Month: April 2013

  •  


     
    The Daily News
    1   Places to help:

     RESOURCES RELATED TO THE BOSTON MARATHON EXPLOSIONS

    • Boston Mayor's Hotline for families of victims: 617-635-4500
    • Boston Police line for witnesses who may have information: 800-494-8477
    • Red Cross Safe and Well: The Red Cross is saying that the best way to get in touch with friends and family is through its Safe and Well listing. The organization is saying it has received enough blood and does not require any more blood at this point.
    • The Salvation Army: The Salvation Army is offering food, clothing and counseling.

    Courtesy of MSN

    2   Say it ain't so.

    3   Is it just me or has the world gone completely mad in the past month? I don't remember any period of time in my life when I have seen such horrific stuff happening on a daily basis.

    4   I didn't know that members of the Sandy Hook Elementary School were sitting at the end of the race and had to live through yet a second torrent of mind-boggling violence.

    5   I send prayers out to those children, then to the people who were there, then to the people of Boston and any people I know who may have been there, or who may have even died there. I send my love and thoughts to everyone who has been touched by this tragedy, which would probably be most people walking around.

    6   I'm not going to list updates on the event.

    7   I don't like that thugs and idiots can do something like that and then put the entire planet in a stranglehold.

    8   I do have to spend a little time trying to sort it all out, as do most of us.

    9   I'm not going to list all of the stories of violence and fear that happened in the past month either.

    10  Am I wrong in screaming out, "What the Hell is going on?"

    11  I guess it makes my everryday stresses and challenges a little easier to swallow. Some consolation.

    12  I'm looking over my shoulder at every little noise. I'm waiting for some crazy person to come flying down my street in a car going a hundred miles an hour.

    13  My eyes dart around Safeway looking for nutty people, or for lone backpacks.

    14  Working in a school, I look out for any sign of trouble. I found it last week and broke up a potential violent incident. That is too close for comfort.

    15  I'm afraid to open my window at night.

    16  I'm officially living in fear.

    17  A part of  this looks almost controlled.

    18  I don't want to go there.

    19  I really don't.

    20  But this is an extraordinary amount of wacky acts of violence and absurdity in an extremely short period of time.

    21   As I stated, I don't want to go there.

    22   It does give pause.

    23   When a story of this magnitude happens, I can't help feeling that already there is another truer story behind all of the media hoopla.

    24  Time will tell.

    25  There is usually more to these stories than we see. Stories change. Lone nuts appear. Blockbuster books blow official stories. History has shown that. Meanwhile, my heart goes out to everyone affected by this.

    26   Moving on, Part One: Amid all this we have testing all this week, which means getting up earlier, getting testing materials, counting all the materials, giving the tests, taking fifteen minutes of a half-hour lunch to get the materials back to the room, and then finishing the day with two sixty-five minute classes.

    27   Following that we need to work like mad to make sure all our grades are accurate before the deadline on Wednesday. I could technically get them in today by four, since I spent four more hours after school yesterday going over each little assignment, locating missing work, writing parents and students, spending nine hours on Saturday going through assignments, making sure that each student gets exactly what he or she earned.

    28   The deadlines put a LOT of stress and pressure on. I work hard because it makes life easier. I like to know exactly what each student is up to, ongoing.

    29   This marking period is actually easier than the semester pressures, when the students and their parents suddenly awaken and all want their grades to go up.

    30   My grades are accumulative, which means they become like batting averages over a baseball season. This makes it makes it a lot easier when talking with students and parents about their grades. It is an open grade book. They can read their batting averages and missing assignments. They can work to improve.

    31   That might sound a bit too simplistic, but it does seem to be a reality. I always try to help students not live with  self-fulfilling prophecies. I will take time to help any student or parent who wants to work as a team in order for their child to achieve at a higher level.

    32   But the reality is we can't take a lot of time with individuals when we have anywhere from a hundred-forty to a hundred-fifty students. I have been working with several students who just don't want to come to school, who don't want to work when they get to school, who have moments of wanting to achieve, and then who slip back into old habits.

    33  I do everything I can to reach those students, but I also have to take care of the vast majority of students who come to school on time and who produce. I want the low achievers to see how their higher achieving peers sometimes simply show up on time and do all their work. It is a simple repair, for the most part. Attend every day. Do all the work. If you don't understand something I'm available every day at break. I'll bet we could achieve miracles if students and parents would work with teachers to make that very simple formula happen.

    34   I've had breakthrough success with several students this year, and saw this particularly in this past grading period.

    35   It's taxing, but there is so much reward when we do reach those students it's almost indescribable.

    36   It is also exhausting, beyond words.

    37    When students take pride in boosting their grades, everybody wins. The self-fulfilling prophecy is left behind, not the student.

    38   It happens.

    39   Moving on, Part Two: I'm deep into the one a.m. Fonts are starting to change on me again. Xanga is getting on my last nerve, because everything about them is worse than it was five years ago. I honestly don't know how they stay in business.

