screwed up eyes and screwed down hairdo

This was not the picture I envisioned accompanying this blog entry. I was looking through my photos for a picture of kids getting up to mischief, and this one made me laugh so I chose it instead. (It took us a looong time to get her up. Ah, coordination.)

Life Lesson: If you haven't been around kids for a while, you forget what they're like.

They aren't human. They're going through a very carefully structured, society-friendly program to teach them how to become human. But until then, they are visitors, newbies, aliens, who are intrigued by the world around them and often don't pick up on social cues. When you meet a rude/bizarre adult, he/she obviously didn't have the rigorous training necessary for entering the world of humans.

To illustrate the importance of child training, I was going to retell the story of a couple who only taught their baby klingon and had it taken away by Social Services (which I sympathize with, as this frequently happened to me on SIMS). I couldn't find the story online, apparently it was some sort of prevarication/myth. (If it's not on GoogleNews, it didn't happen, right?) So I've linked it to a different, equally bizarre, klingon occurence.

Funky Word: Perfidious. It means "treacherous/disloyal," according to Barron's GRE book. Snape's diabolical action was perfidious in every sense of the word. (Go read book 6 and 7 to check veracity).

Smashing Story: A carrier pigeon is faster than internet in South Africa. Basically they tied a data card to a pigeon's leg and sent it to another city, where the information on the card was downloaded. The entire pigeon process took a couple hours (including an hour of flight). Telkom, the internet carrier, had only downloaded 4 percent of the information in this timespan. (This story is a couple weeks old...but so entertaining.)

Quote of the Day:
Joon: He can really cook, can't he?
Benny: Uh, yeah. Although for grilled cheese, I mighta used a wool setting.
Joon: That's what I told him.
Benny: Really? What-what did he use?
Joon: Rayon.
Benny: Mm.
Joon: Silk would have been too soggy. Cotton would have...
Benny: Would have burned it.
Joon: Right. Fortunately, he consulted me before giving it steam. I was four square against it.

–Benny and Joon

This was after a scene where Sam, a quirky Johnny Depp character, makes grilled cheese sandwiches with an iron. It's a terrific movie.


I just realized I never completed my thoughts on children. Basically, two of my roommates are elementary ed majors doing their student hours, I've been volunteering with kids at a local school, and we've all been coming home with "guess what" stories.

Guess what Adolpho did yesterday? He told Ricardo that his (Ricardo's) mom "jiggles." Some sort of "your mom" joke variation? These 4th graders make comments like this and I always want to laugh. I told Adolpho, as sternly as I could, that his joke was inappropriate.

I just need a stick.