Plus Delta

I've just been asked to sell my prep period again next year.

Plus
I won't have a 20% drop in pay next year and it will help pad my retirement.
Delta
I told Grinnygranny if I was ever that stupid again to shoot me and put me out of my misery. She just might do it and claim it was justifiable homicide.
Plus
They've given me my Law class back.
Delta
I'll have three preps intead of the one this year.
Plus
They've given me my Law class back.
Delta
The other two classes will be U.S, and New Mexico history
Plus
They've given me my Law class back.
Delta
I won't be teaching World History -- which is what I really love teaching.
Plus
I won't be in their silly lets give all the kids a pacifier and blankie to help them stay in school Sophomore Academy.

Of the Delta's Grinnygranny is the only one I'm worried about, I'll have to convince her that the extra money could pay the Mustang off quicker then duck.
All in all I think the pluses have it.

Sunday Funny

Police are urging visitors to the city's Financial District to be especially vigilant for a new gang operating a slick routine that is aimed at stealing from unsuspectingpersons.They say that the gang usually comprises four members. While the three younger ones, all appearing to be cute and innocent, divert their "mark" (or intended target) with a show of friendliness and fun, the fourth - (the eldest of this gang of criminals) sneaks in from behind the person's back to expertly rifle undetected through his or her pockets and bags for any valuables being carried.The attached picture was taken with a digital camera and shows the gang inoperation..............

Weekly roundup

Right now I have three guys finishing up the painting of the house. S was supposed to finish it last Sunday, but never showed, he came and did some work on Monday and he has been a no-show the rest of the week. He brought a friend with him and with E they look like they'll finally finish it. This house has a lot of trim and it may not look hard to get it painted, but it does take time to get all the nooks and crannys done.

Went to my last workshop on the business side of writing. The two classes really opened my eyes on a number of issues. Now I have to set up a business plan and start treating my writing seriously. It just entails having to keep meticulous records and I am far from a meticulous person. (The hysterical laughter you hear is my wife and mother reading my understatement).
The most important thing I learned is that I have to treat my writing as a profession and not a hobby. Big sticking point with the IRS. As a result I've deleted my novel in progress blogs. It was nice to get support and comments while working on the stories, but publishers don't like paying for something that has been out to the public for free. Sorry to all the readers (if any) that this affects.

The parents of my seniors are driving me crazy. The nice part of teachng underclassmen all these years was that I didn't have to put up with graduation anxiety. Panic has set in with most of my students who are on the bubble -- high 50% to low 60% averages and it could go either way depending on the final. I understand their concern and fear (I have my own with daughter in Texas just a few weeks from graduating, but it's still up to the student to want to study and pass the test.

Planning on golfing again tomorrow, Grinnygranny just watched Bagger Vance and that always gets her wanting to go out. Great movie one of Will Smith's, Charleze Theron's and Matt Damon's best movies.

Busy Monday

Had the boy and nephew painting the house. They started Saturday when the weather was rather nasty then took off yesterday when the weather was great and were back at it today when the weather turned cold and windy again. Go figure. The house is looking good, though they need to do more around the sides and back.
Grinnygranny and I went to Santa Fe and did a little shopping Saturday and then we golfed on Sunday.
Today I had to get back to the dentist to have a temporary tooth cover replaced that fell off Saturday. I'll get a bridge put on in a couple of weeks when it comes in from the lab. My dentist has been racking his brain for about three years trying to figure how to get this bridge to look right. The lab sent in a wax model of it and he is so happy. I just can't wait to get it put in and get rid of these temporary resin teeth.
I don't feel like getting on my soapbox if I've had a good round of golf so I've decided not to comment on the Supreme Court's ignoring the health of the mother on late term abortions, Bush's acting like a three-year-old on the funding for Iraq, the passing of Boris Yeltsen, and a host of other topics to rant and rave about. Next week I might be back on my soap box. Just depends on how much golf I get in to mellow me out.

A day of sorrow followed by a day of shame

His victims aren't buried yet and Yahoo pictures is posting a photo of the killer showing off his guns. Don't add to the harm this man caused by glorifying him. And shame on anyone who keeps this picture or others floating around the web. SHAME SHAME SHAME!

NBC just advertised that they are going to show his pictures and video on Good Morning America. Disgusting is one of the few printable words that come to mind. Corporate heads should roll over this.

Do they not realize the kind of disease they are incubating while elevating this guy to celebrity status?

A day for weeping

Words cannot convey the sense of horror and sorrow for those who lost loved ones today in Virginia.

Sunday Soapbox

To date I've held off commenting on the Duke LaCross rape case and it's subsequent dismissal and the Imus debacle -- mostly because everyone else was busy posting their thoughts and I decided to ponder the situation before speaking. That's what Historians do, they wait until the dust settles then armchair quarterback.

Duke case

• The proscecutor is the one in deep shit right now and is the one whose life has been truly destroyed. When I think about his choices when this case was started he was kind of in a damned-if-you-do/damned-if-you-don't situation. If he had refused to take what the woman said seriously the Black community and Feminst groups would have crucified him for letting boys-be-boys and letting the wealthy do whatever they wanted without having to pay for it. Once he brought the indictment and the media circus began his ambition got the best of him. A conviction on this could get him elected to higher office -- who knows Attorney General, which could lead to Governor -- he shot his mouth off trying to make the most of the situation. Then the case too a turn for the south. The other woman present rebutted the charges, DNA evidence supported the defendants, the accuser changed her story. It was time to cut and run, but he dragged it on and on, even covered up evidence because as a prosecutor he had been conditioned to deal with mostly guilty stupid and poor criminals who either plea bargained or had overworked crappy public defenders -- getting to the TRUTH is not the way the game is played -- his job was to get convictions. He didn't know the game changed when the defendants had means and competent lawyers. He didn't know how to cut and run until it was too late. This will be a good object lesson to other prosecutors about shooting their mouths off before all the facts are in, but I'm afraid for most prosecutors the lesson they'll learn is to let the wealthy get away with murder because they don't have the resourses to beat high priced attorneys. O.J., Robert Blake, and now this case kind of get that message across.
• For the students -- the fact that the proscutor will most likely be disbarred, his political ambitions ruined, and his future forever clouded -- it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy..
• There doesn't appear to be any consequences forthcoming for the woman who falsely cried rape. As a man with a son this bothers me. Our judicial system is stacking the deck in favor of women on rape and sexual harassment when in almost all other areas it tries for a reasonable (person not gender specific) ballance. As a husband and father of a daughter who naturally fears what could happen to her should the situation (God forbid!) I'd like the deck to be stacked in their favor. Truly a case of who's ox is gored. BUT THERE NEEDS TO BE A SAFEGUARD AGAINST BLATANT FALSE ACCUSATIONS. This woman is not the victim here she is the true criminal. She purposely ruined the players lives, destroyed the credibility of the city Police department and the District Attorney's office. Did the city and the state significant financial harm both in investigation and subsequent wrongful prosecution law suits. She incited race, gender and economic war across this country just to get her fifteen minutes of fame -- the only irony being that because of the nature of the crime her name is confidential. She did no good service to her race or women because it is hard enough for all women who really are raped to find justice without defense attorneys citing this case as a precedent to get their scumbags off. How many District Attorneys will be reluctant to pursue a real crime like this because of her lies? She didn't just ruin the lives of the players, taxpayers and prosecutor -- she will ruin countless other women's lives who really did suffer this crime.
• Any thoughts concerning this issue I would have about the Rev. Al Sharpton or the Rev. Jesse Jackson would be inappropriate as I'm not a member of their race. If they need to be taken to task for their handling of the situation it needs to done by his community. Just don't expect me to buy your brand of snake oil from now on.

Imus

I've never listened to a single broadcast and am glad I haven't. The only thought that comes to mind is what happened to the late ignominous Senator Joseph McCarthy. "At long last it has come out. Do you have no shame, sir? Do you have no sense of shame?"

All I can hope for is that this last election has returned a sense of shame. My regret is that it wasn't his audience that turned him off. If his listeners had felt a sense of shame about his comments real change would have happened in this country. Instead they're going to whine and complain that Free Speech has been sacrificed to political correctness. This group of listeners makes up anywhere from 20 to 30 percent of the population -- unscientific reasoning based on President Bush's approval rating of 29 %. Imus may be silenced, but that won't shut up all the other hatemongers on the airwaves.

