14 posts tagged “qotd”
Who was your best (or worst) elementary school teacher?
Submitted by Minnow.
Definitely Ms. Lang. I had a lot of good teachers in elementary school, but she was probably the best. I had her when I first moved back to DC from Puerto Rico in the middle of 2nd grade, and she made me feel right at home pretty quickly. She was also the first teacher to notice that while I seemed to do well in most areas, certain things seemed to mysteriously trip me up. Once when I was having so much trouble with multiplication tables, (I still don't know a lot of them very well), she had me stay after school for a few minutes and quizzed me on them while timing me. I did terribly. Then she quizzed me on them without timing me. I did quite a bit better. She then revealed she had in fact been timing and that I had not only done better at actually remembering them, I had gotten a better time.
She then moved up to teaching 5th grade at the same time I moved up to 5th grade, and I had her again for certain subjects (math, social studies and maybe a few others). She again noticed that I would really struggle with certain subjects and tasks but seemed to do extremely well on others. She was the first person to suggest that I might have some sort of learning disability, and talked to my parents at some point about having me tested.
The next year I was tested, and she was absolutely right. I was then able to get the help that I needed all through middle school and high school, learn to deal with the issues I had, and get certain accommodations to help me where I needed it (including being able to take tests un-timed, which again mostly just meant I finished in the allotted time, but the pressure was off) . This is probably one of the most important things I have ever learned about myself, and is certainly a big factor in my being able to do was well in school as I did. It was also big confidence booster. I learned that there was a reason I had trouble with certain things others seemed to be able to easily get, and I learned that there were things I could do to deal with these problems. I wasn't just stupid. And it's all thanks to Ms. Lang actually paying close enough attention to notice the problems I was having and actually doing something about it by talking with my parents.
How have people mispronounced your name? How is it supposed to sound?
Submitted by Lorie.
Sometimes people pronounce my first name as "Stefan", but far more often people get my first and last names mixed up and call me Brandon. This doesn't really bother me, it's pretty much par for the course when you have a common first name for a last name. It also happens more at work where people are likely to see my name listed last name and then first name in the e-mail system or wherever. Most people catch themselves and then apologize, but as I said it doesn't really bother me, and if it just happens occasionally I often don't even bother correcting them if they don't realize they've done it.
What's the most famous movie you've never seen?
Submitted by Mike.
It's probably between Casablanca (which is especially bad/surprising since it's my Dad's favorite movie), Citizen Kane, and Titanic. The former two I do actually intend/want to see at some point. The latter I don't really have any desire to get around to seeing.
Also like Dave I've never seen The Sound of Music. But I dislike most musicals so I haven't seen most famous musicals, and it's just not something that I really think of when I think of famous movies I've never seen.
How do you pass the time during a flight? What do you bring in your carry-on?
I have a tenancy to carry way too much stuff with me wherever I go, especially on flights. While I'm pretty good with my checked luggage, I tend to load up a messenger bag or backpack with way too much stuff when I go on a trip. Part of this is a weird worry about stuff to do on the plane, though usually I end up just reading a book or magazine, watching in flight entertainment of some sort or listening to my iPod. Occasionally I do stuff on my laptop, or play with my DS. But I tend to bring way too many books, games and other stuff like food an drinks (though no drinks anymore since the ware on moisture started) because I'm worried about stuff to do on the whole trip. I'm trying to get a bit better about it and be a bit more realistic about what I will and won't do, but it's hard to fight my impulse to load up on stuff.
At least since the advent of my iPod I've stopped carrying all my CD's around with me on trips!
Okay, we hate to ask, but... over the roll or under the roll?
Assuming I'm interpreting this right I say over. In this regard I'm an ease of use guy all the way. A toilet paper roll usually looks more or less the same either way, and one way is more convenient than the other, so I go with convenience.
Have you ever Googled your own name? How did you feel about the results?
Submitted by elen.
I've done this many times over the years and have never really felt particularly strongly one way or the other about the results. Mostly the things that actually did pertain to me have been things from a school newspaper, or local newspaper, often listing me as someone at some cross country meet or something. Nothing too interesting ever seems to show up about me. Interestingly it seems that as time has gone by it's actually gotten harder and harder to find evidence of me on google. I googled myself fairly recently and it took a long time before I came upon anything that was actually about me and not about someone else. There is apparently a musician or producer or something in England that has the same name as me. The results get even harder to sift through if I don't put quotes around my name, of course my first and last name are both fairly common first names. This has however eased pretty much any unease I may have had about future employers googleing me and finding reasons not to hire me. They'll hardly find anything about me at all!
