My 250 point mega-presentation is done (done done done done done done done done done!!!!) And Larry liked it!!! (yipee!!) Only 2 more Cult. Stud. Classes left (double yipee!!) I'm going to celebrate by having some cookies (My sister-in-law is going to Chief School and she shares her homework- - people in Chief School make really good cookies!!!)

A Reply to Turmoil
When the war began in Iraq, Mark O'Connor set immediately to work on a new composition for flute and strings. ``I heard the words `shock and awe' and started writing,'' he says
Link via Arts Journal

INDICATORS OF INTELLIGENT BEHAVIOR
* Sense of Humor
* Application of Past Knowledge
* Metacognition
* Social Thinking
* Originality and Creativity
* Persistence
* Risk Taking
* Flexible Thinking
* Use of All Senses
* Enjoyment of Problem Solving
* Listening with Empathy and Understanding
* Striving for Percision and Accuracy
* Posing Problems and Questioning

from The Search for Intelligent Life by Art Costa

The Worst Job in the Universe has got to be being the chaser car for an oversized load. Who wants to follow the same truck for hours on end? (Being the lead car for an oversized load might be OK - - maybe even fun - - I wonder if the drivers get to pick positions, or if one has to work their way up to lead driver. . . . )

Because of conferences, I had the afternoon off and got SO MUCH work done. I'm almost caught up with myself (even my taxes are finished - yipee!!) and my to-do countdown is looking almost manageable . . .
3 papers left to write!
1 Presentation left to give (In 78 hours it'll be ZERO!!)
3 more Cult. Studies Classes to endure!!
and
17 DAYS until Spring Break!!!!!! !!!!!! !!!!!! !!!!!!!! !!!!!!!

To Ego,
the part of me that continues to worry,
lives in doubt,
is afraid,
judges other people,
is afraid to trust,
needs proff,
believes only when it is convenient,
fails to follow up,
refuses to practice what it preaches,
needs to be rescued,
wants to be a victim,
beats up on "self,"
needs to be right all of the time, and
continues to hold on to what does not work.
You are now put on notice that . . .

YOUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED!

- Iyanla Vanzant

MUSIC REVIEW of the doors concerto with Nigel Kennedy. THIS IS TOO COOL! Instead of writing an orchestral arrangement of the original songs (as done on most crossover albums) they use the tunes as a theme and let it develop into an (almost) new piece. Excellent Stuff!

I have been teaching without a license since September (bad Julie, bad bad!) Actually, I do have a license, - it's just not for the state in which I happen to be teaching!! (I'm qualified to get one - just too lazy to bother with all the red tape and fees involved). On Monday, the licensing people notified my principal that I was not "in compliance" and supposedly were going to post my lack of credientials on their website (but they don't mention my position at all -- interesting!) Anway, because I like getting a paycheck, I spent this morning getting the paperwork together for my criminal background check.
Step one - get a cashiers check made out to Bereau of Criminal Apprehension. (The look on the tellers face when she read that was great!!)
Step two get fingerprinted (kinda cool, very messy, and nothing like what happens on TV - one has to stand behind the police officer while they take the prints). My friendly policeman offered to take mug shots too - - but I think having my fingerprints on file with the FBI is enough excitement for one day! It takes 6-8 weeks to process the application - so I might be certified by the end of the school year!

For every person who wants to teach
there are approximately thirty people
who don't want to learn.
-- W. C. Sellar and R. J. Yeatman

War, The Arts, and Guiilt
The fact is, most of us are not directly involved in the war on terrorism, or the war with which it has become conflated -- the war on Iraq. Most of us are not soldiers. Most of us are not legislators. Most of us are not homeland security experts. Most of us are accountants and systems analysts and doctors and telemarketers and plumbers and teachers and mothers and fathers. Most of us are just regular people who keep up with the news when we can -- some of us don't always have the time, and some of us don't always have the stomach for it, either -- and who want to do the right thing, whatever we deem that to be in the private crucible of our own consciences, and who occasionally crave a good DVD or the casual visit to an art museum, and who wonder, in the midst of this dark time, if it's OK to want those things.

Financial Management is officially over!!!! This is good because it's really hard stuff - - but it's also kinda bad because this was my favorite class (Lisa is a terriffic teacher! And while the material is difficult, it's the kind of difficult that feels productive and good). I'll be celebrating this success by writing up report cards and catching up on some Cult. Stud. reading (maybe I'll do it at the park - it's too nice to stay inside!!)

