Friday, January 20, 2012

Too Great Not to Share



Aside from the joy and reaffirmation of belief that I receive with just about any conversion story, I also love me some nice reversion stories...particularly accounts that touch upon freeing oneself of life plaguing experiences like drug addiction and incarceration. Mark Wahlberg clearly has his priorities in order. I love to see people in the spotlight this committed to faith, family, and community. Well done, Mark!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

SAT Prep for the Math Strategy-Challenged

I know I can't possibly be the only person to have just one go-to math strategy to employ when solving math problems, right?

[crickets]

Okay, maybe I'm in the minority, but somehow I doubt it. In short, I tend to take the long route to problem solving, going through all of the standard arithmetic, although I didn't realize how long a route it was until beginning Gruber's Complete SAT Guide with my daughter.



Granted, we haven't been using this book very long, but already, I feel like I've had my eyes opened to so much. There's no wonder I struggled with the math portions on my SAT, because even if I could do the math, the time allotment was too short for me. First I had to decipher the problem, determine what was being asked, block out everything else that was going on in the room (distraction is a BIG problem of mine), and then go through all of the steps, employing lots of arithmetic, before arriving at an answer. And then paranoid teenage me (some things never change), would still second-guess my answers, and would attempt to check and double-check. In short, it was a HUGE waste of time.

What's neat about Gruber's book is that it teaches multi-level approaches to solving problems. There's one example in the book using a very simple problem, and the author goes on to illustrate seven different ways to solve it. I found that in that problem, and in subsequent problems in the book, I kept resorting to the "Rote Memory Approach" to solving them. Not only is this the least creative way to solve problems, but it's often the most time-consuming. I just want to add here that this realization kind of ticked me off. In truth, it did. And not just because I was frustrated with myself, but with the fact that this sort of stuff just wasn't ever discussed when I was in high school. Half the time, I just tried to figure things out myself. And there was no Internet to help either! I do believe that there are just some mathematically gifted kids whose brains are wired in a way that makes creative problem solving more organic to them, but if you're not one of the lucky few (my son just happens to be one of them, lucky stiff), then it really helps to have someone, in this case a book, point these strategies out to you.

In any case, I just wanted to put this out there for anyone trying to decide on materials to use for SAT prep. I do want to add that I also purchased a few other resources, namely the College Board's Official SAT Guide, thinking that my daughter could work her way through that one with the help of the oh-so-awesome Khan Academy video series.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

My Korean Drama Addiction

This is crazy. Before a few months ago, I didn't even know anything about these Korean dramas. All I knew is that it was getting more and more difficult to pull my daughters, ages 15 and 13, away from the computer screen. To be honest, I had already gotten used to having to peel them away, as they spent most of their free time on the computer anyway, watching K-pop videos. But this was different. Rather than watching 5 minute music videos, these were hour long plus episodes, and whenever I'd rant for them to get off of the desktop, they'd beg me to allow them just one more episode. Seeing as an hour is considerably longer than five minutes, I felt justified in dragging them away.

And then began the chorus of, "Mom, if only you'd just sit down and watch an episode with us, you'd understand!"

I kept putting it off, but acquiesced eventually. And you know what? They were right. I did understand. I knew I was hooked immediately when my husband asked me to finish up on the desktop, and this time it was me saying, "Just one more episode, okay?"

These dramas are super addictive. They're ingenious, really, in that they're just so sweetly satisfying. I can't imagine anyone not enjoying them. Even my husband was sucked into watching three episodes in a row. By choice! I've only watched four so far, and all four have been romantic comedies, so my experience with the dramas as a whole is decidedly shallow. In the ones I've watched though, there are some consistent themes. There was always an antagonistic relationship between the two leads, with the male character being downright crabby at first. Over time, as can be expected, the leads overcome their obstacles and get together. The comedy is lighthearted, and the relationships are sweet. There is no smut here. Quite often in fact, the leads will only kiss a handful of times, if even that much, and we're talking a peck here and there...nothing like the over-the-top stuff you'll see in many of the American, or even Mexican (or other Spanish language) soaps/novelas. I've seen my fair share of those, so I know what I'm talking about! So when these leads finally do get together, you really feel their longing for each other, and really, what's romance, if not longing for each other? I find that this is lost so much in American shows and movies, but it's the kind of stuff I loved so much in novels like Pride and Prejudice.

