(no subject)
I finally succeeded in fixing my compass necklace (the one I bought on Etsy which fell apart literally within 10 minutes of my putting it on for the first time -- luckily, the seller refunded my money) and wore it out into the wide world for the first time today. Within 20 minutes of my leaving the house, two different people had come up to me to get a closer look and asked me about the necklace. I'm not sure if people liked it, exactly -- though I definitely do -- but it was certainly a conversation piece. One woman just asked disbelievingly, "Is that what it looks like?" I told her yes, and that if I got lost in the woods on my way home, I could just take off the necklace and get my bearings. She looked at me kind of funny. But every time I saw it in the mirror, the necklace made me happy.
I met with my Berkeley READS student for the first time today (after the debacle two weeks ago), and she's very sweet and very young. She's 21, but she just a couple months ago got her high school diploma, and she's now in community college, working toward transferring to a 4-year school. Her difficulty is that she writes like she talks (using words like "cause" instead of "because," for example) -- which is a common problem, regardless of your background -- and it's compounded by the fact that Black English seems to be her first language. So we talked for quite a bit -- I was feeling shy, but she talked a lot about her life, her family, her goals, etc., which was great -- and I got a bit of a feel for what kind of stuff we'll want to work on. I meet her for the first actual tutoring session next week.
In other news, my beloved iPhone will be leaving my hands in June (as it is only on loan to me until its service contract expires), and so I've been planning to buy an iPod Touch afterward, so that I could still play the games I like, use the apps I've bought, etc. But then I borrowed Shannon's iPad last night to read some fic without having to sit in front of the computer all evening, and I kinda fell in love with it. It was so comfortable to use! So now I'm considering getting an iPad, instead of the Touch. It's considerably more expensive, but it would give me all the things I want the Touch for ... plus the ability to actually read significant amounts of text comfortably. (Maybe even keep text files of some sort? I haven't researched that yet.) It wouldn't be as convenient for taking places -- it won't fit in my pocket, after all -- but it would still be possible, and not too difficult, to just pop it in my backpack, which I usually have with me anyway. I've got some money saved up, but certainly not enough to buy a new iPad. So I'm in the market for a used one. Something under $275 (the amount I currently have saved). So if anyone knows of someone wanting to sell such a thing, let me know! I'm pretty excited about it. If I can't find an iPad within my price range, I can still get a Touch, but I'm hopeful.
Tonight we've had some very impressive thunder and lightning, which seems to be freaking Lucy out. At a very young age, she was traumatized by an earthquake (and the heavy books that fell as a result), and she's been skittish ever since. Poor baby. Even if you just move too quickly around her, she hits the ground like she's expecting books to fall from the sky.
I'm totally into Spike/Xander fic right now, though I also spent some time today on YouTube, checking out Spike/Buffy videos, looking for a clip of Wesley's incredible death scene (Why has no one put this on YouTube? It's one of my favorite tv scenes ever!), looking for clips of Connor and Angel from "Not Fade Away" (such as when Connor admits that he now remembers his past, and that Angel is his father, and insists on helping with the world-ending stuff -- I couldn't find any of this, either.), etc. The best stuff I found, actually, was about Andrew, especially his video from the BtVS episode "Storyteller." Pretty hysterical stuff. Oh, and Angel and Wesley dancing:
Ha! I think I actually like Wesley's stiffly spastic dancing even better than Angel's dorky discoing. Wesley looks like he's actually going to injure himself, or perhaps someone else, with his rigid thrashing. I love when he actually falls down.
I met with my Berkeley READS student for the first time today (after the debacle two weeks ago), and she's very sweet and very young. She's 21, but she just a couple months ago got her high school diploma, and she's now in community college, working toward transferring to a 4-year school. Her difficulty is that she writes like she talks (using words like "cause" instead of "because," for example) -- which is a common problem, regardless of your background -- and it's compounded by the fact that Black English seems to be her first language. So we talked for quite a bit -- I was feeling shy, but she talked a lot about her life, her family, her goals, etc., which was great -- and I got a bit of a feel for what kind of stuff we'll want to work on. I meet her for the first actual tutoring session next week.
In other news, my beloved iPhone will be leaving my hands in June (as it is only on loan to me until its service contract expires), and so I've been planning to buy an iPod Touch afterward, so that I could still play the games I like, use the apps I've bought, etc. But then I borrowed Shannon's iPad last night to read some fic without having to sit in front of the computer all evening, and I kinda fell in love with it. It was so comfortable to use! So now I'm considering getting an iPad, instead of the Touch. It's considerably more expensive, but it would give me all the things I want the Touch for ... plus the ability to actually read significant amounts of text comfortably. (Maybe even keep text files of some sort? I haven't researched that yet.) It wouldn't be as convenient for taking places -- it won't fit in my pocket, after all -- but it would still be possible, and not too difficult, to just pop it in my backpack, which I usually have with me anyway. I've got some money saved up, but certainly not enough to buy a new iPad. So I'm in the market for a used one. Something under $275 (the amount I currently have saved). So if anyone knows of someone wanting to sell such a thing, let me know! I'm pretty excited about it. If I can't find an iPad within my price range, I can still get a Touch, but I'm hopeful.
Tonight we've had some very impressive thunder and lightning, which seems to be freaking Lucy out. At a very young age, she was traumatized by an earthquake (and the heavy books that fell as a result), and she's been skittish ever since. Poor baby. Even if you just move too quickly around her, she hits the ground like she's expecting books to fall from the sky.
I'm totally into Spike/Xander fic right now, though I also spent some time today on YouTube, checking out Spike/Buffy videos, looking for a clip of Wesley's incredible death scene (Why has no one put this on YouTube? It's one of my favorite tv scenes ever!), looking for clips of Connor and Angel from "Not Fade Away" (such as when Connor admits that he now remembers his past, and that Angel is his father, and insists on helping with the world-ending stuff -- I couldn't find any of this, either.), etc. The best stuff I found, actually, was about Andrew, especially his video from the BtVS episode "Storyteller." Pretty hysterical stuff. Oh, and Angel and Wesley dancing:
Click to viewHa! I think I actually like Wesley's stiffly spastic dancing even better than Angel's dorky discoing. Wesley looks like he's actually going to injure himself, or perhaps someone else, with his rigid thrashing. I love when he actually falls down.