End of November

So it's the last day of November, and Christmas is coming soon. But I don't feel it. I'm just not in the Christmas spirit yet, and I don't know why. Here are some possible reasons:
1) We're moving, so we haven't gotten the Christmas decorations out yet.
2) It hasn't snowed anything more than a flurry or two yet.
3) The economy is so bad that it's hard to think about spending money frivolously.
4) Work is so busy right now that it's on my mind a lot.
5) I'm getting older.

I don't want to accept #5, so it must be one of the others, or maybe all of the others together. And a couple of things DID happen a few days ago that has STARTED to get me in the Christmas mood. First, my kids each gave me a Christmas list. Second, we drew names for presents at my family's Thanksgiving get together on Thursday, and that gives me a couple of kids to shoot for. And the kids that Meredith and Natalie drew are both about 2 years of age, which is a GREAT age for presents. They're pretty much going to like anything that we get them.

So maybe I'll start getting into the Christmas spirit for real soon.

I'd better. There are only 25 days left!

REALLY Red States

Every day there's another story about the state of the U.S. economy, and every industry in America, it seems, is asking for government money--usually in the hundreds of billions of dollars--to fix the problem.

The problem is, though, if you add up all of these requests for money and all of these government plans, you start getting into totals that are multi-trillion dollar totals. And I don't know--maybe the U.S. is so big that it can say, "What the hell! What's a trillion or two dollars here or there?" But I don't think so.

Another thought that occurred to me is that--at the rate we're going--sooner or later the U.S. government might own EVERY supposedly "private" industry in America. Once that happens, how is it any different from communism? And maybe that's been people's plans all along. Look at Henry Paulson in the photo to the right. Go on. Look at him! Doesn't he look like a commie to you? (And notice the red tie? It's a symbol! I bet that pattern on the tie--which is too blurry to see in this photo--is a hammer and sickle!) He could be sitting right beside Nikita Kruschev in that photo and he'd fit right in! The commies have infiltrated our government, just like we feared for all those years, and now--when we're distracted by a little economic challenge--they're using that distraction to take over our country!

Commie Bastards!

Couldn't Stop Myself

As I predicted, I was unable to take off the entire day on Thanksgiving. I was planning not to do ANY kind of moving on Thanksgiving. I was just going to rest. But I ended up spending about 2 1/2 hours cleaning out the delivery truck we'd borrowed (It was pretty dirty, especially in the cab) and filling up the truck for the first move this morning. So I failed at relaxing for an entire day. But it's not my fault! Really!

First, Thanksgiving dinner was so early that we were back home by about 3:00. And that meant there were hours left in the day. I couldn't just sit around.

Second, I decided that I WOULD just sit around. I'd watch the football games. But I turned on the first game and--as expected--the Lions were getting blown out. So I didn't see any reason to sit around and watch a game unfolding pretty much the way I was expecting it to do (The same could be said for the second game, too). Why waste my time doing this, I thought, when I could actually be working? So I went and started loading up the truck.

It's not the biggest truck (It's maybe the size of the smallest U-haul truck), but it's still pretty big. Our dining room was filled with boxes, but I put every box in the dining room and all of the boxes in storage in the basement in the front 1/3 of the truck and still had space to spare, so I loaded up a few bookshelves and most of the outdoor furniture we own (which is going to be a problem for us as we have only a small patio at our new house and we have enough outdoor furniture to fill the entire patio two chairs high. We're even leaving some behind!). We fit so much in this first load that we're going to do later this morning, in fact, that I'm worried we may move too much too soon and have all day Sunday to do nothing but lament that most of our stuff is at the new house but all of the big stuff is at the old house.

Then again, I've been conistently wrong about how long it would take me to do most things in this process. I honestly thought I'd paint all three rooms that we painted on Friday, Saturday, and MAYBE Sunday morning, and it took until late Wednesday to finish. And Tuesday night I sent Lisa a text message that said, "Cell phone dying. Will be home at 12:30." It was more like 1:30. That's pretty typical for me.

So don't be surprised to read a blog entry in a day or two that talks about how I didn't get everything done as quickly as I thought I would.

Thanksgiving

It's a bit cliche, I know, to write this today, but I don't really care...

I thought today, on Thanksgiving Day, I'd make a quick list of things that I am very thankful for. So here they are, in no particular order

• I am thankful my niece is doing better and out of the hospital or coming out of the hospital soon.
• I am thankful that my other niece had a healthy baby and also is home.
• Speaking of homes, I am thankful that a) we found a new house, b) we could afford it, and c) I have a wonderful family to live in it with.
• I am thankful that MY daughters have not been in the hospital recently.
• I am thankful that I have a wife that I love very much.
• I am thankful for my job. Despite the headaches it's given me the last couple of months, it's rewarding and I wouldn't want to do anything else (except maybe be a rock star or a movie actor).
• I am thankful that I am finally through painting. That was enough painting to last me a while.
• I am thankful that in just a few days we'll be living in our new house.
• I am thankful for a father-in-law who knows a little bit about real estate and was there to give us guidance along the way.
• I am thankful, actually, for all of my family on both sides. It is nice to be self-sufficient, but it's also nice to know that if self-sufficiency ever fails that there are people who love you and are ready to lend a hand.
• I am thankful that Bengals are SO bad that I've just stopped watching them. If they were only pretty bad I'd be hanging on still, hoping that they might still make the playoffs.
• I am thankful that someone discovered chocolate.
• Speaking of food, I'm thankful that I gave up that whole complete vegetarian thing before Thanksgiving. After all, turkey is pretty much my favorite food that isn't a dessert.
• I am thankful for Choco and for all of the other ways that my children help me to be young.
• Speaking of my kids, I am thankful for each of them. I cherish them and cannot believe that I have been lucky enough to have such wonderful children. I absolutely don't deserve them. Just ask my mom and dad.
• I am thankful for spell checking to fix my errors as I type.
• I am thankful to God for these and for more. I am thankful to just be alive.

