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iceybloop
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Country: United States
State: Virginia
Birthday: 6/27/1977
Gender: Male
Interests: 5%-6%
Expertise: I talk in maths.
Occupation: Education/training
Industry: Government
Message: message me
Member Since:
8/2/2004
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| I officially have a 1-2 win/loss record in voting for President.
1996 - I voted for Dole (L)
2000 - I didn't vote, um, I think. My memory is foggy here. What I do remember is that I wanted McCain to win the nomination, and I still wish he was the President right now.
2004 - I voted for Badnarik (L - hey, at least I knew that would happen)
The media needs to stop talking up this Camelot business. It did not end well, and I truly wish this President all the best.
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| My intarwebuddy, Mike Janke, has some interesting predictions on what may happen if McCain wins, and (sadly enough) he's probably right.
What I'm wondering about is, if Obama wins, will conservative evangelicals go into full-on bitch-endlessly mode (see: post '92 election), or will Christians do the right thing and pray for our leaders this time? Whatever happens, I just hope we as Christians don't lose sight of what we should be doing, which means praying for wisdom for our leadership.
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| Long time, no updates. The kids don't look much different from my profile pic. The thing about blogging is that I usually have a lot of things going on that I think are interesting, but they are interesting to me. Example?
I had jury duty a day this week and last week. I didn't get a rape or murder case, but one of the cases did involve drug dealing (probably), and I was interested enough in both of them. I was even the jury foreman on the last case. The deliberations in these cases involve a lot of fussing, yelling and screaming (I'm pretty Zen myself, though) - interesting to me at the time, but I couldn't recount it here if I tried. In the sentencing phase, I figured out pretty quickly that I'm not much of a mercy person.
btw, jury duty is the major catch of registering to vote. Don't do it, kids. It's a trap!
When I last posted, I listed what I thought were plenty of albums to digest. I've got more now, I'm slower, and I'm at least moderately interested in listening to all of them:
Digesting
The Devil, You + Me, The Notwist
Modern Guilt, Beck
Untitled, Nas
Apple Tree, Katie Herzig
The Sleeping House, Cool Hand Luke
Exit Strategy for the Soul, Ron Sexsmith
Stop, Drop, and Roll!!!, Foxboro Hot Tubs
Dwell, The Envy Corps
Welcome to the Night Sky, Wintersleep
One of the Boys, Katy Perry
Snowflake Midnight, Mercury Rev
Partie Traumatic, Black Kids
Thing of the Past, Vetiver
Closer EP, Jars of Clay
Life...The Best Game In Town, Harvey Milk
Laulu Laakson Kukista, Paavoharju
Revelation, Third Day
22 Dreams, Paul Weller
Deathconsciousness, Have A Nice Life
New Surrender, Anberlin
You & Me, The Walkmen
Skeletal Lamping, Of Montreal
In Ear Park, Department of Eagles
Where You Go I Go Too, Lindstrøm
Don't Stop, Annie
Only By the Night, Kings of Leon
Los Angeles, Flying Lotus
Lightbulbs, Fujiya & Miyagi
Missiles, The Dears
Offend Maggie, Deerhoof
To Survive, Joan as Police Woman
Way To Normal, Ben Folds
Dig Out Your Soul, Oasis
Tell-Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8, Bob Dylan
Intimacy, Bloc Party
They Shoot, We Score, Yo La Tengo
The Clash: Live at Shea Stadium, The Clash
Maelstrom From Drift, Lee Ranaldo
Vivian Girls, Vivian Girls
Soft Airplane, Chad VanGaalen
Yikes!
In other music news, the new TV on the Radio is my first 10.0 I've given since Sufjan's Illinois album. I thought a while, and I really didn't see any reason not to. It seamlessly marries so many elements, and it's artistically very credible. All that without losing a beat in the fun department.
At school, I'm not teaching Trigonometry this year, and it's my favorite class to teach, so I'm a little bummed out over that. Most of the day, I don't feel any real passion for the material, and I think some of that is bound to be projected to the students, which is sad. I do like team teaching my Algebra I class with a special education teacher, though.
