A few Murfish observations

Movie-related observations:

* On the day we celebrate our Independence, I had to decide what movie to see: one that is USA-related and is about our health care system or one about a rat that can cook. As funny as it is to see clips of George Bush attempting to make jokes off the cuff, I chose Ratatouille. Incredible animation but my attention span sort of waned a bit towards the end. It was a pleasant treat to be surrounded by kids who were pretty well behaved. Now if only the mother in front of us would have stayed in her seat or saved the making of the lunch plans on the cell phone until the movie was over.

* I caught Letters From Iwo Jima as a 'pay per view' movie last weekend. It's the companion movie to the really bad 'Flags of Our Fathers'. This was a million times better. Big A and I were lamenting at the fact that some day, these DVDs will probably be sold together as a boxed set and what a huge disservice that does to 'Letters From Iwo Jima'. I feel like belatedly protesting the 2007 Oscars that was held this past February for not nominating Ken Watanabe for Best Actor or Kazunari Ninomiya for Supporting Actor. While it didn't make me cry, I would buy the DVD.



School-related observations:

* I'm in the midst of the first class of the technical writing certification as I speak which is basically Introduction to Word 2003. It wasn't mandatory but the Advanced Word is and I figured it would be wise to take it since I'm sure there are some "basic" things that I either don't know or don't remember. Boy, was I right. We had our first test yesterday. Because it was computerized, we got our scores as soon as we hit 'Submit'. I blame the 75 out of the 100 that I received on the fact that the majority of my questions (every test was different) were related to AutoCorrect and AutoText. Granted, there weren't 25 questions related to those two things but it felt like a lot. Also, there are two types of people that use a computer: those that use keyboard short cuts and those that use the mouse. I'm a mouse girl so I could care less what the keyboard shortcuts are for those two tools or anything for that matter. Give me a tool bar, some drop down menus and a two button mouse and I'm in heaven. Lastly, everyone was allowed to ask one question which the teacher would answer and put on the board so if everyone in the class asked one, we were guaranteed 9 correct answers. That turned out to be hogwash since every test had different questions. I didn't know this at the time and I didn't want to be the jerk that didn't ask one so I did but it turned out that only 4 of us participated in it. None of the other 3 questions were ones that I had. The highlights of the class so far: getting one of those portable USB drives that you can attach to your key chain (love them!) and the older student that was near tears because she thought she had saved her homework on it from home and couldn't find it when she plugged it into the computer in class. I have to stop myself from losing patience with her and remind myself that perhaps she and I are looking at this class from two different angles: for her, a good grade might be mandatory if she is looking to better herself and change her life. For me, sure I would like to change my life but it doesn't have the immediacy as it might for her. If something like that happened, I'd ask if the teacher would accept it late and if not, just write off those 25 points and do better on the next test. But then again, I've always had a fairly relaxed view of school and grades. She reminds me why I can't teach English as a Second Language classes or help illiterate adults read...I have very limited patience with people who are old enough to drink.

* Another interesting person in class looks like the female version of the apple in the Fruit of the Loom commercials. I can't stop staring at her torso. She has the skinny arms and legs, a small head and a big, round torso with breasts that hang to her waist. I've read that women are either pear or apple shaped but I never saw someone exemplify that so well.

* Due to having previously received a certificate from this institute 5 years ago, when I re-applied, they gave me the same student number and enrolled me under my maiden name. For the sake of easy transcript requests in the future, I didn't make a point of changing it on their records. I spent 32 years with it and after only 3 years of the new alias, it feels odd to revert back to it.

* Because I was late to register, this class is held off campus in a questionable area of town. When I informed Big A where this was, he said that he may have to pick me up and drop me off. I'm not sure if the ghetto pass that I had back in 1989 is still valid but so far, it hasn't been bad. I've come back to find my car still parked where I left it and the tires still on it. Not a big demand for Saturn Vue parts, I guess. We'll see if there is one for Chevy Impalas. Big A has to go to this same building tomorrow as his final step in registering for unemployment.