March 2010
Testing the WP App

Filed under itself

I normally roll into the classroom in the early to late afternoon and find myself still there at a ridiculously late hour. I’m going to try to get stuff done earlier today, hoping to be on my way by two or three. We’ll see how that goes; I often fall asleep at my desk when I try to do this.

I’m having breakfast at McD’s right now. Testing out the WP app. So far, so good.

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2010-03-07  ::  me

March 2010
Old Images

Filed under itself + whatever

I was going through some old archives and found these images. I still kinda like them. They became unnecessary (and, in fact, difficult to employ) with the switch to WP, and although my skillz are such that I could fairly easily put any of these in the WP themes I use, since I never did find the theme that suited me perfectly, none of them have ever been meant as permanent, so I never put forth the effort.

Spent Saturday taking it easy. Trying to gear myself up for a CRAZY week, details of which I can’t really talk about until the week’s done. Ugh.

I also converted some journal entries (October 2004) from their original HTML to WP. One of them doesn’t make any sense without the accompanying images, but while I’m sure I’ve got those images somewhere, they weren’t handy so I just brought in the text. This summer will mark eight years doing this online journaling thing; certainly not as long as others, but long enough to make myself feel kind of old. I still dig it, you know? And although the increasing number of intersections in my world makes it difficult to be as candid here as I would like (or need), it has for the most part remained true to its original purpose, which is to give me somewhere to put my words down where others might stumble upon them.

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2010-03-06  ::  me

March 2010
Baby Rock

Filed under music

A couple of years ago, Reid and Larrilynn were expecting their first kid, and Don planned a baby shower for Reid’s friends, which brings up something else I need to rant about, but not tonight. Let’s just say I was opposed to the entire concept but of course I’m not going to miss a thing like that on principle. There are things you just go to because you’re people’s friend, and principles be darned.

The shower was at one of those all-the-way-upstairs-at-Ala-Moana Japanese buffet places, the kind of place where if we had the shower there now, I’d have had to make an excuse and missed out, because it’s just out of my price range now. The food was good and yes, there were embarrassing baby-shower games and at first I was going to be too cool for that, but then I reminded myself that I wasn’t there for me, so I went all out in all three games. Of course, the first two games were pencil-and-paper word games, and although I am not invincible in games like that, I can say without boasting that with that group of friends, I’m not very likely to lose. Sorry, guys.

The third game involved racing everyone else to finish a baby bottle filled with apple juice. I came in second to the woman who would later become Todd’s wife. I wanted to call foul because the sight of her sucking so aggressively on that nipple was an unfair distraction—she was sitting directly across the table from me, for crying out loud, and all of Todd’s girlfriends have been cuties.

I put a lot of thought into the gift I gave, and I went somewhat over my budget. I gave R and L a CD of nature sounds. I think it was a forest with a nearby stream. That, and a Cars greatest hits CD, which is what put me over-budget. It was a lot more expensive than I expected.

I hesitated before buying. Looked all over the store for something else that I thought would serve as well, but no. What rock and roll band (except maybe, as I was reminded of this evening by @windwardskies and @champuru, They Might Be Giants) would be more interesting, more fun, and less inappropriate than the best songs from the Cars? If you want your kid to have a solid rock and roll background from a very early age, I suggest that you really couldn’t do much better than the Cars. Sure, you’d want to augment that with some Beach Boys and Beatles, probably, eventually, but for those first critical months of early consciousness development, I think the best pick is the Cars.

What a waste. First of all, Reid and Larrilynn’s tastes don’t even lean in the direction of rock and roll. Second, I don’t think they even considered for a moment the possibility of exposing their child to this music at that age. Which is their call, of course, and I respect that. It all really goes to show you one thing: I have no business at a baby shower, and the world is a better place if it keeps that in mind!

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2010-03-05  ::  me

March 2010
Off to La-La Land

Filed under work

I’ll get back to comments tomorrow. Just not feeling it today.

