Lip-synching.

So I heard that Ashlee Simpson was caught this past Saturday night lip-synching her big tune "Pieces of Me" on SNL. Saturday Night Live is a small venue, only a few hundred seats, and I'm amazed that any professional artist would try to pull something in such a small venue. You would never attend a classical musical or jazz concert where the artist would even consider lip-synching. Why does this stuff occur in pop music? What is the difference?

Contact

I started a rousing game of phone tag this evening. After school, I pre-called many of the parents of my behavior problem students for thursday. My six calls took nearly an hour to make and unfortunately, I didn't reach about three of the people I intended to call. Messages were left, and hopefully, I'll hear responses in the morning. Improving behavior and discipline in a school and/or classroom starts one child, one family at a time. There is no way to make the process move any faster.

On the home front, I tried to call Joe, but I think it was too late. Either that or he was too transfixed on the Series. Everything was downhill for me with baseball this year after the Sox/Yankees race. Who could beleive there would be better baseball after that?

Next, I tried to get ahold of Jane's brother Stephen, but his cell reception is pretty poor in State College. No luck. Then, Matthew out in San Fransisco, but also, no luck. Finally, I tried to reach Eric in Seattle, but he was MIA as well.

How did we all end up as such busy folks? When did that all happen? And think, none of us even have kids yet.

Graduate School, cont.

Joe, sent me a virtual congrats on my Grad School acceptance this morning. Unfortunately, it looks like I neglected to say where I was accepted. Effective immediately, I am a Master's of Arts in Educational Leadership at Northeastern Illinois University here in Chicago, IL. I'm completing this degree to help be gain background knowledge and experience to be used first towards my Type 75 Administrators Teaching License, then towards a job as an elementary school principals. The task of preparing to be a principal is a daunting one, and I'll need all the help I can get.

Thanks for helping me clarify the situation, Joe.

Car Choices

Honda Accord, Hyundai Sonata, and a Scion xB: Each of these cars is on my short list for the new vehicle. While I would love to have a new/used Audi A6, let's be honest folks, I'm just a lowly teacher trying to support a family of two. But we can dream, can't we?

My buddy Larry is checking out new cars now, too. He's pushing the Toyota Corolla over the Honda, but frankly, I'm not sold on the idea. Anyone know somethings about these cars?

Damn.

I just lost my last post. Here's the brief: I was accepted into my grad program. The car is still dead, and I graded another 200+ papers today. We're renting a car tomorrow to get through the rest of the week.

Best Wishes, Chris, on the new job! Looks like you had fun at the races this week Joe! Matthew, are you still hanging on at The Company?

Been busy, too?

Hey folks, have you all been incredibly busy lately, too? It seems like the first quarter of the school year, zoommed by really fast.

I'm up a bit late this evening grading papers and thankfully, I'm about 75% of the way there. As of now, I've graded 470 papers from students in grades K-5 and this represents only a small percentage of the total papers I could have needed to grade in the past few weeks. Unfortunately, this represents only 32% of the total assignments I need to grade. A small percentage of these papers are in my briefcase to finish up tomorrow, but the majority of the missing work comes from students not turning things in, or classes missing assignments due to scheduling changes, trips, and absences. I'll try to make up as much as possible over the next week.

Other news: The Mighty Taurus is dead. Jane and I will be car shopping this week for a new Civic or Hyundai Sonata. I'll keep you informed.

PS: When was the last time you read a short story, wrote a poem, drew a picture, or listened to a symphony? Do something creative today!

Trump

I read the first four chapters of Trump's New Book, "How to think like a billionaire" while waiting at the mall for my Williams Sonoma gift to be wrapped. I will it admit, it was a great rollicking read. He is an egotistical maniac, but once you've gotten past that, he's pretty darn funny.

The most disturbing comment I read in his book, however, was this: "Give up sleep and just work your entire life. You love to work anyway, because if you didn't, you'd get another job." Now, I'm paraphrasing, but there is some truth in this. First, if your job sucks, do something else. You spend to much time at work to do something that you find disagreeable. If your boss hasn't fired you, you might want to just jump ship. Better things may be out there for you.

But the other angle of his statement, that we should work all the time bothers me. We should relax, too. I'm beginning to discover that the people that are truly wealthy are those that have time to commit to the activities of their choosing. Maybe for some that's work. For me, I'd prefer to write, read, work with people, teach, travel, and design. Many of those things are work related, but the term work is so distasteful. If he just said, "give up sleep and live your entire life" I might be more open to the idea.