I've been called "super sensitive" on more than one occassion. Dear 'Ole Dad loves to make fun of me with a story of the time Andy had to have a couple of shots at the Dr.'s office. He was OK with all of it - but 2 year old Me cried and cried everytime they stuck him.
I can feel my Super Sensitive-ness coming out with all this war talk. Usually I love to discuss current events and politics - but now I have this "chill" when war talk comes up. (Even with my students - you'd think I could talk at a 6 year old level without feeling weird) It's not that I'm scared, or morally opposed, or anything like that . . . it's more of an empathy thing. What was it like to wake up at 6 o'clock on a Thursday morning to bombs exploding all over the city? What's it like to be in 100 degree desert heat with a stuffy gas mask on? How scarey would it be to be an Iraq-y solider contemplating if I should take my chances and surrender to the Americians, or take my chances and fight? I remember how we felt on September 11, 2001 - and we only had two building blown up - how would it feel to have lots of building blown up? It's rather unsettling . . . I don't like it.

Words of Wisdom from my Virtual Fortune Cookie . . . .

Why can't you be a noncomformist like everyone else?

I had my "performance review" today. Since my principal has never observed me (formally or informally), it was more like an interview than a review ("What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? What makes you a good teacher for our students? Blah . . blah . . blah") No comments. No feedback. It was about as useful as my WDM evaluations with Dave P.!!! (BUT she did say she will offer me a job for next year!)

Random Thoughts on War
* This is gonna suck (but will it really affect me in any significant way? Probably not. I won't have bombs going off in my bedroom at night, or tanks parked in my driveway).
* Saddam H. is an evil crazy man. This evil crazy man supposedly has horrible weapons and evil connections. But now, it's only a matter of time before he is killed or taken from power, so he has become an evil crazy man with nothing to loose . . . . there is NOTHING stoping him (or one of his buddies) from nuking the whole planet tonight
* I have friend who is stationed overseas (she can't say where . . . hhhhmmmmm......) She's well trained, very qualified, and would kick my butt if she knew I worried - but it's getting hard not to worry.
* Jon has some interesting ideas on his site.
* There was a reporter on the news tonight who is still in Bagdad. IS SHE INSANE?
* Where are the yellow ribbons that were everywhere durring the Gulf War??
* How does a rushhour protest, a class walk out, a rally, or any of the civil disobedience planned for next week change anything? Yeah, I'm glad you're willing to do jail time (or detention time, or get hit by a semi) to protest - but the protests are worthless . . . .
* I hope it's fast and painless. I hope NAVY SEALS to sneak in tonight, kidnap the royal Iraq-y family and bring them to an island somewhere, tell the world they went into exille and everyone lives happily ever after.
* If Iraq somehow attacks the US . . . would France be obligied to fight with the US under the rules of NATO??

If an individual is found unconscious and bleeding on the living room rug after a knife attack, he is not castigated for ruining the rug, he is not blamed for, nor is he punished in order to "learn a lesson." If a society (be it a racial minority group, or students, or a laboring group, or whatever) bleeds in the form of a riot or destructive action, there is a tendency to blame the social body for bleeding or to call the bleeding "unprovoked."
From Teaching Human Beings by Jeffrey Schrank

The nicest thing in the whole wide world is . . . a Rainbow Ice Cream Cone on a warm July evening with a grandparent. (That obviously is going to happen anytime soon!) The second nicest thing in the whole wide world is discovering you are not alone in the universe!
For years, the only people like me lived in books or my imagination - and that was ok. Then I discovered a few people living inside my computer (gotta love the internet!) who were kinda like me - and that was kinda cool. BUT NOW there are ACTUAL PEOPLE in my life who think and understand a lot like me - and that is . . . the second nicest thing in the whole wide world!!

Deep Thought from R.C. of the Community Music Listserv
I often find it ironic that people feel compelled to dress up to play (or listen to) music by guys who composed it while in their underwear.

It's still too nice out to do "real" work - so instead I . . .
*Grilled a hamburger for lunch (yummy!)
* Hung laundry outside to dry in the sunshine (it smells so much better than laundry dried inside or with a machine!)
* Took Jackie-dog to the park
* Played tag with some kids (and Jackie-dog) at the park! (Jackie won!)
I am SO READY for spring!!!!!

The Care and Feeding of a Julie - A friend recognized me in this article and passed it along. I love it! ("Hell is other people at breakfast.") Copies will be made and distribued to all V.W. family members (who expect me to be social 28 hours a day - AAGGH!)

Do you know someone who needs hours alone every day? Who loves quiet conversations about feelings or ideas, and can give a dynamite presentation to a big audience, but seems awkward in groups and maladroit at small talk. . . . do you tell this person he is "too serious," or ask if he is okay? Regard him as aloof, arrogant, rude?