If I don't see you today or this weekend, Happy Thanksgiving.

Home, Sweet Home

We closed on our new house last Friday, and as I mentioned in an earlier post, I spent the whole weekend painting. Now it's Thanksgiving weekend, a long weekend, and that's good, because we're planning to REALLY get moving with this whole moving thing now.

Last night I borrowed a big delivery truck, and we're going to move the majority of our stuff ourselves, but not quite yet. Today we're going to finish painting the house and give it a good cleaning.

Tomorrow, if we can, we're going to take the day off and actually enjoy Thanksgiving. I say "if we can" because I know myself, and once I get started on a project I just want to finish. We're going to my brother's house near Louisville for Thanksgiving dinner with my family, but we're eating early, and we may be back home before it's too late. And I know that I'll think to myself, "I don't really want to WATCH these NFL games. I could just LISTEN to them on the radio while I'm moving stuff!" But I'm honestly going to try to resist the urge because I think I'll be worn out and needing a break, and I want to be able to make it through the weekend.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we're actually going to be moving using that delivery truck I've borrowed. As I said above, we're going to move everything we possibly can ourselves. We'll have to plan it out carefully, because we don't want to move essential things like our dining room chairs until late in the day Sunday. I'm looking forward to moving stuff, though. It's good, physical labor, as opposed to painting, which a lot of time is just trying to hold your hand steady, like in the game of Operation. Which is why I always pump myself full of caffeine when I'm trying to paint, 'cause that helps keep my hands steady! Sheesh!

Anyway, it's a lot of work, but I know in the end it will be worth it. Right now, though, our new house feels like anything except a home, sweet home.

WARNING!

As I was painting this weekend I noticed that most of the products I was using (paint, caulk, cleaners, etc.) had the same warning label on them. After reading a Wikipedia article about the warning label and how vague and far reaching it is, I figured I'd better post this warning on my site, just in case someone living in California reads this:

WARNING: This blog contains chemicals known to the state of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.

There. I feel better for having posted that. Just covering my butt!

Also, as I worked this weekend, the following occurred to me (This is what 33 hours of painting in three days will do to a fellow. Or maybe it was the fumes):

1. Is California bragging with all these labels? Is it trying to show how much smarter it is than the rest of the states?


2. Why should I trust California? I've never met the state before. How do I know that these claims on these paint cans are legitimate? Maybe California is like that hypochondriac cousin at a Thanksgiving dinner who won't drink tap water because it's been poisoned with chlorine, or won't eat the green beans because they came from a tin can and the can opener may have been defective and may have put tiny shards of tin into the green beans.


3. It's a good thing the other 49 states haven't come up with a boneheaded law like this, or these labels would be even longer than they already are.


4. What if all 50 states DID have a similar law but then had different findings? I could envision a label that said "This product contains chemicals known to the states of California, Wyoming, Tennessee, New Hampshire, South Dakota, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Florida, Oklahoma, and Texas to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. Illinois and Indiana aren't so sure. They've done some tests, and they think maybe there's a chance these chemicals are cancerous, but they're taking a wait and see approach. Washington, Minnesota, and Michigan are leaning towards these chemicals NOT being carcinogens. New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, and North Dakota state they definitely are NOT cancer causers. But South Dakota claims that North Dakota doesn't really believe that and only says so because South Dakota knows they ARE cancer causing, and North Dakota always takes the opposite stance of South Dakota because he doesn't like South Dakota. To which North Dakota replied, 'Same to you but more of it!' Colorado says that both Dakotas are being childish and need to stop this right away. The remaining states have no position on these chemicals."



5. Based on how many of these chemicals with warning labels I've been using, I'm probably going to die of cancer. Soon.

Holy Cow!

And to think, I can say I knew him when his Comedy Central Specials were only getting GREAT ratings, not amazing ones!

Click to see what I'm talking about!

_________________________
P.S Gas Watch: The gas station across the street from my office is charging $1.71 a gallon today. And that's with the Thanksgiving Holiday coming up, which is usually a time when gas stations RAISE prices!

Oops!

Sorry I forgot to post anything today. I've been painting all weekend.

Almost literally all weekend.
I painted from 5 to midnight Friday, from 9 to 9 Saturday, and from 6 AM to 8 PM today.

Fun, fun, fun.

A Shower Moment

Yesterday morning I had one of those moments in the shower. You've probably had them before, too. I was going through my shower routine that I got through every morning, checking items off the list when I suddenly realized it--I couldn't remember if I'd washed my hair or not!

This always bothers me. After all, I'd been in the shower less than two minutes. How could I not know what I had done during the last two minutes? I wracked my brain, but I simply couldn't say definitively one way or the other.

