Volunteering - at last!

I have a whole new respect for teachers now. And the system of education.
The very thought of being surrounded by 20 little brats - eh, kids terrifies me. And then the thought that Iam supposed to engage and teach them - now that's too far to picturize even.
Dharma had done it a couple of weeks ago. He thought it was nice. So, we have given to the school our dues. We could put away volunteering for a while.
Except that Rebecca thinks that it is Mommy's turn now. Today. Okay Tomorrow then.
I thought it is easier to simply go, do it instead of trying to beat around it with her.
kids!

So I emailed and said that I am available. And immediately started to agonize.
It is hard enough handling my own two kids.
Yet I braced myself, and ventured on.
And am glad that I did.
The whole idea is to get involved. And it is a great way to watch the kids. Sure, they amaze you by their questions, and keep you on your toes.
I started out with some paper work, and then watched them as they listened to instructions. The schedule is well packed and dynamically updated. 2 of the reading groups did not have a teacher? No, problem - this is what we'll do.
A problem seems to crop up every now, and then, and an immediate solution to it too.
This is exciting action every minute.
'I know you are Rebecca's mummy- but you don’t look like her at all' I know who you are, and other comments keep me amused.
The homework projects say that parents can fill in for their kids. That sounds like going the length of school all over again. And again, for me.
But this is time well spent indeed.

Note : I wrote this piece long ago, and forgot to post it. Anyway, here it is now :)

தமிழில் வலைப்பதித்தல்

என் முதல் வலைப்பதிப்பகம்! ம்ம்ம்ம் நன்றாக தான் உள்ளது.

Wonder why ?

See a picture with 2 people seemingly laughing / smiling, and the caption always says 'joking' ?

Little Flowers

Beth Barnard wrote a song, Little Flowers, and here are the lyrics. 

  

Little flowers never worry 

When the wind begins to blow. 

And they never, never cry 

When the rain begins to fall. 

  

Oh, it's wet and oh so cold, 

Soon the sun will shine again. 

Then they'll smile unto the world, 

For their beauty to behold. 

  

When the clouds begin to gather 

And the storm begins to blow, 

Little flowers don't complain, 

Though they're tossing to and fro. 

  

Oh, I guess they've learned the secret, 

They don't fret because they know, 

If it never, never rained, 

Then they'd never, never grow. 

  

So, let it rain, let it rain, let it pour, 

Little trouble keep on knocking at my door, 

If we'll learn the right from wrong, 

It will help to make us strong. 

  

Lord, please help us learn the secret, 

Even little flowers know, 

If it never, never rains 

Then we'll never, never grow. 

Its ringing in my head

plan.
set the schedule.
plan.
Set the timeline.
Plan.
set the deadline.
plan.

yuck ! yuck !

Make it happen

not so yuck !

Did you see that?

Just back from El Novillero for Brent's luncheon. the plate is plentiful there. When you are famished, its a good place to feast on.The sign near the door says - we provide shirts if needed.

hmm !

Do I have to return them back ?

The place is well furnished Mexican style, and somewhere on the lobby wall, there's a tiny ceramic plate that says - '.... now featuring restrooms'

You have to really look to spot that. !

A thought

There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is in having lots to do and not doing it. - Mary Wilson Little

Like laundry, maybe ?

but can I get away with it ? Now, that's something else ;)

Cuil for knowledge , hmm !

Have you seen cuil yet?
Or better used Cuil to search something?
I think it is neat- check the search results - the results page is interesting. The search engine is still in its infancy - I could spot weird mistakes myself.
But who cares, I like the fact that it is attempting to stand up against biggies.
May the tribe increase :)

I know, the search is pathetic, it is slow, and it is almost silly and sometimes irrelevant and stupid. It seems amateurish. The links are broken.
If you think

Oops! We couldn’t find that page.
Please verify that the URL is correct and try again.


is cute, then you will get several of these all over the site.



The homepage reminds me of the first time I started to use Google. After using yahoo and msn for searches, Google had a clean, almost empty page. It has been quite a thing to see it leap ahead of the pack.

Whether Cuil survives slinging the Goliath of searches is yet to be seen. I am going to watch.