I was also banned from one of my regular blog haunts, but I really can't do anything about someone else's persecution complex. He'll come around or he won't, so *shrugs*.
That's all really.
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| The past 3 weeks, I've had a Monday off from school in one way or another, so it's kind of weird knowing that this week will be the exception that usually is the rule.
So far, I'm worried about my classes. I know that many of them simply will not take notes in class knowing fully well that I periodically grade them on that. So, they struggle. What am I supposed to do when the kid doesn't even have the work ethic to follow along in class? Some say they wish it was more hands-on, and I try to do fun things with the class as much as I can, but sometimes, there really isn't a better way to get it across than to just teach it.
Melissa started going to school for her master's degree. She's asked me to help her with some of it, and I just feel dumb looking at most of it - I think I've forgotten everything but what I teach every day. I've managed to be helpful a few times, but really, I need to hurry up and get my own before I get any dumber.
I'm planning on watching the Oscars on Sunday, and I'm rooting for the Coens, but I haven't even seen "No Country for Old Men". Since I haven't seen any of the nominees, I just think the Coens are due (they were really due a few movies ago with "Fargo").
I voted in the primary in VA. Here, you get to choose whether you're going to vote for a Dem. or a Republican. I chose Barack Obama. No, I don't know that much about him, Janke, but McCain pretty much has it wrapped up on the other side, and I'm not a Hillary fan at all, so it was more a vote against her than it was a vote for him at this point. Now, all I can do is just wait to see who is nominated and then work on making my vote more educated.
Our big fundraiser/headache with the club I sponsor is on March 1. We run a high school pageant and it's just a pain lining up everyone we need to run a successful pageant. We can't just get a judge, two have to be white and two have to be minorities - otherwise, people will of course cry "foul". I can sympathize with that, but it can still put a kink in things.
I'm taking my time with the music. Currently digesting 2008 albums:
Soldier On EP, Andrew Bird
American Gothic EP, Smashing Pumpkins
Angels of Destruction, Marah
Soundtrack to a Vacant Life, The Flashbulb
Just a Little Lovin', Shelby Lynne
Alegranza!, El Guincho
Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel, Atlas Sound
and 2007 isn't over (for me) yet:
Fear of a Blank Planet, Porcupine Tree
An End Has a Start, Editors
Fauxliage, Fauxliage
Catch the Brass Ring, Ferraby Lionheart
I've been listening to the All Songs Considered podcast and their Live Concerts podcast as well. Thom Yorke recently spoke with host Bob Boilen, and it was a pretty revealing episode. Thom Yorke apparently listens to music in much the same way I do (he needs to go through the tracks to know which one he wants to highlight, so he doesn't necessarily know the titles of the songs he loves - I used to do that when deciding on songs to put up at the pub), and he knows he's not the strongest in his enunciation and readily admits to that. That episode and really almost all of them are worth checking out on a regular basis.
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| A couple weeks ago, my grandmother passed away. She had been in poor health for some time, but I'll always remember her as the energetic woman she was not so long ago.
The viewing was pretty casual, so the loss didn't really hit me until the next day. Never follow up a funeral with either of Jon Foreman's recent pair of solo albums - just a bit of advice.
Jump Start on 2008
It's early in the year and I already have a bunch of music to be digested. The good news for me is that several of them are EPs, which should shorten the process:
Where We Come From It Never Snows, Olivia the Band
Soldier On EP, Andrew Bird
The Bedlam in Goliath, The Mars Volta
American Gothic EP, Smashing Pumpkins
Winter EP, Jon Foreman
Do You Like Rock Music?, British Sea Power
Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend
I'll probably check out the new Destroyer album, too.
I still have a few 2007 albums I need to hear, and I've been adding a few more to that list as well.
RIAA - Boundlessly Greedy, Irrelevant
The RIAA has been ordered to pay this woman's legal fees. Good - I hope she sues for more. I'm sure it was very damaging to her emotional state to the tune of a cool mil or so.
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