Retro Chair

I snagged this chair over ten years ago when our library underwent a complete renovation and relocated. They were giving away the old furniture.  I love this chair. It's comfortable and solid. So many of my students have asked if they could keep it when they graduate. No way, this is a keeper. It looks like a relic of Sterling Cooper's offices. 

HIMYM Finale

The internet has exploded with opinions about the series finale of How I Met Your Mother. Guess I better jump in...just because.

First off, I was stunned to read the other day that the show started in 2005. It didn't seem like it had been on that long. Nine years. It just seemed like yesterday when the show was on the verge of cancellation after its first season. Nine years! That show came on before my son was born. I barely remember life before then.

Secondly, we watched the first couple of seasons then began to be pretty hit or miss after the third season. I would watch it occasionally on reruns but we weren't heavily invested. Weird side note: my wife never called it How I Met Your Mother. She called it "Have You Met Ted?"...a line from the series premiere that popped in every once in awhile during the series run.

So we weren't so emotionally attached to the characters although at times we greatly enjoyed the show. Maybe I don't have the cred that long time viewers have. But throw me into the camp that was ticked off by the finale.

SPOILERS coming.

I can't believe they killed off the mother! What in the world? Was this an attempt to be innovative and cutting edge? Were they trying to be different for different sake? Oh my gosh, that was brutal. They could have dedicated an entire final season to that storyline and it would have been great. We had all gotten used to the idea that Ted and Robin were not right for each other. Then they throw them back together at the end!?!

And how depressing is it that Marshall has to endure a job he hates until the very end. For years he has to sell his soul as a corporate lawyer until he finally achieves fulfillment as a judge? Super buzzkill.

And Barney never evolves? I love Barney as a caricature. But he's got to evolve right? I mean, that was a touching scene when he commits himself to his new baby girl...but we wanted more!

And the kids. They were teenagers when they encouraged Ted to go for "Aunt Robin." Mom's been dead for six years and they're okay with it. But dude! They're teenagers. Teenagers are not that mature. They would be ticked at Dad going for another woman...even six years after mom's death. Teenagers are not often rational. Maybe if they had been in their twenties their response would have been more believable.

Oh, but back to the Mom. Can't believe they killed her off. Realistic maybe. But this is a TV comedy. I don't want realistic. That was cold man. Cold.

Deep in Thought

Okay Ramblers, Let's Get Ramblin'

Reservoir Dogs.  

Nerf Herders

Last night was Mother-Son Nerf Night at church. Nerf has become an arms dealer for children in recent years. Word is, it got pretty intense. 

26.2

Today my son and thousands of kids from across the DFW Metroplex celebrated running 26.2 miles over the past two months with the Marathon Kids program. 

Stars

I'm sure this has been discussed somewhere ad nauseam. I know the five point star is a universal symbol and used everywhere. But I couldn't help to notice the striking similarity between the stars pictured above. The red star on the left is from a photo I took of a MiG-17 Russian fighter plane (mentioned in an earlier post). The star on the right is obviously the logo of the Dallas Cowboys. The only difference between the communist star of the Soviet Union and the star of "America's Team" is the color.

The Cowboys came into existence in the early 1960's during the height of the Cold War. You're telling me someone didn't notice this in the design process of creating the Cowboys logo? Surely there's a story there. I'm not much of a Cowboys historian so maybe the stories about this similarity are exhaustive and I just haven't been exposed to them. Just weird. 

Photobomb

You think they're extinct and then they photobomb you. 

#perotmuseum

White Rock Lake

Transporters

Jason Statham fan club? Reservoir Dogs? Valets? Or prom chaperones?

Undivided Attention

They want her Bengal Spice tea. 

See You in the Playoffs

That's a wrap on another a great home soccer season. See you next week in the playoffs. 

MiGs in Texas

This Polish made Korean War era Russian MiG-17 has been in this parking lot down the road from my house since we moved to this town over twelve years ago. And no one seems to know how it got there. Okay, I'm on it. It's been long enough. I'm getting to the bottom of this. 

UPDATE (11:30 am): Apparently the owner of an antique store saw this jet in a museum in Norway and bought it. They shipped it to Texas to put in front of their store next to the highway in order to attract customers. It has definitely worked in attracting attention. Not sure how long it's been there by the side of the highway, but most say at least twenty years. 

Regrets

Sometimes regrets are justified. See above. 

Big Sandy

The old girl just rolled over 150,000 miles and turned twelve years old. Beast. 

