The Daily News

1   Friday is here! Wow, that came AWFULLY fast!

2   Is like, here.

3   I had to get all my stuff from my classroom out and into the TOOOOOONDRA yesterday. Forgot how much stuff I keep at the school: a guitar, amp, mic, the BOSE!, papers, papers, papers to grade, and everything else!

4   I'm not quite done Christmas shopping because I goof on how NUTS the drivers are out there. It's downright dangerous! I had one huge near miss the other day, because EVERYONE is zany! I get REALLY worried in the rain, lemme tellya.

5   I also goof on how even on the cloudiest days ever, Californians can't lay off their sunglasses! I sure can't. I always like wearing sunglasses, because my trips up to the Chill head directly into the sun in the morning.

6    ...and the moon at night. <snaps> Haha, PLUS it's a perfect excuse to look cool, even at night. Californians, I swear to you! Everything is all about being cool. I LOVE sunglasses personally. I'm always jealous when someone looks cooler than I do haha!

7    Nah. jk. That means, "just kidding" in the Imperial World of "whatevuh".  Haha! Maybe we could NAME that thing the IWW! No one would know the difference, right?  ;  ) <----sideways winky dude, always a cool guy.

7    Moving on: Did I hear that New Year's Eve there will be a blue moon? Dude. Invest in that beer right now.

8    Whew.

9    I wrote this last night awaiting the Winter Concert.

10   So much love.

11   During the concert, I wrote the second half of the DN, but the concert was SO awesome that I dropped my pencil and stood dazzled. Our Concert Band began the proceedings with an exquisite performance, all ears and braces, and MANY of my English 1A students taking up first chairs!

12  How proud could a teacher be?

13  Pretty darned proud.

14   They played their hearts out, and the result was incredible.

15    I won't go through the entire evening, but one piece the Concert Band performed was a piece called Too Beautiful for Words.

16    Knowing full well that the piece was OBVIOUSLY intended for me, I blushed.

17    Uh...dude.

18    Once in a while I become verbally ironic, and somebody out there is saying, "Well! He thinks he's so beautiful!"... and blah blah blah. Uh...look up "verbal irony".

19    Trust me, shugggguh.

20     It was clearly a frivolous comment, and any person with half a cranium could figure out that I was not the intended recipient of their tune.

21     And even more clearly:  I thought the title spoke for the entire performance by all the bands:  We had a Concert Band that showed tremendous promise, with TWELVE of my English 1A kids in it, many of whom were first chair!

22    And when I arrived at the Chill four short years ago, we had a start-up orchestra with about twelve kids in it.

23    Last night they got up to thirty-eight.

24     I could go on and on about the efforts of Steve Barnhill, our Maestro, but it would cut into my drinking time.

25     I've taken to celebrating life's little things with root beer and whistles.

26    The root beer because root beer rocks, and could be made easily into floats, which are ideal for lunch.

27     And whistles just because. I'm officially a member of the Root Beer and Whistles Society. <RBWS> hehe!  ;  )    <-------sideways winky dude

28     AnywayZ, it was the perfect trifecta, which me good mate and confidant Jeff Love explained to me, and which I now know finds its roots in horse racing.

29    Ah, yes. So much love.

30    I don't have to teach you NUTHIN'!  Haha, look up "trifecta" in the lexxy.

31    That's "lexicon" for "those slow of study".  Got it, ya horse?

32    Well, THIS edition of the DN was supposed to be a large "CONGRATS" to everyone who made it through this loony week. To those who just finished finals, a HUGE CONGRATS!!!! Keep fighting, because the fighter still remains.

33    To everyone else who survived the DANGEROUS HIGHWAYS <always the protector, yes?>,  I thank the Creator of the Universe for a) saving you, and b) for bringing you into my life. <awwwwwwwwwww...>  = )

34    Okay, goofballs. Before I leave until next year, a few things: the highways are DANGEROUS this time of the year, because LUNATICS are driving every way but sane. PLEASE be safe! I've had two near-death accidents in the last four years, and have had MANY of you tell me of their own narrow escapes, so just realize this and drive sanely and defensively. Watch out for the OTHER guy. Take off your sunglasses at night, and stay off the texting while driving.

35   After that, please enjoy your family and friends, and celebrate true friendship with your true friends.

36   Love the season, love your family and friends, and stay safe.

37   I'll probably drop a DN special in the next few days, including a fast  list of things to do in town in the next few weeks. So stay tuned, willya?

38   I love you all, everything.

39   Please enjoy a wonderful Holiday stretch, and may all of you find the peace and love that  you long for. The world has gone nutty, so stay sane, and love what you love. I'll still love all of y'all.

40   Happy Holidays, and I'll  see y'all next year!

41   Or sooner, haha~!

42   Peace on Earth.

43    Love you.

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

The Daily News

1    So...Roy Disney walks into a bar...

2     I used to goof on ol' Roy for years on end, and yet...

3     Ladieeez and Gents, the immortal Roy Disney!

4     Ya gotta raise a glass!

5     So it goes.

6     Speaking of glasses...

7    (Looking about, patting pockets.) Thought I lost my glasses.

8     Honestly.

9     I have a hunnert-and-five pairs of reading glasses, but the ONLY pair I actually would be seen is the pair that I lost.

10    (Excitedly.) OH! WAIT!!!  I just FOUND my glasses. (But the joy quickly turns to dismay.)  Whoops! Lost 'em again.

11    (To himself, an amazing discovery.) Whaaaat? They were right in front of me the whole time!

12    Fookin' glasses. I swear to you. (Takes out tissue and water. He cleans them.)

13    (Suddenly, a discovery.) I have cleaned them, and  suddenly virtually everything is coming at me with crystal clarity!

14    Now that the smoodges and all have vanished, the world is materializing perfectly  to me.

15    I see a whole buncha things that are opening before my quite dazzled eyes.

16   (Noticing Mickey Mouse at the top of the page.) Wow.

17    A  Fun Moment, Part 1:  I discovered Russell on So You Think You Can Dance, and saw a guy with a lot of heart and soul win the whole ordeal.

18   Ah, clear glasses!

19   Do we all not see better once we improve our personal vision?

20   Well, I refuse to go too deeply into all THAT.

21    Moving On: I had an entire Christmas piece for this DN, but somehow all my notes and extremely clever retorts to life buried, or perhaps, recycled.

22   So I just thought I'd reverse direction and focus all of us on forgetting all things life, looking within ourselves, and then counting the blessings that so many of us have surrounding our very beings.

23   Today, for example, might perfectly well have become one of the loveliest days of the year.

24   Well, I crowed yesterday about making that a possibility, yet I stubbornly wanted also to offer my services at the girls' basketball game.

25   And our girls, who went to state last year, have had some less-than-awesome games, and were down.

26   I reluctantly went to the game because I told the coach that I wanted to be there for the team, plus I'm a pretty good shot clock guy.

27   For the record, this team went to state playoffs last year. AND most of the team are returning veterans.

28   And yet...the opposition dominated the entire game, at least until the final four minutes, when our girls began pressing and stealing the ball.  Their strenght is in their speed, ability to press, and ability to throw threes from a mile away.  ;  )  <---sideways winky smiling dude.

29   Ah, the usual. They wear down the thundering giants from other teams, who peter out, and then they just manage to tie it on a three-pointer, sneak ahead by four, and run out the clock. That's precisely what happened last night. Up 'til then, they haven't had a very good pre-season, so it was a breakthrough night. Some fun!

30    Bottom line: we won, and I'm loving all of it.

31    It made for a late night, but also a fun night.

32    That's two outta three fun night's this week, the first being our Choir concert Monday night.

33    Tonight is the Winter Concert, and Steve Barnhill's troops always deliver some of the best music you'll ever hear. So yeah, I'll be exhausted by tomorrow, but I look way forward to working lights in the booth and enjoying live music. It's exhilarating. Our wind ensemble still has kids who went to Carnegie Hall two years ago, and Steve told me the other day that these guys are in orbit once again.

34     Ah, 'tis the season. I'll try to hunt down the DN I wrote last week in hard copy all about what's playing around town during Christmas. I may even have to throw a special edition of the DN out there on Saturday, not sure. It took a while to get all that info I lost written down.

35    Hmmm. (Looking around.) Maybe those notes are with my...glasses?  ;  )

36     Peace.

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GREECE IS THE WORD.

The Daily News

1   So...Oral Roberts walks into a bar...

2   Who?

3   Religious guy. Gratuitous.

4   Someone else thinks he was everything on the Earth and the stars.

5   Might be, I imagine.

6   With a name like "Oral", he had to be a fighter.

7   So it goes.

8    I'll take the high road here.

9    Moving on:  Ever enjoy a trifecta?

10  That's this new century buzz word that has something to do with gambling, which I personally have little use for, and something regarding things that happen in threes, like the Stooges.

11   The extraordinarily hip and cool know exactly what a "trifecta" is.

12    I just see it as a ho-hum buzz word.

13    AnywayZ...

14    Haha, as me old mate Thornton Wilder once put it, everywhere you find human beings, you'll find layers and layers of nonsense.

15    I paraphrase deliberately, because so did Wilder.

16    Segue, Part the First: I once saw the playwright Edward Albee at San Jose State, and he related a story about Wilder that was exquisite.

17    He was a lad in some small New England town, and thought he was quite the poet.

18    He wrote a bunch of poems to have Wilder look over. They took a day to wander down to a pond, and Wilder brought a bottle of whiskey with them.

19    He said, "When this whiskey is gone, I'll have read all of what you have written, and I shall tell you my opinion."

20    Taken aback, Albee sat and drank with the amazing playwright and thinker.

21    As the bottle drained, Wilder kept reading Albee's poems, crumbling up each one, and tossing it into the pond.

22    When the bottle was finally drained, Wilder turned to Albee and said, "You are a dreadful poet. You might try some other genre, such as drama perhaps, but really, you work as a poet stops here."

23    All right, I don't know that those were the exact words, but I'm quite sure that neither did Albee.

24    The point is that this particular day, so many days before this day, turned Albee into one of the greatest playwright's in history.

