HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

this week's treasure moment

while discussing a part in ramona the pest where she doesn't want to chase davey, the boy she's spent the last couple of chapters trying to kiss, i had my students write what ramona was thinking, as if they were her.

one of my girls wrote,

i don't need to chase you. in a few years, you'll be chasing me!

so true. 5th graders are hilarious!

harry reid is THE MAN!

i wonder if sharon angle supporters would feel the same way about harry reid if they read this.

after all, he was the guy that actually ran the mob out of las vegas in the late 70's. (remember casino?)

he was a boxer, whose fistfight opponents included his father and father-in-law (the former, after he'd been beating up on his mom, and the latter because he didn't want his daughter to marry harry).

of course he's a hero to liberals (or should be) because he successfully blocked bush from privatizing social security after his 2004 reelection (and before wall street went bust).

but the thing that resonated with me the most was reid's take on meeting bush in the oval office:

"I never went to Kennebunkport as a kid,” Reid recalls. “I never went anywhere. And I’ve got no blue blood in my veins, just some desert sand. So as he and I sat there in the Oval Office, I said little in return.”

there's more, but suffice to say, the caricature of a wimpy, milquetoast, meek guy who needs to "man up,"* is completely destroyed by the facts.


*incidentally, doesn't "man up" mean to go from a zone defense to man-on-man? i don't think these people think so... but maybe i've just been watching too much basketball...

INVASION OF THE BROWN MARMORATED STINK BUGS!!!

i heard about this a few weeks ago when steve benen wrote about them at the washington monthly. i thought it was a very instructive piece about the right-wing agenda in this country, specifically, the reiteration and amplification of reagan's proclamation 30 years ago that, "government is the problem."

according to the washington post, these titular stink bugs (halyomorpha halys) have been destroying enough flora along the eastern seaboard that 15 congressmen have asked the USDA and EPA to step in to help farmers and local industries deal with the problem.

the best part is, of the 15 lawmakers, 8 are republican...

BENEN (9/26/10): In other words, faced with a [sic] environmental problem, the first instinct from conservative Republican politicians is to ask the federal government to do something. Indeed, they're specifically asking for federal bureaucrats to sweep into action and use expanded federal regulations to help people.

Hmm.

There seems to be a bit of disconnect here between Republican ideology and real-world problems. On the one hand, conservative lawmakers like Bartlett hate "big government," the EPA, federal regulations, and government bureaucrats. This year, plenty of GOP candidates are talking about eliminating the EPA, firing parts of the federal workforce, scrapping regulations, and slashing spending on various agencies.

Shouldn't conservative lawmakers, right about now, expect the free market to offer a solution to the stink-bug problem? Why hasn't the GOP offered everyone a tax credit for fly swatters and facemasks? Why aren't Tenthers running around demanding to know where, exactly, the Constitution empowers the federal government to deal with an insect infestation?

there's more, but it always bugs me ::ahem:: when conservatives pretend that government can do no good, that the free market is always the best solution, and that regulations are socialist.

they know better.

yet we've heard this same refrain on a variety of topics--from social security to health care, medicare to medicaid--for the past 30 years from the right-wing.

this just demonstrates that their claims are disingenuous at best.

too bad i can't get the EPA to regulate the stink of THEIR B.S...

a must-read

here's jane mayer's brilliant new yorker expose of the billionaire koch brothers' ever-expanding, increasingly-influential "kochtopus" that has been bank-rolling an anti-democratic agenda (including the current tea party movement) for the last 30 years in our country.

this piece is important to read because these guys prefer to stay anonymous, while very visible "actors" (tv talking heads, politicians, and their supporters) play out the scripts that their think tanks write to forward their pro-business agenda...

it's all very disheartening for someone like myself who believes that the people, not the powerful, should control the destiny of this country.

it's on like donkey kong!

the thingz at "the great pumpkin bash,"
malone's bar & grill
10/15/10

last week's treasure moment

i'm reading ramona the pest to my class. while discussing a part where ramona doesn't want to share with her neighbor, howie, i asked my students to write about a time when they didn't want to share with someone...

here's what i found in one of my student's reader's response notebook:

i like to share because sometimes i don't have the stuff that i need...

sweet and an independent thinker! i love my class this year!!

The Weight of Words

Many families have Christmas traditions. Some families open presents on Christmas Eve. Some wait until morning. In our family, Santa always made late-night deliveries, so we'd awake to find heretofore unseen treasures on Christmas morn. But on Christmas Eve, my parents would always allow my sisters and me to open one present. It was the best part of the night, after delicious dinner and before boring church. Of course I'd have already picked out the "best" present to unwrap hours before. I'd use a very scientific method: whichever one was the heaviest.

One year a mysterious box appeared early in the evening. And even though for the entire month of December I had been ever-so-attentive to the quantity of presents always present (as any 10-year-old worth his/her suburban salt would be), suddenly, there it was. Beaming beneath the lighted tree. So just as the Aunts and Uncles, in their church clothes with their polite gifts, arrived and embraced Mom & Dad, I seized my opportunity...

...I picked up the box and shook it!

THUMP! THUMP!!THUMP!!! :::GASP:::

It's from my parents...

It's got to be that game console!

Then, as quickly as I had grabbed it, I shoved the present back under the tree, just in time to greet the arriving family members without arousing suspicion. Just act normal. Just be cool. Calm. Collected.

That seemed impossible now.