Exhausting day

In-service day. Schedule was for department meeting and since half of the department is retiring in a few weeks and they were taking the day off. I decided to follow suit. I should have gone to school and caught up on grading papers or making out lesson plans.
I got up and rearranged the living room. Went to Wal-Mart and bought a new computer desk, brought it home and starting assembling it.
I had a tee time at the championship course. It was rainy and windy, but it felt good to get out and try out my new clubs. I'm in love with my pitching wedge.
Finished assembling the computer desk just as grinnygranny got home and we went out to eat.
I'm pooped.

Fancy picture

This is a computer generated picture. Just answer the questions and it comes up with your own special painting. You could actually make several depending on the mood you're in at the time.

Here's another one.

Happy Easter

Taking it easy today watching the final round of the Masters -- Golf's superbowl. Michelson is choking big time. Tiger is being Tiger.
Book signing went well. I sold two books, both after I had been there for an hour and a half without a nibble. The sales person said they had lots of questions about the book in the morning before I got there, but none returned. A lady came by and asked how my day was going, I replied "Fine, but it would be alot better if you buy my book." That caught her interest and she did buy it, as she was paying for it another woman came up, decided her brother would like it and bought one too. So far with the two book signings I'm still averaging selling a book an hour. They let me have the poster so I can trim it down and use it elsewhere.
I printed out a copy of Human Sacrifices to send in for the SWWW contest -- two hundred sixty eight pages single spaced in font 12. Ran out of black ink, switched to blue and ran out of colored ink before it all printed out. When I went to SWWW meeting I came across the rules for the contest and I only need to send two copies of the first 20 pages double spaced. One of the copies will be sent to an editor of the New York Times who will give a free critique. Can't ask for better than that. Filing fee is only $29. First prize is only $150, but the critique is what's important. Bought new ink cartridges today and worked up the first 20 pages and have them printed out. I'll be getting it off this week and then cross my fingers.
Here's hoping everyone is having a wonderful Easter or Passover.

Captain's log

Stardate 040607.1410

• Grinnyganny and I headed for the golf course first thing today. Had a nice round of golf, and I talked her into letting me buy a good set of irons after we had a nice lunch at Olive Garden. Now I can't wait to play with them, but tomorrow looks like a really nasty weather day hopefully Sunday will have good weather.
• Dept chair at school is retiring and I got an e-mail where she nominated me to replace her. I e-mailed back a been-there-done-that-never-again response. I can retire this year if I want to, and still have a half a mind to do it. I'd only have to return for one day next school year to get my last quarter in for the full twenty-five years, but I've decided it might be nice to teach the last year on my liscence because I want to not because I have to, somehow I think that will make a world of difference in my stress level.
• Going to prepare taxes today. This is the first year for claiming writing expenses and Turbo Tax isn't up to the task, or we don't know how to access the right forms on it. I hate paying the higher price that preparers charge, but that's another expense on my learning curve.
• Tomorrow I have SWWW meeting from 10 til noon then my book signing from 2 -4pm. We stopped by the bookstore last Sunday and they had already sold the two books that were next to Barak Obama's, but there were eight by the cash register. I'm hoping for a good turn out. I've passed out enough fliers about it at school and church the last week, and Mom said she mailed post cards to her friends that live here.

We're Back

Made it back in one piece from Nebraska. It was actually a nice drive up and back. Spent a few days with MIL in her cottage. She was real frail and had to get around with her walker, but it was a nice village with really friendly people living there.
When we got back grinnygranny finally softened me up and we bought a new Mustang. She's been wanting one ever since they came out with the retro model similar to the one she drove in high school.
Now I need a Spring Break to rest up from Spring Break.

In Memoriam

Reverend Dr. Frank Cates

We left Saturday for Nebraska to visit MIL. I turned off my cell phone as the only one who normally calls it is grinnygranny. We arrived Sunday night and on Monday I went out to golf and turned my cellphone back on. I had a voicemail. It was a message that Reverend Cates had passed away. The call was sent Saturday. I called Mom and let her know. I don't know how Dad will take the news it's sure to hit him hard especially not being able to be there for the funeral. Telling the story of what Dr. Cates meant to me will be rather lengthy.
I left for College in the fall of 1972. Dad was teaching 4th grade and that school year he team taught with Josephine (Jo) Cates. A marvelous African American woman. She found out Dad was a licensed Baptist minister and introduced Mom and Dad to her family. Frank was associate minister at New Hope Baptist Church at the time. He was finishing up his military career in the Air Force and was working on his Doctorate in Theology. They became close friends from that time onward. Even discovering they were born on the same day.
When I came home for Christmas after my first semester at Wayland we went to their church for Christmas eve services. The Cates had five daughters. Maria was a little older and attending UNM, Queenie was a senior in high school, the twins Debbie and Brenda were sophomores and Annie was still in elementary school. After services the girls wanted to know if I'd like to see the Christmas lights with them and in total ignorance said yes. I entered the back seat of the car between Queenie, Debbie and Brenda. While driving they discovered I was ticklish. I never laughed so hard or had such sore ribs in my life by the time we got out. Debbie started writing me letters and I would reply. It was nice getting letters from home while you're away, and she could show off the letters of her college man at school.
When the school year ended and it was time to come home I was a little disappointed. I had applied to numerous places as a summer missionary and didn't get accepted. I got a phone call from a little church in Rio Rancho. The pastor knew someone who knew someone who knew someone that recommended me to help them out that summer. The church today is bursting at the seams and is huge, but back then it had one little building and an average attendance of maybe 25 on Sundays and no one played piano.
I was there for Sunday services and took over the Sunday school class for the three teenagers in the departments. I also set up a bible study for Wednesday evenings and planned some Saturday events. When looking for someone to help on those Saturday evening I needed a piano player and Mom said call up Queenie that she was a good piano player. So I did. Wound up spending a week helping out with their church's vacation bible school, but I had a piano player.
She played for me as I sang a number of solos over that summer. It was the summer of Andre Crouch. Everybody was singing My Tribute, and naturally so did I. While singing that particular song Queenie noticed on the high notes I was going flat, so being the excellent piano player that she is raised half a note higher on the piano. Over thirty years later whenever we meet she always reminds me about that because she knows my answer is always “She only did that because she wanted to see me turn blue.”
There was an eight year old girl in their church that summer in the hospital and Jo asked me to come along with her to visit. It was hard seeing a child that age suffering, and her funeral was the most traumatic I've ever attended. Sickle cell anemia is a truly horrible disease. Afterwards as we were driving I heard the girls talking about how they were all afraid of getting the illness and being on constant alert for the symptoms. It was an eye opening experience for what it meant to be African American apart from what I'd seen on the news or read in books during the struggle for civil rights.
Towards the end of that summer there was a Logos Festival at the convention center. It was three days from six in the evening until ten with numerous Christian bands, but the big name was Andre Crouch and the Disciples on that Saturday. I got tickets for the teenagers at my church and for all the Cates girls. That was a lot of tickets. I remember picking them up in my '64 Oldsmobile and driving up to Rio Rancho, getting everyone in the church van and driving back to the convention center all three nights. Talk about nearly causing accidents on the road. Just try being the only white guy in a car with five black women. Some of the drivers that drove by us must have gotten whiplash.
The last night Andre Crouch was supposed to perform at ten, but they were late. The promoter kept dragging the other groups back on the keep everyone there. Andre's bus didn't get in until eleven thirty and they had to set up. They didn't start until midnight. By this time almost everyone there was getting really tired. When the curtain came up and they started singing Thank You Lord it was like someone had thrown a switch and the past six hours never happened. The energy was amazing. They only sang three songs, but everyone left more than satisfied. I didn't get them dropped off at their house until after two in the morning, but on the drive they were live wires so excited to have actually seen Andre.
They all came out to the church in Rio Rancho just before I left to go back to college and the pastor graciously allowed me to preach. I didn't know it at the time, but it caused quite a stir for Frank. Brenda heard me preach, and I don't know how or why, but she decided that she wanted to become a preacher too. I went back to college unaware of this. A few years later Brenda was ordained as a minister and Frank told me that when she approached him about it he studied the Bible and everything it said on the matter and came to the conclusion that there was nothing in it against a woman preaching. She came to be a great help to him when he left New Hope to pastor Mount Zion Baptist Church on the west side of Albuquerque.
Meanwhile Dad started teaching middle school art and Jo kept teaching elementary students. When grinnygranny and I married during our first year Mom insisted we go with them to Frank's church. Whenever there I was always Reverend Prescott, and they insisted I sit up on stage with all the other Reverends. Grinnygranny wasn't too sure about it, but it was and still is an honor to be up on that stage even if you're not the one preaching. Maria and Debbie had moved out of state, but Queenie, Brenda and Annie were still there. They had formed a singing group with some others in the church and toured the state singing in other small National Baptist churches. It was good to see everyone again. All of them were mothers and had boys. Frank may have fathered daughters, but he had lots of grandsons to play with. Brenda was nine months pregnant and was leaning up against everything in sight. She kept saying that the baby could come at anytime and none too soon.
I started teaching Jo was teaching at a feeder school to the middle school where I taught and I'd see her at cluster in-services where she'd catch me up on what everyone was doing.
Mom and Dad moved to the west side and they didn't like the church's there so they joined Mount Zion. Frank let Dad preach from time to time, even ordaining him which greatly pleased Dad and occasionally he called me and asked me to fill in for him. It was always a pleasure. You never saw anyone more proud than when he was with his daughters.
Jo passed away a few years ago and they couldn't hold the services in their small church. The respect for her in the African American community was tremendous. It was good to see all the girls together again, and hard to know that in my mind's eye they are still teenagers though now grandmothers. I wish I could be there for the send off they'll have for Frank it's sure to be something. The African American community of Albuquerque has lost a truly great leader.

