Adventures

Do you have a PS3? If not, go get one!

And buy inFAMOUS, the game Andy has been working on for the past almost 2 years. I'm proud to say that the sound design has merited special mention in a few reviews (in a good way), and the game is one of Sony's "tent poles" for 2009. You might see a trailer for it when you go see Terminator Salvation, but here's one right here:

So i got this email from Kyrgyzstan...

About a month ago out of the blue i got an email from Kyrgyzstan, and i almost immediately deleted it unread, assuming it was one of those Nigerian bank scams. Luckily, though, i read it. The email was from two young women who are trying to launch an initiative to help English teachers in Kyrgyzstan get resources both for the classroom and for their own professional development.

These two women, Jazgul and Tolgonay, are trying to get funding from the US Embassy in Kyrgyzstan ECA Alumni Grant program in order to publish a newsletter containing resources they have gathered from the web. Internet access is not widespread in Kyrgyzstan, so most English teachers are not able to easily find classroom handouts and other information.

Some of you may be wondering what this has to do with me. When i was in France for the 2006-2007 school year, i created a website that houses all the materials i made for my classes. This website, eslresources.wordpress.com, averages 200-300 visits per day even though i have not added any new material in over two years. One of those visitors must have been Kyrgyzstani, i guess.

I am very proud to have my work included in this effort, and it is exciting to me to know that my materials, many of which were devised in a desperate attempt to engage 13-year olds in learning English, are actually of some use to other teachers.

Go see Star Trek!

It's fantastic. Go. That's all i have to say.

We actually went out!

Yes, Andy and i went out to a cultural event without a child in tow on a Friday night!

We went to see David Sedaris speak at Benaroya Hall, where the Seattle Symphony performs. The theatre seats 2500, and both nights he was there were sold out. Sedaris was on stage for about an hour and a half, and he was hilarious. He even took questions from the audience at the end. Andy and i joked that we should have asked him if he could get Sarah Vowell's autograph for us.

Crafty stuff

If you're so inclined, you can see photos of a felted bag i made for Sofia up on Flickr. It took me about two months to make, because i was doing it as a surprise (so i couldn't work on it while Sofia was around). I'm pretty happy with how it came out, but i'm not in a hurry to make another.

In other news, i am continuing to lose the battle against holes in my pants, and Andy is having the same problem. Thus, i have made two more patches this weekend, one for me and one for him. Andy's patch is for the right butt cheek of a pair of pants, and he said that since he won't be able to see it, he won't be embarrassed by it. I embroidered the patches using mostly fern stitch and satin stitch, so they went a lot faster than the massive ones i made before. The one with the heart is Andy's :)

P.S. I have also broken down and ordered some new jeans.