From the Mountains

Well I'm done grading A.P. World History essays. I read over 850 essays in seven days. So yeah, I'm a bit punchy. My assigned question to grade was over trade and commerce in the Indian Ocean from the 7th century C.E. through the mid-eighteenth century C.E.. Needless to say the overwhelming number of essays I graded were pretty lousy. I had one perfect 9 the whole week. But we wrapped up early and now I'm enjoying the mountain breezes before heading to the closing night party where you will see dorky historians get funky from their Rocky Mountain High.

Missed Kimberly and Jackson terribly...but I did have a good week other than that. Met great people, had engaging conversations over a bizarre range of topics and enjoyed cool breezes as opposed to the oppressive Texas heat.

My table of seven was a great table. No Nazis, fascists or anti-social louts...all cool people. Some other tables weren't so lucky. Brian, our table leader from Long Beach, was laid back Cali style yet always encouraged us to keep up the good work.

The food was good. The logistics top-notch. My room had internet access, A/C and a nice view. I am very impressed with Colorado State University and the College Board.

But I am ready to head back to Big D. I did post a few pics on my flickr site which can be accessed here. I'll be home a few days and then it's off to the Bahamas where I will not have to grade a single essay.

photo: my table taking a night out at Woody's after a long day of grading sophomoric (literally) essays.

Letter to the Times

A friend of mine who teaches history at a university in Pennsylvania told me today that his son had a letter published today in the New York Times. During a break from grading AP essays he rode his bike to a newstand in Fort Collins to buy a NY Times. Sure enough, his son's was the first listed in today's edition in the opinion section. He was responding to an article in yesterday's paper about the Senate's investigation in to the lead up to the war in Iraq. So, whether you agree with this guy's opinion or not...it's still cool to be printed in the Old Gray Lady. The article can be accessed online here. It's the first letter on the top.

Weezer Day!

Today was Weezer day. Their newest album came out titled "Weezer." It's their third release of theirs that is self-titled, so like the other two it will be known by the color on the cover...this one is known as the Red Album. I couldn't make it to the record store today. Six miles from my campus dorm here at Colorado State University...gotta rent a bike.

So I wore a Weezer concert shirt today as I graded AP essays and had all kinds of comments. Guess a lot of World History teachers dig Rivers and the gang. One dude at the cafeteria offered me his SPIN magazine featuring a Weezer cover story.

And Kim told me that a character on the Young and the Restless was wearing a Weezer shirt on today's episode. Righteous!

So here I am grading essays about trade and commerce in the Indian Ocean (650-1750) while listening to the iPod. Hope the guy next to me couldn't hear me humming "Pork and Beans."

Turn it OFF!

Back in the old days of carburetors we were taught that if you left your car idling for less than 30 seconds it saved more gas to let it run than shutting the engine off and restarting. However, most cars today have fuel injectors which lowers that magic number to 10 seconds...some even say 7 seconds. So when I go to the bank or wait at the railroad crossing I actually save gas by shutting down my engine.

I say all this to address one of my biggest pet peeves. When I drop my son off at the Daycare a great majority of the parents leave their cars running while they go in to drop off their kids. Today, for example, the car next to me was running when I got there and was still running unoccupied when I left...a good ten minutes later (and it was 70 degrees outside...no need to run the A/C).

Here's the reasons why this drives me so crazy.

1.) It's actually illegal in Texas to leave your keys in the ignition due to the great potential of theft.

2.) It's dangerous to leave your car running in a daycare parking lot with so many kids around.

3.) It's a terrible waste of gas and money during these times of $4 a gallon gas.

4.) It's terrible for the environment to needlessly spew carbon monoxide into the atmosphere when it can easily be prevented.

5.) What message does that send your kid that you drop off them so fast you don't even want to bother shutting off your engine? Might as well have a drive through window at Daycare to expedite the process.

So I talked to our Daycare representative at our school and fortunately the problem will be addressed. People, save your money and environment and turn off your car when sitting for more than 10 seconds. According to General Motors you will more than recoup your gas savings than the expense caused by wear and tear on your ignition.

Radiohead Setlist

Some have asked for the set list from last Sunday's Radiohead concert in Dallas. They played two hours and played all 10 songs from their newest album "In Rainbows." They also did a nice sampling from all their albums sans Pablo Honey. The only song I hadn't heard before was Bangers and Mash which is on the second disc you had to pre-order from the "In Rainbows" release. It is still not available at record stores from what I understand.

All I Need

There There

15 Step

Bangers and Mash

Nude

Pyramid Song

Weird Fishes/Arpeggi

The National Anthem

Dollars and Cents

Faust Arp

Videotape

A Wolf At The Door

Optimistic

Reckoner

Everything In Its Right Place

Idioteque

Bodysnatchers

1st Encore

Fake Plastic Trees

Jigsaw

Falling Into Place

House of Cards

Exit Music (For A Film)

The Bends

2nd Encore

You and Whose Army?

Paranoid Android

Indiana Jones and the Search for Eternal Youth

Here's why I'm not too stoked about the new Indiana Jones movie. I hope I'm proven (or proved....never quite sure which is correct) terribly wrong cause I love the Indiana Jones series.

1.) Harrison Ford is old. That could still work, however not only has he looked old in his last few movies he's also looked befuddled and lost.

2.) Shia Labouf. The guy's a terrible actor. He plays the same character (see the awful Transformers for his template) in every flick. He believes cocky and arrogant channels Brando or something. How cliche is it that he's playing a biker dude? This is supposed to be Indy and Marion's possible love child?

3.) Aliens? I hope the reports aren't true.

4.) We often forget that the only true classic Indy movie was "Raiders of the Lost Ark." The Temple of Doom had some iconic moments...but overall the movie's pretty dumb. Kate Capshaw...one of the worst movie heroines ever. The Last Crusade was a little better...but still sappy compared to Raiders. It's hard for lightening to strike twice.

5.) George Lucas's writing has gotten progressively worse as the years have worn on. His dialogue for the Star Wars prequels was awful.

