Storytime: Anthony’s First Day at Kindergarten

In this post, I retell a story of when I was in kindergarten and told my teacher I was named Anthony. 

On the first day of school in kindergarten. 

My teacher, Mrs. Rousell, does the roll call. “Susie, Anthony.” And, of course, my first name is Anthony, but I’ve always gone by Greig. So in a split second, I say, “Yeah, my name is Anthony. Don’t call me Greig.” So the rest of that week, the teacher says, “One plus one, Anthony, what’s one plus one?” I’m like looking around the room. Is she talking to me? I don’t answer her.

And then later on in the day, “Where’s your mat? Anthony, go get your mat for nap time.” I’m like, “What?! Is she talking to me?” I mean, this goes on for the entire week, and finally, on Friday, my mother comes barging into my room. 

“Anthony!”

I got in so much trouble, honey. Yes! My mama was like, “Why do you call that teacher and tell her that your name is Anthony? She says you have a hearing problem. Don’t you know that your ‘Greig’”? I mean, come on.

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Video Repost: 2020 Global Teacher Award for the World's Best Teacher is . . . .

In this video repost, I write about Ranjitsing Disale, an Indian teacher who won the one million dollar 2020 Global Teacher prize for being the world's best teacher.

1. Ranjitsinh Disale is a primary school teacher from the village of Paritewadi in Maharashtra, India.

2. He was awarded the 2020 Global Teacher Prize for his commitment to transforming girls' education and harnessing technology to empower communities.

3. In 2010, he became the first teacher in his village to introduce QR-coded textbooks, which gave access to audio-visual content on smartphones

4. He has also been credited with helping increase girl enrolment at his school from 25% to 84%.

5. In 2021, he received the Padma Shri award by the Government of India — one of the highest civilian awards given by the Indian government, acknowledging distinguished service of high order!

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Video Repost: Teen Entrepreneurs Start Their Own Trash Bin Cleaning Service Called The Wash Broz

In this post, I advertise two teen entrepreneurs willing to be hired to wash your dirty trash bins to make them sparkle.

Two Dallas, Texas teens offer a unique and exciting service — cleaning your trash bins! They use the latest products and techniques to ensure that all of your bins sparkle. Contact them today at 972-674-0043 and follow their progress on Instagram @washbroz. Let these two entrepreneurs take care of your bin cleaning needs, so you don't have to!

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Video Credit: @washbroz

Video: How To Make Potato Salad The Way My Mother Taught Me

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In this video, I demonstrate how to make potato salad the same way my mother taught me. You're gonna need mayonnaise, whole potatoes, boiled eggs, ground black pepper, celery, mayonnaise, a little mustard for tang, and bacon (pickle bits are optional). . . . . #checkoutmypotatosalad #already #cookinginthekitchen #boiledeggs #love #Cookinglesson #wakeup #potatosalad #sanfrancisco #mothersrecipe via stonesoferasmus.com

A post shared by Greig Roselli (@greigroselli) on Apr 21, 2020 at 4:01pm PDT

First Steps To Make Potato Salad
Good morning, today I am going to show you how to make my famous potato salad. You're gonna want to cut up some green onions, real good. And you're gonna need a jar or two of mayonnaise. I like to boil my eggs first. When you're boiling your eggs one nice tip is to take the eggs out on a spoon and if the water evaporates then the egg is ready. Similarly, with my potatoes, I boil "em for twenty to twenty-five minutes.

Cutting Up All My Ingredients
In the meantime, I am cutting up my green onions — I love the ones with the bulbs at the end. They are so delicious. A good potato salad has celery. Celery is going to give your potato salad some texture — something to chew on and it just tastes good. Going back to my potatoes — that takes the longest time. I keep the skins on 'em. Because I like to eat the skins. But after you boil 'em, if you want, you can take the skins off. It's up to you. Look at that boil. My favorite part is deshelling my hard-boiled eggs. I'm pretty good at it. And you'll get the hang of it too. Today, I bought some brown eggs but any eggs will suffice. Quick fact: eggs are an alchemist's dream in the kitchen. Eggs are perfect for any meal. Ohhh. Just look at that white orb of deliciousness. Cannot wait to cut you up and put you in my salad, honey.

