Leveling Up in the World

    Hey all!  Welcome back:)  It was a nice weekend for me, despite working, (and then realizing I have almost the entire week off...lame).  Still no baby boy from my sister-in-law, but we will definitely see him by the end of next week if it doesn't happen soon.  Can't wait to be an auntie!!  Other than that, nothing really exciting has happened yet, so unfortunately it's another Tuesday rendition of Boring Blog, which, apparently, a lot of you actually like, so maybe I'll keep this going.
    Also, this is currently happening in the classroom I'm in today...not sure why someone would keep something so obviously creepy in a Social Studies classroom, but who am I to judge?...

    First things first: I start my final semester of courses today!  First class on deck is "Special Topics in English Teaching" with the wonderful Alecia Magnifico.  I am most looking forward to my classes this semester, especially this one.  The class I have tomorrow is "Teaching Writing in the 21st Century," which sounded very interesting to me.  I'm looking forward to broadening my horizons as an educator and learning more new and captivating ideas this year to prepare me for my internship this fall.

    Second thing: Pokemon update.  I have now obtained all eight gym badges and have made it to the chambers of the Elite Four, (FINALLY).  It literally took me about four hours to get through just that section, battling all of the trainers on the long and winding road up to the Pokemon League.  After reviving at least three of my top Pokemon about six times, I made it to the Pokemon Center before the main building, (thank God for that, because I don't think I'd make it very far without one.  I thought it was a little ridiculous to have THAT many trainers on the road just to enter the area where the Elite Four are.  Then each of them have four Pokemon each level 63 and higher, plus the Champion who has a whopping SIX Pokemon level 65 and higher, so I'm in for a rough night if I try to take them on.  The gym leaders were too easy and Victory Road seemed a bit too difficult for the amount of preparation I was given, so we'll see how that goes.  I might try to level up a bit more before attempting to take them all out, (I'm currently at about 75 with my top two Pokemon and around the mid-sixties with the rest of my party).  I am most proud of the legendary Pokemon, Yveltal, who I was able to catch on my first try, which almost never happens.  Props to me!

    In general, I'm a huge fan of water and fire types, however I can see now where it would benefit from having a grass or psychic type in combination with these types.  This is the type of strategy and planning I was looking for when researching this game as a type of literacy.  There are different kinds of people who play: people who play to get through the game, people who play to catch all the Pokemon they can get their hands on, people who want to get higher level Pokemon as fast as they can, people who want to find all the hidden items, artifacts and other gems around the game, etc.  Game play ultimately depends on what type of person you are, and it's interesting to see me categorized among them.  I haven't played like this in a very long time, so I'm still getting used to immersing myself completely in the game, (much to my husband's dismay).  Since I've played older versions before, I went into this thinking differently than someone who would just be starting out fresh without ever having played the older versions.  There are also people who have played every single version up until this point, and they are used to playing a different game than I am, having experienced some of the newer versions that I have not.  I'm interested in continuing to log my progress and even write in a journal to gather data so I can maybe turn this into something beneficial.  We shall see, but I'm enjoying myself nonetheless.
    So that's basically it.  Nothing exciting or substantial happening with me this week.  Starting my courses, baby maybe and possibly taking on the Elite Four before I get dragged into the homework routine again.  I will be catching up with all my shows today and tomorrow, so there might possibly be another TV review on Thursday if I have nothing else to talk about.  Also I've added two more tabs to the top of the blog: "Open Letters" and "ENGL 889."  The first tab will be dedicated to various individuals/situations I find particularly interesting/amusing/annoying/etc. while the second will be dedicated to responses for my new Special Topics course in English Teaching, which will be linked to my class' blog page.  Feel free to check both tabs out and I will keep you updated on posts via Twitter, etc.  Until next time, I remain your faithful correspondent.

Digital Chats and The Final Countdown

          This week marks the last week of my vacation.  Sadly I didn’t accomplish much of anything, but I’m hoping to be more productive in the coming weeks, partially due to the fact that I should have more actual work to do.  I’m excited to start my final two courses: Special Topics in English Teaching and Teaching Writing in the 21^st Century.  I’m excited partially because one of my classes is taught by the same professor I took Digital Literacies with.  Should be a good last hurrah before I start my internship next fall.

            In other news, I got new glasses yesterday!  I have had the same red pair since 2006, with no change in prescription, so I thought it was finally time to change it up.  Plus I’ve been squinting even with my glasses on lately, so for my own sake I didn’t want to have any more headaches from strain.  It was difficult to choose a pair of glasses because I’ve been so used to my old pair and we’ve been through a lot together, so I was a little unwilling to change at first.  But with a little help from the nice eye guy and my wonderful husband’s opinion, I decided on a completely different style and I love them!  I will miss my signature red, but hopefully these will be just as good, seeing as I stuck with the pop of color.  Here’s to new beginnings and a new style!

            This week I will also be attempting my first online chat sessions.  The New England Bloggers Network will be hosting a blog chat tomorrow night through Twitter which I will be participating in.  Also through Twitter, there will be a “Digital Learning” chat from the National Council of Teachers of English, (NCTE), this Sunday night at 8pm if any of my teacher friends want to join me in that one.  This is my first attempt to participate in one of these digital chats, so wish me luck.  Hopefully it will help me better understand that type of community in the event I’d like to participate more openly in the future.

            For my TV menu this week Castle returns as well as How I Met Your Mother, so I’m looking forward to getting caught up with those episodes which aired yesterday, (as some of you already know, I do not have cable, so I watch everything the day after through Hulu and Netflix through my Roku box).  Also, premiering tonight is the new season of Face-Off, which is a show on the SyFy network about make-up and special effects artists competing for a contract and cash prize.  They are already in their 6^th season and it’s extremely interesting to see what they come up with for various themes and characters.

            Keeping with my Victorian Era kick, I’ve been thoroughly invested in The Tudors series on Netflix, (I’m already on season four…after about a week, maybe?).  Even though you know what’s going to happen to some extent, it’s still a very well done series, so I’m interested to see how they ended it.  Since I’ve been watching Reign as well, this story line ties directly into it, being that Mary, Queen of Scots is related to the Tudors line of succession, (Margaret Tudor, sister to King Henry VIII is her grandmother).  I was thinking about starting The Borgias series after I finish with The Tudors, so let me know what you think in the comments.

            That’s it for this week!  I can’t post a review of The Bachelor from this week yet because I haven’t seen it, but I will Thursday, (maybe), if it still seems relevant.  As for the rest of this week, it’s pretty much wide open.  My sister-in-law’s due date is this coming Saturday, so I could be an aunt as early as this weekend!  Fingers crossedJ I’m hoping we can visit, but we’ll see what happens.  Until next time, I remain your faithful correspondent.