What inanimate object would you compare yourself to?   Check out how some of my students very cleverly describe themselves . . . While not all objects below are inanimate,  you can see, I have beautiful students.

• I am a baseball mitt because I have to be taken care of in order to do what I can do.
• I am an iguana because I am sly and stay out of trouble when I need to.
• I am a foreign film because not everyone understands me.
• I am a pair of Converse shoes because I am laid back and casual.
• I am a pair of dumbells, dangerous if I am wrongly used but excellent if I am being used for the good of others.
• I am a bad trader because I give but don’t require anything in return.
• I am a cup of hot chocolate because I am warm and sweet.
• I am a picture frame because I hold many special memories.
• I am a waterproof jacket because it takes me a while to absorb information
• I am a lamp because I brighten up the dark and give a positive outlook on things.
• I am an ant because I need to live in a large group to survive.
• I am a bill at Congress just waiting for the world to know me.
• I am a tree because I have deep cultural roots.
• I am the internet because I am full of bad jokes and random facts.
• I am a plane because I’m never on time.
• I am a rubber band because I am flexible but I can break.
• I am an elephant because I have a great memory and rarely forget.
• I am a brick wall because nothing will knock me down.

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A colleague just shared this fun yet surprisingly useful site with me moments ago.  I LOVE to make up my own words myself (I had a major case of truckitis last night) so I was inspired instantly.   Fortunately for you, GG guests, I am going to practice some friendsourcing today.  There will be no peanut-buttering allowed and if you stick around long enough, you might find yourself in a peep culture.  Confused?  Go to this site to decipher my new words!!

Wordspy

GG challenge:  Use at least 3 new words that you find on this site today in conversation!!

And before you go, be sure to stop by Words of Whimsy to see some of GG’s own creations.

Now if you’ll excuse me I have some chairobics to take part in while watching football players posterize each other.

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Shhhhh . . . Keep this a secret . . . Don’t tell a soul about this post . . . Read on only if you are ready to be enlightened, tickled and shocked.  

Begin if you dare! 

WARNING:  For maximum validity, enlightenment, and fun, do NOT read down to the bottom until you have completed the exercise in its entirety!!!

The Cube - compiled by Annie Gottlieb and Slobodan D. Pesie

This is the tone you will encounter when you open the book The Cube . . . Keep the Secret.  It is a self-awareness game I play with my students on the day before a holiday.  I’ve been using this book for many years now, and I’ve yet to encounter a class in which the students are not in awe of its accuracy.  When we’re done with the game, I ask the students to write either a one-page analysis of their findings from the game or a descriptive piece illustrating their landscape.  Never is there a complaint for this assignment.  I also have fun with this at family gatherings!!

• Readers are asked to picture a desert landscape.  In the desert landscape are five specific elements:  a cube, a ladder, a horse, a storm and flowers.  The idea is to write down and describe the very first image of each that arrives in your head to achieve the most accurate results.  Each element represents something about the reader – therein lies the secret.  I’ve always been good at keeping secrets so I’m going to make you wait until you have the book itself in your hot little hands to find out what each represents.

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(from moreno101 on flckr)

Before yesterday, when I thought of watermelons I thought of summer picnics.  Well, I was perusing through my mail, anxiously trying to pass the time before I picked my daughter up at the airport when I came across an article on the book  Watermelon Magic: Seeds of Wisdom, Slices of Life by Wally Amos.  The book utilizes the word ‘watermelon’ as an acronym for a guide to life.  As I point out in my Memory Mastery 1 post, acronyms are a great way to remember things.  Thanks to the acronym below, I will never think of watermelons in the same way!  Now when I see those juicy pink slices or pesky black seeds we like to pick away, I will be reminded that we all have the will to live our lives from our highest selves.  My time waiting was well spent!  Now it’s your turn . . . enjoy and get ready for your mouth to water.  I’ve italicized my favorite parts ~

W – Whatever you believe creates your reality.  Believe that life is a positive experience and it will be.

A – Attitude is the magic word.  Your greatest asset is your attitude.  Be positive regardless.

T – Together everyone achieves more.  There are no limits to what we can accomplish together.  I am more than I am but less than we are.

E – Enthusiasm is the wellspring of life.  There is no limit to what can be accomplished with enough enthusiasm.

R – Respect yourself, as well as others.  When you begin to respect yourself, your whole world changes.

M – Make commitments, not excuses.  There is overwhelming power in the words “Yes I will.”

E – Everyday can be a fun day.  Fun is the lubricant that keeps life moving forward.  Laugh a lot.

L – Love is the answer.  Whatever the question, love is the answer.  It’s the greatest force in the Universe.

O – One day at a time.  How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.  All of life happens in increments of one.

N – Never give up or become a victim.  You are guaranteed to lose if you give up.  Winston Churchill was right.  ”Never, never, never give up.”  It works if you work it.

Grading Girl says this is a FUN reminder to not be overwhelmed by events.  Let ‘watermelon’ remind you that you are larger than events. It’s an awesome feeling to realize that we have the power to create and change events simply by what we believe.

GG’s Bonus Nutrition Tidbit:  Watermelon is composed of 92% water and packed with a giant dose of glutathione, which helps boost our immune system. It is also a key source of lycopene – the cancer fighting oxidant.  Other nutrients found in watermelon are vitamin C & potassium.

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Grading Girl just stumbled upon this list ~ Top 100 Mispronounced Words in the English Language

http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/mispron.html

As WebEnglishTeacher points out, one interesting point is that this list doesn’t allow for regional dialects. For example, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II pronounces the [t] in “often,” though here in the States – and on this list – it is frowned upon. Who would argue with the person referred to in the phrase “the Queen’s English”? Still, there might be fodder for some discussion!

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It is the 50th anniversary of a book found in every high school English department in the country, William Strunk’s and E.B. White’s Elements of Style. For a humorous take on Elements rules of writing, click on NPR’s website. Enjoy at your own geekiness!

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Let’s review the English language, shall we?

Grading Girl concludes that English is a crazy language. I can think of many examples to support this. . . some are from an anonymous essay sent my way, others are GG’s own contemplations: There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither is there an apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England or french fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

Why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, two geese. So one moose, two meese? Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS ~ Why doesn’t ‘Buick’ rhyme with ‘quick?’

Linguistic lovers will especially enjoy this ~
There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is ‘UP.’

It’s easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report ?

We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special. And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP . We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP , look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don’t give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP. When it doesn’t rain for a while, things dry UP.

One could go on and on, but I’ll wrap it UP , for now my time is UP, so………… it is time to shut UP!

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