25    Fun story.Okay, maybe not exquisite, but it kept you reading. ; )  <-----cool sideways winky guy.

26    Moving on, Part the Second: Not sure if this is the place for it, but the entire concept of the trifecta is that I actually had AWESOME days three days in a row! I don't know that I even need to go into details here, but in hockey terms, this would be a "hat trick".

27    I truly think that if you bring happiness and optimism to each day, that you could go through the day owning it, rather than reacting to it.

28    Here's an example:  Yesterday, instead of having my students enter the room normally, I got on the computer and made three posters, all written in a sort of Greek column font. One said, "OPA!" The second said, "Greece is the word", and the third said, "Are you a Hero?" I angled them happily on the door leading into the room.

29    As the students entered my room, I had Greek music blasting at them, stuff from anitquity. When they walked in, they all yelled, "OPA!" Laughter prevailed, and the mood boosted and already fun week to a much higher, more gleeful level.

30     All ears and braces, I tellya! Smile everywhere.

31     I got them settled, and put into groups, each of which had its own name: The Justice League, The Watermelons, The Buzz Buzz, Big M.C.K. among others. I had them come up with qualities of heroes, as well as things that would stop heroes from becoming heroes on T-Charts.

32    I timed it at exactly ten minutes, to the second. In fact, I always have ten-second countdowns when a group is finishing up. On this unit, when they reach one, the whole class must yell, "OPA!", which is Greek for, "Oh HELLLLLLYEAH!!!" Or something like that lol!

33    I have been playing Ancient Greek Music all week, any time they would group up.

34    So yesterday when they grouped, I routinely asked if they would like to hear some more music from Greece.

35    They routinely responded, "Ah, yeah, go ahead..."

36     I lit up You Tube, and responded with the opening song, as well as title song from Grease. 

37     I said nothing, but had a poster centered above my whiteboard that said in column-style fonts, "Greece is the word." I never said a word and just sat there grading papers. The slow discovery of both things was quite fun to watch.

38    They LOVED it, and it made for an amazing go-round, as well as rousing hollas of "OPA!"

39    We did a lesson about how while we all have heroic qualities such as strength, determination, moral stature, etc. that we also have things that hinder us from being our own heroes, things such as jealousy, temptation, greed, and all the rest, things that always seem to pull us down as day by day heroes, as well as being heroes for ourselves. GREAT lesson, really. 

40   They learned and learned and learned.

41    At the end of the period, after an exhilarating lesson, I asked if they would like to hear some more music from Greece.

42    To a person, they all said, "OPA!"

43    The exit music then became "We Go Together".

44     Haha!

45     Whatta day! As they danced out of the room, a few kids were singing, "We'll always, be together; we'll always, be together!" SO fun, and others kept shouting, "OPA!"  One guy yelled, "OPA Winfrey!" Haha, cute.

46     Can't wait for today.

47     Hope this made y'all smile, and enjoy what good teaching is all about!

48     Had a ball, and so did they!

49     You go out there and rock the world today, willya? Whoop someone into a happy mood! Press on, friends!

50      Peace!

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The Daily News

1   Lovely! Frank Gore for Mayor! Finally! Niners' defense shows up! Caps a GREAT day! Ah, had a GREAT day, and it capped off with my Niners delivering the goods and laying the hammer down on Arizona. I won't stay there, but YEAH! The news said something about how the Arizona Cardinals had enough turnovers to open a bakery! Haha, ya gotta love it!

2   Moving on Instantly: Our choir delivered the goods last night. 'Tis the season for music, surely, and as always, I enjoy listening to harmonies and melodies, especially during the holiday season. How wonderful it always is!

3    So we had a play over the weekend, a night of voices hauntingly beautiful last night, and our Winter Concert on Thursday night.

4    Can't wait!

5    Yesterday just worked. I designed my classes to have lots of fun, and to yell "OPA!" as they enjoyed talking about the qualities of a hero.

6    Long story, let's just say that eveything worked.

7    And I KNEW I had to be on me game, since I had to stay for the choir concert.

8    I alphabetized all my papers, and then took off to the Pond, swam thirty, and returned to the theater for an evening of pure joy.

9     Ah, 'tis truly he season for music, and for concerts.

10   Just a lovely day.

11    It's funny, 'cuz I'm now an official Facebooker, which means that if I let myself go, I could put some little sentence on my status. So I wrote something like, "is loving today..." and then beyond that, the rest of the world could just sit around and guess what I mean.

12   So weird. We've become enigmatics. It occurred to me that without an explanation, most people won't know WHY I was loving today. I could go home resting beautifully with the fact that nobody will ever NEED to know.

13   I guess it's an art, but ah, iono.

14   Our ability to communicate gets shorter and shorter with each new week.

15    I mean, I don't EVEN twitter, but evidently short, insignificant comments with leaving others to ponder mysteriously is the order of the day. I really wanted to say that I had a GREAT day in the classroom, lotta activity, laughs, and interaction.

16    I think Trami and I are the only two people pining for a return to Xanga, when people wrote using real writing, and expressed themselves with passion and creativity.

