Daily Digressions(Latest entry at the top. Scroll down to read past entries.)
6/25/05 Digressions is back online. Life is good. I’ll try to write more later. www.copperrockcoffee.com finally got updated. That’s it. 3/01/05 It's March already. Last time I talked to you about not wanting to share things about my life when the possibility exists that somebody who doesn't quite know me but is beginning to might read it and then get a somewhat distorted impression of me. I shall once again second that thought. Wahle, Sharper...Favre is still up in the air...my life is getting complicated once again. I tend to use the same phrases over and over. Tomorrow is Wednesday and I have church and my kids sing and I don't know what I'm doing after that yet and then I have teachers conference on Thursday and Friday and I think I'm going to the Admirals game on Friday night but one should never count his pucks before they hit the ice. On Saturday I might be going home to Appleton to see people. Buck wants me to go because he can't drive all by himself. I have a shovel. I made food the other night. I am having spaghetti tonight. I should take my DVD player home. Yes, I will. Who is Mike Smith? And I now have toilet paper and my house is somewhat clean for once...I hope things stay that way. The cleanliness of my house serves as a social barometer. 2/23/05 2/1/05 I don't get off school for Groundhog Day. 1/10/05 I have not digressed since last year. Whoha! I got Brett “The Commish” on DVD; I do believe that that was the best present that anyone has ever given to anyone else. And I did it surreptitiously. My life is pretty much worthless. When I try it doesn’t seem to matter. And, perhaps more disheartening, when I don’t try it doesn’t seem to matter. We won our basketball game. I want to die along with the Packers. Randy Moss is a horrible human being. Out of sheer curiosity, I Boolean-Googled “I want Randy Moss to die” and I got no results; I was seriously shocked. I just realized that I don’t think the use of quotes constitutes a Boolean search; nonetheless, it was a pretty cool new term I made up. Buck seems to enjoy life more than I do. I’m trying to become an alcoholic, but sometimes days go by without a drink and then I get frustrated at myself. I’m back up to 11 students. This year it’s gone from 15 to 14 to 13 to 12 to 10 to 11; Roger said that we should have installed revolving doors when they refurbished the building. Roger’s pretty clever for being from MLS. (inside joke/serious insult) Beer is the elixir of life (and death). I like parenthetical comments (don’t you too?). Next week is only 3 days (yea for racial injustices!). That was inappropriate. Sorry. Some people ask me if my call was a cultural shock as if I had never seen a black person before. I usually respond, “Yes. Yes, it was. Before I only hated white people; now I hate people off all races.” And then I kick them in the stomach. What’s with all this violence? Tsunami. Wow. Where do I begin with all that? 12/19/04 My life is worthless. How's everyone else doing? 12/17/04 They’re dropping like flies. Possibly four more today. Apparently teaching and applying the Law and Gospel faithfully is not good for enrollment. Bullshirt.8m.com is down; I can only assume that Dan Hartwig has died. It was nice knowing you, buddy. I suppose the other explanation could be that he forgot to renew his Freeservers domain name. Tonight we play Garden Homes; it should be a good game. Brett is coming down for it…that and Chinese buffet. My fingers are numb; I’m trying to save money on heat. I got some meat from Ed for Christmas. I like meat. I ordered some checks. 12/13/04 (oops...I forgot to put the date here and now I realized that this isn't two days in a row...I'm an idiot.) I’m digressing once again; I believe this is the second day in a row. Wow. My hands are numb because I just got home from school; I walked this time. Our enrollment is going down by one again I think. Well, according to mom she doesn’t like our school and she’s sick of getting phone calls all the time and if she can get her son in a different school he won’t be back at all. Apparently Mr. Hahnke didn’t send home the lesson on burning bridges…or maybe he did. This time the child, among many other things, only grabbed a sheet out of my hand and crumpled it up and threw it down and refused to admit any wrong and demanded to call his mom (read “sanctuary”). Oh well. She apparently thinks his problems will magically disappear at another school. Law and Gospel were taught and preached faithfully in this situation; my hands are clean…at least that’s what I keep trying to convince myself of these days. I should really eat something. I’m trying to get off of caffeine. Cold Turkey. I wonder where that expression came from. I am going to die a lonely, bitter, old man. Bye. 12/11/04 I finally downloaded an FTP program so that I can update this thing at home. Thanks to Mike Wendt, I think I got the right server information and all that fun jazz. On Thursday our enrollment went down by 5; on Friday it went up by one. On Thursday I had to physically remove a rather big male student from a classroom as he was about to punch a girl. On Thursday the mother of the boy who was suspended for almost punching a girl pulled both of her children out of our school because she was “frustrated at all the discipline problems.” On Thursday we found out that this would be the 13th school change for these two children. On Friday the girl returned to school after crying the previous night to her mom telling her she wanted to stay. We still don’t know about the boy who was suspended. On Thursday morning before all this we had 2 kindergarteners and one 5th grader pulled from our school because one of the kindergarteners needed speech therapy at a public school and it would be too inconvenient for the mom to make two trips. How much notice did we receive? 10 minutes. On Friday I found out that a mother of some of our students sells adult toys for a living. So, in other words, it’s been a pretty normal life for me since I last digressed. I’m finally cleaning my room. I should really keep in touch with my brothers better than I am…except for Brett; I talk to him too much; perhaps I’m trying to live vicariously through him; perhaps I need to stop combing my hair and gain some weight; perhaps I need to learn Greek and Hebrew and find a girl from Tennessee. Christmas is fast approaching. I have a faculty Christmas party the day after our last day of school; I don’t want to go because I’d be the 13th wheel and because I don’t want to bring food and/or drinks, nor do I want to bring “elephant gifts,” whatever that means. Stupid pachyderms. Fragment. I hope this FTP thing works. My poetic thought of yesterday: sometimes you need a little intoxication to find some sobriety. Or: I want to be drunk with sobriety. Or: I want to be sober in my drunkenness. Or: ah, never mind. I’m going to go now. 10/17/04 Birthday Boy Paul pointed out to me that it's nearly been a month and a half since I last digressed. I actually digress daily, just not always in written word. The Saints are down 7-14 to the Vikings right now; I'm really hoping the Vikes can blow it enough so the Packers pick up a game on everybody this week. The Musical Box is open this week. Three times I shall taste aural bliss. I think that was a mixed metaphor. It smelled like one anyway. I hope Moss is hurt permanently. I mean that figuratively, of course. I need to finish Science grades and then I'll put off Math grades till tomorrow night. Brett has a woman. Paul has a woman. Dave is married. Seth is married. Even Kevin is married. Not sure about Josh, but Scott also is married and pregnant. I think that leaves Eric, Ben, and myself. The race is on, boys. I'm thinking about getting another dog. The Saints seem to have no nose tackle. At least they have a CB now. I've loved Rottweilers for a long time now and have begun research into the breed/breeders. Obviously pedigree is a of more importance than say with a Siberian Husky. I'd really have to plan ahead if I do decide to get one this spring. It would be the best time for me since school is winding down; no sports are being played, besides softball, and then I'd have the summer for the most crucial training. Also, I think it would be great for Buck as he gets older. I'm a little concerned with some of the breed-specific health issues, but overall I'm pretty much decided on a Rottweiler. Now the name...that's the biggest question. Here's my list right now: Dollar, Buck II, Rael, Dog, Dawg, Bitch, Beyotch, Henry VIII, Nero, By-Tor (Buck is the Snow Dog), Mossux, Craphead (or some other variant from the Jerk) Bye. 9/06/04 I'm at school now; I've been here a lot this Labor Day weekend. Work without results is the most frustrating type of work there is. Yet working some work without results makes one realize that the work having been worked was really meaningless and will cease in working that work and will go on working on something else...I think there's an opera operantis joke in there somewhere, but I don't know where to put it. I gave up on this stupid Skool-Aid program...so many glitches, so hard to use...and this coming from somebody who knows comp. applications fairly well; I can't imagine how hard it would be for some other people. I'm going with Gradequick...much easier and much better. I only wasted 30 hours or so altogether with the other program before deciding to junk it. It's awful. I hate it. The people who put it together meant well and maybe some are having success with it, but I hate it. Oh well. First week of school went really well methinks: my students are really quite well-behaved so far. The glaring problem is what they do after I stop talking and it's time for them to do their own work. That and the vast discrepancies in ability levels. Case in point: one student will likely be into high school geometry before he graduates; another has the mathematical computational ability of a 2nd grader. Same class. The Musical Box is playing for me 3 times in October...20,21,22 The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. Talked for awhile with the chairman of our congregation today...turns out he was once (and still is, to some extent) a big Gabriel-era Genesis fan...he actually recognized The Lamb when he walked into my room. So now I'm going to the Wednesday Lamb show with my principal and the chairman of the congregation! Who would have thunk it? Not this guy. And then Thursday with Kevin. And then Friday with Brett. And before that on the 2nd, I go to Marillion...with Brett. 