Waiting....

I hate to wait. I am one of those people who cannot sit still. I incessantly tap or "roll" my fingers. If I have to sit for too long, my legs begin to bounce. When I go to the movies my wife has to put her hand on my knee to get me to stop. Apparently I shake the whole row. At school I have to bounce a bouncy ball as I walk around to keep my nerves in check.

It is like my mind is constantly pacing, back and forth, back and forth. It tends to agitate others nerves, when I am trying to calm mine. I think I just have too much on my mind. Just over fed I guess.

Home Town PD

Check it out. My buddies have directed me to my home town police departments "site-o-criminals". Hopfully I will never grace this page. Good thing I have matured a little, if this were happening 6 years ago I was probably walking a thin line with OPD web-exposure.

Take a look for yourself: OPD

Thanks to Brad over at Turf's Eye View

I stole this from BST...

Which Peanuts character are you?

Is this worse than being carded?

At school today a photographer was taking photo's of students (like Science Club, Spanish Club, ETC.) The Science club was all lined up with the officers in the front. I was standing at the side. The picture dude asked me, "What are you?" I said tea-cher. Apparently he was confused. The kids got a kick out of it. Then I told them it didn't bother me because I was almost 30. "You're almost 30!"

This quickly reversed the pride I had recieved from the mix up in the first place. Although, I do remember thinking 30 was old when I was their age. Actually, I still think that.

Short post...

I'm only 5'4".

Insomnia

Having trouble sleeping? A recent study has linked stress to lack of deep sleep. This isn't the first time that a study has determined this. Here are some conclusions based on this particular one:

"The researchers detected significant heart rate variations between the stressed and non-stressed students as they slept. The stressed group had changes in heart rate patterns during REM, or rapid-eye-movement, sleep -- the sleep phase when dreaming occurs -- and non-REM sleep.

The heart rate variability patterns detected in the stressed students were similar to those seen in people with insomnia. The study says, suggesting similar pathways of nervous system disruption."

This may be my problem. Although I am pretty easy going, I have a lot on my mind most times. I would even say I am stressed about being stressed about not sleeping.

Stress Seems to Block Deep Sleep

Strange but true...

My cat ate through my mouse cord. Do you think she thought it was it's tail? This of course left my mouse inoperable. The cat's mission was accomplished, although she didn't eat it like she usually does. This cat will eat plastic wrappers, foil, string, bread-ties, etc., etc. One time she had a turd nunchuck hanging out of her ass. The turds were connected by the string she had eaten the day before. She ran around the house like something was chasing her.

YES, we do feed her.

That is now the 3rd sem-important cord she has eaten through. One phone cord, one PSone controller, and now the mouse. She has yet to chomp into a power cord. That might solve the problem.

But for now, Cat - 3, Owner - 0

Unsafe @ any speed!

In this case it might be in reverse. As probably a million blogs have noted, Ralph Nader is running for president. This disturbs most. I on the other hand do not mind. I like a lot of what Nader has to say. Especially the bit about our 2 party system. I think that it's great that the Democrats are spooked about loosing votes to him in November. Maybe it will make them step up their game a bit. The republicans do not seem fazed, but they too could loose some votes from their more liberal members. The more the merrier I think. As long as they are reputable.

A boy's rite of passage.....

Some how at the end of one of my classes, some of the kids started talking about "old times". For them this means, the mid 90'. I was in college! But the cool thing was what they were remembering...

A wood fort that they had built. If you are a guy you will all remember the old wood fort or tree house. The one you built without parental supervision. The one in the "woods" somewhere. Could have been still in city limits but it seemed like it was another country all together.

What did we all have hidden in those forts? That's right, dirty magazines. And what did we all do at those forts, that's right, we burned stuff. Two things all boys loved, porn and fire. Two things we all still love.

We had quite a laugh sharing stories of our youth's. They talked about the kid they got to do "everything". The one they picked on. I talked about the time a friend and I started a fire and it smoked up the whole neighborhood.....for hours!

Strange thing those rites of passage. Timeless I guess.

PDGA World Pro/Am's

In DES MOINES IOWA! I am so stoked. For anyone who is into disc golf:

Two/Turds

2/3's of all conversation is gossip. That's a lot of gossiping. Does this hold true for the blogging world then? 2/3's of the all blogging material is based on gossip? Not directly, but probably true in the sense that most blogs are either talking about other people, or other blogs.

Does that make the "Blogging Society", one big sewing circle?

Brain Drain

Ever have so much on your brain that you cannot focus on just one subject? It's almost as if you have adult ADD. You're mind jumps from topic to topic, never settleing on anything in particular.

My brain has been doing just that the past few days. Maybe I damaged something when I pulled those two hairs out of my ears last week.

Parent/Teacher Conferences....

Remember them? Are you going to them now as a parent? That's what is keeping me busy this week. Two long nights of meeting with the parents of my homeroom kids. We have student lead conferences at my school. This means the kids come with their parents and talk about how they are doing. Plus, they recieve their report cards at that time. This eliminates any "lost" or altered grades. It is pretty wild to see the looks on the parents faces when they open up the grades. It is kind of strange, like you are sitting in on something that you shouldn't. In many cases, the kids think nothing of it, probably because they already discuss things with their parents at home. In other cases, this may be one of the only times during the year that they talk to anyone about their work or grades. The term 'family' is something very different than it used to be.