    40   It takes longer to get pictures on here. That is pretty recent. I don't want ever to stop the DN as long as I teach, because I think it gives outsiders good insight into the profession, and it is also fun to poke fun and jokes at people just as they are opening their right eye.

    41   I also have nothing to say about it. It writes itself. You know this.

    42   And it's easy when the fonts do what they are supposed to do, and the pictures appear immediately.

    43   It's fun to chuckle at Craig Ferguson when I get into the one a.m.

    44   It's not fun when things don't do what you want them to do, or when they do things randomly to add still more time to the task of producing this nonsense.

    45   For example, just now the entire page started moving up and down. I don't think that is Xanga so much as my new laptop, which has little hidden sensitive things hidden in the keyboard. I'm hitting some sort of automatic scroll, but it's a tad irritating.

    46  The newer computers are aimed at a much younger generation who know a lot of subtle tricks and capabilities that I never took too much time to master.

    47  So I get bouncy words.

    48  But I'm learning.

    49  I'm learning.

    50  If I can reach those students about whom I was talking <ha!> then I can probably improve on my own skills.

    52   I'm up against a deadline, and I need to get in early today, so my tests will be organized and ready, pencils sharp.

    53  Before I leave you todayI have to come back to Boston, and the tragedy there. As a guy who has a lot of history, I would like to give America, the families, and the world a little advice:

    54  Let's all give this horrific lunacy regard and thought, let's care about what it has done to everybody, let's hope the villains get caught, but let's not stop living.

    60  Let's not live in fear of lunatics. That is their agenda. Don't let that happen. And let's support those children and their families, but let's also allow them to stay home and be around friends and familiar places. They were in harm's way yesterday and didn't know it. And then let us all get on with the business of trying to get back to normal ASAP. Let's grieve, but give the lunatics no more than that.

    61   I gottago.

    62   Take care.

    63   See you again.

    64   Peace.

    ~H~

    www.xanga.com/bharrington


  • The Daily News
    1   Happy Monday!!!

    2   Like the new look? <this first part was written when all my fonts became smaller and in a different style. It looked ridiculous. I think I fixed it though. So just bear with me on the early rant.>

    3   Me neither.

    4   Xanga.

    5    New stuff in general.

    6   Last week, in the midst of all sorts of other angst, my laptop crashed.

    7   I bought a new one, and couldn't figure out how to get into Windows 8.

    8   I had tons of deadlines coming at me,  not the least of which is grades due the day after tomorrow, so I really didn't have time to mess around with learning something that already works fine the way it is.

    9  Don't get me wrong.

    10  I am not hostile to change, even if it seems like change for the sake of change.

    11  I just haven't had the time to fool around trying to learn something for no apparent reason.

    12  I find hints that Windows 8 is faster.

    13  So until I can get a handle on stuff, the DN is going to have a smaller font.

    14  And dude, you don't mess with a guy's fonts.

    15   You just don't.

    16   Moving on, Part One:  I'm probably going to have to keep this one short today. I was going to work on this yesterday but on Saturday night I thought I would put together this four-seat coffee table that came with sixteen thousand tons of tape and foam.

    17   By about eight o' clock at night I looked around my living room and had a huge mess. I hadn't been paying attention to anything but trying to unwrap all four million parts to the thing. I started putting the stuff in recycling, but the bin filled up to overflowing within seconds.

    18  Modern packaging.

    19  I had such a mess that I had to take knives and cut up every piece of cardboard, which took forever. The foam was lightweight beads that started flying like little fairies all through my house.

    20  I spent all day yesterday cutting the stuff up, saving part numbers, and trying to get customer service when I found holes in the seats.

    21  Ashley furniture. No bueno. Stay WAY away.

    22   Customer service 800 number told me that they are closed on weekends.

    23  Seriously?

    24   In 2013 where everything is digital and 24/7?

    25   <looking around>

    26   Am I just getting my Bay Area on?

    27   I forget that I'm living in the heart of Silicon Valley.

    28   We tend to be a tad spoiled when it comes to technology.

    29  Ah vell.

    30   Moving on, Part Two:  I think I'll follow the lead of newspapers that are always thin on Mondays. There is a LOT of news out there, but the news in the past two weeks has been pretty horrific. I think as a responsible journalist, I'm most useful if I bury my head in the proverbial sand.

    31  I just haven't the time to go too much further today.

    31  As I have often said, I have a saloon to run.

    32  I think everybody would be better served if I don't try to push it. <looking around>

    33  At least my house is super clean. Amazingly I vacuumed everything up using a battery-op Dustbuster.

    34   The thing almost died trying to get all the little foamette balls up. They were smaller than Dippin' Dots, and  virtually in every nook and cranny of the house. Some will remain here into the next century, that much I can tell you.

    35  But the mess has been contained at the cost of a longer DN.

    36  I'm still getting some mileage out of the calamity of the past two days, but probably not enough.

    37  So I'm going to go make myself look purty, and then hop into the T000000NDRA and get to work. I cleaned the T000000NDRA up yesterday in the midst of all the madness. It's all clean and ready to fly once again. Long story, but I'm going in today in the newly spiffed up T000000NDRA.