Pot-'O-Potatoes
Alright. Those potatoes are ready. * To show you I got some turkey bacon but really any hog bacon will work just as fine. I guess I'm feeling a little health-conscious. So I bought some turkey bacon. And I fry that up in some olive oil. Crispy-like. You want to make that stuff crunchy. Cuz when you put it in your potato salad — Mmmmm — it's going to give it that — Ohhhhhhhhh — nice, fatty taste that you love. We don't call it comfort food for nothing.

Masher-cize
And here's where the elbow grease comes in. You're going to have to mash those potatoes. I got myself a masher. I don't know if it's ready for potatoes. But it works. Mash those potatoes good. Cut 'em up. Now. If you are like me you don't want your potatoes too mashed. You want to keep some chunk in there. Now when I'm getting ready to mix everything up I do add a little bit of mustard. It tastes good. You don't want to put too much mustard in it. And you're going to mix that mayonnaise inside and you're going to mash it all up. You're going to put your eggs in there. You're going to put your celery in the bowl.

Finishing Touches
Now, you don't want to leave out an important ingredient — black pepper. Not too much. But enough to make it taste good. And there you have it. My momma's favorite potato salad recipe served at your doorstep. Well just kidding. You'll have to make it yourself. But I think I have enough comfort food to last me a month. So let me know if you try out my potato salad recipe and how it works out for you. I'm going to eat this up, honey. Yes!

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Video: What You Ought To Think When You See a Person Wearing a Surgical Mask

In this post, I share a video I made about putting a stop to micro-aggressions against people - especially Asians - who wear surgical masks in public.

A mask is not an invitation to hate. A mask protects. So should you. 

The Recent Human Coronavirus Outbreak

I teach Mandarin-speaking high school students. Conversation about the recent spread of the human coronavirus has sparked meaningful conversation in class. One question that keeps popping up is “Why are folks hating on Asians”? While understanding that any virus’s outbreak is a source of concern, we ought to learn from history that fear of illness is often used to cover up deep-seated xenophobia and fear of others (especially when the “other” does not think, talk, look, or act like “me”.

Latitude for Micro-Aggression? Often. And in many cases. Yes.

My friends, one co-worker, and an acquaintance have reported to me micro-aggressions levied against them for wearing a face mask in public. Some people might see a mask and think fear. Wanna know what I think? I made the following video as my answer.

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Video Lesson #1: How to Gain Fluency in a Language

In this video post, Greig Roselli writes about language fluency and some simple steps you can do to improve language skills.

Fluency Occurs Across a Lifetime

Language learning is a long journey to fluency. In fact, there is no absolute fluency in language learning. Learning is on a continuum. What this means is that we learn at different levels and in different contexts across different aspects of our daily lives. Language is forever warping, shedding, building muscle — expanding and contracting. 

Things You Can Do Today to Improve Fluency

Experts say one has to encounter a word ten times in ten different ways to know it. The best way to improve one's fluency is to encounter the language you want to learn in different modes every day. Read an article. Take a quiz. Listen to a conversation. Ask questions. Make a list of interesting, new words. Take notes on what you read and hear. Write responses to interesting topics. Take a class. Listen to a podcast. Identify words that are similar (but may have different meanings) to one's target language.

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A Moment of Clarity Waiting for the Q66 Bus in Flushing

I don’t like to wait. For buses. For people. Waiting feels like an abuse on my person. But worse than that, waiting exposes the truth of it all - that I’m not important.

     Which is why people who are entitled or privileged scoff at flying coach. One has to wait. So those who can pay the extra cash do so to stave off the notion that they’re insignificant. However, there is something to be said for waiting. I was waiting for the Q66 bus. This New York City bus takes me from Flushing to home via Queen’s Northern Boulevard. Today, I took the bus. I was shepherding a few students of mine back to Jackson Heights. We had spent the day in Flushing to celebrate the Lunar New Year (even though it doesn’t officially begin until Saturday). I teach teenagers who are studying in the United States on F-1 visas. 

      What that means is - among many aspects of the job - that we take trips quite often during the year. This year, we decided to go to a hot pot restaurant that recently opened up in Flushing. Apparently, it’s a popular chain in China. It’s situated on the ground floor of a modern box-y office building. The Mandarin teacher at my school recommended the place; she organized the trip. The dean of the upper school also came with us. He had never eaten at a hot pot restaurant, so we introduced him to duck blood and ponzu sauce.