As far as I can tell, I haven’t done anything differently lately, but these last few days I am really, really tired. Like, just sitting still usually means I’m going to doze off, a dangerous thing in my job! I’ve had to keep myself moving.

I’m getting nervous about the upcoming couple of weeks. Can’t talk about it now, but it’s going to be crazy!

I need a day just for lying around and reading. I know I just had one this past Saturday, but I think I need another.

Taking Friday off from school to learn more PHP. It’s part of a grant we got. Most of my colleagues have used it to get more familiar with our school management software, but I’m already familiar with it so I’ve gotten permission to take a couple of PHP days. Nice.

Gotta crash already. Can barely keep my head up.

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2010-03-03  ::  me

March 2010
Commenting on Comments, Part 1

Filed under itself

Long-time readers of this space will remember when I still wrote it in HTML. I had been running Movable Type at the Village Idiots site and liked it a great deal, but I still wanted to keep this space old-school. The problem was that sometimes the effort prevented me from actually writing, so a few years ago, I cried uncle (in a post titled UNCLE) and switched to WP. Every so often I get motivated and convert the older entries to WP, but that doesn’t happen often and the enthusiasm lasts me just a few posts at a time.

This space has always served as a place for me to write my thoughts to some unknown audience. Despite knowing who some of the specific readers might be, I also know that readers drop in and out, and at any given time in my life, I don’t know who’s reading this and who’s not. The audience is an important part of the exercise for me, but I like writing to nobody in particular, one reason I seldom use the word “you” in reference to readers of this space.

Comments have always been welcome and appreciated, but I made a decision early on not to turn this space into a community. “Making Connections through Blogging” was the title of one of the sessions at Wordcamp a couple of years ago, and while I respect what the speakers had to say, I knew that the advice didn’t really apply to me. “Respond to every comment!” one of the speakers said. I Twittered my difference of opinion.

I like comments, because for one thing they tell me when I’m wrong about something, something I can stand a lot more of in my life, as when Gregg informed me that Tom Brokaw’s book about The Greatest Generation wasn’t about the Boomers but about the generation before them. My grandparents’ generation. Yeah, I am not as smart as I think I am.

My favorite experience with comments in this space came when I was prompted to approve a recent comment on something I posted long ago. The new comment itself was not the cool thing, but noticing that the comment that preceded it, dated December 18, 2005, was made by Jocelyn nearly three years before I knew who she was and met her in real life. Crazy.

Sometimes I do have responses to comments, but I seldom express them except to myself. Perhaps this is not very nice. I’m not opposed, really, to responding to comments. I merely don’t want this space to turn into that kind of journal; this needs to remain MY space and it needs to continue to be what I need it to be, and my becoming a comment whore is enormously counterproductive. This is not to accuse others of comment-whoring. Other people’s spaces are theirs to do with as they wish, and some people wish to Make Connections through Blogging. That’s just not going to work for me, at least not here. Twitter me, or FB me, Formspring me, or join in at HT or HB (back online and soon to be streamlined).

In my continuing quest to find new ideas to write about, I’ve decided this would be a good time to respond to some of those wonderful comments readers have left. So that’s what I’ll do today and tomorrow. I won’t hit all the comments, because not everything needs to be responded to, but I’ll hit quite a few, I hope.

@Susan: Thank you for the kind words. If it’s not clear, I also consider myself a decent writer and am regularly conceited about it, but it is nice to be encouraged that way. You didn’t link to your own webspace, though! Is there somewhere I can get to know you through your own writing?

@Randall: Actually, I’m pretty sure the lyric is, “Misery loves company, but she will never foot the bill,” which amounts to the same sentiment but is not as lyrical as yours! I can totally see the bill sitting there, face-down on the table, equidistant between two diners, waiting for someone to claim it.

@Ryan: I liked Jersey Girl. It had its flaws, but it was overall quite good. Affleck can act, no matter what his haters say.

@Melomane: Thanks for the nice words! I live in Hawaii, so house concerts and even regular concerts are generally out of the question, ‘though Bela Fleck did play with the Honolulu Symphony a couple of years ago. I got free tickets but was too sick to attend!

