Hey everyone! Let's make a sandwich! Seriously though, it's been an interesting few weeks. Work has been hectic, as usual. Social life has been... well, it's there somewhere. Everything else has been the norm. If nothing else though, a quick update as to the life and times of one MK.

I've joined a flag football league. I had played with them a few years ago, but the kickball contingent won out as I genuinely love being around my friends. Our entire kickball team was all people I think incredibly highly of. Flag football? I knew some of them, and liked them, but they weren't quite the same. I was unable to do both because they operated on different days of the weekend, and I'm only getting one of them off. At any rate, there's no kickball this season, so it was a perfect opportunity to get back to football. Some of the same guys were there, so it's not completely a foreign environment to me. There was a "mini-camp" two weekends ago to introduce the new guys to the league, and to help evaluate players for the draft. Yes, there's a draft. Besides feeling incredibly old and sore the next few days after the camp, I did well. The following Thursday was the reveal party, to show who was on what team. Overall, I've been told I'm on one of the best teams, so I'm pretty psyched. What also made me happy is that I was apparently sought after. A few of the captains came up to me and said they had hoped they'd be able to draft me, so that increased my confidence. This last Saturday, the QB on our team, and someone I had met the last go round with football, said something similar. He said he was excited when I was still available in the draft, since I was new and he remembered me from the one game we played together. Overall, color me excited. I have an outlet for my competitive nature and another reason to get outside.

In other news, I'm starting to try and plan my trips and the like for the year. I think I'm going to try to save some money and not do as much traveling this year, but we'll see. I always manage to do more than I planned on. As it is, I'll have my normal roadtrip to the northeast, as well as a probably midwest roadtrip. Throw in heading north for a wedding in September and I should be able to hit up the usual suspects in grand fashion. Or at least in my fashion, which is neither grand, nor a fashion. Details to come.

Two quick stories:

Two Fridays ago, I'm sitting downstairs eating lunch before work. I had cooked something in the oven and was allowing the oven to vent and cool down. As I'm eating, in only my boxers mind you, the smoke detector starts to go off. Now, there was no smoke and no fire, but it went off anyways. I later noticed grease on the bottom of the oven from some cooking attempt by the roomie. Anywho, so the alarm is going off so I grab a towel and start waving it in front of the detector. Nothing. Keep in mind, this is a loft with high ceilings. Also keep in mind the hallway where the detector has a clear view across the street to the lofts on the other side. Well, acting quickly, I get a bar stool and then stand up on it waving the towel. Pretty much I'm hoping the neighbors weren't looking over to see some guy in his boxers waving a towel on top of a bar stool. Although, if that were a party, it would be a kick-ass party.

Last night I was riding up in the elevator after a work meeting. A family gets on with their two dogs, to go along with the two kids. The dogs are friendly and come over and sniff and do the things dogs do, nose in the crotch included. The younger child, a boy, made a comment that their chihuahua was nice and wouldn't bite me unless I was trying to kill him. Ahhh.... kids. Apparently I look like a killer. I guess that's what not shaving in a few days does to me. No beer or tv make Kelly something something.

Don't mind if I do.

Current Location: home
Current Music: Gorillaz - Stylo (feat. Mos Def & Bobby Womack) | Powered by Last.fm

Zac Efron is cute. I admit it. I am a 13 year old girl -- or at least I share a 13 year old girl's infatuation with Zac Efron.

I just went to see Me & Orson Welles, in which young Zac Efron plays a high school boy drafted by Orson Welles to join the Mercury Players for one week to play a role on opening night in their 1937 production of Julius Caesar set in Fascist Italy. the movie is based on an actual event, which makes it even more interesting. It starts a bit slowly, but it does pick up. Most of teh awards and critical praise went to Christian McKay, who plays Welles, but I have to admit I found myself drawn to Efron. He does a nice job in this  movie -- which is a marked step up from the High School Musical series or  17 Again. The boy can definitely act -- and he is easy to look at.

Current Location: Freemason in Norfolk
Current Mood: content

My life has been very boring lately, so I have avoided posting.  Work . . . sleep . . . work . . . sleep . . . that's about been it, except for an occasional chat to relieve the boredom.

