Journal Entries
Clearly, the surgery was worth it.....
Posted Dec 15, 2003
Clearly, the ankle surgery worked. Did one of those 5K charity walk/run things this morning -- first time I've done anything anywhere near that big since the surgery on the right ankle 3.5 months ago. At the end of it, the ankle hurt far less than everything else.
My left hip is another thing altogether. What sustained me through the last half a mile was hearing the girl I was walking with go on about the wonders of hip replacements. 
Still not much news on the job front, although I do have another interview coming up.
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Latest reply: Dec 15, 2003
Possibly, just maybe....
Posted Nov 20, 2003
May have some really good news later this week.
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Latest reply: Nov 20, 2003
The Giant Puppets are Attacking Miami!!!!
Posted Nov 13, 2003
Because you know, everyone needs more giant puppets in their life....
http://slate.msn.com/id/2091139/
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Latest reply: Nov 13, 2003
Need a break?
Posted Oct 25, 2003
Someone, somewhere, on one of the threads here, pointed me in the way of the website for NationStates, and I find it to be a nice, breezy break on occasion from goings on elsewhere.
http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi
If you join up and create your own nation (or, even if you beat me to it and are already there), consider joining the region of "Hootooers Harbor", as right now it's just me. 
What use are a chain of islands with sandy beaches if you're the only one playing dictator?
And, of course, I brought my sea monkeys and diet coke with me.
Mikey
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Latest reply: Oct 25, 2003
Children today....
Posted Oct 20, 2003
Alright. Now, as some of you know, I teach math and English at a Saturday school (all adolescent boys in my class). In the past, we've had problems with students playing games they've downloaded on their graphing calculators during class when they think I'm not looking.
Now, I'm not incredibly offended by the concept of this, per se. After all, I was the kid was was always hiding a book in my lap to read while the teacher was talking -- a low tech version of the same thing, more or less, right? It's all about not getting caught, pretending like you're paying attention, and at least pretending to be properly pentitent when you are caught. And I remember back in middle school when there were boys in my class who were idiotic enough to try and look at porn during class, their efforts at not being caught were all the more strident. And when they were caught (which they usually were, because after all, who can remember that you're supposed to be paying attention to Mr. Kroger if you're staring at pictures of nudie ladies?) they were usually willing to do just about anything to talk the teacher out of "taking the problem up the line" -- i.e., to the principal's office, or to their parents.
Anyway, kids today have these fancy graphing calculators that you can download games onto. And when I catch them playing games in class, I confiscate the calculator until the end of the class. And when I catch them playing 'naughty' games, I delete the game before giving the calculator back -- I do it without saying anything, because so often these kids are wanting the attention of causing a disruption.
So anways, this weekend one of the kids threw a fit because I had deleted his "PimpQuest" game off of his calculator (and it's a free game to download off the web, BTW), and what right did I have....
The whole affair ended up not calming down until the I had the principal's husband come in and talk to the boys.
What bothered me wasn't that the kids had the game, or even that they had tried to get away with playing it in class. What bothered me was that expected me to pretend like I didn't notice, or maybe even pretend like I thought it was funny. I asked some of the other teachers who have these kids -- one said that he had played it with the kids, the other said that he hadn't said anything, because he didn't want the kids to think he wasn't cool.
Am I the only one who thinks that defined boundaries can be a good thing in the classroom? As in, I'm not here to be your best buddy and friend, I'm here to be the adult and the teacher? Am I just being hopelessly outdated and old-fashioned? 
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Latest reply: Oct 20, 2003
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