EleCivil

Santa came to my school the other day to eat lunch with the kindergarten class. They borrowed one of my bases-of-operation (I don't have my own classroom, so my materials are hidden in various caches in three or four different buildings around campus) for this event without telling me. I walk in, looking to pick up some books I need for my next class and see Santa. I say hi. The kindergarten kids look over at me, gasp, and shout "HI, MR. CIVIL!!" then run over to hug me and ask me to do magic tricks/juggle for them. That's right. Surreal as it sounds, in one small corner of the world, a simple reading teacher can rival Santa Claus. Of course, now I'm paranoid that the man himself has a hit out on me. I keep turning around, expecting to see tinsel-covered piano wire stretched taught between two fur-lined gloves. --- I think it's been right around a year, now, since I've written anything outside of school work. I don't know if that's going to change any time soon. I'm starting to feel the muses jabbing at me, again, but I'm not there yet. I don't know. It's Christmas break, and I'm sitting around in my coat, gloves, and hat because I'm too damn broke to turn on the heat. I can see my breath in my apartment. I swiped a few bags of mint tea from the teacher's lounge before leaving, and I'm sipping that to stay warm, too. Just four more months 'till Spring.

I'm on hiatus from writing. Well, not completely true - I'm writing stories for my remedial reading students. I hate, hate, hate the books provided by the school. They're either too high-level for the kids to understand or they are too kiddy and uninteresting, or they're all about rich, suburban white kids that my kids can't relate to, so I'm writing my own. In other words, work is kicking my ass all over the place, and I'm kicking it right back. My 8th graders read like 2nd graders, and I've only got a few months to change that. I've got to make words more appealing than the street corners, and that's taking all my time and creativity. I'm tapped. In other news, I'm going to a private premier screening of "Waiting for 'Superman'" - a documentary about inner-city charter schools (like mine) - and I was invited to attend a conference/discussion afterward. Presumably because I'm a badass. You know, in an educational way. Fun times!

Nah, don't go through all that trouble. Just videotape the act and upload it here. We'll time it for you.'Cause, you know. We're helpful.

Ev'ry wench an' most sailors did fawn O'er a Silver ol' Captain named John As his cutlass he'd wield, Three full feet of steel! ...But that's not why they call him "Long" (Happy belated Talk Like A Pirate Day)

YES! Yes, yes, yes! Great advice. Before I start writing a story, I don't just picture the character as they are during the story - I think about what they were like years before the story, and what they'll be doing years later. Knowing "This kid is going to grow up to be a marketing executive" or "This guy wanted to be Spiderman when he was a kid" helps me flesh out the characters, even if those ideas never make it to the final text. I also tend to write a bunch of scenes that never make it to the final cut of the story, but which I still think of as "cannon" - I don't include the scene in which one character notices that the other always rushes through her homework on the bus ride to school, but in my mind and as I'm writing, I still think of the character doing just that. It makes me feel like I know that character a little better. Coincidentally, the first scene I wrote for Laika involved two characters brushing their teeth. Heh.

"You can be a single lady, too!" and the deadpanned "I'm a horrible father" had me cracking up.

Aye, that helps. *Slamdances next to Pecman*

Despite my age, I don't have much patience for general rock music. Take the aforementioned song by The Killers, for instance - it sounds like it's just one long chorus. They keep saying the same thing over and over. Booooring. There are really two things on which I judge music: 1 - Lyrical content. I can listen to anything of any genre, provided the lyrics are interesting to me. Whether they're socially relevant, like much of peace punk, anarcho/socialist folk, or activist rap, or whether they just have a lot of cool wordplay and challenging vocabulary, like abstract rap or nerdcore. 2 - Honesty/genuineness. I hate, hate, HATE songs that feel "fake," in which the performer comes off like a bad cartoon character. "Party, party, rock and roll! WOOO!" falls under this category, as does "Guns, money, and hoes" rap, and "tough guy" hardcore. I respect musicians that show themselves as they really are. Auto-tune and studio tracks that seem very, very polished and produced fall under this category, as well. I like to hear the rough edges, the voices cracking, the fingers sliding up and down the strings between notes, the pops and hisses. It reminds me that there's an actual person making that song, rather than a bunch of guys in suits telling their studio techs how to make it more marketable. To quote one of my favorite songs on the topic: "They know how to produce a hit Same formula in every track That?s not art, that?s just wrong Same ol' shit in every song But zombies, they just sing along."