17    Like I'm cool with Facebook, because it has put me in touch with MANY wonderful people from my life.

18    But really?

19    I guess it all works.

20    A lotta times I just shrug my shoulders and say, "And...do I care?"

21    That's not intended to really criticize, I just don't really care if someone says,"Pissed off!" but says nothing more. Huh?

22    Haha, I guess there are worse things. I'll just let it go. But people, myself included, PLEASE! Don't tell us you wanna jump off the Carquinez Bridge and then leave it hangin'. AnywayZZZZ...

23    Today's TOOOOZDEEE folks! AWAKEN!!!! 

24     There ya go.

25     Have a great one. Kiss someone on the cheek today. It's a great day for it.

26     And if they don't return the favor, puleez don't go on FB and say, "...sad..."

27     Haha, I'm not sad at all, and am looking forward to yet another awesome day, and I'm more than willing to share that with my most intricate friends.

28     So...I had yet another awesome day yesterday, and I am looking forward to yet another. Hope you are too!

29     Make everybody you know smile today. That ain't always easy! Aight then.

26     Peace.

~H~

harringtonb@yahoo.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Student 2:  No way.

4    And from there, the conversation drifted into the numerous other conversations going on in groups.

5    I had heard this conversation before.

6    It took me back to my very early days as a teacher.

7    I always goofed a bit on that when I was younger, to be true.

8    A GREAT friend back-in-the-day, Doug Roselli, burst into the faculty lounge one day and announced this, early in the season: "I have a student named FU%#K NO!!!!"

9    We were mostly startled, but amused! He laughed so hard that his uvula disappeared into a deep abyss.

10   I politely told him this:  "Dude. They pronounce it, 'Foooooook".

11   Two white guys dude.

12   He looked at me like I had twelve heads.

13   "Haha," he said. "You believe that?"

14    To be honest, I had no answer. Well, I actually DID have the answer, which was akin to thinkin' that the correct pronunciation in another language was probably closer to his.

15    Well, anyway, that was my early indoctrination into the entire YB thing that would mark the measure the first part of my career.

16   To this day I still wonder what the real pronunciation of that guy's name was, but I'll simply laugh and assume we were just two exceedingly dumb white guys. Funny the stuff you overhear and chuckle at every now and again. Same conversation, billions of light years later. And a smile from this old brown shoe.

17   Moving on: So I hopped on the Internet last night and it wouldn't let me on.

18   AOL in particular has been "upgrading", which seems to include turning itself off, turning pink, and trying to include clover in its design. I think someone at the top has gone off his or her rocker. It's Christmastide, dude.

19    Moving on, Part the Second: Ever have the pilot light go off on yer heater?

20    It's an instant cartoon trying to get it lit.

21    For some reason, I always envision having it blow up in my face, like something in a Goofy cartoon.

22    I know all you have to do is hold a button and strike a match, but the instructions put you right into a Goofy cartoon. You start reading all the warnings and stuff, and you move around with huge shoes.

23    It lit once, then went out, and then it refused to light.

24    I was waiting for a couple of chipmunks to come in and start goofing with me.

25    Welp, I never DID get the thing working, but it made for a funny morning. I feel like I was a cartoon the whole morning!

26    Ah, vell, as I said earlier. If those are my only problems then I got no problems!

27    Going to the EV Choir concert tonight at 7. I think it's free, so if you've nothing to do, it's always nice to get out and listen to some pretty music this time of the year.

28    Have a great day everybody. Traditionally short week!

29    Enjoy it, and smile at someone. Brings joy.  = )  <-----goofy sideways smiley dude

29    Peace.

 WOW!

I JUST GOT BACK FROM EV'S OPENING NIGHT OF NEIL SIMON'S
RUMORS, AND I'M BLOWN AWAY!!!!!

The Daily News

1   First, some background. The Show gave a special performance for staff the day before yesterday.

2    I couldn't attend the Show because we had an English meeting run by the Show's technical director.

3   And LAST month, the same day as Homecoming as I recall, we had a meeting in which a bunch of us decided that we were all too exhausted to even BEGIN to get any real work done.

4   Well...you lag, you pay. We had to all miss the free performance for staff.

5    I understood, and redirected my focus to all the needs of the department.

6    I came up with this awesome idea, and the departmental biz took off. Yesterday I was publicly thanked by the Department Chair, through all-users e-mail.

7    SOOOOO...somehow that all worked, and forced me to go to the REAL opening night.

8    All I can say is, "Bravissimo!"

9    Last night up at the Chill-on-the Hill, the cast and crew of Neil Simon's Rumors gave a command performance, and my feeling right now is the feeling of having been drenched in a true work of art.

10  Sadly, at the Show I missed for the rest of the staff, word got out that there was a LOT of cussing in the Show, and many staff members were not only offended, but sent massive e-mails to all staff voicing their "disapproval" of the supposedly evident morality issue.

11   I have to think that the entire "morality" issue revolved around a few cuss words that were left in the Show.

12   I capitalize "The Show" btw for a reason.

13   To me, it remains one huge Show.

14    Here's what I saw: I saw a brilliantly directed Show, with an excellent book, and an even more excellent cast, delivering lazers and split-second timing in one of the best works of art I've seen in years!

