Peep Show

It’s time again for the Washington Post Peeps Diorama Contest.  Lots of snowy scenes and classics in this year’s set.  Most enjoyable. 

This one is awesome.

Obsolete Jobs

I realize that most of my content is directing you to the content of others, but there’s stuff out there that I need to tell someone about.  You are my someone.

There is a fabulous audio slide show on NPR about obsolete jobs.  Lamplighters, icemen, switchboard operators and more.  I love the pinsetter and milkman. When I do buy milk, it’s only in a glass bottle…a reminder of my youth when we had our milk deliverd.  Surprisingly, I’m not too young for that.  Check out the other jobs and listen to those who worked them.

When Do We Eat?

Happy Passover.

All the Pesach videos are coming out of the woodwork.  Dylan, Robots, and the Japanese.

London, 1987

both from Bizarro World, hopefully never

 

And from Conan’s Twitter: “Jewish fun fact: If you celebrate Passover on top of an overpass, you go back in time.”

Sounds like my night will be spent watching the hippie dippie movie “When Do We Eat?” or “Jews in Space.”

March Music

I still haven’t figured out a good way to share music through this blog.  The best I can do right now is this screen shot of a recent playlist I made for a friend.  Most of the songs are new to the library and have quickly become part of the rotation.

Friday Fun

On Friday, I got to:

start my spring break (imagine me doing this, but in 2010 instead of 2008)

double-over laughing at Jerry Seinfeld

and pick up the first CSA box of the year!

No. No. No.

There are so many things wrong with this picture.  Can we all just agree that this is not okay?  No exceptions.

(Screen shot from a very popular upper crust clothing store.)

Januvegan

My students did this thing called Novembeard. Obviously, it was the boys, and they all decided to go without razors for the entire month of November. It was a bit pitiful to witness as they cannot grow much facial hair.

I did Januvegan, which I made up. I ate as vegan as possible for the month of January. It went pretty well. It was partly a result of reading "Eating Animals," but I always like to try new rules with food. I don't know why. I fared a bit better than my students, but it wasn't record-breaking.

I was fairly vegan - except an event at Stanford that I didn't plan for and was totally starving at and some other night. Since January, I have not been vegan, but I'm not eating chicken, beef, or other land animal meet. I have been eating fish, because I am programmed to get fish tacos on Tuesday. I need to stop that. If only it wasn't right on my way home. Right now, I guess I'm what they call a pescatarian. But, I do eat very little dairy. I no longer have milk in the house and my breakfasts consist of either vegan waffles or steel cut oats. I bring this up because I'm about to encounter Passover. Keeping Kosher for Passover can be a challenge, especially when you're traveling, like I will be this week. But, now without meat! I'm trying to think about what I'm going to eat - probably salads with no legumes and maybe I'll have to fully commit to fish. But, no brisket for me. Sadness.

When I first read "Eating Animals," I thought: how can you be Jewish and not eat eggs? I mean, Challah, Matzoh Ball Soup, Matzah Brei, Kugel. Now that it's about to Passover, I'm struggling even more. I mean, sure you can do vegan & Kosher, but you probably won't eat traditional Jewish foods. But that would be fun one day...a vegan passover. There are recipes vegan challah and matzoh balls. One day, I'll have my act together to give it a whirl. Just for the heck of it.

Ooohhh…Kosher Kitchen

When people find out that I keep Kosher, they always ask if I have two dishwashers.  I don’t.  Nor do I have two sets of dishes or the like.  As someone with housemates, I don’t think I could impose my dietary rules on them.

But, after seeing this on Kitchn, maybe one day I’ll have a Kosher kitchen.  I have always admired PLB’s Fisher and Paykel DishDrawers and only now do I see that they are the perfect thing for a kosher kitchen.  Who knows if I’d ever go all out and do the whole double kitchen thing and have something like a warming drawer (so you don’t have to turn the oven on during Shabbos), but it all goes together so nicely in this kitchen.