Again, I truly hope I'm proven (or proved!) wrong and that we'll have another classic this summer. I'm hoping if I keep my expectations low I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Radiohead in Dallas

So last night I got to cross off another "group to see in concert before I die list". Radiohead ended their ten-year embargo of Dallas by coming to the old CocaCola/ Starplex/ Smirnoff/ Superpages.com Centre Sunday night. 1998 was the last time Yorke, the Greenwoods and the rest of the dystopian gang played Big D. Think about that. '98...that was before Kid A, Amnesiac, Hail to the Thief and of course In Rainbows. A lot's happened since then.

So even though I stayed up until 3 a.m. a couple of months ago to order tix online I still missed the reserved seats. But the lawn was still great and we had a clear view of the stage with the Tibetan flags and lighting strands hanging from the ceiling. The weather was perfect...75 degrees at downbeat. There was a rather chatty Burning Man Chick wannabe next to us giving her Lesbian girlfriend unsolicited emotional therapy but she settled down by the third song after her second beer and several tokes on her funny looking cigarette. That's the usual but expected downside to these events. Still can smell the cheap pot in my nostrils despite using cologne and whatnot to eradicate it. But the 20,000 folks were into the music and afterwards everyone got out of the parking lot amazingly quickly. (yes, I just used two adverbs in a row just like Ian Fleming)

The crowd was in to it. Radiohead must be an alien band from another planet to show us Earthlings what original alternative music can sound like if truly inspired. Doesn't really fit the normal summer arena show...but even the dystopic myopic strands of minor chords got electric and optimistic at times and the night was rockin'. The astounding light show focused the music instead of taking away and there were no cheesy spotlights and dry ice. They threw a piano out there for a third of the songs and Thom Yorke played that, an organ, drums and several guitars. The rest of the band cooked like crazy maniacs from some type of musicl cult of excellence and even when the tempo was slow it seemed the world would end when the song reached its denoument.

What a concert! I'm still a Weezer man, but Radiohead is by far the most talented, most original, and compelling band since the Beatles. There is nobody...nobody that comes close and you just think I'm on a contact high due to seeing them live just last night. But I believed that before and now am amazed they were even better live.

Inside the Family

When the Dixie Chicks got themselves into trouble in London a few years ago for criticizing President Bush the overriding issue for many seemed to be that it was wrong for them to make such criticisms of our President on foreign soil.

Now, President Bush has done pretty much the same thing. Attacking the opposing party during a campaign season in the United States is an expected and perhaps beneficial part of the democratic political process. But to criticize a potential future leader of the United States in the parliament of a foreign nation is inexecusable. I wouldn't care if it was a Democrat criticizing a Republican, or as in this case vice versa, you keep such internecine conflicts at home.

Hasn't Dubya ever seen The Godfather? Never discuss family business with outsiders. Tear each other up in campaign season in the United States...but not in the Knesset. President Bush isn't a lame country singer...he should know better. He's the freaking President of the United States, leader of the free world.

Unfortunately, when he's replaced this January he's moving only 20 miles away from my house. Guess I should be used to idiots on the Dallas freeways by now.

Cinco de Mayo

So today I wore my Mexican national soccer jersey to school to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. My numerous Hispanic students always get a kick out of it and they are allowed to call me Mr. Brown or Senior Blanco for today only. But I had an interesting experience as I was walking across the breezeway from the parking lot to the school. As I walked past a group of white kids (made up of mostly poor white trash rednecks) I heard someone spit and say "Mexican" in a very hostile tone almost under their breath.

Of course I kept walking because there was no way to truly be sure who was responsible out of a big group of kids and to even be 100% certain the spitting sound was related to the verbal slight...or even if it was directed toward me since I'm not Hispanic although I was wearing the Mexican jersey. But it was tragically enlightening to experience for a brief moment what many of my Hispanic and African-American students go through on a regular basis. As a white male I have never had to deal with that kind of prejudice. Just goes to show you that despite the enormous gains in equality and ethnic respect, the spectre of racism is still alive and not necessarily just hiding in the shadows. The event saddens and angers me because I realize that so many have to go through worse abuse than this on a daily basis.

I've blogged before that I will not allow the ugly reality of racism to go unexposed when I come into direct contact with it. In this case I could not defintively prove that anything actually took place. That's one of the stumbling blocks for the persecuted. You ask yourself was the incident real or imagined. And even if real, what recourse do you have since you can't prove anything.

Often these kids are outnumbered. And all you're left with is a vague, yet certain uncomfortability. That's the case because most racists are too chicken-s$@t to step out of the shadows and confront head-on. Yeah, I apologize for my language but racial harassment pisses me off. To think of good people having to endure that crap everyday. That's the ugliness of racism.

But in those cases where I do encounter racism...usually in the supposedly safe confines of white conversation...I do not allow such warped thinking to continue unchallenged. My goal is to shine the light on those cockroaches and make them scurry to the shadows carrying their unhinged mentalities with them. I will make life as uncomfortable for them as they do for others. It's been said many a time that allowing evil to go unchallenged is just as evil as the evil itself. The least we can do is to make them squirm and not be comfortable with their mentality of hatred.

photo: Me the last time I was in Mexico back in 1998.

May Day

A little poem in honor of May Day...

May Day and I'm not wearing red.

Ding-dong communism mostly is dead.

But was it ever really alive?

From what version did it derive?

Stalinism, Maoism, Leninism and Che

Never really followed Marx and Engels anyway.

The same poor souls suffer who always suffer.

Yes, the lower working classes always have it rougher.

But Orwell's Proles are too stupid to unite.

They'd rather overspend on cigarettes and whine than fight.

note that the picture is on the LEFT.

The Hailstorm!

