The Comps are turning my brain into MUSH...I LOST MY CELL PHONE...and I can't even follow the ring because I MUTED IT!!! So if you find it please tell me!!!!

Alberto enchilada? yes, slightly disturbing...hahaha...that funny
Mexi-can!
PS- I'm not responsible for any of this...Joy was apparently fighting to get the sheets to wash...and well there you have it...a wrapped up dormilon!

Umm...for some reason, I can't get over this...the funny thing is that Matthew generally does this much higher up on a light post...

Debbie's crazy happy about those comps handouts!!

Debbie:"Thanks soooo much guys!"

Shortly after I had a near heart attack because Matthew walked around the corner unexpected...from Georgia...

Happy green sibs
Joy and Matthew
Saturday at Lake Alice

VIVA REAL MADRID!!!
Matt y Erin en Madrid juntos, que bonito el amor...can't wait to hear your Spanish Matt and your marcha stories Erin...I bet you didn't get your camera stolen by a fugly prostitute!

If freezing cold nights and a lack of appropriate clothing were my only concerns...

I went to the CUNY MOO: what a trip. Cyber MOO space is a freaking jungle to the untrained MOO-guest. Obviously my inexperience with the commands plays a large part in my feeling this way, but being in a strange MOO, not knowing anyone and less than comfortable with the commands was tricky. I definitely felt much more comfortable in the UF MOO – I was with my classmates, the MOO atmosphere was familiar, I felt less inhibited…so what does this mean?
I can understand how once you get involved in a community of MOO-ers and familiar with the commands/‘terrain’, this could potentially be a useful tool to assist L2 learners.

With regards to the level of the L2 participants, I believe it would have to be beginner advanced or intermediate in order to participate actively and truly enjoy the experience.
I was in an ESL MOO and struggling to not get too frustrated about being trapped in one area and so I think that some command over the L2 would be highly beneficial.

In a MOO, I would expect that FL students navigate the MOO with a focus on seeking out dialogue/communicative exchange with fellow FL participants.

I’m not sure that I personally would implement this type of activity into the FL classroom as I can’t fully justify its value yet, but I would be willing to further investigate the advantages and disadvantages.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!!!!!
March 29th, 2006
THE BIG ?-?!!! Uhhh I mean forty-, or fifty uh, or whatever...
tee hee...anyway:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Have a great day!!
Love,
Kate

Kate Price
TIFLE
Dr. Lord
Mini Project 2: Vocabulary Blog
In preparation for this mini project, I was thinking about what CMC activity I might possibly incorporate into the beginning level II Spanish class that I teach (SPN 1131) and what areas are in dire need of attention. In a class like SPN 1130 or 1131 at UF, each chapter vocabulary receives one in-class day of instruction, and then of course it is incorporated into the grammar and lessons for the rest of the chapter. However, students have often expressed to me their dismay with the monotonous task of learning vocabulary at home and asked what they could do to better learn it on their own.
This CMC activity – a student vocabulary blog activity – is meant to help the students study and practice their chapter vocabulary after the in-class vocabulary lesson. Students will vocabulary blog in an asynchronous yet creative and communicative manner in the target language with classmates where meaning can be negotiated to some degree. It will also, hopefully, foster a greater interest in the vocabulary…or at least force the students to bond with their textbooks while blogging.
Assuming the mini project were to be carried out in my section of SPN 1131 at UF, the project would function as follows:
The vocabulary covered in this project would come from the chapters studied in the course textbook for the semester, Puntos de Partida.
The teacher would maintain an on-line blog such as www.blogger.com and students would be required to create their own personal blogs.
Students would be placed into groups of four and have to choose a group name collectively (based on vocabulary from the textbook), which would then be the main title of their blog plus their name i.e.: Las chuletas chulas – Blog de Jenny.
In-class chapter vocabulary lesson comes before any blogging. This is the introduction to the new vocabulary and first preparation for the blog assignment.
Students would then go to the teacher’s blog after the introduction of each new chapter and read a list of questions pertaining to the vocabulary i.e.: 1. ¿Qué haces para llevar una vida sana?. The students would then choose a question and elaborate a short response (3-5 sentences) in the target language on his/her personal blog. The focus is to create a personal response that incorporates the vocabulary.
The students are also responsible for creating one spin-off question in the target language for their group-mates. Each member of the group is then responsible for responding to one group member’s question and including chapter vocabulary in the response.
This vocabulary blog activity would take place with every new chapter throughout an entire semester and each activity must be completed before the start of a new chapter.
The goals of this project are to practice the vocabulary and individual writing skills in context while responding to the teacher/student’s questions, to creatively dialogue using the vocabulary and to negotiate meaning when necessary.
In addition to the semester long project tasks of vocabulary blogging, there would also be two follow up activity projects: a mid-semester vocabulary blog composition (i.e. covering chapters 8-11) and a final vocabulary blog composition (chapter 12-16). Several broad topics would be provided by the teacher for these compositions and the students would have to integrate a certain quantity of the covered vocabulary in context. These two compositions would be graded by the teacher on content, grammar and vocabulary under a different grading rubric than the vocabulary blogging rubric. These compositions should reinforce the importance of vocabulary acquisition and correct grammatical usage for communicative competence.
The grading of the vocabulary blogging would depend upon creativity and vocabulary content totaling 6% of the final grade and the blog compositions would be worth 2% each and graded similarly to an SPN 1131 composition but with a focus on the successful integration of Spanish vocabulary.
The ultimate goal of this CMC project is to provide the students with a unique and fairly autonomous outlet to practice vocabulary and negotiate meaning outside of class. The students will be required to complete an anonymous questionnaire at the end of the semester providing feedback regarding the project.

