New meaning to the word "Google"

The Banned Word List

Back by popular demand, and frankly necessity, is the banned word list. This is an evolving list of words that are used either too often or in the wrong context by the dope at work or the show-off in one of your classes. Here are the entries for today:
1." Perhaps" -- Example: "Perhaps Austen was trying to critique the upper-class by making her heroine a member of the working class." "Perhaps Nabokov was just showing off his liguistic skills."

2. "Thusly" I got this word second hand, but from a reliable source. I cannot imagine the context in which this clown used the word "thusly."

You are encouraged to add words to the list. You don't have to include examples; sometimes just the word is enough to make you roll your eyes.

Right now

Although some of you have some serious reservations about my lovely little french professor, Right now, I am listening him speak the most beautiful french (in his god-awful sweater) to his class while they laugh and enjoy his sense of humor. I understand your horror at the vest, I too admit it tempered my attraction to him, but like the guy who speaks with a British accent in Brandi's class, some men have attractions in other areas.

Update

Just a quick note to let you know what is going on with me this week, or at least today. It is official: I am officially in love with the French professor. Although he could possibly be gay, I am beginning to seriously doubt it.
However, if the thing with the French professor does not work out, then I have another target in my Contemporary lit. class.
On another note, someone hurt my sweet friend's feelings and it makes me mad. Just so she knows, she is perfect and it was not her fault.

New Beginnings

I have a movie recommendation for you. It is The Constant Gardener with Ralph Fiennes and a beautiful Rachel Weitz. It is a spy movie, but more than that, it is a love story on many different levels. There is the love of a man and his wife, but also, there is the love story of one human to another. People unknown, but still loved. I wanted to rush out to Africa after watching this film and help those that are so helpless, but I started to think about the many children that are in need here. I am so unsure of my future in teaching, but I think back to my first days of college when I was an early childhood education major. It is easy to lose sight of what you want to do in life, but you have to look back and ask yourself, "What have I been consistent in wanting to accomplish?" When I ask myself that question, it is always the same answer, I want to help the kid who has no hope. I want to mean something to someone with nothing. I have no desire to teach the prep school brat who has everything, but sees no responsibility to the world around them. Noblesse oblige exists for few today anyway. Maybe it is for my own selfish reasons. I fear leaving nothing behind that says I was here, or knowing I will not be missed. The other day I was listening to Dr. Laura, who I hate for her lack of compassion but admire for her common sense, and she told a man something that made me gasp in horror. She said "Right now, I bet there is not a single person in the world that would care if you were dead and gone because you have lived your life for anger." I cried in the parking lot of Target while I thought about how it must have felt to hear those words. Of course, it is probably not true, but imagine if it was. The sad reality is that there are people in this world that are seen as "disposable." After watching The Constant Gardener, I was renewed in my sense of wanting to actually do something valuable in this world. I want to put aside my qualms about teaching and just dive in and do it. Forgive me for rambling.

Things to do:

Many of you know that I have a morbid fear of death. I guess it is the unknown that frightens me so much, but I am also afraid that I will fail to do many of the things I want to accomplish in my life. Here is a list, in no particular order, of what I am afraid I will miss out on:

1. I want to go to Paris, England, Africa, Egypt and Ireland before I am too old to enjoy it.
2. I want to be a photojournalist and be dropped into a volcano to take pictures for National Geographic.
3. I want to be able to run a marathon.
4. I want to see Elton John in concert.
5. Read Moby Dick
6. Kiss my grandchildren (many, many years from now)
7. Vote for Malinda to be president
8. Read a novel written by Brandi Kincaid
9. Hold Kirsten's babies (and not kittens)
10. Watch my children graduate from college and marry the love of their life (preferably before #6)
11. Fly to Chile for the wedding of Christy and Gerado where I will meet some handsome Argentian man and we will be the godparents to Christy and Gerado's 8 children. ok, so maybe that is excessive, both the 8 kids and the man, but I hope Christy will be very happy either way.
What do you most want to do in life? Give me your wildest dream.

Oh well

Since my life has been pretty routine of late, I thought I would just update you on the small things that have happened.
1. My hair is now brown. Close really to its original color. No big whoop.
2. I bought a new blender.
3. Bought two new books: One is Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir by Lauren Slater and Anna Karenina by Tolstoy. Don't know when I will read them.
4. Watched all of the episodes of CSI that I missed the past two weeks.
5. Found out that a dear friend was not dead, merely busy.
6. Bought a new notebook to keep as a food journal so I will keep up with my food choices.
7. Talked several times to a boy toy from the past that I love to fantasize about running away with (I never can forget the ones that treat me bad).
8. Contemplated going to Loco's and participating in a game of trivia. Sean, you have provoked my interest.

I really hope to have better things to say next week. I may stop taking the Slutcillin; it is working to well.

Happy Birthday MLK! It would be nice to have you around today.