Oklahoma City is getting pummelled in the sports messageboards for supposedly stealing the Supersonics from Seattle. You should see the prejorative names some ignorant fools are suggesting the new OKC team call themselves...including incredibly cruel swipes like the Oklahoma City Bombers. I know people who lost loved ones in the Murrah Building bombing...a building me and two others were due to tour for a college government class project on April 19th that was cancelled at the last minute due to a golf tournament...a tournament that possibly saved my life. Yeah, I don't find much humor in that name.

OKC did nothing wrong. Seattle had plenty of opportunities to "save the Sonics." No one from the local area stepped up to purchase the team. Seattle built two new stadiums for the Mariners and Seahawks but not for their oldest professional franchise. Seattle was given chance after chance and now they cry because they have to live with the consequences. Don't blame Oklahoma City...a city ready and willing to host the Hornets after Katrina and ready to go when the opportunity came knocking. Don't blame OKC.

I lost my favorite NBA team in 1985 when the Kansas City Kings moved to Sacramento. I know how it feels. I wandered in the NBA loyalty wilderness until 1997 when I moved to Dallas and decided to root for the lousy at the time Mavericks since I had no rooting interest in another NBA team. I will continue to root for Dallas (despite their gutless playoff performances the past two years) because I don't believe in giving up on teams that easily. But I will wish good things for the OKC team and perhaps root for them if I ever move back there. The same would be true for any potential team moving to Kansas City (sooner than you might think!).

There's the real quandry...who would I root for between Kansas City and Oklahoma City? I consider both teams my hometown. I've never had to pick since OKC never had a pro team. I could easily be a Sooner and a diehard Chiefs/Royals fan. It was easy to become a fan of the Mavericks and Dallas Stars since neither OKC or KC had NBA or NHL teams. Don't know what I'll do if the waters get muddied up in the future.

P.S. Glad the Chiefs picked up Longhorn Jamaal Charles in the draft. He really helped the Sooners out last year fumbling on his way into the endzone and allowing OU to keep their lead and win the game. He's a Sooner hero. Just hope he's learned how to hang onto the ball since then.

P.S.S. My pick for the OKC NBA team is the OKLAHOMA CITY HAILSTORM.

Random Notes

An unbelievable thing happened yesterday. Little Southern Nazarene University defeated the Oklahoma Sooners 8-4 in a men's baseball game. The Crimson Storm of the NAIA don't meet up with NCAA schools very often. Everyone knows I am a diehard Sooners fan except for those extremely rare times when they meet up with my beloved alma mater SNU. This was SNU's first major victory over a major college power since they revived the baseball program in 1997. Stunning. What a big win for the Storm!

Well I got my braces yesterday and it wasn't that bad. No pain...just an annoyance. I'm sure I'll feel some pain when I go in for adjustments and tightenings. It is a pain to have cut up my pizza into little tiny pieces. And it's taking my five minutes to brush my teeth well. Hopefully I'll get faster with practice. Flossing is a nightmare. Two and a half years to go. Hope its worth it.

The Countdown

28 Days until school's out.


2 days until I get braces.




2 weeks until snorkeling lessons.



4 weeks till Radiohead plays Dallas.



8 weeks till I lay on the white sand beaches of the Bahamas.

Go Memphis!

Tonight's NCAA championship game is the twentieth anniversary of one of the most traumatic experiences in my sports-watching life. It was in 1988 when the Kansas Jayhawks defeated the Oklahoma Sooners in the national title game. The Final Four was being staged in my hometown of Kansas City that year. It's hard to describe how excited the city was...especially since nearby KU was in the semifinals.

To make it worse both my parents are Jayhawk alums. All my friends, teachers and enemies were Jayhawk fans. I was one of a few sparse Sooners in K.C. it seemed. I was feeling pretty confident...cocky actually. OU had the highest scoring team in NCAA history. They had defeated Kansas three times that season (twice in the regular season and once by 23 points in the Big Eight Tournament). Kansas was lucky to get into the tournament that year.

My Dad and I attended the final Final Four practice session at Kemper Arena which was free to the public and jammed packed. It was exciting to be ten rows from the floor to watch Duke, Arizona, Kansas and Oklahoma do their last practice sessons. That night I videotaped the game (which my parents confiscated after I wished to delete it from existence) and almost had a stroke when KU pulled off the upset. It only got worse.

The next day everybody in the high school raked me over the freakin' coals. My KU Alum high school band director forced me and another OU fan to lead the clapping to the Jayhawk fight song in front of 120 jeering band students. Pretty traumatic stuff for a freshman. By the end of the day I lost my cool and when a guy named Harry jeered me in the hallway before sixth period going up the staircase I punched him in the head. The jeering went on for months. Months! Even football season didn't bring the normal respite because nobody cared about football in Kansas at the time.

The shame was that OU had one of the greatest college basketball teams of all time that year. Mookie Blaylock, Stacy "Sky" King, Ricky "Amazing" Grace, David Sieger and Harvey "General" Grant...one of the best line-ups of all time. But that is all forgotten since stupid Danny Manning and his cast-offs got lucky the fourth time they played the Sooners.

Yes, I'm over it. That was 20 years ago. Especially when my band director emailed me to apologize two years ago. But I tell you this...getting over it doesn't mean I won't be rooting hard for the Memphis Tigers tonight. Sorry Mom and Dad. With all due respect I hope the Jayhawks go down hard. That's the beauty of sports...love for a team doesn't go away easily (go Royals!). But neither does hatred for a team go away that easily as well. Go Memphis!

Favorite Music

A student asked me the other day what my favorite songs of all time were. I hadn't thought about that in awhile so I decided to make a list...I love lists. These are my current favorite rock/pop songs of all time. I limited a group to only one song...so a group like the Beatles or Zeppelin only get one song despite singing many of my favorite songs. The list is constantly changing so this is simply a snapshot.

My top twenty (in no particular order) favorite songs at the moment.

Lazy Boy by Brazzaville
Sleepwalker by Santo and Johnny

Holiday by Weezer

D'yer Maker by Led Zeppelin

I Can Hear Music by The Beach Boys

Here Comes the Sun by The Beatles

Hook by Blues Traveler

Candela by Buena Vista Social Club

Waiting For My Lucky Day by Chris Isaak

Sweet Jane by the Cowboy Junkies

Do You Realize? by The Flaming Lips

Monkey Wrench by Foo Fighters

The Power of Love by Huey Lewis and the News

Blue by The Jayhawks

Here Comes Your Man by the Pixies

My Iron Lung by Radiohead

Don't Look Back in Anger by Oasis

Since I Don't Have You by The Skyliners

Blue Moon by The Mavericks

Invisible Touch by Genesis

photo: Jackson stealing one of my CDs

The Perversion of War

Earlier this week France's last surviving World War I veteran died at the age of 110. Shortly before he died he gave an interview where he said... "You shoot at men who are fathers. War is completely stupid."

This week I have been reading The Histories by Herodotus. He relates the story of Croesus, king of Lydia (in present day Turkey) who made this cogent observation in the fifth century BCE about how war is essentially an artificial and un-natural invention of man.

"In peace sons bury their fathers. In war fathers bury their sons."

photo: Kimberly, me and Jackson at his first birthday party last January.

Bodemania!

Bode Miller has won his second overall World Cup Championship. This is an amazing feat for an American that will probably generate little interest in the media which is still ticked that Miller blew off their Olympic predictions in 2006 by failing to medal. Many thought Miller was done after 06...he left the U.S. Ski Team to compete individually. However, he blew everyone away by winning six races this year. Last year he won the World Cup title in the Super G...this year he wins the Super-Combined and the Overall titles. He broke Mahre's American of career World Cup victories and he still has those two silvers from the 02 Olympics. He is no doubt the greatest American skiier ever and he probably won't get any mag covers for it. America would rather talk NASCAR. An American beating the Swiss, Austrians and Germans in skiing? Unbelievable.

Birthday? What Birthday?

So yesterday I was a bit blue as I felt the relentless march of mortality as my birthday (today) drew nigh.

I had to make a late night stop at Wal*Mart and I ran into one of my former students working in the electronics department. He updated me on his life and told me he had just gotten married, was graduating from A&M Commerce in May and was about to begin student teaching. He is majoring in World History and is going to be a History teacher. He said that I was the prime inspiration for him getting into teaching and that everyone told him you had to coach to be a history teacher in Texas. He said, "I always told them that wasn't true since I had a World History teacher in Kaufman who didn't coach. He just taught and that's what I'm going to do."

Wow. You don't hear that kind of feedback very often. I was a bit happier after that. Then tonight, we stopped at a restaurant for dinner and ran into another former student with her parents. She's on spring break and told me she was finishing her junior year and is also going to be a high school teacher. Again...wow.

So I am blue no more.

Jackson Walking

Yes...you read that right. Jackson is walking. He began taking several steps in a row last Friday. And now he's very proud of himself. Here's a series of short video clips of the little walking maniac.

Quantum of Solace

So there is a bit of an uproar over the title for the newest James Bond flick coming out this November. Seems people don't like the title "Quantum of Solace." Doesn't sound Bondish (or Bondian?) enough for them. But to real Bond fans, those who enjoy both the books and the movies, the title is a pleasant surprise. 007 movies have always been fun...but now they can be smart. "Quantum of Solace" was the title of a short story in the Ian Fleming penned anthology "For Your Eyes Only." The other story in "For Your Eyes Only" is "The Hillderand Rarity."

When I was a columnist for my college newspaper, The ECHO, in the early nineties I actually stole (or borrowed since I did make reference to Fleming) those titles for one of my columns. That particular column piece was entitled "The Laundromat Rarity Leads to a Quantum of Solace." The column was a pitiful little essay on mulitculturalism in the United States. I had just finished "For Your Eyes Only" and liked the titles to those short stories so much I appropriated them for my little read column.

How I miss that weekly column...it was called "Metaphysically Sober featuring Dave White and the 42nd Street Insomniacs." I'm quite sure it looms quite negligably in the memories of those ECHO readers at Southern Nazarene University between 1992-1996. It made no real contribution to the intellectual discourse of the campus yet allowed me to release those inner demons of a desperate pseudo-intellectual.

Anyway, I never thought the 007 producers would be daring enough to use the titles on an actual movie. But Bond has moved into the 21st Century as the ultra-cool "Casino Royale" proved. I believe we have the Bourne movies to thank for that evolution. So as a true Bond afcianado...I think the title "Quantum of Solace" is freakin' supercool.

Radiohead in Big D

I am superfreaking stoked because my wife just scored tix to the Dallas Radiohead concert this May. The tickets sold-out in ten minutes. They have not played Dallas in ten years...1998 the last time they graced Big D. The old Starplex is not the best venue in town...but I'd see Radiohead anywhere. Yeah...I'm counting down the days.

Are you Kiddin?

As a Mavericks fan I guess I'm supposed to be excited about the Jason Kidd trade. I would have been seven or eight years ago. But now I see the Mavs trading away their future (Devin Harris) for an old (he's almost exactly my age for crying out loud) wife-beating punk. Sure he may still have skills...but at what price? Maybe I'll think differently if they win the title. But that's the only way this trade will be considered a success...if the Mavericks bring home the trophy they should have brought home two years ago.

Photo: Me (wearing my supercool retro Mavs hat) and Grandpa

The Death of Mass Politics

My European History class has been discussing the rise and effects of mass society/politics in the 1880s through World War I. The enthusiasm of the working classes must have been intoxicating. Concurrently I just finished Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia" and his description of the euphoria flowing through the working classes of Barcelona was visceral. His description of the bitter in-fighting that destroyed the republican coaltion and doomed the loyalist fight against fascism was equally depressing. So our discussion ran into a comparision of that time with our own. The class pretty much surmised that we live in a society that deludes itself into thinking it dictates the direction of society but in reality follows along like the lap dog the lower and middle classes have always been.

Their raw and basic evidence is...

1.) Pitiful voting turnouts...50% at most for presidential elections and considerably less for the local elections which have a much greater impact on your every day life.

