Dylan had his first haircut tonight at just one week shy of 15 months. I was very sad to see his little curls go, but he was starting to get shaggy, and his hair was hanging into his eyes. I saved the curls in an envelope.
Now tell me… he truly does look like the Little Man now, doesn’t he? I mean, except for the paci. Pay no attention to the paci.
Browsing MT Plugins today, and it’s like being in a candy store. When I have time to fool with thinking about it, I plan to get some.
I also downloaded Eudora today. Back when I had a computer running Windows 3.1, I used Eudora for mail. Then I switched to Outlook Express — probably when I got Windows 95, but I can’t remember. For about the past four years, I have only had web-based mail accounts. Now that I have a new mail account that comes with my DSL service, I plan to use it. I was using Outlook Express again, but encountered a problem every time my mom sent me an attachment. I got the same error message every time: OE has removed access to this unsafe attachment (or something like that). I think it was an OE problem. Of course, since MicroSoft makes it, all the geeks online hate it, so I decided to check out Eudora and see if I like it.
Since so many people have asked about it, I have decided to share the link to the school where I will be teaching. I have said some negative things about my former schools in the past, but I don’t plan to write anything in here anymore that I’m not very comfortable with anyone I know reading. I’m through going there.
The Weber School is a fairly new private Jewish school in Dunwoody, which is just down the road from Roswell. In addition, I have created a school blog which was already linked from PlanetHuff.com, but not from this blog. There’s nothing much there right now, but I plan to post assignments. I don’t know that you all would be interested in that, and I do ask that if you are, please don’t join the members. It’s only for my students and parents, and I’ll just remove you anyway, so you’d be wasting your time. It’s got a template I didn’t create, and it’s pretty plain, but it serves its purpose.
I have finally completed Time and Chance by Sharon Kay Penman. I have read other books written by her before: The Sunne in Splendour (unfinished) and Here Be Dragons. She writes about medieval Wales and England — right up my alley. Time and Chance is about the feud between Henry II and Thomas Becket, with a secondary plotline about Henry’s struggles with the Welsh during that time. The Sunne in Splendour is about Richard III and the Wars of the Roses. Here Be Dragons is about the great Welsh leader Llewelyn the Great and King John. I give you this information so you have a frame of reference.
So what did I think? Not as good as Here Be Dragons. Eleanor of Aquitaine is one of my favorite historical figures. She married Louis VII (King of France), a union which ended in annullment, and then married Henry II (eleven years her junior). She was the mother of King Richard the Lionheart and King John. She was an imposing figure in any time period, but considering she lived during the Middle Ages, she’s incredible. She persuaded Louis to take her with him on Crusade. She incited her sons into rebellion with their father, Henry II (for which he imprisoned her for 15 years). She was a shrewd strategist. Had her husbands listened to her advice more often, things might have gone better for them. She is said to have been a great beauty in addition to being very intelligent. She was a patron to the troubadours and encouraged the flowering of medieval literature at that time. In fact, her grandfather was the first so-called “troubadour,” (and the most well-known of them all, I believe) and her son Richard was known not only for being a king and Crusader, but also for being a fine musician and composer himself.
Before I digressed about Eleanor I was talking about Time and Chance. Eleanor, as wife of Henry II, was a major character in the book. I liked her in the book. I got mad right along with her over Rosamund Clifford. In fact, her anger over Rosamund is something I’ve written about before, too. Eleanor was not one to stand idly by as her husband openly kept a concubine in one of their castles. In the book, she discovered his infidelity shortly before John was born. I am not sure if that was historically accurate or not. When she confronted the little slut, I wanted her slap her really bad, but she didn’t. Ah well, too much dignity for that, I suppose. The marriage between Henry and Eleanor had been good, at least in the fiction, up until then. But that was the beginning of the end for Eleanor. It was interesting to watch as her love for Henry grew colder until it began to disappear. You could see her encouraging her sons in open rebellion against their father within a few years of the time when the book ended, which was right after Becket’s murder.
