Blog Archives - The Land of the Weird

The Land of the Weird

Halloween 2018

10/31/2018

The boys had a good time this evening. As predicted, Rowen decided not to wear his full outfit while out trick-or-treating. The head went first for visibility issues, the arms next because it was too hard to only out the bag for candy, and finally the legs because they just did not give enough flexibility to keep up with everyone. In just the body of his Minecraft character, he spent much of the evening saying in his angry voice, "I'm not Spongebob!"

He had one tumble where he ended up face first in a gravel driveway. He just laid there as I ran to get up to him (I was in the back of the pack and he had taken off; thus the fall). A couple of the little girls around him helped him up, but he was more embarrassed than injured; although, he did get a scraped knee.

We went to the Haunted Halls at SoPrep. I feel that the Student Council group did another good job, perhaps even creepier than last year. It was hard to tell as Connor and his friend put on full cynicism ("You're not scary. You should give us candy."). Meanwhile, Rowen turtled his head into the body box of his costume, so I had to lead him blindly through. Several of my students broke character when seeing me, even when I made sure to scream on cue.

It was cold and windy, so I was fine staying at our friends' house when Rowen decided he had enough with trick-or-treating. I'm glad I did as Janelle and Connor were out for another hour and a half. Meanwhile, I handed out candy at the door. Several of my students said things like, "So now I know where you live!" To which I responded, "Yes! Yes! This is where I live! Remember that this is my house any time you are upset with me!"

All-in-all, it was an enjoyable evening.

School Funding

10/30/2018

I do not understand politicians who short-change public education. Inflation alone makes it so that districts need more funding every year to provide the same level of services that they did the year before. Unfortunately, health care costs have surpassed inflation in their growth, making districts need even more funds to provide the same level of services. Yet politicians keep putting more requirements (and LOTS of paperwork) on schools while flat-funding or providing minimal funding.

Take Michigan, for example. Until last school year, districts in Michigan had to operate on revenue that was LESS than had been available a DECADE earlier. Last school year, Michigan finally provided more to its base funding for school districts than it did in the 2008-2009 school year. It's not like districts were all that well funded 10 years ago. A decade of regression is unconscionable.

I believe that our children are our future, and that there is no better investment. Our schools should be palaces that offer a bounty of opportunities for students of all different capabilities and potentials. What amazes me is that our educational system has survived this vicious ransacking and still manages to provide safety and learning to millions of children every year.

Take this to heart this election. I cringe every time a politician touts about "tough choices" as I invariably see them cut programs that help our children while giving tax breaks to those who are fleecing our great nation. Please follow these people's records and not their rhetoric when making your choices next week.

Our future depends on it.

Injured Shoulder

10/29/2018

Earlier this summer, I managed to injure my left shoulder. I believe the cause was from Connor sitting in my lap with his head against the shoulder while we watched a movie. Whatever the reason, the pain was bad enough that I couldn't sleep and I went to the doctor. The x-rays didn't show anything, and the shoulder finally started feeling better before I could get in for an MRI later that week.

I mention that because I injured my right shoulder this past Saturday evening. The boys and I were out playing catch. I went for a long pass, tripped in a hole left from the "landscaping" that was done before we moved into our house, slipped on the mud (I'm hoping it was mud and not moose presents as those are in that area), and landed hard on my right side. Now my right shoulder feels remarkably similar to what my left shoulder felt before.

I've been alternating ice, heat, and Icy Hot and have been using entirely too much ibuprofen for my blood pressure. The pain is at least a continuous annoyance, but when the ibuprofen wears off it feels like a spike is jammed in my shoulder. The pain radiates up my neck and down my arm and into my thumb and pinky finger. This has made for two excruciatingly restless nights.

However, if this follows the same pattern as the other shoulder, the pain should start diminishing tonight or tomorrow (or perhaps the day after--I'm a little fuzzy on the specifics). In the meantime, I am walking around with a dangling arm (the sling hurt this time) and an extremely short temper. I'm a huge baby when it comes to pain, so this is likely all overreaction on my part.

I just hope that it isn't anything more serious.

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time [controversial]

10/28/2018

Today's first reading talks about God gathering His people who left in tears but will arrive with rejoicing. The Gospel focused on Jesus healing the blind man, telling him that his faith has saved him. Today's homily tied these ideas directly to the caravan of immigrants.

Our pastor served as a missionary in South America. He said that the people in the news reminded him of the friends he made while down there. They are looking for better lives for their children. They are hard workers fleeing violence, oppression, and poverty. These are people who Jesus asks us to welcome. He warns that how we treat them is how we treat Him.

I've seen the argument that there are people who suffer here in the U.S. and that we should help them first. I ask, why not do both? I've seen people claim that there are bad people taking advantage of this caravan and other immigrants and thus we should turn them all away. I ask, do we punish everyone for the sins of a few? I've seen some who say that we should force them to build the wall or put them to some other sort of slave labor. I ask, would you put to lie that our country is the land of the free?

Christ teaches about love and acceptance. He asks us to cloth the naked, feed the hungry, and shelter the stranger. The politicians who use immigrants as scapegoats and who play on fear of them are preaching in direct opposition to Christ's message.