2.) Celebrity driven news cycles. How much of the news is driven by Paris Hilton, Jamie Lynn Spears, Lindsey Lohan the cult of the celebrity (i.e. the death of the Heath Ledger). At 6:30 pm on the local broadcast networks in Dallas, Texas your choices include...Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, Extra, TMZtv, The Insider and Inside Edition. The elites drive fashion and issues of morality in our culture.

3.) Corporate control over the major television media conglomorates.

4.) Out of control campaign finance and lobbying influence on the poltical process.

The tragedy is that in the United States the people could have a greater say in government if pulled away from their myspace accounts, video games, meaningless addictions etc. Americans are not shackled by fascism or an authoritarian poltical system. The mass of Americans shackle themselves by laziness, ignorance and apathy. Stand in line at your local Wal*Mart to see that in first person.The tragedy, as recognized by my students, lies with the inevitable truth that freedom taken for granted is freedom lost and worse yet lost voluntarily...yet there are many throughout history and the globe that risk life and limb to attain a mere fraction of our political freedoms.

Mass politics is dead in America and has been for some time. Its death (or more optimistically, hibernation) is due to the same laziness that allows for sub-prime mortgages to spiral out of control and for the United States Government to run massive deficits which destroys the worth of the dollar around the world. Hopefully we won't turn into Orwell's proles of 1984 and remain asleep. Hopefully we'll wake up before we've lost our souls to atrophy.

Jackson's Favorites

Jackson's favorite book is "Where's That Duck" by Dan Crisp.

More amazingly he really likes The Arcade Fire. I think that is his favorite band. He dances everytime I play them on the stereo. One year's old and already into some supercool stuff.

Here's a short video clip of random Jackson time.

Another Edition of...Overheard in Class

Overheard in class (an A.P. class no less)

My students are convinced that Tony Romo is the best of QB time despite not winning a single playoff game. They think he's better than Montana, Unitas, Favre, Marino...

and I said..."What about Terry Bradshaw?"

They said "who...the announcer?"

"Yes, the Steeler who has four superbowl rings."

And an A.P. student, in all seriousness, asked..."What did Terry Bradshaw steal?"

Bode's Back!

Good to see Bode Miller back on top of the skiing world. He's won two downhill races in a row and defended last year's victory at Wengen, Switzerland this past Saturday. Very rare for a skier to win the same course two years in a row. With this week's victory Miller ties Phil Mahre's record of 27 world cup victories by an American. He should blow by that record being that he's only 30 years old and skiing better than ever. Too bad most Americans only know him for his failure to medal at Torino. He's one of the greatest American athletes in the world who is doing unprecedented things on the World Cup Circuit. Back in the U.S.A. people are more interested in Tony Romo's Mexican vacation with Jessica Simpson.

The 2007 Reading List

Well here's the list of books I made it through in 2007. The number (19) may not be impressive to some voracious readers...but I think it's pretty amazing considering 2007 saw the wondrous arrival of my son and I didn't have much time to read. It's quite an eclectic list with a lot more U.S. History and economics than usual for me. It was a good year of reading material.

• The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin
• Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
• Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
• Banker to the Poor (Microlending and the battle against world poverty) by Muhammad Yunus
• One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Tristessa by Jack Kerouac
• A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
• Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy
• Collapse by Jared Diamond
• Dining with the Devil by Os Guiness
• 1776 by David McCullough
• Satori in Paris by Jack Kerouac
• Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick
• Candide by Voltaire
• The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
• The Hot Kid by Elmore Leonard
• The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac
• Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl

Good Times to Be Bad

My favorite baseball team, the Kansas City Royals, have been a laughingstock for some time now. But if there is a silver lining behind the black cloud that has been the Royal's performance these past ten years is that they picked the best time in baseball history to have a horrible slump. They have no legacy sullied by the Mitchell Report. They have no records worth putting an asterek by during the steroid era. They have nothing to defend despite the fact that some of their players (Hal Morris and Wally Joyner) were listed in the report.

All signs in Kansas City point to improvement under GM Dayton Moore. Unfortunately they did just sign Jose Guillen, a notorious malcontent and HGH/Steroid user. But if you're going to have gone through the worst ten years of your franchise's history...the steroid era was the time to do it. The Yanks, Mets, Astros, etc...all have besmirched records their diehards will have to justify with pathetic and doomed-to-lose arguments. The Royals have nothing to justify during this time span.

Do You Believe your Truth or Not?

Huckabee has gotten some negative attention for asking during a New York Times interview if Mormons believe Satan and Jesus are brothers. First of all, I can't believe the question was entirely "innocent" as Huckabee described it. Huckabee's too smart for that and was certainly trying to raise doubts about Mormonism in the minds of voters. I have no problem with someone's religious beliefs being part of the public discussion of a candidate's background. However, why did Huckabee have to apologize?

If that's what Mormons really believe...what are they afraid of? Why do their beliefs have to remain secret? If Mormons truly believe that Satan and Christ were among several sons of God...then why keep that a secret? Why not stand by your convictions? No Mormon or religious expert has said the Huckabee was wrong. So what's the issue?

The issue obviously is that Mormonism is a cult founded by a convicted fraud that miraculously receives convenient new revelations for political expediency (i.e. renouncing polygamy to gain statehood and being a theologically rasicst institution until 1978). Hey...I respect your right to belong to a cult...but don't hide the facts of your faith and pretend to be something your not.

I won't hide the facts of my Christian faith...and there are some who categorize Christianity (incorrectly in my opinion) as a cult or as an archaic mythology. But I'm not hiding anything and I stand by my beliefs. My faith should be transparent. I know many great Mormons who are among the finest people I know. Some of my top students are Mormon. But Mormonism's repeated attempts to keep their doctrine and practices secret only proves the cultlike nature of their "religion." There may be a lot of criticisms of Christianity...but a lack of transparency cannot be one of them.

