Leisure...

I'm flying far far away to see my baby, and I want to leave you all with a little present... A fun sexy song...

Don't worry everyone, its okay around the kids!

Song taken down, new one to come!!!!

Fire!!!

Remember how I said we didn't really get fall in california?
I lied.

Our leaves turn a light golden red, just beautiful, right before they turn charred black because they CAUGHT ON FIRE!!!!

I'm teaching today in a middle school and fires are starting to literally circle around the city. And I'm supposed to get out not only to get home, but to leave tomorrow for the airport.... Not fun.

I wasn't here 2 years ago when the huge fires came, inches of charred randomness all over everything. My parents calling me asking what items from my childhood they should save if they need to cut and run. The fires were under a mile away from our house that time.

Last year I was driving down a highway in LA and there was a sign "Off ramp closed due to fire" and wouldn't ya believe? There was a fire, right around the corner.

So I was driving home from work and I look in my rearview mirror and there are these HUGE clouds of smoke.

So I lived in the north, there was sleet and snow and general cold stuff.
Move to the south, there are hurricanes and tornados.
More to the west and there are fires and earthquakes...
There is no escaping nature.... grrrrrr

Here are some pictures from the last big one.

The Great Countdown

So I'm trying to pack, because Thursday morning I fly back to see my baby.
In California fall hasn't started yet. We have fall for about hour in the morning, but then we are done.
So today I had to pull out my sweaters and wool pants.
And they are evil
Wool pants don't forgive you one cookie.

I'm going for a little under two weeks, can I get away with 2 pairs of pants?!?!

Right now I'm thinking that is going to have to work, because its either that or I'm packing my sari!





GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR


Help me fellow Canadians, what is the weather like up there?!!?

Tell me why I don't like Mondays...

Every Monday morning Tori wakes me to that song. Gotta love the small traditions.

Maybe its because I didn't work today but I'm feeling very good about teaching... I promised to mention some of the things I love about teaching so here goes:

Brand new clickytop expo markers for the white board
Whiteboard erasers with handles.
Old hardcover novels, with the spine broken.
Reading a novel with students, watching their eyes light up as they discover interesting stories (alright most of them are sleeping, but one or two have that look!)
Making the kids laugh with random stories.
Hugs from my disabled students, they are so affectionate and genuine.
Getting to talk to other teachers. Learning from them.
Having kids approach me with their crappy-day issues.
Seeing the light in a disabled child's eyes when they get a perfect paper, they try so hard.
Having students pick up on random movie quotes and carry it, had a whole period with kids saying things like "We need to see those TPS reports!"

More blogging later, haircut soon.

___________________________UPDATED___________________

So I left for the haircut, with kick ass makeup. Orange, red and gold eyeshadow, making me feel like a rockstar


I guess my hairdresser took that to mean I wanted to look like a punk rocker..

a la Joan Jett


And I ended up with this kick ass haircut

It's almost shoulder length, with a sassy fringe and shorter layers on top so it can have some body and wont get that lovely middle school mushroom effect... LOVE IT!!


So between the haircut and the 2 request calls today for work, I'm feelin good!


Don't get a case of the Mondays!!!

A gift...

Thanks to Dia for the intro to putting music on the blog, enjoy the fabulous tristan prettyman singing "Toxic"....

Monday- I took the song down, more songs to come soon, I just don't want you guys going nuts!

Coffee, Hot Cereal, and wait...HIV doesnt cause AIDS?!

I've never felt this apprehensive about a post topic before.

I was reading the paper this morning and an article on the front page kinda shocked me. This woman, who is HIV positive claims that HIV doesn't cause AIDS, and that her kids didn't/don't have it. She refused AZT while she was pregnant, and breastfed. She also refused to get her kids tested, or vaccinated. She feeds them great organic food loves them dearly, but refuses to believe they might be sick.

Then her daughter died from AIDS related pneumonia.

Read the article and judge for yourself, but it seems to me like this woman surrounded herself with doctors that confirmed what she wanted to believe and didn't take care of her kids properly. They even admitted that they should have seen the signs when she first developed her cold.

What frightens me the most about this woman is her quote at the end of the article, and it caused my mother to go on a rant about. While obviously written in anger over the death of her child, still seems to show this womans hubris:

"Why our child — so appreciated, so held, so carefully nurtured — and not one ignored, abused or abandoned?" she wrote. "How come what we offered was not enough to keep her here when children with far less — impatient distracted parents, a small apartment on a busy street, extended day care, Oscar Mayer Lunchables — will happily stay?"

My mother's reaction was to say that she was a "arrogant bitch" to think that just because a mother cannot provide a large house in a quiet neighbourhood, perfect organic meals all the time and has to work, then her childs life is worth less than the one that has more money. That and no amount of organic food would have changed the fact that her daughter had AIDS!

