Well, kids, it's time to build the better mousetrap. My new ebjournal is up and running here I bid the spam, and the confusion, adieu.

What did I have to greet me at my classroom door today at about 7:15 this morning? Two teachers, who shall remain anonymous, borrowed two of the nice tricycles from the early childhood classrooms, and peddled their way for about 50 yards to my room. They then proceeded to ride around in circles and complain that they couldn't get up. Seriously, if you haven't had a chance to see adults on tricycles, you will laugh. Hard. Yes, I tried one. No, I didn't fit. However, one of the nameless teachers is small enough, and the tricycle was big enough (seemed like a bigger tricycle than whats in my schema) that she fit just about perfectly on it. Priceless, and a good pick-me-up for the day. I'm still laughing.

(This is not happy or overly funny--- you've been warned.)

There is a pair of socks that sits in my drawer. At work, I'm not a snappy dresser-- my fashion is dictated by what's comfortable and what I can sit on the floor with. So rarely do I wear real dress socks, or suit pants. Even at conferences I usually wear a tie, but don't wear dress socks (they make my feet smell). My dress socks sit either at the bottom of the laundry basket, or tucked away neatly in my garment bag from the last time I used them, or in the back of my socks drawer, lost and forgotten. On Sunday, I happened to fold them because the lovely and engaging Mrs. K had relegated me to sock purgatory. As I found two pairs of black socks, I realized that I had probably only worn these socks for two events last year-- weddings and funerals. I folded them up, and promptly put them where they belonged-- in the back of the sock drawer.

Monday afternoon, I get a call from the wifey. One of her great uncles had died, not one she was particularly close to, but all the same, family is family. As she told me about the details of the arrangements, my brain flashes back to what I'll have to wear. I thought immediately of the socks I just folded, and realized that in my mind forevermore, they will be known as funeral socks.

I wish these were happier times that we lived in, but here comes the mortality speech. We never know how our lives are going to be changed at any given moment. Does that mean we should live life to the fullest? We should not be timid, that I know for sure; I've learned that the hard way. The other condition is honesty. It's not worth hiding and being miserable. I've tried hard to be as honest as I can in the various facets of my life. If I had been more honest with myself, perhaps I wouldn't have been in certain situations.

The point is this: I want all of you to be honest with me. I've been lied to enough in the past year by enough people that it's making me lose my faith in humanity. I can feel the "be careful what you wish for" echoing in my head, but the paranoia sucks a lot more than the truth, trust me. I've lost friends that I don't want back, and I've lost friends that I would like back, but because people are afraid to confront themselves, (I'm guilty as well) they can't deal with other people. I've tried to be loyal to my friends, and if you think I haven't, you should talk to me about it. What does it say in this world when I can name the people I trust on less than two hands?

Funerals bring out funeral socks, and the age old questions of "What does it all mean?", and "What do I want out of life?"

I want to be able to trust again.

You've put on your regular socks, but today I've put on my funeral socks.

No phone No phone I just want to be alone today
No phone no phone
Ringing stinging
Jerking like a nervous bird
Rattling up against his cage
Calls to me thoughout the day
See the feathers fly
No phone No phone I just want to be alone today
No phone No phone
No phone no phone I just want to be alone today
Rhyming chiming got me working all the time
Gives me such a worried mind
Now I don't want to seem unkind
But god (it's such a crime)
No phone No phone I just want to be alone today
No phone no phone
No phone No phone I just want to be alone today
No phone no phone
Shaking quaking
Waking me when I'm asleep
Never lets me go too deep
Summons me with just one beep

The price we pay is steep
I've been on fire
And yet I've still stayed frozen
So deep in the night
My smooth contemplations will always be broken
My deepest concerns will stay buried and unspoken
No I don't have any change but here's a few subway tokens
No phone No phone I just want to be alone today
No phone No phone
No phone no phone I just want to be alone today
No phone no phone
No phone No phone I just want to be alone today
No phone No phone


Copyright Cake, 2004.

