The Future's There for Anyone to Change

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the ipod gremlins crack me up
I was listening to a Four Tops blaxploitation soul classic, which contains great action-flick lyrics like "Are you man enough? Big and bad enough? Are you gonna let them shoot you down?!"

This random-shuffled into the perfect coda, with David Allen's dry spoken delivery: "Managing actions is the prime consideration." GTD, indeed.

Harrison, singing himself little made-up songs in the bathtub: And then Yoda, he GOT that Count Dookoo, because he was bad and he hurt Obi-Wan and Anaki-i-i-i-n, and YODA! YODA made that sith run awa-a-a-ay!

Me, rather than just playing the authority trump card, trying to finesse Harrison into winding down his bath: So, you've been in there a while. Are you all done, or are you ready to get out?

Harrison: I'm all d---------------uhhhhhhh. Um. I'm not all done AND I'm not ready to get out.

Me, stifling laughter: Got it. One more minute.

That kid is really awake.

Also, picked up from the teenaged siblings, when he doesn't get his way he has started saying, "Oh, MAN!"

Where the Wild Things Are
It's as good as I can imagine any movie being on what I take to be the fundamental tension that is the truth of the book:

1. We all have something in us that is wild, and we want to do what we want to do when we want to do it based on how we feel right now, and it SUCKS that we're forever being asked to ACCOMODATE what other people want and all their STUPID expectations and rules and so forth. Also, we don't like it when other people won't always accomodate what WE want, and all our rules and expectations and so forth.

2. We all experience the longing for love, and we have a powerful hunger to be connected, to have a secure place as part of a family, in some sense of that word.

1 and 2 are in direct conflict, and that conflict is very close to the top of the list titled "Why Life is Difficult."

The job of growing up is, more or less, finding a way to manage that tension somewhat successfully, much of the time.

My one beef (*****SPOILER AHEAD*****) was the very ending. In the book, when Max comes home and his supper is still hot, it gives 1 and 2 a successful resolution (for the time being), a port in the storm of growing up.

But to me, his coming home after biting his mother, being completely out of control, and running off in a way that was dangerous, and getting CHOCOLATE CAKE for it just maddened me with what a bad choice that was, how much it will hurt him in learning to resolve 1 and 2 above.

And when the mom dozed off at the table where he sat eating cake, it felt to me like he had become the King of that house, which is only going to be bad for the people who live there.

Ignite! Learning Wins Two Teachers' Choice Awards
AUSTIN, TEXAS - September 14, 2009 - Ignite! Learning, Inc., a leading provider of technology-based curriculum for the 21st century classroom, announced today that Ignite! Math and Ignite! Science have been selected as winners in Learning Magazine's 16th Annual Teachers' Choice Awards program.

Learning Magazine introduced the first Teachers' Choice Awards program in 1994. Over the years, the program has grown to become one of the most recognized and prestigious awards in the educational market. Teacher teams from across the United States review the entries over two rounds of rigorous judging, and select winners based on quality, instructional value, ease of use, and innovation. Teachers' Choice is the only awards program that is exclusively judged by teachers in the classroom.

Slam stuff in Arizona?
I'm going to be working in the Phoenix area the 22nd-24th.

I'd love to see a slam or an open mic while I'm there.

What is when and where?

Been on a video kick...
Last night we watched Epitaph One, the previously unviewed episode of Dollhouse. EXCELLENT!

Also recently saw the Mike Leigh film Happy Go Lucky. I found the lead character a bit annoying in that she seemed to make everything a glib joke so that it was hard to tell who she really was, but that was part of the point in how the movie unfolded. The guy who played the driving instructor was completely brilliant. Thumbs up.

Also in the recent past: Grey Gardens (the Hollywood movie with Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange, not the documentary), Autism: the Musical, Gran Torino, Doomsday, and Dear Zachary. These are all in the very good to excellent category. Dear Zachary was really hard to watch, even darker and even more upsetting than I’d expected.

