Sure Happy It’s Thursday, Gerbil Nation!
Good morning, Sven, and Mac!
A few months ago our director of business services asked me to find some information about one of our vendors -- companies that we allow students to spend their Learning Fund on. These are typically tutors or extra-curricular offerings. It turns out the business was created to offer tutoring to the owner’s kids. Apparently the director liked the amount of information I was able to provide and the speed with which I found it. Since then, I’ve been the go-to person for investigating companies. This morning it was one of our athletic learning centers. These are sports training centers that also have a place and time for the kids to do their schoolwork (obviously online). The kids often have only two hours per day for school and parents don’t seem to understand that the center is not a school and two hours per day is not enough.
Odd. If the parents have school-age kids, then they must be in their late twenties/early thirties at least. So they were in school ten to fifteen years ago. I know education has changed quite a bit, but they must have been attending their schools for the normal 6-8 hours per day plus homework. You’d think they would at least intuitively know that two hours isn’t enough.
It was good. The last movie we watched on Sunday was The 300 Spartans. I don’t remember how the Spartans came up but I was describing them to her and she was interested in the movie (the one from 1962, not the more recent comic book fantasy.)
I just watched part two of Dune last night. It became available on streaming Tuesday so I downloaded it and burned it to DVD. I was describing it to her, I am not sure she would like it. There is a lot of action and it has Spanish audio and subtitles, but I don’t know if it would catch her as she is not familiar with it, and there is so much they can not explain in a movie if you are not familiar with the book. We will try part one and see if it appeals to her.
It was not bad, but I have waited two years for this. It has an awesome cast but they went off tract a lot. I have the four hour 80s version and the mini-series, and even with all those hours they found it hard. It is not an easy book to do justice to.
No, it isn’t -- the 80’s version was awful. I saw Part One of the new version -- wasn’t too excited. I remember reading the book back in high school days more than once and the sequels.
Elena mostly likes simple action movies but there are a few we have really enjoyed together, like The Bookshop 2017, with Emily Mortimer, and This Beautiful Fantastic 2016. We also really liked A Little Chaos 2014, with Kate Winslet and Alan Rickman. This also had Matthias Schoenaerts who did a great job. This really brought him to my attention and when I looked him up I was impressed with how many different characters he has done a great job with. His name will get me to look at almost any movie. This is true with Alan Rickman as well.
Paul Giamatti has surprised me with some fine performances. I had to admit to myself a while back, that he has more range and talent than I used to think. He has done a good job with a wide range of characters of many types. I was hoping he would do it again on this movie, it is why I tried it. I liked it more than I expected to.
Sven -- in answer to your question about parents, they want their kid to go on to professional sports, or at least D1 in college. The sports academy tells them that they include school time, monitor progress, have tutors, etc. and the parents believe them because they want to. The parents of many of the 8th grade students apply to have their child repeat 8th grade due to “social or emotional” reasons. The real reason is so the kid is one year older in high school and will hopefully be a standout.
Back in my junior high or high school days, being a year older or younger created problems socially. If you were older, you were stupid; if you were younger, you were prey.
My birthday is late in the year so I had to start school a year late. My problems in high school related to being in Jr ROTC in the mid/late sixties. Even some of the teachers were very anti-military and anti-government, and did not mind showing their hostility openly in class.
First!
Good morning GN!
Almost the weekend.
Good morning, Sir.
Good morning, Mac -- how are things?
Sure Happy It’s Thursday, Gerbil Nation!
Good morning, Sven, and Mac!
A few months ago our director of business services asked me to find some information about one of our vendors -- companies that we allow students to spend their Learning Fund on. These are typically tutors or extra-curricular offerings. It turns out the business was created to offer tutoring to the owner’s kids. Apparently the director liked the amount of information I was able to provide and the speed with which I found it. Since then, I’ve been the go-to person for investigating companies. This morning it was one of our athletic learning centers. These are sports training centers that also have a place and time for the kids to do their schoolwork (obviously online). The kids often have only two hours per day for school and parents don’t seem to understand that the center is not a school and two hours per day is not enough.
Odd. If the parents have school-age kids, then they must be in their late twenties/early thirties at least. So they were in school ten to fifteen years ago. I know education has changed quite a bit, but they must have been attending their schools for the normal 6-8 hours per day plus homework. You’d think they would at least intuitively know that two hours isn’t enough.
Speaking of school, we watched The Holdovers last night. We enjoyed it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhKLpJmHhIg
I enjoyed that one. It is on my list to share with Elena.
It was refreshing. Good dialogue, no CGI, no wokeness. It told a story with words and acting.
It was good. The last movie we watched on Sunday was The 300 Spartans. I don’t remember how the Spartans came up but I was describing them to her and she was interested in the movie (the one from 1962, not the more recent comic book fantasy.)
I just watched part two of Dune last night. It became available on streaming Tuesday so I downloaded it and burned it to DVD. I was describing it to her, I am not sure she would like it. There is a lot of action and it has Spanish audio and subtitles, but I don’t know if it would catch her as she is not familiar with it, and there is so much they can not explain in a movie if you are not familiar with the book. We will try part one and see if it appeals to her.
It was not bad, but I have waited two years for this. It has an awesome cast but they went off tract a lot. I have the four hour 80s version and the mini-series, and even with all those hours they found it hard. It is not an easy book to do justice to.
No, it isn’t -- the 80’s version was awful. I saw Part One of the new version -- wasn’t too excited. I remember reading the book back in high school days more than once and the sequels.
Elena mostly likes simple action movies but there are a few we have really enjoyed together, like The Bookshop 2017, with Emily Mortimer, and This Beautiful Fantastic 2016. We also really liked A Little Chaos 2014, with Kate Winslet and Alan Rickman. This also had Matthias Schoenaerts who did a great job. This really brought him to my attention and when I looked him up I was impressed with how many different characters he has done a great job with. His name will get me to look at almost any movie. This is true with Alan Rickman as well.
Good tips -- adding them to my list.
Paul Giamatti has surprised me with some fine performances. I had to admit to myself a while back, that he has more range and talent than I used to think. He has done a good job with a wide range of characters of many types. I was hoping he would do it again on this movie, it is why I tried it. I liked it more than I expected to.
Sven -- in answer to your question about parents, they want their kid to go on to professional sports, or at least D1 in college. The sports academy tells them that they include school time, monitor progress, have tutors, etc. and the parents believe them because they want to. The parents of many of the 8th grade students apply to have their child repeat 8th grade due to “social or emotional” reasons. The real reason is so the kid is one year older in high school and will hopefully be a standout.
Wow. Ain’t that something. I never would have thought of someone doing that.
We’ve had quite a number of 8th graders who are/were 15.
Back in my junior high or high school days, being a year older or younger created problems socially. If you were older, you were stupid; if you were younger, you were prey.
Yep.
My birthday is late in the year so I had to start school a year late. My problems in high school related to being in Jr ROTC in the mid/late sixties. Even some of the teachers were very anti-military and anti-government, and did not mind showing their hostility openly in class.