I need to figure out my firewall. I've been getting a lot of requests for permissions, and I'm not sure why I should allow. But, when I don't allow, even if I've read documentation that says I don't have to allow it, it's starting to screw with my DSL. I've got Zone Alarm (free edition) and may be looking for something else. Did finally clean up the system with Ad-Aware. Not too much on there. Help, support, ideas, anything, if possible. (Also, I'm secretly trolling for comments because I don't know who's reading this anymore.)

According to brain research, there are at least five good pathways to memory, or retaining things on a permanent basis. Some researchers have referred to these pathways as lanes.
The first lane is semantic memory-- it's for remembering words, facts, and lists. It's also the hardest one to retrieve and remember, because the information goes into working (short-term) memory.

Somehow, we have to bridge lanes to make semantic memory more powerful. Episodic memory is one way to do this. It's all about the real estate-- location, location, location. The episodic lane connects information to where and how you learned it, and some of our most powerful memories are episodic-- and sometimes putting yourself back in that location helps you remember things. (This is why we retrace our steps when we lose our keys!)

Procedural memory is the third lane. This is for muscle memory-- driving a car, riding a bike, making your free throws, writing your name.

Automatic memory is the fourth lane. This is the lane of conditioned responses (Shave and a haircut....)

Finally, we have emotional memory. These are the moments of our life that stick out in our heads easily-- for me, hearing about the Challenger explosion in '86.

There are two reasons I bring this up today. The first one is because this is the stuff I'm studying in a book club at school. By learning to incorporate these modalities of memory into the school day, or a particular unit of study, I should be able to have students recall information, processes, and skills better, while at the same time helping them create flexibility in our brain. The other reason I bring this up is purely part of my braggadocio:

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend a taping of a TV show. It's a fairly mundane show called "8 Simple Rules"--- it used to have John Ritter on it, but after he died, they added David Spade, and James Garner. I wish I could say that my laughs for the laugh track were entirely real. During the breaks of the taping, they have this audience host that keeps the crowd focused and into the show. One of the ways the host did this was through his portable MP3 player. He had a bunch (probably about 60 or so) of TV theme songs from the last 50 years. Two contestants came down to the front of the audience and took alternating turns to see who could identify the theme song. If you were correct, you stayed up front and got a point. (Sidebar: This audience had two high schools attending, which A) makes me understand why people actually laughed at the show, and B) made the competition terrible because they hadn't been born until 1986 or '87.) After a few rounds, no one seemed to be dominating the contest. People kept missing easy TV songs (Will and Grace) and harder ones (Beverly Hillbillies). So after a few rounds, even though I didn't *really* want to play against a bunch of high school kids, no one knew the Mr. Belvediere theme song. So, naturally, I get called on and tell them all. Oh yeah. Take that, sixteen year olds.
Now, I'm up there, and of course the host is all chatty, wanting to know about everyone's life, etc. Of course I mention the lovely and engaging Mrs. K(more on her later), and that I'm a teacher. This of course, prompts the host to wonder if I throw keggers in the classroom. Har, har, har. I'm cool and collected on the outside (according to MomCa) but on the inside I'm a little shaky. This isn't as easy as it looks. So now I have to defend my position, and I have one point. The person with the most points so far is five. My competitor gets "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and then there's the obligatory sing-along, led by yours truly. A sad, sad day, that is thankfully not on tape.
So now I'm up. Since this is getting to be a long-winded entry, I won't give you the blow by blow account. Here are some of the songs that I got correct before my inevitable loss:
Mr. Belvediere
The Simpsons (only needed the "ahhhhhhhhhhh")
Knight Rider (I was thinking of you, Kenny)
Gimme a Break. (I got that one early too, bless you, Nell Carter)
Hawaii Five-0
Super Chicken
Night Court
Friends
(and a few others that I can't remember now)

This is where the memory talk comes into play-- conditioned responses, and episodic memory. Before I could respond to each song, I had to remember where I had heard the theme song before--- was it when I was a kid, or adult? Did I like the show? About a billion things went through my head each time. I was really happy for the musical impression that these songs put in my brain, and the repetition I had to endure to be able to instantly recall them.

