Since I was in a posting drought for a while...

I'm going to malign your minds with minuscule mindless minutiae.

My workout Playlist:

Name	Artist
Move Along	The All-American Rejects
I Believe (Original Mix)	Ashley Wallbridge
Into The Ocean	Blue October
Hate Me	Blue October
I Don't Like Mondays	The Boomtown Rats
Happens All the Time	Cold
Lovers In Japan	Coldplay
Viva La Vida	Coldplay
Violet Hill (Album Version)	Coldplay
Strawberry Swing	Coldplay
Round Here	Counting Crows
Mr. Jones	Counting Crows
Home	Daughtry
Over You	Daughtry
If You're Gonna Leave	Emerson Hart
I Wish the Best for You	Emerson Hart
I Know	Emerson Hart
Green Hills Race for California	Emerson Hart
Flyin'	Emerson Hart
Superman	Five for Fighting
100 Years	Five for Fighting
How to Save a Life	The Fray
Love Remains The Same	Gavin Rossdale
Better Than Me	Hinder
Lips of an Angel	Hinder
Hands	Jewel
Mr. Brightside	The Killers
Somebody Told Me	The Killers
Black Horse and the Cherry Tree (Radio Version)	KT Tunstall
Suddenly I See	KT Tunstall
I Hope You Dance	Lee Ann Womack
Papercut	Linkin Park
Runaway	Linkin Park
Place for My Head	Linkin Park
Pushing Me Away	Linkin Park
In The End	Linkin Park
What I've Done	Linkin Park
Cool Change (24-Bit Digitally Remastered 02)	Little River Band
How Mighty Is The Silence	Lowen And Navarro
Weight Of The World	Lowen And Navarro
Anyway	Martina McBride
99 Red Ballons (techno remix)	Nena
Flat on the Floor	Nickelback
U + Ur Hand	P!nk
Who Knew	P!nk
Don't Let Me Get Me	P!nk
I Write Sins Not Tragedies	Panic! At the Disco
Love Bites	QED
Hardly a Day	QED
Broken Road	Rascal Flats
Vapor Trail	Rush
Where Do You Go	Sister Hazel
This Kind of Love	Sister Hazel
Beautiful Thing	Sister Hazel
Red Balloon	Starling
Mortal Kombat Theme (Techno Remix)	techno
Just Be	Tiesto
Open Up Your Eyes	Tonic
If You Could Only See	Tonic
You Wanted More	Tonic
I Will Follow	U2
Leave The Pieces (Album Version)	The Wreckers
Citizen/Soldier	3 Doors Down
It's Not My Time	3 Doors Down
Let Me Be Myself	3 Doors Down
These Days	3 Doors Down
Your Arms Feel Like home	3 Doors Down

Each of these songs has something about it that inspires me, especially when I am exercising. At least running or elliptical, I don't listen when lifting weights.

While both the music and lyrics are what lands a song here most of the time, a few of the trance/techno songs are just the music/beat. Likewise there are probably a couple that the music doesn't do too much, but the lyrics have something inspiring to tell.

Usually the iPod shuffle is on shuffle and the songs play randomly. If I am not in a mood for a song, I just click next and usually the next song or two does the trick.

Lately, I've just been listening to the last four Three Doors Down songs:

It's Not My Time

Let Me Be Myself

These Days

Your Arms Feel Like home

The music, bass line especially, and the lyrics both pick me up as I'm pushing the limits of my legs. A woman I dated a few years ago had a saying "better at 40 than at 20". That is pretty much not going to happen for me and I have no illusions of it. But it's not my time, and I keep going to keep myself active, energized, and healthy (not to mention to keep my eating habits from making me 400 lbs).

Saturday outlook...

Rain.
Clouds.
Rain.

It was nice to wake up this morning with open windows, cool air, and the sound of rain...at 6am. It was still dark. I couldn't sleep though. Strange dreams.

We were supposed to go to Busch Gardens today. The idea of traipsing about in the rain going from eating place to eating place with an Irish dance show here or there just isn't as appealing as soaring through the fall air over the varying hues of Williamsburg's broad leaf trees on the back of the Griffon. Maybe tonight.

So, workout this morning (done). Chores. Breakfast. Maybe going to Glazenfyre today or maybe just Michaels to get crafts for B and I (like I NEED another mess to clean up).

I'm coughing like crazy, my throat is starting to hurt, my voice comes back sporadically, and I re-injured my rib/oblique at softball Thursday. Yeah yeah "Why did you play?"...Just let me be me. I wasn't coughing last week so healing is going to take longer. I'll be very happy when I can do my ab workouts and pull ups again. Until then I'm cranking up the resistance on the eliptical. I need to get my legs in shape for snowboarding. :-) Roll your eyes if you must, but until you've looked down from the top of an 11,000' mountain, accelerated through whisper quiet powder, cut and curved like you were surfing down a huge white wave, felt the physical-emotional-spiritual adrenaline surge, and collapsed into a cloud of this soft white powder laughing uncontrollably, you just won't understand.

