More Meme Stuff

Borrowed from a thread over at the Hero Games Non-Gaming Discussion Board. -M

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
My father's best friend from high school.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?
While watching "Bridge to Terabithia". Shut up.

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING
It's legible. What more do you want?

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?
Probably ham, followed by turkey. But not turkey ham. That stuff's just nasty.

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?
Not yet. Ask me again in a year.

6.IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
Sure, if I could tolerate the continuous flow of sarcasm.

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM ALOT?
Ya think?

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS
Yes.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?
No only no, but h€ll no. Fear of heights.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?
Right now, I'm going to say Blueberry Morning. It changes.

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
Yes.

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG?
Nothing a good deodorant wouldn't fix. :D

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM?
Something with peanut butter and chocolate in it. Can't remember what it's called.

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?
Are they paying attention to the world around them, or are they glued to their cell phone? If the latter, I don't bother to try to notice anything else, generally.

15. RED OR PINK?
No.

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?
My temper. You really would not like me when I'm angry.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST?
Granny. She died on Christmas Day last year.

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU?
Sure, I love to see just how warped everyone else is.

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?
Blue jeans, light grey socks. Shoes are off for the night.

20. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE?
A chicken burrito from Chipotle Grill.

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
The fan on my computer.

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?
Probably some shade of green.

23. FAVORITE SMELLS?
Fresh-baked bread.

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
My lovely wife. On the phone with her as I type, in fact.

25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?
Of course I do! (If I say 'No', I'm likely to lose my head!)

26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
Hockey, preferably live and in person. Football's a close second. Many great memories from my days in marching band.

27. HAIR COLOR?
Dark brown (with more grey than I care to see).

28. EYE COLOR?
Brown.

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?
No. Glasses, though.

30. FAVORITE FOOD?
Steak, preferably one cooked over a fire or hot coals by someone who really knows how to grill. With mashed potatoes, mixed veggies, and a tall glass of milk.

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?
Happy endings. I don't watch scary movies that often.

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?
The Bourne Supremacy. Gotta love Netflix!

33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?
Tan, with pictures of Kokopelli and the words "moab, utah" on it.

34. SUMMER OR WINTER?
Winter. You can always put on more clothes.

35. HUGS OR KISSES?
'Or'? How about 'And'?

36. FAVORITE DESSERT?
Blueberry cheesecake.

37. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
Hard to say. I'm also posting this list on my blog, so we'll see.

38. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND
Lord Mhoram, or teh bunneh. They've already done it, after all.

39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?
"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" Owned the book for years, but never read it yet. Also, the wife and I just finished "Harry Potter and the Enormous Pile of Wizardly Corpses"...er, "Deathly Hallows".

40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?
Western Governors University. It's where I'm working on my MA in Education.

41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT?
The movie referenced in Q32, above.

42. FAVORITE SOUND?
Good music.

43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES?
The Beatles. I never really got into the Stones (except for Fred and Wilma).

44. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME???
Prince Rupert, British Columbia.

45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?
No, I blew all my points on Characteristics and Skills.

46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN?
Center, Colorado. (So named because it's in the center of the San Luis Valley...or precisely in the middle of nowhere.)

47. WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK?
Anyone's really. Like I said, I love to see what people have to say on these things.

48. DID YOU ANSWER TRUTHFULLY, OR DID YOU MAKE A FEW OF THE ANSWERS UP?
These answers are true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Predictable

Part I: Friday's Feast
Friday's Feast for Friday, 28 September 2007:

Appetizer How are you today?
I'm operating within normal parameters. (I'm fine, in other words.)

Soup Name 3 television shows you watch on a regular basis.
1. Babylon 5
2. Scrubs
3. Stargate SG-1
All on DVD. We don't have cable, and reception in our basement apartment isn't great. Sometimes I'll turn on the TV on Saturday to watch college football, but all the teams I want to watch are tied up in a terrible TV deal that you can only get with one specific cable carrier.

