This weblog of an English teacher at a Franconian "Gymnasium" type secondary school is meant to provide students with additional, class-related material they might be interested in - plus the odd personal comment on the world at large ;)
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Merry Christmas from Chiron Beta Prime
for our robot overlords
-- did I say 'overlords'?
I meant, 'protectors'!
Jonathan Coulton and Tom Ellsworth present a hilarious piece of science-fictionish Christmas cheer with a twist, and the potential to become a cult classic (if it isn't already). Watch & enjoy... and a Merry Christmas to y'all, too!
P.S.: Soylent Green is p...[message redacted]!
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Nixer!
to nix = to cancel, to refuse - another of those great Germanisms, just like the ever-popular "blitzkrieg", "weltschmerz", "angst" and such (look 'em up in your ALD, I'm not kidding!)
This piece of vocabulary is often used in business relations - hence, obviously, this license plate on a Mercedes I encountered a while back in London - Highgate.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
An E-Mail from Al Gore
Still, this sounds interesting:
Current, the media company I co-founded six years ago with my partner Joel Hyatt, just last week launched a new web site that integrates television and the Web in an unprecedented way. It provides, as never before, a platform for citizens to make the media their own.
One of the features I'm most excited about on Current.com is called Viewpoints. Viewpoints is a virtual town hall where you can share your opinions, in video, about the issues that matter in the 2008 election: from global warming to government eavesdropping, and many more.
This digital town hall is already bustling, and you can find viewpoints from me and from a lot of people, including the candidates running for President. Come and listen to their positions and, more importantly, tell them and the rest of the world what you think!
Since Viewpoints is the only place on the Web where you can easily share your view in video, my hope is that you'll take this opportunity to go toe-to-toe with the pundits on TV and help contribute to a new platform for public discourse. All it takes is a webcam and 60 seconds.
And, since we'll be taking the most popular and most compelling viewpoints and airing them on Current TV -- now available in 52 million homes around the world -- you may very well get your voice heard on our global TV network.
I look forward to seeing and hearing you on Current.com, as we deepen the discussion on these important topics:
Thank you,
Al Gore
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
This is not a vacuum cleaner
Can't you see it says Radio Shack, not Hoover?
I wanted to spare you the "...but it still sucks" punchline, but I really can't resist the temptation, because of the double meaning working in two languages, albeit in a different way. Non-German speakers: "saugen", the literal translation of "to suck", can be used as a slang word for downloading data ("leeching"), which is, of course, what this precursor of the modem ("acoustic coupler") could be used for. Darn slow though it was...
Monday, September 24, 2007
What Not To Do
Never, never ever, use "...is when..." in vocabulary definitions.
Seriously.
I mean it.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Happy Holidays
Thursday, July 12, 2007
This one's for you!
All I've left to say (again) is thank you, thank you, thank you.
EDIT: Click on this sentence to read another press article ("Coburger Tageblatt") - once again, they didn't get all the facts right, but still they only had good things to say about us ;)
Thursday, July 05, 2007
E.T.in the news again
http://www.alexandrinum-coburg.de/uploads/pics/NP_2007-07-04.jpg
(Sorry, German again. I definitely should pay more attention to this blog really being an English-language one.)
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
No Millions For Pants
(if you prefer, a few notes from a lawyer's blog, in German: http://www.lawblog.de/index.php/archives/2007/06/25/doch-keine-millionen-fur-eine-hose/)
Saturday, June 23, 2007
More E.T. (again) ;)
Although they got a few facts wrong (one of which being that my "z.A." status has been a thing of the past since March 1st - wink wink, nudge, nudge), try the Landestheater's web page for a bit more info:
http://www.landestheater-coburg.de/?_tid=1567&id=335
...or have a look at http://www.alexandrinum-coburg.de/index.php?id=77 where you'll find a few articles on the group in German (inter alia).
Thanks to Franziska ("Lynnie, dead and looking it"), E.T. also have a website of their own now. You can find it at http://www.repage1.de/member/e_t/index.html
Saturday, June 16, 2007
All work & no play
As some of you know, I have a little collection of 80s videogames at home and while I don't advocate the more extreme forms of electronic gaming, I don't condemn the thing as such. What I really don't like is the amount of money that you still have to spend on a decent machine. Well, if you - like me - happen to have a little piece of webspace of your own, you might try this little competition another blogger has started:
(Even if your name isn't Jack.)
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Gorilla Banana
Monday, May 07, 2007
OK, gimme...
My blog is worth $1,693.62.
How much is your blog worth?
P.S.: I'm not selling. :)
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Digistraction
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Professor Stephen Hawking
BTW: Yes, he really was on Star Trek.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Idiomatics
http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/
To round it off, an exhaustive (or should that read "exhausting"?) dictionary of phrasal verbs:
http://www.englishpage.com/prepositions/phrasaldictionary.html
If, after careful, long and arduous studies, you feel you're ready to be tested on them, try this page:
http://a4esl.org/q/h/idioms.html
Mind you: I don't expect y'all to know all of these by the end of the term. 50% will do. (Just kidding.)
Monday, February 26, 2007
Life's A Show
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni9TBUNZn9Q
I still like Nicole's and my rendition better, naturally :)
Monday, February 12, 2007
Speech Accent Archive
You might already have noticed, for example, how strange a Welsh accent sounds (7c: remember that listening comprehension exercise?) to somebody who isn't used to it. This website will give you access to a great number of different speech samples, with speakers from literally all walks of life (and, more importantly, places) reading the very same text in their very own accent. Enjoy! ;)