:-) Have a great Saturday!

Still Friday....

Still raining.

Going to get sushi and bring it back.

My neighbor sent me this the other day:
She said she had given her children salad with organic salad dressing on it. They all complained, but the ten year old was missing and didn't hear the fuss. When the ten y.o. got there he took a bite, spat it out and vehemently exclaimed in his outside voice, HEY- WHAT’D YOU POISON THE SALAD WITH, LADY?

Friday....

I worked out. I was starting to feel hungry.

I messaged a few friends with a simple text: "Sushi?"

Seems everyone has a date. I have an 11 year old. So much for spontaneity. We may still go. We both LOVE sushi. I was looking for some adult company though.

My voice came back some today. I didn't realize how much I HAVE to talk in my job. Now it has gone away again.

I read this article today. While helping out and doing more than just working has helped my son (This could be debatable), it certainly didn't do anything to help or salvage my marriage. In a way it set the stage for her to let go of everything. It really isn't that important, it just leads to the next item...

You see, you may not find it funny, but I did. On the off chance that you MIGHT find it funny, I'll share it with you....

I sent the article to a neighbor this morning. She responded back just a minute ago that she would read it later...that her kids were fighting. I told her, "Give them bats. Survival of the fittest or the fleetest. It's the organic parenting method." I don't think she thinks it is funny. You may not either...but I do! :-)

So...I lost my physical voice and here is how people responded....

On facebook Robin says:
"OMG Christmas came early!!!!!!! LOL"

A department head said:
"Well since you can't talk I have some things I want to go over with you." I was there for an hour.

My program manager hasn't let me in his office in two days.

A co-worker, seeing me gesturing forcefully, rapidly moving my mouth, and turning a little red said to everyone in the office, "SHHHH. Mike is yelling."

And I was...just no one could hear me.

Stick figures are for kids?

I love Kevin Smith's movies. I love his Q&A sessions titled "An Evening with Kevin Smith", and "An Evening with Kevin Smith, Evening Harder." He has a new movie called "Zach and Miri make a Porno."

There have been some problems getting it promoted...understandably.

CNN ran this Article.

Here is an excerpt I would like to draw your attention to:

Diane Levin, an education professor specializing in child development at Boston's Wheelock College, said the posters at city bus stops send a message to children that working in the porn industry is an acceptable occupation.

"It's drawing attention to a movie which is mainstreaming and normalizing pornography, saying if you need money, this is what you do," said Levin, co-author of "So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids."

The stick-figure images are especially appealing to youngsters, since "stick figures are something for children," she said.



Now, all I am saying is that Diane has obviously never seen XKCD.

It's simple, and it's all about me anyway....

I'm a-political. I don't feel like I'm electing a leader or a President. I feel like I am electing a political party, neither one of which I like very much. Yes, there are more than just the big two, but we know that the election will come down to democrat or republican. Why? Is it because our parents were one or the other? Our friends from college were die hard this or that? Two parties that tend to be polar opposites for most everything, but my life and world view isn't that simple. I disagree with both parties about a lot of things. It isn't even that I think they are WRONG, but quite the contrary, I think they are CORRECT. I see their point of view. I agree with their solution. However, it isn't the best solution for MY point of view. So for me, voting isn't a matter of picking who I LIKE or who I think will do the best job it is choosing the most correct answer for whatever issue ranks highest on my list on election day.

The hardest part is discerning the truth.

Republican and Democrat supporters alike will deluge you with information that is "factual" from "authoritative" sources. The information may not be true, it is just what someone else believes is true. Statistics never lie, it is just the people interpreting them may not be asking the most correct questions. Douglas Adams summarized it best when he wrote the answer to the ultimate question of Life, the Universe and Everything is 42. The problem is that we don't know the actual question.

These people give you half truths. They tell you so and so voted this way on this, this, and this, thereby limiting your rights, taxing you more, and generally making your life a living hell. They don't really tell you the whole story about the other items that would have been affected by the vote that could have potentially done all the above to an even greater degree. You wouldn't know unless it was your job to monitor every action congress takes and then poll them why they voted one way or the other.

What irks me right now? What is my biggest issue that I would like to see resolved? You got this far, you must want to know...

Taxes on single parents. As I sit here and think about it, there are reasons for it...but I don't have to like them. To be honest, I've been pouring over the IRS tax brackets and it just makes my head hurt. I really wish the tax system could be made a little less complex.

I also wish that I could go to any doctor I wanted regardless of my insurance provider, and pay the same amount. I have one therapist in this area that does the work my son needs and my insurance company won't pay for it.

Well at least I can still blog...

But I absolutely cannot talk. My voice is completely gone. I cannot ever remember having completely lost it before.

I am also growing a beard, but not sure how long that will last.

Working out has me feeling great though, but I either pulled a muscle, cracked a rib, or both last week so I may be limited to aerobic stuff until that heals completely.

:-) It is going to be fun at work today. I just get to smile and be eye candy I suppose.