      After the meal, waiting for the Q66 bus, I noticed the sign of Modell’s Sporting Goods sign flapping in the wind. I don’t like to wait, so I made something aesthetic for the moment. It’s often true that time slows down when waiting. Maybe it was the festive meal we were having. But I felt I was seeing, reaching for, and experiencing beauty all around me. Time goes into slow motion. Flapping of a sign. Red lanterns hanging from the storefront window. Ginseng for sale. The laughter of children. The feel of my wallet as I take it out, searching for a metro card. It’s an ephemeral feeling that lasted long enough to make me feel on par with existence. So I took a few photos. Pictures never capture how I see something with my eyes. The human eye’s depth of vision still exceeds the iPhone camera.

      I like the conversation I hear around me. I even said “Happy New Year” to a gentleman waiting for the bus in Mandarin. He smiles. I think he must be proud of me that I know an appropriate Lunar New Year greeting. We board the bus - the students and I - and I’m pleased by how calm they are; as the bus rocks and sways, gaining speed as it crosses Flushing Bay, the world seems open with possibility, and I remember the morning time. Sitting. Waiting. For the day to begin. And a teenager had said out loud, “I’m bored” - it was that time before classes had begun. That moment of free time terrifies some people because I don’t think everyone learns what exactly to do with themselves.
       It’s a skill. To stave off boredom and do. Something. And I don’t like to wait. That feeling of inactivity. Of time ticking. “Are we back at school? Yet,” asks Neil - who is sitting across from me. Yes. I say. Press the button to alert the driver to stop. “But I’m scared,” he says. I press the button. I get it. He’s afraid to stop the bus. To fling himself into the next thing and the next. I get it. I tell him. And we’re off.

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Watch This Video of a Stray Dog Fed by a Subway Sandwich Employee and Tell Me How It Makes You Feel

Cute Feel-Good-About-Humans-Doing-Good Videos  
I like cute videos. Like this one. I’m happy. When I watch it. I think it’s the expectant face of the dog. They looks so forlorn yet satisfied. A Homo sapiens will feed it. They are sure. And as a watcher on the scene, my tummy is filled by witnessing the showcase of sliced deli meat and tidbits - I’m reminded of a parable. Even the dogs feed from the scraps of the master’s table. And then I’m reminded of a Rembrandt painting hanging in the Hermitage inspired by that same parable - a father’s hand on his beloved son once prodigal.
Maybe it’s because I’ve come to peace with my own need for a father. It’s primal. To want the love of a parent. And at the same time, it’s powerful to exert oneself in the world as a child without the need of one. Father. Mother. Caregiver. Licking one’s wounds grows wearisome. Feeling sorry for oneself is a bit pathetic. That’s why I like the canine in this scene. Not pathetic or stupid. Just expectant. For a bit of meat. Chosen from the master’s table.

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Train Report: Riding the Lake Shore Limited from New York to Cleveland

The Amtrak Station in Cleveland is spartan by design.

Why Take an Amtrak Train?     

    Why take a train when even a car is faster? For me, train travel is the most relaxing way to travel even with possible delays and motion sickness. I like surrendering myself to the massive stretch of rails, freeing myself from the burden of having to operate a vehicle myself. Who wants to drive when I can cozy up with a book in my near-better-than-airline seat (preferably a window).

Riding the Lake Shore Limited

   My last journey took me from New York Pennsylvania Station in midtown Manhattan to the shores of Lake Erie where the city of Cleveland lies amidst the lake and the Cuyahoga River. I had to travel to Ohio for my mother — she’s having surgery at the Cleveland  Clinic. So I took family leave from school to be with her. I left New York on an early Sunday afternoon and arrived in Cleveland in the wee hours of the morning at 3:30 — before the sun had come up. It’s a long stretch — but for those going to the line’s terminus in Chicago, even longer. 

Arriving in Cleveland to See My Mom

   The train station in Cleveland sits between FirstEnergy Stadium and a line of tracks. Mostly freight. So it is not easy to walk to from downtown. It is close to the light rail Waterfront line at West Third Street. The building is utilitarian; there are bathrooms and when Amtrak trains are running there is a station attendant, and you can get automated latte from the coffee vending machine. When I arrived, several Mennonites were waiting for the eastbound train. I took a rest for a few minutes then took a Lyft to the hotel.