    38   So have a GREAT Monday. I just fixed the fonts, so please ignore the entire first part of this. = )

    39   See you again.

    40   Peace.

    ~H~

    www.xanga.com/bharrington


  •  
    The Daily News
    1   It's FRIDEEEEEEE!!!

    2    Yesterday I enjoyed Thursday like you won't believe.

    3    I decided again to enjoy writing the DN during the early afternoon.


    4   What I ran into was the same goofy stuff that has been happening everywhere online lately.

    5   I  found once again that I have to change from one place to the other in order to keep all the fonts consistent, the pictures working, and the internet being what they affectionately call user friendly.

    6    I had a bazillion other things to do, but found myself going from one place to the other in order to keep all of this stuff working. 

    7   Mozilla suddenly couldn't keep the fonts the way I wanted them, for example.

    8   I thought about trying out my new laptop but quite boldly blew off that pitch.

    9   I did a reverse, mixed a metaphor, and then I went to Chrome, which has clearly declared itself the reigning queen of all things digital.

    10  <basketball buzzer>

    11   Hey Chrome, you are dealing with a pretty cynical fellow over here. 

    12   I'll use you, but don't you ever think that you are going to rule everything.

    13   The only thing I can give you right now is that you seem to be cooperating in the late afternoon of a Thursday gone wonky. 

    14   And a wonky Thursday it was.

    15   Moving on, Part One: I recently purchased this hat that is the best hat ever. It's the one that is just above the DN logo.

    16   It is called The Bogart and it has so much 30's gangsta that I even scare myself sometimes when I wear it. 

    17   It is dead-on a hat from the thirties.

    18   The bell rang ending our school day yesterday. I gathered all the ridiculous stuff I need to grade by Wednesday, put it in a large canvas bag that was given to us earlier in the year by the union, and walked outside to get to the parking lot. I looked irresistibly like an impeccable 30's thug. Even my nails were cured. I had the look, that's for sure.

    19   The second I hit the sun, I saw all sorts of students standing around. 

    20  More than usual.

    21   From my experiences at YB, I knew that something was up, and that it wasn't good. There were three times the amount of students milling about, and there was a slow-motion silence that was eerie. Lots of serious faces and lots of cell phones out.

    22   Not good signs.

    23   As a teacher who has been there, I smelled trouble. 

    24   Serious looks, like something was about to go down.

    25   I had my Bogart on. I walked into the middle of the entire gathering, stopped and said nothing. I was the only authority figure around.

    26   I then held my canvas bag with all my school work out laterally. It must have weighed a bazillion pounds. 

    27   The crowd stopped. They silenced. I was the only adult there. Yet they all looked scared. I remained poker faced.

    28   With the heavy bag held out laterally, I opened my fingers and dropped the entire bag to the ground. It crashed to the Earth and made a statement. Everybody became silent. I didn't move. I became gangsta.

    29   My eyes moved, left and then right. Every move was deliberate. I've played in this movie before.

    30   I paused.

    32   Then I said, "You need to leave. School is over."

    33   A lot of the students walked away immediately. 

    34   I looked down.

    35   I looked up. 

    36    I then said, "Maybe you didn't hear me. School is out. You need to leave. Now."

    37   A bunch more gathered their stuff and left. The tougher ones tried calling my bluff. They knew it wasn't a bluff though. They became sheepish and then they drifted off. I've done this sort of thing more times than I wish.

    38    I then walked back into my building, walked into the room of the nearest teacher, and said, "There is a crowd out there, and they know something is happening. Call the office and get security and the police here now."

    39   The teacher did this. Within seconds, golf carts with campus security and the San Jose police arrived on the scene.

    40   Whatever was going to happen didn't.

    41   They all left slowly going in different directions. Within seconds, everything looked normal again. Birds sang. The sun shone. Kids started talking about homework. Things got reasonably back to normal, and I felt good about driving home.

    42   Those are scary moments. Two days ago there was screaming going on in my building. I thought it was drama kids, who practice in that building often, and who had a show that day. I found out later that there was some sort of fight, but I didn't get much info about it.

    43   The trouble with fights is retaliation.

    44   And factions.

    45   Today is Friday. Anything can happen today as well. My advice to the safety people is going to be to turn on all the sprinklers at 3 p.m. and then set off all the fire alarms. There should be a presence, and a sense that they have to leave campus.

    46   I also think that the school is going to need publicly to address the dangers of fighting and violence beginning at a school that just three weeks ago prided itself in the students' feeling safe. That was one of our good points, according to the WASC committee, the committee that observes and accredits California schools. We scored really high in the fact that the students at our school feel safe.

    47   We didn't yesterday, I'll tell you that much. First time since I've been there. It didn't feel safe at all.

    48   I've been through violent eras. No bueno.

    49   This is the first time I've seen anything that huge gathering on our campus. I'm lucky that I have the respect of many students, because that could have been a very bad scene.

