Damn. I hate being here alone.

Awwww sorry about that.
Well, you have our backing.

So. Two weeks to go until the first exam (history), and today I got the notice about my testers - and, sure enough, I got the guy I had most hoped to avoid, for both English and history. Can someone shoot me, please?

We're actually having sunshine! And flowers! WHOA!!!

Paul wrote:

No, I don't like snow.

But I can understand why your thoughts about it are much more benign than mine. If you've only seen it a few times, and I imagine there was not much of it each time, I think I would enjoy seeing it as well. Where you live, heat is much more an issue than the cold. Where I live, it is the other way around. In the dead of winter, when I hear that my area is expecting a foot or more of snow, which happens frequently during winter, all I can think of is how I am going to break my back shoveling it out of my driveway, and then driving to work in it, surrounded by idiots who seem to forget each year how to drive in snow. Then, when the sun comes out, the snow melts a bit, then refreezes overnight and becomes solid ice.

As you said, with you the heat is the issue. Unless you have access to air conditioning all you do is swelter. I can understand disliking that as well. I don't like hot, humid weather either. But given the choice, I would take that over the cold and the snow. That's just me, though.

Ah, I see. You are right about the snow I've seen. The only snow I've experienced are the light fluffy showers which cover the ground very thinly and melts when it touches the road. We are lucky if we get a couple of inches, never more.
The summers are quite hot, and air conditioning is very expensive. Fans do the job adequately, though. The hottest days don't usually make it past 38 C. So it's not that bad. Taiwan isn't all that close to the equator.
Oh, and we didn't get the snow here. It never snows in Taiwan, except on the mountains. I lived in China for 5 years.
(I'm a bit of a paradox, using the English system for the snow, but the Celsius scale for temperature.)

Fingolfin wrote:

You don't like snow? That's too bad.
Having spent most of my life near the equator, I've grown to appreciate snow when it graces us with its presence. I've probably only seen snow 3 or 4 times in my life, so I've always had the nostalgic/romantic impression of snow. I wish it would snow right now. Springtime in Taiwan is uncomfortably hot, and the summer is wicked.

No, I don't like snow.

But I can understand why your thoughts about it are much more benign than mine. If you've only seen it a few times, and I imagine there was not much of it each time, I think I would enjoy seeing it as well. Where you live, heat is much more an issue than the cold. Where I live, it is the other way around. In the dead of winter, when I hear that my area is expecting a foot or more of snow, which happens frequently during winter, all I can think of is how I am going to break my back shoveling it out of my driveway, and then driving to work in it, surrounded by idiots who seem to forget each year how to drive in snow. Then, when the sun comes out, the snow melts a bit, then refreezes overnight and becomes solid ice.

As you said, with you the heat is the issue. Unless you have access to air conditioning all you do is swelter. I can understand disliking that as well. I don't like hot, humid weather either. But given the choice, I would take that over the cold and the snow. That's just me, though.

You don't like snow? That's too bad.
Having spent most of my life near the equator, I've grown to appreciate snow when it graces us with its presence. I've probably only seen snow 3 or 4 times in my life, so I've always had the nostalgic/romantic impression of snow. I wish it would snow right now. Springtime in Taiwan is uncomfortably hot, and the summer is wicked.

It's supposed to reach 85 degrees F today in my area. While that is nice, it also means there are going to be insects galore as they all hatch and fly around. And with all the rain we've had, we are told that mosquitoes are going to be a big problem this year. Tell you what, it still beats snow.

I hope everyone is doing fine!

Louisa Fai wrote:

I hope everyone had as great an Easter as I did.

Two days worth of my family complaining. Yay

Well, I did survive.

I hope everyone had as great an Easter as I did.

Happy Easter everyone!

Glad to see you are doing well, Mariah. It is understood that, with all those young 'uns, your spare time is, for all intents and purposes, nonexistent, but it is good to know that things are still going well for you.

Hello all!

It was brought to my attention that I dropped off the face of the internet. LOL. Just a quick note to let everyone know I'm fine, everything and everyone is fine, I'm just a bit busy these days.

Paul wrote:

As long as you have it now, Kelsey, that's all that matters. You just caught it at a time when Forumotion was having issues.

Can someone toss me a life raft? It has been pouring rain for the last two days. The weather forecast calls for 3-6 inches of rain before it is all done. And this is on top of the several inches of rain we got last week. Thankfully my house is on relatively high ground; my cellar hasn't flooded out yet *Paul knocks on wood*.

So, how is everybody doing? Does anybody have any special plans for Easter?

*throws raft & rations*

I'll be with my family on Easter. (Both parts - the part I like and the rest. At least my cousin called to say she'd have to work - what a pity... )

As long as you have it now, Kelsey, that's all that matters. You just caught it at a time when Forumotion was having issues.

