The Daily News

1   So...Nate Dogg walks into a bar...

2   Too young, and too much talent.

3   So sad. And it was a series of strokes that wound up the cause.

4   I swear.

5   Sad.

6   Raise a glass.

7   Sad.

8   Moving on, Part the First: Seems every time I turn around, someone is getting married, or someone is getting buried. Thank goodness I have my Sunday go-to-meetin' clothes ready.

9   Like even today.

10  I had to find a pair of black pants and a fresh shirt because I'm going up to San Francisco tonight for a wake.

11  A friend of mine's mother-in-law passed away earlier this week, only a little bit after his father-in-law passed away.

12  This came after my wonderous Alice-in-Wonderland weekend, in which my entire world turned upside down.

13  So it's around 4 a.m. as I compose, and I'm awake and working 'til three p.m. and then I drive up to the wake, staying there 'til possibly eight, and then returning home. I won't be at school tomorrow because I have the honor of being a pall bearer at the funeral, which is again in San Francisco.

14  Yeesh.

15  You might remember that the last funeral I attended was the day after the San Bruno crisis. I grew around that area, and a whole bunch of us grieved for my friend John's father-in-law. Well, this is his wife. Tough on their entire family, and especially the younger set.

16  I've gotten somewhat used to all of this.

17  Somewhat.

18  It really seems that it all came in the last six years. Lots of sadness, and far too early for most of them.

19  In the midst of life we are in the midst of death; a truer word was never said.

20  That wasn't me. It was Thornton Wilder.

21  That's Thornton, not Thorton.

22   Like the hockey player Joe.

23   As I already stated, yeesh.

24   Moving on, Part the Second: Man, this DN sounds so grim. I'm more concerned with finding a pair of pants that I could wear to both a funeral and a wedding, as well as a reasonably comfortable pair of shoes.

25   You wind up that way, you know?

26   Well, every cloud. Yesterday I was able to get home early and stay completely caught up on school stuff, and today I go in and teach both iambic pentameter AND the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet.

27  And yeah, I was supposed to be done with that stuff around three weeks ago, but I want to give my students the essentials, and you can't just blow off Shakespeare in a week or two.

28  So today is one of my premiere lessons, and I need to attend a wake and a funeral afterwards.

29  No rest for the wicked, I find.

30  So I'd probably better crawl back to bed. It's the wee hours of the night on St. Patrick's Day, and I must needs get me some solid sleep.

31  And I'll hoist a glass somewhere to everyone who is going through strange times. And I'll smile with my mischievous smile, and give you all a toast, because this stuff needs a rainbow, and a pot o' gold.

32  Enjoy it all, and stay safe.

Hey, I got nothing to do today but smile.

                                                       ---Paul Simon

33  And like the Budweiser people say, "Drink responsibly". And what they don't say: "But do drink. That's how we make our coin."

34  Ah, the never-ending hypocrisies.

35  That's life.

36   Live life.

37   Love life.

38   Peace.

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

 

                                                                                                        

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

       

  The Daily News

1   I ducked the Ides of March beautifully yesterday.

2   Traditionally a lousy day in my life.

3   Won't go into details, but I just want that thing to fly by unseen, like New Years or April Fools. Some days are just like that.

4   I not only ducked it; I conquered it.

5   We had some sort of testing yesterday. Bubble tests. Those are the tests that require Number 2 Pencils and strict, scripted instructions.

6   Followed by an hour of pure torture for students.

7   It's GREAT for teachers though, because we can monitor pretty easily AND get papers graded uninterrupted, at work, for like six hours. This is nicer than spending all day every Sunday working.

8   My honors' kids did fine. They were looking at gettting all SEVENTY questions done in an hour. SEVENTY.

9   They saw it as a challenge, and several wanted to stay after class to complete all seventy.

10  And of course I was proud of their attitudes and almost united work ethic.

11  My support class was completely different. Good kids who really just don't know how to play the game.

12  In many ways, succeeding with them has been an honor to me. For whatever reason, they just don't have the basic skills or motivation of the honors' kids. To me as a teacher, they're the ones that I could relate to, in many ways.

