As we speak, I am only two days away from the river trip.  I cannot stress how excited I am about this opportunity.  Camping with friends as we canoe off to adventure down the river.  I don’t even care that the weather is supposed to be cold, the point is…adventure is coming!

The start and end point…I’m not sure.  Kim planned this little excursion, but 10 hour days on the river = replacement for the gym for the time I’m gone.  This summer has not been good to my waistline (visited too many people too quickly) and the last two weeks at the gym have equaled me killing myself for very little game.  It will be nice to have a different kind of workout to jumpstart my metabolism again.

Yes, that is right, I will HULK OUT at the end of this trip.

Bought a tent for the experience.  The tent I bought years ago when camping with a different Kim, was inadvertently left in my truck when I sold it.  The new one promises added waterproofiness which means I’ll wake up only mildly damp instead of drenched from the morning dew.

No matter what, wackiness is about to ensue.

Not only is Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince finally opening in less than two weeks (Accio MOVIE!) but the runtime was substantially beefed up over the last one.  I can handle two hours forty five minutes!  (Seriously...an hour and fifty minutes for OoTP?) 

So...since I am the one teacher in my district who will not be moving rooms anytime soon (as long as I have my lab, I have my room) I enjoy several perks.  One of them is the fact that i have one of the largest rooms in the middle school.  Another is that I've spent the last two years getting RID of stuff, rather than bringing more in.

I have a long wall of cabinets/cupboards along one wall of my classroom.  These are floor cupboards, much like you might store pots and pans and the like under were it in your home.  They have an ugly yellow cheap counter on top.  The cupboards themselves are nice, and there is nothing I can do about the counter tops.

I was thinking of buying some paint and painting the cupboards white, then doing some artwork on them.  I'm not a great artist, but when I have a plan, I do very nicely, particularly with things that are NOT human beings :)

Here's what I was thinking:  There are about 6 cupboards with two doors on each.  I read 4 books with the 7th graders, 5 with the 8th, and 3 with the English Niners...which adds up to twelve nicely.

Here are the booklists: 
7th Grade:  Holes, Marley and Me, White Fang, Tom Sawyer
8th Grade:  Johnny Tremain, Anne Frank, Call of the Wild, The Giver, Huck Finn
9th Grade:  To Kill a Mockingbird, The Odyssey, Romeo and Juliet

If each cupboard were themed after one book, what sorts of things might you, my artsy friends paint on each one to represent each book?

First and foremost, is the completion of The Coming Dawn right on schedule.  It was finished June 30th to the fanfare of the people at the coffee shop I go to, who bought me a free coffee for my troubles.  YES!  :).  And in a relatively sadistic Silence of the Lambs moment, I ended up killing a character off in a very brutal way...by far the easiest thing I wrote that day.

Other fits of wonder includewww.lemondrop.com/2009/07/01/terrible-prose-wins-hilarious-writing-contest/  Which made me laugh out loud.  Maybe if my books don't get published, I'll enter this contest.

I am also squeeing with delight over www.youtube.com/watch  The trailer for V.  I grew up on the original miniseries, and while I am cautious about approaching a remake...it has Elizabeth Mitchell from Lost....it's Juliet for crying out loud, she's awesome.  And if that weren't enough, Inara from Firefly (Morena Baccarin) as the evil lizard queen is enough to get me to watch at least the first few episodes.  And hell, if it's canceled, as science fiction on mainstream television has a tendency to do, I have the original miniseries on DVD, so I guess we all know how it ends.  (Red dust anyone?)

And last but not least, I opened my Central Michigan Uni. e-mail account today to find I'd been approved for my loans for my masters degree, which means I can go back to college in the fall as planned.  (Grandparents illness was possibly postponing this, because I wasn't going to borrow money from my family when someone else needed it more than I did no matter WHAT my mother said.  Now I don't have to!)  Only problem is they approved me for the entire cost of the degree each semester.  I'll have to move that down to a more reasonable amount of money.  I'm sure there's someone else out there that could use it.

