Special Education

So, I no longer practice librarianship. I am, for the time being, a special education teacher. Well, a substitute special education teracher. First off, I'd like to say that I'M GLAD MY VACATION IS OVER. What a wreck this summer was. It feels good to be actually doing something; those days of lying on my back, thinking "Oh that would be good to write about", and promptly forgetting it all. what a waste.

This school is a very happy place for me. I am not the librarian anymore, but everyone treats me as such still, which I like. Librarianship is where my future lies, but for now...

I have five classes. Two I am in another teachers class helping the special ed kids who are mainstreamed in with the lesson. I tend to wander the classroom helping those who need it. Two other classes I have 8-10 special ed kids and I get to teach them: History!! Real elementarily. Final class is a Resource Class, where I have 6-7 kids who bring their work into this class and I help them with it - I'm a tutor, basically.

So, I got some real good kids, but I also have some on ventilators, not being able to talk, see, hear, etc... Again, I thank Jesus for my graces............ I'm very lucky.

Band of Brothers link

Jac Weller is one of my favourite authors. His big deal is writing on Wellington's military career. One of the things that set him apart from his comtemp.'s is that he visited each battlefield, fired each weapon, gave easily understood schematic maps in his works, etc... I was very affected by his work, and understood the necessity of doing as he did. He just made it so simple to undrstand.

So I mimic.

I never understood the full panoply of Waterloo until I visited the site in Belgium- from then on, quick looks @ maps of the battle were much more valuable to me. For example, I understood perfectly how close the Prussians were @ Warve and how important was the Guards actions @ Placenoit from 4pm on.

One day I will visit the battlefields featured in Band of Brothers, both the perfect movie and the very good book. The Bois Jaques? Foy? Carentan?? And, frighteningly, Haganau*. For now, I stumbled across some nice pictures some other BoB fan has taken.
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*=My mind has fought many many many battles in this town. Many. But, finally, the war ended. It always ends. And I survived. And this posts pic is a BoB scene from Haganau. And here's some errata pics- unless you like BoB, dinna bother.

dcs blog annual staff dinner

Went to the giant fundraiser fior the Hamdard Center Saturday w/ Gf. Was a tonne of people I know there: Jackson and wife, BBall and wife, Frankie Diamond and wife to be, Bonnix, Atony, and The Baptiste. Quite the crowd.
Hamdard is a social service center focusing on mental health generally for various (generally Muslim, especially woman and children) immigrants. It's always a real fancy deal w/ heavy hitters and rich people. I always love going for a number of reasons. It's a good cause- the people the Hamdard center provides for really need this- often they have no place else to turn. I get to see a lot of frenz- it's been years since I've seen Baptiste (his bachelor party, i think). The food is always great- I made this remark before, but I've never tasted better Indian food. I understand there are probably many superfine food shacks for the Indian stuff, but this is my favourite.
It's always funny to see my frenz in this context- it's fun to see the "I'm on the board" side.

My friend the crack addict

Yes, I've known many to be in the deathly grip of drugs. Yes, you and you and also you and many more, and whatever. This particular one has fallen upon yak roc, and not just fallen on it. So, I spent most of Friday hanging out watching him and three others............yeesh.............I known I'm not one to say anything, but Friday was just a miserable day. Observing. And I stayed there till 3am, just observing......and getting frightened.

It's funny. I wanted things before, no doubt. Unhealthy things.

But these guys and girls............shoddy and shocking situation. I always know, but when confronted w/ such stunning disfunctionality. There's four I observed: my buddy, an honest to goodness crack whore, and two other crack addicts. Other sketchy types routinely trek through the gvt housing they live in. The Ghetto.

But to watch them burn through their $ when THEY DON'T HAVE ANY, scrounge for pebbles on the floor when their shit runs out, then call up other sketchy types for loans for ther next go around.

So, of course, I can save his life. This is what I think. I have three people who I care about where things have gone crazy wrong. One is ok, and I trust that this person will do fine. Another has crazy woman problems- crazy, and very unhealthy, and for the first time this person sadi to me "It mite be or possibly or maybe or could it be or I don't know or what am I'm thinking or it could be that i have a drinking problem... " He's been asking for help, and finally I realised that he needs real help. And then there's tere's Crax Add. He got his last paycheck, and when it got down to $400 left he gave his bank card to me like I asked. We went shopping Friday, then I took home his card. He will run out during the week, so I need to travel to the West Side with another grocery shopping spree soon.