Day Two

The second day back is always harder. 

St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick is a pretty interesting dude. You should Google him. Seriously.

Last Day of Break

Train in the Rain

Perot

Present

My birthday present from my wife and son...the brand new FC Dallas Jersey! 

#DallasTiLIDie #DTID #hashtagsdontworkonbloggersowhyamIusingthem

Jack

in 1991 Jack Kerouacs writings hit me like a lightning bolt from the sky today is his birthday in his honor i will not be using punctuation

Spring Break again

Soccer Season

Another season started Saturday on a cold rainy day. #9 was co-captain.  

Spring Break

Home Opener

Last night we attended the Season Opener for FC Dallas. First time we've ever gone on Opening Day. FCD was victorious against Montreal. The new FCD jerseys look pretty nice. Might have to snag one, at the very least to antogonize my friends who root for Houston. Cold rainy night. Felt like a match in England. Before the match we got to walk around the field due to On The Field Experience Pases from Groupon. Nice deal. Glad MLS is underway! #DallasTiLIDie

Wait. What?

Me, Robert from Buffalo and Matt from somewhere north of LA in California near the coast. Hangin' in Salt Lake City. 

Peace, Land and Bread

This little cartoon is genius. I show this to my European History students when introducing the Russian Revolution of 1917. It does a great job of summarizing the Bolshevik takeover of Russia. Granted, it leaves out Kerensky and the Provisional Government...but you'll have trouble getting this song out of your head. "Peace, Land and Bread!"

No, not even a little bit.

Saw one of my students reading this. They checked it out of the public library. 

Just to be clear: the south was not right. Not even a little bit. By the way, the code word for slavery is "states rights."

"States rights." That's what southerners we're fighting for..."states rights." Yeah sure. 

Those guys wearing gray were not modern libertarians fighting for modern conceptions of states rights. For the Confederacy, "states rights" meant one thing: the right to own human beings, who were of African descent, as property.

In 1860, "states rights" meant the right to dehumanize, torture and commidify human beings that were seen as racially inferior. 

Today, states rights mean something else, revolving around ideas about taxation, definitions of social morality, the right to smoke pot and a host of other things. Slavery is not on the list. 

But if the dude is holding a confederate flag, states rights means slavery. 

Ash Wednesday

Snow and Ice

Sometimes I look out my classroom window at the snow and ice and I pretend that I'm a teacher in Colorado or Utah and that I'll be skiing after school and then everything feels alright. 

Ice Day 2014

Saturday was 80 degrees. Today we're out of school due to a thundersleet ice storm. Love climate change. Thundersleet? Do these guys make up new words together at some conference each year? Polar Vortex. Ponding. 

Don't think those flowers are gonna make it. 

Urban

This photo was taken in a very wealthy suburban school on the edge of Dallas. Guess they were trying to amp up their street cred. 

Bingeing (or Binging) on Arrested Development

Back in '05 I was told to watch Arrested Development by a friend because they said it was right up my alley. I didn't get around to it because, well...no reason. I just never watched it. Until last night. The show ran from 2003-2006 and has recently been resurrected by Netflix with all new episodes. So last night I clicked up the first season and started watching.

I couldn't stop watching. I watched several eps even though I had tons to do. This show is so freakin' funny. Twisted and awesome. What took me so long?

PORTLANDIA IS BACK!

Season Four begins TONIGHT!

Put a bird on it!

P.O.D.

Post Olympic Depression is a real thing.

Pets

Stand your ground

LIG-EEE-TEEEEE!

Great to see Ted Ligety win the Gold Medal in the GS today. I follow World Cup skiing year round and first noticed Ligety when he won the Combined Gold in 2006. I remember my son, as a three-year-old, yelling "LIG-EEE-TEEE!" when we watched World Cup events in the years following his Olympic debut. Since then, Shred has become the best GS skier in the world...by far. He's won nine of the last 14 World Cup GS races and now has his second Gold. He's the first American to win two Golds in Olympic Alpine Skiing. Ligety's still young and if he stays healthy may have more Olympics in him.

It is bittersweet to see the great Bode Miller's Olympic career come to an end today. He hurt his surgically repaired knee today and won't compete in the final Alpine event, the slalom, on Saturday. What a run. Bode, who won Bronze a few days ago in the Super G, is the most decorated American Alpine skier in Olympic history. He's got Olympic medals of all colors, six overall. He's also the oldest person to ever win an Olympic alpine medal. Not to mention he's by far the most decorated American World Cup skier by a long shot, winning the overall title twice.

