February 26, 2014

Stuff and things.


+I stayed up until 11:30pm watching the Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding part of the closing ceremonies. Good Lord, Harding is a whiny brat.  I say she is, not was, because she is STILL defending the same story: "My skate wasn't tied properly", "They put me last in the program so my muscles got cold and I couldn't skate", "It's not my fault I helped my ex and his thug-friends attack someone and then lied about it."  Also, super humble of her to say that her jumps were higher and her skating was better than the gold-medal winner that year, Oksana Baiul.  No one cares, Tonya. Also, no one believes that.

Then, I was quite tired on Monday morning.

+The Walking Dead is getting to be interesting again.  It's a completely different show than it was 3 years ago. I can't decide if that is good or bad. (You know I was partial to Shane.)

+Then, after watching TWD, The Following, and The Talking Dead on Monday night, I was quite tired on Tuesday morning.

(I sense a pattern.)

+Also, Downton Abbey. A completely different show than it used to be.  Evolution is good, right?  Eh, maybe not.  This review wraps it up quite nicely.  Season 5 probably should be the last.  Period dramas can only go on for so long.  Also, I miss Sybil.

+We started watching Touch on Netflix last weekend.  It was quite interesting.  Kind of fascinating and mind-blowing, actually, the way the coincidences all came together.  Two seasons in a week? We sure did.  Actually, Scott did.  I'm not quite as far along as he is.

+I spent an hour on Monday night putting together an Alaska powerpoint.  Our reading story this week is about Alaska.  Since I'm the resident expert, I told the kids I'd bring in pictures.  I'm also going to do a bit of a project on the Iditarod, since it starts very soon.  I mean, why not?

A sampling:

Woot woot.  Iditarod 2010.

Sunrise (at noon or something like that)

+Speaking of kids…This baby name article had me in TEARS.  Real tears of laughter!

American Baby Names Are Somehow Getting Even Worse

Can I tell you how many "J" names I have in my class?  5 out of 22.  When I have my intervention group, throw in 4 more.  I can't keep them straight! SO. MANY. Jaylen/Jayden/Jaden/Jaidens……And Jaida/Jaydas.  And Jaylas.  And Jayces.  And Jordans.  And Justices…I can't.  I just can't do "J's" anymore…

I had a "Flower" once.  That, compared to the menagerie of names I see every day, seemed normal.  At least it's a real word…I'm pretty sure 90% of the names I encounter each day are made up.

Next week, I'll add a linky to this…if you'd LIKE to write a Stuff and Things post and throw it up there, please do so.  They're easy to write, random, and (I think) fun to read.  Let's make Thursday morning (or Wednesday night) Stuff and Things day. How 'bout it?

18 comments:

  1. I wanted to slap Tonya Harding while watching that special. She is nutty.

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  2. Holy cow. I'm the first comment on the day you posted. I deserve a medal.

    That article is hilarious. And we thought we were being so original naming her Jordan. It wasn't on any top 10 (or even 20) and then on the same day at the hospital a girl with the same name (and middle name!) was born. At least she's the only girl Jordan in her grade, ha!

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  3. Tonya is from Portland and we all claimed her. The mall she trained in even had a giant "Home of Tonya Harding" poster hanging up. That got taken down after the olympics that year I think. We also watched that whole documentary on ESPN a few weeks before the Olympics. Of course I had to watch it a second time. She is a hot mess. Did you see the Costas interview with Kerrigan? She was super classy in it.

    As for the article: This year I have 4 or 5 Julissas in my classes. Too much. It was pretty hard for Craig and I to agree on a name. Too many students have ruined too many names for me. And he works with foster care, so there are plenty of names that are no go's for him. Including anything that rhymes with Aiden

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  4. My main concern with these baby names is how they will sound grown up. It's probably just a cultural thing and names change by generations... I mean all of these "Jaidens" and "Aidens" may be cute toddlers but it's hard for me to imagine an adult man named "Aiden" (probably the way it's hard to imagine a baby girl named "Bertha"--that seems like she ought to be a great aunt, doesn't it?)
    Of course, I should talk, I'm married to a guy named Angel. Perfect normal for him, not so normal in my culture.
    I think I'll always have to love Downton, just because of the people. I miss Sybil and Matthew--but Carson and Tom and the rest are loveable in their own ways....

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  5. Yayyyyyy for stuff and things link up!!!!! I love how you're a tv junky too--I just love it so much and have a hard time telling myself to back away KNOWING I'll be exhausted the next day. I'm also fascinated with the tonya Harding nancy carrigan thing. But I'll admit--I didn't watch a second of the Olympic this year. Whoops.