I also have been greatly enjoying living vicariously through tevriel and her shopping experiences on Livejournal.  Since I have very little funds right now (I don't need a lot to get through a summer anyway) it is nice to hear that people are still buying things even though I cannot.  I also find it amusing that she and I do the same thing...shopping at discount/thrift stores for one thing which we turn into another completely.  I once bought a typewriter for $10.00 because I wanted the ribbons inside for one of my horrific attempts at producing art.  It was a steal considering the price of a new ribbon for the same typewriter on eBay and Amazon.  I also once bought a 6XL sweater which became a throw blanket because I liked the color.

My Grandparents have once again made things appear calm, casual, and business as usual.

While it is anything but.

Grandma reported happily during my birthday festivities that her Doctor had taken her off her heart medication.  Grandpa talked about a small roof leak.

Not the case.  As my brother found out a week ago (I also love that true to form, my family decided I didn't need to know any of this)

Grandma stopped taking her heart pill because she didn't want to take a pill three times a day, and the small leak is apparently going to be a collapsed roof the next time we get a heavy rainstorm.  Because of the lack of bloodflow, Grandma fell again (She fell six times over Christmas break) and now has a broken elbow.

So we're going to meet as a family soon and figure out some options for them...we've tried suggesting things to them before, and they refuse because they're proud, stubborn people.

Does anyone know of any programs in the greater Lansing area that offer different levels of assistance for the elderly?  Things like mowing lawns, shoveling snow, raking leaves etc...  all the way up to anyone know of any roofers in the Lansing area that won't take advantage of the elderly?

When I started writing Morning Star a long time ago, I kept telling myself, get through the first two...get through the first two...I finished the first in November of 2007, and I stand poised over the next week or two to finish the second book, a journey that took about a year and a half, but one that would have taken much less time if it hadn't been for all the damn false starts.

Basically...I knew where this book was supposed to begin, but I couldn't get anything there to work.

However, I hit a point where despite a few weeks here and there with a bout of writers block, I comfortably can say that when all is said and done, i really wrote this book in a year, and I'm proud of it, aside from a few tweaks that will need to happen during the revision process.

But...that now means it's time for the next goal.  It is a pair of trilogies really...six books, but the first and second series of three each have their starting and end point.  I could end at three if there weren't the damn problem of there being 3 villains out there plotting to destroy all life in the universe.

So...my new goal.  Finish the first trilogy.  And do it in a reasonable amount of time....like a year from now...if possible.

I have bought a very expensive bottle of wine, that will be uncorked...if all goes as planned...next Week.

In regards to a post from a few days ago:

E-Mail sent and returned User does not exist on server.

Thank you for Merlin.  

I'm enjoying immensely, despite the fact that it throws the old Arthurian legends out the window.

Oh yeah...and Arthur as a douche bag.  Ha ha!

Best line so far?  "You saved my son's life!  You must be rewarded!  I will award you a position of honor in the palace.  You'll be Arthur's manservant."

I'm also enjoy the fact that as an import, NBC can be as dumb as American networks tend to be and cancel it, and I'll still be able to see a second season, whether NBC decides to continue showing it or not.

returns next month! 
Thank god for crazy scientists, talking houses, cynical sheriffs and evil death rays.  Why don't you just CALL IT an evil death ray?

An underrated gem.

What a strange moment...
Most of you do NOT know this, but I have a half sister who i have not seen since I was five.  That's officially 25 years folks.  I have vague memories, and one picture of me with my three other siblings together tucked away safely somewhere, but that's it.

For a few years she kept in touch with my other half sister Karen.  Then when Karen got married, even that stopped.  The last few pieces of information I have from her are:

1)  That she was married to and divorced the nephew of former Hawaiian governor.
2)  She completed a degree in nursing in Colorado before moving to Hawaii.
3)  In 1997 she was still living in Hawaii.  I know this because of a graduation card I got from her that was unsigned, but postmarked from the small town my other sister knew she was last living in.
4)  A rumor that she moved BACK to Colorado with her mother in 2003.   We only got that as a verbal slip up from the probate judge after Dad died.  

