Life Goes On

my new favorite word, thanks Eddy

At the Dave show Friday night, I was conversing with one my best friends. He and I have been roommates, been in each others weddings, committed a couple felonies ... you get the picture. We have been known to throw down beers watching election results like it was the Super Bowl.

I digress. As were talking, a friend of one of the couples we came with came upon us. I gave the usual friendly greeting and he asked how I was.
I replied, "Doing well thank you."
His reply, "You said well, are you an English major or pretentious?"
Being my sarcastic self, I said I was both.
I guess my crime is an education. Not that I apply it as I should. This got me to thinking. You have read my posts and comments. They tend to be erratic, obtuse, but entertaining. Mostly capital crimes against literacy, grammar and my family name.
Time to step up. Let's have some fun.

Here are the definitions so you can use big words like I make the feeble attempts:
pretentious
Main Entry: pre·ten·tious
Pronunciation: \pri-ˈten(t)-shəs\
Function: adjective
Etymology: French prétentieux, from prétention pretension, from Medieval Latin pretention-, pretentio, from Latin praetendere
Date: 1832
1: characterized by pretension: as a: making usually unjustified or excessive claims (as of value or standing) b: expressive of affected, unwarranted, or exaggerated importance, worth, or stature
2: making demands on one's skill, ability, or means : ambitious

obtuse
Main Entry: ob·tuse
Pronunciation: \äb-ˈtüs, əb-, -ˈtyüs\
Function: adjective
Inflected Form(s): ob·tus·er; ob·tus·est
Etymology: Middle English, from Latin obtusus blunt, dull, from past participle of obtundere to beat against, blunt, from ob- against + tundere to beat — more at ob-, contusion
Date: 15th century
1 a: not pointed or acute : blunt b (1)of an angle : exceeding 90 degrees but less than 180 degrees (2): having an obtuse angle — see triangle illustration cof a leaf : rounded at the free end
2 a: lacking sharpness or quickness of sensibility or intellect : insensitive, stupid b: difficult to comprehend : not clear or precise in thought or expression

Last of the fun posts

One more "fun" post until I start the spring offensive:
I caught one of the greatest "guy" movies of all time tonight, The Magnificent Seven.
Based on the Japanese classic, The Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa, it personifies manlimanness. The is so testosterone rich, Chuck Norris couldn't play one of the village girls.
Yul Brenner
Steve McQueen
Charles Frickin' Bronson
James Coburn
Robert Vaughn
&
a Jewish Eli Wallach playing the villain


Quotes:
Vin: We deal in lead friend.

[O'Reilly is teaching the villagers how to shoot]
O'Reilly: Miguel, didn't I tell you to squeeze? Hm? Just like when you're milking a goat, Miguel.
Miguel: It's that I get excited!
O'Reilly: Well don't get excited! Now this time squeeze. Slowly, but squeeze. All right now, squeeze. [Miguel shoots]
O'Reilly: *Squeeze*! I'll tell you what. Don't shoot the gun. Take the gun like this, and you use it like a club, all right?

Village Boy 2: We're ashamed to live here. Our fathers are cowards.
O'Reilly: Don't you ever say that again about your fathers, because they are not cowards. You think I am brave because I carry a gun; well, your fathers are much braver because they carry responsibility, for you, your brothers, your sisters, and your mothers. And this responsibility is like a big rock that weighs a ton. It bends and it twists them until finally it buries them under the ground. And there's nobody says they have to do this. They do it because they love you, and because they want to. I have never had this kind of courage. Running a farm, working like a mule every day with no guarantee anything will ever come of it. This is bravery. That's why I never even started anything like that... that's why I never will.

Chris: Morning. I'm a friend of Harry Luck's. He tells me you're broke.
O'Reilly: [chopping wood] Nah. I'm doing this because I'm an eccentric millionaire.

You gotta knock a few down to build them up.

not them

Tech suspends 100-plus students for violating IPS dress code
By Bill Ruthhart

Administrators at Tech High School suspended more than 100 students Monday for violating the Indianapolis Public Schools dress code.
Campus administrator Sarah H. Bogard said that while other IPS schools had been sending students home for violating the dress code since the beginning of the school year, she had chosen to work with students and parents to make sure they received the proper clothing. On Monday, though, she said it was time to send a message.
"This is the seventh Monday of the semester, and this has to come to an end," Bogard said of students ignoring the IPS policy, ....
IPS Superintendent Eugene White instituted the dress code for this school year, saying it would alter the community's perception of the district and help show children that school is a place for serious work.

Students will have to be accompanied by a parent and meet with administrators before they will be allowed back into school.
Bogard said three sessions -- 10 a.m., 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. -- have been scheduled for today. She said parents will be required to sign a form, acknowledging they are responsible for their child complying with the dress code.
"Some parents wanted to send their child back to school (Monday) with a belt or the right color shirt, but we said, 'No,' " Bogard said. "After six weeks, there are no excuses, and they can come to school with their child and discuss what it is they don't understand or think is important about the dress code."
Carol Jones' daughter was suspended Monday for wearing a blue shirt.
"This was her first offense, and I think she should have been allowed to go back to class," Jones told WTHR (Channel 13), The Star's news-gathering partner.
"I had her clothes right here in a bag."
Bogard said she worked hard to prevent Monday's suspensions, spending $4,600 of her own money to buy hundreds of shirts, pants and belts for students. She created Mrs. Bogard's Closet, a site on campus where students -- at no charge -- could pick up the appropriate clothing so they could stay in class.
"I think I did more than enough to try and make this work," Bogard said. "It comes to a point where you don't have time to tell them to adjust their clothing every day.
"They're not kindergartners."