And then, I lost on the Rockford Files (which I had never seen nor heard, and James Garner was on, and he was there, and I got chastised by the host for not knowing). I totaled eleven points. I had a comfortable lead, and, in a stroke of genius, I told the host that my wife knew the answer, so V got to "come on down" She got three points, winning on Rockford Files, Murder She Wrote (another one I would have missed) and Full House, before losing to Blossom. Silly Mayim Bialik. By this time, taping was just about done. After all was said and done, I had won. My prize? An autographed cast picture of 8 Simple Rules, and an 8 Simple Rules T-shirt (large). Whee.

I sincerely hope that wasn't my fifteen minutes of fame. But, I don't think I'll ever forget it.

So I was out of school Friday, and had a substitute. I work hard to leave good sub notes so that we're not running out of things to do, or are bored with the work. (Since it was a full day, it ran about 4 pages, single spaced.) Though the notes from the sub were short, they included such eloquent phrases such as "They were good." However, my kids also staged a mini-revolution. I had been putting off changing class jobs, because there wasn't enough time last Wednesday or Thursday. So, while I was gone on Friday, the students decided that they should change jobs themselves. It sounds like they did just fine with it. I honestly don't know how to feel about this because, well, they probably shouldn't have done it while I was gone, but on the other hand, there's enough of a classroom community that they were able to handle it. So, while I'm secretly proud of them, I had to tell them not to do it in the future. So, faithful 2 1/2 readers, what does it sound like to you; power of the people, or sneaky kids?

YOU be the judge.

{sidenote : Upcoming: My Brain has way too much USELESS information, movie reviews (I saw three this weekend!) and the State of the Tony.}

Well, faithful readers, changes are still a-comin', because they didn't happen this weekend. I spent most of Saturday destroying my desktop by trying to overlay Win2K Pro on top of Win 98 Crap. Then I formatted the hard drive and did a clean install, after I had backed everything else up on my other hard drive.Then I spent most of Saturday night rebuilding everything else. Good news: I now have win2k installed and working. I also downloaded iTunes, which is less dangerous than it sounds. Bad news... I don't have a copy of Microsoft Office, well, that I have a key for. Eric did get me set up with admin rights, so if you're looking for the new site, it *should* be happening in the next few weeks. Not this weekend, because I'm going undercover. (Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more, say no more...) I almost have the lovely and engaging Mrs. K convinced that we need a new computer. Any efforts to put her over the edge would be much appreciated! :)

I wanna be one of the cool kids! This weekend I plan on refreshing, revising, revamping, and re-not-sucking this site and ebjournal. Yes, I know what you are thinking, faithful reader(s?), "Tony is a swell guy, but deadlines are not really his thing" While this is undeniably true, there are contributing factors to the possibility that I may actually mean it this time. 1. I have a mostly free Saturday. 2. I like computers. 3. Josh, Eric, and Kenny have updated theirs, so when in Rome, follow those guys. So, cross your fingers that I'm not crossing my fingers when I say "Changes are a-comin'..."

In intra- and inter-personal news, I miss Thursday nights.

As I was sledding my way home yesterday on I-290, I noticed an IDOT plow truck merging into traffic. I, being the considerate driver that I am, moved to the middle lane so that nice truck could work. As I passed the truck, it was cheerfully spewing salt from it's back-end. "OH NO!" is what you must be thinking "Salt plus car door plus water equals RUST!" Fear not, faithful readers, for I have a Saturn, and I am PLASTIC! The salt cheerfully pinged off my passenger doors and on to the road, where the salt was meant to be.Take THAT, Mr. IDOT!. And thank you for working so hard to make the roads a better place.