Then, what usually happens to me in that situation happened. I opened the bottle of shampoo and poured a little into my hand, and as soon as I did I remembered: I HAD already washed my hair. I'm not sure what tipped me off. Maybe it was just the act of reaching for the bottle. Maybe it was the feel of the cool shampoo in the palm of my hand. Maybe it was the smell of the shampoo. I'm not sure, but something clicked in my brain: I had just done this.

I guess worse than not remembering whether or not I've done something in the shower is to actually forget to do something. That doesn't happen nearly as often, but it does happen. I've turned off the shower and started to step out only to remember, "Hey, I never rinsed the shampoo out of my hair!" Or "Wait a minute! My underarms still have soap on them!" Something like that.

Maybe I'm getting old. Or maybe I'm just not awake first thing in the morning. I don't know. I guess, considering the alternative, that I'll go with the latter option.

Worn Out

A couple of weeks ago I posted a link to an article about a major change going on at my work: We are replacing our old student information system with a new student information system. A Student Information System (I'll call it an "SIS" from now on) is a huge database housing almost every bit of information we have on students: grades, attendance, behavior, state and federal test scores, parental contact information, health information, special ed information, transportation information, lunch status, and membership in state and federal programs. Switching to a new system is a major task that involves almost every one of the more than 300 employees in the district.

Yesterday was the first day that we actually utilized the system district-wide (about 25 employees in the district had access to the system for the previous few days, looking for errors). As you might imagine, the three of us on the implementation team were slammed with phone calls, emails, and personal visits. Everyone assumes that their little piece of the SIS is the most important piece of the software, and they needed their problem fixed now!

It made for a hectic day. Over the course of the 9 hours or so I was at work, there was a grand total of about 35 minutes where I wasn't on the phone helping someone. I literally never left my office except once to grab my lunch out of the refrigerator and one other time just to walk away for 10 minutes. I'm worn out.

Thank goodness this weekend I get to do something easy...like painting and moving!
_______________________________
P.S. Gas Watch Update: Today the gas station across the street is charging $1.75.

Gas Prices

I've never seen anything like the deflation in gas prices that we're experiencing now!

I know I've mentioned this at least on a couple of different occasions (Occasion 1 and Occasion 2), but I'm just absolutely amazed! When gas prices rose briefly to $4 a gallon and then deflated into the mid $3 range, I remember listening to an economist on the radio stating that decreased demand coupled with speculators losing interest in oil was the reason that oil prices were falling so drastically, but the person ended his description with this: "But don't get too excited. Gas prices are going to stabilize soon. The days of $2 a gallon gas, even $2 and a half, are over. You'll never see it again."

Well, we've seen gas prices that low and then some. Currently the gas station across the street is charging $1.83 a gallon. A deflation in prices of 56% is utterly amazing.

Not that I'm complaining. I'm just amazed. Most likely, anyone reading this will never live through a time like this in his/her life again.

____________________________

P.S. I wrote the above Wednesday evening, and I had to come back this morning and update it: The gas station across the street is charging $1.78 a gallon this morning.

I Got Nothin'!

I knew this day would come sooner or later: I am absolutely drawing a blank on anything useful to say today. So I'll just babble a little about what's going on...

...We're really getting ready to move. Purchasing a house and moving aren't really two separate things. They're really about a thousand separate things! Looking at houses online. Contacting a realtor. Visiting a house. Visiting another house. Comparing prices of those houses with other houses. On and on and on the list goes, through making an offer to countering an offer to applying for a loan to qualifying for a loan to the house inspection to setting a closing date to picking a moving company to packing little items and on and on the list goes. And I've left out a bunch of steps along the way. So though I fully intended to buy a house and move from the first step (Okay, maybe from about the sixth or seventh step) it still never really seemed real to me. I always assumed that something else somewhere down the road was going to trip us up and the deal would fall apart. But now we're just a few days from closing. I will be spending this next weekend painting and moving. Life is about to change drastically!...

...I have a sick relative in the hospital, and she's on my mind a lot. I pray for her, and I'm a person who believes in the prayer, but at moments like this prayer feels so empty and impotent. I want it to mean something, I need it to mean something, but she's so far away and I can't get out of my head the feeling that my prayer doesn't mean anything. It's just empty words. But it's all I can do, so I plow ahead with it...

...I don't know how I feel about the possibility of Hillary Clinton being Obama's Secretary of State. On the one hand I think she'd do a good job. On the other hand, I voted for Obama in part because of his cry for "Change," and I don't see the Clintons as much of a change. On the third hand (Where'd that third hand come from?) EVERY new administration I remember has had the same debate about whether or not the incoming President is really different because he's hiring the dreaded "Washington Insiders." You only have to go back to the current administration to see this. Bush campaigned that he was a businessman who'd made the state of Texas successful by treating government like a business, and that he would do the same in Washington. He then hired mostly Washington insiders to run his White House. So it really doesn't matter who the President picks, I guess. It's what he DOES that will determine whether he's really an agent of change.

...Speaking of change, a lot has changed in 8 years. Considering the state of the economy today and the state of many businesses, if a candidate TODAY campaigned with the idea of treating government like big business he'd probably lose in a landslide. The truth of the matter is I think that trend has been reversed: many businesses today are treating their business like big government: bloated, with excessive spending that exceeds income.