March of the Republicans

After a great day at the high school today, I got in the car and heard this on the radio. Between this and the 18/20 on my assignment involving the dreaded drawings , its been a pretty decent week...

_________________________________________________


Even if you haven't seen it yet, you've all heard about March of the Penguins, the gorgeous, riveting and incredibly successful new documentary.

It shows thousands of the penguins in their incredibly grueling, incredibly picturesque annual winter migration as they cross Antarctica to reproduce. It is an amazing film.
Well, according to the New York Times, March of the Penguins has become a huge favorite of social conservatives. They (the conservatives, not the penguins) consider the movie to be a profound parable celebrating blind human faith and monogamy and sacrifice on behalf of one's children – family values, in other words.

As the conservative cultural critic and radio host Michael Medved says of his comrades on the Christian right: "This is the first movie they've enjoyed since 'The Passion of the Christ.' This is 'The 'Passion of the Penguins.' "

One Christian magazine is claiming that the movie makes, quote, "a strong case for intelligent design." Intelligent design, of course, is the new improved name for the biblical story of Genesis.
And a minister in Ohio has taken his congregation to the local theater to watch March of the Penguins. Here is what he said about the movie to the Times. "The circumstances they experienced seemed to parallel those of Christians. The penguin falling behind is like some Christians falling behind."

Mmmm....OK, if that's your take.

But, not only that, some conservatives say, the whole movie takes place on an entirely frozen Antarctic terrain...thereby, it kind of refutes the liberal propaganda about greenhouse gasses and endangered polar ice caps.

I'm almost surprised they haven't found an anti-tax message in there somewhere, and arguments for prayer in public schools and tort reform...

Hey come to think of it, these loyal, brave, monogamous, self-sacrificing penguins don't show any support for the United Nations.

I do wonder if all these people embracing the film as the ultimate Republican movie know where it came from. Because although Warner Brothers is distributing it, and Morgan Freeman does the voice-over, the film was created by a man named Luc Jacquet and a team of his compatriots.

The piece of cinema was originally called Marche de l'Empereur.

That's right, March of the Penguins is....French.

Freedom fries, anyone?


- Kurt Anderson Click here to read, send, and hear the 3 minute commentary

Mixed Messages.

I've blogged occasionally about how I can't stand the sexualized t-shirts, clothes and general attitudes of today's youth (read grade 6-12).

You know what I can't stand even more? Youth oriented evening dramas.

They are all guilty of it, you know the ones I'm talking about. Pretty much every show on the WB and tonight The O.C. stood out.

In "The episode you have been waiting for for 2 years" Marissa and Ryan have sex. Right of the bat, the idea that there are millions of viewers just waiting to see two teenage characters have sex is kinda icky.

Then there is the editing of the actual sex scene. The perfect cabana on the beach, the tiki torches, and of course the questioning of Marissa to be sure she "really wants to do this". Then the sex scene is split with scenes of Marissa's father being brutally beaten, also on the beach. As the sexual nature of the scene becomes more explicit, so does the beating, with her father ending up floating in the ocean. Face down.

The next morning Marissa and Ryan wake up with the sun on their face to a cell phone. Marissa goes and sees her beaten father as he runs away to Hawaii from his creditors.

Marissa thought her family would be moving to Hawaii to live together, but just as she accepts a boy in her life, she loses it all.

Do I think all viewers will look at it the same way I do? Obviously not. But there seems to be this relentless need for television networks to qualify sex with something awful happening the girl involved.

This isn't a new thing, horror movies anyone? The virgin being the only one that lives?

Girls are shown through pop stars and magazine that sexually provocative style is appropriate, but then are told that on top of the risk of pregnancy and STD there is the chance they will love everything, including their family.

"Make Your Own Kind of Music"

You know when something is so racist it just takes you aback?

I teaching American Pop Culture today, which means all the hispanic kids are thrown in a room and have to watch movies. Today was a Bob Hope film "Ghostbreakers" and while he is searching through a room with his Black sidekick this transpires:

Hope: Something smells funny!
Black sidekick: And it ain't fried chicken!

WTF??!?!

Also, some of the funniest things heard today..

Student: Ms. Knit, are you teaching for us?
Me: You bet.
Student: Buckets of sweetness.

Also, one of my mentally challenged students said to me jokingly
"Ms. Knit, you shouldn't have kids, because then we would have all these little Knits' running around, just like you!"


Ahhhhh... Tea time...

Got to school today, thought it would be a good day.
Always loved going to the high school.

