I sometimes use a Magic 8 Ball in class. Usually, I will use music and a hot potato style game to give the students something fun to do. When the music stops, the person holding the Magic 8 Ball will have to do whatever task I've set up. Mostly, I use it in grammar sessions and it gives the student a chance to use the new grammar with each other while keeping a sense of randomness (it's not random, I watch and make sure everyone gets a chance to be holding the Magic 8 Ball), so they don't ...

Fairly hectic day today. Started out at 0630 when I woke up with a minor headache. Normally, not a big deal, but today, I had my reading comprehension DLPT. This is my annual Korean test and based on my scores, I get paid up to $2400 extra a year. Reading is my strong suit, though, so I wasn't too worried. If you're a long time reader, or just a back page digger, you'll know that I scored a perfect score on the reading test last year. I took a different new form this year (there are...

I usually listen to the Bob and Tom show on the drive to work. I like the morning laughs. Especially since most of the radio stations around here are lame. Well, I also got some laughs from the commercials this morning. The first was a commercial that was promoting the music from a group named COQ-ROQ. I first laughed because they spelled the name out just like that and I thought it was a funny way to get a potentially offensive name out on the radio. The really funny part was ...

As the title says, I've been fairly busy lately. I actually feel a bit guilty that 4/5 of the articles on my front page have to do with fantasy sports updates! That's just terrible, considering I post them about once a week. I have had plenty to write about. Just haven't. I had duty over the weekend. I had planned on posting then, but when I got in the mood to type, my driver was trying to sleep and I didn't want the clickity-clak to be annoying, so I just read some stuff and commente...

Trying to figure out how to post from the forums to my blog site since JU blogs are down.

just a test to see if i can post to my site from the forums.

My wife woke up a little late for work today. I got up with her and when I asked if there was anything I could do to help her out, she asked me to make coffee and drive her to work. I said OK and headed for the kitchen. Once the coffee was ready, I got one of the car mugs and poured her some coffee. I then looked for the cream and sugar. I don't put any of this stuff in my coffee, so I don't know where it all is sometimes. I found the creamer next to the coffee can in the cupboard and...

I was checking out my referrals for Ironforge is not a safe city! . I got a bunch of referrals from totalgaming.net and society gaming, which I thought was pretty cool. But the referal I got that really surprised me was from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) . I figure it has to do with the use of the word irradiated in my original post, but I can't figure how even that makes sense. Oh, well, it's better than all the referals I got for "peeing in a cup"! ...

I bought my tickets for the vacation on CheapTickets.com. It was a last minute thing and I was able to get a decent deal there. There were two problems with that course of action, though. The first was that I flew four different airlines and none of them were United (with whom I have a frequent flyer account). That wasn't really a big deal to me, but I would have liked to rack up a few miles. The second was that my entire trip home was on America West. These guys were built for chea...

In an email before I left for Cleveland, I had mentioned to one of my friends (Shelley) there that since I had missed the reunion and I would have time on my hands, I'd like to go see an Indians game with my mom. I checked the schedule and saw that they would be in town for the weekend to take on the Reds in the last interleague series of the season. It was being billed as the Battle for Ohio. I decided that Sunday would be a good day to catch a game. In a return email, my friend told me ...

So, I was a week late for the actual reunion. I was still lucky because two of my friends were still able to make time to visit with me. We went to the same restaurant/pub that they had the original reunion at. I got there just minutes ahead of them and circled the place for parking. There didn't seem to be an actual lot for the place, but there was an empty lot across the street, so I parked there. Just as I got to the front door of the place, both of my friends pulled up and honked to ...

So, last Thursday, after resting a few hours and visiting with my mom for a bit, I got into the rental car and drove down to my dad's house. It was about a four hour drive down. When I rented the car, I told them that I wouldn't leave Ohio. This became a bit of a problem because I forgot that I-77 runs into West Virginia a little north of Belpre, OH and that was the way I had directions to go. So, I had to stop in a rest area and figure out what road would connect me from I-77 and Mariett...

I didn't have access to the net for a lot of my vacation. Well, I did, really. I just didn't want to spend too much time glued to a chair in front of a monitor when I could have been visiting with friends and family. So, now I get to play catch up and hopefully my memory holds! This little trip was kind of last moment and as I detailed before, I got the dates messed up. Since it was last minute, my wife couldn't rearrange her schedule to take me to the airport. So, on Tuesday, a buddy...

Over the past few months, I've seen Ironforge become more and more dangerous to the many people that visit it regularly. The first thing I noticed many months ago was the big dwarf made ditch that runs through the entrance area. There are no rails to keep people from being pushed into it! This is a serious safety hazard that the dwarves should address! I nearly broke a leg the first time I fell into it. And I've seen gnomes nearly fall through the holes in the latticework at the bott...

So, a while back I posted about online reunion/alumni services. You can read it here - Online Friend and Alumni Finder Services . One of the things I wrote about was an impending 20 year reunion with the friends I'd attended grade school with. We all went to a Catholic school and had been together from 1st through 8th grades. There was interest in getting together, so some of my old friends went to the trouble to set this up. They contacted a bunch of people, sent out invites, and ...