Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts

[I have no time to find pictures, so please enjoy this one of Chomsky putting himself in the corner]


Link up below! Thanks so much for playing along... once life gets a little less crazy (soon! Sunday!) I'll be stopping by to see your lists.

1. I can't believe I don't have an Italian cookbook. Weird.

2. Tomorrow is parent teacher conferences- something I always dread but end up leaving feeling positive. It's three straight hours of talking to parents and students, sometimes good things... and sometimes not so much. I've never had a parent flip out on me and after having most of my kids two and three years I have a good relationship with many. In fact, this will be the last time I see many of the parents, so it will be a bit sad. But also exhausting.

3. I have a March madness bracket through work and my bracket has totally busted. Granted, my picks may not have been the smartest (Kansas? What was I thinking?). I seriously love it, though- I get into checking the scores and getting excited when I'm doing well. I had my students fill out brackets and most of them went for Wichita- dundundun. Most importantly- UCLA is in the Sweet Sixteen! 

4. So my brother deployed last week for seven months and before he left he bought a Kindle and loaded it with books (we all know I'm anti-ereader, but for situations where you have absolutely no storage and are floating around the Pacific I'll let it slide). He then proceeded to leave it in his girlfriend's car! Augh! Poor kid! She's sending it to him, but I have a feeling it will take a few weeks. A few weeks with out reading... THE HORROR!

5. I'm so sick of healthy living bloggers posting their stupid Stitch Fix Box contents. I know, I know. It is my fault for reading them, but it drives me crazy. Supposedly they're not compensated, but I call bullshit. So many of them talk about being on budgets but all the sudden they're cool dropping $50 on a shirt and $80 on a dress? 

6. The Book Wheel and Love at First Book are hosting a great virtual book club in April and May. They're trying out a companion read, Lolita first and then Reading Lolita in Tehran. I've had Lolita on my shelf for years and this will be the motivation I need to read it. I've done two of their other book clubs and really enjoyed them.

7. People are totally missing the point on this Common Core math problem that's been circulating Facebook and what not. The point is that kids are not currently not being taught actual concepts, but just quick shortcuts and equations. They have no idea why they do what they do, just that they end up at the right answer. I'm on our district's committee to rewrite the curriculum for Common Core and could go on for days and days but I'll spare you. It's not a perfect system, there are going to be flaws, and it will probably take five years to see a true change, but I do believe we are headed in a better direction.

8. We're having a few couples over for dinner on Saturday night- is it bad that when deciding the menu my first main concern was dessert? Would people mind if I just made like five different types of desserts and gave them alcohol? If I wasn't pregnant that would be the best meal ever.

9. Things I refuse to give up, despite them not being as popular anymore: sock buns, Toms, and Shazam.

10. I just finished listening to The Fault in Our Stars- my first official YA experience. Post to come. Hint: I stand by my decision to not let me students read it for outside reading... 


10 comments:

  1. Looking forward to your thoughts on The Fault in Our Stars! I still haven't gotten around to it even as many book bloggers have mentioned how much they enjoyed it (and recently my cousin too was talking about it).

    #6 sounds interesting; I haven't read Lolita either. Dunno if I'd be able to participate though with all the books stacked up that I'm planning on reading in the next while but we'll see...Thanks for the heads up! :)

    Yikes that your brother left behind his Kindle! I think I would positively lose it if that had happened to me...

    Aww at the photo of Chomsky; did you ever figure out why he put himself in the corner like that?

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  2. So I know I'm pretty much in the minority opinion on this one, but I didn't love The Fault in Our Stars. I didn't think it was bad, exactly. But it felt like...if you were going to take a (cliche) teenager cancer story, you would get exactly that book. I wasn't blown away and I wasn't underwhelmed, I found it very sad (kids with cancer = sad, unless you're a sociopath). Anyway...

    I'm with you on #5. There are people I like doing it and I try not to cringe.

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  3. Good luck with parent teacher conferences!

    I haven't read Lolita either, but I have seen the movie. I enjoyed it.

    I would rather eat dessert too.

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  4. 1. That is weird.
    2. For the record, parents feel the same - dread going, result usually positive.
    5. What is Stitch Fix?
    6. Reading Lolita in Tehran is one of the very few books that I have abandoned...
    8. Just sweets and grog is an excellent plan.
    9. What are sock buns? What are Toms? (I know what Shazam is)
    10. I can see why teens get their undies in a twist over Fault in Our Stars but not the best YA I've read

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  5. Gah I hate stitch fix!!!! I actually subscribed out of curiosity and it was lame. I cancelled it. But yeah if bloggers could be more transparent about being compensated for that cheap shit we'd all be better off. I know...50$ for a cheap t-shirt. What a waste of money!

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  6. Awww. I look forward to reading your thoughts about TFIOS. I really liked it... I feel like I missed something. I'm definitely outgrowing a lot of YA these days though. Wonder if I would still like TFIOS if I re-read it (except I don't re-read).

    Anyway, I also want to know what a sock bun is. And next time I travel I'm definitely buying Toms (we have Tommies, which are not the same, despite people apparently thinking they are).

    Lastly, as for five different desserts: GREAT IDEA! Even without the alcohol (but that's just me). That would make the top of my favourite dinners ever. I say do it. Be the hostess with the mostest. At dinners I usually eat very little real food anyway so that I can eat more dessert.

    Keep well!

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  7. I'm definitely going to have to look into #6 as I'd like to read both of those books.

    And I've wondered more than once why I've bothered serving a main course when having people over when all we're really interested in is appetizers, dessert & drinks -- I say it's totally acceptable, even leaving out the appetizer part :)

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  8. Being from Kansas, there was definitely a lot of hype around me about the Kansas basketball teams. I've never been much into sports myself though so I didn't care as much. My family also happens to be very anti KU (not really as much myself... it's the guys) and very pro K-state. So KU losing made them happy. They were kind of passive about WSU though but I was hoping that they would go far. Unfortunately not. :(

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  9. Here here on the annoyingness of Stitch Fix! I'm not impressed by at $50 plain t-shirt paired with plain pants. I'm no fashion maven, but I figured out that combo all on my own, and I pay less than half for it.

    I like John Green, but I do think he writes YA for the YA lover. Some of it is goofy and some of it is unrealistic, but that's how I like my YA to be. I overlook all the unrealistic stuff and just revel in the angst. But if YA ain't yo bag, you probably found it really obnoxious. The movie looks awful, from what I've seen. Such a shame. But I guess if it gets more kids reading, that's a good thing.

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  10. Your dog is soooo cute! Mine would not sit still long enough for a photo.

    1. There are so many great Italian cookbooks. We have a huge variety of cookbooks but still always cook the same things.
    7. Yes it is flawed. I wonder just how much the education of my 4th grade daughter will suffer while they work the kinks out. I'm often unable to help with her homework because I don't understand the theory behind it. Yes they learn how to get the right answer but really it can't be applied to real life.

    8. I would totally go to a dessert only dinner party! That is the best part.
    9. Shazam...YES. I shazam all the time!

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