There you go! Even when I have nothing to say I can find something to say. That's what eleventy-five years of college will do for you!

A Roof over my Head

When I was a child, I used to be afraid when I went to bed. Because of this, I went to bed with the blankets pretty much completely covering me, with nothing sticking out but my nostrils so that I wouldn't suffocate.

I don't write this out of need to explore my childhood fears, or to talk about neuroses I might have developed, though both of those could possibly be topics for future posts. I am writing this to give at least a partial explanation for this next four word sentence:

I love the snow.

I've wondered before why snow makes me so happy. Most people complain about it, but not me. Well, that's not true. I complain about it to fit in with everyone else. I'll walk into my office at work and say to the secretaries, "Whew! It's cold out there! And nasty and snowy!" And they'll just shake their heads in disgust and agree with me. But I don't really think the weather is nasty. Inside I'm singing: "I love the snow!"

I used to think that it was just because the snow reminded me of Christmas, and that's true, but it's more than that. I like the snow in January and February, too. I used to think that I liked it because, as I've mentioned in earlier posts, I don't like the heat, and the snow means it's cold outside. And that's true, too, but it's still more than that. Not too long ago I decided that a reason I liked the snow was because it meant that when I was inside I was warm and safe, and no matter where I was, I felt like I was where I was supposed to be because I was inside and warm.

And all of that's true, but yesterday afternoon, as I was driving home through a fairly heavy little squall, another idea occurred to me: I like the snow because when it's snowing, the clouds always seem lower to me. I feel like the roof of the world is a little less tall. I think I maybe feel a little like I felt when I was under the covers at night. Safe. Secure.

Unless I'm outside in the blowing snow. That stinks.

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A New Song I Love

Okay, you have to understand right off the bat that "new" is a fairly relative term when it comes to me and music. The last time I posted a "new" song on here it was a two year old cover of an even older song. The song I want to talk about today was a hit seven months ago, but I'm just now finding out about it.

I don't listen to new music much anymore, I think for a couple of reasons: 1) I don't like most of what I hear on the radio, and 2) I have CD players and MP3 players which keep me listening to music I already know. The other day, in fact, Natalie wanted a song off of a greatest hits CD in the library (Some 21st century version of a K-Tel album, I guess). The cd, according to its own cover, had "22 Top 40 hits by the original artisits!" I put the CD in and I literally had heard NONE of the songs before. I'm just getting old, I guess.

And this song below, in fact, was NOT recommended by a friend. MEREDITH told me about it. For the last three weeks she and Natalie have been wandering around the house singing, "I can ride my bike with no handlebars, no handlebars, no handlebars."

At times it was incessant, so I finally said to them, "WHAT are you guys singing?"

"It's this song everyone's singing at school, Dad," Meredith said. "Will you play it on the computer for us?"

"Not now," I'd said then. They asked me several more times to play it, and I finally acquiessed Friday night. I was flabbergasted by the song. I don't like rap as a general rule (and I'm not 100% sure this song is rap anyway), but I loved this song.

When I told Meredith I loved it, she laughed, and said, "Really? Why? It's about nothing." But if you watch the video you'll see that's not true. The song is about the almost limitless potential that human beings have, and how we often abuse that potential.

Despite the innocent beginning, though, it is NOT a children's song, and it gets increasingly sinister.

Thematically it's actually pretty similar to Paul Simon's "Boy in the Bubble" from his GRACELAND CD.

This is a COOLER song, though, and ALMOST as cool a video...

Can't Stop Looking!

Sarah Palin needs to just shut up!

I think people are afraid to say that about her because they're afraid that they'll be viewed as sexist. "What?" they're afraid will be said to them. "A woman can't have her say? Because she's a woman she should shut up? You can't take a strong woman standing up and saying what she thinks? Doesn't she have a right to respond to her critics? Do you hate women that much?"

No, I don't hate women that much. That's not why I say Sarah Palin needs to shut up. I say she needs to shut up because...she needs to shut up!

Someone needs to take her aside and tell her that you don't have to do every interview. And you don't have to answer every question. Sometimes it's best to disappear for a while.

And someone needs to tell her the election is over. I read an interview yesterday where she was still harping on William Ayers (Couldn't find the interview today, but it's referenced here), saying that she was still concerned that Obama was "palling around with terrorists." The connection between Obama and Ayers was always tenuous, but two weeks ago it was okay for her to bring it up because that's what you do during an election: you use whatever weapon you can find to try to win. But the battle is over now and she lost, and comments about the President-elect being friends with terrorists are a bad idea. Two weeks ago she was talking about this tall geeky Senator from Illinois. Today she's talking about the most powerful person on the planet, and someone she's going to have to work with if she hopes to further Alaska's interests at the national level.

Also, she's been on pretty much every TV station the last week or so complaining about all of the negative press she's been getting, telling people how she knew Africa was a continent and she never spent GOP money on clothes and she knows who's in NAFTA. But you know what? If she had given NO interviews in the last week, if she'd gone back to Alaska and put her nose in her work and ignored everything, the press would have moved on by now. They have the attention span of three week old beagle.