4 shows in a month. Who needs a girlfriend when you've got progressive rock? Okay, put your hand down, Paul and Ben and Brett and...well, I guess that's about it. I made a top ten list for the Wildcat Weekly. What is that? Well, it's Mt. Lebanon Lutheran School's weekly newsletter. Who's in charge of it? That's right! Your very own Mt. Lebanon Assistant Principal! I know what you're wondering: does Mark get an assistant stipend? The answer is no, but I do get to have all the overtime I want...tax-free! (Tom joke) I'm going to go now and torture myself by reading some Science essays. 8/21/04 Not much going on...I'm cooking some fish sticks right now and I am having one of Seth's beers and am going to watch Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore from the new Scorsese set. I have 2 or 3 home visits tomorrow after church and after going to Graps to get cheap used clothing. I have a lot to do before school starts. I have to get to New Ulm one of these days, too...I don't mind doing that; I've got tunes and I should get reimbursed for mileage and all that. Time to go check fish sticks. Bye. 8/19/04 Here's something I happened to think of tonight... (click here) It's in PDF format. It's something that I worked on a long time ago and was going to use as an entire page piece of filler in The Cabbage, but my sense of decency got the worse of me...not now, though. Enjoy. 8/18/04 Done with softball. I'm going to finish a David Sylvian compilation I've been working on...and try out my new printer. I saw Collateral with pretty boy Tom Cruise...not bad...good...not as good as The Village. That's all I got for now. 8/12/04 I just got done lifting and wanted to write a bit. I've been a naughty son and nephew; I haven't called my mom and I heard my aunt broke her ankle. I almost typed "uncle." I have my computer at home now. I figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to have it here so I don't spend so much time at school this year. I'm not thrilled with doing a bunch of my work here, but I think it will be better than always being over there. I'm enjoying a glass of Yo-J right now. That's some nasty stuff. It's not quite orange juice and it's not quite yogurt, but it's a good source of calcium. We lost our softball game the other night against Loving Shepherd #2; it actually got them into the post-season tourney so it looked to others that we may have thrown it...well, we did, but it was completely unintentional. I know I played like crap and so did most of the other guys. I got to get my butt in gear here before school starts. Crazy. Buck is doing okay, but he did pee on the couch last night...he's never done that before and I'm pretty sure it wasn't a seizure. I think the medication messes with his system; he's eating and drinking a lot more now (not just alcohol) and thusly peeing and pooping a lot more. I doubt that anyone has ever uttered the phrase "thusly peeing and pooping" before. How 'bout that Iraqi soccer team? I can't wait for The Lamb and Marillion. Happy birthday, Ben Wink. You are once again one year older than me and I hope to see this reflected in your newfound wisdom. I'm glad to see Paul Mattek wrote a digression. I'm not feeling very prolific tonight...as a writer, I mean, not in other ways. My last one was much better. Over and out. 8/08/04 I just got done lifting and wanted to write a bit. This week is going to be a busy week with schoolwork and softball. But, don't worry, I'm putting softball ahead of schoolwork; after all--like I tell my kids--I'm an athlete-student, not a student-athlete. I had some tasty steak today. I should really eat more protein if I'm lifting weights so I can become huger than I already am. I have to give Buck his pill tonight. I think once school starts I'll give it to him at about 6 and 6. He seems to be back to his old self, but I have to stress "old" because he's getting slower and slower on his runs with me. It used to be that I would hold him back, but now he holds me back; I can't even go 2 miles at a decent pace sometimes with him. It wasn't long ago that I had to go on my bike in order to give him a good workout. Then we would probably go 4 miles or farther at 12 mph or so. We could do sprints at over 20. I think he could still sprint that fast, but he'd be dead afterwards. Plus I don't have my bike anymore. I've had enough; I'm going to be taking my computer home this week I think. I was walking with Buck before and there was an African-American fellow with a Colt 45 and a cigarette in the same hand. He was going to cross the street to grab something from this woman and she was saying, "Come over and get this!" as I was walking between them and he says, "Hold on a minute, woman! There's a big dog and a white man right there!" It was pretty funny; I just laughed and said "he's not that big." And he said, "Yeah, but you dat white!" Then we both laughed and he gave me a swig of the 45 and a puff of the cig. Some of this was true; it's up to you to figure it out. I have to finish planning a month of classes (that's my goal) and set up my home visits...looks like I'll have 12 students. I shall go home and make some macaroni and cheese...yes, lots of protein in that. 8/06/04 I'm all ticked off right now because I wrote a bunch of stuff just now, but then I got distracted trying to fix my pictures page and then stupid Frontpage (I'm at home and have to use it since I don't have an FTP or whatever program on here) froze up and I didn't save my digression and so now my words are lost forever. And, believe me, they were the best words ever written. Best words ever. And now you can never read them. I will give you the short version: I wrote of Buck and his seizures and how they aren't cool, but now he's on Phenobarbital, an anticonvulsant medication. And I said that you, the reader, ought to see The Village by that M. Night dude. Good movie, methinks. I was messing with the pictures because I was thinking of posting some of Kevin's wedding reception photos on there, but, as you may have noticed, I totally messed up the pictures already on there by shrinking the size in HTML, but not actually changing the size of the file, so you get a bunch of ultra-high resolution thumbnails that take forever to load and thus completely and utterly defeat the very purpose of the thumbnail. Idiot. Someday when I feel it worthwhile I will take all those pictures off of there and just start over by using Photoshop and making one set of thumbnails and one set of the actual photos that the photo hyperlinks will take you to if you care to see my dog and family closer to life-size. Idiot. I'm typing on Frontpage right now and I realize that Frontpage spell-check does not recognize the word "Frontpage." Ironic, eh? Or perhaps it's some sort of software self-modesty. Tomorrow Buck and I shall head back to Milwaukee and finish cleaning my house and organizing my DVDs and CDs on my new shelving arrangement. And then maybe I'll get Seth to help me put my washer and dryer together; they're stackable ones and there's some sort of mounting bracket that I would just as soon let somebody who's not a complete idiot help me with it. No, I'll still ask Seth. Whoha! Paul Mattek found a place to live in the Cities...good for him...he's a good friend. My friend Eric was in town (he's heading back Monday) for a few weeks. It was nice to spend some time with him. He works in Japan as some sort of English conversationalist teacher. The Musical Box is playing in October at the Pabst...presale for Pabst e-members (that's me!) starts Monday and I am going to get some tickets...let me know if you want some. I'm very excited, although it is somewhat disheartening because in all likelihood it will be the highpoint of my life here on earth. It's The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway; I mean, what could be better than that? Well, besides seeing the real thing, nothing. Nothing. Nothing. And I'm not being my usual cynical, pessimistic self; I make such a statement even open to the slight possibility that I find the love of my life and get married and have lots and lots of marital happiness (twice on Sundays) and the smartest children in the world...even if all that would happen, seeing The Lamb will still be the highlight of my life. Marillion is also playing in October down in Chicago. I'll be a busy man in October. I shall go as Rael this Halloween. You know, I realized that sometime ago I stopped putting min-links back to the top of the page, so if you're reading earlier entries you don't have to scroll way back up to get to the top. Oh well. If this has inconvenienced you, you have two offerings from me: 1. My sincerest apologies. 2. Are you really that fricking lazy that you can't scroll up through a few lines of text? Plus, you're a loser for even reading this stupid crap. Yes, I know, what does that make me? I'm going to go now. back to top 7/26/04 Changes, changes, changes. My apologies to my legions of fans for not updating this page in well over a month. Two sentence fragments. Three. My brother Kevin is married now. That's a very good thing; the wedding seemed to go pretty well. Hopefully I didn't make too big of a fool of myself with my best man speech. I've got to get back in the schoolwork frame of mind pretty quickly. I'm hoping to set up the computer lab by the end of July and actually get some new machines ordered, while at the same time planning out my classes. I've got lots and lots of work to do. It was really nice seeing some old friends at the wedding and at the reception. And I got to talk to a really cool girl from Winona for awhile. And then that gift opening...whoa, talk about excitement! Well, that's all I got for now, since I've got to get to the hardware store and then eat and then go play softball in Waukesha. Over and out. My writing surely is rusty right now; that happens when you don't do it much for a long time...just like any other skill humans possess. I should learn from this bad thing.
