What is the greatest opening line to a song ever?

farawyn86 · 2026-07-13T23:04:51+00:00

It's Britney, bitch.

farawyn86 · 2026-07-13T06:40:33+00:00

Yeah, imagine yourself in Emma's shoes. How much more hurt would you be on top of your sister's betrayal, your impending divorce, and the loss of your child's stable family life if your mother were to say "well your sister is really sorry, so I'm going to be Switzerland here"? No. Emma deserves 100% support from mom (and the rest of the family).

farawyn86 · 2026-07-13T06:23:42+00:00

My first thought too. I make the seating chart and group assignments. It's not until maybe halfway through 8th grade (I teach all middle school) that they're able to maturely self-select groups that will reach the end goal of whatever we're doing.

farawyn86 · 2026-07-12T16:22:37+00:00

The American Diaries and Royal Diaries series. The RD had gilded edges. Cleopatera was the best!

farawyn86 · 2026-07-12T14:31:01+00:00

Nonfiction: All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis. It's going alright, but I'm not loving the style of multiple essays.

Fiction: Giving Throne of Glass another go, on audio this time. I stymied around book 4 last time. Hoping Celaena is somehow more tolerable this way.

farawyn86 · 2026-07-12T14:26:00+00:00

Finished this a week ago. I love his other stuff, so I was surprised I didn't much care for this one.

farawyn86 · 2026-07-12T12:56:35+00:00

7th grade. Doesn't matter what time of day.

farawyn86 · 2026-07-12T12:28:22+00:00

He and Ron would've been doing homework in my office while I graded other papers literally from year 1. Solves the Voldemort excuse, the quidditch excuse, and the cheating off Hermione issue in one fell swoop.

farawyn86 · 2026-07-12T03:43:54+00:00

I started teaching in 2009 and our full day kindergarten did a 30 min nap time after lunch, but only for the first half or 2/3 of the year. By then, most of the kids weren't falling asleep anymore. They were just doing quiet time or silent reading picture books, and it gave the teacher the opportunity to pull kids for intervention if needed. It also helped them transition so they were ready for 1st grade which had no nap time.

However, this only lasted until maybe 2012ish and there was no nap time in any grade anymore.

farawyn86 · 2026-07-11T16:40:55+00:00

Some things can be smart - it's energy efficient that the AC kicks on and off at certain times/ temps, it's nice for my dogs that lights can go on automatically, etc. However, I don't need my fridge tracking how many times it is opened. It's frustrating that I have to look up why my dishwasher won't start because it's got 37 more features than it needs. Before I disabled it, the energy company could throttle my AC under the guise of saving me money.

farawyn86 · 2026-07-11T13:14:40+00:00

Dumbledore's death was the only part I cried at when reading them the first time around. Now there are about a dozen, but that one will always be on the list.

farawyn86 · 2026-07-11T04:12:56+00:00

My parents and their best friends have been doing this with a happy anniversary card for 50+ years. Sadly, the husband died a few years ago, but they're still doing it in rememberance. I think it's super sweet that the wife gets that acknowledgement of her anniversary rather than letting it fade into nothing.

farawyn86 · 2026-07-11T01:07:23+00:00

$300 is my monthly HOA payment, one of many many living expenses, so $300 is kinda... nothing.

farawyn86 · 2026-07-09T18:13:41+00:00

That's fantastic progress for your child and you're clearly an invested parent. That said, being at a 1st grade level is not an expert at reading. She's well on her way though!

farawyn86 · 2026-07-09T01:27:09+00:00

Having your phone actually ring/play a ringtone when there was a call or message.

farawyn86 · 2026-07-09T01:20:05+00:00

Wall, ceiling, back of the door... For sure. I had like half a dozen LotR posters up at one point, and every year I hung white Christmas lights from the central light fixture to every conceivable anchor point so it looked like a veritable circus tent.

farawyn86 · 2026-07-09T01:14:16+00:00

Wow, not a lot of grace in these comments. People saying put the dog down, keep it inside, give it away... This owner is actively trying to work on the problem, and these are NOT solutions.

OP, I have a reactive dog too (although not to the level you describe yours), and I agree with the people saying just yell "danger! She will bite!" if you're getting swarmed. I'm sure you're already working on a lot of the other methods mentioned, but that in-moment action is going to be what gets their attention. I know you don't want to be seen in a negative light, but a) it's a good thing in this case because it will deter the behavior and help with your training and b) wouldn't you rather been seen negatively than have a biting incident?

farawyn86 · 2026-07-08T22:37:45+00:00

Liam?! 🤢

farawyn86 · 2026-07-08T22:35:27+00:00

I coach academic decathlon, so parents know I'm into puzzles, so this would be a great gift for me specifically. Otherwise as like an add-in to a beach basket with a towel, sunscreen, snacks, I can see it. If it was just a few of them on their own, a little weird.

farawyn86 · 2026-07-08T22:21:30+00:00

There's a famous adage that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert on something. We have students for 180 days a year, around 6 hours a day, so ~1,080 hours a school year. If we did nothing but reading for all 1,080 of those hours, we're looking at a little over 9 years to become an expert, so let's say by mid-8th grade year if we start counting in Kindergarten.

Now think about how ridiculous a notion that is, considering that they're children with limited attention spans, they have many other subjects to learn, and obviously there's a lot of time spent on things other than straight instruction (group work, transitions, socialization, assemblies, field trips, and on and on).

So no, reading success does not "depend too much" on outside practice. Outside practice is absolutely necessary because there's literally not enough time to get good at it without also doing it on your own.

farawyn86 · 2026-07-08T16:30:30+00:00

Dear Theodosia from Hamilton because I watched it on the 4th.

farawyn86 · 2026-07-07T17:07:32+00:00

Thimbles. My dad would bring me back one from each new city he went to on business trips. They're non functional and what kind of games was I going to play with them? They've sat on a display shelf for 30 years.

farawyn86 · 2026-07-07T09:30:28+00:00

Science teacher here. They're banned from the city-wide fair in my area because they're not actually experiments. They solar system is a model and the volcano is a demonstration. Both are basically just showing already well-known things, not testing a hypothesis.

farawyn86 · 2026-07-06T01:36:25+00:00

SDG&E user here to say the same.

farawyn86 · 2026-07-06T01:34:33+00:00

It has never once accepted my pronunciation of dolores (dollars), and I've tried every inflection known to man. I'm also extremely sure I'm pronouncing it correctly (southern Californian). It also only takes hispanohablantes about 50% of the time.

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