What else have I done in my sleep...

It totally creeps me up when I wake up, and my cell phone (which functions as my alarm) is on the floor instead of on the dresser across my bedroom. And 30 minutes have passed since it sounded at 1 pm, transitioning into the snooze cycle. And I have no memory whatsoever of waking up, walking across the room and throwing it on the floor like a two year old.

On International Mindedness

"As Gardner says, we are engaged on a continuum of human development that is ‘a continuing decline in egocentrism’.

And the place of international mindedness on that continuum is very much to one end of it.

International mindedness represents the most complex development of the relationship between ‘self’ and ‘other’ but it is not, of itself, about the environment, peace, globalisation or future work.

International mindedness is a vital (the vital?) component of each of these and many other contemporary themes but it is not the same as them. " (Skelton)

Worship Music?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqO3sIgs7v4

This is the link to a song I've been loving. It's called St. Francis, and is sung by Kristine Mueller of Jesus Culture.

Jesus Culture has converted me back to worship music. How lovely. : )

I quit Facebook, and I liked it

Hi, my name is Tasha and I am an addict. Today is my first day of sobriety. I don't have the time today to go into all the ways Facebook compromised my life and relationships. Nor do I know for sure if it did. But I am turning over a new leaf. I'll see if life w/o social networking is better or worse, and go from there.

I will refrain from Facebook bashing because

a) it is utterly fabulous, and i loved every minute i used it (except when descending into self-loathing viewings of "friends'" wedding/new baby photos, & bemoaning the fact that I am merely a single grad student with no spouse, mortgage, or progeny)

b) everyone else in my world still uses it and would hate on my hating

c) i quit facebook out of love, not for hate

Instead, I will just say that I have experienced considerably less anxiety today as a non-Facebook user. I have completed more of my homework that I would have otherwise. I cooked a lovely vegetable frittata instead of status surfing. I read *your* blog and wrote in my own.

The world is a smaller place, now. And I kinda like it that way. Today at least.

Nirvana

So there is this category of Wikipedia pages called Disambiguation.  These pages are available to help save us all from humiliating ourselves by mistaking adductor canals for adductor muscles or Addison the city in South Dakota for Addison the character from Grey's Anatomy. I discovered, while browsing, an intriguing list of ambiguous numbers (0-0-0, 2/135, 17 Days), a page for Russia disambiguation (with no items listed), and a list of disambiguation pages in need of cleanup (swing, four to the floor, American). 

The reason I came across this WikiCult of disambiguety was... well, at a party last week an Indian friend told me his family was Jain(ist?). I thought that was funny because my teaching partner's name is Jane. So I looked it up to see just what a religion with her name might promote. Nirvana apparently. But being as multi-faceted a word as Nirvana is, there was neccessary disambiguifying. It technically can mean...

A Spanish pop song.

The state of being free from both suffering and the cycle of birth. 

A grunge band from Seattle, WA. 

The Pali word meaning "blowing out" the fires of greed, hate, delusion.

Formerly a genus of butterflies. Now a genus of leafhoppers.

The title of an Italian science fiction movie.

And the most relevant award goes to... The Outer Plane of Dungeons and Dragons.

From the Mouths of Bed-Wetters

Ok, so I teach first grade. Perhaps I am partial to the wisdom that comes from 6 year-olds. Not to mention the kick-ass hilarious things they say. (I.E. when i found two male students wrestling on the playground and asked them what they were doing and they announced giggling that they were bouncing their balls against each other. Seriously? Seriously.) (Or, i.e., when practicing sh- words a girl student wrote these sentences: I told my brother to shut up and he did. My dad yelled shit when he lost his shoes.) So when my mom showed me an assignment in which first graders finished the beginnings of old proverbs with their own thoughtful conclusions, I couldn't get enough. I've selected a few zingers. 

It's always darkerst before...

Daylight Savings Time.

Never underestimate the power of... 

termites.

A miss is as good as a... 

mister.

You can lead a horse to water but...

how?

Don't bite the hand that... 

looks dirty.

An idle mind is... 

the best way to relax.

A penny saved is...

not much.

Don't put off till tomorrow what...

you put on to go to bed.

Laugh and the whole world laughs at you, cry and...

you have to blow your nose.

If at first you don't succeed...

get new batteries.

You only get out of something what you...

see in the picture on the box.

A bird in the hand... 

is going to poop on you.

Children should be seen and not... 

spanked or grounded.

BEST OF ALL

Better late than...

pregnant.

So, in conclusion, my proverb is "If you don't have enough joy in your life, laugh at children."