So...using this sparse amount of information, I began to do something that I do about once a year...I began scouring the interweb for information to see if I could track her down.

And for once, I finally found some traces of possible information.  She could very well be one of the two people I found online.  And one of them has an actual work E-Mail address that is current.

But I just can't bring myself to send that e-mail.

How exactly do you write that?  Hello, I might be your little brother. Why didn't you come see dad when he was dying?  How are things?

A strange yet wonderful thing this Interweb.  Now I get to spend half the night trying to decide if I should act on this, or continue pretending that I only have one sister, and one brother.

A lot of people I know are turning 30 this year, like I just have.  The number of people complaining about it on Facebook though makes me wonder...

What's wrong with a number?

Seriously...

Many people I know had more fun in their 30s than they did in their 20s...mostly because finances and other things are a little more solid in this age bracket.

So...since I am 30 today...I'm telling all ya'all who are not there yet, that the only way 30 feels old is if you MAKE it feel old, like my wife did.

Been away for a little while, end of year school nonsense and all the like.  Come back to more flist updates than I can possibly read.  Damn.  Then I log in and see all the locked posts too and realized:  I need to check in here more.

My second class ever graduated Friday night, and I've spent the weekend at open houses.  seriously.  I've been to five yesterday, going to five today, and about ten more scattered throughout the month of June.  The fact that these guys want me to come have a piece of cake with them and hang out with their family and friends means more to me than I think they'll ever know.  Thank you Class of 2009.  You were fun when I had you, and you still are.

Looking forward to this summer.  The Coming Dawn will be finished soon, and I can finally start re-entering a period of bill repayment that like my good friend elisethestrange I sometimes suffer from not doing too well.  It used to be frivolous stuff, now it's stuff I need for school that our district is too broke to buy on its own.  When doing your taxes, educators can take a $250 deduction to recoup money for lost supplies.  Lets be honest here people.  I spent $250 in supplies in September, and that's only one month out of the year.

The stress of the end of the year has me at a new record low in weight.  I've dropped 45 pounds this school year.  The fact that there is no longer an extra Kindergartener on me is kind of fun.  Hopefully this can continue into the summer.  I'll be Mark Whalberg before you know it once I am able to start hitting the gym again.

And of course, the biggest annoucnement of all:  Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.  Those are my last three class periods.  Half day Friday but 3 1/2 days left of work before the most well earned, well deserved summer vacation in Dave's history begins.

Hell freaking yeah!

Okay, so I've been unusually bitchy and drab in my posts lately.  It's not just because of all the craziness out there either.  I remember a great quote from Buffy "Looks like the Hellmouth has begun it's annual rumblings.  Wow, and it's not even May yet!".

So after reading through all my old LJ posts this morning (Instead of writing, mind you!) I've come to realize a pattern.  June, July, August are peaceful musings on the world as a whole.  September, October, November are optimistic pieces on how great my new batches of kids are.  December is always the last month that is at least 1/2 and 1/2 positive.

January, February, and March are typically months with very few posts, and the ones I do have are all about how ticked off I am about this or that.

Which leaves April and May, where I'm posting more and more about "Summer get here soon!"

Now, another interesting pattern is that 2005-2006 school year seems to be the turning point.  If I had to identify a year where it all went south, it was that year, which is strange because that's the year I secured my job as "permanent" for the first time ever, as I'm now one of only 3 people district wide certified to teach English, and that of those 3 I'm number 2 on the seniority scale.

Here's why:  I worked my ass off in 2005-2006 school year, and I had a really good group of kids.  Definately in the top five classes.  Unfortunately, the workload that comes with being an English teacher is (This is an estimate based on previosuly teaching History) about 3 times the amount of work of teaching Science or Social Studies.  I'm leaving Math out of the equation because those people put up with quite a bit...granted, no papers, but still.  That year I begn the English project, which has become my whole life.  That's the year I went back to school, and so I told myself that all that damn extra work I was doing would go away once college was over.  Unfortunately, once the Year from hell ended, I started teaching ALL the English at the middle school, which increased my workload by a factor of two.  It was still okay, because I still had energy to cope.  The Computer lab helped, as really all I grade is papers...Class Server takes care of the rest.