6/10/04
Hmm, I guess nothing much has happened in my life since March...oh, well.
Actually, the absence of my digressions gives validity to the thought that the
writing of the cynic is much more prolific than one who actually sees some good
in his life. Nevertheless, I shall
digress now: I did see Rush the
other night…very good, but too much of the medley crap; if you’re going to
play the song, play the song; don’t try to please everybody by playing
everything; when you try to please everybody, you piss off Mark.
How’s that for some fancy punceeation?
I’m going to a wedding this weekend.
I have to go to the bank today and probably go get a haircut.
ADMIRALS: Calder Cup
Champions! I went to the rally last
night at the 3/25/04 Now, Lord, let your servant depart in peace, for my eyes have seen the salvation of your people The Musical Box. Okay, that's going a little too far, but what a night! It was what the word "surreal" was made for. My only big complaint is talked about thoroughly below; I posted what I wrote to The Musical Box webgroup and am anxiously waiting to hear what their thoughts are concerning jerk audiences. I wish that TMB (as the kids call them) would record some live albums and especially DVDs so I could relive the show. It was incredible! It felt like a dream much of the time. Enough about that. I have one more quarter to get through this school year. I'm really looking forward to next year...well, not that much...I 'm looking forward to summer a bit more. I'll be a busy man getting ready for next year; I want to have just about everything ready to go and planned out so that I don't nearly die of burnout like I did just before Christmas this year. After cutting back considerably on time I'm putting in, I have to fight occasional battles with feelings of guilt and doubt, but my lazy ass is winning the war. Tomorrow I have only 3 students since my sixth graders are going on a field trip without me. I'm going to try some new stuff I learned at a workshop today. If their ADD butts (I shant use "ass" twice in one posting...oops, well, three times then) can do it, anyone can. What was I saying? I forgot. Hey, you're a single male teacher and I've got a single female here. You two should get together. What? So what if you've never met her. She's really nice. (interpretation: she looks like a backup catcher from an Antigo softball team) Anyone want to buy a coffee shop with me? I think I might call it a night and go see The Passion again. I miss writing The Cabbage. I hope I someday have time to do it again; although I do enjoy reading The Onion, which is something I never did when I wrote The Cabbage for various reasons. It's frustrating not having a creative outlet. Did anybody lose a Kohl's gift card? If not, I'm pretty sure it's mine. I should get some new shoes. I just spelled shoes "shews." Perhaps I'm getting burned out again...or maybe I should lay off the needle drugs for awhile. We liked your sub better than you, Mr. Ehlke. He gave us less homework than you do. Who do you think told him what to give you, you little morons? Who? I did. Really? Oh. ***post made to The_Musical_Box@yahoogroups.com*** I just wanted to give my two cents in regards to the Milwaukee crowd Wednesday night and hopefully get a thread going on what you guys, especially those who were around at shows 30 years ago, think.
1/31/04 Nothing like spending a Saturday night at school. I think I need to get into a serious rut for the next month or so...long haul ahead with no breaks. I will never again accept another call below the 7th grade level. Or course the Lord could shove those words down my throat in the years to come and make me spit them up and eat them again. Medoubts it, though. Buck and I were running around in the snow. We play a game by the big snow piles in the parking lot. I don't have time to go through all the rules with you now, but I basically try to get him and then he tries to get me. His big advantage is his speed and quickness; mine is that I have mastered the concept of object permanence. Tomorrow we call somebody to replace me. It looks like I'll move up to 7th and 8th; the only scenario where that wouldn't happen is if we can't replace me as 5th and 6th grade teacher. But we can always get a graduate and with the shortages out there, it would be unlikely that we couldn't get one. I'm hoping we get a hot, intelligent single female so I can assistantly administrate her to do things. That sounded worse than I had in mind. I don't think "assistantly" is a word. I shall be the Ass. Prince. Wrong "principal." Oh well. I should go home and watch Open Range. And then get up and be tired and go to church. Bye now and have a lovely leap year February...an extra day of hell on earth. 1/29/04 No more of this insightful crap for awhile. I just woke up about half an hour ago after about a three hour "nap." Oops. Now I have to get ready for tomorrow. I am planning on cleaning my house tomorrow night and possibly hanging out with the Wink man. My dog is here lying on the floor. My students and I did not get along well today; they were under the impression that it was Thursday and I kept thinking it was Monday because I had been gone the last couple of days for a funeral. I remember saying that it's more work to prepare for a sub than actually doing the teaching yourself. That statement is true except for the time you're not there. Although I would think in a high school class it would be pointless to have a sub...at least for the things I taught. Aaron Lambrecht filled in for me one day...he's the least famous of the Famous Lambrecht Boys. This is going to be a long haul till Easter...I don't think we have a day off till then...April 12th...9 weeks or so. I've recently found a surrogate internet family at Mattek.org I think it's a great idea to have a family website like that, complete with a PHP driven forum for complaining about such common family foibles as the blacksheep cousin who hovers in the 150s in the WTA rankings...and Greg. Damn my inferior computing skills! Time to play Tiger Woods and correct Math. 1/25/04 O Death, where is thy victory? O Grave, where is thy sting? Sometimes I find myself struggling between what is real pain and joy with their cathartic representations. But I'm beginning to realize that there really is no distinction; all feelings are real and genuine and mean something, as fleeting and fickle as they are sometimes. It is the examination of them and how we react to them, based on our own personal relationship with the meaning of life and all of life's crazy adventures, that is truly important. Emotion can help lead us to realization of the true meaning of those things, but it never really answers all our questions. It's how we react to emotion and our analysis of it that, with help from above, that leads us to those answers and even to the right questions. The ultimate emotional crossroads is death. Was it a worthwhile relationship with that person? But then you realize that, with all the other people you know who knew and loved that person, a crossroads isn't a very good metaphor; it's more like an endless web of feelings: How is that person doing? Should I be sadder for him? for her? for me? Should I cry? Should I feel guilty? Can I do more for that person? But a Christian sees something interwoven in all those questions of sadness and guilt and happiness: the cross of Christ. We mourn for those who will miss the departed, but not for the departed himself. We smile and chuckle at the fond memories, but not at the sanctity and urgency of our time of grace. I'll finish this later, perhaps...just a few thoughts for me and the other three people who read this. 1/12/04 I'm still waiting for those "former students" to contact me with wholesome, yet highly suggestive, digital photographs. Note to self: explore, in writing, the psychological implications/significance/freakshow of one's life hinging so heavily on a certain professional football team. Methinks it goes beyond a healthy catharsis for me. Although "When I was seventeen ('96/'97) it was a very good year..." 1/5/04 Al Harris. 1/1/2004 Yet another arbitrary day of celebration. 2004...an even year. Even years are historically more uneventful for me. I went to McDonald's yesterday and ordered a #9 with a Coke...one problem: all out of Coke. Can you believe that? I once was at a McDonald's that ran out of French fries, now Coke. Buck seems to like it here in the (big) city. He gets to run around at school inside the fenced-in property. He's much more demanding of attention when nobody else is around; in Appleton he has so many more people around, but here it's only me. I think I'm going to head to Appleton tonight and then come back tomorrow or Saturday. That means I have to watch the game here, but at least I have a bit of buffer time before school once again begins on Monday. I am eating almonds. I wonder why they don't make almondbutter. I think it would be tastier than peanutbutter. Pistachiobutter...now that would be good. Time to correct Math...and play Tiger Woods 2004...I'm a genius. 