Musings on Life and Living

I recently read an opinion column in which the author, seeking to play devil's advocate, asked if what Governor Rod Blagojevich did in regards to trying to sell Senator Barack Obama's Senate seat was actually illegal. I don't know all the ins and outs of the legality of such a move. If Blago can be busted for anything, I suppose it is for conspiring to sell a Senate seat, since he didn't actually make any transactions. But the author in this column said that politicians are always offering deals in exchange for campaign funds. I suppose that if all Blago had asked for was money for his next campaign, then what he was attempting may have fallen within the realm of legality, shady as it was and is. But he wasn't just hustling for campaign funds. He was also hustling for money in his own pocket, or money in his wife's pocket via an appointment to a board directorship. So that was definitely illegal. However, for the sake of argument, let us assume that G-Rod was ...

First I'd like to say for the record, I haven't dropped any hints this year about what I want for Christmas, because really, all I need is a Mac computer, now whether or not I get that is entirely up to someone higher up in the totem pole than me. But, of course there are other things I want, I just usually forget half the time that I want them, but if there are some of you out there wondering what I WANT for Christmas and what I NEED then here is the list: Portfolio supplies (my portfolio is growing quickly so I've grown out of my old ones) Clothes (I go through pants like crazy so back-up pairs are always needed along with nice shirts to help me break the t-shirt phase) Snoopy (anything authentically Snoopy, Charlie Brown, or Peanuts will be appreciated. And the more antique-ish, the cooler) A Mac Computer (now I don't expect someone to buy me a Mac because the one I need is 2 grand, but money towards it would be nice. Why a Mac? Because Macs are awesome! And my Adobe...

It is late and nine minutes past my bedtime, but I just stumbled upon something, and I thought I'd make this quick post. Frequently, I am asked by family members, "What do you want for Christmas?" Typically, my response is one of the following: a) I don't know. 2) Children's books. d) Tools are always cool. Now, occasionally I may throw into the mix something like "socks" or "another hoodie from [insert college/university name here]" but those are rare. Most frequently, I'd say that (a) and (2) are the most frequently given answers. Nowadays I am also asked what Gretchen wants for Christmas, and that is even tougher. My wife has a lovely habit of dropping hints all the time. Unfortunately, this is one of those rare moments in which I play the role of the stereotypical male. That is to say, I am completely oblivious to said hints. I much prefer someone to hit me over the head with a board (preferably of the 2x4 variety) than simply dropping ...

The following is an example of the type of non-design work that I am doing as a Graphic Design student at Parkland. Alex assisted as my editor (the conclusion is largely his, though). Experience in the Making Communication Arts is a periodical magazine that focuses on design, specifically graphic design, which is really a broad area. In each issue Communication Arts starts out with a few editorials on things like design issues or design culture. And in between there's always a few ads, mostly ads for paper companies or stock photo sites, which really aren't common in any other magazine outside the relm of design. Then you get into some articles that feature a project of some featured designer or design firm. These articles tend to be around ten pages long and display more than a few images of the project. Occasionally there will be an article not specifically geared towards a designer or design firm, but geared towards a common theme. The editorial pages are geared towards al...

"If one doesn't respect oneself one can have neither love nor respect for others." "I can fight only for something that I love, love only what I respect, and respect only what I at least know." “Cooking is at once one of the simplest and most gratifying of the arts, but to cook well one must love and respect food.” Gretch and I were having a discussion the other night about whether or not the source of a quotation affects the validity of the statement. We've decided to put it to the test. What do you think of these statements? If you happen to know the sources, please don't ruin the game. Oh, and don't go Googling them, either! The purpose of this discussion is to find out what you think about the statements, not the authors. I'll post the quotes again with the authors after we get some feedback.

