Baby Names

I've been brainstorming new children's-name spellings: M1ch0el, R^ndy, and R!ck. Maybe Je$$ica for a girl. Could add a question mark at the end: John? That would get really weird.

Cassette Tape Answering Machines

What I liked about the cassette-tape or digital answering machine was that you didn't have to listen to "Please leave a message after the tone. To leave a numeric message, please press pound. To re-record your message, transcribe it and send it to the message receiver's P.O. Box, press 2. If you'd like to submit your resume to Holland for academic references, please press 1."

Beyond Deer-in-the Headlights

Try marketing dry humor to a bunch of international students learning English. It's like beyond deer-in-the-headlights.

Eccentric Instructors

Students randomly smile while I'm teaching. I must be overly animated and random like some of the eccentric professors I had in college. I smiled too back then. I guess it comes full-circle.

Getting Back to a Normal Schedule

You know how most people start waking up earlier as they get older? 6am, 5am, then 4:30am. Well, I'm starting to move in that direction too. Just get up and go to work. Pretty soon, I'll be waking up at 2am, 1am, and finally back to the PM at 11:30pm. Keep moving in this direction and I'll move full cycle back to 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, noon, all the way back to 8am again. That's what I'm going for.

Me Grammar

I decided I have my own grammar. Me textbook and I not speak language the same and who my students learning incorrect grammar. Or, maybe the book is wrong.

Just Ask the DM

Remember when human beings were the best chess players? Remember life before the universal translator? I mean, people had to actually learn another language. Or, remember life before Decision Maker (DM) technology? We even had to make our own decisions back then. Now, we just ask the DM.

Frequency Adverbs

My student's answer to a sentence completion activity focused on frequency adverbs was "Mr. Dunham occasionally works hard."

Singlehood

One of the nice things about being single is I'm never really alone. It's always Me, Myself, and I.

Crashing Newsboys

In college my friend and I walked by the Newsboys charter bus on the UofA campus. He said, "Let's knock on the bus door." The keyboard player answered and gave us a tour of the bus's interior. Gave us "All Access Passes". Take Me to Your Leader Tour. 1996.

Hammerogatives

In teaching a vocabulary class I've realized that my mental lexicon is primarily influenced by the likes of Alanis Morissette and MC Hammer. Words like ironic and prerogative. Hammerogatives, if you will. Words that do what you want them to do.

Palm Pilots

Remember Palm Pilots? It was so cutting edge.

Keyboards

Keyboards. So old school.