Today wasn't one of those days. It started of by finding out that in in attempt to cut costs, they had me double booked. All the substitutes that were on today were to take on other classes during their prep. I had to go back and forth clear across a campus that has buildings numbered A-Q.

The morning started off great, seniors AP Govt. Good kids, small class. They liked me, thought I was funny.
Then in the senior English class we read "Of Mice and Men". I loved that book in high school, and watching the kids learn about it, opening their eyes to it was great.

Then I had to haul ass across campus to teach choir.
My brother is in choir. A few students knew about our relation, but I didn't say anything. So the kids do a medley of Ray Charles songs, and they are great.

Then they sing a song from Sister Act II.
I believe these songs were put upon choirs by Kirby Shaw to torture parents.

When I was in choir we had to sing the same song. Our teacher thought it would be funny if we put on black robes and sang it in front of the whole school. During lunch.
Most horrifying experience ever.
And this choir sucked at the song.

While rehearsing, one student started randomly banging the piano keys. I glared at him and asked what he thought he was doing?!?! He acted like it was no big deal and we moved on.

Then he made his first mistake.
He turned to my brother and said "What a dumb bitch" while pointing to me.
My brother, is the baby, we've always gotten along. You don't fuck with his sister
And he let this guy know it.
Then my brother let me know about it.
I confronted the boy, explained that the next time he wants to trash a teacher he shouldn't do it to their siblings.

So the class ends and they all leave.
My brother goes to his next class, and the asshole is there, sitting at his desk
"Your sister is a real bitch" (What is this kid mildly retarded??!)
So my brother hits him.
Open palmed. across the face.

"I'm gonna get you for that one"(so now he is threatening a teacher's brother...I'm suspecting he was dropped at birth)

while the rest of the day went fine, it definitely put a damper on it.

And I have the joy of seeing this kid again tomorrow.

Little Miss Angry!!!


PS.....One day I will have to write about all the things I love about teaching, because there are many, they just haven't been around lately...

So it's decided then...

I've decided I'm never having 32 kids of the same age.. Let alone 32 kids..

I worked middle school today. 32 kids, in remedial math.
getting nothing done.

my voice hurts from having to talk over them. How they convince teachers to teach middle school is beyond me.

I'm outta words..
must lay down
watch arrrested development and weeds.
Thank goodness for Tivo.

Collect the moments one by one, guess that's how the future's done..

I'm slowly building my patch work cape.
The one I will wear when I am super-woman-avenger-of-all-wronged-children.
Got my degree.
Taking meaningless courses that rack my brain.
Moving to Australia to earn one more piece of paper.
All Patches.

Come back and start my crusade
To stop all these kids from getting screwed up
By a system that chews them up and spits them out.
Everywhere I turn.
Something new to piss me off


Some days I want to take all the patches
And throw them away
Move to PEI
Live a simple life
Raise a family.
Forget the crusade.

Feist wrote a song "mushaboom"
Paints me a picture, a dream..
That I want to rip off the wall
And climb right in...


Helping the kids out of their coats
But wait the babies haven't been born
Unpacking the bags and setting up
And planting lilacs and buttercups

But in the meantime
I've got it hard Second floor living without a yard
It may be years until the day
My dreams will match up with my pay
Old dirt road
Knee deep snow
Watching the fire as we grow old
I got a man to stick it out
And make a home from a rented house
And we'll collect the moments one by one
I guess that's how the future's done
How many acres how much light
Tucked in the woods and out of sight
Talk to the neighbours and tip my cap
On a little road barely on the map
Old dirt road
Knee deep snow
Watching the fire as we grow old
Old dirt road
Rambling rose
Watching the fire as we grow
well I'm sold

Why I love blog Culture...

Remember Michelle Malkin and how I revoked her vagina?

This blogger(with only a few posts, done as an april fools joke) wins hands down...

check out her nice little jab at Michelle, blogger style

Dogs

Depressing posts hang uncomfortably on my blog. I don't like seeing it, so I'm gonna try and move on.

My parents got to Hawaii okay, and are very happy with their beachfront four seasons room. My mother is going yoga by the ocean this morning!

With the parents gone, it's just me, my brother and the dogs. The dogs usually sleep with my parents, and they tried to sleep in that bed by themselves..

Didn't last. Eddie (our boy pound puppy) decided to be the little spoon, draping himself along my stomach, with me on my side. Sugar (our girl adopted dog, recently turned cat) prefers the back, and pushed her back up against mine as tight as she could.

I couldn't move all night, but it was kinda comforting. While I drink my coffee and watch morning news shows (why are they oh so bad!?!?) they have crawled back into my bed, skillfully pulling down the blankets and nesting. As I look over, Eddie is scratching in between his eyeballs with his hind leg. This is the same dog that runs into walls.

So that was my attempt at levity... enjoy!

