Monsters Vs. Aliens

On Tuesday, March 31, 2009, I went to see the movie Monsters Vs. Aliens. The movie is by Dreamworks and it's about this girl, Susan, who gets hit by a meteorite and becomes a huge woman... Almost 50 feet. However for copyright purposes, they don't mention it.

There's a giant robot that was launched by an alien and it trashes the place. The US army tries everything to stop the robot extractor, but of course, fails. So, a general suggests that they use monsters to fight this robot.

A silly animation feature, and it is worth it on IMAX 3D. Possibly even better if you know all the references to the horror movies.

Dédé: A travers des brumes

On Tuesday, March 24, 2009 I went to see the movie Dédé: À travers des brumes. It's a movie based on the life of André Fortin, who was the lead singer of a group called Les Colocs.

This was the most pretentious piece of arthouse crap that I have ever seen... And usually, I appreciate arthouse. This was the first movie that I haven't seen before where I was falling asleep!

The only time that I was falling asleep through a film was when I was rewatching Bride & Prejudice at a friend's house after a day where I did 3.5 hours of cardio.

This film is to be avoided at all cost. It should not have been granted money to have been made. As well? The film is 2 hours and 20 minutes... That's just 20 minutes shy of Watchmen! Almost 2.5 hours of my life I'll never get back.

Even the brother too...

Today, I took students to a school to play indoor soccer. This was the bantom boys' team (Grades 7 - 8 or Secondary I to II). *Rupert's brother is a member of the team.

Anyway, on our way home, *Rupert's brother said that he didn't want to take the metro from McGill to the station that he needed (Vendôme) because that would involve a change in lines at Lionel-Groulx metro station, and he doesn't like hobos.

What the heck? That sounds like something Rupert would say. But hey, Rupert's little brother learns from Rupert right? So, I suppose I'm not that surprised.

How do you teach respect?

I just had a rhetorical question today, while I was reflecting on my teaching.

How do you teach respect?

I was telling my former French teacher the horror stories of what I have to go through every day. Her first comment was that these students have no respect for themselves, for their peers, for adults and for public property.

I would imagine that this group of students somehow got by without being taught what respect is... But really though, how do you teach respect? How can you teach respect?

Two of the classes that I have now... They have no respect for themselves, for their peers, for adults, for public property... They always come into the room that's relatively clean, and at the end of the 75 minute period, they leave and there's all sorts of crap all over the floor.

I feel like I'm haven't gotten this whole classroom management thing down yet...

Well... I guess this is a good sign...

Today, one of my students asked me what my first name was... The reason why he wanted to know was because he wanted to put me on Facebook.

I've been told by my brother that if your students want to put you on Facebook, it means that you're a good teacher. I guess I'm a good teacher then.

Another article

Another article about the subject of the previous post.

It's times like this I'm proud to be a Concordia graduate

I just stumbled across this article. It's times like this I'm proud to be a Concordia University graduate.

I think that my friendship with Raoul has its days numbered...

Yesterday, I learned a few very interesting facts in regards to *Raoul and *Rupert.

Rupert has decided that he will be going to University of Ottawa for his undergraduate degree. Personally, I don't know how that's going to happen since he failed his first term at CEGEP (majorly) and more than half the work that was assigned to him through his CEGEP career was done by Raoul.

Raoul has decided that he will stay in Montreal for a year, and then move to Ottawa (or somewhere close to Ottawa) so that he can be with Rupert.

Raoul also told me that he decided to move into the condo that he was looking at, the one that's close to his work.

I think the reason why he and I still had a friendship was because of our proximity. The fact that I was able to stomach Rupert because we lived so close, I was able to catch Raoul on his free time a lot easier.

When you throw the distance in, it makes it a lot harder, especially since he decided to live in the middle of nowhere, which will be about 20 - 30 minutes from his place to mine by car, and about 60 - 75 minutes by public transit.