Salad What’s the scariest weather situation you’ve experienced?
When I was about 8, I remember hearing on the news that there were six tornadoes surrounding the small town we had just moved into. We watched the news with the twin girls (Doris & Dolores) who lived in the apartment next door. Pretty scary for an 8-year-old whose Mom and Dad were still at work.

Main Course If you could wake up tomorrow morning in another country, where would you want to be?
Preferably somewhere where they spoke English. Otherwise, getting breakfast could be a problem.
Seriously, maybe somewhere in Europe. Ireland, or London, or even in the Swiss Alps. Or maybe Canada, somewhere along the Pacific coast.

Dessert What do you usually wear to sleep?
Now that the weather's turning chilly, I've pulled out the old flannel pajama bottoms.

--

Part II: Top 5 On Friday
Top 5 On Friday - Week 143 from The Music Memoirs:

Top 5 CDs That You Bought Used.
This one's hard, because I buy almost everything used. The trick is to narrow it down to five really good ones....


» Perennial Favorites by Squirrel Nut Zippers
At the height of the neo-swing craze in the late 90's, I saw this album lumped in with some of the other groups I knew. So I picked it up, and I've loved it ever since.
Favorite Song: "Ghost of Stephen Foster". Just a lot of fun.


» Songs for the Daily Planet by Todd Snider
I was first introduced to Todd Snider by Lord Mhoram. I went out and bought this CD and was even more impressed after listening to it closely.
Favorite Song: Hard to pick, there are so many, but I'll go with "Trouble" for sheer cleverness of the lyrics.


» Son of a Son of a Sailor by Jimmy Buffett
Probably my favorite Buffett album, I found it at a used CD store in Ogden, Utah for $7.99. Pretty good use of eight bucks, any way you look at it.
Favorite Song: "Coast Of Marseilles". Perhaps the most haunting thing Jimmy ever recorded.


» Tambu by Toto
I'd thought about buying this when I first saw it in the store, but after the disaster that was Jean-Michel Byron on Past to Present, I was reticent to spend any more money on the band. Turns out I needn't have worried; Steve Lukather fills the lead vocalist role admirably (with occasional help from David Paich).
Favorite Song: Since I mentioned my favorite song from this album last week, I'll go with "Drag Him to the Roof" this time. Fun little bass line, among other things.


» Calling All Stations by Genesis
Can Genesis even exist without Phil Collins? The answer is yes, and despite what a lot of the critics said, it was pretty good. Once you get past the fact that Ray Wilson is not Phil, this album sounds just like Genesis at their best. Perhaps the most underrated CD of the last decade.
Favorite Song: "Congo". Driving, energetic, and a perfect match to Wilson's voice.

Monday Morning Memes

This week's delay in publishing the memes comes to you courtesy of a camping trip. Maybe I'll write about that later. -M
--

Part I: Friday's Feast
Friday's Feast for Friday, 21 September 2007:

Appetizer What is your favorite type of art?
Art? What's that? I can't tell a Manet from a Monet. But I do like the work of Escher. Yes, M.C. Escher; that's my favorite M.C. (see below).

Soup When was the last time you got a free lunch (or breakfast or dinner)? Who paid for it?
The school where I was substituting last Friday had a teacher appreciation lunch featuring a baked potato bar. Which was handy, considering I'd left the house without lunch that day. Oops!

Salad On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how emotional are you?
I'm a pretty emotional guy sometimes. At least 8 or 9.

Main Course Approximately how long do you spend each day responding to emails?
Probably only about 10-15 minutes. Most of my online communications these days is done via blogs.

Dessert To what temperature do you usually set your home’s thermostat?
In the summer, we turn it all the way down. We don't have AC, and there's no use having the heat on when it's 90°+ outside. In the fall, winter, and spring, we usually keep it around 70° when we're home and 60° when we're out.

--

Part II: Top 5 On Friday
Top 5 On Friday - Week 142 from The Music Memoirs:

Top 5 songs that could be your personal theme song.

