Finally a Friday

I am taking a half day at work, so I can go prep! Man it will be 100 degrees at my house today which means Vegas will be like 120. Thank the Gods for air conditioning and swimming pools. So hopefully I will have money left when I get back on Sunday afternoon!

Vegas Baby

OK, so it looks like Vegas is a go!!! One of my college students rented a van, and they will pick me and mine up Friday! I have volunteered to drive, so I did not have to fork any money out for the van or gas. That way they can all get wasted will I am the designated driver. Works for me...more money too spend on crap in Vegas. BTW I do not mean craps, I mean crap. There is some great shopping to be done in Vegas. I like to buy weird, crazy things...mostly toys if you must know.

I think toys rule. In my classroom, I started a small collection of Sponge Bob things. My students thought that was great so they are always bringing me things to add to it. Not just Sponge Bob either. I have a very wide array of strange collectibles. At home I have so many toys (and books) I do not have room for them all. I know my Mom wishes I would grow up, but what the hell for? They have so many cool things you can buy on the web, it takes real self-control not to spend all of my money on stuff I want but really do not need. God, I love being a capitalist, don't you?

Flag Day

It is Flag Day, America. It is also my mommy's B-Day! If it wasn't for Flag Day, I do not think I could remember her birthday, so what a blessing they both occur at the same time. This year I sent her an Amazon gift cert. She is not very good with computers, so I called her secretary and gave her a heads up, so she can help her use it. I wanted to get her the boxed set of Upstairs, Downstairs, but it was REALLY expensive. I am going to try and get it for her for Xmas.

Almost There

Eight days and counting. I am going to Vegas on Friday, but I am leaving a little later, so I can help my students put on an Opera performance. My poor students have a hell of a week - a math test, a science test, a language arts test and an essay all have to be done this week. End of the year assessments suck. The math and science can be graded on the scantron machine, but the rest I have to grade by hand. I will be sitting by a pool on Saturday, grading not only their work, but the term papers from my college students. Don't you just love a working vacation?

I heard a crazy story on KROQ about John Roecker, who directed a crazy puppet movie about Charles Manson, called Live Freaky, Die Freaky. Anywho, he was wearing a home-made t-shirt that had a picture of Tom Cruise on the front that said SCIENTOLOGY IS GAY and on the back a picture of John Travolta saying REALLY GAY. Now that in itself if great, but he runs into Jenna Elfman and her husband (Danny Elfman's brother - now there are two VERY different people) and they start yelling at him about his shirt. I guess John says mean things like McDonald's is older than Scientology, and asks about General Zenu (See this site for the real insight into this odd cult) and the couple just turned into screaming mimis. The fight ends when Jenna asks what horrible thing she has done to make him act this way and he say that she makes crappy TV which prompted a loud F YOU from Jenna. Once again, the Scientologists provide great entertainment to the unwashed masses!

Documentaries

I love to watch documentaries. I think it is my favorite form of learning. I love sharing what I learn with my students, so I tend to watch things that are relevant. I also love using Instructional Technology. So I search the web to find power point presentations to use in my lectures, because who has time to recreate the wheel. Hey, I admit it...teachers steal what works. We have to. The pay SUCKS!!!

So, even though technology has improved the way teachers can introduce content, nothing beats a teacher's favorite...a movie! And there are some OUTSTANDING documentaries on the Sundance Channel, however, I always catch them after they start and then it is not on again for days or weeks or ever. For example, with my young students, we read a portion of Anne Frank's diary in their anthologies. I found some really good things on the web, but I do not have the time to do the research and create exactly what I need. I was a research assistant for three years and that was my job...research and presentation. It takes time to compile and create and I do not have it. So the day after the Armenian Day of Genocide Remembrance is the Jewish Day of Holocaust Remembrance, and I will be damned if I didn't miss 2 great documentaries, two nights in a row.

The specific documentary was I'M STILL HERE: REAL DIARIES OF YOUNG PEOPLE WHO LIVED DURING THE HOLOCAUST. It was incredible and synopsized what my students needed to understand in one package. BUT I MISSED the first few minutes and then couldn't find a tape. I went online but that was the only airing and there is no way to purchase the film. *SIGH*

I did a bit better for my college students and managed to get Hooked: Illegal Drugs and How They Got That Way - Marijuana from The History Channel to help in our discussion about medical marijuana and an episode of Penn and Teller's Bullsh*t! dealing with Numbers to help us gain a real understating of statistics.

But I swear it happened again this morning but I got lucky because it will be on again at the end of the month! I will be teaching a course on patient assessment soon and there was an amazing documentary on The Origins of Aids. It is VERY plausible that AIDS can be traced to just one person - Hilary Koprowski, who created a polio vaccine in the Belgian Congo using chimpanzee kidney. This vaccine was given to over one million people. Although there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Hilary Koprowski denies ever using chimps, which by the way, had the SIV virus, the chimp version of HIV. The work was researched by Edward Hooper and it is tough to argue, although many do. It will be a good eye opener. And maybe, just maybe….I should check the schedule and future rants like this one could be avoided!