Unblocked!

The internet at our school is filtered to keep students out of sites like facebook, gmail, etc. And for good reason. We have computers all over this school, and each student has his own login and password. The computers are part of their every day tasks - a good thing.

But if the internet were just as available and unfiltered - there would be no way to control access to distractions.

Anyways, we recently switched filters, and I noticed that the pictures on Marla's blog were now appearing (old filter - blogs were blocked, but Google Reader was not) and so I clicked on the link to my blog - also unblocked. I attempted to sign in thinking that at any moment it's going to block me saying "Go no further!" but it let me right in.

Hopefully this lasts and I can update from school.

Latest things

I'm in the midst of one of my job's "Busy Seasons" but I like each part of it. I have spent my last two Saturdays judging "All Region Auditions".

I myself attended 9 Region auditions as a student, and I must say that I strongly prefer the judging side. Lower pressure, see the results sooner, and food is provided. However, I do get nervous for my own students.

Wednesday is our first concert. So tomorrow and Wednesday will be marathon days. Tomorrow we rehearse after school and I'll finish with the last group at about 7:00. Then Wednesday the concert starts at about 7:00. If all goes smoothly it will last until about 8:30 or 8:45 with brief reception to follow.

Concerts just make days hectic. And that's okay - there are just many details to attend to, and many bodies to coordinate.

So, in preperation for that, I've been working really hard to prioritize tasks at work this week. Anything that can possibly wait until Friday or later will have to wait. There are many things occupying the time. Finalizing and making a program, copying music for the next concert so that we waste no time the day after this one, ordering pizza for the Jr. High students coming for the rehearsal tomorrow. Responding to every parent's individual email or voicemail question regarding information they already have. Handling questions about attendance.

Most of my kids are excited about the concert, and I think some more will become convinced once they perform and feel pride in it. But there are those who either don't want to be there, or want to, but it's not as big of a priority as something else. I expect that from the kids. One kid says "I can't go because I have to be at my (fill-in-the-blank) practice." I respond "Concerts and performances beat out practices, you have to be there." I expect that from the kids. They don't know any better.
What really irks me are the parents who don't get it. My heart goes out to a student when his/her parents don't get it. How are these kids supposed to compete in the real world of academics, college, and life if they grow up with parents who knock their legs out from underneath them my constantly making excuses?

Aside from school stuff, I've been out of town two of the last three weekends. Two weeks ago we went to the family reunion in Abilene, and last weekend I went to Fort Worth to see Jordan and her family after the Region Auditions. Both trips were fun and totally worth the driving time, but both left me drained of all energy.

So, several busy weeks, followed by crazy weeks, with jam packed weekends in between . . . .. . . if I'm asleep and not to be found on Saturday, you'll understand?

On Obama's Nobel Peace Prize

I live in Texas. I live in a Texas town that considers itself "Small Town" even though it's huge. This town takes on many traits of a stereotypical small Texan town. Many students at the school I teach are the children, grandchildren, and yes, great-grandchildren of graduates of the same school. Our football games carry the pride of the town. And, yes, when the conversation turns to politics, there is much contempt to be found towards "liberals." Very often I meet folks who feel that anybody associated with the word "Democrat" is a lazy, communist, atheist fool who cannot think for himself.

There are many conversations where I find myself just keeping my mouth closed because it's the same conversation amongst the same people that I've heard before, and an attempt at dialogue leads only to argument. I hear Rush Limbaugh quoted as if he's a prophet, and yet Obama is the "elitist."

Anyways, with Obama's recent receipt of the Nobel Prize, I cannot keep my mouth closed, and I have some things that I must say. I hope I am saying things that most of us are thinking, regardless of what side of the ballot you vote for.

1.) I think it is absurd to give that award, this year, to this man. I voted for him. I stand by my decision to vote for him given the choice between Obama/Biden and McPain/Palin. Make Obama Time Magazine's 2009 Man of the Year. Let Barbara Walters put him at the top of her "Most fascinating People" show. Say as much as you want about the sensation of a Black person being president of the U.S. I can understand that.
But do not give him the Nobel Peace Prize. That is a distinction for somebody "who shall have done" as Nobel himself said, not somebody who "perhaps shall do." I hope that in the course of his career in public office, now and post-presidency, he does enough to earn the award 5x over. I think the possibility is there. But I would no sooner give a first year president the Nobel Peace Prize than I would vote a rookie pitcher into Cooperstown.