» "Carry On Wayward Son" by Kansas (from the album Leftoverture)
Carry on my wayward son,
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more

Carry on - you will always remember
Carry on - nothing equals the splendor
Now your life's no longer empty
Surely heaven waits for you

» "The Road Goes On" by Toto (from the album Tambu)
Now I see it all through different eyes
This emotion can't be wrong
Past the mountains under empty skies
And the road goes on

Now I see it all through different eyes
Where I'm going, where I've gone
All I know - I'm still surprised
That the road goes on and on.

» "Subdivisions" by Rush (from the album Signals)
Growing up it all seems so one-sided
Opinions all provided
The future pre-decided
Detached and subdivided
In the mass production zone

Nowhere is the dreamer
Or the misfit so alone

Subdivisions ---
In the high school halls
In the shopping malls
Conform or be cast out

Subdivisions ---
In the basement bars
In the backs of cars
Be cool or be cast out

Any escape might help to smooth
The unattractive truth
But the suburbs have no charms to soothe
The restless dreams of youth

» "Island" by Jimmy Buffett (from the album Coconut Telegraph)
Island
I see you in the distance
I feel that your existence
Is not unlike my own
Island they say no man is like you
They say you stand alone
Sometimes I feel that way too

It's the need for love -
Heart and soul accompaniment
Seems to make me different from you


» "White & Nerdy" by Weird Al Yankovic (from the album Straight Outta Lynwood)
My rims never spin, to the contrary
You'll find that they're quite stationary
All of my action figures are cherry
Stephen Hawking's in my library

I been browsin', inspectin' X-Men comics
You know I collect 'em

I'm nerdy in the extreme
Whiter than sour cream
I was in A/V club and glee club
And even the chess team
Only question I ever thought was hard was
"Do I like Kirk or do I like Picard?"

More Updates

This update on my brother A came in on Friday.

Good morning to all,

A continues to be at Craig and improve. He is walking with a walker now. Last week he took a test where he listened to headphones and had to write down everything he heard. He managed to write down 80% of the whole test. Not only did he get all 80% correct he even spelled everything correctly. The doctor was very impressed.

It is still extremely painful on a personal level with A. He does not remember any of our life together. He does not remember my girls. He knows that I am his wife because all the staff at Craig have told him repeatedly; however, he thinks that I am someone from his past that he obviously still has very deep feelings for. Over the past month we have been trying to correct him, yet he still insists.

Thanks to those of you for your support, it means so much to me and my family.

This news came as a bit of a blow to us. We knew there'd be memory loss, a fact that was reinforced when he remembered his older daughter clearly but not his younger daughter. We just never knew how far back the memory loss would go. A and J have been married for about two months longer than Nancy and I have. If he's lost that much of his memory, it's going to be really hard for everyone. It'll be particularly complicated if he thinks he's still married to his first wife (his daughters' mother), and if he thinks I'm still married to Practice Wife. Yet he seemed to respond pretty strongly to Nancy the last time we saw him. Who knows? We'll just have to see what happens when we go back to Colorado for Christmas.

A's walking and listening tests are encouraging, though. And the fact that he spelled everything correctly is particularly impressive. I didn't know he could do that even before the accident!

Oh, and with an update unrelated to the accident, we got a phone call on September 9th from my youngest brother S. He called to tell us that he and his sig. ot., K, finally made it official and got engaged. This is really cool, considering that S and K have been dating since before Nancy and I even met. Naturally Nancy wanted to know how it happened, how S popped the question. So here's the story as I heard it:

S's birthday—his 30th birthday, no less—was on September 12th. K had been asking him what he wanted for his birthday, and he'd been pretty non-committal. Ultimately he told her he just wanted a BBQ with all the family there, so K set it up. And at the BBQ, S was asked to make a speech on turning 30. So as part of this he called K up to the front with him. Once she got up there, he said, "You asked me what I wanted for my birthday," then dropped to a knee and said, "I want you to be my wife."

Pretty darned cool.

So as S was telling me that he'd popped the question, I asked, "So, I guess the fact that I'm getting this phone call means she said yes?" After a slight hesitation, he said, "Actually, she didn't say anything at all. She put her hands up to her mouth and started to cry." But yes, she did accept, and our family is the better for it.