15   They had timing, goofiness, split-second movements, great costumes, precise timing, great enunciation and volume, and amazing acting!  On a Thursday night, they had well over two-hundred audience members for a play directed by a student!

16   Let me tellya, the work directed by Michael Ho, the student director, was beyond reproach. The blocking was brilliant, the timing precise, and the gags perfectly timed.

17   I stood humbled in the shadow of REAL brilliance, because Michael obviously choreographed the Show with precision and perfect direction. To be honest, he clearly did a much better job than I ever did in my career, save perhaps Our Town, Godspell, and Midsummer (twice!). This kid, honestly, delivered the goods like nobody I've ever seen, and I include meself in that equation.

18   It was GRAND being back watching a Show that I envied. I always told my students that the mark of a GREAT Show was that the audience goes home WISHING that they were a part of it!

19   That's how I felt in the end.

20   The Show goes up tonight, tomorrow afternoon at 12:30, and tomorrow night at 6:30 (actually 7!). Tix MAY be purchased at the door, but given the enormous crowd tonight, I have to think that this Show MAY very well sell out!

21    It absolutely took my heart away knowing that those kids must have heard all the negative stuff about the minuscule cuss words, and it must have had a bit of an effect, but last night was one of those AMAZING nights in which the audience and the performers, tech people, and directors all came together to kick major ass.

22   I LOVED it, and so if you would like to see it, it's ten bucks, beyond fair, and it's up at EVHS tonight and tomorrow night at 6:30.

23   I'm guessing it'll be a sellout by today at noon, if my read on these things is accurate, but it's worth calling the school and asking. 408.347.7000.

24    I have officially witnessed the definitive moment for Drama in this relatively new school, and I'm seeing MANY things on the horizon for that area of the Performing Arts. HUGE things, actually. Like CLO did with Cabaret all those years ago, each theatre seems to have a moment that defines the future.I felt that way when I brought a show called Silents to YB somewhere in the 1800's!

25    Would I wish to climb on board in the future?

26    My answer is, I just might!

27    I just might.

28    More to come, but I love y'all.

29     But lemme tellya...

30     I miss it all d00ds.

31     I miss you all too!

32     AnywayZ I'll take the high road outta here!

33     My plan is to go to the Show again tonight.

34     H-m-m-m-m-m...just might.

35     Love you, truly,  and let's here it for the playuhz!!!!

36     Peace.

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

 

 

 

 

Go out and make it better.

--Carlos Santana

The Daily News

1   Had a GREAT DN all written and ready to perform last night but somehow lost the first draft!

2   Ever had that happen?

3   Yeesh!

4    Like I had this WAY cool DN all ready to launch, and somehow all of my stuff vanished! Like, "Whoooooosh!"

5    Well, naturally I responded all mellow, as any one of you who has the slightest clue understand about me.

6    My indefatigable patience.

7    Haha!

8    In all honesty, I almost threw me computer into my neighbor's yard.

9    The worst part of all of it is this: I couldn't tellya what the thing was abooot!!!

10   I got SO cocky and wonderful in my etchings that I literally forgot what it was I wrote aboot!

11   The "aboot" tells me it was something somewhat Candadian. Might be the hockey.

12    But nope.

13    I had a bit about Santana, but nope. I do know that I could put a pic of Santana at the top of the page and it would be cool. So I did. And it made me feel REALLY good inside. AnywayZ...

14    Every now and again the internet steps forth and decides that the world has had ENOUGH of you!

15    And if you are an old brown shoe like meself, you decline and ask, "Am I to believe ALL of this, O Pythira?"

16    To which the response is like the classic eight ball on the YBDramaworkshop.com website-in-the-weeds: "Answer hazy, please try again."

17    Okay creepy eight-ball d00d!

18    All apologies, but really?

19    AnywayZ...I had to re-write the entire thing last night late.

20    Well, I actually held out 'til around 9:30, but just got too sleepy, and decided I could wake up at around midnight and finish.

21    Wrong. Working out gets me more sleepy earlier, and I dozed well into the night, awakening at 2:30 a.m. to find that the DN was still sitting around idling. So I got up and lumbered over to the desktop to polish this guy off.

22    Moving on:  I actually had some time on me hands yesterday, and realized that our school needed a good rubric for students' writing.

23    In a lofty fashion, our department insisted on not only a good rubric, but how we could make it all happen for kids in every subject.

24    Having some valuable time (Do any of us realize the importance...I think not...), I took information from the CAHSEE (California High School Exit Examination), as well as the rubric from the CSU expectations for incoming students, and devised a rubric using both, just finishing up before our English meeting yesterday.

25   What was COOL was that the English Department threw everything else out and focused on my rubric at the meeting.

26    They naturally debated phrasings and such, but it is looking like my work will become the order of the day for cross-curricula writing, and that it may well set a model for the entire district.

27    Well, I certainly hope so! I stole all the ideas from two other sources, and made it into one simple piece that is pretty understandable, and which works for both high school students as well as students entering college.

