Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Welcome To The Good Life

Today I realized something:

I am happy.

I am happy with my life at this point. This is for several reasons. First, I am in good health. I have no major health issues. My mind is working properly. Secondly, I have great friends and family. Those people always support me. They check me when I am wrong, celebrate when I am right. I support them to the best of my ability and they do the same for me. Third, I love my job. It is great. I come home tired many days but I am happy. The students I teach are passionate about what they are learning. The guys keep me on my toes. My faculty is very supportive of me being new. They give me tips all of the time.

Things are great and I cannot complain. Being 21 and happy is rare. I am going to enjoy it.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

September 11

And can we please have a moment of truth?
For soldiers and troops away with helmets and boots
And families back home who pray they make it home safe
Hopin' that they don't get hit with a stray or missiles
This is just a moment to let you all know that we miss you
Mommy I'm still here, wishin' I was there with you
Let's take a moment

As day comes and night falls
For the rest of our life we'll miss y'all
And even though life must go on, we'll still mourn
While wishin' y'all were home

Nas - Just A Moment


I reflect about the lesson that September 11th taught me. This is the lesson:

We must stay vigilant

We must stay vigilant. On Sept. 11th, we were caught sleeping.
Your average citizen never even had a premonition about a tragedy as close as devastating as this. No one in government expected this to happen. There were no preparations made in case of a situation like this. That is unacceptable.

But as citizens, we must be vigilant. What does this entail? This means that we must watch over our government. We must hold them accountable for their actions, or lack thereof. As citizens, our right to vote can be used as the greatest checks and balance in our government. In the end, we can force, cajole, and convince government officials to change their governing behavior.

But this requires a lot on our part. It requires that we educate ourselves on how our government works. We need to know how it functions in order to participate effectively. We also need to educate ourselves on what our congressmen, state congressman, mayors, governors, etc believe in. The easiest way to do this: look at how the govern, not what they say. Look at how your city council votes. Know that your US Senator voted for or against an updated GI Bill. Know if he only voted present or actually placed a real yes or no vote. The public has done itself a disservice by not being educated. How can we hold people accountable if we dont even know what they doing??

Secondly, we must vote! We must vote! WE MUST VOTE! This is how we let the government know we are vigilant. The only way they keep doing what the people ask is when they know the people are watching. You must actively participate in order to see the change you want. And the easiest way to do this is to vote.

Sept 11th has shown us the need to be vigilant. Our government must be able to provide our security without removing our freedoms (that's even if we have those). And our citizenry must stay awake, must be watching in order to guarantee that this happen. I am vigilant, watching my government. I will hold it accountable for the mistakes it makes by using my way of balancing the power:voting. Never again will it find me asleep. I hope that goes the same for you.


Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Teacher Man Tired

The first 2 weeks of teaching have been great. I like it a lot.

But to be honest, I suck at it. Lets keep it real. I am good at keeping the kids excited and interested. They love my class. They like me. They run around speaking in Latin all day. Yet I need to work on my organization. I have not had this 3rd week planned out as well so I have been winging it and will continue to do so for this week. This weekend I am grinding and planning my next 2 weeks. This way I can get it together. Its really my fault and I was not up on it. Now my principal will be in my class Thursday. Thus, I am going to have to be at my best. He expects there to be some mistakes but I dont want to look like a screw up.

My sleep has been shitty For the past 3 days. Monday I slept for only 3 hours. I cannot explain it. This cannot keep happening. My job requires that I sleep well. I need to be able to keep up with the kids. I am going to go to bed earlier than I normally do and see if that helps.

Now that I reread this, this entry is quite negative. Maybe I will have better news later this week.

Monday, September 01, 2008

Buy You A Drank



This is Jesse McCartney doing a cover of one of my favorite drinking songs, "Buy U A Drank". He e looks like a midget Robin Thicke in this video. Is he even old enough to drink??