Posts: 659
From: South Korea
Registered: May 2009

posted April 07, 2010 03:23 AM            

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I hate having a job I enjoy doing. Why, you may ask? Well, it's like I get all fired up with ideas and creativity but it's really hard to maintain enthusiasm all day long. At some point you just run out of steam. The spirit is willing but the body is weak.
Like for example at the moment I have to compile "midterm tests". Now I'm a big fan of tests. No I'm not masochistic, just egotistic because I used to do well in tests at school : D However, the tests I have to compile now are pretty challenging ... a) because I can't write in Korean that well so my colleuage (I can NEVER spell that word!) will have to translate. Second, most of the test is picture based, because that's the approach followed at present ... So I have to get pics into the test. I mean actually the ideal English test doesn't have any English in it, you know what I mean? Just pictures and Korean and only for teh grade 5's and grade 6's a few solitary isolated lonely words and sentences. So actually it's not such a big undertaking but it's what you get when you have your wish of not having a Korean co-teacher anymore come true. The point is, I feel doubly illiterate: first, I'm sure somewhere out there are the required textbook pictures on the internet somewhere, but I'm at a loss for how to find them. I know I know I should ask someone but even that is a bother! I mean I can ask some other teachers in the area but they have Korean co-teachers finding, copying and pasting the pics. I was willing to draw the pics myself but apparently that isn't OK. It's gotta be curriculum pics. So, in short, that means I have to photocopy the pictures from the textbook, cut and paste (literally, with scissors and glue). Anyway that actually could be fun but I'm at a time of day where it's NOT fun. !!!
The thing is, and this is why I hate liking my job, tomorrow I'm sure me and the copier will be going at it like mad because I'll be all bouncy bouncy again and think wow I've got such a cool job. Then in the late afternoon Mr. Hyde appears thinking, all this cuteness and fun and pictures is just WAY TOO CUTE and totally beneath me.
Anyway, the weird thing is that this is happening because the teaching of English as a way of letting someone learn how to speak it naturally (which is what the picture method tries to do) clashes with having English as an academic school subject. Actually the whole point of learning with fun pictures and not bothering with reading and writing at first is so that there will be no stress and the student can learn faster and more naturally. However, now the happy method is being employed as an assessment method which is something it wasn't really designed to do. It's not impossible, it's just giving me a headache that's all.

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Be who you are and say what you feel because those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter.

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Posts: 5199
From: Dayton,Ohio USA
Registered: May 2009

posted April 07, 2010 03:19 PM            

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You should breathe now!!
It will be F-I-N-E, and you know this..!

My principal in Jr. high school was actually named Mr. Hyde, you just reminded me of that! LOL!!

*Now you've given me quit the visual of you, and scissors, and paste, and lots of cuss words!!

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Posts: 659
From: South Korea
Registered: May 2009

posted April 07, 2010 07:13 PM            

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Yes well, Gypsee, you got me down pat! As predicted this morning I'm all Mary Poppins again ... the playdough, buttons and string to make "worlds" is ready for the first class ... The bright yellow cartoon hamster mat is in the center of the floor, with bright pink pillows all around. The pictures for the sixth grade are duly copied and organized. I have yet again re-arranged paper and pencils. Songs are ready and waiting on YouTube. Another day begins with freakishly positive fatinkerbell and hundreds of little fairies running around busily organizing everything.
Another day. Another dollar.
Anyway Gypsee I know you know what it's like because I don't think there is a huge difference between a bar full of people in various states of inebriation and an elementary school ... Put it this way, this 5th and 6th grade are pretty sober but they're still feeling the buzz (of childhood I mean). The 3rd and 4th grade are in that emotional state of drunken-ness swinging between tears one moment and hysterical laughter the next and feeling all sensitive and vulnerable and ready to open up. The second grade are philosophical drunks given to occasionally falling off their chairs and crawling around the floor. The first graders cannot stay in their chairs. They alternate between crawling on the floor and turning the place into a mosh-pit. They are totally falling down drunk. And the kindergarten kids... well some of them don't even know their own names, if you know what I mean.

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Be who you are and say what you feel because those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter.

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Posts: 659
From: South Korea
Registered: May 2009

posted April 14, 2010 02:58 AM            

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I'm so busy it's driving me nuts. I've just finished a course on How To Teach English In Korea (for the umpteenth time!), I prepped 'exams', I poured my understanding into absorbing sponge-minds, and now I want a vacation! Why do schools always seem so hectic? Maybe every job is hectic but there's just something about a school ... I don't even know what's happening with Unmoved's love story, I haven't started on AG and Cheese's threads, I don't even have time to read my free daily horoscope! Aaaarrrrrrgggghhhhhhhhh!

