Song of the Day

In keeping with my Oz theme, I have chosen for my song of the day a song which is also coincidentally one of my favourites although it has nothing to do with the film. It's Elton John's "Goodbye Yellowbrick Road". Enjoy!

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

It has been a while since my last post; I've been a bit under the weather and not really feeling up to it. However, last week I saw Oz The Great and Powerful, the long awaited (by me anyway) prequel to one of my favourite films of all time, The Wizard of Oz. I must say I was not disappointed. I was worried that this could be a treacherous second walk (or third, or fourth, or fifth if you count the official and unofficial sub-par sequels that have been made over the years) down the Yellow Brick Road , ruining the franchise if it were badly made. But for a film in which they had to tread carefully, since they could not touch anything they didn't have the rights to from the original film which was made by a different studio, and one released 73 years after the original, they did a pretty darn good job. It hearkened to the original material but was yet original and contained very beautiful visual effects without overdoing it.  I saw the film in 3D, dubbed into French since the original language version was not shown in theatres here, but I enjoyed it nevertheless. The Wizard of Oz and all the other Oz books are now in the public domain and are therefore available for download free on iBooks and I believe Kindle Store as well. I'm looking forward to the sequels which I am sure are in the works now due to the film's success at the box office. Here's the trailer:

Song of the Day

This week I am doing a lesson on news stories with my students and the video I show them has a clip of Gotye's 'Somebody that I used to know'. I'd forgotten how catchy it was. The video has over 380 million views on Youtube! Since I can't get it out of my head, it's today's Song of the Day. Enjoy!

Bubble Tea

Ok so I am back after a brief hiatus. Was a bit under the weather then went on holiday for a bit. I visited Berlin recently and had my Bubble Tea fix there. For those of you who don't know what bubble tea is it's a Taiwanese tea-based drink mixed with fruit or milk and usually containing chewy balls referred to as 'pearls'. You slurp the liquid and the straw is oversized so you can suck up the pearls. Mine was kiwi yougurt-flavoured with mango-flavoured pearls. I first saw Bubble Tea in Berlin when I first visited a few years ago and wondered what was this thing people were drinking with these black balls in it. I really like trying strange new foods and drinks. I finally tried it on a trip to Canada a couple years later and loved it. Then I was surprised to find a Bubble Tea place at Price Plaza at home in Trinidad. Try some Bubble Tea today!

Word, Quote and Song of the Day

Ironically I didn't even know there was a word for this. Today's word is lethologica. Click on the word to learn the definition and find out why it's ironic.

The Quote of the Day is "Don't stay in bed unless you can make money in bed." George Burns.

And finally the song of the day. Since it's Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago I chose this song. It's a bit old now but it's one of the few Soca songs I felt had crossover appeal. It's 'You' by Machel Montano. Judge for yourself.

The Godfather Series

I posted a while ago that I'd watched The Godfather for the first time; now I'm in the process of watching the sequel, The Godfather II. So far I've watched disc 1 so that leaves disc 2. While The sequel is not bad I don't find it as intriguing as the original. I borrowed the boxed set so there is also The Godfather III which I will watch at some point. If you haven't seen them I would definitely recommend it.

Word, Quote and Song of the Day

Just about to watch The Godfather II for the first time (just saw part one last week for the first time, excellent film). Earlier I was snacking on some dates, and since I like to know what I'm eating I decided to Wikipedia them. That's where I came up with the Word of the Day, which is dioecious. The date palm is dioecious. Click on the word to find out its meaning and also check out Dictionary.com's homepage for their word of the day.

The Quote of the Day is "People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily." Zig Ziglar. (Click his name to find out who he is.)

Today a colleague asked me if I like Linkin Park. I hesitated then said I didn't hate them. Then I told her one of their songs I did appreciate was "In the End". It was aptly very popular just around the time I graduated from secondary school. Whenever I hear it I think about those times. What memories does it bring back for you?

Word, Quote and Song of the Day

Today's word takes me back to my first year of university when I did a course called Introduction to Language. The word is prevaricate. If you claim you knew what it meant, you're probably prevaricating.

The quote of the day is "Life is too short to start your day with broken pieces of yesterday, it will definitely destroy your wonderful today and ruin your great tomorrow." Anonymous.

The song of the day comes on the heels of her much-talked-about performance during the Superbowl half-time show. It's Beyoncé's 'Love on Top'. Great song in my opinion. Enjoy!

Word, Song and Quote of the Day

Today's word is cachinnate. I'm sure you will cachinnate when you click and see the meaning. You can also go to Dictionary.com's http://dictionary.reference.com/homepage to check out their word of the day.

The quote I have chosen for today is "No one looks back on their life and remembers the nights they got plenty of sleep." Anonymous.

As for today's song, I have always found 'The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" to be a beautiful song. Here is a lovely live version from Jennifer Hudson I found while browsing videos on Youtube.

Pancake Day

Saturday was Fête de la Chandeleur here in France also referred to as Jour de Crêpes. The French celebrate the presentation of Jesus 40 days after his birth on this date and it marks the official end to the Christmas season. On Crêpe Day people traditionally eat crêpes (a thinner version of pancakes). To commemorate this, at the English academy where I teach I showed the children how to make pancakes. It wasn't my idea, the owner of the school normally does it every year with the children so I was happy to participate. I didn't realize they were so easy to make. She normally uses Larry Moore's recipe (click to see a video on Youtube). You can also see a tiny picture of me making pancakes with the kids at the academy's blog. I'll try to get the hi-res photo to post later. We enjoyed our pancakes with maple syrup and lemon curd, a sort of lemon jam popular in England made with eggs, sugar and fruit.