Good news

For some reason when I wax eloquent no one leaves comments. I guess most of my readers roll their eyes, say he's on his soap box again and click return.

Anyway there is really good news from Penni. Her blood count is down and for now she's in remission and doesn't have to go through any more chemo, at least for now. Click on her link on the side and read her report.

The Glory of War

I was a little surprised that it was the women in Southwest Writers that were praising 300 Spartans. Mostly about Gerard Butler. Since it was based on a graphic novel you would think it would appeal mostly to overcharged testosterone guys. The fact that at the box office it has taken off is not due to men, but women are getting the word out and it's turning into a date movie -- who would have thunk it.
As a cartoon based on a graphic novel it works well. It is not bloody, there is plenty of stabbings, beheadings, etc which would be expected in battle scenes, but there's no spraying or dripping blood.
Some of the bloggers are trying to make this movie into some type of analogy to what's going on in Iraq. The only analogy that I can see is not the this is like that. The Spartans are the brave American Soldiers, the Persians are the Iraqi insurgents. Doesn't wash. Spartans were defending their territory against a larger empire. The analogy works more the other way around. The other charge is that it's racist. Well the Spartans were white men, but who are they really fighting in this movie? Nigeria? Sorry if anyone should be upset it's the Persians being depicted as coming from Africa instead of West Asia. Much different racial group.
Yes it's a cartoon, but if your going to be so realistic in showing the power and ability of the Greek Phalanx why bring out a drooling giant more reminiscent of a Troll in Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter? The idiot masks on the Imperials -- for some reason they play that part up in the advertsing, but it's a battle not a fancy dance. Still it was good entertainment -- but I would be wary of making it go any further than that. It is not intended to have a deep message like Arthur Miller's The Crucible, or Orwell's 1984 or Huxley's Brave New World.
What both the novel and the movie present is that war is glorious. That is what the movie is selling. That there is much to admire in the Spartans who became immortal by staying and dying when the cause was lost. Very much like Brad Pitt's Achilles in Troy. He has the choice of staying and living a long life, but no one would ever remember him or go to war and die, but be remembered forever. Leonidas could have retreated when the Persians found a way around them and lived to fight another day, or stay and die, but be remembered forever.
There seems to be great glory in dying for nothing. The Spartans at Thermopolae, the idiots who wouldn't listen to Sam Houston and get out of the Alamo, Custer getting all his men killed because he wouldn't wait one day for the other troops to arrive.
There are always those that get caught up in the glory of war, but by and large that has not been the American way. As the British Military Historian John Keegan says in his book Field of Battle: The Wars for North America that is what has set America apart from Europe and Asia. The way we look at war. They have built empires and fought countless wars for glory. We look at war as just another job to do. We get it done and go back to the real pursuit of America -- Trade.
His analogy holds up until Korea. From that war on we seem to have forgotten how to get the job done. In order to get a job done you have to use the right tool. A conventional military is not the right tool to fight an idea like Communism, or criminals like terrorists.
World War I produced heros like Eddie Rickenbacker and Black Jack Pershsing. WWII had Audie Murphy, Patton, Eisenhower, McArthur. Korea sees McArthur fired in disgrace and a stalemate. Vietnam left on the impression of Westmorland totally out of touch with reality trying to win a conventional war of attrition in Asia. Then 4 years of carnage before Nixon signed a peace agreement that he could have signed his first day in office.
To a certain extent though Korea and Vietnam are understandable. The cost over the years of keeping South Korea out of the nightmare of Communism very few Americans regret. In Vietnam there was the Domino theory which was only debunked until we left and low and behold the Communists didn't expand like a virus until we were the only country that was still Capitalist.
But the debacle in Iraq right now breaks the mold for why we wage wars. This isn't a land grab like the Mexican American War or even the Spanish American War (we grabbed the Phillipines). We weren't responding to an attack like WWI (unrestricted submarine warfare), WWII (Pearl Habor), or even our incursion into Afghanistan which most Americans still support and wish we could focus on, or to defend another country that has been invaded like Korea and Desert Storm. Iraq is war fought for the glorification and financial gain of a few megalomaniac politicians and greedy corporations.
What a dream if all the chickenhawks that manipulated us into this war had the guts to stand in a narrow pass surrounded like Leonidas and be willing to die for their immortal glory instead of sending everyone else's child to die so they can strut around on an Aircraft Carrier or hide behind legal slight of hand agreeing to testify, but not under oath.

Career day

Spent the day at a rival high school talking to kids about being a published author. It was nice that my principle authorized professional leave for it. Southwest Writers looked kind of puny next to all the fancy displays everyone else put up. We didn't offer free pens, rubber balls (I'm sure the teachers across the school really appreciated that giveaway to students), rulers, or candy. I think next time I'll take some candy along. Talked to a few kids interested in becoming writers. I had two other authors with me and we tried to encourage the students to start writing and getting their work out on the net. A number of teachers came and seemed interested in joining the group.
I thought when it was done I'd head out to the golf course, but the clouds came up. It started spitting rain and we had 30mph winds, so I just came home.

Captain's Log

Stardate 031907.0815

When in the course of acting upon my civic responsibilities, and contemplating the numerous candidates my associated political party is currently fielding, I have come to these thoughts so far:

1. The news media always follows the money and that translates to Clinton and Obama appropriately reflected in the polls. Still too early to tell, but with the rush by the Governator and other big electoral states to early primaries may make big money the winner. Seems silly to have a party convention in the summer when the candidate will be known by March! It also takes all the drama, passion and fun out of the process.

2. New Mexico media is understandably following Bill Richardson's bid, but so far he's not getting much notice in the Polls.

3. Then I came across this op/ed piece by Richard Reeves concerning John Edwards, running third in the polls and considered the dark horse candidate:

So, he pledges government-financed universal health care to the tune of $90 billion to $120 billion a year. He advocates immediate withdrawal of 40,000 to 50,000 American troops from
Iraq and complete withdrawal within 18 months. He says he made a mistake in voting to authorize the war and continuing to support it through 2004.
His Iraq lines drew applause, of course, but that was not enough for some in this West LA crowd. A number of chapters of Progressive Democrats of America have sprung up around here. When Edwards said that "everything is on the table" if he becomes president, the chairman of one chapter rose to attack "the permanent war economy" and asked him to pledge to bring home all American troops around the world.
"You want me to bring all American military home?" he said. "Are you serious? No. We can't do that."
There were boos. Edwards said: "You want me to tell you what you want to hear, or what I believe?"

Wow what a breath of fresh air -- of course he can afford to be candid right now since he has nothing to lose. If he does gain traction and starts to challenge the front runners will he still be as plain spoken and forthright remains to be seen, but he's got my attention for now.