Stats Love

Dear Statistics,

I just wanted to write to tell you how great I think you are.  You make me sharper and more thoughtful about the world.  You challenge me but also make me feel smart.

And never mind all the math teachers we’ve been interviewing and how they all say, “No offense to anyone here, but I’ve never really liked Stats.”  They don’t know you like I know you (although I can’t complain about the major job security, I guess).  But seriously, what’s up with those people?  Most of the world hates on math and then math teachers hate on you.  I’ll defend you forever.

Love,
me

Now That’s A Cheer!

If you are a sports fan and a fan of the kind of shows that NPR had but you are not listening to Slate’s Hang Up And Listen, please either:
1. correct that situation immediately
2. see your priest to absolve your sins and/or rabbi to repent early

I am completely in love with this show (although my friend thinks they are all a bit pretentious, I don’t mind smart people being wicked smart). Mike Pesca, of HUAL, offered this cheer (shown in the video) as a recommendation this week.  He thinks it’s the greatest cheer in sports and I kind of agree (as much as I pride myself on sportsmanship).  If it was appropriate to do this in my classroom, I just might try to get it going. This rendition is LEGIT!  2 Legit To Quit!

Endorsements

1. Fug Madness.  I’ll say it again.  Thank goodness for more daylight at the end of the day.  I’m spending way too much time in my office with my colleagues trying to decide how to vote.

2. Interesting Letterhead – I want my own letterhead.  Like this one.  Maybe that’s what I should ask my artist student to design for me. 

3. Great Op-Ed about how no one responds to RSVP requests.  I love the suggestion to have it be RVOM - Répondez Vite — ou Mourez.

4. Paying off loans – This spring, I am no longer in debt to the man.  Granted, I owe my mom some school loan money, but my $22K loan from grad school is officially paid off at the end of this month and my car will be mine and only mine this May.  Holy cow!  I can’t wait to save all that extra money I’m going to have –slash- celebrate my 30th birthday with it.

5. The underdogs.  Always my favorite during post-season time.  I’m loving March Madness – Northern Iowa, Cornell, Washington, and St. Mary’s.

6. ChatRoulette Piano Improv.  Love it!  And yes, it is worth 5 minutes of your life.  And Ben Folds did a great response to this, live in concert.

7. Teaching, in any form.

 

8. Fixie Crew!  Friday was the first meeting of the Fixie Crew – a band of teachers and students alike, most of them on fixed gear bikes, who love riding bikes.  And they taught me how to skid.  It was so much fun.

 

Hope you enjoyed the weekend wherever you are.

Irony

Email from my mom:

"I am watching a program called 'Bach at Auschwitz'. The first commercial was for Koehler shower heads. You can't make this kind of stuff up."

Yikes. And that made me laugh.

Why Everyone Should Learn To Write A Proper Letter

There is so much out there on the Internet that is amazing and wonderful and true.  I love the blog “Letters of Note,” and I hope you have time to check out a letter posted there, penned by Clint Eastwood.  Dare I say, it is majestic in its prose.  Reading the letter made me desire a few things for my students: that their penmanship is legible and that they know how to write politely.

In an age when no one writes letters anymore, I think a personal letter will carry more and more weight.  Or maybe I just hope it will.  As much as I love the Internet for all it puts out there for us to learn and read and comment on, I wouldn’t mind retreating into the woods, with pen and paper in hand, left to just write.

The theme of my recent posts – I need a technology vacation.

St. Patty’s

The other day, my friend told me that she heard that St. Patrick’s Day was changed by the Pope.  I think her source may have been referring to 2008, when it was moved, so as not to conflict with Holy Week.  If it has moved this year, no one told this website.  Might that be the most useless bit of the Internet ever?