Word, Quote and Song of the Day

Today's word is parvenu (click the word for its definition). Also see Dictionary.com's word of the day on their homepage.

The quote for today is "Don't wait for the perfect moment. take the moment and make it perfect." Anonymous.

While heading to or from the mall on the bus today (I can't remember which) I realized that my cellphone battery was low (what else is new?). Immediately the Backstreet Boys' song "The Call" popped into my head. Not that I am a fan of the Backstreet Boys but it's probably the only song I know that mentions a battery being low. If you've never heard it before, here it is.

Honey Mustard

I love my Subway (boom de yada, boom de yada). I actually found that jingle quite catchy (click here to hear it and see the video). Anyway, today I had Subway for lunch and those of you who know me know that I am in currently in France. However, Subway here labels there sauce bottles in English (Ranch, Sweet Onion, etc.). So on a previous occasion I went to Subway and when asked which type of sauce I wanted I said "Honey Mustard" which is what the label read. The girl was like "huh?". So I had to point to the bottle. Today I went back there again and of course they asked me again which sauce I wanted. This time I decided to try to say "honey mustard" in my best French accent which would sound something like "oh-nee moos-tar". The girl was again like "huh? Sauce piquante (hot sauce)?" Then she pointed to another sauce and called its name while I kept frantically pointing at the honey mustard. She finally got it and I had my turkey sub with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and corn. What I don't get is why they label their bottles in English if they aren't going to understand what I ask for (the veggies are labelled in French by the way). Just saying.

Word, Song and Quote of the Day

Ok it's that time again. Today's word is verbigerate (click the word for the definition). It's a word I came across that I'd never heard before. Also check out Dictionary.com's word of the day on their homepage.  

The quote of the day is "Not only is the old man twice a child, but also the man who is drunk." Plato.

Now for the song of the day. I chose this song because I used it in a lesson today with my students. I was teaching them vocabulary about car and driving and I had them do a gap fill exercise with the lyrics of Prince's 'Little Red Corvette'. This song always makes me wanna dance. Enjoy!

Word, Song and Quote of the Day

I thought it would be a good idea to post a new word, song and quote every day as my Word, Song and Quote of the Day. Sometimes I hear words that I have never heard before or that I have heard before but can't quite define so I'll post one of the words each day as my Word of the Day.  My Song of the Day will just be a random song, one I have heard recently or just one I like.  I downloaded an iBook called 'Book of Wise Sayings' by William Alexander Clouston. I'll probably get my Quotes of the Day from there or just use any other quotes I hear that I find interesting or funny.

So today's word is corrigendum. Blogger's spell check does not even recognize it. Click the word to see Dictionary.com's  definition and you can also find their Word of the Day on their homepage.

Today's quote is "If you wish to know  how much preferable wisdom is to gold, then observe: if you change gold you get silver for it, but your gold is gone; but if you exchange one sort of wisdom for another, you obtain fresh knowledge, and at the same time keep what you possessed before." Talmud.

Finally, for the Song of the Day  I have chosen 'Happy' by C2C featuring D. Martin. Didn't like it much at first but I sent the video to a friend who I thought would like it and he liked the song and the video so much it made me feel 'happy'. Enjoy!

Involuntary Drawing

So now for my first 'real' post. Once years ago I sat down with a pencil and a blank sheet of paper and I just placed my hand over the paper and started drawing, without really thinking about what I was drawing. My hand seemed to take on a life of its own and it moved all over the paper. At first it seemed like just a bunch of scribbles, but after some time abstract shapes and images began to appear. When my had finally stopped, I was quite surprised at the result: through the scribbles I could make out long-haired figures in what looked like a grassy field, under the moon. I have never repeated this activity until tonight, although this time instead of a pencil and paper I used a stylus and my iPad. I downloaded an app called Sketchtime and experimented using my finger and then realized it would probably be better if I used a stylus. I started looking around in stores and the cheapest one I could find cost 10 euros. I thought that before buying it I would do a little research to see what was the best kind of stylus to use with my iPad. I came across some very detailed reviews and comparisons on theverge.com (see the reviews here) and concluded that the best type would be a stylus with a microfiber tip so I searched amazon.com for one and found the Ikross Fiberstyle mesh stylus on amazon.fr and the price was right (just 3.99 euros plus 2.99 shipping). It works like a charm; glides very easily over the screen and is very conductive. So finally tonight I sat down to do my little sketching activity and after finishing I did a little research and actually found out there is a name for this phenomenon; it's called Involuntary Drawing and here's an interesting article on it on the Tate Foundation's website (click here for the article). So finally after all of that rambling here's the finished product. Maybe you can tell me what you see.

Welcome to my blog!

So everybody and their grandmother has a blog these days and I've been thinking about starting one for quite a long time. However the two questions I always asked myself were 'What would I blog about?' and 'Who would read it?' Lately I have been feeling inspired and thought I would just try anyway. So I have decided that I will just blog about random things I find interesting and hopefully there'll be others who find them remotely interesting too. Happy reading!