What she SHOULD have done is disappear for a while, work hard, let the furor settle down, and mount a "comeback" in six months. By then people would have forgotten some of her worst traits, memories of Tina Fey would have faded a bit, and maybe we could all take her seriously again. But no, she had to keep going, keep campaigning, keep talking those long, poorly constructed sentences that resemble a winding road along a seaside cliff.

But do you want know what really perplexes me? Despite all that I've said about wanting her to go away, I can't get enough of her. It's like a train wreck--you don't want to watch but you can't stop looking, either. I don't know what it is, but if I'm flipping channels and there's a picture of her on a station, I'll flip back to see what's being said. It's not that I'm a sadist, and it's not that I've got a secret crush on her. Maybe it is what psychologists talked about this time last week, campaign withdrawal. I'm sad now that the campaign is over, and I don't want it to end. And here, talking on CNN, is someone who doesn't know that it HAS ended.

Useless Sign

I'm always amused by signs that tell me not to do something that I wasn't thinking about doing in the first place. Inevitably the presence of the sign sparks my rebellious side and makes me want to do the very thing the sign is telling me NOT to do.

I wrote about just such a sign back in June. Over the weekend I saw another one.

The city we live in doesn't have many parks of its own, so one of the things the city parks department does (and I appreciate it very much) is several times a year it pays for residents to attend a citywide event at a local entertainment spot. This past weekend the city sponsored a free night at the Town and Country Sports and Health Club, which has a nice pool, and a really nifty play area for the kids. The girls each took a friend and had a great time.

At one point during the night I went into the men's restroom to do what people do in restrooms. And as I was standing at the urinal I noticed this sign (Actually couldn't help but notice it as it was taped to the wall that was 10 inches in front of me). Immediately it made me laugh, so before I left the room I grabbed my camera and snapped this picture.

Worlds Are Colliding!

Okay, only a real science fiction geek like myself would find this entertaining--and to be honest it's not all that well done--but it does fulfill a scenario I've often imagined...

Jack of all Trades (part one)

I had so much fun with the "Jesus Was a Democrat" post that I thought I'd create another, longer piece that could span across multiple posts. And again, this is an idea that's percolated around in my mind for a long time...

The title of this piece, of course, comes from the expression "Jack of all trades, master of none," signifying (and I'm quoting from wiktionary here) "one competent in many endeavors but excelling in none." It occurred to me not too long ago that the definition pretty much summed me up. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. After all, the job I have now demands that I have a fairly far-reaching breadth of knowledge about the topics of technology and education, but my actual depth of knowledge doesn't have to be that great. So it's not a bad thing...

...though that's not the way I felt in 1985, in the autumn of my senior year of high school. That's the first time that I remember anyone saying anything like that about me. It was in the cafeteria of my high school during the school's Fall Sports Banquet. The Fall Sports Banquet was supposed to be a celebration of all fall sports in the high school: golf, soccer, cross country. But let's face it--those all took a backseat to the real fall sport: football, and that year more than any other year because my high school had never been very good at football, and my senior year was the first year that we'd ever had a non-losing season (though we weren't exactly tearing up the state, either, as we finished 5-5).

I'd played football as a middle schooler and a freshman, but after not playing football my sophomore and junior years (just got bored with it), I came back and played my senior year. I didn't get a ton of playing time, but I got in every game (as 2nd string safety and a starter on special teams), and in some games for significant time. And I honestly didn't really care. I loved the game, and I'd told the coach that I didn't care if I started every play. I understood that I'd forfeited any expectations of getting special treatment as a senior by not playing the two years before. I was there to be a body at practice and to play sometimes.

Anyway, I'm off point here. That night, at the sports banquet, the head coach talked for a minute or two about each of us seniors before giving us a Senior Award. And for most of the seniors he said something like this: "John was the heart and soul of the offensive line! I always knew that if I wanted a run play to work, I'd run it to John's side, and it didn't matter, hell or high water, he'd get the job done. I've never seen such courage as I saw from him!" Or he'd say, "I've never met a more gifted running back than Michael, and he had a lot to live up to. His older brother was popular and a good athlete and was loved by everyone, and I always worried that Michael would feel he had to do everything his brother did. Well, in the end, he did that much and more. I am honored to have know him."

Eventually it was my turn, and here's what my coach said: "What I remember most about Bryan is that in practice he'd play any position, and he'd play every one of them okay. We didn't have a lot of players on the team, and sometimes in practice--when the first team was lined up--there weren't but about 15 kids left to be on the practice squad. And I'd shout out, 'I need somebody to play linebacker!' and most of the kids would shrink back, afraid to take on the first team. But Bryan would be the first person to jump up, shouting, 'I can do it, Coach!'

"Now, had Bryan ever played linebacker before? No. But darned if he couldn't get in there and play the position like he'd been playing it his whole life. He wasn't good enough to start, mind you, but he could play the position well enough that the starters got a workout. He knew when to blitz, and he he knew when to drop back into pass coverage, and he wouldn't shrink away when a couple of 250 pound offensive linemen tried to double team him.

"And it wasn't just linebacker. I watched, and over the course of the season I think Bryan played every position but quarterback...and heck, he probably would have played quarterback, too, if we'd let him! And in every case, he understood the position and knew what to do.

"So this Senior Award goes to Bryan, one of the finest practice team players I've ever seen!"

