Gen X---The Thirty-Something Thread

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oleander
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Re: Gen X---The Thirty-Something Thread

Post by oleander »

Thanks for the well-wishes everyone. I'd love to say i'm feeling 100% better in body, but I'm not, but i'm certainly feeling 110% better in spirit knowing that you guys care. It's nice to feel loved. :)

NEW QOTD: What was the best concert you've been to? (you can define "best" in your own terms).

Pearl Jam, September 22, 2005 in Halifax Nova Scotia. I had waited 13 years to see them so you know it was the most amazing show ever. I went with my younger brother and his wife. PJ was one of the first things he and I bonded over (there's 5 years difference between us and we didn't really get along until we were older). When the band played "Breath" for the first time in years (and it was the one song my brother wanted to hear) I swear I saw a tear in his eye. During "Given to Fly" we were up on our feet with our arms in the air and when they played one of the songs on my wishlist "Small Town," he gave my hand a squeeze and we both jumped up during the line "I just want to scream HELLOOOO!" It's very much out of his character to be so animated, he's usually quite reserved. He didn't even laugh at me when I started to tear up when the band came on stage. (Yes, i'm aware i'm a sap!)

As for stage productions...hands down the Live Bait Theatre Young Company's production of Godspell has been my ultimate favourite stage production. These were friends of mine who were mid-late teens who performed it and it was probably the most moving performances i've ever seen. The entire audience was weeping.
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cullengirl
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Re: Gen X---The Thirty-Something Thread

Post by cullengirl »

Rock concerts: Sadly, I've only been to 2 concerts. My first concert was seeing Dido at the Chicago Theater. The second one was for Coldplay's X&Y concert at the United Center, which was awesome.

Shows: The two most memorable ones are seeing Wicked with Ana Gastyer (sp?) in Wicked at the Chicago Theater. It was so cool seeing a musical live. Watching the set change, the flying monkeys were so cool! The second show that I remember was seeing A Midsummer Night's Dream at Navy Pier's Shakespeare Theater during my jr year of high school. It was hilarious how the characters would break out and do disco during the play while staying true to the character & text. As some of you know, I'm a Shakespeare groupie, so I dig that kinda stuff. :ugeek:
“Darkness will never take me…because I have you. Light of my life, Marissa. That’s what you are.”-LR
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dimber
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Re: Gen X---The Thirty-Something Thread

Post by dimber »

QOTD: If you like going to "shows", what is your favorite show (opera, musical and/or play)?

I absolutely adore opera. Probably it's because I'm Italian and we listen to Puccini's and Verdi's since childhood. In Verona, in the wonderful scenario of the ancient Roman arena, there is the opera festival each summer. It's really expensive but I managed to see "Turandot" a couple of years ago thanks to student discounts :D Absolutely beautiful!
I like plays as well. A version of "The Importance of Being Earnest" in the original language hooked me up when I was 16 and I've loved Oscar Wilde since then. The most interesting play, though, has been, for me, the one-man show called "Fronteras Americanas - American Borders" by the Canadian Guillermo Verdecchia. It's a witty monologue about migration, borders and national identity. I had the chance to meet the authors and publish a couple of articles on the play. I strongly recommend it to all of you...

Vampman: thanks for asking...I've been away for a while. Sometimes I need to spend some weeks away from my hectic life in Padua, with family and friends which live so far away. ;)
...we are such stuff that dreams are made on...

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bac
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Re: Gen X---The Thirty-Something Thread

Post by bac »

dimber wrote: I absolutely adore opera. Probably it's because I'm Italian and we listen to Puccini's and Verdi's since childhood. In Verona, in the wonderful scenario of the ancient Roman arena, there is the opera festival each summer. It's really expensive but I managed to see "Turandot" a couple of years ago thanks to student discounts :D Absolutely beautiful!
Oh my, that sounds wonderful. I have only been to one opera that I can think of and I was little. But I have grown to appreciate some of them as an adult. I have a CD of mixed opera favorites. (I am singing Turandot in my head while typing). I think it would be cool to see on stage, in Italy. Wow. I am so glad you got to go.

GNE, I like your new banner. I appreciate a beautiful man when I see him.
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Goodnight Elizabeth
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Re: Gen X---The Thirty-Something Thread

Post by Goodnight Elizabeth »

Those of you on YM chat know about this already, but I have to tell it again.

This evening I had my beginning of the semester meeting at work. We discussed the new email system, privacy act, and Blackboard. Every semester we cover Blackboard. I've used Blackboard A LOT since 2003. All of my classes each semester since 2005 have been on Blackboard. Last semester it was mandatory that all instructors use Blackboard.

Ok..so here we are in the computer lab. There are about 35 of us. I'm 38, and I'm the youngest. Sonya, our Blackboard person, is giving us a step by painful step of how to export a survey from one of our classes on to the desktop. Sounds simple enough, right. Not for these folks! She had to stop and sit with most people and show them how to log on, find their class, and then find the gradebook button. Argh!

