Motor Skills

How are your fine motor skills? How are you at mazes? Can you manipulate you cursor, using your mouse, through a few 'simple' mazes? You'd be amazed at how difficult it trully can be. Can you get through without stressing out? I don't know if I'd say it's scary but it's definitely an amusing test of your patience.

Just click on the link and open the mazes. TRY!

PET Peeve!

I'm lying in bed, blissfully, asleep with thoughts of sugar plums break dancing in my head. The morning is cold. Beneath my comforter is warm. Suddenly, a warm, wetness slips across my thigh. There it is again. A warm, wet clam or something brushes across the back of my thigh. Am I dreaming? I move away from the unpleasant attack and role over refusing to give into consciousness. A rustling from beneath the covers, suddenly the clam is flicking across my eyelids, running across my cheeks, dampening my forehead with its unwelcome warmness.

It's too late.

Now I'm awake. Abruptly, I'm ousted from dreamland and find myself being assaulted by an overly affectionate dog at 5:56 AM. My alarm doesn't go off until 6:00 AM! I'm awake 4 minutes early! I hate being woken up before the alarm! This will ruin my entire day. I now will have to stay in bed for 10 extra minutes out of spite, before starting my day in a foul mood!

The good news is, that I won't have to shower this morning since Tootsie's tongue has bathed my entire face from bearded chin to receding hairline whilst I tried to sleep through the ordeal.

I Wanted To Scream!

A rainy day
-Bummer!
Almost a 3 hour commute
-Really?
Rain is wet
-Are you serious?
People can't drive when it's wet
-That's stupid!
People are stupid
-Yes they are!
I was late


PS. My Mother is an alarmist!

WTF?

Read a news report today about a controversy involving the author of the popular Harry Potter books, J.K Rowlings. She, apparently, has stated that Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster at Hogwarts, is a homosexual. He was in love with a rival, they dueled and he never got over the heartache. Gay wizards every have been inspired to take off their cloaks of invisibilty, step out of their closets, hold their heads up high and state, "Yes, I am gay, and I practice witchcraft! By the way, did you notice that my robes match the color scheme in my magical lair. I'm all about mixing the Black Arts with Fashion. Fierce!"

In other irrelevant news...

Kid Rock is white trash!

Ellen is still nuts!

Grrrrrrr!

I have this one class... every week I dread them coming in. I am at my wits end. They are the highest functioning class I see. Smart. Creative. Inappropriate. Disruptive. Disrespectful. Rowdy.

It's almost ten weeks into the school year and I haven't been able to work with them consistently. My other classes come in, knock out a couple exercises, and leave excited for next class. This class... with few exceptions... they trickle in, they mope around, they make inappropriate comments, they talk over each other, they run out into the hallway, and a half hour class stretches on into an eon of agony.

I plan to eventually work each of my classes into a classroom production of a short 5 -10 minute play. My other classes have proven to me that they can follow directions, complete activities, transition from one activity to the next, and may be ready for a bigger project. This one class is falling way short of my simple expectations.

So today I told them so. I told them how disrespectful they were being (to each other as well as myself), I told them how we have not made much progress in the last couple months, and I told them that I didn't feel that they were ready to move on to a bigger project.

They sat in stunned silence, threw out a few feeble attempts at a defense and then turned around and nailed the exercise. I know that their classroom staff has been run ragged by them, and every one's frustrated and looking for a way to settle the class down. I would not necessarily suggest reaming them out... but for the time being it has seemed to have a positive effect for me.

Sorry Ma!

Not much to say. Nothing new...

Wedding's approaching. Money's tight. Commute sucks. Work's good. Tired.

Daily Occurrence.

Every day the kindergarten class lines up in the morning just outside my room. One by one they file in and have a seat in the hallway and wait for the entire class to show up. It just so happens that, usually, this is the time that I run to the main office to check my mail box. The kids have started greeting me in the morning. Today as I returned to class one of the little boys saw me come around the corner and announced to the class, "Hey, look who it is!" Then the class bombarded me with their salutations.

Nothing brings a smile to your face quicker than a class of five year old calling out to you, "Good Morning Mr. Cobb!" Or "Buenos Dias!" (They just learned that one.)

Burger Emergency!

I heard this phone call on the radio the other day and I thought it must've been a hoax. Do yourself a favor and listen to the audio file at the end of the article...

WTF?

Apparently, you cannot get it your way, right away!

Duct Hunting Season

This past weekend I had a blast working on a film submission to the 2007 CAmm SLamm 48 Hour Film Festival. This group in Baltimore, the Creative Alliance, sponsors the event. Each film team is given a prop at 8PM on Friday, everyone receives the same prop, and then must develop, film, and edit a film for screening by 8PM Sunday. This year's prop was a roll of duct tape.

The project my friend Dean came up with was a campy, horror flick entitled Attack of the Killer Duct Tape! We spent all day Saturday at the Sweathouse Section of Gunpowder Falls Park hiking, fighting off evil duct tape, fleeing from a giant ball of duct tape! It was a fun project to work on.

I'm not sure how well it went over at the screening, The campiness of the film may not have been as obvious as we would have wanted, and I know that my friend had hoped for a better response. I'm sure many of the directors had hoped for more enthusiastic receptions. Some of the films were very creative; others were less so.

48 hours is a short time in which to create a film... much less something worth watching.