13  I always hear them say, "I'm a bad kid." Or "We're a bad class." SO sad. I have spent the entire year simply teaching them that they are not "bad" and that I want them to succeed.

14   It's arduous. But I respect them as young people. A lot of them hate reading, and hate those tests. They love other things, like skateboarding, or makeup, or art. Unfortunately, if you hate reading, you're going to struggle in school.

15   So I keep teaching them vocabulary, and telling them stories to engage them.

16   And I continually let them know that I respect them.

17   The test they took was designed to see how well they read. It is almost like a thermometer. The more questions they answer correctly, the better they score as a reader.

18   Once the vocabulary becomes intolerable, they tend to fall asleep, or stare off into space in disbelief that anything can be so exquisitely boring.

19   So what happens is they do about a third of the test, or some kids just connect the bubble dots so that if connected, they look like Pokemon.

20   Yesterday I decided that if they stay focused and keep pounding down, that their test scores will increase significantly. I decided that the more answers they do, the better their chances of success.

21  So I would not allow anyone to slack off. One girl threw her hoodie over her head and tried nap time. I walked over and tapped her hoodie with my pencil. She got it, and probably did around four more questions.

22  One guy just stared at his paper like it had torched his village. I just said his name and walked over to him and he got right back to work.

23  It was absolute torture. But they could see that I cared, and that I have respected them all year. They stayed with it.

24  With one minute left in the class, I let up, and said, "You guys DID it!"

25  The one guy who stared at his paper lit up and said, "I am a BEAST!"

26  When they left, they all were exhausted, but I told them that I was WAY proud of them, and that I'm sure that their test scores will soar.

27   I actually have no idea that their test scores will climb. I simply assume that the more answers they seriously attack, the better their odds. It was a test that they took right after summer, the identical test. It is designed to see how much progress they have made.

28  What those tests don't take into account is how they are monitored. I can guarantee that twenty-three students in the Cathedral (my nickname for my beautiful classroom) and a teacher who is constantly monitoring will do better than the same twenty-three students on the gym floor with a hundred other students. Or the same twenty-three students in a cafeteria with some drone on a microphone, and several gestapo sorts walking around intimidating them.

29  I have to guess we would get a lot more Pokemons in that sort of situation.

30  Overall, in the past week, my support students scored higher on their vocabulary sentences than they have all year, and their last vocabulary test succeeded remarkably because I changed how I structured it.

31  That spilled over to this test, which will be examined by some committee or other.

32   I always tell the students that we are going to be visited later in the year by the WPC.

33  They usually ignore that, because to them, who cares?

34   Inevitably some guy will ask, "What is the WPC, Mr. H?"

35   My answer?

36   White People with Clipboards.

37   Smile.

38   Well, sometimes our biggest conquests happen when we least expect them.

39   In my case, it was on the Ides of March.

40   Miracles come in all sorts of interesting packages.

41   I guess that was mines yesterday.

42   Mines.

43   You have a great day.

44   I just did.

45   It can happen.

46   Peace.

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

 

                                                                                                      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Daily News

1   Josh Rosa was published.

2   Who is Josh Rosa you ask?

3   He is my daughter Caitlin's fiancé.

4   Are ya serious?

5   Yes. Text messages flew back and forth last night and it turns out that Josh just  published an e-book.

6   The info came in fast and furious last night, so details are sketchy at best.

7   But the guy DID it, ladieez and gents.

8   I've known him to be brilliant from simply knowing him, and I also know that he has talent beyond most of ours.

9   His piece is called Gutsy Opinions: How to Finally Beat the Politics of Us and Them.

10  His word about the work: "It's about the slow decay of democratic governance. Pick it up for a light, breezy read."

11  Tongue as always planted firmly in cheek.

12  Here's the link:

http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/gutsy-opinions-how-to-finally-beat-the-politics-of-us-and-them/15059996?productTrackingContext=search_results%2Fsearch_shelf%2Fcenter%2F1

13   It costs $6.99 to purchase, and has five stars, whatevuh that means.

14  I read a hard copy of the first few chapters about a month ago and really enjoyed it.

15  I love shooting the breeze with Josh because he is pretty brilliant, AND ridiculously funny.

16  So good times, good times. I love those guys. Buy his book. Shameless plug.

17  Moving on, Part the First: I had my first taste of cowless milk yesterday. I've recently taken to having a glass of chocolate milk in the morning, no fat but something easy right before I embark on my journe.