Green Chicago from Leah:

Fug Madness

If you don’t read the blog Go Fug Yourself, I understand.  But if you like reading about celebrities and also love sharp writing, I suggest it.  Also, if you need help getting through the month of March (I’m thinking of you ADH and all my teachers out there), you should get into their Fug Madness.  It’s a bracket just like March Madness, but about celebrities and who is more fantastically ugly (I prefer that definition of fugly to one with inappropriate language). 

The play-in game is right now, just like the Original version.  Vote now to push someone to the next round and get into it the fugliness.  I probably had more than an half hour of conversation today with various colleagues about J.Simp versus A.Simp and what it really means to win a fugly-off.  I am no closer to figuring out how to explain who should win, but last year’s top two might give you an idea.  It’s fantastic.

Inspiration

I think this video makes it clear why I admire Yvon Chouinard so much.  He certainly makes me want to get out there and do something.

One Minute

I’m totally loving “Minute To Win It,” the new NBC show.  I really don’t like television and wish I never watched it (darn you, Internet!), so I could do without the drama of the show, but the games they came up with are so fun!

I am already planning my MTWI party and which ones to use for Faculty Fun at work.  Check out the games here.

Bring It Back

Here's a story about one of my mentees, M. He is awesome. For example, when he brought in personal items for his Tuesday Talk (every Tuesday, one mentee brings in about 8 things that speak to who they are and are important to them), he brought a Frank Sinatra CD because "he's the greatest singer and none of you should think otherwise"...and then we played the CD and everyone danced to "Come Fly With Me."

This was overheard in Geometry during a group test:

M (to I): Do you have an MC Hammer alarm clock? [pause] ... because I do.

I: [gives him a funny look]

M: You can just wake up and be like '2 legit, 2 legit 2 quit!' [starts dancing]

Happy Pi Day

I love Pi Day.   I don’t really like the spring ahead when I can’t sleep in, but I know I’ll be excited about daylight on my ride home from work. 

Last night, I went to the first installment of Supper Club.  We had dinner at a great Italian place in Oakland called Bellanico.  It was quite tasty.  Their focaccia is just like PB used to make, which is the best I’ve ever had.  After dinner, we went back to my friend’s house and I played Wii for the first time.  I am so bad at video games as I hardly played them as a kid, but had surprising skill at a game that involved pulling worms out from a rabbit’s teeth.  I stayed up too late for springing ahead.

At my school, when a student fails a test, we often ask them to revise.  I successfully revised my hemoglobin test and was able to donate blood yesterday.  That’s my first donation of 2010 (as I donated on the penultimate day of 2009).  I’m hoping to donate at least four times in 2010.  It seems that I’ll have to wait a bit longer than 8 weeks between donations, as I think running and biking slows the turn around.

Cyclelicious had a perfect post today about Einstein’s birthday.  Check it out.

And here's Mean Girls set to Disney scenes:

Spring Ahead, Stay Ahead

I went to college with a guy named Osama.  He was a generally positive and upbeat guy.  He was the first baseman on the baseball team and talked everyone through the game.  My favorite thing he would say (which I know many players say, but you have to know how much this guy said during each game to fully grasp this) was “get ahead, stay ahead.”  That was to the pitcher after they threw a strike.  They were ahead (closer to an out than the batter to a walk) and I loved Osama’s encouragement.

In other things I like…

There’s a blog I love called “I’m Bringing Blogging Back.”  The guy who writes it single-handedly keeps me watching The Hills.  I don’t know whether to love him or hate him.  Well…I love him because he is so darn funny.  I am crying right now because I was just laughing so hard.  At what?  His “Am I Wrong” posts.  Here’s a relevant example.

But first: I hate the r-word.  In fact, I kicked a kid out of class today for using it and was so mad I could hardly speak to him in the hallway.  I hate when smart kids use that word.  They have no idea what the world is like for other people.  So, I apologize for that word here.  Deeply, truly.  But, I am not one to edit the genius.

