radio thoughts.

I have been listening to the plenty lately. I want to get some thoughts down here before I forget what I heard and thought.

The other day Michael Moore was on the howard stern show promoting his new movie. He said something I found interesting. He said that he was an old fashion conservative guy and treated his income in a certain way. His philosophy was that you should be working for your money, not your money working for you. This means that any money you make should go into a savings account and not be bothered with any more. The only source of a persons income should be from what he does to earn the money. Using money to make more money is to much of a risk. I agree with this. Why should I give someone else my earned money in the hope that I could get more money. Investments and stocks are to much to worry about for me. All the people who have lost money in the 401k program were a bit greedy. They wanted more and were willing to negotiate with their own savings. Working to earn a living was not good enough for them. The willingness to put their money in a risky situation and trust programs invented by the government was to easy for them.

I also heard some interesting philosophy on the jason ellis show. Today he was talking about how the desire to earn and achieve should have people out of bed every morning. He thought that something that is given to you is not as valuable as something you earn. I have to agree with him. I need to be have some type of goal that gets me out of bed and willing to work for everyday. I have a bit of a dilemna with my career path. I thought teaching was something I could do, and still think that I can do. I never did think I was going to make a career out of it. I knew that I wanted to be a farmer and work on the family farm with my dad and grandpa. Thus far I have been unable to find the motivation to get out of bed and get to work as a farmer. I can do this when we are planting or harvesting, but during the slow times of farming, I can just lay in bed all day. I am still searching for what I want to do with my life that gives me a purpose each and every day. Jogging to lose some weight helps in the mornings. Knowing that I have to go somewhere and sub helps also. I have no larger goal though. The amount of money I can make from ag is limited or to known to rush out of bed in a frenzied excitement.

Jason Ellis also wanted to know what a person would do with a million dollars. If I lucked out and had a million dollars, I would pay off my debts and buy some better farm equipment. I would put the rest in a bank account to set. I am not really interested in a boat, or some extravagant house. I wouldn't buy much more than what I already know that I want or have plans for.

Here are some short and long terms goals that I am working towards now:
an outdoor wood burning furnace to heat my house
a small shed to store firewood in
a log splitter that I can wheel around and travel with without the need of a tractor
A bigger truck- crew cab, 4x4, flat bed, and bigger engine
a decent small car for when I don't need a truck
an addition to my house for a new bedroom
a barn big enough to hold a couple of acres and a new tobacco stripping room
a garage to put my vehicles in

and like the one popular country song goes, all this won't be worth nothing till I put a girl in it.

the all ohio weekend revisited

One weekend I achieved a feat that only a select few can claim. This past weekend came close, but was not quite it. I am talking about the all ohio weekend. What is the all ohio weekend might be what you are asking right now. Let me lay it out.
saturday- OSU versus the university of cincinnati bearcats college football game
sunday- Bengals versus browns pro football game.

This happened the weekend of september 16, 2006.

What a weekend that was. Friday I taught at school and went home and got some rest. Maybe. I might have went to columbus and got drunk. I don't remember, but I don't think I was gone from home two nights. At any rate, I had a ticket to the UC game and went and had plenty of fun. That game was hilarious becuase vegasbob and drweber hopped a gate and got in for free. After the game, I stayed up drinking until after three and went to sleep on the floor of my house. I woke myself up before 7, put on my shoes and drove home. I got home before 9, went to sleep for another two hours and rode to the bengals game with grandpa after a quick shower. The bengals got a win that weekend and so did the buckeyes. After the bengals game, I went home and went to bed. I woke up early monday morning, got to my classroom just after 6 AM like I usually did and then made all my lesson plans for the week. The next weekend OSU played PSU, but I gave my ticket to my brother, and he went and watched the game in the rain. I still went to cvegas and watched the game with nasamatt and scatterbrain at the old house, and we hung out just like we had for the past year before I moved away.

maternal people

I realized riding home from the OSU game saturday night that I don't blog much about some of the women in my life.

My mom is very important to what I have do as a person. I am her firstborn and followed her profession through college. She calls once or twice a week to see if I want to come over for dinner. I usually eat at their place saturday and sunday at noon. It is a good time to catch up with each other and she enjoys having everyone back at the house and socializing. During the summer, I eat at her house for lunch everyday she is there to cook. She has become a bit of a buckeye fan now that she has two sons that want to watch the game every week. She did like going to her first game last weekend. She got a poncho from a seat neighbor and stayed relatively dry. She tells me that she sees her dad in me moreso than any other of her kids or nieces or nephews.

My paternal grandma is a great person also. She cooks lunch for us me, my dad, and my grandpa every week day during the year. At least when mom is out teaching. She has cut my hair for free ever since I can remember. She loves having all the family in for dinner every holiday. Grandpa and her were high school sweethearts and they have been going to the same church in motown for as long as they could. She saves magazine articles about farming that she thinks I might find interesting. She does all the paperwork for the farming enterprise Without her, I would have to do all the accounting for the farm. And I hate thinking about money all the time.

My maternal grandma has been widowed for over ten years now. He died of complications from alzheimers disease, and she has lived alone ever since. This spring, she decided that I am the most religious of all her grandkids, and gave me his old rosary. She volunteers most of her time at the church and other volunteer based organizations. She did give me an old couch of hers when she bought a new one this spring. She did try to set me up with a nice girl she meet at her shoulder rehab place, but I held off for to long and lost the number now. She has given me some crap about my lawn care maintenance, but I have a schedule that is terribly different from hers, and different expectations about how I should take care of my flower beds. I don't spend a whole lot of time with her, she lives about 25 minutes away and is usually out occupying her time.

times typed "oftern"-0

a wii-lemna

I have played wii sports resort some and have found it to be a decent and fun game. The motion plus is pretty cool, but I don't really see how it improves my gaming experience. The motionplus has somewhow ruined my wii's capability. The pointer doesn't work or point at the screen like it did before I got the motionplus I haven't been able to get the pointer to work right yet. One of these days I will be motivated enough to dig out my instruction manual for my wii and fix the problem. I have tried a time or two to bring up my wii fit channel so I can check my weight, but because of this limitation, have become more frustrated at what is happening. Oh well, that's enough with this rant. I did pick up the new professor layton game for the DS, solving puzzles is great fun for me. I almost brough scribblenauts today, but passed on it for now.