18   But Save Mart didn't have any chocolate milk. They had this stuff called "Silk", which is a pretty lame slamming together of "soy" and "milk".

19   I thought it was sort of cool because my groceries were all pretty healthy things, which always makes me feel that I'm fooling everyone else in the store into thinking that I'm actually a really healthy guy.

20  I do that.

21  Like, if I'm getting all veggie stuff and salad makings, I put them on the treadmill thingy first, so that the clerk will assume I am a healthy sort of guy. So if I have cilantro, carrots, tomatoes, lettuce, orange juice and Silk, they look at me like I am Joe Health.

22  And yesterday the clerk was this guy who I would always see at all the Evergreen sporting events. He had a tie on that was our school colors, which are the Sharks' colors.

23  I had all this veggie stuff goin' by, and smiled huge when he put the Silk in the bag.

24  I thought to myself, "That's right, yo! I am Captain Health. Throw that into the Grapevine on the Hill."

25   I always wonder what grocery clerks think of their customers. I mean groceries usually must mean a lot of "regulars". When I was in merch, I couldn't stand my "regulars". They were often people with no lives who just wanted to hang out. Sorta geeky sorts. They would drive me crazy, but were always nice.

26   But they would never buy anything. They just figured I was their homie.

27   But grocery clerks know a LOT about their regulars. And I always wonder if they talk about what we buy. Like, "That guy buys vodka and crackers EVERY SINGLE DAY."

28   It's enough to make you fill your cart up with tons of health foods.

29   In a way it's good.

30   AND healthy.

31    Whenever I want to buy unhealthy stuff like pork rinds or Slim Jims, I go to the liquor store right next to Save Mart. That guy couldn't care less about my health.

32   When I get home, I could hit my own treadmill and then report to Facebook that I "hit the gym", which is my sunroom now.

33   Captain Joe Health.

34   Moving on, Part the Thoid: I hate that I have to wear reading glasses these days. Don't get me wrong; I'm glad I can still see. But when I give my tests and things, I am always wearing glasses the way librarians used to. They tend to slide to the tip of the nose, making one look ridiculously older.

35   I mean I AM ridiculously older than my students, but then I always felt that way, even when I was younger.

36   So anywayZ...yesterday I gave an oral exam to my brilliant students, but was able to take those hideous reading glasses off because I was simply dictating words. I could easily see one word, so it was nice.

37  Right in the middle of the test this girl said, "Mr. Harrington, you look different."

38  At first I was taken aback. I felt I looked as hideous as ever. Could it have gotten worse (not worst)?

39  I thought of what it was that was different, and came to the quick conclusion that it was the glasses.

40   I looked over at her group, all of whom awaited a response, put my glasses on and said, "Clark Kent." I took them off and said, "Superman."

41   I won that one. I'm a gunslinger. I knew they got the image because there is really no hiding my muscular frame and rugged good looks.

42

43  Hey hold up. Pie Day was yesterday.

44  I can see that this conversation is slowly headed south.

45  I'd better get while the gettin's good.

46  Have a great Tuesday, while they last. Between Josh and me, I'm sure we could exact legislation to eliminate Tuesday as a day of the week.

47  Meanwhile, have a great Tuesday.

48  It's almost 4:30 a.m. and WAY past my bedtime.

49  Have a lovely day.

50   Peace.

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

 

                                                               

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2   I spent most of my weekend dodging pies.

3   Long story; won't bore you with it.

4   I enjoy the irony though, because on Friday I believe I wrote about how a pie-in-the face comes with the job.

5   I was of course referring to acting, but after I put a little thought into it, I realized I talked about all of us on Friday.

6   Or it might've been Thursday.

7   Or Tuesday.

8   I'm too tired to care, really, but at length, the concept is tied directly to modern hubris, which the Greeks saw as the idea that human beings sometimes get so full of themeselves that they inevitably wind up with a pie in the face.

