Monday Morning Thanksgiving

Thank you, Almighty Father for this day. Thank you for waking me up and for the food I have to eat, for the water i have to drink. Thank you for my sweet bride - the love of my life - and for family, for friends, and for Sierra and Frodo Junior. Thank you for income and vehicles and roofs over our heads and shoes on our feet. Thank you for Jesus the Christ. Thank you for the sacrifice, for the blood shed and for the ransom paid. You make me great.

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things...

songs: where to start...

Five Iron Frenzy's Blue Comb

The Clash Pressure Drop

Insyderz This I Know

Indigo Girls Kid Fears and Closer to Fine

Run DMC Crown Royal, Raising Hell, King of Rock

Les Mis At the End of the Day, One Day More

The Three Stooges Alphabet Song (possibly, just possibly, the song goes by another name, but it's the one that starts with B - A Bay, B - E Bee, ... and continues with a neat harmonic 'Curley's a dope!')

Sir Mixalot Iron Man

movies: where to start...Ben Hur, Lost in Space, It's a Wonderful Life, Old Yeller, Man on Fire, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Krush Groove, Amazon Women on the Moon, Mission: Impossible iii, The 10 Commandments, Rio Bravo, Sound of Music, A Christmas Story, The Three Amigos, The Princess Bride, A Few Good Men, Kill Bill

Supertones, c. 1995

Who am I that You would take the time to find me?
Who am I that You'd reach out you're hand?
Lord what am I but just a sinful sinking man?
I didn't even know who God was, Until He told me He's my Dad

And it's just because he loved me And He'd rather die than live without me
He love me and He'd rather go through hell Than to go to heaven without me
And I love Him and I'll stay with him until the end of time One thing I know God gave His life for mine
He will always be, He will always be, He will always be there

Who am I that You'd know my name?
Who am I that You'd help me win this losing game?
Who am I that You'd stay all day by my side?
God I fail but at least You know I tried i didn't even know who He was then God told me I'm His son

I count on God, I love him best He helps me through my trials and tests
He will always be there when I call Always catch me when I fall

He will always be there.

Follow up on the plague

Well, a trip to the urgent care on saturday revealed an infected sinus so I got some antibiotics and that, apparently, was the ticket. My wife is in pain, we are broke, we live 250 miles apart, my truck is in the shop, ... but Jesus loves me this i know.

Third Day, once again...

How many times have I turned away
The number is the same as the sand on the shore
But every time You've taken me back
And now I pray You do it once more.

Please take from me my life
When I don't have the strength
to give it away to You Jesus

How many times have I turned away
The number is the same as the stars in the sky
But every time You've taken me back
And now I pray You do it tonight

Please take from me my life
When I don't have the strength
to give it away to You Jesus

I love you, LORD

Day 2 of the Plague

I think this is more than a cold, there's other stuff going on...my chest hurts and my throat is raw and the cough woke me at odd hours of the night like ghosts of christmases of long, long ago. My whole face hurts dammitall. I could lay down on a hard table right now and sleep quite well...lotta work to have a sub...plans and everything...hate doing it...plus the office ladies are doing other stuff they don't need one more thing to do...just wanna sleep...phewey...dammitall...i, i, i, i, i, ... see? don't care

Lost in Space

I don't like being sick. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate. Like the real sore throat/achy/sleepy type where you'd just like to take six thousand miligrams of ibuprofen and stay in bed reading the paper or playing Zelda. So I sleep in a bit but know I gotta get to work (and soon). I snag my hostess donuts (THE cure for evrything that ails ya) and my diet pepsi, and drive.
Cockapoo! the agent is in my room setting up this time for the seniors to take this huge test so my 8th graders and me head off to the wonderfully all-catching Media Center (we used to call them libraries back in the day) to do nothing. I log into my blog and tell the little darlings it's 'reading day' and tell them to read anything they want. I follow this plan second hour and then again third hour. The agents are out of my room but i'm having fun writing this so i tell 4th hour to come into the Media Center also. They're a little more high-maintenance but most are working. At this point i don't care. I didn't even care that i didn't capitalize the first person singular personal pronoun several times thus far...
So it's almost lunch and every question i'm asked is a stupid question and every kid asking is an idiot and i just want to lay down. I hate being sick. Looking back at the opening paragraph, i see that nothing really wonderful has come of this story. I just like the line, Dickens wrote it a while ago.