What do you think? What is the business/personal life compromise?

Oh, so I'm sleeping five hours a night for the next week, just to see if I'm more productive. So far I am, but it's only day one!

Columbus Day

Columbus Day, we have off school and jobs
to do about our leisure what we please.
But who has stopped to think about the man,
who ventured west with dreams of India's lands.
Instead, he stumbled on a foriegn shore;
Met distant tribes, vast colonies of men
who no more could judge him than he could guess
his voyage, change the world for Europe's gain.
But in his travels another story rests
covered, quiet, groggy, yet present still.
Disease, new pests, and culture would reign death
on native peoples lives they knew before.
    Fair history students, keep in mind both sides--
    Remember costly victories on this day.

2004 LaSalle Chicago Marathon

Yesterday was marathon day. Jane and I had a great time at the race. While she ran, I worked to fight the crowds and set myself up at different viewing points over the 26.2 mile course to pass on food and encouragement. Great Job, Jane.

- Nancy Lo met Jane and I following the marathon.

- Check out the marathon crowds.

War, Weddings, Influenza, and your Aesthetic Education...

There's a war on, and I'm waging it against the weeds in my yard before the winter season hits. Yep, today I spent the morning listing to WGN and weeding in the yard. What an awesome way to spend an october morning.

Congrats to Mr. McNamara, Sr. and his new fiance. (Consider It Blogged.: Weddings Galore.) Joe, good luck battling the flu. The flu sucks, but luckily, I had the dizzy flu instead of the stomach version that seems to be decimating my school right now. We're thinking about you, buddy!

When was the last time you listened with rap't attention to a whole Bach cantata? Sit down, and be inspired. Oh, and I recommend you read a Shakespeare play. I just finished Julius Caesar again and it was far better the second time than when I read it in high school. We feel for you Brutus.

O'er and out.

Heidy-ho, good neighbor.

Yep, its a happy day for me today. I've conquered my cold, and I'm back to good health. As matthew's blog noted some days back, don't underestimate the importance of your health.

I was at school promptly at 8:10 am this morning to start my morning rounds of music educating and music making with 3rd-5th graders and we're trying to tackle the sticky art of learning to read music. We're initially focusing on grade-appropriate rhythmic patterns, but we'll also be moving into reading pitch. That's a much harder skill to pick up, initially.

I've got Research this evening at NEIU and I'm woefully underprepared, but not for want of trying. I've been reading articles and pouring over my research paper for weeks and it's just not developing as I would like. Tonight we have to present our literature review and mine is wrong. I had a phone meeting with my professor this morning and we slightly changed my topic, and it threw my whole lit review off. Bummer. I guess I'll be able to tackle the changes this weekend.

Good luck adjusting back to the U.S. time, Matthew.

I got the flu!

I'm home today, sick with the flu for the second day in a row and I feel it's ironic that the US is faced with reduced flu vaccines this year. Now that half the supply is gone, I won't be able to get a flu shot because I'm not on the list of must-haves. But, since I've already had the flu now, I won't need it.

The cubs are out of the playoffs. Thank you 620 AM for helping me listen to my cubbies all season long. A new passion has been found.

Joe, great talking to you yesterday. Keep me filled in about the life and family, buddy. Speaking of life and family, congratulations to Stephen for landing his fat new gig with GE! Rock on. And Peter, think long and hard about committing to your IBM coop. It's a great opportunity that should be considered.

It was nice seeing so many old friends this weekend at Kate Snow's (Hable) wedding: Irena and Noah, Laura (Laurie), Tim, Paul, Ehren, Shawn and Meg, Darius and Margaret, Brad and Jeff, Jolene, and Bryce. Everyone, stay in touch.

Hangin' in Hahvahd Square

Who would have figured that I'd be sitting in the basement of the physics building on MIT campus, typing a blog on friday afternoon. Awesome. Yep, Jane and I are bumming around Boston today in preparation for Kate and Greg's wedding tomorrow.

If you love chocolates, we stopped at L.A. Burdick's this afternoon for mochas. We saw their beautiful new ghost and penguin chocolates. The dark chocolate mocha was very good, but I'm still looking forward to the authentic italian cappucinos from the North End on sunday.