check these out

What McCain thinks of white voters






And something not political that was hilarious:

warning: political post

Okay, so I watched most of the Democratic convention. I loved Michelle Obama's speech (next Jackie O. much? She is gorgeous!) , I loved Joe Biden's, and I especially love Barack Obama's. It was inspiring and uplifting, but I felt they kept it kind of realistic.
So, I've been trying to watch parts of the RNC, but I just can't after a while. It's so incredibly negative and has so many personal attacks that it's just ridiculous. I find myself wanting to yell at the TV! David was watching Rudy Guliani's speech last night while I was in another room, and what I heard was just... horrible. It was really, really... something else. I don't even know how to explain it.
And don't even get me started on Palin. I am very glad that a woman is involved (yay women in politics! Woo!), but this woman is not only completely inexperienced, but is also incredibly crazy extreme. I used to have respect for McCain. I really did. And then he became the Republican candidate. Now, I'm not denying that Democrats have their issues, and that Barack Obama has some downfalls, but goddamn are the Republicans making all those issues look like nothing compared to what I've heard out of their mouths recently.

Let me share some good reading with you...
Save Richmond: How to Be a Republican Hypocrite
Feministing: Palin's Handling of Other People's Pregnant Teens
John McCain thinks women are stupid

Oh, and not to mention, my favorite John McCain moment (yes, besides the whole not knowing how many houses he owns and having to get back to people about whether or not birth control should be covered by insurance, even though viagra is and that's never debated): "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt". Not only does he call her a cunt, but he uses my favorite word: trollop! Yes! McCain/Palin '08! Sign me up!


Ohhhh yeahhhhhh, by the way, I got a job.


ETA: Megan passed along this blog, and right at the top was this post: Because She's a White Republican. Also:

I love Keith Olbermann.

then why am i their mascot?

Yesterday was my first day with no school, no visitors, no David--just me at home with just the cats. I woke up late, lounged around, finished my small to do list, watched some movies on Netflix's Watch Instantly... not much. When David came home, we talked about how the cats were probably enjoying having one of us home all the time, which somehow brought us to the idea that we needed a cat nanny. I tried to remember the conversation to share it, but I can't even figure out how it came up. I do remember doing an impersonation of how us having cat nanny would be like... but it was that kind of "you had to be there" funny...

It's been weird being on summer vacation again. I have to remember what I learned last summer: how to do little during the day and not become restless. It's difficult because summer nights always makes me want to go out with friends, but the few friends I have here in Virginia are not in Williamsburg--not exactly easy to call them up and say, "hey, let's do something!".
Last night, I got sucked into watching a Jon and Kate Plus 8 mini marathon. I didn't like that show at first, but both Megan and Natalie mentioned it recently, and nothing else was on (it was... uhh... after midnight. Hey! I'm on vacation!), so I gave it another chance. OMG. So addicting.
Today, I've read out on the porch while the cats napped, watched the fluffy clouds go by, gone grocery shopping, ate a salad and drank coffee (bloom has really good coffee! Something I learned while Katy, Mike and AJ were here), made oatmeal toffee bars (LOTS OF THEM!), listening to two episodes of This American Life (I'm so behind with the podcasts!) and StoryCorps and now I'm waiting for David to come home so we can go sign our lease in front of a notary, do our laundry, and finish The Tudors.

I realized that I did forget to mention one thing that Megan and I did while she was here: made TONS of references to one of our favorite YouTube-er, mittymoo. Between the "Come see the treeeee!", "my son is gay. my son is gay?", "he's here! he's gay! get used to it!", and "where you takin meeee? no, don't tell me! i want to be surprised!..... where are you takin meeee?", my parents probably thought we'd both gone batty.
I think I still love this one the most:

catching some butterflies

I'm baking breakfast bars and they take an hour, so I figured I'd update the ol' blog. I didn't realize that it'd been a while.

The biggest news is that David is now a Master of Public Policy.

I made him try on his stuff the day before.

There's a (semi-blurry) picture of him doing the walk across the stage.

