What is a Quafaie?


Quafaie (pronounced: kwa FAY) are fantasy creatures that exist in the fantasy writing of Hugh Kemeny, and are created by him. They are primarily in Hugh Kemeny’s Black Phoenix short stories...

To learn more, read this post: What is a Quafaie?

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Thoughts of the day

Over the past year, at least, my life has had a few bumps and turns which have led to changes. Some I have been wanting, some I thrust upon me, some I'm waiting for, and some I am just starting.

These changes are helping me down the next path of my life. Some of the time I have to force myself to take the path, because I have felt stuck at a cross-roads for way to long, knowing the path I take may be the wrong one, but at least I would be moving.

As part of all this I have many thoughts, questions, and decisions (small and large) on my mind, most fairly personal; one such, small, decision is whether I put these personal thoughts here, on the blog, or just in a personal journal....

I may end up putting some of them here, but at the moment that may not be planned.

There is a writing exercise I know of that I think I will be either adding to this blog, or as a replacement to the "Thoughts of the Day" - possibly still titled that, just my writing method changing to make sure I write every day.

I learned this writing exercise by the name "free fall writing" but I have heard it referred to by other names. The exercise is to just sit and write what ever is on your mind for a set length of time. Sometimes a prompt can be used, sometimes no prompt; in which case it still counts if the writing has in it: "I am bored, the wall is white. The sky is gray." or other nonsensical stuff, as long as the the entire time is writing.

Daily Inspiration

A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd. 
- Max Lucado
inspire daily calendar Wed 29 Feb 2012


I'm a library aide so the students at my school usually see me only in the media center. One day as I was leaving the building, a kindergartner saw me getting into my car. He was so excited to see me that he exclaimed, "I didn't know they let you out of the library!"
- Sandra Brabham on www.teachernet.com
Teachers daily calendar Tue 17 Mar 2009

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Daily Inspiration

You must remain focused on your journey to greatness.
- Les Brown
inspire daily calendar Tue 28 Feb 2012


What is important is to keep learning, to enjoy challenge, and to tolerate ambiguity. In the end there are no certain answers.
- Martina Horner
Teachers daily calendar Mon 16 Mar 2009

Monday, February 27, 2012

Daily Inspiration

It is truly said: It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires great strength to decide what to do.
- Chow Ching
inspire daily calendar Mon 27 Feb 2012


My vision of good teaching includes nurturing the moral and spiritual development, the civic engagement, and the socialization of students - a nurturing we usually associate with parents, clergy, social workers, librarians, all the folks who jointly accept the responsibility for both raising and protecting the young. But teachers, in particular, play a singular role in our society in nurturing students.
- Lee Shulman
Teachers daily calendar Sat/Sun 14/15 Mar 2009

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Daily Inspiration

I remember the excitement of my first year teaching. The smell of the chalk; my own desk and mailbox. I planned all summer; reading, asking questions, visiting classrooms, and making paper cutouts of the desks and kidney-shaped tabled so I could set up the perfect classroom.
- Former California Teacher of the Year Terri K. Fishbaugh
Teachers daily calendar Thu 12 Mar 2009


How Teachers Grade Exams
History teachers: All students get the same grate they got last year.
Math teachers: Grades are Variable.
Music teachers: Each student must figure out his grade by listening to the instructor play a corresponding note (+ and - would be sharp and flat, respectively).
- www.aaaugh.com
Teachers daily calendar Thu 12 Mar 2009

Had things been different...

... today (Saturday) would have been the day my play would have premiered.

Yesterday (Friday) and today was the Stage Struck 2012 adult one-act competition. I had a play entered, but 6 weeks ago some of the actors dropped out. Seeing as I had a difficult time getting them in the first place I decided to drop out of the competition.

Had things been different, my play would have been part of today's line-up.

I am not bitter, nor sad, just commenting.

The competition had a fair number of really great plays, most of them comedies.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Daily Inspiration

What is known as success assumes nearly as many aliases as there are those who seek it. Like love, it can come to commoners as well as couriers. Like virtue, it is its own reward. Like the Holey Grail, it seldom appears to those who don't pursue it.
- Stephen Birmingham
inspire daily calendar Sat/Sun 25/26 Feb 2012


Delicious ways to enjoy that apple brought to the teacher:
*  Add slices to hot or cold cereals, smoothies, or ice cream.
*  Dip into yogurt, peanut butter, or honey.
*  Grate with chopped mint or cilantro and place on top of baked or grilled fish for an appetizing crust.
Teachers daily calendar Wed 11 Mar 2009

Friday, February 24, 2012

Don't forget to check out the archives...

This blog is essentially a combination of various other blogs I had in the past, so please check out some of the archives, especially if you are new.

Even if you are not new, some of the archives are....

Yesterday, after writing the "Thought of the day" I was sorting some files of stuff I had written and came across a back up copy of my first blog - from MSN Spaces in 2005. Luckily I had backed up some (possibly all) of it, since MSN Spaces is now gone.

Last night I then reposted all 19 post from that blog, putting them in chronological order with the rest of the posts - now there is a 2005 archive for this blog.

There are a couple posts from back then that I am glad I posted & kept. They include:

1) Book Review - Incompetence by Rob Grant
          Especially some of the quotes from the book in that post.

2) Various adventures I had while I lived in England (most of the posts)
          Especially: Out of this world thoughts - Earth to Pluto in 50 minutes

Daily Inspiration

If not us, who?
If not now, when?
- John F. Kennedy
inspire daily calendar Fri 24 Feb 2012


Q: What is the snake's best subject?
A: Hiss-tory.
Teachers daily calendar Tue 10 Mar 2009

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Thought of the Day

For the past day or so I have been thinking that I really should be posting more here, but always seem to draw a blank when I get to the computer.

One of the things I have decided to try and do is then at least put one thought down for each day. Even if it seems irrelevant, or unimportant.

So today's thought of the day is just this... to start posting these thoughts of the day.

Daily Inspiration

Man is only truly great when he acts from his passions.
- Benjamin Disreali
inspire daily calendar Thu 23 Feb 2012


You have to know and understand where your students are coming from to prepare them best for where they are going. Take every opportunity to learn from a new experience, even if, at the time, you think that it may not be helpful. Your teaching career may take you places you never thought it would, so if you are prepared, you will be succesful.
- Stacey Jarvis, Everything I Need to Know About Teaching . . . They Forgot to Tell Me!
Teachers daily calendar Mon 9 Mar 2009

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Daily Inspiration

The interesting thing is always to see if you can find a fact that will change your mind about something, to test and see if you can.
- Diane Sawyer
inspire daily calendar Wed 22 Feb 2012


At the end of math class during which the children were given several addition and subtraction problems to solve using postage stamps, the teacher asked the group to write two other problems using stamps. My seven-year-old grandson's answer was: "They cost too much, and they don't stick well."
- Mary L. Rockwell in Reader's Digest
Teachers daily calendar Sat/Sun 7/8 Mar 2009

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Daily Inspiration

Don't let go of your dreams. If you have determination and belief in your dreams, you will succeed in spite of your desire to let go.
- Catherine Pulsifer
inspire daily calendar Tue 21 Feb 2012


Fun Facts: Famous Firsts
In 1790, Samuel Hopkins was awarded U.S. Patent #1 for a process for making potash and pearl ashes. Thousands of patents were issued before his, but his was the first assigned a number.
In 1875, Matthew Webb became the first known person to swim across the English Channel. He drowned in 1883 after unsuccessfully trying to swim across the whirlpools and rapids beneath Niagara Falls.
Laika the dog became the first living creature to orbit Earth. She flew on board the Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 in 1957
- www.corsinet.com
Teachers daily calendar Fri 6 Mar 2009

Monday, February 20, 2012

Daily Inspiration

Never try to be better than someone else. Learn from others, and try to be the best you can be. Success is the by product of that preparation.
- John Wooden
inspire daily calendar Mon 20 Feb 2012


How to Be a Kid Again
Dot all your i's with smiley faces.
Grow a milk mustache.
Look down as you walk and hope to find money.
Teachers daily calendar Thu 5 Mar 2009

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Daily Inspiration

Teacher Tip
If you write with washable pens on overhead transparencies, you can easily clean and dry then sheets by rinsing them off and placing them in a phone book. you can insert a s sheet every twenty pages or so. The transparency dries streak-free in about twenty minutes and can be reused many times.
- Barbara Reichard, César Chávez Middle School, Union City, California; www.theteacherscorner.net
Teachers daily calendar Tue 3 Mar 2009


Education, properly understood, is that which teaches discernment.
- Joseph Roux
Teachers daily calendar Wed 4  Mar 2009

