What's Up With That?

Alvin and the Rats

2012-02-14T20:12:00.000-07:00

Just before Christmas, I was having a conversation with my wife, Maylin, on Skype. The kids had spent the day at the mall jumping in the balloon bubble, jumping on trampoline with the harness, playing games, and eating at Jollibee (imagine the nastiest tasting fast food hamburger chain possible).

Maylin told me that Alexa had started crying because she couldn't play with the rats. Hmmm...I know better than to be surprised by the Philippines, but this seemed kinda outrageous. Why would Alexa want to play with rats? What kind of rats? My questions only broke the communication down even further.

Finally, Maylin said that it was the rats from the movie. Still, i didn't know any movie rats that Alexa would know. Finally, she remembered the name and told me that Alvin and the Rats were at the mall because their movie was coming out. Alvin and the Rats does sound much catchier than Alvin and the Chipmunks, but possibly not as cuddly.

It turned out that Alvin and the Rats were on the stage doing a little show and Alexa got upset because they wouldn't come down to play with her. Since I've been gone, she started really liking Alvin. I have no idea why that would be; it must be from her mother's side of the family. Upset turned to all out bawling and the Rats took pity on my baby and gave her a special audience.

Of course, as soon as they agreed to hang out with her, Alexa realized that being held and played with by giant rats wasn't all that she had imagined. She spent the next 10 minutes trying to escape. Often, the idea of something is a lot better than the reality. Better to learn this lesson early in life, i suppose.

Here are a few photos of Alexa with Alvin and the Rats.

Alvin and the Chipmunks' promo tour in the Philippines

dreams really do come true!

That's enough playing with rats for today.

Time, the Thief

2012-02-13T23:50:00.002-07:00

Alexa and Chris

Grandpa

February 13th was my father's birthday. He would have been 76 last week. This coming October will be the 24th anniversary of his death. 24 years--it always blows me away to realize how big that the number is getting. This is the first year that more of my life has been without than with. After enough time, it just starts to seem like missing the idea of someone more than the person themselves.

Now that my kids are almost on their way here, I've got to find a way to recreate that idea. In the Philippines, no matter how much it was feeling like home, it also felt temporary, like we were kind of floating along in some rabbit-hole dream, waiting for the real part of life to start.

As that real part is about to crash to a start, I find myself realizing that I have no idea what to do again. The 10 months that i've been gone from my babies seems almost as long as 24 years. Sometimes, I can delude myself into thinking that I'll convince them when they get here to replay the year that I missed. You know, give me all of the highlights, relive some of the special events, that kind of stuff. But, it is gone. And I mourn for that time.

I spent a lot of time, as I suspect a lot of people do, wishing that time would hurry up. Time is the great prison guard, keeping us from starting something, anything. Then, imperceptibly we cross over some dividing line and start to realize that we've been dealing with a thief.

Somehow, I know that the little boy on the left and the little girl on the right have crossed paths. On one side, time hasn't started mattering yet, on the other side it is long past mattering. I'm in the middle, trying to stop the time in both directions. Sisyphus indeed.

I'm still hoping that I can measure up while there is time.

Thanks for everything dad; I really miss you now.

Kids, watch what you say on the internet!

2012-02-10T19:02:00.000-07:00

This video has gotten almost 3 million views in 2 days. Pretty awesome stuff, and a great antidote to a lot of the psychobabble that passes for parenting today.

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Don't Know Much About Happiness

2012-02-08T22:35:00.000-07:00

There are treats at the end of the post, so keep scrolling.

A friend posted a link on Facebook to a TED talk by psychologist Shawn Achor about the relationship between work, productivity, and happiness.

This brought me to the comments on the talk, which sent me to another talk by history professor Richard Schoch on 'The Myth of Being Happy.' The talk last nearly an hour, so it won't be as succinct as Achor's talk, but the topic doesn't lend itself to succinctness once you scratch the surface.

Richard Schoch: The Myth of Happiness

The first thing that came to mind as I jumped from thought to thought was that I miss exploring ideas. A little more contemplation and I realized that what I miss is being able to let my exploring lead to conclusions that aren't constrained by orthodoxy, philosophy, religion, or any other group think. We want creative and critical thinkers, but mostly only when they pretty much agree with our outlook on how things should be.

The assumptions inherent in statements like 'we now know' make me cringe. History lurches forward from one proclamation of 'knowing' to the next. It seems that the only thing that we are able to know with certainty is that we don't know much.

Now, the treat for sticking with me. Al Green performing Love and Happiness and Sam Cooke singing Wonderful World. Wonderful World doesn't actually contain the line 'Don't know much about happiness,' but it is the first song that popped into my head when I searched for a song about happiness. He sure sounds like he'll be happy if he wins her love, but we now know...

Change I Can't Believe In

2012-01-07T14:38:00.000-07:00

Well, between NDAA 1031, a DOJ subpoena of Twitter records, and SOPA (which he will sign if given the opportunity), President Obama is proving to be a bigger disappointment than even a cynic like me imagined possible. That's a tough feat given the tool that he followed.

This isn’t exactly the ‘change we can believe in’ that i had in mind. And i didn’t think ‘Yes, we can’ meant yes, we can trample over the constitution. Obama is presiding over some serious bullshit right now. What is the excuse? It’s out of his hands? If the Democrats can't stand up and provide a better alternative than this, I'm gone for good.

I have to admit, that I should have known what we were in for when he picked my ex-boss, the misguided Arne Duncan, to become the U.S. Secretary of Education. Obama would have done better if he had just picked a random illegally held prisoner.

find this photo and other awesome work by ~hellwoman at deviantART

That Don't Mean I Can't Get You There

2012-01-07T13:02:00.000-07:00

I put a Plain White T's cover of Cee-Lo Green's Fuck You on the Box of Rocks blog over my semester break. I'm embarrassed to admit that while I had my head in the sand in the Philippines, I became the only person on the planet who hadn't heard the much more profane original.

Now that i have heard it, I can't stop playing it. Simply beautiful. I've included a live version with the profanity thankfully intact. Then a pretty cool live version of Crazy by Gnarls Barkley. Finally the Plain White T's cover that got me here.

Ain't that some shit?

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet

2012-01-07T11:19:00.000-07:00

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet on Vimeo:

'via Blog this'

Mars: Who Wants to Go?

2011-12-30T18:33:00.000-07:00

Both sets of my grandparents were born in the first decade of the 20th century. The amount of scientific progress that humanity made during their lifetime is simply incredible. The amount of terror, destruction, and despair was also pretty huge, but that's a different story.

I was cleaning up parts of my class website, trying to get ready for the new semester, when I rediscovered this video about Mars. There is a very real possibility that my children will be alive to see humans on Mars. One of the scientists in the video predicts that if you had a call for volunteers for the first trips to Mars, you'd have lines coast to coast.

We'd have monsters to slay again. There would be adventures beyond the imagination again. I think that it's just what we need. Total Recall, here we come. I'd nominate Arnie for the first trip.

If they do begin, imagine how well qualified you'd have to be! One of my biggest peeves about education is that we are long on selling the idea that everyone can be an astronaut or whatever they want, and short on the idea of explaining exactly how much work and talent that it takes. No, everyone cannot be an astronaut. Take a look at the basic qualifications needed and give me a guess about how much of the world's population qualifies.

Here is the original post:
Once again, I'm amazed at the information available to us and the creativity being used to put it all together. Today, I found the Symphony of Science by seeing a reference to it on Twitter. The series of 10 videos (more coming!) is fascinating.

I'm including the video 'The Case for Mars' here. You should definitely check out the rest of the videos on their site: Symphony of Science

'stuff' is messed up or not even fly for a white guy

2011-12-27T20:10:00.000-07:00

Endless updates because of ever-changing decisions on fair use and copyright. Hopefully it's getting better. You'd think that whoever owns the music would want the videos being spread since more honest viewers may actually end up buying the song. Pretty impossible to understand folks who think illogically. Ahhh...reminds me of living in the Philippines.

The Offspring has been solid and going strong for a long time. When people look back at the sales, longevity, and quality of music they'll think that The Offspring was huge. They've managed to stay pretty true to their ideals and have fun doing what they love. Well done, Offspring.

Music, the ultimate motivator. Happy New Year to my 'friends' in the Philippines. Watch your back, fellas!

originally published January 15, 2011
more puzzle pieces, at least i can still crack myself up.

Ghosts of Christmas Past

2011-12-24T17:00:00.000-07:00

It's kinda amazing how much difference a year can make. I read stuff like this post from 1 year ago, and i'm able to remember how many assumptions that are stuffed into just a few lines. I assumed that Christmas and presents, and trees, and (especially) kids would be a given. Now I feel like i'm the main character in a cautionary tale about any of the many things that i could lend caution to.
Only a few months left, only a few months left, only a few months left....

December 23, 2010
Break has been great so far. It is Christmas Eve, and everyone is getting ready for the arrival of lots of cousins and friends. Christopher and Alexa still don't really have a clue about what is up, except that there are lots of wrapped trucks under the tree. Amazingly to me, they haven't ripped anything open yet.

I'm way behind on posting, but i did get a few music libraries combined and cleaned and ready to enjoy. More about that later.

A Christmas song for everyone who hasn't learned the modern meaning of Christmas yet.

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We're an American Band

2011-12-24T03:30:00.000-07:00

I'm going to make a big list of New Year's resolutions in the hope that one or two of them stick.

Resolution #1: Christopher and Alexa will have the lyrics to this song memorized by the end of the year.

March 10, 2011
Christopher and Alexa don't know it yet, but this is going to be the first song that their kick-ass band releases. Reason enough to be proud to be American, these boys tear it up.

I still want to be a rockstar...

2011-12-23T15:00:00.000-07:00

Almost 2012 update. This is going to be a huge year. I'll start the year mourning that my kids are still trapped in a 3rd world shithole. I'll get a decent amount back when i file taxes. I'll see my babies again for the first time in almost a year. I'll start teaching those babies how to ride bikes, camp, and be American kids (in all of the best senses of what that conjures up). I'll either figure out how to reach urban middle schoolers, or i won't. We'll know if a teacher's salary is enough for our reunited family. I'll face that my primary function in life is now being a dad.

A lot of this just has to do with growing up (still?! when does this end?). Reading some Douglas Coupland always puts me in a better mood about the realities and certainties of life.

No matter what happens, I'm pretty sure that i'll continue to tilt after windmills.

July 13, 2009
Some quotations from Douglas Coupland, taken from his website

As we age we passionlessly assess what we have and what we lack, and then go about making the best of it, like an actor who goes from playing leads to playing character roles; like a party girl who goes from being a zany kook to being a cautionary tale for the younger girls.

You spend a much larger part of your life being old, not young.

In our heads we’re all about 33 years old.

By twenty-five you know you’re never going to be a rock star, by thirty you know you’re never going to be a dentist, and by forty there are maybe three things left that you can still be - and even then, that’s only if you run as fast as you possibly can to try to catch the train.

You can’t get mad at weather because weather’s not about you. Apply that lesson to most other aspects of life.

I really like the last one, and it comes at a time when i really need to try to apply it myself.

Send me postcards!

2011-12-23T01:30:00.000-07:00

I'm making an effort to put some of my ideas and projects into motion. One of the projects is to start collecting postcards from around the world for my children and students. A slide-show essay from slate.com rekindled my interest in finding postcards from all corners of the earth.

When i was young, a friend of my mother, named Miriam McManus, tried to get me into collecting--first issue stamps, coins, that kind of stuff. I kept up with the coin collecting for awhile, but all of my collections were thrown out, lost, or traded for beer money long ago.

Post cards have held a fascination with me even though i never really collected them. The messages are often as interesting as the photo. No matter where i am or how old i am, it is always kind of thrilling to get a postcard.

So, anyone interested in getting my collection going, please send any kind of postcard, with any kind of message to:

Captain Ned
C/O William Gayhart
DCIS Montbello
5000 Crown Blvd
Denver, CO 80239 USA

I promise that we'll send one of our own back to you.

I was going to put an old postcard here, but i don't think that i scanned them before my move. But i did find an article about Miriam McManus winning the Illinois History Magazine Teacher of the Year award. She taught me how to fish, took me on a yearly field trip with the 'big kid' 8th graders to Springfield and New Salem Illinois, and often brought me to her cottage at Cedar Lake, Indiana. She continued to send me postcards for most of her life (which i never returned, and feel guilty about now that I think about it). Thanks, Miriam.

life in the country

2011-12-22T22:00:00.000-07:00

I continue to toil endlessly at creating some kind of digital tidiness, only to fall further behind daily. This post was originally from May 2, 2010, about a year before I left Angeles. All edits are in this soothing shade of purple.

May 2, 2010. When he was John Cougar, John Mellencamp was big at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. He was a home town hero, singing about growing up in small town Indiana, while i was living with the people who inhabited the songs.

The version of Check it Out is recorded live at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis in 1987. I was at that show with Larry Ecker, Becky Schultz, and someone else. It was at the end of the first semester of the worst year of my life (up to that point, sadly), that i've written about before. We didn't make it into the video, but we are there, somewhere in the upper level, stage right.

The show was awesome. I don't remember what we did before or after, which is pretty typical of events in that time frame. I do remember being blown away by the show. I also remember trying to talk everyone into giving up partying and joining the yuppies full on. They agreed, i think, and then we kind of pretended that we never had the conversation. Everybody in our small group at the concert was from a small town--except for me.

I didn't realize it then, but those years whetted my appetite for ~~small~~ medium-sized towns. My bipolar nature has me move back and forth between very urban and fairly rural with stops in between. I think that the actual data might show a bit more randomness to it than that. Right now, Angeles feels more like a city than a small town; I'm feeling the beginning of the urge to swing back in the other direction. didn't quite work out that way.

Yazoo--Another reason to not hate the 80s

2011-12-19T05:30:00.000-07:00

Since i started ragging on the music of the 80s, i've had a steady stream of reminders of music that I still love from the decade. Yazoo combined two incredible talents in Vince Clark (Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Erasure) and Alison Moyet. The result is a hauntingly beautiful sound. A couple of the videos are live, and a few are fan videos.

Jesus Don't Want Me for a Sunbeam

2011-12-11T21:00:00.000-07:00

came up on random play. mp3 music up there with the best inventions of all time.

Journey to Journey's Early Days

2011-12-11T14:00:00.000-07:00

I've found a few friends from my childhood and high school years on Facebook. It's often a trip to think about those days. On one hand, it seems like a few months ago, on the other hand, it seems like several lifetimes ago. In reality, 18 was 27 years ago--not so far from forever ago.

Sometimes i'll find music on YouTube that reminds me of how things looked and felt back then. When they came out, Journey rocked. Then they rocked less. Then they came back and kind of parodied themselves rocking less.

I nearly forgot that I used to think of Journey as rockers. When i visited Carl Sandburg High School in the last half of the 70s, before actually attending, I always saw Journey banners around the lunch room. It put the idea that Journey was what the big kids were listening to into my head. I had to at least check it out.

The last video has footage and interviews before a Journey performance at Soldier Field in Chicago during the summer of 1978.

Looking for Pink Floyd

2011-12-10T12:00:00.000-07:00

I'm always looking for a Pink Floydish musical experience. I'm not sure how to explain what that means, i just know it when i feel it. Radiohead puts me there. Every time that i hear a song or see a video, i love their music more. Yet another band on my if I ever get a chance to see list. That list keeps getting longer without getting any shorter since i lived in the Philippines.

i was here, but i disappear

2011-12-10T11:30:00.000-07:00

The Pareto (80/20) Principle describes the phenomenon of a relatively small number of causes leading to a relatively high number of effects. The 80 and 20 aren't the crux of it, but rather the small to large correlation (for me anyway!). This has always seemed true to me, well before I knew that there was a principle describing it.

The concept became obvious to me when i started teaching. It was always about 5% of the student population who caused about 90% of the school's problems. If every at risk school was allowed to move 5% of their biggest trouble makers to some other special facility (there is the pc rub) the quality of education would improve dramatically.

Then I noticed that it applied to a lot of other things also. It is always some idiot who ruins things for everyone. If we could somehow isolate 5% of the biggest knuckleheads* in the world, we would think that we were in paradise, at least until we got used to it and started complaining again.

What that 5% of the world's knuckleheads don't ever seem to take into account is that, eventually, their day always comes. Always. The moral arc of the universe does indeed bend towards justice.

I was here.

I was here but i disappear.

I am everywhere.

graffiti on a wall near the police station

*knucklehead is a word that should be used more. besides that, i'm trying to be less profane before Chris and Alexa become toddler truckers.

this explains a lot

2011-11-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

YouTube, Google, and Wikipedia still amaze me sometimes. I think about conversations and arguments that we had in high school or college in the late 70s to late 80s time frame. It might as well have been the stone age. Then, someone could be an expert on anything, and it was much harder to call their bluff, unless you just happened to be an expert at whatever they were claiming expertise in.

Now, a few keystrokes and you can find virtually anything, whether you need to or not.

I have always loved the theme song from the Banana Splits TV show. I even got an album of their music for a birthday. My kids love to jump around to the song now too, but i think that by the time they are the age that i liked it, it will seem like kid's stuff to them.

I looked up The Banana Splits on YouTube. I should have left it a memory. I don't remember that at all. Then, the HR Puffnstuff theme, another 'don't miss' for me, showed up in suggestions at the right. What is up with that?

The post title says that this explains a lot. I think that it might, but i'm not really sure what. My massive amounts of television time were split between (i now find out) kid-trippy stuff like these shows, the Partridge and Brady families on one hand, and syndicated reruns of shows like Leave it to Beaver, Father Knows Best, The Dick van Dyke Show, and I Love Lucy on the other hand.

After seeing these two clips, I don't think that i'll need to return again. Besides, there are way too many Dora the Explorer episodes that i haven't seen yet.

i want to be a megalomaniac

2011-11-27T01:30:00.000-07:00

Incubus Megalomaniac just came up on random play. If you can manage it, being a megalomaniac doesn't sound like such a bad thing. Betrand Russell wrote that "(t)he megalomaniac differs from the narcissist by the fact that he wishes to be powerful rather than charming, and seeks to be feared rather than loved. To this type belong many lunatics and most of the great men of history."

A few from Incubus. Megalomaniac and Drive are recorded live at Red Rocks in Colorado. Of the places that i've seen shows, Red Rocks and the Gorge in Washington are tied for first on my list of best venues. Love Hurts is sandwiched in the middle and is my current favorite Incubus song.

In the few months since I've been home, Incubus has been bounding up my favorite band list.

the world needs more Belle and Sebastian

2011-11-26T16:30:00.000-07:00

I need some 'it's only the end of vacation, not the end of the world' music. I think that we'd have a lot less problems if we had more Belle & Sebastian playing. Most are live clips, the first video for If She Wants Me is an example of the kind of family fun and togetherness that B&S inspires.

Maggie Bjorklund's Magical Music

2011-11-11T19:43:00.001-07:00

The free music from Google's Music Beta has been a great source of new music for me. Tonight I came across Summer Romance by Maggie Bjorklund (with Rachel Flotard). In YouTube i found another song from the same performance featuring Mark Lanegan.

I still can't figure out what makes music popular--these songs have only 2k and 6k views on YouTube, which seems very bizarre to me. Enjoy.

Is winter almost over yet?

2011-10-26T19:52:00.000-06:00

It had to happen sometime, but I wasn't ready for it this soon! Today, I saw snow for the first time in 4-1/2 years. I'm not feeling the winter wonderland thing.

While lounging around in a t-shirt and shorts for the last 4 winters, I occasionally thought that I missed the changing seasons and cold. That was delusional thinking. I've spent 42 of my 46 winters in places like Chicago, Montana, Colorado, and Boston--this was no shock to my system or anything like that. It just sucked. Having to get up early and drive extra carefully, hoping that you don't get stuck somewhere or get run off of the road or have some other winter tragedy befall you.

If anything did happen, i'd have to explain why i don't have better tires, an ice scraper, warm clothes, a hat, gloves, or any of the other things that sane people living in climates that have snow in October should have. Sigh....

This is the view from the school entrance next to my room.

This makes me want to go to California!

meg & dia--monster (stuck in my head)

2011-10-15T04:57:00.000-06:00

It started by following a post in my twitter feed. Now i can't get the song out of my head, which isn't a bad thing. You can check out more from these sisters and their band at meganddia.com or visit their YouTube channel

I love seeing creative, talented, and successful amer-asian young people that my kids will be able to look up to as role models some day. Keep rocking, girls.