Today I was originally going to head down to the Outer Banks to get away, but since the forecast has been rain all week-end (and it has rained off and on today) I decided to stick around town. This afternoon, in an attempt to evade boredom, I went to see Green Zone. It was surprisingly better than I expected, though I have to admit that I was almost dissuaded from actually seeing the movie.

I went to the theater and got there about 15 minutes before the 1:40 screening time. The line for the box office was very long, so I elected to use the stupid automatic ticket machine. I punched up that I wanted to buy a ticket and inserted my credit card in the machine -- and got nothing. I mean I literally received nothing except the on-screen message that my card had been charged for the ticket. I was annoyed and headed toward the ticket window to express my frustration, when the guy in line behind me called out to me that the stupid machine had just spit out a receipt when he inserted his credit card -- it had not actually processed his card, but it had spit out a receipt. He gave it to me since the number on it matched the last four digits of my credit card. So, armed with a receipt (but no ticket), I went to the door of the theater and explained my issue. The ticket taker apologized, but said he was not allowed to let anyone in without a ticket. He called his manager. She came out, listened to my story, checked my receipt, and said she would need to check the machine. She went to the machine, closed it down and then openned it up. It was out of tickets. She fills the machine with ticket paper and says she cancelled my transaction. I asked for a credit slip to ensure that it was cancelled. She went back into the ticket area and, after being inside around five minutes, came out and acknowledged that the machine had, in fact, processed my credit transaction. She asked what movie I had wanted to see. I told Green Zone. She went back inside and, after another five minutes came out with a ticket for the 1:40 showing (which I had wanted originally), except it was now 2:05. I pointed at the clock and suggested the 2:20 showing was a more reasonable option. She shrugged and went back inside. A second manager came out and asked if he could help me. I explained the situation to him -- he went back inside and brought the original woman manager out with him. She had a ticket to the 2:20 showing in her hand. It had taken me over 40 minutes to buy a single ticket into a movie using an automated ticket machine. Why am I having these adventures lately?

Current Location: Freemason in Norfolk
Current Mood: amused

Hi all,

A few questions about one-on-one teaching/tutoring.

1. I have some private ESL clients here in the U.S. (Seattle), and normally I meet them in person, for an hour or more of tutoring at a time. One of them just requested switching to phone lessons, 20 minutes a day, Monday through Friday instead of 2 one-hour lessons each week. I charge $25/hour for in-person tutoring (which may or may not seem high, but seems to be a medium rate here in Seattle), and proposed charging $10 for 20 minutes for phone lessons since I spend almost the same amount of time prepping for the 20 minutes ones as the hour-long lessons (she wants a new article to discuss every time, which requires time searching for appropriate ones--and appropriately short ones).

She thinks I should charge less (maybe less than $8.33, which would be 1/3 of my per-hour rate), and I'm irritated, but not sure what's "fair" in this situation. She is an attorney in Korea, and has recently talked about paying someone $50/hour to make her family meals while here in the U.S., so I guess I'm maybe even a little more irked at the reluctance to pay a tiny bit more than an exact 1/3...I tend to be much more flexible when I work with students at establishing a lower rate than when I work with professionals.


2. Also, do any of you do one-on-one tutoring? If so, do you charge a flat per-hour rate, or do you adapt it at all depending on length of commute or less for longer lessons, etc.? Just wondering if there's a norm out there.

3. Does anyone do phone lessons? I'm wondering if that might be something to move into, but this is my first foray into that area of teaching.

hey y'all! anyone miss me?

I had a feeling, so yesterday I went out and bought the dvd of The Hurt Locker. I have to admit that I had mixed feelings about the movie. It started so damn strangely -- with no introduction of characters or build up. You were just dealing with a bomb disposal unit in Iraq with no idea how each member fit into the story. And then the guy charged with actually dimantling the bombs is killed in the first few minutes . . . totally unexpected. I was riveted.

The rest of the movie is a great character study of soldiers in a tense situation. I sat there completely riveted by the movie the whole two pls hours it ran.

This was a great movie. It deserved the Oscars it won.

Current Mood: thoughtful