Bloglines

I don't know if I have said this before, but I love bloglines. I think it is great that I can follow so many of my favorite on-line things at the same time. One of my favorite blogs is gadling found at: http://www.gadling.com/. It is a travel blog and I love reading the funny traveling stories as well as it has a lot of great travel tips and since I am now planning my trip to Europe this summer, this blog has been essential reading. Plus, it has amazing pictures from around the world that inspire me to dream of traveling to other places as well.

Another favorite blog I follow is serious eats: http://www.seriouseats.com/. As anyone who knows me would tell you--I never cook. This is not a hyperbole, which is probably why my mom almost always says, "Don't forget to eat" before she hangs up the phone. I heat food in the microwave periodically and I eat cereal (Kashi is my favorite) a lot. I like to cook, don't get me wrong, but I never do. Twice a year I bake: sweet potato pies for Thanksgiving and a rhubarb merengue dessert whenever the rhubarb from the garden is ready. This is the only time the oven is turned on. Now, having said that, I love food (and hardly ever forget to eat). I love going to the grocery store to look at all the options. I love eating out and I love cruises where you can eat all the food that you want whenever you want. Serious eats has great recipes, great food stories, and they often have pictures of delicious looking cupcakes. They even make brussel sprouts sound and look delicious! (Don't believe me? Look at this picture: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2008/05/dinner-tonight-dan-barbers-brussels-sprouts.html). I loved this story too that has ice trays that look like Han Solo has been frozen in them: http://www.seriouseats.com/required_eating/2008/05/the-most-awesome-star-wars-han-solo-ice-cube-tray.html. Sadly, they said they were removed from the website they were originally found on, but it would be great to try to find. The article also had the suggestion of using the tray for chocolate molds.

I do follow BBC World News too, so I am not just dreaming of foreign countries and food. :)

Anyway, RSS feeds are really cool. Love it!

Sadly, not something new...

Grading research papers is always a daunting task for me. I want to make sure that I am assessing them fairly and give them appropriate feedback, but I also want to finish grading them in a timely fashion as well. It becomes completely demoralizing when I find plagiarized papers. Everything that I have done in teaching the research paper process, and yet, two of the papers are plagiarized. I wish I didn't take it so personally, but yet, I do. I am offended and defeated at the same time. WHY do they cheat? Why do they think they can get away with it? Why didn't they learn how to cite their sources? Why didn't they learn the process? Why, why, why?

Post Test

Happily, I am finished with the Post test. I was really worried about getting computer access since we don't really have a working lab at Central, but Leslie Yoder saved the day and loaned me some laptops. My students really seemed to like taking the test online, versus the paper copy we used in the fall. I am looking forward to seeing the results!