First, President Biden canceled student loan debt. Today he canceled students’ education. My daughter‘s class was canceled because POTUS spoke on her campus . . . Last year Scholastic struggled mightily delivering books. I know I stopped ordering from them because of the issues as did many others. Trying again this year. They offered a book for $1 I was interested in, but it was the week school opened. I asked to order the book today. Nope. Had to order last week. They are doing nothing to keep me as a customer and shill for their company . . . Trashed while writing lesson plans. I had to stop when I actually had to write new plans and not copy previous plans. It’s been a happy Sunday . . . Going through some photographs from several years ago of my classroom. I’ve always wondered what happened to a rules poster I had. I think I came up with the solution to the mystery, but it puts a former colleague in an unflattering light. I need to just drop it . . . A couple moths ago I was all aflutter about lockpicking. The adrenaline passed. Just now I thought of that. Glad I didn’t immerse into that . . . Saw Yes is coming to the Keswick next weekend. Good seats still available. I considered it. Then I thought, “Who is in the band these days?” Only Howe. Sure, Downes is there, but he is not Yes to me. I won’t drop $159 for this line-up (It looks like I already knew this) . . . A lot of vloggers seem to fall into the space of providing permission for their viewers to do things. It seems quite odd to me as I do not need permission from someone who does not know me to do something . . . Recently, I taught a lesson to my students about greetings. Ove the last several years I have noted that children do not respond when one greets them. This year I am mandated to greet my students at the door each morning. I grew tired of students walking past me not even making eye contact let alone returning the greeting. Now they do! . . . Had a great week in the classroom. It seems like once the child who should have been in third grade was moved, things became good . . . Clear the blog project and then see what interests me; maybe I don’t need another project/activity. That thought made me smile . . .
Hispanic Heritage Read Aloud
Posting this here since my school has made it clear that nothing I submit will ever be posted.
October is Hispanic Heritage month. We had a slew of guest readers in our building today. We were fortunate to have our superintendent read to our class. I took a lot of photographs. I submitted those photographs within an hour of the event. The superintendent was still in the building.
Tonight many photographs were posted to the school’s Facebook page of guest readers. None of my photographs were used . . . again.
Yeah, it’s willful.
This has been going on for years. I attempted again this year. My first couple times were ignored. I begged off. I thought the superintendent was enough of a draw to overcome the obvious bias against me. I was wrong.
It’s fine. I know where I stand and that’s good to know.
Indigenous People’s Day
For years, I struggled to find anything good to say regarding the Millville Public Library. The issues were numerous. At some point, things changed. I suspect it was when a new director was brought in.
My children and I began to hang out at the library. They were involved in many of the programs and I joined the adult book club. Eventually, I joined the poetry group as well. I even became a Friend of the Library
As the saying goes, what goes up, must come down. COVID hit, the country shut down, and all sorts of weird stuff happened. All that is over now, yet one must still wear a mask at the Millville Public Library. I do not attend any events there any longer. I refuse to mask up here.
Today, on Facebook, the Millville Public Library posted the above. I have no love for Columbus, but I recognize it is a federal holiday. Until it is changed, Columbus is the reason government shuts down on Monday.
But the Millville Public Library is woke. Masks and Indigenous People’s Day. I’m out! I no longer follow the library on social media and I still don’t participate in library events there. I want services, not politics.
Isn’t that how a library serves its people?
300,000 Things
The Minimalists have long cited that the average home has 300,000 items in it. Supposedly, this figure was once reported in the Los Angeles Times. Other bloggers have picked up on it.
I certainly do not know the methodology used to generate the number.
Assuming it is an accurate number, I would say the house was at least average (if not a little bit closer to Lake Wobegon). If we were to divide the 300,000 items equally among the four folks who lived there, my share would have been 75,000 items. Perhaps that isn’t fair. While it seemed the children had excessive numbers of items, they didn’t have pots and pans, window lights, Christmas trees, etc. Nevertheless . . .
Currently, I own 441 items.
- 75.000-441=74,559
- (74,559/75,000)*100=99.41%
That would indicate that I got rid of 99.41% of all my possessions.
Perspective
As I re-build this blog, several things have become much clearer to me.
I’ve noted that each time I get to a new activity, I become excited and want to delve back into it. A year ago I was all aflutter with homebrewing. I just ended a set of cocktails. I offloaded the electronics I once again purchased. Quest Scouts had to be left again. I joined a Toastmasters Facebook group recently.
But as read all the posts from those activities, more times than not, I have documented why the activity ultimately failed for me.
Part of me has been thinking about rejoining Toastmasters. That won’t be happening. I’ve hit the posts that nail all the struggles with the group and I haven’t even gotten to Pathways yet. I don’t want to immerse myself into this mess again.
I have so much happiness watching Fritz read the comics he is into. I want to share that enthusiasm with him. But as I have found over and over, superhero comics are not my thing. And that, dear reader, is okay. I don’t have to read along with him for him to enjoy.
On the relationship end, it is clear that the marriage was horrific. I documented more than I thought I had. There are forgotten episodes that highlight the issues repeatedly. Seeing it all displayed as one story really tells the tale. Life is better now.
Batman: Hush #1 Batman Day Special Edition #1: 2022
Batman: Hush #1 Batman Day Special Edition #1: 2022 by Jeph LoebMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
We picked this up on Batman Day. I have not read Hush yet, so this is my introduction. Interesting story. I like that Poison Ivy is incorporated into this. Som eof the art is appealing, but the overall look and feel is not my style.
Looking forward to read this series when I get to it.
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Batman’s Mystery Casebook (2022) #1: Batman Day Special Edition
Batman’s Mystery Casebook (2022) #1: Batman Day Special Edition by Sholly FischMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Picked this up on Batman Day. While I do not see reading much of this line, this was a fun read, particularly the Riddler section. Fun stuff and cutely designed. I enjoyed it.
There was an introduction to Jeff Brown’s Batman, Robin & Howard. I was less impressed with that. Brown seems to have a knack for this YA genre (I enjoyed the Star Wars Academy stuff he did(, but this doesn’t hold promise from my seat.
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Chicago in NYC
A week or so ago I was looking at going to see the Gazillion Bubble Show in New York. Because of the time it shows, I thought I could add on a Broadway show. I asked Fritz if there was a show he was interested in. He selected Chicago, the second longest run in New York history (Phantom is #1). Somewhat surprisingly, Fritz wasn’t interested in the bubble show.
Today was the day. Much like when Beetle and I saw Beetlejuice in June, Fritz and I drove to Hamilton Station and took the train into Penn Station. It was overcast today. We were not certain about rain.
We walked the few blocks to Midtown Comics. We were there about 10 minutes before it opened. The heavens opened. This would affect things. I dropped some cash on three hardback Batman books for Fritz (The Killing Joke, The Long Halloween, and Dark Victory). We arranged to leave the books there and pick them up after the show so we wouldn’t have to carry them around all day.
Fortunately, the rain lightened up by the time we left. We walked the couple blocks to the Hard Rock Cafe. In keeping with the rest of his immediate family, Fritz loves to repeat what he has done before. I did not like the table next to the kitchen or the inconsiderate guy who sat behind me who kept his chair about two feet from his table, thus crushing me. Asshole! Our waiter did not come to our table for 11 minutes. Once he did, all flowed all right. The bun on the burger reminded me of Sonic’s, which is to say I did not care for it at all. We were near the Fillmore section and the bass guitars. I was impressed with Bill Wyman’s Doug Armstrong transparent guitar. It was purported to have been played at Altamont, but I haven’t seen evidence of that. There was a John Entwistle, Leland Sklar, and Gene Simmons bass in the area too.
The rain had stopped while we dined. We then walked to Times Square and scouted out where the Ambassador Theatre is. Yes, it’s right there. We enjoyed the sights and ended up at m&m World. Fritz really liked this store. Lots of junk and overpriced candy. We were trying to figure out if mini m&ms have truly been discontinued since we can’t get them anymore. They have not. I said we could return after the show to get some. Then we went to CVS because Fritz couldn’t believe there was an escalator in it. We also found our bags of mini m&ms for a lot less than m&m World.
We walked around a bit more before Fritz suggested we sit some before the show. We went to the Celtic Pub and sat at the upstairs bar. Fritz had water and I had a Manhattan. It was the waitress’s first day and she had questions. I ordered it with the one rye they had, Few. Well, there was a lounge singer and we enjoyed ourselves. Fritz wanted a second water, so I had a second Manhattan. When it came time to pay, I put out two $20 bills. Fritz took one. I said that if he did, there wouldn’t be enough to pay for the two drinks. Well, two $20s wasn’t enough either. The bill came to $42. Ouch! They weren’t even great Manhattans. I didn’t see the vermouth used, but I know it wasn’t Antica Formula Carpano. And they were served with the candy Maraschino cherry. 🙁
Then it was time for the show. We got in. It is a small theatre. We had front row seats. I wasn’t certain of the logistics, so I ordered the end seat instead of the dead center. Those seats were left empty. They would have been fine. So were our seats. 🙂
Broadway raises the talent. No issues at all with the acting. Well done!
There was no set, however. The orchestra was on stage. All acting was in front of the orchestra, but other than dropping a shiny curtain for one scene, there were no sets at all. It seemed a bit strange.
The girls were scantily dressed. Well, so were the men, I guess. The girls were pleasant to see. We thoroughly enjoyed the show!
We returned to CVS and m&m World. Fritz got a bucket of custom m&ms that had the Phillies logo, Robert the Great, Chicago, and New York printed on m&ms he selected. It was really neat, but expensive as hell. I’ll never do that again. 😉
We returned to Midtown Comics to pick up the books, and then walked back to Penn Station. Perfect timing as we walked right onto the express train and made it back to Hamilton Station much faster than it took to get us into the city.
We had a grand day. We were both wiped out and crashed early. Nothing better than time with family and enjoying the day.
Light Experiment
Sunlight takes 8.5 minutes to reach Earth. Once it does, it transforms. Students conducted an experiment to see the result of light energy. They placed objects on a piece of construction paper. After three days, we predict the paper will fade. We’ll test that by removing the objects. If the paper beneath where the objects were is the original color, we will prove our hypothesis.
Fun times!
Empress 1908 Aviation
Now with The Unforgettables done, it is time to try a few other cocktails that interest me. I purchased a bottle of Empress 1908 gin a while ago. I cracked it open tonight.
My return to the bar was centered around The Aviation cocktail. I like Aviations, but the Last Word is the winner for me. Nevertheless, I wanted to try Aviations with the purple gin. 🙂 It is indeed pretty. I don’t taste anything different. It’s an expensive bottle of gin just for color, but since I have it, I’ll use it. 🙂