Bob’s Blog

I’m done.

I’ve survived what was the hardest thing I’ve ever done with my life. This year, in terms of work, has been a giant rollercoaster that I can’t even describe. For those of you that have been following this since August, let me assure you what I’ve described in here doesn’t do justice to what I’ve actually had to experience. To dealing with co-teachers doing inappropriate things with students, meeting after meeting, to being assaulted, dealing with a (new) administration that treats their employees like children, to being disrespect by not only students but by parents…it’s been…I don’t even know what it’s been. I just know that I am done and I couldn’t be happier.

A reader left me a comment the other day what I plan on doing over the summer. What I really plan on doing is resting and thinking about my career and what I want to do. Teaching high school history is a given for the next couple years, there’s just no way around that unless I move into a completely different field and land an assistantship (which is a very good possibility given what a friend of mine can offer me). I’m going to look into grad schools and various masters programs in not only education, but also student affairs, event planning, history and political science.

But, I plan to spend the majority of it relaxing, working out, thinking, reading, doing some traveling, and going to plenty of concerts. I just want a chance to breath and start to turn the corner with things. I haven’t had a summer off since my freshman year of high school, and since I have an opportunity that most people don’t have…I might as well just take advantage of it and unwind and have fun.

This past week, only the “good” kids were in school. Basically, any kid that had any real shot of passing a class was allowed to campus. If you had say, a 20% in a class, you were told not to come to that class and in fact – were told to just not come to school period. It made this week enjoyable and the easiest week of the year. I had so many great kids this year and that is something that has gotten lost this year.

I’m going to miss a lot of these kids. A lot of these kids made my day and I always looked forward to teaching a lot of them. Many of my freshman are telling me they’re going to talk to their counselor next year and have me for 10th grade world history. During the past week, I’ve been a bit sad that I won’t ever have some of these kids ever again.

I did an informal end of the year survey where I asked the kids to write down one thing they liked and one thing they disliked. There wasn’t one real legitimate complaint, other than note-taking (but who really likes taking notes?). The common theme throughout the surveys was that I was, “cool”, “fun”, “interesting”, “never boring”, and that I taught the class “right where it should be. It wasn’t too easy, but it wasn’t too difficult”. I also had them sign my Politics For Dummies book (last year during student teaching it was World History For Dummies; it’s a nice little tradition I’m going to start with various social studies books) and they wrote some very nice and touching things.

It’s sort of amazing and surprising what some of these kids write and how much I’ve meant to some of them and how much they truly enjoyed my class. I’m fairly self critical on myself and abilities but what they wrote is absolutely so reassuring and nice. I feel better about myself and abilities as a teacher. Maybe its also because I’m not too much older than these kids and they see that, respect that, and we can actually relate. When I did things like have an entire world history class doing The Charleston and to see the smiles and laughter on their faces…it’s so damn cool and I know they got something out of things like that. I wanted to make world history and geography/civics fun for the kids and not stress dates and facts, but rather concepts and themes…and they got it and we had fun.

It’s a nice ending to what has been a rather difficulty and trying year.

Now it’s time for some R&R.

I’m big on underground hip-hop. In the past couple years, it’s about the only genre that really holds my interest in new music, it seems. The poet/spoken word/rapper Sage Francis is one of my favorite artists. I recently stumbled upon this remix he did with Saul Williams.

You might know Saul Williams from this commercial:

Anyways, this remix great and I think it might be better than the original song. So I thought I’d share: http://download.yousendit.com/55EC32592B5BE30A

The following verse is by Saul Williams in the song. And it’s just unbelievable, I think. A lot of people will slam hip-hop for being about only guns, money, and women. But that’s not the case and in fact, I think this song is one of the best written songs you’ll hear not just in hip-hop, but any genre period.

Oh God I think I’m dead
I can’t see outside my head
Brains and Bloods and cryptic gangmen,
czars and warlords breaking bread
Thoughts are thought, what’s said is said
I thought that (No, you said it)
I didn’t mean to think out loud, my tongue slipped
But who let it?
Let it be, let me be, let me go, naw let me out
My manhood nods and whispers
with my father’s screams and shouts
Dear dad, I’m sad you’re dead,
a new man standing in the pulpit
He bows before a wooden cross
and forces praise the culprit
I’m a tenor, in the choir
but I sing a different song
of how the where’s and why’s of now
all prove I don’t belong
But I’m staying, I’ve planted seeds
and plan to watch them grow
I’ve watered all my wishes, dreams,
and filled more seeds to sow
And I promise to learn to love the way I learned to fear
To unknot all the inhibitions tangled in my hair
To let my ego mound in piles around the barber chair
and make a graceful exit from my vexed and troubled years.
I’ve decided I’ve been invited to my own resort
where knights can leave their armor neatly piled by the door
And every woman, child, and man will gather by the shore
and study how sea lions swim in cursive

This is, without question, one of the greatest things I’ve ever watched. In a word, it’s unbelieavable:

The original trailer:

Extreme right-wing nutjob talkshow host Michael Savage has recently caused a stir over his comments on air about Ted Kennedy’s brain tumor. While talking about how it’s not something to joke about, he played clips of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s famous line, “It’s not a tumor” from Kindergarten Cop, then repeatedly played the song “California Uber Allies” by the (awesome) punk band The Dead Kennedys.

