8 Things

Jen at Casual Slack tagged me with this meme about 8 Things etc. Well, here goes:



8 Things I am passionate about:

1. My political views (but I often keep them private)

2. my music

3. blogging/reading other's blogs

4. reading

5. watching basketball-(if its "my" team I sometimes get too into it!)

6. my son's (who has autism) success in school

7. Weekends-yeah, I know teachers are supposed to work on weekends too, but I try not to!

8. trying to keep our computer running in top shape/messing with software/tuning it up



8 Things I want to do before I die:

1. work in a different field than education-possibly in a computer-related field

2. travel -maybe NYC or Chicago- Or Spain to visit my cousin and his wife/family

3. win the lottery

4. lose weight and get into shape-(ironic for this heading!)

5. play in a rock and roll band-make a cd/play live somewhere(I have done it before, just informal jamming with friends)

6. write something-a book, something published somewhere (not just a letter to the editor)

7. learn to swim

8. go on a long hike somewhere in the mountains-maybe up north near Taos/Valdez NM.



8 Things I Say Often:

1. fuck!

2 capice!?

3. Oh, come on! (in traffic)

4. damn! or dammit!

5. what's with this guy!? (in traffic again)

6. Peww! You 'tinks! (I say it to our dog, ok!?)

7. oh crap!

8. oh, that sucks!



8 Books I Have Read Lately:

1. The Catcher in The Rye-(can you believe I had never read this!?)

2. The Chocolate War-(yes it's a trend with censored books-and again, can you believe I had never read this?!)

3. The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Night-Time-by Mark Haddon-I really loved this book!-I could visualize how possibly our son might be like Christopher when he's that age!

4. Blinded By The Right-David Brock

5. Tales From the Teacher's Lounge-Robert Wilder

6. What's The Matter With Kansas?-Thomas Frank

7. Armed Madhouse-Greg Palast

8. Blue Highways-William Least Heat Moon



8 songs I Could Listen to Over and Over:

1. Bop Till You Drop-Ramones

2. Naked As We Came-Iron and Wine

3. anything by Chris Whitley

4. anything by Elvis Costello

5. Wilco-Pot Kettle Black

6. Somerville-The Pernice Brothers

7. Rosie Thomas-I Play Music

8. The Trooper-Iron Maiden



8 Things That Attract Me to My Best Friends:

1. similar views on culture/life

2. commonalities-work in the educational field, music

3. don't always want to hang out together-getting together sometimes is fun, but not every other day!

4. same dry humor - they can enjoy a sick, dark joke without revulsion

5. they play guitar or music

*I really couldn't think of others-sorry!



8 people who should do this crazy 8 stuff:
1. Aye! small thoughts...
2. Anne Altman.
3. Wendy Brandes Jewelry
4. Jay's World
5. Monkey Muck
6. For Your Entertainment
7. Distributor Cap
8.Culture Kills...wait, i mean cutlery

Nascar: It's a sport.

With the ever popular Daytona 500 race over and done with and with the UAW Dodge 400 scheduled to begin soon, I thought we could take a serious look at the athleticism, and strategy involved in this sport. Yes, there is an entirely different kind of athleticism and strategy from other sports. Nascar athleticism involves repetitious and highly individualized movement of the participant's musculature, in such a manner as to cause the vehicle the participant is manuevering around the track to move real fast. Let's look at a clip of a Nascar coach describing the strategy, training and preparation involved in this sport. Wow! This kind of strategy and training is something to be admired in a sport!






Related Tags:Nascar Daytona+500 UAW+Dodge+400 athleticism sports

Free... free as a bird...

So we all went out this weekend-my wife, my son, and I to the mall to do some clothes shopping. It was an overcast to partly cloudy day with intermittent rain showers. After the mall, we went to the nearby Office Depot so my wife could get some office supplies. Me and my son decided to stay in the car and listen to the tunes.

As we sat there, I noticed that there were many of these seagull-looking birds flying about, sometimes landing on the tall lamp posts for a bit, then flying off to soar once again. I mentioned these birds to my son, and he was interested in watching them because they looked of course like the seagulls in Finding Nemo-one of his favorite movies.

As I watched those beautiful birds flying high in the air and gliding with seemingly so little effort, It made me think of how wonderful it could be to be a bird and to fly. To soar like those birds would be so cool. I thought of this little poem:

(click to enlarge)

Related Tags: flying birds seagulls scared+of+heights

Just my 'magination?! Nah!

I noticed this the other day. Its kinda weird. In about 98% of the photos I have come across of Adam Levine from Maroon 5, he has that same ridiculous, smug, almost-Zoolanderish expression on his face. What's with that look!? Look, Adam, I know you're considered a hearthrob, but come on-you can try a new pose once in a while for pete's sake!








Related Tags: Maroon+5 Adam+Levine

Are these the really important issues!?

Hey, I know that some of this is the media's penchant for following the lowest common denominator, and finding dirt to kick up, but the candidates have got to try and get their campaigns back to talking about what is really important to the people-the war in Iraq, health care, the economy, jobs education. Barack is taking the high road I think, but he could get suckered into the type of mudslinging that Hillary is doing.

Otherwise, we might have to hear more of Glen Beck's irritating giggling and cackling!

(click to enlarge)



Hey-I was awarded this by my blogging mentor-Matthew Caverhill of Culture kills... wait, I mean cutlery That is quite an honor!