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Video Installation: Striking a Pose at the Great Falls in Paterson, New Jersey

Adam Driver plays a bus driver-cum-poet in the movie Paterson 

In this post, I document a recent visit to Paterson, New Jersey to see the Great Falls. 

On the way to our mutual friend's wedding, my friend and I stopped at the Great Falls in Paterson, New Jersey. It is an exciting site because in Paterson (back in the day) engineers (with the support of Alexander Hamilton) discovered a way to harness the sheer power and velocity of the falls by converting moving water into energy using a series of waterways and hydropower. The falls are the second-largest waterfall east of the Mississippi - by volume ( but for me: it is just really relaxing and beautiful). The town of Patterson has a lot of history and impressive architecture - and there is a third reason - Adam Driver - he plays a New Jersey Transit bus driver-turned-poet in the movie Paterson - where in one scene he makes a pit stop at the Falls to conjure up some inspiration. I don't claim to be an Adam Driver; however, I am certainly one to espouse the practice of making art from the everyday details of life.

Where do you go to sit and relax (and perhaps get inspired)? Do you have such a place? Or, do you have to find it?

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Video Installation: Flyover Woodside, Queens (with a Church Steeple and Cross in the Foreground)

I've documented a flyover of a passenger jet gliding over Eastern Queens on its way to Laguardia Airport. It was a bright, semi-cloudy day in Woodside - a quiet neighborhood in Queens. Folks were going to church (as shown in the picture). I took this amateur video on my iPhone and later uploaded it and added a soundtrack.

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Time-Lapse Video: Kids Play at Brant Point Lighthouse

Brant Point Lighthouse
Here's another video of our school group visiting the island of Nantucket for Spring Break. We explored the beach surrounding the Brant Point Lighthouse. We woke up early and hiked to the lighthouse. The weather was fresh and chilly. It's Springtime in Nantucket, Massachusetts. Life is good. Seize the moment. Seize the day. Carpe diem.
Viewing Tip: do you notice the ferry leaving the island? That's the same ferry in the video I posted (see the previous post).

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Time-Lapse Video: The Eagle Departs Nantucket Island En Route for Hyannis

Spring Break with Kids from School
I was with a school group on Spring Break in Nantucket. Here's a short time-lapse video of the ferry leaving the island en route for Hyannis. We were on the Eagle, a sea-faring vessel built in Morgan City, Louisiana. The trip was fun. I liked hanging out with the kids. The weather was chilly and invigorating. I ate lobster. We went on a ghost tour. We ate s'mores. Life can be amazing.
Go Back in Time Two Years Ago
Two years ago, I did a similar trip with our school. Here is the time-lapse video of the ferry once we arrived at Hyannis.

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Video Lesson: The Marshmallow Test

If you are unable to access the Marshmallow Test on YouTube, try this version on Vimeo.

Essential Question:
What does this experiment tell us about success?

Does Delayed Gratification Have a Correlation with Success?
The children who wait - what kind of people are they? The experimenters claim that in a longitudinal study, children who were able to delay their gratification and wait for the adult to return were more likely as adults to complete difficult tasks, manage long-term projects, and were, in general, more successful at life.

What do you think?
If you arrived at this page by using one of my Philosophy in the Classroom task cards, please leave a comment below and tell me your thoughts about this famous experiment.

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Photo: Street Scene from Queens (My Favorite Instagram Pic from 2018)

I took this photo in the Summer of '18 at the Jackson Heights Queens Pride Parade.

So. I went through my Instagram profile and chose this photograph (above) as my favorite from 2018. Since it was Gay Pride Day in Queens on the day I took this picture, I was strutting my stuff on the Avenue taking pictures of anyone who’d say “yes”. I must have taken like thirty photos on my phone. I like this picture because it’s instantly noticeable as a New York scene: notice the “A” Health Inspector sign in the window of the restaurant in the background. If you look closely the boy is wearing a Superman t-shirt - and he serves as the focus of the image. I wonder what he’s eating - crackers or chips? The woman looks happy. And of course - there’s a bunch of people-moving going on. It was a busy day but oddly this photograph marks the day as peaceful and I’m grateful I was able to capture some of it on my digital camera.

