Miscellaneous Missives

I find Lady Gaga a bit disturbing, but I loved this. If it hadn't been for Elton John, I might have felt differently. Elton is still one of the greatest.

This morning as I was crossing the street to go to church, I conversed briefly with another couple making the same journey. My negativity escaped as I mentioned it being cold, icy, dirty, dark, and miserable. Maybe I was a little more polite and didn't use all of those words, but perhaps they were in the tone. It is in this part of winter when I need something to take me away from the eternal cold. Looking at the abbreviated bulletin, I was reminded that we had a guest speaker, Jan Richardson . Listening to her words and the music of her "sweetheart" made me feel a little warmer inside. During prayers I even gave a prayer of thankfulness for the service and its community. Walking out of church I felt revitalized and more at peace. Although I'm sure the sun was shining as I walked into church, it felt a bit warmer. Instead of being aggravated by the images around and the cold, I need to remember the warmth brought by the various communities to which I belong. ...

"To read a poem in January is as lovely as to go for a walk in June." - Jean-Paul Sartre January is a jester teasing me with warm weather then dropping the temperature to an unbearable level. Today I remembered seeing this quote and found it appropriate. After walking to get groceries, I was adamant that I would not go outside until church tomorrow. I thought that perhaps I could find solace in reading. Unfortunately even this is unbearable as I have a book to finish that I can't seem to enjoy.

It seems the cold weather has left me sluggish. Yesterday's post was from Wednesday, and today's post is from yesterday. Maybe I'll catch up tomorrow. Yesterday was a reminder of why I teach middle school. As the quarter ended, we finished up a research unit which included: paraphrasing, an outline, a five paragraph essay and a Photobooth presentation. Since it's the end of the quarter, I was not able to grade the five paragraph essays. In fact I gave this information to the students a week ago. I ended class yesterday explaining, once again, that the five paragraph essay would be the first grade of the third quarter. We talked about how they could get it done and the importance of this being the first grade of a newquarter. After I had reminded the class that it was a twenty-five point assignment, I had a student raise his hand. J- How many points is it? Thwack! A hits his head on the desk. Let's explain A. He received six out of 43 points on his outline ...

I watched last night's speech while messaging a friend. We commented on the Republicans ability to sit stoically. After watching the speech I was energized and disheartened at the same time. My favorite part of the speech was Obama's comments to the Supreme Court.

I've now officially been messing with Youtube trying to post for an hour only to realize the video I wanted to post can't be shared. One more reason I don't like country music. Well, here's the song...

For some reason I am unable to post from Youtube to my blog. I will need to figure this out. Actually I have spent the last forty-five minutes trying to figure it out. It is not working well for me. My intention was to post a country song (or at least I assume it's country) that I actually like (except for the weak male voice). The song is I Need You Now by Lady Antebellum. Look it up on Youtube since I can't seem to post... which may drive me to insanity. Tonight might not be the night to figure it out since I was having a problem with the trivia question at Caribou. "In what George Orwell novel do barnyard dwellers insist 'two legs bad, four legs good'"? All I could think of was 1984... wrong novel. It wasn't until after I left the register to get my drink and forgot to pay, returned to pay, and went back for my drink that if finally came to mind. "Of course it's Animal Farm," I said. "Did you want to order something else ...