More updates as they become available. Keep the thoughts and prayers coming. We appreciate them!

--
Previous updates: May 31st • June 15th • June 21st • July 27th • September 6th • September 9th

Shut Up, Barry!

Regular readers will already know that I'm not a big fan of Barry Bonds. A part of me really wishes he'd blown out his knee or something before hitting home run 756*. But it happened, and that's that.

I was reading today the story of the man who bought the now-famous baseball Bonds hit for #756*. He's decided that he's going to let the public determine the ball's ultimate fate: Send it to the Hall of Fame, brand it with an asterisk and then send it to the Hall of Fame, or blast it into orbit in a rocket.

Bonds' reaction to this? "He's stupid. He's an idiot," Bonds said. "He spent $750,000 on the ball and that's what he's doing with it? What he's doing is stupid."

Pretty strong words, even from a guy who's not known for his tact and diplomacy. He doth protest too much, methinks.

If Bonds is so strongly against this, I can't think of a better reason to be in favor of it. Click the link (the picture) below, as I have done, to cast your vote. Voting ends September 25th, so be quick about it.



Any guesses which option I picked?*

The Traditional Friday Memes

Part I: Friday's Feast
Friday's Feast for Friday, 14 September 2007:

Appetizer When was the last time you visited a hospital?
June 9th, to see my brother. See previous entries for further details.

Soup On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how ambitious are you?
Probably not as ambitious as I should be. I get complacent way too easily. So on the ambition scale, I'm probably a 5 or 6.

Salad Make a sentence using the letters of a body part. (Example: (mouth) My other ukelele tings healthily.)
Cousin Edmond rebelled even before Evelyn leeringly left Uncle Morty .
(I thought about going with 'medulla oblongata', but that would have been way too hard.)

Main Course If you were to start a club, what would the subject matter be, and what would you name it?
The Babylon 5 Addicts Support Group. I introduce people to the show as often as I can.

Dessert What color is the carpet/flooring in your home?
It's sort of a mottled grey-tan. Rather nondescript, actually.

--

Part II: Top 5 On Friday
Top 5 On Friday - Week 141 from The Music Memoirs:

Top 5 depressing songs.

» "Have You Ever Been In Love?" by Peter Cetera (from the album World Falling Down)
And when the night comes down
Can you call your house a home
Do you dream you're still together
And wake up alone
Have you ever been in love
The way that I'm in love
Have you ever been in love?

» "My Immortal" by Evanescence (from the album Fallen)
I'm so tired of being here
Suppressed by all my childish fears
And if you have to leave
I wish that you would just leave
'Cause your presence still lingers here
And it won't leave me alone

These wounds won't seem to heal
This pain is just too real
There's just too much that time cannot erase

» "Memory" sung by Elaine Paige (from the album Cats: Original Cast Recording (1981 Original London Cast))
Memory
All alone in the moonlight
I can smile at the old days
I was beautiful then
I remember the time I knew what happiness was
Let the memory live again

» "Now She'll Never Know" by Marillion (from the album Radiation)
In the after-silence
Fighting leaves behind
I try to think it over
But my mind's gone blind
I lost the right to argue
Somewhere down the line
I had to tell
She told me to
Go to Hell
And here I am

» "California Promises" by Jimmy Buffett (from the album One Particular Harbour)
"I will never love another
Wait for me, 'til I return"
But she never will
He waits for her beside the water
Faithful still
to California promises

From My Inbox

I got this a couple of weeks ago. I thought it was worth sharing. -M
--

One Sunday morning, an old cowboy entered a church just before services were to begin. Although the old man and his clothes were spotlessly clean, he wore jeans, a denim shirt, and boots that were very worn and ragged. In his hand he carried a worn-out old hat and an equally worn-out Bible.

The church he entered was in a very upscale and exclusive part of the city. It was the largest and most beautiful church the old cowboy had ever seen. The people of the congregation were all dressed in expensive clothes and accessories. As the cowboy took a seat,the others moved away from him. No one greeted, spoke to, or welcomed him. They were all appalled at his appearance and did not attempt to hide it.