I edited out just a couple sentences. And I know the whole article can be boring, but the meat of the article speaks volumes. Dr. Eugene White has had death threats made against him based on this dress code.
Death threats.
He had a woman threaten to kill him in front if her child at another time for the dress code. He has made more teachers accountable and is making the students act and dress appropriate. Last spring during high school graduations, he had people escorted for being to exuberant. We're not talking a polite cheer here. Students griped about being"unable to express themselves." Get your friggin' scores up and behave.
Dr. White has laid down the law with the intent of having a failing school district succeed. I hope the city and Mayor Peterson allow him to finish the job.

I did my student teaching in the Indianapolis Public Schools and am still in debt. If a job had been offered, I would be there now. So I have a small private stake in this issue. It is time someone made the students and parents accountable in our schools. Especially the struggling and dying ones.

Well done Dr. White.

Again, threats were made on his life for enforcing a dress code. People.
Oh yeah, before the race card can be played, Dr. White is black.

Bravo Dr. White, Bravo

Game on

Well, another school year is upon us and we are in the beginning days of the 180. (Indiana requires 180 days of school time, or legalized torture my students see it) I have a great schedule and was in midseason form two days in. Every day I get my game face on and on the way home I analyze what was done right and wrong. Occasionally I get tough on myself, but this is education and the failure to do so creates complacent teaches who plague the system already.

Another note:

My middle child had her fourth birthday party the other day. Lucy is the prototype middle child. It is her planet you all live here. People in North Korea are blissfully unaware of the the forces of nature that dwell in middle America.

Back to the party, it was the typical Dora themed fiesta with cupcakes, swimming and bloody noses. When it came for the pinata, we settled for the pull the string style.

I joked aloud we should have a had a "Jack Murtha" pinata so earmarks would pour out rather than candy. Two people got my joke. As usual, my wonkish humor is wasted on the masses

What is your weight in gold?

Porter: [voiceover] Not many people know what their life's worth is. I do. Seventy grand. That's what they took from me. And that's what I was going to get back.

love that line from the movie Payback. A very brutal film but a classic in my unquestionalbe opinion.

Which led to this random thought that shot through my feeble melon, how much is the mighty Obob worth in gold?

According to the website goldcalculator.com, gold is worth $654 per ounce. I could have misread the data, but that puts my value at $1,852,128. Had I cashed myself in around last November, $2,145,120.

Part II to this lame post:

I swore to myself I would not mention, elude or deviate towards that worthless little piece of trash Paris Hilton. But this picture is worth the weight in gold of the Chicago Bears offensive line:

let's go over this again, kids

If you are a teacher, you are not to have any form of sexual relations with your students. Let's repeat this, if you are a teacher, you are not to have any form of sexual relations with your students.
It may be a classic school boy fantasy, but it should remain that, a fantasy. Like infidelity, it should not be a reality. Darcie Esson, who used to teach for Elizabeth H.S. in Colorado committed this crime in a hotel room with a teenager. It is a crime,

one new count of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust and one new count alleging sexual assault with a pattern of abuse. Esson already faced one count of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust, filed in December.

There is no excuse, no reasoning no logic attached to ancient philosophies or cultures. Like perverts of NAMBLA, not the North American Marlon Brando Look Alikes, children do need to be protected from predators who will screw up their impressionistic minds for life.
I'm in the education business. I had a baseball bat ready in my trunk yesterday to protect my kids from a neighborhood pit bull. The mayor in Indy would rather repair sidewalks and plant trees than take care of that "problem." That is a another post. My students and parents know I will take a bullet for them, keep them emotionally focused so they don't hurt themselves, and give band aids for the paper cut epidemic sweeping my classroom. The point is, these are children, not sex toys for f**ked up individuals to prowl and conquer to live out their disturbing whims. I hope she gets a very uncomfortable cellmate.
other criminals:
Stephanie Giambelluca
Debra Lafave
John Watts

A Good time

If you are sitting at home surfing this evening, go to Leopaloza.com. This is an annual music festival inside a school's gym that benefits the school and another school in Northern Ireland. Kudos for Pete for the live webcast.
They have pipers.

Steve Jobs is going to get an academic beatdown

I caught this off of Slate.com:

AUSTIN — Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs lambasted teacher unions today, claiming no amount of technology in the classroom would improve public schools until principals could fire bad teachers.

his best line came I found in the AP piece:

"I believe that what is wrong with our schools in this nation is that they have become unionized in the worst possible way," Jobs said.

Slate.com points out the fact he is a Democrat. Way to piss off the NEA. Be afraid Steve, they make the Mafia look like a litter of kittens.
But the second quote speaks volumes. Unions still are and were once very necessary to protect the rights of workers when management became unholy pricks. History has proven that. But when the unions threaten to destroy our entire educational system over pride and fear of losing dues, we have a huge problem. Goes back to my theory economics drives history.
It provide unions with some street cred if they had a viable or any real solution of the present and looming educational crisis. One that is far more realistic than the global warming hysteria created by the abuse of education by its ivory tower dwelling academic thuggees.