11/17/03 I'm beginning to hate my own name: Mr. Ehlke. I sometimes hear it when nobody's around. I find myself trying to help shadows with long division or explaining to pockets of air that plural nouns do not need apostrophes unless they're possessive. Grades are down. Morale is low. The beatings must continue. Hey, you're single. I know somebody who's single. You're obviously a perfect match...because, hey you've got something in common: you're both single. Why should anything else matter? What? Oh, you're too good, is that it? Leave me alone. Voters meeting tonight. I hope I win. Cheer up. The Packers won. The Vikings lost. One game, baby. One game. Go Lions. My friend Eric is returning home for awhile over Thanksgiving. He tells me he has some entertaining stories from his adventures on the other side of the earth. To that I look forward. That and can-shaped cranberry sauce...I don't know how my mom sculpts it so well. 11/10/03 My students are finally writing in their journals again; I had neglected that time for about a week and a half or so...not sure why exactly, just forgot about it I guess. I told them they could write about the Packer game tonight and how they were going to trim the Vikings' lead to one game. How 'bout those Chargers?!?! Whoha! Yeah. I've got a few things to get done tonight after school and then, without basketball anymore (yeah!), I'm going to go home, eat something, take a short nap, and then watch the Pack whoop up on them Eagles and Andy Reid. Things go so much more smoothly when they are planned out well. I don't think anyone could tell the difference between a winged lesson and a planned-out one, only that when it is winged, you must constantly be thinking about what you're doing next and so on. With a planned one, the thinking's been done for you already, usually by yourself, but at least at a more sane time. I have a housing opportunity close to school here: an old house (65 years+) about 6 blocks away. A well-involved member here is moving out to New Berlin and so now has this old house that he wants to either rent to me or possibly sell. Methinks it best not to buy anything right now, but in the meantime it would be nice to have a place close to school (that saves me 45 minutes a day right there, sometimes more), plus I'd be able to have Buck down here then and then I'd be able to stay in shape better because I could run with him, plus I could probably run him over here at school because the property is fenced in with a high fence, as long as I lock all the gates so there's no chance of somebody coming in and leaving it open. Awesome. Go Pack! I think I should go and start them on Christ Light...easy one today...something about God or something. It turns out that old testament is important too...I thought it was just a really long intro. 11/8/03 I just put all the pictures on the pictures page, but they're all really big files because I haven't finished putting them into thumbnail format. I wish that when you shrink a picture within HTML it would automatically shrink the file size, but it doesn't. So I need to resize all of those pictures to a smaller size, change the HTML to show the actual thumbnails, and then...ah, something else I think. I haven't played around with HTML since summertime. Girls basketball is done. yeah. We actually had one of our best games of the year today...we lost by 30-something, I think, but it was pretty good...I had predicted 6-60 after seeing the other team play on Thursday. I yelled at the refs; in fact, I was pretty sarcastic the whole game towards them...imagine that. I have a bunch of stuff to do here at school still. A possible housing opportunity has arisen...only six blocks from school. A church member is moving out to New Berlin and still has his old house. I might be able to have Buck there if I decide to move. I should eat something today. Back to work. 11/3/03 Packers! That game was good on so many levels: Ahman ran well, the o-line blocked very well, the tight ends blocked well, Henderson blocked well, Favre blocked well. I suppose, had we lost, some would complain that we need to open up the offense downfield a bit. A game like that does illuminate the crapiness of the games we did lose--especially the Vikes and Cardinals. The defense played well...especially the secondary; the front line didn't get much penetration. I have parent/teacher confrontations tonight...er, consultations. How come nobody ever writes on here? I purposely write like an idiot so others feel 11/2/03 I got a haircut yesterday. I hate getting haircuts; first you have to shower to get a haircut and then you have to shower after getting a haircut to get all the pieces of hair out of your hair. And it costs money. If I ever open my own hair salon, I'm going to call it "Get a haircut, hippie!" And I'll offer a free rinse afterward. Places today ask you for a shampoo...before! That makes no sense; I want you to take care of what you did to my hair, not what I did to it before I came to you. It's all a big scam. Go Pack. 10/24/03 Somebody cleaned my chalkboard; that was nice. I'm taking a break from assembling the new (arrived 3-4 weeks ago) computer furniture. It's actually not that hard to do, but I needed to get my lazy butt in gear. It's stuck in one now, but I'm slowly climbing the hill. I had a student yesterday confuse "Pentatuch" (or is it "Pentateuch"?) with "prostitute." Mr. Ehlke: "We call those first five books that God wrote through Moses the 'Pentatuch.'" Student A: "Is that like one of them ladies who be standin' on the street corner?" Mr. Ehlke: (stifling laugher sed frustra) "No. You're thinking of a prostitute. Don't think about prostitutes; think about the Pentatuch." Then today... We were reading a Martin Luther biography, as we have been doing for afternoon devotion, when we came across this passage: "Charles and the diet (of Worms) talked over Luther's request. Finally Eck told Luther, 'Even though you don't deserve any special favors, the emperor in his mercy has agreed to give you twenty-four hours to think over your answer." Student A reads: "...the emperor in his mercy has agreed to give you twenty-four whores to think over your answer." Mr. Ehlke: "That's 'twenty-four hours.' Had he accepted twenty-four whores, I don't think we'd be calling ourselves 'Lutheran.'" I should really end with that, but I won't. I might be golfing tomorrow: "might" because of the current rainfall in the area. Basketball was a surreal experience tonight. That's all I'll say about that. I miss my dog. I dreamt about my dog last night. Sad. Pathetic. Loser. Me. Not my dog. We converted Celsius to Fahrenheit today. Take the C and multiply by nine-fifths and then add 32. Some caught on. Some caught on. How do you get the ones caught up so that they can locate Milwaukee on a map while at the same time dangling the carrot ahead of the ones who can find Kuala Lumpur? That's the $23,000 a year question. Tom joke: I predict that the Packers will not lose this weekend. I apologize to those of you who do not enjoy hearing "cute" stories about teachers' students, but anytime whores and prostitutes come up in religion class, it would be a sin to keep it to myself. I be thinking that wouldn't happen in Two Rivers. When will everyone here realize that I'm faking my way through everything? 10/21/03 Much cooler today. Sentence fragment. I think I'm going to go and put some checkmarks on the board next to people who aren't writing right now. Well, I don't know, I think they are writing now. I hate to say "you must write!" as if it's some sort of displeasurable thing to do; however, I hate it when they just sit there wasting time. Also I hate to draw attention to a student who is sitting quietly, even if he/she isn't writing as they're supposed to be doing. Sometimes I am compelled to question their intelligence when they look back at me to see if I saw them doing something they weren't supposed to be doing. I should have used this whole example when I talked about sins of omission and commission today, the former being when one does not do what one is supposed to do. (e.g. not writing during journal time) Oh yes, I forgot to follow through on one child's consequence of having to copy a paragraph when he wasn't following along. I hate to use writing as a consequence, but I think this time it's appropriate because since he wasn't following along, he has to copy it down so that I know he read it. At least that's how I'm fooling myself right now. It's working really well...I'm an easy fool to fool. I could really use a nice long week off right now to get caught up with everything here, including getting the computer room up and running. I have a little gas today. A very wise teacher (my brother) told me that the best thing to do when you have gas is to walk around the classroom and let it seep out slowly and then blame the children. Now that's true wisdom; they don't teach you that at MLC...well, unless you read The Cabbage's "Tips for Student Teachers." Boy, that was a good list; I'm usually pretty self-deprecating but I liked that one. The phone is ringing right now. I think it's nature. I best start walking around the classroom now. 10/20/03 It felt criminal to be inside today. The day a teacher stops reevaluating his methods is the day he ceases being a real teacher. That was dumb. I be learning lots of things this year about 5th and 6th graders and the importance of environment on the upbringing of children. I see Ben Wink certainly isn't leaving any bridge back to MLC World unscorched. Is "unscorched" a word? I think he may