Summer De-Cluttering on the FLY

Topping my summer agenda is de-cluttering and cleaning my house and developing a system to keep it almost that way.

Here’s a tip that a friend told me about, the FLY Lady website:

http://www.flylady.net/pages/FLYingLessons_Decluttertips.asp

The FLY Lady’s suggestions are to spend 15 minutes each day doing a little extra housework in the designated “zone” of the week. The “zones” shift each week, but you’ll eventually come back to the same zone. Add a whole hour of concentrated cleaning each week and I figure I’ll stop living in CHAOS. The FLY Lady loves acronyms. CHAOS stands for Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome. That definitely describes our house. FLY stands for Finally Loving Yourself, I think. Anyway, these suggestions appeal to me and I’m going to give it a try.

Happy summer everyone!

Save $, energy, and time and make your clothes last longer!

If you’ve ever lived abroad, you know that electric / gas clothes driers are mostly an American phenomenon. I really don’t understand why we use them so much. It’s so much cheaper (on your energy bills) and nearly as simple to use drying racks or lines.

It’s hard to find a good drying rack in the U.S. I’ve looked long and hard for ones like I used in Austria, metal ones with wings that folded out on either side and that had a large space in the middle. When not in use, they fold up to store quite easily against a wall in a corner.

My family and I almost never use our dryer. We don’t miss it either. It’s so simple to air dry our laundry. We do it indoors on our 3 folding drying racks.

Here are some links to some drying racks I’ve found on the internet. (I haven’t been able to find any in any store in the area, though I’m sure somewhere in L.A. they must be available.)
.
http://www.mrspeggshandyline.com
I don’t own a Mrs. Peg Handyline, but I think that if I had to replace the ones I have (European-style ones that are breaking and aren’t available anymore in the U.S.), I’d probably buy this one. Not cheap, but your savings on energy are quite a lot! I imagine this dryer would pay for itself in several months.

http://www.joyfulspincycle.com/#ss%20clothes%20drying%20racks
I do own a Butterfly Drying Rack made by the Joyful Spin Cycle company. It’s sturdy, though it doesn’t have as large of a volume as Mrs. Pegg’s model.

http://store.laundrylist.org/SearchResults.asp
Here’s another website selling other clothes line models. Some look really good. The site also provides a more thorough list of reasons why air drying is a great idea - lower risk of starting a fire as well as saving $ and the environment. How could you go wrong?
http://www.laundrylist.org/

ESL Sites for New Junkies

I’m somewhat of a news junkie. I’m sure I’ll bring this hobby into the classroom and use it as a teaching tool. If you’re an ESL teacher and you like following the news too, here are some websites that might be helpful:

Breaking News English offers free lesson based on current events themes. The site also offers lessons based on other interesting themes such as Business English, environment, health, lifestyle, and gossip, and technology. He (the site’s author, a British TESFL/TESL teacher named Sean Banville) also has a link to his other websites on famous people lessons. (No, Starr King didn’t make it on the list, but neither did Ronnie. Preity Zinta, the Bollywood beauty and Ban Ki-moon are on the list, though. A wide variety of people from all over the world are there!) He also has a site with holiday lessons. Did you know June 1st is Pen Pal Day?! I’ve listed these 2 links below as well.

http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/index.html
http://www.famouspeoplelessons.com/
http://www.eslholidaylessons.com/


Another site that might be useful is the New York Times Learning Network. It’s for English speakers, but for grades 3-12. It includes ideas on lesson plans. One headline that popped out at me as I looked at the site today was “Spread the Word: Ten Ways to Enrich Your Vocabulary With the New York Times.” Sounds good to me!

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/issues_in_depth/Vocabulary.html

The only drawback that I’ve found with the NY Times Learning Network is that it isn’t compatible with blerp. Oh well.

On a Soapbox: Th. Starr King vs. Ronald Reagan

OK. Right after I said in class I wouldn’t put anything about religion up on my website, here I am putting something about religion in my blog. It’s an important part of my life, so maybe it’s fine to comment on something related.

Someone from my church’s yahoo group posted the op-ed article (linked below these comments) from yesterday’s L.A. Times. It’s about how politicians have prevailed in replacing an artistic likeness of one of California’s and my faith tradition’s heros, Thomas Starr King, with a more recent California hero, Ronald Reagan. I never have been a Reagan fan. Amongst the things I remember really disliking him for was his 1984 on-air radio address joke that he would send the bombs flying off to Russia in 5 mins. As someone who later studied Russian and loved the language, and someone from a state with a lot of nuclear weapons based there (Montana), I found nothing funny in that statement. Now that I’ve told you one little reason about why I don’t think Reagan should be memorialized AGAIN, let me tell you briefly why Starr King’s statue should stay. Besides having a poetic name and being an important figure in the history of my Unitarian Universalist tradition (we have a seminary in Berkley named after him), Starr King was influential in helping California become part of the anti-slavery Union It is ironic that Starr King campaigned for the immortal American hero, Abraham Lincoln (a Republican) and helped elect a Republican governor and the Republicans are the ones wanting to replace him.

