Cthulu For President!
I'm still hoping that Yog-Sothoth runs as an Indy.
[with a nod to the Contrarian--scroll down his page and see the Sarah Palin at church videos if you want a true fright]
Friday, September 05, 2008
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Bee U T Fied
Yo! Adrienne planted zinneas in the empty tree boxes on Madison Ave and they have really added a spark to the street. I adore having bees and butterflies buzzing around when I leave the house and come home.
pimped-out teaching platform
Sixth graders--even the proto-thuggish wannabe gangsta corner boys--are already pretty darn cute. But make an announcement that B'more City Schools are closing early due to heat and the cuteness becomes darling exuberance. Tiny voices yelling and squealing "hooray" like Peanuts characters? I could hardly bear the joy.
And I shared the joy. It was HOT today. I sweated through my shirt ten minutes before homeroom started. The kids were lethargic and the asthmatics were suffering hard. My over-taxed box fans moved swampy foetid air around a classroom turned terrarium. They made the right call. I didn't have to face my class from hell today, and I had three hours of peace to work on my room, my posters, my grading, and my planning. Nice to leave at 2:30 and actually be kind of caught up!
Administrators came into my room during the quiet and productive morning classes today. They gave me quite positive feedback, saying they liked what I had done with the class from hell yesterday, and complimenting my content knowledge and classroom management skills. They also gave me good news: one of those last-period kids has been upgraded to another special education code which distinguishes him as potentially dangerous. I don't mean of course that it is good news that the kid is in this category, but it means he will get more appropriate services and may actually have a chance of learning something. It also means he will not set off the other troubled kids in my room every two minutes, and it will prevent him from sexually molesting the young ladies in his class, as he has done several times already.
Mr. C checked out my new command console (pictured above). I got an LCD projector and I have the Internet. I have music, I have an overhead, and I use all of them every day. I have a printer/scanner/copier. My kids are engaged with sound, color, art, and motion picture examples every day. Mr. C said "You so pimp!" He's right. Now I need real screens. I'm using the back of a world map and a sheet. Maybe on Donors Choose? For right now I'm waiting their approval of my classroom library request. As soon as it goes live I will link it here for anyone who wants to throw a couple bucks at my youngins.
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Formidable
So Palin's big moment was quite impressive. Yeah, she told some whoppers, like the charge that Obama has never authored any major reform legislation (he wrote the Transparency in Government act with Republican Senator Coburn while Bush and Cheney were hiding documents and deleting emails).
But such fibs are par for the course in any campaign. As political theater I thought it was pretty magnificent. She gives good acid tone. I haven't seen a Republican so capably deliver a speech since...God, it's been so long I can't recall. Gonna be a fun election to watch.
Democrats must remember that they've rarely faced an election they could not lose, even with the odds heavily in their favor. All the nonsensical attacks about Palin playing hoops and giving her kids silly names and her preggers daughter are a giant bear trap The Huffington Post fell right into. Same goes for ridiculing her time as mayor of a tiny town. Lots of salt of the earth in those tiny towns, after all. Go after her on creationism in schools and environmental issues and whatnot. Leave her family alone.
Oh, and note to Palin: You can't be both FOR bringing outside change to DC AND for a guy who's as hooked in as anyone in that town, "maverick" rep or no.
Note to Obama and Biden: Point out that Palin's party just oversaw the greatest expansion of the US federal government in history, and that its intrusions into our lives are well-documented. Attack hard with the facts. The idea that the Republicans will shrink government and curb spending is hilarious.
Day 7
"Be ready. They doin' walk-ins today."
This the rumor running at the Book today. Administrators on the prowl for NCLB bullshit requirements up on your walls and what's in your files 'n shit. Whatever. The administrators looking for this garbage used to be teachers, and they know full well the requirements are fads which change continuously, and they know we know it just as they knew it when they were classroom grunts.
But why did they have to come in during my last period? Mr. H is a 30-year City school vet, and he co-teaches with me that period. Neither of us has had any luck corralling that group. He asked what I wanted to do today and I said: "You take the quiet well-behaved kids who want to learn. I'll make packets and you can teach them in the corner. I'll take the fuck-ups and see what I can do." At least SOME kids learned this way, but about four of the kids were impossible to keep at either group and they roamed around or played with my overhead or fans. The administrators walked in, scowled at me working with a table of 8 lunatics while Mr. H worked with 8 calm kids and 4 were up to who-knows-what. I'm sure I'm getting scolded tomorrow. Don't care. They can come into my first two classes, the ones with 33 and 27 kids, where there are some troubled students with behavior problems, but I am alone and things run smooth as silk. The sixth grade faculty were planning a meeting about that troublesome crew today but the principal announced another last minute required fac meeting so we still haven't gotten together to pool resources. I have spoken to the sixth grade AP. She said "ain't a muthafucka in B'more who can handle that class, don't fret it." Easy for her to say. They are not coming up in her grill with observations and shit.