This is seriously the best excuse ever. It even beats "Hiking the old Appalachian Trail" and "I've got a wide stance." "Well, I needed SOMEONE to carry my luggage, and the first thing that came to mind was 'gay hooker'. I mean, come on, I would have gone with a female hooker, but I needed someone with a lot of upper body strength, and...uh...also, I wanted to convert him. For god. It was all part of a straightness regimen of heavy lifting, prayer, kneeling, and ass rubbing. Er, did I say ass rubbing? I meant...Bible rubbing. STUDY! Bible study."

My favorite gay comic characters are Hulkling and Wiccan/Asguardian from the Young Avengers. Their relationship is kind of hinted at in the beginning, but more overt as it goes on. There's a brilliant scene in which they're trying to tell their parents that they're superheroes...but their parents think they're (finally) trying to come out of the closet. The series won a GLAAD award, I believe. And then of course there's Midnighter (gay Batman) who is officially married to Apollo (gay Superman), and they have an adopted daughter. He once killed a homophobic bad guy by jamming a long, hard, pole in his mouth. And then out the back of his head. So, you know. A cool guy.

http://ecopolitology.org/2010/04/09/westbo...-west-virginia/ So, the WBC sent some of their clan to go demonstrate in West Virginia, saying that God smote the coal miners because of gays existing or some such nonsense. Personally, I think if an omnipotent being wanted to send a message to gays, he would have blown up something a little more gay than a West Virginian coal mine. You know, like a gay bar or Ricky Martin. But hey, what do I know? Maybe the dude's just got really poor aim. Or maybe it's part of a master plan to eliminate coal so that gay dudes get really cold during the winter and suffer from shrinkage. Mysterious Ways, and such. Anyway, the WBC protesters get drowned out by counter-protesters chanting for peace, love, and John Denver. Well, I'm with 'em most of the way. Watch the video to get a good look at some of the counter-protest signs: "God Hates Signs", "I Love Everybody", "This Is A Sign", "God Hates Figs", etc. being held in front of the Westboro signs. Also, there's a flash mob line-dancing to a John Denver dance mix.

I'm picturing a dude in full Klansman gear watching a Westboro rally, shaking his pointy head, and saying "Jeez, fellas. Ever heard of subtlety?" Also, I think this is a case for the Klan Disruption Squad!

I have a strong suspicion that my former boss is a witch. You listening, Saudi Arabia? Also, John Proctor is sending his spirit into my room at night. He's an all right fellow, but he and The Devil always leave quite the mess. At least, that's what I tell people when they notice how disorganized it is.

And here I thought I was the only one who'd clashed with Cole about Oxford Commas. Pro-Oxy for life, baby. Which reminds me of this article that you and other writers/editors would probably enjoy. I don't know. I think The Punisher fits in well in inner-city school settings. That's why I have a Punisher logo on my faculty ID, and occasionally straighten out students by threatening to "go all Punisher" on them. They have yet to respond with a spirited "Up your nose with a rubber hose" or "In your socks with a pound of lox," however.

Avast ye, impostor! Be not fooled, friends and neighbors! The beast that walks before you is not goodman WriteByThySelf! Hark! He's wearing a mask! ... ...Why isn't it coming off? Oh, right. The raccoon thing. Jeez, it has been a while. Never mind, then. Welcome back. Your dreams were your ticket out. Welcome back to that same old place that you laughed about. For the names have all changed since you've hung around, but those dreams have remained and they've turned around.

Do you not play H-O-R-S-E across the pond? It's a variation of basketball that concentrates on trick shots. The first player takes a shot, and the second player has to match it - same distance, style, etc. If they can't match the shot, they get a letter (first H, then O, and so on). The first person to get all five letters loses.

The Mountain Goats - "No Children" is on the list, so I'm happy. One of my favorite songs ever. I've got five or six different cover versions of it. Also, A Tribe Called Quest? Cool. And, yes, the inclusion of Biggie made me laugh.

