It has been a pretty good Halloween. In particular, I appreciate that we have held to our dress-up tradition ever since Tabitha Blades joined our high school team as assistant principal. This makes it so I get to see so many inventive costumes throughout the day even if I don't go out to town to see Trick-or-Treaters. In past years, I liked our church's Halloween Carnival for similar reasons and due to the way it connected our church to the community, especially those with families. Apparently, some wannabe witch-burners decided to squash that idea this year. I can only assume that they've spent the day peaking through their curtains and muttering "heathens" to themselves for their own sanctimoniously perverse pleasure. 

... But I digress ...

Many of the costumes were quite well thought-out and executed this year. I had so many favorites that I almost didn't like having to narrow down my votes for the costume contest. I would say that at least a third of my students dressed up. It was only thanks to Janelle that I remembered to bring any candy at all for our Trick-or-Treat break, but as I only had ninety pieces, I reserved handing them only to students who were in costume. I felt bad about this because it meant that I got a little particular about what I accepted as a costume, and even then, I ran out of candy when there were still many more costumed students who did not get a piece.

I used the excuse to dress up in my Renaissance outfit. I had another costume ordered a while ago, but it still hasn't even shipped as of yet. Still, my Renaissance garb is like an old friend. Thankfully, it also has the option of opening up the sides to better accommodate the three years of girth that I have added since the last time I wore it. 

This evening, Rowen went out (dressed as a post-apocalyptic survivor?) with one of his friend's family and seemed to have a good time (he also lovingly remembered his father and brought back a bag of popcorn for me). Connor did a chemistry experiment in the "spirit of Halloween" for extra credit. Meanwhile, we had our first ever Trick-or-Treaters (four of them) at our own house. One of the neighborhood parents organized a list of Halloween-friendly houses on Facebook this year, and we said that we were willing to participate. I said earlier that I had so many favorite costumes, but the children who came to our door topped the list. There was a particularly well-dressed Wednesday Addams with a giggling mermaid as her little sister.

I also received many wonderful pictures of my grandchildren in their costumes. For some reason, Alistair's dragon outfit reminds me of when Rowen was dressed as a tiger and was roaring at everyone. Even though Irene was dressed in a beautiful Belle costume, the crown she wore made it so most people thought that she was the princess and Alistair was the dragon who guarded her--which I think is adorable.

Ever since we bought our house, I've thought about additions that we might want to add in the future. I still like the idea of converting the attic into a loft that can look down into the living room. We've also discussed rearranging the kitchen a bit and putting a pantry in the corner. I've also thought about putting on a split-level addition on the back with stairs from the pantry room and the upstairs linen closet leading into it.

My family has some of their own ideas. Janelle, in particular, wants an art studio that has its own entrance and is large enough host art classes or groups. She would also like it to have its own sink (and perhaps washing machine). Meanwhile, Connor has wanted to add a tower with multiple alcoves. 

There's also been discussion about a walkway connection to the garage, a greenhouse addition somewhere, and a deck that comes off the second story of the house. All of these are fun to think about, but I'm not certain about their practicality. Still, this house clearly went through these kinds of additions and changes since it was first constructed--our master bedroom used to be a garage, for instance. Who knows what it will look like in the future?

In today's Gospel, Jesus makes it clear that the greatest laws are to love God with all of one's heart, soul, and mind and to love one's neighbor as one's self. All of Mosaic Law and teachings of the prophets "depend on these two commandments." In truth, they are the basis of all laws.

We are reading and examining the play Antigone in my 10th grade language arts classes. The first Ode in the play is dedicated to the law of humankind. It explains that humans have tamed so much of nature, even building walls to defend against the wind and roofs to stop the rain. Similarly, humans build laws to stave off death. 

As our pastor noted in his homily, humans keep trying to legislate their way into a better world, but due to our imperfect systems, we always fall short. This doesn't mean that we shouldn't have laws, just that we shouldn't expect that laws alone will save humanity from itself.

It is here that God's two primary commandments work so well. Loving God and one's neighbor, and doing everything in our power to demonstrate that love, is what defends us from the ultimate death. All laws should be built with those two commandments in mind. This is why we should protest laws that work against these commandments and work against politicians who propose laws that promote or depend on fear, hatred, and discrimination. 