Meanwhile, I'm helping this guy who is just a tad older than me. I was practically holding his hand. He was very ..ahem...friendly. He was just as bad as the really old people in the back. Since I'm helping him, we're ahead of everyone, so we chit chat. I discover that he's a HS principal. ACK! (What is going on? First Bambi and then this guy? No wonder kids aren't as smart as they should be when they graduate around here)

Purpose of meeting? To teach us how to export the survey & import it into our sections. Time it took? 1 whole hour. Within 5 minutes of the meeting's end, I had imported that survey into my 4 classes.

My boss sat behind me and watched me help the principal. I was 20 minutes early. I was helpful. Wanna bet it doesn't matter?

I try my best to be a great and fun teacher. My students get a more than decent education and most of them return for more. I work at it. These other idiots scrape by. There's one guy who teaches Math who is NEVER in his room. My friend's daughter had him for calculus and she hated him. He's an idiot. Why should I try so hard when it doesn't matter? Sorry for the vent, but *sigh* I feel much better! ;)

(Can I say just how much I love the spell check on Firefox?)
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ForksBound
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Re: Gen X---The Thirty-Something Thread

Post by ForksBound »

Favorite Show: I've seen A Chorus Line several times, and I do enjoy it live. I was in Oklahoma, and that's another one that's more fun if it's live. I've directed a middle-school production of Fiddler On the Roof, which was very well-reviewed by the school paper.

Opera: The Magic Flute, Carmen, Madama Butterfly. I've seen Houston Grand Opera's production of each and they were stellar.

Worst Opera: A re-imagined Carmen set in pre-revolutionary Russia. Everyone was dressed in drab peasant-wear except Carmen, who for some inexplicable reason was wearing leopard-print hot pants. It was, unfortunately, the night I took my mom to her first opera...she hasn't been back.

Favorite Rock Concert (really showing my gen-X cred): I saw NKOTB at the Houston Astrodome in 1990. I saw Nelson TWICE, once at Astroworld and once at the Tower Theater. However, my favorite concert was probably Tom Petty at the Woodlands in 1990, it was a great show.
bac
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Re: Gen X---The Thirty-Something Thread

Post by bac »

GNE, I fear for these students under these teachers. I am glad you are a capable teacher for this generation.

Welcome ForksBound. It sounds from your concerts that you fit in just great with us Gen X ers. So you must live in the Houston area. I just moved from Galveston in June.
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ForksBound
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Re: Gen X---The Thirty-Something Thread

Post by ForksBound »

bac wrote: Welcome ForksBound. It sounds from your concerts that you fit in just great with us Gen X ers. So you must live in the Houston area. I just moved from Galveston in June.
Thanks for the welcome! I'm from the Houston area and have lived all over Southeast Texas. In fact, I lived in Crystal Beach for a while in my 20's, Galveston feels like a second home to me. We were just there over the holidays, things are starting to come back, but it is very, very different.
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Re: Gen X---The Thirty-Something Thread

Post by una »

Welcome Forksbound glad you found our little over 30 haven!

My mom was a middle school teacher and directed many musicals. You must have great talent and patience, I know she does! :D

GNE hang in there! They all make their beds and they will eventually have to sleep in it. I tell myself this all the time, I don't teach for the other teachers or admin, I teach for the students. It's where my joy comes from, even though it'd be nice if the admin. acknowledged those of us that really take it to heart!
I am the Impulsive VampVixen.
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oleander
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Re: Gen X---The Thirty-Something Thread

Post by oleander »

Welcome ForksBound!

GNE, in the grand scheme of things, the teachers who don't care, don't do their job, just put in the hours, won't be the ones former students sit around talking about when they're older...at least not in a good way. I have one teacher in particular who inspired me in many ways and I was almost as devastated when he passed away as I was when my own father died. He was the wacky English teacher who called me Leanderthal and Oleander all the time; the one who jumped up on his desk on the first day of class and yelled BEOWULF! SPIDERMAN OF THE VIKING TIMES!; he was one of the few who encouraged me to write and loved it when I handed in my creative writing projects; and the one who tolerated my 26 page diatribe about The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock and The Hollow Men by giving me an A+++ for using my brain for something other than coming up with lame excuses for not doing the assignment. He kept my copy of that particular assignment because he said it was his absolute favourite paper he'd graded in all his years of teaching (which at that point was 20+ years). Teachers change students in the subtlest of ways sometimes. I have an enormous amount of respect for the ones who take the time to actually teach beyond the blackboard.

My older brother is a teacher and I've seen first hand how he has impacted former students. In fact, my personal trainer is a former student of my brother's and he has shared some very touching stories with me about how little things my brother might have said or done had helped him. He had been a very troubled young man and he said that my brother is one of the few teachers who didn't write him off. He is now a very successful personal trainer and well-respected artist.

So, if i may ask this question in honour of our GenX teachers, has there been a teacher in your life who has stood out/gone above and beyond the call of duty/impacted your life? How?
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