Another Crazy Saturday Night...

So living in California with your family and no friends means that a Saturday night drinking with my parents. Fun times had by all. Feeling mildly hung over, so its coffee, chlorophyll (don't ask) Foster's home for imaginary friends, waiting for me on the TiVo.

My parents left for Hawaii... some huge convention at the four seasons in Maui.. Our lives are hard. My mother had a really hard time getting excited, she's been feeling some pretty bad survivors guilt... I hope she will be able to have fun.. She needs some time to relax.

On an even more depressing note, my Nona has a new complication to deal with. It wasn't enough that she had a stroke, and has been having mini strokes due to a tear in her artery, now it looks like she has skin cancer. Since she was already depressed and not wanting to live anymore, my aunts have decided not to tell her.

When I try to think about all of it, it's too overwhelming. So back to Foster's, and coffee.

My weekend..

My weekend is consisting of drawing stupid little pictures about process scheduling and deadlocks. If you don't know what that means, you don't want to.






I hate multiple choice questions. especially since they are subjective. Yea I know you have a 1 in 4 chance of picking the right now, but then there is always that icky "pick the one that is the most right" and the elusive "none of the above" option. Give me an 5 page essay over a multiple choice question any day...

Back to it!

Too Posh to Push, *Expounded*

I wrote this post a few months ago after reading a very enlightening article in Bitch magazine. Brittany Spears' recent latest weekend at the spa, I mean birth inspired me to finally post it.. I know it's long, but be nice to me and read it if you are up for some good debate...

Enjoy!

____________________________________________________

"Rebecca Eckler would like you to know that she does not have a vagina"- Andi Zeiler (Bitch issue No. 28)

Apparently there is a new wave of mothers that refuse to go through a vaginal delivery. They prefer to schedule their delivery around their life, some are doing it early into the 8th month so as to prevent that last little bit of weight gain. These women claim that "C-section babies come out looking prettier", they find modified Atkins Diets during their pregnancy and do not want to fathom the effect having a child will have on their vagina.

Rebecca Eckler wrote a book concerning these issues titled "Knocked Up: Confessions of a Hip Mother-to-be" in which she spends "350 pages worrying about whether her ass will get fat" and discussing all issues surrounding the changes her body was going through She also never calls her vagina a vagina and instead uses thinly veiled euphemisms. It is not wonder that since she can't talk about her vagina that she can't imagine her baby coming out of it.

If you are so concerned about your ass getting fat or how you can stay on Atkins, don't have a kid. Motherhood begins at pregnancy, your body will go through hell and so will your mind. An elective c-section will be the last appointment you will keep exactly on time.

It seems our appearance obsessed society does not excuse the gestational from body expectations. We expect celebrities to lose weight 10 times as fast as they gained it, and to gain very little weight while they are pregnant. Babies birth weight (amongst this group) are dropping drastically because women aren't allowing themselves to gain.

It's difficult for me to juxtapose my feelings about pregnancy and my feelings about abortion. I do believe that a woman has every right to do what she wants with her body, and that includes terminating her pregnancy. If a woman makes a decision to keep her baby, then the babies health is of utmost importance, and I think that makes an even greater case for not forcing women who don't want to carry their babies do it, because the sacrifices they will make (not only for the nine months of pregnancy but the rest of their lives).

Do women have the right to decide when to give birth, and decide how they want to give birth be it through c-section or vaginally? Of course. But women that aren't maintaining a healthy diet and giving birth unnaturally (i.e. through c-section well before the baby is due) are the ones that scare me. We should also be able to let go of a few insane cultural ideals, like the idea that a woman should be back in a pre-pregnancy weight within 3 weeks after they deliver (especially when those women already had unrealistic bodies to begin with!)

I'm not saying that a woman can't be a good mother unless she goes to every baseball game, makes every Halloween costume from scratch and is home when her kids get home from school with cookies warm from the oven. I just think that certain things like the baby's health should take precedence over the size of your ass.

_____________________________________________________

This is the end of my original post but after a nice heated (but fun) discussion with my twin and my mother (an OBGYN nurse of 10 years) I'm starting to see just how complex this debate is, and I find it really interesting. There are several different aspects of this debate to consider, previously I had only discussed the women that had elective deliveries early in their pregnancy and refused to gain weight. The other women out there that just really don't want to go through the ordeal but have been otherwise healthy (and waiting until close as possible to the delivery date) and they are the ones that are causing a true debate.