9  I rather like that.

10  I sometimes drink hubris in place of coffee.

11  I order it à la mode.

12  It is such a tantalizing invite to the gods.

13  It's sort of humorous in a way.

14  As long as YOU aren't the pie-ee.

15  Like I LOVE when some guy who is tailgating another driver is seen around fifteen minutes later on the side of the road getting a pie in the face from the Highway Patrol.

16  Sucka deserves a pie.

17  Hmmm. Who deserves a pie in your life?

18  Charlie Sheen, certainly.

19  But am I the only person in America who couldn't care less about Charlie Sheen?

20  And it is becoming hip to forgive him. Or even to like him.

21  I'm so disinterested in the guy that I don't even know what he did wrong.

22  At least any more wrong than the stupid, idiotic things that we all do in the process of living.

23  Dude.

24  Let he amongst us who walks without sin throw the first pie.

25  Yeesh.

26  There are so many worse (not "worst") things.

27  So there you go.

28  Moving on, Part the First: The devastation in Japan is almost too much to watch.

29  Of course, the conspiratorial person in me wonders how an earthquake near Japan just happened to be within a stone's throw of a nuclear plant.

30  I'll say no more, because I would rather not receive a pie.

31  Anyway, it's a tragic, tragic scene. I can't even imagine what those immediately affected by the tragedy are going through.

32  As of right now, I still think helping by donating money is probably the best most of us can do.

33  The Red Cross jumped on it immediately, so if you wish to help, donate some coin to the Red Cross. You can earmark your donation easily if you go to this website:

www.redcross.org

34  And secondly, you can pray. You can pray, send good thoughts, pray to Joe-the-Bear, or to whatever almighty deity you might feel works best.

35  Bottom line is that none of us can sit here and cry. This needs fast work, and money does change things.

36  Moving on, Part the Second: Tough weekend, but it's now 5 a.m. on Monday morning; the cat is OWWWWING! loudly, and all seems back to normal.

37  I fell down a rabbit hole this weekend and lived in a bizarre world that brought every nightmare imaginanable.

38  I somehow regained my trust that the ground on which I walked was once again solid, and sanity has landed a gentle carpet beneath my feet.

39  Except for the fact that the clock radio in the living room just now went off blaringly loud, the same clock radio that Saturday sent me to the rabbit hole.

40  And the cat is "OWWWWWABLY" loud.

41   Thanks.

42   I'm up and awake, whoever wanted me up and awake at 5 a.m. on a Monday.

43   Well, I think I can head this off by turning OFF the radio and opening the front door so the cat can go out.

44  I'm done withal.

45  I'm going back to bed immediately.

46  I refuse to go down a rabbit hole on a Monday.

47  So as usual, it's Monday.

48  Fly low.

49  See you again.

50  Peace.

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

 

 

                                                                            

                                                     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pray.

     Devastation in Oarai town in Ibaraki prefecture (state).

  The Daily News

1   I was caught at school last night and heard quite late about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

2   This will be a story with legs, so please allow me to see what happened and how to help.

3   I realize every minute is a life, but a lot of times in events like these, you need a little patience at the plate so we could see how best to offer help.

4   I'll try to remain on it as it unfolds, and anyone out there who knows the best means of getting help out there, feel free to email me, and I will get the info out there as swiftly as possible.

5   Right now we have the entire thing of waiting until things are set up online.

6   I'll keep you notified, perhaps even this weekend.

7   Meanwhile, pray. This is a major tragedy, and we need to rally the troops to help Japan.

8   For those of you who don't know, a magnitude 8.9 earthquake hit 250 miles northeast of Tokyo yesterday, causing huge tsunamis and at least 57 aftershocks. According to ABC news this morning, 88,000 people are listed as missing, and the death toll has various numbers from 55 to 1000, but those reports are seldom accurate in these sorts of situations.

9   According to this morning's Merc News, there are tsunami warnings for the entire Pacific Coast of Japan. Tsuanami warnings were also put into effect for Japan, Russia, Marcus Island, the Northern Marinas, Hawaii, Guam, Taiwan, the Philippinnes and Indonesia.

10  The entire California coast all the way to Oregon is also in a tsunami warning, mainly because of the fierce 8.9 reading of the initial quake.

11  I will attempt to keep you posted, although I will be teaching all day, and tomorrow I will not have computer access because I'll be at my Dad's.

12  Meanwhile, until help agencies are set up, pray for all of our friends and families affected by this tragedy.

13  Moving on, Part the First: I had one of those days yesterday. This sort of story always puts bad days into serious perspective.

15  I'm not a believer that there are bad days anyway, as anyone who reads the DN would know, at least not on a smaller scale. A series of small setbacks is not a "bad day".

16  I believe that each occurrence tends to be a separate occurrence, and that a bad day could turn around in a millisecond.

17  Good thoughts. A bad day is when a real tragedy hits. So after my series of minor setbacks, I got down to our theatre last night and enjoyed music at the deft hands of our maestro, Steve Barnhill.

 18  From our Concert Band, which consisted of many of my own students, to the orechestra, symphonic band, and wind ensemble, the entire evening blew me out of the water.

19  A nice ending to what was clearly the worst day of the year. And the worst day of the year at the Chill ain't really anything to write home about. And when put up against what just happened, yesterday was a mere trickle. I'm lucky to work in such a nice school.  

20  These students hold doors for one another AND for the teachers for gawdsakes.

21   So I ain't trippin'.

22   I just had some boushit from the English department that I had to take care of, and it took hours upon hours to figure out how to do some computer stuff.

23   I just kicked back, figured I'm a grown up, and figured it all out.

24   It just took TONS of time out of a guy who simply can't offer that sort of time.

25   Bottom line: it all got done, and I was able to relax with some amazing music the rest of the evening. I didn't like getting home to the news of the earthquake and tsunami.

26    So let me get info on Japan, dudes, and perhaps we can DONATE when I get the links.

27    Meanwhile let's pray and give thought to the families and friends of those affected.

28    Gottago teach.

29    Peace.

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Born:  February 23, 211 at 10:26 p.m.

 

Where:  Good Samaritan Hospital, San Jose, CA.

 

Vital Stats: 7 lbs. 2 ounces, 18 3/4 inches.

 

   The Daily News

1   Wednesday of my personal BOYCOTT BIG OIL AND GAS campaign, and I still have a quarter tank. I've gone nowhere.

2   The nice thing is that it's not really a "cause". I didn't start a huge Facebook cause thingy because I'm simply not that important.

3   Sometimes a humble protest works.

4   I spend my entire life trying to convince people to think. It's my career, if you think about it.

5   So sometimes I just do things that are logical and really don't care if anyone joins me. Like today I gave Charlie Sheen up for Lent.

6   When you get down to it, we all are teachers in a way.

7   Too bad we couldn't have some sort of harmonious convergence where all our best ideas and practices are listened to by one another.

8   I'm fairly convinced that we would discover miracles.

9   Moving on, Part the First: It's a little after 3 a.m. as I compose. The cat just woke me with a baritone bevy of "OW! OW! OW!" It isn't a "Meow" though. It's operatic and ridiculously loud. Every night. Every single night.

10  I turned on his faucet and let him enjoy his trickle of water.

11  Within ten minutes he began screaming again.

12   We took him to the vet last year, and thought he was dying.

13   Nope.

14   Just a creature of annoying habit.

15   He is howling now, only it's down to a mile "mew". 

16   It's like having a witching-hour opera sung by one fastidious cat every single night. Don't get me wrong. He has a booming voice. But every single night.

17   Good thing I'm awake to enjoy it.

18   Moving on, Part the Second: I created a document called Daily News Ideas yesterday.

19   It began when a student asked me this question: "Was Rosaline a Capulet?"

20  I get this question every year.

21  In Romeo and Juliet, if you recall, in Act 1, Romeo is hopelessly in love with a girl named Rosaline, who has rejected his wooing.

22  Like ridiculously in love, or what he might think is love.

23  He is so distraught that he roams the Sycamore Grove each night, sighing and crying over Rosaline, and in the morning goes home, shuts himself up in his room, masking all daylight out, and sits in darkness sighing and crying.