But even with the online help, after three years of it, I'm starting to wear down, and now I'm looking at adding college to the mix again.  I do crave new challenges, but at the same time, I'm going to need to get rid of a few extra things.  I absolutely love what I do, but my optimism is fading.  College has always reawakened that in me, so hopefully the next two years will be tough, but will reawaken what made me so damn good at this to begin with.

Now granted, this year has brought a few challenges my way that I never thought I'd have to deal with, the whole high school teacher situation being the biggest reason so many of my posts have been locked behind friends only posts.   I think the best way to reawaken Optimistic Dave is to begin thinking overtly Optimistic again.  I'm tired of being bitchy.

So, as for the posting patterns, Look for a more upbeat Dave.  I guess that idea of "Be the change you want to see" should come forth again, and it's never too late to try it again.

I have Pneumonia.  I've missed another week of school.

Last year our district decided to cut some integral things from our budget, while leaving some stupid ones intact.  The end result of this was many of us had to take on new responsibilities in addition to our old ones.  I ended up with about 12 additional responsibilities in addition to my normal teaching load, Middle School Student council, and High School Play. 

And as a result I've used 22 sick days this year.  Twenty-two.  The most I've used in past years is 3 in one year, and that was a bad year.

I cannot do this again.  It's going to have to be someone else's turn.  I'm all about being a team player and helping out where I can, but unless they're going to double the number of sick days I get each year, I can't go on like this.

Because at this point the only thing I haven't had this year is Swine Flu, but the school year isn't over yet.

And by the way...brownie points to any who can identify the poem I keep using to title my posts with.  I find that far more interesting than some of my old posts.

Perhaps though this subject line is too easy.  Because of course, if someone guesses it, I'll have to change poems.

I've made a commitment and so far I'm sticking through with it...Six chapters left to write, seven weeks to my goal.  That's right, in preparation for summer I'm kicking book 2 (Finally renamed: The Coming Dawn since some stupid Vampire story stole my original title of Eclipse) into overdrive and...well...finishing this bastard.  This is easier to do when the final events of the last six chapters take place over the course of a week.  I don't have to bother with carefully masked observations of how much time has passed, and it' makes it difficult to NOT find the time to write, when I'm so close to an ending I've been waiting to write for awhile.

Of course, having a goal and meeting it are two different things, and this post itself could be my Albatross.  As much fun as I've had the last year and a half writing this (Aside from those first six months where I probably wrote ten different "Chapter 1"'s, deleting each when it was done for being utter rubbish) I'm ready for it to end, so I can start something new.

Of course, I say new when really this is 2 out of 6. But when you've been nursing an idea around in your head since your second year of college (longer ago than I'd care to admit) and you finally get around to writing the damn thing...and thinking about a possibly trying to get things published, your perspective changes with the completion of each work.

So...yeah...If I can finish the first of the final chapters tonight, I'll be ready to start the second tomorrow putting me a little ahead of schedule.

Stupid birds.

It's becoming time to make a very important decision.

My certificate expires in two years...I've spent the last three in blissful knowledge of this fact, but not really doing anything about it.  State of Michigan requires that teachers get 6 credits every five years to renew their certificate.

Which means I've got to start working on this "how do I get these?" thing.

Option 1:
Take the Crossroads Writing Project summer training, get 3 credits, use my SBCEUs (State Board Continuing Education Units) that I've earned from various PD's which should just barely make up the other 3 and send a massive complicated pile of papers to the state of Michigan to lose and get my certificate renewed that way.

Option 2:
Get the FUCKING Masters degree over with over the next two years, get the pay raise that that involves, then enjoy a raise in pay every few years as I have to continue taking 2 classes until the cycle ends with my retirement.  

With option 2 the degree would pay for itself in three years...