I watched my first madea themed movie today, I thought it was pretty good and had some good messages there. The madea character is pretty great, the world would be a better place if there were more people like her around. I do have to wonder though. Why is the church in the movie so small? The characters in the movie live in a big city, and plenty of them seem to have good jobs. I had the impression that churches in big cities had to to bigger just because of the number of people available to the area. The congregation in the choir scene was a bit small for a sunday service in the city. The drug addict story seemed a bit tacked on and not central to the story. It was really great that ellen went back to Orlando at the end of the movie.

how firm thy friendship, O-HI-O

Today's OSU game was pretty good in some regards. I will be an optimist here for a bit and say some good things. It didn't rain much the second half. It wasn't very windy the first half of the game. The atmosphere around the campus was exceptional. My seats were so good I couldn't believe it.

Okay, that's enough misplaced optimism. The game was fantastic from an OSU fan standpoint. A shutout against someone who was supposed to be competitive. Pryor was 6-10 at passing before the last score and drive. I don't know how many yards the backs got, but they seemed to have some pretty good games. My brother got on the field to do the illibuck ceremony and was even on TV holding the illibuck turtle trophy thing for a while. I didn't catch up with any old college pals, but had to get going to drive home anyways. I was hoping to go to the skull session, but didn't realize it starts 2 hours before gametime. I was also hoping to get to my seats in time to watch the band take the field, but had to go catecorner from the direction I walked from, and then walk all but two rows from the top. Next weeks game game against indiana should not be much of a contest, but time will tell. I stayed for the singing of carmen ohio, which is just about the coolest thing any OSU fan can ever witness.

My buddy Kevin acted like he had a good time at his first ever game, but got soaked with all the rain we had the first half. Mom had seats close to the field, but got a poncho so she was okay for the game. I'm sure they would have enjoyed the game better if it hadn't rained. I have been to several games, but have never been to a game when it was raining. I can't think that I have ever been to a game in the snow either. I have been to really cold games where I wished I had wore my insulated bibs. I have to games that are so hot that I went and stood in some shade during half time.

The rainy game really reminded me of a fun cross country practice I had in high school. One day it rained during practice but never lightened. We got to run around in the rain and play in the mud after practice. It was more fun that I can and am describing it. I guess my writing skills should be improved upon.

not the best week.

Well, had a bit of an interesting week at school. I ended up sending one kid to the office and two more got detention write ups for sleeping in class. I really can't blame the ones who fell asleep, that chapter we are covering is boring as shit. The teacher didn't even leave a test and there were hardly any notes to take from the chapter. The principal, the assistant principal and me all dressed the same way one day at school. The three of us do lunch duty at the same time and one of the secretaries was laughing a little bit about that. The horticulture class is heading south here soon as well, the outlines I was given don't call for very detailed information, but the kids are really waiting for it. The ag II class is learning something, but the outline I was given doesn't really suit my teaching style. Really, the whole curriculum she has in place doesn't really sit well with me. I even managed to do a couple of things wrong also. During a lockdown drill, I locked a door but didn't latch it shut and the principal caught me. The garage door broke on my watch and I clogged up a toilet in my auxilary buildings bathroom. The guys I eat lunch with now ask me everyday what I broke today.

I am also a bit down on college football fandom. I am not getting the excitement and camaraderie from a football saturday that I would like to have. In columbus, everyone talked and was excited about the game every week. Here in the BC or HC, there are casual fans at best. My family worries a bunch more about getting work and other activities done. The football game is an afterthought. I can hardly find anyone who is willing to go. I ended up with four available tickets for the illinois game tomorrow, and am taking two first timer with me. I can't even think of anyone else to ask that could go. I could ask my younger brother to go, but he has said no to me before, so I quit asking him to do things with me. My sister and her husband have other commitments. I could see if bobby hill wanted to go, but don't really want to ride in a car with him for four hours there and back.

alitas

Well I have all my tobacco in for the year now. I held up my end of the bargain and took the amigos out to eat tonight. I negotiated with them that when they finished putting in my six acres, I would take them out to eat. For some reason, they wanted to go to butterbees there in mt. orab so that is where we went. They seem to like chicken wings, or alitas, as they are called in spanish. It was kind of funny, only one of them can read english, so the other three order whatever he gets. I am also find it interesting that people are surprised that I speak spanish as well as I think they do. I speak spanish, better than most people in brown or highland county could begin ti imagine, but still have plenty to learn. I can learn and remember most of the vocabulary they tell me, but have forgotten most of the verb tense conjugations I learned in high school.  The main annoyance I have with peoples surprise at my ability is how surprised they are. I most seem terribly dumb walking around and being myself. It would seem people have low expectations for me.

Money wise, I should do pretty well on this years crop. Last year the tobacco didn't cure out right and I couldn't sell all of it. This year, the tobacco seemed to have a heavy leaf and we didn't put it in the barn quite as tight. If I can get more than the 13 grand from my share that I did last year I will be happy. Most of that I will have to spend of labor, but it will still be a good year.

I am a little apprehensive about subbing tomorrow. The teacher I am subbing for is coming in for a surprise visit. She has an inside person in a half sister being a teachers assistant for one of my classes, and I don't think I am getting a favorable report. The TA person is ready to beat all the kids in the class, so I will have to wait and see what happens.

times typed "oftern"-0

Pompous

I have to wonder what my amount of blog posting says about me. Do I think I am so interesting that I have something new to say everyday? So far, I have been blogging since the end of may, have all of june, july, and august and most of september. In a little bit less than 120 days, I already have more than 120 different posts. I know in real life I am relatively dull. This forum allows to to get thoughts out that I wouldn't usually put out in public. If a person who didn't know me found this blog, they might think I have a bunch going on for me.

At any rate, I have some thoughts on some movies I have seen recently. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was good. I began to suspect a plot twist when the beach scene happened, and I was correct. I would not like to forget any of the memories that I have. I would also like to think that people I know would not want me erased from their memories.