It's not the ringing tribute that you dream of hearing when you're playing backyard football as a kid, and I went home that night, to be honest, a little sullen. And I took a little ribbing for what the coach said, too, with other players on the team coming up and asking me for my autograph, asking if I'd sign it "The Best Bench Warmer Ever."

But though I was bothered by it then, I now see my coach's backhanded compliment as perhaps more true than even he knew. It is my personality or character or whatever that I quickly catch on to most skills but then often don't have either the ability or the gumption to become highly adept at that skill. And that's what I'd like to talk about over the course of a few more posts: things that I can do that look impressive, but that when you get behind them there's really not much there, like a fake storefront on a movie set. And I also want to talk about how that's okay, and that in the case of my job, sometimes a little bit of knowledge is just enough.

Disconcerting

One of the most terrifying things you will ever do in your life is to be the first person in line in the left turn lane at an intersection where there's no island between you and the lane beside you moving in the opposite direction. This is especially true if the vehicles with the green light are coming toward you from your right side. Every car looks like it's going to take off your front bumper!

And it's amazing as these people whiz past you just a foot or so away to watch them:

1. Talking on a cell phone


2. TEXTING on a cell phone!


3. Head turned talking to someone in the back seat


4. Eating a cheeseburger
   

Occasionally you'll see them coming right toward you, cutting the turn a little too sharp. And then you'll see them notice you and their eyes will bug open and they'll jerk to their right to avoid you.

And don't get me started about 18 wheelers coming in that direction. I see them coming and before they even turn I think, "Oh crap! Oh crap! Oh crap!"

But then, you know what? They ususally are the ones who stay furthest away from my bumper. They swing WAAAY out and somehow fit that giant vehicle into the lane beside me without ever really getting close to my car.

I guess that says something about the difference between amateurs and professionals.

Our (Soon to Be) New House

As I mentioned a few posts ago, the family is in the process of buying a house, and in early December we should be moving in. Here are some pictures of the new home. I probably won't go into a lot of detail here...just let the photos speak for themselves.







This is the view if you stepped in the front door and looked to your right. I love the fireplace, which is gas. We'll probably paint this room before moving in.





We have a table and chairs almost exactly like this, so this is pretty much what the kitchen will look like when we move in.





One of the three bedrooms on the main floor.

This is a photo of the finished basement. I love all of the built in bookshelves.

One of the two bedrooms in the loft upstairs. The girls, I think, are excited that they're each going to have their own bedroom! Which is ironic, because they used to have their own bedrooms but then decided they wanted to room together, so we put their beds in the smaller room at our current house and made the larger room a playroom. But as they've gotten older their need for time apart has increased.

We're very excited about the house. There's a little bit of work that needs to be done to it. We're going to put a roof on it and do some other minor work while we're painting, cleaning, and moving in.

It should be a fun month!

Barack Obama and Education

Now that it's clear that Barack Obama is going to be the next President of the United States, I thought educators like myself would find this video interesting. It's a video discussing Obama's educational plans. There's nothing earth shattering here, and based on what he is saying I could neither recommend nor reject him based on this video alone. Still, it's interesting (and short, especially compared to that 30 minutes monstrosity he put out last week. Still haven't seen all of it, yet).

Technology For Technology's Sake

Perhaps you've heard the buzz about the "hologram" technology that was used during the CNN Presidential Election coverage Tuesday night. With this technology, CNN made it look as if a reporter and a rapper who were inside a tent in Chicago were actually standing in the CNN studios in Atlanta.

If you saw this during the broadcast or replayed sometime afterward, you might have been pretty excited by it. And it did look really cool, sort of like Princess Leia coming out of the little projector built into R2-D2.

And one could immediately come up with very real uses for this hologram projection device. Imagine a board meeting in New York City where two of the members couldn't be there in person because they're off on business somewhere else in the world--say, one in Los Angeles and the other in Tokyo. They could sit at a table in Tokyo or L.A. surrounded by the cameras of this device, and they could be holographically "beamed" into an emptry seat at the board meeting in New York City?

Sounds like a great idea, doesn't it? But there's a problem: The hologram that the CNN reporters spoke to wasn't a real hologram. It was just an impage superimposed over the image of the CNN reporter standing alone in a room. The person could only "magically" appear on a television screen.

So then what was the point of this flashy hologram technology? I can answer that for you in four words. Loud and clear:

There was no point!

This was an example of technology for technology's sake, and it infuriates me. In my day job I am constantly bombarded with people wanting me to purchase them something because it's "cool." When I ask what educational value it has, how it's going to help us educate children, I often find they have no answer. And when that happens, I give them a flat out "no" in reply.

Sometimes, though, these people find someone else to buy their toys for them, and, if that someone is a superior of mine, I often end up supporting that piece of technology anyway. One example I can give you is the keycard security system that we have at all of our schools. All of the doors in a building are locked, and staff members have to swipe a keycard to gain entry. It is an absolute pain in the butt to setup and maintain this system, issuing keycards and reprogramming servers and doors when a new keycard is given out. And what's the point in the whole system? Supposedly there are two: 1) To keep "bad people" out so that the students are safe, and 2) to track who comes in and out of the building in the case of vandalism or theft or something like that.

