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.