My favorite day

Well top of the mornin' to ya.
Got up and walked 9 holes -- even had three pars -- one of them without mulligans.
Hope everyone else is having a good day too.

Oh what a feeling

I'm walking on air.

Good News

Received an e-mail from publisher. On April 1 my novel will be returnable. A major distributor is picking it up. Now I can get some book signings going.

We had testing the last two days. It actually gave me time to do some editing on Human Sacrifices.

Rather disappointed

I received a letter from my royalties account. I have a ballance of 0.00. Not one book of Optimus has been sold through a bookstore. The booksigning I had was with my books, Hastings didn't buy any. I tried to get a booksigning at Barnes & Noble, but they won't buy any books seeing as PublishAmerica has a no return policy, and they won't purchase any that can't be returned. Borders hasn't called me back, but they most likely have the same policy. I do have a booksigning at B. Daltons for April 7. Of the fifty that I bought I have five left. I'm planning on buying another 10 or 20. If I keep plugging away at it maybe six months from now I might actually get a royalty check.
I signed up for a seminar Saturday at Southwest Writers on the business side of writing. I've talked to some of the other authors who have had numerous books published and they have yet to make a profit. I guess I can take some consolation in that.

Shame shame shame

An American citizen is arrested at an airport and accused with serious crimes. He is held in solitary confinement for years without formal charges or access to an attorney. Three and a half years later he is finally charged with a crime, but ones completely different from the reason for the arrest. The young American claims that he has been kept in dark rooms and tortured. The authorities admit they stood on his bare feet in combat boot while placing shackles on him. His attorneys claim he has been so physically and mentally abused that he is unable to assist them in his defense, but the trial will proceed anyway. Would we not rise up in righteous indignation as a nation against the country perpetrating such a blatant miscarriage of justice? Would we not label the government that would do such a thing as Totalitarian, Fascist, Communist, or Nazi?
Why we would cut off trade relations, reduce foreign aide, stir up public opinion demanding the young man's release. The news media would be in a lather like they were when a young American was caned in Singapore.

THEN WHY IS THERE NO SUCH RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION FROM THE NEWS MEDIA, RELIGIOUS LEADERS AND OUR CHICKEN HEARTED DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES FOR JOSE PADILLA?

This is from the New York Times today:

Editorial
The Jose Padilla Trial
Published: March 1, 2007
There were so many reasons to be appalled by President Bush’s decision to detain people illegally and subject them to mental and physical abuse. The unfolding case of Jose Padilla reminds us of one of the most important: mistreating a prisoner makes it hard, if not impossible, for a real court to judge whether he has committed real crimes.
Mr. Padilla is a former Chicago gang member whose arrest in 2002 was touted by the Bush administration as the disruption of a high-level plot by Al Qaeda to set off a “dirty bomb” in the United States. Mr. Padilla was held without charge for three years and eight months in a Navy brig, his windows blackened, his every move watched. Then, rather than defend its actions before the Supreme Court, the White House declared a year ago that Mr. Padilla was no longer an illegal combatant, transferred him to civilian custody and filed conspiracy charges that have nothing to do with dirty bombs.
Yesterday, Judge Marcia Cooke of the Federal District Court in Miami ruled against Mr. Padilla’s defense lawyers, who argued that his abusive confinement was so traumatic that he could not assist them in a trial. They had wanted to send Mr. Padilla to a hospital for treatment first.
That still leaves the far bigger question of whether Mr. Padilla was tortured, as he has claimed. For there to be a trial, Judge Cooke will have to rule that Mr. Padilla was not tortured, and she made a point of saying yesterday that her ruling on his competence was not a judgment on the torture claim.
At one point in the mental competency hearing, a prosecutor wanted to introduce what he said was a Qaeda manual instructing captured operatives to claim torture even if none had occurred. Judge Cooke refused, pointing out that there was no evidence that Mr. Padilla had ever heard of the manual, much less studied it. The government has yet to show evidence that Mr. Padilla was even a member of Al Qaeda.
The government’s arguments at the hearing sounded ridiculous and shameful. Prosecutors said Mr. Padilla always seemed fine to his jailers, but it was his jailers who did things like standing on his bare feet with boots so they could shackle him. The brig psychologist testified that he had spoken to Mr. Padilla only twice, once when he was first detained, and two years later — through a slit in his cell door.
When a psychologist testified for the defense that Mr. Padilla was “an anxiety-ridden, broken individual,” the prosecution said her tests were invalid — because the jailers had kept Mr. Padilla handcuffed throughout.
We will probably never know if Mr. Padilla was a would-be terrorist. So far, this trial has been a reminder of how Mr. Bush’s policy on prisoners has compromised the judicial process. And it has confirmed the world’s suspicions of the United States’ stooping to the very behavior it once stood against.

Things I'd rather do...

Than sitting in my classroom doing nothing.
All papers graded and recorded. check
All desks cleaned. check -- you know I have to be bored to clean student desks!
Listening to the soundtrack of Meet Joe Black. check
The one student who signed up for a meeting -- not here yet.

We are having our nextstep meetings. Third year since our legislature thought it would be a good idea for teachers to meet with parents, review their students' transcripts and then decide what classes for them to take next year. It entails two full class days and one evening. This year they fill out the next step form on the computer. Oh my but are we getting high tech!

Had most of my students come first thing this morning. It was rather busy for about an hour, then rather nice to be in the classroom alone getting caught up on the paperwork and other things that pile up, especially when you don't have a prep period. But what do you do when you're all caught up and have the evening and all day tomorrow too?

Somewhere this grading period I'm supposed to cover curriculum. On our flex schedule I had the six classes for two hours Monday and Tuesday (three classes each day), we are off for this next step for two days then a regular day on Friday. Next week Flex schedule again then we have testing for 9 & 11 grades on Wednesday and Thursday, back to a regular day that Friday. The students are really going to remember the revolts of 1848, Nationalism and the unifications of Germany and Italy when it comes time for a test.

And the idiot politicians wonder why test scores are falling! They pat themselves on the back saying what wonderful legislation they've passed to improve quality of education, but everything they do reduces the amount of instruction time.

Mummble mummble mummble grrrrrr.
'

Cat thoughts

More Kitties

Ragdoll cat





















Van Gough Cat

Time to lighten up

Well the Oscars are over, is it just me or were the women's fashions this year rather tame? What's with Jack Nicholson going bald?

Does anyone else find Ellen Degeneros just plain irritating?

Where was Al Gore's sense of humor when he needed it the most six and a half years ago?

Peter O'Toole struck out for the eighth time. Such a shame that he hasn't been so honored.

Discouraged

I'm covering 19th century Europe in my classes, and worked the students pretty hard over the Scientific Revolution, Enlightenment and French Revolution. Thought I'd give them a break from book work and fit a little culture into the class too.
I've shown them the 10th anniversary concert of Les Miserables. I've discussed with them the difference between Common Law and Civil Code using the plot of the story.
What discourages me though is that the music and the story is very emotional. Certain notes in the songs just tug at your heart. The theme song "Can You Hear The People Sing?" makes you want to start marching to the beating drum. AND I CAN'T GET THE STUDENTS TO STAY AWAKE LONG ENOUGH TO SEE OR HEAR IT!

What has happened to the young people today? In all the years I was in public schools in Colorado and New Mexico no one ever slept in class. My generation had plenty of bad attitude in both Junior High and High School, but sleeping in class was never a problem teachers faced then.
If it was a problem in first period because it is rather early or sixth period when everyone is a little tired it might be understandable, but it is every bloody period. If I'm speaking to the class I have to walk through the class and tap desks to get kids to lift their heads up. (Our administration is adamant that students not sleep in class, and I agree with them on this issue)
If I have them doing group work half of the kids work on the project and the other half try to sleep here as well.
What also discourages me is the lack of feeling on the part of the students. When I showed Shogun last semester (it took me the whole eighteen weeks to get through it was shown on our flex days when we have a two hour period) when Mariko is killed at the end of the mini-series most of the students didn't bat an eyelash. A few of the girls seemed to react, but the majority felt nothing.
How can anyone listen to Fontine's aria as she is dying and worrying about her daughter Cossette and not be moved?
Does Rap and Hip Hop music, horny teenager or mad slasher movies, and video games make our children emotionally numb?
God help us all!

