messing with Vox

The past couple of days I have been messing with this Vox blog: Forty.Vox.Com. Thanks to Leo LaPorte and his blog "Life of Leo", I found Vox. It looks to be a very interesting community. Previously I have blogged on a couple of other services. Lately my home has been on Blogger for more than a year.

But, on Blogger you tend to feel like you are on an island and you shout out from that island hoping someone reads/hears you. On Vox there is more of a "community" feel.

So, over this summer I will be experimenting with Vox and see if it's the kind of place for me. I like MANY of the features and so far only dislike a few. I'll be posting more about what I think about this place. But, so far, so good!

Let me know which you like better - this current location/blog? Or the new Vox one.

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Potty Training, Haircuts and Naps

Aidan has been doing a great job with potty training lately. He has been going on his own each morning and after nap each day this 4 day weekend.

It is amazing to see him getting bigger and growing up.

He also sat perfectly for his haircut today and it looks very good. Amazing what I can do when he sits still and doesn't freak out. :)

This summer is really going to be amazing with him. I wore a shirt on Saturday to school during our checkout for the summer. It said, "Cool Daddy." I told everyone that it is my "Summer Job." After all, it really is.

Right now I am listening to the monitor and Norma is working her butt of trying to get him to take his nap. He's been great about it all weekend, but suddenly for some reason today he is rebelling. Hopefully he'll go down soon. It is raining and very cool today so it is actually nice nap weather for him and he could get some good sleep.
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New Camera: Sony DCR-SR200 Digital Camcorder

JR.com: Sony DCR-SR200 Digital Camcorder

Got it for $644.88 including shipping. It was going for $850 at BestBuy. A great deal and the cheapest price I could find on the web. I really, really like this camera. It has an internal hard drive that is 30 Gig. It also has a memory card slot so that it is a hybrid of sorts. If the hard drive ever goes out, or you fill it up on a long shoot or vacation, you can store to the memory card.

What I like best about this camcorder is that it is also a great digital camera. 4 megapixel, which is a higher quality than I have my digital camera set on to take images now. Plus, as you are shooting video there is also a seamless picture taking feature as well. Which means you can take a still image shot as you are also recording live video. Neat.

I am really looking forward to using this on our trip to PA this summer. It will be awesome to shoot some video and be able to immediately edit it and load it to the computer. I will also have much, much better quality video here on the blog of Aidan. :)

Can't wait until it arrives next week!

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Astros... ouch.

Good golly! My Astros haven't won in over a week! Holy crap.

Maybe it's time for a major change? I don't remember them sliding this bad since the 2000 season (first season in Minute Maid). Could this be the end of the Phil Garner Era?

I think they just have too many position players that are bad hitters. Catcher, Short, Third and Second are killing them at the plate. And I love Craig Biggio and all, but he can not continue to lead off every day while having a .200 on base percentage. He'll still get his 3,000 hits easily, but move him down and move Hunter Pence up.

My fear is that Phil Garner wants to change his lineup, but the ownership will not let him. I thought this was all supposed to be about winning games? Doesn't look like it from where I am sitting.

Norma, Aidan and I really have to get to a game soon though. We didn't go to a single one last year. It has been too long. I bet Aidan will have a ball there this summer. The problem is finding a good time to go. Games at night start too late. Maybe a good 6:05 start on a Saturday might work out well? We will have to order some tickets this week.


WOW was he little!


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30 Years Ago!

Star Wars.

I am 37. So when the movie came out I was only 7. But, boy did it influence me. Even today when teaching about WWII and Hitler... of course, I mention the "Storm Troopers" and "Darth Vader" (Adolf himself!). I can't wait to watch the History Channel's The Legacy Revealed on Memorial Day.

A time Far, Far Away... but, the memories will always live on. I can't wait for my son to experience the greatest movie villain of all time - Vader. And maybe the greatest underdog hero of all time - Young Skywalker - Luke. I wonder what age it will be when he discovers all the dvds that we have and starts to want to watch them instead of "The Wonder Pets?"

Has any movie ever captured it's spirit better in it's soundtrack? In those awesome sound effects when those Empire ships cruise through space (there is no sound in space, right? still didn't matter - it was cool!).