have gone overboard a bit with the music major comment; I for one didn't have any respect for them. Just kidding, Kevin, I love you. And I love that Stangel (sp?) guy who would erase my library fines for me...he was a fine music major. I think I'm going to start teaching my students Latin next year. Already I bring it in a lot...which adds credence to my opinion that everyone should have to learn at least some Latin. How can you teach the word "circumnavigate" if you don't know Latin? Or "regicide"? Do you do drugs, Danny? Everyday. Good, so what's the problem? I miss my dog Buck. I haven't seen him since the 2nd or 3rd week in August; that's about two months. I'm going to see him a week from this Friday for sure, but I might try to go this weekend as well. You never know how long you have left with your loved ones. I suppose I should see my parents and grandparents too, but you have to realize that they aren't bogged down by those dratted dog years. Is "dratted" a word? I have no idea what it means, but that's what came out. I want to give a shout-out (as Missy and the kids say) to all my buddies back at MLC: let's see, there's...um...Andy Dais...um...Brett...Brett...Freddie...um...Arlen...Larry...Prezzy Teddy...and that nice lady in the library. If you go by that nice lady, give her a big shout-out from the northsieeda of M-town. I'm listening to sexually-suggestive lyrics while at school...shame on you, Peter Gabriel. And me, yes, shame on me. Hey, I wonder if any of the teachers will dress up for conference since it takes place on Halloween. That would be great! I'm either going to go as fat-pastor-with-a-short-tie or Karl Gurgel. Wait, there's always principal-short-sleeve-with-a-tie...that one's popular. I'm a jerk. Right now I'm dressed as dweeb-who-needs-a-haircut-but-won't-get-one-because-he's-a-cheap-loser. 10/17/03 What a day. Thanks, Missy, for complaining about MLC; it made me feel like I was a college student, once again in the land of trivial crusades against cracked ID cards...very typical of the cafeteria powers-that-be from what I recall. I remember many times during Crapticum (being uncomfortably forced into teaching at local public schools) when bag (at first I mistyped and had "bad"...a Freudian typo perhaps?) lunches were promised, but not delivered. I miss being able to complain about trivial things like that; my beefs have grown much larger now in the real world. We had an open house here at school last night: nobody came to my room. 4 or 5 families in all methinks...down in the lower grades. I think I shall put a Mr. Trite on the homepage. I thought of one. I miss writing The Cabbage. Missy, write something. 10/15/03 Why isn't anyone else writing anything? I would love to hear somebody complain about MLC; I miss complaining about MLC and/or New Ulm. It's 5:20 and I haven't done anything for tomorrow because I just got done with basketball practice...fun, fun. All the little things are what sends you over the edge as a teacher. All the things nobody could have prepared you for. Sentence fragment. I am eating Combos...pepperoni pizza. Nutritious linner...I mean, lupper....I mean, dunch. I started reading a book called "Inventing the Flat Earth: Columbus and Modern Historians" The gist of it is that it explores how the commonplace myth of Columbus' contemporaries (and medieval people) believing that the earth was flat. It's absolutely not true, but I know for a fact that some children are still taught that. The author thinks that the lie began sometime in the early 1800s by some American authors, including Washington Irving. I have to correct some stuff now. 10/14/03 I finally have my computer here at school so I'm able to write everyday (just about); I'm writing as my students write during their journal time. Because of that and the grand example I want to make that all you have to do is write--not thing--during this time, these digressions may be even more stream of consciousness than ever...which would make them better, in some people's opinion, worse in others, perhaps. It's raining here; it's rained pretty much all day here in Milwaukee. I'm still quite bitter about the Packers game. It's going to ruin my whole week. I should really digress more about current events. I suppose the obvious thing would be the bad press the Iraqi situation is getting. There's a kid not writing right now, instead he is playing drums with his pencils; I'm not sure if he thinks I'm stupid or what. I'm not going to say anything; rather, I'm going to make him write tomorrow at recess. Little punk. NO! I am not using writing as a form of punishment; rather, I am using his lack of recess time..."You use the time I give you now or you use the time at recess." You see, it's a matter of time, not writing. I have so much to do tonight. I'm feeling very burned out. I need time off. I can see why so many WELS teachers end up quitting. Right now I'd exchange a week in the mill for a week here. 42 hours a week! Imagine that! And you get paid for overtime. I'm lucky to put in 42 hours in over 3 days. That's it! He's doing it again...there goes his recess time. Bye. 9/13/03 I know it's been a long time. I've been extremely busy with school lately. I went to New York City. I don't really feel like writing much tonight; I have lots of work to do and want to relax a little bit. Perhaps once I get into the mid-year groove (rut) and when we have some vacation...I believe we don't have one until the end of November, then I'll be able to update this site a bit more. In the meanwhile feel free to read the old issues and sign the guest rant page and all that. 8/17/03 Just watched Kundun for the first time...Scorcese...pretty good. He's never made a movie I haven't liked. Today we had the big corn roast at church. I got to talk with Andy Dais for awhile...a loyal Cabbage reader. Other cool stuff happened but I don't feel like writing about it. I got a cell phone the other day. Now I am hip. I'm done now. 8/12/03 Just got back from the Steve Hackett gig at Borders. Wow. He played for about 30-40 minutes I'd say. I got goosebumps when he played Horizons. I got there about 90 minutes early and there were just a few people, but then it really filled up by the time he played. The autograph line was so long that they limited it to one piece per fan, which was understandable since there were other people like me who had quite a stack and Steve would still be there. He was very friendly, although I was hoping he would have more of a Q&A with the audience; I had a few questions that I wanted to ask him. I got to talk with his tour manager a bit and with a few other "old" Genesis fans...some for quite awhile. It's not everyday that I get to chat with people who were actually at some of those early shows. One guy was telling me that he was at the Lamb tour and I mentioned that I wasn't even born then (that was '74-'75) and he told me to go do something to myself (in a nice way) and I explained that I'm jealous; I wish I would have been alive back then. Let's just hope Steve tours the US next year so I can see him play some electric guitar as well. To illustrate how acoustic and electric aren't interchangeable he played an acoustic rendition of "Smoke on the Water"...it got some pretty good laughs from the audience. I was about 15 feet away from him when he played...not bad...especially for a free show. I should have gotten him to play Copper Rock. I'm going to go read Newsweek now I think. If you're in Minneapolis around noon tomorrow, go see Steve play at Borders. The greatest guitarist of all time...and I touched him...and he signed my picture of him that I've had framed for the last 5 years...I took it out of the frame of course. Aren't you all jealous? I know I am...I'm jealous of myself right now. He's the first Genesis member I've met. Some guy there made a comment to me about how he'd think about going to see Phil just to say he met him and to have him sign some old Genesis stuff, but certainly not to hear his new music...I said "right on, brother." He then said that a rumor is flying around that Phil's going deaf and may stop touring because of it. If I start going deaf, then maybe I'll start listening to some of his stuff. Now if I can only meet Anthony Phillips. 