked like capsicum pepper oil.
highly pleased with my find, that week at youth group i set out to find someone willing to give this sea-creature nastiness a try.
teenagers are easy and most can be bought for a very low price. in this case, cherry cordial offered to eat the jellyfish in exchange for a CD of some sort.
80 high schoolers gathered around to watch me tear the package open, take a whiff (whew! NASTY!), dump it into a bowl and offer him the spice packet (he declined, and wisely so, i think).
and we all held our collective breath as he took the first bite and chewed. and chewed. and chewed.
now, one rule of youth ministry “games” is that they must be quick. 80 kids who DON’T get to play MUST be entertained SOMEHOW. either all the jellyfish needed to be eaten, he needed to puke, or he needed to spit it out, and refuse to eat another bite. if one of these things doesn’t happen early, the chewing chewing chewing gets… old. boring. unentertaining.
and he chewed. and his face was scrunched and it was obviously nasty tasting. but he kept trying, and interest started to wane.
i began to pick on him and made my first mistake of the night: “c’mon, cordial! how bad could that stuff actually be? get going, fool!”
and he chewed, still on the first bite.
and i went over, teased him a bit more and then made my second mistake: i took one strand of the jellyfish and made a production out of putting it into my mouth.
and i chewed. and chewed. and wanted to puke. and quickly spit the salty, rubbery, foul-tasting treat out to much laughter and gagging noises from the crowd.
i handed cherry the CD, apologized to him for the jellyfish, and never played another gross food game during youth group again.
HELP! Exam Extra Credit Question!
the end of the first semester at my school is upon us and i’ve spent the last several days putting together my 1st semester final exams (counting as 20% of my students’ final grades). in an attempt to start with a chuckle on my three English exams, i’ve put one of my favorite calvin and hobbes cartoons on the exam cover.
i also included an extra credit question on each exam and for my ENG12 class, i had a brilliant idea! the question is: how many pronouns are in the calvin and hobbes comic on the cover of this exam?
but looking it over, i wonder how many of them will get it, and whether it’s an unfair question.
so, faithful friends, i put it to you:
how many pronouns are in the following cartoon?
the first correct answer will be rewarded with a pair of Plak Smacker FUN Great White Shark Toothbrush Covers and a strand of authentic Mardi Gras beads (and you can keep your shirt down, thankyou). these will be sent by mail next week.
the second correct answer will win a genuine paper hat stolen from The Varsity in Atlanta, GA.
please, only one guess per person, and please don’t be intimidated by previous answers – gimme yours, too!
how do we train dolby for this…?
if he could walk himself, that’d be an added bonus…
sometimes you just need a stupid movie
there are days where i don’t want or need to be intellectually stimulated.
every now and then, when school has been kicking my butt, or life in general has been hectic, i crave mindless entertainment.
we don’t watch TV. what’s a dude to do? how do i get my mindless fix?
Hellboy II was the answer tonight.
and it was everything we needed it to be.
stupid.
funny.
action.
no thinking required.
simply shut down and watch.
perfect!
the first one wasn’t too bad, either.
when are you getting here?
Download C’mon down.
sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday…
…and other times it feels like it’s been a lifetime.
not that this is a bad thing! lise and i celebrated 18 years together today and it’s been a fun, crazy adventure together from the beginning.
we got married on december 1, 1990 in cincinnati after a year of dating and engagement. we had known each other since we were eighteen years old, but didn’t really get to know each other well until we were 20 or so.
i don’t remember the very first time i met her, but i remember being fascinated by her unique spirit and attitude.
she was going to school with my girlfriend / roommate (an evil, underhanded individual) and so we ran into each other at school parties and get togethers. when i finally had the sense to break it off with the girlfriend, i began running into lise in all sorts of places around town. over the course of a year we would
run into each other and i would think, “stupid!! stupidstupidstupid! why didn’t you ask her out?!?”
but i knew the answer. she was gorgeous, gentle, and cool. and i was a big fat dork.
when i finally did get up the nerve to ask her out, it was like a bad sitcom. i asked her if she’d be interesting in having dinner, and without even listening to her answer i started telling her it was ok and i understood, etc. she was looking at me like i was nuts – she had said yes! woo-hoo!
i remember our first date quite well. at least, i remember my first date with HER. she apparently didn’t start dating me until about a month after i started dating her (she thought we were just “friends” but i knew better).
we dated from october to february when i proposed to her – quick, you say? hey, i knew what i wanted and i wanted her! thankfully she said yes (although she thought she was getting a hamster for valentine’s, not an engagement ring).
i remember little of the wedding ceremony except that i was nervous and excited.
in the eighteen years since, we’ve:
- lived in cincinnati, ludlow, ky, washington dc, baltimore, cincinnati again, and finally pensacola, fl.
- both gotten college degrees, taught, done youth ministry, and picked up tons of friends and adopted family along the way
- gotten closer to both of our families
- gone through cancers, mental illnesses, thickheadedness, poor decisions
- owned 15 cars
- bought a house and sold it
- driven each other crazy frequently
- gotten crazier together and have had more fun together than we ever thought possible
- realized that we’ll never grow bored, no matter how well we know each other
- grown closer and loved more than we could have ever dreamed
i would marry her again and again. she’s my best friend. she’s my partner. she’s my love. i wouldn’t trade our lives together for anything else. i absolutely love being married to her.
here’s to another 18+ years!