It's taking me too long to come up with a topic, and I need to get to bed. Among the ideas that have been scrapped as I sat here looking at the computer for the last twenty minutes: Soldotna principal interviews (I only got to see two [missed the middle one], and this isn't the forum for my opinions), progress of my gamification study (I should just wait until next week when I close the interview window, but it looks like I will pass the threshold needed for data approval), my Dinobots (because they are staring at me as though asking when their other friends will get here), the track meet tomorrow (Connor is running the 1600m as well as the other races he has done), feeling tired (I write about it too often), and excitement for the teacher D&D game next week (I've been pouring over the rule books and even drew a sketch of Vohnkar).

Right now, I just need to rest my eyeballs.

As incoming freshmen were registering for next year's courses at SoHi, they came across a surprise as they were required to sign up for a music class for the next year. Parents and students were concerned and outright angry at this surprise requirement. Information from the school said that this requirement was to save the music program which was in trouble due to the lost music opportunities at Skyview because of restrictions for COVID mitigation. This did not placate those who were raising concerns, and for good reason.

Unilateral decisions such as this rarely go over well. In a time when such unilateral decisions seem to be commonplace, there is bound to be significant pushback when yet another one is given. There should have been a conversation about this prior to students scheduling their classes. The reasons should have been addressed and discussed rather than seemingly coming out of nowhere.  In fact, changes in class requirements is something that should be addressed by the school board.

That said, we do not require enough music in our educational system. Ditto for art. Students should be able to proficiently play at least one instrument before they graduate from high school. They should also be able to demonstrate proficiency in both 2D and 3D art. Due to the long-term gutting of education, these sorts of essential programs have often been cut rather than expanded.

Now, some people might argue, "but my child is not good at music or art." To this I reply, "THAT'S WHY THEY SHOULD TAKE THE CLASS!" Certainly there are talents involved in the arts, but these are also skills that can be taught, skills that provide life-long benefits which persist into areas beyond their realms (such as [but not limited to] music's benefits with math and art's benefits with spatial reasoning). Others might argue, "Why force kids to do something that they are not interested in? Think about how hard that would be for the teacher to have kids who don't want to be there." To this I reply, "THAT'S THE CASE FOR LITERALLY EVERY CLASS STUDENTS TAKE!" Are we supposed to use that excuse to leave students without basic proficiencies in math, science, history, physical education, or language arts as well? 

Education is about broadening opportunities and futures. While I agree that this should have been handled differently, I certainly hope that our parents and community will stop poisoning our children's minds against music and the arts. Let's broaden their minds, not narrow them.

Connor's track meet today was substantially more comfortable than the one last Friday. Soldotna is usually warmer and less windy than Kenai (where the last meet was held). Thus, I was able to sit in just a short-sleeved shirt and start tanning my arms a bit. In fact, when there wasn't a breeze--which was most of the time--I was actually getting a bit too warm.

Although Rowen was not eager to sit through another meet (and is a bit upset that we will need to do so again on Friday), he really got excited when watching Connor run his races. He expressed several times that he thinks that he will be an excellent runner when he's able to do track. I reminded him that he would need to run more now if he wants to be better later. He was skeptical of that assertion.

Connor, meanwhile, had some highs and lows. His 400 meter and 200 meter races did not have a lot of time between them, and the 400 wore him down--and rightly so, as he really had an impressive run in it, getting 11th overall. Considering that this is his first year in track and his first time racing the 400 at a meet, he was really happy with his results.

The weather is not supposed to be quite as nice on Friday, so I was glad that we had at least one beautiful day for a track meet.​

Sure, spring technically began over a month ago with the vernal equinox, but today was the first day that truly felt like spring to me. Why today? It wasn't the fact that my driveway is now clear of snow. It was not that we fired up the grill and cooked some steaks for dinner. It wasn't that I had to take off my jacket before getting in the car on my way home from work for the first time this year. It was not even because I had to open all three windows in the living for the first time this year.

Certainly, all of those elements were excellent indications of spring. Together, they did help to put me in a springtime mood. However, there was one thing that made it clear to me that spring had come.

I received my first mosquito bite of the year.

Today's Gospel and homily focused on the idea of Jesus being the Good Shepherd. Unlike the hired man who abandons the sheep in the face of danger, the Good Shepherd stays with the sheep to guide and help them, even to the point of laying down His life for them. Jesus does all of this for us, protecting us from forces that we cannot fully comprehend or might not even be aware of while guiding us to better pastures.