28   That was an incredible meeting, and turned out productive, and if I may, due very much from my having worked my ass off for several days.

29   Felt good, all in all.

30   A part of it was for survival. An English meeting without a plan is like twelve episodes of The View coming down all at once. LOTSA voices, all of whom by nature are natural ponderers.

31   The very nature of English majors is to ponder, which is why I always preferred hanging out with science people and coaches. Pondering is nice if you are in an intellectual discussion, but in terms of after-hours meetings? Uh...no? Still, I felt great that I contributed a bunch to the department, and probably shortened that meeting by at least an hour. I also think that the end result was logical and progressive for the students not only at my school, but in the district as well.

32    Bottom line: I  had a lovely day, because I had worked hard. The two quite often co-mingle.

33    Co-mingle. What a word.

34    Also, it felt that I had become a teacher again. And if you TEACH, then you would undersand all of this folderol. It felt great to be able to offer help to the department, and made life easier for lots o' people.

35    So somehow, all this weird stuff is keeping me alive and vibrant! I keep trying to take all the intensity I had both as a director and a class advisor, and moving it into the classroom, and now, into the department.

36    GREAT day, which lived better than it read, but this is the second go-round, and it's late.  So just thought I'd share! 

37    Hard work is often its own reward. In this instance, it sure paid off, and I felt completely invigorated when I got home.

38    I also conked out pretty early from putting so much energy into stuff.

39    Ultimately, it should all help the students, and that's why we're out there doing this stuff every day.

40    So I just thought I'd throw it out there that the day rocked, and I look forward to many more!

41    Better go; it's late as I write.

42    Have a great day everybody; find it in your heart to make today the best day of the year.

43    Peace.

 

 

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's SHOWTIME, FOLKS!    The Daily News 1   Bone Jour. 2   Haha, I'm French. Ain't that grand? 3   Just like the soup. 4   Man, chilly willy, right? 5   The funny thing is going into The Pond at this time of the year. 6    There's nothing sillier than a guy parking, and then taking his street shoes and socks off, putting on sandals, and dressing like it's midsummer. 7    The fun thing is, the Pond stays the same temp despite the outside weather, so it's still a nice swim, all in all, but the departure usually includes me leaving the place in a drenched bathing suit. 8    For whatever reason, I'd rather just dry meself off at the Pond, and then beat a hasty retreat. The thought of walking up a flight of stairs and going into a mens' locker room just doesn't work with me. 9    Yeah, you're welcome for the image lol! 10   I much prefer slipping right out the front doors, throwing a towel on the driver's seat, and then propelling outta the place. 11   Shopping is sorta funny, because I always stop at the Safeway right next to the place. Or yesterday, I had to buy an electrical switch, so walked into Orchard with a wet bathing suit and then shopped the electrical section. Got a few funny looks, but also noticed that most people don't dress up to buy stuff. 12   Look around. People really don't care WHAT they look like when going shopping. And it's funny, because I am not the sort to go around shopping in sweats, or in mismatching stuff. I have enough trouble trying to dress for work each day. 13    I've hit a point in life where I no longer want to look good, I just want to AVOID looking bad. = )  <-------smiley emoticon dude so that I give the impression of a churchboy. 14    So most times you'll see me in a tie these days, with the exception of when I'm at the gym. I've thought about swimming in a real suit, just to see if the guys in the gym toss me out for inappropriate dress, which DID happen one time when I wore a hat in the water to protect my head from over-chlorinization. 15    I may just do that anyway, jump in the Pond in a searsuckuh suit. If they surround me and demand that I leave, I could argue that it's my swimming suit! 16    Moving on: Our drama department is putting on Neil Simon's Rumors this coming weekend, with shows beginning on Thursday night and running through Saturday. It starts at 6:30, and I'm REALLY looking forward to it because they have a new tech person who has built a two-storey set. The kids are all excited about it, as am I. They've ALWAYS had good acting up there, but the sets have usually been pretty tame. So there's a great deal of excitement up in the Drama area of the Chill these days. 17   Every once in a while, I miss doing shows. Most times I don't, because I really enjoy my free time. But it does still course through my veins every now and again, and I always become incredibly alive when around seasonal shows. 18   I sometimes miss all the laughter and goofiness, as well as doing some of the extraordinary tech that we would do. I spent years and years without a Saturday, and right now can't even IMAGINE not having a Saturday to chill and enjoy my weekend. 19   But every year right about now I get the Drama bug. Can't help it, because our Fall shows always fell right before Christmas. 20   I remember one time years ago being SO exhausted from working on a set that I looked across the YB quad and thought I saw Santa Claus staring back at me from a cherry tree. 21   It wasn't creepy, just sorta foggy without real fog. I kept staring and then realized that it was a picture of Santa on the side of a Coca-Cola truck, before they went to Pepsi. Strange interlude, to be sure, and a wonderful distortion of reality. 22   But yeah, I must confess now that I was somewhat addicted to doing shows, and all the love that went into them. And at times, truly, I would hallucinate things like that. Sounds a bit eccentric, but exhaustion has a way of blurring reality sometimes. 23   Most of the time, it was electric, fun, and exciting. But sometimes the pressures of deadlines would distort things to the point of goofiness. 24   Lotsa good times over the years, as lotsa people who read the DN could testify. Great times in the Theatre, and just a great legacy for all. 25   Anyway, the cast and crew of Rumors invited all staff to a showing today at 2 p.m. but the English Department wants to have a meeting. The co-chair of the department is the technical director, so it's a bit surprising that the meeting wasn't moved. I was disappointed, because it's difficult for me to get to an evening performance, and I really do want to see if EV is bringing some hardore tech into their shows. 26   I have a freshman girl in my English 1A class who is working on the tech crew, and was VERY excited about the show. 27   I still have a sorta plan to slip in there anyway. I miss the Theatre every now and again. It was always an outstanding outlet and great fun for everybody involved. 28   I remember one time turning to Ponch and saying, "Mr. Ponticelli Sir, WE are in the business of creating memories!" 29   Haha, we STILL say that whenever we chill! 30    So yeah, every now and again I do miss the fun. But I don't miss the hours it took to create all that fun! 31    Perhaps some day I'll guest-direct. I always regretted that I never directed Romeo and Juliet or Oklahoma! Romeo and Juliet just because, and Oklahoma! because of its corniness and soul. I also always wanted to direct Shrew, of course! To this minute, I want to play Petruchio in that one! 32   Yeah, and I'd love to play opposite Drew Barrymore haha! 33    Ah, with that, I'll take a graceful exit, sliding along in hat and cane, a little shuck and jive. 34    Have a lovely day everybody. 35    I thank you most graciously. 36    Peace. ~H~ www.xanga.com/bharrington

