TED - The Video Site for Geeks, Nerds and Really Smart People Like Me and You

TED.com is one of my favorite websites. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. There are TED conferences hosted all over the world. The idea behind TED is to invite the greatest minds of the current age to a stage and have them give a 20 minute or less talk on a topic they are passionate about.

While some of the videos are mind-numbingly complex and/or boring, most of the ones I've watched have been nothing short of fascinating, motivational, thought-provoking, mind-bending, thought-altering and absolutely worth the 20 minutes it takes to watch one.

If you are in the field of education and are not watching some of these videos, I would strongly recommend that you give them a try. Most are absolutely usable in a classroom. Some will be more appropriate for older kids, but there are certainly videos on here that will appeal to elementary and middle school-aged students.
Give it a try and let me know what you find.



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About Me Right Now

Greetings and Salutations,
I wish I had something witty to write, but I don't at the moment...unless, you find my headache and the fact that I'm attending a sales conference funny. Some folks might.
My company has a sales conference once a year. This year, we are in St. Louis, Missouri. According to the folks who've been with the company for 15+ years, this conference blows in comparison with previous ones. After our breakfast offering this morning, I'm going to have to believe them. We had fruit and little muffins, some juice and coffee. Really? We're in meetings from 8:ooa.m. to 8:00p.m. and we have fruit and mini-muffins?!
Enough with the griping.
I'm just letting you know that my posts will be sporadic at best this week. After I'm done here, I'm traveling home and getting ready to celebrate my niece's wedding. I'm sure I'll have plenty to write about after that. My family usually does things big and there's usually a screw-up in there as well.
So, check back when you can. I'll post when I can. The world will be a better place. Promise!

A Conversation That Explains Why I NEED My Lexapro!

The following conversations are pretty much verbatim from the car ride home from school today. I think this explains a lot...especially why I may have posted a picture or two of my Big Rig boxers.

Me: How was your day TGC?
Her: Okay. We had to sing at a funeral.
Me: You did? Why?
Her: Different classes get picked to sing at funerals. We had to go today.
Me: Whose funeral was it?
Her: I don't know. Some old dude named Leo. He was like 68.
Me: Some old dude named Leo, huh?
The Boy Child: 68! That's actually not all that old.
Her: Well, let me tell you, there was a LOT of crying at that funeral.
Me: I bet. People were probably sad because he passed away.
Her: Yeah, those people, too, but I'm talking about in my class!
Me: Your class? Kids were crying?
Her: Heck yeah! Jebediah (not his real name) was crying because his dog died.
Me: Recently?
Her: No, a long time ago. And, he was crying because some relative died.
Me: Recently?
Her: No, I don't think so. I'm not sure. But he started crying, then other people started crying and more people started crying.
Me: Did you cry?
Her: Heck yeah! All those people crying made me sad and I cried too!
Me: Well, I'm sorry about that. That sounds tough.
Her: Yeah. What's for supper tonight?

And another conversation:
The Girl Child: Do you know who Lulu (not the child's real name) is?
Me: I'm not sure. Why?
Her: She's adopted.
Me: She is?
Her: Yep. She's from Taiwan.
The Boy Child: How do you know about Taiwan?
Her: Duh, because Lulu is from there!
Me: Wow. She's fortunate to have been adopted by a nice American family.
Her: Yeah. I think her parents are rich or something.
Me: Really. That's lucky for her.
Her: Elizabeth Ann (not the child's real name) is adopted, too.
Me: Yes, she is.
TBC: How do you know? Did this come from other kids or from her?
Her: It came from Elizabeth Ann.
Me: She is adopted TBC. Her parents talk about it openly and she knows it.
TBC: So...Elizabeth Ann is from Taiwan?
Me: NO! She is from the United States.
Her: And, her family is RICH!
Me: I don't know about that. Her family does very well and she's very lucky to have been adopted by them.
TBC: I think they're rich and she is lucky. She could have been adopted by someone who made her a slave.
Me: What?
Him: Well, you know, a lot of kids are adopted out and the people who adopt them make them into slaves. You know, to work around the house, on the farms, in factories and stuff like that.
Me: I don't think that happens here in the United States. Maybe in other countries.
Him: No, I'm pretty sure it happens here too. A lot of kids are adopted and turned into slaves.
Me: Okay. Whatever. Too bad you kids weren't adopted out.