If you answered yes to these questions, chances are that you have an introvert on your hands�and that you aren't caring for him properly.

It was SO NICE out today that I . . .
* Got my car washed!!
* Played Frisbee with Jackie dog!!
* Opened every single window in the house!!
* Gave Jackie dog a bath (she's so soft and silky now!!)
* Wore a T-shirt (without a sweater or coat!)
* Went to the park and played on the swings!!
* Ate dinner on the porch!!
* Tried to take Miller boy out for a ride in the wagon (he wanted to WALK, not ride!!)
* Taught Miller how to play with sidewalk chalk (our beautiful scribbles cover the driveway!)
* Took a long nap on the porch (life is good when you can sleep in sunshine!)
* And tonight I'm sleeping with the window open (yeah - it's THAT nice out - it feels so good just to breathe fresh air!)

When I said I liked french fries (and other assorted french foods) - - I meant that I liked french fries (and other assorted french foods!) I DIDN'T mean someone should re-name them something stupid!

YES!!!!! I finally had the good day I've been waiting for!! Life is good again! (I've been trying to have a really really good day for almost two weeks, but it just wasn't happening . . . ) But today was just a good day and I am happy again! (yipee!!)

Congress Accidently Approves Funding for the Arts
WASHINGTON, DC�A red-faced Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) admitted Monday that, as part of last week's $397 billion spending bill, Congress accidentally allocated $121 million to the National Endowment for the Arts.

"We approved what?" said Frist upon learning of the inadvertent arts funding. "I don't recall putting my name on anything like that. Any funding of the arts was purely accidental. I repeat, any financial support of artists, musicians, or writers on my part was done unwittingly and unknowingly."
( -:

Shar String Give Away Contest!
Send a postcard with your name, address, phone number, what kind of strings you use (and why), to:
Shar String Give-Away
P.O. Box 1411
Ann Arbor, MI 48106

Winners get a set of strings!

Sometimes I get the feeling the whole world is against me,
but deep down I know that's not true.
Some smaller countries are neutral.
-- Robert Orben

Paper count - 7 done, 6 to go.
Presentation count - 2 done, 2 to go.
Class Count Fin. Man =2 Cult. Stud. =4
But I'm not anxious for this term to be over or anything!!!!

One of my office assistant jobs at Young Audiences is to "maintain the informational e mail account," which is a nice way to say "delete more spam than you could ever dream of" (Occassionally I stumble across an actual request for information). The current count is 500 spam deletions for 2 catalouge requests!! (Anyone wanna request a catlouge???) On the plus side, it's really easy work - I can't believe I get paid to hit DELETE fifty thousand times!!

Quote for the afternoon . .

Writing is easy:
all you do is sit staring at a blank piece of paper
until the drops of blood form on your foredead.
- Gene Fowler

A Very Original Song for March 8!!
(to tune of Happy Birthday)

Happy Birthday to Audrey W. (Former student and dancer extrodinaire)
Happy Birthday to C.P.E. Bach (composer)
Happy Birthday dear Matthew Francis (Central physics GENUIS!)
Happy Birthday to Kenneth Grahame (author of Wind in the Willows)

What a great group of Birthday Buddies! Of course it's snowing - - it ALWAYS snows on March 8 - - we've enjoyed more than our share of birthday blizzards (and SNOW DAYS but it's nice to have everything canceled just for us!!!)

Anne of Green Gables
By Lucy Maud Montgomery
Ultra-Condensed by Samuel Stoddard

(Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert send for an orphan boy to help out at Green Gables.)
Anne Shirley: I'm here.

Marilla Cuthbert: Anne Shirley, you are not a boy. Go back to the orphanage.

Anne Shirley: If I work really hard, stay out of trouble, enrich your lives with my buoyant spirit, rescue you from the doldrums of your pragmatic ways, and touch the hearts of the townsfolk...then can I stay?

Marilla Cuthbert:Well, ok.

(Anne does all these things except stay out of trouble.)
THE END

Other Ultra Condensed Stories avaliable at Rinkworks Book A Minute.
(The L O T R series is quite funny as well!)

I'm sending out Warm Fuzzy Thoughts, Good Vibes, Happy Relaxing Images, (and even a little luck - although you don't need luck) to all my WDM string players this weekend!! Happy Solo and Ensemble Festival Gang!!! Have fun, and let me know how it went (not your rating - but how YOU did!)

