Green?

So what are you doing to go green?

I'm not a fanatic, and I don't think the world is going to end tomorrow if I keep burning gas and forget to recycle my cans but I also don't see any reason for all the waste that we have and I really like the idea of recycling and reusing or repurposing old things.

Here is what I'm doing and I'm just curious to see what, if anything you're doing.

1. I recycle here in Seabrook, the trash guys pick up cans, bottles and that stuff once a week and we take in newspapers and boxes to the recycle bin at the library.

2. We use reusable grocery bags. I like that we get to reuse them but I am also tired of collecting all those plastic grocery bags.

3. Since we remodeled the house we are much more energy efficient here, double pane windows and a 16 seer AC unit.

4. We are switching to CFL bulbs when the old ones burn out. There are a few places that the old standard bulbs are staying though because the CFLs don't fit inside the globe.

5. I bought an electric weed eater when the old gas one called it quits, it is a Ryobi cordless model. It works fine for my rather small yard but I would not recommend it for anything much bigger. It just does not have that much power.

6. The wife carpools to work, I'm pretty sure that the fact that she saves money and she gets to nap on the way to work means more to her than the environmental impact but who cares, it still counts.

Downfall of Society Part 1

So, school has started and even though I hate doing it, going over rules and procedures is absolutely necessary in order to get things going in the right direction. Students have to know your expectations if you want them to live up to your expectations. One thing in particular that gets to me every year when I do this is the reactions that I get when I tell them to watch their language.

I tell them that I do not want to hear profanity in my classroom and they laugh and carry on and make it out like I'm some kind of goody goody. For anyone that knows me, they know that that is far from the truth, I just don't like hearing profanity. I personally do not use profanity, or at least I try not to, I do slip up from time to time but I don't see a reason to use it all the time. The students I have will use profanity in almost every conversation and never think twice about it or have any concern about who is nearby.

I could go on and on about this but I think you get my drift. I guess part of my problem is the fact that they don't care who is around, I think they should at least show respect to people of authority and watch their mouth.

OK, I'll get off that soap box, mainly so I can use it to wash their mouths out.

Stay tuned for for future posts on this topic regarding facial peircings and wearing hats in buildings.

Depression, confusion, fear and excitement

Only teachers understand this. It's time to go back to work. There is a certain amount of depression at this time of year. For one, it seems like just when you start to get things done around the house it's time to go back to work. You also have to start looking at your "work clothes" that you haven't worn in 2 months and realize that your a$$ has grown over the summer and you need to go get new clothes.

Next there is confusion and fear. What will I teach this year? What will my students be like? Will that t*#d that failed be back to cause me grief? Will the new principal bug me with walk throughs or just let me teach? How long will the line for the copier be? How long will I have to print things at home before our new order gets shipped?

And there is a little excitement, I consider many of my co-workers good friends but after spending every day together for 10 months I don't hang out with them over the summer so I'm excited to see them. I'm excited about trying a few new ideas had over the summer.

It's a very emotional time of year and even though I've been back to coaching for a week and have our first game tonight, part of me is already looking forward to Thanksgiving Break.

Concerts and Theater

Friday night I went to the House of Blues for the first time. The food is good but the restaurant is a little loud for my taste. The concert venue very intimate but nice. It is really a good place to see a show. We saw Queensryche, the first time I have ever seen them. If you remember they had one album that got really big around 1990, EMPIRE. They played for about 2 1/2 hours so it was a good show. Of course they didn't play a single song off the empire album for the first hour and a half. Over all it was a good show, I wouldn't say that they would break into my top 5 concert events but it was worth seeing them. 

Saturday night we went to the Alley Theater to see a Tom Stoppard play called "Rock N Roll". It was in the lower theater and done in a theater in the round style. The stage was actually the floor and then the seats rose up around the stage. It was a story about Communist occupation in Prague from 1968 - 1990. It was very thought provoking, especially since you could see a lot of similarities between what the communist and socialist characters were talking about and what our current administration is trying to put in place.  Oops, I didn't mean to get political. 

Well, that was the beginning of the weekend, now I've got some ribs on the grill and family coming over. I think that family and entertainment are good ways to celebrate our freedoms on this Memorial Weekend.  

Forgotten Funny

Does anyone remember a time when Grey's Anatomy would have a heavy, serious dramatic episode and then follow it up with a light hearted funny episode?? I think they forgot the funny!!! This whole season has been one serious drama after another; sure, once in a while they throw in a joke that lasts for about 5 seconds before you move back into something serious. Since the finale is fresh on my mind, it was kinda funny to see Little Grey shoot down Sloan and then he turns into a girl but that took 5 seconds and then we have to go take a tumor out of Izzie's brain. 

I swear if they don't get some funny back by next season I think the whole cast will end up jumping off the Space Needle, and considering how they left it hanging I would imagine that they are all waiting in line for the elevator right now. 

Facebook

OK, so I broke down a couple of weeks ago and signed up for Facebook. I keep hearing people talk about how cool it is but I'm not sure I'm sold yet. Yes, it is cool that I have heard from a couple of people that I had lost contact with and I've heard from some people that I knew in high school, but if we hadn't grown in separate directions after high school then I would still be talking to them without Facebook. Now that I haven't talked to these people in 15 or more years do I really care that they are "at sonic getting tater tots" or if they were "running late for work", I don't know, I'm sure there is something good there, I just haven't seen anything yet that makes me think it is really that cool. Maybe I ned Facebook lessons to open up some really cool stuff that I just don't know how to find. 

Anyway, that's my take on it for now. I fully expect to get blasted for this post. 

Random Tidbits

Still getting settled in at the house. Actually not so much settled in, more like painting, hanging pictures, new lights and on and on. I promise to post some pictures after the Re-habitation party this weekend. I don't want to spoil the surprise for the people that can make it. 

My quest to be a non- smoker has started again. I made about 8 days then fell off the wagon for about a week but I jumped back on and am now at about 10 days smoke free. 

I love Craigslist!!!!! For a while now I have been wanting to get a sit-on-top kayak instead of the sit inside that I have so I placed an ad that I would like to trade. It worked. Last Friday I traded for a 14 ft ocean kayak sit-on-top. 

I finished my last principal academy weekend so now I have completed enough that I can officially request my principal certification. I am also getting very close to finishing up college. I graduate in October. 

We finished TAKS testing last week. I'm glad it is behind us but I am anxious to see how my kids did. I would be thrilled if I could get about 60% to pass. Now that we have completed TAKS testing though the kids really don't want to do anything anymore, that may work for some teachers, but not me. I plan on keeping them working till the bitter end. It did remind me of something my uncle said one time. 

"School and church are the only two things that make people happy when they do not get their money's worth"

It took me a while to explain what that meant, eventually they all understood, but still didn't care and agreed that they would still be happy if we didn't do anything. 

All right, I can't think of much more right now, I'll try to get back a little more often.