@Alan: I still haven’t seen Crash, and I enjoyed The Terminal a great deal. I don’t get why the critics were so harsh. Hanks is very good in that, even though the premise is kind of far-fetched.

@Brie: *sigh* Yes, yes. I know. Nobody who hasn’t had kids can ever understand how parents feel about things. This, however, doesn’t mean my position on capital punishment is less valid than a parent’s; nor does it mean that if I had kids my position would be different. I know a LOT of parents who are opposed to the death penalty.

Okay, that’s a good start. More tomorrow.

1 comment  ::  Share or discuss  ::  2010-03-02  ::  me

March 2010
Music Monday

Filed under music

This is the Lovell Sisters. It’s from the group’s 2009 Time to Grow album and is my pick for prettiest song of 2009. Isn’t it just too lovely?

My ‘net access is going to be a little weird for the next couple of days, but I expect I’ll still be able to write. I’ve decided to continue February House-Cleaning Month into March but not change the name. Why not? I’m the founder, so I get to make the rules.

Tomorrow or Wednesday, I will do something I almost never do: respond to comments.

I have played with different in-post music players and think I’ve finally found one that works to my satisfaction.

edit: If I’m going to use it, I should give a shout-out. Downloaded it from here. Its creator is Todd Iceton and it lives here.

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2010-03-01  ::  me

February 2010
Three Things: Weekend of 2-27

Filed under positivity

Three positive things about the weekend.

1. The tsunami demonstrated that this state is pretty well-prepared for a tsunami. I was encouraged to see the roads (for the most part) nicely and cooperatively empty and it was encouraging to see that stores seemed to handle the rush for supplies. It forced me, too, not to go into the classroom, which meant lots and lots of sleep. Yum.
2. Final yearbook deadline is approaching, and there was a rather worrisome problem with photos for one section. I think I got it worked out. It took me until past eleven o’clock Sunday night, but whatever. I just hope it works.
3. I got my laundry done at a decent hour Friday night and Sunday morning.

That’s a pretty humdrum list, except for the tsunami part. I live a mostly humdrum life, though, so what can I say? If I were to journal every day about work and all its failures and successes, my life might seem a bit more exciting, but I refuse to turn this into that kind of space. I cannot let my work life be all I think about or write about.

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2010-02-28  ::  me

February 2010
Tsunami!

Filed under news

I was still up late Friday night when the tsunami watch became a tsunami warning. News-junkie me would normally have stayed up all night long to watch the local newscasters talk endlessly (and repetitively) about preparations, precautions, and procedures, but I was tired. I could barely keep my eyes open, and I was starting to show signs of developing a cold. I wasn’t sure it was a cold in its early stages or just the really crumby way I always feel when I’m running on too little sleep.

I left the television on in the living room, turned out all the lights, and crashed in my bedroom. I knew I’d be up a few times in the night (to pee and to drink water. some things about being forty-one really suck) and I wanted to catch whatever I could of the coverage.

And I pretty much just did that between midnight and 11:00 Saturday morning. I didn’t make a run to the convenience store at the bottom of the hill, even when I realized I probably didn’t have enough cash in case of a crisis. I had two 1.5-liter bottles of water in my freezer and enough food to last me close to a week if I needed it, assuming I could open my fridge a few times.

At about 11:15, I called my folks, mostly because it seemed like the thing to do. I live high on a hill and they live high on a different hill, and I was sure they were fine. My dad’s got an emergency kit that includes a crank-powered radio I gave him for Christmas two years ago. We exchanged stories and I said I’d be over when I ran out of food. He laughed, but I was serious. That’s my plan for a crisis: head to dad’s when I run out of food.

Then I, along with just about everyone else in the state, watched the waters in Hilo Bay do some crazy, kind of spooky stuff. The water surged out and surged back in about four times.