Internship Musings
* I really really really really really really want to do my summer internship at Free Arts Minnestoa (I really really really really do!)
* I'm supposed to propose three potential sites - - but FAMN is the only place that excites me.
* My advisor and my classmates have suggested I look into McPhail and the Youth Symphony. I don't know that I want to give away my free labor to rich people that don't really need it. (Oh yeah, it's not about free labor, it's about "networking" - I forgot).
* "Worthwhile" is my latest word - - - Is McPahil really worthwhile? (Probably, but it doesn't feel that way - - somehow FAMN seem more worthwhile than the Youth Symphony). Maybe worthwhile is the wrong word - but I don't have the right one yet. Little organizations that dream big seem more exciting than big organizations that think small (the big ones probably get more done - but it seems less exciting when you know they're gonna succeed because they have the resources to accomplish their little plans)
* What if everyone else is right? What if interning at the Youth Symphony would be good for me? (Lima Beans are good for me too, but I don't do that either!!)
* It's all irrelevant anyway - since I have exactly ZERO resumes ready. I ought to get to work on that . . .

Researchers have concluded that graduates with arts degrees should expect to make between 2% and 10% less than those who quit their education at 18. . . . I wonder if a Masters in Arts degree will double that decrease and make my net worth 4-20% less??

Last week, my principal handed out a long list of new policies (and reminders of old policies) and told us to sign and return. Some of the things (like "don't hit students") made me wonder what had happened that I didn't know about. Today she announced a certain disgruntled former employee has taken to writing letters. Our sponsor, one of our grantors, and to her legislator all got letter about our "horrible" little academy. She made accusations of child abuse, said our students were not learning, and suggested the academy be closed. Can you see the fumes coming out of my head right now?? Is our school perfect? NO! Are we working really hard to make it better? YOU BETCHA! Is it a less than ideal situation? YES! But have lots of warm-your-heart success stories. We also have too many break-your-heart stories.

As a result of all this letter hoopla - my principal wants to cover her butt (hence the weird policy list last week) AND . . . is having the whole staff go through child abuse training AGAIN! There are few things yuckier than child abuse training - - it's depressing, frustrating, and just plain awful. Not a happy day.

PERFECTION

The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right side solely on the its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scale and weigh the work of the "quantity" group: fifty pounds of pots rated an "A", forty pounds a "B", and so on. Those being graded on "quality", however, needed to produce only one pot - albeit a perfect one - to get an "A". Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the "quantity" group was busily churning out piles of work - and learning from their mistakes - the "quality" group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.

from Art and Fear by David Bayless

Once upon a time . . . I took naps. All through college (and even back into HS) I took a little nap almost every day at 4 or 5. (My friends knew they'd have to wake me up for supper!) When I started teaching - - I stoped being tired at 5 o'clock and my pre-dinner naps disappeared.

I need to re-establish this mid-afternoon routine. I'm keeping the same sort orf hours I had in colllege - only without the nap time - and it's making me very cranky!! I haven't figured out how /where to get a nice half hour snooze - it's too noisy at my desk (and people walking by want to wake me up and make sure I'm not dead - which would be a very nice thing to do if I were in fact dead, but when I'm alive, tired, and sleeping - it's not!!!) It's quite the deliema . . . .

I'll admit I'm exhausted, and sometimes, when I'm tired, things that aren't that funny seem hilarious to me. But I think this article about a stolen painting would be funny even if I were awake. (More like The Simpsons than The NY Times!!)

Thomas Antenen, the spokesman for the Department of Corrections, said . . . . "It looks like the painting has been replaced by a copy. That appears to be the case based on a consensus of nonexpert opinion, people who work near the painting and see it day in and day out."

The panel that produced the "consensus of nonexpert opinion" would be three correction officers and a Rikers warden, David Goodman.

via ArtsJournal

I've completely stopped taking notes in the evil Cultural Studies class (there's no point in taking notes - - and Larry's Lectures are so random that it's just not possible!) SO I've dedicated my entire notebook to creating the definitive complation of a List-O-Larry-isms!!
Tonights contributions
* If the sistine chapel had been painted by a straight man it would have been beige . . . . really . . .. think about it
* Men are too much work. . . . . Well, THEY ARE
* Chocolate Wine would be good!
* Of course, I'm a very A-political person
* It's the Stupid Artwork
* Well, I'm just weird, but you guys already know that, right?

Stupidy is a Disease and GATTACA is for real!!
"If you are really stupid, I would call that a disease," says Watson. . . . no stranger to controversy, (he) also suggests that genes influencing beauty could also be engineered. "People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty. I think it would be great."

I pay too much in tutition to have to wear a coat to class. This is the 3rd week in a row it's been freezing in our classroom. I can not learn under these conditions. I demand a refund!