Magazine Cover of the Year

Time magazine ranked this magazine cover as one of the ten best of the year. Rarely does a magazine cover make me laugh out loud...this one did.

First Christmas Tree

Here's Jackson seeing our Christmas tree for the first time...

Help from Grandpa

Here's a clip of Grandpa Reinking helping Jackson develop his walking skills during Thanksgiving weekend in Tulsa.

Walk This Way!!!

Here's a clip of Jackson practicing his walking skills. It won't be long now...

Homecoming 07

Enjoyed going back to Southern Nazarene University for homecoming this past weekend. It was Kimberly's ten-year reunion and it's always good to meet up with friends and family. Big shout out to my cousin Allison who did an excellent job watching our son Jackson during the reunion luncheon. He didn't cry or fuss once for her.

I love my university but I am sad to see the change in campus culture due to the increasing presence of athletics. Adding football and baseball has really transformed the dynamic of the campus community. The transformation has been for the most part a negative one.


The problem does not come from sporting events that involve smaller numbers of students...such as basketball, tennis, golf, track & field, etc... The problems arise from sports like football, soccer, baseball and softball where large numbers of athletes are involved. The recruitment of large numbers of athletes often allows some to slip in who are not the most positive members of Christian society. You always hate to see academics sacrificed for big time athletics...and I believe our society in general will not be judged positively by future generations for our obsession with such activities.

Microcredit and Kiva.org

This past May I blogged about how I had participated in providing a microloan to an entreprenuer in Zacatecas, Mexico through Kiva.org. Well, Alicia Pinales Najar has repaid her loan in full and I have taken that same $25 to help finance a microloan to Zipporah Wangari Kihika in Kenya. Zipporah sells eggs in a market within a slum in Mombasa, Kenya. Her husband sells potatoes at the local market. Her microloan will allow her to expand her business and purchase more inventory to help support her family. You can read more of her story here.

I encourage you to take a look at Kiva.org. The website is safe and secure and has been profiled in the NY Times, PBS Frontline/World, Oprah and is mentioned in Bill Clinton's new book. It's fast and easy. You can loan as little as $25. As soon as the loan is paid back you can either withdraw the money or cycle it into another loan. Microcredit is an ingenious way to act locally across the globe. The $25 I gave was given to me as a birthday gift. Now that gift can literally keep giving for as long as I keep cycling it through Kiva's microcredit program.

Halloween Parade

Jackson participated in his Daycare's Halloween Parade this morning in Kaufman, Texas. Here is a short video. Jackson is the little monkey sitting on Pop's (Tom) lap.




More pictures from this festive event can be found at my flickr site HERE.

Overheard in Class

Overhead in class while students were debating the following ancient conundrum...What came first...the chicken or the egg?...

"Well dinosaurs had eggs." - Kalee N.

In Rainbows

Last week I joined the online frenzy and downloaded the new Radiohead album "In Rainbows." I didn't get up at 1:45 am like the hardcore fans. I actually waited until the next day.

The whole thing is marketing genius. Name your own price? I paid 2.90 pounds...little over $5.00. Bypassing labels and keeping all the profits...and creating anticipation...Radiohead's making a killing.

Plus the album is really good. Not O.K. Computer or Kid A good...but still really good. It only took me about ten minutes to get the whole thing bought, downloaded and zapped to my iPod. Don't think there are too many other bands that can get away with bypassing the whole record label deal. Radiohead has always forged their own path.

Free Tibet!

Forney Cribs

The Little Man showing off his crib...or showing off that now he can pull up to a stand anywhere he wants.

Boomer Sooner!

28-21

World's Worst City

One of my favorite bands, Brazzaville, named themselves after the capital city of the Republic of Congo...as opposed to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) across the river. The band named themselves after the former French colonial capital for two reasons...one, a bandmember had lived there for a short time, and two, Brazzaville for years had held the dubious distinction of being the worst major city in the world for quality of life. They thought that fact would reflect the world-weary nature of their music.

But to the great joy of the Brazzavillians they are no longer residents of the world's worst city. That title has been passed to the once majestic city of Baghdad.

photo: The Band Brazzaville in their adopted home city of Barcelona, Catalunya

Anything Better to Do?

Just this past week I criticized my Republican Senator for wasting time by bringing to the floor a vote condemning Moveon.org for their ad criticizing General Petreaus.

Now the Democrats are joining in. Harry Reid actually wasted time circulating a letter around the senate condemning Rush Limbaugh for saying "phony soldiers" in regards to troops who criticize the war.

Don't these fools, Democratic or Republican, have anything better to do than attack websites and radio hosts...liberal or conservative...for simply stating their opinion?

No wonder dictators around the world can get away with murder. No wonder poverty spreads and health care costs explode. No wonder AIDS runs rampant in Africa and gas prices rise. No wonder carbon emissions increase and etc...etc...etc...

Our "representatives" are too busy posturing and indulging in worthless attacks to actually lead.

Tesla was robbed!

Tesla was robbed!

The Puppet Masters

I love teaching Chinese history and culture. I would love to visit someday to see the Wall, the Qin Dynasty terra cotta warriors and much more. But let's not fool ourselves. Just because China is not ruled by an overtly evil man like Mao Zedong does not mean that the current regime is any less evil.

For years the idea was that the more we engaged China through capitalism the more likely we could affect positive change. The communist government, however, has shown that it can make money through free enterprise yet still destroy the humanity of its citizens and the defenseless around the world. Military options of course should be off the table...but China can be hurt in other ways.

China desperately wants to be respected as a modern 21st Century superpower. They especially want to show off the "new China" in 2008. It's time for the international community to gird up and propose a boycott of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. China buys most of Sudan's oil. China is financially supporting the regimes in Burma, North Korea and Cuba.

The Chinese always vetoes UN Security Council mandates that seek to sanction totalitarian regimes. China's vetoes in the past have assisted Milosevic in Yugoslavia (now Serbia), Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran along with countless other tyrants. Christians are imprisoned and executed on a daily basis. All dissent is forcibly quelled. China is still a totalitarian regime which supports evil around the world. It's time for the international community to speak out. China is often the puppet master behind the crazed despots making headlines today. It's time they're called out.

