davewalker's Journal

11:24PM - Road Trip!

I haven't updated my LJ in six months . . . oops. . .

Planning on a road trip to Colorado for the FCD/Rapids playoff game.

If I can get a second mortgage on my house for gasoline.

Current mood: tired

Current music: Watching "The Young Ones"

9:55AM - Oops.

MudPoet reminded me, at the Dallas/Chicago game the other week, that I NEVER update my live journal. It always slips my mind, because I mostly blog on DaveTown.

But, MudPoet is my hero, because he glued Bull Horns to his head for the game, and then couldn't get them off again without much pain, suffering and disfigurement. I'm still waiting on someone to send pictures of that.

The Dallas/Chicago game was a blast. Mike Segroves and I left Oklahoma City around 3:30 and made it to the Cotton Bowl in time to do a little tailgating with the Inferno. I love those folks. They always treat me like family, even though I only make it to a few games a year. We yelled our heads off all through the game, which Dallas won 2-1. After that, more tailgating, more Tecate, and then a LOOOOOOOOOOOONG drive home. I pulled into Edmond just as the sun was rising, then went to bed. Can't ask for a better weekend than that.

Well, I guess I could ask for a better weekend with that, but it would require lots of money and  . . .

You know now that I think of it, I don't need to tell everything, do I?

Current mood: tired

11:19AM

Well, I'm getting back into the habit of going to the gym. Mostly because Shelly comes over in the morning and goes with me. It's a great way to start the day. Seeing her early and working out together. I really do have more energy throughout the day as a result. I'm not sure if it's the exercise, or the joy of seeing Shelly before the sun is even up.

Either way, I likes it.

Current mood: awake

Current music: Tchaikovsky (1812 Overture)

2:57PM - Problems With Public Education: Part II

The mandatory, punitive nature of Public Education is a problem. There is no way to kill the joy and wonder of a topic than by making it a chore. It should, by all that is right in the world, be IMPOSSIBLE to make learning burdensme for children. There is no way that learning to read should be a chore. There is no way that learning to write should be a topic of dread amongst children. Yet it happens every day.

We herd children into small spaces, make them sit still and quiet, and just when they're getting settled in to whatever is going on, we stop them abruptly and tell them to go somewhere else. We judge everything they do with an arbitrary number or letter, and if it's the wrong one we tell them they are "failing" or they are "disabled". We reduce literature to chunks of contextless excerpts then demand answers to contextless questions written by strangers. We force the ones who don't want to be there to be there, which makes the ones who want to be there wish they were somewhere else.

If we were starting from scratch, we would NEVER design a system that resembles what we have now.

I would hope.

2:22PM - The Journal of Depressing Poetry Presents: "Ghosts"

My ex-wife is still alive, but yet she haunts me. I haven't seen her nor spoken to her for years, but still she haunts me. She's happily remarried and has children, but still she haunts me. She doesn't mean to, but she does. She'd be horrified to learn of it (she wishes me no ill at all), but still, I'm haunted.

She slips into my thoughts when I'm not expecting her; she invades my dreams, dangling reconciliation before me like a carrot in front of a mule (or is it a stick, I can never tell), and each time it blows up in my face. She appears unbidden in songs, commercials, and old pictures that pop up unannounced during spring cleaning. Sometimes when I drive through certain neighborhoods, she's out in the middle of the street, pointing out how much the Bradford Pears have grown.

Sometimes I conjure her up myself, mostly when I start to feel good about myself. I make her appear to remind me I'm a failure at the most important things. She'd hate that; that's not how she sees it. Just me.

10:16AM

Problems With Public Education: Part I

The rhetoric one hears in staff meetings and from administrators has to do with being student-centered, developing thinking human beings, improving character, yaddayaddayadda. The reality is that our one and only priority is increasing standardized test scores from year to year. Every second of every day is to be dedicated to no other purpose, we are told. Now, either someone is deliberately trying to pull the proverbial wool over the someone's eyes, or someone really believes that standardized test scores are an accurate indicator of the quality of one's education. Both alternatives are disturbing in the extreme.

8:24AM - Oops.

I haven't been updating my LJ, but I'm going to try to pick it back up.

School has started, and I'm enjoying teaching 6th grade. I'm still looking for a new career, however. Mostly because my philosophical differences with the people who run public education are just too severe for me to stand anymore. Also because I'm broke.

I'll vent further upon the subject of educational philosophy and the state of public education more this weekend. Or next week. Or sometime in the future. Really, I will.

2:09PM - BiPolarism and Housecleaning

I mentioned to my friend Bryan that I have been on a real productivity jag this summer while on vacation. I've cleaned out my garage and my closet, I've organized my desk and file cabinet, have made my bed everyday, kept the dishes washed, the kitchen clean and general housecleaning has taken place. I've also taken up a regimen of exercise that I've kept up with for the last month.

Knowing of my battles with depression, he took this as proof that I'm actually bi-polar, not depressive. I have to disagree, unless it's a recent onset bipolar condition, as I've never been this consistently productive until this summer. But if he is correct, I can only accept my new found bipolarity with joy. Truly. Until now I've just been constantly depressed, with nothing to show for it. At least if I'm now bipolar, I'll lose weight and have a clean house.

You gotta take what you can get in this life, ya know?

Current mood: okay

Current music: Say The Word by Fetchin' Bones

8:55PM

The YMCA thing is going well. I've worked out every day but one since the 23rd. All that jazz about exercise being an antidepressant is actually true, as it turns out.

Huh.

Current mood: relaxed

12:45PM

I took the plunge this week and bought a membership to the YMCA. Now I have no excuse whatsoever not to exercise on a regular basis.

What was I THINKING???

Current mood: hungry

2:45PM

I changed my internet browser to Mozilla Firefox this week, and I'm never going back to IE. It's an utterly superior browser, with lots of bells and whistles, and without the security issues of IE.

Current mood: awake

Current music: Wild Weekend by NRBQ

10:45AM

My DirecTV/Tivo box gave up the ghost this morning. They're sending me a new one. It will be here in 2-3 business days.

Mustn't panic. Must . . . stay . . . calm . . .

Current mood: calm

Current music: RC Cola and a Moon Pie by NRBQ

3:29PM

I had lunch with a former student today. I taught her in 5th grade, she's now 19, an Army nurse, an ROTC cadet, and a college student. Top notch kid. She spent some time last year in Germany taking care of wounded soldiers from the Iraq war. It was tough duty, but she's a tough kid. Capable, level-headed. The kind of kid that makes you think the future just might work out OK after all, if we get enough young people like her running things.

Current mood: okay

Current music: Song: Twilight Zone Band: Golden Earring

10:59PM - Kitty Illiteracy

I think Tiger (one of my cats) resents the fact that I can read and he can't. Invariably, he will react to my opening a book or magazine by jumping between me and the text and demanding attention.

I'm not sure what his problem is. It's not my fault he can't read. And even if he could, his glaring lack of opposable thumbs would keep him from ever being able to properly handle a book or magazine, much less a newspaper.

Current mood: sleepy

10:28PM

Current mood: tired

Current music: Born To Lose by the Heartbreakers

10:06PM - Cheap

Being the big spender I am, I plunked five bones to be a PAID member of LJ.

For two months.

That way if I never use this thing, I'm only out the price of an airport coffee.

9:56PM

I downloaded Semagic to make it easier to use livejournal.

Current mood: tired

9:43PM

I'm not sure quite why I need a livejournal. I have several blogs already. I'm basically doing this out of boredom and curiosity. If it's easy to use and I remember maybe I'll journal throughout the day. Someday, if I play my cards right, I'll be the 21st Century Pepys.

Or something.