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It's been a long primary season so far. Candidates have come and gone, and millions across America remain unsure who to choose. Who can unite such a fragmented country? Who can bring us back together after eight years of trust in the government - not only in the President, but in Congress as well - have slowly been whittled away?
At times like this, America needs someone to look to for guidance. They need a voice they can trust. Someone to tell them who they can believe in. Someone to tell them how they should think. And I, dear readers, am just the person to provide such an announcement.
America needs someone it can trust, after years of general mistrust in our elected officials. We need someone who we can count on to be honest with us. Perhaps more importantly, though, America needs someone who can restore our sense of involvement in government. After all, is this not a government of the people, by the people, and for the people? We need a leader who is not a leader of one party only. America needs someone to unite behind. Someone who can get us excited about an election and the prospect of the future. We need a leader who can restore hope to America. And that candidate, I believe, is none other than Barack Obama.
Obama's message has consistently been one of hope. Critics deride him as a dreamer. Many say his ideals are unrealistic in a world full of negativity and fear. But millions across America believe him. Millions are joining together in an effort to restore a sense of optimism to America, something that has been sorely lacking in this country for too long. An Obama presidency would usher in a new age in American history. Leaders across the globe have expressed excitement at working with a potential President Obama.
I could go on. But I'll leave it at this tasteful logo and my formal endorsement of Barack Obama for the next President of the United States.
Our bathroom drains have been pretty backed up since we moved in, so I decided to take a crack at them. After taking a look inside the pipes, I decided that going in manually wasn't the best course of action. (Suffice it to say, it was pretty gross.) I headed to the store to find a decent clog remover, and stumbled upon this:
It was like manna from heaven. All I had to do was pour it down the drain, wait fifteen minutes, and voila! Clear pipes! And only five dollars! It was like pouring nightmares down the tubes!
Here's what people like me are saying about Liquid-Plumr Foaming Pipe Snake:
IT'S SIMPLY UNBELIEVABLE!!!!
Since my birthday a few weeks ago, I've been growing out a beard. I thought it looked pretty cool, but it was driving my nose crazy, so I decided to shave it off on Sunday afternoon. I nearly didn't recognize myself - I looked like a 12-year old without it. Weird.
I would have posted this memorial of my beard yesterday, but somehow, it didn't feel right with the slew of tributes to Gordon B. Hinckley yesterday. Today, the beard can be remembered in its own right.
Two imponderables for the day:
1. For whatever reason, the heat was off in my classroom over the weekend. I came in this morning to find that the temperature was only 47 degrees. That's almost criminal. It's been on for over two hours now, and the temperature is still only 52 degrees.
2. Genuine. and I each got emails this morning informing us that we someone had purchased us something from our Amazon baby registry and that it was on our way.
Neither of us started a baby registry. We're just as surprised as you are.
Friends have been trying to convince me to read the dinosaur comic for some time now, but until today, I've been hesitant.
Until today, that is!!!
Ha! Dinosaurs! And they talk!
Last November, some friends and I hosted the first Tournament of Champions. 64 names were submitted, including historical figures, contemporaries, and fictional characters. We created a bracket and had them square off in a series of deathmatches. We voted on who we thought was best equipped to win the fight and had them advance accordingly. We also posted a large version of the bracket on our front door.
It turned out to be far more popular than we could have dreamed.
People would walk by the front door shouting things like, "Yoda over Treebeard?! Are you kidding me?" Dozens of people asked if they could be judges for the next tournament. Dozens more offered suggestions for future participants in the tournament. In an effort to accommodate as many people as we could, we hosted the new tournament online, with a feature to allow for internet voting.
It turned out to be far more popular than we could have dreamed.
Registration is open to anyone who wants to take the time to sign up with the website. Just visit http://76.8.209.135/tournament/ and create a username and you're set to go. Even though the internet vote only counts as one of nine total votes, it's already had a huge impact on the results. Your vote matters here. Do you think that Ungoliant from The Simarillion could defeat the Big Boo from the Mario series? What about Mr. Rogers against the Thing? Sign up and make a difference.