So here's a run-down of what I've watched so far, and a brief description of each. I'm listing them in the order that I watched them, not in order of preference, as I can't commit to that kind of listing (although I'm fairly certain my favorite so far is the last I watched, so number four on this list).

1. Boys Over Flowers (25 episodes)


Based on manga, this one stars Lee Min Ho as the bratty uber-rich Goo Joon Pyo and Koo Hye Sun as the sweet, working class, feisty Geum Jan Di. Basically, the story centers around Jan Di, the daughter of dry cleaner. In the first episode, she is offered a full-paid scholarship to the prestigious Shin Hwa school after performing a heroic deed. This is a huge deal for the family, as the school only admits students coming from wealthy families. Upon arriving at the school, Jan Di is quickly aware that there is a clear pecking order, and those at the top, are called the F4 (Flower Four). These are four very fashion-forward boys who are the children of the wealthiest, most powerful families in all of Korea. Goo Joon Pyo is their leader. Jan Di soon realizes that it is best not to get on their bad side, as the F4, Goo Joon Pyo especially, are relentless in their bullying and hazing of students they don't like. Through a series of encounters, Jan Di manages to hold her own, and earns the love and respect of the F4.

2. You're Beautiful (16 episodes)


This one stars the beautiful Park Shin Hye playing Go Mi Nyeo, who has lived in a convent for most of her life, and is preparing to become a nun. She has a twin brother named Go Mi Nam (also played by Park Shin Hye) whose dream it is to become a pop star, in the hopes of being able to reconnect with their mother. I guess that he figures that being famous would help him locate her. He is offered to officially join a very successful pop group called A.N.Jell, so his dream is within reach. Unfortunately, Go Mi Nam, the brother, has had cosmetic surgery gone wrong (hahaha), and he is forced to leave the country for additional surgery and recuperation, so his dreams appear to be cut short after all. That is until his agent tracks down his twin sister, Go Mi Nyeo and convinces her to disguise herself as her brother, at least for as long as Go Mi Nam is unavailable. She reluctantly agrees, thinking of her brother's wish to reunite with their mother, and signs with the band. The other members of the band are crabby Hwang Tae Kyung played by the adorable Jang Geun Suk, the sweet and astute Kang Shin Woo played by Jung Yong Hwa (member of the Korean band CNBlue), and the cute and childlike Kang On Yu/Jeremy played by Lee Hong Ki (member of the Korean band FTIsland). Lots of fun is had as the male band members come to realize, one by one, that their new member is a girl, and all eventually develop feelings for her.

3. Heartstrings (aka You've Fallen for Me; 15 episodes)


Park Shin Hye and Jung Yong Hwa are back in this one playing Lee Kyu Won and Lee Shin respectively. They are both university students. Kyu Won is majoring in traditional Korean music/instruments, specifically the gayageum. Her grandfather who is her guardian is very cynical of any music that is not traditional, having been one of the top traditional musicians of his time. Lee Shin is majoring in modern music and is the lead vocalist and guitarist of a college band called "The Stupid." So yeah, the complete antithesis of traditional. And I guess that therein lies the conflict, yet of the four dramas I watched, the conflict was far less defined in this one. It didn't matter all that much to me, as I liked the characters. Lee Shin of course, is cold and crabby toward Kyu Won at first, as he is harboring a crush on a college dance teacher and doesn't have the time to give to any of this adoring college fangirls, not that Kyu Won is a fangirl...at least not at first. Eventually he comes around though, and everything ends just the way we'd like it to. What I did especially like and appreciate about this one is that little snags that are thrown at the characters from time to time, don't derail their feelings for each other. Very often, in most soap operas, regardless of where they're made, the conflicts come fast and furious, and every time, it alienates the main couple. Not so here. Once they're in love, they're in love, and trust one another completely.

