Baldo

made of awesome

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:20:20 -0600

I rarely blog anymore, and I anticipate blogging less as I certify to teach. But I did want to mention that my kid is made of awesome.

He is 6. Absolutely 6. He asked for his first mohawk, and after we established that that particular hairstyle is meaningful in North American indigenous cultures as battle attire, he received it. (Because of his cowlick, it looks sort of funny. Travis Bickle, Jr.)

He is attending this week something we'll call Karate Kamp, although it's age-appropriate and not even really martial; yet how can a person resist saying "Karate Kamp"? I can't. So at Karate Kamp I observed my kid comforting a classmate who'd had a six-year-old camper meltdown.

"I'm glad you're feeling better," he said, when the kid calmed down.

Over the weekend, he made a pet of a doodlebug and named it "Ned."

As the final proof that my kid is made of awesome, I submit the following video evidence:

get my keys

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 18:23:49 -0600

Arlington's got Miltown...in the water!

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:15:41 -0600

Download file

Anti-war but not a pacifist

Sat, 17 May 2008 11:23:07 -0600

War is a huge-ass thing, not meant to be lived with on a day-to-day basis with no endgame. That's my philosophy. It should involve a clear purpose and the support of the public, who is obliged to make sacrifices and build Victory Gardens and put on a brave face. War should not be part of life's background noise.

But if your nation gets clobbered by a giant cyclone and hundreds of thousands of people are dead, and you're holding onto all the aid, you deserve to get your ass kicked by the world's superpowers. We're all in this nasty-ass polluted and depleted Earthly boat together now, and allow me to adjust my tinfoil hat and mention that we're going to have bigger storms now, all of us. And we do not actually have the Rescue Heroes, as much as it saddens my child to have to say so.

We are the Rescue Heroes.

Mission select!

Ron Stone, no!

Tue, 13 May 2008 21:20:32 -0600

I had to come out of hiding for this. Ron Stone died.

When I was a little kid in the 1970s, a cone of silence descended upon our house Sundays at 5:00 when The Eyes of Texas came on. Ron Stone was, like, my other dad. He was a kindly, slightly folksy, yet authoritative old-school broadcaster. It didn't even matter that much that he was actually from Oklahoma.

when an update is not an update

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:35:15 -0600

Oh, hey! It's my blog.

I'm taking the TExES (a.k.a. the ExCET) tomorrow. Excelsior, y'all. I'm up to my butt in educator CamelCase. Plus the usual chemistry CamelCase.

Via the excellent moon_radio, "Guilty Pleasure" by Cobra Starship. (limited time)

it's funny because it's true

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 21:31:23 -0600

political_macro.

right on, my brother

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 08:17:52 -0600

ABC News reports on "the human spell-checker".

You might have to watch an ad, but the ad might have a cute puppy, so you get that too, potentially.

And remember: "It's just really about going after the errors themselves."

hooray for government accountability!

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:30:45 -0600

The State Department renewed Blackwater USA's contract in Iraq.

Man, it sure does suck to be Iraqi:

"Dude, you shot 17 people!"

"We agree that 17 people were shot by our private security contractors, who cannot be prosecuted in your courts."

"We investigated it. It was unprovoked!"

"The FBI is going to investigate it because they're awesomer than you. And while they're investigating, we see no reason not to renew their contract, even though we don't have to and could in fact cancel at any time."

And what the hell is this sentence: "It is unclear whether [Blackwater] could be prosecuted under U.S. law."? Unclear?

I can't come up with words

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:15:23 -0600

so I made you a Muxtape.

if at first you don't succeed

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 20:15:44 -0600

So it looks like Owen and Kate are back together. I'm okay with that. She's a babymama. (gives sign)

Who's next? James Murphy, you in?

the children make the funny hats

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:08:57 -0600

But it is we who wear them.

Ari (l.) and me (r.), photo by Ms. Adams, teacher of the second grade.

ear buds, part deux

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 20:15:14 -0600

I thought I was being all smart when I got a pair of headphones from Savers (no, I am not afraid of headphones from Savers) as an on-the-fly solution to my ear bud problem. I've lost them already. Both sets of ear buds I still have. It's fucked up.

Side note to Leonardo DiCaprio: I got your very nice letter about the polar bears (thank you for calling me "Friend"), and I'm really sorry about what happened to your grandfather. I signed your petition. Hell yeah polar bears.

bring it on

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 13:49:15 -0600

That sounds about right. I had lunch at school with Baldo on Friday (a turkey hot dog and Spanish rice) and I could pretty much handle myself on the playground afterward with his class of 19. But when the second class came out, they took me down. Then again, some of them are already 6.

la arriviste

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 14:01:26 -0600

Along with Tristan Taormino, I am a source for the German Wikipedia entry for "MILF."

That's kind of weird.