Wow, a Week, Huh?

I've been lax. It's been quite the week: one that started out with me cleaning blood off my classroom's carpeted floor, and ended (or is ending), with me somehow getting up an hour early and not realizing I was overly punctual until I was already at school.

I think I will drop into a coma at 4pm today and not come out until 8am Monday morning. Is that OK?

Democracy at its Most Arbitrary and Random

A coin toss? Fer real?
Alaska politics are weird.

Kick@$$

Football Chick

Rock on with your bad self. I like the pink socks touch... keeping her femininity while playing with the boys.

Slackereous Maximus

Yup, that's me. Sorry 'bout that.

I've had a lot of wouldn't-that-make-a-great-picture moments, but have never remembered to take my camera with me anywhere.

Yesterday morning, for example. I had to ride to Akiuk in the morning for a training, and it was gorgeous... soft morning sunlight, ducks taking flight from the water in front of us, glassy water, and NO CAMERA.

It's a pretty picture in my brain. Too bad I can't draw. :-D

Yeah, What he Said

That Funny Thing That Happened Last Friday

Shaun's just got more patience than me when it comes to typing long sagas involving darkness, smoking motors, and navigational uncertainty.

Gossip

Apparently a meteor hit near Bethel, and everyone there heard/felt a massive "boom." Or that's the gossip that's making its way around. Others are saying the police were exploding things at the dump.

Who wants to bet on the veracity of these claims?

More later.

EDIT: Got the following in an e-mail. It is the text of a KYUK radio story:

Some residents near Bethel heard what sounded like an explosion early this morning. Many thought it was thunder or a man-made sonic boom. . .As Angela Denning-Barnes from KYUK in Bethel reports, it actually fell from the sky. . .
ADB/SMI midday Monday, September 11, 2006


Bethel police dispatcher, Melanie Barniskis was working the night shift and had stepped out to the deck for a short break at about 5 a.m.. . .The sky was clear and the moon was out, when something caught her eye. . .
CUT 1: 33 secs. “When I looked at it, I saw a huge, white, glowing ball of light, traveling extremely fast, traveling from West to East. And a long, golden, sparkling tail, which covered nearly three-quarters of the sky behind it. As it passed overhead, it began to fall. As it got almost level with my line of vision, the white glowing head seemed to disintegrate, and there was a huge shower of what looked to be sparks or flare-outs, and after that I couldn’t see anymore.”

Barniskis presumed it was a meteor that had broken up in mid-air. She heard a hissing noise when it went overhead, but she didn’t hear a sonic boom like some other people. Back inside the police station, she received several reports from people who had heard something loud, and others who actually felt tremors in Bethel.

Meanwhile, fifteen miles Northeast of Bethel, tribal police officer, Theodore Charles was also taking down reports of a loud explosion that woke people up and shook their houses in the village. . . .A few people reported seeing a red flaring thing that exploded. . .
CUT 2: 15 secs. “the impact was like a loud explosion. And it pretty much, ah, like I said it shook up the West side of town; shook a lot of houses down here.”

Charles says Kwethluk residents didn’t know what had made the ruckus, but the fact that it was the 5 year anniversary of terrorist activity did not escape them . . .
CUT 3: 6 secs. “Well, apparently today is 9-11, and they thought that something else was going on.”

Hans Nielson with the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska Fairbanks says meteors are very localized and usually can’t be seen more than 200 miles away. He says the description of this incident, and the fact that it was seen and heard, makes it possible that it was NOT a meteor, but rather a larger piece of space debris from a satellite, spacecraft, or rocket.

None the less, it was a lifetime dream come true for Barniskis. . . .
CUT 4: “I’ve been a star gazer most of my life, and I’ve gone out to look for meteor showers down in the Lower 48, and I’ve never seen anything like this.”

In Bethel, I’m Angela Denning-Barnes

Pretty as a Picture

Nice firey sunset, huh?

We were at school late one evening (a week ago last Wednesday, to be precise) for staff volleyball, and exited the building to the purdiest sunset!

Grabbed my camera and took a shot. The buildings in the foreground are a little too dark, methinks, but Shaun is the PhotoShop king, and I really don't like messing with stuff... mostly out of sheer laziness.

So yeah. View from school porch.

Trying to Try

Isn't it strange how you can know exactly what your faults/failings are and be completely powerless to fix them?

That's what makes them faults, I guess.

I have the best of intentions when it comes to self-improvement, both professional and personal, but old habits die hard. My desk will just always be a mess, and I will just always lose my keys in a painfully obvious place and have to have them pointed out to me by a less-bat$#!+ crazy acquaintance. I will always have a bit of a temper (thanks, Dad) and cry at things that don't require crying (thanks, Mom), and I will always prefer a quiet classroom to a chaotic one.

I can try to manage these less-than-desirable traits, but deep down, I know that's me. I guess it's even better to know those things about myself and not just throw in the towel... but some days I do just that. I just let the desk-mess drive me crazy, but don't pick it up. I have little mini-temper tantrums. You get the idea.

