One (Cingular Sensation)

HUGE apologies true believers, I have been away from the Odyssey for way too long. It's hard to believe I could go from posting everyday to twice a week to once in two weeks, but I have. The only explanation I can give you is that the posts became a little to big. I started back in December posting random ideas with the occasional post supporting my radical left-wing agenda, and ended up posting an occasional sports post, or pictures of a big event in my life tossed in amongst a growing number of posts in which I tried to save the world. I am still going to try and save the world but a little less often.

The sports posts died down after the cavs, (not in all caps intentionally now), barely showed up for The Finals. Most of what I could have said about them and their season would have been the same rhetoric that was in every newspaper in Northeast Ohio, which is why I didn't read them or post my own thoughts.

Plus , you must realize that a few posts lead to comments that receive responses longer than the original post. Most evident in cases where Dr. Bologna edits my posts for me. However, don't believe the anger in our debates, it is his sharp wit and ability to leave voice mails on my phone where he recites an entire episode of the Howard Stern Show that led to my asking him to be my Chief-of-Staff when I am elected President.

So here's what I have been up to:

The school year ended on the 11th of June, on the 12th I started teaching Summer School. SS begins at 8 AM and ends at Noon. At noon Celebrate starts, Celebrate is an after school program that is tied into Summer School. I didn't have to do both, but it's only 3 weeks and it's mostly playing games and going on field trips until 2:30. The downside is that it is organized so poorly I come home wanting strangle someone everyday. I couldn't care less that it's disorganized but they expect us to be on top of and prepared for every situation.

Tuesday, I started my training for Cingular. Meaning I immediately get dressed after Celebrate, drive to Mayfield Heights, and sit in front of a computer for 4 hours to take web based training courses. Today, I learned the ins-and-outs of the new Apple iPhone; it's going to be an amazing piece of technology.

In conversation today Jerry, who is my boss, mentioned that he had a bag of Andy Capp's Hot Fries recently. I realized I have been eating Hot Fries for 20 years, and during that time the price has never gone above .99 cents and the bag size has never decreased. In an age of more for less, it's good to know Andy Capp is a man of the people.

Yesterday when I got there, he showed me haw to do a few things on the computer, and then we both headed out the front door to walk down to Convenient to get a pop. After I got there, and immediately walked out of the store with Jerry, I commented that we just had a very Rick and Stim moment. Reminiscent of Rick and John's management in absentia philosophy. I kid, they were actually involved in very important upper management activities, like doing a head count of mall shoppers or playing pinball.

I had a great moment today. As most of you know I went from teaching 5th and 6th grade Social Studies to running the computer lab. I enjoy this very much, but miss standing in front of a class and teaching a subject that I love, even more so since my district and really the state of Ohio really de-emphasize Citizenship. Then we complain that kids are clueless about the world we live in. I guess it's like I always told my classes when leading up to the Civil War and we discussed why slaves were forbidden to learn how to read. I told them because to the plantation owner, "A dumb slave is a good slave." The last thing the master wants is for the slave to learn somewhere that he isn't lesser than the master. To answer your question, "What the Hell is he talking about now?" let me explain my analogy. We don't give our students the knowledge they need to question their world, or authority. We teach them to be sheep, then get angry that they can't think for themselves. One of my main goals was to instill in my students the belief that they could love their country deeply, and at the same time question its actions. Point of this whole paragraph, as I try to save the world again, was that it felt great doing this 20 minute impromptu lesson that started with a student simply asking, "What state is Washington D.C. in?"

I hope those thoughts were random enough, I intend to post again sometime tomorrow.