Monday, November 24, 2008

The Magic Kingdom...day 3 (a much belated post!)

O.K. When I orginally wrote this post, I was in between park time at Disneyland. I was unable to post because my laptop crapped out on me! Oh well. Here is where I have been, and the stuff after the elipise is how it all worked out for the week.

What a great day! We are all pretty tired. I have to carry a 5 or 7 year old to the car each night. They go until it is time to get on the tram but then, blamo, put a fork in 'em ladies and gentle...they are done! Seven year olds go "boneless" when they are asleep, and some how they seem to weigh a heck of alot more. Well, we spent today in the California Adventure section of Disneyland. We got on the new ride, "Toy Story Midway Mania". It is basically like a giant video game. Needless to say I really liked it and destroyed the scores of everyone else that came with us. I topped out at 174,000 points. Yeah video games and rollercoaster rides! Their combination is a fantastic pairing!...

All in all, our time in the Magic Kingdom was pretty fantastic. Are we tired? Absolutely. But a happy tired. Some of the highlights were seeing the nightly fireworks show on different nights from different places in the park...Riding the Haunted Mansion ride that gets redone for the holiday season as The Nightmare Before Christmas ride with Jack Skelingtons and all...Breakfast Churros...Finding "hidden Mickey's" on Pirates of the Carribean ride...getting to ride California Screaming, their boardwalk style rollercoaster, with my 7 year old Gabby. It was her first BIG coaster and she rode it several times, hands up, all the way...going into the park at night, in the rain when droves of people are leaving because of the rain...spending time with my wife and kids just playing and having fun...Seeing the castle all lit up with Christmas lights everywhere; all very cool things. The low lights on the other hand were all horribly annoying...Driving in the fog for 4 hours their...46 milies in 3 hours going over the grape vine...breaking our borrowed stroller before we ever got to the park...aches and pains of not being that young anymore...knowing that your children are getting further away from being children everyday. Yeah, with the good stuff comes a bit of seriousness too. So in retrospect, we had fun, Thanks Mickey & Walt!!!

Saturday, November 22, 2008

From the Magic Kingdom...


Hey, I thought that it would be fun to continue updating the blog site for those of you that just happen to venture online over the holiday break...as a matter of fact, I am going to make a one time offer of xtra credit to those of you who leave a posted response attached to this blog entry! Not bad for minor amount of work. So let me know what class you are from and your name by the end of your post so that proper credit can be given to those who have happened upon it.
On to the blog...
This year my family and I decide to throw a bunch of money away on getting annual passes for the Disneyland Theme Park in Anaheim. Honestly, in spite of it being a significant amount to drop for going to a very touristy place, it has been a good time. The kids get all freaked out about the trip whenever we bring it up and that in and of itself is a fantastic thing. Our journey started today at 1:30 am...that's right, night driving. If I have learned one thing in taking several trips to Disneyand it is that you do not want to make that trip during the daytime hours with 5 children if you can help it. Every new town that you happen upon has it's own set of pitfalls and time sucking traps that keep you off of the road. Things like going potty, eating, buying snacks, coffee, gas, car sickness and the list goes on and on. The night drive is a dream! Everyone sleeps (with the exception of the driver) and usually wakes up near LA. It just feels like a shorter trip all the way around...Not this year. This year we hit fog right outside of Merced that lasted for 3-4 hours. It didn't let up until it became burned off by the morning sun. We were also battling some minor car problems that I think will hold off until we get home. So a little worse for wear, we pulled into the hotel parking lot at 9:30 this morning. Our day promises to be fun filled and highly eventfull!...
OK, when I started this post it was this morning, now I am ready to go to bed and just d.i.e. . I am soooo tired. We hit up the park pretty hardcore and rode lots of fun rides. A great first day.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Post-Birthday moment....


Hey, yesterday was my Birthday. Yea Me! I guess that it is a little silly to cheer for having carved out another year on planet Earth. I have to say that I don't think much about birthdays anymore. When you are a kid, they are fantastic. Atleast mine were. My parents, even during the divorced years, always made my birthdays important. I didn't see it then (what kid ever does?!?) but they always made me feel special. Maybe it was the lighting of the candles on a cake. That soft glow of promises that parents make to children about what their lives are supposed to be like. The anticipation of knowing that their would be a present that maybe I didnt't deserve but that I would still recieve none the less. It was always a miraculous thing to wake up and know that it was "your day", maybe not in the litteral sense that it doesn't actually belong to you, but that you coming into existence has had some significant impact on the course of the universe. Yeah, it's a big idea, I know, but I just can't help it. Every little life in it's own particular orbit sheds its goodness on the spaces and people around it. I haven't really felt that way for a long time...until yesterday.



If I had to name an ambassador for my birthday,it would have to be my wife and 5 children. You see, I went to work and got a few "Happy Birthdays!" from staff and students. When I got home, I really just wanted to sit down, I was beat. My children, according to my wife, had be making birthday trinkets for me off and on during the day. They even went so far as to purchase a few gifts from the dollar store. The youngest, Lauren, at four years old made me a card with a cute little heart guy on it and wrote "I love you daddy." and "Happy Birthday". Though they were not entire correct in their spelling, I got the drift. Gabrielle, at 7, made me some animals out of clay. They were not yet finished, but she showed me her work thus far. Lots of detail and small pieces! The nine year old, Avalon, had mom take her to the store so that she could buy me just the right coffee mug. I am an incurable coffe-holic. All times of the day and never anything less that 2/3 to a full pot in one setting. She even found a good enough bargin to throw in some hot coco so that I could make "Coco-Mofo" a delicious blend of coffee and instant chocolate. Haven, my oldest girl at 11 didn't really get me anything, instead, she helped everyone else pick out their gifts and found lots of good options to help the little ones choose from. Let's face it, being the oldest girl in a family of kids is no picnic. She is her own gift as far as I am concerned! The last, my oldest progene, Crosby didn't really "do" anything for me either, but his birthday is a few days before mine. He tells me good kid jokes anyhow, and that is kind of "gifty" in itself. My wife made this fantastic dinner. It was grilled chicken with a lemon-pepper rub and tequilla-agavea baste, mashed potatoes and corn. She also baked a pumpkin pie for desert. It was fantastic! Just supper inventive and really really good.

