Archive for July, 2005
07.25.05
Posted in General at 8:40 am by Nicholas
While the flight to Charleston was relatively uneventful, the return flight was … problematic. We left Charleston pretty late, arrived in Houston with very little time to spare, then waited on the tarmac for over half an hour before we were allowed to exit the plane. I missed the flight to Sacramento, and spent the night with a couple of fellow stranded passengers before a morning flight, which fortunately included an upgrade to first class. My new friends Darian (a nurse from Davis) and Hervi (an architect for Gallo wineries in Modesto) made the wait bearable, and I managed to catch a couple hours of sleep on the floor of terminal E-8 despite the inescapable blare of CNN on TVs throughout the airport.
Slate provides a little insight in an article today about why so many flights are delayed at hub airports—and sure enough, Houston is one of Continental’s biggest hubs.
Also: there must be something about me that tells my seatmates I want nothing more than to hear about their religious beliefs for the duration of the flight. This is incorrect. Please make a note of it.
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07.21.05
Posted in General at 2:34 pm by Nicholas
The conference is going well—I really like the Charleston Latin curriculum, and am going to recommend that my school adopt it for grades five and six. It involves teaching Latin by immersion, believe it or not, and then stepping back periodically to connect the Latin lesson to English and Spanish vocabulary and Roman history. It’s very structured, but can be adapted to fourth through eighth grades.
It surprised me to learn that Latin is much more commonly taught in the South than it is in the North. In the Sacramento area, for example, St. Michael’s is the only elementary or middle school I know of that still teaches Latin, and Jesuit is the only high school that carries it. In the South, however, it’s apparently not at all unusual to take Latin in public school starting in fourth grade. I’m the only participant in the conference who teaches in a Northern state. (One teacher is originally from Long Island, but now teaches in Louisiana.)
Today in Charleston there was an extreme heat warning and a severe thunderstorm warning at the same time. Also, I am sorry I missed this exhibit:
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07.17.05
Posted in Education at 4:20 pm by Nicholas
From Wednesday through Friday of this coming week I’ll be in Charleston, South Carolina for a conference on teaching Latin to elementary and middle school children. I can’t easily afford a rental car right now and my employer is only willing to pay cab fare to and from the airport, but I’ll be staying in Charleston’s historical district, so I’m hoping there will be things in the area to keep me entertained in the off hours. If you know of anything around there to do, or have a favorite restaurant nearby, please leave advice in the comments.
I’ll have internet access while I’m there, and I hope to get a few pictures to share.
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07.14.05
Posted in WordPress at 10:13 pm by Nicholas
New feature alert: there’s a poll in my sidebar using this plugin. You can add an answer if none of the default choices look good to you, and when you submit your answer the poll will refresh without reloading the entire page. It’s pretty slick.
Of course I had to do a Tour de France poll, because I’ve been eating up OLN’s coverage since it began two weeks ago. I’m not much of a sports fan usually, but I’ve been hooked on the Tour for several years now—helped along, naturally, by the amazing performances of Lance Armstrong. I’m betting on him for a seventh straight win this year, but he’s had some competition from some unexpected corners—Valverde, in particular, has surprised everyone with a very respectable performance.
Update: I heard a rumor about this just minutes after posting last night, but today it’s confirmed: Valverde has abandoned the Tour due to knee problems. A very good performance, though, and since he’s only 25, he’s got plenty of Tours ahead of him.
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07.05.05
Posted in Software at 12:06 pm by Nicholas
I have frittered away the bulk of the morning playing with Context Free. I highly recommend trying it out, unless you have something important to do today.
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07.01.05
Posted in General at 7:15 am by Nicholas
Lance Armstrong will be reporting on his seventh and final Tour de France in a podcast hosted by Sirius Radio. iTunes users can drag this link to the RSS feed into the Podcast window, since the links on the Subscribe page are all janky and JavaScripted.
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