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maeve6611. What is something that's bothering you right now?
I know I have more than a year ahead of me on this shit, but the prospect of the 2024 Election cycle bothers me so fucking much. I cannot bear the thought of Trump getting back in, and Biden just seems to be imploding and getting all kinds of shitty bad policies and luck, from caving to Trump's fucking border wall to now digging in behind Netanyahu's triumphant "wartime" truce with pro-democracy Israelis, in this morning's dreadful news of Palestine.
12. What was the last sporting event you attended?
God... I have no idea. Maybe a KU-MU football game? Which would be, oh, more than 27 years ago. Oh. Or it was the flag football game I went to the year before the Pandemic, when my middle school had a girl on the team. That was fun.
13. Do you enjoy staying at hotels?
I've never stayed at a fancy hotel. I've stayed at whatever motel I ran into on cross country drives, mostly pretty janky. Wait, I take that back -- when I was twelve or thirteen, on the Divorce Vacation (so called because the "D" word was first used in the wretched, horrible fights that erupted pretty much daily as we drove west through Canada), my dad had phlebitis so we couldn't camp in provincial parks or Rest Areas as was our normal wont... we stayed at a couple of the huge masonry RR hotels at first, in Winnipeg and Saskatchewan, and then in fleabag motels as we went further, ending in a literal hotel/whorehouse in Ketchikan, Alaska. So those 19th c. RR hotels are the fanciest I've been in, but I have to say I don't much remember them. Those were the first times I'd EVER been in a hotel. I have liked staying in cheap bed and breakfasts, in England.
14. What was in the last package you got?
I am so ashamed to admit this (also it is supposed to arrive today, so it's not REALLY the last package I received... that would have been, what? Probably some sort of school supplies, including a new blank journal for me for the first time in four years) but yesterday was so brutally hot as today will be also that I caved and bought an ice maker. A countertop ice maker. Instead of the rice maker my sister thinks I should buy. This was on sale and I don't have room in my freezer for ice and I never remember to make it. So we'll see how stupid and impulsive this purchase is.
15. Who is/was your favorite animated character?
Eh, animation. Now, CARTOON character... I love Mo and her pals from Dykes to Watch Out For.
16. If you could move out of your home country permanently, would you?
I used to say yes to this automatically, and fantasize about moving to Canada, to Quebec. Now I still imagine moving to Britain, where many of my friends are, but it seems so impossible that I don't think about it as much.
17. Do you play the lottery?
No
18. Do you shut off the water while you brush your teeth?
Yes
19. What was the last good news you received?
Hm. That all of my students were finally rostered into the online curriculum we are using (well, I'm only using it for Math and Science) this year because the lags and tech issues were super fucking annoying and... I hate to admit this, but I added myself to all of their classes and... this program's pedagogy is ... actually really good? It's called (stupid fucking name, but aren't they all) Edgenuity. I like Sal Khan and his Academy, but this is... it's just much, much, much better, with video lessons carefully chunked, warm-ups that are actually good, summaries, vocab pauses, an internal e-notes function, self-pacing measured against how much material remains to complete, retakes on quizzes... it's just surprisingly good. And it means I do not have to fucking lesson plan and try pathetically to teach math and science.
20. Are there any projects or goals you’ve recently abandoned?
I made an effort to find someone to teach me guitar during the Pandemic, but it never panned out and I think it is an effort abandoned, now.
21. What are your top five books?
I hate this kind of question, but here are the first five that OCCUR to me, because I love literally thousands
The German Ideology, by Karl Marx
Another Shore, by Nancy Bond
Not a Swan, by Michelle Magorian
Possession, by A. S. Byatt
Anne of Green Gables, by L. M. Montgomery
22. Would you ever sky dive?
No
23. If you could "install" three complete languages in your brain what would you choose?
I like the process of learning languages, despite the ease of Google Translator when you're in a bind. If I could, though, I would "install" Hindi, Arabic, and I guess Mandarin. If I could have a fourth, Korean.
24. What holiday is your birthday closest to?
Mine... I guess Memorial Day? Kind of dull.