Peace of Mind - Josh Gracin

There's a hole in my heart
Seems like I've always been trying to fill with the treasures of life
The pleasures of the night but nothing ever will
There's a restlessness deep in my soul
And I know it's ruining me
All these regrets of mine haunt me all the time
They won't let me sleep

[chorus]
Oh but sooner or later I'm going to get some rest
Throw the world off my shoulders
Get this weight off my chest
Oh I know that it won't be tonight
But I 'm going to keep looking until I find
A little peace of mind, yeah

I don't know how you knew just what to say just what to do
To leave but still stay to walk away and keep me hanging on to you
Oh can't you see what your love has made of me
My feet keep pacing
It's you I'm still chasing
God I wish I could sleep

[chorus x2]
Oh but sooner or later I'm going to get some rest
Throw the world off my shoulders
Get this weight off my chest
Oh I know that it won't be tonight
but I'm going to keep looking until I find
A little peace of mind, yeah

Yeah, yeah, Oh, oh
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
A little peace of mind, yeah
A little peace of mind
A little peace of mind, yeah

[Fade]

I went to the woods

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. - H Thoreau

Octopus, anyone?

I had baby octopus yesterday.
For the first time.
I do try not to get too adventurous when it comes to food.
But, what the heck!
We were in a Japanese restaurant; the menu had octopus, baby octopus, and jellyfish, among others.
If they are wrapped up in a sushi, they wouldn't bite me, right?
So, I asked for it.
Fish eggs and eel were a challenge for me, last time. I got over it this time.
ew!
I still have to work on enjoying them. It was mostly pick, and gobble, instead of any slow chewing or savoring.
Octopuses are quite another story.
Looks creepy actually, since they were cut and put on top of the sushi roll, instead of inside the roll.
Tastes like rubber band, someone said.
Not bad.
The biggest step is to pick it and put it in your month. Then on, it is easy.
Once you chew, the challenge is already over.
I did it!
Dharma says octopuses are like humans, eating them is like eating a person.
That gets me thinking.
Would you eat people that you don’t like ? or those who give you the creeps ?

Helen Klein

I heard Helen Klein speak today afternoon.
What an amazing woman. Extraordinary athlete holds several world records....
The fascinating aspect of her story is that she started as late as her mid-fiftes to run.
Maybe when I am that old, I will try something ;)
She starts with a dateline clip of her 1995 Eco Challenge.
That is a 300+ miles of mountain biking, horseback riding, whitewater rafting, canoeing, and rock climbing and running.
Phew!
She was 72 then.
Watching the clip with her in the room, I thought - this lady lives in my neighborhood, and maybe I have passed by her some where on the American river trail. Just didn’t know she was this accomplished.
So, I came back, looking for her on the net. Surprisingly, couldn’t get through the complete picture.
Tried Wikipedia- drew a blank.
So, I think I'll start something there for her.

Read what Norman says about her in the last paragraph.


http://www.in-forum.com/articles/rss.cfm?id=127213

May 30th, 2008

We are human beings, not human doings.
Our hearts and souls shine through when we let passion and purpose lead our lives.

- Lisa Hammond

A Scary incident

I have to write this down.
Yesterday, after we finished with our dinner and stuff, we all went upstairs to retire. I came down a bit later to get some water and mid-night snacks.
Switched the kitchen light, got the water, and then I heard it.
A strange muffled noise.
I froze.
Is someone in there? I looked around. Maybe the garage? Or was it by the backyard? I tried to play it down - maybe I was simply imagining.
Then I heard it again.
No!
This time I am sure it was a languishing noise.
Was it a floating eerie thing?
So, I called out to Dharma.
When he came down, I doubted whether he would hear the same thing.
Maybe this was something only I could hear; maybe something was trying to communicate (or scare) to me alone.
Thankfully, it came again.
This time - a series of giggles, and then a child's voice.
The giggles were scary. Then we laughed with relief.
It came from Rebecca's laptop.
Her online games were still on. And that was the source.
Phew!
Lesson learnt - Never leave your applications on.

Words that wonder around...

Pet words – every one has a few.
They change over time.

