some lights seem eternal
in this springtime of hope

and doin' it well

April 25, 2005
I cannot tell you if my students were happy to be back at school or not, I was too tired to notice.

Fractions are not only a maddening thing to learn but they are maddening to teach. Think of everything that was difficult to learn as a child and realize that it is twice as hard, in most cases, to teach something difficult.

My fourth graders are scenario busters. If I give them a scenario or metaphor to help them understand it, they take it apart. For example, today we were learning about fractions and I said, �Suppose you have a pizza with five slices and we are splitting it evenly between two people. How can we make this work.� The idea is to change fifths into tenths, but they said, �I would just eat the third piece when the other person wasn�t looking.� Thinking, and they believe this, that if they stump my metaphor they will not have to do the work.

My sister thinks this is cute and she does it too, �I get what you are saying, but I am acting like this because I think it is cute.� Oh well, I told them to figure it out on their own, I might be available for questions. They all had questions and they all had to figure this out on their own. Tomorrow we try again.


My friend�s (adult) son died this last week and the saddest part is that no one knew he was even in the hospital until the day he died. He was a teacher and on break, as I was, and since he was single no one noticed him missing for days. He was hit by a car while riding his bicycle on Wednesday and it took them until Saturday to find his parents, or anyone connected to him. His parents got there shortly before he died.

Be considerate, carry identification all the time � especially if you are single and live alone.

The funeral is during school and I cannot attend because it is here and someone has to stay back and cover classes. I will go to the wake � when I find out the time. I wonder how people are expected to plan these things, stricken with grief we are supposed to put together a tasteful display of mourning.

This weekend marked a year since my own Grandmother�s funeral, which was more a celebration than anything. We were glad to see her pain and abusive marriage ended, how do you mark the passing of someone young? I never lose sight of the enternal wisdom and goodness of God � even in the face of tragedy � I know that pain are suffering are not a part of his will, even if it happens.


If I died on a school break the first people to know would be diary land users, �He has not updated in six hours, he must be dead!�

The second people to find out would be my second job where they would notice the peace and quiet coupled with the lack of things breaking and customers complaining. After that would be bill collectors and when September rolled around, someone would notice me gone at school and complain to my parents that I had not returned to work, then someone would find my dead rotting body. It would take weeks.

I guess I should prepare my living will � I want to kept alive because my living and breathing (even nominally) annoys people � and give the codes for my online activities unto Suburban Island so someone can announce the vacancy at Spritopias.

Should there be a vacancy at Spritopias, Kipp will be called out of exile at the Undisclosed, Secure Starbucks to take on the duties as President of Diary Land. There are instructions at an earlier entry of how my State Funeral should go off, but I want those changed.

1. I insist that it be a religious service at a Lutheran Church � Misery Synod Congregation. If you are offended by Pope Benedict XIV you should meet your neighbors at the LC-MS, you are in for a treat. If you know a Lutheran who does not offend you, either you know someone in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Apostasy (ELCA) or you do not know the Lutheran very well.

2. The illustrious Dr. A and Dr. G have the best stories about me during my formative stages so after Jeremy gives the �he was a good guy� eulogy and Suburban Island gives her video taped eulogy ala Margaret Thatcher, they should get up and speak the truth about who I was as a person.

3. Kipp should smoke through the entire service, if any of my mother�s relatives show up she should burn them said cigarette.

4. I insist that Pelosi lead all the liberals in a march around a statue of me, throwing rocks at it, ceremonially one last time. Lighting it on fire is acceptable as well, but probably bad for the environment. See Alex Vance for all your Spritopias-in-Effigy needs.

5. I would appreciate Betty Already throwing herself on my coffin, as Nancy Reagan did to Ronald Reagan. I would also like her children to behave in an outrageous manner, being the reason that we all love them. This would annoy my mother�s relatives because their children lack personality or redeeming value.

Those are my wishes, make sure they are followed, please.

3:28 PM :: 15 comments so far ::
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