But mostly I try. Or I try to try, which is really better than nothing.

Meet my Pet Peeve, Self-Congratulation

Warning: Self-righteous rant ahead. Proceed with caution and be not taketh-ing me seriously. Remember that this is all obnoxious blowharding from the least perfect person on Earth. On with the rant, then...

I'm sure I'm guilty of it myself.

But you wanna know what I hate?

Braggers. People who just can't stop talking about how great they are, how many totally killer things they did, how people are just so lucky to have them around.

I'm not talking about the honesty of being able to express satisfaction of a job well done. I'm not talking about pride in one's accomplishments. I'm not talking about having a strong sense of self-efficacy. All these things are good... nay, not good... wonderful.

I'm talking about relentless, attention-seeking, boastful bragging.

I had an interaction recently with a person I haven't talked to in a good long while. A coon's age, if you will. I thought we could just chat (online, of course, long distance charges being what they are and me being the cheap bastard I am), catch up a bit, and call it a day. One of those "hey long time no see how ya been whatcha been up to ok been good talking to you see you around" conversations. I only had five minutes, so it should have been.

Instead, I was subjected to what can only be described as an unremitting barrage of self-aggrandizing own-horn-tooting. Long story long... it annoyed me.

And generally annoys me.

Thank you for reading my whiney rant. You may now continue with your regularly scheduled non-cranky life.

Lady, You Are Officially Creepy

Harris: Non-Christian electees will "legislate sin"

Church-State separation a lie, huh? FanTAStic. Where do I line up for my government-issued burqa? Religiously-based government has worked SO WELL in other parts of the modern world, eh?

My favorite part is where she tries to take it back. Sorry, you say it, you own it.

Oh Sweet Hay-zoos

Amazon.com beckons. Three weeks back in the bush, and I'm already clicking my way from TV show to movie to book.

I like new books. They are shiny and full of information and their pages aren't all dog-eared.

I like new movies and TV shows on DVD. They hold the promise of much mindless entertainment.

And yet... I like my checking account fat as a christmas goose.

Decisions, decisions.

Answer: Not Even Two Full Weeks

Question: How long does it take me to catch my first student-borne sickness?

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Monday, I'm going to start my Nazi-esque hand sanitizer requirement. Sure, it takes up 30 seconds of instructional time, and since I only have a half hour with each group, that's 1/60th of my total time with them, but dammit, I'm NOT spending another year constantly in some stage (coming-down-with-an-illness, ill, or recovering-from-an-illness... and they can overlap!) of disease.

Please spare me the hand-sanitizers-are-bad-because-they-increase-germ-resistance argument. I know that. I am well aware of it. I agree with it, even. But when you teach 75 separate germ factories per day, have no sink in your classroom, and don't have the time or patience to send them to the bathroom to wash their hands, hand sanitizer is the only option.

It's a good thing kids are cute and endearing, otherwise I wouldn't get within ten feet of them. I would look a bit foolish, not to mention be ridiculously ineffective, teaching from inside a bubble-boy bubble.

Why my Classroom is Uncool

1. No windows
2. No windows

Why my Classroom is Cool

1. My own printer
2. My own photocopier

Ow

Loki punched me in the eye today.

Well, he didn't punch me, he chucked a bone at me.

You see, our darling pooch will play fetch with himself. He'll throw something up in the air, then go after it. It's kind of convenient because he'll just entertain himself.

This morning I was laying on the couch after our walk, 50% napping, 50% planning out my day, 100% enjoying my Sunday. Loki was next to me on the floor, chewing calmly on his bone. All the sudden, BAM, pain in eye. He had merrily tossed his bone into the air above him, not realizing in his doggy retardedness that "the air above him" was also "where Sara is currently reclining."

I did what any self-respecting, grown-up, 20-something woman would do... I immediately burst into tears. It hurt, dammit.

But no harm done. I don't appear to have a big prize-fighter shiner. I can still see. Thankfully, I was half-sleeping, and therefore had my eyes closed.

Wait a Minute

Who are these pint sized people, and why are they in my building?

Could it be the first day of school already?

I like my new school and job (well, the job's a lot like my job last year), but miss my old school and old job.

And school begins... NOW.

At some point I'll get around to a real post, I promise.

Okay, Okay

I've not been very good at updating lately.

I've been busy, and the internet at home isn't the most reliable.

Suffice it to say we're settling in at home and I'm gearing up at school. The summer flew by so quickly... I feel really unprepared for the school year... but it'll be fine, fine, just fine.

We're Here

We're in Nunapitchuk. We've had very little sleep.

More later.

Cooling off

Dog, My Dad, and Me, cooling off on a ridiculously hot day.

No, Floyd, No

TdF Winner Accused of Doping

Not that cycling isn't one of the most obnoxiously doped-up sports around... but come one Floyd, you had us all thinking that cycling had a future in America, post-Lance.