Update, Part 1

What have I been doing this summer, when I haven't been posting?

Well, Jeff's grandfather died, as I've mentioned previously, and because it was unexpected and tragic, it took up most of our attention during the latter two-thirds of June. Olaf 's grave marker was still being made at the time of the graveside service. The roses mark the spot; he is buried right next to his mother, Lenora Feely.The memorial service was in a church, and there was a flag thingie in the front, which was related to Olaf being a WWII veteran, along with a display with his picture and some other paraphernalia.
Mom and Dad came up for the funeral, to be supportive. A fun time was not had by all, even though the church provided a nice luncheon reception.

The next week, we got Rosalee a kitten to give her something on which to focus and provide companionship. Rosalee named her Mittsy. She's so cute.

Revamp

I have a new theme and a new look (currently boring, but I'm going to try designing a header and some other stuff) for my blog.

I'll be posting more, for real. I'm sure you're all relieved to hear it.

Tujuh Belas Agustus (17 August)

It comes around every year, and while I do not actively celebrate Indonesia's Independence Day (as in, I don't take a holiday from work or school or anything like that), I usually observe it in some way. This year, I opted to make myself some nasi goreng (fried rice) and teh manis (sweet tea) for dinner. I'd been craving the fried rice anyway, I had some leftover nasi putih (steamed white rice) in the fridge, and I'm rather a devotee of the idea that kalau belum makan nasi, belum makan (basic translation: "If you haven't yet eaten rice, you haven't really eaten").

Politically and socially speaking, there are plenty of things I dislike about Republik Indonesia. Nevertheless, it does have a place in my heart, and not just because of the food (even though the food is really great-- way better than indigenous American food of any variety).

Panjang Umurku

Yesterday was my Hari Ulang Tahun, known in the US primarily as "birthday". My parents were visiting, and while Jeff had to go to work, so I didn't get to see him all day, I had a lovely day of relaxing and doing what I enjoy: Starbucks for breakfast, a visit to the library, a stroll through downtown Visalia to look at shops with Mom. Then we had pizza dinner at Debbie and Jerry's house, and Rob and Candace were there, so it was nice to see them.

The terror that flaps in the night

For Christmas, Sara gave me a set of Disney's Darkwing Duck cartoons on DVD (Yay! Thanks, Sara!). Darkwing Duck is my favorite cartoon of all time. I watched it when it ran on The Disney Afternoon in the early 1990s, and my whole family loved it. Unlike many silly or saccharine cartoon shows, Darkwing Duck has dark comedy with an edge, featuring humor of the gallows or even (occasionally) potty variety (several IMDB reviewers commented, and rightly, "I can't believe Disney did this-- and got away with it in an afternoon cartoon!"). The basic set-up is something of a satire of Batman: the main character has no supernatural abilities, but relies on handy technical gadgets and a modicum of crime-solving know-how to capture a variety of villains. There are puns, sight gags, inside jokes, running jokes, and a general hilarity related to the characters and the situations in which they find themselves. The alliterative and articulate masked mallard fights crime in the Gotham-like city of St. Canard and encounters evil-doers of both the mutant and simply psychopathic variety. In addition to Darkwing Duck (and his civilian alter ego, suburbanite Drake Mallard), series regulars include goofy pilot sidekick Launchpad McQuack (crossing over from an earlier Disney Afternoon series, Duck Tales), adopted daughter Gosalyn, and the Mallard family's utterly boring and predictable next-door neighbors, the Muddlefoots.

See as many episodes of this cartoon as you possibly can. Someday, you may need to know about vampire potatoes or that "the cows are not what they seem".

[Notice: Darkwing Duck, his image, and anything else pertaining to him, are property of DISNEY. Please buy only legally licensed Darkwing Duck paraphernalia (not that I've seen a big market for illegally licensed Darkwing Duck items, but still). Speaking of which, why doesn't Disney do more to market Darkwing, rather than that lame other duck, Donald, or even that mouse?]

Lassie, eat your heart out!

As many of you know, Jeff and I are owned by two cats: grey tabbies named Touchy and Hobbes. [We are temporarily possessed by a long-haired calico named Nala, but she will be moving out to be with her true family in a few days; we're keeping her while her humans settle into their apartment.] I have no shame in admitting that a fair portion of joy and amusement in my life comes from these kitty cats.

Touchy is pudgy, a bit clumsy, sweet and shy. He will come and hang out with me, and follow me around the house like a puppy, but he is not a lap cat. Hobbes is leaner and meaner, the alpha cat in the household. He is not a lap cat, either, but he does make a habit of sleeping on our bed at night, and I like it, because he sleeps ON my feet, and keeps them warm.

Hobbes is the primary subject of my post. He is a cat that is far too smart for his own good. In our old apartment in Fullerton, Hobbes figured out how to open door handles; we always had remind guests to lock the bathroom door, lest Hobbes take it upon himself to open the door and invoke a rather embarrassing situation. Fortunately, our current home has round knobs, rather than handles, on the doors, and since Hobbes lacks opposable thumbs and is furthermore unlikely to acquire them anytime in the near future, we think things are safe for now. But Hobbes also took the opportunity, in the Fullerton apartment, to figure out how sliding glass doors work. He knew how to open the sliding door to our balcony. Of course, Hobbes is only 11 pounds and maybe 11 inches long, so he could not actually MOVE the sliding glass door, despite his best efforts, but it was pretty undeniable that he understood how it worked: when he wanted to go out onto the porch, he would stand on his hind paws, hook his front paw through the door handle, and lean back, trying to pull the door open.

In truth, Hobbes has outdone himself. We now have a sliding glass door, coupled with a screen door, that leads to our back yard. It has been my habit to open the glass door in the morning, allowing fresh air to circulate through the house before it gets too hot (or what others would consider "too hot", since I myself don't usually feel the heat) by mid-day, and just leave the screen door shut to keeps cats in and bugs out. In the past few days, Hobbes learned how to open the screen door. Day before yesterday, I was out doing some yard work and heard a scraping sound from the direction of the house. I looked up and discovered that the door was opened about three inches, Nala was on the little patio, and Touchy was cautiously poking his nose outside, while Hobbes was nowhere to be seen. Oh, no! I ran and grabbed Nala, shooed Touchy back in, and began calling Hobbes. He didn't show himself, so I pulled a trick from the Bad Parenting Handbook and got out his favorite treat (powdered milk), intending to bribe him back into the house. I called him again and made the tsking noise the cats associate with treats, and sure enough, he came running back inside. Too smart for his own good.

All's well that end's well, but now I can't leave the glass door open even a few minutes, if I'm not standing right there to catch Hobbes poking his paw at the screen door and scooting it open. I'll have to rely on opening the windows to keep the the house fresh and airy.

In honor of Mia

My adik Mia had this in her blog, so I stole it.

Here are the rules:
~Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following.
~They MUST be real places, names, things…NOTHING made up!
~If you can’t think of anything, skip it.
~You CAN’T use your name for the boy/girl name question.

Your Name: Deb
1. Famous Singer/Band: Duke Ellington
2. 4 letter word: duel (also, dual)
3. Street: Demaree
4. Color: dandelion yellow
5. Gifts/Presents: DVD
6. Vehicle: dump truck
7. Things in a Souvenir Shop: decorative figurine
8. Boy Name: Daniel
9. Girl Name: Doris
10. Movie Title: Destry Rides Again
11. Drink: Diet Coke
12. Occupation: DMV clerk
13. Celebrity: David Beckham
14. Magazine: Doll Reader
15. U.S. City: Dallas, TX
16. Pro Sports Team: Dodgers
17. Reason for Being Late for Work: Didn't wake up when my alarm clock went off.
18. Something You Throw Away: dirty tissues
19. Things You Shout: Doggone it!
2o. Cartoon Character: Darkwing Duck

I'm just wild...

... about Harry.


And yes, I've seen so many articles using that line, but oh, well.

Anyway, it is true. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be released to the world in two hours, and has already presold more copies than any other book ever written. No, I didn't order a copy. No, I don't know when I'll be able to get my hands on a copy. I just know that if anyone spoils it for me, that person will not be my friend. Ever.

[As a side note, I found it extremely disturbing that when I searched for "Daniel Radcliffe" on Google images, in order to put a pic in this post, the first several images that popped up were naked pictures from his role in Equus. Eek!]

