The sprint soccer season has begun — first practice was tonight. E is with a new team and a new coach. We’re playing on fields only 5 minutes away from our house rather than 20 minutes away.
E’s first impression: “The coach is good. And the kids are nice to me.”
I also had a good impression from what one of the parents said. Here’s hoping this season will be better than the last, which was not terrible, but certainly had some drawbacks.
K has decided to return to surveying. She’s landed a work-at-home gig that pays quite well without the moral stresses the current real estate market is putting on her. The things you have to recommend to your client these days to get a winning bid just feel too morally questionable to her, and then there’s the stress of working, working, working, and not even knowing if you’ll get paid (i.e., your client will have a winning offer).
Part of working at home involves creating a new work space, with a fancy dual-monitor display system on an adjustable desk.
We got most of it set up tonight.
This is from about a year ago, but it is very much worth the time it takes to watch it. And anyone who watches this and is not terrified on some level…
At the heart of this, Jeremiah Jennings (who goes by the name Prophet of Zod on social media) points out that functioning society involves discussing disagreements with people while holding a few assumptions in mind:
He then goes on to point out, very convincingly, how fundamentalist Christianity doubts or even outright disputes each of these claims. The implications this civic breakdown has for democracy are frightening.
E’s Cub Scout pack had a special activity in Gatlinburg Tennessee this weekend: sleeping with the sharks at the aquarium. We went early Saturday afternoon and caught some amazing views on the way.
Once there, the Boy went go-carting, played some mini-golf, spent some time in an arcade, and tried mussels for the first time.
From there, we went to the aquarium. It was quite a unique opportunity for the kids, getting to spend a lot of time as the sole visitors in the whole complex.
This morning, we spent a little time in the aquarium before heading out for more mini-golf, some laser tag, and some lunch.
A busy weekend to say the least.
In a scene in After Life, Ricky Gervais’s character Tony Johnson is in the car as his brother-in-law drives, and he’s looking for music to play. He pulls out a CD, identifies the artist, and starts mocking his brother-in-law.
“Lighthouse Family?!?” he asks incredulously. He’s tempted to throw the disc out the window as he does several others.
Immediately I think, “I’ve listened to them. Or at least I’ve heard of them.” I hit “Pause” and sit staring at the screen. “Who was that group? How do I know them?” I wonder. I pull out my phone, load Spotify, search “Lighthouse Family,” play the first song that appeared, and in an instant, I know something is about to change.
When you’re close to tears remember
Someday it’ll all be over
One day we’re gonna get so high
The singer begins, accompanied by some light strings, a piano, and an organ.
“I’ve heard this, I think.”
The second line begins and the bass and drums enter:
Though it’s darker than December
What’s ahead is a different color
One day we’re gonna get so high.
“I’ve heard this! I know I’ve heard this — countless times, it seems.” But I can’t place it. Then the pre-chorus begins:
And at
The end of the day remember the days
When we were close to the edge
And wonder how we made it through the night
The end of the day remember the way
We stayed so close till the end
We’ll remember it was me and you
“This seems so very familiar!” But I still can’t place where I’d heard it. It feels like hearing a line from a film, knowing I’ve seen the film, but not even being able to remember the scene, the title, the actor. I familiar void.
When the chorus enters, though, I know. I remember where I’ve heard this song. I remember why I’ve heard it so many times.
‘Cause we are gonna be
Forever you and me
You will
Always keep me flying high
In the sky of love
“My God! It’s that song!”
In 1997, just a year after I’d moved to Poland, this song had just been about everywhere. On the radio. Playing in passing cars. At bars. At discos (i.e., Polish discos — dance places). Everywhere. And I always hated that song — so saccharine. Admittedly, the guy’s voice is gold, but the song itself? So empty. So vapid.
Yet I sit here listening to it, suddenly transported by a song I haven’t heard in over twenty years, a song I have thankfully and mercifully forgotten in probably just as long, and I feel such a longing to go back to that time for just one evening, just one beer, just one song. This song. It’s a song I hate and now, thanks to Ricky Gervais’s After Life, I love in that syrupy way that only nostalgia can inspire.
Going over some words in class today that might be new to some students (it was my remedial class), I started asking kids questions about the words.
“What might you prioritize as a student?”
“Your work!” someone responded. If only, young man, if only.
“What might I make projections about as a teacher?”
“Grades.” Yes, and if only you knew the projections — no, you probably do.
“With whom might you negotiate?”
“Your parents.” Of course.
“I don’t negotiate with my parents,” says one boy. “I do what I want.”
Bravado or inadvertent succint social commentary?
I swear, I’ve been teaching more than 20 years now, and I still cannot make a test for a gifted class that doesn’t just decimate the confidence of a significant number of students.
“Mr. S, I felt so much better about this test than the last one!”
I went through the test before the kids took it today and made some modifications that I was sure would help.
I had a couple of questions that, if one read it carefully, actually answered a couple of other questions partially. I made sure every passage I asked detailed questions about had appeared in in-depth in-class discussion/analysis. And still, a significant number of students were very disappointed with their scores.
But “decimating the confidence of a significant number of students” is not the same as “a large number of failing grades.” In fact, of 55 students who have taken it so far (several are absent for obvious 2022 reasons), only two failed outright. The curve, without any fiddling, looks quite acceptable:
Yet this type of curve is completely unacceptable to a group of high-achieving honors students. There will, no doubt, be requests for extra credit and the like.
(Side note: this marks post number 5,000. How ridiculous!)
K has been teaching the Boy how to play tysiąc. He’s getting the idea, but in the end, he still prefers a good game of war.
Just like he played with Babcia: