Heading Back to Asia

We found out today that my request for a transfer to Okinawa was approved. Kristie and I are excited to go be beach bums for a couple of years.

We wrestled with returning to Portland or going for another tour with DoDDS. We both felt lured to Okinawa, so I put that down on the list. I'll be returning to the classroom teaching Language Arts to middle school kids.

I may learn to scuba dive, but I doubt I'll learn to enjoy sushi.

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As Disturbing as Jeremiah Wright's Comments

From Bill Richardson's endorsement speech yesterday in Portland:

"My affection and admiration for Hillary Clinton and President Bill Clinton will never waver...The 1990's were a decade of peace and prosperity because of the competent and enlightened leadership of the Clinton administration.."

Your admiration will never, ever, ever, waver? Not during Monica or Whitewater? Not throughout all of these personal attacks against Obama? That's reason alone for Barack to deny his endorsement.

And, by the way, that prosperous time you refer to had more to do with the innovations of Microsoft and its ilk than it does to the "enlightened leadership" of Bill.

Richardson Endorses Obama

Richardson is set to endorse Obama in Portland, Oregon.

 

Who cares?

 

I suppose this will help Bill know what it feels like to be in front of a cheering crowd.

 

John Edwards is trying to heighten the speculation on who he will endorse. By the time he ends the waiting, we’ll have already forgotten about him.

Still My Favorite Photo of Aslan

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Can You Tell the Difference?

Trip to Mainz

Yesterday, we went to Mainz via train with our new friends, Dave, Drew, and Melissa. After lunch, we visited the cathedral and St. Stephen's Church (with windows designed by Marc Chagall).

I think this guy looks like me, if I grew out my beard.

I'm easily amused by third-grade humor...

Easter Market

Last Sunday, we went downtown to the Wiesbaden Easter Market with
Dan, Kelly, Charlie, and Aslan. After a bratwurst, we spent most of
the time in Starbucks.

Don't judge me!

Momentum

Is she still using this word? Can someone on her team please define this term for her? You can use the example of the looming calls for resignation of Client 9, if that helps elucidate matters.

I Hope She Used Purell

Once again, the Clintons are associated with nefarious folk.

 

 

Obama and Hillary Pose for a Photo Op

Questioning a Woman's Place

Here's a lesson plan I created for a technology conference in December. It is one of my better efforts, I think. This Power Point will take students through examining roles of women in the media and around the world.

The "Onslaught" commercial alone is worth a viewing.

Six-Word Memoirs

I across across this clever writing exercise when I was in Portland last month during a Powell's book reading. It's called a Six-Word Memoir, writing your life story in six words. A collection of the online submissions was published called Not Quite What I Was Planning. Go to the Smith Magazine site to see the submissions.

Here are my humble additions:

A thousand stories within. Zero written.

I'll never read through my bookshelf.

Ernest Hemingway's stories make me jealous.

I envy Peter Parker's spider bite.

Wished for the perfect girl. Found her.

It's your turn...

A Momentum of Lies and Spin

Feel the cooling power of the Clinton Spin Machine.

Winning three of the past fifteen is not the definition of “momentum,” no matter how you try to sell it.

It’s 3 a.m., and something wrong has happened in the world.

What Would Lewis Have to Say about This?

I found this curious comment in the shipping section for this used
book. We can't have those prison Christians joyful, can we?

Is This Shirt Too Tight?

Airport Prose

Sitting in PDX airport. Heading back to Wiesbaden. Eating a dry
chicken salad sandwich. Writing gerund phrases.

Vast Losing Streak

I'm sure you blame your losing streak on a "vast, right-wing
conspiracy," don't you?

Famous First Lines

Match the title of the story/novel with its first line.