HP Madness (not too many spoilers)

Well, life goes on.

Jeff and I took some time yesterday afternoon to follow the example of millions of children and teens, and went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. What can I say? Either we are lemmings or we just really like Harry Potter.

I liked a lot about the production, and the casting was, as usual, spot-on. However, both Jeff and I thought the book-to-movie adaptation could have been a little better. I know that such adaptations are challenging even with routine material, and with Rowling's books, everybody has an opinion and many people are dissatisfied with their favorite parts or characters being given short shrift. However, the movie axed some aspects of the book that really contribute to the unfolding of the plot (for example, the actions of the house elf Kreacher, the significance of Harry's growing isolation when Ron and Hermione achieve important roles at school, and so forth), and the emotional climax was hurried in favor of a showier action-fueled climax. And (most offensive of all) there is not a speck of quidditch anywhere in this movie! If you've read the book, you know that quidditch plays as important a role in the fifth story as in the previous four.

Dramatically, the film hits its stride and is most comfortable when showing scenes of the DA students training and growing in skill (we feel their exhilaration when they cast successful spells), and in the few quiet moments when the three close friends (Harry, Ron, Hermione) are talking with one another. We see the ease the actors have achieved in their years of working together, and director Yates seems to know how to handle them. On the negative side, the action and the smooth flow of the plot have, regrettably, suffered. To be fair, if you've read the book, you know the plot gets pretty convoluted in the parts when Harry isn't overcome with teen angst (although if any teenager has the right to a bit of angsty self-pity, it must be Harry Potter) and in some parts even when he is. However, other directors have managed to keep some complicated plots afloat (cf Alfonso Cuaron with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which plot involved time travel, of all things), so we'll hope that we get good writers for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and give David Yates another chance at directing (per IMDB, he is currently set to take that chance).

As noted above, the film's greatest strength is in its cast (the Potter films have always been fantastic in this respect), and the actors do not disappoint, even when allowed only disappointingly small roles in this entry (Robbie Coltrane's Hagrid, for example, is in only a few short scenes, and Maggie Smith's Professor McGonegall is much less in evidence and much less spunky than in the book). We see a bit more of Gary Oldman as Sirius Black, but David Thewlis as Lupin and Natalia Tena as Tonks are practically absent (we hope this will be remedied in the sixth movie). Likewise, talented Alan Rickman has little to do as Professor Snape, but he makes as much as he can out of it. Props also to newcomer Evanna Lynch as a perfect Luna Lovegood (even if the writers took the Quibbler away from her), as well as solid Matthew Lewis, still portraying the put-upon Neville Longbottom. So far, the Potter series' best secondary villain (the primary villain being always Voldemort) is Dolores Umbridge, and gifted actress Imelda Staunton brings her to life in an amazing way, her pink suits and floral teacups contrasting perfectly with her cruel punishments and destruction of students' rights, all done with a creepy smile on her face. Other evil-doers are also done well, with showy Helena Bonham Carter making good with the crazy as Bellatrix Lestrange, and series veteran Jason Isaacs still collecting his paycheck as the menacingly silky-voiced Lucius Malfoy. As the self-styled Dark Lord himself, Ralph Fiennes is acceptably scary, if not particularly charismatic.

Overall, I thought the film's unintended consequence was to aptly illustrate why government should not be in charge of education. The attempt to control minds and thoughts, the intentional subjugation of truth for the purpose of political agenda: these seem to be the exaggerated fabrication of fiction, but they could happen in real life. [Obviously, they have happened in other nations.] The state's selection of standards and curricula already have garnered a predisposition of the state-run schooling system to sacrifice the next generation to an arbitrary set of expectations. If some person decides that controlling students' access to certain information and training in certain areas would be a desirable end, the means are available and such a person need only apply slight manipulation and force of will to achieve his or her ends.
Education, like journalism, should be free from government tampering. This will produce better citizens in the end.

I'm still alive

I can't say that I haven't had time to blog in the past few weeks. I've had plenty of time. I just haven't blogged.

Things have been eventful in our lives since the end of my school term, last month. I am enjoying my time of relaxation, prior to finding another source of gainful employment. We experienced a tragedy in our family, as Jeff's grandfather became suddenly dead.

I am currently down in LA, helping Mom and Dad pack up and move. We are hard at work, and I have gotten to see two of my siblings (Mia and Mike).

Yet another wedding

So, last Saturday, my cousin Becky got married in Moorpark, CA. I attended the wedding, and it was nice, mostly because I saw my family, both immediate and extended. I don't really know Becky, so while it was nice that she got married (and to a reputedly very nice young man), it doesn't really affect my life at all.

I drove down in the middle of the day, and discovered that Ventura County is very beautiful during the late spring. I spent the afternoon with fam at Mom and Dad's new house in Camarillo. We all got ready and carpooled over to the wedding site.

It was an outdoor wedding in a place called Walnut Grove. I sat with Mom and Dad and Dan and Jen and Mike.

This was my view of the wedding ceremony: the back of someone's head.

I finally got to see the bride and groom as they were walking down the aisle.

At the reception, I mingled with family and relatives. Like Tim and Mia.

And my aunts Rachel and Martha. Both of my dad's sisters are a hoot! I'm actually a lot like my Aunt Martha.


I met my Aunt Rachel's boyfriend Prentiss.

And chilled out with my cousins Steve and Jesse (remember them from pics at Dan's wedding?).

And chatted a while with my cousin Beth:

All of the Price cousins gathered for a photo op. Unfortunately, this is not a good picture. However, I'll try to identify folks from left to right: Steven (in law school), Jesse (student at UCSB), Michael (brother, hidden behind Jesse; engineer/physicist in aerospace), Bob (fireman for LAFD), Deb (obviously uber-cold when this was taken), Tom (tech guru for TEAM), Matt (does something technical in Chicago), Becky (The Bride), Dan (brother; chaplain in US Army), Mike Smith (The Groom), Jen (married to Dan; librarian), Billy (no clue what he's doing with his life), Beth (going into child development and early childhood education), Mia (sister; student at SDSU, working on BA in anthro), Tim (married to Mia; works for USMC).

Blogger lies

I wrote a post and saved it to publish later.

It didn't save. It is gone forever.

Blogger, you have failed me. Why, Blogger, WHY? Why say that you are going to save something if you actually don't?

At least we can be thankful that Jesus is more reliable than Blogger when it come to saving things.

What's on YOUR plate?

Once upon a time, in the not-too-distant past, Jeff and I were eating at a Chinese buffet. I somehow (well, it was influenced by a futile effort to find sweet-and-sour chicken among the sweet-and-sour shrimp) stumbled upon the brilliant conclusion that one might analyze one's food according to their kingdom/phyla in the taxonomic classification system.

I wasn't too sure about many of the foods (Wouldn't broccoli, rice, and zucchini be closely related-- flowering, seed-bearing plants-- even if they don't taste similar? Answer - Yes.), but my plate turned out to be fairly boring. Jeff's, on the other hand, bore the plants (rice, broccoli, cabbage, zucchini, carrots; phylum Anthophyta), crustaceans (shrimp; phylum Arthropoda), mollusks (scallops; phylum Mollusca), and fungi (mushrooms; phylum Basidiomycota). However, he had no vertebral animal meat on his plate, and I immediately began worrying about the fact that there was no representative from the phylum Chordata. I quickly forked some of my orange chicken and deposited it on his plate. And then realized how weird it was that I was worrying about such a thing, and then proceeded to worry, instead, about being weird.

Notes written by middle school students, Part Whatever

I confiscated this today.

One person wrote:
iz yo Mom going to buy some chips or somethin for the party?

Another person replied:
i don't know, cuz hopefully it's not at the time when we going shopping, but i think she told yo daddy she will.

Yeah. Boring. My students just didn't come through with the laughs for me. When the end of the school year comes around, not only are they not focused on their work, but they aren't even focused on writing solid, communicative, hilarious [illicit] notes.

Weekend Report

Nothing much.

I have only 1.5 weeks of school left. Whoop-dee-doo! I'll be sad to let go of some of my kids, but overall, I'll be happier when I'm done with the teaching-middle-school phase of my life. It's been a great experience, overall, and I am glad that I had it. But I know it's not a permanent thing.

Currently, I'm trying to find what is my permanent thing. Folks, I need a destiny!