Those are both laudable goals, but there's a problem with each. First, in regards to keeping track of people who come in and out of the system, only SOME of the doors at each school have these electronic locks on them. The remaining doors have standard locks, meaning that someone with a master key can come and go through those doors and never be detected by the system. Second, though the doors give the impression the buidling is secure, they're not. I know this for a fact: If an adult knocks on a door, the vast majority of students are going to let that person into the building, no matter how many times they're told not to do so. I often don't have my keys with me, and only once has a student refused to let me into the building. Once I finally gained acccess I went and found that student and congratulated him for doing what he was supposed to be doing.

So the doors don't offer any real protection. They offer the feeling of protection, which is really a waste. The whole system is a gigantic waste of my time.

Just like the hologram from CNN, it serves no purpose.

If you haven't seen the hologram at work, you can watch it below.

What's Going On at My Job

Here's an article that appeared in the Erlanger Recorder, a local, once a week newspaper (I would guess that the print edition isn't out yet since I was just interviewed late Wednesday afternoon).

This article describes what is--by far--the number one focus in my job right now. Preparation for this has been ongoing since about May, and it's been really intense for the last 6 weeks or so. It's made for the most stressful period of time I've ever had in my job.

And my guess is that--once everyone in the district starts using the program (only myself and 2 others are accessing it at this point)--things are going to get crazy.

Oh well. It's just job security.

Read the article.

Anthony's Song (Google the lyrics if you don't get the reference)

I don't know when you're reading this because I'm not sure when this is going to be posted, but I can tell you that I'm writing this on Friday, October 24.

I just bought a house.

Okay, there are a bunch of things wrong with that sentence. I didn't buy a house--Lisa and I bought a house. And we didn't actually buy a house--We put in an offer on a house a couple of days ago, and after two days of wrangling prices with the seller and the realtors we finally agreed upon a price. There are still a couple of things that could go wrong in the process, so we haven't quite bought it yet. And we didn't actually make an offer on a house--it's more of a...okay, that part actually WAS the truth!

So why don't I know when you're reading this? Because I don't know when I'm actually going to post this blog entry. As many or maybe most of you know, we live where we live because of Lisa's job, so moving means Lisa is leaving her job, and I don't want to post on here that THAT is happening until her bosses know it's happening. I'd hate for them to find out from my website and not directly from Lisa. So today, Friday, October 24, things are kind of hush hush.

So why am I writing this now? Quite simply, because I'm trying to process this. I JUST BOUGHT A HOUSE! It's an overwhelming, scary thing to do, especially at this point in time when the whole world's economy is tanking! The truth is that the fact that we DIDN'T have a house payment or any real estate investment has comforted me some during the last few months. As I watch the nightly news and hear about home prices dropping and people being foreclosed upon, I'd think, "Not my problem." Now I sort of feel like a soldier running out into a field of battle.

The house is nice, though, and it has a lot of things that I've wanted in a house (These will be in no particular order): A fireplace, a wooded back yard, a fenced back yard, hardwood floors, it's close to the school my kids attend, it has a garage, and there's a place for me to workout that isn't a dank basement or a dank garage.



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UPDATE: Up a few paragraphs I wrote that there were still several things that could go wrong in the process. Today I say that all of those things have been worked out, so all that is left at this point is closing in a couple of weeks. When that happens, we'll be homeowners again, after an eight year gap. I'll feel like a real member of the town we live in--up until now I've sort of felt like a squatter.



I'll write more later, and I'll include pictures of the house when I do.

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ANOTHER UPDATE:


P.S. Still haven't figured out the Anthony's Song thing? Play the video below and you'll understand.

BONUS--Extra Post--BONUS!!

Okay, I promise not to make this an every day occurrence to make multiple posts.

But I had to write to say SOMETHING about the election yesterday.

Originally I had decided intentionally NOT to write about the election today because it's over and because--to be honest--it's been over for a month now. Also, I didn't want to gloat about prior predictions (which I guess I will go ahead and do by pointing you to this prior post and to this one).

So instead of writing about the election I wrote about cable TV. But then I felt this morning like I had to say SOMETHING. So here I am...saying something.

It was an historic night. I didn't watch McCain's concession speech or Obama's acceptance speech live--too late at night for me. But I time shifted the speeches and watched them this morning. And the entire family watched them with me. We sat on the couch and the floor in the living room in pajamas and bathrobes and watched the first African-American ever elected to the office of President of the United States give his acceptance speech. I was amazed the children were interested, but they seemed more than just interested--they seemed riveted. Sure, about halfway through they got up and went and had breakfast, but it's longer than I would have lasted at their age.

I hope they remember this morning when they're adults.

Why I'm Considering Giving Up Cable

Lately there seems to be a move towards more and more and better and better TV viewing. The move seems to be towards giant high definition TV's and digital cable or satelite with hundreds of channels.

I feel like I'm often bucking the trend, and here's no exception: I'm seriously considering giving up cable in the near future.

Why? Partly to save money, but partly also because of the news article below, which I find disturbing. And no, I didn't see the conclusions of this study as obvious. After all, the claims that violence on TV is damaging to youth have been around for years (Remember the "violins on TV" that Gilda Radner complained about back in the 70's?), but studies have debunked the idea that there are any long-term consequences to all but the most graphic violence.

This study, however, is a little more bothersome, because even a temporary effect in this case could have long-term consequences. So we may go back to rabbit ears...just in time to have to purchase a converter box!