As the old cowboy was leaving the church, the preacher approached him and asked the cowboy to do him a favor. "Before you come back in here again, have a talk with God and ask him what he thinks would be appropriate attire for worship." The old cowboy assured the preacher he would.

The next Sunday, he showed back up for the services wearing the same ragged jeans, shirt, boots, and hat. Once again he was completely shunned and ignored. The preacher approached the man and said, "I thought I asked you to speak to God before you came back to our church."

"I did," replied the old cowboy.

"If you spoke to God, what did he tell you the proper attire should be for worshipping in here?" asked the preacher.

"Well, sir, God told me that He didn't have a clue what I should wear. He said He'd never been in this church."

Another Update

I got this from my sister-in-law literally hours after posting my last update:

Last night while I was visiting A he stood on his own for a few seconds.

Today A walked all the way down the hall to the case manager’s office and back today. The therapist was holding onto the belt but he did it himself. As he gains weight he continues to get stronger.

Otherwise we still continue to work with insurance and look for another facility for A to move to. He won’t move this week, maybe next week.

She also included a picture:



That looks a lot more like my brother than the guy we saw in June with all the wires and tubes attached to him. True, he's not flipping off the camera the way he normally does, but it still looks a lot more like him. :)

More updates as they become available.

Six Hundred

Yes, this is my 600th blog post. What better way to celebrate than with a couple of memes?

Part I: Friday's Feast
Friday's Feast for Friday, 7 September 2007:

Appetizer Using only one word, how does grocery shopping make you feel?
"Meh." It's got to be done, but I neither dread it not anticipate it eagerly. It's just there.

Soup What is your favorite part about the season of Autumn?
It's football season! And the weather gets cooler, too.

Salad Have you ever had any bad experiences online?
I met my ex on line. Like Napoleon invading Russia, it seemed like a good idea at the time, but I wasn't thrilled with how it turned out. But I'm better now.

Main Course Name three things that make you happy daily.
1. Nancy
2. Good music
3. A nice, relaxing shower

Dessert What one household cleansing or organizing item would you not want to be without?
A toilet brush. Seriously, would you really want to do that job by hand?

--

Part II: Top 5 On Friday
Top 5 On Friday - Week 140 from The Music Memoirs:

Top 5 albums with unusual titles.


» You Can Tune a Piano But You Can't Tuna Fish by REO Speedwagon
Ouch.


» Tales from Topographic Oceans by Yes
What does this even mean?!


» A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean by Jimmy Buffett
Marty Robbins fans will know what he's talking about.


» What Does a Deaf Guy Hear? by Ludwig van Beethoven
Great CD! It's a little sad to think that Beethoven never actually heard some of this music.


» Star Turtle by Harry Connick Jr.
A pretty good CD—it is Harry, after all—but a couple of tracks are as strange as the album title.


And, as a 600th anniversary bonus, here are two more answers from last week's musical memes:

Top 5 best opening lines in rock music

» "Locomotive Breath" by Jethro Tull
In the shuffling madness
(Of the) Locomotive Breath
Runs the all-time loser
Headlong to his death

Top 5 albums that you would recommend to all your fellow members and why.



» The Sugar Tree by Amy Rigby
I've already recommended this album to a lot of people, in fact. Amy's songwriting is exceptional: sometimes poignant, sometimes sarcastic and whimsical, and sometimes brutally honest. And always genuine. Relationships can be a real roller coaster, and she musically navigates all their facets as well as anyone I've ever heard.

Okay, that's all I've got. I now return you to your regularly scheduled lives.

Latest Update

I received the following update from my sister-in-law a few days ago concerning my brother A.

Just a quick update on A since it has been awhile. Aaron has made progress since the doctor drained the fluid on the right side of his brain. He continues to improve physically. His attention span is greater now. He is reading for short periods of time. He has again become very social and seems to enjoy “chatting” with the other patients on his floor. It is still difficult to understand much of what he says and the doctor says that he will never have true “conversation language”.

