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In a way I am going to miss living in my current house next year. My life will be simplified, but at what cost. My friends will probably be scattered throughout the country and I will have to find new people to have intellectual discussions with. Okay, maybe not always intellectual. Where will I find the folks in this world who will listen to my rambling and then actually respond to it? I won't get harassed when I cook bacon or even when I open the mail. I look forward to living in peace and cleanliness. Those reasons will outweigh my need for companionship. Right? Or will I be on the phone with my old running buddies just to remember the old times? I try not to dwell in the past or bother people that have more important thing to do than talk with a babbling fool. Next year will be exciting for many a reasons. Leaving this house with the bond I have to it and its inhabitants is not one of those reasons. It has been nice 304.

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At the start of every month I seem to want to blog again, but it just fizzles out as the days pass. Here it goes once again.

This is my latest disgust with the education system: the iTouch. One of the Physics teachers I have run into has a class set of iTouches he got from a grant and he showed me exactly how he uses them in class. There are several apps that can come in handy during Physics experiments or discussions about any number of hard to grasp concepts. Plus, these apps are fun and actually correct. That is more than can be said about prob-ware of old. These handheld computers can collect data and then the teacher can simply use another iTouch or a computer to analyze the data as a class.

Oooopppps. No he can't. The school will not allow the iTouches on the local network via wifi internet. It is a "security issue". How unbelievable is that. Teachers can allocate (on their own time) these wonderful devices that keep students engaged and gaining knowledge, but we have to limit their use to basically impractical demo status. This is an outrage and something needs to be done. I will try my best to get to the bottom of this issue and come back with a more concrete reason than "security issues". By the way- there are no "security issues" with iTouches connected to the secure/limited school network.

Aside from the school stuff, I have been reading C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce and Chapter 5 is especially insightful. If you read this blog Brandon take five minutes and read this chapter if you haven't already.

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I have been in a discussion with Tyson lately about whether or not debeaking hurts chicks. I heard that it does not hurt the birds and it actually helps them to be less aggressive. Tyson shrugged off this explanation and was certain it caused great pain to the chicken. I did not disagree, but I did want some proof for one of the positions. I am glad to say that I have some closure on this issue. It turns out that it does hurt the chicken and the reason is not even good. Chicken that lay eggs are packed into cages with several other chicken and that is why they are aggressive. In fact some alternatives to the debeaking are giving the chicken more room or feeding them some grubs. These seem like solutions that make thee treatment of chicken more humane. The video below shows the debeaking process and I encourage you to check it out and see if cutting off nerves like that would hurt you.

Chicken Debeaking on YouTube

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Listening to John Pence and David Adley on the radio has made me think about the state of radio right now. Radio is so unoriginal right now. I get so frustrated with the music selection that I find myself searching from station to station for 10 minutes at a time on a long drive. Usually I just listen to my iPod in the car and Pandora at home. I'm not even a big music person. I like anything as long as it is not the same crud over and over again. I hope local stations, or at least national online radio, can have a resurgence in the next few years before we loose all the talent in this country.

Part of me wonders about my upbringing with music and how that has influenced my taste. I listened to country and The Fox until I was in middle school (I miss the local touches like Block Party or Live Music Weekend). After that I started to listen to my own music some. The first time I heard rap was in my garage on a bike trainer. My classmate "shared" a "copy" of Jay-Z's Blueprint with me. My parents will probably be a little shock to hear about that (or maybe not). By that time I was in 9th grade and probably too old to make my own music decisions. I believe that any music I like has been shaped completely by my parents. But do not worry... I am glad my parents liked quality music for my taste to grow from.

Highlight of the radio show: Adley on the phone!

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I thought I would be able to hold off and write a blog about how the Tribe beat the ODU Monarchs. Unfortunately, no story exists. The William and Mary Tribe did not beat the ODU Monarchs. Instead we lost in upsetting fashion. The game was a heated battle between the inside minded blue team versus the sharp shotting white team. This battle was won around the hoop not on the perimeter. With 7.0 seconds remaining we ran a play to tie the game with a desperation three point shot. The shot looked good, but slipped out as the crowd moaned in disappointment. Oh well, next time Tribe.

My hope is that the students here at William and Mary do not look at this as a complete failure. There were 7,000+ people supporting the teams in Kaplan Arena. The fans did a great job of keeping the team in the game and it even felt like we were carrying the team over the last few minutes. Please keep coming to the games and cheering your team on. I have never enjoyed a Tribe home game more. With the whole campus' support we will definitely perform better. Also, I special congratulations to my man Hess for actually bring the ball to the hoop. Do it more and do it stronger. Go BlockHess Nasty!

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I have neglected to blog for quite some time now and I want to get back into the game now. Classes have started back up and I am energized after my first real break in a year. The end of last semester was difficult, but I look optimistically to the future. If nothing else can motivate me, maybe looking for a job will get my butt in gear.