2.) I believe the Nobel Committee put Obama in a no-win publicity situation. By accepting the award he has given conservative pundits (who have resisted, undermined, and distorted every single one of his efforts thus far in office, for better or worse, you decide) to attack him for supposed arrogance.
But if he turns it down, is the coverage any better? Would those same pundits not still attack him with the same attacks? "Our own president doubts the value of his own plans." "Our own president has told the world that he's not worthy of being honored." "Barack Hussein Obama is only 9 months into his presidency and already having second thoughts about his strategy for our national security."
His "surprised and humbled" along with "call to action" response is a diplomatic one, but to the furthest extent I can postulate hypothetical alternatives, the most appropriate.

3.) I do believe that the (IMO - ill-advised) decision to choose him is a response to a spirit of reconciliation he has extended to the world in his recent campaign as well as tone of his addresses during an overseas trip and speeches at the UN. Many (some good friends of mine included) would call this "apologetic" as if to say it's un-American to apologize. "Since when did we become apologizers to countries that cannot even stand on their own two feet? We're the ones who defeated the Nazis" blah blah blah.
Long before Obama was ever on the radar, I have had major objections with this viewpoint. If you are 80 years old or older, you might not read this next paragraph as pertaining to you:
I did not overcome the Great Depression. My grandparents and their parents did. They worked their way up from having nothing to create and become part of a new middle-class. I on the other hand, along with the vast majority of mine and my parents' respective generations, have virtually stayed put on the socio-economic spectrum. Most my age were born high, low, middle, wherever, on the wealth ladder and have stayed put.
I did not defeat the Nazis. In fact, my grandfather did not defeat the Nazis. In fact, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, and Churchill can only take a small portion of the credit for defeating the Nazis. Call me unpatriotic, but a simple and objective look at the numbers and the calendar of who fought where, and it's an uncomfortable admission that a Stalin-led Russia did the biggest bulk of the Nazi-beating. Sorry, patriots.
Please don't misunderstand me. I wouldn't trade my American birth for anywhere else. I have enjoyed more freedom, more opportunity, more wealth, more abundance of free thought and optimism here than anywhere else on earth. But I will not let Jesse Jackson blame me for my ancestors' enslavement of his, and I will not fool myself into thinking that the people of France should do whatever I say as a credit to me for what my grandfathers did for theirs. Absurd.

4.) The idea that Obama's "arrogance" causes him to make these "apologies" to certain countries is backwards from mine. In my opinion, Bush's stubborn "for us or against us" turned into a right-wing "Republican or freedom-hating-communist-terrorist-hippie" that came across to the world as ARROGANT. Tell me the media mis-represented him. Okay. It was not on the "liberal" news networks that I learned of Bush's decisions to withdraw our agreement in nuclear non-proliferation treaties; it was from "fair and balanced" Fox news sources. It was not from a journalist that I learned that we would be going into Iraq with or without the approval of our long-time friends and allies, it was straight from the mouth, un-edited, of GWB himself.

5.) There are many reasons I can digest for not liking Obama or feeling uneasy about his presidency so far. The amount of debt we are accumulating is unacceptable. The fact that the health care reform has not been preceeded by a long overdue overhaul and reduction of government spending is irresponsible. None such as these are the things I heard discussed on Talk Radio.
Sean Hannity proclaimed that the NP Prize goes to those who hate freedom and Jews. He referred to Jimmy Carter being an "obvious Jew-hater" because of "many actions taken not in the best interest of Israel." I would think a person who claims to know so much about the constitution as Sean Hannity would know that the POTUS has the job of acting in the best interest of one country, which happens to not be Israel. And for a person who claims to understand so much about God and rights given by God, and the word of God, etc., he'd understand how there are two sides to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

So to my polarized friends on either end of the spectrum: We can still be friends. But if you are a fellow Obama supporter who thinks he's fixed everything and we're onto the "happy ending" part of the story, please wake up.
If you're an Obama opposer who truly fears that the country is headed for certain ruin, first, let me say I'm sorry your life is filled with so much stress, but let's talk about real problems and factual information, not sensationalized hype.

Newbery Checklist

The Newbery Medal is an award given annually by the ALA for outstanding contribution to Children's Literature (usually fiction, few exceptions.) Given once per year since 1922, the list of winners includes some of the most beloved authors and novels of kids for several generations.


I remember in Intermediate school, when choosing books for book reports or projects, we were taught that if a book had the symbol for the Newbery Medal meant that your teacher would approve your choice.

I was at the local Katy Library today, where I have been numerous times since moving here, and decided to pop over to the Juvenile section to see if they had any Louis Sachar books (I have LOVED his books since I read "Sideways Stories from Wayside School in 3rd grade) I haven't read.

