1. I had my first angry parent encounter this week: someone not happy with one of my assignment policies. Sample from the conversation: "I think you're being very unprofessional.""How so?""You have a very poor attitude.""Can you tell me how?""You're too terse." An unpleasant experience, but an inevitable one. In any case, the policy still stands … Continue reading Saturday Flotsam: More History and ‘Who Goes There?’
Long-Form Endings (Kind of Spoilers)
My Hero Academia reached its final chapter not long ago and...well, I have to admit, I found it a little disappointing. It's hard to explain why without going into spoilers, but say that I thought the epilogue generally focused on the wrong things and left too many of the really interesting points rushed or unsettled. … Continue reading Long-Form Endings (Kind of Spoilers)
Poem – “The Donkey”
When fishes flew and forests walked And figs grew upon thorn, Some moment when the moon was blood Then surely I was born. With monstrous head and sickening cry And ears like errant wings, The devil's walking parody On all four-footed things. The tattered outlaw of the earth, Of ancient crooked will; Starve, scourge, deride … Continue reading Poem – “The Donkey”
Saturday Flotsam: Various and Generals and Capybara
1. The correct answer to the question "Am I a racist?" is "I don't care." 2. Listening to podcasts about Napoleon from Apostolic Majesty (an excellent and very thorough history channel, by the way). Napoleon, as I think I've mentioned, strikes me as one of the closest examples we've had in history to a genuine … Continue reading Saturday Flotsam: Various and Generals and Capybara
Poem – “Fact and Fancy”
How dull the wretch, whose philosophic mindDisdains the pleasures of fantastic kind;Whose prosy thoughts the joys of life exclude,And wreck the solace of the poet’s mood!Young Zeno, practic’d in the Stoic’s art,Rejects the language of the glowing heart;Dissolves sweet Nature to a mess of laws;Condemns th’ effect whilst looking for the cause;Freezes poor Ovid in … Continue reading Poem – “Fact and Fancy”
Friday Flotsam: Sick Again, Snow White, and RIP James Earl Jones
1. My cold returned with a vengeance this week. I ended up having to go get prescribed antibiotics and taking two days off from work right in the middle of the week. But I'm recovering (again) and at least I was able to go in to work today. 2. Part of my class schedule is … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Sick Again, Snow White, and RIP James Earl Jones
Poem – “On Looking Up by Chance at the Constellations”
You'll wait a long, long time for anything muchTo happen in heaven beyond the floats of cloudAnd the Northern Lights that run like tingling nerves.The sun and moon get crossed, but they never touch,Nor strike out fire from each other nor crash out loud.The planets seem to interfere in their curvesBut nothing ever happens, no … Continue reading Poem – “On Looking Up by Chance at the Constellations”
Saturday Flotsam: Not Much to Say
1. I got sick last weekend, meaning I missed a day of school and I'm still not a hundred percent. I keep miswriting things on the board and having to start over. But oh, well; I have another weekend to recover. 2. Oddly, I don't have much to say today, though I've got quite a … Continue reading Saturday Flotsam: Not Much to Say
Musashi Motivation
A quick motivational picture with one of my favorite quotes from the novel Musashi:
Poem – “Elegy in a Country Churchyard”
The men that worked for EnglandThey have their graves at home:And bees and birds of EnglandAbout the cross can roam. But they that fought for England,Following a falling star,Alas, alas for EnglandThey have their graves afar. And they that rule in England,In stately conclave met,Alas, alas for England,They have no graves as yet.-G.K. Chesterton
Serpent's Den 