I know that Penman does her research. I have actually relied on her research in writing my own book, because we have written about the same time period. Specifically, she was able to discover that in the Middle Ages, a town in Wales now known as Builth was spelled “Buellt.” Since that town figured in my own story, I was able to make the correction. I have no doubt that many if not most of the events in the book happened precisely as she described. But that’s the trouble. Most of the events are not really “described” so much as “told.” One bit of advice for any writer is to “show, don’t tell.” If you can get your reader to see the scene rather than hear about it from the mouth of the narrator of the characters, that’s better and more interesting writing. Too many times, Penman had characters sum up events during a conversation. I think this is because she bit off more than she could chew. The book was already more than 500 pages long, even with characters summing up some of the plot through conversations. There were a lot of characters to keep up with. It’s my fault I was confused, as she provided a list of them I should have turned to more frequently, along with a map I should have consulted more often.
Penman shifted viewpoints fairly frequently during the story. I think this was so she was able to include more information. Obviously, if you have more perspectives, you can include some incidents that other characters did not witness or know of. But I found myself simply wishing she’d pared it down and kept it simple. She does tell her stories from multiple views, which is something I should have known about her, though (having read her previously and all).
She has the extremely annoying habit of using comma splices in her writing. It drives me bonkers to read, though I am sure she does it as a stylistic device and not out of lack of knowledge. She mainly does it during dialogue. Every time I see it, it pops out at me and overshadows what she’s saying. She has done this in the other things I’ve read by her, as well, and it’s something I knew before I picked up her book.
The book was not riveting. I finished it. I think it could have been better in many ways. The scene with Becket’s murder was particularly well done, and I have to commend her for that. I have been reading some pretty good books lately — the kind that you want to spend more time with and don’t necessarily want to put down. I didn’t mind putting this one down, and sometimes it was hard to get back into. I think given the subject matter, this book could have been great had it’s scope been narrowed a bit. It’s a bit too unwieldy, I think, for most people. I don’t think I’d recommend it to anyone who wasn’t really interested in the time period or the historical figures involved.
Here are some links if you are interested in learning more about the Murder in the Cathedral and other events in the book:
Wikipedia’s article on Eleanor of Aquitaine
The Murder of Thomas Becket at Eyewitness to History
Becket, the Church, and Henry II (BBC History)
The Character and Legacy of Henry II (BBC History)
Fair Rosamund by John William Waterhouse
On a semi-related note, I must sadly report, for those of you who may not be aware, the demise of ArtMagick, which was truly the best web site showcasing pre-Raphaelite artwork (among other forms). It will be missed.
Yesterday, I had a meeting with my new principal. We discussed the curriculum a little bit — she gave me some handouts the teacher I am replacing made detailing the curriculum in a syllabus-style format. I got my teaching assignments. I will be teaching 10th grade Honors American Lit., 10th grade College Prep. American Lit., 9th grade College Prep. Lit., Comp., and Grammar, 9th grade College Prep 2 Lit., Comp., and Grammar (a college prep. course for lower level students), and a study skills course. Before I go any further, from now on, College Prep. will be abbreviated CP. My fellow teacher readers might be freaking at the number of preps I have. Don’t worry. I am essential teaching only 2 preps with some differentiation for ability. The study skills course is something I have lots of ideas for already, too. I have taught similar courses before. My ex-husband referred to me once as “the anal-retentive student.” He’s not far off the mark. My notebook was always impeccable, and I made grade sheets for any classes that didn’t give me one so I could keep track of my average at all times. I plan to mold my students in that study skills class into little anal-retentives, too.
I will also be responsible for monitoring the CP 2 students — checking their progress in other class, making sure they’re not slipping through any cracks. The thing about teaching at a private school, is that if they can’t cut it academically in the CP 2 class, then they just don’t stay at the school. That’s a new concept. Public schools are required to educate every student in their school zone, regardless of ability. Seems like this will be very different. I was also told that I shouldn’t hand out A’s. Yay! The pressure to give inflated grades has been so great for most of my career. Now, as long as I can justify the grades I’ve given through clear criteria and fairness, then I can give them. Students making D’s and F’s will most likely not stay at the school long or will be dropped to a lower level course (if there is one).
There are only three full-time English teachers. One of the counselors teaches the AP English Language course. Randall teaches 11th and 12th grade Brit. Lit., World Lit., and AP Literature. I have the 10th graders and some of the 9th. Sara, who will also be new and teaching for the first time, will take the rest of the 9th graders (Honors) and Humanities. I am not completely sure what all she’ll teach, to be honest. She was very nice. I met her yesterday, too.