And Finally...
TGC: How much longer before we get home?
Me: Not long (thank GOD!).
TGC: Good! I'VE GOT A POO CRAMP!!!!

And people wonder why I'm on Lexapro?!

It's Time For You To See My Big Rig Undies!

It's time for us to get personal. I'm sharing something very near and dear to my heart with you.

See those pictures to the left, those are pictures of my Big Rig boxers. The first picture is a close-up so you can see the cool trucks. Some of them are upside down and some are right-side up and take a look at the cool steering wheel motif that is repeated throughout.

By now, you are probably insanely jealous and wanting to know where you can get some. The answer is...I don't know.

These were a gift to me. I know, I know. You're all sitting there thinking what an awesome gift this is! I'm sure I had the same thought at the time.

The Spouse gave me these one year for Christmas, I think. Maybe it was a birthday. She's a great gift-giver!

For the most part, I'm a practical person when it comes to buying me gifts. I will ask for things like new socks, dress shirts, ties, even underwear when I need it. I must have made that request that year. This year, I got an iPad for my birthday. That wasn't practical but I turned 45 and I think she felt sorry for me.

Anyway, you can imagine my surprise when I saw these. I was probably pretty speechless. Sometimes, I still am when I look at them.

Just the other day, I pulled them from the drawer and was headed into the bathroom to take a shower. The Spouse made some snide comment about my Big Rig undies. I ignored her. She bought them for me, after all.

The Laughing Rooster (aka Fonzy or Winston Churchill)

And here's another post regarding the Fair experience and my fascination with roosters.

This rooster caught our eye, or rather, our ear as we wandered up and down the aisles of the show barnes. He laughs instead of crowing. I swear it's true! This is just a snippet my wife recorded. Earlier, he was crowing/laughing loudly and incessantly.

I love this guy! He laughs in the face of adversity. He is a scoff-law or a scoff-rooster. He defiest the very nature of nature itself by laughing instead of crowing. This rooster is the Fonzy of roosterdom!

I mentioned to my wife that this rooster was my hero.

"Your hero? How can a rooster be your hero? He's a stupid rooster who can't even crow." she said.

"WRONG! He's a rebel rooster! He stands before the rest of roosterdom and laughs in their faces! This rooster is tired of being pigeon-holed and stereotyped! He defies the laws of nature to make his statement and to mark his place in the world! He's a lot like Winston Churchill!"

She looked at me with that one look. The one where her left eyebrow trembles a bit. It's the same look she gives The Boy Child when he talks back to her and acts like he's some angst-ridden, down-trodden, bereft waif who has to make his own way through the world selling pencils and apples for pennies while his evil parents sit at home and drink cheap booze and watch reality t.v. (Part of that statement is true. I'll leave it up to you to figure it out. And, Faulkner would be proud of that sentence!)

Then, with the look still in her eye, she said, "That rooster has NOTHING in common with Winston Churchill. How could a rooster have anything to do with Winston Churchill?!"

I had her! "Winston Churchill was a male. Winston Churchill laughed in the face of adversity. Winston Churchill did what was necessary to prove his point. Winston Churchill visited Missouri! So, there! They have a TON in common but you are too blind to see it!"

The Spouse just stared at me. I think she knew I was right but she was too proud to admit it. I'm totally like this rooster, Fonzy and Winston Churchill too!

If I Were a Rooster, I'd Want To Be One Of These Two

So, you know we went to the Fair this past weekend.

One of our favorite things to do is to visit the animals. There's one huge barn full of chickens, roosters, ducks, geese, rabbits, guinea pigs and other small but cute creatures.

As I strolled through the endless aisles of chickens and roosters, it struck me that some of these guys are pretty fancy and, like me, just suave.

These two appealed to my inner-rooster. I like the fancy poofy feathers on the top of the second one. He's totally rocking that do! Look how clean and cocky he is (forgive me...I couldn't resist the pun). This rooster struts through the barn yard give little head nods to all the ladies. He's cool like that. They probably all squawk when he struts by and nods his head at them as he passes. Same thing happens to me if I'm out in public without The Spouse. (Don't tell her though, she's insanely jealous and she carries a shiv in her purse!)

