I Should Try Naming One Of My Korean Students 'Conan'

Words cannot express how much I hate my computer setup at school. The monitor embedded under the desk is beyond annoying for numerous reasons. A) You can’t cross your legs or even push your chair in all the way because there’s a GIANT MONITOR in the way. 2) The plexi-glass has a crazy glare making it really hard to read the monitor screen. Plus, because you can’t wheel the chair close enough to the desk, so in order to see the bottom of the screen you have to lean forward in your chair and peer down. D) The keyboard is on one of those keyboard drawers that gets pulled out from under the desk top. But it doesn’t pull out enough, so the whole row of F function keys is hidden under the desk. Seriously, what moron designed this setup? And it’s not like it provides you with more desk space because you can’t exactly cover up the plexi-glass area...otherwise you couldn’t see the monitor screen. Besides, I find it highly unlikely that they’re concerned with desk space for me since they gave me the most gigantic printer on the planet. Seriously, it’s huge. And it sucks.

Coldplay came on my iPod just now. They are really good.

Is it a sign that you drink too much coffee when your urine smells like coffee? Was that sharing too much?

This week (and next week) I teach my English camp with the 6th grade English teacher at my school, not my co-teacher (since these 2 weeks are with 6th graders). It’s weird because she speaks a lot of Korean with the students. I’m used to my co-teacher refusing to speak any Korean and yelling at the students when they speak Korean. This teacher (Ms. Kwan) is talking in Korean all the time! It’s also harder for me to communicate with her because she doesn’t know English as well. Don’t get me wrong, she’s not bad at it, but we just have a lot more miscommunication. Huh. Not looking forward to finding out who my new co-teacher will be. But my current co-teacher told me that it will be a new teacher...as in new to teaching in general, not just new to the school. I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing.

So during my English camp I’ve let my students pick English names. I gave them a list with girl and boy names to choose from. Most of the names were the names of people I know (friends and family). During the first two weeks the best girl in each class picked the name Shannon. I also had multiple Brians, but one was Bryan, so he must have had that name before. I’ve had way more girls than boys in the camps...next week it’s all girls. Other names that have been chosen: Sarah (usually 1 Sarah in each week), Kevin, Peter, John, Riley, Brighton, Laura, Katie, and Candy. Popular Korean English names (English names Koreans like to pick) are Suzy, Sally and Judy. Joleen, I’ve tried to steer people to your name, but no takers. Which is interesting b/c it’s mildly Korean-ish sounding. Elizabeth, I think your name is just too hard for them to say (since the l, z, and th sounds are all weird to them). And the girls who chose Brighton and Riley say “Breeton” and “Liley.” Last week one boy chose the name Terminator (haha!), another was X-Man, and another chose the name “Cassiopeia.” That was funny to me. I have no idea how he thought of that one. He asked me how to spell it and I was like, "Shit, I don't know." But I guessed and then looked it up and I was right. Right on, man.

I had them fill out this sheet about themselves. I’d say 95% of them said their favorite movie was Harry Potter. One girl wrote that her favorite movie was Harry Potter and the Fire Cup. :) Popular favorite actors include Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Angelina Jolie...although I always have to tell them Harry Potter and Hermione’s real names.

I was going to post something about this article on yahoo that I found humorous, but then Liz talked about it in her blog. Then again, I’m sure there are people who read my blog and not hers, so I will talk about it. So there's an election in Finland and one of the runners looks like Conan (a girl). Here's a snippet form the article:

The redheaded late-night talk show host Conan O'Brien has been promoting President Tarja Halonen's re-election bid as part of a long-running joke about their supposed physical similarities. "Why do I support Tarja Halonen? Because she's got the total package: a dynamic personality, a quick mind, and most importantly -- my good looks," the comedian, whose show is broadcast on cable in Finland, said in a statement to The Associated Press.

In one show, O'Brien presented a mock ad for Halonen in which he and two Finns were discussing the election while fishing on a frozen lake. When they talk about rival candidate Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, a dead fish shoots out of the hole in the ice, prompting a joke about how the mere mention of his name causes fish to commit suicide.
"Fish recognize a bad leader," O'Brien says in broken Finnish to laughter from his studio crowd.

Take a look at their pictures...not a bad resemblance! Joleen, it reminds me of your senior yearbook and those two guys in it that look like a young Conan and a young Andy Richter. :D

There’s also a rise in popularity for this Chuck Norris 'facts' list thing. I have no feelings towards Chuck Norris personally, but I find many of these hilarious. I was reminded of this by an article in which Mr. Norris talked about these 'facts' and how he doesn’t really understand them (but thinks they are humorous). Here are some examples of a few Chuck Norris ‘facts’: Chuck Norris once ordered a Big Mac at Burger King and got one; When the Boogeyman goes to bed at night, he first checks his closet for Chuck Norris (Norris’ favorite, apparently); Chuck Norris’ tears cure cancer. Too bad he’s never cried; Chuck Norris is currently suing NBC, claiming Law and Order are trademarked names for his left and right legs; If you can see Chuck Norris, he can see you. If you can’t see Chuck Norris you may be only seconds away from death; Chuck Norris is the reason why Waldo is hiding; When Chuck Norris goes to donate blood, he declines the syringe, and instead requests a hand gun and a bucket; Chuck Norris can divide by zero. Anyway, those are just a few examples that I find funny. For more, visit...well, I was going to direct you to the original website (Chuck Norris Fact Generator or something) but I can’t find it right now. But if you do a google search you’ll find a bunch of sites with more of them.