Work work work.

Sorry folks,
I've been biblio-graphing most of the night, and my eyes are getting very heavy. I'd love to be witty and funny, but honestly, I just want to curl up and go to sleep.

So to help you pass the time, here's a fun little video clip. It's the official music video for the song "Stuttering" by Ben's Brother (yes, that's the name of the band, not a reference to someone I know). They had really quite an ingenious idea: they had their fans send in webcam footage of them making asses of themselves to the song, then spliced it all together to make the official video. Most of you will recognize this song as "that Dentyne Ice" song. But hey, I like it....

Sitting.

I took the bus to and from the ballgame yesterday. In the last leg of my journey home, I was seated near an older Asian grandmother lady with two young boys. I'm talking like six and nine or so. Young kids. One was playing some old school handheld video game - like the ones I had when I was a kid, with two buttons and maaaaybe a directional control thing too. The younger of the two was playing games on the grandma's cell phone. All was well and good until the grandmother needed to see the phone for some reason or another. At that point, the little kid started freaking out and grabbing at the brother's game.

This incident got me thinking: kids today never just sit, unless it's a punishment and they get sent to time out. I was taught from a very young age to sit and behave myself. Granted, looking like you're in your twenties at the tender age of twelve doesn't help, but long before that, I just had to sit. I had old country Swedish grandparents who took no guff, so we had to sit quietly and at least attempt to follow along with what was going on. We didn't get hand-held games. We didn't have a TV in any room that we could run and watch while the grown-ups talked. Once in a blue moon I'd get to bring some comic books along, but that was a rarity too. So we did one thing: sit. We'd sit for hours at times. Conversation around my sister and I wasn't always even in English, but we'd sit quietly and try to piece together what was going on. Yes, there was some time for fun or goofiness, but there was also a hell of a lot of sitting. Don't even get me started on car trips. Let's just say I got my first walkman when I was like eleven, and have LOVED music ever since. But before then, I just had the comfort of a humming engine to keep me company in the car. We didn't have in-dash DVD players, there were no captain chairs that swiveled to gather around a table, and there sure as hell were no video game consoles.

If you look at the average day for most kids outside of a classroom, there is either a cell phone going off or a TV or computer or ipod or video game or something going at all times to keep these little shits stimulated. Every moment there is some sort of crazy noise in the background, or some video thing that kids can go into a trance watching. Yes, I do it when I'm out at the bar and there's a TV too, but I grew up without a lot of that. Still, all of this thinking brought my mind back to teaching; this whole tech culture and world of distraction has led to this fact -- teachers these days are fucked. How the hell can you be expected to keep kids in one seat, focused on one subject for an hour at a time? I know it's the role of the teacher to mix things up here and there, but even still, there are points where you have to lecture, and how the hell are you expected to do that if everyone's looking for like an interactive menu or some sort of multimedia entertainment in the middle of it?

The irony of it all is that half of these kids are the ones who end up going to coffee shops and all that later on in life. What is it they do at these coffee shops? That's right: sit. It's all a vicious cycle. Just look at me. I'm sure there is some young up-and-coming kid out there in my cafe right now talking shit about me on the internet because I read with headphones on when I'm in public, and it doesn't make sense because I can do that for free at home. Well fuck you, imaginary kid; I come to the cafe for coffee and an escape from the distractions that are in my personal Bagg's End.

On a loosely tied in note, I have again discovered the wonders of putting your whole iTunes collection on random and seeing what the hell comes up. I recommend you try it. Wait and see what turns up....

A weekend's worth.

Okay, don't blame me. I haven't been home hardly at all this weekend. Before I get started, I want to say thanks to the folks that came out to see me play on Saturday, I was pretty overwhelmed with the response. I also wanted to say that I don't really care for hippies. But most of you already knew that. That statement only has a little bit to do with the ridiculous picture at right. You'll get the rest if you keep reading.

Now, let me back-track to Friday. One of the great advantages of being connected to high school teachers is the opportunity to go to the prom well after you've left high school yourself. This Friday was one of those instances, as I got to go to the Mercy High prom. It was great, I had a wonderful time, but it did lead to discussion which was hatched between Courtney and Brian: what is the deal with high school girls and prom? Why do the spend all this money on hair, nails, dresses, shoes, and all the other accoutrements that go along with prom if everything is over in four hours? Here is my theory: this is the one day for girls, other than their wedding, to dress up and basically be a princess for a night. I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's like the dry run for a wedding celebration, but it isn't far off. You've guy the guy, usually in rented pants. You have your closest friends in attendance. There is dancing. There's a shitty DJ who "wants to get the party started." There's a sliding scale of drinking and promiscuity. There are more pictures, professional or otherwise, than people would take the other three hundred sixty four days of the year combined. Whether they realize it or not, prom is like a wedding without the nuptials and with chaperones.