Lost In Translation was good also. I would love to go to a strange city and have all kinds of idle time to explore a city and learn a new language. When I was in brazil, I learned plenty of portuguese, but found that I assimilated spanish into what I was trying to say, even when the words were completely different. I wonder if this movie counts as foreign since it was in a foreign city.

times typed "oftern"-0

Ruth

I finished reading the Ruth book in the Bible last night. SHORTEST BIBLE BOOK EVER. ha ha. Anyways, I initially thought this was going to be about women, but the more I think about it, the more the book told me about men. It told me how men settled property ownership. It told me how men married off the women and what happened when the men died. I learned how men harvested their fields and who they got to work for them. Overall, I thought it was a good book of the Bible.

Ruth reminded me of a series that I have started reading and gaining interest in. Y the last man, is about a man who survives after everything with a y chromosome on earth has suddenly died. Well, except for his helper monkey he was training. At any rate, I am finding the series interesting. The author has one male character to work with and can make any type of women they want. I am not sure if the author is a man or woman, but women are not being presented in the best light. A crazy group of women calls themselves the amazons and burns off one of their breasts. An Israelian women goes power hungry and chases yorick down. The politicians wives storm the white house and demand to be in charge. One group of women put on a play about the last man on earth and kill off the last man. A group of women from a womens prison start their own utopia, but all want sexed up when Yorick shows up. The only reasonable person is the only man left, Yorick. He has been the voice of reason thus far. I am not sure if the book is a social commentary on women in this day and age or if it is science fiction. I have only read part of the series. It is hard to justify 13 dollars for a graphic novel that I will read in an hour.

times typed "oftern"-0

here goes nothing

I am not sure what I am trying to do with this post or going to accomplish. At any rate, I am the author here and want to blog about what is on my mind. I have had an interest in a girl for a some time now. She has seemingly turned me down because of fraternization. Knowing what my apparent profession and hers are, I have concluded some things. I think this rejection is because a woman has to work hard to maintain her professional image. It is much harder for a woman to remain viewed as a professional among her coworkers than it is for a man. I may present to much of a risk. I live in the community that she works in. Too many of her students could get to me and form opinions about her. The staff she works with might form the wrong idea if we were seen together. Things may be said in her classroom that she doesn't think is appropriate. There is another teacher teacher relationship in the building that could be a yardstick for other inter workplace ambiguities. Once that threshold has been crossed, it could be very hard for a woman to do damage control.

On the other hand, I am privy to some knowledge that a honest person might not know. I am pretty sure that she has been or was praying for God to be with her and help her in her life. She was probably doing this regardless of any relationship status. I don't think that someone can ever know what God's plan is. It seems a bit convenient that we made our acquaintance when we did. It seems a bit convenient that we were both recently single after coming across each other in her workplace. It seems a bit convenient that we were both on the same dating website when we were.

We meet or had passings not all that long after I had broken up with my girlfriend and I think she had recently separated from her boyfriend. I came across her dating profile and realized she was single. I had initially not given her much thought. She had red hair which did two things that she or any other woman would not want to hear about themselves. One, she looked like another red headed teacher in her building. This is my fault. I learn people at first by hair color and knew the name of another teacher that had red hair. Thus, 1=2 for a while. I was eventually able to discriminate, but that is where the second observation came into play. The red hair did give her an older appearance. I had probably said some friendly things in passing to her. I didn't think or know what degree of availability she had, so I just smiled and was as nice to her as anyone else I knew.

She also has something that I found interesting. On a description of herself she says she takes risks for love and faith. I must also be too much of a risk for love. Like I mentioned earlier, God works in mysterious ways and a person cannot be entirely sure of His plan. This must not apply to me. I do practice a different religion than her. I am a catholic, and I doubt there is any type of catholic bias. I have been to christian services before, but if a decision were to come, I think public showing of faith is more important than which building I am in. The preacher I am listening to now seems more interested in telling jokes and being a funnyman than preaching. I am hearing too many chuckles from him during his sermon.

I may have done some things she was not in favor of. I found her online dating profile and then proceeded to message her a bit. She eventually quit messaging me. I got a bit nosy one day a month or three later and found she was keeping a blog that she probably didn't think some online lurker was going to come across. She also seems to be on several other dating sites, thus making herself available to plenty of other people. I shouldn't have googled the online name and made myself privy to such knowledge. However, she is putting herself out there as a single and still finds time to turn me down at least three times for a dinner date.

Beyond that, she seems like a great girl and I don't know if we would get along if the digital barrier was ever crossed. Maybe she is more insightful than me and knows that I am not her type. Anything ventured can be a bit of a risk. Making this post could be a risk. For all I know, she is going to shun me and forget all about me.

I also watched how I meet your mother tonight and found professor mosby and his trepidation about teaching to be quite accurate. Good stuff on that show. I really can't wait for The Big Bang Theory to come on, that science based humor is great.

Judges

I finished reading the Judges book last night. I have slowed a bit on my Bible reading. Now that we only have about 3 acres of tobacco left, I should be on a more reasonable pace soon. Anyways, Judges was about all the leaders that Israel had or did have. I never realized that once Moses moved on, the Israelite community didn't have a stable leadership. Some Israelites were quick to forgot God and move on to this baal character. What was so appealing about this idol that they converted so readily? The amount of turmoil in this time was also outstanding. I kept reading about war after war and I was never really sure what they were fighting about. Some more of Samson's story was pretty cool. I was a bit clueless on most of his story until I read his section. I also have to wonder about the oldest profession as presented in the Bible. These people seem to sleep with prostitutes very easily. Many characters also seemed to have multiple wives. God must have tightened up his companionship standards sometime in the New Testament.

