Cloche de Beurre

This is neither the first nor, I am sure, the last time I will reference Interesting thing of the Day, a cool site I visit regularly. Joe Kissel has discovered and written about yet another elegant solution to a common problem. He and his wife also write about cool stuff that I don't take enough time considering.

Happy Belated Valentine's Day

For those of you who have not stopped to consider the beauty and romance of this special day, please check out this link. Thanks, Trixie.

Old Glory Insurance

Denice

My dear friend Denice, a lifelong friend of Shel's, wrote me a long, thoughtful, and encouraging email dissuading me from leaving teaching asking for a token mention here - just a sentence, just a phrase, but she deserves more. She deserves her own blog, her own web-ring.
Thanks, Denice.

The Latest News

Various people have told me for many years now that they thought I would make a good teacher - a very flattering remark, but one I still think was meant sincerely.

I didn't.

I made a lousy teacher. What I've discovered is that the profession of teaching, at least in my brief experience, has less to do with actually teaching people stuff they want to learn or which the teacher wants to teach than one might expect, and more to do with a whole lot of other bullshit.

As my regular readers know, I was teaching at a middle school in the Sacramento area this school year. Now I'm not. I resigned last Friday. It sounds reckless when it's put that way, but the truth is that the axe was already falling and I got out just before it found purchase. Officially, I have "left to pursue another opportunity." Actually, as glad as I am to be out of there, I'm still looking for that other opportunity.

I really didn't like teaching middle school. I liked teaching high school and I'm sure that if I'm to continue teaching, it will be at that level. The thing is that for as crappy as the kids could be sometimes, they weren't the problem. The problem was a sixty-hour work-week for two grand a month. The problem was the lockstep curriculum design. The problem was my fuckhead administrator. (by the way, Blogspot's internal spell check thinks that fuckhead is misspelled [and "Blogspot" and spellcheck too] but I double-checked and it's [they're] right).

I enjoy teaching the kids stuff that they need to know when they enjoy learning it, but, c'mon, who doesn't enjoy that, right? The kids at a middle school need baby-sitting as much as they need instruction, and that's a problem for me. I don't want to work as a babysitter. Either behave as you're supposed to or go the fuck home and ask Mom and Dad to beat you some more. I hate that I have to teach decorum to children who have parents. What I hate more is not having the time to teach them decorum because it takes away from teaching participial phrases only to learn later that nobody else is teaching participial phrases because they themselves don't understand them and they're "too hard." I hate then having to keep it a secret that I taught kids what participial phrases were because nobody else in the department taught their kids that (by the way, a participial phrase is when a verb is used as an adjective, e.g. the running dog, the tanned hide, the infuriating fuckhead).

I had some terrific coworkers. I had some terrific kids. I'll miss both even if I don't miss everything about the job.

Now, I need to find "another opportunity" worth having left my job for.

Joe Versus the Volcano

I just finished re-watching this movie again, and I think that it is probably my all-time favorite film. Tom Hanks characterized it as an "existential comedy with adventure and romance in it." That's probably a fair assessment. There's so much to say about this film, and so much has already been said about it, I'm not sure what I can add but a recommendation. I saw new things on this viewing that I had never seen before, but I see new things each time I see it. This time, it was the shape of the lightning bolt that destroys the Tweedle-Dee, and Joe's pronouncement to DeDe, Angelica, and Patricia that, upon first meeting each of them, he felt like he had met them before.
One day, Shel and I will have to renew our vows, and when we do, I want to go all-out with a Waponi-style wedding. Our first wedding was, as those who were there know, a Florin-style wedding, and that was comically memorable, but I'm convinced that the Waponi way is better.
I guess what I love about this film is the fact that it is so thoroughly enjoyable on so many different levels - if all you want is a brainless comedy, that's there (e.g. the Waponi gong ringers swinging into their instruments and kerflopping down to the ground, the fake testes on Mr. Waturi's desk), and if you want something deeper, that's there too.
The dialog is an example:
DeDe: "What's with the shoe, Joe?"
Joe: "I'm losing my [soul]."
The subtle, yet pervasive symbolism is another, e.g. the lighting bolt shape, (again) the fake testes on Mr. Waturi's desk, the shedding of a hat each time 'finishes' a stage of development.
The movie is super quotable: "[Luggage] is the central preoccupation of my life . . . . If I had the need, and the wherewithal, this would be my trunk of choice."
"Okay, I'll take four."
"May you live to be a thousand years old."
"Yeah, you too."
Joe is supposed to be an "everyman." That's his express purpose in the screenplay - to be the generic everyman, and to be the protagonist. He is loving, kind, generous, flexible, and long suffering - due chiefly to his own unwillingness to force change. He is a hypochondriac. He has a terrificly thankful sense of awe and wonder. He is able to enjoy irony and humor, even at his own expense. Some might argue that these qualities flout the "everyman" mold, but I believe that they exemplify it. Joe isn't who we each want to be - Joe is who we are.

enough.

I love this film.

It's a Shame

F**K Me Pumps Lyrics She'll probably be dead soon - at least if Bradley Noel, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, or common sense are any indication. Until she is, though, or at least until she makes a good start on a regular,-running-joke-on-The-Soup-disaster-of-Britney-esque-proportions downward spiral, I'll continue to enjoy her hot, retro, sultry, voice.

I know now that I'm late on this, but her music is new to me.