I love people who have no clue what to do when it comes to Daylight Savings Time. You would think this is the first time they’ve ever had to change their clocks back an hour. Clearly it must be the end of the world. Then you always get that smart ass that says things like “It’s 10:00, but it’s really like it’s 11:00.” Yup, it is….except that it isn’t. That’s like saying “It’s Monday, but it’s really like it’s Sunday.” Yeah, it is…if it was yesterday. However my absolute favorite is the people who end up late to work on Monday after Daylight Savings Time. Are you kidding? You’re late? You know you had to turn your clocks back on Sunday at 2am? So basically you went ALL of Sunday “forgetting” to change your clock back? Your cell phone didn’t update itself to tip you off? You didn’t notice all day that everything you wanted to watch on TV you missed? Oh, did you miss the sun going down an hour early? Really? All those clues you didn’t pick up on? Yeah, you should be late to work. Oh, you’re also retarded. Am I wrong?

Read more Am I Wrong? to get you through the day.

I Like The Way You Work It

The Centrum
December 27, 1996
My first concert ever.
Blackstreet opened for the home state reunion of New Edition.
This brings it all back.

Cover by the Klaxons.

Brown and Education

Last night, I met my good friend from childhood, KL, for dinner in The City.  We went to farmerbrown, a cute little comfort food spot off Market in SF.  I had mac and cheese and a salad.  I actually couldn’t take more than three bites of the mac and cheese, it was so rich.  It sure did taste good today though.  I definitely will have to return…except I’m not really eating meat.  It seems like I’d want fried chicken if I went back.

KL is one of those people who I’ve known for…well…16 years now.  That’s more than half my life.  I love friends like this…people that are just so easy to see and engage with again.  Kate and I got to talking about what’s next.  She’s in a one-year clerkship in SD and I’m…who knows, but I can’t figure it out.  One thing that’s so interesting is the number of people from my high school who are educators or who love school.  It’s nearly all my high school buddies.  That make me pretty happy.  It’s nice to grow up in a town where education is viewed so positively, even if some of us came late to the party.  Although, the lurking variable here is that I was a total nerd and pretty much hung out with total nerds.  No offense to my friends out there, but we weren’t deviants.

Three random things:

1. If I were to be on Twitter, I’d follow this guy.  Beware of the language.  But also, beware of the wet-your-pants funny stuff his dad says.

2. What was up with the Oscars?  So boring and dry.  Thank goodness for Sandra Bullock and Jeff Bridges.  Granted, I was only able to watch what little they put on the Internet, but what’s with the drab decor and awkward seating arrangements?  I know we’re at war and in a recession, but you’re supposed to be Hollywood!  T Bone Burnett also made it worthwhile to watch.

3. Watch Yvon Choinard, founder and owner of Patagonia, being awesome as usual.

What The Hail?

This just happened.  For about five minutes.  And now it’s perfectly sunny and blue-skied around here.  I feel like I live in New England again.

 

Looks pea-sized to me.

 

This is my lawn.  I’m sure it’s freaking out right now.

Testing Live Writer

At the encouragement of another blogger, I’m trying Windows Live Writer.  Apparently, this was already on my computer, but I’ve never tried it.

On today’s agenda:

Run
Clean Room
Use my new vacuum!
Dinner with KL

So far, all I’ve done is sleep and dream of Yosemite.

Here’s a shot of El Cap before the snow.

Best Wedding Ever

My destination wedding, er, school trip, was so fabulous. I don't know if I've ever had more fun with a group of students. And, like a wedding, it went by way too fast, I didn't have enough time with everyone, and I am really sad that it's over. Going back to school on Tuesday is going to be a big letdown.

We drove, caravan style, with lots of parents volunteering themselves for three days of fun in the Sierra Nevadas. Wednesday morning, I awoke to the sound of pouring rain. We drove the all-year highway, that was completed in 1926. When it was finished, visitor to Yosemite went through the roof, coupled with affordable vehicles. I can only image that the steep numbers only lasted a few years. I have never made this drive and I'm so glad I did. It was GORGEOUS...as are all routes to Yosemite. This one was a nice, gentle climb into the valley.

