An old army buddy has gotten in touch with me. He is on a mission rebuilding a school with the Army in Baghdad. Long story short, he asked for care packages to help get the school going ( Read more... )

I finally had some of the materials I ordered come in. It wasn't much. But I no longer have to provide solely from the minuscule pencil box filled with half spent colored pencils to my students.

I had almost forgotten how in elementary and middle school, you also get Veterans Day off.

This has to be one of my favorite threads on Doonesbury. I kept the September 16 one because the last frame was simply brilliant. I think Gary Trudeau handled a very heavy topic with good humor and taste. Too many people face this sort of thing on a daily basis, and shouldn't have to.

I keep having a recurring theme in my dreams every so often. I am in a military setting, usually a drill hall, or the base in Baghdad wearing a mismatched or just really unsatisfactory uniform. Sometimes it is just my hairstyle not being military standard. Some higher up either from the company or some outside commander will come into the setting ( Read more... )

Watching a movie with some friends, there was a reference to exhaling slowly then pulling the trigger. The characters were practicing shooting, and one was a novice shooter. I explained to my friends who were also watching the movie how there is a natural pause in breathing after exhaling which is the optimum time to squeeze the trigger because you ( Read more... )

RECENT MEMORABLE DREAMS ( Read more... )

At work, I had two students leave the other teacher who is in charge of teaching theater. They came to my class. The had told me the other teacher told them if they didn't want to be there, that they shouldn't. What these two didn't tell me was how they were being grossly antagonistic, loud, rude, and disruptive. These two brought these behaviors ( Read more... )

This past weekend I volunteered to help out my old high school district’s Operation Snowball Retreat. It presented me with an opportunity to hang out with one of my favorite teachers in from high school, as well as mentor a handful of teenagers and make them feel good about themselves. I am always taken, as I was this weekend, by their candid ( Read more... )

I have had dreams with things exploding, or revolving around explosives ( Read more... )

So I found employment. It's part time work, but it is work, regardless.
I will be working as a teaching artist for the National Museum of Mexican Art. I have lesson plans to write and re-write. The challenge comes in creating an overarching theme for thirty weeks of instruction.