Of course, anybody who knows anything about punk rock and the Dead Kennedys would know right off the bat that people like Michael Savage are absolutely despised and conservatism as a whole is rejected. I’ve been to plenty of punk shows and have seen people handing out copies of The Communist Manifesto. It’s even more ironic when Savage says he’s into punk rock and how much he loves it. Mind you, this is the same man that once said people with AIDS should be locked up in concentration camps. I’m sure Joe Strummer is rolling in his grave right now.

But that’s not the point.

What astounds me is how people called and actually supported this. Say what you will about Ted Kennedy’s past (and trust me – there’s plenty to say about that), but I find it utterly reprehensible that people like Michael Savage are actually given airtime and a microphone to spew out their garbage. Additionally, it seems to be something that continually is a problem in the right wing. Bill O’Reilly, Savage, Limbaugh, John Gibson…all of these guys have made some fucking insane comments regarding minorities, gays, etc.

The scary thing is the fact these people have some of the highest ratings in both cable and radio. Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, and Sean Hannity are all within the top 10 of radio talk-show ratings, and Billy O’Reilly maintains the #1 cable spot on news networks. These are the people who voted Reagan in. And these are the same people who elected Bush not once, but twice. And these are the same people who gave Mike Huckabee life and who will vote for John McCain.

Free speech, sure. But free speech comes with consequences and more often than not, that consequence is receiving a pink slip.

You know, I don’t care if people are Republican or conservative. That’s fine as long as you’re an adult about it and can be reasonable to talk with, and that goes for anybody of any faith or political background. I’ve befriended people of all faiths and on the other side of the political aisle.

But there’s a difference between supporting a political ideology and supporting hate.

Go here and watch that video and that pretty much sums up the Cleveland Indians this year. I knew that giving Eric Wedge an extension last year, before winning anything, was a stupid mistake.

On another sports related note, that Manchester United/Chelsea game yesterday for the Champions League was absolutely unbelievable. I can’t remember the last time being that excited about a finish of a sports game. I wish more European soccer got played on ESPN. If anything, it would be way better than having the damned World Scrabble Championships on a Saturday afternoon.

Ok. I have a confession: I am probably one of the 5 people in America who genuinely liked the first Incredible Hulk movie that came out just a couple years ago. I thought it was well done, smart, and creative. It wasn’t 2 hours of “HULK SMASH” that people wanted and it had real no connection to the (very often) terrible TV show of the 70s.

But nobody liked it.

So, Marvel decided to do another Hulk movie and completely forget the first one happened and pay more homage to the 70s show and give more action and love. This time, it stars Ed Norton. Now, I love Ed Norton. But to be perfectly honest? This looks pretty blah and is not doing much for me. Ed Norton playing Bruce Banner doesn’t really feel right to me anyways.

But who am I kidding. I’ll probably be there opening night. I’m not holding my breath on anything spectacular though.

That new Batman, on the other hand…

This is my favorite song of all time and I thought I’d share. The song came at a weird time in my life and is something I felt I could always identify with; I think it’s a song almost anyone can identify with. It’s just a beautiful song.

Matthew Good is one of those few artists for me that I sort of seem to have an emotional connection with. Anybody who is a music lover will know what I’m talking about. His latest album, Hospital Music, is probably my favorite album of all time and is something that I haven’t really stopped playing in the last year or so.

After 14 grueling years, the ol’ mini-van has been put out to pasture. Otherwise known as “The Tank”, it has withstood not only abuse but also shame and humiliation from those drivers that have driven it. I spent 8 years with this thing. It was my first car. Loud, noisy, smelly, completely unfashionable; it was embarrassing to drive and painful to look at.

The inside of the car smelled like cigars, socks, and determination. Driving it in high school, I was the only one in the group of my friends who had a car big enough to cart everyone around; I felt like a soccer dad while driving my sky-blue piece of heaven.

But I loved it. Repairs were mostly minor and it always got from Point A to Point B. Those 100,000+ miles will tell you 100,000 different stories about it.

It became a yearly tradition last year when the side door of the car would all of a sudden just fall off. You have no idea how much of a hassle it is to try and put on a car door. A year ago, on the way back to Cleveland from Toledo, we had duct taped the door shut and locked it…hoping it would stay on and not fly off onto the road. It made it.

The piston on the back door was broken, so it never stayed up. Moving was such a hassle, to say the least. The hood barely stayed down and the thought of the hood flying up while in the middle of driving was always there. It was a complete hazard to drive. But the chance of getting a sneak peak at Jesus was always there; it was dangerous. Little known fact: the ladies love nothing more than a dangerous man who drives a dangerous mini-van. For 8 years, I was the king of danger.

Goodbye, Tank. It’s been fun.

I have a new calling in life. You can find more of these here.

Definitely not one of our greatest moments.