    50   Today I will address it in all my classes. I will put it into the grapevine that we are a school that is proud of feeling safe, and that a lot of people I saw out there were my own students. The need for drama or proving something should not turn our school into an unsafe place, and that needs to be stressed, and stressed by a person up to whom the students look.

    51   Up to whom. Go figure.

    52   Hey. This stuff is public. I am allowed by law to speak correctly. I don't want anyone calling a corrections officer on me now. <you may groan.>

    53   Just trying to lighten this up a little. I just have one shot in the morning to get this stuff right.

    54   Wish me luck. Wish my school luck.

    55    I gottago. Just thought I'd share another day in the life of a teacher. I'm okay. I think we'll all be okay. I have faith in my school. It's a good place, and I love working there. I just didn't yesterday. And I just thought I'd share.

    56   You have a GREAT weekend.

    57   See you again.

    58   Peace, and I mean that.

    ~H~

    www.xanga.com/bharrington

  •  
    The Daily News

    1  Is everything updated on the internet necessarily good?

    2  The changes are happening fast and furious, and I'm not so certain I want to jump on this train.

    3   A student came to me in dreadful dismay about the ridiculousness of Windows 8.

    4   How was I to argue with the lad? He said, "Windows 8 SUCKS!" Well, he's somewhat right.

    5   Last week I went through a series of digital collapses and electrical nightmares. My laptop crashed, and suddenly I had to scramble for answers. I bought a new laptop at Best Buy. It became an instant nightmare. Passwords didn't work. Then they did. Then they didn't. I finally brought it in to Best Buy just to see if they could help a brother out.

    6    I was out of town over the weekend so I couldn't wait to go get it after school yesterday. I chummed it up with the Geek Squad, and they showed me that everything was working wonderfully. I even shook hands with the Geek who helped me.

    7    I got it home and had instant trouble.

    9    This is the first DN written on my brand new laptop, but there are issues. Just trying to figure out how to restart it is some ancient mystery. You have to go to the far corners of you screen and wait for ghosts to make a power button appear. Except that the power button doesn't appear. You used to be able to go to an area in the lower left corner entitled, "Shut down." It was an off button. Not anymore. They have hidden the shut down button in the far reaches of the universe, and it may or may not appear.

    10   Mystical. I have switched over to my desktop. It works normally. I'll go back to the ancient mysteries later today. I just didn't want to push the wrong button and disappear into the cosmos.

    11   Moving on, Part One: In the midst of all of this, my Giants won. Beautifully.

    12    They swept, and Zito actually performed. The A's Brandon Moss is a beast.

    13     Ah Springtime. The Bay Area teams are sweeping everybody.

    14     That's all fine and good. Unless you live on the East Coast.

    15      Liking it. Liking the sunshine. Liking the flowers and longer nights. Liking all of it.

    16     Moving on, Part Two: I got home somewhat early yesterday despite the laptop nonsense, so I needed to get a few other things done:  do a little laundry, grade a few things, feed the dog and all. You know how it is.

    17   In the midst of all of this I needed something to read, because I am a reader, ablbeit a nerdy one.

    18   In a moment of terror, I remembered that I had to write this stuff too, so Iturned to books and literature for inspiration.

    19   I  immediately looked to my library for inspiration.

    20   I saw the greats: Socrates, Shakespeare, Yeats, and all the rest.

    21   I totally needed inspiration. I felt mystical from my experiences with Windows 8.

    22   I kept staring at my books awaiting mysticism coming from some of the greatest minds in the world.

    23   I looked over all my books. Anything to bring the wisdom of the ages to all of you.

    24   Couldn't  do it.

    25   Dude.

    26   Where is the greatest secrets of mankind hiding?

    27   Is there an answer?

    28   I dunno.

    29   I had just slammed my third Crystal Light raspberry when  this pocket edition of Landscaping for Dummies appeared out of nowhere and landed in my lap.

    30  Pocket edition.

    31  Yellow and black cover.

    32  I thought to myself, "Hey, this is something I could use. And it is non-digital."

    33   I mused over the first couple of pages, and it talked to me.

    34   It gave easy, practical instructions. The contrast to Windows 8 struck me like a lightning bolt.

    35   I became the Zeus of gardening by the third page.

    36   I broke into a huge smile.

    37   Here is the intro, just in case you think I am making all of this up: "We figure that you can find two kinds of people in the world--those who have waited and waited until they have a home or some property that they can landscape, and those who never gave landscaping a second thought and suddenly find themselves having to do just that. Whichever camp you belong to, welcome--this book is for you."

    38   Within seconds I realized that gardening is an art. I won't bore you with all of it, but it has all the qualities of putting on a show by Shakespeare, or of a sweeping piece of poetry by Tennyson, or even painting ceilings and floors like Michaelangelo.