Halloween Carnival 2018

10/27/2018

The boys volunteered to work at our church's Halloween carnival both yesterday and today. They were excited to show off their costumes to their friends as well as play the various games. To their credit, they put in a good deal of time helping out at the various booths.

Janelle stayed with them yesterday, while I accompanied them today. All of the boys brought back platefulls of cupcakes from the cakewalk. Connor specialized in ring tossing, earning him sodas, iced teas, and flavored waters. Rowen's costume was a bit too boxy for refined movement, so he often took off portions of it to participate in the games. Watching him stiff-leggely dance around the cakewalk was hilarious, but I didn't think to take a video of it until he decided he was done.

I found myself manning the popcorn station, both popping the corn and wandering around like a sports arena vendor. And here I thought I was through with weekend popcorn sales now that the Cub Scout popcorn fundraiser is over. Unlike Janelle and the boys, I did not wear a costume. I had toyed with the idea of wearing a sign that said "Forgotten responsibilities" or "Other people's political views"--you know, scary stuff--but laziness won out.

It's hard to believe that this was our fourth year attending the carnival. Time certainly does pass by quickly.

Mistborn

10/26/2018

I've really been impressed with Brandon Sanderson's writings--so much so that I finished all six of his currently available Mistborn books within a month (to the day). These books are set in two separate eras. The first three are in a relatively normal fantasy setting in regards to technology and society. The second three (which still has one more as yet unpublished book before the story is concluded) are set three hundred years after the conclusion of the original trilogy in a world that now has trains and gunslingers as well as the magic from the earlier books.

Like the Stormlight Archive series, the magic in these stories follows almost scientific sorts of rules. In this world, these magical powers are connected to metals that can be used in different ways (depending on the metal) by people with special connections (depending on the connection) to them. The world, and the characters in it, adapt to these magical abilities in very believable ways.

Also like the Stormlight Archives series, these stories take amazing twists and turns which are both unexpected yet perfectly in line with everything that had been established in the world. Although I am bothered by some of their names (Wax and Wayne, really?), these stories have established some of my favorite characters. They are heroic, yet believable, reacting in very human ways to the situations they face.

I hope that Sanderson keeps up this pace of writing; he's written about twenty of his own (not counting the three Wheel of Time books) since his debut in 2005. It's been nice to have current author that I can dependably enjoy (and who finishes his story arcs ... cough, cough, Martin ... Rothfuss ...). I'm eager to read what comes next.

Under Construction

10/25/2018

After a couple of weeks of spinning my wheels, I finally found a couple of articles that supplied the references needed for my prospectus to move forward. I was able to incorporate them and some other changes into a new revision and send it out to my committee. I had hoped to already have my prospectus approved by this time, but it still feels good to have some forward momentum again.

Meanwhile, Janelle and I finished building most of Rowen's Halloween costume this evening. Originally, he wanted us to make a Bumblebee (the Transformer) costume, preferably one that transformed like on the Youtube video. While in the process of sizing him in the boxes we were going to use, we noticed that he looked a lot like a Minecraft character. When we mentioned that to him, he immediately said that he wanted to be a Minecraft character.

We needed to finish the costume today as the Halloween carnival at our church is tomorrow and Saturday. Rowen and Connor volunteered to work ... the ... entire ... event--both days. Rowen doesn't have a lot of mobility in his costume, so I'm wondering how the carnival (and Trick-or-Treating on Halloween) will actually work. Connor, on the other hand, will be quite mobile in his Link costume that he got for his birthday.

Rowen's costume needs a few finishing touches, but I think I'm done with it for today. Like my efforts on my prospectus, it was nice to feel like we accomplished something.

Weird Start

10/24/2018

I've been in an odd mood today. It started when I found myself surprised that I woke up. Seriously, I was utterly surprised to find my alarm going off and that I was still in bed. My dream, which I do not remember, had me entirely convinced that I was already awake to the point that the act of actually waking up put me in an open state of disbelief.

I think (although I cannot be certain) that my dream had included my full wake up routine before putting me out into my day. Thus, I spent the first fifteen minutes or so of my true morning routine feeling like I had already done it. I felt out-of-phase with reality for most of my morning. It was kind of like deja vu but without any specific instances to focus on.

Maybe I should have drank some coffee ...

Wildlife

10/23/2018

It's been a while, but moose have came to visit us in our yard today. It was a cow and an older calf who decided to dine on our lawn. As they were near our driveway, I gave them a wide berth as I went back and forth on my errands today.

According to our neighbors, moose have not been our only visitors this past week. They saw a young black bear near the back of our lot last week and someone else told them about a brown bear that's been moving around our neck of the woods. They also noticed a few lynx, who tend to show up when the rabbit population spikes as it has this year.

Unfortunately, we have few windows on the side of the house where all that activity is taking place. Those we do have are mostly blocked by the nearby brush and treeline (although I did clear a bunch of the shrubbery out this past summer). Janelle has talked about how nice it would be to have a wildlife camera set up somewhere on the back ridgeline of our yard.