4. Full House (16 episodes)


As mentioned above, this is my favorite of the four. It's also the "oldest," having been broadcast in 2004. This one stars the super famous Korean pop singer Bi/Rain playing Lee Young Jae, and the lovely and hilarious Song Hye Kyo playing Han Ji Eun. Ji Eun, an Internet novelist with little skill, was orphaned years earlier, and lives alone in the huge home her father built and named "Full House," as it was his belief that the home would always be full of love. She has two close friends, a couple named Dong Wook and Hee Jin who she has known for many many years, and they are really horribly wretched, albeit clueless human beings. Upon finding out that Hee Jin is pregnant, Dong Wook, already in debt up to his eyeballs, concocts a plan to sell Ji Eun's house and empty out her bank account to make up for his poor financial decisions. Dong Wook and Hee Jin convince Ji Eun that she has won an all-expense paid trip to Shanghai, and somehow come up with a one-way ticket to give to her. Ji Eun is suspicious at first, stating, "Nothing in this world is free," but she eventually gives in and agrees to go. Seated next to her on the plane is the insanely famous actor Lee Young Jae, who is as renown for his scandals as he is for his skill as an actor. Ji Eun quickly gets on his nerves and makes her way into the viewer's hearts as she's just so darn lovable. Upon arriving in Shanghai, Ji Eun realizes that there is something terribly wrong with this trip. No one is there to meet her, and she hasn't enough money to even pay the taxi fare complete. Thanks to a kind man named Yoo Min Hyuk, played by the handsome Kim Sung Soo, who is visiting the hotel to see his friend Lee Young Jae (surprise, surprise), she is able to register at the hotel. But only after she embarrasses herself, mistaking Min Hyuk for a Japanese businessman. After a few days of being unable to connect with her "friends" for an explanation for why things have gone so wrong, she decides to visit Lee Young Jae's hotel room to ask for a loan of money to pay for the hotel and a return flight home. He agrees to help, but only after she concocts a whole story about how she and his good friend Min Hyuk had at one time been in love. He agrees as a favor to his old friend, as he buys her story hook, line, and sinker. In the meantime, back in Korea, her "friends" have already sold her house...to someone representing Lee Young Jae. Upon arriving back home, she finds that it is no longer her home, and through a whole series of events (I'm skipping a lot here, I know), agrees to enter into a contract marriage with the actor in hopes of getting her home back. So this is one of those forced co-habitation stories, and I really think it's well done. Lee Young Jae is as crabby as ever, and Ji Eun is just delightful, and they sure do manage to push each other's buttons. I really, really loved this one. Swoon!

So, for anyone out there willing to give Korean dramas a shot, I promise you won't be sorry. You can watch them all for free here. Honestly, I'm really glad that with all of the junk on television, that my kids seem to prefer these shows. I don't really censor things for my kids. In fact, they do a great job of knowing what is or isn't appropriate for them to watch, all on their own. But it does my heart good to know that this is the sort of entertainment that they prefer. Not only that, but they're fun for me, too. And that's always a plus.

Now what to watch next?

Friday, January 13, 2012

Good Days and Bad Days

Starting this blog a while back was a huge decision for me as I am generally a very private and guarded person. Being open online is difficult, and while I think I've developed a thick enough skin to handle any potential criticism, particularly after years of online activity, I always knew that I would struggle with the whole being guarded thing. There's nothing necessarily wrong with being careful with what and how much you share except that it can feel almost duplicitous, seeking to always share the good days over the bad ones. Oh, and not to mention that it can get boring really fast. And this sort of ties in to what I wrote in my last post, about reassessing the content of this blog. It was quickly apparent to me that I was being fairly one-sided about my life, not wishing to show any vulnerability, or anything "unpretty" whatsoever. But how is that helpful to anyone? Including myself? Really, I'm most in need of writing when I do feel vulnerable. So what's the point in keeping a blog (not that I've been doing a very good job of it lately) if I can't just let my hair down and tell it like it is. Sure, I've shared a tiny bit of my struggles with health related stuff, but all of that is fairly innocuous. But even with regard to that topic, I've refrained from saying much, not wishing to come off as too fixated on it. My family is of Cuban descent, and there is nary a conversation to be had among us that doesn't expound on a laundry list of ailments. I know that I could do similarly, as the propensity to fly off the handle on all issues related to health is embedded in my DNA. Oh, if only you all knew how much I self censor! I could win an award or something.

Hmmm...this is starting to come off like a "coming out" post, and perhaps it is.

Wait. Does this mean she's going to just blab on and on about aching backs and (insert ailment here)?

No.

It means that I will try to share more of myself. More of my opinions, and thoughts on a number of things, not just homeschool-related, but more general stuff, too. It means that I'll try harder not to skirt around topics that are really very important, and personal to me. I'm thinking that these will primarily be issues of faith, family, education, and societal mores, to name a few. I probably won't get into politics, because I don't feel knowledgeable enough in that area, regardless of my often having fundamental, yet unsophisticated opinions on a number of political issues. But trust me, there will be fluff. Hopefully a lot of it.