I also have gotten myself a new winter jacket. I can semi-retire the abecrombie jacket now. I have had my abercrombie jacket for almost 7 years now. It kept me nice and warm, but was starting to show some stains and wear that was not washing out. I found a nice columbia jacket at town and country there in hillsboro. They had marked my jacket down by 50 dollars and I was not able to walk on by. I also bought me a new pair of 527 levi jeans and some new work boots. Bobby Hill really doesn't know money, he told me they had the boots I wanted there for 130 dollars and they were marked 150. I still bought them, I have higher standards than walking around in a boot that has a big blowout in the toe.

treading

The treadmill has been a good decision so far. I have lost a little bit of weight, mostly on what would have been my love handles. According to my wii fit fitness advisor, 20 pounds will get me down to the normal weight range. Yesterday I weighed myself at 208, and the twenty pounds will get me under 190 also. So far my routine is wake up, do about ten minutes of stretching and then get  going. I also do at least 100 sit-ups, but may jump that up to 200 here soon enough. I also crossed the 400 calorie barrier recently, and almost got 450 the last time. If I can figure out how to get more than 2 miles in my 20 minute plus workout I will be in good shape. So far I think my high mileage has been 1.7 miles. The workouts so far have been good for getting me to sweat a fair amount also. Lately when I finish my run, I am covered in sweat and drip some sweat on the tread when looking over my stats. I have some sweat drip lines running down my chest and all over my arms. I have to review my stats because I take off my glasses and run blind when I go. Putting in my contacts is a bit of a chore to be able to see without glasses for about 30 minutes. The first time I ran on the treadmill I put my glasses in a spot, and then they fell off about 10 minutes later. I am lucky I didn't crush them with my foot because they fell on the tread and down to the floor. 

I am watching eternal sunshine of the spotless mind tonight. I have to wonder if I can find a girl that forward for me, but I have only watched the first half hour so far. 

Student teaching

I have referenced my student teaching a time or two on this blog and am now putting down some more thoughts. Since I was a horticulture production minor and the lone entry in this category, I had to select a school to go to for student teaching that offered horticulture classes. In the fall, no one teaches horticulture or at least practices it. I got stuck because when the "first come first serve" applications became available, I was in brazil. Some of the other ag ed majors picked the schools that offered horticulture production ahead of me, and didn't want the horticulture production program. At any rate, by the time I had turned in my application, all the schools I could have or should have gone to were occupied. Our programs main teacher had announced or threatened that if they didn't find a school for me to go to, I was going to be job shadowing her the next quarter instead of student teaching. They eventually found a school and program that was willing to take me on at Logan Elm High school. One of my teachers was on the school board there and had some nearby houses and rental property in Circleville that he could rent to me while I was student teaching. I was able to live across from the krogers, and had a short drive there. I did get internet service in there, but did not have any cable tv.

The actual classes were a bit of a change of pace from what I had been acclimated to. The school was on block scheduling, and it was a two teacher program. I had never been involved with either. I also had only freshman classes. I only had freshman, which meant that I only had to prepare one class worth of work everyday. I was able to finesse the lesson by the fourth time I presented it. I also had to get up and be active. The first couple of days I had to listen to susan, my mentor teacher person, I couldn't stay awake. I was way more worried about getting chewed out for falling asleep than being in front of a class room full of 14 year olds. I didn't care what I was doing or saying, I was getting up there and going and trying. I simply could not sit around and listen to susan talk all day.

I also had a problem with some of the assignments we were expected to do while student teaching. I was supposed to keep a daily journal, but didn't turn in a singe page or have any indication of a journal. I had to take days away from the classroom to visit a first or second year hire ag teacher, a day off to visit another student teacher from the cohort in their class. I didn't like leaving the classroom, I felt that I should be in there everytime students are. We had to make up daily, detailed lesson plans that were expected to be turned in for evaluation. My college professor person came in once or twice to review me also.

I had to take three days off to go to the national FFA convention and make sub plans. I got three days off to go to the pumpkin festival, which was in walking distance from my place. I also was able to experience some fog delays, and weekly field trips. But I still didn't like the time away from the classroom. The pumpkin festival was really pretty fun. I walked around and gorged myself on food, then went back to my place and drank myself drunk. Being 22 was fun. Some of the secretary's thought I looked too young to be 22, but at that point, I barely had to shave every other day and was still under 190 after working construction all summer.

The funniest thing that happened was in columbus. One weekend, I went up to c-vegas for an OSU game and predictably got drunk and passed out on a recliner at NASAmatt's and scatterbrain's house. About 4 am, I heard a knocking on the front door and here is a summation of ensuing conversation.

Me- hello?
Pizza- yeah I got a pizza for mark
Me-there is no mark here
pizza-is the *** northwood?
me-no this is *** main street circleville
pizza-this is not columbus?
me-no, I am living in circleville

At some point, I realized that I was in columbus and not in circleville that night. I kept up the act anyways and got the guy to leave. I went back to sleep and left the next morning. I did tell vegasbob about what happened, and he relayed it to scatterbrain. The story is practically legendary among my pals now, and rightly so. I drank so much I forgot I was in columbus and kept scatterbrain from paying for a pizza when he was comatose in his bed.

I also had my first experience with a high school football program. I went to only one home game. When I wanted to leave after the game, there was a huge crowd in the parking lot and I got aggravated about going to a game when I couldn't leave the parking lot in a reasonable amount of time. They did have a good team that year, and made the playoffs. The lost the first and only game of the playoffs, but I rode along with my college professor that was a hometown person for logan elm.

At any rate, I ended up with a b grade overall. For all I knew, everyone else received A grades. I was happy to realize that I didn't like teaching of agriculture and preferred talking about science. I didn't tell any of my advisors that information though.

only a summary

The case I finished hearing today was only a summary jury trial. We sided on the defense side. The plaintiffs didn't present enough evidence to tip the scales. The defendants showed plenty of evidence that
they cooperated with government agencies. The residents of the town thought they lost property values, but in this market, almost everyones homes are worth less. I didn't see any conclusive proof that residents should be worried. A potential million gallon product plume under the house, was presented in such a way that I don't think it was harmful. The jury was very easily unanimous in its decisions making process. The only hiccup was we still had to present potential money awarding amounts if we had sided with the plaintiffs. That took a while to decide on. The link below is a cincinnati enquirer article from sunday.


http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090913/NEWS01/909140331/1165/NEWS0107/Jury+trial+could+decide+Chevron+case

fountain square

With my recent activity downtown, I have realized a couple of things. The fountain square area is a cool place to sit and hang out for a while. The activity that goes on during my lunch break is pretty cool. There are so many restaurants that I have never been to that I would love to go and try out at least once. I have been to boi no braza, the brazilian steakhouse once before. It wasn't quite as good as a real chuhascaria in brazil. I also had graeters ice cream for the first time. I had never had any before, and had been laughed at for being from cincinnati and never having any. I also have to take in the scenery. There are plenty of good looking women walking around, making an effort to look their best. It is pretty nice. I can't decide if flats or heels is a better look right now. I hardly see any women wearing heels, but the flats have their appeal also. There are also plenty of banks at the square, it seems a bit excessive to have that many banks around. If I had been able to go to the reds game instead of rushing home to work in tobacco, I would have gone.