Happy Birthday!

To my dear friend Rebekah (Newell) Farber, who is someone that I've known literally as long as I can remember. Bekah has been almost everywhere and done almost everything, since she was born in Bandung, grew up in Irian Jaya, went to high school and college in the American Midwest, then worked in the Philippines before getting her masters degree at Moody and then getting married and moving to Phoenix, AZ. A diligent, intelligent, godly woman, Bekah is someone that I greatly admire and appreciate.

To my brother-in-law Tim, whose birthday is actually on 30 May, but I was deceived by his MySpace, which claimed that it was the 31st. Tim is a great addition to our family, and I enjoy spending time with him. He is especially nice to me, considering the fact that I apparently scared him when he first met me. I know, I know. Me scary? Pshaw. But anyway, by all appearances, Tim makes my baby sister happy, so he's acceptable to me.

Broaden your horizons

I'm really tired and on my way to bed, but I wanted to share some pretty music with you, and to show an example of 1960s music video.

Quel était dit?

Or, Less Eloquently: Huh?!

I am currently cleaning out boxes in my house, and am sorting through vast mounds of papers and stuff. These papers can be anything from Jeff's old photos to my old school work. We have lots of paper. And much of it is going to be recycled...

At any rate, I've found quite a lot of stuff that relates to my various studies through the years. Tonight, I found some notes that I'd made for a class presentation I was doing on Kierkegaard. The text in question was Fear and Trembling, and for some reason, I'd seen fit to write, in the margin of my notes, "Knight of Faith's noble steed is an ass".

I'm sure I had a reason, at the time, for writing that. I only wish that I could remember whatever it was I was thinking then. Must have been really profound.

Another Personality Test

Go to www.kingdomality.com and take the personality test.

Mine is the Prime Minister.
Your distinct personality, The Prime Minister might be found in most of the thriving kingdoms of the time. You are a strategist who pursues the most efficient and logical path toward the realization of the goal that you perceive or visualize. You will often only associate with those people who can assist you in the implementation of your plan. Inept assistants may be immediately discarded as excess baggage. To do otherwise could be seen as inefficient and illogical. On the positive side, you can be rationally idealistic and analytically ideological. You can be a bold decision maker and risk taker who can move society ahead by years instead of minutes. On the negative side, you may be unmerciful, impatient, impetuous and impulsive. Interestingly, your preference is just as applicable in today's corporate kingdoms.

What is yours? Post in comments, preferably with links!!

Seven Random Facts

As requested by my mother:

1. My hair is naturally blonde. Not profound, but random, and a fact. I can assure you that, over all, blondes don't really have more fun. Or maybe most blondes have more fun, but not blondes that are INTJ. Whatever the case, I do think that blondes, particularly ones with pale skin, occasionally do get more attention, but it's only because we are more noticeable: We reflect more light than people with darker hair and complexions, and so tend to draw the eye a bit more. Simple physics. At least, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

2. I am excessively fond of not-quite-ripe guavas. Mmmmmm.

3. I can dance the Charleston.

4. I like to play Sudoku. I find it soothing.

5. One of my life goals is to visit the location and/or see remains of each of the ancient wonders listed in the book, The Seventy Wonders of the Ancient World. I've already been to 22.

6. As indicated above, my personality is INTJ in the Myers-Briggs personality profile. It is a fairly rare personality type (estimated at 1% of the population). Yes, yet again, I am a freak of nature.

7. One of my first jobs in science education was working as a teaching assistant in my biology department at college. I got paid something like $5/hour to push cadavers around on carts, and dissect worms, and stuff like that. I actually loved it a lot.

Sunday report

We are currently enjoying a visit from Sam and Melissa, which is very nice, but sadly, I am rather sick. I have a pretty bad cold, and am constantly snuffling, sneezing, and hacking up nasty phlegm. Last night, matters were complicated by the fact that I started having spontaneous nosebleeds. I do not, as a general rule, spew bodily fluids at random. It's just embarrassing.

We have stuff planned for the week, such as taking Sam and Mel to see the big trees (you know, THE big trees in the big tree park), although I may not be able to go, due to health issues. We are currently playing a lot of WoW and watching Futurama. That's good stuff.

Guilty Pleasure

I've recently started watching a TV show that I secretly really enjoy, even though I know it's trashy and all that. No, it's not American Idol or some other reality show. It's Sex and the City. The reason I really like it is that it's such a portrayal of how empty one's life is when one seeks only pleasure and self-indulgence. The four characters in S&tC supposedly have it all: money (most of the time), great clothes, status-filled jobs, and a lifestyle of guilt-free promiscuity. They were supposed to represent, I suspect, "liberated" women, living it up in New York. But art can cheat life only so far, and eventually, these characters are portrayed as being among the most miserable and directionless creatures one can imagine. Life without a guiding moral compass can be devastating. Instead of being independent and powerful, they are utterly obsessed with men and relationships, enslaved to the very masculine domination they wanted to escape. It's like a female fantasy suddenly gone horribly wrong. But they are often witty in their misery, sort of like a post-modern version of women from a Noel Coward play. Which is why I like to watch their agony.

Winding down

Not much to report of the exciting nature. I've reached the just-under-four-weeks point at work, so of course I'm just as antsy as the students are to get out for summer break.

Don't know what I'm going to do after June 12. I guess we'll take it one day at a time and find out.

Ho Heortay Tes Metrothen

Okay, so my Greek is a little rusty and I'm only hoping that the genitive singular of "mother" really is somewhat close to my English transliteration above... At any rate, I was thrown into a grammatical quandary on Saturday when discussing the "holiday" that is present in current US culture as "Mother's Day" and realized that I've seen the title written, variously, as Mother's Day, Mothers' Day, and Mothers Day. Most cards favored the singular possessive noun version, so I think that may be how it really ought to be. However, is that appropriate? Is the day really just belonging to one mother? Shouldn't it be plural possessive, as a day for all mothers? Or is the maternal address really just descriptive, and not possessive at all (as in, "a day relating but not belonging to mothers")? I just don't KNOW. And for a grammar stickler such as myself, that is agonizing. I discussed it at length with Candace, the English teacher; she had no answers for me. Must... do... research...

We had a few celebrations over the weekend. On Saturday, Candace and Rob were up from the LA area, so we had brunch for Debbie and Rosalee (Jeff's mom and grandma). It was pleasant and genteel and quite tasty (Debbie made quiche, the only quiche I've ever liked!), and marred only by the fact that Jerry was on holiday in Moab. Then on Sunday, Jeff and I took Debbie to lunch for Chinese food, and then strolled a bit through downtown Visalia. Jeff and I hadn't gone to church, because Jeff held forth that he would NOT subject himself to having to sit and listen to me gripe about exegetically inexcusable "Mother's Day" sermons. He didn't entirely escape, though, because sure enough, Debbie told us about the morning's sermon she'd heard at the E Free church, and while she said she found it true-to-life and encouraging, I spent most of the time pointing out to her all the ways that it wasn't actually doctrinal and drawn from the Bible. What can I say? I'm a tough audience.

I called my mom in the early afternoon, but she was about to sit down to a late lunch of BBQ salmon, so she had to hang up. She called me back several hours later, and we had a nice chat.

Last week, a student had an assignment to write a short essay about his mother. I told him, "You write about your mother, and I'll write about mine, and then we'll trade and read about each other's mothers." [Anything to get this kid to do his work.] I am not at liberty to publish the student essay, but I thought I'd share mine. Disclaimer: This was written in the course of 10 minutes or so, and has not been edited.

My Mother

My mother is physically small, but is a giant in many other ways. Her heart, her mind, and her talent are all very large.

Mum loves people. She has spent most of the years of my life in active Christian ministry. She lived in the jungles of New Guinea for 12 years, enduring many illnesses, hard work, and adventures. She made a home for her family, despite limited resources. Later in her life, she worked as a teacher for the urban poor in Los Angeles, and lived among them in South Central LA. She also devoted herself to loving and serving not only her children, but their friends.

Mum is a very smart lady. She is a voracious reader and enjoys non-fction (historical books, as well as tomes on gardening and fiber arts) and fiction (such as books by Dorothy Sayers or Dorothy Gilman). She continues to teacher herself about math and science and other subjects, even though she is no longer a student in school.

Finally, Mum is very gifted and talented in such things as knitting and crocheting. She is certified with the Knitting Guild of America, and loves fiber arts. She even cards, dyes, and spins her own wool. Mum will soon launch her own line of specialty knitted goods, and it's sure to be very popular.

Wouldn't you like to meet my mom?

[Note: After reading my essay, the student simply wrote "yes" under the last line.]

Day Trip

Last weekend, on Saturday, I went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. You see, our school's EL (English Learners) Department had organized a field trip for good, high-achieving students, and on a whim, they asked me to participate as a chaperone. And I had SUCH A GOOD TIME. Since I am accustomed to working with budding criminals and just plain naughty children, it was a revelation to be among hard-working, well-mannered young people. Nobody cussed at me or threatened to sue me; nobody threw things or argued unnecessarily. Wow, I thought, if I had the right group of students, life could be almost this good EVERY DAY. Whoa. Almost enough to make me want to teach in middle or high school again. Almost, but not quite. I was given five young ladies as my charges. We stuck together throughout the day, learned some stuff, and had fun.

We saw some jellyfish:

And a kelp forest, including some tiger sharks:
And penguins:
We also visited the Monterey State History Park, which was well-done and educational. Did you know that Monterey was the first capital of California? And that it was a center of the 19th century whaling industry? [Why, oh why, didn't I take pictures? Guess I was too busy learning and having fun.]

Then we walked along the historic Fisherman's Wharf (although we avoided infamous but boring Cannery Row). We had a close encounter with a sea otter, that swam right up to the dock where we were loitering. The girls named it Cecilia the Sea Otter, for reasons never revealed to me.

I particularly enjoyed the quaint Bruce Ariss Wharf Theater. They were doing a production of H.M.S. Pinafore at the time. In addition to being an active participant in the thriving local arts scene, the Bruce Ariss Theater is a sort of little theater museum, with posters and artifacts from its history of more than half a century of performing great dramatic and musical productions, as well as a little gallery showcasing local artists. Very cool. I took the girls inside and pointed to posters and pictures on the walls, identifying musical plays (Annie, The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, The Mikado, The Pirates of Penzance, Cabaret, to name a few) and explaining their origins and plots, and occasionally, even singing some snatches of the scores. My young ladies bore it with patience, although one or two betrayed genuine interest. Most interesting of all, we could go into the actual theater and see the set for their current play. There was a man working there, who was about five feet tall and 100 years old, who creaked over to turn on the lights and let us in, and gave us as much time as we wanted to see the Pinafore set. Again, I wish I'd had presence of mind to take pictures. *sigh* But I was able to explain some principles of set design and demonstrate to the girls how clues from a set can aid a viewer in understanding a play's setting, even with no actors on the stage to speak dialogue. In the case of Pinafore, I pointed out that we could immediately tell that the play was set on a ship, thanks to the set, and we could also see that the ship was named the H.M.S. Pinafore, because the ship's life preservers had that name on them. We could tell that Pinafore was a British ship, thanks to the Union Jack and portrait of Queen Victoria (which also signaled to the viewer the time period of the play's setting: mid-late 19th century) on display.

I also enjoyed spending time with some great coworkers, who were fellow chaperones.

And I can't forget the quality time spent with the candy cigarette, given to me by a student who had bought a pack.

Believe It or Not

Believe it or not, today, I had standardized testing interrupted because the police dogs had to search the room in which I was proctoring.

And believe it or not, I will really miss a lot about my school when I finish my job there in mid-June.

Don't forget to read about some adventures of the past few weeks.

Funny Notes from Middle School, continued

Or, Words of Wisdom on the Meaningful Things in Life

Fun times abound with another poorly spelled/punctuated, handwritten note that I found on the ground at school.

4 yo ugly eyes only

30 yEars from now, it wont matter what shoes you wore, how your haired looked, or the Jeans you bought, but what will matter is how you lived you life and how many hot boyz did you date and who was your very first crush... well yeah dat was hard! Ha. Ha. Ha.
Well gotta boocket
----------------------------------------------------------------
love ya

O my gosh why somebody Just westside me 4 my pencil.

Love alwayz
de one and only
Cxxxxxxx bxxx

Editor's note: Thank you, Cxxxxxxx, it's refreshing to finally have a 13-year-old clarify for me what will and will not matter in 30 yEars. I'd better try really hard to remember just who was my first crush, and discount my dependence on my denim trouser purchases to cement my legacy to future generations. Whew! How close I came to disaster, and you, dear Cxxxxxxx, spared me from it. Although, if truth be told, I'd better rack up some dating time with several more cute boyz, in order to be truly on top of things.
Meanwhile, I really wonder what it means to "westside" someone. I'm guessing it's a gangsta term that means to "attack someone viciously", or something like that. As in, "The cats totally westsided my ankles till I refilled their bowl with food."

News from Oz

Australia, that is.

I think I might like to live in Australia, as it is a western nation that sits squarely in the Far East, and has its main political and commercial dealings with Asian-Pacific nations.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0704/S00509.htm

Best Stories Ever

So, I am thrilled to finally have some more funny stories to share from work. I haven't been having some thrillingly wonderful days, recently, but things have gotten better this past week.

I have a student who has been in and out of Transition a variety of times in the past several weeks. He is a swarthy, stocky kid whose nickname (bestowed by the school's administrators) is Sling Blade. He has a rather deep voice, for a seventh grader, and either mumbles or barks (the latter always without warning and at inappropriate times). He has a halting cadence to his words, and ducks his head and quirks his eyebrow when they stumble out. And he is one of the funniest kids I've ever encountered. Sling Blade is a fairly active gangbanger (he claims Fresno Bulldogs) and has a tough attitude and a potty mouth, but I've never felt him to be at all dangerous or threatening. He makes me laugh.

For example, he was once in Transition with a few of his ESF BDS homies, and they were messing around. When students are noisy and disrespectful, I put marks up on the board for minutes that they will have to stay in after the bell rings at the end of the day. Sling Blade was one of the most disruptive, until he figured out that he'd have to stay in with me after school until I saw fit to release him. He started growling at his buddies, "$%&!, you guys! Shut the %^&!$ up! I don't want to stay after school. %&*!@!"

This week, we were doing standardized testing. Sling Blade came in wearing red shoes (red is against the school dress code), and started (with his buddies) being disruptive and making threats about jumping another student. The admins confiscated his shoes during the break. He came back to the room after the break in his stockinged feet, and muttered, in his hoarse monotone, "They took my shoes. I want my shoes back!" He had to finish the day of testing in just his socks. It was funny, if you were there.

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of the company of a certain three students who were put in for ditching school. I get students caught for skipping class all the time, so this in itself was not notable. Their situation, however, was interesting: they'd been brought in for truancy by the cops. I started chatting with them during lunch time, which is really the best way to get a boatload of middle school gossip, and unearthed more of the story.
"We weren't really skipping school," they said to me. "Just first and second periods, because we don't like those. We were going to come back for third period." Uh-huh. I'm sure the police thought their logic was impeccable..
The three boys (let's call them John, Paul, and George) had a partner-in-crime who wasn't with us at the time. This fellow (let's call him Ringo) had recently moved, and instead of going to school that day, he and his pals went over to his old abandoned house and got inside (John, Paul, and George assured me that it was not actually breaking and entering, because they hadn't broken anything; there were no knobs on the doors, so they just were able to go in. More flawless logic.).
They proceeded to mess around, as young boys will do, and somehow a neighbor saw activity in the abandoned house and called the police. The four boys had just begun a rousing game of cops-and-robbers when the police arrived at the front door and shouted, "This is the police. Come out!" ["We thought it was ironic," Paul said, "that the real cops showed up when we were playing that game." No sarcasm intended: Color me impressed by a seventh grader's proper and utterly timely use of the word ironic in a sentence.]
"When we heard that, at first, we didn't come out because we thought it was a black guy with a crow bar trying to hurt us," they told me. "We were scared, and thought he was trying to trick us into coming out." [Note: I was never able to glean from them the origin of the black-guy-with-a-crowbar idea, but these little guys are all Hispanic, and as I've noted before, there is a lot of tension, distrust, and prejudice in a well-documented black-versus-brown urban struggle. It just goes to show how deeply rooted certain attitudes are in subcultures and communities, if little kids are already picking up racist attitudes and internalizing them.] Meanwhile, John attempted to sneak out the back door, only to be met by the business end of a police gun. The cops had them thoroughly scared and subdued in a short amount of time, and Ringo was put in cuffs and taken away from the others, who were booked with OSIS (Operation Stay in School) and then toted unceremoniously back to our campus.