I've been following his career for twelve years, ever since the 2002 Salt Lake games. He's been one of my skiing heroes. One year, my wife had my birthday cake made with a screen shot of him skiing on it. I have a Bode Miller ski hat. I've read his biography. His approach to skiing was fearless. He says his injury isn't too serious and he plans on finishing the World Cup season. But, knowing he won't be at the next Olympics is a bit sad. He had a super run. Unforgettable.

My Favorite Star Wars Figures

I started collecting Star Wars figures when I was five years old. Too bad these, pictured above, weren't available at the time. They may have been my favorites.

St.Valentine

St. Valentine was a Christian priest in 3rd Century Rome when it was illegal to be a follower of Christ. He was known for assisting persecuted Believers and presiding over Christian marriages. He was arrested and when he tried to convert the emperor he was sentenced to death. He was beaten with stones and beheaded. Well, that's according to legend. No one knows for sure. There's lots of different stories out there.

Anyway...

Happy Valentines Day!

My kind of Tea Party (via Portlandia)

Ice Ice Baby

My New Ride

San Antone

So we made a quick trip to San Antonio over the weekend. We just wanted a quick getaway. San Antone was beautiful as usual and our trip down was very smooth. We stopped at The Village Bakery in downtown West on the way down. We wanted kolaches. Everyone else stops at the Czech Stop on the service road. But if you drive a mile into downtown, the Village Bakery is worth it.

We stayed at the Menger Hotel, which is right next to the Alamo. The Menger opened in 1859, twenty years after the fall of the Alamo. It is the oldest continuously operating hotel west of the Mississippi. Famous guests to the Menger include Robert E. Lee, U.S. Grant, Sam Houston, Oscar Wilde, Eisenhower, Bill Clinton and more. Teddy Roosevelt recruited his Rough Riders at the hotel bar which Carrie Nation also personally visited in an attempt to shut it down.

The Menger is a beautiful hotel in a perfect location. But the rooms are small and the walls very thin. The historic charm is fun but it can be noisy. You'll hear every flush, conversation, shower and door slam. It's supposed to be haunted but we saw no evidence of ghosts! I would probably recommend another hotel if you're looking for a good night's sleep. Visit and tour the Menger, but stay somewhere else...unless you're prepared not to get any sleep.

The Alamo was very crowded and I was a bit disappointed at how crazy it all was. The last time I had visited the place several years ago, it was very quiet. People treated the Alamo like a shrine and I found the place solemn and magical. This time, there were too many people and they weren't quieting the crowds inside as they have been known to do in the past.

We spent a lot of time on the Riverwalk, of course. We ate that evening at Las Canarias. We ate indoors, by a window overlooking the River. We ate inside because it was getting chilly and there was a convention of annoying competitive cheerleaders wandering the Riverwalk. They were loud and we weren't in the mood for them to spoil our dinner. Dinner was amazing and the view was great.

We headed back the next morning and stopped at the Outlets at San Marcos. I've been to a lot of outlet malls, but this is by far the largest and nicest set up I've ever seen. Ate great burgers at Johnny Rockets and then made it back home in time for dinner. Nice, fun trip.

iPhone Tips

HERE'S an interesting article about how you may be using your iphone wrong. 

 

Quick Review: The Circle by Dave Eggers

Just finished The Circle by Dave Eggers. Eggers is one of my favorite authors and this book did not disappoint. I found it riveting, a real page turner. Actually, I was reading it on a Kindle so I guess it was a real button clicker.

The premise: a young woman, Mae Holland, gets a job at a tech company called The Circle. The Circle is a company that is basically Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple rolled up into one. The headquarters is a sprawling, modern campus in northern California where everything is clean and shiny and intentional. Working for the company is almost like belonging to a cult. The company believes in absolute transparency and the progressive utility of technology. "Circlers" believe technology will change the world and make it a better place.

As Mae becomes more engulfed in the culture of The Circle, we are taken on a ride into radical democracy and openness. We are shown a world that believes secrets are lies and that privacy deprives others of ourselves. Mae finds herself drawn deeper and deeper into a tech Utopia that may hide serious consequences for the way we interact with our fellow humans.

The Circle is a fascinating parable about our modern obsession with social media and technology. After reading it I almost canceled my Twitter account. Great story, with important themes that we really need to consider as we become more attached to our smartphones and Instagram feeds.

Basic Skills