I was also struck by the line where he says, "I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. There also I must lead, and they will hear my voice…." Honestly, this had me thinking about species that are alien to Earth. Being God, Jesus is not limited to just our planet, and He would not leave other beings unprotected from the machinations of the devil and his minions. This gives me hope for heaven in that, not only would I have a chance to meet with souls from all over the Earth and throughout time, but also from distant stars in galaxies too far away for us to even know of their existence. 

For a person who dreams of science fiction experiences, this hope of the interconnected heaven is one that brings me profound joy. 

Okay, I'm going to start this with a warning: Should members of my adventuring party come across this, they might want to pass by if they have difficulty separating player knowledge from character knowledge. For everyone else … this is long--and I haven't yet written down everything that I had in mind. It's also written with enthusiasm, but not a great deal of form or polish.

You've been warned.

As I’ve been developing my new D&D character’s backstory, I realize that I am heavily stealing from a variety of sources. When I realized that our party might be in need of a tank, I immediately felt drawn to playing a barbarian as I had not done so before. Initially, I was thinking along the lines of Conan the Barbarian who holds an odd, but fond, place in my memories as I somehow ended up with a comic book adaptation of the Schwarzenegger movie as a child, decades before I ever saw the film. As I thought about how Conan grew strong working the mill (which I now know is a Biblical allusion to Samson), the image from the comic merged with my mental image of the Scouring of the Shire. Suddenly, I had the idea of a halfling barbarian who grew strong as his village was abused under the brutal rule of a Saruman-like wizard.
 
While a gimmick-character like a halfling barbarian already has a certain appeal to me, the horrific backstory actually became more compelling (and more horrifying) as I thought about it. Instead of being saved by a group of returning heroic hobbits as happened at the end of The Lord of the Rings, this village stayed under the wizard’s control for decades. Initially, the wizard beguiled them into giving him more and more control, but his brutality was quickly revealed. Not only did he have them toiling in mines and at his mills and forges, he also began to experiment on them.
 
Here things got particularly dark. A barbarian subclass is called “The Path of the Beast.” At third level, the character gains (by changing form) either a bite, claw, or tail attack every time the barbarian rages. For example, if the bite attack is chosen, the character either grows fangs or mandibles. After the rage, the character returns to normal, and on subsequent rages, the character can take the same form or one of the other forms. Then, at tenth level, the character gains the ability to either breathe and swim underwater, jump exceptionally high and far, or climb any surface at the character's normal movement speed. Mandibles and wall crawling? I immediately thought of insects.
 
I decided that the wizard was experimenting on the halflings perhaps in a misguided attempt to make them stronger. In my character’s case, he added insect-like features, twisting and mutilating this halfling time and again, forcing my character into brutal labor while waiting for the experiments to integrate (and while experimenting on other villagers). While some of the changes only come out during rages, I think I want my character to continually have insect-like multi-faceted eyes where his normal eyeballs would be (thus, not domed out). Thus my character can no longer read books which had been a favorite pastime of his as a child—before the wizard arrived--because he literally sees the world differently now.
 
His body is also covered in patterns of chitin that look like strange (and disturbing) tattoos on casual examination. These “tattoos” are what form into his claws, tail, or mandibles during his rages. What appears to be dreadlocks on his head is actually more of a carapace—the deadlocks idea I got from Ronin from SG: Atlantis, but then the bug aspect made me think of Kerrigan from StarCraft, so I combined the two.
 
Basically, especially when the eyes are taken into account, he looks like a freak even before he rages and insect-like talons grow out of his fingers, or his jaw splits and extends into serrated mandibles (which normally look like two very long and think sideburns that meet at his chin), or a thin-but-scorpion-like tail that’s over three times his height (ten foot reach) appears. It’s because of the last aspect that he prefers to wear a kilt. In fact, his preferred dress style is similar to that of the Outlander’s Scottish outfits. Remember, he’s tall for his kind at an absolutely gigantic (and magically crafted) three foot six.  
 
He even thinks of himself as a freak and thus shuns both society and his own reflection. This is ironic because his home village considers him a hero (if a tragic one). He helped break out some of the other experiments who were able to escape the village and gain the aid of a powerful group of adventurers. He was publicly tortured for his role in the escape (perhaps this is when the wizard gave him the orange insect eyes) and was near death when the adventurers managed to save the village; although the wizard managed to disappear. Because of his folk hero background (although, I’m going to try and swap acrobatics instead of animal handling), I decided to give him the name of the village hero from the movie Willow: Vohnkar (Brookgreen).
 
