November 18, 2007

"Evan, you lost both your front teeth this week?"
"Uh-huh, both of 'em!"
"How did you lose the second one?"
"My Daddy knocked it out."

I am expecting a knock on the door from social services any day now. That's right, I knocked out Evan's other front tooth. How did I do it? I hit him in the face with the cable remote. The full story is a little less interesting. If there is any day of the week that I am likely to take a nap after work, it would be on Thursday. I am usually wiped out for the week by then. Now I don't nap every Thursday, mind you, but some I just can't help it and will basically pass out. There I was, on the couch, Evan in the office playing a video game. After he finished putting down the rebellion on Yavin 4, or something, he comes out to the living room (where I am sleeping) and asks, "Daddy, do you want to play a board game?" "No Evan, I am trying to nap." "Can I put on Mario Brothers video?" "No Evan, I am listening to the TV." "Daddy, can you..." "Evan, can't I just take a short nap?!?!" Much to my surprise, Evan proceeds to climb on me. I get up off the couch, exasperated and toss the remote control back onto the couch from the end I was laying on. Needless to say, I turned around when I heard the remote hit Evan in the mouth. The look of shock on Evan's face was priceless. It would become even more surprised once he saw his tooth fall from his mouth. At this point he began to cry, but it would get worse once he began to rinse his mouth and saw the blood. He was nearly irreconcilable.

But that was not all the excitement for Thursday, oh no. About 10pm as I am at work in the office, I hear the cat's scrambling around the kitchen and then into the living room. I come out to see Jessie with a live mouse in her mouth. If you don't have a cat, then you don't know that the plan of a cat isn't to actually kill the mouse, it is to play with it, in a sort of Lenny from Of Mice and Men kind of way. Ultimately the mouse will die, but not because the cats want it dead, but because they will play with it until it can take no more prancing around the house in their teeth. In these situations, the goal for me is to catch the mouse myself, take it outside, and throw it into the neighbor's yard, where it will hopefully become their problem. Always, fun.


Did you think that was all there could be on a Thursday? If you did, then you would be wrong. Back in February of 2006, I wrote a commentary on both Barry Bonds and Ricky Williams and their uncanny ability to further tarnish their respective sports (see "Hang It Up! Please!"). Surprisingly, 20 months later both make top sports headlines. Barry Bonds has been indicted on 4 counts of Perjury and 1 count of Obstruction of Justice and could face up to 30 years in prison if convicted and Ricky Williams has been reinstated by the NFL and can now begin practicing with his old team, the Miami Dolphins (who would welcome anyone to save their hapless season, they are now 0-10). So far, I have gotten half of my wish, it doesn't look like Barry Bonds will play baseball ever again. And we'll see how long Ricky Williams can go before testing positive for drugs again.

November 12, 2007

Today was an "Evan and Daddy day" as we like to call it. That is, Michelle had to work and we were off from school so we had our customary breakfast at Perkin's restaurant. We made plans to bowl with Peter and the boys at 12:30. That was fun, but of course the kids mostly just wanted to get their game over so they could hit the gameroom and win their tickets so they could turn them in for "prizes," a.k.a. junk. In between, I brought Michelle's laptop over to Firedog at CircuitCity so they could check the powered component of the USB ports in question. They said that they did not have that capability their to test such a problem, but the tech did make me feel better by saying that he has seen more problems with iPods than you would think. In fact, if the second iPod was in the same shipment as the first one I returned, then they could all have been fitted with bad hard drives, which is now what I am hoping. So I returned now the second iPod to BestBuy hoping that the latest is from another batch and will not have a bad HD. (I hope I am not just deluding myself and that the problem is with Michelle's laptop)

Speaking of bowling, I don't know if you saw this video. It is from a couple of years back. It is still pretty funny.

November 11, 2007

It sure is nice to have the day off tomorrow (sorry to all of you who don't). I remember that it isn't just a random day off from school in order to fill the calendar, it is a national holiday - Veterans' Day (formerly Armistice Day). It is the day we are to honor all those who have served to defend the United States (originally, as Armistice Day, it was to be a worldwide day of remembrance after World War I, "The Eleventh hour, of the Eleventh day, of the Eleventh month." But with World War II, the US decided to make it simply our own little holiday.) So to all you vets out there, thank you. Thank you for defending our country and our lives. By putting your own life at risk to defend millions of people you don't even know. The United States would not be what it is today were it not for you. And Grandpa, thank you. You fought in World War II to protect the US abroad and to save the lives of millions of people in Europe.



I have tried to get my Grandfather, now in his eighties, to tell me the story of his life. As a history teacher, I want to hear about US history through his experiences and observations. Unfortunately, he has been reluctant to open up, which seems to be the case with most people of his generation.

November 10, 2007

Saturdays can be so boring. We are always looking forward to the weekend, and yet when it gets here, I am bored. And what is worse, I don't want to do anything about it. I am almost content to be bored on a Saturday, but I try to make up for it on Sunday. But I don't really mind, so long as I spend some good time with Evan. For example, I didn't get dressed out of my pjs until about 1pm. At which time I went outside, mowed the lawn, blew leaves off the roof and tried to deal with Michelle's iPod problems. Unfortunately I think I have narrowed it down, bad USB port. It works fine with most devices, but once you use something that needs power, I think it is bad. The reason I say this is because Michelle's new iPod is now acting the same way as her previous. It will sync and add songs from here iTunes library to her iPod but then it craps out and won't fully start. It keeps trying to start, but the Apple splash screen comes up, the hard drive engages, clicks one or twice, then it powers off and repeats. Any attempt to reset it by holding the buttons does nothing. Last time I had to wait for the battery to completely die and plug it into the AC outlet to get any type of response from the buttons. So tomorrow I am going to bring her laptop in to get the USB ports tested. But to compound my frustration, I don't understand why I did not buy the service plan on her computer. I was obviously having an idiot moment. I can't explain it.

We are also dealing with a VERY loose tooth for Evan. His ... Wait, Michelle just came downstairs with news, she pulled out his tooth while he was sleeping. He didn't even wake up. Good thing too, would have hated to have to deal with him if he did wake up to find Michelle trying to pull it out. All day and last night his tooth was hanging on by a thread, his permanent tooth has been showing. He probably could have flicked it out with his tongue, but of course he was too afraid to do it, he was afraid it would bleed. We had been bribing him to pull it out for two days, Dan offered him a dollar, I offered him a video game, and anything else he said he wanted I told him I would get it right there on the spot if he pulled it out. Tonight, while he was laying in bed, he was crying that he was going to miss his tooth and that he wishes he could keep all his teeth.

November 9, 2007

Why am I not a "Values Voter"? Since I am not as socially conservative as these family values, pro-life, evangelical groups, does that mean I do not have any values? Quite frankly, I take offense to the name "values voters." Just because my values are more liberal does not mean that I am "no good" or that I will ultimately be responsible for the destruction of western civilization. I would argue that I am just as much, if not more in support of the family than these so-called "family values" groups. Society has evolved and continues to evolve. What is the "traditional family" of today was a radical idea just over a century ago. In another century the traditional family of today will be seen as antiquated and backwards (what the "family" will look like in a hundred years, I have no idea, but follow the pattern of history).

In the United States, we proclaim ourselves to be an enlightened people. We are advanced technologically, economically, socially and politically. And yet there are striking deficiencies in all of these categories. Socially, we claim to have a society based on justice and equality. But in reality, the you are only equal if you have enough money and the same sexual preference, otherwise, you are inferior. Today, justice is better served to those with the money to buy it, that is to say, if you have enough money to buy a lawyer with more resources at his disposal than the state's prosecuting attorney then you have a better chance of receiving "justice" (in other words, you can better afford to buy an acquittal). In the battle over what is an "acceptable" family, money plays a large role. Lower income families must have at least two incomes to make ends meet, sometimes three. The third could be one parent having two jobs, or the oldest child working hours after school. This is all assuming that this family has two parents at all. But this situation is not a problem because the parents were obviously heterosexual and able to procreate with each other. Statistically speaking, a single-parent family is more likely to have children that find trouble because of the lack of guidance and supervision while the single-parent is working multiple jobs to make ends meet. The level of academic success tends to be lower in these families creating a cycle of poverty. But, this is an acceptable family according to the "values voters." Unacceptable, however, would be a married homosexual couple that wants to adopt a child. Although no one has been able to successfully explain to me why this would be unacceptable, I fully understand that portions of our evolved society would deem this type of family as undermining to marriage and family values. I argue, if a family is a place that exists a safe, loving, nurturing environment, then why can't the result of a same-sex marriage be considered a family? Wouldn't it be better for a child to have this type of arrangement in a family where both parents are of the same sex than to have a child grow up in a situation where the single parent is absent?

The "sanctity of life" is yet another important issue for "values voters." In their mind abortion is not an option. In this case I am not going to argue for or against abortion, but simply point out the hypocrisy of this philosophy. Too often do pro-life voters support the death penalty. Explain how supporting the death penalty protects the "sanctity of life?"

I am appalled at the ignorance of many members of this demographic. Listen to this excerpt from a special on NPR. I hope you are as afraid of the future as I am if these voters get their way in upcoming elections.

http://www.billiondollarpresident.org/2007/11/06/values-voters/

November 1, 2007

October had been so busy I only had the opportunity to post 8 times! I hope November will be a little quieter.

True story (I couldn't make something this good up!).
Wednesday was Halloween. We trick-or-treated in Joe's neighborhood so that Bailey can trick-or-treat from home for her first Halloween. Since they live so close to my school, and it was the same afternoon as the Powderpuff Football Game and Carnival (3- 5 pm), I left directly from school and met Michelle and Evan at their house. I arrived early enough to play with Bailey for a little while and then Michelle and Evan arrived with a BANG. Well, it was more of a "bottle rocket" sound, as described by Joe. Michelle took a gash out of the front tire when pulling up to the curb across from Joe's house. Needless to say, I was a bit aggrevated. When I saw the damage to the tire and the rim, I threw my hat onto the floor and gestured angirly, much like Steve Martin in the movie Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Before I could eat any of the pizza or go trick-or-treating with the kids, I first had to change the flat tire before the sun went down. A gentleman across the street from Joe was kind enough to assist Dan and I, he contributed a hydraulic jack that worked much better than the supplied jack from Toyota. After catching the van twice before it fell over off the jack, we were able to successfully affix the donut and then go trick-or-treating. That isn't the funny part. The next day, in my 4th period class, one of my students asked,

Student: "Mr. C, did you go trick-or-treating in Westwinds yesterday."
Me: (cautiously) "Um, yes.... why?"
Student: "Well, I saw you changing a tire, and you looked kinda mad."
Me: (with a guilty grin) "Oh, I was pretty angry."
Student: "I saw you throw your hat on the ground, so I decided you were angry so I didn't come over to say 'hi'."
Me: "Do you live near there?"
Student: "Do you know the house right across the street with the bright green door? Well, that is my house."
Me: "Oh that is cool, my frined lives right across the street from you."
Student: "And [this student] lives two doors down, and [that student] lives around the corner."

Not too embarrassing!

October 20, 2007

It has been a busy week. Wednesday was a LONG day that ended at the state fair. We didn't get home until near 11pm. Whew! It was fun but frustrating to get home so late. In fact, I was kind of scrambling for lesson plans Thursday morning - this is where years of experience comes in handy!

Evan on a car ride.

Evan and Aidan on the "Dragon Wagon", a kid size roller coaster. The grown ups were too big to ride so the kids did it all by themselves. I was pleasantly surprised Evan did the ride!

Just a little ride on what looked and sounded like jetskis. Not very exciting, unless you are 4 or 6, I guess.

Bumper Boats! That was fun

Saturday Evan had another soccer game. It was the first one the team didn't win, but they did tie 1-1. Evan was closer than ever to scoring, but missed the chance again! He was less than 5 feet from the front of the goal when the ball bounced off both his feet before he had a chance to turn and shoot. The goalie picked up the ball.

Starting out on Offense.

Getting a break on the sideline.

Ian taking a corner kick.

Today's Headlines:


AP: Sexual misconduct plagues US schools (Yahoo!News)
As a teacher, I understand that I have been entrusted with a very serious and important task, to create a safe and comfortable environment for the students that enter my room everyday. Likewise, as a parent, when I send my child to school, I want to feel comfortable knowing that my child is in a safe place and that the teachers and faculty there will do whatever they can to protect my son. But when I hear about cases about sexual abuse or misconduct by teachers, I am appalled.


Officials: Teacher's Problems Bigger Than Anti-Islam Speaker in Class (wral.com)
As a public school teacher, I also understand that I have a responsibility to teach the state mandated curriculum and to be as objective as possible. I know that total objectivity is not possible, any time a person speaks they speak from a certain point of view that may not even be evident to the speaker. But what is most important is that any public school teacher should do their best to try and be aware of this potential and carefully monitor what they say, even plan their words, if necessary. At no time is it a public school teacher's job to preach any religion or speak out against any religion. This is an implication of the First Amendment. As a person who works for an agency of the government, while in my capacity as a public servant, I cannot advocate for any particular religion, defame any religion, or even avocate for or against an individual's right to choose not to follow a religion. When I hear that a teacher deliberately teaches about things that are not in their curriculum and especially violates the law or mandates, I cannot not support that teacher. When a person takes a job they should understand the limits imposed and restrictions that are in place. If they do not believe that they can conform to those rules, then they should find a different line of work. The curriculum, mandates, and restriction are created by people who were chosen by voters to do what they believe is in the best interest of the children in the schools as a whole. The classroom is not the place to protest these limits, and is definitely not the place to challenge them. Such action should be saved for school board meetings and elections.


Regarding Privacy.
Normally, I am an advocate for the Fourth Amendment and privacy. I am also an advocate for the First Amendment which includes protection from slander and libel. But when the two come onto conflict, I am in conflict on the issue. Apparently, the teacher involved has been misrepresenting the events surrounding his case. In response, to protect itself in the court of public opinion, the county released several document resutling from investigations into the teacher's actions. In this regard, I am leaning towards the school district's release of the documents over the privacy of the defendant.