Commute home last night wasn't too bad. Commute in this morning was about twice as long as usual. No Snowday for me or the lovely and engaging Mrs. K.

So, it's snowing. Actually, after the worst inch of snow, it's taking a break. However, meteorologists around here are predicting an inch an hour between 3 and 9 pm tonight. Whee. Maybe I'll just camp out tonight. You know what snow means in my school district? SNOWPANTS. Yes, the soft swish-swish is a requirement for any students who want to play outside in our schools fields. There is a pro and many cons to this. The only redeeming quality of the SNOWPANTS requirement is that kids get to play in the snow at school. How cool is that? (They weren't allowed to do that at my last school.) Cons: The 25 minutes a day that is spent dealing with putting on SNOWPANTS, boots, gloves, scarves, hats... and then taking off said winter gear. Think that's not a big deal? A good sacrifice in the name of children's fun? I won't rant now on the time crunch that is teaching, but suffice to say, every year I've taught, I've had to teach more information with less time. What have we learned? Tony hates SNOWPANTS, and that it's snowing.

So ebjournalling didn't happen over break. I wanted to. But, like a fat man trying to be on a diet, I got lazy. Plus, there's so much going on I hardly know where to start. Anyway, I wanted my dwindling faithful readers to know that I am out there, and despite the Man trying to keep me down, I persevere.
Also, I need to find out how Eric, as the master of my domain (heh) is going to help me keep out the c*a*s*i*n*o* comments.
Stupid Blue Chip-- taking my money-- the only down spot to a great New Year's weekend.
Later, tators, but hopefully sooner!

Updates abound in future days, as winter break is right around the corner. Stupid every other month blogging.
Quick story-- I love past Tony. He remembered to put the dreidels where future Tony would find them. So we played dreidel yesterday in class while the latkes cooked. Hopefully my students appreciated learning about other cultures.

Refer thyself to www.tivo.com/4.0.asp to see the mad carving skills of our very own Kenny and his sweet TiVo pumpkin. And then, go buy a TiVo.

Here's something new that I just learned:

Our nation's capital is Washington D.C. However, it is actually

Washington, (note the comma) D.C.

Apparently, Washington is a city in the District of Columbia. To further confuse the issue, it is the ONLY city in the District of Columbia, because the city boundaries and the District boundaries are the exact same.

Now, do I bother telling this distinction to my students, or should I make them wait 18 years to figure it out?

Debate tonight.

TK's EBJournal Proudly presents:

Into the desolate wilderness of TK's thoughts.

Why does fall have two names why only the rest of the seasons have one?
Did it win a lottery, or because it sucks, need to make itself feel better by having a more regal name, i.e. Autumn?

What is that smell at the corner of Schmale and Rt. 64? It smells like season salt.

According to a seminar I went to on Friday, women speak an average of 7000 words a day, while men only speak an average of 2000. I think I make up for most monks that have taken a vow of silence.

Why do I give up on baseball the second football starts, and the Cubs are out? Red Sox-Yankees and Astros-Cards. I'm cheering for teams that where red, but if Idaho A & T plays Concordia (Minneapolis) I think I watch that. That's just twisted, my friends.

I need to decorate my classroom more. Teachers up here in the suburbs actually decorate for the holidays. I can't wait for the winter holidays!

(The previous comment comes from watching any channels that have people telling me to decorate anything... I hate that guy!)

I miss Champaign sometimes, but then I hear what's going on at my old school, and feel LOTS better about where I am.

Speaking of school, I have never seen so much food all the time. I finally get to a place where there's a real teacher's lounge, and all it has is FOOD all the time. To top it off, our principal has a chocolate basket for whenever we want to wander in and gorge ourselves. It's scary and will contribute to the eventual development of my diabetes.

I hate to admit it, but Jerry Seinfeld's new children's book on Halloween is pretty funny. I don't think kids would get it, though. (A sample: What is the deal with the gray rubber band on those Halloween Masks? Does anything break faster than those things?)