25. Do you use a wall calendar?
Not really. I use my phones iCal, or I use -- EXTENSIVELY -- a weekly one-sheet per week planner that a student got me, from the Dollar Store. It's the perfect size for all my lesson plans and has room for last minute additions and notes to self. I love it. You tear off the week and stick it in a folder (if you're an archival daughter of an archival father) on Friday, since it's a work-week calendar, for me. I put notes in Saturday and Sunday and "Notes". Okay, that's more detail than expected.
26. First foreign vacation?
Mexico should count, Microbie! My first was Canada, as part of the annual August car vacations (before the Divorce Vacation). Even more foreign was my dad's cool surprise of us taking a ferry from Newfoundland to the French outremer island of St. Pierre.
27. Do you watch any anime?
No. A lot of my students love it fiercely. I watched a little with my nieces when they were in high school -- a show called Black Butler which was surreal, and another I forget the title of about an elite high school club where one student was a girl pretending to be a boy? A poor girl at this super rich elite school? I dunno. Ah. I looked it up: Ouran High School Host Club. It was... weird. Boring to me, as are most video game apps.
28. Do you prefer to keep a clean workspace or are you somewhat messy?
I am meticulously neat and organized at work. I am mostly neat at home, never letting anything look too messy. But, you know, I'll throw a cardigan on the couch and leave it there until I require it again. Several times in a week. My surfaces aren't pristine. In my own bedroom, clean clothes stay (folded or sometimes even unfolded) in the laundry baskets and never get into the dresser. Etc.
29. What portion of your day is typically spent outdoors?
Um, the portion between my apartment's front door and my car's door? And my car's door and the library where my office is at DICE? And, given California school construction of the 1950s, any time I leave the library to go to another part of the buildings.
30. Did you get an allowance as a child?
Hahaha, money management. I think I started at a dollar a week and by high school might have been at $10/week? But I don't actually remember. I know that babysitting earnings outstripped it by middle school, even though I only earned $2.50/hr. I know that the child support my dad paid my mom was about $167/mo each for me and my sister, and that in college, my mom gave us it directly, each month.
I know I have more than a year ahead of me on this shit, but the prospect of the 2024 Election cycle bothers me so fucking much. I cannot bear the thought of Trump getting back in, and Biden just seems to be imploding and getting all kinds of shitty bad policies and luck, from caving to Trump's fucking border wall to now digging in behind Netanyahu's triumphant "wartime" truce with pro-democracy Israelis, in this morning's dreadful news of Palestine.
12. What was the last sporting event you attended?
God... I have no idea. Maybe a KU-MU football game? Which would be, oh, more than 27 years ago. Oh. Or it was the flag football game I went to the year before the Pandemic, when my middle school had a girl on the team. That was fun.
13. Do you enjoy staying at hotels?
I've never stayed at a fancy hotel. I've stayed at whatever motel I ran into on cross country drives, mostly pretty janky. Wait, I take that back -- when I was twelve or thirteen, on the Divorce Vacation (so called because the "D" word was first used in the wretched, horrible fights that erupted pretty much daily as we drove west through Canada), my dad had phlebitis so we couldn't camp in provincial parks or Rest Areas as was our normal wont... we stayed at a couple of the huge masonry RR hotels at first, in Winnipeg and Saskatchewan, and then in fleabag motels as we went further, ending in a literal hotel/whorehouse in Ketchikan, Alaska. So those 19th c. RR hotels are the fanciest I've been in, but I have to say I don't much remember them. Those were the first times I'd EVER been in a hotel. I have liked staying in cheap bed and breakfasts, in England.
14. What was in the last package you got?
I am so ashamed to admit this (also it is supposed to arrive today, so it's not REALLY the last package I received... that would have been, what? Probably some sort of school supplies, including a new blank journal for me for the first time in four years) but yesterday was so brutally hot as today will be also that I caved and bought an ice maker. A countertop ice maker. Instead of the rice maker my sister thinks I should buy. This was on sale and I don't have room in my freezer for ice and I never remember to make it. So we'll see how stupid and impulsive this purchase is.