But Friday was horrible. He's not the first big drug addict I've ever known (remember that old post where I said that the first person w/ divorced parents I met was when I was 21?? I realised that I'd met my first substance abuse person when I was......22.

Yeah, it was you. I was stunned then- drinking or smoking for eight days straight?? That was liteweight to the addiction that was manifest Friday nite.

Lord help us, I'm serious. He's gonna have to make it easier for me to try to help w/ this guy.

"JET" by Paul Mcartney

Jet! I can almost remember their funny faces
That time you told me that
You were going to be marrying soon.
And jet, I thought the only
Lonely place was on the moon.
Jet! jet!
Jet! was your father as bold as a sergeant major?
How come he told you that
You were hardly old enough yet?
And jet, I thought the major
Was a lady suffragette.Jet! jet!

Ah, matter, want jet to always love me?
Ah, matter, want jet to always love me?
Ah, matter, much later.

Jet! with the wind in your hair of a thousand laces.
Climb on the back and well
Go for a ride in the sky.
And jet, I thought the major
Was a lady suffragette.
Jet! jet!

Something mumbled about context

I mentioned this to Rocky last nite, and I have scuttled it about on posts past, but there is the feeling that I'm a serious letch and sexist and just unhealthy for putting up all these pictures of woman and stories and etc... However, both of us really like Mistress LaSpliffe, and since SHE gets to talk about men with their shirts off and etc, well, so do we......or @ least I feel less guilty about it. She's kool- todays post about threesomes- she's kool.

So: I like pictures of women, thinking about women, telling of old war stories about woman, etc... I am a normal man with some sorta sexual appetite, y'know?? That whole sex thing is kool, although many problems as well.

However:

I'm worried that the inate- well, not inate, but learned- feelings on sexuality have been warped too much by society*. We all are warped, not just me. Neice.4, who was 4-5 @ the time, floored me once by saying she "wanted to dress like the Spice Girls" while she pulled up her smock above her knees and titened it @ the back with her hand so the smock appeared skin tite. SHIT!! This is my little neice, and she's FIVE!!! I wasn't happy and immediately thought of my championing of the group. So, I will totally admidt that I love the saucy billboard, the Wonderbra ads, and rousing telly shows/movies-- but I also wonder about our society telling my 5 year old neice to dress like a slut. Duality of man sorta deal??

I dunno. In private, it's kool- like I've written before, in my score of years that I've been , uh, active, I've never had a girl tell me "I don't wanna wear that for you". Consenting adults, fun adults, etc... But in the public, I do feel that, well, maybe we've sexualized woman too much. But I like sexy woman and woman in that context. But the warpness society puts on us. But sexuality is good and we should celebrate it, not make our own judgements about it. But my litttle neices, being trained to use sexuality as one of their tools for life. But I like it...

So, I gonna continue with the scaucy pics and the nods to woman very sexy and all that. And yes I will continue to read Spliffes dits on dudes. Although I will feel guilty. Maybe.

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*= ne ne not ME, it's SOCIETIES FAULT !!

/Again

SORRY;SO I STEAL A BIT
PLEASE GOZ DON'T BE MAD
FOR THIS APPEARED IN HIS BLOG-
NOW'N MINE AND I FEEL BAD

HOWEVER: A LINK TO HIS;
THE PUB SHOULD MAKE HIM GLAD
THIS REARGUARD ACTION'S MEARLY MEANT
TO APPEASE THE YOUNG LAD

A peculiar Hebrew concoction of Nazism, sex and violence

What would Hillel do??

The Go Codes for NYT article, if needed:
name=securityout
pw=hilts

bless you Vito, you............you goy pervert

Blue Jean, forever

Lots of thoughts always accompany my rides this way or that way, and the music often sparks it. Just nostalgia this post: it was "Forever in Blue Jeans", that soft '70's hit. It's not that bad of a song, although I won't be pulling any 'punk rock im kool cause I like this song'*. What it reminded me of was playing Little League Baseball and one of our coaches having that song stuck in his head. Another thing was my finding a torn in half written porn book on the way to practice. We laughed for awhile while I read exerpts, but being responsible adults, the coaches made me toss it in the garbage during practice. I collected it after practice again and kept it until I think I tossed it from the guilt.