8/09/03 I was happy to see that my old writing partner Seth stopped by the guest rant page. And he's just got to show off with all those mult-word sentences, strung together with little punctuation. I think I overuse punctuation, sometimes. Hey, brother Scott, let me or Kevin know if you want to go golfing sometime. I went golfing on Wednesday and I need more of it. Often times I'm not very consistent. Sometimes I am consistent, except when I'm not. Pure hilarity. I went in to school today at 9 to help clean the school; I got put on window detail and my shoulders are pretty woozy from 4 or 5 hours of doing that. Josh Roth signed the guestbook! Now if I can just find a wife and my life is complete. In two weeks I'm going to NYC. I had to get my installation date changed so I could go...that was a scary thing to do. I was anticipating the snooty "You want to change your installation date so you can go watch some tennis?!?" and "You care about Andre Agassi more than Jesus Christ?" but I received none of the sort; it was dealt with with understanding and stuff. What's worse: having a gay bishop or a lesbian bishop or a woman bishop? Discuss. Steve Hackett is coming to Borders on Tuesday. That's right kids--the master himself. I almost forgot that the Packers play tonight; I hope I get the game down here in Cedarburg. Back in New York City! If I become Secretary of Transportation someday...every kid's dream, (by using "kid" I'm being colloquial; I've given up to some extent on insisting on using the non-juvenile goat term "child"--except in an educational setting) I am going to require all flights into the NYC airports to play that song at landing. I'm listening to Steve right now...his Firth of Fifth solo. That's right, kids, the best guitar solo of all time. Just wait until my indoctrination of progressive rock starts on my urban schoolchildren. No, really, you have to. 8/06/03 Arnold. I think he'll win. I'm not thrilled about his politics, but he is not a Democrat. Regardless, it is a fascinating situation in CA. What I think is ludicrous is that Dems are complaining about how it's "undemocratic" to force a recall even though that is the law (just like the electoral college is the law) and because, if my memory serves me well, the recall is a very progressive reform from the likes of TR and later FDR--putting more power in the hands of the people. Recalls I would guess have been historically heralded not by Republicans but by the other side. I have a headache. 8/05/03 Packers. One can never say much about an early preseason game. I suppose the one bright spot was the play of Barnett or whatever his name is; he looked very quick and tackled well...unlike that Hardy guy who stunk and did me a favor by retiring. Creationism in public schools: on one hand it would be good because it may, in a strange way, open up God's Word to children who may not hear it elsewhere. On the other hand, presenting Creation as a theory is a very dangerous thing...it's truth because God tells us it's truth, not because of some archeological find or because we can reconcile the layout of the land with the Floor or whatever else. The big controversy now is the new film by Mel Gibson, "The Passion." It apparently portrays the final days of Christ's life according to The Bible...God forbid! Guess what? It's being condemned as anti-Semitic because Jews kill Christ! I hate to make this comparison, but it would be like saying that Steven Spielberg is anti-German because those Nazis in a couple of his movies were Germans. I just can't get over how unbelievable this is. Apparently Christians are anti-Semitic because they believe that Christ was crucified by request of Jewish leaders via the Romans. Remember that Pearl Harbor thingy on December 7th, 1941? Well, if you believe that happened, you are a racist who hates Japanese people. These people overlook the fact that Mel Gibson and other Christians believe that Christ is the only perfect man to ever live, is the Savior of all sins of all people of all time, and rose from the dead...And what ethnicity was Christ? German? English? Japanese? No, I think that He was a Jew!!! My God is a Jew! I'm anti-Semitic!!! Not to change subjects, but this whole argument does show the absurdity of real anti-Semitism throughout history...e.g. KKK and the crusades etc. By the way, remember all those disciples and apostles who wrote The Bible??? Anti-Semitic Swedes? Jew-hating Italians? No, I think they were, get this...Jews. So, you've got God being a Jew, the guys who wrote the gospels being Jews, but for some reason portraying Christ being killed by Jews is anti-Semitic. Wow. If Powell doesn't serve as Sec. of State next term, my first guess is Condoleeza Rice. But I would prefer that Cheney becomes Sec. of State and Rice becomes Vice Pres., then she is in prime position to run for president in 2008. I would rather have her win than one of those Jews. They killed Christ, you know. (heavy, heavy irony) Liberate Liberia. Bush is turning into a Democrat. More race ranting: Kobe "The Adulterer" Bryant today paraphrased MLK Jr. by saying that an injustice done to one is an injustice done to all, apparently implying that what he is going through is somehow either on the level of blacks during the Civil Rights Movement (which I don't connect with today's "Civil Rights Movement," which is a pathetic front for liberalism and gay rights, an insult...) or that his "injustice" is because of his race. This should insult the following people: people of Colorado, the alleged victim, blacks, whites, Americans, Lakers, men, women. Even Jews. When movies start coming out on the atrocities of Saddam Hussein and he is portrayed as an Arab and you watch it and agree that he was an Arab or Iraqi or whatever, you are a racist and should be ashamed of yourself and your country. I don't know if Kobe did it or not, for the record. I think it's shameful to make that comment, though, and to show up at a teen choice awards ceremony...apparently he loves teens, especially the girls. 7/27/03 Happy birthday, Kevin. I have not digressed for roughly a week. I want to thank those of you who have digressed on the guest-rant page. Bodies are being found. Qusay and Uday and Dennehy and hopefully Saddam will be next. Not implying that Dennehy's body being found was a good thing, just that it was found today. I am getting quite a bit done as far as planning for school goes. It's sort of hard and frustrating because I realize that so much of it will change as I go. But changing a plan that's already there is better than planning something that isn't. I have no idea what that meant. Steve Hackett is coming to the Fox Point (I think) Borders, which is about 10 minutes from where I live. I'm really excited about that...I even got stuff ready for him to sign: a picture of him, Genesis albums, solo albums. Hopefully Brett can come down that day--August 12th. I might be going to New York for the U.S. Open, but I have to find out whether or not I can make the 1st flight on that Sunday...I'm getting installed that morning and don't know when exactly I'll be able to get out of there and to the airport. I think my parents might come to my installation, so maybe Dave can come down with them and they can take us to the airport right after the service...that would be swell. Dave won an all expenses paid trip to the Open from the friendly folks at Prince. And he's being kind enough to invite me along...not his wife...he he he. She's got school; I don't start till the 3rd of September. So hopefully I'll get all planned and ready so I can go, pending the whole flight situation on that Sunday. I watched Braveheart last night. And I just watched a left-slanted program on CNN about a murderer in Texas who was executed. One memorable quote was from a Texas official who said that (this might not be verbatim): "People always call Texas the execution capital of America and all that...why can't they call it the victim rights capital of America?" Interesting thought. I haven't made up my mind about capital punishment. I certainly won't say it's wrong, but I think that the benefits of it are grossly distorted by proponents of it. For one thing, it costs more to execute someone than it does to imprison him/her for life. Plus the whole deterrent thing just doesn't fly in my book...if someone's going to kill someone, I think he's just as likely to do it in a state with capital punishment or sans. And for some in the religious right (that term I don't like because...they should call it the "politico-religious right" or something) to say that God promotes capital punishment is not right...He certainly allows it and used it when Israel was a theocracy in the Old Testament, but to make the inference that that means the United States ought to use it is ludicrous. I think that abolishing it completely might just be worth it to shut up the anti-life (pro-choice) loons who erroneously point out the seemingly hypocritical irony of pro-lifers being pro-capital punishment. I should really start my own political party. I'm right with the Libertarians to a point, but right now I think that only marijuana should be legal...I'm not so sure about "harder" drugs. At the very least, the use of those should be dealt with not by the prison system, but by mandatory drug treatment programs. Also, Libertarians basically believe that the government should let you do what you want as long as you don't infringe upon the rights of others (sounds strangely like The Constitution, doesn't it?), but they take a laissez-faire approach to abortion. How can killing someone who has no say in it not be the ultimate example of somebody's rights being trampled on? On the other hand, they are against all gov. funding of abortion. Being very pro-victims' rights, I believe that most Libertarians are pro-death penalty, but like I just mentioned, I'm not so sure about that. Plus, I support the ongoing military activities in Iraq, Afghanistan, and soon, Liberia. Libertarians don't. I'm done now. 7/21/03 I'm currently in the process of moving...waiting for another load of laundry to dry as I write this at my parents' house. After I get settled in and my computer online, I may begin designing my new church and school's website. I don't want to spend too much time doing that and not enough planning the teaching, which is more important, but I'm going to try to get it online by the start of