Where Did Thursday Thirteen Go?

My old friend Thursday Thirteen seems to have disappeared, although some of the old gang may be found around here. I fell asleep thinking about one the other night, and since I will soon forget it since I cannot seem to remember any ideas by the morning, I shall do it now. So here we have my latest (not) Thursday 13:

THIRTEEN THINGS AUGUSTUS

1. Augustus Caesar
The obvious one. Here are a couple of things he is reputed to have said.

2. Augustus Sans Serif
If you are into fonts, have a look at this.

3. Augustus Who Would Not Eat His Soup
Although the original German story from 'Der Struwelpeter' tells of Suppen Kaspar, the English translation describes the demise of Augustus. To hear it told to you right now click here.

4. Augustus Egg
Here is the way to all you may ever wish to know about the nineteenth-century painter with the fabulous name.

5. Agaricus Augustus
What might this be? I had no idea, and was pleasantly surprised by this picture.

6. Augustus Jackson
This Augustus was an African-American credited with an important place in the history of ice-cream. Go here, and click on his name for more. Safe for diabetics.

7. Fort Augustus
For your next expedition to find Nessie, why not make your base camp in this historic town by the loch.

8. Augustus de Morgan
He was a famous British mathematician and logician. Famous at least in the world of mathematics. Sadly, words like 'trigonometry' or 'differential calculus' do not compute in my brain. Far be it from me, however, to deny you anything actually so have a look at this.

9. The Augustus Society
This group preserves and promotes a positive image of Italian-Americans in Clark County, Nevada.

10. Augustus John
Here is a brief biography of the (mostly) twentieth-century portrait painter. Famous also for his multitudinous affairs, apparently his illegitimate children were referred to as 'Johnlets".

11. Charles Augustus Lindbergh
That's it. The middle name of the famous aviator. As it was for his father, and his poor first son.

12. Seimone Augustus
An Olympic basketball gold medal-winning female Augustus! Read about her here.

13. Augustus Gloop
The one you've all been waiting for! No? O well, the demise of the chocolate guzzler in Willy Wonka's factory may be viewed here.

I had wanted to include Gus the Theatre Cat, but it turns out that 'Gus' is short for 'Asparagus'. *sigh*

the ravaj is teaching maths!

i do not recall if i have mentioned this previously, but in my current incarnation as a student teacher, i had to pass a maths exam in the summer. not having studied mathematics seriously (except for a couple of weeks before the gre's, and that is another story) for approximately 27 years, i was terribly intimidated by our first lesson back in june. i could not understand a word the teacher was saying, and after 3 hours i was in tears. our amazing teacher managed to turn this all around, however, and i ended up passing the summer exam with a score of 93. now, i am teaching some 3rd grade maths. it is a miracle! and here is a pic to prove it!!

the owl of learning (vi)

sowing in tears and reaping in joy comes to mind today. after much wailing and gnashing of teeth by ravaj on monday, conversations with teachers before the maths class led to an extremely unexpectedly enjoyable 3 hour lesson about bases. it's too boring to write about and i am too tired to try. suffice it to say that our teacher ended the session with a joke, and i got it. here it is for you:

there are 10 kinds of people in the world. those who understand binary systems, and those who do not.

owl of learning (v)

the agony continues. tried to do my maths homework this evening. several fuses in my brain blew. let's put it this way. i decided i would rather walk in the drenching heat through unlit unknown boston streets in a new york yankees t-shirt than face the pages on my desk.

i guess i need to thank the yankee pitcher for walking home baltimore's winning run in the bottom of the ninth at camden yards. any red sock who saw me this evening would most likely either gloat or pity me, rather than bash me.

*sigh*

owl of learning (iv)

today was my first day of school. by the time i got home around 6:30 pm, i didn't know whether to cry, to go to bed for the night or to have a couple of margaritas. o dear! not that i am complaining - it was an experience - i just did not realise how difficult it was going to be :-)

ok - we began with a 3-hour mathematics lesson. since we will have to teach elementary maths, we have to learn it also. i was good at maths when i was at school. on the other hand, the last time i did maths in school was 27 years ago, before two-thirds of the class was born.

shouldn't be a problem. i am intelligent. i can be taught this. i can learn it. and then 15 minutes into the class i am looking at the teacher and she is speaking and i am sure she is speaking swahili and i do not speak swahili. i am ready to cry. i tell her that i think she is speaking swahili. she tries to explain again, and i am not brave enough to tell her i still do not understand. my brain shuts down, and i start building towers out of the little plastik blocks she has given us to help work out problems about eric the sheep.

ok so i am humbled because i can honestly say that i do not recall ever feeling so incompetent and incapable and frustrated and stupid and hopeless. also, i can now empathise with anyone who ever feels like that in a class i may be teaching. i told her i had never felt like this before, and she said then either i must be really brilliant or ... i hastened to make the case against being very brilliant and explained how i had always avoided anything i didn't like in school. i did not say that these were things like biology, swimming and italian. it did not seem relevant.

now i feel like i was hit by a brick. i do sudoku every night, and get quite a lot of the fiendish ones from the times she said plaintively. ah well, 'twas only the first day. i have tear stains on my shirt, but tomorrow i shall wear another shirt. and the introduction to reading torah in the afternoon was enjoyable and more in my comfort zone, so i had time to recover. a bit.

i may return to this subject. probably tomorrow evening in the middle of trying to do the maths homework!