As he was saved by adventurers, and because he felt too freakish to remain in the village, he left his parents and many siblings, and now tries to right wrongs as he travels from place to place, listening for rumors of the wizard who corrupted him.

I can hardly wait to find out what happens to him. 

I did not accomplish all that I hoped to today. Due to a substitute shortage, I was teaching another teacher's class during my prep period. This always throws me off my game, but especially on a Friday when I usually have student journals come in for the week and vocabulary to check. I had to leave stuff undone as I then rushed out to pick up Rowen. From there, the two of us went to Kenai to cheer on Connor during his track meet.

Cold, but cheered, we returned home. I was tired enough that I fell asleep in my recliner, and thus did not exercise or read with Rowen today. On awakening, we had a late dinner while watching the final episode of Falcon and the Winter Soldier. I practiced guitar for the upcoming Saturday and Sunday masses, and decided not to write the longer post that I had in mind.

Despite the feeling that I am missing something (because I am), I still had a fulfilling day. I just need to take the time to breathe this weekend. 

It is not a secret that I am not a fan of Trump. While I still hold him deeply responsible for many of the problems related to the United States' response to the pandemic, I will admit that there is one thing he got right: facilitating and accelerating the development of vaccines for COVID-19. Sure, he exaggerated how well the program was going before the election and then deliberately sabotaged the distribution part of the plan during his political pouting following the election. However, the actual operation has been an overall success: the U.S. has been able to move quite rapidly at distributing several viable vaccines to help bring life back to normal.

This has put the U.S. in the top ten nations worldwide when it comes to vaccinations as a percentage of the population and the top nation when it comes to total vaccinations to date. In a recent conversation, Chloé (our French exchange student from last year) revealed that France barely has any vaccines to go around. More than just the amount of the vaccines available, the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines have shown to be more effective as well as safer than vaccines that other countries have allowed. For me, this demonstrates again, the awesome power that the U.S. can bring to bear during times of crisis.

Unfortunately, the Trump administration managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in facing this pandemic. Doubt and misinformation encouraged from Trump himself weakened people's confidence in medical experts, downplayed the threat of the pandemic, touted false cures for the sake of making a profit, and hampered the actual distribution of the vaccines. Interestingly, the Trumps received their vaccinations back in January before he left office, but they did so quietly rather than disrupt the confusion he had brought to his followers. Thankfully, he has started to publicly encourage people to receive the vaccination; although, I am concerned that even his endorsement may have come too late.

Thankfully, the Biden administration has been able to sort through the mess that had been deliberately left for them. Instead of stumbling, Biden's strategies have actually led to a quicker distribution than had been projected. Still, without Operation Warp Speed, there might not have been vaccines available to distribute.

There's been a great deal of speculation at SoHi about who our new principal might be now that Tony Graham accepted a district office position. The district sent out a survey prior to opening the position that asked what we would want to see in a principal. While I filled it out with requests such as "has experience both as a high school teacher and as a high school parent," the truth is that I'm not entirely certain. 

My experience with principals has been rather scattered. Either due to their job turnover or mine, I've served under 13 different principals in my 23 years of teaching. Serving under Tony these past four school years is the second-longest stint that I have served under a principal (my five years with Jill Groenendyk has the longest run). In my first two years as a teacher, I had three principals (Jill would be my fourth in my first three years). They have varied greatly in quality from wonderfully supportive and visionary to wildly and perhaps even criminally incompetent. Clearly, I don't want the latter. 

Certainly, I want someone who is supportive and encouraging, someone who knows what's going on in my classroom without being invasive, someone who recognizes my value while still pushing me to do better. I want someone who connects and interacts well with our students and their parents, but who still defends the staff, faculty, and principles of the school. I want someone who is a model educator with a clear vision for our school, yet who is willing to listen to the various stakeholders in the school and incorporate them, rather than force them, into that vision. I want someone who pushes for innovation while still holding to tried and true practices. Most importantly, I don't want one who micromanages, is spineless, or who acts like a tyrant. 

And yet, I'm not certain if I would recognize those traits through candidates' interviews, their resumes, or even conversations with their former school. I do not envy those who are going to make the decision. 

When I heard that the jury found George Floyd's murderer guilty, my first reaction was of relief. However, on almost immediate reflection, I was horrified that such a feeling of relief was necessary. The world watched George Floyd's murder. We watched as his murderer acted without remorse in broad daylight, fully aware that he was being recorded and yet still certain that he would get away with his crime. 