President's day

My first choice in teaching has always been World History, but over the years I've also taught U.S. History. Most of U.S. is about Presidents. So here is my list not of the best or worst Presidents, but I thought it would be interesting to come up with a list of best Presidential decisions and worst Presidential decisions. After all we are being led by "The Decider", and in reality that is the yard stick they are all measured by.

Best decisions:

10 -- Washington not running for a third term. Set precedent of only two terms, and relieved fears of a military dictatorship, which has plagued all other governments with our type of Constitution.

9 -- FDR running for a third term. Armchair quarterbacking here, but he was the right man at the right time to handle WWII.

8 -- Truman de-segregating the military. The first step towards Civil Rights.

7 -- Eisenhower creating the Interstate Highway system. How much our economic prosperity for the last fifty years came as a byproduct of his national military transport system.

6 -- Eisenhower sending the army to insure the safety of black students in Little Rock, Arkansas and uphold a Supreme Court ruling. Showed that defiance of Federal government would not be tolerated.

5 -- John Tyler setting precedent that when a sitting President dies the Vice-President fills out the rest of the term. Referred to as "His Accidency", but just filling the post until a new election would be an electoral nightmare he helped us avoid.

4 -- Theodore Roosevelt enforcing the Sherman Anti-trust act. We could use someone with the guts to do this with our media and energy behemoths today.

3 -- Lincoln ordering the resupply of Ft. Sumter and staying the course throughout the Civil War. He kept the Union together.

2 -- Kennedy ordering the blockade of Cuba. Avoided invading Cuba and starting a nuclear war. (This could be argued as the #1 since the entire world could have been destroyed at this point, but if we had invaded Cuba and Russia moved on East Berlin the right wingers might have considered this and exchange of knights in their chess game and pulled back from using nukes.)

1 -- Truman dropping the atomic bombs on Japan. No decision has been more second guessed, praised or vilified. It ended the war and saved over a million American lives, and untold Japanese lives too.

Worst Decisions:

10 -- Andrew Johnson keep Stanton as Secretary of War. Leads to Congress' excuse for impeachment.

9 -- Bill Clinton spending time with Monica Lewinsky. Just plain stupid to committ the sin that the Republicans were waiting to exploit.

8 -- Buchanan not sending federal troops to settle the violence in Kansas.

7 -- John Adams signing the Alien and Sedition Acts. The first attempt to silence political opposition and fear immigrants.

6 -- Jefferson's trade embargo. Financially ruined New England to avoid war with England and would eventually be fought by Madison. Yes it was a stupid war, but running from this fight didn't stop it.

5 -- William Henry Harrison giving the longest inaugural address in his shirt sleeves on a cold day. He was dead a month later and was the first President to die in office.

4 -- Andrew Jackson killing the Second Bank of the United States. It would destabilize the economy of the U. S. for the next eighty years.

3 -- Andrew Jackson refusing to enforce the Supreme Court ruling against the removal of the Cherokee nation to Indian Territory (Oklahoma). The Trail of Tears was an illegal action encouraged and allowed by someone who was violating his sworn oath.

2 -- Eisenhower stopping the election in Vietnam in 1956 and partitioning the country. It put a lie to our calls for free elections in Eastern Europe when we stopped one in Asia because Ho Chi Mihn would win it hands down. It also led to twenty years of bloodshed and the near bankruptcy of the U. S. for the same outcome that would have been achieved peacefully.

1 -- George W. Bush proposing a pre-emptive war. We have a department of DEFENSE not offense. Now that he has set that precedent what other mayhem will be caused by future Presidents. The only decision that would be worse than this one would be if he starts another war with Iran.

Another snow day

Captain's Log
Stardate 021407.0915

Perfect timing. We got three inches of snow last night and school has been canceled. Since it was an in-service day couldn't have come at a better time.

Mom posted her concerns about a lesson in her Sunday School class concerning the afterlife. A number of people on Bruce's blogroll have responded to her concerns. I wrote my basic beliefs on this in my Human Sacrifices novel-in-progress. Thought I would post that excerpt here.

Jan decided it was time to broach a subject that had been on her mind, but she didn’t want to ruin such a wonderful vacation with heavy thoughts. “You were careful in your sermon Easter Sunday to not denounce pre-millennialism, all Dad will tell me is that he’s pan. What do you think about the second coming?”
“On this I’m a true heretic.” He told her getting a quizzical look. “There isn’t another coming of Christ.”
“Now I’m confused, your not pre, post or a millennial” Jan asked.
“I had a religion professor at Baylor that stopped me in my tracks my Freshman year.” He started to explain. “We were covering the time in Christ’s ministry coming close to his crucifixion and how all his disciples were expecting him to set up an earthly kingdom, they never really understood how His kingdom was spiritual, not physical. The professor just threw a thought out there, he said, ‘What makes you think He will change now?’ It dawned on me that Jesus wouldn’t change, that His kingdom is and will always be spiritual, All the mellinnialists are looking forward to Jesus coming again and setting up a thousand year physical kingdom. His disciples have still not gotten the message. I then read the accounts of the crucifixion. Tell me what words did He say from the cross.?”
Jan thought for a few minutes. “Let’s see. When He was being nailed He said “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.’”
“Good, what else?” He was being a teacher, and leading her to the answers, teachers hate being taught they find it irritating, but she decided to humor him.
“The two thieves talked to him, one ridiculed him and the other defended him.” She continued. “He then asked Jesus to remember him, and Jesus said ‘Today thou shalt be with me in paradise.’” She thought some more, “He said ‘I thirst’ and the Romans gave him soured wine or vinegar, what they called gall.”
“So far an A+” Paul told her.
“Oh give me a break, I’m a PK (preacher’s kid) I’ve heard this all my life, I’m just trying to go in order.” She snapped back. “He asked John to take care of Mary, his mother, and when it got dark he cried ‘My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me.’”
“What else, one last comment.” Paul nodded to her, smiling.
“No need for prompting I was coming to it.” She arched her eyebrows at him. He said, ‘Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit’ and His last words were ‘It is finished” then he gave up the ghost.” I could have gotten some of them out of order, I’d really have to look them up.” She added.
“Excellent,” Paul praised. “Now stop and think, does anything that he said while on the cross make any sense if you believe in a millennium?”
“What do you mean?” This question caught her off guard.“He told the thief they would be in paradise that day, yet all mellinnialists believe that no one is in paradise yet, they are waiting for the Rapture. A word by the way that is never found in the Bible. If you believe that Jesus must come back and set up a thousand year reign here on earth, then he should have said, ‘I’m halfway done.’ Not ‘It is finished’."
“But what about the book of Acts and Christ’s ascension?” She asked. “An angel met the disciples and told them that Jesus would come again.”
“And He did, in the book of Acts.” Paul answered.
“I missed that one,” Jan responded.
“So did the disciples and most believers. What happened on the day of Pentecost?”
Jan answered. “That’s when the Holy Spirit came and filled all believers.”
“If you believe in the concept of the trinity, God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are all one, right?”
“Yes.” She was thinking now, “What are you getting at?”
“Exactly what that song we sang on Easter said, ‘I serve a risen Savior, He’s in the world today, He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way. You ask me how I know he lives, He lives within my Heart. The song doesn’t say the Holy Spirit walks with me and talks with me, or that the Holy Spirit lives within my heart. But we all understand that Jesus and The Holy Spirit are one and the same, just different manifestations of God.”
Jan looked at him pondering what he said. “That’s too simple.” She said at last.
“Most deep truths are.” He answered. “And why they are so often overlooked, people want to complicate things. Just as Christ’s kingdom was spiritual so was his second coming. That is what finished God’s revelation.”
Jan countered, “Then what about the white throne judgment mentioned in the book of Revelations?”
“Why does it have to wait till the end of time? Why can’t God be doing the judgment right now?” Paul responded.
“You have a point.” She conceded.
“When my wife and son left this world it is a great comfort to me knowing that they are right now with Jesus in paradise, just like he promised the thief on the cross.” His face flushed red, and voice filled with emotion, but he held back tears. “They are not in limbo waiting for the rapture, then tribulation and great tribulation, then the battle of Armageddon and then come back to a physical reality to live for a thousand years, and then start all over again, before the great white throne judgment and finally going to heaven. Talk about complicated. If you follow pre-millennial thought Jesus would have to come back not once, but three or four times. It is not a logical or reasonable theory, nor is it consistent with the life and teachings of Christ.”
“Those thoughts could get you burned at the stake.” Jan thought a little hyperbole would lighten things up.“Told you I was a heretic.” He smiled.

