Jun. 18th, 2008

conuly: (Default)
The birds aren't very different - just a little different. I don't know birds by name in NYC, but I recognize their songs and their appearances - not so here.

The plants aren't very different - just a little different. You expect palm trees and other exotica, sure - but the grass we walk on is just a little less soft, a little more bouncy. The grass that's a weed in the garden has a slightly different seed head. The leggy weeds that pop up everywhere, no matter what you do look very similar to the ones we have at home - almost perfect, but not quite.

The hills, as I've said - well, we have hills on Staten Island. But the shape is off just a bit, and the colors of course are off (ours have more trees).

At the pool on various days (such a novelty to the nieces!), we've seen other little kids in bathing suits. In NYC, at the sprinkler, all the little girls have bathing suits like my niecelings do, in various shades of brown and olive green and some gray, with subtle flowers on them. Here, it seems like they all have bathing suits in bright blues and yellows and greens, with bright flowers on them. The bathing suits were no doubt all bought from the same national brands, but here and there there's a different color preference!

And, of course, to me a house isn't a house without at least a second story. It makes sense for my Bonne-maman to have a house all on one level, but still! (Actually, for some unknown reason, there's a step from the kitchen into the backyard. Pisses me off - how hard would it be for a ramp to be put in there?)

People favor a different style of car here.

The very moss is different in a subtle way.

All these little things, you know? Not the big obvious stuff you expect (it was actually, for example, cooler here when we arrived than it had been when we left New York!), but the little things.
conuly: (Default)
About a man who is selectively unable to read the word "California", and why.

But while googling it, I came across a story about a retired teacher who didn't learn to read until after he retired.

Listen to this:

"What I did was I created an oral and visual environment. There wasn't the written word in there. I always had two or three teacher's assistants in each class to do board work or read the bulletin," said Corcoran.

Assuming he was actually good at what he was doing, this sounds wonderful. Finding a way to work around his own disability, and, incidentally, providing a good environment for students he had who might have trouble reading (or who simply learn better not reading - many people don't find the written word the best way to learn something).
conuly: (Default)
Two or three episodes a day. Well, it won't kill them, and everybody in the house BUT them and me sleeps in, so they need to be contained.

In the past, I've watched Dora. God is that an obnoxious show. If you have to cajole children into participating, you're doing it wrong. It's insulting to everybody to be asked an already insultingly simple question, and then be nagged into giving the reply, or have to sit through several seconds of silence before the answer is given.

But you know what really annoys me about this show? What really, really annoys me?

Nobody on that show seems to understand that the possessive of Boots is not Boots, but Boots'. Maybe it's just me, but if I were refering to Boots' boots, or his books, or his birthday, I'd say "Boots-iz such-and-fuch" not merely "Boots such-and-fuch".

Drives me batty.
conuly: (Default)
I found this book fascinating when it first came out, and recommend that any of my friends who prefers audiobook format check it out.

The icon has nothing to do with this book.

For the curious, this room has one TV and one cable box... and five remote controls.

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