Changes

Today I am going to go from a partial blonde to a warm brown. I have been frightened by the appearance of four grey hairs, counted to precision by Trey, standing up prominently in the middle of my part. Those grey hairs are witness to what I want to deny: I am getting old, and being old in America is not a good position to be in. I was sickened when I saw a club at Armstrong named "Help, I have an old person in my class!" I thought of beautiful Ms. Judy. How could anyone be angry at her for taking the later years of her life and finding something she enjoys and doing it? We should all be so courageous. Sean says our blogs are depressing, and I guess they can be, but as I thought about it, I don't feel sorry for Ms. Judy, I feel sorry for the people that dismiss her as irrelevant. Who could be more relevant?

Hatred Is . . .

Brandi does this really cute thing where she says "Happiness Is . . ." and then she lists a really nice moment where someone or something made her happy. I am going to go negative here and talk about things that make me sad and annoyed and, almost, violent.

First on my list is the girl at the gym that has a great body and wears skimpy outfits. You know the girl that walks to the middle of the cardio room and does her stretching and push-up's using the treadmill or stair stepper as a prop. She always picks the machine in front of a guy, who sits and watches, just as she wants him too. I just hate her.

Next is the student that does not know what class they are taking, who their instructor is, or where the room is located. They expect you to know their schedule and cannot follow directions to the LLP office. They just annoy me.

Where To Begin

I really don't know where to begin this post, but I knew I had to write something. Last night, when I went to sleep, it was with a light heart. Reese and I had been watching the news all night and praying for the 12 miners that were still trapped 260 feet under the ground. Like Brandi, we could not imagine how frightening it must be to feel the weight of the world, literally, on top of you. Reese was captivated by the story and I watched as he became genuinely vested in the fate of these men he did not, and would probably never, know. We were so happy to see the faces of the families as they cried and celebrated what seemed to be a miracle. Who wouldn't?

I was shocked when I woke up and saw the news. It was a case of "miscommunication." The families celebrated the miracle that would return their husbands, fathers, sons and uncles back to them. No doubt some made promises to treat them better, to love them more, and appreciate even the largest fault they possessed. I cannot imagine the pain they felt when they realized they would be denied their resolutions. I cried when one grieving wife said, "We may be dumb, but we love our family. We should not have been treated like this." As if she had internalized the view of working-class, country people as dumb. As if she thought that the world would view the loss of these men as somehow less-than the loss of others, either more affluent or educated, than these men who went deep into the earth to bring out coal. Another lady said, "We have been praising God for the miracle, and now we wonder if there is a God. We are Christian people, and that was a hard thing to say." I am sure it was. It is hard to hear.

Now the blame game will start. The first blamed will probably be the media. They pushed for information and got it wrong. The next will be the owners of the mine, who probably does bear a lot of the blame, and then some one will politicized this tragedy, much like Hurricane Katrina. The mine had over 200 violations. People will blame them and Fox News will turn around and defend business. I can hear Bill O'Reilly now, "No one forced these guys to do this work. They were paid well and they did it. It is a tragedy, but what can you do?" All of this will detract from the real tragedy: loved ones were lost. It is hard to make sense of this.

First Lines

I have been thinking a lot lately about how easily I fall for first lines. If an ugly guy has a good line (or not so good to be honest) he usually peaks my interest. I am not hit on very often, but here are some of the lines I remember the most and the ones that were most effective with me. Please do not judge me for my stupidity. "I can't believe you don't have a man a home who is watching the clock and counting down the minutes until you get home." That was the charming Seaborn that only got better as time went on. The other day, a nice painter from Peru said, "The minute I looked at you I was like, wow, I am in love with this women." No, I did not sleep with him, but he almost had me. Men are usually not that creative, at least the guys who hit on the girl behind the front desk are not. I guess that is why I love the first line of a book. There is really nothing better than to stand in the aisle of a bookstore, open the cover of an unknown novel, and be taken into the world the author will create in the pages that follow the first. It is my belief that no book with a great first line will disappoint. I wish I could find a man that would excite me as much as the first line of some of my favorite books.

"It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love."
Love in the Time of Cholera

"Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself."
Mrs. Dalloway

"This is the saddest story I have ever heard."
The Good Soldier

"There was no possibility of taking a walk that day."
Jane Eyre

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."
Pride and Prejudice

"The sun shone, having no alternative, on nothing new."
Murphy

"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."
One Hundred Years of Solitude

Although I am not a fan of westerns, this line is my new favorite. It sucked me in and made me read it. I have loved the book.

"See the child. He is pale and thin, he wears a thin and ragged linen shirt. He stokes the scullery fire. Outside lie dark turned fields with rags of snow and darker woods beyond that harbor yet a few last wolves. His folks are known for hewers of wood and drawers of water but in truth his father has been a schoolmaster. He lies in drink, he quotes from poets whose names are now lost. The boy crouches by the fire and watches him."
Blood Meridian

I know this is more than the first line, but I could not find a good place to stop. I could have given you the first two pages. The book is very Faulkner and Melvillesque.
What are some of your favorite first lines? Don't worry if one of your favorites has already been taken; add it anyway.