Class -
Giving birth is messy to say the least. Aside for the amount of fluid you release, there is also the physical exertion which means for tonnes of sweating screaming and the obvious discomfort. The term "too posh to push" was coined after "Posh Spice" had an elective c-section in a private hospital. She had to foot a pretty hefty bill in order to make it happen and it was seen as just another sign that she was part of the elite. When this happened it was seen as her way of avoiding all the mess and work associated with natural birth. Not all women can afford an elective c-section as some insurance companies won't cover it and women with no insurance are looking at a longer stay in the hospital and a much more expensive delivery (vs. a vaginal one which requires less recovery time).

So it's pretty safe to say that on the whole elective (and remember that by elective we are discussing women who CAN give birth but choose instead to have a c-section) idea is only available to women with better health insurance/more money, at least in the US and countries where elective sections are not being covered by national health care. This is not to say that because of this they should be deprived of it, but this is definitely not an option afforded to all women.

Choice/Feminist Rights- It's your body and your baby, so why shouldn't you have the choice to have you baby delivered safely in the manner you choose? Why is there this stigma that says in order to love your child, you have to go through pain? Will we eventually move towards a mentality where giving birth vaginally will be seen as archaic? Currently a woman has a 1 in 4 chance of dying during a c-section, and many other complications can occur like excessive bleeding that can result in an emergency hysterectomy. If this becomes safer then maybe it could become the trend of the future?

On the other hand, women that are choosing to have a section are being stigmatized, and treated as if they are not "Real mothers" because they weren't willing to suffer, or sacrifice. I think the nine months of carrying the baby is sacrifice and suffering enough, and a woman that had a healthy pregnancy isn't less of a mother because she doesn't want to push.

And what about adoptive mothers? Under the same argument are adoptive mother's not true mother's because they didn't suffer?

Aesthetic- obviously there is a certain level of aesthetic involved in the giving birth. There is none. It's damn ugly and can leave your vagina not so pretty either. Some are claiming (and I agree with this) that the youth obsessed culture dictates this idea that a woman should have a virginal vagina until the day she dies. Other women feel that no matter how many kegels you do sex will never be the same after giving birth, and don't want to deal with that. I'm wondering how much sex they think they are gonna get to have with a baby keeping them up all night (JK).

Women in their 50's that decided to give birth are now being presented with a new option "vaginal rejuvenation surgery". When I think of that all I can picture is women in Africa and the genital mutilation that goes on, then you come to America and women are willing to pay to have theirs mutilated.

The Bottom Line for me is that the idea of pregnancy and childbrith right now seems incredibly firghtening and telling me that I could have a surgery instead of labor, doesn't sound so bad. It is my body and my choice to give birth how I chose, be it at home, in water or with a section. So long as the woman is carrying to term and eating enough to keep both her and her baby healthy, then it's their business.

I got Spanked!!

I worked with kids with Downs today and general low IQ children as well. One was very excited that he had completed a perfect paper, and expecting a high five raised his hand and pushed it towards me. I, not knowing that a high five was in progress got up from my chair and turned around. Resulting in quite the spank. It was hilarious.

Last year when I got to work with these same kids (I may have told this story before so bear with me!) I was walking with some girls from P.E and we had a conversation:

Me: So what are you doing this weekend?
Girl: Oh I'm going to visit my Aunt and cousins. What are you doing?
Me: I'm flying to Canada to see my boyfriend!
Girl: Really? On a plane? All by yourself?
Me: Yes, I'm allowed to do that by myself.
Girl: When you get there are you going to kiss him?
Me: Yes, probably.
Girl: But you aren't going to have sex are you?
Me: (Awkward as HELL) Of course not, that's something you save for marriage.
Girl:Yea, or someone you have known for a really long time. How long have you been dating your boyfriend?
Me: Close to 3 years.
Girl: And you AREN'T going to have sex with him?!?!
Me: (Stunned Silence)

Working with these kids can be the most rewarding thing on the planet. They are so receptive and eager to learn, unlike most apathetic teenagers...

_____________________________________________________________

ALSO: Let me be the first to introduce you to Miss HT Psych , my friend in real life and sister at heart, she is my twin, we have the same name, same build, same hair color.. It's freaky! She has just started her Masters and blogs about her thesis topic, so go on down there and welcome her! NOW!

Balancing Act

I'm doing my part for the blogger wars... Thought it might be nice to counterbalace my angry post...
Enjoy!!

It's no wonder I want to be a teacher...

That was fun, but I can't wait around for 50... Too much on my mind..

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I got work today helping to give standardized testing to children with learning disabilities.. The one thing I have learned about the school system is that often times kids who come from broken homes end up in the special education, because they are behind in their classes from missing excessive school and they need someone that can help them put their life back together.

I met one girl today that reminded me why I hope to get better sex ed to young girls. She has just turned 17, she was molested for 4 years of her youth and told her teachers, no one did anything. She has had 2 abortions, recovered from marijuana and cocaine addictions, has 2 large tattoos and a 22 year old boyfriend. When she was addicted to drugs she had to hide it from her mother because otherwise her mother would take them...for her own personal use.

