Over the past couple of days I have caught a couple of interesting news stories coming out of China. Every once-in-a-while, we get the chance to hear some really odd news stories from that part of the world. On Saturday I was watching an English translation of CCTV (Chinese) news. There was a story of some government official (named Bi Yuxi, a highway official) who was convicted of accepting bribes and helping himself to around $360,000 of state funds. A link to a stor...
Whenever baby gets the chance, he picks up the phone and pretends to talk. He loves that thing!
The other day I was at a seminar that was sponsored by the publishing company that makes the textbooks that I use at my school. During the seminar, we had some speakers tell us how to better prepare our students to read and write. It was a reasonably good seminar. Something struck me as funny as I was sitting through the writing workshop. The presenter mentioned that we should teach our students how to differentiate their writing voice depending on the type of writing that t...
Click here for my latest article. The first thing that struck me about tonight's show was "Hey! Bo found some conditioner." But seriously... Tonight's show saw the elimination of the first of the final twelve. Not surprisingly, the bottom three contestants were all women. (As a group, the women are a lot weaker than the men this time out.) Lindsey Cardinale was eventually eliminated, but the bottom three finishers were as such: 3) Jessica Sierra: The first...
Click here for my latest article. I had this article half-written, then my clipboard tipped over and landed on my keyboard. Somehow my article was erased. This represents my "second go." Let's hope that it doesn't happen again. 1960s Night has come and gone, and the field of twelve finalists is looking like a two-horse race. The real interesting competition will be for third place. I wonder which contestant will wind up in that position. On tonight's sh...
My wife and I just finished watching a tape of last night's episode of Hey! Spring of Trivia . Hey is a Japanese variety show where short documentaries are shown about various items of trivia (as sent in by viewers). Following each mini-documentary, a celebrity panel evaluates each bit of trivia by pressing a button that says "hey" (in English it would mean, "really?" or "wow.") The item of trivia that scores the most "Hey"s is the daily winner. During the final segm...
Click here for my latest article Last year I did a little bit of amateur handicapping on American Idol. I gave each contestant odds on how far they'd go. Here goes my shot at this year's batch of contestants. Let's see how my predictions hold up. (I will list the contestants from most- to least- likely to win, plus non-official odds and comments.) It is a lot harder to pick a favorite this year than last year (Fantasia was too easylast year, and this year's field...
Yesterday my friend Andy and his wife Chialing had a baby. Her name is Madelyn. (I hope that I spelled the name right!) She's so cute!
Click here for my latest article The results are in, and the twelve finalists have been chosen. Next week will mark the beginning of the theater/ theme-based shows. My predictions for which four contestants would be eliminated were pretty accurate this time (75%,) with Nikko Smith taking Constantine's place in the list of eliminated performers. I'll tell you: Constantine dodged a bullet again. After three consecutive dismal performances, Constantine made it into the fin...
Click here for my latest article Hey there Idol friends. Tonight's report is going up a little late, as I had to stay at my job until eight o'clock for the last day of parent-teacher conferences for the year. So I got to watch the show on tape tonight. (At least conferences have passed. Yay! -I don't mind talking with the parents, but the day ends up to be a bit of a grind.) On a personal note: I would like to congratulate my best friend Andy and his wife Ch...
Click here for my latest article Tonight's episode of Idol kicks off the last week of studio shows. In a way I am sad, because I actually like the studio shows (where the performers can choose any song they like) better than the theater-based theme shows in the next round. Once again, the men as a group performed wonderfully. By the time the show was half-over, I was wondering whether any of the contestants was actually going to "drop the ball". Eventually there ...
Well it is March! The snow will soon melt, the plants will return to life, robins will return, Spring will be here before we know it, and McDonald's now has Shamrock Shakes. This is our one chance per year to enjoy those yummy mint-flavored shakes. Sometimes a year goes by when I forget about the shakes. Then in April or May I realize my mistake, and promise myself to "get one next year!" Fortunately, I didn't forget this year. I went to get a shake on Thursday nigh...
Hello there readers. I have a few baby pictures to post here, seeing that I haven't in a while. My daily schedule has been busier than usual lately, so I haven't taken as many pictures as before. I got a few on my computer today, so here they are. Like I have written about recently, my son has really taken to the computer. He LOVES the Teletubbies website. Here are a few shots of him playing the "move the bunnies" game. Once he noticed that I was vid...
One of my third-graders wrote a really cute closing paragraph to a paper about penguins. He wrote: Penguins are birds that can not fly. They live in Antarctica. I hope someday I can be one of them. Isn't that cute?
Click here for my latest article After tonight's episode of American Idol, the men's field and the womens' field have each been reduced to eight. One more week before we find out who the final twelve contestants are going to be. Following last week's agonizing results' show, FOX wisely decided to cut back on the histrionics and performances. The results were announced more matter-of-factly, and I believe that tonight's show came off a lot better. It turns out that I was half-right i...