I watched the movie amelie tonight. I thought it was pretty good. Amelie was a bit of a loner and starts playing some small pranks and using her imagination in interesting ways.

times typed "oftern"-0

decision maker

I have been appointed as a decision maker, the term a judge uses to describe everyone on a jury. It's kind of cool, everyone stands and waits while the jury comes in and takes their seats. Apparently, I am to much of a catch for either the prosecution or defense to pass over. Really, 31 candidates, 8 needed, and I get picked. Here are some other coming decisions that I am going to make.

Do I buy an outdoor wood burner to heat my house in the winterr? Should cost me about 8000.

Will it be cool or lame to build a bar in my house? What do I have going for me that says a bar is unwarranted?

How much more time should I put into learning how to play the banjo?

Is being a sports fan really worth my time now that I don't drink and have to work on weekends?

Should I convince my dad and grandpa to buy a large bale tobacco baler?

Do I want a new barn to hang tobacco in?

Should I keep my truck I have or trade it in for a better one?

Do I need a car?

How long until I get the lights in my house fixed?

Is blogging for what I want to write, readership or not?

How hard am I going to continue work on my treadmill activity?

Are the mexicans taking advantage of me when I drive them to beechmont or eastgate, or is Jesus happy that I have such compassion?

How much longer will I keep up the times typed oftern joke?

times typed "oftern"-1

Joshua

I finished reading the Joshua book in my Bible last night. I had never given much thought as to who succeeded Moses, and now I know. God was still very willing to smite as many non-Lord people as possible. Lastly, I still had no idea that there were so many established towns and orders. Were there really that many kings, or were they more like mayors of a town? How were that many people able to sustain themselves before modern agriculture and knowledge of food safety? Animals require about 6 pounds of feed for every one pound of body weight, how were the animals getting enough to make do? 

In other news, jury duty is happening soon. My dad and grandpa are very aggravated at my civic mindedness, but mainly because they have to work harder in my absence. They don't realize that they have a crew of amigos that they can sit back and watch work if they don't want to work very hard. However, there is going to be a time when I have to commit to either farming or teaching. It may be after this season. If I can find another 6 acres of  tobacco ground and barns, and about another 50 acres of ground for soybeans, I think I could give up on teaching as a part timer. 

Boot quandary

I like to wear justin boots. I currently have 4 pairs of Justin boots. Two of them I keep nice and clean. I like to wear them as my dress shoes. They look really good when kept clean oiled up. One pair is a dark brown roper style boot that laces up. I am on my third or fourth pair of those. The other pair are copper caprice cowboy boots. I am on my second pair of those. The old pair of copper caprice cowboy boots may be on their last legs. The side has blown out on the right foot so that my foot is always getting fresh air. I am going to have to retire this pair soon. In the past I have just started wearing my good boots as work boots when I needed a new pair of boots. I don't really want to do this right away, my good boots still look good. I hate to go out and buy a new pair of boots just to immediately work in them. I also hate to dirty up a pair of boots that I still want to have to wear and look nice. I bought a pair of justin lace up boots from tsc when I hurt my foot two summers ago, but they don't close up real tight and dirt and cold air get in too easily.

I also have to laugh at some of the boots that people wear. Some pairs of boots look like they weigh about 15 pounds and are as big as cinder blocks. They lace up halfway to the shin and come in camouflage.

In addition to my justin boots that I wear when teaching, I also have a pair of doc martins that I wear and a pair of skechers. I never wear the same pair of shoes two days in a row and that keeps them smelling pretty decent.

times typed "oftern"-0

its now local

H1N1 now has local effects. Because of the contagiousness of H1N1, the church has changed how things are done in church. No longer will we be able to drink communion wine. No longer can we shake hands when we are spreading peace. No longer can we hold hands and lift them to the Lord during the Lords prayer. I am not sure what to think about these things. I liked the way catholics did things during mass. It may be very different for the next couple of months until the scare goes away. Father did give a good mass, I was a bit worried he just had some goofy sermon for us when he got started. About halfway through he did get serious and say some good things. I would like for him to relate his stories more directly to the Bible however. I also have to consider my health when subbing. Is one of the high school kids going to get it? Should or when should I get a shot?

I also now have jury duty. A paper came in the mail asking me to show up tuesday morning. At least I can get some sub plans for a sub together by monday.

times typed "oftern"-0

8 year annivesary

When todays historic date happened, I was working on a barn in williamsburg. I can probably still get there. Anyways, I remember webn saying a plane flew into one of the towers, then they were joking the second plane must have been an observatory plane that also crashed. I tried to get the work crew to turn over to wlw on the radio, because webn was still playing songs instead of constant news breaks. We went to lunch at a gold star chili and got to see some of the coverage for the first time. We eventually heard that another plane got the pentagon, and another one was grounded in pennsylvania somewhere. Beyond that, what else is there to say that hasn't already been said. It was a great tragedy, and our thoughts and prayers should be for both sides. Today I was talking to some of the students and they didn't remember much about it. Most of them were in first or second grade and went about their day as normal. I was 19 and a couple of months out of high school and hadn't quite started at southern state yet. My youngest brother remembers some of his junior high teachers turning on the tv and crying.

I'm probably gonna make a chili tomorrow for the big game. I have been eating hamburgers all summer and am ready for a change of pace. This fall weather is gonna be great,  I have already got some hooded sweatshirts out and the season is well on its way. Hooded sweatshirts may be my favorite thing. I have all kinds of OSU sweatshirts, and plenty of other hooded sweatshirts also. For the longest time I considered a red carhartt sweatshirt as my favorite/best hooded sweatshirt. I would wear it to bars and parties and class alike. I even said hello to my work hooded sweatshirts the other day when I had to get one out to wear for some chilly weather.