Words or phrases that simply pop up repeatedly.

Phrases are easy to notice.

Some times intentionally, otherwise just so. They get so habitual, that are you would not even notice it.
Unless someone points the peculiarity of the usage.
Or maybe years later, it strikes you back. You could be amused even embarrassed, thinking about it wondering why that was lingering on.

Specially, teachers and bosses and preachers and the limelight hoarders – their words are easy to notice.

You would notice the peculiar ones, point it out, tease and laugh or even mimic someone effectively --simply by observing the words that they generally use.

I find them wander about my head, randomly. And so, I fish and utilize them randomly.
Sometimes, I find myself using words even when I know for a fact that they don’t fit exactly. Yet, I fish them again.

Why?

Heck, its convenient – why bother to hunt for some, when you have a few others ready, already?
Its part of the jargon.
Others use and understand them too,
They cool.
Whatever.

I try to consciously keep away from very common phrases simply because they were too common.

Like ‘timepass’ .

Eww!! – can’t stand that. That’s sounds too shallow and wasteful.

‘Rocks’ – don’t like that either.

Or ‘cute’

Don’t know what I had against cute- its seems okay now.

‘Bekaar’ – I don’t like, yet I use it.

‘Eccentric idiot’ ‘nutcase’ – Ah! Haven’t used that in ages. I have to find someone to use it against . Ha ha !!

‘Nut’ – overused it too many times to count. Currently in the archives.

I use ‘occasionally’ ‘obviously’ ‘absolutely fine’ ‘good so far’

That were sometimes peculiar lingo to

But then, what the heck, who cares?

Time and again, I think – What was I thinking?


I think Obama uses the word ‘notion’ while Hillary uses ‘motion’ quite peculiarly.

Heard that?

Jim

That’s all right, he would have said.

I don’t think so.

The year so far

The year's been heady so far.
A new baby
A new home.
Losing the baby weight rapidly.
Back to work in 7 weeks.
A new neighborhood, longer commutes.
Eating marundu koulumbu day after day after day - this one isnt charming.

Well, 10 mins more commute isn’t much, and not having to cook is fun, but I just have to crib, so I do.

Nathan’s been an easy baby so far. It is a joy to see how Rebecca perceives and talks to Nathan.

Huge changes.

Mother of two kids, ha!
The other day, when someone asked me how are the children doing , I almost shot back – what children ? I only have one child.
No, no, no – I now have two.

People with two kids are supposed to responsible, in control, organized, apt jugglers - dropping a few balls, but overall doing it all.
Aren’t they the ones that are forever tired, forever hurrying, and grouchy? Either bragging or complaining about their kids.
Ouch!

I can see myself running after my kids. But I don’t feel any different.

Yet I know my life is in for a bigger swing.

Buying a home and then moving is a lot of work too.
Getting into those tasks within 3 weeks of giving birth is something else. Not a super feat, but I feel blessed to be able to do it.

We had a couple of surprises too – like stumbling into a much larger, better home than we hoped to.
Planned to buy just the bare basics for our home, and just in time, surprise - we got a good deal of furnishing to fill it.
Having a pity party for being excluded in the appreciated pool. And then getting included. How’s that for a surprise.
My brother diversifying his business has been another pleasant surprise. Whenever he ventures into a risk area, knowing how cautious he is, we all are. We like to think that he is predictable, yet he has pulled in a few big ones.
I feel great, and then bad news hits.
I cringe and I flinch.
Recurring cancer for a colleague.
This was supposed to be done with.
Yet it was returned and threatens to loom large now.
The words that come to my mind are - unfair. Insane. Rude joke. Thoughtlessness. Unthinkable. Why? Why? why ?
I have experienced the harshness of the disease just a few years back.
I am not ready for this.

A few thoughts of others

Fear is a question: What are you afraid of, and why ? Just as the seed of health is in illness, because illness contains information, your fears are a treasure house of self-knowledge if you explore them.- Marilyn Ferguson

Our friendship is like a bank account - growing in propotion to the amount of interest we pay.- B J Gallagher

The phrase "working mother" is redundant- Jane Sellman

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