24  Every year, a student will ask if Rosaline is a Capulet.

25  Every year I mechanically answer that she is the niece of Juliet's father, and that she is also Juliet's cousin.

26  Just fact.

27  Yesterday the same student offered rhetorically, "So...Romeo has a thing for the Capulet chicks?"

28  

 

29   I had never really considered that, in all these years. Consider this: Romeo was well versed in the poetry of Plutarch.

30   It brought in this entire self-destructive aspect to the story.

31   I then thought, "How come we don't learn about Plutarch in high school?"

32   In fact, we don't learn about a lot of things in high school.

33   I got home and became really philosophical.

34   In Mexico, philosophy is a subject in school. Not so in the United States.

35   So I went home and found out about Plutarch.

36   Mountain climber and sonnet writer. Wrote flowery sonnets.

37   There's more, of course.

38    I spent a good part of the afternoon just thinking about all sorts of things, like Plutarch, and philosophy, and how Harper Lee, while good, is no match for Shakespeare or Socrates.

39  Harper Lee would probably have trouble attracting readers to a blog spot nowadays.

40  Anyway, I whiled away the afternoon with a snooty disposition and a great amount of philosophical folderol traveling through the train that is my brain.

41  One student.

42  One comment.

43  Shakespeare. Plutarch.

44  I think I'll go back to bed and ponder.

45  It's all I can do.

46  Have a great Wednesday. I'm actually not sure whether to give up Charlie Sheen for Lent, or Lent for Lent. Still pondering.

47  Peace.

~H~

www.xanga.com/bharrington

 

                                                

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

  The Daily News

1   Turns out that I was wrong about boycotting Lucky.

2    I got emails from a lot of my peeps on FB telling me that the whole thing about Lucky's was somehow legit.

3    I won't go into details, but the bottom line is that the state of California has some sort of tax deal that ensures frying pans the right to tax the top dollar if there is some sort of tax deal that the state made with taxing things that are on sale.

4   Or something. Whatevz.

5   I ain't buyin' it, even though this "law" or whatever allows taxes on things that are bought on sale, like cell phone packages.

6   Sorry.

7   Ain't buyin' it. Literally.

8   How does THAT work?

9   Ah, who kez.

10  Bottom line really is that the state could tax sales' items by taxing the original price...and blah blah blah.

11  Or something. I sold merch for years and that never happened. If we dropped a price, the tax would be on the dropped price, not the original. Evidently I'm too stupid to have figured out that somehow those policies have disappeared.

12  So I guess I will put hat in hand and allow shopping at Lucky, even though I still think that it is shady.

13  Who kez anyway? I really don't need cookware, nor the aggravation.

14  Moving on, Part the First: I sort of roamed the internet for more stories and found that the Miami Heat basketball team lost a non-playoff game and that, according to their coach, caused some of the players to cry.

15  Okay.

16  KNBR'S Rod Brooks had a bit to say about that one:

17   "Look,You only cry about four things. One, you cry if you win a championship. Two, you cry if you lose a championship. Three, you cry if you get a compound fracture. Four, you cry if you SEE a compound fracture."

18  Great stuff.

19   Moving on, Part the Second: I'm actually going back to the Lucky's thing. I decided that whatever tax law scammed me, it wasn't the fault of Lucky's, who are part of a chain that includes both Save Mart and Albertson's. It was way to complex for me to really care about, but conglomerates are what they are.

20  So yesterday I immediately ended my boycott. I walked right into Lucky's, avoided buying anything else, and got myself a gallon of orange juice for $4.29. I must have read yesterday's DN a hundred times trying to figure out how they could tax on a retail cost, and kept coming up empty.

21  Bottom line: I got a gallon of orange juice for $4.29, no tax, and walked out. No Girl Scouts or homeless guys with teevee trays. No strangers approaching. I went directly home and refused to drive for the rest of the night.

22  I woke up at around 2:30 a.m. to a radio blaring something about how Libya has caused gas prices to skyrocket. Yes, of course. And oil tycoons.

23  My Valero station has tied Arco with lowest gas prices around, beating our Rotten Robbie, who charges the same amount as Shell! Are ya kiddin' me? I rule out Costco because of the horrendous lines. And I pay cash, not debit.

24  I'm glad I got my gas two days ago, because the price just went up four cents a gallon due to Libya.

25  Are you guys BUYIN' all this hoseshit?

26  Watch your wallet, that's all I'm sayin'.

27  Moving on, Part the Thoid: I had a little time last night and began researching Lucky's/Albertson's and all the rest. There was tepid scandal involving Lucky's horrific treatment of women, but there were lawsuits and WAY too much history (don't make me say "misstory" or I'll hit you) for my brain to bear.

28  I tried to find something on the Girl Scouts, but every article had the word "cute" or "big brown eyes" in it, so the worst thing I could pull out of the Girl Scouts is that they are somehow "in bed" with Planned Parenthood. If that's the case, I'll buy more cookies.

29  Yes, you heard if first. I am a choice guy. Sue me.

30  I'll never agree with you, and you will never agree with me, so let's just leave that one at the doorstep.

31  And yes, I'm a "liberal", which by today's controlled media, translates to an Anti-Reagan madman.

32  Uh...yup?

33  Just read, people. Stop letting Rupert Murdoch control your thoughts.

34   It's sort of like teaching. Every time I see stupid thinking, I think to myself, "I might as well grab a huge broom, and try to rid the shores of sand."

35   Do people actually take my boushit seriously?

36   Will some parent read my blog and get me fired for having two words with the -shit suffix?

37   Am I in some sort of mad Alice-in-Wonderland haze?

38   It's 3:30 a.m. and I've already logged in around seven hours of sleep. I want to live my life so that I awaken every morning healthy, wealthy, and wise.

39   Okay, I'm just wandering here. I think I'll tuck this one to bed and hope for some clearer thinking tomorrow.

40   You guys have a good day.

41   I'm going back to bed.

42   Late.

43   Peace.

~H~

 

 

  The Daily News

1  If there is ANYTHING I have learned as a teacher, it is that I am also a student to my students.

2   Check it.

3   I gave my students an assignment to research mask making.

4   They rose, and then they rose some more.

5   My deal had me knowing full well that they would all study the history of masks, which, if you go to it for four seconds, will make you realize that it rocks.

6   So much stuff rocks!

7   Well, I had the students sit down in a circle and explain to the classes how they got inspired to make their masks.

8   Many of them moved to action because of a little glitch I deliberately threw into the handout on their assignment.

9   The glitch was that you had to research the Renaissance a little, and the actual physical building of their masks required a little research into the Renaissance, because their masks HAD to at least suggest Renaissance.

10  A whole bunch of them researched masks from every culture on Earth.

11  And they had to explain how they were inspired, and then what they actually did at home.

12  A nation of them did last-minute projects purchased at Michael's.

13  But one student stepped up and told everyone that he didn't stress, because he knew the assignment was due on Tuesday rather than Monday.

14   So he started his on a Friday afternoon, and then simply did little things to his mask as he enjoyed real life on his weekend.

15   Every other hour or so, he'd check to see how his mask was coming along.

16  Naturally EVERYONE knew that the correct way to handle a deadline is to start it early and work on it every now and again.

17  But most people don't. I started writing today's DN on Friday afternoon, figuring I'd work on it periodically all weekend.

18  <basketball buzzer>

19   It's just around 5 a.m., and I'm pretty much beginning it. I did start it with the mask making bit on Friday in anticipation of this morning, but I knew all along that I had too many other things going on.

20  So here we are. Did I learn from that student? Nah.

21  Moving on, Part One: I decided last week to begin boycotting things this week, beginning with the outrageous gouging of the American people by the oil and gasoline industry.

22  It's a personal boycott, but I am going to use the absolute minimum amount of gas possible this week. My goal is to put twenty  dollars in and try to get through the week.

23  That means to and from work only, and very limited mileage beyond that.

24   I thought I'd begin yesterday living off what was left after having gone up to Dad's on Saturday.

25   Well, it doesn't always work that way. Listen: Yesterday morning I started to make breakfast when I realized we were out of orange juice. To me, it isn't a Sunday breakfast without chilled orange juice.

26   So I flew over to Safeway to get orange juice, but thought I needed a few other items: laundry detergent, aged asiagio, fresh fruit, etc.

27   I decided on Safeway because I am currently boycotting Lucky. Lucky has this promotion that if you purchase ten dollars worth of groceries, they'll give you a stamp for FREE cookware. I looked at the stuff, and looked at what I currently have, and it really could use an upgrade.