I guess the point of all of this is really just to share how my day went. It wasn't bad, what I kind of anticipate it to be, but quite the opposite. When I was a kid, I wanted the parties with all of the friends over, the funny hats and favors. A few hours distraction with people that you really cared about. The best things remain the same no matter what your age is, time spent with people who you really care about. Thanks "36" it's be fun, see you in the setting sun. "38", I will see you next year!
P

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

NaNo WriMo...Week 3 a.k.a. "Bring the Pain"

If you haven't hit a sticking point yet, I envy you. If you have and you want to kill me for giving this assignment, you can't...your novel is not done yet and neither is mine. I think that I had a much harder time finding time to write this week. We have a vacation right around the corner and that means that everything at work/school is in a mad dash to be completed. Really, who wants to be on a Turkey trip and then have to sit down to a desk full of essays to grade? Not I said the little red hen, not I.... For those of you struggling to reach your daily word counts, check out Dr. Wickeds writing lab blog site. Nasty little writing engine that will erase your work if you stop writing for too long. Very fun stuff!

Dr. Wicked's Writing Lab

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

In over my head....

O.K., I know that it is never cool to admit when you are being slammed around, but I just have to get this out because, lets face it, sometimes you just have to take your lumps in order to get stuff done. In spite of the chaos, I am really excited by what is going on in all of my classes. Keep up the good work. If you feel in over your head, your not alone; we will fight to the surface and swim for the proverbial shore, together! HUZZAH!

Find your people to get the lowdown and the info you need,
P.

Creative Writing

I just want to start with how incredibly proud I am of you for undertaking this insane task of writing a novel in 30 days. You can do it! You can do it! I really just fell into this particular assignment with little abandon, several of you leading the charge (you know who you are!). We are 5 days into the drafting process, so stick with it. Set those reminders up to write each day in order to hit your word count amounts, and don't let up! I look forward to reading you excerpts and discussing how you are crafting the work into what you want it to be. Believe me, you can do it! If you haven't signed up at Nanowrimo, you are going to need to do that soon. Now quite wastign time and get to crackin.
P.



Freshmen English:

It is hard to believe that we are almost done with the first semester. You guys are really progressing along well. We are in the throes of Romeo and Juliet, and I beleieve that most of you are enjoying the play so far. I thought that it would be to your benifit to post 2 items here; the questions to the play for each Act, and the notes for the play in their entireity. If for some reason you are sick and need either of them, they will be here for the month. Be sure to purchase your dover copy of the play for $1.00 so that you can write in your own copy, take notes, highlight, etc! Besides, soda rots your teeth and guts, and who doesn't like Shakespeare ;)
P;)

Here is a link to the No Fear Shakespeare site. To the best of my knowledge, they have online access to the text FOR FREE! Thought that it could be of some use to you.
No Fear Shakespeare





Junior English:

With end of the first semester in sight, it is really hard to believe the you are only a few short months away till the Xmas break. Hang in there! John Grisham's A Painted House has been filling our days of late. I figured that this would be a great read to take into the break. It's all story and not quite as pensive as the Romantacists and early American Lit that we had been reading. Please be sure to turn in your Outlines for the 3 Ring Venn Diagram essays on Friday 11/7with the final draft due on 11/14. If you are having trouble turning the corner in your paper and making sense out of the whole thing come by and see me. I am always happy to spend some time helping folks workout ideas. It thought that it would be a good idea to post a few items here incase you wanted to make your own copies or need to make your own written copies at your lesiure. At your disposal are the Q's for Painted House (I will have to continually update this over the course of the novel, so check back for more chapter Q's soon!), the slide guide that I gave out in class.



Monday, November 3, 2008

Venn Diagrams for Romantic Lit

hey, this is the outline form for the 3 ring Venn Diagram. If you have questions, email me at the school adress. Please come and see me if you need help!
cperez@oakdale.k12.ca.us


Junior Research Paper
Outline
Introduction paragraph
Hook:


Elaboration:


Thesis Statement:



Body 1: First Circle (Story to Story):
Topic Sentence (Convert Question into Topic Sentence):



Elaboration on Topic Sentence:



Intro to the Quote:



Quote:



Commentary:



Commentary:



Transition:



Quote:



Comment:



Comment:



Body 2: Second Circle (Story to Real World):
Topic Sentence (Convert Question into Topic Sentence):



Elaboration on Topic Sentence:



Intro to the Quote:



Quote:



Commentary:



Commentary:



Transition:



Quote:



Commentary:



Commentary:

Body 3: Third Circle (Story to Real World)
Topic Sentence (Convert Question into Topic Sentence):



Elaboration on Topic Sentence:



Intro to the Quote:



Quote:



Commentary:



Commentary:



Transition:



Quote:



Commentary:



Commentary:



Conclusion: