High School Musical

Small Town High School had its second annual musical after a decade hiatus from the format. They performed Godspell. The kids did a great job. The microphones did not.

Son attended, so he gets five extra credit points in English.

Foto Phriday

Mom's pond.

MPG

I squeezed 499.8 miles out of my last tank of gas, and when I filled up today (at $4.159/gal), I put in 10.35 gallons, for 48.3 mpg.

Home Sick Today - Bleh

No news, just home sick.

Finish

We went to the team cookout for the drumline last night. The president of the Small Town High School Performing Arts Boosters held it at his house. The kids had fun.

Tongue Twister

For you English speakers, try this.

Rapidly say the name of the colors in each square of each row of the grid.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!

Video Saturday - Multiple Views

Here's a video of the model.

Foto Phriday - School Project Edition

Son's model of the El Castillo* pyramid at Chichen Itza. Click to embiggen.



It's made primarily of posterboard, and there are reinforcing layers of foam core up and down the middle with a dowel rod holding things in place. There are a lot of mailing labels used as tape, and the paint is that special paint that looks like rock.

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*Yes, I know I'm using two articles.

Original Poem for Thursday - Enjoy

Meta

The world is like a simile:
As big as all the skies,
And different as snowflakes
That float like butterflies.

As inviting as a long-time friend
Who's opening a door.
As confusing as the question,
"What's that meta for?"

How to Tell You Are a Hero in a Swords and Sorcery Setting

You are a young man whose facial hair is always slightly scruffy. You are never clean shaven, nor do you ever grow an actual beard.

Senational Headline Attracts Attention

A sensational headline attracted readers' attention, a local newspaper reports. The banner headline, printed in large letters on the front page of the paper, succeeded at luring readers into reading the news story, which was not as interesting as the headline led those readers to believe.

Deadline

I sent some paperwork off last week that had to be mailed by today. It was not our tax returns, but it's related to the date. I sent it off last week, with the thought that I was well ahead of the deadline.

Of course, I sent it to the same address I used last year, because the web site for this account did not have any information that said otherwise. You can see where this is going. I got the mail returned with a "Forwarding period expired" message.

So at 5:20, I was frantically searching for post offices with late hours. There was one that was 15 minutes away, so I updated the cover letters with the new address and sent them to our printer.

The computer I was using couldn't find the printer on the network. OK, don't panic. Thumb drive to the rescue! Got the letters printed.

Don't have any envelopes. AARRRGGHH!

That's OK, the post office will have them.

There are eight red lights, yes RED lights, not just traffic lights, between me and that post office. That, and lots of cars need to turn left on that route for some reason.

I got to the post office with six minutes to spare, but of course on Tax Day, there was a line. I grabbed a large envelope, addressed it (three pens out of five were out of ink), and then got behind the eleven people who were all very concerned and confused about the concept of a postmark. "Will this be postmarked today?"

But, to their credit, the postal workers were efficient and friendly. I walked out about 45 seconds before they locked the doors.

Saving a Life

I was driving the other day, and I saw a turtle on the road. He was trucking along at about one foot per minute, so I stopped the car, ran back, and put him about fifty feet from the road facing the other way. I have see no turtle corpses on that stretch of road since, so I think he's fine.

The Same Sandbox

The other day, as I was waiting for Son to finish his haircut*, a two women came in with a young boy of about six. They sat down and waited for a stylist to finish up. The boy was having none of it. He evidently was not a patient kid.

As soon as his mother's back was turned, he looked at me, jutted out his lower jaw, rolled his eyes up and growled under his breath.

I stared at him for a moment, completely deadpan, and then slowly crossed my eyes. The boy didn't quite know how to react.

I think I won.

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*"I want my hair cut, but I'd like to let it grow out."

Resurrection Squared

I love the last line: "Please help us to come back to life again."



====================
Dr Darlington Onanefe Ibori
Ibori Family House Complex,
Asaba,
Delta State,
Nigeria.

Dear Sir,

My name is Dr Darlington Onanefe Ibori, the brother of the erstwhile Governor of Delta State, South South Nigeria. I am writing to you on behalf of the entire Mr and Mrs Ibori Family to please come to our rescue. Our breadwinner Chief James Ibori, former governor of Delta State has been in detention in Dubai on the order of Dr Goodluck Jonathan for money laundering. His wife was also arrested in London Heathrow on the same issue of purported money laundering. All of these are just propaganda to detain our dear brother so that he will not contest this year April Presidential Election. The money he left for us at Eco Bank in Nigeria has been Approved but we cannot receive the funds by our selves. We need a trustable person Into whose account these funds can be wired into for the purpose of investment on behalf of my family. The amount is U$18.500.000.00 Dollars. Can you help us to receive these funds and invest for us? Upon your consent to this, 30% of the total sum shall be for you,
why the balance goes for the investments you may choose for us.
You can see the under mentioned internet sites to buttress my claim of sincererity as this business is not and never a scam. Please help us to come back to life again.

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/omoyele-sowore/james-iboris-wife-theresa-nkoyo-arrested-at-heathrow-airport-in-london.html


http://www.newstimeafrica.com/archives/12301


Yours Faithfully

Darlignton Ibori

Stranger

What would have to happen before a friend could no longer respond to you by saying, "Stranger things have happened?"

What They Don't Know

PM: What should we do about the fleezits?

GDad: I think we should grobbertize the fleezits to make sure we obtain the metricality of chritonite.

Other Team Around the Corner: [applause at some unrelated thing]

Designer: That must have been the right answer.

GDad: What do you mean?

PM: The applause.

GDad: Oh. That goes on so much inside my head that I don't pay any attention any more. In fact, my theme music just had a big decrescendo so we could have this conversation.

PM and Designer: ?

GDad: And now it's crescendoing again so I can get up from my chair.

Unpunished Good Deed

Last night, our corporate choir did a performance at one of the local nursing homes. We got a nice crowd, and they were very appreciative. I was grinning ear-to-ear to be up on stage again.

Politics

I haven't really thought these things through, but a couple of concepts have been twirling about in my head regarding politics.

Will we see a regression to the mean where the polarized ends will collapse, and the center will see a resurgence? I suspect this is more likely, although the other option of positive feedback loops creating a more and more intensely divided climate is a believable possibility. I think the ends encourage the second belief, because it raises funds and energy.

Mayans

Son is making a model of the El Castillo pyramid (yes, I know that's redundant) at Chichen Itza for Spanish class. I've been helping him plan it, and he's been cutting, pasting, stacking, etc. It should be fun.

Weather has Turned

Someone finally flipped the switch.

DONE!

My interminable project #1 is done. Everything implemented successfully (on the third try). I can now go to sleep.

Foto Phriday

Here's a Munchkin bobblehead. Enjoy.

Funny E-Mail

In response to a person who was wishing someone luck...

"I'm keeping my fingferds crodssedw."

Video Schmideo

GPop showed me a video the other day made by some girl whose parents paid for professional editing and production. This has been dubbed "Worst. Video. Ever." on several places on Teh Intarwebz. Really, though, I couldn't tell the difference between it and 90% of the other popular videos around today.

Married Name

It would be hilarious if Emily Brontë traveled through time, married George Soros, and hyphenated her name.

Drove my Chevy

Our school has a levy this year to continue existing property taxes to maintain income levels for the district. Unfortunately, there are two challenges.

1. The TEA Party has a presence here, and the political climate around taxes is toxic, even for reasonably liberal people who understand about investing in our future.
2. This replacement levy is the largest percentage of property value I've ever seen in this region.

If the school doesn't pass, they're getting rid of 15 teachers and 18 staff and administrative positions. I'm hoping people will see the benefits of an educated populace.

Final Rank

Small Town High School (STHS) finished 6th place in the state competition in drumline, Division A-academic northern hambone airplane 47 or six to four. This was out of 16 schools that made it to the semifinals in this division.

Sixth place? "Feh," you say.

Keep in mind that STHS has never had a drumline team before this year, and they had a total program budget of $5000, all of which was paid by parents and donations. Other schools in this competition had been doing this for years, and some of them had budgets upwards of $45,000.

I am so proud of these kids.

Win

Son's school has gone on from the drumline semi-finals to the finals. I'll be heading to North Haverbrook for the finals tomorrow.

Pew Quiz

Take the Pew Political IQ quiz here. I scored 10/11, which slightly irritates me for not getting a perfect score.

Foto Phriday - Train Wreck at Medium Speed

Here's a picture of a t-shirt for sale in the mall last week.