I don't know. Any pictures might just show a whole lot of nothing. Worse, they could capture some images that I would rather not haunt my dreams.

Ant-Man and Wasp [minor spoilers]

10/22/2018

This was the first MCU film in a while that we had not seen in the theaters. Thus, we were all pretty excited to see it when it came out on DVD. Unfortunately, due to a variety of evening events and then my weekend conference, we did not get a chance to watch it until yesterday evening. I feel that it was worth the wait.

In my estimation, the Ant-Man movies have been the most comedic of the MCU series, even topping the Guardians of the Galaxy in that area. This and its bizarre basis (Ant-Man is small like an ant, yet stronger when he's small, AND can control ants?) occasionally makes my suspension of disbelief a little difficult to maintain. In this movie, that was pushed farther with the series of coincidental timings: he's only three days away from ..., she's only a week or two away from ..., they only have two days to ... or wait another hundred years?! Really? And that's not even mentioning the timing involved in the mid-credits scene.

Still, I laughed out loud over and over again while watching this movie (especially at anything involving truth serum). I also loved the characters, with the daughter again stealing any scene she was in. While many of the main action pieces were already shown in the ads, they were still gratifying to watch. However, my favorite aspect was the nature of the plot itself. It managed to keep a continual (if not always believable) tension while deliberately avoiding many of the standard superhero movie tropes. More than any of the other MCU movies, I feel that this plot stood out due to its unique premise and resolutions.

I look forward to seeing how these characters progress in the future.

Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

10/21/2018

Today's readings are about the suffering that Jesus took upon Himself for us. God became human to take on our triumphs and our pains. Jesus understands our pain, having experienced it and used it to redeem us forever.

For, all so often, it is through suffering that glory shines. It is the suffering and pain of practice that forge Olympic athletes. It is through tragedies that heroes of all forms stand out. Nearly all stories of success involve overcoming adversity. So too is it for our own redemption.

I do not mean to make light of the trauma that anyone has faced. I am not trying to put a silver lining on the dark clouds that might shadow over you. Rather, I believe that we are capable of facing the challenges before us. We might not even succeed, but it is in the struggle that we prove our worth.

NEA Alaska Fall Event

10/20/2018

Two of my four sessions today focused on ways of dealing with stress and trauma. One focused more on the traumas and stressed faced by students and the other focused more on self care. One of my sessions was about classroom management, but it was mostly the way that I deal with class management already (which I suppose is a good thing). We also had one of our legislators speak about some of the political issues with education in Juneau and a union leader speak about the cost saving benefits available to all NEA members.

By far the most engaging session for me was the first one of the day: The House that Fell. Its focus was on the role of the American educational system in the erosion of Alaska Native (and other minority) cultures. By itself, it was a topic of great interest to me and seemed especially appropriate in its timing in my life as I just attended Quyana the night before. However, the really powerful and relevant section helped to explain and distinguish between the concepts of assimilation, appropriation, and appreciation.

While the other sessions dealt with issues in ways that did not really change my way of thinking, The House that Fell really opened my mind to new ways of looking at the world. I’m not going to try and sum it up in a post as there is no way that I could do it justice. It had to be experienced.

Quyana Alaska

10/19/2018

I’m in Anchorage for NEA-Alaska’s Fall Event. This evening we were given the opportunity to attend the second night of Quyana Alaska - a concert of cultural songs and dances of native cultures from around Alaska. Some of the performances are from new groups performing new songs; others are more traditional. Groups include young children—even infants being carried—all the way to great-grandparents. One group included 90% of its village.

The enthusiasm of the audience is often palpable. Many of the groups invite audience members to join in some of their songs. Sometimes only a few go up; sometimes the stage and the area in front are overrun.

Many of these dancers are trying to reclaim cultural traditions that have dwindled or even been actively suppressed. Some dance groups have been created in an active attempt to curb the impact of alcohol and drugs in their society. Some of the speakers have spoken about the history of their tribe and the songs, including the active suppression of their cultural heritage during World War II due to both the Japanese invasion of the area and the response of the U.S.

One quote that the audience particularly enjoyed was, “This next dance is our war song. Long ago, we used to travel to places, and then we’d make war on them. Sometimes we lost, sometimes we won, but we still had fun.”

Quyana is an expression of thanks. I’m thankful I could experience tonight’s event.

Grading

10/18/2018

I was inundated with late work from students today as it was the last day of the marking period (1st quarter). I just pulled myself out from under it. While the assignments are graded and in PowerSchool, I still have to put them in their correct spots on Canvas so that the students' digital badges will be awarded. That process will likely take another hour, so I think that I'm going to deal with that either tomorrow or Monday.

I am disturbed by the number of students who failed the quarter. I still feel that I offer entirely too many points while requiring less work than when I taught my history classes in Michigan. Yet, I have been hearing a continual refrain of how hard my class is. This has been putting me in a state of frustrated confusion. How do I maintain rigor while still giving multiple paths and opportunities for students to demonstrate their learning?

Apparently, this is not the moment where I have an epiphany, so I think I'll head to bed.