You gotta love it. I am feeling old though!

My birthday was this week. Monday. I didn't write about it because I had a MONSTER headache that night and went to bed early. It was a nice birthday though. I got cookies and cupcakes from my kids (I have no idea how they found out it was my birthday) and some really cool cards. One girl brought in a BYU pennnant as a present for me. I put college pennants up above my assignment board and she wanted to add her favorite school to the display. I put them there so that when they look up on that board to see what we are doing for the day or to see the assignment, they will remember why they are doing all this hard work. Really nice present because I will put it up each year.

I also got the coolest hand made card EVER from one of my favorite students. It was simply meticulous and totally well done. It's hard to even explain it was that nice.

Today I finished packing up my room. I go in tomorrow morning and will get the last signatures on my sign out form and turn in my grades. I'll put the last boxes in my car and it's cruise home for the summer! Kinda stinks going in on a Saturday morning, but it will be great to be all finished.

Hard to believe our first year is all over!
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Woody's Hat

Aidan in his "Woody Hat!" He loves that hat. We got it at the local (expensive) toy store and he loved it from the first moment he saw it. It is just like his pal Woody's hat.

This has been a really, really busy and crazy week. We are just about to finish the school year. Tomorrow finals begin. We finish up on Friday. Then I go in Saturday morning and finish up. We have to totally break down our rooms and move everything out since summer school will be in our rooms this year. That definitely sucks. I really put a lot of work into my room and it is superbly more enjoyable to build it at the beginning of the year compared to tearing it down at the end.

Today Norma and I showed our "Year in Review" videos to our classes. Mine was a :20 minute movie created in Windows Movie Maker. It is a huge video and there were TONS of pictures and music clips. The kids were really blown away. From the beginning of the assembly of the school to the last few weeks... it really got to some kids. One girl left the room with tears running down her cheeks and just mumbled, "It was... good."

I had to be careful not to lose it myself. It is really hard for me to say goodbye to these kids. It has been an incredible year and I am really going to miss them.

We have been interviewing for the past 3 weeks and finally have our AVID kids selected for next year. I am pumped about the freshman I have coming in. 29 kids. Should be a wonderful group. They will definitely be what I am focusing my summer on. In July I will be heading to San Diego for a week for the AVID Institute and will learn a lot more about the program. I have really enjoyed getting to know the other AVID classroom teacher and our AVID counselor over the past month. It is going to be great working with them. All three of us are just totally focused on these kids and working to get them into college. It is an amazing program and we have barely even started!

The school year ends this week. It is really HARD to believe!
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Aidan "yee haaa!"

Yeee Hawww from fordee on Vimeo
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Minutes to Midnight

Today was the release of Minutes to Midnight - Linkin Park's third major album release. It is sweet... like candy!

Rolling Stone Review: LP - Minutes to MidnightRap metal is dead. Linkin Park are not, because they were always more than the meager sum of that combination -- more pop and classic rock in their riffs, hooks and drive, even on Collision Course, their 2004 mash-up with Jay-Z. On Minutes to Midnight, co-produced by Rick Rubin, Linkin Park are more of something else -- topical -- and furiously good at it. In the last song, "The Little Things Give You Away," the band coolly torpedoes George W. Bush's petty, disastrous arrogance on Iraq and New Orleans (for starters), building from acoustic strum and soft-shoe electronics to magisterial Seventies-arena guitar and lacerating disgust. "All you've ever wanted was someone to truly look up to you," Chester Bennington sings. "And six feet underwater/I do."

That's not all. Bennington is not going over old-girlfriend ground when he promises, "Your time is borrowed," in the hammering thrash of "No More Sorrow." And Mike Shinoda's state-of-disbelief rap "Hands Held High" comes with military-funeral drums and an "amen" chorus. This would be as much fun as a filibuster if Linkin Park did not pay equal attention to the punch and detail in the gritty stomp "Bleed It Out" and the balled-fist guilt of "What I've Done." "Shadow of the Day" is a too-literal echo of Joshua Tree-era U2, but most of Minutes is honed, metallic pop with a hip-hop stride and a wake-up kick. "What the fuck is wrong with me?" Bennington barks over the jingle bells and distortion in "Given Up." The answer all over this record: nothing that getting off your ass can't fix.