For those who don't know, and don't want to scroll down the page, here's the preface: I recently applied for a 5th grade teaching job at Dr. Howard Elementary. I spent one day as a substitute teacher in that class, and got to spend a bit of time with one of the other 5th grade teachers. I had also previously subbed at Dr. Howard for two weeks. I really like working in this school. Even when I am working with a kindergarten class, and one of the girls accidentally kicks another girl in the face during a temper tantrum, I like the school! So when the position opened up, I was ridiculously excited about it. So, I went in for my interview, and I was happy to see that I already knew practically all of the members of the committee. There was only one person I had not seen before, and another that I only knew in passing, but I had had several conversations with the other committee members. The interview had the series of nine basic teacher interview questions (tell us about yourse...

Sen. Obama has promised that, when he is President, he will be the great unifier. Does anyone think he really will? Personally, I hope he does not. I hope he will be the great compromiser. The great builder. The great doer. But unifier? No, thank you. I enjoy differing opinions and mental conflict. It is what makes our nation great! I can't help but think of a quote from "My Fellow Americans." I can't remember the exact words, but it essentially said, "'Voice of the people'? What 'voice of the people'? We've got 300,000,000 people all yelling for something different!" So congratulations to Sen. Obama, the President-Elect. I look forward to spending four years fighting Congress for the things that I most dearly believe in, all the while watching you fight Congress for the things you most want. (And for those of you following along at The Four Corners , yes, I did post this there, too.

I'm sure you've heard it before. A "moral" issue shows up in political discussions, and it eventually makes its way to the ballot. The opposition tends to have just one rallying cry: "You can't legislate morality!" I am curious about this refrain, and about this concept, in general. There are some things that are on ballots that are not moral issues: candidates, for instance. Tax increases. Pretty much, anything that isn't making one thing or another illegal. On the other hand, aren't all laws legislated morality? What is "morality" anyway? According to Dictionary.com, morality is " conformity to the rules of right conduct". Are not all laws "rules of conduct"? And is not the purpose of legislation to promote conformity to said rules? Now, obviously, you cannot actually force anybody to conform to anything. Heck, you can't force anybody to do anything. Well, I suppose you could drug somebody to a mindless stupor ...

So now that I have bombarded you guys with my political views and random ruminations, I suppose it is time for an update on the life of your favourite substitute teacher! I've been working just about every day in the Champaign schools. After that first disastrous encounter with high school, the district has been kind enough to keep my activities limited to the elementary level. While I am sure that I would do fine in a high school setting with actual lesson plans, I am just much more comfortable teaching in the grade schools! I spent two weeks as a 2nd grade teacher at Dr. Howard Elementary. The class was a bit unruly at times, but, dang it, I just can't help but love the kids! I have a lovely collection of drawings, origami boxes, and notes that they gave me while I was there. This week I have been all over the place! On Monday I was a special ed teacher working with four students who are hearing impaired. On Tuesday I was a reading tutor in the morning and a monitor for a 1st...

On Tuesday, 4 November 2008, I, along with millions of other American citizens, entered a recognised polling place, a cast my vote. For the people of California, they were asked whether or not they, as a people, should amend their constitution to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman. This was a response to the California Supreme Court's 4-3 decision that "same-sex marriage" was protected under their constitution. This ballot question was known as Proposition 8. Before I continue, I wish to affirm one very important fact: I do not condone nor tolerate bigotry or discrimination against others. A member of my family asked me to defend my support of Proposition 8. More importantly, he asked me to explain how the ability of homosexual couples to marry posed as a "threat" to my own marriage. I promised that I would do so by Friday. As it is Thursday night and my dearly beloved is at work for another hour, I decided that now would be a good time to ...