Last year's finals pitted The Tick against the Balrog of Moria. This year promises to be just as exciting. Come and be a part of history!
It's safe to say that this is easily the worst I've ever felt after finishing a day of school. The students in my fourth period class weren't mean like my English classes were, but just rude. Every time I started talking, they just started talking right along. Even when I stopped the class to tell them to quit it already, they would keep talking while I was telling them to shut up. I felt like I was being ignored entirely and treated as less than a human. It hurt, and when I stopped the class at the very end it took just about everything I had not to just sit down and cry. (I haven't cried since eighth grade. That was nearly eleven years ago.) My head hurts, my heart aches, my stomach feels like it wants to crawl up through my throat, I'm exhausted, and Pandora playing Doves at me isn't helping any. I felt completely miserable. (notice the lack of parallel structure there! different tenses! conflict! can we expect resolution? yes!)
And yet (see! resolution!), when one of my students from an earlier class came in to ask about a problem with his grade, not only was I helpful and friendly, but I sincerely wanted to help him out. All of the earlier insanity was completely forgotten. I wanted to do anything I could for him.
As insane and emotionally masochistic as this career seems on the surface, it's the right place for me. One way or another, that keeps being confirmed for me.
I had a dream last night in which I was reading my news magazines online in the morning to find that Barack Obama died of a massive heart attack during the night. The news came as a shock and devastating blow to me. I tried to convince myself that I was only dreaming, and even managed to wake up in the dream, only to find that I wasn't dreaming. It had actually happened.
Needless to say, I read my news magazines extra close this morning to make sure Obama was still alive. It had a bigger effect on me than I would have imagined. Suppose it's safe to say that I'm an Obama man.
My English 10 classes are working on personal narratives right now, so as a warmup today, I had them free write on their experiences with the "other sub" that they've had for the last couple of weeks. Most of them had pretty negative experiences (students, as a rule, tend not to like subs), so it made for pretty entertaining reading. I'll reproduce my favorite one here.
Having a sub was really not fun. Although, then we had a lot of free time. It was cool not haveing to do much of anything. But with a sub I learned little to nothing. So that was a down-side. Especially the old lady. She was old. And a lady. And boring. Why was old lady boring? Cause she was old. And a lady. Lady is the first word in Lady bug. Those are red. Red like roses. People give roses for dances. I like dancing. Especially when people break dance. Thats so cool. And they always have some cracker getting showed up. Like on this one movie. Hoo-rah. It was cool. Cool like ice cream. "You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream." I like that saying. Screaming is what they use at emo music. Emos are lame. Lame like crackers. My friend thinks crackers and ranch are good. But its not.
I would have laughed out loud if I weren't sitting in the computer lab with them. I like these kids.
