Other Side of the Planet dot com

Blog: ECG Christmas Party

Posted on December 21st, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog.

[Faces you can actually see, left to right, are Lou, Jess, Jen, Ruby, myself, and Skutch]

I may have skipped my workplace’s Christmas party, as work makes me feel miserable lately, but I had no intention of missing my garrison’s holiday festivities.  We had so much fun at our long table that Outback patrons at several other tables were watching our group.

[Yoda the Cake] 

The ECG Christmas Party largely revolved around humor involving Jess’s brilliant Yoda cake, which she was inspirated to create from this blog.  Apparently fondant, a type of frosting that you roll out and mold, is the key ingrediant here.  The head was a giant Rice Krispies ball: durable and great for playing dress-up.

[Yoda wore a Santa hat, Sith robes, a Ninja mask, and a turban at various points in the night.]

Yoda’s ears were also a key point of interest: I’m really not sure why.  And no, I wasn’t drunk.  Green frosting Yoda ears are just amusing.

 
[Myself, playing with fondant Yoda ears]

As Skutch is a fairly responsible and honest guy, we let him count the money.  Inexplicably, we came up $20 short when paying the bill…  No one is sure how this happened.

[Skutch counting the money…sorta…]

On a random note, I also had fun coloring with Jess.  Coloring books are relaxing and engaging, and both Jess and I still buy coloring books for ourselves.  I admit it was a comfort to know I’m not the only adult that carries that hobby with her from childhood.

[Jess and me, coloring the Outback kids’ activity booklet.]

Eventually it was time to slice up Yoda and head home - some people went to the bar, but I was carrying a life-size Darth Vader cut-out and a slew of other things, so I hopped on the F with my trainpool and headed home.

[Outback server cutting up the Yoda cake.]

1 comment.

Book: The Threat Within

Posted on December 20th, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Books, Star Wars.

Title: The Threat Within
        (Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice #18)
Author: Jude Watson
Genre: Young Readers
Anna’s Rating: 3/5

Book number #18, like #17, just wasn’t that impressive.  It didn’t outright suck, as at least there was a message in the end of the book, and a link or two back to the movies, such as Qui-gon’s concern that Obi-wan would never become a Jedi Knight because he could envision no future in which Obi-wan served alongside him as a full-fledged Jedi Knight.  It serves to remind us how limited our perspectives are by our tendancy to be self-centered individuals.

It just makes me sad that the series doesn’t seem to end for any more reason than that they’d run out of decent ideas.  It would have been nice if there had been an overall plan for where to take the series and how to wrap it up.  (Things to keep in mind when I write a book series, I guess.)  Admittedly, I do have the two special editions to read: one arrived this week, and the other is on its way via Amazon, but these books tell the story of Obi-wan and Anakin, so, it’s different, I expect.  We shall see.

And crap or gold, I shall blog about it.

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Blog: G-mail Themes

Posted on December 19th, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog.

[My g-mail inbox, when it’s raining outside.]

I may never need to look out another window again.  My e-mail now informs me of the current local weather conditions by constantly updating the application’s theme to reflect the outside weather.  (Could they perhaps now modify this to show me how light or dark it is, and perhaps what phase the moon is in?)

I’ve never been a fan of themes in my online applications…it just makes things look messy…but finally, a functional use of a frivolous accessory.  I love it.

[I never would have known it was snowing if g-mail hadn’t informed me.]

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USA: NYC: V is for Vintage

Posted on December 14th, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog.

Because it is the City of New York, sometimes fantastic things just randomly happen.  Sometimes you run into a stormtrooper on the street.  Sometimes a toy soldier walks up and starts singing songs with you.  Sometimes the train conductor announces “Vintage train across the platform, vintage train across the platform” and you get up, run across the subterranean slab of concrete and step into another world.

A noisy world.  A world with flickering lights and padded seating.  A world with ceiling fans, open windows, and wind that rushes through the car as you tumble through the tunnels beneath the city.

What train is this?  Where is it going?  Who cares?  It’s awesome: plastered in advertisements and postings straight out of the 50’s - which you can actually see when the lights stay on.  What a fascinating way to spend the evening commute.  They’ve gotta put those trains on the tracks more often.

I rode the “Special” train from Rockafeller Center to the Lower East Side.  Rumored to be running on the F line, it stopped at the 2nd Avenue Station, making it technically a V train in my book.  But I think I would have riden it were it a 9 train to the Bronx - who cares?  It was awesome.

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Blog: Caroling in Manhattan with a Toy Soldier

Posted on December 14th, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog.

[Left to right, it’s Rebekah, Nick, and myself.]