Deuteronomy

I finished reading the book of deuteronomy last night. I have been unable to decide what to think of this book. At first it seemed like a recap of the israelites journey, but then I realized that Moses was talking. From then on, I thought it was more about his accomplishments as the leader. I have never quite realized how important Moses was until the near end when the verses were talking about how he was a unique prophet and there will never be another like him. Then I realized that the book was more likely a tribute to Moses and his work for the israelites. That description seemed a little more fitting than a simple recap of the journey. I also couldn't follow the songs in the verses very well. I am also realizing how angry and vengeful God really was in the old testament. I have heard before that God was a near different person in the new testament, but never realized the extent. He could seemingly not wait to get someone for almost anything. It really makes me worry about how I look in His eyes. I should spend more time concentrated on God, I never know when my time will come.

I also need to do something about my antenna outside. Fox doesn't come in right but about half the time. This means that I did miss some of Glee last night but did see some of it.

not a guitar hero.

I have never much gotten into the guitar hero games or that particular genre. Sure, I like most all music and enjoy listening to good music, but gaming for the sake of playing music doesn't match up with me. I think I have tried guitar hero games once in my life. I would much prefer to practice my banjo. If a banjo or bluegrass hero game was made, I might consider that. That effort would mostly be to hear new music though. Some people may only have consoles to play those games, and that would be an expensive habit. The thing that I think is going to happen is more bands are going to want to release their own edition, like what the beatles are doing here soon.

At peebles today, I asked if the school was ever on a fog delay. Those are real, they happened three times when I was student teaching. The principal is now getting me on a call list.

I also have to figure out a way to keep the ex from knowing that I am going to be watching glee. Now that big brother is nearly over, she is going to look for a new reason to visit. I don't mind seeing her occasionally, I think being a friend means making the effort to catch up every so often. She will just want to come over every time its on and talk my ear off about it.

El verde monstro

One of my mexicans got green tobacco sickness over the weekend. This happens when you handle wet tobacco, and the tobacco touches bare skin such as your arms. The nicotine gets in your body, and makes you sick. I got it once in high school, the day before my first cross country meet. I went to CC practice, came home and helped hand tobacco in my shorts and tennis shoes. By the time I was done, I almost fell out of the rails about 8 feet from the floor from passing out. When I got down to the ground, I nearly threw up and had to sit down for a couple of minutes. My grandpa got sick that day also. At any rate, I went home and went to bed. I managed to wake up in time the next morning to go to the meet at hillsboro, and ran a decent time for my first 5k ever. I was 17 at the time, and a robust six foot tall and about 175 pounds. Our mexican that got it sunday is about four feet ten, eighty pounds and fifty years old. We took him to urgent care when he didn't get better overnight. The doctor gave him a shot and some pills. It looks like we are going to have to be more careful about him working in the future, we can't have him getting sick all the time.

at the drive in

With the official end of summer upon me, I thought I would talk about something that I didn't get to do this year that I really missed out on. I am talking about the drive in. Last year I went to the drive in and seen the dark knight and get smart in a double feature. It was a great night of movies. I took my cooler, bought some mountain dew, a package of chocolate donuts, and some other snacks. I took a battery powered dewalt radio and sat in some chairs in the back of my truck. I didn't get home until after 4 am. The ex didn't think she would like a batman movie, but that one was hard not to enjoy. I would have liked to have a good reason to go again this year, but it didn't happen. While not very many spectacular movies came out this summer, the drive in would have been fun regardless of the feature. What might have been the best part was that the tickets only cost about 5 dollars total. It also provided a good alternative to plainly throwing back some beers.

ag class = fail

With my recent work as a substitute ag ed teacher, I have formed some new opinions about being an ag educator. The class has been really dull thus far. Part of the appeal of being in ag class means that you get to go out and do things. The only assignments I have to give at PHS are from a book. If I was a student, I would be really bored. I'm really bored as the teacher. The problem is that If I was an ag teacher, I don't think I would be doing anything different. Sure, sub plans are different than what the regular teacher would do. I understand that students cannot be trusted to behave in the same manner. I just cannot think of anything intriguing for the students to talk about. My enthusiasm for talking about ag is minimal. I first picked up on this when I was student teaching at logan elm. I was way more interested in talking about plant biology than chickens. I am looking more forward to being a science teacher than an ag teacher. Science has way more interesting topics and has a broader audience than agriculture. I enjoy doing agriculture, but I talking about ag is not fun for me. I am way more interested in talking about science. Part of my problem may be my background. My dad and grandpa are so inconsistent with their decision making, I never know if I am doing the right thing. For all the experience they brag about, so many things go wrong or are done so poorly. Calves still get away, things don't get sprayed on time, we have to haul ass to get things done before a rain gets in. With all the miscommunication I get, I can't think of a right thing to tell a student. If all the ag teacher does is straight from a book, why does anyone need an ag teaching certificate? Thats another thing, all the schools I have ag subbed at have had the same book. It's a bit odd. There is also another another thing, why do they bother with licensing? A friend of my brothers was hired without a teaching certificate. Why should I have bothered to take education classes in school when an administration doesn't require any pedagogy knowledge? Why do schools sugarcoat all the work I was doing in my education courses when I DONT NEED THEM? A teacher has those things in the back of their mind when they do their planning. I think most planning revolves around what you need to cover and how long it will take. The best plans I see as a sub are at elementary schools. A teacher at fairfield elementary had a weekly plan where all she had to do each week was write in the name of the books they were reading each day.

Times typed "oftern"-0

the worst football game

The worst I felt after a football game was the game in 2005 when Ohio State played Texas at Ohio State. The day started off good, I helped get in some tobacco in the morning and got to columbus around 1 I think. Scatterbrain, NASAmatt and me were renting a house on northwood so I did some moving in. They had built a bar in the living room of the house and bought a keg of leinenkuegel. That is the red looking beer that is a bit heavy. Anyways, I brought some liqour for the bar and drank the rest of the afternoon catching up with all kinds of friends. Most people had graduated and moved away from columbus in the spring, but me and NASAmatt still had a quarter of undergrad left. Scatterbrain was starting grad school that quarter. The game itself was very exciting, but at the end, Ohio State had lost and the mood was a real downer. Usually after a night game people will be walking around excited and jubilant, but everyone was in a worse mood then. I was in no mood to celebrate, so me and hellboy went to moe's southwestern grill and got some food. We went back to the house, where everyone was in an equally unenthusiastic mood. We ate our food, the keg had long been floated, and went to bed. The season ended up okay, but it was just as the coach of texas had described. "I hate that one of these two teams has to lose tonight." Texas went on to have a undefeated season and beat USC to win the national championship. Ohio State made a BCS game still, but didn't have quite the season that Texas and Vince Young did.