How the NFL playoffs might have turned out if they were governed by the BCS, the oft-maligned system that determines the matchups in college bowl games:
BCS National Championship: #1 New England (16-0) vs. #2 Green Bay (13-3)
Rose Bowl: #6 San Diego (11-5) vs. #3 Indianapolis (13-3)
Sugar Bowl: #12 Tampa Bay (9-7) vs. #7 Seattle (10-6)
Fiesta Bowl: #4 Dallas (13-3) vs. #5 Jacksonville (11-5)
Orange Bowl: #8 Pittsburgh (10-6) vs. #10 Washington (9-7)
Capitol One Bowl: #9 New York (10-6) vs. #13 Cleveland (10-6)
Cotton Bowl: #11 Tennessee (10-6) vs. #15 Minnesota (8-8)
Gator Bowl: #14 Philadelphia (8-8) vs. #17 Arizona (8-8)
Outback Bowl: #16 Houston (8-8) vs. #19 Buffalo (8-8)
Chick-Fil-A Bowl: #20 Chicago (7-9) vs. #21 Denver (7-9)
Sun Bowl: #22 Cincinnatti (7-9) vs. #23 Carolina (7-9)
Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl: #18 New Orleans (7-9) vs. #24 Detroit (7-9)
Ground rules - a team needs at least seven wins to qualify for a bowl. I would have cut it off at eight, but there were enough deserving teams with only seven wins that I let them in, too. Division champions received automatic bids to BCS bowls. Rankings were taken from ESPN.com, with the exception of Green Bay, whose ranking rose from fifth to second (just like LSU!) so they could play in the title game. Following are reasons why, all of which line up with BCS policy:
1. No rematches in the title game. (disqualifies #2 Indianapolis and #3 Dallas, both of whom lost to New England)
2. No two teams from the same conference can play each other in the title game. (disqualifies #4 Jacksonville)
Thus, #5 Green Bay jumps three spots to #2 and the right to face New England in the BCS title game. I'll spare you my predictions for the outcomes of all of the games, but suffice it to say that New England is the national champion, but that by far the most compelling game would be the Fiesta Bowl, with the Rose and Cotton Bowls just behind it. (High on the list of boring bowl games: the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl.)
Yup, I got married over the holidays. Pictures to come once we get good ones. These will be notable, inasmuch as they will be the first pictures of me including my face on this blog. Heady stuff.
To tide you over in the meantime, I'll provide you with a review of our honeymoon (with gory and intimate details removed, don't worry). Ratings out of a possible five stars.
The hotel in Portland. My parents put us up at the Westin Hotel in Portland, which was pretty ritzy. The bed had a layer of down on the top which would have made for a wonderful night's sleep, had either of us been able to get any rest. (CENSOR'S NOTE: OPTIMISTIC. IS NOT REFERRING TO ANY SEXUAL EXPLOITS. NEITHER HE NOR GENUINE DRAFT. WERE ABLE TO FALL ASLEEP THAT FIRST NIGHT DUE TO THE LATENT STRESS OF THE ORDEAL OF THE DAY. HONESTLY, YOU PEOPLE.) They even had complimentary bathrobes which would have been wonderful, had either of us noticed they were there until just before we checked out. (Four and a half stars)
The train up to Seattle. We took the AmTrak Cascades route from Portland to Seattle for about $20 a seat. At that rate, it's cheaper than flying or driving, and the train was a pretty enjoyable experience. Tons of leg room, and you don't even have to wear a seat belt. Plus, the absence of a vomit bag in front of you is a promising indication for what sort of ride you can expect. (Four stars)
The hotel in Seattle. We stayed at the Ramada Inn Downtown, which I found through Travelocity. The hotel room looked pretty nice online, and seemed pretty nice once I got in. It certainly wasn't the Westin (which was not only a few blocks from us, but also served as the iconic cover art for Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot), but it was nice enough. The only downsides were that the cleaning fairies came by a little too early most days (we learned to have that "Do Not Disturb" sign out the night before) and that the complimentary copy of USA Today was not delivered to our door, as promised, but rather available for pickup at the front desk.