    39  This little book told me to make a rough sketch of my backyard. Backyards are where people entertain. Front yards are just curb chicks with mascara. Backyards are a combination of all things: function, such as shade, lawns, which reduce dust, safety, such as putting roses under windows, practicality, such as raising or lowering sides of houses for proper drainage, privacy such as putting up fences to protect one from snoopy neighbors, and sides of houses, which can be used as bistros with paintings.

    40  That's some tasty wisdom. Yards as art. What a concept. I always knew that instinctively having designed plays and all, and having enjoyed art and literature, but never really put it THAT much together.

    41  On page two, it has a bit more. Dummies' books use icons, right? This little gem is no different. It has a silhouetted hand with a string around the pointer finger. The instruction: Whenever we tell you something you should commit to memory, we flag it with this icon.

    42   It has a second icon that is a target with an arrow in its heart. The instruction: For gems of accumulated wisdom--often the kind learned from painful experience--follow this icon.

    43   Are you smiling yet?

    44   This is how page two concludes: "You've got your minibook copy of Lanscaping Basics for Dummies--now what? This minibook is a reference, so if you need information on shrubs, head to Chapter 3. Or if you're interested in finding out about trees, go straight to Chapter 2. Or heck, start with Chapter 1 and read the chapters in order...you rebel."

    45   Even if you aren't a homeowner yet, you have to love the sassiness of this.

    46    Separating myself from digital nonsense and idiocy put me into an entirely different frame of mind yesterday. When did we EVER allow digital nonsense and idiocy control our lives?

    47   It's Springtime.

    48   Computers and laptops, emails and texting? I'm done withal, at least for a while.

    49   I'm going to get myself outside and away from all this nonsense and idiocy.

    50   It is almost a time for a peaceful rebellion. We can all do it quietly. Let the computer world argue with itself and confuse people with constant upgrades. We lived a long time perfectly happy, and we don't need students going out of their minds because of computer changes.

    51   Change.

    52   I'm getting back to where I once belonged.

    53   Go outside. Listen to the birds. Read a book.

    54   You may never go back.

    55   Gottago.

    56   See you again.

    57   Peace.

    ~H~

    www.xanga.com/bharrington

  • A HUGE CONGRATS TO THE WARRIORS FOR REACHING!!!

     
    The Daily News

    1   A huge shout out to the Bay Area's best Golden State Warriors for a hard-fought season and for making the Bay Area a mecca for sports' gold! Now go out there and make believers out of all of us!

    2   Moving on, Part the First: So I was over at Best Buy yesterday returning a computer that can't seem to deal with Windows 8. What a shock.

    3   I decided to be civil, even though the changes going on in Computerland are coming at us at atomic levels.

    4   To their credit, Best Buy treated me with class.

    5   I expect no less, but if a brand new laptop is not doing things, one worries.

    6   AnywayZ...

    7   The previous night I was ready to throw all of this stuff under the bus. I couldn't figure out how to turn on the power button. I'm usually pretty good at this stuff, but for some reason I couldn't figure out how to navigate even the easiest chores. I almost went ballistic. Well, I DID go a trifle ballistic, but not enough to color my reputation as a calm and sensitive person. <basketball buzzer. Warriors win.>

    8   I decided instead to visit Best Buy in calm mode.

    9   Calmly, that is.

    10  They actually took good care of me, and I am crossing my fingers that my new laptop is in good hands and that Best Buy will have my back. I left it in their hands.

    11   It's all good, right?

    12   <basketball buzzer again> That's just a worry buzzer borne of years of stuff never going the way I want it to go.

    13   AnywayZ, while waiting for the Best Buy Geek Squad to save me and my computer, an interesting argument ensued. I was sitting on one of those garage stools that the Geek Squad provides for geeks.

    14   Some guy next to me who had purchased a pair of headphones seemed really mad. Angry bird.

    15   I tried to remain open-minded.

    16   We're at customer service, right?

    17   This guy had a pair of smashed headphones that clearly had nothing to do with Best Buy.

    18   They were smashed to smithereens.

    19  One ear thingy had been crushed as though a trailer park had rolled over them.

    20   It was clear to my that someone had crushed  the headphones with a car. They had tire marks on them.

    21   I swear to you.

    22   Homeboy was demolished. Take my word. The entire thing was flattened and ridiculously not working. One side of the headphones had flattened and separated.

    23   The customer demanded that it was Best Buy's fault.

    24   

    25   Okay.

    26   I was just chillin' waiting for them to repair my laptop.

    27   I tried to ignore the drama unfolding, but you know how you get.

    28   I heard polite conversations like, "We can get a manager for you if you would like."

    29   There were actually TWO guys trying to get Best Buy to pay for the damage that was clearly their own doing. I was astonished. I'm pretty certain that the guy who didn't buy the thing was doing all the talking. 

    30   My own situation was that the laptop I had purchased wasn't delivering. Best Buy needed to resolve that. It made sense. They cleaned it out and fixed it for me at no cost. I pick it up this afternoon. Done. Meanwhile...