Maybe I should explain my previous post. The mother of one of my best friends from high school, elementary on up actually, just past away. It was very sudden, a heart attack. Nothing that was expected, or even worried about. She wasn't what I would call old, but it did make me wonder if we were getting to the age when our parents start to pass away. I don't think we are there yet, thankfully.

Live life to the fullest.

You never know when your time is up.

Make the best use of your time. (that one really sounds like a teacher comment)

If it means Neil Young over Blues Traveller, so be it. If it is the other way around, go for it.

Here's one from my dad, "Do it while you're young, before you can't do it at all"

If you want to drink beer all day, (like many of us used to) then do it.

If you want to raise wonderful kids and have a beautiful wife then do it.

Utililze the your time efficiently.

Plink!

That's the sound I heard this morning when I pulled out an ear hair. An ear hair! Maybe I should explain.

I am turning 30 in a few months. I have been dreading it since I was 26. Since that point I have been slowly changing. If you're a guy you know what I am talking about. Your metabolism slows down(fatness), you get thinner on top (I am not too thin up there, but I am growing the "horns", from the sides of my forehead back), and uncontrolled growth of hair in places your wife would rather not see it (neck, back, ears, etc.).

So, this morning I notice one of those ear hairs. Not peach fuzz, but one of those wiry, grey, almost see through old person hairs. I had to tweeze it out, and I swear it made that sound, "PLINK!". Like you were plucking a guitar string. I decided to look into the other ear to check it out. Damn, another one! "PLINK!"

Maybe I should have said, notice anything missing.......

Due to my old problem of no pict's, I had inquired as to when blogger was going to offer their blogspot plus again. When they replied they said they were still working on it, but they gave me an upgrade anyways. Hence: no more ads, and the ability to store images right on the blog. Of course this happened right after Hawsie came to the rescue and found Photobucket.

Call it what you will. But I think it's pretty damn cool.

Now I just need to get some quality material posted so I can attract some more readers. I admit, I have been failing as of late. I am coming out of my funk though. Thanks to the help of my friends...one of which I will call, Bud Weiser.

Notice anything different about the site.......

Stupid weather........

It started snowing today instantly. It went from completely no snow to crazy flurries in the blink of an eye. Weirdest thing I have seen in a while.

Looks like another snow day may be in my future. You remember those don't you. As kids you would be hoping and hoping if you knew it was coming. Or you could be completly surprised if you woke up and your parents told you that you could go back to sleep because school was late or better yet cancled.

That's the beauty of being a teacher, now I can have those very same days as an "adult." The sucky part is that it makes my job last "longer" into the summer. That means sweating it out in school, when I would rather be out playing golf or riding my bike.

We don't need anymore snow anyways. It is already 4ft. tall at the end of my drive.

Oh well. I will be thinking of you all when I am sleeping in tomorrow.......

Let me get this straight, one boy, brown hair, blue eys, hold the freckles.

The other day there was an article in the paper about parents choosing the sex of their children. It was in the opinion page, yet the writer did a poor job of backing her position. She was against it, as most people are. Little do most know, it has been happening for a while now. It has been happening in other countries for many years. Take China for instance, they had been aborting babies if they were female. I think it was only if they were the first born, but I could be mistaken. Either way, it is a terrible thought. Here in the U.S. we have been spinning sperm, to separate the X's from the Y's with some success for a while now. This wasn't 100%, but the odds were pretty good, especially if you were wanting a female I believe.

Now there are genetic means at arriving at the sex of your choice. This up's the odds and it is not only safe, but also reliable. The question that the writer expressed was one of fear of what was to come. What will be next, eye color? hair color? height? The opportunities are endless. Notice I did say opportunities...I am in favor of genetic 'tampering' if you will.

Yes, the gift of a child is special, and one should love all children no matter what they look like. But, if the technology is sound, why not have the child you have been dreaming of? If you have an abnormally large nose, and don't want your kids to inherit it, why not be able to "make sure" it doesn't happen. Think of genetic traits for heart disease or alcoholism, without restrictions on genetic work, these things may also be changed. Wouldn't you like to know you could eliminate some of the potential health or social problems your children may face?

I realize it is more than just "flipping-a-switch", but the technology is advancing so fast, it will one day be almost just that. Turn the right gene on, turn the "unwanted" one off.

Another fear that the author had was if the parents had "chosen" the sex that they wanted, and they ended up with a child of the other sex, would they abort the pregnancy. I too would hate to see that. I suppose it could be a possibility. But, just like everything else in this country, restrictions could be put into place to stop that practice. Besides, the odds are getting so good now, this would hardly ever happen.

So let me know what you think. I know I will be receiving a lot of flack for this one, but that's what makes it interesting to me. I love to paly devil's advocate and test your convictions.

Don't ask..............

It seems I have solved a few of my "problems." Thanks in part to Hawspipe for the link to Photobucket.com.

I am not really sure why the last post even appeared.......but, it looks like it is getting rave reviews! So, I will leave it, maybe someone else will find it just as "Exciting!"

There is a new 'OFM blog of the week:' Make sure you check the marquee above and make a visit.


I guess that's it for now. Check back a little later for a new post on "Choosing the sex of your child."