Worked a 12-hour day yesterday, rushed off to Wendy's and then rehearsal. Hence no blog. Today worked a mere 10 hours. Feels like a vacay.
I will say that the Book is a different joint in many ways. Today was the first time I seen a kid get jacked by 5-0 for putting his hands on another student. Officer W. was all "here your new bracelets jackass. Hope you like juvie!" Shit was daily last year. Nobody is running the halls or causing chaos this year, wherease last year the kids were in charge outside the classrooms, and inside many of them too. Somebody did take out windshields with a steel bat on McCulloh St today; don't know if was students or just the typical hopheads and fiends or bangers. I saw the aftermath on my drive home at 5pm. Hope no teachers got a taste!
This the rumor running at the Book today. Administrators on the prowl for NCLB bullshit requirements up on your walls and what's in your files 'n shit. Whatever. The administrators looking for this garbage used to be teachers, and they know full well the requirements are fads which change continuously, and they know we know it just as they knew it when they were classroom grunts.
But why did they have to come in during my last period? Mr. H is a 30-year City school vet, and he co-teaches with me that period. Neither of us has had any luck corralling that group. He asked what I wanted to do today and I said: "You take the quiet well-behaved kids who want to learn. I'll make packets and you can teach them in the corner. I'll take the fuck-ups and see what I can do." At least SOME kids learned this way, but about four of the kids were impossible to keep at either group and they roamed around or played with my overhead or fans. The administrators walked in, scowled at me working with a table of 8 lunatics while Mr. H worked with 8 calm kids and 4 were up to who-knows-what. I'm sure I'm getting scolded tomorrow. Don't care. They can come into my first two classes, the ones with 33 and 27 kids, where there are some troubled students with behavior problems, but I am alone and things run smooth as silk. The sixth grade faculty were planning a meeting about that troublesome crew today but the principal announced another last minute required fac meeting so we still haven't gotten together to pool resources. I have spoken to the sixth grade AP. She said "ain't a muthafucka in B'more who can handle that class, don't fret it." Easy for her to say. They are not coming up in her grill with observations and shit.
Worked a 12-hour day yesterday, rushed off to Wendy's and then rehearsal. Hence no blog. Today worked a mere 10 hours. Feels like a vacay.
I will say that the Book is a different joint in many ways. Today was the first time I seen a kid get jacked by 5-0 for putting his hands on another student. Officer W. was all "here your new bracelets jackass. Hope you like juvie!" Shit was daily last year. Nobody is running the halls or causing chaos this year, wherease last year the kids were in charge outside the classrooms, and inside many of them too. Somebody did take out windshields with a steel bat on McCulloh St today; don't know if was students or just the typical hopheads and fiends or bangers. I saw the aftermath on my drive home at 5pm. Hope no teachers got a taste!
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
netflixed
A charming little fantasy starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Bob DeNiro. It completely slipped under my radar until Faulty Landscape clued me in. A bit of Terry Gilliam mixed into The Princess Bride. Quite compelling and deliciously silly.
Monday, September 01, 2008
now I'm sad
I wasn't disappointed in the end the way many fans were. I thought its ambiguities and dangling plotlines were appropriate--Baltimore is deeply fucked up, and deserves a show that ends in deeply fucked-up ways. Much more satisfying as a whole than the catastrophic demise of Homicide. That two-hour movie finale was a joke!
I will say I was sad to pop in DVD #4 and find only one episode left. I'd assumed there'd be at least 13 episodes as in the other seasons. 10 episodes is too short. And yet I don't think they could have carried anything further.
The media focus is excellent and timely, given that my Sun paper arrives each day now with even less news and more Oprah-esque soft coverage. And about 30% more ad space in the A section following last month's latest re-design/re-launch.
Favorite moment? Kima in the window a block up my street with her partner's baby, saying goodnight to the hoppers and addicts and po-pos.
Now I gots to pour one out for my homies who departed this mortal realm in season V.
Next up? AMC's Mad Men.
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