Little things and perspectives...

My son and I were talking recently about how people respond to different circumstances. We talked about Albert Camus's "The Stranger" (Along with The Cure's song Killing an Arab) and the way the different perspectives were portrayed between foreigner and native Arab. We talked about the Zazou's of France during World War II and the Pet Shop Boys song "In the Night" and how their perspective was different from the Nazi occupation and the French resistance.

We talked about how people see the same event in many different ways. We talked about his responses to stressful situations and what he does and what I do.

He thought about this for a second and then said, "My mom has the screaming gene."

And she does.

----------------------------------------------------------------

My son came home with a mark, "Passing a note in class that hit the teacher". Positively puzzled about how something like that could occur, I asked him about it. He was vague and evasive in his answer. I just let it go as I could see I wasn't going to get anywhere with it.

A few other things happened that I didn't know about, but culminated with me coming to the school this past Friday afternoon to discuss the issues with the guidance counselors.

One of these things was a writing assignment from the English teacher about three ways to get kicked out of school. The assignment was to be put in his journal, but he put it in his notebook instead. Another teacher saw he wrote about three ways to get kicked out of school, but there was no heading...and the list was pretty predictable given the imagination of a sixth grader with very little guidance.

All of this came together today when I talked to his English teacher.

It appears that during some testing they finished early. They were given permission to pass notes. My son asked if they could pass them as paper airplanes. The teacher said "No." She then turned to walk out the door. My son has an issue with impulsiveness. He launched the paper airplane. He missed his target...and hit the teacher square in the head. In front of the whole class. She said it took everything she had not to bust out laughing. She turned and asked Brandon to put himself down for a mark for not following directions. He was mad at himself and wrote some disparaging comments in his binder. That coupled with the assignment from the same teacher is what brought me to school early Friday to talk with the guidance counselors.

And that is how patching together several different perspectives makes the whole thing kind of funny and solves a few mysteries. It really is just my son's luck that he would throw the airplane on impulse and hit the teacher. I wouldn't have thought it very funny, but it really helped me feel better that she did.

Catching up...

Hmmm, lets see...

Where did I leave off? Beginning of the school year?

It certainly didn't take long to get the first parent teacher conference. It never does. This one was a little different. 9 to 1. A bunch of teachers, several guidance personnel and myself. While Brandon has made some improvements since then, it probably won't be enough. I've been called in several times. It is readily apparent that they do not want him in the AVID program. It is not a program for children with challenges like my son. However, there are NO programs for children like my son. Most parents I know in this situation are home schooling their children for this very reason. That is not an option for me. While VA Beach TALKS quite a bit about twice exceptional students, they are not DOING anything to provide services for them. They have academies for gifted and advanced students, but very little to teach children at that level that may have behavioral, emotional, and neurological issues that cannot be addressed in the larger groups they teach those children in. If he cannot stay in the AVID program they likely will put him back in the middle school in his district which has even less services. They mentioned that he might be able to stay in the school he is in because of his SOL test scores. There is so much more to say here, but this is the gist of it. It just keeps repeating.

In the evenings there is so much to do with him and around the house. After he goes to bed I'm spending a lot of time catching up on my job.

On the weekends I'm pretty much just decompressing and not doing anything at all...hence why there have been so few posts.

I had a nail in three tires on my car. That pretty much sums up how every thing is going at the moment, punctured and deflating. There are bright moments here and there, but patching and re-inflating seems to be the theme.

This past weekend though...We went to DC. We were invited up by Liz at A Bright Future. On the way up Friday evening I very narrowly avoided being in the middle of a nasty accident near Woodbridge, VA on I-95 Northbound. We arrived safely and fortunately didn't have to drive again until we left Sunday evening. We had a splendid time talking, walking, riding the metro, and seeing museums and other sites while trying to keep three children smiling and entertained. Sunday Liz and I with two of the children met The Exception and her daughter the Diva for lunch and a show with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center. The Kennedy Center is HUGE. I'm sure you could land a plane on the terrace. The kids raced around it. They also participated in the magnanimous cacophony they call the Musical Petting Zoo. The kids get to try their hand at all of the orchestra instruments. After the show we went to Chinatown for dinner. Spicy Thai is awesome. I ate way too much, kind of a them for the weekend. Reluctantly we left Sunday night and had an uneventful ride home.

Since then I've been in bed, sick, aching, and feverish...probably strep. The Doctor just looked at me, gave me an anti-biotic, and sent me on my way Monday evening. I've still have fevers off and on Tuesday, but the medicine has taken card of most of it. The hard part is the coughing. I ripped a muscle in my side Wednesday night a week ago. It hurts awfully bad every time I sneeze or cough.

Good news is that I have been working out six days a week for the last three weeks. It has been helping me deal with all the stress recently. Of course, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were out due to torn muscle and travel, but even feeling a bit sick today I managed to get on the elliptical this evening for a 20min aerobic. I figured, I'm sweating anyway...