Beyond that, not much has happened. My students are finishing up plays and research papers, getting ready to start The Great Gatsby and Lord of the Flies to wrap up the year. My 11th graders take their last English SOL (if they pass both of them) on Monday and Tuesday; it'll be nice to have them over with and get the scores back. Keep your fingers crossed.
Also keep your fingers crossed for me. I've applied to two different places and this is about the time of the year when they start hiring people outside of the district. I'd love to find a job sooner rather than later, and the two districts I've applied to I've already met with (the job fairs I went to in February) and they seemed to consider me a good possibility. They're pretty large districts, so hopefully I hear from them soon. We're also starting to seriously look and set up appointments for housing, so there's another thing. I asked everyone to keep their fingers crossed/pray for me to find a good job and great place to live and it turned out fantastic, so keep that positive thinking going for us.

And, for your viewing pleasure, here are 2 videos I took of some of my 5th bell kids presenting the first part of their play.

Raisin in the Sun
(I wanted to tape more of this, but Kenny was making the whole class laugh with his hand going out into the air every time he had to say a line. I think you can hear Stephanie in the background go, "Mrs. P-- watch his hand!!" before giggling. I had to stop the video because I was starting to shake the camera so much.)

The Piano Lesson

These were the best of the 2 groups. My battery in my camera was dying, so it was difficult to film more than a few seconds. This week, since the groups are finishing reading, they're to come up with a talk show modeled after "Oprah", "Maury", or "Jerry Springer" using their characters and the conflict(s) in their plays. They were really excited about it and were totally into the idea. They did great using just the script, so I'm really looking forward to seeing what they come up with! I'll be sure to tape some of it.

i hope you already know about this

Imagine this:
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
It's hours before your wedding.
You're celebrating with your friends.
You're leaving the club with your friends.
You get shot at 50 times.
The people shooting at you? Police officers.
And the courts find them not guilty.

That's what happened to Sean Bell and his family.

sitting down for a second

I kept telling myself I should update. To be honest, I haven't felt like it. March was a busy month, and February before that was a lazy month, which means that I was behind in taking care of a few things. Recently, I've had to take care of lots of things around the house, appointments to make, applications to send out, apartments to try and see. To do lists all over the place!
After a month of being incredibly social, I've been enjoying time by myself, trying to get through the 2 books I'm reading right now. Even though I usually dislike being so busy that I don't really have a moment to myself, I really enjoyed March. Seeing Natalie and Amanda gave me the extra boost I needed. Before seeing them, I was really down in the dumps, for numerous reasons. It was so incredibly nice to get to sit and talk with them for a while, to be comfortable and laugh with someone that you've known for longer than a few months or a year. It brings a feeling of "normal" into what's been a completely new environment. In the summer, we're supposed to see a few more friends (one of which I'm going to keep trying to convince to move to Richmond). It will be fantastic to see them in our area, as we're about to move to a new city again.

Beyond all that personal stuff, I had my 11th graders writing porfolios to get though, a play to finish teaching (and I'll have to grade projects on that soon), a novel to start/finish teaching (they're still loving it! YES!), and units and tests to get ready for. My 10th graders have their research paper coming up, which is always such an incredible joy to do. My 11th graders have a project on their novel, a play and their last English SOL coming up in the next 3 weeks. Plus, their ring dance is Friday and that will be my first time chaperoning a dance.
There have been amazing changes in my students. A few kids I've been working on all year have become more focused and started coming to class more often. One of them even stuck up for me when some kid (not even one of my students!) gave me sass when I asked him to watch his language for the nth time. One student who never considered college may go onto duel enroll in high school and community college classes. That is so exciting. One student, Tiffany, recently gave birth to a 9lb little boy named Zane. Cody is due any minute now to have her little girl Emmaline. I gave her 2 of my favorite books. This led Ava, Cody and I to talk about how young they should start reading to their kids and how it affects them in school later on. Ava finally returned after giving birth to her son only to have to take more time out because he got sick. He's okay now and she's shown up for 2 days in a row. I'm so proud of all of them.
We've started two countdowns on my board: days until school ends and days until the reading SOL. Both are exciting to see get lower and lower, but also bum us out a bit. I've been saying to anyone who brings it up that I'm not thinking about it until the end of May.