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Compare and Contrast: How the Song "Teenage Dirtbag" was made into a Choir Version to Advance a Documentary on Bullying in American Schools

"Teenage Dirtbag"
It's a rather heteronormative narrative - but I have a crush on this song - maybe because the song talks about "getting into tube socks" and references "Iron Maiden" - and its an elegy to unrequited love - with a twist at the end. This is to all the teenage dirtbags out there. Also - Wheatus's song was the song attached to the movie Loser - as you can see by the music video.

A couple of years ago I went to a professional development workshop on peer-to-peer bullying in American schools. The presenters screened the documentary film Bully. The opening song is a choir version of "Teenage Dirtbag". I immediately recognized it and I thought it was an apt song to cover the phenomenon of bullying as it relates to school life.

As a teacher, I often encounter bullying. What pains me the most about bullying is that often the targets of bullying are exceptional children, "the teenage dirtbags" that often go unnoticed.

Choral Version of "Teenage Dirtbag"
Watch the following choir version and hearken to the facts. We can be a voice for those who are tormented because they are gay, queer, brown, different, black, non-gender conforming, or just don't fit in (according to whatever social norms are popular right now). 

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Third Grader Channels Pennywise the Clown at the Annual Halloween Parade in Jackson Heights, Queens

Annual Jackson Heights Halloween Parade
In Jackson Heights, every year on Halloween, the local "Beautification Society" hosts a parade on 37th Avenue. My school participates, so I have, for the last several years, marched in the parade. I love seeing the kids and adults who have lined the street, mostly dressed up and in a spirit of "being costumed." I feel like when kids, especially, wear costumes, it can be a moment to channel creative energy and to pretend to be someone you're not. 
Third Grader Channels Pennywise the Clown
One kid I met on the route was dressed up as Pennywise the Clown — there were several permutations of this character, a malevolent force in Stephen King's novel-made-movie IT. I was struck by this Third-grader wild abandon into the role, like the video, posted below, demonstrates. Happy Halloween!

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What If Life Were Like the City Builder Simulation Video Game Cities Skylines?

I don't consider myself a gamer. However, like many kids who grew up in the 1990s, I did have a major hankering for the Nintendo and Super Nintendo. There was one point in my childhood that I almost edged onto sociopathy when I used my best friend at the time just to go to his house to play video games. I think his parents eventually caught on when they realized that Lance had gone out to play and I was left in his bedroom stomping on those pesky Goomba characters that are Mario's constant annoyance.

I stopped playing Mario and advanced onto city builder games.

One game did stick with me after my Nintendo phase wore off (by the time I was in Sixth or Seventh grade). I started to play Sim City and - at some point - I discovered a game that my brother had installed on his computer - A-Train. My interest in city builders was born. It's not a big surprise that I fell into city builder type of games. I had (and still have) a fond affection for Matchbox cars. And I always liked playing around with maps; and, my older brother liked maps too; I think at one point he and I - in one of our rare bonding moments - worked on a super map of an imaginary city in which we pasted a bunch of white-colored posters together with tape and mapped out our city in number two pencil. It was epic. I think we had a city that was composed of at least twelve or thirteen pieces of poster-sized paper.  

La Grange! Oh, how I loved making this city.

I have played all of the Sim City games. But it wasn't until Cities Skylines came out in 2015 that I really saw the potential of a city builder. What a game. What I like the most about City Skylines is that the gameplay is more dynamic than Sim City. First of all, a player has a much larger cityscape to play with, and the city feels integrated even across multiple districts and distances. One train station built in the northwestern part of the map can affect what happens in the city center. 

And I am always amazed by the simulation. There is a cause and effect reality to Cities Skylines - and most city builders - that make it playable. It almost kind of feels like real life. 