I also make an effort at maintaining friendships. However, I just don't think it's worth it to maintain this friendship because I'd have to deal with Rupert. It's a real challenge to deal with him, it really is.

I believe that this moving to a condo in the middle of nowhere in the eastern part of the Island is the nail in the coffin for our friendship.

Finally, Rupert is successful in isolating all of Raoul's friends, so that he can have ultimate attention and also he can manipulate in private. This is just like an overworked nuclear reactor waiting to have a nuclear meltdown.

Bizarre Mahjong experience

Today at mahjong club, there were a few eery coincidences.

We had a Dai Woo (someone who claimed the second tile to win - by self pick) and also a Gates of Heaven (111 2345678 999). The beauty of the second one is any tile in the suit (1 - 9) will make your hand a winner.

I've played mahjong for fifteen years and it has never happened... This is not normal, I don't think.

Watchmen

On Saturday, March 14, 2009, I went to see the movie Watchmen.

This movie was based on the graphic novel of the same name.

This is an alternate universe where Richard Nixon has been elected as the President five times, and he has his band of Super Heroes who help advance the country.

The movie starts off with one of the Watchmen who is killed. We learn about what happens along the movie and the like... Eventually, everything sort of gets wrapped up and we see the ending.

Apparently the ending to the movie is not the same was the graphic novel... I have been told that the ending to the graphic novel was more confusing and non-logical.

Some very hot actors in the movie. Matthew Goode, Patrick Wilson, Billy Crudup. I didn't recognize Matthew Goode actually, and he looks quite good as a blond.

Though this film was not filmed originally in IMAX, it is worthwhile to se eit in IMAX.

Fired Up

On Tuesday March 10, 2009, I went to see the movie Fired Up. This is the movie where two football guys wanted to hook up with as many girls as possible, so they opt to go to Cheerleading camp.

A predictable movie, very teen oriented. It was funny, and I paid $5 to see it, but other than that, not so interesting.

Defiance

On Saturday, March 7, 2009, I went to see the movie Defiance, featuring Daniel Craig. This movie is about a resistant movement of Jewish refugees, for the lack of a better term, who seeks refuge in the forest and fights the German army.

This movie was based on a true story. Daniel Craig was awesome as Tuvia, Liev Schreiber was awesome as Zus and Jamie Bell was awesome as Asael. I didn't recognize Jamie Bell in this movie. I had seen him as Griffin in Jumper.

A good movie to see, dramatic and perhaps a tear jerker. Daniel Craig was awesome in it, not just to look at, but acting wise as well!

It's amazing how time flies!

I know that I'm getting older, although not necessarily wiser, but it didn't really hit me until yesterday and today.

I went back to my old high school yesterday to visit some of the teachers who taught me when I was in high school. I had a bit of difficulty at the front office because the lady there was so adamant about enforcing the rule that they do not give people a "hall pass" to walk around and harass teachers, that I just told her "See ya" and I left. I hung out the entire day at school. I was thinking to myself, "Lady, you're kidding me! I'm a teacher, and your anal-retentive attitude towards that rule robs teachers of one of their most precious gifts!" Teachers love hearing from former students, to see what they're doing now... Not to mention this is doubled or tripled when they see that they have inspired former students to pursue teaching!

That was beside the point however. I looked at the staff photograph, and well... There are maybe about 20 teachers (less than that probably, at least less than 20 who taught me) who are left whom I know (name wise) or who taught me. Can you imagine?!! 20 teachers! Just even a few years ago, this was about 30 or 40!

The incident that hit home however, was when I popped by my old elementary school today. All the teachers that taught me have either retired or now teach at another school. When I went back to visit about two years ago, there were only two more teachers left whom I knew: The one that taught computers and was responsible for the computer lab, and the one who taught me French in Grade 8. It's Mrs. B and Mr. M. Mrs. B has retired, I believe, and Mr. M is at another elementary school!

Time really has flown by, hasn't it!