A Collection of Daily Wisdom by Dennis Sylvester Hurd since September 2003.

I spent the day in class with my weekend COMM 0004. I'm extremely happy that tomorrow is Remembrance Day in Canada and it's a holiday. In fact, Monday is a vacation day too. So, I will have off two days in a row which seems like a treat. Don't let me make it sound like I have a hard life. I recently had three months off and will also not be working for three weeks during half of December and part of January.

I started to say that we went over the topic of cause and effect today. When discussing the topic I generally have the class think of bad habits they might have and the effects that lie down the road because of them. I was a little surprised when I asked how many of the 19 students smoked.

None of my current class smokes! I can't help but compare this to when I began at BCIT. Ten years ago it was not unusual for half my classes to run out to have a cigarette during breaks. Of course, I used to join them too.

Cigarette smoking is certainly no longer cool. In fact, people who seem to congregate near doorways nowadays to puff are losers. I equate smoking as something primarily done by unemployed bums or other people of questionable character.


In the Middle East cheap, tax-free cigarettes provided
no incentive to quit smoking. I do not have a photo of me
actually holding one though.

Labels: Bahrain, opinions

Earlier this morning, I was looking at the my eJournal and images page which showcases my games label.

I guess I'm now old enough to be a little nostalgic.

I hear about game titles like BioShock in popular media but I've never been much of a first-person shooter. Although it must be said that I had a 22 rifle as a teenager. I even became quite good at skeet shooting with a 12-gauge. These were real life situations with family though. I just cannot seem to get too excited about buying into any of the modern gaming consoles. In fact, my old, original XBOX actually sits in a box.

I was a happy, however, to re-visit an old link I had entered in September 2003. It pointed to www.flippers.com. It seems to be a local Vancouver company and although the guy's no stunning web designer, it's the content that I found so very appealing.

As mentioned here previously, two high-school friends and I had an arcade in our little hometown of Sunapee, NH decades ago. It was the industry's turning point from mechanical to electronic. Pacman, Space Invaders, and Galaxian were fun to play but there was nothing better than the selinoid-thumping, electro-mechanical sounds of a real pinball machine.

I'd own a vintage example today were it not for a 725 sq ft apartment and the $2000 to $3000 price tag for an average setup. I bet it'd be much more for a mint conditon Bally Xenon. After all, that suductive female voice coaxing a player to "try a tube shot" could catipult just about anyone back into one's adolescence. And how much is that worth?

Labels: games, New Hampshire, Sunapee, The Harbor Gameroom

Any single entry in this blog may not explain me very well. You might not even be able tell much from a single week. What I'm hoping for is more of a long-term endeavor. If I keep up this habit long enough, a more complete picture will emerge from the words and photos.

I've said similar things many times before. A few years back I even likened it to the infinite monkey theorem.

I find having this growing database of Dennis available personally interesting. For example, through the search feature, I can check to see how frequently I use specific linguistic terms. I can add information about my past in a totally random manner but still have them appear on the same page through labels. Lastly, I can even check to see what I wrote on a specific day during any of the past four years. What about November 8th?

2003 - Commented about a newly purchased XBOX.
2004 - Advised that all recent, Sri Lankan trip blog entries added.
2005 - Provided a picture of new, BCIT students.
2006 - Mentioned how grass stays green here.

Labels: blogging, lists, monkeys

My class this afternoon seemed especially long. There was a general lethargy in the room that I tried, fairly unsuccessfully, to alleviate. I joked with the students that perhaps it was time I change careers. I said that my mother had suggested I not be an ESL instructor. I always say she suggested that medicine was better paying and less stressful. Actually, she never said anything of the kind.

In a teacher's repertoire, if I'm any example, there are a number of little lies told so often they've become fact. At least, some have become reality in my own mind. I am fairly positive that I never had a student who was sitting on the back legs of his chair and accidentally fell backwards. Although this may have never really happened, I've become very familiar and fond of the tale. I can almost swear that this poor, imaginary fellow had to be rushed to the hospital for three stitches to the back of his scalp. At minimum, it's a good story to ensure people sit safely in their chairs.

In response to the fanciful thought of doing something else for a living, an especially keen and mature student asked me how long I'd been teaching. I quickly responded that I started in 1981. Quicker yet, he exclaimed, "Twenty six years! I think it's a little too late to change careers." I guess he's right, but there's not much else that I'd really want to do with the possible exception of nothing.

I wonder what this student looks like 26 years after I taught him. I taught him in pre-war Kuwait, so I even wonder where he is.

Labels: Kuwait, students

I was chatting with a colleague in the PELD (Professional English Language Development) office before class this afternoon. I was excitedly showing how I've begun copying audio files to the BCIT share-out drive. Each course at the Institute is provided with general storage. It is easily available from any computer on campus by locating the J: drive. Additionally, students can access the data on the Internet via a web browser and their student ID / password. This got me thinking how much more accessible language study materials are now because of Internet access.

Once upon a time, when I began teaching, students just had access to the materials that were handed out by the instructor. Especially when overseas, additional information had to be purchased in the market. Now, getting examples of a new, target language are as close as a search engine. (I've decided to try to eliminate the habit of using Google as a verb.)

Today, I was tossing around mp3 files rather than text. Podcasts have made excellent audio available in a manageable, on-demand format. There really isn't any corollary in analog form. I remember using cassettes but the audio was held captive inside a plastic case. All students needed to listen at the same time and in the same location. Even if I knew a specific radio program would be of interest to my students, most weren't taped simply because it was too much of a hassle.

Labels: BCIT, podcasts, technology

Seconds ago, as I opened www.blogger.com, a television commercial extolled a major benefit of having a new Pontiac. If one throws tens of thousands of dollars down on the table, it is apparently easy to buy ...

F - R - E - E - D - O - M.

In the commercial, initially, there was a fog of annoying, computer-generated responsibilities swirling around the driver's head like gnats on a hot day. Yet as the example driver headed out on a limitless empty highway, these items were sucked away in the draft created by his increasing speed. A fat guy, most probably a boss, was able to hang onto the collar the longest, but as soon as our alter ego was able to shift into overdrive, even that annoyance was loosened. The boss broke into pieces on the road as if made from painted ceramics.

Lots of new car ads imply easy access to speed and freedom if customers purchase specific vehicles. I guess my old Ranger is not such a beast. This must be why I find every street clogged with traffic whenever I venture out onto the tarmac. It seems my worries and blonde hair seldom fly with wild abandon as I speed down empty highways.

Labels: cars, opinions

I love television and I make absolutely no apologies about it. I'll also throw in the fact that for a year most of my prime-time viewing has been in high definition. This, of course, makes it all much better. I think that technically a great deal of TV programming now rivals the cinematography found in theatrical releases.

I feel I choose shows that tell good stories and are not a waste of my time. Our Canadian must-see shows gravitate towards comedy with shows such as Air Farce Live, Corner Gas, and Little Mosque on the Prairie. Of course there's a variety in the viewing of US programming. For example, Sons and Daughters, CSI: Miami, Boston Legal, Family Guy, and Ugly Betty have little in common. We have stuck with the Survivor franchise too. It's surely useful that the satellite receiver has two turners and keeps track of what records on the internal hard disk.



Yet, we nearly missed recording the first episode of the only other reality program we regularly watch. Due to the fact the show is sometimes produced two times per television season, Amazing Race is now up to the twelfth set of contestants. Flying around the world in pairs, seeing famous sites, and bitching during the process seems to match our experiences so well. Who could possibly not find that interesting?

Labels: television