Month: March 2022

Book

I’m continuing to read Barn 8. I didn’t get as much reading time this week. I’ve had some mixed feelings about the book, but the story is picking up. I’m concerned about it becoming too “preachy” without enough story to hold my interest.

Podcast

Once again, Shawn was terrific on our podcast (Middle School Matters). We chatted about PD and how much of that will be in person.

RmMade

Rosemarie had a wonderful show at the Vault in Manchester. Lots of Friends found lovely new homes., There were lots of positive vibes and wonderful feedback. So many people had the same reaction, “Wow, they each have their own personality”.

If you are looking for a special gift, she makes custom orders as well.

Video Editing

I’ve been editing some videos for work. I kind of enjoy that.

Summer Training

I had a discussion (or two) about offering summer training. This led me to think about past summer trainings. We hosted several Moodle Moots in the summer.

One additional thing was the food. Fatoush salads, hummus, and chicken shawarma sandwiches (from Sahara). Now I really want a good chicken shawarma sandwich from Sahara (and, yes, I’ll fight anyone who says lettuce and tomato belong on the sandwich). Wonderful food.

Mud Season

Interestingly, Mud Season seems to be a thing here in Maine. I’ve gotten several emails about dealing with the mud (e.g. from our trash service about if you don’t want them going on your driveway during mud season) and it’s been in the papers. I have to admit, I never worried about Mud Season when I lived in Dearborn.

Power of the Dog

Rm and I watched “The Power of the Dog”. I’m not seeing why this was in the running for Best Picture. It wasn’t bad, but I didn’t feel that it was a great movie either. The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Phil. He is a very enigmatic character. Benedict Cumberbatch does an excellent job of bringing Phil to life. However, the full story leaves me unfulfilled.

Toby Price

One of the things that I’ve been following is the saga of Toby Price. Basically, he was fired for reading “I Need a New Butt” to second graders. When I first heard the story, via Twitter, it seemed too fantastical to be true. The district is limited in what it can say. So, we get one side of the story. Thus, I wondered what the “rest of the story” (hat tip to Paul Harvey). It seems now though that there is no “rest of the story”. It’s seeming like Toby Price really was fired for reading “I Need a New Butt”. Let that sink in.

This is potentially a canary in the coal mine of restriction, control, book banning, information control, and suppression. This will not be the last example of this type of control.

Supreme Court

The Supreme Court is in the news for two reasons:

1. The nomination of Judge Jackson
2. Clarence Thomas’ voting and his wife’s tweets

Ketanji Brown Jackson hs been nominated to be the next Supreme Court Justice (replacing Justice Breyer). Judge Jackson is the first black woman to be nominated for the Supreme Court. The hearings have been an example of political partisianship pandering for “TV”. She has handled many inane questions with such grace and skill. Several Republicans have announced that they won’t support her (even though they supported her in the past). Republicans are constantly throwing up the false flag of CRT (Critical Race Theory).

The other Supreme Court news revolves around a bunch of text messages from Ginni Thomas (Virginia Thomas), who is the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Ginni Thomas sent a variety of text messages to Mark Meadows (who was the White House Chief of Staff). Let’s take a look at a few of the text messages:

Biden crime family & ballot fraud co-conspirators (elected officials, bureaucrats, social media censorship mongers, fake stream media reporters, etc) are being arrested & detained for ballot fraud right now & over coming days, & will be living in barges off GITMO to face military tribunals for sedition.

The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History.

Sounds like Sidney and her team are getting inundated with evidence of fraud. Make a plan. Release the Kraken and save us from the left taking America down.

Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!!…You are the leader, with him, who is standing for America’s constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History,

Evil always looks like the victor until the King of Kings triumphs. Do not grow weary in well doing. The fight continues. I have staked my career on it. Well at least my time in DC on it.

“Make a plan,Release the Kraken and save us from the left taking America down.”