Queridisima Raquelilla,
I stole your foto and posted it here so I could specifically blog about how much I miss you and can't wait to see you...hopefully soon...of course if you come back to EEUU then you must finally make a visit to see me...as much as I love Texas, I mean come on, everything is bigger in Texas...I want to show you around Florida or Georgia!! Bueno guapisima, I love you, y'all have fun over there in Madrid and say Hi to the fam! (Honestly...I wouldn't even recognize Michael and Ana all grown up!) VIVA EL CACHONDEO ESPANOL!

Bistro should have paid us for this add!
hahahaha
Dave and Kate, March 2006
Dave maybe you should come visit more often... next time we'll film a commercial?

Oscar Wilde...that crazy Irish dandy said:

"You must not find symbols in everything you see. It makes life impossible."
-- “Salome”

"People who count their chickens before they are hatched, act very wisely, because chickens run about so absurdly that it is impossible to count them accurately."
-- Letter from Paris, dated May 1900

Urban living turtle style...

I had my first Comps nightmare...eek! All 5 of us were in this pesadilla. At least we were together right?!
It wasn't soooo bad...I'm not scerrrrrred...(give me another week though and...)

My Mom confirms, yes, I can be tenacious...hmmm...

An old but interesting article: "To Haiti, With Love and Squalor" by Mark Danner (the New York Times 1991).

This morning as I was fighting desperately to stay in bed, a strange breeze came through the room...a warm, sweet breeze. I thought of those mornings waking up in Petionville, looking at the coconuts that had fallen to the ground in the yard after the evening rain - and power outage(s), watching Rosalind cook up an evening meal for her family as she tried to convince me that I must meet her handsome son, walking to the corner grocery store by Dad's office, alone, just so I could try my mangled french/kreyol and talk with people...I thought of that day I went for a drive with Dad and a few Mexicans to visit a cell tower and the tire went in the middle of nowhere so we hung out in 40 degree weather chatting and changing the tire...and the day Marie needed to run some errands, and she knew how badly I wanted to go to the market in Port-au-Prince for some bandanas...so we detoured and she took me...Eric zoomed through the heavy traffic flow like a pro...tap tap after tap tap...I read the painted trucks with religious fervor as Marie told me stories of how no one would dare mess with her on a tap tap or they'd regret it...and that's the damn truth!
I then thought of that one friday I was headed to a beach outside of Port-au-Prince with a friend, whose status on the island I was unaware of, that is... until the police pulled us over for no real reason and then checked the registration on the large gun that was offered up from beneath the driver's seat. "Protection"...It was election time...not a good day for traveling...the police warned us to come back to town before dark...or at least that was the translation I was given. Along the shore we ate salted green mango that we'd picked up at a local stand on the way...and then of course my mind traveled to that night I went out with the son and daughter of my Dad's boss...big mistake...HUGE...not only did we wind up at the Crystal Palace where, yes, they were playing merengue and salsa, but everyone neglected to tell me that it was the local watering hole for the prostitutes/scummy men looking for prostitutes, NO...I figured that out ALL on my own as I entered into conversation with a lovely Dominican girl whose Dominican pimp asked me how much it would cost him to HAVE ME FOR THE NIGHT...I ordered another drink and promptly left the bar area without so much as an Adios...
I have so many other memories...but these are the ones that came reeling through my mind this morning as that breeze passed through the room. I'm sure I smiled and maybe even laughed before I got up and started the day.