During my time back in Williamsburg I have already found my biggest distraction during the day. I have been finishing my runs right before noon everyday. That seems to be a good time for right now because I can eat lunch while I'm stretching and kill two birds with one stone. During the exact same time my favorite game show is also on local cable channel 2. This is highly problematic because it runs at 12:00 and then again at 12:30. This is one hour of my life that should be spent doing something productive. Instead, I put my life on hold as families feud over answers to questions answered by 100 random people. My answers are successful most of the time and I feel smarter than the contestants. It is instances like today when I forgot about Michael and Phenomenon as John Travolta movies that keep me watching day after day. Luckily I will be heading into the classroom soon with lunches away from the television. Otherwise, my life might not ever move on.

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I know I have not blogged in a long time and when I have blogged it has been incoherent at best. I guess I'm in that groove right now. Hopefully this post will be the start of consistency again.

I have been thinking recently about my age and how people my age act in the real world. As people come in and out of my house it is readily apparent that I am no longer a college student. I used to really enjoy hearing and telling about crazy things that my classmates do this time of year. Now it is the exact opposite. I am afraid someone is going to get really hurt or in real trouble for acting stupid. My most enjoyable moments over the past few weeks have been times I spent with my fellow graduate students. Going to visit Heritage High school was a blast last week and even going to the Leafe last night for a couple hours was well worth it. I didn't partake in the fun my elementary counterparts were having, but I did enjoy talking and laughing with them. (I still have a few more days of hard work ahead of me to finish the semester- Ugh.) It surprises me how young the undergrads look, even the seniors. Could I have switched my entire social group to that "young adult" age bracket? Is it because I am so close to teaching 16 to 18 year-olds? Either way, the people I have made relationships with this semester are the type of people I see myself associating with for a long time to come.

I posted a while back about this same topic. Looking back at that post makes me think that I was ready for a mentality change. That changed did not come until just recently.

A song lyric to close the post:

Pull out the fear of silence

Pull out the need for guidance

Put out your own devices

And don't be afraid of the cold

Afraid of the cold

Afraid of the time

You've got no where to go but here

Growing Old is Getting Old

Silversun Pickups

Swoon

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There are times in your life when you have to make the decision to get angry or just relax. I have had to make that choice over and over again this weekend. It started small with the blue showing up at my home and slowly progressed to destruction of property and early morning bed times. I will not get into too many of the stories, but these few made me laugh after taking a breath.

First, there was almost a brawl at my home on Saturday. There was an argument between two unnamed teams resulting in emotions in physical form. That passed. Out of nowhere, two gentlemen had another unrelated argument. This resulted in a headbutt and tons of blood in my bathroom. How great is that? A headbutt! Who headbutts?

Second, someone stole my W&M flag and it may have been a dude known as "the known thief". Not a good nickname to have. The flag is basically a way of supporting our school in the town. That is exactly what happened. The flag apparently got paraded around town and even waved around in Wawa. I'm glad "the known thief" had such a good time. Also, I hope to thank them for their Tribe enthusiasm and get my flag back.

Third, on another early morning I pull into my driveway after dropping a load of overindulged friends off only to find a group of eight pile into my tiny Honda Civic. As they snuggle up they tell me that there are "like 9 Columbians storming your house." Upon my return to the house I find 6 very friendly Columbian college students who are very articulate and just grateful to have a place to hang out. It turns out that they are here as part of the worst program that has them working at fast food joints to practice their English. I hope they return, but maybe this time they will come at a reasonable hour when we can show them better Tribe hospitality.

Although my life has been interrupted by several inconveniences and I don't see it stopping until break, I have to just laugh at the humor in everything that seems to happen. One day when my children are in college they will appreciate my stories and may even get to know some great people that shared these experiences with me.

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Just for fun and from sheer tiredness, I decided to check drudgereport.com. There was not one positive story on the website. Tiger Woods was the biggest story with a huge picture and captions implicating Tiger in a cover-up. Who cares? Aren't there more important stories? I am appalled by the amount of negative media, but if the only positive part of your website are the ads that could be a bad sign. There has to be some good news for the conservatives that they can report on. Perhaps the only good news they have is the bad news for the liberals. By the way, the Drudge is ranked 115th in the United States in terms of views.

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This week of greatness winds down and now begins a week of trial. I have tons of work that needs to be done before the school year ends and that work starts tonight. My first "all-nighter" of Graduate school may be occurring as we speak. Motivation to do the work is lacking, but so is time to do it. This semester has been a lot like tonight and maybe that is a bad sign. However, my time spent in the classroom and my preparation work for actual teaching comes easily and with enthusiasm. I question my choice of career sometimes and then I remind myself that taking Education Grad classes is nothing like teaching High School Chemistry.