The carpets were very nice, though. (Four stars)
The Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum. The EMP, primarily funded by billionaire Paul Allen, is a museum dedicated to rock music and seems to feature mostly Jimi Hendrix. It's cool for a bit, but after seeing the same images, it gets tiresome quickly. The Sound Lab upstairs is fun, as it gives you the chance to play around on instruments yourself, but the exhibit is so popular that if you don't have fifteen minutes to wait for a booth, you won't get a chance to play with anything. Probably the best part of the EMP was Revolutions, a restaurant that featured very good food and several Nirvana music videos. (Four stars, but only two without the restaurant)
The attached Science Fiction Museum, however, was pretty cool. The exhibits were extremely entertaining, featuring things as varied as a model of the Death Star to blown-glass spaceships to a display case of weapons from movies. More than once, Genuine. lamented the fact that we couldn't bring a camera into the museum. Also, the monorail goes right past the front gate. (Four and a half stars)
Pike Place Market. An open-air market on the waterfront of Puget Sound, Pike Place has an eclectic mix of novelty stores, cafes, and fish that is a must-see for anyone visiting the city. One market features employees throwing fish to each other across the display case that always attracts a crowd. If you're a bargain hunter, there are tons of shops that you should check out. Since neither of us are, particularly, we called it a day after finding the Daily Dozen, a small donut shop that might be the best-kept secret of the whole place. (Three stars)
Fun Forest. A small arcade and amusement park just below the Space Needle. We came here the night of New Year's Eve looking to pass the time until midnight. It wasn't anything special - you might have found a place like this in hundreds of cities. But riding the Ferris wheel, snagging crappy stuffed animals out of a crane game, and braving what may have been the world's smallest roller coaster six times was way more fun than I, at least, expected. This could have been the highlight of the whole trip. (Five stars)
The Seattle Children's Museum. Both Genuine. and I have fond memories of visiting Children's Museums when we were young and making giant bubbles, climbing walls, and the like. When we saw one in Seattle, we both leaped at the chance to go. However, the lady at admissions said we could only get in if we had a child inside. Denied. She took a picture of me frowning and looking furious at the entrance. (Zero stars)
The Space Needle. 500 feet tall and overlooking the city, perhaps only Starbucks is a more widely-known symbol of Seattle. However, at $16 a person to ride the elevator to the top and a whopping $45 a person to eat at the revolving restaurant, we ultimately declined to visit it. We got some pretty cool pictures, though. (Two stars)
The Pacific Science Center. Another fun science museum that has entertaining and interactive exhibits, just like the ones you visited as a kid. We visited the planetarium, though we were so tired that we both fell asleep. This would have been a lot more fun if we'd visited it on the first day we were there; by the time we made it, we were both so exhausted from walking around the city for days that it was just tiring. (Three and a half stars)
The ABC Family Channel. When we were tired from walking around all day, we would usually head back to our hotel, crawl under the covers, and turn on the TV. We probably watched four movies and as many episodes of Monk while we were in town. Not something I would have enjoyed normally, but we were so tired and punchy that we ended up giggling and making bizarre jokes for most of the time. It ended up being a lot of fun. (Four stars)
The University of Washington. An amazing campus. This place has buildings that look like gothic cathedrals. Coming from a school whose buildings are intended to be primarily functional, seeing some mostly aesthetic buildings was a treat. It's probably not somewhere I'd ever like to go permanently (Tolkien Boy, our guide, said that most of his tuition probably went toward architecture), but it was really cool to visit. (Four stars)
Freemont. Seattle's token quirky neighborhood. Freemont features a sculpture of a troll under a bridge devouring a VW Beetle, which was fun. Genuine. even found a hobo sleeping behind the head and took a picture of him. The world's largest stature of Vladimir Lenin outside of Russia can also be found in Freemont. It was fun to see them, but after that, we couldn't find much else to do. Maybe just look at pictures. (Two and a half stars)
I'd give the whole experience somewhere around three and a half to four stars. It was great getting to spend a week together, but so much walking had us exhausted. Still, the city comes recommended. Also, the marrying. That's been fun, too.
O holy night!The stars are brightly shiningIt is the night of our dear Savior's birth.Long lay the world in sin and ever pining'Til He appeared and the soul felt its worth.A thrill of hope; the weary soul rejoicesFor yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.Fall on your knees!O hear the angel voices!O night divine!O night when Christ was born!O night divine!O night, O night divine!Truly He taught us to love one another.His law is love and His gospel is peace.Change shall He bring, for the slave is our brotherAnd in His name all oppression shall cease.Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus risingLet all within us praise His holy name.Fall on your knees!O hear the angel voices!O night divine!O night when Christ was born!O night divine!O night, O night divine!Just a short reminder what the season is about. Merry Christmas, everyone.