If I understand the schedule correctly, I will teach 4 days a week. The 5th day I will be available for subbing (they do all their subbing in-house) or resource lab for tutoring English students. My classes meet 3 days a week for 80 minutes, then on Friday for 45 minutes. School will start earlier on Friday and get out earlier because of the Sabbath. Did I mention this was a private Jewish high school?
I am looking forward to learning more about Judaism. I am hoping to learn a bit of Hebrew. I find it very interesting. Hebrew lessons are included in a newsletter I used to receive from Zola Levitt.
The textbooks I am using are old. I don’t think it is because it’s a private school and funding is an issue. The copyright is 1989, and that was before the school was founded. I got an inkling as to the reason why we have these texts when Nanci, my principal, indicated she loves them dearly and they’re out of print, so please take of care of them. Aha! Nanci was an English teacher, and I believe that she just really took a liking to them. They are Scott, Foresman/Prentice Hall’s Literature series (Patterns in Literature: America Reads, Traditions in Literature: America Reads, United States in Literature: America Reads, and England in Literature: America Reads — I’m not sure if the World Lit. book is in the same series). It’s actually a good series. Same works as all the other textbooks. There’s less fluff (photos, pictures, flashy graphics) and more literary terms, analysis, and the like. Because it’s out of print, though, Nanci ordered teacher’s editions that had to be photocopied and bound. We have separate books for vocabulary, grammar, and writing, too. MLA handbooks. All kinds of things. I think I’ll want some dictionaries. Nanci asked me if I would. I need to read through them all and get familiar with them.
I am actually really getting excited to start, too.
Movable Type allows users to determine whether or not they will allow anonymous comments. I prefer not to, which means you have to submit your e-mail address when you comment. On one occasion, a rather cowardly individual who posted my only negative comment ever provided a fake e-mail address, so I know there are ways around that. I wasn’t sure why he did it, though. Did he do it because he wanted to do the online equivalent of running up to someone on the schoolyard, smacking him/her, then running away? Or did he do it because he was afraid he’d get spam? I almost think spam is more dreaded than a tongue-lashing from yours truly. On the other hand, if he was who I think he was, I believe he’s web savvy enough to know that MT allows users to insert the following code in the comment post form to help prevent spam:
However, since I can’t figure out whether it was fear of little ol’ me or spam, I decided I could at least take spam out of the equation. I have fixed my comments so that while you still have to submit an e-mail, it will not be displayed, like so:
I have also added a feature that will protect my comments from spam. From what I’ve read, it seems comment spam is on the rise. That’s because Google rewards comment spammers by increasing their page rank. As long as it works, you’re going to keep finding inducements to chase after nebulous investments in Nigeria, penis enlargement hocus pocus, and phentermine, phentermine, phentermine! I personally have not had problems with comment spam yet, but that is probably due to the fact that until this week, I had the “noindex,nofollow” meta tag for robots in my header. I really don’t care if a bunch of googlers wind up here by mistake and get disappointed when there’s not any really freaky naked pictures here, but I was miffed that I couldn’t get Technorati to work correctly. I’m not positive this was the problem, but I think they were unable to spider my site. On the other hand, even after I’ve removed the meta tags, they still haven’t listed my site on the profile, though they got The Pensieve. I don’t know why I care, but it’s making me crazy.
Where was I? Oh, yeah. So I did have that safeguard in place, and you all didn’t even know it. Now that I’ve removed that safeguard, I wanted you to know that not only will your e-mail address not be shown, but I have also placed a “noindex,nofollow” meta tag in my comments templates, so search engines shouldn’t try to index them.
All this talk about comment spam made me a little worried I’d start getting some, so I decided to be proactive. I tried to install MT Blacklist, but I couldn’t get it figured out. Flashbacks of installing MT threatened to overtake me, so I tried Junkeater instead. Not only do they filter my comments before they are posted, but they also provided a handy little java script whereby posters will need to provide the code shown in the little box to prove they’re real people and not spambots.
I hope all this extra security encourages you all to feel safer about leaving comments here. Mainly I’m just kind of becoming a web geek who likes new toys, though.
