Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Soooo, you want to hear some Catalan, eh?

First of all, a minor irritant...is it just me, or am I the only one who ALWAYS gets those 'are you a computer' type warped letter thingies WRONG? I mean come on...I always have to do it twice, and sometimes more often than that...Grr. Don't get me wrong, if you've got them for your comments, no problemo...I can see the point, I just wish I could get them correctly the first time.

The ongoing saga of finding schools for Eldest continues.

I would really like to hear people's experiences about changing schools at the end of grade six, to go with friends, to go after a better education, to go to a school you like...whatever. What worked and what did your parents or you do that didn't work. What was important to you? If you could put it in the comments, or if your feeling very inspired blog about it and send a link, I would really appreciate the imput, be it a good experience or a bad one.

If your bored by all this audio file stuff, just skip ahead to the next paragraph.
Finally, here is another upload attempt, this time it is me speaking Catalan, I will get the girls on at some point, but they are at school right now...I am going to try and get a player embedded on the site, but I am not sure when I will manage that. Unfortunately I don't have unlimited time.

Chuck is whining to go out for a walk, or get his belly scratched or whatever, no audio tape this time.

I may be back with a photo of a ruddy great beast of a heavy door that I hauled back yesterday, much to Chuck's horror; I want to use it as a table on the terrace. Nice and big, wooden, fairly solid and we can get our legs under it properly. Wish me luck.

Finally, inspired by Nomad over at Poena I got brush to paper again today, but I am not entirely happy with the results.

Am I the only one who does this? Again on petty irritants it seems...Today I have walked the dog, got two kids up, fed, ready for school, made snack and delivered said children to school. Had coffee with a friend, dealt with e-mail, spoken to the vet, worked with moodle, showered, painted, made an MP3 and (hopefully) uploaded it, read and commented on blogs, and read part of John Irving's The Fourth Hand. I am still going to go into work, walk the dog, and buy groceries at the market, all before 1pm.

Here is my question. Why do I feel like I haven't accomplished anything?
Why?

This is the final question, really I promise.

OMGoodness, I should space these out to different posts. I am working on a book club type class over at moodle, would any of you be willing victims/collaborators and pretend to be students so we could give the thing a try when I get it in place? No real names necessary and we could even do a book club kind of thing and all read a book together.

What do you think?

Is that enough homework for you? Sign in problems, You too?
School change stories.
Do you also feel like you don't get things accomplished even when there is plenty of evidence that you do?
Would you be willing to trial run a book club style course?

Sorry about all that, maybe I'll stick a survey up later, along with maybe that picture. Gotta go walk the dog.

Cheers,

Oreneta

12 comments:

Hula Girl at Heart said...

For some twisted reason, we women have this compulsion to multitask ourselves to death. I do it, too and don't understand it. I wish I could stop.

Beth said...

1. Yes, I have trouble signing in. I thought it was just me - was beginning to question my vision.
2.No school change stories. All 3 of my kids refused to leave the public school system when their grandfather (FIL) offered to pay for private school.
3.No feeling of accomplishment? That's because so many of those tasks are repetitive.
4.Trial run book club course? I'm thinking... I'm already so behind with books I should and want to read. Let me know if you're short on participants.

(I'm so good with homework...)

Very impressed with your Catalan. What the heck were you saying???

Anonymous said...

Only one audio came through - no Chuck, no Catalan!
I spend too much time sitting at my laptop as it is, I'd never get outdoors to get some exercise, if I started exploring.
Changing school problem - I'd go with what Eldest wants/leans towards.
ELIMINATE what she KNOWS she doesn't want and go from there.
I support staying with her local friends/their parents and the teachers who do follow up and whom you have learnt to trust and have proven themselves.
They are your backup team for your sense of security and acceptance in the community.
As that's only begun to develop and I'd work on that.
It's important for all of you.
I sound like an agony aunt! GM

Anonymous said...

I think the multi-tasking thing is that the jobs are routine and expected - doesn't make them any easier just - unrecognized perhaps?

oreneta said...

Hula girl...what is that...why can't we get off that merry-go-round? Possibly the (correct) perception that much would grind to a halt if we did. Someone has to be the 'wife' if this sort of stupid nitty gritty crap is to get done....I'm the logical one right now, despite my language handicaps.

Beth, that is SO true..repetitive tasks never get off the damn list...

GM, bring it on...always glad to hear from you...we'll just have to see, seems it is in the lap of the gods..or the generalitat...whatever.

Trish, I find it sad that we don't even recognise them ourselves, knowing how much work they are. Have to say the man does recognise them, so I shouldn't b*tch too much. Some though.

mmichele said...

I got rid of my own word verification because typing in those stupid letters has made me give up more than once.

I have gotten spammy type comments three times since I did it (over a year ago.)

mmichele said...

Oh and I'd totally be willing to trial run a book club style course. I'm assuming you'd choose a good book.

Nomad said...

Re bookclub count me in..

Re feeling of lack of accomplishment..for me fatigue, and... going to fast.
I am trying to set a written out or mental list of objectives, tehn strike them off. Helps me to stay focussed and also not get lost spending too much time on the stupid "wife" stuff...which I am sorry to say..I detest.
Also another big change we try as a family to get all the "wife" stuff done on the weekend in about 4 hours, so my week is free to PAINT PAINT PAINT. (Usually the morning) cause why should it be my job and I get feeling resentful, especially since I would much rather be doing something else.

It kinda sucks but if we haul ass we can all get it done in the morning and then (though it would be fun to do something else) everyone feels like we have accomplished something together(which is good). (Which is nice and then we are focussed on an activity together the rest of the day and evening, sortof like an incentive for getting it all done). I much prefer this. I think everyine likes it and then it is all done for the week.

*washing hands*

:-)

oreneta said...

Michele..cool about the book club...we'd have to ask around with whoever was up for it to find a book we all like...I'll work on the site a bit more then open it up for a trial run...

Nomad...it is so true..the 'wife' stuff really sucks. We both do it some of the time, but with the stupid office hours here, I just have to do a lot of it, it doesn't make sense for him to take time off work to chase papers when I can do it....yuck yuck yuck...I am simplifying though...I do one big shop every few weeks, go to the market once a week (and stagger back) then he runs for the little crappy bits...that is a whole lot better than the stupid going to the store every day thing....I do buy bread every other day, but it is so good, and now that I know the bakery lady well enough, she lets me bring Chuck in the store so I can do it at the end of his morning walk, giving me an extra 15 minutes in the morning, and I am sure you know how huge a difference that can be....

Anonymous said...

I am going to be brief for a change. I often feel like I don't get anything done, even though I have not stopped moving from morning until night; very frustrating feeling.

I would have to know more about the book club thing. I don't really read much other than blogs so the thought is a little overwhelming but perhaps the kick in the pants I need.

elPadawan said...

I sometimes get the anti-spam captchas wrong too. It all depends on the blogging platform generating them. They sometimes are completely illegible even for human beings. Some will be extremely difficult to get right if your vision is slightly impaired, through colorblindness, short-sighting, etc...

Catalan! I heard it :).

I'm a guy, I basically suck at multitasking this much. Probably because over centuries, women do it so much better than men that men stopped even trying. :p

And no problems to sign in.

Anonymous said...

Your Catalan sounds great with good pronounciation. You even have that sing-song catalan accent down pat. I've been learning Catalan at home here in California for three years now, but with no Catalans to practice with it gets difficult.