That baseball team was a fun team- we won the league that year ( one of four championship teams I have been on (-two Marquette Little League baseball champs and two St. Rita football championships in the SWCC- I like to mention this because until Wayne Gretzky won the first of his four Stanley Cups it was always pointed out that he had never won one, even on the pee wee level. Oh, and I coached three championship soccer teams, all @ Spry Academy.
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*=like how I did that one??

D'rax Sneezes

archival ink-jet print on canvas 2' x 3' 2006 NFS yet

D'rax

Working

Yes, I am working, in a reduced capacity, again. My pay has been cut by 70% (something like that), but I'm glad to be @ Hilts H.S. again. Bitter that I didn't get hired anywhere, but back in one of my favourite atmospheres (the one that keeps me young and happy).

It was hard as hell to get up Tuesday, but I instantly lost 10 years off of my age. It's just great to be back, even though I'm only 30% of the man I used to be.

Willfully blind

So, Morrissey is gay- who would have thought?? One of the best things about that Morrissey bio I read is the discussion of his sex life. Well, no frank discussions, but yes he's gay. My huge connexion to Morrissey is that Smiths period. Back then, in hs and just starting college, I really had no big dealing with gay people ( as far as I knew), so when it was written or discussed that Morrissey liked boys, I always said- "Nah- It can't be- he's never said anything like that". But, of course, I had just been toO inexperienced to read between the lines.

However, older and wiser now, it's pretty obvious. However, since the writer of the book has--well, written a book on Morrissey, it's interesting to see the stages of his solo career and how far out of the closet he comes. I have written before about his career- here are three ( 1 2 and most importantly 3) that I can find.

It was just interesting to learn about someone who I thought I'd known so well. So, the whole celibacy thing throughout the 80's? I think he was telling the truth. He did have a wierd thing about relationships and sex, and it was not just to sell records.

It seems he totally fell in love around 1994 with his choice of guys- a ruffian/tuff type. (Seems all those Smiths/solo songs about rough and uncouth boys?? We were blind, but now we can see.) When the LP "Vauxhall and I" was released, Vito pointed out the 'very special thanks to Jake' on it: "What does this mean?" "Vauxhall and I" is a great Lp- not as good as his first solo effort, but great nontheless. Some songs about love and happiness, but the last song, where he repeats something along the lines that those rumours about him were not "totally unfounded".

I'm real glad Morrissey has played his career the way he has. He has never said "yes", but we know. I like the playful nonanswers. It's a kool thing that someone once so closeted can sing so freely about that part of his life now. And now its kinda kool to go back over his later LP's and enjoy the lyrics.

I will handle the LP's between 1992 and "English Blood" later in the month one by one in the walkup to his shows.

Z alone

Z alone

Tomatoes galore

It Pampolona here. This weekend allowed me to handle my record tomato crop good-style= in the past, I've been swamped by so many harvest time tomatos that somme invariably went bad. So, in the year of 'more tomatoes that ever', I've done a great job of handing them out to people who will use them. On Friday I hit Jimes, Gallos, and Rocky's with a lot of them. On Sunday I went to a little picnic sorta deal, and was able to pass on many more. Just today I left maybe 40 in the front office of school.

The deal is is that I really don't even each much tomatos. Gallo showed me a five minute salsa dip that I was actually able to duplicate- pretty good. The funny thing about it is that Gallo had all of that stuff to make salsa on hand- he had the cilantro, onion, salt and pepper, etc to mash it all up. Tasted great when I made my own, and people seemed to like it. So good.

Many more fruit on the vine as well- the greatest crop ever.

Jesus Loves Me

It was a crowded TC Pub for trivia night. The biggest factor to create the crowd appeared to be a large Fantasy Football draft (that included Kearney Meats). Unfortunately, that means the large crowd primarily was male.

J&B is looking to end a 3-game losing streak. Benkowski thinks that is “intense”. Benkowski also has a cameraman recording footage for the next episode of “Benkowski Sports Spotlight.” They filmed a bit of the trivia, and Benkowski interviewed some people about the Bears. I don’t think they captured anything particularly noteworthy for his show.

