Sons of Lapetus

Part one of the Atlas Shrugged film trilogy came out recently.  Critically, it failed.  But I bet it got some Tea Party people fired up.

When Alix and I first started dating, she suggested I read The Fountainhead and told me that I reminded her of Howard Roark, the protagonist.  It was flattering.  But for many years after that I would point out the comparison whenever someone mentioned the book, and sometimes even when they didn't.  I'm glad I stopped doing that.

Jean Jacket

I broke my collarbone when I was in kindergarten.  It's not super clear, but you can see the difference between the right and left bones in the x-ray I got as part of my health exam to work in France.  Apparently x-rays are the most efficient way for them to check for tuberculosis.

I was taking off my new jean jacket to put in my cubby.  My dad had dropped me off at kindergarten that day, and was talking with the teacher on the other side of the room.  I used the kid method of taking off a jacket - grab the collar and pull as you twist your body in weird ways until the jacket comes off - and I ended up with the jacket inside-out, off of me except at the hands where the cuffs were too tight to slip.  It looked like a jean jacket jump rope attached to my hands.  

My dad says he realized, at this point, what I was thinking and shook his head "no" to stop me.  But I had already started to use the jacket as a jump rope.  It was too short.  It caught my legs and pulled them from under me.  And, since my hands were stuck in the cuffs, it also yanked my hands back.  My shoulder took all the force on the linoleum floor.  I haven't had another jean jacket since then. 

Off the Wall

Pretty soon I'll be a teacher again.  Only a long-term substitute, though, so I'm yet to have my own classroom.  When I do, I'll need to get some morale and moral boosting posters for the walls.

Three posters stick in my mind from when I was a student.  The first encouraged students in Ms. R's math class to stick through algebraic frustrations.

Next, I had a somewhat buddhist lesson in mindfulness.

Finally, my social studies teacher had a small quote above the chalkboard.

It seemed ironic given the emphasis on rote memorization of facts in the class, and the possibility that the quote didn't originate with Eleanor Roosevelt.  But it stuck with me nonetheless.

SK8

This video's five years old now, but I thought of it as I washed the dishes the other day and Sigh Your Children came on my ipod.  I'm still impressed by the level of rollerblading my French friends had/have.  I'm also still embarrassed by how poorly I represent skateboarding, as most of my stuff is me falling and then smiling at the camera.  Good memories.

Z-Man

I spend about 1/3 of my life asleep.  If I make it to my normal life expectancy, then the amount of time I've lived so far - all 26 years of it - will go to sleep.  Fortunately, I like to sleep.  And so does my body.  I recently defeated a flu that overtook me when my defenses were down from lack of rest (I played dodgeball until 2AM, then woke up early), and the recovery took hours and hours of extra sleep.  Too much sleep.  I decided in the haze of influenza that if I could have one superpower, it'd be to not need sleep.

On the day I felt the sickness take over, I got to see Donald Glover perform at William & Mary.  It was worth the fever.  Too bad this is the best video I could find: