Saturday, January 26, 2008

Food Phan

I spent some of the Christmas holidays with my friends Chrissa & Johnny Phan. Now I curse you Johnny for getting me hooked onto Bizarre Foods/Andrew Zimmern... my frickin DVR is filled with episodes that I have barely anytime to watch... but late at night when I'm trying to grade I put on an episode to discover my newest guilty pleasure... just another reason to procrastinate...

Other good news:

El Camino received a check for $500 in the Tanforan contest. Thanks for shopping at the mall. Please continue to shop there and put your receipts into the locker by Sears or BJ's/Barnes & Noble. We are still in 5th place and need your help to win the $10,000 grand prize.

I know it may be an inconvenience to shop there, but I'm slowly changing my habits by eating at BJ's way too often or going to that food court or Target instead of other places.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Inspiration at its worse

I'm still struggling to breathe each day figuratively and literally, positively and negatively, day and night.

I've been sleeping with my test sleep apnea machine for the past 5 days and that thing irritates the hell out of me. Thankfully I was able to order one that's a heated humidifier, but until that arrives I suck in the cold bursts of air until my lungs as it dries out my throat and freezes my teeth each night. The first night I couldn't even keep it on me beyond an hour. I felt like I was choking rather than being able to breathe better. Each successive night I've been able to last a bit longer with the mask on me. The contraption looks like a mix of a sports mask a basketball player would wear during a game due to a broken nose and an oxygen mask you would see on any hospital patient.

Exacerbating the sleeping issue, my sleeping pattern continues to be poor as I spend each night at work supervising/directing the talent show that will be held Friday night. I try to adapt my lessons each night to the adjustments I had to make earlier during the school day. Unfortunately, my time for grading just continues to be pushed further and further back. This weekend I hope to catch up on sleep and reading papers. And to add to the fun--grammar workbooks get cracked open this week.

However, many parts of the past week have been exciting. I spent some time over the last weekend with an old friend whom I haven't seen in way too long. Went out to eat too much and saw the film Atonement. I thought it was a pretty good adaptation of the book considering how most adaptations go. The first half of the film in particular captures the stillness and points-of-view. Act 2 of the film had some particularly gorgeous long shots. The scene at Dunkirk had a tracking shot that ranked up there with the opening scene of The Player and added to the oppression that war has on its soldiers.

Monday night to honor the great Martin Luther King, Jr. I attended Youth Speaks' Bringing the Noise Poetry Slam at Herbst Theater. The voices of those youth poets thrilled my literary sensibilities and reinvigorated my writer's block head. The vocal expressions and emotions exhilarated my passions and my dreams lately demonstrate images of a me that has long since been missing. More importantly, about a dozen students attended and they saw a true live slam which will hopefully inspire our own to be held March 7, 2008. You should all come. Check out Youthspeaks.org


Tonight I had a special surprise when I had the opportunity to catch up a little with the person who was activities director before me. It definitely has been years since we traded stories; unfortunately, I informed her about Veronica Ruiz, whom she had in class.

Incidentally, the school newspaper's next issue has two articles in which I was interviewed regarding two deaths with connections to our school. Ever since Christina a few years ago, a current or former student of mine has passed away. Halley was last year. I wish I could just continue to be jealous of former students getting married and having children rather than attending funeral services.

Hopefully, the year is as good as I need and want it to be. I know it's selfish of me to want some good karma my way, but I could certainly use some as I witness my physical nature atrophy towards the dark side and Darth Vader--now you know what that breathing machine sounds like in my head--because of sleep apnea, tearing tendons with night splints/casts, tennis elbow velcro wrap, and $200 worth of new black stockings. Is it any wonder that I'm still single?