Speaking of new books, I bought the newest book by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith. If you liked "The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales", or "Math Curse" you will LOVE Science Verse




I miss you, and you, but YOU the most of all.


"When you sleep, where do you fingers go?"

That's enough to keep my brain occupied. G'night everybody.

All of my fan mail shall be answered now.

Dear T, Why haven't you been blogging? -- Sad and Confused--

Dear Sad,
Hi-dilly doodlelee! We've been gallivanting around the fine state of Illinois for football games, and weddings. It's now Oc-tick-tockly-toberly, and there's a *slight* possibility that things are slowing down. Those precious angels sure have been taking a lot of my time in the classroom, bless their hearts. So lift up your heart, for my ebjournaling is not done-diddlelee doodlelee, it was just on sabbatical, okilly dokellee?
Bless YOU,
~T Flanders~

Dear T, How was your weekend in Peoria? Fondly, Your Bookie

Dear Bookie,
Peoria was a love-rollercoaster (Bet you have the song in your head now). First, it was great to see TJ and KT get hitched. Second, it was crazy to see some people from high school. However, V was sick, so that was bad, and gambling was crazy. I was up and down more than a cheap woman the stock market. The short review: Friday: lost at $10 craps instantly. Saturday: Won at craps early to get all my money back. Saturday night, lost it again, not as fast, but as much. Sunday: won at craps, lost it all at blackjack (I could NOT win more than 1 in 10 hands) and then turned my last 10 dollars of money I would gamble into $110 by betting on the field at craps. It was definitely interesting.
Regards, T Gamblor

Dear T, How is everything else? Curiously, Nosy Nellie

Dear Nosy,
Things are alright. School is hard, but the kids are worth it. The apartment is nice, but I don't see it as much as I would like to. My parents are adjusting to the new kids, but five kids are a lot harder than three. We've been watching the debates, and Lost I feel alone on a desert island for both of them. Also, our HP Pavillion desktop is dead, only in the sense that we can't get it out of hibernation mode, and 75 minutes of discussion (and $70) with an HP Tech didn't solve that problem. So, I'm back on the old-reliable Dell. Not only is it more stable than the HP, but it doesn't give me dirty looks, either. The people at school are slowly getting used to me. My kids have decided I'm crazy, which is exactly where I want them. We've been working on refraction and optical illusions. Next week, we're working on the election, and the government. It's very hard to be non-biased with politics, but I persevere. I think we're also going to look at studying the brain, because the kids seemed really interested in it, and I just attended a seminar on brain-based research. Finally, random thoughts are coming soon, so BOLO!
Regards, ~T Teacher/Busy Guy

That's all folks... tomorrow, random thoughts.

So, as my rage subsides, and the bloodmist fades from my eyes, things are looking up for me and blogging. I'm BACK! (Well, I DO like to ebjournaling). Here's the quick update:

A) See Kenny's newest blog about the update for my Uhaul story. It's too painful to re-live. However, thanks to Everyone who helped, including, but not limited to Jerry (doesn't read this), Rich (better read this),Cindy, Eric, Kenny, Frank and Kelly, Josh, Andrea and Sarah, the Prempas clan (sans Joy), my sis Jess, the Garceau clan (two props to Jerry for bringing the trailer, even though he really doesn't read this, AND, he's in Ethiopia at the moment. No, I am not making that up.), Marc and Beth, and Leah and Vic, (even though they didn't move anything. :))

B)I haven't stopped moving things or unpacking things, or unpacked my Dopp Kit** completely yet. This is for the following reasons:

1) Moving takes a long time. Even once you get some things moved to the new place, it takes awhile to put things away.