I have been working as a second grade teacher for about two weeks now. For the past week, it has been at the same school in the same class. My second graders are pretty awesome, even though I occasionally want to tranq a couple of them if they don't learn how to sit in their seats and do their work! (Don't worry - I would never actually do this!) *** I think the United States needs to implement mandatory voting, much like they have in Australia. Before I have someone blow up at me and claim that this is a terrible idea, I think it is important to note the most fascinating feature of the Australian mandatory voting law. If you are not satisfied with any of the candidates, you have the right to cast an empty ballot, and that gets counted. I think this would stop the foolish notion of a "winning" candidate to think he/she has been given a "mandate" by the voting public. Imagine what would have happened in 2004 if several thousands, or even millions, of American...

So, I've finally started working as a substitute teacher in the Champaign schools. This actually came as a surprise to me, as I had been told that I would be given a call to let me know I was on the sub list, presumably before getting a call to sub. Instead, I got a call on Monday morning at 8 am asking me if I could sub for a teacher at Carrie Busey Elementary School. Of course I could and I wanted to, so I quickly got cleaned up and dressed as Gretch made lunch for me. I spent the day as a 2nd grade teacher. It was fun, although I was reminded of why I have a preference for the upper primary grades (i.e. 4th and 5th). Most of the kids were great. Just the little girl who was always bossing everyone around, and the two boys who kept chasing each other until I got frustrated and sent them off to the Assistant Principal. All in all, though, a great feeling to be back in the saddle, so to speak. Today, however, was a totally different experience. My teaching certificate is a Type 03 ...

Before I get into the gist of this particular post, I think I'd just like to point out that, as we in the States are in the midst of a very close, very intense political campaign for the White House, this entire topic is very relevant to me. I wish that Gretch would find it as relevant, as well, but I am coming to terms with that fact that certain individuals in her life have made her, already, cynical and apathetic toward to the system of government in our nation, and even more so to the method of selecting representatives. I am tempted to go off on a tangent here, but I think I will reign myself in and leave this thought before going on: Edmund Burke is credited with saying that the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. I have thought about it a lot and realised that the statement would be most accurate if he had said that the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do something else. We are always doing something, but what we...

A couple of years ago, I began my professional courses at the University of Illinois. This meant that my schedule was filled with classes that all started with C&I, also known as Curriculum and Instruction. These were intended to be the courses that prepared me to enter the education profession with more than just a bunch of random knowledge. Teaching practices, theories of education, Illinois Learning Standards, No Child Left Behind, Harry Wong, memoirs and research... these are the heart and soul of the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Of all the many, many books I was assigned to read during these two short years, very few of them were ever actually read by me. Of the articles, even fewer. I admit that I am, in many ways, a terrible student. The reality of the situation was that I often simply could not afford to buy the books that were required, and it took me almost a year to figure out that they were all available in the Education and So...

While Gretch was trying to work on her assignments for her various classes, I chose to sit at a nearby computer and see if I could figure out what was wrong with our blog's alignments and suches. Having failed at that (and quite thoroughly, I might add), I started bugging her to show me what was wrong. After gripping my face in a I-love-you-but-I'm-going-to-kill-you type of way, she had me go through the html, and then found the problem (something was set to 170px instead of being auto). Having made that change, the blog is all prettified. And Gretch hasn't had to resort to killing me. Now we (and when I say "we" I mean "she") just needs to tweak the blog posts so that they don't get covered by our pretty leaf design (it hangs over just a little teensy bit). So huzzah for Gretch!

Yes, some of you out there in the Internet are having problems reading our blog. I know. Gretch knows. You know. We all know! And now that we've got that established, we can all stop pestering my poor wife about it, right? Right. Awesome. You guys rock. Really, thanks for letting us know. But now that we do know, she's starting to get a bit frustrated that "everyone" is bugging her about it. Which is funny, because it really isn't everyone. In fact, I think it has only been two of you. But, then again, since our current readership is floating around 6, that means that, like, 33 1/3% of our readers have told us about this. Also, I think I showed her the comments, and then, when she was actually reading her email (something she does about once a week), she saw them again. So it was like seeing it four times instead of just twice. Anyway, she'll work on it as soon as she is done un-whelming herself of assignments and isn't working. Why don't I fix it, you...