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Daily Inspiration

Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together. 
- Vincent Van Gogh 
inspire daily calendar Sat/Sun 18/19 Feb 2012 


Behind Every Famous Person is a Fabulous Teacher 
"Clarity, risk, and brevity" are what fashion designer Zac Posen learned from Jane Avrich, the English teacher whose class on the literature of seduction influenced his aesthetics. 
"Once he turned the classroom into an Eden-like paradise," recalls Avrich. "Silvery music played in the background, iridescent fabric swirled, paper flowers bloomed, and glitter rained down around us." 
- TeachersCount National Social Marketing Campaign 
Teachers daily calendar Mon 2 Mar 2009

Friday, February 17, 2012

Daily Inspiration

As I grow to understand life less and less, I learn to live it more and more.
- Jules Renard
inspire daily calendar Fri 17 Feb 2012


Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.
- Jonathon Kozol
Teachers daily calendar Sat/Sun 28/1 Feb/Mar 2009

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Daily Inspiration

To respond id positive, 
to react is negative. 
- Zig Ziglar 
inspire daily calendar Thu 16 Feb 2012 


Students at Zion Lutheran School in Mayer, Minnesota, thought their principal was kidding when she proposed that they give up their classroom chairs and instead sit on marge rubber exercise balls.
"She kids with us a lot," said Kate Esser, a fourth-grader. "When we saw she was serious, we thought, 'Whoa, awesome.'" 
Fidgety students of those with attention deficit disorder have an outlet for their excess energy. Concentration increases for everyone because of the noise reduction. And physical conditioning is improved because of the work involved in staying on top of the ball. Finally, the additional movements students make using balls instead of chairs burn off more calories, which could help combat an epidemic of obesity in children by making them more physically fit. 
"The kids really enjoy them,"said teacher Jenny Borovsky. "They don't get in the way of teaching. So why not make learning fun?" 
- Herón Márquez Estada, "Keeping Students on the Ball," October 27, 2007, www.startribune.com
Teachers daily calendar Fri 27 Feb 2009

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Daily Inspiration

Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
inspire daily calendar Wed 15 Feb 2012
 
 
If we're here on earth to share our gifts and help each other, what better profession is there than teaching?
- Dave Morrison
Teachers daily calendar Thu 26 Feb 2009

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Daily Inspiration

Greatness does not approach him who is forever looking down.
- Hitopadesa
inspire daily calendar Tue 14 Feb 2012
 
 
All your people must learn before you can reach for the stars.
- Captain James T. Kirk, Star Trek, "Gamesters of Triskelion"
Teachers daily calendar Wed 25 Feb 2009

Online Photos

 
Over the weekend I finally got around to updating my flickr account. After thinking about how I wanted to change my blogs, I also felt I wanted to change my flickr, which, for the moment is still under a different username: nudecanadianboy

I have now set up my flickr as follows:
Anyone can see generic photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nude_canadian_boy/
Generic photos are primarily scenic photos from my travels, with almost no one identifiable in them.

Photos of me require people to become a friend on flickr (or a friend whom I give a guest link too).

I spent most of today (Monday) organizing the photos into sets and collections, I got as far as the start of 2007, and only about 1/3 the way through the photos. I will also be tagging some of them along the same lines as the collections / sets they are in.

Please enjoy my public photos, and contact me to potentially get the more private ones.  

Monday, February 13, 2012

International Banking Security


Seven years ago I was living and working in the UK. As any who has ever worked in a foreign country (to where they are from) knows, having a local bank account is important.

After I got my bank account in the UK, back in 2004, I noticed differences to the banking system securities over Canadian banks. Namely the chip & pin card had just been introduced in the UK, which didn't come into Canada until about 2008.

A couple of differences I noticed in this regard was when I first used both my debit and credit cards. In Canada I was use to having to input my pin with my debit card (swipe and enter pin, not yet the insert and enter pin) and signing for my credit card. One of the first places I used my UK debit card did not have the chip & pin set up, so my debit card was swiped, and I had to sign for it - like what I was use to doing for credit card. Then the first time I used my credit card I hadn't memorized my pin (didn't need to in Canada), so when I was prompted, I admitted to the clerk I didn't recall it. S/he hit a button and printed a receipt for me to sign instead.
Jump ahead about 4 years, to the introduction of chip and pin in Canada. When I first used my chip & pin (credit) card at a place that was set up for chip & pin, I hadn't memorized my pin (because chip & pin places were rare). I mentioned I hadn't memorized it yet and asked if there was a way to sign instead. The clerk said there was not, so I had to use a different card.