BTW, if you didn't see "Meeting David Wilson" on MSNBC, try and check it out. It was amazing.

what inspires you?

A few different things I've seen, heard, etc. recently that has influenced my conversations and thoughts.



40 years ago. Still amazing.



BuildAmericaTogether.org



This was one of the most interesting Oprah episodes ever. They are incredibly brave to put themselves out there. And they seem so sweet and amazing! I hope everything turns out fantastic for them and their child.

I've been reading this book and loving it. I hope that if you haven't read it, you do. One thing that it's definitely made me realize two things: I am so grateful I have the parents I do and to have gone to diverse K-12 schools.

jsyk

Just so you know, I am totally a part of this "Gay Agenda" or "Gay Mafia" or whatever she calls it. Just thought it was fair to let you know.

And just when you thought the train to Crazyville had left, I also bring you this:

(posted on Postsecret this weekend)
Seriously, people?
I really shouldn't laugh, but I can't help it. I refuse to waste my time being upset, especially when they are completely ridiculous. Yes, my jaw drops. But then I laugh, because I remember that the people that believe this crap are a small amount of people, seemingly getting smaller every day, month, and year.

Uh oh. There goes my gay/feminazi/ultra-crazy-liberal/whatever-other-insult-is-being-used-now agenda. Damn. Sorry, guys. I just can't help the want--no, the NEED-- to convert you. Mom, dad-- you should've locked me up years ago.

more later, for now...

I have a lot to update, but I need to get some stuff done.

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

I've survived the 24 hour flu-like bug that knocked out a few of my students this week and last. I must not have sanitized my hands and classroom as much as I usually do when I have so many sick students, but this was still the first time I've been sick all year. Thank goodness it was a three day weekend, otherwise I would've had to take a sick day.

Today is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I like that we get the day off of school for it. I'm not sure what events are going on, but I'm sure there are some, even though it's incredibly cold and there is still snow on the ground. The going theme in my room is quotes that explore my philosophy on life and education. I've used them to help students find inspiration for personal essays in both 10th and 11th grade. I have a few from MLK in my room, my students picked a few of them to write about for journal entries or essays and I've found a few more to add. Their favorites:

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

What about yours?

Also, tomorrow is the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. I'm going take a risk and wear two 1" pins to work tomorrow: Reproductive Freedom is a Human Right and Pro-Choice or No Choice. I'm not going to point them out or openly discuss them. If one of my students asks, I will explain. Most of them are so open about their opinions and I've told them many, many times that opinions do not influence my opinion of them as a person or their grade in any way, shape or form, so I don't expect any problems.
I've debated on blogging about this day and why it's important to me, but really, it only comes down to a few things:
1. I like having control over my own body and I don't trust anyone else with that decision.
2. I do not feel it's right to judge other women when it comes to deciding if they're fit to be a parent, if they're financially stable enough to be a parent, if they're healthy enough to carry a child for 9 months, or if they're capable of making their own decisions. And I would never ever want to force women into having illegal, unsafe abortions.
3. I really, really enjoy that whole privacy and confidentiality thing between my doctor(s) and myself. I'm betting that most of you do, too.

And a little something extra, made by teen moms and I believe it's called "Too Little, Too Late":

the internet is creepy, it's just a fact

I don't have much to say or do right now. Yesterday, I dropped off Megan in D.C. to fly back to Michigan, tomorrow I pick up David in Norfolk, flying back into Michigan. It's strange to be here all alone and not have work or any real obligations...

I found this video on feministing, and felt I should share it. There are many great women slam poets out there (if you look at my myspace page, I have a few videos up), but this one almost moved me to tears. It's amazing.
"What We Deserve" by Sonya "The Drama" Boom Renee
What We Deserve

