Showing posts with label Grammar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Grammar. Show all posts

Friday, May 7, 2010

Smart Phones: Batman's Greatest Gadget

While teaching, I created in my head a new kind of villain-The Grammarian. A cruel fiend that, like the Riddler, would like leave clues behind. However, his clues would all be something that only a true linguist and language commander would ever have a chance to decipher. I pictured Batman screaming in the night, "Why didn't I learn to diagram?" I realized that all of Batman's gadgets are created and designed for very specific functions and he always must return to the lab for a lot of the tough stuff.

Why doesn't Batman have a smartphone? Is Gotham so outdated? Is Batman too proud? I thought of the later scenes of The Dark Knight when Bruce Wayne utilizes cell phone technology to plug his eyes and ears into the heart of the city. Had he a smartphone, he probably could have checked Twitter, seen that The Joker was trending, and tracked him down just as quickly. Think of all the riddles he always has to figure out, the time wasted wracking his brain. Just run a Google search. Riddler apprehended in no time. Apparently, Batman is a digital immigrant.

But really, maybe this is Batman's real super-power. In a world where technology rules and controversy explodes over the overuse of said tech, Batman lives and relies on it, but doesn't seem to demonstrate a short attention span, he has an excellent memory, and he lacks the impulses to update his status.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Three More Days

As of this morning, I have three more days of this school year. Just thinking about it has made my head explode twice (very messy).

Finals are my favorite time of year because it makes a lot of students care for the first time all year. And this year, as an added bonus, I'm making all but one class diagram sentences, which thrills me more than anyone could imagine.

With these last days, I'm starting to get all excited for the summer and my summer happenings. Starting next week, I'll be taking a class that gets me some graduate hours. It's gonna be sweet, yet bizarre to be back in a classroom as a student. Otherwise, I swear by my right earlobe that I will read. Every summer I aim to read like a fiend, and every summer starts well before it crashed in a flurry of unread pages.

And writing. With the class happening throughout June, it throws off my writing hopes a bit. I like to write in the morning, right when the coffee shops open up and stay for at least two hours. Unfortunately, most coffee shops around here don't open until 7:oo. So I'd only get an hour in before I've get to get to class. Lame. Hopefully I'll still get something good done by getting together with my friend for a writing group.