Back towards the topic:
When I left the UK I decided to keep my bank account there, thinking that perhaps one day I'd return. In the seven years since, I have only returned once to visit - but my life has taken a couple twists and turns, and I am really hoping to make it back this year.

Since that time I have kept my address current with the UK Bank, and have gone online regularly enough to move a little money between two accounts to keep them active. In that time I did lose my credit card (which I am fine with). I have also received information that I generally ignored.

Last week, however, I received a heftier envelope. Inside was a new security device (see pic above), which made me actually read the information with it.

Now I have seen the security on online banking getting more "advanced" over the years, and having accounts at 3 banks, plus credit cards at 2 others, I have seen the differences. Of the 4 Canadian online banking sites I visit (2 account + 2 credit cards), 2 of them require only the account / card number and password (1 account + 1 credit card), the other 2 also require me to answer 1 of 3 personal questions.

The UK bank account has always required me to enter a personal ID number, my date of birth, and 3 digits randomly chosen from an 8 digit pin. Now I am not sure if that is typical of UK / European banks, or just HSBC (and if that is HSBC everywhere, or just certain areas - since none of my Canadian banks is HSBC).
As of today, however, to access that account I have a couple more steps. On the little security device I have to enter a personal pin, to obtain a security code. Then on the web, I still have to enter my personal ID, now have to answer a security question, and enter the generated security code.

Although all of this seemed tedious and long as I set it up, it is not as annoying as I thought it might be... that is until I misplace my security device!
However, when I set it up I also put in other security questions which I think related to retrieving my accounts / passwords. Let's hope I never have to find out. 

Daily Inspiration

Concentration, in the truest, unadulterated form, means the ability to focus the mind on one single solitary thing.
- Komar
inspire daily calendar Mon 13 Feb 2012
 
 
To every answer you can find a new question.
- Yiddish proverb
Teachers daily calendar Tue 24 Feb 2009

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Daily Inspiration

"Can you imagine a school without desks? A school where children are moving as part of their lessons? And most importantly, they are smiling and healthy?" asks Mayo Clinic obesity researcher James Levine, M.D., Ph.D. If so, you have imagined the latest anti-obesity concept-project from Mayo Clinic -- the classroom of the future.
Obesity among the young is a national epidemic according to the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 15 percent of children in the United States are already overweight and the problem continues to grow.
Levine and his team have designed what they believe to be the first chairless school -- complete with "standing" desks and a host of sophisticated learning technologies. Some innovations include"learn 'n' move" bays, an earpiece that measures physical activity of the student, and "standing" desks, where the children will stand and work, rather than sit.
- www.mayoclinic.org
Teachers daily calendar Sat/Sun 21/22 Feb 2009
 
 
Scripps National Spelling Bee Winning Words
1929: asceticism
1939: canonical
1949: dulcimer
1959: catamarran
1969: interlocutory
1979: maculature
1989: spoliator
1999: logorrhea
- www.spellingbee.com
Teachers daily calendar Mon 23 Feb 2009

Daily Inspiration

Opportunity dances with those who are ready on the dance floor.
- H. Jackson Brown Jr.
inspire daily calendar Sat/Sun 11/12 Feb 2012
 
 
 
  At the beginning of nearly every episode of The Simpsons, Bart is punished by being made to write a sentence over and over on the school chalkboard. A few classics:
* I do not have diplomatic immunity.
* I will not look up what a teacher makes.
* Global warming did not eat my homework.
Teachers daily calendar Fri 20 Feb 2009

Friday, February 10, 2012

Daily Inspiration

Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week.
- Spanish Proverb
inspire daily calendar Fri 10 Feb 2012
 
 
A Little Goes a Long Way
Many American kids don't think twice about paying $20 for a video game or a sweatshirt. But that $20 would go a very long way in third-world countries. Here's a look at how far a few dollars can go in many developing nations:
* $1 covers the cost of a lifetime immunization against polio.
* $5 is the cost of a mosquito net, which helps to prevent malaria.
* $10 can buy a grove of trees to prevent soil erosian in Zambia.
* $20 buys a backpack full of school supplies for a student in Sri Lanka.
* $40 pays for an entire year of education for a child in Kenya.
* $50 is enough to buy a goat, a source of milk and cheese, for a family in Mauritania.
- www.factmonster.com
Teachers daily calendar Thu 19 Feb 2009