SCORPIO
Scorpio is the eighth Sign of the Zodiac, and you shouldn't take that lightly. You shouldn't take Scorpios lightly, either. Those born under this Sign are dead serious in their mission to learn about others. There's no fluff or chatter for Scorpios, either: these folks will zero in on the essential questions, gleaning the secrets that lie within. Scorpios concern themselves with beginnings and endings, and are unafraid of either; they also travel in a world which is black and white and has little use for gray. The curiosity of Scorpios is immeasurable, which may be why they are such adept investigators. These folks love to probe and know how to get to the bottom of things. The fact that they have a keen sense of intuition certainly helps.
It's the Scorpion which symbolizes Scorpios, and it's no accident. Much like the Scorpion would rather kill itself than be killed, those born under this Sign are the ones who are in ultimate control of their destiny. It is life on the Scorpion's terms, too, since these folks promote their agenda (they are quite the executives) and see to it that things go forward. Others may find this overbearing (it can be) and even self-destructive, but that's the beauty of the Scorpion: these folks have tremendous regenerative powers, much like the literal Scorpion can lose its tail and promptly grow a new one. Fearless Scorpions rarely lose, per se, they just keep on going, since they are stubborn and determined to succeed (this Scorpio trait is in keeping with the Fixed Quality assigned to this Sign). Scorpios work as hard as they do so they can someday sit back and feel satisfied with themselves. These folks are intense, passionate and filled with desire. They're also complex and secretive, so don't expect to get much out of them, lest they become suspicious and exit stage left. It's best not to bet against Scorpios, either, since these folks are surprisingly resourceful.

Matthew and this poster boy:

Twins separated at birth?

Dunno...eerie eh?!

Dando una vuelta por Madrid...

“Well I am certainly wiser than this man. It is only too likely that neither of us has any knowledge to boast of; but he thinks that he knows something which he does not know, whereas I am quite conscious of my ignorance. At any rate it seems that I am wiser than he is to this small extent, that I do not think that I know what I do not know.” (Socrates, Plato’s Apology)

“As a flower is beautiful, brilliant of hue and full of fragrance too, even so fruitful is the well-spoken word of one who practices it.” (Dhammapad)

"Yes, I'm a Price...what does that mean? Trouble, trouble, trouble..."

Keisha being all serious and stuff!

Is Keisha not the most beautiful little girl you've ever seen in you're life!? OMG! Love my sister!!

Can you imagine living next to this?
Alberta, Canada

In case Katie's Dad decides to delete my post, since he banned me...LOL....
My response to his GO GATORS (yes, he is a 'gator'...more like a gator traitor):
I wrote:
GO GATORS...that is...those who still remember what it is like to think and respect personal POV difference....You are a sad excuse for a Gator.History and historical semantics eh? British subjects my ass....I am a 'British subject' through commonwealth and yet I consider myself very much so a Canadian.You have proved yourself Katie's Dad...but you don't belong to the gator nation that I know...

Natalia, Kate, Alberto at a lil fiesta...

Kate and Shasta getting a little Mardi Gras activity in...