Rebekah planned a Christmas Caroling expedition into Midtown Manhattan.  I was late - but everyone else had seemingly bailed.  And I was disinclined to be one of only two carolers when I had such a horrid cold that I could barely breathe, but Rebekah was determined, so I sucked it up and agreed to carry on with the plan.

On a random note, Rebekah had announced the night before that she would be wearing Reniassance clothing, which she clarified the next day as Victorian clothing, but I already had my heart set of dusting off the Ren Fest box in the hall closet, and I figured the average person would just see two strangely dressed women with a broken flux capacitor, so it worked, right?

So the two of us were standing in a doorway singing carols when along came a toy soldier on break.  He asked if he could join us for a while before he went to go read stories to children somewhere, like all good animated toy soldiers should do, and we enthusiastically welcomed him to join us.

Not long after that, we did get two more of Rebekah’s people to join us, and for a short time, we had an excellent caroling group, with Rebekah and the toy soldier able to sing parts while the rest of us carried the harmony (though I did so in a flat, labored, and nasaly fashion popular with headcold victims the world over.)

All in all, it was a great time.  I felt like I was trooping.  Folks were smiling, stopping to listen and take pictures…and then the doorman came and kicked us out of the little alcove and we made out way down along fifth avenue for a short time before heading back up to walk along the south edge of Central Park to Columbus Circle, where Rebekah and I indulged in some magical apple curry pumpkin soup at Whole Foods…mmm…

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Troop: The Family Center Holiday Party

Posted on December 14th, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Costumes, Star Wars.

 
[Troopers at the armory at Lexington and 26th!  Rob in the background, then left to right it’s myself, Kris, Danny, and Steve in the Rex.]

So, after endless complaining that we never get charity troops in the City, this event landed in our laps: a holiday party by a group called The Family Center, which offers services to children who’s lives are acutely affected by parental illness.  (For privacy reasons, I can’t put up pictures of us interacting with people, so here’s a slew of pictures of us geeking out instead.)

 
[Kris in his Vader, threatening Jolly ol’ Saint Nick with a lightsaber.]

For families who cannot, because of medical bills, afford to give their children the kind of Christmas they might otherwise offer them, they hold a holiday party, full of food, games, dancing (ever seen a stormtrooper do the electric slide?) and, of course, Santa Claus (we had fun with him.)

 
[Left to right it’s Danny, Steve, Rob in front of Santa, then myself and Kris.  One happy, dysfunctional family.]

Adults and kids alike were delighted by our appearance, and we had a lot of fun, too.  (Especially when we found the hummer parked out front, which Rom somehow managed to climb into, but I, for the life of me, could not.  Sitting in a chair is a talent I amaze troopers the world over with, but I’m afraid the special skills end when I have to lift a foot more than two feet in the air.)

[Rob in the Hummer bed and Danny standing by - I’m actually behind Danny, trying to figured out how to get up there, too - a task I failed in.]

Whenever it got too hot, we just slipped outside to enjoy the randomly cold day that New York City was offering us.  It’ll be 30* one day and 60* the next…and this is December in the Northeast, folks.  For some reason, we also decided it’d look cool to take a picture standing in the middle of a busy road like Lexington Avenue, making sure to get the Chrystler building in the background, assuming that out-of-towners will mistake it for the Empire State Building and somehow be impressed.  (Remember that we’re geeks.)

 
[Geeks in plastic on Lexington Avenue with their backs to the soon-to-be oncoming traffic - and you thought geeks were smart!]

In other random geek news, Danny broke out his new Elite TK for this event: it’s awesome and makes me want to do a new TK as well, but it will have to wait ’till next summer…I’ve already got another project or two on my hands for the moment…but all in good time…

[Danny in his new elite TK: “I was trying to pose like I was thinking of how to ask Santa for a new blaster rifle.”] 

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Book: The Only Witness

Posted on December 14th, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Books, Star Wars.

Title: The Only Witness
        (Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice #17)
Author: Jude Watson
Genre: Young Readers
Anna’s Rating: 2/5 (Very disappointed.)

What can I say…?  This is the most disappointing book in the seventeen that I’ve read so far.  It took me about two weeks to finish, and considering how easy of a read these are, that says something.  I’ve been known to read two a day.

There was just nothing to enjoy.  No exciting plot.  No interesting twists.  No good character development.  No good quotes.  No links back to our beloved films.  It just exists.  And if you’re reading the other 19 books in the series, you might as well read it just to say you’ve completed the series, but all the same, if you’re buying a lot off e-bay and book #17 is missing, bid away.  You’ll get the incomplete set far cheaper, and you really won’t be missing anything.