Click here to read the article.

BONUS--Extra Post--BONUS!!

I did it! On my way into work I stopped at my polling place and voted!

What a monumental campaign it's been, and whether Obama wins or McCain wins, significant history will be made today.

I'm not a really emotional person, but I almost got teary-eyed in the voting booth. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I don't often feel patriotic, but standing behind that curtain pushing buttons is one of the times when I do feel that way. The right to have a voice in our government is what makes the United States great.

By the way, I got lucky when I went to vote. I had to wait behind ONE person. I was in the polling place all of about 3 minutes. The worker I stood beside while waiting for the one person told me that there had been people waiting in line to vote 20 minutes before the polls even opened, that at one point the line had stretched outside, and that it had just settled down right before I walked in. So good for me. I walked into the building, signed a piece of paper, stood for about 30 seconds beside the worker, went into the booth, voted for a minute and a half, and then got out of there, grabbing my "I voted" sticker as I headed out the door.

I will wear it with pride for the rest of the day.

Why I Watch the Network Nightly News

Someone asked me the other day why--in an era of mulitple 24 hour news channels--I make it a point most nights to watch one of the major networks' (usually NBC's) 6:30 PM nightly newscasts. After all, I can get news anytime I want from FoxNews, MSNBC, CNN, or even the Internet.

I found the answer succinctly given in an article I was reading on the Cincinnati Enquirer's website yesterday. It was an article about Joe the Plumber's rise to fame, and the fact that--in a different era--his 15 minutes of fame would likely have been a LITERAL 15 minutes in length. Here's what the article said:

Assuming that he hadn't been embraced and featured by the McCain-Palin campaign, Joe the Plumber's story would have faded quickly in the era before bloggers and around-the-clock news programs existed to keep it alive, said [Kelly] McBride [at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies].

"It used to be that one of the natural regulators of the news was the amount of space there was to tell the news," she said. "That is not the case anymore. We all have infinite space."

And that's why I watch the nightly news, because the network newscasts do not have "infinite space." They're only 30 minutes in length, and if you cut out the numerous drug commercials probably only 20 minutes in length. I know that in 20 minutes I'm not going to get a lot of filler news, just the important stuff. A lot times, in fact, I only watch the news until the first commercial break because I know what comes after on a slow day isn't very important, either.

Tonight I assume the news will be much longer than 30 minutes, and there will be a lot of filler as the newscasters twiddle away the hours waiting for election results to come in. But tonight is the exception to the rule. Tomorrow we'll be back to sensible news, 30 (20) minutes in length.

Just the facts, ma'am. Just the facts.

1-8

So the Bengals actually won a game!

I watched almost all of the game yesterday. Don't know why. I guess I just had a feeling that this was going to be the week. Once the Bengals jumped out in front of the Jaguars 20-3 I thought to myself, "Wow, they might actually win this thing!"

Of course, they tried to give the thing away, and only a rushed throw on a two point conversion prevented the Bengals from snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Still, though, a win is a win...

...Even if it is 2 months too late to matter!
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On a completely unrelated note, tomorrow is Election Day! Get out and vote! Not, as I've mentioned before, that it matters who you're selecting for President if you live in Kentucky, but there are other elections out there where your vote DOES matter!
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Speaking of the election, I received emails on Friday, Saturday AND Sunday from Barack Obama. All three emails said that he was going to be in Cincinnati Sunday night and he'd love to see me while he was in town. I replied to the third email and told him that my girls were hosting a sleepover for their friends Sunday night and I couldn't possibly get away, but that maybe he and I could get together for coffee the next time he was in town. Haven't heard back from him yet, but I'll let you know if I do.

Here's Something You Could Write a Psych 101 Paper About...

As I mentioned earlier, after the remnants of Hurricane Ike blew through town the price of gas rose to the highest I've ever seen, $4.15 a gallon. On the day that I was running on empty and couldn't find an open gas station, I was happy to pay that, too.

For the last six weeks, though, the price of gas seems to be dropping almost daily. The last I saw it was $2.19 a gallon, which is just a little more than half of what I gladly paid six weeks ago!

It's gotten so low, in fact, that the last three times I've driven past the BP just down the street from my office, I've thought to myself, "Holy Cow! That's low! I ought to pull in there and fill 'er up while I can."

I think that DESPITE the fact that 1) I just filled my tank up two days ago, 2) The gas gauge is still above the "F" for "full," and 3) I've already considered both 1 and 2 the last two times I went by the gas station.

I guess I have developed a sort of hoarder's mentality about gasoline: Get it before it's gone!

Halloween

Last night the girls and I went trick or treating while Lisa stayed home and handed out candy. Here is a picture of the girls standing on the porch before we took off on our rounds.



We found signs like these at a lot of houses around the neighborhood. Here Natalie tries to take advantage of one of them (Okay, Natalie PRETENDS to try to take advantage of one...).













Here's something that bothered me quite a bit. Everyone's been getting all upset about the images of Barack Obama that have been hung in effigy, but no one seemed to care about this one, an obvious effigy of John McCain. I even asked the homeowner about it, but she didn't seem concerned!
















And of course, when we got home, it was time for the annual ritual of sorting and organizing the spoils of our adventure!