Monthly Archives: August 2012

Current Events For The Win

Posted in Scholarly, Sedentary Pursuits, Simply Random by

Slightly tired of presidential campaign speeches already? The sheer amount of time wasted with clapping is enough to make you turn off the screen, if you ask me. SO, today, I went questing for other news, and found the following fascinating tid-bits…

CNN.com had a whole list of stories, but one headline in particular caught my total interest.

The best part is that the reason why Bearded men (carrying rifles) caused a bridge to close down was due to the “Beards for Breasts” movement . . . a photo shoot movement in support of raising money to fight breast cancer!  CNN also has a nice feature that lets you watch some pretty wonderful news stories. Case in point:

Check out this amazing-ness!

Since I wanted to make sure that I didn’t only check one news source, I also took a gander at the New York Times online. The only thing to catch my eye was actually related to the elections (there wasn’t much else to read, actually). . . but an interesting take on why our incumbent might wind up re-elected.

So. . . Jim Rutenberg thinks that American’s have some sort of sentimental attachment to Obama? Like, as in a bad dating relationship? We aren’t happy, but we’ll probably stick with Obama because of some nostalgic emotional (irrational?) set of feelings?? Hmmm. Not sure how to feel about that, besides hopeful that it’s not true.

Anyhow, that is your peek into my glance at today’s Current Events.

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Translating ERMAHGERD

Posted in Scholarly, Serious, Silly by

Maybe you have heard of the memes which spring from the word “ERMAHGERD”?

For Example:

via

Or This One:

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Or (a personal favorite):

via

For those of you who haven’t been introduced, this series of memes highlights the mispronunciation of “Oh My God”, usually accompanying some fairly ridicule-worthy-yet-appreciate-able images.

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Typically, this strain of meme is used to illustrate overly-enthusiastic or extreme reactionary expressions to something average (as far as I can tell).

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They can also be used to show a general lack of intelligence (aka: “Derpiness“), or to poke fun at a person or idea.

For Example: via

or

via

Sometimes they do not necessarily intend negative commentary, but just seize the opportunity to make fun of someone’s “Derpy,” or awkwardly vacant, expression. Case in point:

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Similarly, they might be mocking an idea or concept that is particularly ridiculous. For example, The Nannerpuss Commercial (From Denny’s, a while back) would probably only be appealing to someone with a proclivity for that which is “derpy”. . . which is probably why this next meme was made, don’t you think?

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Now, usually I don’t like memes that involve crappy language. The “I CAN HAZ” ones make me want to burn down buildings.

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BUT, these ERMAHGERD ones came up in my class yesterday, and I honestly don’t know what it is about them, but I think I love them.

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It’s just so . . . HEARABLE.

Other people must think so, too, because there is actually an online translator for ERMAHGERD (!?) which allows you to type in regular language and see how your text would appear in this brand of meme-speak! Now, although I admit openly to enjoying them, I also still have to hold the bar up at a certain level when it comes to my expectations for academically legitimate vocabulary in the classroom. . . which means that I laughed, but also told my students that they should use French as their 2nd language in my classroom . . . not ERMAHGERD. . . which lead to the question: How WOULD you say ERMAHGERD in French?

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Since I commonly preach the evils of online translators, I tried to practice what I teach and stick with my own attempts at speaking this new language . . . and came up with the following meme-translation. . .
via

And there you have it.

Now you are as well versed in ERMAHGERD as I have become of late. Experts in the field (or should I say: ferld?), is there anything I missed?

Descriptive Reactions!

Posted in Simply Random by

Today, as I am wont to do, I played a French video for a few of my classes. This video:

My favorite reaction to the deep intensity of Fabien Marsaud‘s voice?

“Oh my g*d! That’s like VOICE CHOCOLATE.”

After I mentioned the description to another class in preparation to view the same video, one student heard Marsaud’s voice, turned to me, and commented with awe:

“Like, 75% Cacao.”

I just love my students!

Listening In. . .

Posted in Silly, Simply Random by

Overheard in the Target dressing room:

Obnoxious Whining Child: Mooooommy, the door won’t close, it’s gonna open! Someone’s gonna come iiiiiiiin!”

Mom: “Nobody’s coming in, honey.”

Obnoxious Whining Child: *Indiscriminate and increasingly shrill whines of disbelief*

Mom: “Look, even if someone walked in, Mommy’s a kick-boxing instructor. So they’d better watch out.”

The whining stopped immediately, no further questions asked. That mom is AWESOME.

Back-to-Hell Shopping

Posted in Simply Random by

I love school supplies.

 

I just can’t get enough of fun erasers, patterned binders, and colorful composition books. In fact, I found out today that the selection is a lot cooler than it used to be, as far as cuteness goes. So, I thought picking out a new plan book would be a fun excuse to peruse the selection at Target. Right?

Wrong.

It turns out that spending even a minimum amount of time in the school supply section is possibly one of my new least favorite things-t0-do. Right between cleaning the toilet without gloves and taking 8 hour math tests.

While shopping, I saw:

– one girl bite her younger sister and then blatantly lie about it to her mother

– three complaining teenagers trash-talking their teachers

– six disagreements between parents

– dozens of Justin Bieber notebooks, but not ONE Captain America one

– 10 complaining younger siblings

And this was only in 15 minutes! I rest my case. From here on out, I will do my best to avoid that scary back-to-school section, because I’m pretty sure it is my own personal version of hell.