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  6. I agree about Tonya. She was irritating in that special. I keot tyelling at the TV.

    Oh and that article. HYSTERICAL. I just don't get parents. Name your kid something normal and then let them become unique. The author is right... usually "unique" named people don't turn out that great (unless your name is an ethnic name, like mine or my brother's).

    I once had a Courvoisier, like the cognac. And his twin sister? Courvoisiana. Yep. My friend had a Tequila. Can't make this stuff up!

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  7. As I opened this up, I literally thought to myself "self, it would be awesome if kristin made this a linkup"

    And then when I got to the bottom of this post, I was happy to find you are making it a link up! I will definitely be joining in.

    In my dance classes, I have so many a and e names. Ally, ellie, elissa, abby, avalin, and so on and so forth. I mix them up all the time!

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  8. I have the documentary about Harding/Kerrigan on my Netflix queue.

    That article was pretty funny. I loved his Blayde and Nyfe comment. Now that you mention it, I have a lot of Js in my class as well. J has to be one of the most popular letters for names because I have a lot in my family too.

    I love when parents take a more normal name and spell it different or add an apostrophe. That's always fun. I always think-that kid will be spelling their name for people for the rest of their life.

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  9. I usually do a randoms post on Thursdays so sure I'd love a link up.

    As for kid names, yes they are getting ridiculous. Good thing for us, in a way, is being teachers we know which names we don't want ;) However I'll probably jinx this but the name we want for a boy whenever that happens I have yet to have in any classes, and its a normal name, so we'll see!

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  10. I do Thursday Thoughts every week and have almost since I started blogging, so I will totally link that up with Stuff & Things! I love a day where I can dump all of my random stuff, and if I can link it up even better. I'm excited!

    That Alaskan sunrise photo is amazing. Truly.

    I didn't watch the Downton Abbey last night, but I do think it's a much different show than it used to be.

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  11. I'm with you on TWD. I honeastly was about ready to check out. I was so comfortable with it not being on during break that I wasn't even interested that it was coming back. Hopefully it starts picking up.

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  12. I was dying over that list too, people are getting crrraazzzy about names!

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  13. Names are getting ridiculous. I hate when parents take a normal name (Kristin, for example) and spell it in the weirdest way possible, like "Chrysstenn." People, have a heart! The worst name I've seen was when I worked as an aide and went into a new class for the day. The kid's name was on the desk- Demon. Yeah. In case you're worried about his future (as you should be), it's pronounced DA(short a)-mon. As if that makes it better...

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  14. I'm just now starting TWD so I've had my fill of Shane lately. You liked him? He just bugged me & I cheered when he was shot. Finally! Maybe it was just overkill of Shane watching so many episodes at once?

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  15. Thank the good Lord above for the days getting longer, finally. It's actually not pitch black at 5pm when I leave work...makes it feel like summer. I mean the temperature is practically the same...kidding. Not really.

    As usual, SO BEHIND on t.v. shows...however, speaking of t.v. shows and odd baby names, I was catching up on Teen Mom 2 the other day and there was an episode where one of the girls was having a birthday party for her kid, Aubree...and I swear to goodness half the little girls had "ee" on the end of their name. Brylee, Braylee, Aubree, Kaylee, Kylee ...GAH MAKE IT STOP. I won't disclose our possible future children's names in this comment but suffice it to say they are not common names but still perfectly normal. And none of them start with a J or end in "ee".

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  16. I usually do write some sort of random weekly post, so I'd love to link up! :)

    Than article is HYSTERICAL!! I had a Jayden once. Nice kid, at least! One year, I had an Aiden, Brayden, and Dreyden. The rhyming names always get me! I also currently have a Chantz. The other thing that drives me nuts is people who take perfectly normal names and spell them all weird. Or I had Katelynn's three years in a row, and not ONE of those girls had the same spelling: Katelyn, Katelynn, Kaitlin, Kaitlyn, I could go on forever. In fact, I don't even know which is the "real" spelling any more! lol

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  17. I usually do write some sort of random weekly post, so I'd love to link up! :)

    Than article is HYSTERICAL!! I had a Jayden once. Nice kid, at least! One year, I had an Aiden, Brayden, and Dreyden. The rhyming names always get me! I also currently have a Chantz. The other thing that drives me nuts is people who take perfectly normal names and spell them all weird. Or I had Katelynn's three years in a row, and not ONE of those girls had the same spelling: Katelyn, Katelynn, Kaitlin, Kaitlyn, I could go on forever. In fact, I don't even know which is the "real" spelling any more! lol

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