I was deeply saddened to learn of Matthew Perry's death today. I had read about his struggles with depression and addiction in the past. His life, and the pressure that he was constantly under to be funny, has long been one of my examples of how a life of fame can bring about more hardship than joy. 

Still, the roles he played--well, the few that I know about--brought me joy to watch. On the show Friends, his character of Chandler was the only one of that group that I would have been genuinely interested in knowing. I also quite liked his movie with Bruce Willis--The Whole Nine Yards (I've stayed away from its sequel). However, one of my favorite roles of his was in the romantic comedy Fools Rush In opposite of Salma Hayek. There was a genuine quality in his character (which seemed like him as nearly any character) that makes that movie both relatable and rewatchable for me. 

Wherever his true spirit is now, I hope it knows how grateful I am for the spirit that his performances shared with me. 

My problem with a great deal of posts that I see on social media is that they seem to be designed to place everyone on one side or another. Sadly, I watch as many people then appear to follow this "if you're not with us, you're against us" sort of mentality. It's one of the problems that I have with the way that Congress works (or doesn't work, depending on the day). However, there are rarely just two sides to anything in our reality; in fact, believing so is less than one dimensional thinking. At least with one dimensional thinking there is some level of variance along that single dimension.

The fact is that most issues rest in four dimensions, with not only varying degrees, quadrants, and sides, but changes in time as well. What may have been "true" or at least "worked" (or seemed to work) at one point in time can be simply untenable in another. Part of our issue as human beings is that it takes a great deal of effort to account for all of these different elements; thus, we default to easier mental packaging of complex ideas so that we do not overburden our minds with thinking. 

I don't know if this is making sense to anyone aside from myself. While I'm certainly writing this because I'm tired of the "all or nothing" sorts of rhetoric that I've been seeing, I've also had several reminders lately from reading Antigone in class and watching "Everything Great about ..." videos at home that there is more than one, or two, or even a dozen ways of viewing the universe--or the people in it. We need to be careful of certainty in our thoughts. Without questioning or evaluation, we can too easily cement an idea that is a misrepresentation of reality because it misses all of the other facets behind the actual Truth.

As a parent, I don't like the appointment system for parent/teacher conferences. Trying to figure out which teachers had time slots available within a close timeframe took me just about half an hour. Meanwhile, "Sign Up Genius" (the site we used) has become even less intuitive over time. On a phone, it takes scrolling and loading over multiple screens just for one teacher's availability. On the computer, the required save button was hidden under elements like an "accept cookies" bar or an ad. This made it so some parents tonight through that they had appointments that they didn't actually have.

As a teacher, I don't like the appointment system. I prefer the pre-Covid round-robin style as it allowed for more flexibility. I feel like the appointment system is a hindrance for parents who already don't need much of an excuse to be disengaged with their child's education (or even life). Sadly, those are the parents that we teachers most need to see. Meanwhile, I prefer getting to see my colleagues all together. It is my opinion that teachers too often retreat into their classrooms. The round-robin conferences brought us together more as a staff--however, that's just my opinion, and (as was pointed out to me just today) I am a bit of an extrovert.

I still love parent-teacher conferences. It gives me a chance to get more insight into why many of my students behave and perform the ways that they do. It also provides me with the opportunity to get everyone on the same page, working together for the benefit of the students. Sure, there are some conferences that are tougher than others, and there are some that require me to reevaluate things that I have done, but I feel that all of that can be positive as long as someone (even if it's just me) learns from the experience.

At the moment, I just want to go to bed. I've been staring at this screen for about 20 minutes with only one abortive attempt to start on a topic that I just didn't have the desire to complete. As per my own rules, here are some of the topics that I was thinking about.