The dirty little secret of education is that in many districts, schools ARE still segregated, because neighborhoods are segregated. Not by law, but by cost of living. Where I live, there are three big districts: One is about 90% black and working-class. One is about 90% white and middle-class. One is about 99% white and upper-class. Then there are the charter schools, which are all about 99% black and working-class, and the private schools, which are all about 99% white and upper-class. The predominantly black schools have less funding, because they are located in areas with few home-owners (i.e. no property tax to pay for schools). As such, they are dumping grounds for rookie teachers who put in their one or two years and then get the hell out of there to teach in a "good" district. These schools are physically run-down, dirty, understaffed, and overcrowded, and they're always rated in "academic emergency" (on the verge of being closed for low test scores). Often times, they do not have playgrounds or sports equipment for the kids at recess - just an empty parking lot. The school where I work is in such a location - the student population is 98% Black, 1.5% Hispanic, and .5% Caucasian. Over 95% of the kids live below the poverty line, few of them with both parents. Several are homeless, living out of shelters. Some of their parents are gang members, raising their kids to follow in their footsteps. Some of the parents are in prison. As if their lives weren't tough enough, they're being sent to a rather dreadful school, where a lack of funding prevents art, music, gym, extra-curriculars, science, and social studies from being taught. NONE of that would fly in either of the white districts. The school from the article sounds disconcerting, at best. It's a charter school, which means it gets its funding on a per-student basis...but it has only three students. And its one teacher is responsible for all subjects in grades 7-12? Sketchy. Also, when there are so few students around, it can seriously hurt the socialization process - if one of those three kids doesn't really "click" with the other two, he/she isn't going to have any friends. Homeschoolers (the good ones, anyway) remedy this by getting their kids into a bunch of afterschool programs with peers...but it seems like the whole point of this school is to AVOID peers. I could understand doing something like this in an emergency situation, in which a student is in such danger that the parents deem it necessary to pull them out of school, and one-on-one tutoring and homeschooling are not possible, but...I don't know. It just rings as "off" for me.

I read Catcher (as well as his other book, Franny and Zooey) back in high school, but I didn't really get into them. I should give them another shot - maybe I'd appreciate them more, now.

I've caught 7 and 8 year olds (2nd and 3rd graders) searching for porn on school computers. And based on some of the notes I've intercepted and some of the conversations I've overheard, none of them need a dictionary to define "oral sex". That's the funny thing - by the time a kid is old enough to use a dictionary to look up "oral sex" (they're overestimating how much children use dictionaries), they've already heard twenty different slang terms for it. Their main reaction is going to be "Oh. I thought that was called..."

Yes, I'm aware of Card's dickery. But I loved his books before I knew about it, and I can't bring myself to stop loving them. The artist may be a raging jackass, but the art is still good. Well, not "Empire." That was god-awful. And his sci-fi re-telling of the Book of Mormon was kind of weird. And one of his books was pretty much "The Life of a Mormon Computer Programmer...and also, there's a gay serial killer. And ghosts! Ghosts that live in video games!" Needless to say, not the best read. Come to think of it, Ender and the books on writing were good. Screw the rest of it. Depends on what kind of poetry, and how it's being taught. I've yet to meet a student of any age who doesn't dig Shel Silverstein, and The D-minus Poems of Jeremy Bloom always brings it home. But even young students can get into the deeper stuff. The other day, I was sitting cross-legged on the floor with my 4th graders, all taking turns reading Langston Hughes poems. (It's not officially in the curriculum, but I found a whole box of his books gathering dust in storage, so I had to grab 'em.) Some would drum on the floor and read to the rhythms. Some would improvise a melody and sing his more bluesy verses. Others would stand and recite, carefully. Some of them were simple poems about rain or snow, others about politics and "current" events that I knew they didn't quite understand (Awkward moments include: "How do you say this word? N-e-g-r-o?" and "What's a minstrel show?"), but it didn't matter - they could listen to the sounds rather than the words. Sure, some were more into it than others, but when even half a class is coming up to me to recite poems from memory during their down time, I consider it a win. I think the common thread, here, is performance. Shakespeare plays and Hughes poems are both meant to be performed. Reading them silently to yourself might work decently enough for word nerds like me, but for NON-crazy people, they've got to be seen and heard. Speaking the words yourself makes them yours, and all of a sudden it doesn't matter whether you can understand and analyze every word - you can catch hold of the mood and tone and just let it carry you.

As a rule, I run on one of two settings: stoic or goofy. I've no room for squishiness, and typically no stomach for it. But that first picture, damn it all: Awwwwwwww.

I took it out of the library a while back. It was entertaining, but not at all what I was expecting. I'd thought it would be mostly about Ender's search for a new Formic homeworld, but a good two thirds of the book was about personality conflicts and relationships between passengers on his first relativistic, near-light speed trip to a human colony. Now, that's fine with me, because I think OSC is at his best when he's writing about psychologically broken characters and their subtle power struggles, but if you're looking for sci-fi exploration, aliens, and colony planets, you'll be waiting a while. Oh, and get ready for gratuitous Shakespeare references, 'cause a good fourth of this book revolves around the crew of a colony ship organizing a readers' theater performance of The Tempest. No, really. Overall, I liked it for what it was, but I probably won't have the urge to read it again. And this is coming from a man who's read Ender's Game about 12 times, and the rest of the series at least 5 (yes, even those last few "A space wizard did it!" books that no one else seems to like). And hey, since I'm here, I'll plug his books "Characters and Viewpoint" and "How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy." Both great books on writing, regardless of your genre of choice. I know they've probably been mentioned here before, but it's worth repeating.