Can someone toss me a life raft? It has been pouring rain for the last two days. The weather forecast calls for 3-6 inches of rain before it is all done. And this is on top of the several inches of rain we got last week. Thankfully my house is on relatively high ground; my cellar hasn't flooded out yet *Paul knocks on wood*.

So, how is everybody doing? Does anybody have any special plans for Easter?

Grace wrote:

Paul wrote:

Lorena wrote:

I can't seem to find the way to change my avatar anymore. I don't think it's under profile. Everything else seems to be there, but I don't see avatar. Can anyone help me out?

Hmmm, judging from the way I am made to respond here, it looks like our good friends at Forumotion have made "upgrades" again.

When I click on the profile icon on the home page, "avatar" is listed between "signature" and "friends and foes". I didn't change my avatar, but it looks like I am able to if I want to. I think the profile icon is the third one from the right, the bust-type figure. Click on that again, and if you don't see these options let us know.

There it is for me, too - this is a known issue, several forums have had this problem in the last 24h. Luckily, Forumotion did work rather quickly this time

It's there now. But I swear it wasn't a few days ago; I'm not a crazy person. I'm glad I wasn't the only one experiencing the problem.

I did, actually. But none of my family did. It was difficult, but I shut off the lights in my room and any other unnecessary lights I could find and took a short nap

Grace wrote:

Louisa Fai wrote:

Anyone doing Earth Hour? (:

What is Earth hour?

Earth Hour, which I believe was Saturday evening (not sure what time) was one hour in which everyone who participated shut off all their lights and used nothing that drew electrical power for one hour.

Louisa Fai wrote:

Anyone doing Earth Hour? (:

What is Earth hour?

Anyone doing Earth Hour? (:

So. I have finally had all my topics approved, so this is what my oral exams will be about.

1. History:
- Bismarck's socialist law(s)
- Using computers in high school history teaching
- How to turn a historic event into a lesson
- Late medieval pilgrims in Jerusalem
- Image of the mother in Nazi ideology

2. Pedagogy
- Bilingualism and School Success
- History of Intercultural Education
- Multiculturality in Great Britain and Germany

3. English
- Metaphor in Education
- Second Language Acquisition Theories
- McCarthyism
- Postcolonialism and National Identity in Bollywood movies

Four weeks to go before the exams start. Wish me luck!

Paul wrote:

Lorena wrote:

I can't seem to find the way to change my avatar anymore. I don't think it's under profile. Everything else seems to be there, but I don't see avatar. Can anyone help me out?

Hmmm, judging from the way I am made to respond here, it looks like our good friends at Forumotion have made "upgrades" again.

When I click on the profile icon on the home page, "avatar" is listed between "signature" and "friends and foes". I didn't change my avatar, but it looks like I am able to if I want to. I think the profile icon is the third one from the right, the bust-type figure. Click on that again, and if you don't see these options let us know.

There it is for me, too - this is a known issue, several forums have had this problem in the last 24h. Luckily, Forumotion did work rather quickly this time

Lorena wrote:

I can't seem to find the way to change my avatar anymore. I don't think it's under profile. Everything else seems to be there, but I don't see avatar. Can anyone help me out?

Hmmm, judging from the way I am made to respond here, it looks like our good friends at Forumotion have made "upgrades" again.

When I click on the profile icon on the home page, "avatar" is listed between "signature" and "friends and foes". I didn't change my avatar, but it looks like I am able to if I want to. I think the profile icon is the third one from the right, the bust-type figure. Click on that again, and if you don't see these options let us know.

I can't seem to find the way to change my avatar anymore. I don't think it's under profile. Everything else seems to be there, but I don't see avatar. Can anyone help me out?

Thanks for the advice, guys! I have been actually finding really interesting and helpful info both at the local library and the good ol' WWW. I'm debating whether to add a chunk including the info to my story just to sound well-researched.

Paul wrote:

Livia wrote:

I have an awful cold and a bad cough. *pauses for violent sneeze*. But otherwise I'm good. I'm writing a story concerning some private investigators/detective work. I really like researching my writing, but I don't want to do researching via fiction, for fear of sounding like someone else.
When you research your writing, where do you go?

With a little searching, you can probably find some good information on the Internet. I've recently begun to appreciate just how much information is out there. As I said, you may have to dig around a bit. You may not find what you are looking for right away. Right now I cannot think of a better resourse, short of finding an actual private investigator in your area and seeing if he/she is willing to answer some of your questions. Good luck and happy writing!

You might also be able to find material in the nearest university library, at least on the judicial side of things. Then, you could always interview someone about their working techniques, though I don't know if PIs are very keen on sharing their secrets. And I also believe that this is a field in which much is left to one's own imagination - once you have your license, you can go about things as you like.