When we arrived, it was still raining, but there were moments of snow in the air, only to end up in puddles on the ground.

But, as you can see, the ladies in their Sorels loved it. Note what the ground looks like now.

Some rangers gave us a walking tour of the valley...mostly to Lower Yosemite Falls. I actually didn't go on this tour, as I was coordinating with parents and figured out the room situation. I had asked for the boys and girls to be separated, it didn't quite turn out that way. So, I sat in my car, dividing up the girls and boys, while the rain turned to snow.

I don't have pictures of the epic snowball fight that happened after I handed out keys to the cabins. I love snowball fights...especially when I'm wearing waterproof gear and I don't get hit in the face. It's the worst when you get hit in the face with a snowball. I think half of the senior class was running around, throwing snow, while the white stuff just kept dumping down.

It's also hilarious to see high school boys get so excited about throwing a snowball at their math teacher. What they don't realize is that a) it doesn't phase me and b) I will toss 'em right back. Which is exactly what I did. Best school day ever!

That night, we caught the bus over to dinner. Turns out that our bus driver went to one of the high schools in our district and the founding family of Curry Village went to another one. When I got there, I realized I forgot my computer to show a movie about Hetch Hetchy. So, I got back on the bus. Then on the bus, I realized that another teacher had the speakers. So, I wasn't going to be able to get those. 70 minutes later, I was back with the kids and they were restless. The movie showing a bust, we sent the girls on the first bus, so that the boys could help put chains on the parents' cars. I hadn't eaten yet, so I sat down with my food and demanded some company.

Here I am with the boys.

I was in the middle of about five conversations, one of them being about how we lost time in our day due to the Chilean earthquake. These boys love their Physics. One of my students asked me, with a worried look, how many things could he study in college. I told him it depended on time and money and he looked really sad. Turns out, he loves my Stats class so much that he wants to fit it in among Polish and music. This same student told me that the study trip was the best ever and if they had to go home that night, it still would have been the best. The boys and I played an epic game of Would You Rather? I was involved to keep this game PG, and it was mostly about how you wanted to die (remember, all the girls were back at the ranch).

We went home and put the kids to bed. Have I mentioned that I love my kids? They are really just so wonderful. Sure, they don't view us teachers as supreme beings to be respected at all times like I did my teachers, but they are ever so sweet and they've grown up so much in the time I've known them.

On Thursday morning, I awoke and dressed to run. It was sunny and a Winter Wonderland. Of course, no matter how early you wake up, someone is going to be awake. The view of Half Dome was the best I've seen...the light was perfect! When I got back to the cabins, I put on the snowshoes for a jaunt around in the snow.

When I got back from my run, more kids were out and about.

When we arrived, the ground was just dirt. Can you believe the difference? Some of them have never been in snow and many haven't been in snow as it's fallen. Apparently, Yosemite gets snow like this about twice a year. I can't believe we got to see it.

Snowball throwing resumes.

You can see here that we stayed in the cabins at Curry Village. I've only ever stayed in the canvas tent cabins and this was a treat. Heated with a bathroom and lots of space. This was a phenomenal venue for our trip. It was also easy to keep the kids in their rooms given the snow and the threat of bears.

We checked out on Thursday morning and headed to the Ansel Adams gallery for our photography walk. We heard a bit about Adams and then went to walk with our cameras. It was bright and sunny and just gorgeous.

I loved this scene of some deer just lounging.

E. walks in Cook's Meadow under a shrouded Half Dome.

Gabe, our guide, explains some technical photography skills to my photography loving students.

Gabe was awesome. He lives nearby and spends his time photographing, hiking, and climbing. My kids were most impressed with his beard, which took about two months. They attempted Novembeard and had no success.

I wish I had taken this picture at 7am when I saw it on my run. Everything was golden in color.

