Absolute Total Chaos

Our Guidance Counselor quit. They ran out and hired a new one and by the time they got her in her office with a password to turn on the computer she had a half day to create class rosters! Ha Ha Ha! The principal was in a panic as she saw classes overcrowded, with not enough desks for the young thugs! Oh, it was great. I was surprised by my class line up on the first day of classes...I have that subject today? OK. Luckily I had the work ready. Some teachers had classes assigned that they didn't even have textbooks in the building for! I am supposedly getting new textbooks tomorrow. We'll see. It was fun to see all the chaos. It might settle down by next Tuesday. I'll let you know.

A Desk!

I got my own desk...finally! I have worked here at the prison for three years and I finally get my own desk and computer! Wheeeeeee!

Summer Reading Review

This summer I read three novels. For work we did a little book club. The whole school was supposed to read A Lesson Before Dying. Then the male teachers, assistant warden, Major, and counselors who are men were going to have a panel discussion with a selection of the boys in front of the whole prison population. The morning of the discussion the principal freaked out and canceled the whole thing because of one itty-bitty fight on the school hall. The kid that got jumped wasn't even hurt enough to miss the next period. So, everyone is pretty miffed at her for canceling that after everyone was all prepared, including the assistant warden. He keeps on asking if we are going to reschedule. The whole teacher visiting the death row inmate thing was supposed to resonate with the boys. I guess they were hoping it would teach the boys something. What did they learn? The principal is a coward.

On my own I read two other books for my own pleasure and enlightenment. The first was Atlas Shrugged. All 1,106 or so pages. It was very interesting. As a conservative working in a liberal wasteland I found it fascinating that when Ayn Rand was writing her novel in the 1950's she could so accurately predict the actions of politicians and our current predicaments. She has some obvious issues, such as a fetish for violent sex and that whole atheist thing, but still the novel is a great read if you like political novels of the conservative persuasion. I know some people feel she takes it too far, but she creates a very probable future where the USA and the world are being destroyed by the logical outcomes of the liberal practice of forcing the successful to be sacrificed for the welfare state. Perhaps it was because when she was 12 the Commies took over her home country of Russia and she watched them destroy all that was good in Russia as she grew up. She came to the US and saw a great nation taking a slower path to the self destruction that is communism through the social and welfare programs. Sorry, this is getting to sound just like my other political blog. I'll stop. Just go watch the movie when it comes out if you don't have the patience to read over a 1,000 pages of individualism and capitalism. Rumor has is that Dagny Taggart will be played by Angelina Jolie.

The third book was, like the second, one I've wanted to read for a while. It was Lone Survivor. Marcus Luttrell's story is much shorter and easier to read. This week at work we had a bunch of staff development trainings...except, they didn't make any for GED, so I was working on lesson plans and schedules etc...and during my breaks I was reading Lone Survivor. Imagine me in a prison hiding in a corner, facing the corner with the book in front of my face so that no one could see the tears coursing down my face as my left hand clutched a tissue like some little girl watching the Titanic for the third time in one day. Wow, that book is great! Let me tell you, when I was a teen and I came back from a three week exchange to Ukraine, coming back to the US was by far one of the best things I had ever felt. Later, after being in Uruguay for two years, coming home to the USA was one of those feelings that are so powerful. But, they are mere glimpses of what must have swelled in Marcus Luttrell's heart when, in the Pashtun mountains of Afghanistan, after watching his fellow SEALs die at his side, crawling for miles, being shot, tortured, etc by the Taliban and being hidden by a Pashtun Tribe in their village there suddenly popping up was the Army Rangers. It must have been the most beautiful sight in the world. I'll let you read it for yourselves (I know several of you already have). May God Bless our soldiers and God Bless the USA.


Marcus is the third from the right. All the others pictured were among the 11 SEALs (19 total Special Ops soldiers) who died either as part of Operation Redwing or trying to rescue the Members of Operation Redwing.

Tuesday's in Prison: The Mule

Now, when I last truly posted I noted that I was going on a break until I caught up. I found that it really didn't affect how much homework I did. Why? Because my wife and I started watching TV shows that we hadn't seen before. We watched all the back episodes of LOST. It is definitely addicting. Sure, it is frustrating as well. But, it is like crack and blogging. You just can't stop! Then once we had completely caught up on that we sighed. Now I was going to get some work done. But the trouble was we found we needed a new TV fix. So, back to Netflix live streaming. What do we find? Heroes. Yes, we hadn't watched it and now we are totally hooked. Our DVR sure is going to be very busy this fall! Right now we are watching MI-5. It is a British show. It sure is funny to see their depictions of Americans and everything. They make it a point to deny the CIA's requests as often as they can. Hee Hee Hee. So what? The fake MI-5 officers don't throw a bone to the fake BBC vision of a CIA officer...who cares. If rumor has it our own FBI has trouble sharing with the CIA...what makes some Brit so special for not sharing? But, we still really, really like the show. The cliffhanger at the end of season one gave me nightmares. I found it VERY disturbing. Well, the point of this is to say, I guess I may as well come back to blogging. If I am avoiding homework, I may as well have my own fun as well!

Today, as you all know was Tuesday. Even though this is staff development week I am skipping out on the training. You see, with all the classes I am taking, I don't need any classes on how to use the SmartBoard (a white board that is connected to a laptop and they interact), I know how already. I have taken a billion gang classes, who needs another. I don't need the walk about and see historic sites training, nor do I need to take a course on getting along with co-workers. So, I stayed at the school site and worked on getting ready fall the next semester and input grades from the summer.

While I putout 3 graduates to everyone 1 graduate the school puts out I still don't rate a classroom and only have a cart with a white board a yard long that I push around with my books in and on it. I push it down to one of the living units and teach down there. Something about all the other classrooms being overcrowded and having two classes and two teachers at a time already. Note to any prison planners: Plan enough classrooms to cover the amount of cells you are building!

I cleaned my cart and gave it a major overhaul. I was just finishing up when I noticed something under the cart. Thinking some of my supplies had rolled under the cart I reached underneath. Touching something soft, I immediately withdrew my hand! I cautiously stuck it back under and this time grabbed and pulled the object. It was a blue plastic glove with a radio, earphones and a half brick of Lever 2000 soap! Ha! Ha! Someone thought they could turn me into an unwitting mule! Some fool is going to be soooo ticked off when he, all slick like, tries to reach under my cart and get his package! And whatever kid tried to pay him off is going to be in hot water! Well, I'm going to have to start periodically checking my cart for stashes taped underneath!
I took the contraband and delivered it to the Sergeant who happens to be in charge of most of my students. Won't they be mad when she shows up and starts reaming them out! Yes, dear readers. That is glee you sense. It is good to be back!