After John, Paul, and George finished relating their little tale of law enforcement-flavored woe, I laughed long and hard and then, at the cafeteria lunchtable, attempted to impress upon them the seriousness of their behavior and its consequences. I can only hope that even one of them really listened.

*sigh*
Middle school: Come for the witty repartee, stay for the poignant life lessons.

Life and virtue

I've been slowly recovering myself and trying to get chores and cleaning done. My mom got me started going through some boxes when she was here visiting, and I've been trying to get up the discipline to continue the task. Last night, I went through one entire box. It was mostly full of Utah stuff-- binders, education manuals, notes for books I'd read or lectures I'd given, even some tracts that we wrote and published in 2000. I saved a bunch of stuff for archival purposes (maybe I'll actually organize and archive it!), and still was able to throw away or recycle c. 25% of the stuff in the box. If this keeps up, I'll be able to get rid of so much stuff, consolidate boxes, streamline and simplify our life... I feel so virtuous!

And speaking of virtue, I watched part of Ben-Hur while I cleaned and sorted last night. I haven't seen that movie since I was 10, and boy does it seem different now. I liked it back then, and I liked it last night, but the general impression was so different! I'm a lot more aware of things like historical context, scripts, acting, life in general... Ben-Hur won a truckload of Oscars in the Awards for 1959, and it really is a good film. The script, despite its Oscar nomination for best writing from previously published material, isn't that good. It contains few beautiful and memorable lines, lacks smoothness, and bears too much of the stiffness of its source material (which problems can be blamed on that material, the reverent novel by Wallace). Sometimes the actors seem to be playing bipedal platitudes, rather than passionate human beings. In my opinion, Charlton Heston, however, turned in a really good performance with the material he was given, even if he seemed too ruggedly old and jaded for his part in the beginning of the film. The direction, sets, costumes, all are very nice but somehow stuffy. It's a good epic, but I wouldn't buy that it is a better movie, qua movie, than other 1959 efforts such as Some Like It Hot.

One thing that caught my attention and made me realize how much my perceptions have changed since fifth grade, is the portrayal of the relationship between Judah and Massala in the early portion of the film. The two young men are so thrilled to see one another, and grasp and touch each other, and gaze into one another's eyes... "It will be just like old times!" It was all kind of... CREEPY. Just what DID they do in those old times? Yeesh. It was like Brokeback Mountain with togas. I wonder if director Wyler was intending to portray that subtext, or whether it was just played for innocence in '59 but seems less innocuous in these morally degenerate times.

Maybe I'll do another box and watch another old movie tonight. Or maybe I'll level my WoW character. The pursuit of virtue is a complicated path.

Another legend gone

Kitty Carlisle Hart, who made films and appeared on stage as Kitty Carlisle and then married playwright Moss Hart (of Kaufman and Hart fame), died on Tuesday, 17 April. My exposure to her work is mostly limited to the few musical films she made in the mid-1930s (the most popular being A Night at the Opera with the Marx brothers).

Sorry and my hair

Dear Internet,

Sorry I've neglected you again. I actually didn't mean to. I posted over the weekend, and thought everything was okay, but my mom sent me a note asking if I'd posted yet, and I looked, and apparently the post didn't publish. And Internet, I can't help thinking this is pretty much YOUR fault, because you dumped my post, and you really haven't been working to resolve your differences with my laptop. So get on that.

And internet readers, my big news is that last weekend, I cut my hair! It is a short, cute bob, sort of Louise Brooks without the bangs. I know, I know, it is sad if my biggest news is the fact that I chopped the dead tissue from my scalp... Well, the hair is now nice and easy to manage, as it is truly wash-and-go, with no need for gel, blow dryer, or curling iron, etc. On the minus side, however, is the unfortunate result that I now look several years younger. When one is 50 years old, I'm told, taking off 10 years with a haircut is a good thing. Not so when one is younger than 50, teaching middle schoolers, and looking barely older than one's students, to begin with. Ah, well, such is life. I guess I'll enjoy it when I'm 45 and still getting carded.

All the best,
Kiti

Alive

I'm feeling as though I'm coming to the end of a long dark tunnel, and there is, indeed, a light. I think I'll actually start cleaning my house, communicating with other human beings, and generally acting civilized.

Part of my cheery manner is probably derived from having spring vacation and not being around people for several days. I am also watching happy old movies and reading some books.

One of the movies I've watched is Hit the Deck. The score isn't altogether great, but the film reminds me of how much I loved to dance, and how much I'd like to take it up again. I am NOT too old. Here is a picture of one great dancer, Ann Miller:

Vacation

Well, I'm half way into my spring vacation, and it's been nice and lazy. I've played WoW and watched some movies and done quite a bit of sleeping in. I hope to watch some more movies and eat a lot of junk food. Booyah.

I'm feeling a bit of Bones withdrawal, since we recorded last week's episode, but didn't watch it yet, and there's ANOTHER ONE ON TONIGHT. We are falling behind! Can Brennan and Booth go on without our faithful viewership?

I've complained about it before, and I still don't understand:
How difficult is it to punctuate correctly when creating slides for the use of worship in the LORD's house?

One suspects that the Levites worshipping at the Temple avoided similar errors by (1) being conscientious and actually caring about things and (2) utilizing ancient Hebrew, which lacked, in its biblical forms, both vowels and written punctuation.

That's Good Satire

Or, Proof Positive That Gamers and Scientists Have Great Senses of Humor

Molecule of the Week archives from the American Chemical Society:
http://www.chemistry.org/portal/resources/?id=ec20b7786c5511d7e45f6ed9fe800100
http://www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/acsdisplay.html?DOC=HomeMolecule%5carchive%5cmotw_mithril_arch.html

And the introduction of a highly desirable new item in World of Warcraft:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/items/tinfoilhat.xml

Yes, it is the first of April.

Benign neglect

Dear faithful readers (if indeed I do have any),

I have neglected you. Shame on me!

So what's new in the life of Deb? Not much. Jeff and I have been going to work, coming home, playing World of Warcraft, watching a few TV shows, and in general, contributing as little as possible to the advancement of the human race (which doesn't bother me, as I don't much like people anyway).

I've been slowly reading my way through a few books: After the Ice (Yes, still--it's a long book.) and The Introvert Advantage (Aha! I knew there had to be at least one.). I'll be posting information and reviews.

I've watched a fair number of my dear old movies. Some were great, some good, some just barely decent:
Sunrise - great
Peter Ibbetson - good
Design for Living - good
If You Could Only Cook - good
More Than a Secretary - decent
The Rich Are Always With Us - decent
The Importance of Being Earnest - good, bordering on great
Designing Woman - good
Two Arabian Knights - good
Cattle Empire - decent, but it had Joel McCrea, so bordering on good
Elephant Walk - good
The Penguin Pool Murder - great
The Mating Season - great
Adventure in Manhattan - decent, but again, Joel McCrea...
I also watched a more modern movie:
Bride and Prejudice - good, bordering on great

Far from being completely lazy, however, I have been doing useful things like washing dishes and the laundry.

On a larger scale, Jeff and I are trying to figure out what to do with our lives , long-term as well as in the next year or so. My current favored occupations are:
Beach bum - Low start-up cost, but becomes increasingly difficult, the further one lives from a coast.
Film and/or art critic - I think it would be fabulous to get paid to say nasty things about other people's hard work and creative endeavors. Maybe I don't know art, but I know what I don't like.
Performance artist - I could put all those black clothes from my early twenties to good use.
Shock novelist - If you thought The Da Vinci Code and National Treasure were bad, wait till you read my next opus, wherein you'll discover that Rand McNally are behind a huge international conspiracy and their road maps contain coded information regarding the path to a planet near a star called Kolob...

Anyway, glad to hear from any of you, and drop by my blog any time.

All the best,
Kiti Fantastico

TGIF (or nearly)

I am ready for the weekend.

I was reflecting on things, recently, and realized that things have been rather dry on the amusing-notes-written-by-middle-schoolers front. Sorry, but I can't MAKE them be crazy and funny.

Things at work are better this week than last. I am generally enjoying myself throughout the day. I still don't think, however, that doing classroom intervention with poorly behaved adolescents is my calling in life.

At home, I am rather frustrated because I can't find the charger for my camera battery. I haven't used my camera much since Christmas, but when I wanted to use it over the last weekend, I couldn't because the battery was dead and the charger wasn't in the place where I habitually keep it. *sigh* So I guess this means that I'll have to spend some time this weekend cleaning and going through my stuff till I find it.

RIP, Betty Hutton

I kept thinking I had something about which to blog, but then kept forgetting about it. Finally, I remembered while at a computer.

Another great Hollywood legend has passed on.

Betty Hutton gave audiences a lot of laughs, and my personal favorite of her films is The Miracle of Morgan's Creek. She died on March 15, of colon cancer.

Let's see...

I've accomplished little in the past week. All I've managed to do is go to work each day. I'm tired.

Things have been kind of slow on the funny-notes-written-by-middle-schoolers front. I also don't have dramatic stories or anything.

The funniest thing that happened last week was when I was having a conversation with some of my young male students about such things as the function and significance of the grill. One young man insisted that a grill with good bling would attract girls. I responded that they are all too young to be worrying about girls so much.
Me: You should be enjoying your youth. You'll have plenty of time to be grown up, and worry about girls and romance and stuff, for the rest of your life. How old do you think I was when I had my first boyfriend?
Them: [various guesses] 12? 14? 16?
Me: No, no, I was 18. I was an adult before I had a boyfriend.
Young man: So before that, you only dated girls?

Haha. Priceless! These kids are really quite narrow-minded and limited in their conception of the world.

I've been sick for the past several days. Why, oh why, must I be plagued with this body of death?

I've been watching old movies, playing WoW, and reading After the Ice.

Oscar

Apparently, the Academy Awards are upon us once again. For some reason, I'd forgotten that they would be so soon. I was thinking they'd be in March. Oh, well.

This year, I have no opinions about the nominees and prospective winners. I saw few films in the theatre this year, due to the fact that I can't afford to go to movies anymore, and they are usually not worth my time and money anyway. I just hope Pan's Labyrinth wins Best Foreign Film. Oh, and I wonder why Meryl Streep was nominated in the Best Actress category for her SUPPORTING role in The Devil Wears Prada.

In honor of the miniature golden man, however, I'll discuss some Oscar-winning (or nominated) films of the past.

The first Best Picture winner that I remember watching from start to finish was Ben-Hur. My teacher showed it to us when I was in fifth grade, because we were studying Ancient Rome in social studies and she thought it would be relevant. I was canny enough to realize that Judah was the same person as Moses in The Ten Commandments, which I'd also seen. [We didn't see a lot of movies where I grew up, and they were carefully monitored, but Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments were biblically-related, and so were deemed acceptable.]

The first Best Picture winner that I ever saw that really impacted me was My Fair Lady. I viewed it in the late 1980s. I was fascinated by the music, the dialogue, the elegant costumes and settings. I can still sing most of the songs in the score. However, I'd never even HEARD of the Academy Awards. And I didn't realize that movies had changed since 1964. Pretty much the only movies I had ever seen were musicals or Disney films. And Star Wars.

The film that really turned me on to classic old movies (and how!) was It Happened One Night. It changed my life. I had just moved to the US, didn't understand New Kids on the Block or Beverly Hills 90210. Experiencing the great writing, performances, and film-making of a blithe and witty romantic comedy... It injected sense and beauty into my life. I haunted the Beaverton Public Library section on film; I moved from there into the neighboring sections on theatre and music. My goal was simple: Learn as much about old movies as possible. My corollary goal was equally simple: See as many old movies as possible. I refined my tastes and developed lists of actors, actresses, directors, and movie genres that I preferred over others.
Example:
Likes - Screwball comedies. Musicals. Historical epics. War movies.
Dislikes - Movies about sports. [Gary Cooper was great, but Pride of the Yankees really didn't do much for me; ditto for James Stewart and The Stratton Story.] Some gangster movies. [I never finished either Public Enemy or Little Caesar. Not sure why I didn't care for them.]
Any person who has any interest in films, modern or historical, absolutely must see It Happened One Night. The cross-country buddy movie attains a new dimension, long before buddy movies even existed. Learn handy hitchhiking tips and understand the importance of the walls of Jericho. Figure out why sales of men's undershirts dropped following the release of this film.

It always seems a bit unfair when actors who originate a role onstage repeat it on film and win an Academy Award. It's like, they had WAY more time to practice than their direct-to-film competition. Nevertheless, those performances often deserve the award, as in the case of Judy Holliday and Born Yesterday. I would recommend this movie not only for Miss Holliday's heartwarming performance but as a fabulous (and only slightly fantastic) demonstration of the power of education to transform an individual's life.

I certainly don't always agree with the Academy's choices for awardees. The first Best Film winner that I actively disliked was Cimarron. I still can't figure out why it won, although the competition was pretty weak that year (1931). I've also loathed Forrest Gump, Terms of Endearment, and Shakespeare in Love.

How about some Oscar trivia?
First set of siblings to be Academy Award-winners? Norma Shearer and Douglas Shearer.
Second set of siblings to be Academy Award-winners? Lionel Barrymore and Ethel Barrymore.
Another set of Oscar-nominated siblings? Shirley MacLaine and Warren Beatty.
Sisters who were competing with one another for Best Actress awards? Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine for 1941 Awards; Lynn Redgrave and Vanessa Redgrave for 1967 Awards.
Complete nuclear family to have Oscar wins and nominations? Judy Garland (nominated for 1954 and 1961, won special juvenile Oscar for work in 1939), Vincente Minnelli (nominated for 1951, won for 1958), Liza Minnelli (nominated for 1969, won for 1972).
Multigenerational family of Oscar winners? Actor Walter Huston, director John Huston, actress Angelica Huston.
His and Hers trophies? Aside from Garland and Minnelli (mentioned above), several married couples have taken home awards: Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier, and Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, won Oscars while married to each other. Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones also have matching Oscars, though he won his before they were married. I'm not sure if even I can remember all the married couples who have been nominated for and/or won Oscars, whether married or not at the time. Off the top of my head: Carole Lombard and Clark Gable, Carole Lombard and William Powell, Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner, Norma Shearer and Irving Thalberg, Joan Crawford and Franchot Tone, Mary Pickford and Charles Rogers, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester, Rex Harrison and Rachel Roberts, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, Helen Hayes and Charles MacArthur, Ginger Rogers and Lew Ayres, Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini, Annette Bening and Warren Beatty, Sam Mendes and Kate Winslet, Margaret Sullavan and William Wyler, Margaret Sullavan and Henry Fonda, Michael Todd and Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Todd and Joan Blondell, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall... I'm sure I missed someone, somewhere in there.

Sin in the World

As you may have guessed, faithful readers, my life is boring enough that I don't have a lot to say, and therefore my posts have dwindled. I will do better, I promise.

The thing that prompted me to post tonight is actually a very sad thing. I don't always have the easiest job, but I have begun to build relationships with a few of the young people placed under my care. I have several that I see every day, including my teaching aides. I inherited most of my TAs from the previous Transition teacher, but have lost a few and gained a few in my months in the position. The previous Transition person was also the football coach, and the majority of the TAs were on the football team. Coincidence? I think not. A few of the TAs were actually bad kids that had been placed with that teacher in the hopes that he could influence them for the better. Good plan? Well, I don't particularly think so. But some of the knuckleheads have grown, and others I have gotten rid of. The TAs I still have are good, solid kids. I have come to care a lot for them.