A story of my own Cities Skylines City: La Grange

There is one city I built in Cities Skylines that I am proud of and still play it from time to time. It is a coastal city. I called it La Grange. I have a crappy Mac Mini that is not designed for serious gameplay, so I have to play the game at the lowest graphical level - and I usually try to aim for a city that does not have more than 130,000 people. Of course, I use mods. That's probably the second-best part about Cities Skylines (the first best part is naming everything like you are Adam and Eve in the Garden) - you can access a treasure trove of user-created buildings, roads, and tweaks to the vanilla game. I particularly like using the multiple track enabler mod so I can have subway systems with double, triple, and quadruple tracks. The automatic bulldoze mod is a must because who wants to manually raze every abandoned building; the same goes for the automatic emptying mod (although it is just easier to not have cemeteries and landfills in your city).

Look at those cims scurry to catch the bus!

The third thing I like about Cities Skylines is that it is essentially a traffic simulator game. Everything and everyone has to move around your city. Tiny tweaks in the gameplay can drastically change your cims' movement (N.B.,  In Sim City citizens, are called sims, but if you are playing City Skylines they're called cims. Get it?). For example, I recently moved a bus stop at a bustling intersection and all of a sudden there was a sudden, mass movement of people in the game briskly walking to the next stop.

Traffic is a nightmare - I still can't alleviate the congestion at my airport.

It took me a long time to build a good city. The trick is making a decent transit infrastructure to move cims around the city; that includes subway and bus connections, as well as an integrated interstate highway system. The game has a monorail system that is fun to use, but cims do not like to use it. Trams are great as a replacement for buses that use a heavily traveled route. Cable cars, ferries, and hot air balloons are also an option.

Building a city with districts that have enacted policies unique to their district - no heavy traffic or recycling initiatives - can really change the make-up of gameplay as well.


What if life were like a city builder game?

1. Everyone would go to work, go home, and go to ONE park or commercial zone.
2. Your car would disappear into thin air at random times.
3. The bulldozer would be God. Essentially.
4. It would be like that movie The Truman Show. But with more bulldozers and cims.

The game is connected to loads of assets
you can download for free - many of them made by creative modders.

The developers of this game, Colossal Order, keep coming out with new iterations of the game. The newest one is Park Life - which I really like because it allows you to make a more interactive park system in a city. As with most city builder games, zoning is essential. There are residential, commercial, industrial, and office zones. Zones build up around the road network - but as the city grows and the zones max out along the street grid, there are often pockets of green space that now I can populate with micro parks and whatnot. 

It's funny. My post is becoming an advertisement for a video game. Who knew my blog would boast of such things! I want to wrap up by saying the toys and games we played with as kids do somehow find their way into adult life. I don't have posters scribbled in graphite, but I have a saved game that I love to load up every now and again. So, every city tells a story. I don't play this game every day. I play it as a way to zone out and to relax. It is one activity that I can do where I can empty out work-related stress and just focus on planning my little city of La Grange. I think I need to upgrade my Mac - though - if I want to simulate more cims!

Check out the cityscape of La Grange. Can you spot the arcology?

Another view of La Grange with the city sewer system in the foreground.

It's fun to follow individual cims to see where they go.

Become a hero and put out fires that periodically pop up.
This one looks ominous. Like a throwback to the fires that rained down from Mount Vesuvius back in the day.

I'm obsessed with creating zoos and parks.

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Short Time Lapse Video of the Garbage Train that Runs from Bushwick to Virginia

A CSX garbage train rolls underneath 41st Avenue in the Elmhurst neighborhood of Queens. Waste collected by New York City's Department of Sanitation is picked up by the train in Bushwick, then it wends its way through Middle Village, then into Elmhurst, and in Astoria, it crosses the Hell’s Gate bridge where CSX takes that trash to Virginia - the home of cheaper cigarettes.

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Lorelei from Superman III (1983) Reads Kant's Critque of Pure Reason

Superman III (1983)

You can read the above clip from Superman III as a dumb blonde joke writ large or as an insightful riff on philosophy. I am guessing it is the former rather than the latter. 

Playing the supposed ditzy lover of the film's villain, Lorelei reveals she is a fan of Immanuel Kant's transcendental philosophy - the eighteenth-century European thinker's idea that he could bring together two schools of thought - empiricism and rationalism. At least that's the general idea of the book Lorelei's caught reading — The Critique of Pure Reason.

Lorelei: How can he say that pure categories have no objective meaning in transcendental logic? What about synthetic unity? 

It looks like Lorelei has stumbled upon the truth of transcendental idealism — that things in themselves cannot really be known in of themselves. Or did she?