2)I haven't been home enough. Quick breakdown of days p.m. (Post-move): Saturday, moved. Sunday, food, bed bath and beyond, IKEA (which I don't really like, either, Kenny), and Sushi. I love sushi, but hate paying for it. Monday, unpacked more, Leah re-arrived. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday were spent with the Prempas clan in Utica, IL, for some pseudo-camping. We taught them hold 'em, and they rewarded us with treasures from the junk-food cooler. Thursday night, unpacked and hung some more stuff. Friday, went to school for the morning,met Rich for lunch @Hooters had came back and unpacked, and then went golfing with Rich. I didn't do as well as when I went with the father and brother-in-laws, but I *think* I'm getting better. (/ducks as the golf gods swing at me with a 3-iron)Kenny and Eric showed up sometime after the witching hour Friday night, and then we went to the DMB concert @Alpine Valley. The drive always sucks, but the concert was surprisingly good. (There will be a side ebjoural on the concert soon.)

3) Also on Friday, my parents left for Ethiopia, to adopt two more kids. If I could spell, I would tell you their names. I think it's Ababba (girl, 6), and Alemayehu (boy, 8). So, now I'm in Warrenville, watching the kids until next Monday, when Nick and Jessica get them back after having them this weekend.

4) I'm working on my classroom, which has neither air-conditioning nor construction paper at this point.

So, we're running around a lot, but it's good to be in the burbs, and the school year is rapidly approaching. More ebjournaling to come soon, but for now, I leave you with this:

Tik and Nick are now reading this blog. It's scary that my influence is slowly spreading. "All for now."





** Dopp kits are also known as shaving kits. Contrary to popular belief, Dopp doesn't stand for anything :) **

Dear U-haul Corporation, and Amerco,
Why, why, why must you continue to extort the general populace and turn from nice gentle folk, to people who can feel their blood pressure raise above the Mendoza line? I reserved a truck from your company on June 28th, 2004, and quickly applauded myself for having such great forethought. I mean, a month ahead of time? No problem. Yet, here I wait for the phone call that will tell me when I might be able to pick up my truck. Most assuredly, since I was supposed to pick it up TODAY, Friday JULY 30th, you can bet I am beginning to develop frustration and cynicism towards your company. Repeated attempts to call the regional office have resulted in the following company motto: "We don't know anything yet, we're working on it, we will call you when we have a truck available." At this late hour, they have cleverly added the tagline "There may be a delay in getting your truck to you until tomorrow."
Now, if this were just affecting me, I wouldn't having any problems. However, I am married, so it affects my wife. And, hmm, well, it affects all my friends and family who have taken a summer Saturday to help move our personal belongings. And, oh yeah, my lease is up Tomorrow, and the ELECTRICITY IS GOING OFF IN TWELVE HOURS. Hard to clean the old place when the lights are off and the vacuum doesn't work. So, in your corporate greed, you have affected not only myself, but those around me. Your overbooking procedures are atrocious. I don't know what will be accomplished from this letter, more than to tell you I will NEVER use your business again, and I will make every effort to make sure none of my aforementioned friends (in their mid-twenties, move a lot) and family use your services again. While it won't even appear on your gluttonous raider of booking and lying to other families who will face this similar situation, I take solace in the fact that I will not continue to contribute to your unsound business practices.
There is a solution. Integrate your national, regional, and local systems, so that booking does not become so undependable. If regional takes a spot, then your online and national booking agents should honor and respect that. You may have to look up words like honor and respect, but trust me, they're GOOD for business. A costly solution? Perhaps. However, word of mouth is the most powerful type of advertising, and the coroporation seems to be losing it's luster quickly. I hope someday to hear that U-Haul changes it's policies on overbooking, but until then, I remain disappointed and apathetic to excuses provided by your employees.

Sincerely,
bonemuse

Some of my faithful nine readers have been asking me why I'm not blogging. Truth is, I haven't really felt like it lately. Hopefully, I'll be able to snap out of it, but for now, I'm keeping my thoughts to myself. In the void, beth has jumped in to keep the blog torch aflame.

In the good news dept., we both have jobs, have a new address, and are now debating between a satellite dish and cable. Thoughts, concerns?

Later, taters.