And that was about it. The predicted 6- to 8-foot tsunami never even approached that height, but the cool thing about all of this is that it did hit pretty much right on schedule. We don’t get enough tsunamis, thank God, to have enough history to know how these things will play out, but it was cool to see that science was at least able to predict right on time when that thing was going to be here. Lord Baden-Powell would have been pleased.

At about quarter to one, I went back to bed and got back up at about three. I went to the classroom to get organized, then Penny and Grace picked me up to go to Reid’s for dinner, wine, a movie, and mochi. We had pizza from Antonio’s, a lovely Coppola shiraz (juicy with mild tannins), and some mochi from Happy Hearts Mochi while we watched an interesting film called Funny Ha Ha.

Applause to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, the local law-enforcement personnel who helped clear the streets and inundation zones, and even the local newscasters who mostly stayed on it and distributed good info.

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2010-02-27  ::  me

February 2010
Drive-In Memories, Part 1: Meatballs and Up in Smoke

Filed under film

My dad had a friend who, in 1979, hadn’t had his kids yet. He was one of those rare adults who seemed to be really popular with grownups and really popular with kids. I guess every family has a friend who’s like that.

So one night, my dad’s friend and his wife drove out to Waipahu, where my family lived, and offered to take my sister and me (eight and ten) to the Royal Sunset Drive-In, just two block away from our house, to see Bill Murray in Meatballs.

My rock and roll history goes back to 1976 or so (when I was seven), but my movie history really only goes back to a few years after that. I of course knew what movies were and had seen a few, but they weren’t part of my everyday consciousness they way the television and radio were. I had no idea who Bill Murray was, didn’t know anything about the movie, and didn’t even ask what the title of the film was when I was told we were being taken. It didn’t matter.

We were in the back seat of the car and my dad asked his friend what the movie was (weird, giving us permission to go before he knew anything about the film; that was not his usual parenting style). The friend said something like, “Meatballs, a comedy about a summer camp, and the second movie is some other comedy I don’t know anything about. I’m sure it’s fine, plus the kids will probably be tired and asleep by then.”

We loved Meatballs, a movie I still remember fondly today. I honestly couldn’t remember enjoying a movie quite as much as that film that evening (I hadn’t seen Star Wars yet, by the way). It was funny and it was touching and it seemed to hint at a life as a teenager that I would get to experience in just a little while.

Then we saw the second film. Cheech and Chong’s Up in Smoke. There was obviously a ton of stuff I didn’t understand then, but I understood enough about it not to tell my folks much about it later, and enough to talk about it with my friends at school the next week but only out of earshot of the teachers. I thought much of it was hilarious, but it does not hold up quite as well as the Bill Murray picture.

The drive-in didn’t live much longer.

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2010-02-26  ::  me

February 2010
For Most this Amazing Day

Filed under work

Woo. Stayed up ’til past 3:00 last night. I’d put in late hours getting ready for an excursion and then remembered that I’d hoped to finish this spreadsheet I’d promised for my colleagues. By the time I wrapped myself up in my comfy bed it was just about time to get up.

The excursion was good. Because of some budget cuts this year, I didn’t get to do my Poetry Day activity and was asked instead to combine my excursion with another English teacher’s poetry excursion and with the photography classes’ trip to Waimea Valley.

I love that valley, but my excursion was supposed to be urban and kind of rebellious. Writing poetry in a valley near a falls is not as cool as what I usually do with my students. But difficult times call for sacrifices, so we went to the valley with the other classes. It amounted to close to forty percent of our student body. All my cool poetry wasn’t going to work so I had to come up with nature stuff, which of course there is no shortage of, but I’d been trying to stay away from the dead white guys.

I ended up going with the usual suspects: “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” (Frost), “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” (Herrick), “Me and You” (Dwyer), and “i thank you God for most this amazing day” (cummings). Then I assigned a couple of writing assignments and set the students loose in the valley. Later, they had the run of Haleiwa town for lunch and amazingly, they were all back on the bus five minutes before they were due.

So a good day, but I am sooooooooo tired!

 ::  Share or discuss  ::  2010-02-25  ::  me