My beloved wife has informed me, quite sternly, to stop using our blog for purposes other than its true intent. I admit that I am not quite certain what this means, but when I pressed for me details, I was given dirty looks from the woman I love. And since I really do want Gretch to be happy, I am attempting a "normal" blog post. It is my understanding that blogs are meant to be used to talk about what is going on in the blogger's life. Or, at least, that is what this blog is for. While I seriously question this, I will comply. My life is pretty boring, really. In case you don't believe me, here is a run-down on what I have accomplished today. After waking Gretch for the third time at about 7:00 am and getting her off to Parkland for her 8 am class, I spent the morning reading "Twilight" and listening to my not-awesome neighbours across the way screaming at each other for a very long time. I think the screaming started at 9:30 am, but it could have been goin...

So, like most good Americans, I have been keeping track of the financial news as of late. Unlike most good Americans, I am a consumate partaker of the news at all times. My day is not complete if I have not spent hours browsing through the Washington Post, Yahoo! News, and the BBC news wires. Either way, two names have been popping up in the news a lot lately, and neither one is a personal name for any one individual. These two names are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I never really thought much about them before. I knew of them only in the vaguest of terms. Recently I have come to realise that these two behemoths of the housing industry have essentially controlled mortgages and house values for the nation. (I exaggerate, I know, but surely you get the point.) What I did not know until just today is that these are actually acronymic names, along the lines of laser, radar, scuba, or, perhaps more appropriately, "nickel bee" (the name given by some for No Child Left Behind - NCLB)...

So, just a few moments ago I engaged in the following conversation on AIM. The identity of the sender will be changed to protect the not-so-innocent: Puzzled  (4:17:58 PM) : Do you synchronize your sneezes with others? Sir Xela  (4:18:41 PM) : pardon? Puzzled  (4:20:04 PM) : do i know u? . Sir Xela  (4:22:26 PM) : I do not know if I know you, so I do not know if you know me Sir Xela  (4:22:34 PM) : but my name is Alex and you just IM'd me PuzzledCoho  (4:23:21 PM) : u im'd me first, anyway, im busy at work right now Sir Xela  (4:24:35 PM) : you sent a message asking if I "synchronize" my "sneezes with others" There has been no response for five minutes. This happens to me all the time. Some random person sends me a message out of the blue, then insists that I sent the first message. I don't get it. It isn't a major peeve, but it is rather annoying. It's like when someone calls me, doesn't leave a message, and then gets upset when I cal...

It was inevitable. As Google continues to move toward a global hegemony of information technology, particularly on the Internet, they had to come up with a web browser. And so they have. Last week Google introduced the world to Google Chrome in it's Beta form. You can Google the product to learn more about it. I downloaded it, and have been using it for a week now. I like it. I think it is simple and easy to navigate. It has some pretty cool features, like giving you immediate access to your nine most visited sites when you open a new tab, along with a list of your most recent bookmarks, and other cool stuff like that. It is new, though, which means it doesn't have all of the cool gadgets and whatnots that Firefox or Internet Explorer have available. But the thing that has surprised me the most is that most of Google's own web-browsing tools don't work for it! I want the Google toolbar, so that I can immediately acces the number-one site listed on Google (that's wha...

I readily admit that I have spent the vast majority of my quarter-century on this planet thoroughly confused. I have been frequently overheard telling people that I really don't know what's going on - that I simply make it up as I go. And yet, for all that, I am finding myself in the peculiar position of being one of maybe a few dozen in the Lower 48 who had heard of Alaska's governor, Sarah Palin. The odd thing about it is that I did not learn about her from my friends who live in Alaska, or even from those who live near Alaska. I did not learn about her through researching oil exploration in ANWR. I don't recall seeing her name pop up at all in the news about Alaska's Senator, Ted Stevens, being caught up in yet another GOP scandal. I first learned about Gov. Palin when John McCain had secured the GOP nomination. As soon as Sen. McCain had hit the magic number of delegates, the news begin to churn out the list of names of potential running mates. As much as I am g...