In other news, we are about halfway done putting in tobacco. My spanish is excellente ahorita and things are well with the amigos.

My brother has two extra tickets to the illinois game at columbus this year, I just need to find someone around here that would like to go. Next weeks game against USC is looking good in my opinion. The defense is gonna get their act together for a tough team and tressel isn't gonna play his #2 quarterback unless TP gets injured or the game is out of hand. USC is not as daunting as they were last year when we played them in wherever it is they are in california. Next weekend I could go up to columbus and pal around with plenty of friends from undergrad school. What's gonna happen is they are gonna go five different directions after an hour and I will end up at the DTS house again. I don't really want to go up to columbus again and put up with that monstrous crowd and every hooligan in columbus.

Numbers

I finished reading numbers in the Bible the other night. I don't hardly believe there were 600,00 something isrealites or any number of people in those Biblical times. That seems like a high number compared to the conditions they must of lived in. Sure, the israelites were Gods people and got to eat fresh bread or something from the ground everyday, but it seems high. Once again, the stories and interactions were the highlight of the book. I find it interesting how God deals with situations and that has been the most enjoying aspect of the Bible so far. At one point, I thought Moses had passed away, but he was still hanging in there and prophesizing later. It also seemed foolish for nations to not let the israelites pass through. They asked nicely, and were given a firm no with some type of army. Then God took care of the rest.

In other news, glee had some idealized things about school that I want to discuss. I have never heard of a school that had a glee club. Why do bells always ring when the teacher seems to be in the middle of class? I don't think cheerleaders practice in uniform. I have never been involved with a terribly large school, but find it hard to believe that schools sponsor single mixers for the staff. The teacher break room seems kind of small for william mckinley high school. Do kids really throw drinks at each other in the hallways, or is that just a funny thing for TV? Jane Lynch was good for the show, but I don't think I knew any of the other actors. I have no experience other than spectator as a football person, is that really how the teams treat people not on the team?

I also got mad at my brother today. My grandpa decided that he is working too hard to be making other people money. My brother expected sympathy because he had to give away a ticket to the buckeyes game to help this weekend. The point is, dad, grandpa, youngest brother and me are all trading labor with each other for our tobacco enterprises. Dad and grandpa work all day everyday, I work after I get home from subbing, and he works on weekends he is home. That is a bit unequitable for the amount grandpa has. Sure, I missed plenty of work to be at school when I was in school, but youngest brother thinks himself a bit privileged for some reason. Anyways, I was siding with my grandpa and youngest brother told me to shut the fuck up. So his field can get done last at our leisure, with or without the amigo crew for all I care. Let him organize his own program if that is going to be his attitude. And I am going to let dad and grandpa know my opinion when the time comes.

Yes, my younger brother has a name, but I prefer to give people monikers on this blog to keep some accidental google search away from here.

times typed "oftern"-0

my own worst enemy.

Last year during college football season was when my relationship started falling apart. Things started off well, I took her to her first game when the buckeyes played Ohio University. I bought her a jersey to wear, that she never wore again until after I broke up with her.
     The next couple of weeks I watched or listened to games as much as I could.
     We went to my sisters halloween weekend in costume. I watched the penn state game while she ignored me and talked to my sister. She didn't think I could limit myself, so I drank a reasonable amount, went to home and got to bed. The next day I went to my church's 8 am mass, and then went to her service with her later.
We went up to a game one weekend to catch up with some friends and hang out with my brother some. We watched the game, and went to her friends house to help celebrate her friends daughters birthday. Then we went to a friend of mine to help celebrate her birthday. I was not sober at all during much any part of the day. She decided that she wanted to go home that night so she could go to church the next day, so we got in the truck and she started driving. By the time we got to the outlet malls, she decided that she couldn't drive any more, so we stopped and slept in my truck for an hour or so. When she woke me up, she was too tired to drive, and made me drive the rest of the way home.
     The next weekend we stayed home and watched another game.
     Then the problem weekend came. I have a friend that goes to illinois university that a bunch of us tickets to the game in champaign. She had said that she would go earlier in the summer and apparently feigned interest. She found a way to get out of going by signing up to take the praxis II again that weekend. She has now currently taken the praxis test about 10 times and has still been unable to pass the PTL test for k-4. At any rate, she wasn't going, and I convinced Dr. Weber to go with me. My one scatterbrained friend and girlfriend noticed that was weird, and I told them that I wasn't sure how much longer it would last. On the way home, when my girlfriend would have been in church, she had time to call me. This really got to me, I had to drive with a hangover at 4 am to get her to church, but when she had time to herself, she didn't go.
     On tuesday the next week, I went to her house to watch a netflix movie, stranger than fiction if I remember right. She banned me from talking and slept through the whole movie. On my way out, I told her we were going to columbus that weekend for the michigan game. By the time friday came around, she had still not acknowledged that, and put up a big fuss about going. I let her know that I was gonna leave by 6:30, with or without her. Halfway to hillsboro, I turned around and drove to russellville to pick her up. She called my brother and got him to convince me to pick her up. Once I got there, she started packing, and two hours later I was back on the road. We didn't say much the entire way to columbus. Once I got to columbus, my brother told me he had gotten me one ticket, so I was gonna go to the game the next day. If I knew he was going to be able to get me a ticket, I would have brought warmer clothes. At any rate, I went to the game and she stayed in my brothers room and slept. She was unwilling to call any of her friends and try to hangout, so she stayed in and got angrier. I caught up with scatterbrain for a while after the game and brought her back a creampuff, but she was too angry to be any bit of happy. We went home that evening, as planned. She was angry that I took two hours to get back after the game, but we did miss the traffic and still got back for her to go to church the next day.
     Thanksgiving was next weekend and we had a serious talk. She admitted that she was trying less at the relationship on the basis that I wasn't trying hard enough. That was enough for me to make my decision to break up with her. I wasn't having much fun with her and she was unwilling to try any more to make either of us happy. For some time she had been unwilling to talk on the phone at all with me, and just spent time asleep when we were together. She was mystified why I enjoyed college football so much. The way I see it, she did not want to be around me anymore. That was that. She now regrets that decision and would still take me back if I asked her to. At least I think so. I may have been drinking too much those weekends, but I was still making the effort to spend time with her and will spend much of this season watching football sober. My brother is now of the opinion that I do really want her, but he doesn't know as much about the two of us as he thinks he does. I have no plans to get back with her, even it means spending the next part of my life without any dates of companionship. How can I be with someone who willingly put less effort into dating me when she had such a high opinion of me? What happens when if we had gotten married and she decided this after such a commitment?