I was leaning heavily towards option 1 today, despite having already filled out my FAFSA and gotten the ball rolling with Central.

Then I got a call from Central today that said I'm all set and all I have to do is send my portfolio in.  When I said I didn't have my portfolio finished, but that I had gotten 3/5 of it done, she asked me what parts.  I told her and she then informed me that I had the hard parts done.

So universe, you and your serendipitous moments piss me right off, but make perfect sense.  I will take Option 2.

But just in case, AND to help prepare for the 4 extra preps I'll have next year with this new "Exploring English" class I'll be teaching (yay...remedial English for middle school students!) I need some new ideas.  So assuming I can get in, Crossroads Writing Project here I come!

Now on to the Exploring English class.  My principal told me I would get "the dumb ones" and that I needed to save them.  Totally okay with that, but I had to get the "dumb ones" stigma removed, because as soon as they think of themselves as the "dumb" class, it's all over.  Plus, seriously...99% of the reading problems I've encountered are there only because they don't LIKE to do it, and fought tooth and nail to get away from it in the formative years.  They're not DUMB!

She then said "lets call it Exploring English!"  And I told her I'd rather have hot pokers stuck through my eyeballs.  After all, "Exploring English" is 7th grader for "the dumb class" and while I haven't met them yet, I'm quite certain that none of them are dumb.

So with a little work I came up with an idea for my 4 marking periods.  State of Michigan Grade Level Content Expectation approved and all!

Marking Period 1:  Creative Writing/Journalism  - School paper...focus on those writing GLCEs.
Marking Period 2:  Film Interpretation - Dude...we're not watching films for fun, this is all about the Comprehension strategies.
Marking Period 3:  Research and Presentation - yeah...not the most fun, but better than nothing.  Reading AND Writing GLCES
Marking Period 4:  Speech and Drama - The Speaking and Listening GLCEs, plus, freaking fun!

So some of you can totally understand my current situation, but with a house payment, a car payment, and one credit card on the maxxed out side of things, it's time for me to get life back under control.

Especially since for the first time ever my wife and I are in this same boat at the same time.

So...all pending summer vacations are canceled for this year...there's enough stuff to do around the house to fix it up that we need to focus on with that money.

Besides...I wrote an ENTIRE CHAPTER of the book yesterday and I"m nearing it's completion date far ahead of schedule.  I need to spend time this summer finishing, editing, and starting the next one so that I don't have to have six months of false starts before starting the next one.

Plus...by staying home this summer I THINK i can save enough extra cash to make one extra house payment, and one extra car payment...assuming gas doesn't go all $4.00 a gallon again.

If I had plans with you for this summer, I am deeply sorry, but with the idea of a kid looming on the horizon, I've got to stick close to home this year.

Normally I sneak in in the middle of all the birthday wishes for people, not because I don't remember, but because I'm never online early enough to get er' done.

But today, I'm relatively early in wishing kaitou1412 the happiest of all birthdays.  

May your DSi shower you with fireworks, may the kitten chew something you didn't like anyway, and may you gorge yourself on cake and all the other luxuries that birthdays usually bring.

Why?  One might ask?

Because It's KAITAU1412's BIRTHDAY AND SHE'S FREAKING AWESOME!

Than St. Bernard farts.

God damn that is noxious.  I love my dog, but today I hate my dog.

Enter my 7th hour class.  I decided that today I would stand by my doorway and jump out at the kids yelling “AAAAAAH” when they came in.

for most students, this just made them roll their eyes as they sat down and began work.  But for D.M. it resulted in a loud scream and a binder flying through the air at me.  It was AWESOME.

Then Shannon came home today and said that fifteen minutes into her day she had to go and see what the hell was going on with the teacher next door, as every few minutes a loud scream was let out.

Apparently a light had been left on last night and a window had been left open.  There were hundreds of moths in her room.  She’s squeemish about bugs.

Shannon eventually went over, turned on her lamp, turned off the lights, instructed the class to stay still, and beat the shit out of the little buggers.

Still, every few minutes, there was still a little squeak.