    31   These guys came in with a set of fancy headphones that had been run over by every car in the Indy 500. Clearly not Best Buy's fault, but they felt entitled, to coin a 2013 phrase.

    32   This brought out the gossipy stuff in me.

    33   I just remained silent and shook my head, only metaphorically.

    35   I try not to judge, I swear to you.

    36   But at around 5 p.m. this entire store was treating these morons like they were emperors.

    37   I finally left, knowing that my laptop was in good hands, but in hands that were being delayed by morons.

    38   Morons who were going somehow to get their way.

    39   Ironically, I taught the word "allegory" yesterday.

    40   I then walked into one.

    41   Sign of the times, I swear to you.

    42   Moving on, Part the Second I got home late, eventually put on the ball game, and watched the Giants go a bit south.

    43   The nice thing was I have this new chair that I have named the Cloud. I have never had my own comfy chair, but when we redesigned the living room last summer, it needed something.

    44

    45  So last night after a rather hectic but productive Tuesday, I got home from Best Buy and sank into the Cloud. I had a cold Crystal Light and a spoonful of Nutella to steady the nerves.

    46  In the middle of the game I drifted off, and didn't care. If you are a Giants' fan, you understand that one.

    47   I didn't even know that they somehow won until I was into the early four a.m.'s

    48   Pure bliss, at least from this Old Brown Shoe.

    49   The verdict is still out on Timmeh, but yeesh. He has those innings...

    50   He recovered.

    51   You can't pay guys millions of dollars for being in recovery though.

    52   I'll stop short of saying any more. It's Wednesday and I just want to get this one over.

    53   Congrats again to the Warriors and all their loyal fans. Fun stuff.

    54   And I hope homeboy is enjoying the new headphones he stole from Best Buy.

    55   They'll live. I just hope my new laptop will be ready this afternoon.

    56   Gottago.

    57   See you again.

    58   Peace.

    ~H~

    www.xanga.com/bharrington



  •  
     


    The Daily News
    1   So...Margaret Thatcher, Roger Ebert, AND Annette Funicello walk into a bar...

    2   Yeesh.

    3   Are their names even spelled correctly?

    4   Ah whatevs.

    5   There is some sort of conspiracy theory going on about how people have mysteriously been dying in threes.

    6   Okay, I'm sort of down.

    7   There are also lots of people twitting and wondering.

    8   My read?

    9   I don't know really.

    10  As a logical person, I'm pretty certain that these people simply passed.

    11  But conspiracy theories always abound.

    12  Do I agree with any of this?

    13  Who the heck cares?

    14   I don't even know if their names are spelled properly, if I may repeat myself.

    15   Ah, meh.

    16   I wrote most of this stuff yesterday afternoon.

    17   I honestly don't know any longer.

    18   Too much news.

    19    I dislike when there is too much news. Diminishes the importance of each of these brave souls' lives. It's like three people having the same birthday or something.

    20    I also dislike it because I feel I must report it.

    21    Yesterday afternoon, for example, I thought my only worry was the trees falling over in front of my house.

    22    I kept hearing of reports of trees that were thrashing and falling, and I HAVE trees that thrash and fall.

    23   So in the midst of all of this folderol, I put metaphorically donned this strange '30's helmet, which resembles caps worn by the Nazis in WWII.

    24   I'm SERIOUS.

    25   Well, sort of. It has something to do with media control, and using fear as a weapon to brainwash us. Let me clarify with an example, if I may:

    26   I see those new motorcycle caps as designs from Germany, circa 1933. I didn't really put one on, understand that. I do have this real helmet sitting in my classroom that might quite be a design from Germany, circa the early ninteen-thirties. I found it in some thrift store years ago and used it as a prop in a play. At least I think I did. My mind is sorta dead this morn.  AnywayZ, I think modern motorcycle helmets are idiotic. I think a lot of modern stuff is idiotic. I metaphorically donned this Nazi helmet for a scattered second because of the weirdness of modern times. The entire control-by-fear thing that comes to us daily perhaps had something to do with this moment of paranoia. Fear not. I returned to normalcy pretty quickly. But yeesh. The control of our media is palpable.

    27   Honestly.

    28   Sorry dudes who wear those weird helmets. They just suggest media brainwashing to me.

    29   Just sayin,'

    30   I must keep writing.

    31   I feel that there is a silent war, and that I am somehow the correspondent.

    32   A war on intelligence.

    33   At this point I must stop.

    34   Or at least I think I must stop.

    35   I wrote most of this stuff yesterday afternoon when I was frazzled from the first day back to work after Spring Break. Show a little mercy.  = ) <-----smily face that doesn't necessarily mean you are happy.

