Check it!

The PS3 now has online capability. It's awesome. 

Bought American Pie Presents: Beta House. It's a fraternity movie and I was active in my fraternity in college. It might be bad but I might enjoy it despite it being a terrible film. 

I also started reading a new book, "No One Belongs Here More than You" by Miranda July. It's a collection of short stories. I read the first one and enjoyed it very much. I'm looking forward to more. 

Started working on my Lord of the Flies unit as well for work. I know I could have done more in this week off but I did not. I feel no guilt or shame, I just know I could have done more. 

Lunch and shopping with Simone tomorrow....yay! 

Nostalgia!

So, while I was cleaning out one of my desk drawer's, I came across a sheet of paper, whose value goes beyond the concept of value.  It's a list of 10 lessons that my friends and I learned from our freshman year of college at SUNY New Paltz. 

The four primary people involved in the compilation of this list are Brian Gold, Adam Cady, Big Bear and myself. In our freshman year, we lived and died an infinite number of times. 

The list is as follows:

1. Drink excessively but responsibly

2. In the end, it should all be about fun

3. Everyone masturbates

4. No matter what you do, some people are just assholes

5. Road trips don't mean anything

6. Do not create a false image of yourself

7. Always wear a rubber

8. Do not have sex with random people

9. Make friends responsibly

10. Don't leave things 'til the last minute

This list is my our freshman year in a nutshell. Each point on that list was experienced by one or all of us. It has contributed to who we are today. 

Brian Gold says, "Our freshman year was our Vietnam." 

Taxes and an infinite playlist

Yep, did my taxes today for the first time ever. It was actually fairly simple. I walked to H & R Block and like 30-40 minutes later I was done. They did basically everything except sign my name, which I did myself. 

The second accomplishment of the day is that I finished reading Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, which was amazing. My own real version of this novel has happened in a way but with a terrible, terrible, terrible ending. Fuck off Natalia! I need to experience my own sequel and this time we'll go for the cliche ending because frankly a cliche ending puts a smile on our faces as opposed to the unexpected, anti-Hollywood ending, which is always better, for the most part, but it never quite leaves you with that warm smile that tells you everything is going to be okay. 

Not that it means anything, but I completed Aimee's Mixtape Part 1 today. Hopefully she'll like it. I'll finish part 2 tomorrow or if I get insomnia then I'll finish it tonight. I never get insomnia much these days though. 

Last thing, I thought about getting some ink done on me. I'm thinking, at the moment, the Iron Maiden Trooper but holding a Salvadorean flag and his uniform in Salvadorean colors. Any takers? 

Survival

Came back from New Paltz about four hours ago. It was fun and everything but I discovered that my body is no longer trained or accustomed to what a typical or normal night in New Paltz is usually like. My friends who went up as well; Max, Marco, Barry, Mike Nelson, Joe, Cory, Choda, Steve, Austin, Juice,  Aaron...we all enjoyed ourselves at a brutal and intense level. 

Probably not for a while.

I have the week off from work so I'll have some time to get important things done such as my taxes as well as reread Lord of the Flies, which I will begin teaching upon returning to work in the last days of February. 

I'll also play an obscene amount of video games. Or try to at the least. 

Just another excuse to sell and buy chocolate

Another February 14th, another year. 

Seriously, this is probably the most pointless day of the year. It's a blatant excuse to sell flowers, chocolates, teddy bears and other useless things for mass consumption. Why is it that out of the 365 days in a year, 366 for leap years, we have to single out one day and make it the day that we profess our love to someone else? It's a serious crock. 

I just don't get it or I've become too jaded. It's just another Thursday for me. 

New Paltz tomorrow afternoon and that is a pure excitement. I'm gonna get to surround myself in my old stomping grounds and party like it is Spring 2006 all over again. New Paltz here I come!

Marvel Ultimate Alliance awaits! 

It's Snowing!

So it snowed for like the real real time today. It's nice to look out the window and see a glaze of snow on the sidewalks and lawns. 

Teaching is a constant work in progress and I wish I could incorporate more music into the classroom but the ways things are going so far it seems quite swell. No real complaints. 

Three days to New Paltz and having the chance to act like it is Fall 2005/Spring 2006 all over again. I'm excited. The camera is coming with and hopefully I won't get to preoccupied to forget to take some photos of my brothers and I. WOOO!

It felt good to get some busy work done today when no students showed up to my last block class. I felt accomplished today and still do. I should probably also try and get my lesson plans done during my off periods in school. It felt good to come home and only have to do a 5 minute look-over my lesson plan. I got the chance to play some Marvel Ultimate Alliance and it felt good. 

I started reading Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, which I will most likely finish while I ride to the bus to and from New Paltz. Awesome indeed. After this then I will reread The Chocolate War or Lord of the Flies depending on which book the students select. Either way I win and yet they will think they have won. 

Glorious. Now, all I have to do is find a girl who thinks I'm cute and I can make out with. 

Remember, short controlled bursts!

ALIENS...man, I love this movie. Easily one of the best science-fiction/action movies of the 80's and of all time. It rules on every level. 

Game over, haha. 

Kick, push

Lupe Fiasco is pretty rad. He's just as distinguishing as Atmosphere and Jedi Mind Tricks. 

I need to do more research before I proclaim if he is totally boss. 

Chalk up another week at da Rock.

I should have gone to Happy Hour after work. I did not though. That's why I'm here typing. If I worked in a Manhattan school this would not be a problem. There would be no need to worry about being sober in order to drive home or anything. Just have drinks and fun. 

So I have to decide between reading and teaching Lord of the Flies or The Chocolate War. Which one to teach? The school copies of The Chocolate War look as if they are first edition prints. We just had new copies of Lord of the Flies delivered to the school. The only major factor in deciding is that I've read The Chocolate War before but never in a way to teach.  

I should decide fairly soon. 

This weekend I will go to H & R to do my taxes and formulate the research project I will assign my freshmen students to do over mid-winter break. 

Once February is in the past, on to some legit literature! 

So it goes. 

Redemptive Glory

Well, my beloved NY Giants are the Super Bowl Champions and it feels great. It feels so good to see the Giants be on top. It makes all the pain and agony of watching them fade out over so many seasons worth it. We paid our dues and went up against our Goliath and we did more than just challenge it. The Giants won a well deserved and earned game. 

First full week of the Spring semester is upon me. I'll be teaching, reading and discussing Langston Hughes poetry all week. In all honesty, I did not think much of the guy but as much as I create a learning experience for students I learn more about the man himself. Hughes was and is a great literary force. His poetry is simple and complex all at once. I'll probably still rank him below Robert Frost but the man is up there. 

In all honesty, I'm more of a literature man as in prose and not verse. It's just who I am. 

I "borrowed" copies of Angela's Ashes, Hamlet and Romeo & Juliet today from the English Department bookroom. Psh, don't tell anyone. 

I'm feeling optimistic about this week. Let's see if this keeps up or if I'll be drained by the time Friday comes around. 

New Paltz soon.