What is there to do in Prince Edward Island you ask?

1. Cross a super huge bridge to get to the birthplace of CDN confederacy...
2. Go to COW's for the best ice cream you've ever tasted in your life...
3. Cross the entire island in 3 seconds and visit Lucy Maud Montgomery's house to live out your Anne of Green Gables childhood memories...
4. Eat potatoes...then eat good ole' authentic PEI fish and chips
5. Steal a potatoe or two...for the road, why not eh?!
6. Walk along the very impressive orangy-red sandy beaches...
7. Eat more ice cream at the COW's on the other side of the island at the boardwalk in Cavendish...
8. Cross the island again and make a game out of how many lighthouses you can find before you get back to the bridge...
9. Almost done....take pictures of the bridge because...
10. You are about to pay a big sum of money to get off the island via the bridge and you may never go back!

Pretty clever tourism PEI...it's free to cross the bridge BUT you have to pay to get off the island!!

Is this picture freaking tourism Nova Scotia or what? How many CDN flags can you find?!

Halifax 2005

Well, Keisha expressed her discontent with my foto selection of her crazy morning hair...yes...she wants a better picture to represent her beauty.
She's 5. LOL....Dad, get on that and send me some more freaking pictures of Val and Keisha pronto por favor?!

Speaking of gifts, I already gave my Mum a copy of Joseph Heller's Catch-22...it's one of my favourite novels. That Yossarian, he's tragically funny. My Dad is next on that list too, if he hasn't already read it.

Excerpt from Catch-22:

"Do you know how long a year takes when it's going away?" Dunbar repeated to Clevinger. "This long." He snapped his fingers. "A second ago you were stepping into college with your lungs full of fresh air. Today you're an old man."
"Old?" asked Clevinger with surprise. "What are you talking about?"
"Old."
"I'm not old."
"You're inches away from death every time you go on a mission. How much older can you be at your age? A half minute before that you were stepping into high school, and an unhooked brassiere was as close as you ever hoped to get to Paradise. Only a fifth of a second before that you were a small kid with a ten-week summer vacation that lasted a hundred thousand years and still ended too soon. Zip! They go rocketing by so fast. How the hell else are you ever going to slow down?" Dunbar was almost angry when he finished.
"Well, maybe it is true," Clevinger conceded unwillingly in a subdued tone. "Maybe a long life does have to be filled with many unpleasant conditions if it's to seem long. But in that event, who wants one?"
"I do," Dunbar told him.
"Why?" Clevinger asked.
"What else is there?"

I wanted to comment, last week I went to see Howard Zinn speak...the American historian was very charismatic and raised some interesting points. I enjoyed Howard Zinn's talk very much. A People's History of the United States will be the next present I get my Dad and Mum for some leisure reading.

but then she became the luna luna to hang with the sun and stars...

Once upon a time there was a Canadian gypsy...

It's like the people who pick the daily Chinese proverb have been watching me or something!!! What's up with that?!

Today's Chinese Proverb:
"Wisdom is attained by learning when to hold one's tongue."

Today's Quote:
Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
-- Kahlil Gibran, from The Prophet

3 lovely TIFLE ladies:

Maria, Kate and Laurie

representin Montreal, the T dot and Boston!!

Keisha's got great morning hair, just like her big sister! tee hee

Well, let me just say that it is a whole other world out there in Blogland. My little bubble burst today when I read, instead of skimming, some articles on a certain blog. When we started this whole technology blog quest...it seemed so fun, and it is, but...I forgot that practically anyone can have a blog, which means that they can post whatever content they want...hence the bursting of the bubble. Today I was reminded that I'm not always going to like what other people think or believe in. In fact, I might just down right think it sucks. and this is my blog. and that is there blog. my utopic vision of happy fun perfect blogland crumbled. end of story.
On an upnote, I think Law is a mighty fine career. Human Rights and Immigration.

Fer, Patricia, Kate, Nayi e Iris en casa.

Majadahonda 2004

Matthew is a frisbee super freak!
Is it abnormal to jump this high? For real...