the school year. I have a feeling of overwhelming guilt right now because my negligence may have ended the life of one or more of my brother's plants. I watered and watered and watered...I even sang to them...but it just wasn't enough apparently. Actually I watered everyday I was there; I was gone last weekend, but I think it rained one of those days so I don't think that did it. Oh well. At least they didn't realize I replaced one of the cats with one that wasn't dead. Buck pooped on his walk again. This is becoming routine for him ever since he turned 10. I'm thinking about getting him a diaper. But don't tell him it's a diaper...it's an adult security undergarment. I happened to watch a bit of The Goonies last night; that really brought back memories of watching a taped version over and over and over. It was that and Pee Wee's Big Adventure, which, by the way, is now out on DVD...I've almost bought it on several occasions. Once I rented it and even watched it with the commentary by Burton. The most memorable tidbit was about when Pee Wee is chaining up his bicycle and you can see the hilariously long chain being fed up through the compartment on his bike--an editing gaffe that apparently happened in the pan and scan cut that TV stupidly uses. On the DVD version they fixed it. I should really put a section on here explaining pan and scan and why it's stupid and why people who like "full frame" or pan and scan are stupid as well. It's like taking Da Vinci's "The Last Supper" which is, we'll say, four feet wide, but you only have a frame that is two feet wide, so you cut off half the disciples to fit it in. Would the disciples like that? Would Da Vinci like that? I banged my knee last night moving furniture at my bro's apartment (my new apartment). I'm playing tennis later and I hope it doesn't hurt too much. Often before I play tennis or when I'll be outside on hot and humid days, I powder myself in strategic areas. Strategic areas meaning on myself, not, say, in well-ventilated rooms...not to say that that's not important, especially when painting or working with strong adhesives, but I'm talking about powdering as in baby powder. But today some Gold Bond medicated powder was handy so I used that. It tingles...somewhat intensively; I'm surprised they don't have a warning label about using on strategic areas. It says for external use only, but nothing else. I'm thinking about getting started on my church's website...I think I already mentioned that so never mind then. Do Mexican restaurants have to fish out all the limes in Corona bottles before recycling them? This question has been plaguing me for some time, but I've all but concluded that they don't have to because limes are biodegradable and probably are easily filtered out during the recycling process. We got a parking ticket last night for parking on the street. We've been doing that occasionally for years and haven't gotten a ticket in years. I don't know why the cops can't be out there worrying about the real criminals. But here they are keeping me down. The ticket was written at 4 AM, apparently before the doughnut shops open. I have to get my laundry. 7/16/03 So I'm sleeping and I feel a sharp pain in my thigh. I barely wake up and see one of my sister-in-law's cats clawing at my leg. In my somnambulant (although I was lying down) state, I slapped at the spot that he clawed me on and fell back asleep. I woke up in the morning and was walking around and noticed a black stain on my shorts...right where the attack took place. I grabbed the end of my shorts and upturned them revealing a large crushed dragonfly. I don't know if I or the cat actually caused the bug's demise...I like to think it was a team effort. Anyway, I think those shorts might be permanently stained now. I don't have to teach music this year; the 3rd and 4th grade teacher swapped my music with her phy-ed...not a bad deal for me. Plus it'll be good to get to know the children I'll have in years to come. bye. 7/13/03 Went to the Howard Levy gig last night...good stuff. You can find pictures on the Copper Rock website (copperrockcoffee.com...I'm too lazy to write a href code right now). I knew Howard's name from his past work with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. My marvelous ice-breaking question for the Grammy Award winner before the show: "So when'd you get rid of the mustache?" I was a roadie of sorts, running to get power strips, plugging stuff in, moving parts of piano around, moving chairs and tables. No, I am a roadie...that is my new calling. He played with three musicians, all of whom I believe are from Lawrence University in one way or another. I wasn't expecting much from them, but they were quite good I thought...the guitarist really surprised me probably because he looked so young to be playing quality jazz guitar like that...for a white guy anyway. Anyway, I hate it when people are moody...being nice one minute, only to turn bitchy the next with no forewarning. Manipulating...selfishness...etc. I head back to Waukesha today; I hope the cats are alive. I have plenty of work to do this week...I want to get my year-long plans and the first few weeks of my block plans done before our meeting on Tuesday. I know I don't have to, but anyone who knows me realizes that I am an over-achieving perfectionist who likes to get things done early...ha. I'm done now. 7/12/03 Big day for me. I'm trying out the boxer-briefs. I've been thinking about switching from briefs to boxers for some time now, but wasn't willing to make the full commitment. They're not what I was expecting; I was hoping that they would be looser than the briefs, but they're really like boxer-sized briefs. I think they might feel like they're riding up on me and that would not be a good thing. Maybe someday I'll make the full switch. My friend Matt Schultz (Shultzie!) is coming up to Appleton this evening...I am here for the weekend...we shall have a grand ole time. Am I the only one who was disappointed to hear that McDonald's switched to all white meat Chicken McNuggets? Now they and Wendy's are advertising like crazy that they have all-white nuggets...I don't want all-white meat!!! I want the dark meat in there...it is moister and it tastes better. Not that I eat chicken nuggets a lot; the last time must have been well over a year ago. Nor is it something worth writing about here, but I just don't like it. I'm a professional...I'll rise above it. I thought about making a list of top ten Sausagegate headlines. But I think it's been overdone...at least on the outside. Nobody would relish it. Enough! I heard that the guy who is the brat is married to the Italian sausage girl...I wonder if they buy condiments together. I went golfing yesterday. I didn't shoot really well, but there were glimmers of hope in my game. I am not very consistent...at least some of the time I'm not. 7/08/03 I'm wondering why writing dates this decade doesn't take on the 7/8/3 format. Because the "0" before the "3" really serves no purpose. Then again, it would be confusing to just have a 3 because somebody might think I meant the '30s somehow, but left out the second number. I'm in Waukesha this week working on school stuff. I'm meeting with the old teacher to see what he all taught so I don't double up on too much and also to get some ideas from all his experience. I have not digressed since the wedding. It was very interesting. Ha. From my vantage point, everything went extremely well. Both of them said, "I do." Granted, I sensed a measure of uncertainty in Kathie's voice, but she was probably just fighting the glare off of Scott's head. The night before we had rehearsal and then rehearsal dinner. Both were fun. Trinity Ev. Lutheran in Waukesha is a beautiful church. I guess they just redid it a year or two ago. The rehearsal dinner was at this little place. I don't remember the name of it, but Gino was the owner. He's Italian and was telling me about how he's got a lawsuit going against the Catholic church right now, with a priest he had when he was a boy. Sort of a sad story...apparently the priest didn't molest him or anything, so Gino's suing for neglect. I mean, he thought he was a good-looking kid, so what's wrong with him? I ushered with two other brothers. That went okay, I think. It was a little complicated since they had this candle lighting ceremony thing after the unity candle thing so we had to hand out candles to everybody and then explain to them what they were for and, since it was rather unique, we were faced with many blank stares of confusion. We had only one fire, but we were given the authority to put out incipient fires, so all was okay. We had steak sandwiches at rehearsal dinner. We got to the wedding 2 hours early and walked around in our tuxes and sunglasses pretending we were Secret Service agents...well, that's what I did. The reception was fun...I will wrap it up in two words: open bar. They now be on their honeymoon and I be house/cat sitting. They left me with $ and food and beer, which is ironic since I should be the one paying them rent for staying here. One of the cats won't leave me alone; I've already almost stepped on her, sat on her, and then there was that tragic incident in the bathroom. Kevin told me that Dorothy Martin from Kettle MLHS told him she got an email from me, which is true--I sent her an email thanking her for signing the guestbook--but apparently she didn't sign the guestbook...odd. I could see someone who hates Dorothy Martin signing it out of spite and including messages like, "I'm Dorothy Martin and I'm a big dum idiot," but there was no such message. Odd. Just for the record, I don't know Dorothy, so I don't know if she is a big dum idiot; I can only assume that she is not. If she is, I apologize for drawing attention to that fact. Gangs of New York is now out and if you don't go buy it and watch it multiple times, you have your priorities out of whack. Time to get back to reading elementary literature books. 