After taking time off from this blog--exactly 60 days to be exact--I'm refreshed and ready to write again.In my "final" post before taking the break, I mentioned that I wasn't out of ideas for the blog--just out of motivation (In fact, I mentioned three posts I had in my head at the time). In that sense, the time off was good for me. There were four or five times during the hiatus when I had a story that I REALLY wanted to tell, but I forced myself to not do so. I'm glad that I WANTED to write again and wasn't doing so because I felt obligated.
Before I begin writing new posts, though (including something funny/exasperating that happened to me today at work!), I thought I'd deal with those three items that I mentioned in the final post. As I looked back at what those items were, though, I realized that--in all three cases--I'm a little late in posting this. For one reason or another, the ship has already sailed on these items. But oh well. I don't want to leave anyone hanging. I'll write about them anyway.
Item 1: Anthony Weiner.
This was a pretty topical item, and I knew that if I took any length of time off from this blog that when I came back it would be too late to write about this topic. I was right. So many other topics have come and gone since Weiner was in the headlines that you might need to be reminded of who he is: he's the guy who mistakenly sent via Twitter photos of his crotch. Oh yeah. Remember him now?
What I was going to write in that blog post that never happened was a thank you letter to Representative Weiner. Because he had just made my job easier. Every August I get to spend about 30 minutes with new employees talking about technology in the school district, and one of the things that I talk about is the hyper-awareness that teachers need to have when communicating in ANY forum on the Internet. There's a sense of privacy when emailing/chatting/messaging/poking/whatevering someone on the Internet, but that privacy is ALWAYS an illusion. It takes about four clicks of a computer mouse for the person on the other end to share that entire communication with the rest of the world. In education, this is even more important since email is considered a public record and parents have the right to review email messages concerning their children. I always end my little mini-lecture with this statement: "You need to write EVERY email you send with the idea that your students, your students' parents, your principal, the CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, and I are looking over your shoulder and what you're writing. Because I AM, and the rest of them very well could be!" Thanks to Representative Weiner, I have a really good example that I can use to make my case.
Item 2: A For Sale Sign on Buttermilk Pike
There's a sign visible from Buttermilk Pike--at least, that USED to be visible from Buttermilk Pike--that always makes (made) we laugh when I read it. I went to take a photograph of it today and found that it has been covered up and replaced with another sign. So this issue becomes kind of moot. But again, I'll go ahead and talk about it anyway...
...The sign was a For Sale sign for an old Bob Evans restaurant that sits on a hill above I-75 and ceased to be a Bob Evans about four years ago. It still LOOKED like a Bob Evans, though, and because it sits on a hill it was visible in both directions and had the distinctive red with white trim farmhouse look, so the Bob Evans company came along and painted the restaurant completely powder blue. It was a sushi bar for a while after that, but for more than a year it's sat empty.
Alas, I can't show you the sign. It's been covered up by the sign to the right that reads, "For Lease--Sign Included." In the new version, the "Sign Included" has been reduced in size so that it's now not quite as large as the "For Lease" wording. That makes the whole thing unfunny. Plus, and I couldn't begin to tell you why, I just think "For Lease--Sign Included" is less funny than "For Sale--Sign Included."
Item 3: A YouTube Video from my prom from way back in 1986
The high school I graduated from had a reunion this past Friday for the classes of 1981-1989, and I thought it would be great to take an old VHS video I had of my senior prom and load it up to YouTube. The video had been made by a mom and pop video production company, was recorded on a VHS home video camera, and included mostly shots of people in tuxes and fancy dresses either getting their official prom photo taken or else squinting and waving frantically for the camera to be pointed somewhere else (For some reason, the video's directors thought people would LIKE to have bright lights shined in their faces). Also, the video was overdubbed with popular music of the day, which the producers no doubt did not have rights to use, and which YouTube would have no doubt stripped from the videos upon upload. But oh well. My plan was to break the video into five minute segments and load it up every few days.
That was my plan. The problem was that I could never find the video. I tossed out all but a handful of my VHS tapes when we moved from Vent Haven in 2008, and after all but taking my house apart four different times over the last two months, I had to concede that the tape was gone. Oh well. Maybe all for the better. I remember that I was one of those squinting people waving off the camera, and the bright lights from the camera made my large forehead look extra shiny.
So now you're all caught up. Tomorrow I can start writing about something that wasn't irrelevant a long time ago...
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