• I've been having dreams about trying to work my way around a large and confusing school. Often, despite the confusion, I like these massive schools in my dreams. They're often like an post-modern sort of Hogwarts with hallways and stairs that seem to change when one isn't looking, often headed in odd directions for no reason, yet there is usually a great deal of light and open space.
• We read scene three from Antigone today, and it always makes me think about how I can trap myself into thinking that my way is the only way and that anyone who disagrees is an imbecile or deliberately destructive. While that can be the case, I need to make certain that I haven't made snap judgements on situations that can have multiple causes and solutions.
• I played an hour or so of Spider-Man 2 and felt guilty almost the entire time (granted, only later did I remember that I need to pick out and practice music for Sunday). Part of it was the (justifiable) feeling that I had other things that I could be doing. However, a large part was that I still haven't finished Tears of the Kingdom, but here I am "cheating on" it with another game!
• I wanted to write bits for my personal book on education about keeping the door open and getting out of the classroom, but I didn't have the mental energy to properly write them.
• There's a spot on the ceiling in the boys' bathroom that is starting to discolor. Getting up into the attic space to see what might be going on is not an easy task. I really didn't need another thing on my list. I'm not even sure what I'll be able to do once I get up there.

There were others, but my left eye keeps wanting to close on its own. I hope that means that I'll be able to fall asleep right away. Unfortunately, that's not always the case.

This evening I ran a "clinic" on how to judge DDF (Drama, Debate, and Forensics) events. I wanted to provide a basic level of training for parents and staff who might be willing to judge at future tournaments, to give my team a chance to practice their events in front of a live audience, and to show parents of my competitors what DDF is. I had never run one of these sorts of sessions before, so I did not know what to expect.

I figured that the whole thing would run about two hours long, so I told people to expect the event to run from 6 pm to 8 pm. This ended up being an almost perfect estimate despite two of my competitors cancelling at the last minute. Questions and explanations between the events ended up taking a bit longer than I expected (which I should have expected considering my track record). I was also unsure about what sort of refreshments to provide, but thankfully, my father suggested cider and donuts when I talked about my concerns this morning. 

I had more people show up than I expected which led to what I felt was an enjoyable event. It seemed to give all of the parents who attended a better feel for what the program is all about and the challenges in both judging and presenting. It also seemed to give them ideas about how to help their students prepare for their upcoming competition. 

I've lamented a bit these past two weeks that I was just giving myself more work to do. However, I'm now glad that I set this up. I deeply believe that it was worth the time and effort.

We had pajama day at the school today. I don't like dressing in pajama pants or sweats when I'm out in public. I just feel overly exposed. Until a few years ago, I refused to participate on pajama days, using them as an excuse to wear one of my Hawaiian shirts (as I did nearly every dress up day). Now that I wear Hawaiian shirts on a more regular basis, I've started participating more in the dress up days. 

I happen to have a pajama shirt that I don't otherwise use as I don't like wearing long sleeves in bed. However, it is clearly a pajama shirt. I wore a pair of grey sweatpants for the bottoms. Even though I have actual pajama pants, I use them as my pajamas, and I didn't want to wear them through the school day. To deal with the feeling of being exposed, I wore my cargo shorts under the sweats. For extra measure, I wore my Punisher T-shirt under the pajama shirt. There's something about knowing that, despite being in the pajama outfit and carrying an oversized teddy bear, I had a skull design underneath which brought a bit of ironic joy to my day.

As for the oversized bear, I asked Rowen to bring me the largest stuffed animal that we had. The bear was about three feet tall and had a red bow tie. I held him facing out so that, as I greeted students in the hall, I could surreptitiously wave his arm in greeting as well--one student asked if he was a puppet. 

I wasn't prepared to answer questions about the bear, so when students asked me his name, I said, "Nunya." "Nunya?" they would ask. "Yep. Nunya Business."

It was a good day.

Today's Gospel reading has the famous expression, "Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God." Just before this, Jesus held up a coin with Caesar's image and inscription on it. While the Pharisees were trying to entrap Jesus by either making Him a rebel or a Roman sympathizer, Jesus points out that their obsession with paying taxes or not suggests that what they truly worship is money. 

Time and again, Jesus warns against being obsessed with money. Rather, He frequently warns people that their devotion to worldly possessions bars them from entering the Kingdom of Heaven. In this case, He is asked if the Jewish people should pay taxes to their oppressor, and He answers that they should give up the Roman coin as is required not only for Roman law but for their salvation. 

Often, this is taken as needing to follow the laws of the secular authority as well as the laws of God. However, Jesus is not implying that unjust laws deserve our obedience. As pointed out in today's homily, God's law of loving one another should come before the laws of man. Rather, Jesus is saying that since the money itself comes from Caesar, it can be demanded back in repayment. However, what belongs to God should be repaid to God.