I don't do small talk very well, and I feel as if until now, that's exactly what I've been doing here. I have difficulty relating to people if I can't have meaningful conversations with them, and if I can't at least share meaningful posts here, then I have no business blogging at all, you know? It's all about what I share. And it's not always going to be pretty. But sometimes it will be.

This all reminds me of something that happened a few years ago, and I swear it's relevant. Let me 'splain. I was having a particularly bad day. The apartment was a mess, I had at least a half dozen incomplete projects strewn all over the place, we all woke up late and didn't get an early start on school, which made everything else lag behind schedule, including our meals. The sink was packed solid with dishes from the night before because no one stepped up to do them, and I was just exhausted physically and emotionally, even upon just waking up. Then for whatever reason, I chose to just escape and sneak a few minutes on Facebook. Big mistake. A friend had just posted a series of photos of her home. They were gorgeous shots. It looked to me as if you could eat off of her floor, it was so clean. Oh, now I remember, it was one of those "Day in the life" photo streams people would post from time to time, where they would take pictures of what they do on their "typical" day. Well, this typical day was extraordinary, or at least it felt that way to me. It really was. Sure, it also included some mundane stuff, like laundry and errands, but oh, everything was just so beautiful. Even the laundry pile was lovely. (Ours is often spilling out of the hamper, and onto the floor, in a non-lovely way). There was one photo of a huge living room, with a few toys and other children's belongings on the floor, and a caption that read something along the lines of, "Now to clean up this mess!" That's when I turned my attention away from the beauty onscreen and took a gander around my apartment which looked more like a post-apocalyptic scene from some poorly made film. And then it happened. I got depressed. I feel like I have to explain myself here. It's not that I'm not super duper happy for my friend who is decidedly not as clueless as I am when it comes to housework and the like. It's just that noting the contrast at that very moment, when I felt most vulnerable, was just crushing. So, I commented on the picture. "Wow, I'd give anything to have your mess. Want mine?" Then she replied something like, "Well, you should have seen it before!"

Wait. Does this mean that she tidied up before she took the picture, or by "before" did she mean the week before? I didn't pursue it any further, but it left me pondering the possibilities. Suffice it to say that I try to take what I see online with a grain of salt. Perhaps this woman was more like me than I may have realized. We take pictures of pretty things, and quite often choose to remember or relate what is best. Evidence of this is everywhere, what with magazines routinely photoshopping and editing photos to death, thereby creating an unattainable image of what is "generally" considered beautiful. And yes, many of us do the same, albeit on a much smaller scale.

Heck, had I done the whole "day in the life" photo essay, I know for certain I would not have chosen a "bad day." You see, I'm no better! And why is this anyway? I mean, while there would surely be those who'd view the pictures critically, I'm certain there would be just as many others out there like me who would view them and relate.

I consider myself to be an imperfect perfectionist, probably the worst kind of perfectionist there can be, but I hope to be courageous enough to share the good, the bad, and even the ugly with all of you, even when it's hard to do so. And believe me, it is a lot of the time.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Back Again

It wasn't my intention to make this blog completely private (for those of you who may have tried to access it recently). My initial plan was to reassess what I wanted as content, and perhaps redesign the look of it all. I had intended for this blog to be mostly homeschool related, but in looking over my posts, they've been all over the place in content. It's my life, and it's eclectic, and we still homeschool, but it's not all that we do, so I've come to terms with that enough to just let it go. So what should have taken no longer than a few days, turned into a few weeks, but it was all for naught as I never got around to doing what I had wanted to do in the first place. But then I got so distracted with other stuff that I never got to do any of the above.

What I did manage to do however, was spend a lot of time with my family over the Christmas holiday. My husband took off a nice chunk of time from work, and while it was crazy for the first few days (days just before and after Christmas), the subsequent days were heavenly, with time spent just lounging around, playing boardgames, video games, watching films, chatting, and just generally enjoying each other's company. A large amount of time was also spent watching Korean dramas, thanks to my fangirl daughters. I'm such an addict. I've watched four dramas so far, and I have determined that I have no self-control, opting to watch them complete in one or two sittings. Seeing as they're all in Korean with English subtitles, I've decided that I will NOT feel guilty about it as all of those hours would surely just add to our Korean studies. I think I've picked up a whopping 10 or so new words, so it's nothing to write home about, but no matter.

Oh, and can I just say that I suck at coming up with labels to add to my posts? It's my own fault as I still haven't quite figured out to stick to one topic. Well, I'll just have to learn as I go along. For those of you patient enough to come along for the ride, thanks!