I was looking for something to watch on TV this evening, and found that The Thorn Birds was on WE. I only caught the last two hours or so of it. You know — the most heart-wrenching part. Apparently, WE ran the entire mini-series from start to finish, beginning at noon. Of course, I’ve seen it before.
One of my former colleagues once said that The Thorn Birds (by Colleen McCullough) was one of those books that you didn’t put down while you were stirring the pot. It was the second adult novel I read (the first was Gone With the Wind). I was in 7th grade. I decided that if all adult novels were this good, I was going to keep reading them! Of course, I was fortunate to read two of the best books I’ve ever read at one go. The next one I read was a romance novel that would have been rather forgettable had it not been the first one I’d read. Maybe I should clarify — when I use the term “romance novel,” I’m thinking of the bodice-rippers with scantily-clad couples embracing on the cover. I suppose it could be argued that Gone With the Wind and The Thorn Birds are romance novels, but they are something more than that, so I just don’t classify them that way. Not that there’s anything wrong with a good romance novel. I’ve been known to enjoy a few in my day. But let’s be frank — they are not as moving and enduring — as epic, indeed, as The Thorn Birds.
Oh it has been years since I saw the movie or read the book, but I was right back there in New South Wales with Meggie. I cried when Dane died. I cried when Fiona told Meggie to stop making the same mistakes she’d always made and reach out to Justine. I cried when Justine and Meggie made their peace. I cried when Ralph died.
Isn’t it hard to watch as each generation of Cleary women is doomed to repeat the mistakes of the previous? To watch as the characters are destroyed by their passion for the person they love most? You just want to shake them. I find that I actually talk to them, and sure enough, I kept urging Ralph to use his head and figure out that Dane was his son as I watched tonight. That’s good television.
Before Maggie was born, when we were discussing names, I suggested Meghan. Steve didn’t really care for the name. He suggested Margaret, after her grandmother. I thought then that would be great, because even though I didn’t have a Meghan, I could still have my little Meggie. For a time we tried to call her Meg or Meggie, but she’s just a Maggie, and there not much I can do about it. I think the nickname is perfect. It suits her personality. And truthfully, Meggie Cleary’s life is not what I want for my own daughter! All of my children have names that have layers of meaning to me, and there is a little bit of my love for the character Meggie Cleary behind my little Maggie’s name, even if my husband didn’t know it.
To be swept away into that story, even for a brief time, was a joy. I have been meaning to re-read the book for some time. Perhaps I ought to do so.
Link: The Thorn Birds at Nostalgia Central
I wrote my parents the other day to tell them that Dylan is now able to stand up in the middle of the floor without pulling up on anything. He isn’t walking yet, but I’m convinced it’s only because he doesn’t know he can. I closed my e-mail with the thought that soon he would figure out he can indeed walk. My dad replied that then I’ll have two of them to chase after. My reaction to that was, that’s different from now how?
Dylan is already a first rate climber. The moment my back is turned, he’s mounting an expedition to the upper reaches of the couch or the computer table. He’s exploring the depths of the toilet. He’s testing every potential choking hazard to see if it’s edible. I am a tired woman right now.
Maggie, on the other hand, scares me with her quick mind. Those of you with digital cable or satellite may be familiar with those handy (or not so handy, depending on your company) guides that you can use to see what’s on the other channels. I was using the guide to see how long the King Arthur show I was watching on TLC would last. One of the channels on the same section of the guide was Toon Disney. There was no Toon Disney logo. It said something like “TDISE.” Maggie immediately says, “I want to watch Toon Disney, Mama; I want to watch Toon Disney.” How on earth did she know that’s what it was? Surely she can’t read? Earlier that night, after we went through Wendy’s drive-thru, she asked me for her “Garbeel.” I said I didn’t have one and didn’t know what it was. She said, “Yes, you do.” Later, I pulled a Garfield toy out of her kid’s meal. How did she know what the toy was going to be? Is she possessed of the Sight? Or just some really unnatural awareness of small details that eludes me? (Don’t answer that, Steve.)
My children freak me out.
On this date in 1937, Amelia Earhart was reported missing near Howland Island over the Pacific. We have never definitively discovered what happened to her, though there are theories.