It's nearly the end of the year, which means it's time for lists of the top whatevers of the year to come out. I put together a list of my CDs of the year last December, and I was pretty pleased with the results. So now, while my Japanese 1 students make posters for another hour, I give you the five CDs of 2007 that you really ought to have been listening to.
Even with a new Radiohead album, I don't feel like there was any one standout album that demands to be made the album of the year. I'll list my five CDs in alphabetical order this year instead.
1. Armchair Apocrypha, Andrew Bird. This CD came out in March, during Lent, so I missed it and all of its hype at first. I bought the CD and set it aside while I fulfilled my Lenten vow, only to find that I didn't like it quite as much as I thought I might. (This shouldn't be a surprise to me, since I didn't particularly like The Mysterious Production of Eggs at first, either.) Genuine and I took in a concert of Bird's in May, and while it was fun, we just weren't that familiar with his new album. The more I listen to it, though, the more I really like it. While most albums I really enjoy have two or three standout songs and several good ones, Armchair has, by my count, six standout songs. I like "Fiery Crash" enough to have it on the mix playing at our wedding reception, and I've liked "Heretics" since I downloaded it from Bird's website before the official release of the album. "Dark Matter" is the rocker of the bunch, showing that Bird can cut loose, while "Scythian Empires" is the surprisingly beautiful and gentle song at the end. (It occupies the same spot on Armchair that "MX Missiles" occupies on Eggs.) While Armchair isn't Bird's best album, it is a very good album, and the logical progression from Eggs. It shows him growing up just a little bit, and if growing up means he produces more music like this, I say that's just fine.
2. In Rainbows, Radiohead. I've reviewed this once in depth and once in passing already on this blog, but I'll write a little more with the benefit of hindsight. I think so much emphasis was placed on Radiohead's innovative distribution model (you can have it for whatever price you want!) that the music sort of became lost in the shuffle. And it's amazing music. Radiohead has focused for years on being the most avant-garde and cutting-edge band that their music, while both avant-garde and cutting-edge, suffered a bit. (Don't get me wrong - I adore Kid A.) With In Rainbows, it sounds like the band, for the first time in ages, are actually enjoying themselves. The subtle back and forth action of the band playing off of each other is back, something that we haven't seen since the days of OK Computer. "15 Step" at first sounds like the album will be more of the electronica that has dominated the last three records, but once it breaks into something that's almost soul, you can see the band is headed somewhere new. "Arpeggi/Weird Fishes" has a beautiful cascading guitar part that sucks you right in. "Reckoner" does the same thing with both Ed O'Brien's guitar and Phil Selway's drums. And "Faust ARP," a sort of version of "Blackbird" for the millennial generation, brings back images of "Exit Music (for a film)". It feels like the band is relaxed for the first time in years. Ironic that once they stop trying to make the best album in history, they succeed in making something tremendous.
3. Neon Bible, Arcade Fire. This is another album that I missed during Lent. Right from the get-go, you can tell the album is much darker than its predecessor, Funeral. "Black Mirror," the leadoff track, has dark, brooding guitars that draw you in. Really, the only way into Neon Bible is through "Black Mirror" - the bright, optimistic spots on the record don't have the same impact unless contrasted with that dark opening. "Intervention" is clearly the highlight of the record, with its impressive pipe organ and the soaring voice of Win Butler shouting lyrics like "Who's going to reset the bone?" Yet the climax of the album, in my mind, comes at two points - once during sinister bass strum and delicate bells of "Black Wave/Bad Vibrations" ("eating from the ghetto on a hundred dollar plate"), and once, more impressively, during "No Cars Go," in which the band pulls out all the stops for their finale. There are a lot of stops, too - with eight regular members, there's a lot of sound to play with. Neon Bible takes some work to warm up to, but, given time, it's worth the wait.