I should not have felt relief. The jury's guilty verdict should have been assured. That there was doubt in my mind about this conviction indicates how little faith I have in our criminal justice system. Worse, this verdict came for a murder that happened to be caught on camera. Our history is replete with similar incidents with very different results. For example, the two men who killed Breonna Taylor did not even face charges.

Even worse still are the people who have spent the past year justifying the actions of George Floyd's murderer. I'm not talking about the defense attorneys--they were doing their jobs to provide the best possible defense for their client. I mean those who denied the evidence in front of them, who attacked the victim by suggesting it was his fault, and who deny that racism is still a present danger to our nation.

I'm bothered that I felt relief at this verdict.

Of the various genres of recurring dreams that I have, one of the more pleasant is the house dream. Sometimes these dreams take place in a new house that I had just moved into; while in others, the dreams are in a house in which I have lived for a while. The one consistent is that they all have some sort of surprise room or area which I had never discovered before. For example, recently I had a dream about my current house, but a door that I had somehow never noticed led to a large open room that resembled a dance studio with a wall of mirrors and two walls of windows.

These dreams always bring a sense of contentment, like I have found something that makes me even happier with the house than I had been before. The only disturbing part is when I start questioning why I had never noticed that part of the house before. This usually leads me to recognizing that the entire thing is a dream, often leading to my waking up (thus being able to remember the dream).

Sometimes the houses take on fantastical properties that I do not question while in the dream. One of my favorites is a house that is built on a tree in the middle of a lake. At the base of the tree is a circular dock where the sci-fi hover-boat is moored. From there, a wide spiral staircase lead up into the house. The house, itself, incorporates the massive hardwood tree and its branches into its design with transparent walls allowing light to come inside without too much heat, leaving the house at a comfortable temperature. Rope bridges and winding staircases lead to various sections of the tree house, but also connect to other nearby trees. It's usually about the time that I start thinking about the practicality of such a tree that the dream begins to end.

There are many, many others as I've had these sorts of dreams for as long as I can remember. It is rare that I find myself in the same house twice, or at least that the secret I find is the same. I wonder what house I might find myself in tonight.

In the First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Peter reminds the people that they chose a murderer to be released rather than Jesus. The murderer was Barabbas, a man who was a revolutionary in defiance of Roman authority. Because Jesus made them feel uncomfortable, rather than choose the man who advocated for us to take care of one another, the people chose a man who they knew had killed and would likely kill again (although, hopefully not any of their family or friends) because he rebelled against authority.

As I looked across the congregation at my church today, I saw that most of the people--people with deep religious convictions, like those Peter was addressing--were making the same decision as had been made in the past. Less than a tenth (I would guess closer to a twentieth) of the people at church were wearing masks despite the facts that mask-wearing is requested (although, obviously not required) and that cases have been on the rise in our area this past week. Some refuse to wear masks as a rebellion against authority, and some because wearing the masks is uncomfortable. Thus, these people who claim to follow Christ are choosing Barabbas.

However, like Peter, I still love them anyway. Many of them are following political ideologues who have deliberately spread misinformation as a way to grasp more power--often themselves misunderstanding the damage that they bring. As Peter says, I know they "... acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did … ." I just wish that people who claim to be Christian would start to behave more like Christ.

Today, Rowen and I finished the poorly retitled first book in the Harry Potter series. We've been working at a pace of about a chapter a day since we finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and then came to the decision that it's sequel was entirely too bizarre for us (seriously, that's the real reason there has never been a movie made of it while there have been two based on the original). Returning to the book world of Harry Potter has been quite enjoyable as well as providing opportunities for Rowen and I to have some bonding time as well as a basis of conversation. It also gave me the opportunity to practice using different voices and accents for each character.

Interestingly, Rowen pointed out some plot inconsistencies in the story (such as Harry and Hermione accidently leaving the invisibility cloak at the top of the astronomy tower when they knew that people were specifically looking for them to be out of their rooms). However, he still enjoyed the story immensely, and was utterly convinced that Snape was the bad guy all the way up to the final chapter. In fact, the final twists had him with his eyes open and his mouth wide for nearly the entire chapter.

As we finished the book, we also took the time to watch the movie that stuck with the worse of the title options. Rowen enjoyed pointing out the changes and was particularly happy that they cut out the entire subplot about sneaking Norbert out of the school as that meant that the plot problem I noted above was no longer an issue. He still didn't understand why the teachers would send the students into the forest full of dangers at night as a punishment when they were being punished for being out at night. 

He said that he liked the movie too and that he was looking forward to reading the next book, but that he wishes we could skip the first part of each book because he really doesn't like the Dursleys.