After our photography tour, we had lunch and some talks. We first heard from a ranger on the topic of Hetch Hetchy. I do not keep it a secret that I think the dam at Hetch Hetchy should be removed. I was impressed that the discussion was about the history and the pros and cons. it's tough when you come from a place where most of our yummy water is a result of the dam, but I don't really understand the dam. We also heard from two rangers who work on minority outreach. One of my colleagues heard a story on NPR and we contacted the park to see if we could chat with him. Somehow, it all worked out and it was amazing.

We had about an hour of free time after the talks before heading out of the valley.

A bunch of us went on a hike to the Spider Caves underneath Yosemite Falls.

From the Valley, we were off to the park's edge. We had dinner in the gateway town of Oakhurst. The pizza we ate had more cheese and grease than I've ever seen, but calories were welcome. We continued on to Tenaya Lodge, a resort-like spot in the mountains. We had amazingly comfortable rooms, a pool and spa area, ice skating, fire places, and a spinning (fake) raccoon in the lobby.

Yeah...we had fun on the skates.

R. is a skater. It's crazy to watch someone who is so comfortable on skates.

We met after the skating closed and got our kids ready for bed. I definitely did one of those mental pictures as I stood in front of 93 of the best students I've ever taught and just took it all in. I really didn't want it to end. I spent some time hanging with some girls in the lobby in front of the fire and enjoying time with my fellow faculty. Did I tell you that I had a plate of fruit and chocolate in my room to welcome me. And my bed was turned down with chocolate on the pillow. Sometimes it pays to be the one doing all the work to set up our destination wedding.

For some bizarre reason, I like doing the room checks at night. It reminds me of my times as a cabin mom at camp, getting to tuck kids in and wish them sweet dreams. Although this time, it turned into me running around the hotel filling vending machine orders. We didn't want our kids roaming the halls after room checks had started, but didn't want them being grumpy either. So, I collected money and orders and then went wandered around finding the vending machine that worked. This meant a conversation that involved a lot of saying "No" on my part (to questions like: can I get some spaghetti, is there asparagus in the vending machine, can you just pick something for me). High school boys are exasperating sometimes. In one room, I went in to take an order and ended up getting in a deep discussion with some kids (including our Finnish exchange student) about why they had to be in their rooms at 10:30pm (same kid who said, "your eyes are pretty red"...I told you!). I haven't done a lot of these school trips, so I don't know, but 10:30 seems plenty late to me. But, my students are raised to question politely. So, we had a really thoughtful and good talk about responsibility. This is when I most appreciate teaching seniors. Meanwhile, in the hall, my colleague had heard me talking in the room and said, "I think there's a girl in the boys' room." I came out just before he was about to barge in.

Buffet breakfast on Friday!

These kids were up way before me and they had already stuffed themselves. We had a relaxing morning and didn't have to get up until 8. What a treat! After breakfast, we welcomed someone from Mariposa, another gateway town, to talk about what the experience is to live just outside the park. The guy we talked to was amazing - former National Park Deputy Supervisor, who oversaw coming back after the flood in 1997 and the purchase of the diesel hybrid shuttle buses for the valley. He is now on the Board of Supervisors in Mariposa...so he's seen the federal government side of things as well as the local government side. He had a great way of engaging our students and had so much knowledge about the park and surrounding communities. The students asked great questions about collaboration among the gateway towns, public transportation, and what the future might look like for the park. I was so impressed with their interest.

We made our way home, with that euphoric feeling of time well spent. It's pretty awesome that my job this week was to take my kids to Yosemite.

I had planned to stay in the park and ski, but I opted to sleep in my own bed and get sleep. I slept for about 12 hours on Friday night and then took a long nap in the afternoon. Lazy Saturday. Quite nice.

It's hard to believe that I only have two more months to teach these kids. That's the beauty of teaching and the curse.

You Must!!!

Watch the video at this link. In full spirit of Perez.