Due to a glitch with the insurance A will be moving as soon as next week. He will go to another rehab facility where they will continue to work on his mobility and other issues. The doctor has assured me that with continued rehab he will walk again. The estimate as of right now is that A will be at the new place for about a year.

I also talked to Mom about their most recent visit. A is feeding himself now, which is pretty impressive. His mobility is also much improved. He sits up by himself and uses his legs to scoot himself around in a wheelchair. He recognizes and talks to Dad, but at present doesn't seem to recognize Mom. She thinks it might be because of her grey hair. She said she might try a temporary rinse to get closer to her 'original' color and see if that helps.

Physically, A seems to be approaching where he was before the accident. Mentally, it's still going to be a long road, and nobody knows just how far he'll be able to come back.

I think we're going back to Colorado of Christmas this year. I have no idea if my brother will recognize me when I see him again. I hope so. If not, maybe we'll just have to get to know one another all over again. If that's what it takes, I can be okay with it.

Thanks again to everyone for your continued thoughts, prayers, and positive energy.

(If you missed the first part of the story, you can read up here, here, here, and here.

Dishes in the Dark

When I saw clouds rising outside the call center tonight, I was a little concerned. Our dialer is a little twitchy and doesn't always respond well to severe weather. Worse than that, the power grid around the building seems particularly susceptible to outages. So when the winds started to howl, the rain started to fall, the lightning started to flash, and the TV in the break room started screeching with a Severe Thunderstorm Alert, my colleagues and I started preparing for the worst.

As it turned out, we had only minimal problems. There was a power flicker that knocked out several of the interviewing stations, resulting in lost calls that the dialer immediately tried to call back. That caused problems for about fifteen minutes. It also knocked out two of the computers in the supervisors' office—the two that Vince and I were using on a project for the owner of the company, as it turned out. But we'd been careful about saving out data and lost less than a sentence. For the curious, the Second Rule of Computers is as follows: Save early and save often.

We finally got the project done around 8:45, and I headed home. On the drive along 2100 South, I began to notice areas without electricity. When I reached the stoplight nearest our house, I discovered that our entire neighborhood was one such area. Not only was the stoplight itself out, but there was no power on any of the four adjacent corners.

So I drove the rest of the way home, entered the apartment, and found one of our flashlights. Then I set about doing something about the darkness. I lit a three-wick candle in the kitchen, a jarred candle in the bathroom, and a small portable oil lamp in the living room. Between the candles and the lamp and the trusty flashlight, the place is dark but navigable.

Nancy's at work tonight. She called me on the way home, before I realized we had no power at home. She offered to bring home food from work, and I told her I thought that'd be a good idea. She had to leave mid-conversation to help a customer but promised to call back. When she did, I informed her or our predicament. Not a lot she could do about it, but at least she knew.

Even with the extra time I spent at the call center, I was still looking at more than an hour and a half before she got home. What to do? What was even possible without electricity? Isn't it amazing how much of our lives revolves around electrical power? Well, we still had hot and cold water, and there was a moderate stack of dishes waiting to be washed. So I moved the candle a little closer to the sink, got out this trusty laptop, turned on Winamp and set it to play everything at random, and dived in. It took about 20 minutes to do the dishes, but I had tunes, so it went by pretty quickly.

I've dealt with power outages before. My freshman year in high school, for example, we had a blizzard that kept my brother and me out of school for our birthdays. (Regular readers may recall that my birthday is in the latter half of May. That's Colorado for you.) The snow also knocked out power to our house.

For a week.

No big deal, though. We had a wood-burning stove for heat—our only source of heat, actually. That's right, I grew up in a house without a furnace or central heating. Well, that's not entirely true; the stove was in the living room, which opened into every other room of the house except the bathroom. So that was pretty central. Anyway, the loss of power didn't inconvenience us too badly. The local farmers made sure the roads were cleared. They need them clear to do their jobs, after all, and tractors and frontloaders are perfect for pushing snow out of the way. We had plenty of food, as we always did growing up. Much of it was the fruits and vegetables we spent every summer growing and canning. As far as perishable goods, well, we had a convenient 5-foot snowdrift along the side of the house that we stuck food into. That kept it plenty cold. We cooked meals on the wood-burning stove, which we often did anyway. And our phone still worked.