Now, let's turn our attention to the first one. This guy is snooty. Look at him. He's a pretty boy and he knows it. You know he just strolls through the yard not looking at the ugly hens when he walks by. He probably plays the pretty hens against each other. He's like one of those Jersey Shore people. He's all buffed up and struts around like he's a pseudo-celebrity. He's probably got a little toy Ferrari he drives around the barn yard. Jerk!

Okay, so I digressed a bit there. I'm starting to really dislike that first rooster.

What's Kickin' Chicken!

Actually, that's a metal rooster. The Spouse (that's her up above in case you were wondering) and I have developed a fondness for big metal roosters and chickens. It's all because of that crazy Bloggess and her posts about this big metal chicken she bought and wrote about. You can read about it at http://www.thebloggess.com/ (Warning: She uses the "F" word and all of its known and unknown variations A LOT!)

So, we were at our local fair Saturday with the kids. In between riding rides and waiting out the rain, we visited the animal barns. We saw lots and lots of chickens, roosters, turkeys, ducks, guinea pigs, rabbits, horses, cows, cows, cows and donkeys.

Sometimes, I get all wistful (not really but I'd like to think I could) and wonder what it would be like to live on a farm and have all of those animals around. They seem so cute and sweet. My little walk through the show barns cured me of that yesterday. It may also have infected me. I'm not sure but I'm watching for signs of bovine fever! (If you remember from an earlier post, I studied medicine at one point. For like 25 minutes. So, that pretty much makes me an expert on some medical things.) The smell was horrendous and the worst part is, most of those animals had been scrubbed and shined to within an inch of their lives! How can anything be clean and smell that foul? I am NOT cut out for farm living.

Like most fairs, ours has its share of people selling homemade things. The dude who made this rooster had them in small, medium and large sizes. He also had some cute little piggies. I wanted to buy this rooster but The Spouse (aka The Money Nazi) thought it would be a waste of money. How could buying that be a waste of money?! That thing's magnificent. You can see that my kids love it and even The Spouse was enamored of it.

She's relentless on the money issue, though. She was all like: "You just broke your arm. We have medical bills that will start coming in. We've already got some medical bills from when I had my procedure earlier this year. We can't afford to waste money on that!"

So, I was like: "Well, maybe you could get a better job that paid more money and I could buy stuff like that! You're so selfish!"

And then she said, "Come again?!"

And I said, "Nothing. Can I at least have some cotton candy?"

I was going to write about how the fair always makes the weirdos come out and I took some pictures of people who were like "dressed up" for the fair. One lady had this huge velvety shirt on with gigantic roses all over it. She had on purple velour pants and these white fur-trimmed boots, too. She was decked out! It was something to see.

Then, I saw this really heavy set girl in her 20's. She had thick, long blonde hair down her back and she was wearing these light blue jeans that were ripped on the right leg from near the bottom hem up to the top pocket. All of her white fatty flesh was showing and that cut piece was flapping back and forth like a sail in the breeze (there was A LOT of fabric!). She had on a top that showed her ginormous boobs and her fat roll, too. I couldn't take a picture of her, though. She kept looking my direction every time I raised my phone. I was afraid she'd beat the crap out of me. She had that mean, pitbull look about her.

I was going to post pictures of those people and more, but I just looked at the middle picture above and noticed that my son got all dressed up. He's wearing my old water shoes. They are like three sizes too big for him. Then, there's The Girl Child. Take a look at that mismatched ensemble. She looks like a rainbow vomited on her. The Spouse looks good and I had on nice jeans, a white shirt and tennis shoes. So, looking at those heathen made me realize that my kids looked like everyone else at the fair! The Spouse and I were completely out of our element! I bet some carnie or somebody is posting pictures of us on their blog right now.

And that top picture, the one with The Girl Child...remember how I told you earlier that she's the Thelma of Thelma and Louise fame? Do you doubt me now? She was totally supporting me in my attempt to get The Money Nazi to loosen her money belt and fork out the cash for that rooster.

Alas, we came home without the rooster and I didn't get any cotton candy. That's okay though, the kids had a good time and that's all that mattered.