While in that section, I noticed they had a special shelf set aside for Newbery winners. I scanned the titles and saw some I remember reading, and some I'd meant to read but forgotten, and many I'd never heard of.

So, I decided that I'd like to read all the winners. Not going to do it in any order, and I'm not going to stop reading other books, but I'm just going to read them one at a time according to what's in the library when I look.

Here is the list of winners. I've bolded the ones I've already read. Take a look for yourself and see if there are any you've read on the list.

2009: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, illus. by Dave McKean (HarperCollins)
2008: Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz (Candlewick)
2007: The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, illus. by Matt Phelan (Simon & Schuster/Richard Jackson)
2006: Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins (Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins)
2005: Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata (Atheneum Books for Young Readers/Simon & Schuster)
2004: The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick Press)
2003: Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi (Hyperion Books for Children)
2002: A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park(Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin)
2001: A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck (Dial)
2000: Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis (Delacorte)
1999: Holes by Louis Sachar (Frances Foster)
1998: Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse (Scholastic)
1997: The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg (Jean Karl/Atheneum)
1996: The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman (Clarion)
1995: Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech (HarperCollins)
1994: The Giver by Lois Lowry(Houghton)
1993: Missing May by Cynthia Rylant (Jackson/Orchard)
1992: Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (Atheneum)
1991: Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli (Little, Brown)
1990: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (Houghton)
1989: Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman (Harper)
1988: Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman (Clarion)
1987: The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman (Greenwillow)
1986: Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan (Harper)
1985: The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley (Greenwillow)
1984: Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary (Morrow)
1983: Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt (Atheneum)
1982: A Visit to William Blake's Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers by Nancy Willard (Harcourt)
1981: Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson (Crowell)
1980: A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-1832 by Joan W. Blos (Scribner)
1979: The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (Dutton)
1978: Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (Crowell)
1977: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor (Dial)
1976: The Grey King by Susan Cooper (McElderry/Atheneum)
1975: M. C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton (Macmillan)
1974: The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox (Bradbury)
1973: Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George (Harper)
1972: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien (Atheneum)
1971: Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars (Viking)
1970: Sounder by William H. Armstrong (Harper)
1969: The High King by Lloyd Alexander (Holt)
1968: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg (Atheneum)
1967: Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt (Follett)
1966: I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino (Farrar)
1965: Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska (Atheneum)
1964: It's Like This, Cat by Emily Neville (Harper)
1963: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (Farrar)
1962: The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare (Houghton)
1961: Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell (Houghton)
1960: Onion John by Joseph Krumgold (Crowell)
1959: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare (Houghton)
1958: Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith (Crowell)
1957: Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen (Harcourt)
1956: Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham (Houghton)
1955: The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong (Harper)
1954: ...And Now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold (Crowell)
1953: Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark (Viking)
1952: Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes (Harcourt)
1951: Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates (Dutton)
1950: The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli (Doubleday)
1949: King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry (Rand McNally)
1948: The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pène du Bois (Viking)
1947: Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey (Viking)
1946: Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski (Lippincott)
1945: Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson (Viking)
1944: Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes (Houghton)
1943: Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray (Viking)
1942: The Matchlock Gun by Walter Edmonds (Dodd)
1941: Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry (Macmillan)
1940: Daniel Boone by James Daugherty (Viking)
1939: Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright (Rinehart)
1938: The White Stag by Kate Seredy (Viking)
1937: Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer (Viking)
1936: Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink (Macmillan)
1935: Dobry by Monica Shannon (Viking)
1934: Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women by Cornelia Meigs (Little, Brown)
1933: Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Lewis (Winston)
1932: Waterless Mountain by Laura Adams Armer (Longmans)
1931: The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth (Macmillan)
1930: Hitty, Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field (Macmillan)
1929: The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly (Macmillan)
1928: Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon by Dhan Gopal Mukerji (Dutton)
1927: Smoky, the Cowhorse by Will James (Scribner)
1926: Shen of the Sea by Arthur Bowie Chrisman (Dutton)
1925: Tales from Silver Lands by Charles Finger (Doubleday)
1924: The Dark Frigate by Charles Hawes (Little, Brown)
1923: The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting (Stokes)
1922: The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon (Liveright)

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Go see it. In 3-D. You'll be glad you paid the extra $2 for 3-D, and you'll be glad you saw it on the big screen. Really cool, and you'll laugh from beginning to end.

Ahh, Waffle House.