The only real inconvenience was the lack of hot water. Sure, we had plenty for dishes and cooking and such, thanks to the wood-burning stove. We even had enough for a quick sponge bath now and then. But after a few days of this, we were all ready for a good, hot shower. Luckily, our friends Geoff and Mark (or more properly, their parents) invited us over for dinner and showers with all the hot water we wanted at the end of the week. It was only a day or two later we got the power back on.

All of this taught me that a blackout didn't necessarily have to be a catastrophe. Life went on pretty much as usual. We even had birthday cake—cheesecake, that is. Mom had all the ingredients on hand, so she made a blueberry cheesecake for me and cherry cheesecake for my brother. We were just fine with that. Actually, blueberry cheesecake is still my birthday cake of choice.

Now, I'm not nearly as well-prepared as my parents were, not by a long way. But if push came to shove, we've probably got food and supplies for at least a week or two. We have candles and flashlights and batteries to last us quite a while. And I've got this nifty laptop to help keep me entertained—at least until Nancy gets home.

So here I sit at the kitchen table, typing by the light of the big three-wick candle and a USB powered reading light I found at Big Lots for $4. I can hear the rain starting to pick up again outside, though it seems to be a comparatively gentle rain, not like the tree-denting downpour we had earlier. And I feel good about things. I like the rain. Maybe I'll turn off the computer and just listen to the rain for a while.

Good night, loyal readers. I hope you're all getting the weather you need and want.

10:48 p.m., Tuesday night, 4 September 2007

Two-A-Days

So, the first week of the new school year has come and gone. And now that it's over, I'm exhausted.

Just over a week ago, on Friday afternoon, I got a phone call as I was heading in to work. (By 'work' I mean my normal job as Quality Assurance Manager at a local market research company.) The call was from the Principal of a junior high school in the district with a substitute job request. It seems they had a teacher who transferred to another school of the summer to deal with some family issues. They'd hired a replacement teacher, who had subsequently decided two weeks before the start of the school year that he didn't want to be a teacher after all. So, after failing to find anyone else for the job, the Principal called the Guest Teacher office. And they'd recommended me.

The assignment, he told me, would be open-ended. I'd be there for at least a week, and possibly as long as the whole semester. Meanwhile, they'd be looking for a full-time teacher using any means they could come up with—student teachers from the local (and not-so-local) colleges, retired teachers, whatever. Until that happened, I would be the teacher.

At this point in the conversation, I asked what the subject was, and the conversation got very interesting.

Industrial Technology. Or, as it used to be called when I was in middle school, Industrial Arts. Or, as it's colloquially known, Shop.

Now, every teacher has subjects in which they're strong and subjects in which they're weaker. Math and science are my strengths. Algebra? Geometry? Physical Science? I can teach those in my sleep. And I know enough about subjects like English, History, Health, and even Business that I can give competent lessons. But Industrial Arts? All I know about Shop is what I learned from one semester I spent in a Middle School Shop class myself—we won't even talk about how long ago that was—and what I've picked up from a few Bill Cosby routines. ("Who put a bullet in the furnace?")

In short, I'm no more qualified to teach Shop than to teach Mandarin Chinese.

Nevertheless, I took the job. I could hear the quiet desperation in the Mr. H's voice, and there'd be people there to help me through it. And hey, the hours would be good. So I reported for duty Monday morning at 7:30. I already knew that first period was my consultation period, so I checked in with the office, got the keys to the room, and set about locating lesson materials. Or, more properly, attempting to locate lesson materials. There was nothing there.