One theory is that she simply crashed in the ocean. In March-April 2002, Nauticos, a Hanover, Maryland, company that performs deep-ocean searches and other ocean research services, attempted to find Earhart’s plane using a deep-sea sonar system to search 630 square miles of ocean surrounding Howland Island. They planned to return this year to continue searching. Maybe they’re working on it right now. You know, I never thought they’d find the Titantic, and I remember seeing it on the news when it happened. I think they have a shot at finding that plane if it’s on the ocean floor.
A second theory is that she landed somewhere else and lived the rest of her days as a castaway. An organization called The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) believes that once Earhart knew she was low on fuel, she headed in the direction of the Phoenix Islands, 350 miles away. The group believes she may have landed on Nikumaroro, formerly known as Gardner Island. TIGHAR found reports of a plane crash there before 1939 and of two castaways, a man and a woman, who fit the descriptions of Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan. The group has also found one piece of equipment known as a dado, used to separated crew from passengers in an airplane, that might be part of Earhart’s Lockheed Electra, but this cannot be proven, as no Electras have survived with their dados intact. If there were reports of her being a castaway, however, why was she never rescued? Seems like if there were actual reports, they would argue against that theory.
A third theory is that Earhart was taken hostage by the Japanese after heading not for Howland, but for the Japanese-controlled Marshall Islands. Proponents of this theory disagree as to Earhart’s ultimate fate. Some believe she was killed in Saipan. Others believe she returned to the U.S. under an assumed name. In fact, some believe she became a woman named Ilene Craigmile, married Guy Bolam, and died in New Jersey in 1982.
Rollin C. Reineck, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, has written a book, Amelia Earhart Survived (curiously unavailable at Amazon). Reineck insists that if Earhart was unable to find Howland, “Plan B was to cut off communications and head for the Marshall Islands and ditch her airplane there.” In the event that Earhart had to resort to Plan B, the U.S. military was supposed to rescue Earhart while at the same time perform reconnaissance on Japanese pre-war intelligence efforts. The plan went badly, Earhart was captured, and later forced to assume a different name. Why? According to Reineck, because if the American public had known Earhart was on this special mission, they would have been so incensed with FDR for putting her in harm’s way that he’d have faced impeachment.
Also on this date in 1881, President James Garfield was shot at the Baltimore & Potomac train station by Charles Guiteau, a “mentally disturbed” man who had been stalking the president for some time. Guiteau wrote a speech (described as “deranged”) while Garfield was running for office and gave it to Garfield. Garfield never read the speech, but Guiteau later claimed it was “instrumental” in getting Garfield elected and demanded to be made Ambassador to France. He began to hang around the White House, even meeting Garfield once, harassing the secretary of state daily about the Ambassadorship. When he was rejected, he decided to shoot Garfield. He checked out the prisons in the Washington, D.C. area and found them suitable “accommodations.” Though clearly insane, he was tried for murder (I’m not sure about the insanity defense myself, but that’s another story). He acted as his own attorney, screaming constantly and at times even dancing around the courtroom. In his closing argument, he declared God had told him to kill Garfield. When the jury convicted him, he told they were “all low, consummate jackasses!” He was hanged on June 30, 1882. While on the gallows, Guiteau said, “I am going to the Lordy, I am so glad.”
Was there a saying about the truth and fiction?
I was watching the Travel Channel’s ghost-fest the other night, and I learned that Loretta Lynn’s Hurricane Mills plantation is haunted.
That woman can’t catch a break, can she?
For those of you not in the know, she grew up poor in the backwoods of Kentucky (just listen to “Coal Miner’s Daughter”), married at the inconceivably young age of 13 and immediately started having children (4 by the time she was 17). If you’ve ever watched the story of her life, then you also know her husband was a jerk for a lot of their marriage, and I learned on the show I watched that her son died in the creek by her house. No, she might have lots of money now, but I’d never say she had an easy life.
And now her house is haunted. Well, presumably it’s been haunted for some time.
You know, I’ve watched Coal Miner’s Daughter I don’t know how many times. My grandmother was a fan, so I grew up listening to Loretta Lynn. She’s not a bad songwriter. I think what I like about her is that she keeps going, no matter what life throws at her. She’s a very strong woman.