4. Sound of Silver, LCD Soundsystem. I initially only bought this album so I could be ready for the joint Arcade Fire-LCD Soundsystem concert Genuine and I went to this September. I'm really glad I did, since it's fantastic. James Murphy delivered on his first album, but on Sound of Silver, he ups the ante. Each song is built around one set of beats, slowly assembling itself into a full-fledged dance tune by the end. That's just like his first album, except that on this album, he seems to be focused on making his songs more polished rather than just loud and fast. He also sounds like he's having fun, too - "North American Scum" is, by any account, the funniest song of 2007 ("And to all of you who still think we're from England/We're like, no"). Even if you aren't a huge fan of dance, this is still worth checking out. The beats are infectious enough to get even the most reluctant listener tapping their toes.
5. The Stage Names, Okkervil River. This was probably one of the most anticipated albums of the year until October, when In Rainbows dropped. Okkervil River take a step back from their brooding, melancholy music of the last few years to release something a bit happier. "Our Life is a Movie, Or Maybe" shows that the band are ready to start playing songs in a major key, and without any mournful lyrics, either. Their penchant for well-researched, hyperliterate songs hasn't abated, though. "Savannah Smiles" is about the death by suicide of Shannon Michelle Wilsey (better known as the porn star Savannah) in 1994. The soft ballad is kinder than you might expect from an egotistical porn star, but the tenderness in the song is deeply touching. "Plus Ones" comes in as the runner up to "North American Scum" for funniest song of 2007. Will Sheff put together a list of numerical references in famous songs and added one to each of them. Lyrics like "no one wants to hear about your 97th tear" are both clever and funny, each building on the last. And yet, it's more than just lyrics. Okkervil River make beautiful music, and this record is probably their most approachable one yet.
It's long, but those are my reviews of the five best albums of the year. And with Christmas coming up, these are great ideas for gifts, if you're looking for something to get someone. (Not me, though. I already own all five of these.) Honorable mention goes to Beirut's The Flying Club Cup and Spoon's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, both of which probably would have ended up on this list if I'd heard anything from them.
Happy 2007, everyone. Here's hoping 2008 is as rewarding, musically.
One of my kids in class today, in speaking to another student, said, "My dad can beat up your dad."
Which made me think of this:
Fun fact: While helping Genuine Draft carry some boxes home from work so we could pack up our belongings, I earned a gigantic (cf. huge, freakin' enormous) paper cut on the tip of my thumb.
Additional fun fact: If you pour hot water over a paper cut, perhaps while washing your hands, it hurts like a mother.
During my Japanese 2 class, I had my students memorize a dialog and present it to the class. Three students approached me and asked if they could work in a group of three to memorize it. I would have protested, but they were all good, hardworking students, so I let them go ahead, even though the dialog only had two parts (thus, a dialog). I stopped by as I was walking around the class, helping everyone out, and asked how they were doing. The boy in the group (who was working with two girls) simply said, "This threesome is working out great."
He didn't even intend any innuendo. No one giggled or said anything inappropriate. I'm so used to hearing kids search for any trace of entendre in everything they say that it caught me off guard a little. Way to go.
The Christmas season is upon us, and I've actually been listening to Christmas music this year. I normally make a point of not listening to Christmas carols, if only because the type you tend to hear are songs like "Feliz Navidad" and Paul McCartney's truly horrid "Wonderful Christmas." I really like Christmas hymns ("The First Noel" especially so), but I have a hard time listening to schmaltz in any form. Last year, however, I managed to pick up a copy of Sufjan Stevens' fantastic Songs for Christmas (which I had as my fifth-best album of 2006), and I've been listening to it to and from work. Stevens writes some really solid music, and though this is mostly gimmicky, it's still really good. He has a balance of traditional hymns ("Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" makes an appearance) with his own originals ("Hey Everybody, It's Christmas Time!"). It makes for a pleasant, soothing commute.