Now spouses can certainly have their own opinions. They can have their own job, beliefs, etc. What makes this troubling is Justice Thomas ruling on anything around the attempted insurrection on January 6th, 2021. Justice Thomas had the lone dissenting opinion on releasing material to the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. Given the revelation of the texts from his wife to those who tried to overthrow the United States Government, at the very least he should’ve recused himself.

Those messages aren’t just crazy, those are beyond “bat shit crazy”. Yet, many hold similar beliefs right now. Most of those aren’t married to a Supreme Court Justice who can rule in a way to protect them.

The weather has been mostly beautiful. Spring has sprung (and officially on Sunday).

MOOSE

I’ve been doing some work for MOOSE. This is the open-source project through Maine. I’ve participated in three of the training sessions and completed several of the training resources courses. I’m excited to be participating in the project. I’m on the Computer Science track, so there will be some learning for me. I’m excited to get the opportunity to create some materials. I hope to “cross-create” as well.

Baseball

Baseball is back. I’ve renewed my MLB subscription. I’ve watched at least parts of a couple of spring training games.

I also picked up some tickets to the Portland Sea Dogs game in April.

Book

I’ve started reading Barn 8.
The book so far focuses on a “what if” scenario. A young, adopted girl decides that she wants to visit her dad (she just found out that she is adopted and her father is alive). It doesn’t go well. Before she can return home, her mother is killed in a car crash. She meets up with a woman who knew her mother. Together, they start hatching a plan.

Tech Integrators

Podcast

The Podcast last week, Sap Risin’ Time, was a bit shorter than usual; under an hour. It’s always great to chat with Shawn.

Hazel

Our new puppy went off to daycare for the first time. Of course, she was put in “time out”. Apparently, she was basically herding many of the other dogs.
She continues to do well.

Events

World events continue to be frustrating. Russia is trying to take over Ukraine but is being met with heroic resistance. Frustrating that these conditions are still going on throughout the world. Make no mistake, this is not the only place with so much strife, but it is the one getting the news cycles.

Some of the January 6th traitors are now in the judicial system. I hate to say it, but the penalties seem really small for trying to overthrow the government.

Judge Jackson has been nominated for the Supreme Court. It is frustrating to listen to politicians who pushed through the nomination of another Judge (Amy Coney Barrett) push against the nomination of Judge Jackson. Instead of being a country of ideals, partisanship is obviously present. Now, I know that has always been the case. And I’m optimistic enough to hope that we shall rise above that partisanship in the end.

Social Studies is so important to our country. We’ve abused and lessened that importance in school and are now paying the price. We need rational, critical thinkers. This is more important than ever as corporations have gotten even better at manipulation.

Well, once again, I’ve fallen off the Weekly Note wagon. Let’s jump back on, shall we?

Week of Feb 21, 2022

Last week was a break from work. With the week off, I did some work around the house. Specifically, this week was the dining room.

I cut and installed some beadboard. The girls helped do the actual installation part. The beadboard and trim has been painted (white), while the top of the walls are Tostada (kind of a cafe au lait color). I still need to do a second color coat and paint the inside of the bookcases. Oh, and the beadboard cap will be installed after the second color coat.

Rm and I did take a day to head over to Norway, Maine. With Hazel in tow, it was a wonderful day. We visited Fiber and Vine and several other shops.

Week of Feb 28, 2022

Back to work. Lots to do and catch up on. One of the meetings was on changing from required masks to masks being optional. There was lots of discussion and perspectives on this.

Finished up much of the dining room. Everything was put back in place (with the exception of things on the bookshelf). Sunday was bookshelf painting day. One coat paint was actually one coat paint. Now to let it dry for a few days and then replace the treasures. (Only one bookshelf was painted.)

Also got a permanent crown installed. The procedure was quick and easy. I think of the generation of my parents. Both of my parents had dentures by this point in their life. Glad to not have to deal with that (at least yet).

My wife has been hard at work preparing for a vendor show at the end of March. She does such wonderful work. The things that she creates are truly unique and special.