 

 

 

 

 

 The Daily News

1     Snow!

2    There's snow in them thar hillz!

3     I loved waking up and going outside yesterday.

4     I got to my classroom, looked out the window and saw that the hills just up the street from the school got dusted with white powder.

5     I could literally walk to my huge cathedral window and see the snow right up in the wonderful hills of Sannozay.

6     Someone wrote me an e-mail yesterday and mentioned the Chill-on-the Hill, my nickname for EVHS, my place of employment.

7      It is well named this time of the year. Those hills above the school have always been a favorite romping ground for me whenever I would want to hop in the TOOOOOONDRA and get away from the whole world.

8     There's a place.

9      I go up there a lot. It is just SUCH a great place to go for a quick jaunt to get away from everybody and everything.

10    I almost went up yesterday, but had to finish writing up a test, and then I had to "hit the gym".

11    Haha!

12    "Hit the gym". I keep joking about that fad. It's a cool fad, and I'm now as mainstream as everyone else, because it's a healthy fad, but it is also funny to me that people always need to let you know when they've gone to "the gym". It's again like there's one Universal Gym that EVERYBODY seems to "hit" before they do something else.

13    When I was younger, I never "hit the gym", ever!

14     We would simply play sports, and not always organized sports. I would play basketball after school ever day, or during the summer, play baseball, sometimes three games on a given Saturday.

15    Also, my job "back-in-the-day" was awesome. In college, I had a part-time job selling concessions at college and professional sports events. I sold beer and peanuts and stuff at Niner/Raider/Stanford/Cal/Warriors/Rock Concerts/ and anything else that would need food at a stadium.

16    It was GREAT money and even GREATER exercise, running around at huge sporting and entertainment venues and running up and down stairs for four to five hours. It was also a sport of its own, because there was competition to see who could sell the most "loads" of beer or whatever.

17    We got a healthy 20% of what we sold, so it wasn't unusual way back when to make anywhere from $75 to $200 in a very short period of time, but really, the money was never the main event. Being the number one guy, or what they called in the business, "high man" was the crowning glory, if you sold more of the same product than everyone else.

18    We would sweat, move, turn, toss stuff, smile, laugh, and enjoy some of the greatest moments in the history of Bay Area sports. Some guys would travel the country going to different stadiums (is it stadia? who knows!), but I pretty much stayed local. We worked huge rock concerts, Big Games, playoffs, All-Star games, and yes, even Super Bowls! 

19   I retired a coupla years ago, believe it or not. My last game was the Giants/Yankees two years ago, where I sold souvenirs, now called the very catchy "merch".

20    Anyway, working out used to involve sports with friends, or moving through a crowd and enjoying athletic competitions. Now it involves going to "the gym" and "working out". It isn't quite the same, because while I do go with partners occasionally, most people tend to go once or twice, and then hem and haw for a week or something.

21   So yeah, the gym is doing a lot of things healthwise, but there's something sort of cold and lonely about it all.

22   Nice to be healthy though. I go nearly every single day at around 5 p.m.

23   It's quick, and it's healthy, at least I THINK it's healthy. I'm really not so sure with all those people in there sweating and running and getting their sweat all over everything. The Pond proper has a sort of eerie glow to it, and several of the lights are always out. So it isn't always easy to get motivated.