Listening to Stevens' music, though, has had an effect that I did not anticipate. For the first time in quite a while, I find my thoughts centered on Jesus Christ during the season of the holiday commemorating His birth. In recent years, I've been so wrapped up in school and other things that that true spirit of Christmas has fallen by the wayside. This year, it's almost hard not to think of the Savior, though. How can I not when I'm listening to songs like "Little Drummer Boy" and "Once in Royal David's City"? What might be even stranger, though, is that the primarily Protestant doctrines mentioned in the songs ("God in three persons, blessed Trinity," for example) is strengthening my faith in my own decidedly not Protestant church. If anything, I've heard the contrasts more clearly than I would have normally.
It's a really good set of songs, dear readers. You'd do well to pick it up, or at the very least listen to the streaming audio he's made available on his website. It's good for the soul.
I taught a killer lesson today in my English class. Teaching English has been really difficult, since it's nowhere near my area of expertise. I know a little bit about the books in question (The Scarlet Letter and The Chosen, for eleventh and tenth grades, respectively), but that's as far as my formal training has gone. I really don't know much beyond the plot. I don't know which symbols to develop or what quotes to build on. That said, I talked about the latent hypocrisy in the society in The Scarlet Letter and compared it to high school. The kids spent the first hour of class talking about what horrible people the characters in the book were, but when I pointed out that it's actually not all that different than their own society, everyone got really quiet. The looks on their faces told me that they understood what point I was driving at. I doubt it's anything that they're going to keep with them long-term (I wouldn't be surprised if some of them are currently being judgmental in passing period), but at the very least, they know that I have some relevant points to make, and that I'm worth listening to. I love knowing that I've made a difference, if only a small one. This is why I got into teaching in the first place.
Two little things that probably aren't worth a post of their own now. I'm also pleased with my outfit choice today. It's not especially snazzy or anything, but I really feel like a teacher wearing this. All I need is a nametag of my own and I'd be set. That, and when I got into my car this morning, the odometer read 66666. It's the little things, you know?
It's been a little while since I've been in the high school environment, so I'd forgotten some of the quirks of the scene. Notable among them is the vocabulary. Political correctness has driven the word "gay" out of the common parlance nearly everywhere except for high schools, where it can mean just about anything you want it to. Among the probably hundred or so times I've heard the word this week were the following:
"The Scarlet Letter is so gay." (Oh, the irony that a book written about heterosexual adultery would be called gay.)
"Look at the gay hats those Jews are wearing!" (Perhaps they meant goy?)
"What a gay class this is."
"Dude, that's so lesbian."
It's already to the point where I had to be very careful telling a girl in my Japanese class the word for "art" when she asked me. (It's geijutsu, incidentally, with the gei pronounced just like you might think.)
Also notable is a complete inability to think outside the box. I like these kids, most of them, but I'm consistently surprised that they can't (or won't, I'm not sure which) infer anything from my assignments other than exactly what I'm saying. An example: today, I gave my Japanese 1 students some sentences to translate. We were learning how to use negatives, and so I gave them a list of questions to respond to in the negative. (Pardon me, but are you Takeshi? No, I am not Takeshi. And so on.) One of the questions asked if the students were seventeen years old. One student raised his hand and asked what he should do if he were seventeen. I assumed he was kidding at first, but he seemed very earnest. I told him to go ahead and lie, though I felt a little guilty about it.
I'd also forgotten how rude and disrespectful students can be. Several of them actually did dances of joy when I told them I was replacing their regular teacher, expressing the depths of their hatred for her. This lady is a perfectly normal person, having done nothing to deserve any of the treatment she was receiving. I've had my fair share of it as well, hearing students yell out in class how gay the lessons are (see above) and about how pointless the assignments are. Does no one teach these people that saying things like that is rude and unacceptable in general society? Or do I just not count as a person because I'm a teacher and not a friend?