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Be who you are and say what you feel because those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter.

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Posts: 659
From: South Korea
Registered: May 2009

posted May 07, 2010 03:13 AM            

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After a week of no kids (they had a mini-break) the place now looks spic and span. Everything is perfect and clean. I think I'll close the classroom up now and leave it as a museum to OCD and on Monday go and teach the kids outside on the jungle gym.

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Be who you are and say what you feel because those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter.

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Posts: 2196
From:
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posted May 07, 2010 04:28 AM            

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OCD...

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Posts: 659
From: South Korea
Registered: May 2009

posted May 12, 2010 03:12 AM            

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Let's see if I can bump this baby onto the 8th page.

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Be who you are and say what you feel because those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter.

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Posts: 659
From: South Korea
Registered: May 2009

posted May 12, 2010 03:15 AM            

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What? Still page 7?
Let's try some video's of me ...
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Be who you are and say what you feel because those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter.

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Posts: 659
From: South Korea
Registered: May 2009

posted May 12, 2010 03:17 AM            

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7Y4MB1etac&feature=related

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Posts: 659
From: South Korea
Registered: May 2009

posted May 12, 2010 03:19 AM            

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... forgot how to embed ... let's find some ballet pics

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Be who you are and say what you feel because those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter.

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Posts: 659
From: South Korea
Registered: May 2009

posted May 12, 2010 03:21 AM            

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Be who you are and say what you feel because those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter.

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Posts: 659
From: South Korea
Registered: May 2009

posted May 12, 2010 03:23 AM            

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Be who you are and say what you feel because those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter.

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Posts: 659
From: South Korea
Registered: May 2009

posted May 12, 2010 03:23 AM            

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Be who you are and say what you feel because those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter.

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Posts: 659
From: South Korea
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posted May 12, 2010 03:30 AM            

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What? Still page seven ... even after shameless self-promotion and twin ballerina's??
OK I guess I'll have to confess ... I'm happy because I think my prayer to become a a ballerina has finally been answered after 32 years .... I have my first ballet student. Yes! A ballet student!! One of the parents from my adult class asked if I'd give her daughter ballet lessons as there is no ballet academy anywhere near this last little outpost ofthe wild wild east. I'm not being facetious ... really this is a big deal for me. When I was five years old I made a vow to God that if he made me a ballerina I'd always do ballet to worship God. Well that was a long time ago and SERIOUSLY I just hate how long some replies take. I neglected to add "prima" before the "ballerina" and to specify that I wanted to be the star on a real ballet stage, not a ballet teacher in the rural Korean countryside ... but one takes what one can get I guess ...
OK now are we on page 8??

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Be who you are and say what you feel because those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter.

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Posts: 659
From: South Korea
Registered: May 2009

posted May 12, 2010 03:31 AM            

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Somebody respond already so that I can get to and past 'unlucky' eight!
Please please ...
Post some nice BIG pics : )

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Be who you are and say what you feel because those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter.

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Posts: 779
From: Adyton
Registered: Jun 2009

posted May 12, 2010 07:51 AM            

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I hope I can be a lucky eight for you. I still have to learn how to post pictures though. I'm glad your ballerina dream is coming true. I've had the same secret dream. I'm just now acknowledging that "prima" side of me. I think I need to hang out with the five years old more often too.

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Posts: 659
From: South Korea
Registered: May 2009

posted May 12, 2010 07:40 PM            

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Posting pics was also a mystery to me mermaid ... in fact it still is cos I'm like a goldfish that keeps forgetting stuff ... you know they say that's how goldfish endure the boredom of a circular bowl ? Swim swim swim o a castle! then swim some more ... 2 second memory all emptied again and swim swim swim o a castle! And so on!! So the point is every time I decide to post pics I've already forgotten how to do it! The ONE important thing I remember though is that you have to go to a website called 'photobucket' and 'join' ... You just need an e-mail address and you can make up your own password and it's free! Yay : D Then you can look for pictures on photobucket OR you can upload pics from your computer (pics you've snapped yourself with a digital cam or scanned in if you have a scanner ... OR pics you've saved onto your computer that you found on the internet). So there's a nice big button that says 'upload video or picture' and you click it and then it lets you select a place on your computer where the picture is and then you click the place and then you click the picture ... and then that picture gets saved on photobucket with special codes that you can use to 'insert' the pic in different places ... there are four options ... and the last one has IMG in the little 'sentence' thingy which stands for image and then that's the one you use ... you copy it and then just paste it into the LindaGoodman site's chat box thingy after you finished typing whatever you wanna type.
Whew ...
I hope that makes sense. I am technophobe nr one in the world ... mostly I just take wild guesses and click stuff and sometimes stuff works .. Yikes! OK let's see where we are now in terms of numbers ....