Because it zips by so fast,
I want to capture a snapshot of what all, at age 3 1/3, Harrison is up to:

He can read at least one word: dog. He says the letters, sounds it out, says the word, and knows what it means: “D.O.G. That sounds like duh, aa, guh. Duh-aa-guh, so that’s dog!” I’m pretty sure that counts as reading.

Also: he can count to forty, can spell/write his name, can sing a really good version of “The Farmer in the Dell” (and knows quite a few songs all the way through), and can swim/dog paddle for 5 or so feet. He knows and can tell a couple of jokes. Those corduroy pillows? They're making headlines.

Plus he is making up adventure scenarios CONSTANTLY. Like, "Shang (the captain/love interest from Mulan) is fighting that mean Leopard (from Kung Fu Panda) and plus there are mean dinosaurs with guns and I will GET them!" And with his sword and his cape, he dashes into the backyard and begins fighting imaginary adversaries. When he comes back in, about 15 minutes later, that scene is long gone.

"What you been doing?"

"I save the princess. Now I got to go jump on the bad guys. Get me on the trampoline!"

"I don't like that bossy way you just talked to me."

"Daddy, can you help me get on the trampoline pleeease? Then I can jump on those bad guys and GET them and save the day!"

And on it goes....

Happy BIrthday Gingerelly!
Can't wait to see you later today!

Hi Again...
I got back in last night from a work trip...Detroit to Milwaukee to Knoxville....exhausting, but it all went great, and is leading to what I think (hope) will be great results. Leaving again Sunday for D.C. for an ed tech conference.

I am a little punchy.

Peace and love, y'all.

THE BIGGEST LOSERS!
Mike and I were in D.C. last Friday for the big awards banquet. Didn’t win the award we were up for, though it’s nice to have been a finalist. Just happy to be here. Taking it a day at a time. Throw the ball, catch the ball, hit the ball.

Tonie and I watched Milk night before last (finally!), and loved it. Penn was once again off the scale good, and Josh Brolin was even better than that. Went to see Up last night, and WAY loved it. Brilliant. So, two off-the-hook great movies in two days…pretty good.

The short at the beginning of Up was also excellent. We were both very struck by how much it spoke to us as parents of kids with special needs. I don’t think that’s what it was about in any particular way, but it applied.

Day trip to Waco Friday. Then still LOTS of travel for the last chunk of June—Detroit, Milwaukee, Knoxville, another D.C. trip—and then it all settles down for a while.

We have triumphed over the encroaching nastiness, and the pool is now blue and brilliant and we are in it every night. I’m grilling a lot. Just made a new batch of salsa with smoky-grilled veggies. Mmm. Venison steaks and chicken breasts last night. Mmmm. The Stubb’s marinade is tasty.

It’s possible that this is not the deepest or most insightful lj entry I have ever written.

The no-beer thing is coming along nicely. Have lost a little weight from avoiding those carbs, and have invested the money I’ve saved. The market sucks, but for a just-getting-started investor like yours truly, that’s a good thing.

Pic of Harrison and me

Tonie got mad cellphone camera skillz.

Brand New Poem, First in kind of a while.
Rabbit. Hat.

Blue balloons are tied to coolers,
at the Town Lake picnic benches,
and the dad has said, yeah, okay,
guess he only turns five once,
and has written a check.
Front and center, here comes
the check’s recipient, my friend
Jack, wearing a red tuxedo and top hat:
The Amazing Jaconi! His brother
calls him The Amazing Jack-offsky!
I’m too good a friend to laugh at this,
much, if Jack is actually in the room.
The Amazing Jaconi has asked me
to tag along and see this, his first real
show, and I’m here to suffer through it,
because—despite the hours I know
he and Eugene the Wonder Rabbit
have invested in this act—they’re
not very good. No big chore to peel back
the apple-skin thin layer of distraction
by which the illusions fail to convince,
and yet, inexplicably, the kids are buying it.
He is getting by on sleight-of-attention span,
a few sight gags, a booger joke. Man knows
his audience. The kids love him! And the mom
smiles, fooled not at all as Eugene emerges
from the hat, seeing through the cheap trick
to the real magic beneath: the sweet rabbit,
my friend’s good heart and modest skill, the
children’s contagious willingness to pretend belief.