I didn't even hear what Aunt Barbara and Uncle Jay said as they squeezed the Merry Christmas out of me. I'm quite sure it was something about how handsome I was/How much I'd grown/How they remembered when I... blah, blah, blah, blah, blah... I didn't care. All I could think about was that present! Then Grandma and Grandpa arrived, and the whole ritual repeated all over again. "Look how handsome you are/How much you've grown/I remember when you..." This was torture! And just when I thought Greetings of Yuletide Cheer were complete, my Oma and Opa opened the door, and we were back on the “Merry Christmas”-Go-Round! It would be another 53 minutes and 13 seconds before I FINALLY got to hug the only thing I really cared about at that point... My Precious!

Dinner was a blur. I was completely obsessed with opening that present. I think somebody said grace, but I was pretend praying, eyes closed only to cover my covetous thoughts. Why should I pray? My prayers had already been answered. Obviously, I ate my vegetables--anything to please my Suddenly-Saintly Parents--they didn't even have to ask. I said, "Please," and "Thank you," and sat still even though I was feeling antsy. My TREASURE! We were all going to church at midnight, so we didn't want to get too full and fall asleep. But I would never fall asleep. I was too amped! I just wanted to rip into that present right then and there, skip church, and play with my game all night till the first light of Christmas day! Me and Santa, battling head-to-head, Mom serving us muffins in the morning...

BEST. CHRISTMAS. EVER.

And maybe it was. After all, I still have what I got from Mom & Dad that night. And I still use it all the time.

But I didn't think so when I finally tore into it after dinner. I was crestfallen. I thought my parents had tricked me.

Later, as I sat in that painful pew at Midnight Mass, paying little heed to the impending Birth of Our Baby Savior, I prayed that tomorrow would FINALLY be The Big Day for me. Prayed for Christmas Day Redemption. Prayed to turn water into wine... to transform that Dumb Ol' Deceptively Heavy Dictionary into my INCREDIBLY VICIOUS VIDEO GAME! Please, God? PLEASE!? PLEASE!! PLEeeeezzzzzzzzzz... I prayed so hard I finally fell asleep on my mother's shoulder, my sleepy saliva, like translucent tinsel decorating our Christmas sweaters. At least I would provide the Preacher some Sunday morning sermon material for the following week (Typically, the least-attended Sunday of the year, so the "We're-all-children-of-God-resting-on-His-shoulders" fluff sermon wasn't heard by many besides my family and me). I guess in my passionate pleading to The Almighty to RECEIVE, I ended up GIVING after all.

And isn't that what Christmas should be about?

Ultimately, I had no need for divine intervention beyond being lucky enough to be born with wonderful parents who spoiled me on Christmas. But ask me if I still have that Awesome, Most-Viciously Gnarly Video Game… Nope. I outgrew it by the 9th grade. But that Dumb Ol' Dictionary helped me all through Middle & High School, College and Graduate School, and I couldn't have made it (or this) without it!

Nick & Elvis in SF!

nick lowe, great american music hall, 10/1/10


elvis costello, great american music hall, 10/1/10

The Clouds Live in the LA River

nevermind.

sorry.

hope to transmit again soon...

i'm baaaaaaaaaack

testing. testing. 1, 2. 1, 2. is this thing on?

it's about to be.

more soon...

long beach green festival

The Sky


the clouds @ green festival, 5/9/09

here's what i did instead of working in my classroom on saturday. we played on the "fire stage" at the "art park" on elm and broadway. it was a lot of fun... better than working in my classroom!

periodic coffee tables

since we have to teach the elements and the periodic table in fifth grade (something i wasn't taught until 9th grade), i thought these periodic coffee tables were pretty cool. maybe i could even buy one for my classroom with my cotsen money...

this one's neato because it has actual "embedded element samples" (except for the radioactive ones--boo!) contained under the glass top, and it only costs $9500.

there's also this one made of all wood. you can read the whole story of its creation (with pix) here.

seems like something our resident science expert, mrs. mank, would enjoy. making we could all chip in and buy one for her birthday!

HAPPY ST. BILL HICKS DAY!

back when i started this blog, i wrote a post about seeing bill hicks at UCI in 1992 and how it changed my life. i even wrote a rap called "it's only a ride" inspired by his words... well, today is st. bill hicks day, so i thought it only appropriate to post those words that mentored me.

and btw, i hope it's not true, but there are rumors on these here inter-tubes that russell crowe is slated to play hicks in an upcoming biopic. ugh.

HAPPY EASTER!

scholar dollars

my principal asked us to share some of our trimester 2 successes, and i have to say that my scholar dollar has been quite a useful tool/behavior incentive in my classroom. i know it's not an original idea--plenty of others have used classroom "money"-- but it is an original design/drawing. thanks to wendy wahlen for encouraging me to be gender inclusive with my design, (so P.C.) although it looks like the female character is missing a couple of the scholar "icons." can you spot which ones?

the clouds

the clouds @ viento y agua, long beach 3/20/09

photo by mom

it was wonderful to have so many people come out to support the clouds and me at viento y agua on friday! my thanks to the following: mom & dad, sis(!) & insane cougar(!!), dave neely, robo, sam, mike & kim, stephanie & marco, jenny, linda & david mank, and quite surprisingly, my former VP lucy salazar and her husband! it was nice to see all of your loving, smiling faces.

OXOX's TO YOU ALL!

red eye

the thingz play a show in huntington beach, deep in the heart of OC darkness, and find proof of de-evolution...
our only choice: play a dev-o cover.

the thingz @ gallagher's, 3/13/09

on-line drum set

make your own beats on-line!!

i wonder if my principal would object to my students using this in the computer lab... lemme check the 5th grade music standards...

well, it's definitely covered by standard 2.0 "creative expression," but the lab might sound like a rave!

we'll have to close the door... :>