What's your favorite kind of Girl Scout cookie?
Submitted by My Lovely One.
Like Dave I have to say Thin mints. Definitely Thin Mints. I could eat those things more or less limitlessly. I also like the Samoas a lot. But Thin Mints are the way to go if I can only have one kind.
What TV show(s) will you be watching this season? Why?
Submitted by ducnly.vox.com.
Well aside from my usual shows, the main new show I'm interested in so far is Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. It's a new show by Aaron Sorkin, and I'm pretty much a sucker for anything he does. I loved the pilot and i'm excited about where the rest of the show is going to go.
I'm also Tivoing "Heroes" tonight, to see how I feel about it. I like the concept but we'll have to see how it's executed.
How many places have you lived in your life?
A fair number. Lets see if I can remember all of them.
Unfortunatly I can't really remember the exact years for a few of these, but I'll do my best.
1981 Born in Falls Church VA
198? - 198? Madison Wisconson. At some point when I was very young we moved to Madison Wisconson for a while, maybe a year or two. I think we moved back to Falls Church when I was about 3.
198? - 1986ish Falls Church VA, We stayed in Falls Church for a year or two, and then moved to...
1986-ish - 1990...San Juan Puerto Rico. We lived in an apartment downtown there for a little while, maybe a year, maybe a little bit less. We then moved into a house a but outside of downtown, in Gauyanabo I beleive, near Fort Buchanon, where I went to school at Antilles Elementary. I don't remember exact dates on when we got to Puerto Rico, and when we left, but it was about 4.5 years total.
1990 - 2000 Falls Church VA. About halfway through the school year in 2nd grade we moved back to Falls Church. We stayed in an Apartment for a little while, then moved into a condo for a few years (My parents had leased the house we owned when we moved to Puerto Rico, and I guess had anticipated staying there longer than we did, because the lease wasn't up for a few years after we moved back). Finally we moved back into our old house, but only for a few more years. My parents apparently decided they wanted a bigger house, so sometime around 6th grade we moved into the house I was in until I went to college. This was also in Falls Church.
2000 - 2003 College of William and Mary, Williamsburg VA - I lived in Gooch freshman year with Chico and Punk-Rock Chris. That was as very strange year. Sophmore year I moved into Unit A, and lived with Jordan. Junior year I was in Unit A first semester in The Commune with Jordan, Matt Thomas, Otter, Tyghe, and Sachin (aka "not-turtle"). A damn good time was had by... well I dont' want to speak for others but I had a damn good time in that there Commune.
2003 - University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews Scotland - Lived in a room by myself in David Russel Hall.
2003 - 2004 Williamsburg VA - Senior year I lived in 412 Griffin Ave with Chico, Jordan and Nathan. Which was a damn good time.
2004 - Falls Church VA - I lived with my parents from a bit after graduation till September when I moved to Alexandria
2004 - Present - Alexandria VA - I moved in with Kenji and Jon, and am very glad that I did, who knows where I'd have ended up if I had stayed at my parents for longer, and hadn't taken that first opportunity to move out. I've stayed in the house from then till now, with Jon and Kenji moving out after that first year, and Sarah, Emilia and Matt moving in, then with Emilia leaving this past August and Sarah, Matt and myself staying on for another year. Who knows where I'll end up next year, or who will stay on in my current house/who will move in, but I'm still pretty happy where I am for now, and am pretty glad I've lived everywhere I have.
What song or lyrics are stuck in your head at the moment? What album is it from?
Submitted by Lox Ly.
Remind Me By Royksopp. It's off of Melody A.M. I was going through my CD's a while back and decided to put this in the CD changer in my car for a while. As a resulte I woke up this morning with this song stuck in my head. I always like to have at least one thing a bit calming and fun in there and this is one of the CD's I have in there that fits the bill. It's actually really funny because the CD's right before and after it are so disparate in style.
Right before it is Cold World Remixes by Terrorfakt. Which is for the
That would be the new CD from Tool, 10,000 Days. Which I like a whole lot, though some others seem to like it more than I do. I think that while there are tracks on there that sound like stuff from almost every era of Tool,
All of that being said I'll probalby change the contents of my CD player pretty soon.