My father-in-law has been complaining that we have not been updating this blog enough. While I surely have many things I can, and will, blog about, this morning I am going to actually respond to his own blog. Mostly because my response is lengthy. So you may wish to read his blog entry on authority in order to fully appreciate this post. However, if you don't want to do that, hopefully I'll be able to relate the most salient point to which I shall respond. My mother-in-law apparently claims her husband is a rebel. He disagrees with this claim, and paraphrases Proverbs 17:11, claiming that "only evil men seek rebellion." This is where I find I must protest. Proverbs 17:11 reads "An evil man seeketh only rebellion" - this is different from saying "only evil men seek rebellion." The implication in the latter is that rebellion is brought about only by evil, whereas the former says that evil seeks nothing but rebellion. The difference is key. To claim ...

I have a beef with the way people in our society use certain words. More specifically, I have a beef with people who choose to ignore that words have specific meanings. Now, my friend Ryan has frequently chastised me for bringing up this beef, saying that I need to recognise the dynamic life of language, and that, as a result, a word that meant one thing may evolve into meaning something different. I do recognise this, but my beef continues with some things. This beef is somewhat shocking, as I generally misuse words, and I frequently aim to contribute to the body of neologisms that exist in our language. In fact, I long for the day when a word's etymology is traced back to me, rather than some archaic German form from the 12th Century AD. Notwithstanding, I wish to make public my beef with the way one word, in particular, is used. The word is anniversary. As with many words in our language, it was brought to us from Latin, from the two roots "annus", meaning "yearly...

So... supposedly Gretch and I were taking turns with our blogging... and it was her turn ages and ages ago... and she hasn't posted... which means it is time for everyone to email, call, or send smoke signals to remind her that she needs to do her part! Which leads me to some of the disjointed thoughts of my Tuesday afternoon... There are lots of conventions in the world... spelling... speaking... comic books... uber-nerdy... and, of course, family, among many others. And when one is getting ready to get married, one is suddenly exposed to the harsh reality that other families are not like your own! *gasp* Even harder to accept are the facts that a) other families do things differently, 2) what you have always done and what your future spouse has always done may conflict, and d) randomly appropriating bits and pieces from movies rarely actually solves the conflict. But conflict is resolved as compromise is made. And it is still fun to think about and identify the idiosyncrasies I...

Gretchen told me one day that it was my turn to post on our blog. And then she went and posted again. So now she is claiming that I have to post again, even though she is the one who posted out of turn. *sigh* Well, I guess there are worse things in life... I'm sitting here in someone else's living room, listening to music from a baby monitor, and hoping not to hear any cries or screaming, as I currently have the sweetest babysitting gig ever. I get to come over, use the Internet, occasionally watch movies, and see one of my most favouritest young married couples in the world on a weekly basis. Of course, I don't charge to babysit, since they are going to end up doing a lot of babysitting for me in the future (I hope). Anywho, I've been a member of an online community for about seven or eight years. Many of my friends there are from other nations, and therefore they use non-American English. But even before the intensive exposure to them, I developed a love for non-Amer...

About a month ago, my friend Noah went to Nauvoo, Illinois, and, while there, purchased a pretty cool pewter letter opener for me. I has the three celestial stones of the Nauvoo Temple on the handle. Well, more precisely, the handle is a pewter replica of one of the facade pillars. So it has a sun stone, a star stone, and a moon stone. It is pretty cool. It also cost about eight bucks. Now, while I am more than willing to allow my friends to make purchases as gifts for me, most of the time, I will repay them. Particularly if they picked up a letter opener for me. (For those who are not aware of it, I collect said openers, and own about 115 of them.) It is a not-too-terribly-expensive hobby, but I don't want to be the kind of guy who just assumes everything is a gift. Anyway, the whole point is that I told Noah that I'd pay him back. Fast-forward to last week. I still had not paid the debt, and we were discussing it. We were also simultaneously discussing the desire to go out an...

