otoh

In southern Germany, the owner of a 27,000 square foot forest of fir trees went to check on his property. He was shocked to find that thieves had cut down all the trees and taken them away.

The entire forest. Gone. This is not a huge forest (at least, not by American standards) — about half the size of a football field. But still, what’s the world coming to when you can’t see the forest for the thieves?

Technorati tags: Can’t See the Forest~blog~personal~otoh

I had a suspicion this was imminent — it’s what reminded me of the site-blocking debacle I wrote about last week….

Academia is schizophrenic. One of our technology goals is “Students use telecommunications to collaborate, publish, and interact with peers, experts, and other audiences.” At the same time we block access through school computers to tools such as blogs, forums, and other online communities that would help achieve that goal. [Ya gotta love the system!] Blocking such sites is, of course, for the good of the children.

I don’t use MySpace, but I know it has been blocked for some time. [Its demonic properties have been well-documented in the media, after all....] If I were to look at this blog at work [not that I would do that from work, but if I did], it would not include the blog roll because content from Blogrolling.com is blocked. Haloscan has been blocked for a couple months now. A couple weeks ago I noticed that the Help files on Blogger are blocked. And as of last Wednesday all of Blogger.com is blocked. [Don't look for logic in the order in which content gets blocked.]

It won’t affect this blog [although I admit I would sometimes publish moderated comments while at work], because I do this from home. But I have also used Blogger for the last couple years for daily summaries of the assignments in my classes. [There was a time (years ago, of course) when I tried writing and archiving summaries manually. What a logistics nightmare that was....] But our beloved technocrats have done a complete 180 — from not providing any server space or tools to requiring that all class content be housed on their servers and using a short list of approved tools. They, of course, reserve the right (with no method to appeal) to immediately remove content that does not meet stringent guidelines and to revoke access privileges.

To their credit, they do now provide web space, a blogging tool, and a podcasting tool. They offer training for teachers that have never created websites, blogs or podcasts. And they finally have an online version of a class that experienced users can take to get approval to access those tools. [For months they referred us to a site to sign up for classes that were not currently being offered. Ya gotta love the system....]

I don’t know yet how easy it will be to migrate content from my current class site over to the approved site. I suspect that I will have to abandon the archives and start anew for the class summaries. Ditto for a forum I’ve been hosting for teacher inservice. My wiki experiment will probably wither away. I’ve already paid for the hosting of my class site through this school year though, so I won’t abandon it immediately [assuming that site doesn't get blocked] and that gives me time to make the transition and duplicate content [dammit] if necessary. This is progress, right?

Technorati tags: Prescience?~blog~personal~otoh~sydca

At a faculty meeting last week our principal referred to an important point in the agenda as the “money shot”. OMG, I nearly laughed out loud. I’m pretty sure she intended to use a different superlative, but just in case my frame of reference was unnecessarily vulgar I looked it up. And as I thought, it’s roots are in the film industry and is most often associated with pornographic films. So maybe she’s naive in such matters. Am I ever going to ask her? Hell NO! But it made for an interesting… um, climax to the meeting….

On a [very slightly, tangentially] related matter, if you ever read about a teacher referring to a cum folder you should know that it is pronounced KYOOM folder. It’s the cumulative record for a student. That’s just somethng I think you all should know.

BTW, I have not taken the plunge into Beta Blogger yet. Maybe during the long holiday weekend coming up — Oh, hell, you know what I mean…. [smirk]

Technorati tags: Say What?~blog~personal~otoh~sydca

Heather Anne has confession on Mondays. And in the (holiday) spirit of her confession today, here is mine:

I hate the movie A Christmas Story. I’ll sit through it when I’m with friends because some of my friends (for reasons that are completely unfathomable to me) think it is the BESTEST, FUNNIEST CHRISTMAS MOVIE EVER!!!