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Blog: School Safety is Our #374 Concern

Posted on December 10th, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog.

So, right, 6-year-old boy pulls out a pocket knife, one with a hilt shaped as a revolver, and stabs his classmate in the hand during quiet writing time, seemingly unprovoked.  This my readers know.

Now the child is back in my class after a six-day suspension.  “[The school guidance couselor] went to the trial on behalf of the school to advocate for his return to class,” my assistant principal assured me.  The school needs every free lunch child it can get: funding is dependent on it.  But tell me: who represented the child who was stabbed?  Who represented her mother and grandmother, who now fear for her safety?  Who represented the interests of my other 22 students, who need to feel safe to learn properly?  And, not to be selfish, but who represented me, the teacher, who is scared by news reports of young children that get guns and kill their parents, or take guns to school and let loose?

So I asked what was being done to ensure the safety of my students.  “[The student’s] mom will check his school bag each morning for weapons.”  Oh, that’s great.  The mother that didn’t have time to take an active role in the child’s life.  Now, the safety of 22 children and myself rests on her shoulders.  I asked if school security could check his bag each morning, but my assistant principal told me school security is not authorized to do that.  (Explain to me then the schools that have metal detectors and x-ray machines.)

As for where the child got the knives, I’ve heard three stories.  First, that the student said the mother got them as a birthday gift for his sister.  (Seems unlikely.)  Second, that the mother said he got them from older kids in his building.  (Possible.)  Third, that the mother said that father came home with them drunk one night and the student stole them.  (Disturbing.)  Does daddy have any other weapons that could be stolen during his drunken stupor?  And is mommy checking his pockets, too, or only his backpack?

The whole story got more disturbing when I found out, from the student’s lunch aid, Monday that the child had threatened, on multiple occasions, to kill some of his classmates who did not share with him at lunch.  So, now we have to acknowledge that this unprovoked attack could in fact be premeditated.

I passed on all this information to my administrator, who suggested that if I really thought it necessary, I could invite the school guidance counselor to come have a lesson on school safety in my class.  I requested it.  So she came, and asked first what students should bring to school, such as books and notebooks and book bags.  Then she asked what not to bring to school, such as toys, toy guns, and toy swords.  She quickly shut up the child that said we shouldn’t bring guns, explaining privately to that child that we don’t need to say that because kids don’t have guns.  (Tell that to the families of children who have been killed or injured in school shootings.) 

The students brought up the issue that a student had stabbed another student in our class.  The guidance counselor asked “Did you apologive to [her]?”  He told her he did, which was likely a lie as I doubt he’s seen her since the incident, and then she said “Good!  Because when we make a little tiny mistake like that, we always need to apologize!”  She ended the lesson by saying “Do we all feel safe now?”  She got three unenthusiastic “yes” answers and left.

Gosh, do we all feel safe?  I certainly don’t.

And I don’t think that having to give a one-word apology is appropriate punishment for premeditated armed assault.

And I’m officially in the market for an ESL job in New York City, by the way, if you happen to know of an opening.

2 comments.

Blog: Forgive Me Forests, I Have Sinned

Posted on December 8th, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog.

[Me, a full-time teacher of some years now, with my 3″ student teaching binder, just completed]

My student teaching binder, complete at long last.

It is the greatest pile of busy work that I have ever completed in my life.

It nearly caused me a mental breakdown.

It has consumed endless hours of my evenings, weekends, and late nights that should be devoted to sleep.

And it is done.

At last.

Now it’s 1:10am and I still have lesson planning to do.

Yay Teaching Fellows!

2 comments.

USA: NYC: Ted’s Montana Grill 2: The Search for the Bison Burger

Posted on December 7th, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Food, NYC.

We had been to Ted’s Montana Grill before to try the buffalo meat, but the burgers on the menu looked mighty tempting, too.  We agreed to come back another time for them.  (And then our lives got horribly busy and burgers left my life for a month and a half.)

The bison burger was delicious, although I would have to have a beef burger accessible to do a taste test and figure out how they’re different.  Miserable, exhausted, overworked and underpaid (as the rest of America) we had inhaled half our burgers (made to order, mine a perfect medium-rare, pink and juicy) before I realized we had forgotten to photo-document the experience.  Oh well - we’ll have to go back again.

With huge, juicy burgers that include your choice a side order (or get two half-sides, like me) for $10 to $15, Ted’s Montana Grill makes an excellent choice for a burger spot when you’re in Times Square.  It’s on 51st Street between Broadway and 7th Ave.  Mmmm…I get hungry just thinking about it.

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