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Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
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6:29 pm - Spies Like Heche
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Last night, I took a ride with my best friend. I remembered who was wearing the trousers.
During our trip in the car the KNX came on to tell us the outcome of the election in Massachusetts. I should only speak for myself, but I am going to go out on a limb to say that she was just as equally disappointed by what we heard on the radio.
My soapbox is only as spongue (yes, spongue) as my loofa, so I will try to make this as clear as possible:
I was really disturbed to hear the content of the chanting in the background of the Scott Brown victory rally at the GOP Death Star in Couriscant, MA. It didn't really sound like the "sigh of relief" that I keep reading about because now the imperial council is filibuster-proof. Instead, it sounded like the taunting that I hear on a daily basis as a high school teacher. In fact, today when I had to reprimand a basketball player in my Business Math class for calling one of the 'out' kids in class a "faggot", I could not help but think back to the background noise I keep hearing every time I hear the Sr. Brown speak on the radio.
The GOP is being played out in the media as a bunch of teenagers running around with Political Hardons. I mean, their new figurehead was made into an adult movie character played by Lisa Ann, famous for her classical training at the Royal Chatsworth Academy of Mastication. I bet Nailin Palin is much classier than how the GOP is portraying themselves in the public.
I guess I'm not too surprised. I am, however, extremely worried about what this means for the GOP as well as the American political landscape. Since the 2008 Election, the GOP (which I think stands for GRAND OLD PARTY) is portrayed as a bunch of spoiled children. I don't know if it's the media, the channels I watch a lot (NBC, CNN, FOX... Sundays are great!) but if the people in this country who vote support this type of taunting, then we are a country full of Jay Cutlers and Philip Riverses.
Spies Like Us is on.
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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| Monday, January 18th, 2010
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7:45 pm - The Fall of Because
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I know at times it's pretty lame to borrow the title of songs, or use ones that I may have used a million times before, but it is the only thing I could think of at this juncture to describe what I am about to post.
I haven't spent much (if any) time using the LJ for the past few years. In fact, the last time I posted an entry was Christmas Eve of 2008, when Walmart scrooged an unemployed exec who gave out gift cards.
Since that last post, a lot has changed both in my life and in the world. I will start out with my own life.
I am currently a Math Teacher at a high school in Los Angeles. I am a special ed math teacher for kids with Mild to Moderate learning disabilities in an extremely low income neighborhood, which sits in the middle of one of the richest cities in America. Most people aren't aware that this city, famous for the flowers, hides a dirty little secret that they bury in the high school which I teach at. I am doing this through Teach For America, which was an organization that I had a love/hate relationship with, but now love them dearly.
I am getting my Masters in Special Education from a Jesuit Catholic College that is famous for its radio station as well as being a place where Catholic kids go to mate. In fact, my parents met at this school in the 70s and were married at the chapel. I lived there during the summer when I taught Algebra 2 at a summer school in Inglewood as part of Teach For America's intense summer training.
I love teaching Special Education. I never would have considered this as a profession before Teach for America, but at this stage I love teaching kids with LDs. Teaching them math is an adventure too; most of them do not understand basic number sense, but teaching them these skills is one of the more rewarding things I have done thus far in my life.
One of the hardest things to remember as a Special Ed teacher is that even though the majority of my students look and act like your typical All-American student, they need differentiation within their instruction, and require A LOT more in the way of individualized teaching and attention. I have no clue what is happening in our neighborhood, but the word coming from the middle-schools is that next year we are going to see a substantial increase in high-school students with LDs. I wonder if ADHD is related to the availability of the internet and wireless devices with 24-7 communication and instant gratification.
Speaking of which: I got an iPhone for XMAS from my loved one. As a borderline luddite I was at first totally resistant to having the information device because I didn't want to lose my ability to recall facts and information as a conversational skill due to laziness. Luckily, I have only installed 3 total apps (2 of which were installed by El at a party, 1 I DL'd for teaching) and just use it mainly as a phone and an IPOD.
Scrabble on the iPhone is driving me nuts. I went to a birthday party for a friend at a restaurant a couple weeks ago. At one point during the evening, everyone at the table except for me was on their iPhone, and the majority of them were making Scrabble moves. Were it not my manfriend's birthday party I would have made a bigger stink.
Twitter is cool I guess, but I still am not grasping the importance of it. 140 characters makes a man/woman I suppose, but it still seems limiting for the cathartic thought process. I mean, I understand that no one has time to read an entry like this, but you can still spend 5 minutes to make a single scrabble move?
ADHD, and other attention disorders may spike in the next few years. I also believe that illiteracy will increase as well. When kids started texting at the record rates a few years back, the contraction as a literary device itself became a contraction. Now, as an educator, I am experiencing the fallout from that. At our school literacy is a HUGE problem, and our district is talking about closing down every library for budget cuts AGAIN. However, in order to continue to get funding from the state we need more kids to be literate according to the standardized test scores. Huh?
As I write this, the banner ad to the right side of this text editor sells the following:
"A better job. A better salary. And gaming perks unlimited. www. video-game- schools. com"
I guess that in order for me to happier, kids need to learn to read, my friends needs to stop using their time to create words for scores, and I am becoming an old fart because I'm not seeing the solution that is in front of me this whole time: get my students to start playing Scrabble.
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(10 comments | comment on this)
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| Wednesday, December 24th, 2008
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10:05 am - Walmart Scrooges unemployed exec's gift card giving spree.
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SERIOUSLY FOLKS?!?!?!
Walmart booted this guy from giving the love, basing their decision on the safety issue due to the trampling of an employee on Black Friday .
What kills me about this is that the cards would have been spent at the store, I assume pretty quickly. The man giving them out, Garry Goldberg, is an unemployed dude who wanted to spread the holiday joy even though he himself is UNEMPLOYED.
Come on folks. Spread the love.
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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| Monday, December 15th, 2008
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9:15 pm
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| Monday, November 24th, 2008
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9:47 am - Larry Summers?
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| Sunday, September 28th, 2008
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8:53 pm - Afghan Whigs
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| Friday, September 26th, 2008
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5:57 pm - Twitter.
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I changed my LSAT date to February 9th. SO, as I promised, I set up a Twitter account last night.
look up - buntos .
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Wednesday, September 24th, 2008
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12:11 am - Minor Fugazi.
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FYI.
Ian Mackaye will be speaking at a Q&A at UC Irvine on Oct 21st.
Don't know about whether it will be free or not. I can carpool people (free parking if you carpool with me) but I really think it will be an awesome speaking engagement.
+3 Songs.
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, September 18th, 2008
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5:19 pm
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I finally gave in:
Instructions:
Take a picture of yourself right now.
Don't change your clothes, don't fix your hair - just take a picture.
Post that picture with NO editing.
Post these instructions with the picture.
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, September 12th, 2008
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5:04 pm - Corn Refiners Association
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One of the funnier commercials I have seen in recent times has been the commercials about high fructose corn syrup (or as I have shorted it to: HiFCS, you can pronounce that however you want to. I pronounce it High-Fuxx). In the two commercials I have seen, there are parties who are usually about to eat or drink a device that is unnaturally colored (such as the colorful punch from the grocery store or a popsicle) and the person who is questioning the use of high fructose corn syrup at a loss for why they shouldn't succumb to the power of it.
The defense given by the pusher of the high fructose sweet baton (as in the case of the popsicle commercial) is that if you don't know what's wrong with it, then you shouldn't deny the HiFCS.
In the commercial where the white lady at the kids party is questioning the large black lady about feeding the kids purple juice because of her responsibility to children's health, the purple juice slinger states that HiFCS is better for the children because it has less artificial ingredients and less sugar in it.
Personally, I think that this is total shit. I have my reasons, and I personally do ingest items that have HiFCS in them, but I try not to if I can help it (read: if I can afford to pay more at the time for organic soda, or it is readily accessible.) What is bothering me the most is that the reasoning they are using isn't unlike big tobacco.
In addition, it reminds me of an LSAT question about things being natural because they were made from petroleum, which at one point came from organic fossil fuels. With that kind of reasoning, I could possibly get away with eating nachos from 7-11 (yum) and tell Elan that I am eating natural foods. Take that you hippies!
No but seriously folks: I am not trying to tell you how to raise your kids, how to feed them, or what to tell the lady feeding purple juice to the future of our country. I am just saying that deception comes in many forms. For all I know, the corn refiners association could be the ones telling the truth, and that maybe childhood obesity comes from other sources like same-sex marriage or multiracial coupling.
Maybe I am biased because I can never eat corn again in my life without fear of death by sigmoid colon perforation But, big-corn seems pretty evil. And like the other necessary evils like Tobacco, Wal-Mart, GM, and the energy companies, we might have to compromise our own comfort to avoid these things from taking over our lives.
On a separate note, I want to stop the Freecreditreport.com commercials.
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(7 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, September 9th, 2008
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9:33 am - Best sports foxup this year:
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It would be awesome if Rosario Dawson was the one who actually caught the winning TD against the 'bolts.
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(5 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, September 4th, 2008
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9:43 am
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| Monday, August 18th, 2008
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7:39 pm - I said this before, and I am going to say it again:
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| Wednesday, August 6th, 2008
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10:10 pm - Somebody was just traded to New York:
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4:22 pm - Lollercoaster of Rove
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| Tuesday, July 15th, 2008
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11:20 pm - Pan Flute .
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I would buy a game called PANTS PANTS REVOLUTION if it involved a pair of spinning pants. I would never leave the house again because I would die of a mixture of laughter and manmusement.
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(5 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, July 3rd, 2008
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5:24 pm - Miner Update.
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I am still alive, I've just been laying low. High gas prices and stuff have been keeping the man down. Some things that are of notice:
1. Bush's Grilling Beans are made to spice up any barbeque!
2. It is nice to live in a place where most things are within walking distance. I have driven my car a total of two times this week. Both times were to go to the bank. I have been taking a walk after dinner every night this week. It has been bueno. Hopefully the fish will start jumping again in the bay.
3. Carm's Coneys on 17th and Irvine has really great food, awesome sweet potato fries, and $2 Firestone Honey Blond (12 oz), which has made it one of my favorite summer hangouts thus far. They love the Dodgers!
4. LSAT October 4th. I am taking 2 LSAT courses this summer: Test(es)masters Tuesdays/Fridays 10-2 PM, and Scoreitup starting in August. I had trouble with this decision, but am rolling the dice and hoping that the investment pays off, as it will help with me make that decision on where I end up for Law School.
5. Favorite new shows: Psych and Burn Notice. Psych has a lot of awesome obscure 80s references, and inside jokes that slay me. BUT, Burn Notice has BRUCE CAMPBELL! Not XENA era BRUCE CAMPBELL, but a mix of Evil Dead and older dude Bruce Campbell.
6. Chicago baseball teams.
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(5 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, June 26th, 2008
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9:06 am - On balls...
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In John Locke's "The Second Treatise of Civil Government", the word "balls" does not exist.
However, the word "nuts" is in the document two times.
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(comment on this)
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| Friday, June 20th, 2008
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4:51 pm
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| Saturday, June 14th, 2008
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12:27 pm - I don't like Mondays...
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