My love, you are shivering! And so pale. Here, wear my cloak over your own. We have walked for many miles, and I had hoped the skies would have grown merciful by now. But we must persevere. Remember, even in the darkest night there is always a light somewhere ahead, and—but what's this? Do you see it? That yellow glow. Has the sun itself plumbed the darkest clouds and settled upon the earth next to that gas station over there?

Take heart, my love, for sanctuary is at hand. It can only be a Waffle House!

Do you know it? Yes, it is rather like a Denny's, but humbler still. It is a Southern thing, truly, perhaps best likened to the IHOPs of your girlhood in Fresno. But the Waffle House has a spirit of its very own. Let us make haste! Salvation is near, and it is slathered in syrup!

Please do not fret about your appearance. In my adventures, I have visited many Waffle Houses well after midnight, and though this rascal storm has drenched and muddied our clothes such that peasants would not exchange their rags for ours, we will be welcomed at yon Waffle House. No one, from the weary truck driver to the drunkard to the consumptive, is turned away, and on my last visit, my waitress informed me that, a fortnight earlier, Merle Haggard himself had occupied the very booth in which I was then seated.

Who is Merle Haggard? Never you mind, my dear. Never you mind.

But we must keep going. You have my word; it is not far. Let the heavens lash us while we repel the elements with thoughts of sausage, egg, and cheese sandwiches. You will not have to wait until morning, as breakfast is served at all hours. And while it is true that lunch and dinner fare such as patty melts and chopped steak is available, it is breakfast that Waffle House embraces above all else.

Now tell me: scattered, smothered, or covered? You look at me as if I speak some savage dialect, woman, when I merely refer to options for the preparation of the hash browns from which we will soon take sustenance. You will see once we arrive, my love, you will see. Tremble no longer, and think only of cheese 'n' eggs with raisin toast and apple butter. Or let us speak of grits. Or perhaps an omelet or—no, not pancakes. Waffle House does not serve pancakes.

Yes, my sweet, this house's devotion to the waffle is so complete that it excludes from its menu any other kind of griddled cake.

O, this cruel wind! Even if we are spared, I fear the Waffle House itself will be flung from its moorings. But I can see inside now. Observe that bloated man: He stands before a jukebox that features songs composed especially for the Waffle House. Do you know "Waffle Doo Wop"? I supposed not. It is every bit as gay as it would seem to be, and I shall play it, and it will forever betoken what you and I have endured on this night.

The parking lot at last! I could fall upon my knees and kiss its every stripe. But come. We must enter now and take this booth here by the window. Let the tempest outside look upon us, helpless to afflict us any longer. Let us now drink coffee without limit and fill our shrunken stomachs with pecan waffles and country ham. My love, let us rejoice!

The waitress should be along eventually.

News Briefs

I need to go to bed, but here's the bullet point update:

Saw Jordan 2 and a half weeks ago when she came down here. This weekend, Friday-Sunday, I'm going to see her in Searcy. Very much glad to have a Friday to anticipate. It keeps me going.

Our United Players friend, Katie Clarke, returns to Broadway in November. She will be playing Glinda in "Wicked". One of the most coveted female roles of all time in one of the longest running shows of all things currently showing on Broadway.

Orchestra is bigger and better, but nuts. Having 80 kids in Orchestra is a great leap in enrollment, but I'm convinced that more students increases paperwork and grading exponentially, not linearly.

I'm in the market for a String Quartet or a Piano Trio. Seeking two violinists, a pianist, and a violist who want to play chamber music. Must be good sight-readers and have time on weekends. We'll make money off of it if we can, but we'll do it for the music and the company. I'm tired of playing alone.

Wedding is now 8 months away. Jordan's move down to H-town is now 3 or 4 months away, not sure what the Holiday schedule looks like yet.

Signed up to run a 5k on Saturday, even woke up at 5:30 (ON A SATURDAY) but it was rained out so instead of starting the day off with early exercise, I went home and slept most of the morning.

Teaching a unit of Renaissance and other early European music in Music History class at school. In the process of re-learning things to teach in the class, I accidentally fell in love with some of the music I hated when forced to study it in school.

Kanye West is the perfect example of why civility is dying in American culture. I hope if I ever have a student like him, I'm able to think of a way to help him understand that he cannot interrupt grown-ups when it's not his turn to speak.

Katy Football is going strong. The Tigers are 2-1, and have already played 2 of the 3 toughest teams they will see this season. Looking better every week. I get to watch large chunks of the game from the comfort of the press box. If I ever work up the nerve to take my camera up there, I'll show you how great the view is.