I'm too old for this

Had my first book signing Friday night. I told my wife the next time I do something like this just shoot me. I get to school at 0700; get home about 3 in the pm, loaded up the van with table, chair, reviews, books and business cards. Got to the bookstore and sat there from 4 to 8 pm. That made for a 13 hour day. Sold 4 books. When the lady that was in charge of the book dept came by and asked me how I was doing, I told her it was like fishing. Just sitting there waiting for a nibble. I guess four fish in four hours wouldn't be too bad. But next time it's on a weekend or I take the day off. I wound up sleeping most of yesterday recovering. I didn't think it would be that draining, but it knocked me for a loop.
The Baptist New Mexico ran a press release a couple of weeks ago and mentioned this book signing. One couple came in with the paper specifically for the book. As we talked and I told her where I teach, she mentioned that she graduated from that school. When I inquired (impertinently) what year, it turned out to be the same year that grinnygranny graduated from there too. She didn't remember gg's name, but said she'd look her up in the yearbook. I called grinnyganny and told her the story. When I got home she had the yearbook out and had located the lady.
I stopped by today and picked up my earnings. They've said I can have as many book signing there as I like. I'm still trying to set up signings at Barnes and Nobles, Borders, Chronicles and Bibles Plus. A number of people told me that one of the larger non-denominational churches has a book store and I might talk to them about placing Optimus there.

Homework

I went to Southwest Writers Workshop today. The speaker gave her talk on writing memoirs. So I decided to write a memoir following some of her guidelines. Here goes. Revisions as I work on this will be in red.

Trip to North Carolina

It was a different time. A different world. June 2000. It was pre 9/11.

I had sponsored YMCA's Youth and Government for eight years at my previous high school. It is a model legislature held every year in the Round House. (What New Mexico calls their capital building) Students write bills and then have to get them passed through committees and two houses in two and a half days. There is also a Supreme Court and Panel Discussion Group. The kids pretty well run the show and as sponsors it's a couple of days watching and at night making sure that the kids don't get into trouble as they socialize. My son attended for four years and enjoyed it very much. After the school year is CONA. YMCA's Convention on National Affairs. It's at the YMCA conference center in Ashville, North Carolina for a full week. The year before my son attended this conference and seemed to enjoy it. A teacher from Santa Fe accompanied him on the trip.

For the summer of 2000 I got the opportunity to take three of New Mexico's brightest and best on the trip. The first leg was a flight to Dallas, landing at Love Field where the Texas delegation and Oklahoma delegation were waiting to take a twenty hour bus ride to North Carolina.

This was to be my first trip to the state where I was born since I was a baby and Dad was a Marine stationed at Cherry Point, NC. It was a really long bus ride and from Tyler, TX to North Carolina the Interstate was just a tree lined open top tunnel. Quite a change from the brown open spaces of New Mexico and West Texas.

We changed drivers and ate in Meridian, Mississippi. It seemed like a nice city. Hard to fathom that it is where the four civil rights workers were murdered in the sixties. We stopped in Vicksburg at eleven at night. I was rather disappointed visiting one of the most important battle sites of the Civil War and the only thing I saw was a Taco Bell, where we stopped to eat. The only major city we drove through was Atlanta. We arrived there at dawn and it was beautiful. I also saw Kudzu for the first time. Miles and miles of vines covering just about everything.

When we got to the conference center the bus dropped us off by the dining hall. The two boys and girl I was sponsoring were staying at dorms to the side of the hill. I was staying in Robert E. Lee Hall at the top of the mountain. Three tiers and nearly two hundred yards straight up hill. I only had three pieces of luggage, but in the 90 percent humidiy and 90 degree heat getting half way up nearly finished me. A few of the delegates from other states took pity on the fat old man and carried the luggage up for me. Getting to the building wasn't enough. My room was on the second floor with no elevator.

The conference started and the students did a wonderful job of running it smoothly. Each delegate had to write a position paper and present it to a committee. The committee then selected one paper to present to the general assembly held the last two days. It's not easy getting a paper to the general assembly for discussion and debate, but those that do are phenominal.

Robert E. Lee hall is the oldest, largest and dominate building of the center. It had no airconditioning. The main room had two huge french doors in back and two more in the front which created a breezeway that was surprisingly comfortable. On the front porch in front of the hall were green wooden rockingchairs -- dozens of them. They were very comfortable and I spent hours sitting in them looking out over the North Carolina mountains flabbergasted as the days went by that without a cloud in the sky how little visibility there was due to the moisture haze. I came to appreciate the clear skies of my home state.

As the days progressed I spent most of my time checking on my three charges making sure they were in their committees and making sure I was there when they presented their papers -- none made it to the general assembly, but they did a credible job. The rest of my time was chatting with other sponsors. I had hoped to have time to work on the novel I was writing (Optimus). On the long bus ride I had edited, and thought I could add a few chapters while sitting on the nice green rockingchairs, but I found myself too distracted. It would have been rude to be working on it when all the other sponsors were there chit-chatting. Then we were joined by a man from India. J worked for YMCA, and they brought him in to see the program so he could start one there.

Did I mention that nearly all the other sponsors were women? I wasn't the only male sponsor, but we were definitely a minority. J spoke very passible English and latched on to me like I was a lifeline. I think he was very uncomfortable around all the women. I naturally had quite a few questions about India since one of my alltime favorite novels in M. M. Kaye's Far Pavillions. I was also rather curious about what it was like being a Christian in a country made up mostly of Hindus, Muslims and Sihks. He was very patient with me. When I told him I was from New Mexico he had never heard of it -- not surprising as just about everyone east of the Mississippi in the U. S. hasn't either. To my astonishment and chagrin the entire conference center did not have a map of the U.S. I tried to draw a picture of the country to show him where New Mexico was, but I am not -- repeat -- not -- an artist.

We ate our meals together most days and except for the times I spent checking on my charges sat and talked either on the couches in Lee hall or on the green chairs.

Since he was a novelty for the conference most of the other sponsors and many of the students came by to chat - usually asking the same questions everyone else had asked (including me).

The dining hall had two lines. One for the days specialty -- one evening they served egg plant parmegiana! FOR TEENAGERS!! Not much of it got eaten. The other line was hamburgers, J usually ate at the first line, but on that particular day even he wasn't up for egg plant. He came to me and wanted to know what kind of meat hamburgers were made from. I told him it was ground beef. He naturally asked why it was then called ham - burger and might be pork. I tried to explain that it was named after Hamburg, Germany. He still wouldn't fix a sandwich and chose not to eat that meal. I asked why pork would bother him if he was Christian, but he had been Muslim before converting.

This opened up quite a bit of information from him. Muslim who leave the faith, even in India live a life of genuine fear. J was married, had children, but his brother also lived with him, and he was married with children too. His brother could not find a job because of their faith, and he wanted to know if I could find a way for his brother to immigrate to the U. S.

I asked what kind of education or training his brother had, but not much more than the equivalent of our high school. I told him I would do the best I could, but not to hold out much hope as without an education or skill it would be very difficult.

There was only one incident with my students. The sponsor from another state came rushing up one afternoon and wanted me to speak to one of my boys. He had said something in a meeting that got the girls a little ruffled. I asked what the problem was and got a rather garbled message. I took the young man we had a little chat. A young lady's position paper was to legalize prostitution. In the discussion he asked a question but made the mistake of starting it with the words "What if I were to..." For some reason all the girls thought he was propositioning her and claimed it was sexual harrassment. It was hard not to laugh with all the female sponsors looking our way. So I acted properly upset and told him from now on to make sure he phrased his questions in the third person, not the first person.

As I checked on another student a delegate from South Carolina was finishing up. He was a newly graduated Senior, had an easy drawl for a speaking voice, and was pushing for tax cuts. I was standing in the back of the room. It was a pretty lockstep Republican spiel I had heard since Ronald Reagan's first Inaugural. That evening the young man with others from South Carolina sought me out. They had some questions about New Mexico, but it didn't take much to get them singing the praises of South Carolina. They all thought their hundred year old Senator was practically God.