28   The cookware was solid, and I figured I could get four items for around $150. I knew that I would need to buy around four thousand dollars in the months this promo was going, but they would also give you a sixty dollar pan for something like $11.99 if you had 50 stamps.

29   I approached the entire thing realistically.

30   When I finally decided to get my four items, they rang me up. But when I looked, they taxed me on the full price of the items. So instead of paying tax on $11.99, I was paying tax on $59.00!

31   Pretty shady.

32   I was pissed. I told them to keep the stamps and the cookware, and politely told them I wasn't interested, and that I felt I had been taken.

33   The clerk looked at me funny, because it really didn't make that much of a difference price-wise, and it's still a good deal.

34   But I'm sorry, to me it was shady, and I walked out. I was polite, but I am now boycotting Lucky. I spent at least a thousand dollars in Lucky the past couple of months, so that was ridiculous.

35   So no orange juice from Lucky. And I will no longer shop at Lucky.

36   So I then went to Save Mart. Save Mart had Girl Scouts out in front of it.

37   I had an issue with the Girl Scouts years ago when they tried to throw their religious doctrines on my daughters.

38   Just me.

39   So I boycotted Save Mart. I also don't like being approached by strangers, and if strangers are going to accost me in front of a store, I will go elsewhere.

40   That's how I wound up at Safeway, which is further away from home. I was proud that I did, shopped, got everything, and went home.

41   Right before I arrived home, I looked over at my grocery bags and realized I had forgotten to get orange juice.

42   The Girl Scouts had Save Mart surrounded, and I was boycotting Lucky, so I decided to go to Rite Aid, which I boycotted last year because they have weird lines. People easily cut in front of you, and management is pretty bad. But this was an emergency, because I needed to get back home, as breakfast was partially being cooked already.

43   I dashed to the orange juice section of Rite Aid, and they had Simply Orange for $4.49, a complete rip-off. That stuff is good, but it's not THAT good. I decided to boycott Rite-Aid and head off to the other Safeway, which was about the same distance as the previous Safeway.

44   I was now ready to kill for orange juice, AND I was wasting the gas that I was boycotting!

45   I pulled up to the other Safeway and made it quickly to the front.

46   Girl Scouts.

47   Sticking to my principles, I decided I was just going to go through the drive-thru at McDonald's, about which I have no beef, no pun intended.

48   Then I realized that if I bought two glasses of orange juice at McDonald's, it would probably cost me a minimum of four bucks, which defeats the boycott of Rite-Aid.

49   I just thought, "Forget it! You're wasting the gas you are boycotting! No orange juice for breakfast!"

50   So I headed home, but decided I REALLY wanted orange juice. I also justified in my head the boycott of the Girl Scouts, citing that I boycott being approached by strangers anywhere.

51   I don't like homeless dudes with cardboard walking up to the side of my car, because I don't know who they are or where they came from. I'm paranoid about that. Like what if I don't give the guy a handout, and he goes ballistic on me?

52   Likewise, what if a Girl Scout's mom berates me for not giving to the Girl Scouts?

53   I give to all sorts of causes, and give to charities all the time. I just don't like being  approached by strangers. It's just me.

54  But still.

55   I craved orange juice at this juncture, and decided to go to 7-11.

56   I don't boycott 7-11 because although it is overpriced, you know that going in, and you are paying for the convenience of a swift in and out.

57   So I went in, grabbed a half-gallon of their cheapest orange juice, and then asked the lady how much it was.

58   It was $3.89, a HUGE rip-off, but I paid, figuring it was $2.89 for the orange juice, and a buck for the convenience. It's all in how you look at it, see?

59   So yeah, all my boycotting probably cost me, but somehow, I stuck to my guns and never enjoyed a glass of cold orange juice more.

60   So I have a personal boycott of gas this week. Feel free to join me. And boycott Lucky. Their cookware scam deserves a boycott.

61   Go ahead and buy Girl Scout cookies. They're good, and I think they think they are doing good things, so let's not mess with them.

62   It's Monday.

63   Fly low.

64   Peace.

~H~

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