    36   I went home, examined my life, and realized how irrelevant this stuff is.

    37   I tried like hell to get most of this done before the afternoon ended, but to no avail.

    38   No avail. Who says that? Too much real life things recurring and recurring.

    39   Like dog poop and pretzels.

    40   Ah, iono.

    41   Yeesh. I finally gave up and went on with normal life. <basketball buzzer> Define normal.

    42   So I  am now into the two a.m.

    43   This stuff is coming to you from a freezing sun room in the early hours of April.

    44    I started it all on a new computer, which is by its very nature weird.

    45    I got to bed early last night because the entire world was too weird after a Spring Break.

    46    My spell check told me that I had spelled "because" wrong, for example.

    47    I believed it, at least with one eye open on re-esamination into the two a.m.

    48    Just sayin'.

    49    AnywayZ...

    50    It's freezing.

    51    I am such a Californian.

    52    But honestly.

    53    New computers. Windows 100, or whatever.

    54    Irritating.

    55    I'm sorry.

    56    It is now seriously into the two a.m. and I have fought this for too long now.

    57    Fonts have turned into bears and rabbit turds.

    58    I am not at all down with technological updates.

    59    I'm fine.

    60   They're not.

    61   I must needs get me some sleep.

    62   This stuff sometimes becomes surreal.

    62   Today is one of those times.

    63   I must needs get me some sleep.

    64   Life is a dream.

    65   I'll awaken and report some more stuff tomorrow. Oops. Today. Swirling.

    66   Meanwhile, have a great Tuesday, if there is such a thing.

    67   Is it Tuesday?

    68   I feel like a Toon that has been flattened by a safe.

    69   It's cool. I'll pop back to normal by noon. It'll be like none of this ever happened.

    70   Meanwhile, enjoy this Tuesday, if indeed it is Tuesday. Tuesdays need to go away, especially after Spring Break. I could become President on that platform alone.

    71   Fly low.

    72   See you again.

    73   Peace.

    ~H~

    www.xanga.com/bharrington



  • The Daily  News
    1   We're baaaaaaaack!!!

    2   Anybody looking?

    3   Even if you're a Dodger fan you had to love the picture in yesterday's Merc of Mays and Posey sitting next to each other. The look on Willie's face was sheer poetry. I tried to pull it up for today's DN but couldn't find it. For the record, it was priceless.

    4  Baseball.

    5   Moving on, Part One: Welp, let's get on with it. I had a bittersweet Spring Break. The reason that my last DN was so short was that Helene's brother Ron had passed away after a long illness that very day.  Ron was and still remains awesome, and he will forever be my bro, and my hero. We all miss him tremendously.
    6   Fortunately the family decided not to have a service last week. We will have one in early May. This took a lot of pressure off the week, and after a lots of tears we managed to talk and laugh about all the good times he gave us. We also realized that It was okay to laugh and relax, so it wound up being a pretty nice week. 

    7   Anyway, I want to say that while I miss Ron, I salute him as a soldier, fighter and brother to me, as Uncle Cool Guy to my daughters, and as a loving son and brother to Helene's mom and to her brother Russ. 

    8   Tough times. Lots of love. That's what happens. Lots of love.

    9   Moving on, Part the Second: The other day I realized that it is Spring, and that I needed a new look. I bought myself some new shirts and ties, but something was clearly missing. Socks? No. Pants? No. Overshoes? Wait. I got it!

    10  A new hat. 
     
    11  I looked up hat places online, but most of them seemed a bit uppity. I thought and thought about where to get a new hat in San Jose. Then it came to me in a vision.

    12  Maria Madre.



    13  The Flea Market.

    14   I chugged the Ol' Timuh over to Berryessa, and took the familiar right turn into the parking lot. I hadn't been there in years. I walked down the underpass and emerged into the exotic world that I often visited as a youth. 

    15  I was greeted instantly with Mariachi music and incense. I looked at the sky, which displayed April clouds and magnificent rays of sunshine. I wandered through frying pans, wedding dresses, sports' memorabilia, and naughty lingerie. I smelled incense, stale beer, corn dogs and pineapples. I saw literally thousands of hats. Buyers market.

    16  I had forgotten what an amazing place it was. People of all colors and from every conceivable place on Earth walked around  with smiles and laughter. It remains a fun little market place. The day brought springtime smiles to all: families, lovers, dreamers and schemers.

    17   One place in particular had various hats that looked like they came from the back lot at Turner Classic Movies.  Bogart hats. Sinatra hats. Edward G. Robinson hats. 

    18   Yeah, see?

    19  This pretty young lady asked me if I needed help.

    20



    21   I was standing there holding a handful of hats.

    22   "How much are these?" I asked.

    23   She had a lovely accent. "Usually they are seven dolors. I give them to you for five." She paused. "Tomorrow four dolors!"

    24   Sold. I remain a sucker for charm. Always will remain one. 

    25    I made bargains all morning and came home with an entire Spring ensemble. I think that out the door I got six shirts, four ties, and three hats for fifty-five dollars.

    26   Dolors.

    27   Only he who attempts the absurd is capable of achieving the impossible.
    --Unamuno.

    28   Ah yes. As I recall I got that quote from Dale Wasserman's intro to Man of La Mancha back in the days when I was still an artiste, and a dreamer. 