Of course money talks and the West makes too much money off China (and sees even greater market inroads there in the future) for anyone to speak the truth in ways that carry any real weight.

Free Who?

My fundamental problem with the recent events in Jena, Louisiana is that the central figures in the case (the African-American teenagers who assaulted a white classmate) are not heroes by any stretch of the word. Victims of heinous judicial (and perhaps prejudicial) injustice...yes, but they are not heroic victims.

There are not many heroes in the Jena case. The white students responsible for hanging nooses should have been expelled and punished much more severely. The African-American students who beat up one of those white students should have been tried as juveniles for their crime of assault and battery. And it was a crime. Let's not forget that. There are no innocents here.

There are serious issues of racism in Jena. That obviously needs to be dealt with. Those African-American teenagers should not have been tried as adults for attempted murder. However, Jesse Jackson and Sharpton are acting like these African-American young men are heroes for a new 21st Century civil rights movement. If that's the case, that movement is in serious trouble.

The movement loses its moral authority if these boys become the symbols used in its cause. Martin Luther King, Jr., the greatest of the civil rights leaders, would have never supported violent means to affect change. Non-violent protest was his mantra and his life work. King would never endorse these young men as the ones to pity or lift up onto a pillar of reverence.

As a Christian I believe injustice should never be met with violence. The most successful and morally legitmate battles against tyranny have been peaceful. These young men should have been guided to follow the model of Christ, Gandhi, Mandela, The Nepalese in 2005, and the Burmese monks of today on how to conquer an immoral system of racism or totalitarianism or other travesties against mankind.

Jena should be a rallying cause for those wishing to continue the fight against the horrible plague of racism. But that cause should not include lionizing people who perpetrated violence against a fellow (albeit dispicable) human being. Two wrongs do not make a right.

Stand up man!

We've entered a whole new ballgame folks...the little man is pulling to a stand without help from us.

Aggie Tirades

Well, I guess all Oklahomans are weighing in on Mike Gundy's postgame meltdown over Jenni Carlson's column questioning QB Bobby Reid's attitude. No secret I'm a Sooner fan so I'm not exactly impartial. All I have to say is that Carlson is a sportswriter who's written dumb things for years. But I don't think her column was that far out of line. Poorly conceived, as all her columns are, perhaps...but not worthy of such a performance from Gundy. And Mike Gundy (who I always liked in the past) is acting like an idiot ("A mother of children!!!"). But hey...the whole thing's been fun to watch...even if you're not a sports fan it's worth taking a look at the Gundy explosion on youtube.

Rocket Boy

Here is a video of Jackson as an astronaut.

Move On To Something Important

I'm so glad to see my senator, John Cornyn, spending his time drafting and introducing a Senate censure of a website. Why spend time trying to solve immigration issues, epidemic foreclosures, spiraling housing markets, rising gas prices, endemic poverty, third world Texas colonias, lack of health care, political corruption, campaign finance reform, unending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, nuclear ambitions in Iran, genocide in Darfur, earthquakes in Indonesia, and whatever and so forth...

Yes, I'm glad to see my honorable senator from Texas and all the other yokels in D.C. spending time censuring a website that now has even more attention because our highest legislative assembly dignified it with an official rebuke from the United States of America. Way to go...That's the way to show 'em!

College Life

Notes from my Moleskine during a UIL Competition Conference (Saturday 9-15-07):

Sitting in the student union at the University of North Texas in front of a 'Mean Green for Obama' poster reading "The Dharma Bums" while listening to Coltrane on the iPod feeling a bit like a college student...but those days were long ago.

Now I'm outside because inside can be so stifling and its beautiful outside. I'm sitting on a bench under trees facing a gazebo with a fountain splishing and splashing nearby. I'm next to the Independence Hall looking admin building and the trees have been planted in rows like that scene in 'House of Flying Daggers' where a cool fight takes place. The benches are all lined up like the Central Park ones where George Peppard sat on in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" when he confronted the Barnaby Jones Bev Hillbilly guy. (turned out he was Holly Golighty's husband).

It's nice until three of my students spot me and want to gab but they let me use a cell phone to check on the fam in Forney and all's well. I get rid of them by convincing them to splash around in the fountain. They're relunctant at first but I appeal to their inner 'Rage Against the Machine' Zen lunatics. So they're gone now and it's so quiet that when I sneeze (one time!) a butch coed feminazi soldier a few benches up whirls around and gives me a if looks could kill glare. I just smile and say "Hey...how bout a God or whatever you believe in Bless You?" She's not amused.

I saw two guys, one faintly south Asian with a digital camera, taking action pics of a pasty white dude with a taliban beard carrying a black furry stuffed monkey as he walked up the hill with the massive screaming eagle statue.

Others doing Tai Chi or somesuch in unison on a mean green lawn. I love college campuses cause weird stuff's normal and on campus weird is not weird...it's normal. I also love college book stores but I need to stay out of them because I can't afford anything.

Now I drink green tea just about every day. I've even blogged about green tea in the past. But I'm not sure I would go far as Jack Kerouac when he writes in The Dharma Bums...

"The first sip is joy, the second is gladness, the third is serenity, the fourth is madness, the fifth ecstasy." Maybe he was putting something in his green tea besides honey.

Hurricane Jackson

Here's a short video clip of Jackson being destructive and attacking the paparazzi.

Beatific Paths

Today is the 50th anniversary of the publication of Jack Kerouac's literary masterpiece, On The Road. I couldn't let today go by without comment. Kerouac is one of my favorite authors and I have read On the Road at least seven or eight times. I read a variety of stuff in a year but I always save time for at least a couple of Kerouac reads. There is something tragically poignant in Kerouac's search for meaning and joy. As a fan of jazz music I appreciate his free form improvisational style and frequent mentions of Bird and Dex. And I look forward to traveling to Austin when the original Kerouac teletype scroll of On The Road goes on display at the University of Texas in March.