After her last fist fight at school she was kicked out of her grandmother's house and she ended up at her father's. Her father kicked her out (she came home one day and her things were in garbage bags). She is now living with her mother and has been forced to pay rent.

Her teacher has realised that this girl has a very hard time listen to women or trust them. All the women in her life have betrayed her and thrown her to the wolves. None of women she told about her abuse protected her. Her grandmother gave up on her.

I'm angry that up until high school this girl has never had a positive female role model.

I'm even angrier that there were teachers there that noticed she when she was a child with fetal alcohol syndrome and didn't get her the proper help, or called social services when she finally got the courage together to talk about her abuse.

Hearing about girls and boys like the ones I met today made me want to be a teacher more.

And maybe go out and kick that poor girls mother's ass.

I got nothin...

It was kind of a blah day, got some work done but not enough (never enough!).

So I'm gonna pull a nick and see how many people post.

I learned something today...

As most of you know, I ended up in a bitch fest over the weekend involving some trolls on Nuclear's blog. It got ugly, and threats were made to me and Ubie personally.

It wasn't cool. And I started to think about blogging karma..


We are all guilty of spinning the proverbial wheel of fortune known as the almighty "next blog" button. I've found a lot of crazy stuff that way. Mainly, teenage blogs that use "gr8" and "ur" which just make me laugh. I have seen others that were highly political and interesting. I've also found ones that I found amusing because they were the exact opposite of my views. I've taken the opportunity to use my blog, to make fun of their blog. I think it is the blogging cycle though, we all come here and put our thoughts out there, and don't claim to be reporters, or fact checkers, just people with an internet connection and the will to write.

I can sympathize with a particular "Angry Republican Mom" after the attacks I received this weekend. She is currently being fed a shit storm of angry bloggers and quasi-print media because she was willing to go and protest for her beliefs. She has the right to do it, and so do I. Just like she has every right to print her beliefs on her blog, I have every right to voice my objection to them. Out of fear, she has pulled all her posts off her blog, and that is upsetting to me. We are all open for scrutiny but that shouldn't fear.
While I still don't agree with her (a lot) I may leave her alone, I think she is getting trashed for her views enough as it is..

Bottom line: one sided arguments/rants against someone are fun, but they don't get you very far. After a long day of fighting the good fight I like to go online and bitch about my views, and not have anyone bitch back at me..I think she feels the same way.


Little Miss Humble

Back in the swing

Black: Does anyone know what a hangover is?
Student: Does it mean you you are drunk?
Black: Close, it means I was drunk yesterday...








I sometimes wonder if Jack Black would be a better substitute teacher than I would.
I've come to the conclusion that if you are a teacher I am, if you are a student, maybe not so much.
I'm one of those evil subs that actually makes you get your work done... To an extent. I'm not going to harrass the kids so long as they are being quiet.....

Today was middle school. Its a pretty good site, but of course I had to see the usual pre-teen stuff, screaming at each other in confined spaces (why?) girls in tshirts that say "Today might be your lucky day" and "Thats Hot". I really wish young girls didn't look up to Paris Hilton, it just seem wrong.
Then there was the teenage boys, wearing funny tshirts with non-suggestive catch phrases
"I thought it was a good idea at the time"
"Keep staring, I might do a trick"

Why are all the boy tshirts funny and the girl tshirts sexual?

I Got Tagged, Dammit!

So the Fabulous Miss Petunia tagged me... so here we go, a look into my life in 7's...


7 Things I Plan to do Before I Die:

1) Start a movement to better educate young girls about their bodies.
2) Get better sex ed to disabled young girls.
3) Travel
4) Try Surfing
5) Stand in protest for my beliefs.
6) Throw one amazing party
7) Have a comfortable home, and settle into a town

7 Things I Can Do

1) Walk into a class, any grade and take over with 10 minutes prep, and run it like a pro.
2) Make Vietnamese soup
3) Yoga, the hard stuff.
4) Sing.
5) Get into heated discussions with republicans at dinner parties. and win. and have them still like me.
6) Fix my own computer. but don't ask me to fix yours, just because I can.
7) Knit. But I guess that goes without saying...

7 Things I Cannot Do

1) Put up with ignorance.
2) Let things go very easily.
3) Rollerblade
4) Motivate myself.. Procrastination Queen
5) Find things exactly when I need them
6) Eat mushrooms
7) Watch really bad movies.