I dropped by the room next door, where a young teacher named Mr. B welcomed me and gave me some ideas about where to start. And Mr. H came by my room (and it was 'my' room at this point) to offer some further ideas for the first day. The school normally runs on a block schedule, which means that you have four classes for about 90 minutes one day and four different classes the other day. But for the first day, I'd be meeting with all 8 classes for half the usual time. Okay, it was only 6 classes with two consultation periods, but still, I was meeting all my new students. With not a lot to teach them.

Every class that day went about the same. I introduced myself and explained why I wasn't Mr. Peterson. We reviewed some of the more important policies and procedures from the student planner. I asked them what they thought 'technology' was. We talked briefly about their ideas and how technology would ultimately (I hoped) be used in the class. I collected what they had written, and then I sent them on to their next class. I was feeling like I was in over my head, but by the end of the day, I was beginning to think I could handle it.

Tuesday morning I spent my planning period reading one of the textbooks in the class. The first section gave a discussion of the similarities of and differences between Science, Technology, and Engineering. I constructed a lesson plan, including a series of questions from the end of the section. And I gave that lesson six times over the next two days to three different grade levels (7th, 8th, and 9th). With the rapidly growing piles of papers I was accumulating, I checked with the office, picked up a grade book, and started grading papers. Ah, all the challenges of being a full-time teacher with none of the benefits, like tenure. And the room was almost oppressively hot, to boot. One oscillating fan I found in the unused room next door wasn't nearly enough to keep things comfortable. Good thing I bring a bottle of ice water to each assignment!

Tuesday afternoon I got a visit from Mr. H again. They had found a teacher! He was a retired teacher who had taught shop for more than 30 years and was willing to come out of retirement to help the district out for the year. In fact, he'd been retired for three years, and had come out of retirement each of those three years to help various schools. That's dedication. Mr. H said the new teacher, Mr. O, would be in the following day and probably the rest of the week, but he'd be spending that time organizing supplies and getting ready for the rest of year. So I was still on for the remainder of the week.

I met Mr. O on Wednesday morning. Nice guy, very knowledgeable and quite obviously a veteran teacher. He gave me a few pointers and we discussed what I'd teach his classes for the rest of the week. Working with him and with Mr. B next door, I got some information on a couple of drawing projects the kids could do to get them ready for shop work. I also found a worksheet on following instructions to help drive the point home to them. (I'll probably include that as a separate post in a day or two.) So on Thursday and Friday, after reviewing the previous days' assignments, I had them do the Instructions Worksheet. We discussed the results, and I told them it was an exercise designed to get them used to reading and following detailed sets of directions accurately. Then I had them draw 3 or 4 objects in the room: a wooden shelf I presume was a student project from a previous year, a metal C-clamp, a video projector, and an adjustable hole punch. Then I gave them a worksheet that had a drawing activity on one side and an exercise in recognizing perspectives in drawings on the other. That was just about enough to keep them occupied for the whole period. Almost.

In the midst all of that, I was still working at my market research job. So I'd leave for school around 7:15 in the morning and return from work just over 12 hours later. That's not something I think I could have continued to do long-term, good money or not.

And the money is good, by the way. I found out that the district raised its rates this year to match the rates in a neighboring district. Broken down hourly, my substituting rate is now over 90% of what I make as a middle manager in the private sector. I earned more than enough in a week of substituting to get Lula fixed, even including the serpentine belt that recently snapped. So its' not like I'm laboring entirely in poverty. But it has been exhausting.

Anyway, back to school. Friday ended with a Welcome Back assembly held during the last period of the day—which was fine with me, because the kids in that class are, in general, a bunch of snotty little 9th-grade brats who are going to be quite shocked when they reach high school and realize that they're not really as big and bad as they think they are. Anyway, the assembly celebrated the completion of the first week of a new year. And for me, it was both a relief and a bit of a disappointment. There are a few of those kids that I got to know and like a little bit. After my 7th grade class on Thursday, I found a note someone had written on the chalkboard: "We love u, please stay!" Maybe I'd reached some of them in our short week together.

So while it's been a tiring week, it hasn't been without its rewards. And I have a whole new set of experiences upon which to draw in the future, which is always a good thing.

But now it's time to rest.