For me, one of the surprise hits from the Marvel Cinematic Universe was the original Guardians of the Galaxy. A goofy comic book concept that I had never known and whose trailers left me skeptical became one of my all-time favorite movies. From that point on the Guardians have been highlights of the movies and shows that they've been in. Their run of movies ended (or transformed) with this year's Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3--which was, itself, an excellent film that is a close second to their original debut. 

I wanted to have a marathon of their movies this summer, but timing--including the timing of the DVD release of Vol. 3--made it so that was not to be. I've considered watching them as part of my birthday tradition, but to do them justice requires watching the three main movies, the two Avengers movies that had them, the holiday special, and (at least) 10 minutes of Thor: Love and Thunder. Even without the full Thor movie, that's about 14 hours of movie watching. Normally, that would not be a problem for me, but all of my children (and grandchildren) will be up here for my 50th birthday, and it's already been heavily suggested that we should not spend that amount of time just watching one series of movies while they are here.

I've given some thought to spending a Saturday just sitting back and enjoying them, but I've not had a lot of spare time this school year thus far. I might just save this event for a day during spring break or perhaps even summer break. Still, I took the time to plan out the timings, so I thought that I would share them just in case someone else wants to watch them.

7:00 AM - 9:00 AM - Guardians of the Galaxy (2h 2m)
9:05 AM - 11:25 AM - Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2h 18m)
11:30 AM - 2:10 PM - Avengers: Infinity War (2h 40m)
2:15 PM - 5:15 PM - Avengers: End Game (3h 1m)
5:20 PM - 5:30 PM - First ten minutes of Thor: Love and Thunder (10 min)
5:35 PM - 6:15 PM - The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (42m)
6:20 PM - 8:50 PM - Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2h 30m)

We're nearly a week through second quarter already, and it feels like time is just going to speed up as we go. The second quarter always moves the quickest as it is usually the shortest as it has more days off than the other quarters. On top of that, the last week is usually the week for final exams and last-minute attempts to turn in late work. Meanwhile, it seems like we are continually jumping from one holiday or event to the next. Allow me to illustrate.

This week was a full five-day week, but it was also the start of a new quarter--one in which I lost one student and gained three others.

Next week is a three-day week with a Halloween-themed dance on Wednesday evening with parent-teacher conferences and professional development on Thursday and Friday.

The following week is a full week, except that Halloween is on that Tuesday, and there is a DDF tournament in Anchorage on Friday and Saturday.

The week after that is a four day week because the calendar committee decided to give us the Friday before Veterans' Day off--which is weird--and an early release on the Thursday before that.

Week five finally has a full week without any strangeness that I know about.

However, the next week week is another three-day week because of Black Friday--well, and probably Thanksgiving before that.

The week after that is a full week for anyone not going to another DDF tournament in Anchorage on Friday and Saturday.

Week eight has five days, but that Friday is another early release.

Finally, we have finals week and whatever holiday activities are happening on that Friday.

This quarter is going to fly by.

Happy Alaska Day, everyone! On this day in 1867, the transfer of Alaska from the Russian Empire to the United States formally took place. The deal to purchase Alaska had been made at the end of March that same year, but it took that long for the official commissioners to arrange for the formal transfer and arrive in Sitka for the lowering of the Russian flag and the raising of the American flag with 37 stars (a new star had only recently been added due to the statehood of Nevada). 

There are still Russian holdouts in residence in Alaska. Some of them even attend our schools here on the Kenai. In a lot of ways, they live in a sort of time-capsule. Holding to the Russian Orthodox religion, using the Julian calendar, and speaking Russian at home, they are largely from families who never directly experienced the rise and fall of the communist Soviet Union. In many ways, they remind me of the Mennonite communities that I lived near in Southwest Michigan. They do not fully shun modern technology like the Amish, but they keep themselves distant from much of modern American life. Just today (of all days), I learned that some of them even refuse to wash from the same sinks out of fear of being contaminated by filthy Americans.

There are native organizations who do not like that Alaska Day is a holiday as it represents a transfer of power that did not consult them in the matter. Sadly, in many ways the transfer led to an increase in abuses against the native populations that has still not been fully addressed, so I can understand why they might be bitter and frustrated. Still, for me, I am quite glad that Alaska was made a part of the United States as it is a place that I deeply love.