7 Things That Attract me to the Opposite (or same) Sex:

1) Sense of humor
2) Intelligence
3) Low Self Esteem (I hate guys with a big ego)
4) The ability to give a good massage..
5) Political Awarness, knowledge of Current Events (yes, there is in fact a world around you, and things are happening)
6) Good Social Skills (must play nicely with others)
7) An appreciation for a lazy Sunday...


7 things that I say most often:

1) I heard this thing on NPR
2) I read this in the L.A.Times...
3) I'm gonna have to blog this...
4) My dogs did the cutest thing..
5) J and I were talking...
6) Some new computer fact I just learned
7) "Let's settle down and get our work done"

7 celebrity crushes:

1) Colin Farrel (only to look at, I'm afraid he would give me an STD)
2) Colin Firth
3) John Stewart
4) Jason Mraz
5) Jack Johnson
6) Matthew Mcconaughey
7) Zach Braff

7 people I want to do this:

1)ubie!
2)My Twin...
3)Loz
4)Nick The Cowboy
5)AA!
6)Dia...come on down, sorry but this is starting to feel like the Price is Right!
7)Anthony!

I especially like the stripper factory and beer volcano

There is a Flying Spagetting Monster Game I like to play it while drinking a nice hot beverage from my "Touched by his noodly appendage" mug...


Things got a little dirty over at the fabulous blog of Nuclear Beaver..Sometimes I forget that guys like that actually exist...

These Trolls were probably like this as children... I'm pretty sure this is what they wish the entire female sex was replaced with...


Also, Angry Republican Mom is at it again... compare her post on hippie drum circles, to mine from June...

Sane Person

Crazy Person, Whose blog name inspires me to think she has an action figure!

So yea, thats my blog/link round up.. Sorry for all the linkage, but this crap is just too funny to leave alone...

The Snazzy New Digs...

While I still don't believe that Women and Seamen mix, let me just give a big thanks to Nick the Cowboy for introducing me to the fabulous ladies of blogtogs.

Cat was fabulous, professional, and if you ever feel the need to give your blog a fresh look AND feel like donating to charity, they are the ones to get ahold of!!

go on and check out their work, they have designed some pretty great blogs

First Hand Accounts..

For those of us wondering what really happened in NO, this answers a lot of our questions.


Thanks to Bitch Phd for flagging this...

Angry Republican Mom, At it again

Angry Republican Mom is at it again...

Stupid Black People, going on welfare, pissing off this good jesus loving, gun worshiping down to earth Republican mom with a nanny!


Here is one of her previous performances...


It's no wonder I don't like Republicans...

Little Miss Liberal..

PS. COMMENT PEOPLE! Show Little Miss some Love...

I know I know...

I know I said I wasn't gonna talk abut Hurricane Katrina, but this was just too good to pass up...

"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (she chuckled)--this is working very well for them." - Barbara Bush...

What are these people, inbread? I mean the hell is wrong with them?

Also, I'm following a pattern, Bush creates a mess, Haliburton goes and cleans it up at a highly inflated price..

Go blow Iraq sky high, send in Haliburton to clean it up at $15 a paperclip,
Sit around and watch New Orleans get destroyed, send in Haliburton to rebuild the low income housing.

It's Official....
People Suck

I have a confession....

I listen to NPR
A lot.

I love it, driving in the car has a new dimension to it when I can hear the soft voice of Terry Gross interviewing someone, or be introduced to some new book or cd, all while driving...

"Fresh Air" is definetly my favorite though, the interviews, music reviews and overall interesting articles brighten my day. She interviews everyone from Bill O'Reilly (who hung up on her, asshole) to Will Smith. This past week was actually Hip Hop week, and she interviewed all kinds of interesting pioneers..

My favorite interview would have to be with Paul Anka. He recently released a new cd called "rock swings" in which he takes the songs of my youth and turns them into swinging jazz tunes. It's awful. You aren't supposed to take "Smells like Teen Spirit" out of its rightful place in grunge, where the lyrics are barely understandable, and the angst can come through.
click here to listen to the interview or a few of the songs he mangled

Now if I could only figure out this podcasting thing, I would be a VERY happy woman..

LMK...

PS.. for those of you that were too busy enjoying the long weekend to blog, I wrote my first FFF, its right crap, but you might have a little bit of a laugh...

FFF #6, #1 for me

Trying out this whole Flash Fiction idea.... so for all of you unfamiliar with it, this is a work of fiction... sort of..

_____________________________________

The most embarrassing thing, and I hoped it would never happen. I figured moving home could lead to some complications in my sex life, but with the long distance relationship, I figured it wouldn't be a problem. Boy was I wrong. I woke up groggily to the sound of my mother yelling "Peter, whats that sound? some weird buzzing coming from her room!" Still not quite awake (as it was 6 in the morning) I hadn't fully realized what it was either, but I could hear it, and knew it was coming from my room. From under my bed. My parents came barging in, adamant to figure out what the problem was.