J&B represented by: Stix, Hilts, Dragon, Gf, Lazers, the new J&B holder, the Spiderman v Mindworm comic, some Hershey bars, and one maraca.

The competition: Bar, Scott, Dos Senoritas, and Midge.

TC Pub represented by: Glasses

First Half: Music/Sports/Celebrity Birth Years

Dodger pitcher Mike Marshall record number of games pitched in 1974?
White Sox pitcher was 19-12 in 2002?
Winningest NBA team of the 1970s?
Year of birth: David Soul?
AL pitcher with perfect game in 1994?
True or False: from The Hockey News’ 1998 list of the Top 50 NHL Players of All-Time, were these players on the list: Chris Chelios? Tony Esposito? Jari Kurri?

TC Pub Afflac Trivia Question: How does Glasses like to eat her Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups?

Scores at the half: J&B 1550 Bar 990 Senoritas 620 Scott 560 Midge 50

Second Half: Chicago Locations/TV is the Bomb/Baseball

Within 500, career total of innings pitched for Cy Young?

A new twist: for a “Free but lose your turn”, the team with control could override losing their turn by singing twenty seconds of the “Star Spangled Banner” on the microphone. They decline.

Later, another team lost their turn. Soon, a girl was singing something on the microphone. I wasn’t paying much attention, and I assumed Benkowski again offered the singing option to override the team losing its turn.

The girl who sang was sitting at the bar earlier. Gf later mentioned thinking this girl was weird, as she appeared to be talking to herself, and she used a bottle to spray something in the air in front of her, which she then noticeably was sniffing.

Scores after two halves: J&B 2110 Bar 1820 Scott 1420 Senoritas 1110 Midge 540

Final Category: 90s Entertainment (2 of 3 wins wager; all 3 wins 3000 bonus)

As Benkowski made his way around the bar to hand out index cards for each team’s wager and final answer, the weird girl commandeered the microphone and began to sing, “Jesus loves me….” Benkowski scurries back to the front of the bar to take the microphone away from her.

J&B wagers the classic- 1531.

Final question:
Movies: In “Home Alone”, what was the name of the song that John Candy’s character was positive that Catherine O’Hara’s character should have known he recorded (3 words)?
TV: On “Seinfeld”, when Elaine got back at the Soup Nazi, what piece of furniture was the key?
Music: The lead singer of Jamiroquai patterns his singing style after this superstar male singer from the 60s-70s-80s?

Now, while everyone tries to answer, I need to help Benkowski get the microphone away from the weird girl…

Part II

J&B guesses Beer Barrel Polka, Armoire, and Stevie Wonder.

First half answers:
106 games
Mark Buerhle
Milwaukee Bucks
1943
Kenny Rogers
Chelios (true) Esposito (false) Kurri (true)

Afflac trivia answer:
Frozen

Second half answer:
7,354 2/3 IP

Final answer:

Midge- 540- guesses “no guess” (no), Armoire (yes), Paul McCartney (no)- only 1 correct- wagered it all- thanks for playing.

Dos Senoritas- 1110- guess Beer Barrel Polka (no), Love Seat (no), Elvis (no)- none correct- wagered 1000- left with 110.

Scott- 1420- guesses Sweet Home Chicago (no), Armoire (yes), Stevie Wonder (yes)- 2 correct- wagered 1420- double to 2840 (that score was accompanied by some obnoxiousness by Scott).

Bar- 1820- with J&B already knowing they won their wager, the Bar needs the bonus points to win- guesses Polka Polka Polka (yes), Armoire (yes), Michael Jackson (no)- 2 correct- wagered 1820- double to 3640. For reasons unknown, Benkowski killed any drama by reading the Jackson answer first.

J&B- 2110- guesses Beer Barrel Polka (no), Armoire (yes), Stevie Wonder (yes)- 2 correct- wagered 1531- up to 3641 and an end to the losing streak.

In the aftermath, the weird girl spent a lot of time talking with Trophy. She then gathered her backpack and left. Moments later, Trophy also was leaving. The timing was fairly obvious, and Trophy’s exit was accompanied by a round of applause from the patrons of TC Pub. Trophy acknowledged the applause as he headed out the door for what will perhaps be the last time anyone ever sees him again…

Next trivia night: Thursday, September 13th