Read more about Thomas Starr King on the Unitarian Universalist Historical Association website: http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/thomasstarrking.html

Oh, and contrary to what Mr. Cheevers writes, Starr King wasn’t a Unitarian Universalist. He was born to Universalist father and became a Unitarian minister. The two Protestant denominations only merged in America in 1961. Unitarian churches still exist in other parts of the world, most notably in Transylvania (now Romania). I’m not sure whether there are any churches that are still strictly Universalist.


Opinion Thomas Starr King deserves better
A statute of the Californian is being replaced by one of Ronald Reagan
in the U.S. Capitol. By Jack Cheevers Los Angeles Times
May 29, 2009 » Discuss Article
y29-gb,0,4492279.graffitiboard> (11
Comments)
y29-gb,0,4492279.graffitiboard>

A Techie I am not, but I’m interested!

What I’ve learned most from my TESL 565 class with Lia Kamhi-Stein is that I CAN be more courageous about trying out technology. With practice, I’ll get better about learning computer applications. Practice will build confidence and eventually yield productive results.

Below are some links to interesting things I’ve come across lately.

I think a CATESOL e-mail sent to me because I enrolled in some interest group or the other alerted me to a great ELL, ESL & EFL blog. It’s by Larry Ferlazzo and he writes about “websites of the day.” I’ve found lots of great info. there, including some stuff about Blerp (a social networking website that allows you to annotate texts online – exciting possibilities for teaching reading?), Twitter, and Facebook. You can search his blog for those keywords. I’ve done that for you below. Note the on-line session about making the most of using Facebook for classes. Might be worth tuning in for – a live online tutorial on May 31.

Larry Ferlazzo blog comments on Blerp:
- http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/?s=blerp

- on Twitter:
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/?s=twitter
Also see at this link Ferlazzo’s entry from May 21: “How Educators Can Use Facebook Effectively – Mark the Date!” about a May 31, 5 pm Pacific Daylight Time online “Pimp My Facebook” demonstration – an EduBlog Live event


Does anyone know how EduBlog is different from BlogSpot?


I listen to my local NPR (National Public Radio) station (KPCC 89.3 FM out of Pasadena) every chance I get. Last week on the “All Tech Considered” segment, during the nightly news show “All Things Considered,” I heard something about making better usernames and passwords and remembering them. KPCC has a good website with links to NPR:. http://www.scpr.org/ Here’s what I came up with beginning to search on that website.

- http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2009/05/you_need_better_ps5w0rd.html

This segment makes me think that I’d like to look into taking measures to help me create and remember better passwords.

I also heard on NPR that Dan Schorr, one of my all-time favorite NPR personalities, is on Twitter. Here is a link with a video in which he tells Liana Hansen (another of my favorite NPR hosts) about why Twitter is the new Agora. What’s Agora? Watch the video and see!

Dan Schorr tells Liane Hansen about why he likes Twitter:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/

Tibet Nepal House

The Food Snob's postings inspired me to post a restaurant review of my own.

On Friday, my hubbie and I had a lunch date. We went to the Tibet Nepal House in Old Town Pasadena. They have an all-you-can-eat buffet lunch Tues. - Fri. 11:30 - 2:30 (closed on Mon.). Sometimes I've thought this place was just so-so, but that day it tasted really yummy. The price was right for only $8.99. We were one of the first parties there, so the restaurant was fairly empty. It was so peaceful with the water fountain running, the Tibetan music, and the paper footprints with customers' graffiti written on them hanging from the ceiling. If you like N. Indian food with lots of vegetarian options, it's a good place to try! The kheer (rice pudding) was especially delicious that day. I see on their menu that they also serve Sho Jhaa, typical Tibetan Butter Tea. I don't know if that means yak butter, but wouldn't you like to find out?

www.tibetnepalhouse.com

Shaken!

Did you feel the earthquake this afternoon? The one on Sunday evening? Are you prepared for a major earthquake? What things could fly across your room and really injure you? In my house, a lot of things. This summer when I have no classes, I'm making it a priority to make our house as earthquake safe as I can. Already ordered some large barrels for storing water. They weren't cheap, but neither is my life! I've read that we should all store 2 quarts to 1 gallon per day just for drinking. That's very little (you need more on a hot day or if you want to wash up occasionally), but it's necessary for survival. We live in an urban desert. All of our water supply pipes cross over fault lines to get into the greater L.A. area. We can expect to be without water for about 2 weeks. Are you prepared?

Here's the contact info. for an earthquake supply shop in Monrovia

Earthquake Solutions (626) 256-7900
www.EarthquakeSolutions.com
122 E. Walnut Ave., Suite A
Monrovia, CA 91016

The owner's name is April Kelcy. I found her to be knowledgeable and helpful. She's been in business for a long time and is well-respected in the business community. Her business is only open by appointment, so call / e-mail her ahead of time.