Miscellaneous Missives

2016 has come to an end.  Once again, I went back to blog posts (not as many this year) to summarize my year.  I realize this is a bit boring.  It's probably more for me than others.   January It seems in January (2016) I learned that MLK Jr. was a Cubs fan.  Perhaps this was the knowledge needed for the Cubs to win the World Series in 2016... just saying.  January also brought Wing Young Huie to my classroom.  He's back again for several days, so yesterday we emailed making plans.   February My blog doesn't really say much about February since I was doing the Lenten challenge.  It's full of pictures and poems matching the giving word.  My two favorites were snowshoeing and seeing Sherman Alexie.  He was hilarious!  I love him. March Oh no.  In March I talked about the word beloved for the Lenten challenge.  I hope this wasn't the same as blogging about MLK Jr liking the Cubs.  Maybe...

Although I'm thinking about trying some winter biking, in reality, I'll wait until next April when I'll bike all 30 days again.  This year, however, I surpassed my mileage from 2015.  My reading goal was to read 80 books in 2015, and I read 112.  Actually, I thought I read 106, but there were a couple that needed the end date in good reads.  Anyway, this fare exceeds my expectation for this year and next.  I don't think this will happen again.  To be honest, I'll set my goal at 80 or perhaps 90 again because it's realistic.   It's obvious that reading and biking took up a lot of my time in 2016.

How many times have I posted this video this year?  My guess is closer to five than one.  I've embedded and linked it.  Did I mention it's on my 2016 cycling playlist?  It's fitting for today's post since I finally watched Selma . My list today is not only the top nine movies of the year, but it is also ALL of the movies I watched this year.  Six of these have been watched in the last week.  To be honest, I am not a movie kind of person, but some of (most of) these are worth watching.  Most are also documentaries.  Once again, it's an alphabetical list. 13th I already posted about this movie. It talks about three strikes you're out, using prisoners as slaves for companies, and basically how the prison system has continued the slavery that the 13th Amendment made illegal.   Must Watch. 180º South Although this documentary is about a trek through Mexico and Chile, it's really about the devastation of taking away vast areas of countrie...

First, I MUST add another fiction book to the list.  I read it yesterday, so it belongs on the Top 5 Fiction list,   Homegoing  by Yaa Gyasi.   Brilliant!   I'm not quite sure why I though five was a good number for my top lists of 2016.  Perhaps I should have gone with ten.  Today's top five-ish (eight) list includes my best non-fiction.  This list seems to be mainly social justice type readings.  Once again the list is in alphabetical order.  I'm going to say most of these are not merely good reads but must reads. A Good Time for the Truth:  Race in Minnesota edited by Sun Yung Shin I heard about this book at a workshop put on by the Minnesota Writing Project.  It is a book everyone in Minnesota (the midwest) should read.  It is a compilation of essays about being a person of color in Minnesota.  In many ways it makes one realize that "Minnesota Nice" is another form of prejudice.  The authors of t...

Today I'm revisiting my top five-ish (seven but who's counting?) fiction books of 2016.  I actually finished one yesterday and added it to the list.  Once again, the books are listed in alphabetical order. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman I finished this book a couple of days ago.  Although everyone said I should read it, I wasn't interested reading about an old, crabby man who wants to commit suicide.  How can this be a good read?  It turned out to be the sweetest read of the year.  The book is entertaining and sincere.  All of the characters are captivating in their own way. Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson When I think of Jacqueline Woodson, I think of some of the best YA novels.  As soon as I noticed Another Brooklyn , I told the media specialist that she needed to order it.  It didn't take many pages before I contacted the media specialist to inform her it certainly wasn't a YA novel (although I think mature readers c...

Jason Reynolds at NCTE in Atlanta It's the last week of the year, and I plan to use this week to look back at the year.  Today I'm starting with my top five young adult reads for the year.  This are in alphabetical order.  It was difficult to narrow down to five, so I'm not going to try to narrow down to the best. Ready?! All American Boys by Jason Reynolds  Rashad is in the store getting a bag of chips when he trips over a lady and the chips end up in his bag.  He is a young black man who is now being roughed up and charged with theft.  The story unravels.  It's a great fictional look at race and the problems faced by young black men and their friends.  This realistic fiction novel could take place in any American town. I also read The Boy in the Black Suit and Ghost  (both by Reynolds) and highly recommend both.  They'd have made the list if it wasn't too long already. Lost in the Sun by Lisa Graff Trent is a young man w...

Merry Christmas!  The icy weather kept me home today, but it's proven to be a delightful Christmas.  During church today the message came from the book The Give-Away by Ray Buckley and a clip from It's a Wonderful Life .  Since I have a dog who may not remain behaved around the tree, I decided to watch It's a Wonderful Life while putting the Christmas decorations away and writing thank you notes.  Although I'm not sure why I've never seen this movie, it's been a delightful way to spend the afternoon.

I tried to use my free trial for Netflix using two different emails.  Both have already been used which is strange because I don't watch movies.  Several years ago when I had my hip surgery, I purchased a DVD player that connected to Neflix and the like.  Tonight I subscribed once again to Netflix.  It took awhile for me to get it all hooked up.  What channel do I use?  Oh, I need to turn on the cable box.  Oops, the batteries are dead.  Perhaps I should connect the HDMI cable to #2 instead of #1.  Anyway, I hooked it up and paid Netflix for a month (Let's hope I remember to cancel in a month.). Anyway, I'm watching 13th.  Anyone who has Netfix to watch it.  ANYONE!  Much of the information was also shared in The New Jim Crow (Read it.).  The documentary, however, is overwhelming.  People should be outraged.   This happens every day .

#bestChristmasgiftever December has been crazy, but one couldn't tell from my blog.  I'm not sure what happened, but I haven't posted since the fourth.  Since then my dad and I went to a basketball games in Ames, Iowa, I visited a friend in Okoboji (looked at goals from the past year, made some/kept some for the next year), and I attended a 75th birthday party for my dad.  Of course, I continued my teaching activities during these crazy weeks. This past week I spent three days of this past week making sure I spent times with friends in various locations drinking beer.  Yesterday was the last day before winter break.  Students had a rough draft of their fable due.  Since we were going to get 6-8" of snow, I told them I would probably be stuck home grading their rough drafts, so they should have them ready for me to grade.  Unfortunately, I had a couple beers at happy hour then returned home to light a couple of candles and read.  I'm guessin...

Yesterday's word was breathe and today's word is love.  How many times, in this space, have I mentioned I love the song Just Breathe by Pearl Jam?  It's certainly one of my faves. Yesterday my dad and I went to Ames, Iowa for an Iowa State Women's basketball game.  My dad turns 75 on Thursday, and we had a great time together.  I love this old man.  We used to go to Cyclone basketball games all of the time.  One thing we always seemed to do was enjoy a 'Clone Cone.  It's soft served ice-cream in Iowa State's colors.  The cones have gotten larger.  Dad and I split a cone (half shown in the picture).  Neither one of us could finish our half although we gave it a valiant effort.  I think we need to make this a new tradition to celebrate his birthday.

It's hard to write about rejoice when one has conferences all day.  This year we had two days instead of nights.  On the first day, I moved a student into my honors LA class even though her reading scores might not fit.  She's already proven she can learn, think, and write.  I'm taking the chance.  As her mom listened to her older sister translate the pros and cons, I knew it was a moment to rejoice. Tonight was First Friday Spin (90 minute spin class).  Although it always kicks my ass, I enjoy talking to the instructor and the people in the class.  Plus, I almost burned 1000 calories which will make up for the candy I ate all day while being bored at conferences.   Rejoice.

Enough by Jeffrey Harrison It's a gift, this cloudless November morning warm enough to walk without a jacket along your favorite path.  The rhythmic shushing of your feat through fallen leaves should be enough to quite the mind, so it surprises you when you catch yourself telling off your boss for a decade of accumulated injustices, all the things you've never said circling inside you. The rising wind pulls you out of it, and you look up to see a cloud of leaves wheeling in sunlight, flickering against the blue and lifting above the treetops, as if the whole day were sighing, Let it go, let it go, for this moment at least, let it go. I like the last stanza of this poem.  Let it go.  Make room. Make Room.  This seems an interesting term for advent.  On the other hand, it makes sense.  My mind went two ways as I looked at this.  Initially, I thought about not having room at the inn.  If you're Christian, you know the story, ...