15. Who is/was your favorite animated character?
Eh, animation. Now, CARTOON character... I love Mo and her pals from Dykes to Watch Out For.
16. If you could move out of your home country permanently, would you?
I used to say yes to this automatically, and fantasize about moving to Canada, to Quebec. Now I still imagine moving to Britain, where many of my friends are, but it seems so impossible that I don't think about it as much.
17. Do you play the lottery?
No
18. Do you shut off the water while you brush your teeth?
Yes
19. What was the last good news you received?
Hm. That all of my students were finally rostered into the online curriculum we are using (well, I'm only using it for Math and Science) this year because the lags and tech issues were super fucking annoying and... I hate to admit this, but I added myself to all of their classes and... this program's pedagogy is ... actually really good? It's called (stupid fucking name, but aren't they all) Edgenuity. I like Sal Khan and his Academy, but this is... it's just much, much, much better, with video lessons carefully chunked, warm-ups that are actually good, summaries, vocab pauses, an internal e-notes function, self-pacing measured against how much material remains to complete, retakes on quizzes... it's just surprisingly good. And it means I do not have to fucking lesson plan and try pathetically to teach math and science.
20. Are there any projects or goals you’ve recently abandoned?
I made an effort to find someone to teach me guitar during the Pandemic, but it never panned out and I think it is an effort abandoned, now.
21. What are your top five books?
I hate this kind of question, but here are the first five that OCCUR to me, because I love literally thousands
The German Ideology, by Karl Marx
Another Shore, by Nancy Bond
Not a Swan, by Michelle Magorian
Possession, by A. S. Byatt
Anne of Green Gables, by L. M. Montgomery
22. Would you ever sky dive?
No
23. If you could "install" three complete languages in your brain what would you choose?
I like the process of learning languages, despite the ease of Google Translator when you're in a bind. If I could, though, I would "install" Hindi, Arabic, and I guess Mandarin. If I could have a fourth, Korean.
24. What holiday is your birthday closest to?
Mine... I guess Memorial Day? Kind of dull.
25. Do you use a wall calendar?
Not really. I use my phones iCal, or I use -- EXTENSIVELY -- a weekly one-sheet per week planner that a student got me, from the Dollar Store. It's the perfect size for all my lesson plans and has room for last minute additions and notes to self. I love it. You tear off the week and stick it in a folder (if you're an archival daughter of an archival father) on Friday, since it's a work-week calendar, for me. I put notes in Saturday and Sunday and "Notes". Okay, that's more detail than expected.
26. First foreign vacation?
Mexico should count, Microbie! My first was Canada, as part of the annual August car vacations (before the Divorce Vacation). Even more foreign was my dad's cool surprise of us taking a ferry from Newfoundland to the French outremer island of St. Pierre.
27. Do you watch any anime?
No. A lot of my students love it fiercely. I watched a little with my nieces when they were in high school -- a show called Black Butler which was surreal, and another I forget the title of about an elite high school club where one student was a girl pretending to be a boy? A poor girl at this super rich elite school? I dunno. Ah. I looked it up: Ouran High School Host Club. It was... weird. Boring to me, as are most video game apps.
28. Do you prefer to keep a clean workspace or are you somewhat messy?
I am meticulously neat and organized at work. I am mostly neat at home, never letting anything look too messy. But, you know, I'll throw a cardigan on the couch and leave it there until I require it again. Several times in a week. My surfaces aren't pristine. In my own bedroom, clean clothes stay (folded or sometimes even unfolded) in the laundry baskets and never get into the dresser. Etc.
29. What portion of your day is typically spent outdoors?
Um, the portion between my apartment's front door and my car's door? And my car's door and the library where my office is at DICE? And, given California school construction of the 1950s, any time I leave the library to go to another part of the buildings.
30. Did you get an allowance as a child?
Hahaha, money management. I think I started at a dollar a week and by high school might have been at $10/week? But I don't actually remember. I know that babysitting earnings outstripped it by middle school, even though I only earned $2.50/hr. I know that the child support my dad paid my mom was about $167/mo each for me and my sister, and that in college, my mom gave us it directly, each month.