I told them I didn't know what it was, and that they should leave.

Wasn't about to happen.

Before my father could fully drop to his knees to look under my bed, I decided to take matters into my own hands. So I had the joy, of pulling my vibrator out from under my bed and turning it off. My phantom vibrator, that they knew nothing about. That decided to unveil itself by turning on in the middle of the night.

"It's my vi..back massager" I stuttered sleepily.

They were kind and pretended to believe me. I decided to never keep it plugged in again. Thinking that would be the end of it, the next night I crawled into bed, vibrator tucked in my dresser, under my t-shirts. At 2 am I woke up, hearing my entire dresser shaking. "No fucking way" I thought. I had forgotten one important reason I had picked this particular vibrator.. The battery pack. So I fished it out in the dark and turned it off.

I started to have nightmares, where vibrators would fall out of my purse, big large neon dildos, suddenly falling out of my bag in swanky restaurants. Hearing the lull of the vibrator coming from my bag while in the middle of teaching, arousing suspicion from my students, I lie and tell them its my phone.. I couldn't stop the nightmares, so I decided I had to rid myself of the source. But I couldn't bring myself to throw it away. It was quite reliable, and I had grown attached to it over the years, and it was still better than going digital..


It now lives in its new home. deep in the recesses of the walk in closet, in a Rubbermaid container, in between old sweaters.. Where it can never embarrass me again.

Carry You...

I've been listening to Citizen Cope lately, a very cool chill cd called "The Clarence Greenwood Recordings"... Just amazing..

I was playing it today while cooking, and this song struck me.

I can't watch anymore about the hurricane. I can't hear about young women being raped in the astrodome and their assailants being murdered. Can't hear about the politics.

So, my last word on the hurricanes, and it won't be my words.

"Hurricane Waters"

I will carry you through the hurricane waters
And I'll remember you in the blue skies
I will carry you through the hurricane waters
And I'll remember you in the blue skies

Something happens when
You're caught searching for an answer
When you're stuck in the middle
Of a place that you don't belong
When you start to lose sight of what's right and wrong
When we started it was innocent
'Cause when we started it was innocent

I will carry you through the hurricane waters
And I'll remember you in the blue skies
I will carry you through the hurricane waters
And I'll remember you in the blue skies

Until we meet again
Until it's like it was
Until then
Until the answers start raining down
Until the skies open up until the trumpet starts
Until then
Until the city and the county ain't divided
Until then
Until the spirit and the mind ain't fighting
Until the scenes of tomarrow and today finally play

I will carry you through the hurricane waters
And I'll remember you in the blue skies
I will carry you through the hurricane waters
And I'll remember you in the blue skies

Dance Monkey, Dance! [Updated several times throughout the evening]

When the tsunami happened, there was a huge multi continent benefit show, with people that weren't affected by it doing the work to get the effort out there.

fine. great. get the word out, and give the people a little bit of a show, convince them to call and donate by telling them they will get to talk to a celebrity while you are pledging.

The "Concert for Hurricane Relief" is on now, and its kinda frightening. A lot of the people performing are victims of this natural disaster. Harry Connick Jr, on NBC this morning, giving a tour of the city he loved, crying, no more voice, probably from yelling, and trying to help. Aaron Neville was on tv, couldn't find his nieces. Now he is singing.

Just seems wrong, they shouldn't have to do this. They should be able to go about the task of rebuilding their lives. They shouldn't have to go on tv and beg for money.

Maybe it helps them, make them feel like they are doing something to help others, using their fame to raise money.

I'm I alone? Am I just being weird.


It just feels wrong.


UPDATED

Kanye West, in a riff with Mike Myers (one that Myers obviously didn't expect) went off about the war, and the treatment of black people in America and before getting cut off said
"George Bush doesn't care about black people" . Matt Lauer later apologized (circuitously) for the comment, and West and Myers were not seen during the telethon's final scene... click here to to see the clip

Best
Benefit
Concert
EVER

Also, the Mayor of New Orleans' attack on the radio has been picked up by NPR via the BBC!!!

Back to work

(Lil'red, this posts for you, normal day things....)

So I got a call today, been asked to go into my old school. The school I worked at for 8 weeks and thought I was gonna die (blogged about here and here)....

I've been asked to go back into the same class, the teacher I was working for has quit, in the second day of school, I have been asked to go in and take over, apparently only for one day.

There are no lesson plans
There may be no books


Knowing them, they will ask me to take over.
Ain't gonna happen.

First day back at work and already I wish I was working at starbucks or blockbuster instead...


-Little Miss Substitute Ring Leader...