This is what inspired my previous post about jerkhood, incidentally. And yes, Mozilla Firefox, I know that "jerkhood" isn't a word recognized by your dictionary. You get to deal with it.
I also routinely get to pick up shredded pieces of paper that students destroy and leave all over my floor. I enjoy ripping things up as much as the next person, but I've never felt it appropriate to destroy things a teacher handed out and leave them all over the floor. Maybe that should have gone in the rude paragraph.
At any rate, I still really enjoy the experience, despite everything I've said above. I throughly enjoy teaching. It's just that I'd forgotten what it was like to be in a high school. Welcome back, I suppose.
I was offered a position as a long-term substitute teacher, and while it's not the permanent position I was looking for, it's a start, so I took it. I started teaching yesterday, and I remember why it was that I wanted to be a teacher in the first place. I love being able to correctly explain new ideas to kids, be a positive role model for them, and I especially love seeing the look of dawning comprehension when someone finally gets a particularly difficult concept. It's terribly rewarding, even if they pay isn't. (cliche!)
What I'd forgotten is that for each of those satisfying moments, there are five or six annoying ones to deal with. My last class today had one student in particular who seemed like she had made it her personal mission to be as obnoxious as possible. She got to me at first, but I trained myself to tune her out by the end of the period. It got me thinking, though. Many of my classes have annoying students like that. That's something that you come to expect as a teacher. The average classroom is probably an average cross-section of people I'm likely to meet in life; attendance is compulsory, at least at this stage. So if one in every twenty or thirty students in each class is obnoxious, it stands to reason that one in every twenty or thirty people I meet in life are going to be obnoxious, too.
As many of five percent of the people I run into are going to be complete jerks, and there's not a whole lot I can do about it. That's a sobering thought. I always just assumed that people who were jerks in high school would just grow out of it, but the more of the real world I see, the less I'm inclined to think so.
Thoughts and musings:
I took a call at work last night that really got me worked up. It's not even that this woman was doing anything particularly frustrating. She was standing somewhere that was noisy, and instead of moving somewhere quieter, she just kept asking me to speak up. By the end of the conversation, I was near shouting, and to a point where everyone else in the building could hear me. (It's a big building.) I drove home still steaming from the conversation. I was irritated, and I felt pretty justified in being irritated. And then, after about half an hour of letting myself be irritated, I realized that someone perfect - someone like the Savior - wouldn't have let something like that get to them. And that I'm just not perfect yet. That's not a bad thing, since I am, after all, human, but it reminded me - quite forcibly - just how far I have to go. It's a good thing I have a lifetime and more to work on it.
Sometimes, I put on a CD that I haven't listened to in a while and wonder how I ever forgot about it. Listening to The Crane Wife today brought me back. I could listen to "The Island" forever.
I had a dream a couple of nights ago that I watched Louis Armstrong leap across a parking lot, suddenly bound a few stories into the air, and then crash into the pavement, dying instantly. It came as a shock to the nation, especially since they had found out earlier that day that Marilyn Monroe had also died - and it all coincided with the end of Survivor: Canada. It was all too much for America to bear. I walked past a traffic sign consoling a grieving and wounded nation. Dreams are weird sometimes.
The invitations are finally printed and done. That's about the last thing to take care of before the wedding. I hope.
Sometimes I think about just packing in the blog for good. I still like writing and all, but sometimes it's hard to come up with clever ideas. They just don't hit me as often or as powerfully anymore. Maybe I'm just in a down phase.
I'd really like some Goldfish crackers right about now.
I started reading an Orson Scott Card book that wasn't Ender's Game or Ender's Shadow at the behest of a co-worker last week. I've read several more in the meantime. Man, they're pretty good. I wish I'd known about them earlier.
I still worry that some sort of demon will reach out from under my bed and devour me at night when all the lights are off. I'm usually safe once I'm off the floor, but not always. You're never too old to be afraid of the dark.