(taken from Art Peterson's The Writer's Workout Book)

A. Fahrenheit 451- Ray Bradbury

B. Peter Pan- J. M. Barrie

C. Flowers for Algernon- Daniel Keys

D. One Hundred Years of Solitude- Gabriel Garcia Marquez

E. Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man- James Joyce

F. 1984- George Orwell

G. The Great Gatsby- F. Scott Fitzgerald

H. Call of the Wild- Jack London

I. Jane Eyre- Charlotte Bronte

J. The Hounds of Baskerville- Arthur Conan Doyle

K. The Metamorphosis- Franz Kafka

_______Dr. Strauss say I should rite down what I think and remember and evreything that happins to me from now on.

_______It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen.

_______Buck did not read the newspapers, or he would have known that trouble was brewing, not alone for himself, but for every tidewater dog, strong of muscle and with warm, long hair, from Puget Sound to San Diego.

_______When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.

_______It was a pleasure to burn.

_______In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me sane advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.

_______Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very late in the mornings, save upon those not infrequent occasions when he was up all night, was seated at the breakfast table.

_______There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.

_______All children except one, grow up.

_______Once upon a time and a very gootime it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named tuckoo...

_______Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.

The Audacity of Openness

I flew from Frankfurt to Portland yesterday (and boy, are my arms tired!).

It was a 10+ hour flight, and I stayed awake to read Obama's book cover to cover. I really enjoyed it, especially the chapter titled,"Opportunity." I can see why the masses like this guy. Aside from his fresh perspective, he seems kind to those who arrive at different conclusions than his own. This is something that most other Democrats in and out of the public eye need to be more gracious in. A multi-faceted society with different belief structures only seem to be praised if you agree with the proposition, whether abortion, gay marriage, etc. It's not often that liberal folks are willing to acknowledge that there are other valid viewpoints besides their own. This often frustrated me in political discussions with friends and reading pieces in the media. There's little point in talking with someone if they already have the you're-an-idiot-if-you-believe-that mentality. And honestly, I feel that in my experience as a conservative, that it often the place where the conversation begins.

Perhaps it's a simplistic reason to support a presidential candidate, but I liked that perspective from Obama. His book seems to have that openness that many do not. I think that openness of that sort is the marking of a good leader and a good person. I wish that some of the people in my life would show similar willingness to find out why I believe in a tenet that they do not. They do not have to accept, agree, or even like it, but there should be a desire to know more about a topic simply because someone they know believes it.

Of course, this applies to politics, religion, or liking a particular movie.

Dear Wisconsin: Crush Hillary, Please

Now I Know How Jack Bauer Feels

By the time I went to bed yesterday, I had been up over 24 hours.

I arrived in Portland yesterday afternoon, and then I made my way to
the Hotel Fifty. Kristie and I met Maria, Ben, and Sophie at
Pambiache, a cuban restaurant. We went to Maria's to see Bert, their
new puppy, then had desert over Ben and Jessica's. Not bad for my
first day in the city.

Unlike Jack, though, I had plenty of bathroom breaks throughout my
episode.

Across the Atlantic, I Think

I'm going to Portland this week for a writing conference, and I'm in
a difficult place right now. The passenger beside me has an odor
problem. When I got up to let him in during boarding, he breathed his
unimaginable bad breath my way, knocking me down and summoning all
Christian charity that I have. He took off his worn tennis shoes and
pushed them on my side, like an annoying big brother trying to claim
unclaimed territory. He then has a habit of raising his arms in a
stretch, extending the reach of an unholy stench. He constantly
coughs, and he has a nose whistle.

Other than that, the flight is going swimmingly.

Mine Only Has a Percentage Symbol

Eric, Glenn, and I went to Cologne on Saturday, and visited the Gestapo Prison Museum. I'm not sure of the official name, but it was the place where the SS held prisoners during the questioning period. The item I found most interesting was this typewriter with an SS symbol above the number five.

Even though we've lived in Germany over 18 months, it was my first WWII site.

Cologne- Then and Now

Roman Mosaics

From the Roman-Germanic museum in Cologne. During a digging project to create an air raid shelter in 1941, Germans uncovering this house from a Roman merchant dated back to the 3rd century. Here is a beautiful mosaic from his dining room. That's Eric and Glenn trying to look interested.

All we have in our dining room floor are scratch marks and bits of crumbs from last night's supper. It's nothing that the future archeologists will get too excited over.