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Daily Inspiration

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
inspire daily calendar Thu 9 Feb 2012
 
 
Teacher: Wendy, what sound does a cow make?
Wendy: It goes "moo."
Teacher: Julie, what sound does a cat make?
Julie: It goes "meow."
Teacher: Arnie, what sound does a lamb make?
Arnie: It goes "baaa."
Teacher: Karen, what sound does a mouse make?
Karen: Um . . . it goes . . . "click!"
- www.basicjokes.com
Teachers daily calendar Wed 18 Feb 2009

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Daily Inpsiration

If you doubt you can accomplish something, then you can't accomplish it. You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through.

- Rosalynn Carter
inspire daily calendar Wed 8 Feb 2012


 

 

So you've got thirteen . . . and you take away seven . . . and that leaves five . . . well, six actually, but the idea is the important thing.


- Tom Lehrer, New Math




Teachers daily calendar Tue 17 Feb 2009

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Daily Inspiration

It is not the position,
but the disposition.
- J. E. Dinger
inspire daily calendar Tue 7 Feb 2012
 
 
How old would  you be if you didn't know how old you was?
- Satchel Paige
Teachers daily calendar Mon 16 Feb 2009

Monday, February 6, 2012

Daily Inspiration

A minute now is better than a minute later.
- Anonymous
inspire daily calendar Mon 6 Feb 2012
 
 
I spent several weeks concentrating on Valentine's Day "I love you" -themed activities with my preschool special education class. The parent of an autistic child came in and told me that she and her husband had received the best Valentine's gift: their five-year-old son told them "I love you" for the first time ever! Those are moments that make it all worthwhile.
- Carolyn B. on www.teacherscorner.net
Teachers daily calendar Sat/Sun 14/15 Feb 2009

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Daily Inspiration

Teaching is the focal point of my universe. I'm at peace in the classroom. I'm called to teach just as any priest or nun. Aside from family, it's the most sacred part of my existence. I can't conceive of ever leaving the classroom entirely. Very few people are lucky to fins where they are suppose to be in life. There are a lot of wanderers out there. I was lucky to find it.
- Former California Teacher of the Year Richard Chapleau
Teachers daily calendar Thu 12 Feb 2009
 
 
If you say you understand something, then you can explain what you understand to others. Anything short of that is deception, not understanding. Education, above all, should not be about fostering deception.
- R.J. Kizlik
Teachers daily calendar Fri 13 Feb 2009

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Daily Inspiration

All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become.
- Buddah
inspire daily calendar Sat/Sun 4/5 Feb 2012
 
 
A young boy ran up to his teacher with tears in his eyes. The teacher asked, "What's wrong, dear?"
The boy said, "I just found out I'll be in school until I'm eighteen."
The teacher said, "That's nothing. I have to stay here until I'm sixty-five."
-  Milton Berle
Teachers daily calendar Wed 11 Feb 2009

Friday, February 3, 2012

Daily Inspiration

The Successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.

- Bruce Lee
inspire daily calendar Fri 3 Feb 2012


 

 

Q: What is the skunk's favorite part of the school day?
A: Show and smell.

Teachers daily calendar Tue 10 Feb 2009

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Daily Inspiration

You show people what you're willing to fight for when you fight for friends.
- Hillary Clinton
inspire daily calendar Thu 2 Feb 2012
 
 
As a volunteer in my daughter's second-grade class, I was listening to one young fellow read. The book he had chosen had several sentences with colons, and he read those lines twice. Finally I explained that he only had to read them once. "You see those dots there?" he said. "They're repeat dots, amd my music teacher says you have to do the line twice."
- Patti Strachen in Reader's Digest
Teachers daily calendar Mon 9 Feb 2009

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Daily Inspiration

What is right is more important than who is right.

- John Wooden
inspire daily calendar Wed 1 Feb 2012


 

 

Fun Facts: Animals
A Holstein's spots are like a fingerprint or snowflake. No two cows have exactly the same pattern of spots.
A single little brown bat can catch 1,200 mosquito-sized insects in just one hour.
Dolphins sleep at night just below the surface of the water. They frequently rise to the surface for air.

- www.corsinet.com


Teachers daily calendar Sat/Sun 7/8 Feb 2009