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Be who you are and say what you feel because those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter.

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Posts: 659
From: South Korea
Registered: May 2009

posted May 12, 2010 07:46 PM            

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Nooooo! Still on 7 .... I need fans. I'm gonna call rent-a-stalker or something

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Be who you are and say what you feel because those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter.

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Posts: 1317
From: meet me in montauk
Registered: Apr 2009

posted May 13, 2010 06:08 AM            

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ive never really seen you around LL...you sound pretty cool, and are leading an interesting life. i had reading most of your thread and enjoyed it. i dig your energy.

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Posts: 2196
From:
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posted May 13, 2010 10:13 AM            

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You called for fans?

We'll here I am!

Yeah, let's take this mofo to page 8. So, I will just post stupid things. Ok?

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posted May 13, 2010 10:25 AM            

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Oh and about my recent heartbreak...

I have taken to getting a nice rebound guy to get me out of my funk. It means nothing, I don't want a relationship with this person, but I do need distractions of nights out (and nights in), just to get my mind off Aries!

I know, I should be healing in a more "mature" way, but I don't care how, as long as it gets the job done!

So, this new guy is a Saggie. He is the randiest, funniest and just interesting all round guy. I guess, I am going through something hectic because I never try to make myself feel better with another man, but then I have never been this heart-broken before.

It all sucks really, but I am going to come out at the end of this feeling better.

I have a feeling that Saggie is going to be quite the experience because I am doing something new. I shouldn't be seeing anyone in this state, but I am going to. I refuse to feel sorry for myself and wither in a pit of dark tears. I REFUSE!

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posted May 13, 2010 10:37 AM            

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So, where did I meet this person?

We met ONLINE! Yeah, I said it! I didn't take mind of him until my heartbreak. Well, actually, we never spoke for a long time until one day he just started talking to me. We're from the same "neighbourhood" and we are meeting next month in a public place.

Hahahaha

How low have I gone?

Somebody, tell me?!?!?!

This is what I have succumbed to? Online dating? There is nothing wrong with it, I guess. My friend is getting married to someone she met online. So... There is nothing wrong, but I guess I have always had negative connotations to it because I am weirded out a little. So, I guess, this experience has had its purpose of humbling me and bringing me down my self-righteous path to see that it doesn't matter how people meet. Right?

I am just afraid that he might be some sex fiend or worse, a killer. Anyway, so we will meet in a public area first. I want to suss him out, and on that first date, I WILL have a friend of mine watching from a distance to make sure that I am safe.

LOL

Anyway...

This is by far the craziest thing I have ever done!

It's funny though.

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posted May 13, 2010 10:40 AM            

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Hmmm... seems to still be page 7.

I'll be back!

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Posts: 659
From: South Korea
Registered: May 2009

posted May 14, 2010 03:30 AM            

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Hi

Writesomething

I really like your username

I keep a low profile on Lindaland because

a) I know next to nothing about astrology

(but I'm into it big time nevertheless)

(and catching up I hope)

(like for instance I know on June 8 my sun)

(will be square)

(the Uranus Jupiter conjunction)

(said conjunction which will be in my 12th house)

(but I don't know how to interpret that exactly)

(anyway I wouldn't have known about the conjunction)

(if I didn't read LL stuff)

(I read more than I post)

b) I'm quite busy usually

so I don't have a lot of time to write

more's the pity

Unmoved

I'm super-glad you're moving on

You're worth it

Saggie doesn't look like a serial killer

but you never know

Mind you you and I met online

And I consider you one of my bestest bestest friends

in

the

whole

wide

world!!!!

!!!!!!!!!

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Be who you are and say what you feel because those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter.

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Posts: 659
From: South Korea
Registered: May 2009

posted May 14, 2010 03:31 AM            

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... this is the longest page seven ever!!!

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Be who you are and say what you feel because those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter.

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