24    But being 2009, it is THE thing to be doing, I imagine.

25     Honestly? I'd rather get a group together and play some basketball, always my exercise of choice when I was younger. I used to bring a ball down to this cool little schoolyard that had pine trees and all, and shoot around for a coupla hours.

26     So yeah, the gym is good, and it is clearly having a wonderful effect on most areas of my life, but I miss being able to just take off to the hills when it snows, or to  cruise around in the T000000NDRA.

27     Yesterday I got a bit nostalgic for the hills, particularly when they had snow and pink clouds as the sun took its early departure. I wanted to turn right and go up there and cruise all through those hills. I LOVE driving through the hills and looking out on our hometown. It's a pretty special view, and always feels real.

28    Haha, the radio just told me that Mt. Hamilton is closed because of snow! How cool is that?

29    Welp, I had another DN written earlier, but this one feels like the right one. I sorta collapsed last night at around 9 p.m. I had spent all afternoon writing, running, and stapling together a test on the Golden Age of Greece, then I "hit the gym" for an hour, and then traveled home. I made some sort of healthy dinner, cleaned up, wrote a low-budget DN, and then conked out 'til around one a.m.

30    Not exactly my classic insomnia, but a willing substitute.

31    AnywayZ, I guess that's it for a Tuesday. I rather like getting Tuesdays out of the way, so I think I'll call it for today.

32    Fly low.

33    Have a lovely day, and enjoy the snow!

34    Peace.

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The Daily News

1    Argh! The weekend always flies by when you have a great one!

2     I would like to be the first "blog" (I claim I'm the very FIRST blogger ever with the Daily News, but that's my own ordeal, plus the DN is just the DN, period.) to welcome into this world the very beautiful Ayla Xuan Lee, brand new daughter to Julie and Chris Lee. She was born at 3:17 a.m. on December 5, if I got all the info straight. Julie is the girl many came to know as Julie Do for years, and even leaves that as her handle on Facebook.

3    I'm always excited to hear good news from all of our alumni friends, and that was a GREAT one after a few months of sighs and stuff. My heart turned into an enormous smile knowing that the world now has new hope in their new miracle.

4   Congrats!

5   Moving on, Part the First: Best weekend in quite some time, all told. Friday night I simply enjoyed knowing that I had put in one of my best weeks teaching, and came home knowing it!

6   On Saturday, I swam and swam and swam away all my troubles once more. This completely refreshed my outlook on virtually EVERYTHING, and the day rocked! I got into a set design Saturday, as bold as ever, only the "set" was my entire front of my house! 

7   I did a light design as fun as any I ever did. Ironically, I had Beach Boys music blasting on my iPod as I cleaned the gutters, tested lights, drew up a design, and worked all afternoon, just like "back-in-the-day".

8    I have two huge trees in front, and managed to light one an understated Christmas red, and the other a Christmas green. I angled the lights just so, so that they had a perfect blend of shadow and light.

9   My inner patio became even more fun, as I lit up my roof first, then had my daughter Nicole light up four somewhat tall bushes, so that they looked a lot like something out of Candyland. We even put candy canes of various colours on each bush.

10  I've a couple of cool polar bears, a mama and kid, and lit them with moonlight, with some ice blue lights traveling across the fence.

11  It took hours, because I had to test all the lights, replace bulbs, hide all the extension cords, and clean up and rake all the leaves.

12   I LOVE the results!  I love Christmas, even though for years I was famous for being a total Grinch lol! But as I get on in life, I realize that everything I do should throw some love out there somewhere, and so I did this year with the place.

13   I ALSO got about ninety per cent of my Christmas shopping done right after I worked out on Saturday morning. By the way, I have now spent 50 minutes in the gym 32 out of the past 36 days, and I can't wait to go back today!!!!

14   All swimming, pulling water and avoiding the Turtles and Hippos! I feel great, and would love to encourage everyone to stop talking about working out and find what works best, and then DO it!!! Once I decided to commit, my entire outlook on everything centered, and I now can't wait to get up in the morning and live life to the fullest.

15  You should try it, honestly. If I can do it, I swear to you, because I'm a normally a pretty lazy guy when it comes to exercise, ANYONE can do it!!! I've lost almost 20 pounds already, although the last five were murder! But yeesh! The entire world has become brighter, better, and sensible. It's been tough, but I've battled and won. You can too.

16   Love yuzzzz all, btw.

17   Moving on, Part the Second: Someone just popped on the venerable Meet Me in St. Louis, and for all its corniness, I hear nothing but laughter and fun permeating my home.

18   Well, I believe I'll keep this one short. I have a test to write up, as well as plans that need to be written for the next two weeks. After that, it's vacation time!  To those of you stressing the next two weeks in college, hang in there guys! I'm still rooting for all of you, even if I haven't been writing! You are ALL in my heart, and and I want to wish you all the love and luck, and I hope to see you during the holiday!

19   Welp, I've a movie to watch, so keep your heads focused, and your minds clear. Get some exercise, and call someone you haven't called in a while. It'll do your heart a tremendous amount of good!

20  Gottago. A classic movie beckons!  Love the season, love life, and I love all of y'all!

21   See you tomorrow.

22   Peace.

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington