Miscellaneous Missives

Website Photo Since I documented the growing of my mushroom kit, pearl oyster mushrooms, I thought I would share my final product. I decided to try a recipe for oyster mushrooms online. Unfortunately I chose the heat of the day yesterday to make the recipe, but I think it went well. I did substitute green onions for shallots and changed the pasta. The final result is not as fancy as the picture on the website , but it was easy as promised. Picture taken in the process. Final Product

IN MEMORIAM A. H. H by Alfred Lord Tennyson 1849 Strong Son of God, immortal Love, Whom we, that have not seen thy face, By faith, and faith alone, embrace, Believing where we cannot prove; Thine are these orbs of light and shade; Thou madest Life in man and brute; Thou madest Death; and lo, thy foot Is on the skull which thou hast made. Thou wilt not leave us in the dust: Thou madest man, he knows not why, He thinks he was not made to die; And thou hast made him: thou art just. Thou seemest human and divine, The highest, holiest manhood, thou. Our wills are ours, we know not how; Our wills are ours, to make them thine. Our little systems have their day; They have their day and cease to be: They are but broken lights of thee, And thou, O Lord, art more than they. We have but faith: we cannot know; For knowledge is of things we see; And yet we trust it comes from thee, A beam in darkness: let it grow. Let knowledge grow...

image from Scumbag-Steve-Online-Classes For some reason I am having difficulties blogging everyday during this month of May. Yesterday it was due to travel and spending the evening drinking too many adult beverages (unplanned) with a dear friend. Today I should forgo the blogging since I have spent the day doing little. Instead I will attempt something... I need a mental health credit to renew my teacher's license. My visiting friend is a social worker, so I offered her the opportunity to do the online class for me. Since she refused, since the day was ugly, since I really didn't feel like doing much, I took the class. It was painful, basic information that would've been a waste of my time if I hadn't been able to play Scrabble on Facebook, update my calendar, find a recipe for my mushrooms, and paint my nails while "taking" the class. In the future I will take more of these online classes.

My work day ended in hilarity! At the end of the day a small group of teachers was talking in the hall and wishing everyone a great long weekend. I commented I didn't know if I was going to go home, pack, go to the gym, and leave or merely go home, pack and leave. A fellow colleague talked me into skipping the gym. When I crossed the hall to tell her I was going to skip the gym, she suggested I do Kegel exercises in the car on my way home. She, however, did this as two students, probably oblivious, were walking by. As I'm posting, it doesn't seem as funny, but when it occurred, I left laughing hysterically. My next stop on the way out was the office. The police liaison officer stopped by as we were chatting. He held something in plastic wrap explaining to the people in the office that it wasn't pot. It seems he had been called because someone thought it was. As he explained it wasn't even the consistency of pot nor did it smell like pot, he shared that...

... so there are ten days left of school. I went from testing to trying to get students to concentrate on their writing with a somewhat disastrous outcome. Since I was moving into media literacy, I felt confident things would go better. Monday we started media literacy. Some students were stellar. The girl who pointed out that "image" is often pointed more at females especially with the examples in the clips we were watching. Others, who on the first day could figure out not only why it was important put put it into words. Then came Tuesday . Tuesday was the day I was talking about Facebook and online privacy. As I was showing statistics and political cartoons, a young lady was writing a lengthy note to a friend about making a Youtube video, so young rappers would want to meet them. Obviously talking about privacy online was not working even with my political cartoons. Wednesday improved as students questioned the validity of the two year old who was able to name ...

On May 14th I opened my mushroom kit box to find additional directions . After letting it soak for 24 hours, I started spraying it twice a day for ten days. As the box stated, ten days later I have mushrooms . The mushrooms are beautiful although they are a bit strange with healthy stems. Now I need to harvest and use them. Any suggestions? I have to admit that I'm a bit frightened to actually taste them.

Harold Camping promised today, May 21, 2011, would be the end of the world. He quotes, "Just before the flood Noah was instructed by God that in seven days the flood would begin (Genesis 7:10-16). Using the language of 2 Peter 3:8 that "a day is as a thousand years," it is like saying through Noah, who was a preacher (2 Peter 2:5): "mankind has seven days or 7,000 years to escape destruction." Since 2011 A.D. is precisely 7,000 years after Noah preached, God has given mankind a wonderful proof that Judgment Day will occur in the year 2011." How could anyone ignore this? Yesterday I contemplated about song lyrics. I tried to choose from: "Should I stay or should I go?" and "It's the end of the world as we know it." Then I started to get excited about my wings and halo. Don't worry. I wasn't taking this lightly. For a minute this morning I was concerned that my tan wasn't ready for the event since I would o...