And the movie Home Alone (and all its sequels) SUCKS. The closest I’ve come to liking anything with Macaulay Culkin in it was My Girl. Um, he died in that, didn’t he?

Go ahead, let the hating begin….

Technorati tags: Monday Confession: Holiday Movies~blog~personal~otoh~sydca

The word “plumbing” is derived from the Latin word for lead, plumbum, because pipes used to be made of lead. We don’t use lead pipes any more. Lead would get into the water and cause lead poisoning.

Lead poisoning can damage every organ in the body and the brain and central nervous system. However, just because we don’t use lead in pipes any more, doesn’t mean that having to work on plumbing problems is any less maddening.

Anyone want to guess what I spent my whole freaking afternoon and evening dealing with? A broken pipe in my front yard. Ugh!

Technorati tags: Plumb Tuckered Out~blog~personal~otoh~sydca

Sometimes I hear music. Sometimes I hear voices. Sometimes I just hear noise.

We turn down the radio in the car when we are looking for an address or a particular street. Apparently loud noise impairs our vision. I’ve worn corrective lenses since I was 10 years old. I’m not sure I can blame the noise in my head for that, unless I ever have a moment of quiet and my sight improves. Not likely.

Sometimes I think the noise in my head is loud enough that people standing near me must hear it too. Just squint and walk away.

Conversely, pictures in my head impair my hearing. I love song lyrics, but I often cannot remember all the lyrics to my favorite songs. When I hear them, one particular phrase will put an image in my head and I don’t hear another word until I’m done looking at it.

My intuition is very vocal. I usually regret it when I choose to defy what it tells me. You might think that I would be more likely to do what it says then. Yeah, that seems logical, responsible even.

As I write this, there is an episode of Twilight Zone on. It stars Buster Keaton and the first ten minutes are done like a silent movie — piano soundtrack and slides with dialog printed on them. And he’s complaining about all the noise around him. Hmm. Now that’s freaky.

I have a button that says, “Welcome to the Twilight Zone. I’m your usher.” I think I should go put it on. But I’m not wearing a shirt and that would really hurt. May I show you to your seat?

Rarely do I feel in step with the metronome that drives the universe. (Living and Dying in 3/4 Time?) But I hear its song.

There is music in the universe. There are noises in my head.

Technorati tags: Noises Off~blog~personal~otoh~sydca

The principal at my school left a couple weeks ago. He had only been here a little over a year. Our new principal likes to be on a first-name basis with the faculty. And during this “getting to know each other” phase I keep thinking, “Hello [school]? It’s me, Margaret.” Because… that’s her first name and… I’m really weird. I’ll never tell her that unless I get to know that she has a really good sense of humor about such things. But I had to tell someone. You lucky devils.

What makes a kid think that we should treat him/her like an adult when they aren’t responsible enough to bring their notebook and a pencil to class every day?

Scenario: You are a parent. [Wait! This is all hypothetical.] Your child maintains a good GPA and works part time. A school administrator calls you. Your child was given a 30 minute detention after school for excessive tardiness. Your child did not serve the detention and now has a two hour detention on Saturday morning. If your child does not serve this detention s/he can be suspended for up to three days. If you then respond by threatening to call a lawyer and by telling the administrator they should be dealing with the low GPA kids and not your child, what do you think your child will learn from this experience? And do I need to tell you what I think you’re teaching them?

Oh, that (“You’re a parent”) reminds me. [Relax, dammit.] A friend of mine once sent an anonymous father’s day card to an ex-boyfriend. Is that funny or just really, really mean?

I am damaged. I know. I’ve got a post or two in draft mode about this. I’m usually pretty careful about what I publish though. Anyway, fixing me up does not fix me. But lately, people want to fix me up. Why, why, why? And that’s all I can say about that for now.