My first period TA is a sweet young man who is growing out of his knucklehead stage. We'll call him Carlos, which is not really his name, but works for our purposes here. Apparently, he was quite a little hellraiser in seventh grade, but as an eighth grader, he is better (not perfect, but better). I keep an eye on him, on his grades and general behavior in school, and I'm very honest and open with him.
If he is tardy, I'll come up to him and say, "Carlos! Get up earlier and get to school on time. Do I need to call your house at 6:30 every morning to make sure you get up? Because you know I will if I have to." And he grins sheepishly, ducks his head, and makes an effort to be on time for the next several days.
When he is sick, I tell him to drink hot tea with honey and lemon.
Last week, I took him aside and said, "I'm worried about you, Carlos. I looked at your grades, and you need to be doing better."
He's opened up a bit about his life and his family, and I've known that things are hard for him. I pray for him and some other students almost daily. But this morning just made me so sad. He had his head down on top of his notebook, and I asked him, half joking, if he hadn't slept much during the night.
"Well," he said, "I went to bed, but my dad came home at 3 and said he was leaving, and left around 4."
"So your dad works at night?"
"No."
I was utterly confused. "So where was he in the middle of the night?" I didn't mean to pry; I was just seeking information.
"I don't know. He just came and said he's leaving. I don't know where he's going. My mom is thinking about moving to Sacramento."
"Wait, your dad is leaving your family? Carlos, are your parents separating?"
"Yeah."
My heart just broke for him. He told me about how he didn't want to leave his friends, but he had to go with his mom if she moved, to take care of her and his younger siblings. He's been pulling himself together and staying (mostly) out of trouble this year, and now he's having to deal with too much sorrow and too much responsibility, when he's far too young.
*sigh*

Not all my stories from work are funny.

Sunday in the park with George

Or not, since I didn't go to the park or do anything with anyone named George today.

Jeff and I got up at a decent hour and went to the second service of our local Vanilla Protestant Church that Does Not Teach Heresy. We have decided to attend this church, basically because we have tried all the other likely candidates and this one was most acceptable to us. We are not crazy about it, but we know that there are good people there and we've really enjoyed the (non-heretical) preaching, so we're happy to attend.

I thought I was doing okay, but I was grumpy during the service's mandatory meet-and-greet time (I think it's inappropriate to force people to be falsely social during a worship service) and then the music contained lousy songs that I didn't know and didn't want to sing. Toward the end of the set of songs, I got the bright idea to count the number of slides that were correctly spelled/punctuated/etc. versus those who were not. This is because things in that respect are usually done so poorly in church, and it IRRITATES me. So, in honor of Poor Taste in Sacred Music, I present the following statistics:
The next-to-last song had banal lyrics, banal and repetitive tune. I started counting in the middle of the song, so this reflects only the BA section of a standard AABA setup.
-Incorrect slides: 6
-Correct slides: 4
The last song was also banal. It had 14 total slides.
-Incorrect slides: 14
-Correct slides: 0

Apparently, today was "Amazing Grace Sunday", but we did not sing that song. But only God's amazing grace is great enough to save someone who decides that focusing on punctuation errors is the way to pass time in His house.

After church, we went to lunch at Strings. I had minestrone soup, pizza bread, and spinach and cheese ravioli. Sometime in the past few years, I've started to enjoy eating again. There were a few years when I didn't care to eat much, because stress caused me to lose my appetite. I didn't even notice when food started to taste good again, but today, I suddenly realized, "Hey! I like food!" I was gratified, and celebrated by eating another piece of bread. I think low-carb diets must be one of the most horrific things of which I have ever heard.

We came home and played WoW, and I leveled my mage from 8 to 10.

We went to dinner at Debbie and Jerry's house, with Olaf and Rosalee and Rob and Candace in attendance. Apparently, Olaf (Jeff grandpa) is in poor health since he had heart trouble and was in the hospital last month. I guess there is some concern over him. He is 90, and has been such a go-getter since I've known him. Jeff's grandparents have always been very good to me, and they are the only semblance of grandparents I have left, so I hope he recovers his health and goes for another 10 years, at least.

It rained today, and was grey and chilly. I hope the sunshine returns soon.

Oh WoW!

Well, World of Warcraft has honestly been taking up a large amount my time, and I'm not sorry to say it. I'm enjoying learning some new skills and it's been nice to have an outlet during the past few weeks, when I've been pretty stressed. I've been neglecting my family and friends, though.

Not content to remain a Level 21 human rogue, I went and created a night elf hunter (now Level 29) and a human mage (now Level 10). I like different aspect of each character.

Below is my rogue at night, in Menethil Bay:

Belated

Happy (Belated) Birthday to two lovely people in my life, who both were born on February 14 and who both live, coincidentally enough, in Phoenix, AZ:
-My newest sister, the wonderful Jen Price. Despite the tales that people tell of fighting with in-laws, I've had only positive experiences with them. Sister-in-law Jen is fabulous in the way that she handles her life with order and dignity combined with a sense of humor. She also handles my brother, which is no small task: She has him sending hand-penned valentines to his siblings! That, dear readers, is the mark of a woman whose worth is far above rubies, whose deeds will bring her praise in the city gates, whose children (which she better start having soon) will rise up and call blessed.
-My high-spirited friend, Sam Guthrie the superhero. I've known Sam decently well for not even two years, but I just admire so much about him. He is a good husband and a supportive friend, who is always willing to help the helpless in questing in WoW or provide hospitality with open generosity.

Return of the Silver

My computer has been somewhat non-operational, at least from a blogging perspective, as our internet has been on the fritz.

But it's fixed. Yahoo!! [The exuberant expression of joy, not the dot com.] So I can now get back to my usual postability.

Pan's Labyrinth

Jeff observed that the proper name for this film is Labyrinth of the Faun, per the translation from the Spanish to the English.


We watched Pan's Labyrinth last Saturday night. I had read good reviews and was interested in seeing it, and when a friend from Bible study rang us up and proposed a trip to the theatre, Jeff and I agreed. I wasn't sure what to expect, even though I'm usually fond of artsy foreign movies, but I found myself completely blown away.

Yes, it was violent, although less so than many other films I've seen (*cough* Passion of the Christ *cough* or Braveheart *cough*), and the violence had a purpose: to highlight the horribleness of, well, senseless and cruel violence. And it demonstrated the truth of the scripture, "Greater love has no one than this, that he (or she) would lay down his life for another."

O Crappy Day

Pardon my French, but you know it hasn't been sunshine and roses when the question "How was your day?" can't be answered without phrases such as "gang fight", "police dogs", and "full lock-down".

My particular school site is the second-worst middle school in the district, as far as poverty/drugs/gangs/etc. are concerned. Even if it's not the very worst, it's pretty bad. A bit of background: There is gang affiliation among even 12-year-old children, and gang-related scuffles are not uncommon. Most of the gangs are ethnically segregated (Asian, Hispanic, and African-American gangs), and there is fighting among rival gangs within ethnic boundaries, as well. Basically, nobody can get along with anybody else. The Hispanic gangs in our area are primarily affiliated with either surenos (south/blue) or Bulldogs (initially connected to the nortenos, north/red, but now resisting association with the main nortenos; they want their own identity); these are prison gang affiliations, and they're kind of confusing. There is good evidence that Latino gangs throughout CA have started to engage in violent crimes against African-Americans, reflecting a larger power struggle between browns and blacks in the west coast's urban centers. And so, in the past few weeks, there have been several face-offs, sometimes coming to blows, between Hispanic and black youths. [Note: The Asians gangs are pretty cut-throat, but as with any Caucasians, the Asian population is small enough to make them a minor part of any equation.] Fun times. The Bulldog presence is very strong, and the students are not allowed to wear any red. We are always finding grafitti (tagging is usually ESF or BDS) on the property. I know some of my students who tag Bulldog stuff on their binders and papers. Not too bright.
Yesterday afternoon after school, African-American students were jumped by a group of Bulldogs, allegedly wielding crowbars or brass knuckles, just over the fence from the school. I wasn't on the scene, but I heard reports of the fight on my walkie-talkie, and then heard the siren and saw the ambulance. Not a happy scene. Naturally, tensions were high today, and I actually expected some fights. I did NOT expect to hear via walkie-talkie, during Period 3, that we were going into lock-down for an unspecified reason. I had just sent my TA on an errand, and I went to the door and called him back. The announcement came over the PA a few minutes later, and I had my smallish flock settle down to wait for who-knows-what. I was rather pleased that they stayed relatively calm, and I myself wasn't particularly nervous or frightened. Thanks to my walkie-talkie, I heard a lot of radio chatter, and there was police presence; they were bringing dogs around to check out every classroom. I don't know what exactly they were seeking, nor do I know what exactly they might have found. Even the radio traffic didn't give me that information. However, the standard teachers who didn't have walkie-talkies were even worse off, and I know (from talking with them later) that they were very confused and (in some cases) frightened indeed. We essentially stayed in lockdown till the end of the day, although students were allowed to go to lunch and then switch classes once, under heavy security. My students don't change classes, so we just stayed put and they brought lunches to my classroom. Someone finally came to relieve me, after 1:30 pm, when I'd been in there without bathroom or food since 8:00 am.
At the end of the day, there was no official police finding, so students were given an explanatory note for their parents and then dismissed. I was exhausted, because even though my class is small, it is very intense, since it consists of 100% poorly behaved, at-risk students. A few of them, being (1) illogical and (2) very naughty, actually tried to run out the door while we were in lock-down. Grrr. Being stuck in a room with them for more than three hours, with no outside contact except a walkie-talkie utilized by harried administrators, was not fun. Let me just say, however, that I truly appreciate my teacher aides, as they were beautifully behaved and supportive during the ordeal.
Anyway, that was my day. I feel as if I haven't related it very well at all, but it's the best I can do at present. So I am fine and healthy, if a rather tired, but I'm realizing that I actually DO work at a school where many students are violent and cruel, carry weapons, and probably won't live very long. As a teacher for at-risk students, how can I reach out to them? I've found that it doesn't work very well to take a logical approach and explain, using straight facts and basic reasoning, that gang involvement is a poor prospect indeed. I don't understand the appeal, and I don't know how to get into their brains and get them to really THINK about things before they make choices that will destroy them. Frankly, I'm the wrong person for the job.