In other news, I watched GLEE tonight and thought it was pretty funny. More thoughts will come later.

2 games of the century?

I have been to two of the most historic games in buckeye history.

The first game I am referring to is the 2002 national championship game against the Miami University Hurricanes. Me and my cousin d fresh were gonna drive his scamp out there, but our parents bought us some package after they realized we were serious. We didn't pick up our tickets until about an hour before the game started, and were in the last row of the stadium. I could seriously look behind me and see the parking lot for the stadium. The game was fantastic, there was so much scarlet and grey, I have never seen anything like it. The game was very back and forth, ending in a tie, going through multiple overtimes, and the buckeyes finally won. All of the miami fans got out of the stadium pretty fast. I never even realized some of the things that happened in that game until we got back to the hotel and turned on the tv.

The second game I am describing happened in 2006. The buckeyes had an undefeated season and a #1 ranking. The wolverines were undefeated and had a #2 ranking. The game lived up to expectations, ending in a 42-39 buckeye win. All was right in the world, Tressel had his dominance over the state up north, and they haven not seemed to recover as of yet. I also drank about 40 beers that day and would have missed the start of the game if someone hadn't told me it was time to leave for the game. Then me and my buddy stayed up late to try and buy a wii.

I had my first foray into barber-ism yesterday. Mandame wanted a haircut, and wouldn't quit pestering me about it so I took a pair of scissors and trimmed him down. I'll post a picture when I get them on my computer.

times typed "oftern"-0

Coming, to your city

The start of college football is finally upon me. This may be my favorite time of the year, mainly for all the excitement and storylines that each weekend brings. If your team loses more once or twice in a season, hopes for a national championship are gone. You have to beat your league rival every year to maintain some sense of prosperity. For some teams, you have to put up about 40 points to have a good game.

The best part for me may be watching college game day every saturday at 10 am. From the big and rich intro song about coming to your city, to the analysis of important games, to the location of the set that day, to the picking of the team by Corso, everything is great.

As a kid growing up, I had no idea college football existed until my sophomore year of college. Until then, my saturdays were filled with working and doing things away from the tv this time of the year. I may have watched the nfl some on sundays, but college football was out of sight, out of mind. I didn't pick Ohio State as my college because of the football excitement, I picked it because of CFAES.

FML

I have nothing good in my life. I am like peter klaven, except I have no female friends either. My thumb is in an awful condition now because of a favor I did for my grandma back in may. My eyeglasses set crooked on my ears. I embarrassed a nearly illiterate kid in a class today. The only people who want to talk to me are mexicans. The only people who look at my online dating profile are spammers who want my email so they can spam me. I have some unwarranted outlandish reputation with a bunch of my brothers fraternity morons. I have a useless college degree that gets me the same job as any person with any bachelor degree. I didn't market any beans and the market has gone down a dollar since last friday. I like having a head of hair, but it gets thinner the longer I go without a haircut. Most of my hats don't fit me right because my head is oddly shaped. I have no appreciable skills beside knowing something about farming, which is the same skill set as old folks who have never done anything else in their lives. I need to quit watching tv and just go to bed at 8 pm everynight of the week. I look forward to watching saturday night live, when it is usually so dull I fall asleep. Facebook sends me things saying that my friends think I am unhookupable(?), and that I am unpopular and not outgoing, but am a best friend and have a good sense of humor. I bought concert tickets and have no body to go with. I have to jog in the dark because my treadmill destroyed enough wiring that I lost the use of two ceiling fans. My truck is dirty as hell and I have no real reason to clean it. My local pro sports teams are perennially awful, but I do like going to games. Convincing other people to go with me is like twisting their arms, and if my family found out I was willing to go alone, it would be like the spanish inquisition, so I stay home. I applied for a job, didn't get a call back, they didn't hire anyone and they reposted the job again. So I reapplied. My mii on wii fit is a near obese round residual self image. I cannot think of my own strengths or weaknesses when asked at a job interview. I read in an internet meme that LOL now also means "I have nothing else to say and don't care to advance the conversation," so I don't like instant messaging anymore. Text messaging is the hippest thing around, but I have an awful phone for that and don't want to spend 10 dollars a month for an unlimited plan.

In other news, FML.

some work

Well I finally gave myself enough ambition to stay busy. The plans that I got at phs are not good enough for me. You can't really give a list of things the students should know, highlight some parts in the book and hope that a sub does the same job you would. That might work for 1 day, but not for 8 weeks. I made my own study guide for a chapter tonight, have to make a key in the morning, and think of a decent way to teach a horticulture class first period.

I also have to rewrite a part of my wgu assignment as a persuasive essay by friday. Dad and grandpa want help hanging tobacco, and I have to wake up early enough to job for about 25 minutes, eat breakfast, pack a lunch, iron, shower, and make a study guide key. If I wake up at 5:45, that might get me out of the house by 7 and see the yellow ragtop VW beetle on the road on my way out. PHS is about a half hour away, but I would like to get there earlier than that, so I may have to wake up at 5 to suit my needs and desired job performance.

Also, commentator, hill is newell. However, the fair is not where I am basing that seconds comment on. The funny thing about him is seconds is a viable option for him. I am also going off of his bragging about the fact.