Jeopardy category: Causal Reasoning and Song Lyrics
Alex: And the answer is, "Because a vision softly creeping left its seeds while he was sleeping."

Contestant: What is, "Why has Paul Simon come to talk with darkness again?"

Alex: Correct! Next! The answer is, "Because Bob Marley knows how to do his thing."

Contestant: What is, "Why should one not treat Bob Marley like a puppet on a string?"

Alex: You're on a roll! Last answer, "Because the world is round."

Contestant: What is "Why does the world turn John Lennon on?"

*ding,ding, ding*

Alex: Great round!

Apparently, Ace Frehley
is going to be sent to outer space, where he will broadcast metal guitar riffs back to Earth. VH-1 will make a reality show out of this.

True or false? I have no idea. It is weird enough that it might be true.

We live in strange times, my friends.

June, AEP = Tuxedos for Mike and Me
The Association of Educational Publishers' (AEP) Awards program recognizes excellence in educational products, and each year there are many entrants, and they are judged in a 2-tiered process by objective judges who are themselves award-winning educational media professionals.

The field is narrowed to 3 finalists. Winners are then anounced at a big black-tie shindig in D.C. in June. This year, Joe Rospers, the Obama campaign's New Media Director, will be speaking. And ...

this year Mike and I will be there representing Ignite! Learning since we are, you know, FINALISTS in the the middle school math curriculum division!

meme, from blue_thundering
List 15 books that will always stick with you. And you're not allowed to agonize about it.

So, in no particular order:

Harry Potter and the Whole Damn Series of Books, by J.K. Rowling
Sometimes a Great Notion, by Ken Kesey
The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
The Princess Bride, by S. Morgenstern/William Goldman
Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned, By Walter Mosley
Macbeth, by William Shakespeare
Lonesome Dove, By Larry McMurtry
Selected Poems, by Mary Oliver
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert Pirsig
Go, Dog. Go! by P.D. Eastman
Thief of Time, by Terry Pratchett
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
The World According to Garp, by John Irving
The Spenser Novels, by Robert B. Parker (the characters stay with me, rather than any particular installment)
The Road Less Traveled, by M. Scott Peck

Some Others that Came to Mind:

The Gold Cell, by Sharon Olds
Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White
Life of Pi, by Yann Martel
The Tao of Pooh, by Benjamin Hoff
The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis
Dune, by Frank Herbert
LOTR trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are, by Alan Watts
The Ninemile Wolves, by Rick Bass
The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test, by Tom Wolfe
Drowning with Others, by James Dickey
Getting Things Done, by David Allen

cool article from edutopia on the big mess that is the textbook industry:
http://www.edutopia.org/muddle-machine

"Who writes these things?" people ask me. I have to tell them, without a hint of irony, "No one."

It's symptomatic of the whole muddled mess that is the $4.3 billion textbook business."

So, Tonie's birthday was yesterday, and
and we watched the the new Star Trek Friday night (EXCELLENT!), and Harrison spent Friday night in San Antonio and he and Cuba (our niece) did a tots campout at the zoo with Tonie's mom (so cool)!

He did great, loved it, didn't cry, had a blast, and was happy to see me when I got him yesterday to fetch him home. He was asleep almost immediately in the car.

Then last night we drank champagne and ate sushi and watched the movie version of Neil Gaiman's Stardust with Madison (VERY fun, and Madison--who can be hard to please with movies--also really liked it), and then we finished the champagne and sushi and watched the season (and probably series) finale of Dollhouse, which was also excellent. *wipes away tear at show's likely fate*

And of course today is Mother's Day, and Tonie and Madison are going to the drafthouse to see a romantic comedy and drink italian sodas and such as that, and it will be another fun domestic day hereabouts.

Life is good.

Peace and love to y'all.

And especially to the beautiful and wonderful mothers reading this. Happy Mother's Day!