Well

I am having a pretty interesting day. Not fun interesting. Just interesting. More later.

Treasures of Note-writing

Dear readers, I am coming to believe that featuring correspondence obtained from the grounds of a middle school will become a regular feature of the offerings of Kiti Fantastico. I find material here and there, and will share it as decency allows (I found one note last week that was so foul that I threw it away rather than putting it here to upset you, dear readers).

The latest: A young woman expresses interest in the workings of the criminal justice system, and asks her friend to let her fingers do the walking, so to speak.

Dear Jxxxxxx
Hey Gurl how u doing? Me ain't shit [sic] Just chiling? By myself and writing you dis letter... Well anyway forget about the big favor I told you about calling Rxxxx (scrap foo)... But there's another big favor that i want you to do for me and it's by calling the operater (411) and asked them if they know the new address to the new Julvie (the jail for young teenagers) You know what that is... Well also Just Give me call at xxx-xxxx right now not tomorrow right now i mean it ok so please... Well Just do this for me and i'll owe you one ok friend...
WRITE BACK NOW...
{hear} Lxxxx Exx
AKA
Lil Momma

I know I speak for all of us when I say, "Make your own stupid phone calls until you're old and important enough to have a secretary!" And also, "Search for juvenile hall on Google Maps if you want to know where it is." Sheesh! But at least this girl was smart enough to ditch the "scrap foo". [Note: A "scrap" is a slang term for a member of a certain local gang.]

I alluded to being ill in my last (list) post.

I have been fighting a cold for a week. It has been more annoying than anything, because it never gets serious enough to stay home from work or go to the doctor, but it has taken its time going away. I had a sore throat for most of last week and through the weekend, sneezed and sniffled on Sunday, and am slightly husky-voiced but recovering right now.

Nothing fabulously fun and interesting at present. I am trying to feel better, talk to friends and family on the phone, get together with Merina, and pull together motivation for life in general.

Weekend To-Do

Laundry - Mostly done
Dishes
Clean Kitchen
Watch Veronica Mars - Done
Finish and delete two items from DVR
Go to gym - Cancelled due to ill health
Write two pages of project
Compile list of frequent students for work - Done
Post on blog - Done
Go to church - Cancelled due to ill health
Meet w/ Merina and family after church [tent] - Cancelled due to ill health
Burn CD of favorite songs
Finish Dead Mines quest with group - Done!

More treasures from work

My relationship with my job is a funny thing. It has been my impression that many of the teachers at my school are very gifted, and they are passionate about what they do; they work hard and make sacrifices because they feel that they are called to work with middle school students in a tough area. They really like the kids and like working with them. For my part, I have been passionate about many things, and feel that I have a calling, but it really isn't to work with troubled adolescents in southeast Fresno. Nevertheless, that is what I do, and by all accounts, I'm pretty good at it. And I think some of my giftedness in that area comes from the fact that I don't really like the kids. I don't like kids in general, and these in particular are rude, ill-mannered, and often poorly groomed. Don't get me wrong: I love the children as God's creatures, and there a few of whom I am secretly very fond-- their antics keep me amused all day long. But I don't suffer from the illusion that I am buddy-buddy with the students, or that they want any sort of real relationship with me. I don't care if they hate me. So my combination of tough love and unconcern makes me a stern taskmistress and thoroughly unsympathetic, though actually very empathetic and concerned for their well-being (they just don't see it, being focused on the whine of the moment).
They say, "I hate you!" I reply, "Okay" and smile.
They cry, "You're mean!!" My answer is always a smile, accompanied by some comment such as, "It warms my small, shriveled heart to hear you say that".
They complain, "Transition sucks!" And I smile and say, "I'm so happy that you think so. It means I'm doing my job well."
Any comment from them about boredom, lack of supplies, or pretty much anything is met with, "I don't care" or "I don't need to hear it". Followed by reminders such as "Remember, it's your responsibility, not mine, to _____________" and "Make better choices, and you won't end up here again".

That's it, all day long: "Make better choices, Horacio!" "What kind of choices have you been making today, Jose?" "You need to focus on making good choices, Jakeerah."
Maybe, some day, it will sink into some student's head. I'm waiting for that day.

My students teach me a lot, too. Some of them, at 12 or 13, know more about life behind bars than I do, even after having watched many episodes of Law & Order. I learn plenty about drugs, gangs, and juvie, by sitting around and listening to them talk at lunchtime in the cafeteria. Sometimes they remember that I'm sitting there, and clam up, but other times, they just don't care, and plunge right ahead. I am finding out tidbits regarding which students are "bulldogs" and "scraps", who may be planning to fight after school, and whose family members allegedly sell drugs.

Interestingly, a few of my young people have made observations about my appearance. They all seem to focus on the fact that I am slender, though they utilize the less-flattering term "skinny".
"I'm going to eat my lunch so I don't grow up to be skinny like you."
"How come you're so skinny, Mrs. Felix?" [Oh, yes, and there is this one student who is, for some reason, convinced that my last name is Felix.]
I think it's odd, since I am slim-to-average, and not particularly thin at this point in my life. However, I try not to react too much to their remarks, choosing instead to instruct them in etiquette: "It's not polite to make comments about people's appearance. You should not talk about whether they are fat or skinny, because it may be a sensitive subject for them."
Ah, body image, the great equalizer.

Out of the Mouths

Commentary on sociological demographics, as presented by an adolescent in southeast Fresno.

[Context: Eighth graders are currently doing pre-registration for next year, in high schools throughout the area. Last week, one of my students was doing just that, and we ended up discussing high school options and such.]
HIM: Did you go to Clovis High School?
ME: No.
HIM: Oh. You didn't go to Clovis?
ME: No. I've hardly ever been in Clovis, except maybe once or twice.
HIM: What?!? I thought you were from Clovis. There are a lot of white people in Clovis.
ME: ...staring at him, dumbfounded...

Wow. I can see how, in his mind, it would make sense. But, really... wow.

This brings to mind a story about someone who did go to Clovis High School. Back in the old days (2002, in fact), when I worked at the HATC , there was a summer intern who shared my office. His name was Trevor, he was from Clovis, and he actually went to college with my younger brother, at the Supersmart Yuppie School. Anyway. Trevor had diabetes, and I'd see him stabbing himself with either a lancet or a needle on a fairly regular basis. Trevor also had a poorly planned internship assignment that left him with long periods of down time, when he'd read, play around on his computer, or even take a nap. This led to me walking into my office and seeing him with his head down on his desk or keyboard. Knowing he was diabetic, I'd panic and cry out, "Trevor, are you all right? Speak to me!" Because having someone die of insulin deprivation (or whatever) in my office? Not high on my list of things I'd like to experience in this lifetime. And then Trevor would lift his head and stare at me balefully and resentfully, dragged from sweet slumber back to interminable ennui by the blast of my voice. *snicker* As far as I can tell, Trevor never much liked me.

Okay, well, the Trevor thing was funny, but I guess you had to be there.