My Song, or one of them...

If I raise my hands just to lift the shade
Will I reveal a sky heavy and gray?
Will last night be a memory sweetly fading?
How I hate a morning starting out this way
On these lonely, raging mornings I would whip You if I could
But You're on the mighty side of strong And the perfect side of good

If I raise my hands will You grab my by the wrists
And will You try to pull me from the fray?
And even if my fingers join together into fists
Will You hold me firmly anyway?
Because I would try to escape You but for everyday I'm sure
That You're on the huge side of big And the holy side of pure

Okay
Hear what I say
As I raise my hands in surrender today
Okay
Here I will stay
Hands in the air, singing have Thine own way

If I raise my hands so weak and thin and frail
Will You reveal the light of mercy in Your eyes?
If I cry to You faintly will my feeble whisper fail?
Or will it find its way to a reply?
Because, now that I'm exhausted I think I'm ready to admit
That I have spent all my resistance on someone I can't resist

Okay
Hear what I say
As I raise my hands in surrender today
Okay
Here I will stay
Hands in the air, singing have Thine own way

Light from my window sill, make my way to the door
I hang my head and still, I know you're wanting more
Over the threshold now, I move across the yard
All that my will allows, my every step is hard
Now in the garden I carve out six feet of space
There make my will comply, lie down upon my face
Been toe to toe too long, I'm tired of fighting You
I see You were too strong 'cause I am black and blue
But now I understand a loser's due to win
How every dying man is sure to rise again
So I raise my left hand one, I raise my right hand two
Under the morning sun, my spirit cries to You

Okay
Hear what I say
As I raise my hands in surrender today
Right here
Under the sun
Hands in the air, saying Thy will be done

I'm here
Under the sun
Hands in the air, singing Thy will be done
Okay
Here I will stay
Hands in the air, singing have Thine own way

Have Thine own way


Brad and Todd Olsen, of The Waiting from 1997

Inner and Oustside Warmth

I am not prone to bragging. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate. But Sister-son Carlos Luis Razo was an extra in Cuba Gooding, Jr.'s made-for-tv TNT movie (Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1295085/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt) this past weekend and I am just tickled. I missed the original airing and then the first seven or eight re-airs (re-airings?) but caught it last night at about midnight. My work week starts bright and early on Monday but I was determined to see this movie while there was still weekend to be had.


I was thrilled with the picture and got a big warm fuzzy seeing the second-eldest nephew on my side of the family playing his cello with other like-minded folk on the big (er...27 inches really) screen. And more warm fuzzies because of a mother who believed in her two kids and encouraged them regularly while expecting much out of them. The picture was filmed in and around Detroit which added to the majesty of everything. And the February temperatures were close to 50 degrees Fahrenheit with the sun shining most of the weekend......Michigan State won again, Nate Roberson and Dontrel Willis are battling for the 5th starting spot in the Tigers' rotation, The Wings won.......life is good.

Writing Across the Curriculum

My 10th grade geometry students now have a web log that they may use as a forum for communication and written assignments. they have been summarizing lessons as a comment post which I believe is of benefit in two ways. First, they get the opportunity to process a lesson or section and describe succinctly what they remember. Thirdly, they get to see exactly what their peers remembered through their processing, which may trigger a forgotten definition or property. This is good. I like it.


A complaint (adolescents complain?!?) is a percieved lack of time/resources to engage in this type of activity. I observe no lack of time for Free Rider (http://www.kongregate.com/games/onemorelevel/free-rider-2) so I'm not buyin it.

Algebra and Adolescents

I am prone to think about things in the light of events in my own life (as we probably all are) but I also try to listen to other people as well as the voice of almighty God for guidance.
One question that has become a 'good' question for me (as in '...that's a good question!') is this: In this country, why do we force an abstract study like ALGEBRA on people with big clumsy adult bodies but who are going through THE most trying time of life sorting out issues like peer influence, the opposite sex, career decisions, after school activities, etc?

You should have to be like 30 at least to try Algebra.

There should be a test you have to pass to vote, also.

For that matter, there should be a test you have to pass to procreate.