Technorati tags: Oddments and Assortbits~blog~personal~otoh~sydca

I was having a difficult time writing the last couple days and really considered just not posting at all again tonight. And then, dear Janet inspired me with her regular feature, Tell It To Me Tuesday (TITMT). The question this week: What fictional character on television, past or present, do you (or did you) most relate to and why?

There have been plenty of characters that I wanted to be like. I love mysteries, so Banacek and Columbo were early favorites. They were both brilliant and both cool (albeit in very different ways). Even Jim Hutton’s short stint as Ellery Queen had a goofy charm that appealed to me. But I never really pictured myself as being like (or capable of being like) any of them.

Rob Petry on “The Dick Van Dyke Show” made being a comedy writer look like the greatest job in the world. I write a lot and occasionally it’s funny (and occasionally that’s intentional), but I’ll never have that kind of talent.

I was in high school in the 70s. I was never a devoted fan of “That 70′s Show,” but I enjoy it and it’s easy to catch all the episodes I missed because it seems like it’s on about 70 times a day now. I get the jokes, I recognize the fashions (hahahahaha), I dig (some of) the music, however I don’t really identify with any of the characters.

Kevin in “The Wonder Years” would have been just a few years older than me and I dearly loved that show. I was SO disappointed when I read a while back that the show might never get released on DVD because of the licensing costs of all the music in the show. And the music was so integral, it just wouldn’t be the same if they took it out. (I don’t remember how long ago I read that, but if anyone has updated information leave it in the comments.) Anyway, I can’t say that I personally identified with any specific character in that show either.

I’m not a teacher on TV, but I play one in the classroom…. “Room 222″ (any readers here old enough to remember that one?) and “Welcome Back, Kotter” were both on before I decided to become a teacher. Hmmm, I can’t say I identify with them either, but I’ve seen a sweathog or two in my time. And I have never been able to stand ANY of the school-based dramas. There haven’t been a lot of them — “The Bronx Zoo” and “Boston Public” come to mind — but they are universally abysmal. I don’t know why I expect a TV drama to be maybe a teensy bit realistic. I don’t expect it from the cop, doctor, lawyer, or other shows. It’s TeeVee for chrissake.

And forgive me if this seems like a cop-out, but that kind of sums up why I don’t think I ever have (or ever will) really identify with a character on TV. Nothing on there is intended to be real. The characters are caracatures. They have to be exaggerated to project out of that little box into our living rooms and into our lives. I sometimes feel like a fictional character in my own life, but you won’t be watching me on a screen near you.

Technorati tags: I’m not a teacher on TV~blog~personal~otoh

The last comeback of a truly hopeless geek:

I’m an elastic hydrocarbon polymer and you’re a protein colloid adhesive. Whatever you verbally express caroms according to Newton’s third law of motion off of me and coheres permanently to you.

It just doesn’t work, does it?

Technorati tags: Oh Yeah?!~blog~personal~otoh~sydca

I have unrealistic desires. I know that the images we see in every visual medium are edited — manipulated, airbrushed, photoshopped, etc. — beyond the point of reality. And yet, for reasons that I’m sure are at least as much inculcated as they might be innate, I find them attractive. (That is, after all, rather a major reason for the editing in the first place.)

I was born the year the Barbie doll was first sold. Talk about your unrealistic body images. My older sisters (none of whom resemble Barbie, but one is named Barbara, not that that is relevant) had Barbie dolls. (They had the Mystery Date game too, but that’s a different post.)

Here’s a video that in about a minute shows how a very ordinary-looking woman is transformed with makeup, lights, and editing into a fabulous (and completely unrealistic) beauty. The problem [I suppose it's a problem] is that I do find the resulting image beautiful. Even though the eyes are twice as big, the neck is thinner and longer, the blemishes are hidden, etc., that freak of nature is attractive.

And I’m not blaming our media-saturated culture, but I do find young, slender, curvy women attractive. I have unrealistic desires. But I have very realistic expectations. I expect to be alone.

Technorati tags: Great Expectations~blog~personal~otoh