7/02/03 My brother Scott asks me what I meant by "intersting." Assuming he means "interesting," in reference to my comment about his upcoming wedding...that it should be interesting, I didn't mean nothing by it. It's just one of those things I say a lot when I have little to say about something. I've never had a brother get married, so there's no precedence, so I don't really know what to expect. A further needless analysis of my comment: I think I usually say that when it's also something that I'm looking forward to such as Packer games, presidential elections, and the like. "That Packer game should be interesting." I'm not predicting doom at all; I'm hoping for a win and many, many scores. I have to get fitted again for my tux when I pick it up. I think I'm going to take Buck for a walk now. If a wedding reception has an open bar, is it poor stewardship not to get drunk? I was touched that Scott read my digression; I thought my mom was the only one. 6/30/03 Went to the Peter Gabriel gig on Thursday night. Good show. It's always tough when a good musician has a few hits and is able to play before a mostly half-ass "play Sledgehammer!" audience. Perhaps it's not as tough for him as it is for someone who is truly a fan of the music. Even when I nicely told the young ladies to quiet down a few times, they continued to talk during songs they didn't know (everything sans Sledgehammer) and even when Peter was prefacing songs, which is one of the best parts of seeing something live, in my opinion. I think I've been spoiled seeing both Bill Bruford and Tony Levin (Gabriel's bassist) live in an audience of just a few hundred...getting to meet them and talk to them after the show...where the audience didn't greet every passage with half-drunken wailings and cheers...where fans are fans of the music, not the beer, food, Summerfest, etc...where courtesy for others outweighs self-indulgent narcissistic whooping and wailing...where people go to the show either being very familiar with the music they are about to hear, or very eager to be exposed to new music...where a constant stream of "fans" does not travel to and fro during the gig...where, as in the words of Frank Zappa, "music is the best." That having been said, I thoroughly enjoyed the music...the audience was terrible...at least from my vantage point, which was a fairly expensive one, not the most expensive, but something tells me it was the same throughout. I'm guessing Rush audiences are even better because the true, diehard appeal is much wider than that with Gabriel...you have fans like me who have followed his career since 1967...then you have fans who know Steam, Sledgehammer, and maybe In Your Eyes...'tis a shame those "fans" cannot be open-minded enough to give his other music a genuine listen, or at least be respectful enough to those around them who have. The Blind Boys of Alabama made a surprise visit; they played at a local Casino later that night and stopped by. They played "Sky Blue," which is really neat since I'm assuming that will be the only time they'll play it this leg. I was a little disappointed, though, that they didn't play "Biko," which I would think is very powerful live. Would I see Gabriel again? Yes, but I would go out of my way not to see him at Summerfest. I think that it was the worst audience I've been a part of...perhaps Rush shows had comparable audiences (big maybe), but the music is not as intricate...strike that...it's intricate, but doesn't have as many quiet passages as Peter's, so maybe I didn't notice it as much. Why a casual fan would spend that much to sit through a great show and talk and get up and walk around, I cannot comprehend. On the one hand, I love to see good musicians succeed because they deserve it and because it leads to more good music, but on the selfish hand, I hope they don't. My brother is getting married on Friday...irony...Independence Day...killing that joke... That should be interesting. I'm going to be posting a little story-type thing by Paul Mattek. I think I've mentioned this before but I never got around to it until now. I'll put a link to it on the frontpage. Hits are still pretty high...not sure why no feedback though...I think I'm expecting too much of people. If you were at the Peter Gabriel show on Friday, I hate you. If you weren't, I hate you. I'm sorry; I love you. 6/25/03 I just posted the new issue without proofreading it...I better do that sometime. It's hard to start writing articles again after taking over a month off. I don't think they're particularly good, but I'll be curious to hear what other people think. bye. 6/24/03 It's almost 2 AM right now. I just came home from my friend's house because they don't have A/C yet and it's a bit toasty. It's not so much the humidity, it's the heat. Their fridge broke; I'm not sure what happened...the freezer end of the deal is being held up, but not the fridge. Lots of food I had to throw out. Some catfish in there...smelly. I have to get writing now...not sure it will get done by Thursday...for sure I'll have something done. Thanks to Jake and Ben for writing. Time to go it is. 6/23/03 Not much to write...the new issue is still scheduled for Thursday, although I haven't written anything yet...tomorrow, I guess. I finally realized that I need to make images the correct size before I upload them to the server...else shrinking them in html not only needlessly takes up bandwidth, it blurs the image and makes it slower for users (especially dial-uppers). Thanks to Jake for guest ranting...keep doing it. I don't know if all the visitors to the site are either lazy or scared to either digress or sign the guestbook. I don't know if that last sentence was good. I shall go now. How 'bout that Supreme Court?
6/21/03 It’s so much easier to just add these with Frontpage. It automatically adds that second space in between sentences, unlike this entry, which I’m doing the old fashioned way. Awhile back (months ago) I started using my Digressions page as a log for my running. I stopped doing that, in part because I stopped running for awhile there the first half of May, but for those of you wanting to keep track of my cardiovascular health, I have been running regularly again (just about everyday). As you read on The Cabbage homepage, I will be writing a new issue starting tonight. I have no idea what I’m going to write on, but I’m sure there’s enough stuff in the news right now to find something. Not sure if I’ll make it a traditional PDF or only as a webpage or both most likely. I realize we probably won’t be as widely read right away as when we were at MLC on campus (since paper copies were available), but I really hope it can catch on a little bit here in the summer. Writing articles is a good intellectual escape for me from 5th and 6th grade material. Okay, I should save some words for writing tonight. Again, please let people (especially non MLCers) about the new site and the new issue coming out…I promise that it will be purely world/national news, no inside stuff. I think I started that trend throughout this last school year; I remember years ago we always strived to have at least one non-MLC story…towards the end of this last year I felt like I was conceding some cheap humor every time I had inside MLC stuff….not that that’s a bad thing, but I think it narrows our potential readership. (only 10 people instead of 12). bye. back to top
6/17/03 My car’s computer is all messed up. They’re towing it over to Little Chute where they have better diagnostic equipment who specializes in “later GM models.” “Later”? It’s a ’94…almost ten years old. My dog is older than my car, though; he’s 10. People always say then that that’s like 70 in dog years, but it really doesn’t work that way. Dogs mature relatively much faster then humans. Moreover, they go down hill much more rapidly…it’s more like a plateau for dogs and a hill for humans. A two-year-old dog is usually full-grown. That doesn’t translate well to a 14-year-old human being full-grown; that doesn’t happen till about 18 or 20. Same thing when they get older: Buck is 10 now but certainly does not act or look like the equivalent of a 70-year-old human. He’s slowing down a little bit, but can still run quite fast and looks quite healthy. He did break his hip the other day, but that happens all the time. Anyway, I should go take him for a run. Seth called just now and it appears as if he and I are going to go enjoy a beverage or two later this evening. He told me I should see if I can get a Dell put into my car. I’ll ask the mechanic if we can just stick in the 486 I got sitting down in my basement. back to top
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