Add to My Profile | More Videos


Also, I was reading some of the feminist blogs I check on and one (feministe) was talking about this group Anonymous and attacks to take down feminist blogs. It's kinda crazy. No, not kinda. Really crazy. This has been a topic that has been gaining more and more attention because commenters are making violent threats towards bloggers. It's crazy and incredibly creepy. The sad thing is, there seems to be a lot of grey legal area in dealing with internet harassment. I almost feel like a lot of people are afraid to contact police or any authority that could help because they don't know if they can (or will) do anything about it. I don't know if I'm alone in making this connection, but doesn't that feel like when a woman is raped, assaulted, etc., and they're afraid of reporting it because they think they won't be taken seriously or they'll be blamed for it? I think it's very, very similar line of thinking. If they report it, will anyone take them seriously? Will they be blamed for it? etc. etc.
It's incredibly sad that the internet empowers people to feel like they can make comments/threats about anyone involved in putting themselves and their thoughts on the internet. This crosses all lines, it seems-- whether you're non-white, gay, female, etc, but, sadly, it seems to be a lot more personal and threatening when it comes to women, especially feminists. It seems a lot more personal and vicious. They joke about raping, mutilating and killing these women. All for what? Because they expressed their opinion?! That is... wow. Even though it's only on the internet, I still think these women are incredibly brave for putting up with these comments and harrassment and not stopping what they're doing. I mean, think about if you had someone (or more than one person) constantly telling you some pretty messed up stuff about what a horrible person you are or how they want to torture or kill you. What would you do?

Anyway, here's an interesting video on harassment of youtube vloggers.


And this is the post I was reading yesterday: What Do We Do About Online Harassment?

Also, feministe had a lot on AutoAdmit (a forum that seems to be dominated by dudebros, who are supposed to be lawyers of some kind), which is a different kind of harassment than what I was talking about earlier (as in not directed towards bloggers and their blogs, but women they know in gereal--colleagues of theirs. fantastic!), but it's still about sexalized, violent comments towards women. Here's one post that I like that talks about AutoAdmit, internet harassment and why it makes femnism still necessary, but there are many others about AutoAdmit.
They mention Kathy Sierra in the post I directly link to. It seems to be one of the most publicized cases, because she ended up cancelling a public appearance due to the threats. Here's the wikipedia page for her, an interview with her, and another article about the attack on her

Again, what would you do if this was happening to you? Or to someone you cared about? Would you quit? Would you report it? Would you keep blogging and ignore it? I'm very interested, let me know.

delayed

I will post pictures and the happenings of the rest of my Kzoo trip later on.
Today/yesterday we celebrated the first year anniversary. Nothing too spectacular because I was extremely tired (and still am) from the trip, especially the train ride home. Nothing good ever happens while traveling (or attempting to travel) to D.C. The place is cursed. Anyway. Yesterday I got a Sidekick ID (loooove it!), so I can now text message and email (alipants@tmail.com) back and forth. We also checked out the adorable beach in Yorktown. Yorktown itself seems pretty freaking cute and less crowded than WBG (also, I think they have a tattoo shop there that we should look into).
We also decided that I will be getting rid of the eMac and getting a laptop in the fall. I think what convinced David was that we can get him a free iPod nano. What convinced me is that my Safari crashed half the time and, other times, takes 5 minuts to load something.

I leave you with some interesting reading and viewing:
(mostly stolen from Feministing and Feministe, but that doesn't mean that you "I'm not a feminist and I don't like them Feminazis" people can't enjoy them as well. haha.
About a networking site called Late Night Shots and what all those priviledged, golf-loving, country club members, ivy league school dudes do with their free time. Creeptastic.
"Fewer high school students are having sex these days, and more are using condoms. The teen birth rate has hit a record low"
"Love is Revolutionary (The Threat of Friendship)" Long-ish, but really good. David and I were discussing this a lot this weekend: the lack of empathy in people.
Two things for you to check out:
Cure This. From their "About" section (I couldn't say it any better): For two and a half years, "Cure This" was a pipe dream shared by just a handful of us. We envisioned a grand goal: to create an online space to discuss health in its broadest sense, share personal stories, creatively make positive change, and build an online community along the way — connecting us locally, nationally, and perhaps internationally. We envisioned a humble beginning: here and now.
Cure This has now transformed into a reality, and we’re excited beyond words. We welcome it into this world with a loving, gentle nudge and an encouraging whisper in its ear. Let the beautiful journey begin.
Health08 Election news, analysis and events

"Guys and Dolls". About men who use and have relationships with "Real Dolls".

I don't know if I should be creeped out or feel really bad for these guys.