No war in Iran. 

More From Talarico

 

Rico!

Went to South Dallas last night to hear James Talarico! 

 

NPR

 I would very much like to get this shirt. 

Gold Coast

Finished the second of Kim Stanley Robinson's Three Californias Trilogy (my edition contains all three in one book): Gold Coast. The trilogy pictures three different alternate timelines of Orange County in the near future. The first story was post-nuclear. The second, Gold Coast shows the OC after decades of unfettered and out of control capitalism. Another book by KSR that I had to just sit still with after finishing to contemplate what I just read. I'll be contemplating Gold Coast for a while I'm sure. A great work. I liked Wild Shore (the first book) a bit more simply because I found the story more poignant. But Gold Coast was super good. Tragic but with a glimmer of hope near the end. I'm going to wait and read the final installment a bit down the road. I want to ponder things first. I'll start in on something else tomorrow.

Tsundoku

My current tsundoko, February 2026. 

Lunch at Rosa’s

 

CATan

 

Boyhood

An entertaining read for the most part. A memoir covering Muir’s childhood in Scotland, immigrating to America and ending with his last days of college. Kids had to work hard in the 19th century. But Muir’s giftedness was evident even in the mundane work of the farm. Fortunately his family allowed him to pursue his gifts at the University of Wisconsin. 

Open Road

 Debuted my new Open Road hat last night. 

Taco Tuesday

Yesterday was a work day at school. So we got to go out to lunch like adults. We went to Taco Loco. So good. 

20th Anniversary

 

Today is the Twentieth Anniversary of Dave's Internet Lounge.

Yeah, February 17, 2006 I threw up that photo above (Mexico, 1998) and started writing.

Everyone had a blog in those days. Now, the term blog sounds antiquated. 

I look back on much of what I wrote and so much of it is nonsense. Fortunately very few people actually read my posts. 

Even less read my posts today. My primary audience was made up of my Mom and Dad and Grandparents. Maybe a former student or a friend hopped on every once in awhile. Well, my grandparents and my Dad have all passed away. I'm not sure if my Mom still passes this way online or not. I might get a stray random eyeball occasionally. But honestly, I no longer write for an audience.

I post to maintain a routine. Posting forces me to stop for a moment and observe the world around me. This blog has become an online journal of sorts. So, if I'm the only reader of Dave's Internet Lounge, I think I would actually prefer that.   

20 years! Man, so much has changed. It's nice to see there are still some corners of the world or internet that are still here.  

Believer Sports

 Always a good day when The Believer comes in the mail. 

Taverna

 A nice Italian dinner last night. 

Love

 

Mentors

My old mentor stopped by the school today. He now lives overseas and doesn't visit America much. Good to see him. 

HBD!

 

Understanding

I was recently reminded of the scene in The Shawshank Redemption where Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) barricades himself in the warden's office and plays Sull'aria...che soave zeffiretto, from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro over the prison PA system. Activity in the prison yard stops and Red (Morgan Freeman) says "I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about...I'd like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can't be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it."

To be clear: I'm directing this to all you people complaining you couldn't understand the words of the Super Bowl Halftime show because it was in Spanish.  

Religions

So a few months back the state of Texas passed a law stating that if someone donated posters of the Ten Commandments to a school district, then teachers were required to post them in their classrooms. 

Of course several school districts filed suit stating the obvious violation of separation of church and state. So a judge placed an injunction on districts that filed suit allowing them to pause putting these posters up until the matter was resolved in the courts. My school district was not one of these. 

Our local state representative, a man who has proven to be no friend of public education, donated Ten Commandment posters to our school district. Then, our district stated they were going to put the posters up without our input and after hours. 

This is wrong on so many levels. It's simply performative, a play to the ignorant MAGA base. Anyone who thinks a poster is actually going to change the behavior of students is ignorant at best. Shoving religion down someone's throat violates all what public education stands for. If you want a Christian education, go to a private school. If you can't afford it, use the private school vouchers this same rep voted for to pay for it. 

I have students of many religions, creeds and backgrounds. It is insulting to force one's views on them. Not only is it unethical it also doesn't even work! 

And to have this forced by a state Attorney General who violates many of the ten commandments on a regular basis is even more infuriating.

So, I was ready. I made posters that showed the basic tenets of the five major world religions. I also printed out the First Amendment of the Constitution. Then I surrounded the new poster, once maintenance put it up, with my religion posters. 

I have no problem with the Ten Commandments. I am a Christian. But this is public education for all. And if we're going to put up the tenets of one religion, I'm going to put up the tenet of all the major world religions.

The whole thing is so dumb. 
 

Halftime, Part Two

I did not watch the super bowl last night. But I did tune in for the halftime show. I may not have understood Bad Bunny's lyrics (even with a 400 day streak attained yesterday my Spanish still needs work!) I understood the message. Really a nice show. Surprisingly I enjoyed it. Many thoughtful touches. An interesting take I saw last night: the same people who needed a separate halftime show are the same type of people who once needed separate water fountains.