I really have enjoyed my couple of listens to the cd. I will post a review later in the weekend after a full "digestion" - but here is a hint. I "likey."

I got the cd for free basically. Norma won a $5 gift card at Target for being the "Red House Advisory Teacher of the Year." I won the "White House Person Who Made a Difference for May" and also got a $5 gift card. So wham - $10 and the $9.98 cd was free. If it's free... it's for me! If it's LP and it's free... it's a definite for me!!

Well, as you have guessed if you frequent this blog... I have been BUSY. End of school is approaching and we are up to our ears in finals, AVID interviews, and finishing out the year strong. Not much time to write. I need to get some work done. Cheers for now.

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Aidan With His Trains

This week has been a lot of fun watching Aidan play with his train table. You can check out all of the pictures here:

Train Pictures

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TOY Ring

On Thursday the school presented me with my Teacher of the Year ring in front of the faculty. It is really a great ring. I am proud to wear it.

Boy would my Dad have been proud of this. :)

Now that the whole district competition is over I have had more of a chance to enjoy things and just take a deep breath about the whole affair.

The past few nights I have been putting together my video for the year in review. It is a neat look back at all my students and the things we have done all year long. Norma started doing this a long time ago with Power Point. They were just simple pictures that she added to slides. Then we got fancy and added music. This year I am actually creating a video with a lot of music from all of the pictures in Windows Movie Maker. I have about 250 pictures and it should really be something. I can't wait to get it all finished. I will show it to my classes on the last days of school.

It is really amazing that the year is almost over! Where does the time go?



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Video - Too Funny!

I keep watching this over and over. It cracks me up. Norma's sister Marge sent it to her. Amazing what kids will say!

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Random Thoughts

**Why can't I get an infusion of my wife's great Asian blood and be able to shake my allergies - which lead to terrible colds I can never seem to get rid of? What is the medical community doing anyway!?!!! C'mon people.

**How good is our high school going to be when they actually have a senior class next year. Our girl's volleyball team and our baseball team went to the playoffs. Amazing accomplishment for kids that are missing a senior class. We are probably going to head out tomorrow and watch a little of the playoff game. It is an early morning start at 10AM and Aidan will be up and might enjoy it. Hopefully it'll be a nice day.

**Everyone keeps telling me there are only 2 weeks of school (then a week of 1/2 days for finals) left in this school year. I am having trouble actually believing that. It seems like I have so much work to do and so much going on that I can't see past Monday.

**The AVID interviews have been awesome. It is great to finally start seeing the kids and projecting them into the program. But, it is taking so darn long. I don't know if we will finish before summer! Plus, we have to go to the middle schools and interview and select those kids. A mammoth process. But, it will be worth it.

**Today I reserved my hotel room in San Diego for the AVID Summer Institute. I can not wait to go. It is going to be great. Except for the part about being away from Aidan and Norma for a week! That will be one of the more difficult things I have done in years. I will miss them both so much. Luckily I will be busy, busy, busy.

**I distinctly remember Republicans and Conservatives (are they the same thing?) blasting the Dems in 2004 for having so many candidates in the debates. They were almost mocking the party for having 8 people. Now the Republicans have TEN in their debate... and two of the most celebrated candidates weren't even there. Give me a break. The debates are fine and I would never smack on an open forum to discuss the most important issues of the day... but, how in the world can 3 of the 10 say they do not believe in Evolution? Did they attend school? Shivers run down my spine on that one. Scary.

**My Astros are really stinking up the joint so far this year. But, wait... isn't that what they do EVERY year and then come on like gang busters? When is it finally going to cost Phil Garner his job? Hopefully not this season. I like Gar... but c'mon STROS!

**Rockets-Jazz Saturday night - Game 7. Should be a good one from Toyota Center in Houston. I can't wait to watch. The Rockets haven't won a playoff series in 10 years! Geeez! It is about time.

**How can it possibly be May already?
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