I'm a model now
Yesterday afternoon my evening of teaching started out with a photo shoot. Not bad, but I don't think the students appreciated it very much. Since I wasn't actually too sure what would be happening myself, I didn't quite prep them well enough. I felt especially sorry for the one girl in that group. What type of promotional material is successful with only men? That's right, bring on the babes to advertise for an English language school. About twenty minutes was spent with me pretending to talk English. They even wanted me to draw an apple on the board and write some big words. My words of choice were Xanthippe, devolution, and schwanck. The photographer was shooting digital, so I should be able to steal a copy and share a few choice poses. One thing the people at the office wanted was for everybody to hold the books we use in a prominent position. The students did, but I figured since I was wearing a Dr. Seuss tie, why not hold a Dr. Seuss book? As a result, the next several years worth of promotional material from the K-ELC will proudly display The Cat in the Hat Comes Back.
I finally found out how long of a break I've got, and it is rather nice. After I finish on the 28th of December, I don't need to teach again until January 17. I'm really looking forward to this break. Recently I've had a bit of trouble hyping myself up to teach. Perhaps a few weeks worth of reading, studying, and doing other non school related activities will be what the doctor ordered.
It seems to me that I've complained about my slow dial-up speeds before. However, I found out that there are two categories of phone numbers in Kaliningrad. Mine is a member of the slow, non-modem friendly category. And here I thought that the multi-spliced line snaking its way throughout my house and into my flat was to blame. The sub-33.6 speeds don't bother me as much as the repeated redial attempts required to get a connection sometimes. For example, the other evening (or middle of the night, to be more accurate), I chatted with the little lady. Two bucks for an almost two hour call is magnificent. Forty-five minutes waiting to get a connection is not. To be fair, that is the longest I've ever spent, but still.
The person who invented wrinkle free shirts should win a Nobel prize for something or another. Last weekend I washed all of my dress shirts. I got the strange idea to try drying them inside my flat as opposed to on the balcony as is my custom. To my surprise when I woke up the next morning, they were all dry. What usually takes three or four days took just a few hours. So I dumped the shirts on the ironing board and decided I would iron them later Sunday evening. They're all still lying on the board save the two wrinkle free ones which I've been wearing this week.
PhotoSite, the company I use for hosting my pictures, sent out an e-card for the holiday season to all their customers. For some odd reason I found it interesting to see the people responsible for providing that service to me. Hopefully I'm wrong, but from their pictures, I don't get the feeling that I'll be seeing a Mac version of their software anytime soon. With one exception, their customer support has been excellent, so I may be wrong about that. Time will tell.
On a techie related note, I just finished downloading and installing 10.3.7 (the latest update to Panther, Apple's current OS). If my memory serves me correctly, 10.2.7 was the last update to the Jaguar line prior to Panther's pounce on the market. If history is any indicator, Tiger will be available before long. Back when I was running Jaguar, I was quite happy with it and not terribly interested in Panther. One of my last projects at BOSS Staffing before I finished my internship there last summer had me using a utility that only ran under 10.2. I was surprised at how awkward it felt. Currently, I don't plan on upgrading myself until after I return to the States at the end of August. No, I won't be on the bleeding edge, but if something goes wrong over here, I don't have access to facilities to fix myself as I would if I were home. So I'll be happily living in the past soon.
My parents sent me a Christmas care package. It has been stuck in Moscow since November 29. One of the things in it was a few holiday music CDs. If it doesn't arrive soon, I don't suppose I'll get to enjoy that aspect very much. Who made the rule that Christmas music is only for Christmas time? Most of the artists that put out CDs work on them during un-Christmas months, such as May or July.
Last Saturday morning I arrived early at the church. Too early - nobody was there. Soon a few people drifted in and the choir rehearsal began. Why not? I helped (or, more accurately, hurt) the tenor section. When the music goes fast them foreign words look pretty foreign. Especially when they are down at the bottom of the page in a little paragraph and the notes are a ways a way. Sing the vowels. And when you are lost, repeatedly mouth the words "peas and carrots" or "watermelon" as you smile and look at the conductor. The most annoying thing for me was that nobody had ending consonants. Maybe over here in Russia you aren't supposed to spit your consonants all over the person's neck in front of you, but that is my favorite part. If there were more hours in the day, I wish that I could be in a good choir. Looking back, and even at the time, I enjoyed my singing experiences during high school. Unlike most of my trumpet endeavors, with my voice I know that if I practice something it will go well. Possibly not perfect, but definitely within the boundaries of good.
The pillow I've got on my bed now is very soft indeed. It is down. Now that is good in the softness department. However, because the pillow isn't exactly classifiable as new, it has a few holes. That means that the little itty bitty feathers squeeze themselves out. And stab me. A few times this week I've woken up in the middle of the night with something quite uncomfortable poking my neck. After the few second 'where am I, what is this pain' wears off, I try to grab the offending feather and throw it on the floor. Why do I share this small nocturnal secret? My floor now has more than a few feathers on it, so that means I need to clean it. Oh joy! Another scrub session...
I finally found out how long of a break I've got, and it is rather nice. After I finish on the 28th of December, I don't need to teach again until January 17. I'm really looking forward to this break. Recently I've had a bit of trouble hyping myself up to teach. Perhaps a few weeks worth of reading, studying, and doing other non school related activities will be what the doctor ordered.
It seems to me that I've complained about my slow dial-up speeds before. However, I found out that there are two categories of phone numbers in Kaliningrad. Mine is a member of the slow, non-modem friendly category. And here I thought that the multi-spliced line snaking its way throughout my house and into my flat was to blame. The sub-33.6 speeds don't bother me as much as the repeated redial attempts required to get a connection sometimes. For example, the other evening (or middle of the night, to be more accurate), I chatted with the little lady. Two bucks for an almost two hour call is magnificent. Forty-five minutes waiting to get a connection is not. To be fair, that is the longest I've ever spent, but still.
The person who invented wrinkle free shirts should win a Nobel prize for something or another. Last weekend I washed all of my dress shirts. I got the strange idea to try drying them inside my flat as opposed to on the balcony as is my custom. To my surprise when I woke up the next morning, they were all dry. What usually takes three or four days took just a few hours. So I dumped the shirts on the ironing board and decided I would iron them later Sunday evening. They're all still lying on the board save the two wrinkle free ones which I've been wearing this week.
PhotoSite, the company I use for hosting my pictures, sent out an e-card for the holiday season to all their customers. For some odd reason I found it interesting to see the people responsible for providing that service to me. Hopefully I'm wrong, but from their pictures, I don't get the feeling that I'll be seeing a Mac version of their software anytime soon. With one exception, their customer support has been excellent, so I may be wrong about that. Time will tell.
On a techie related note, I just finished downloading and installing 10.3.7 (the latest update to Panther, Apple's current OS). If my memory serves me correctly, 10.2.7 was the last update to the Jaguar line prior to Panther's pounce on the market. If history is any indicator, Tiger will be available before long. Back when I was running Jaguar, I was quite happy with it and not terribly interested in Panther. One of my last projects at BOSS Staffing before I finished my internship there last summer had me using a utility that only ran under 10.2. I was surprised at how awkward it felt. Currently, I don't plan on upgrading myself until after I return to the States at the end of August. No, I won't be on the bleeding edge, but if something goes wrong over here, I don't have access to facilities to fix myself as I would if I were home. So I'll be happily living in the past soon.
My parents sent me a Christmas care package. It has been stuck in Moscow since November 29. One of the things in it was a few holiday music CDs. If it doesn't arrive soon, I don't suppose I'll get to enjoy that aspect very much. Who made the rule that Christmas music is only for Christmas time? Most of the artists that put out CDs work on them during un-Christmas months, such as May or July.
Last Saturday morning I arrived early at the church. Too early - nobody was there. Soon a few people drifted in and the choir rehearsal began. Why not? I helped (or, more accurately, hurt) the tenor section. When the music goes fast them foreign words look pretty foreign. Especially when they are down at the bottom of the page in a little paragraph and the notes are a ways a way. Sing the vowels. And when you are lost, repeatedly mouth the words "peas and carrots" or "watermelon" as you smile and look at the conductor. The most annoying thing for me was that nobody had ending consonants. Maybe over here in Russia you aren't supposed to spit your consonants all over the person's neck in front of you, but that is my favorite part. If there were more hours in the day, I wish that I could be in a good choir. Looking back, and even at the time, I enjoyed my singing experiences during high school. Unlike most of my trumpet endeavors, with my voice I know that if I practice something it will go well. Possibly not perfect, but definitely within the boundaries of good.
The pillow I've got on my bed now is very soft indeed. It is down. Now that is good in the softness department. However, because the pillow isn't exactly classifiable as new, it has a few holes. That means that the little itty bitty feathers squeeze themselves out. And stab me. A few times this week I've woken up in the middle of the night with something quite uncomfortable poking my neck. After the few second 'where am I, what is this pain' wears off, I try to grab the offending feather and throw it on the floor. Why do I share this small nocturnal secret? My floor now has more than a few feathers on it, so that means I need to clean it. Oh joy! Another scrub session...
posted by Troy on 06:00
Post a Comment
Delberta Q. Goobnik of Bangladesh says, "Send you wrinkley shirts to us, we iron, mail back in same decade."
Cave Man says,
Have to send you a pillowcase.
Card on the way. Hope the label stays on the envelope.
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