Watching the Debate

Obama is left-handed!!!

I like him even more.

You know that old Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times.”

Well, I’ve noticed that my blog is only interesting when I do stupid or horrible things. Thankfully, I guess, I seem to have quite a bit of material lately.

Sooooo……

I shaved my beard this weekend. Accidentally.

You see, the beard trimmer is always set on 3.5. ALWAYS ALWAYS.

Except for this Sunday when I was in a hurry to get to church and decided I had just enough time to run the trimmer over my beard quickly. It’s always set to 3.5, and I didn’t pay any attention to the length setting. Oh yeah, and I didn’t use a mirror either.

It was set at 1.

Half my beard was gone before I noticed.

So I had to just get rid of all of it and start over. I definitely feel a little naked. Or a lot.

I’m hoping that if I push real hard I can set the record for growing it back quickliest.

Books Read 2008

70. Selected Poems - W.H. Auden 8/10

69. The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories - Tim Burton 7/10

68. Voss - David Ives 7.5/10

67. The Tales of Beedle the Bard - J.K. Rowling 7.5/10

66. The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming - Lemony Snicket 7/10

65. Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell 8.5/10

64. Amusing Ourselves To Death - Neil Postman 9.5/10

63. All of Us - Raymond Carver 7.5/10

62. Weather Central - Ted Kooser 7.5/10

61. 1 & 2 King (Brazos Theological Commentary) - Peter J. Leithart 8.5/10

60. If I Don't Know - Wendy Cope 4/10

59. Maxims - La Rochefoucauld 8/10

58. Getting Involved With God: Rediscovering the Old Testament - Ellen Davis 9/10

57. The Crucible - Arthur Miller 9/10

56. The Crock of Gold - James Stephens 9.5/10

55. How to Heal the Hurt by Hating - Anita Liberty 7.5/10

54. Austenland - Shannon Hale 7.5/10

53. The Mystic Masseur - V.S. Naipaul 8/10

52. Lying Awake (second time) - Mark Salzman 9/10

51. Interior Castle - Teresa of Avila 6/10

50. Exiles: A Novel - Ron Hansen 8.5/10

49. Postmodernism: A Very Short Introduction - Christopher Butler 7.5/10

48. Subversive Orthodoxy: Outlaws, Revolutionaries, and Other Christians in Disguise - Robert Inchausti 10/10

47. What Saint Paul Really Said - N.T. Wright 8.5/10

46. The Old Testament: A Very Short Introduction - Michael Coogan 6/10

45. Belief in God in an Age of Science - John Polkinghorne 8/10

44. The Bhagavad-Gita 6.5/10

43. Barth for Armchair Theologians - John R. Franke 9/10

42. Wesley for Armchair Theologians - William J. Abraham 8.5/10

41. Franny and Zooey - J.D. Salinger 7/10

40. Four Quartets - T.S. Eliot 9/10

39. Iron and Silk - Mark Salzman 8/10

38. Lying Awake - Mark Salzman 9/10

37. Letters to a Young Poet - Rainer Maria Rilke 9.5/10

36. 20 Something Manifesto - Christine Hassler 7.5/10

35. Roman England: A Very Short Introduction - Peter Salway 7/10

34. The Anglo-Saxon Age: A Very Short Introduction - John Blair 7/10

33. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - Douglas Adams 9/10

32. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling 10/10

31. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz 8/10

30. A Raisin in the Sun - Lorraine Hansberry 9.5/10

29. A Very Long Engagement - Sebastian Japrisot 8.5/10

28. Coraline - Neil Gaiman 7/10

27. Slapstick - Kurt Vonnegut 6/10

26. The Princess Bride - William Goldman 10/10

25. Night - Elie Wiesel 9/10

24. A Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Live the Bible as Literally as Possible
- A.J. Jacobs 8/10

23. Captain Alatriste - Arturo Perez-Reverte 7/10

22. The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama 8/10

21. Blue Like Jazz - Donald Miller 7.5/10

20. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions - Edwin Abbott 7/10

19. American Born Chinese - Guen Luen Yang 8/10

18. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini 8.5/10

17. Russell Baker's Book of American Humor - Russell Baker 6/10

16. There's a Hair in My Dirt - Gary Larson 6/10

15. God's Silence - Franz Wright 7.5/10

14. I Am One of You Forever - Fred Chappell 9.5/10

13. An Honest Answer - Ginger Andrews 7.5/10

12. Hurricane Sisters - Ginger Andrews 8/10

11. Just People - Kathi Appelt 6.5/10

10. Good Poems for Hard Times - Garrison Keillor 9/10

9. Walking to Martha's Vineyard - Franz Wright 9.5/10

8. Flying at Night - Ted Kooser 8.5/10

7. Good Poems - Garrison Keillor 9/10

6. Eve's Diary - Mark Twain 9.5/10