    29   The other night I got home from Dad's a little after seven, and was asleep by nine. When I awakened, I tried to remember that wonderful quote and couldn't. The morning wouldn't unwrap it's tiredness on my dreadful mind. The quote was up there, but it took my getting on the freeway for it to unwind itself. 

    30   I was somewhere like Redwood City when it cleared and fell into my head like the clouds have fallen into the April sky, first scattered, then brilliantly clear and immediate. 

    31   Redwood City. Me old friend and confidant Goof Van Maaaastricht once told me that New York City and Redwood City had the same mystical rhythm. That same rhythm went on to become the Drama knock. Students of my productions knew it meant you don't answer a knock at any door to the Theatre unless it was that rhythm. It kept  administrators and other miscreants reasonably at bay so that we could rehearse or build our dreams in peace. 

    32   Just a bit of Theatre history. 

    33   Moving on, Part the Thoid: Yesterday morning on the way up to visit my Dad I had so many notions and nonsensical ideas flitting through my frabjous head that I couldn't stand the fact that they were all going to blow out the car window, never to return. 

    34   I had all sorts of ideas for songs, for poems, for plays, for everything. It literally drove me crazy because I knew darned well that I wouldn't remember any of by the time I got to a computer, or even to a piece of paper. 

    35   AND my own computer crashed permanently just the other day. I am ironically using a computer we bought for Ron, so it is new, like WAY new, like it doesn't even have Microsoft Word in it. It has some rare form, but it clearly wants me to purchase  the upgraded version. Meh.

    36   I started writing this yesterday around 9 a.m. because I wanted to remember about Mays and Posey, and about hats and clothes, and about just about everything that I now don't remember.

    37   I did want to mention that last week I spoiled myself and bought two sets of strings for my guitars, and that I practiced around six or seven songs just to get back into it, like you'd be all interested.

    38   I even practiced some songs from an album I started working on a few years ago.

    39   It was called Old Hat. 

    40   That's a song I wrote about a king who would shout of this and that, and who may call for his very very very old hat. 

    41   It was a really stupid song. 

    42   It was the second-to-the last song on Side A.  I wrote the names of the songs one day when I had too much time on my hands. I made an album cover and had all the songs listed on the back and everything. It had a bit of an Abbey Road feel to it. 

    43   My favorite song is called So Much Love. It had a fifties feel to it with the refrain, "So much love; so much la-la-la-la love." It was inspired by a poem written to me by my great friend Thuy Ann Le and given to me when Mom passed away. As I recall the first song on the album was called A Place in the Sun, a sort of surfer tune about a beach shack where the singer hung out with two bikini chicks. 

    44  I also had a blues song called Sweet Annie Lee which was not at all inspired by nor had anything to do with Thuy Ann. It was in fact a song about a hideously ugly woman who won't leave narrator alone. I recall the lyrics being pretty hilarious. 
    45   I spent the weekend taking care of Dad, and doing lots of laughing, but I was nowhere near those tunes, which are in my guitar case. I'm inspiring myself to get back to  working those tunes and putting them all together.

    46   It's a bucket list thing, I imagine. This morning I found the album, but for some reason I put it on a Power Point, and can't display the pictures yet. I'll work on it. I do have a list of the song titles, many of which are already songs. Here is my list of song names:

    Side A

    A Place in the Sun

    Blue Water

    Peace

    Sweet Annie Lee

    Old Hat

    So Much Love

    Side B

    The Daily News

    Bistro

    Nothing Common 'Bout Common Sense

    Seashells in the Sand

    I Still Do

    The entire concept came upon me when my Mom passed away. During all of the hoopla and hullabaloo surrounding those days, we asked Dad what he wanted to put on the sash of his flower easel that would be in the church. He said without a beat, "I still do." It's okay for you to cry. I did.


    47   Moving on, Part Four: I've taken to visiting this website called Guitar Tricks. It has online teachers who teach some nice techniques. 

    48   I've always been rhythmically challenged. Metronomes have wall targets with my face in their homes. They throw darts at me in four.

    49   Moving on, Part Five: I love clean jokes. I think I'll leave you with a few this lusty Monday, just to reverse the mood.

    50   Did you hear about the fire at the circus? It was in tents.

    51   Here are a few more: 

    52   Why is there no gambling in Africa? 

    53   Too many cheetahs.

    54   Why did the cowboy adopt a wiener dog?

    55   He wanted to get a long little doggy.

    56   What was Beethoven's favorite fruit?

    57   Banananaaaaaaaah.

    58   What kind of music do chiropractors listen to?

    59   Hip-pop.

    60   Why did the police officer smell?

    61   Because he was on duty.

    62   I'd better get outta here.

    63   All right. One more.

    64   Did you hear about the hyena who drank a pint of gravy?

    65   He was a laughing stock. 

    66   Happy Monday.

    67   Fly low.

    68   Peace.

    ~H~



    www.xanga.com/bharrington





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