On the next to the last day there was a free afternoon. The students could go on a hike or go into town for a movie. My three charges decided on the hike. I took them to the man who would be their guide. When I told him we were from New Mexico he asked if I knew E, who had been there the year before. I told him he was my son. The man said E was the only one last year who had been able to keep up with him for the entire hike. Kind of made me proud.

I went into town for the movie. We had a woman bus driver for the drive to Ashville. Her ten year old son was sitting next to her. She naturally asked where I was from and I said, "Albuquerque." Her son then spoke up, "Isn't that what Bugs Bunny is always trying to find?"

The Trip Home

I finally got to work on Optimus on the long bus ride home. We went through Vicksburg around noon and I was surprised as we crossed the Mississippi how short the bridge was -- only about half a mile. It explained why this spot was so important. A battery of cannons on the heights would stop any ship trying to go up or down that spot. Shreveport, La was the hottest stop on the trip. Glad we were there for just an hour. When we got to the Texas state line the sponsor from Texas gave everyone the opportunity to speak about what they had learned. She started at the back of the bus and I was right behind the driver, so I prayed we would get into Dallas and Love Field before they got to me.

Almost everyone talked about the CONA spirit. That you could express your ideas and vigorously debate the issues, but afterwards be friends and have a good time together. They had all learned to respect differing opinions. They also said that the only thing they didn't like was the food in the dining hall.

I nearly got my wish. By the time they got to me we were already in Dallas and nearly the airport, but still enough time for me to finish up. I had a loaf of bread I bought the day we arrived at the conference center thinking it would come in handy for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches if the food wasn't edible. I distributed the slices out one for every two people there and had them break it in half and share. This is what I said:

"Breaking bread is the oldest form of human bonding. We've had a week to meet and make friends with people from all over the country. Most of that bonding took place in the dining hall. But when you break bread it's not the quality of the bread that bonds one another together. It's the quality of the people.

Everyone has talked about the CONA spirit. That you could meet people who have different ideas and beliefs, but still respect each other and even become friends. You've been told all your life by the adults that you need to grow-up. When you get home and in the coming months as we have national and local elections. When all the grown-ups running for office are calling each other pond scum and slinging mud -- maybe they need to grow-down and have some of this CONA spirit too."

We had a pleasant flight back to Albuquerque. I contacted Catholic Charities about J's brother, but they needed more information than I could give. I received a letter from J that Christmas and I wrote him back telling him I needed records of education or job skills, but have not heard from him since.

Captainslog

Stardate 020107.1840

Whatever happened to Science Fiction?
I grew up reading Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, his Robot stories. Then there was Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, Tunnel In the Sky, R is for Rocket, S is for Spaceship, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Time Enough for Love.
I became voracious in reading Harlan Ellison. Just about everything he has written.
I belonged to the Science Fiction Book Club for years, and bought tons of books, but something happened around 1985. The Science Fiction Book Club stopped offering Science Fiction. It started rather subtle, I noticed the growing trend towards Sword and Sorcery, magic and fantasy in the 70's. Some of the books were really good. Anne McCafery's Dragonriders of Pern series are really marvelous, but by 1985 that's all the book club offered. The Science Fiction Book Club no longer had Science Fiction.
I don't know if people stopped writing Science Fiction or the books stopped selling, or publishers stopped accepting the genre. All I know is that for all intents and purposes Science Fiction is dead.
There was always two kinds of Science Fiction. The optimistic and scared shitless.
Isaac Asimov called the latter the Frankenstein Syndrome. Fear of the future and the unknown. That's what made the writers I've mentioned above so wonderful, they wrote about the promises inherent in advances in science instead doom and gloom. Well Ellison is as gloomy as they come, but it's not the science you fear in his stories -- it's the people.
Hollywood embraced Science Fiction in the 50's with all of its giant bug movies. Giant ants, or grasshoppers, spiders, etc usually because of radiation from atomic bombs. Again the fearmongers held sway. Then came Star Trek. Hey the future could be hip, cool, even positive.
Star Trek has run its course it seems and were back to Michael Crighton's brand of Frankenstein stories where Science is to be feared instead of embraced.

Alright already -- what got me all sappy about SF?
I came across this today on Bruce's blog: Chris Hedges essay on his book Christianists on the March.

The Christian right has lured tens of millions of Americans, who rightly feel abandoned and betrayed by the political system, from the reality-based world to one of magic - to fantastic visions of angels and miracles, to a childlike belief that God has a plan for them and Jesus will guide and protect them. This mythological worldview, one that has no use for science or dispassionate, honest intellectual inquiry, one that promises that the loss of jobs and health insurance does not matter, as long as you are right with Jesus, offers a lying world of consistency that addresses the emotional yearnings of desperate followers at the expense of reality. It creates a world where facts become interchangeable with opinions, where lies become true - the very essence of the totalitarian state. It includes a dark license to kill, to obliterate all those who do not conform to this vision, from Muslims in the Middle East to those at home who refuse to submit to the movement. And it conveniently empowers a rapacious oligarchy whose god is maximum profit at the expense of citizens. We now live in a nation where the top 1 percent control more wealth than the bottom 90 percent combined, where we have legalized torture and can lock up citizens without trial. Arthur Schlesinger, in "The Cycles of American History," wrote that "the great religious ages were notable for their indifference to human rights in the contemporary sense - not only for their acquiescence in poverty, inequality and oppression, but for their enthusiastic justification of slavery, persecution, torture and genocide."

Somehow when science fiction died and was replaced by Fantasy, the rest of the country left reality and has gone into never never land too, and that is not a good thing.

Relaxing

Mother is home and doing well, very grateful that daughter was there to help. MIL is back in Nebraska just waiting for the house to sell now.
Going to relax and take it easy today. Next week should hopefully be back to normal.

When it rains it pours

Just got MIL out of the hospital, daughter called this morning and my mother is in the hospital. She should be getting out later today or tomorrow. I'm glad she was there to help, which is why Mom wanted her to stay there. Mom can take care of Dad, but there really wasn't anyone to be there if something happened to her.
MIL is still here at 5pm. SIL was supposed to pick her up early this morning and leave for Nebraska, but I guess it's taking longer to clean up the house. This late they'll most likely leave tomorrow morning. Most of her friends have been calling and talking to her. A couple came over last night and spent time with her. It's nice that they care.

Whirlwind

Brother-in-law came in with MIL Sunday. They've been packing everything up. Tuesday morning we got a call that MIL was having trouble breathing. L took the day off and MIL was admitted into the hospital where they ran numerous tests. We both took Wednesday off to work on getting packed. We wound up spending most of the day trying to get MIL checked out of the hospital. They took forever getting all the paperwork done. She stayed with us last night and will tonight. E took BIL to get the truck this morning and it is just about all loaded up. SIL flying in tonight to drive MIL back while BIL drives truck. They have friends who will help them drive then fly back. The house is now on the market. I wouldn't have thought it possible to get that much done in that short of time.

Random thoughts

Friday we had the wake for Robyn. About fifteen people showed up and we had a celebration of a wonderful person's life. I had asked her when she first told us her diagnosis if she had any family and she said "No". Come to find out at the wake that her mother is still alive and her sister quit her job, moved here and took care of her for the last three months.
The school is collecting donations in order to plant a tree in her memory. We discussed what kind of tree would be most appropriate to represent her. Since she was so thin and tall we want a tree like that. Someone suggested a poplar, but they are rather short lived trees. I'm partial to aspens, but being on the mesa our elevation may be too low for that tree. We have plenty of time to research and come up with one. The courtyard for the school is scheduled for a complete renovation over the Summer and we'll make sure her tree is given a prominent place.

Today was "Sanctity of Life Sunday" at church. Grinnygranny held her breath waiting for me to start World War III, but I was good and didn't say anything too controversial.

Grinnygranny's mother and brother are back in town. MIL is putting the house on the market and they will be packing things up for the trip back to Nebraska. We've taken some boxes down and E's going to be helping. BIL and Grinnygranny are pulling their hair out trying to get MIL to get everything out of deceased Father-in-law's name and into hers. She hates doing the paperwork. BIL is finally putting his foot down and making her get some of this done. Just seems to me that there is an awful lot to do in just a week.