On a quick side note which I mention because I saw this after prom on my way to the bar, but Black Oak Books is closed. You know the one -- the used book store that used to be across from the other used book store (Chelsea Books). Now it's more like the shoe store across from the vacant storefront that used to be a book store. I am a little sad.

Other than prom and the show Saturday, I have just been running around playing tour guide to various folks who have come to visit SF this weekend, in addition to some mandatory bar time on Thursday through Saturday nights. I'm sunburned to all hell, and I am slipping slightly behind in school work, so I'm going to call it a night. I can guarantee you that I have good post in the works for tomorrow. I even have a note about it here next to my computer to be sure that I remember.

So I'll leave you with the question that will explain the ridiculous picture I have at the top of this page: have you hugged your peace pole lately?

Sorry.

It's grown a bit late tonight, and I've been on a roll today in helping damn near everyone who has come to me for advice or assistance, so I'm not going to push my luck. Rather, I'm going to bed. I can all but guarantee a good blog tomorrow...

Random smattering.

Arright, it's three a.m. and I have been staring at this blank screen for like fifteen minutes now. Here are a few random things that have crossed my mind recently:

- They're allegedly making a film adaptation of On the Road. I don't quite know how I feel about that.

- Had anyone else out there heard of the term "Opera Queen" before tonight? Neither had I. Apparently it's a label reserved for homosexual men who obsess over opera and particularly, opera divas. Who knew?

- Cyber stalking. I'm curious about this. What is the line between stalking and taking an interest in information available to you? I've heard a few people talk recently about obsessive exes who would keep ridiculously close tabs on people via the Internet and social networking sites. Is this really such a commonplace thing? If so, why don't more people do it to me? Or are they...... (dum dum dummmmmmm)

- I kind of miss teaching. Well, not the grading or the long hours or the lesson planning. Does that mean that I just miss high school in general?

- Does anyone outside of the world of the literati read short stories anymore? We had this discussion in class today about the fact that it's near impossible to get published anywhere as a short story writer unless you put out an earth-shatteringly good collection. How about you non-book nerds? Is the short story a dying art?

- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a highly underrated movie. Yes it was critically loved by all, but it's dropped out of our public consciousness already. I say go watch it again.

- I miss having time to read. School or otherwise.

A quick giggle.

Sorry folks, I don't have a lot to offer tonight. I didn't even make it out to the coffee shop. So I guess I'll turn in for the night with the frightening realization....

What a difference.

I know this can turn into a chicken-or-the-egg kind of argument if I'm not careful, but I've noticed recently that what you wear around the house makes all the difference in the world.
Having said this, let me qualify my statement: I am not a lounging person. I don't spend hardly any time in my bed if I'm not sleeping or trying to sleep, and I tend to be a happier and more well-adjusted person when I'm wearing shoes instead of slippers.

Okay, now that I've given a little background, let me move forward. I find that I feel renewed and invigorated when I wear clothes at home, even if I know I'll be changing before I leave. I just can't hang with the idea of wearing sweats or pajama pants around with a wife beater on if I'm not going out anywhere. I feel lazy, I feel like a slob, and I tend to get a hell of a lot less done. So why is this? Why is there such a marked difference in ideologies between clothes people and loungewear people? My main thought is temperature: if you wear pants and shoes with socks and a real shirt all the time, you don't get half as cold as you would with bare feet or some lightweight shirt on. When you aren't always freezing, you don't feel the desire to cozy up in your bed longer than you need to. You also don't burn as much of your energy getting to a comfortable body temperature.

I'm not saying I'm against loungewear. I have actually grown to like a lot of it, but I feel like if I'm really going to get something done, I need to be dressed. I'm one of those crazy folks who wakes up and gets dressed, and doesn't change clothes when they get home. (Notice I didn't say home from work because, well, you know...) In my teaching days I might change, but I'd change into a t-shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes, just so I wasn't wearing my dress pants or a button-down shirt, but I was still attired in a way that I could walk out the front door at the drop of a hat and not break any of the cardinal fashion rules that I laid out way back in one of my first blogs.

Clothes people, show some love and let me know that I'm not alone. Loungewear people, let me know what I'm missing. My guess it's an inherited thing: my parents have always been clothing people (thank heavens), and many of the loungwear people I know have parents who are loungwear enthusiasts. What do you think?