I was watching the Grammys one time when I was a little girl. I suppose it could have been the Academy Awards. I was young — it’s hard to remember for certain. It must have been after Coal Miner’s Daughter came out, but not too much after. I don’t know why Loretta (and don’t you just feel like you can call her that when you don’t even know her?) was there. As a kid, I thought she was getting a special award, but I see no record of it in her biography or at the Grammy website. Perhaps she was just presenting. But I do remember the reaction of the audience, which was almost completely one of admiration. I think there was a standing ovation. Why do I say almost? The camera panned to Madonna, who was looking supremely bored and unimpressed with Loretta’s presence on the stage. I didn’t like Madonna before, but I have always pretty much despised her after that. The look on her face told me a lot about Madonna, and none of it was good.
So I chose a few of my favorite Loretta Lynn tunes for my radio blog:
You know who you’ll never see on my radio blog? Madonna.
Visit LorettaLynn.com.
On this day in 1972, the Supreme Court struck down the death penalty. In a 5-4 vote, the court ruled that the death penalty, as it was used at that time, was a violation of the Eighth Amendment, which means they felt that the death penalty could be called “cruel and unusual punishment.” What I thought was interesting is why. In their ruling, the majority said that they felt the death penalty was unconstitutional mainly because it was used in “arbitrary and capricious ways.” The implication then was that the death penalty is imposed more often upon racial minorities than on whites. This is still true today. In 1976, the death penalty was reinstated. The majority of the public at the time — 66% — supported the death penalty.
The percentage of the public who supports the death penalty today is also right about 66%. I will be honest and say I don’t know how I feel about it. On the one hand, if someone committed a heinous crime against someone I loved, then I would probably want to kill them myself. Several years back, when a woman shot and killed the man who molested her son in court, many people said they would have done the same, and many people expressed dismay that she went to jail. Don’t know if she’s still there or not. Public opinion in support of the woman was very strong. On the other hand, it has happened, especially in this age of DNA evidence, that people sitting on death row have been found innocent of the crimes that put them there. That means that people may have died innocent of the crimes for which they were executed. I’m not convinced that it works as a deterrence. It punishes that one person for their crime, but I don’t think most people who make the decision to commit a crime think about the death penalty or even prison when they do it. If they did, they might not commit the crime. I would be willing to bet most people commit crimes either with the sincere belief that they won’t be caught or that the crime so desperately needs to committed that getting caught doesn’t matter, if they are rational at all. So if you are going to argue that it will prevent crime, I have to say I disagree. I does, however, still mete out the ultimate punishment to those who commit crime.
Then there’s the issue of which methods of execution are okay to use. Georgia had an electric chair, but now uses lethal injection. Georgia has executed 34 people since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Texas, to no one’s surprise, leads the nation with executions performed: 322 since 1976, 9 already this year, 24 last year. At this time, 458 people are on death row in Texas. It also has the highest number of juvenile offenders currently on death row at 28. The first person executed after the death penalty was reinstated was a man named Gary Gilmore, a career criminal convicted of murdering an elderly couple who would not lend him their car. He faced a firing squad in Utah with the last words, “Let’s do it.” Utah still has a firing squad. I think, though I may be mistaken, that the option of facing a firing squad or a lethal injection is available to the prisoner.
The Bible is not clear on the subject, advising to take an eye for eye in the Old Testament, while advising he who is without sin to cast the first stone in the New Testament. Are people who carry out executions guilty of murder? I honestly don’t know.
I suppose the executions of those who have been kidnapped in the Middle East is much on my mind. I asked myself, in their minds, are they exacting a death penalty on people they believe have committed a crime? Actually, I don’t think so. They have to know those people have committed no crime except being from a country they hate. They are using terrorism to excellent effect. I admit to being completely afraid of what they are capable of doing when they will film themselves cutting off a man’s head. I haven’t talked about it here. When I read the newspaper account of Nick Berg’s murder, I cried. I cried for many reasons. I have a son, and it occurred to me that Nick Berg has parents who are devastated over losing their son at all, much less in such a horrible way. I also cried out of fear. I cried out of anger.
So I don’t have any conclusions today. Mostly because I don’t know how I feel.
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