Time passing

1. I haven't had much sleep the last few days. This wretched congestion just won't go away. I took the day off to get some rest. It wouldn't look good to join my students sleeping in class. We have another cold front meeting up with tropical moisture and could get up to six inches of snow or more late Friday and Saturday. Can't seem to get rig of this cold weather either.
   
   Mom and Auntypesty have finished reading my book, Dad is reading it in small pieces. I've been getting a few words of "I really like what I've read so far," at school from those who've bought it.
   Brian at an audience of one (you'll have to click the link on the blogroll as the link button's not working right now) has done a really detailed review and recommended his avid readers buy a copy. I hope they do. Now if I could only get Bruce to say something on his blog or maybe give me a plug on his radio show.
   This weeks Baptist New Mexican (I have if from a close source) will be including a press release on it, and I'm doing a book signing at a Hastings in a few weeks.
   And I thought all the work was over when I finished writing it!

Remembering Robyn

Three years ago a wonderful lady moved into the classroom next to mine. The first thing you noticed about her was how tall she was, over six feet. She had a warm voice and friendly style that was refreshing after the other tenets of that room. While cleaning out furnature she wouldn't use I was able to get computer tables for my newly aquired mini-lab. I gave her for some reason my favorite teacher's chair. It was a discarded administration chair from my previous high school and was a hideous green, but it was comfortable. Something told me she needed a good chair. As we talked I found out she only came lately to teaching, that in fact she had worked construction most of her life as an electrician. I mentioned knowing an electrician and came to discover she had worked with him at Intel when it was being built.
Later that year she was diagnosed with lung cancer. She had already survived ovarian and bone cancer, and the doctors gave her only six months at most. I watched and prayed and helped her through chemo therapy, as did our entire department. We covered her classes, and found it amazing how well behaved they were, even the students were respectful of her condition.
She made it through that year and came back the next. She was out for nearly a month while at MD Anderson for treatment, but they sent her back. Her voice was much weaker and she was getting very frail. In the spring we had a party at her house to say goodbye as most of us didn't think she would make it through the summer.
When school started there she was. I moved out into my portable and she moved across the campus into M hall. I missed seeing her and talking to her. By the end of September she became so weak that teaching was no longer possible. The cheerleaders raised money for a microphone system to help her, which was a nice gesture. The last time I saw her was in the teacher's lounge. I gave her a hug and told her how much I missed seeing her every day. It was her last day at school. We had another party in her honor, but I came down with a cold, not wanting to add to her weakened immune system I stayed home, and talked to the dept. chair by phone expressing my regrets.
Word came to school today that she has gone on to another plane of existence. She had no family and there will be no services. What she wished for was for all of us to get together for an old fashioned Irish Wake, get rip roaring drunk and toast to her memory.
I'll be there. I've never been drunk in my life, and am not about to start now. I guess that will make me the designated driver for alot of fellow teachers.

Memories of winters past

While I'm bundled up snug as a bug in a rug, and it is colder than blue blazes outside; it's made me think of other really cold winters.

At the beginning of A Christmas Story, the mother dresses the kids up for school in coats, hats, golashes, gloves, scarves, etc. I can't see it without remembering growing up in Pueblo Colorado as a small child. I still remember the golashes that had metal snaps and walking to school through snow drifts. The night my sister was born (I was nine) Dad took Bruce and me out to get a bowl of Green Chile Stew. The first time I ever had that dish. He said that was the only way to warm us up. It was thirty degrees below zero as we stepped out of the restaurant. And he was right, we barely felt the cold as we walked to the car.
I remember a project at school where I took a toy saw to make a hogan. A couple of friends and I walked home and on the way we sawed the arms off all the snowmen in the front yards.
That summer we moved down to Albuquerque, and I have never experienced such a cold winter since. I don't remember any "snow days" where they called off school for the rest of elementary school and junior high.
In January of 1971, my junior year in high school we had the coldest winter on record. It started snowing friday night, and we only got a few inches, but it got down to seventeen below zero. It's still the record low for Albuquerque. Bruce and I got up for Chruch on Sunday morning and were doing a good job of making up the hill when we saw someone from our Sunday School Class stuck on the ice. We stopped and gave them a push which got them on their way, but then we couldn't get moving so I had to sit on the trunk for traction. It wasn't far to the church, but I was nearly frozen by the time we got there. School was canceled for the rest of the week, which though not getting as low as 17 below still stayed around 10 below with the highs for the day being only 10 or 15 above zero. Natural Gas was in short supply and they closed schools and alot of other businesses so houses could be heated. My maternal grandparents came down from Canyon City, Colorado for a visit that summer and we were still talking about the cold snap. I can remember Grandpa saying "Well we had a cold snap then too, but it only got down to 17 below and we didn't think much of it."
The year Grinnygranny and I were married we had a freak snowstorm hit right at rush hour traffic in the afternoon. I drove down in my big as a tank 1969 Fury III with three boxes of books in the trunk for traction to pick GG up from work. She was afraid her 1976 Maverick wouldn't get her home. I had little trouble getting to her office because it was downhill, but on the way back uphill it was a different story. We did alright until we got right in front of UNM on Central Ave. It was bumper to bumper and the street was so icy it was hard to get any traction at all. College students came out and helped give people shoves to get started. It took us three hours to make it to Mom and Dad's house, which was only two miles from where GG worked. It was another five miles to our apartment so we decided to stop there for the night. Just as we started getting into bed Grinnygranny remembered she didn't have her birthcontrol pills with her, and she took them at night. So at 10pm I get dressed drive the five miles to our apartment and back with the magic pills. (She's going to kill me when she reads this)
In the 20 + years of teaching there have been maybe three 2-hour delay days with perhaps one closed day per decade. Albuquerque really doesn't get that much bad weather over an entire winter. We will sometimes get more snow in March or April than in January or February.
We took a trip to San Antonio durring Spring Break in 1993 and on the day we left it snowed on us all the way to Fort Stockton, Tx. But spring snow is wet and slushy not icy like winter snow.
When we moved into our house on the west side we had a snowstorm while I was teaching at a school on the other side of town. They announced it was a two hour delay, which for me meant leave at the normal time because it will take two hours to get across the Rio Grande and hope you make it the rest of the way by the delayed start time. And I did get there, just as I was pulling up to school the radio announced schools were closed, and I had to turn around for the return trip. I decided the next two hour delay I'd call in sick. Never had another one until I started teaching where I am now which is within walking distance.

Bed sweet bed

I am spoiled. I enjoy my bed. It is adjustable and I can set the tension to my comfort level. I hate it when we leave and I have to sleep on a regular flat bed. With my acid reflux it is not a pleasant experience. We just got home from a nine day trip to Texas. Love my family and enjoyed Christmas and the time we spent there, wouldn't have missed it for anything, but boy did I miss my bed. We had to stay an extra day in Lubbock as New Mexico was shut down by snow. Grinnygranny had to take me to an emergency room the first night. The cold that has been a problem now for two weeks had worked it way up into my eyes, and I needed relief. I got some gooey ointment that has helped alot, but the only thing the doctor said about the sinus and chest congestion was to keep taking the over-the-counter medications and wait it out. When we checked out of the motel Grinnygranny told the desk clerk to treat the room as a hasmat situation. We went through over two boxes of tissue.

The drive home was quite an adventure. It started good enough. We made it to Clovis and ate lunch at K-Bobs as usual, went on to Fort Sumner, but the road to Vaughn was closed which forced us to drive up to I-40 and Santa Rosa. When we got to Santa Rosa I-40 was closed, but another road to Vaughn was open. So we wound up driving 120 mile to get to Vaugn instead of the usual 60. We then took the southern road that runs from Encino to Mountaire to Belen. It's 53 miles from Encino to Mountainaire. It took us an hour and a half. Most of it on a ten mile stretch that was icy and so fogged up to be white out condition. Once past that stretch it went quick again. When we got by the Monzano Mountains and started down into the Rio Grande Valley we got back into the heavy fog. From Belen to home it was nerve wracking trying to not get clobbered by some dipstick behind you wanting to drive the speed limit in white out conditions.
When we got home we couldn't get in the driveway it had a full foot of snow on it. We had to shovel off one side to get parked and unloaded. It was really cold and did not help with out colds.
Taking it easy today and actually have clear enough eyesight to use the computer again.

Happy New Year to Everyone that frequents the Family and Friends Blog.