On rare occasion I like to show off some of the work I've done in my classes to other people outside of the bubble I live, sleep, eat and breath in. Most of it I'm not completely satisfied with, I usually hate it because it aggravated me or I accidentally slept on it and find it in the morning ruined, and then of course I find myself hitting my head against the wall for being such a dope. Either that I'm too shy, or modest, to show off my smokin' skills or maybe I'm being smart and saving everyone from being exposed to my dry humor. For the most part I'm just not satisfied with it, but I can live with the flaws. And then there' s an even rarer occasion when I like to share art that I totally had fun doing and had a great experience doing it and although it looks a lot like crap and I know I'll never go back and finish it or tweak it, I'm still proud of it. And it's because I've conquered something that is somewhat difficult that I like to s...

Ok so this morning after our wonderful IHOP breakfast Alex and I finally finished our gift registry! Well, almost. We still need to take care of a few things online, but otherwise we're done. So let the fun begin! Everyone can now go to Target, Wal-mart or Bed Bath and Beyond and begin searching, or, in the case of my best friend, gape at our inability to match our silverware with our dishware. Little did she realize that the maroon dishware set that we picked at Target totally just made my jaw drop and make me drool, which is really hard to do since I'm not a big fan of nice, fancy, flowery dishes. But I saw these and fell in love And yes if you go look at our registry, it's very themed, you'll notice the colors maroon (or anything close to it), silver (and grey) and white (or off white in many cases), and then there are the frogs. Yes, I like the frogs, they are cute and make me giggle like a little school girl- no actually Alex and I have been looking at this set for...

So, Gretch and I have started our gift registries. We decided to start at Wal-Mart, for no other reason than we happened to be nearby Wal-Mart one day and we decided to head over and start the registry fun. We spent about an hour or so in the housewares department, and registered for 153 items. Then I had to go to work, so we had to call it quits for the day. Later, Gretch suggested we finish registering on Monday before FHE. So we went, and we registered for the rest of the housewares we wanted, and then we went into home furnishings and a few other random departments, such as hardware (for a plunger), and household cleaners (for a broom and a mop). We are now registered for a total of 350 items. Of course, a lot of these things are duplicates, just because we haven't actually decided on colour schemes and designs. Nor do we know which vacuum we'd actually like, so of course we've registered for six or seven. Next week we are going to start registering at Target, I think. ...

You have a dirty mind. These are peeps, edible sugary marshmallow goodness that are on show! Our FHE activity was not only a creative idea thought up by Tiffany Carter, but a scrumptious one too! Alex and I teamed together to make a wedding reception which Alex insisted that we make it a mormon reception hense the basketball hoop in the second picture. THE WEDDING WILD WEST BAPTISM THE EASTER BUNNY'S EGGS THE MARCHING ILLINI THE PEEP FAMILY TREE AMMON CUTTING OFF THE LAMANITES ARMS PINK V S PURPLE THE GALLOWS THE NOTEBOOK ALL TOGETHER NOW

Alas, it is true, I hate updating my blog. Actually the only blog I currently update now is for one of my graphic design class. Warning: I'm going to start ranting now about something that's stewed in my head for a while so bear with me. As a mandatory assignment we must find "award winning" photography, illustration, design etc. (hence the reason there is a blurry picture of a bulletin board I saw somewhere around town with a huge typo in the typography). I'm sorry, but there's no way I'm going to take the time and hunt down meaningless "award winning" art which may really be worth my time to look at, but because I'm bogged down with so many other assignments from the same teacher (which, btw I have for more than one class) who doesn't understand the fine line between work over load and slave driver. Ok, well he's really not that bad, once you've had him for more than four or five classes. Unfortunately, I've only had him f...