The White Man Crawleth

Yes, Jackson's crawling now. Here's video to prove it. Unfortunately we are still using our analog camcorder. So any video I download to the computer comes from my digital photo camera. So it's a bit primitive. Yes, Jackson is chasing Ringo and Simba. No, there has been no injury in the pursuit of the cats. He is everywhere now. We are now in the mobile Jackson phase.

Houston, we have lift off...

So yeah, haven't blogged much in the past couple of weeks. School started this week and it's been superbusy...but my classes seem great this year. Would like a bit more participation from my Euro class...but my reg World History classes seem as well behaved as I ever seen. My AP Worlds also seem ready for some intellectual discourse. Better to be a maverick than a lemming.

The weekend before school started we headed down Houston way for my buddy Lance's wedding which was great...except for the part where us groomsmen walked into the sanctuary to the UT song "The Eyes of Texas." Nice suprise Ringnald.

Lake Jackson (the site of the wedding) is an hour south of Houston down in bayou hurricaneland...right off the gulf. We ran into the remnants of Tropical Storm Erin on the way down...nasty big drops. We were made nervous by all the hurricane warning signs flashing throughout Houston due to Hurricane Dean...which fortunately ran south toward Old Mexico. Unfortunately Lance had to change his Cancun honeymoon plans. Not sure yet where Hurricane Lance eventually landed.

Had a great time down there. The trees (palms and spanish moss) are surreal, the humidity thick and the mosquitoes as big as hummingbirds down in Clute/L.J.. Wish Lance and Sarah the best...despite the Longhorn cuff links.

photo: Ted (and picture of his two boys), me and a sleeping Jackson and Q and Jud at the Stallberg reception.

The Grassy Knoll Theory

Diane (my mother-in-law) in all the years she's lived near Dallas had never been to the Sixth Floor Museum in the old Texas Book Depository Building. This is of course the place from where Oswald shot JFK. So we took her there on her birthday. The whole Dealy Plaza area is a bit spooky because so many people still come and discuss in whispered tones all the conspiracies that float around the Kennedy assassination. Over 40 years later and people are still debating these whacked out theories. Unfortunately the old Conspiracy Book Store across the street, which added to the weird aura of the place, lost their lease and went out of business a few years back.

Another weird note...the website of the Sixth Floor Museum runs a web cam from Oswald's vantage point. Bit gruesome to me. Worse yet, they (some enterprising capitalist, not the museum) used to have 1963 convertable limos you could take a ride in from the starting point of JFK's route to Parkland Hospital where he was pronounced dead. I haven't seen those limos the last few trips to Dealy Plaza...but they used to lurk right outside the Depository. Out of taste for sure...but this whole place is weird. And this time I parked the truck right behind the wooden picket fence on the grassy knoll where supposedly someone saw gun smoke and heard shots.

Seattle in Texas

This has been the rainiest summer in the ten years I have lived south of the Red River. But the Texas sun is back with a fury. Reached 100 degrees for the first time today (as opposed to last summer when we had already had 40 days above the century mark). Usually I begin watering my grass and foundation in late April. This year...I watered for the first time yesterday...August 8th. Wow. Our water bill has been fantastic this year. And I hear that TXU's profits are down 76% this quarter partly due to the cooler weather. I have to admit I'm not shedding many tears for little ole TXU.

Jackson on the Move

Jackson is getting closer and closer to crawling. He really wants to real bad. He gets on all fours and rocks...then lunges six inches or so. He gets frustrated because when he really wants to move forward he usually shoves himself backwards instead. Then gets mad. Moving seems very important to him so it reminded me of the quote by Jack Kerouac...

"We all realized we were leaving confusion and nonsense behind and performing our one and noble function of the time, move."

So I better get in shape...soon there will be no more of this setting JDW down in the middle of the living room and running to the kitchen knowing he'll be in the same place when I get back. Soon he'll be performing the noble human function of moving...all over the place.

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Interesting statistics from the Energy Information Administration...a division of the U.S. Department of Energy.

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is expected to contain a mean average of 10.3 billion barrels of oil (compared to 246 billion barrels located in Saudi Arabia). That would, according to the U.S. Government, sustain the equivalent of two years of American oil usage...at current consumption rates.

If used at the same rate as the Prudhoe Bay Field the ANWR reserves would be virtually tapped out in 20 years. The U.S. Government predicts that over that twenty year time period Americans can expect to save $0.1 per gallon of gas during that time period.

The two major groups that would profit from oil drilling in ANWR would be the oil companies (which produced the largest profit margins in American business history last year) and the citizens of the state of Alaska (who are exempt from sales tax and received an $1100 dividend per taxpayer last year from oil receipts.).

If you don't trust me...find these figures out yourself by accessing the U.S. Government's own website and type in ANWR.

It begs the question...how much is it really worth to the average American to drill for oil in ANWR? According to the U.S. Government...one penny per gallon of gas savings for twenty years for two years worth of American gas consumption.

Is the potential damage, no matter how small, to the coastal plain of Northern Alaska worth that amount of savings?

That's up to you to figure out.

The Double Dave Dilemma

So tonight Kim, Jackson and I ate at the new Double Dave's Pizza in Forney with some friends of ours. Good pizza...but that was not the first topic of conversation. The topic that provided great enjoyment to my friends at my expense was the fact that I turned down free pizza for life and perhaps $1000 in cash for giving up my phone number to Double Dave's when they first came into town.

You see, a few months ago, Double Dave's made the offer because our phone number ends with the numbers that spell out DAVE. I didn't want to give it up because we have had that number for five years and I didn't want to have to contact everybody in my life to notify them of the change. Plus, I really like my phone number.

Well the pizza was pretty good tonight. So maybe I should have made the deal after all...unfortunately they had already found someone with the DAVE numbers who took the deal without hesitation.

But hey...I still have my phone number.