5. The Blizzard Voices - Ted Kooser 7.5/10

4. Spoon River Anthology - Edgar Lee Masters 7.5/10

3. Delights and Shadows - Ted Kooser 9.5/10

2. Twilight - Stephanie Meyer 5/10

1. Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl 8/10

Reminder #35: A Long Week

You know that episode of The Office where Jim spends the whole day dropping hints to Dwight to make him think the day was Friday, rather than the actual Thursday, so that Dwight wouldn’t come in the next day. Of course, it works, and Dwight comes racing into work halfway through the next day.

The sad thing is, I’m about as bad as Dwight, and the Jim isn’t here.

Yesterday was Tuesday. I was going to a Tuesday-night basketball game, and I had the normal Tuesday schedule. Nevertheless, I remained convinced all of yesterday that it was Wednesday. At one point, I “corrected” a student who said it was Tuesday.

Things were worst, though, when I started working on the computers. I was installing a new program on all of them, and as I was doing so, I began to notice that several of the computers erroneously said “Tuesday.” I couldn’t imagine how they’d gotten off by a whole day, but since I had already the computers’ protection down and was working on them anyway, I started changing the dates to Tuesday.

I think I was on computer six or so before I realized that it was funny that EVERY computer in the library had gotten off a day. I was outvoted, you know.

They were right.

Reminder #36

Today is Wednesday.

I'm With Stupid

I’ve learned something about myself.

I like wearing novelty t-shirts.

I think I know what I like about them. You see, when you’re walking in the store or in the park or in the library or at the zoo or, you know, wherever you happen to be, people look at you.

And then they look at you again, because they’re interested in what Mr. Rogers on your shirt is saying (“Feeling good in the neighborhood.”).

The nice thing, though, is that when you’re wearing a novelty-t, you forget you’re doing it. You can’t see it, after all.

So, as far as you the wearer are concerned, all those looks don’t mean “What’s that freak’s shirt mean.” They mean, “Hey, that guy’s awfully (attractive/hot/cute/sexy/smoldering/handsome/luscious/etc.) today.” (Or something like that; I’m just imagining). And they have to look again.

So yeah, it feels pretty good.

Let me know if you see a shirt with either Mr. T or Eeyore on it. I think I’d like one of those.

Return

Ok, it’s time to reenter the world of blogging. I’m not quite sure why I left, why I do that sometimes. So it goes.

Reminder #34

I have a blog.

I do have a theory, I guess, about why I haven’t blogged in a while. I do have a (sometimes broken) rule against blogging about my job (other than really harmless stuff). I think since I moved to Winters that my life is pretty much my job and only my job. Blogging suffers in such a circumstance.

Not that I’ve lacked for material, but I have lacked for material that I’m actually going to use.

I assure you that life has been fine, though, during this time. It really has been.

So, I’m in Winters, teaching and library-ing in the Winters High School. I’ve got two classes, and I can’t imagine how the other teachers handle seven of them. I’m overloaded. Granted, it works out that I’ve pretty much been hired for an easy, but definitely full-time job (librarian), plus the extra teaching stuff that I don’t get paid any extra for. Plus sponsoring some school events, etc. They’re getting their money’s worth. I moved to a place where nothing happens (even less than in Abilene), and I’m as busy as I was up in Lubbock.

So it goes. I guess that’s about how it will always go.

But I like it. I didn’t think I would. High school just didn’t sound right. And a small town again…

But, I’ve got the best students I’ve ever had. They’re all sixteen and seventeen, but since they’re the dual-credit students, they are, without doubt, smarter than the kids I had in college (or just as smart as the very top ones there). And I love that you actually get to know them in high school. I see them every day, and they’re neat people.

And the school’s alright. I think I’m sort of an oddball to the people there. But I’m pretty sure they like me. At least most of them.

And I can survive the town. It’s a little strange that the people closest in age to me are the students. I’m getting pretty used to this though. Menard trained me well for living in weird little places. It feels like home.