Sunday Early Edition

The Late Early Edition.
Cause today, I'm working on Doing Nothing.
Gonna go PRO any day now.
Except for this.
Actually writing this up is sort of like doing something so it's not really nothing.
I should stop.
Hurting the PRO status and all.
Anyways, let's document:

8:00 am- woke up.
Sort of like something, but I'm not counting actual movement.
I just sort of lay there anyways.

9:00 am- got breakfast.
Okay, this is sort of something too, but not really.
Trust me.

9:10 am- ate breakfast.
Sort of a continuation of getting breakfast.
Ain't nothing.
No, really.

9:22- Law & Order on Netflix.
The real Doing Nothing(DN) begins.

10:22 am- more Law & Order.
Ate a cookie.

11:22 am- L&O.
Ate another cookie.
Elevating my PRO status.

12:22 pm- writing the blog.
PRO status in question.

Just think of all the endorsements I can get from folks like Lazyboy, Doritos, the folks with the sleep number bed, etc.
So to keep my PRO status from being tarnished, I'm gonna stop now and go back to DN.
Lemme tell you it ain't easy for sometimes I really feel like I should do something.
I have to use all my will power and Jedi Skilz to stay attached to the couch.
Boy, the things I do for you, the reader!
Anyways, the baseball game starts in a half hour so that's another three hours of DN to log.
Remember, I am a PROfessional so don't try this at home.
If you know what I mean.

The Zoo

First I was happy!
Then I was sad.
Then I didn't know exactly how I felt.
I still don't.
The natives were getting restless, you know, begging me to take them somewhere cause apparently they don't get to go nowhere.
Since the next photography assignment was going to be Animals, I figured okay, let's all go to the zoo.
Yay! The Zoo!
I loves me some animals!
So off we went!
No really.
Off they went.
Once we hit the gate it was like herding wild horses: I had no control at all.
Not that I know what herding wild horses is like, I can only imagine it's like trying to get a grip on thirty kids running wild.
Okay, they weren't exactly running wild, they were just sort of dispersing in all different directions.
Thankfully they all came out and ended up at the rally point.
Anyways, it was the Zoo!
Oh yeah baby!
Unfortunately, it was like siesta time for all the animals:

High noon is not prime time at the zoo.
Everybody's sleeping!
Hey!
You over there!
Wake up!
Not a chance.
Some smaller critters were awake:

As well as some larger:

My second favorite zoo animal was awake and well, it was awake.
Wait for it.
That's right!
Giraffes!

Oh boy, I'm digging me some giraffes!

Look at that!
That is what I call a pencil neck!
Giraffes are still cool.
I could have sat there all day just watching them.
There's a post somewhere around here all about my giraffe infatuation, but I'm too lazy to find it.
Anyways it has something to do with a constellation and Dali.
I say they are my second favorite cause the bestest was the white rhino.
The second largest land mammal on the face of the planet.
Sort of like a Claes Oldenburg sculpture of a rhino cause them things are humungous!
Unfortunately our white rhino passed away sometime back, my he/she rest in peace.
Something happened while I reminiscing about the white rhino.
I started to think of all these animals in cages.
I mean I have to think that there's something primal, something instinctive, that makes them wanna be running around free.
Okay, the lions looked like they were pretty happy snoozing over there, but some of them other animals live in smallish enclosures and they didn't look to keen on life.
Maybe it was the time of day, you know, they all looked listless and bored, but I started to feel sort of uncomfortable that here I was enjoying their captivity.
Boy, that made me sad.
Then I started to think okay, it's good that they're getting three hots and a cot and they don't have to worry about being eaten by some other animal or getting poached or something, but still I was having a hard time rationalizing it all.
I don't know if I can.
All I know is that once we take hold of these creatures we have a responsibility to them.
What that responsibility is, I'm not sure and I'm not sure if we are accomplishing it.
I'll try and go back to the zoo soon.
Maybe the animals will look happier.

On The Silver Screen

Oh yeah baby!
The big time!
Kinda sorta.
I mean it was the Big Screen.
You'll see.
Anyways, yesterday I went and helped out a teacher at my old school.
I admit, sometimes I miss the folks I used to work with.
Sometimes.
Some folks.
So every year they, I mean she, puts on a film festival.  This year, the school auditorium roof collapsed during a big rain, so she rented out a local theatre.
Bright lights!
Red carpet!
Okay, not really.
I helped to chaperone (I don't really like that word, I don't know why) a before party.  There was a cool band:

The kids had pizza and got a chance to mingle like celebs and awards were given out.
The jury for the show included some local icons and some international film makers so the students were pretty stoked to get their plaques.
After the before it was off to the theatre:

Attendance was great!
All the available tickets were issued so technically it was sold out.
The line to get in ran around the block!
Sort of.
I have to say, this year was awesome.
Last year was awesome too, but having it in a real theatre was like going PRO.
If you know what I mean.
I think the student/film makers were impressed too.
The shorts ran about two hours long and the audience was a captured one:

I'm hoping to do something like this next year at my school too.
Well, maybe not as spectacular at first, but you gotta start somewhere.
Don't you know.
Anyways, I appreciated being invited even though I don't even work at that school anymore.
Putting on film festival like that takes a lot of time and teachers willing to put that kind of work in are well, let's just say an asset to their schools.
I can only try.
Well done Christine!

Kung Fu

Okay, not really.
Well, sort of.
Kinda.
So I've been like really busy lately!
No, really!
Busy, busy, busy!
Like last week, I went and shot some volleyball since our team is in the play-offs.
Tonight is the semi finals, sort of, since it's a double elimination tournament.
Today was school wide testing day so everyone 9-11 grade was taking some kind of well, test.
Except the Seniors.
I had to help keep an eyeball on them.
Restless Seniors.
All ready to bust out into the real world.
Little do they know.
If you know what I mean.
Anyways, since they had nothing better to do, the Seniors I mean, we, the school people, gave them some ice cream:

In a trough.
Was billed as a really really long banana split.
Bananas:

We had two and a half of them lined up for oh around 275 or so kids.
I mean Seniors.
I would show you the ice cream but I was busy scooping it out.
Huh?
Kung fu?
Oh!
The kung fu!
Oh yeah baby:

Last week as also Eastern Division Individual Championships in Kung Fu.
I mean Judo, as they don't really have high school kung fu.
Sort of wish they did though.
My first time at a judo thingy and it was pretty interesting.
Mano a mano sort of thing:

Except the girls fight too!
Awesome!
Ahem.
Actually the girls are more funner to watch cause they move faster and there's more action.
One of my ninth grade girls almost knocked another girl out.
Had her in the ole Sleeper Hold.
Don't you know.
Okay, I'm off!
No, really.
Schools out and I'm off so I'm well, off!
Volleyball tonight:

I hope we win.

It's In The Bag

Or Whole Lotta Baggage.
Or The Bag Makes the Man.
Or something.
All I know is I got some bags.
Like in camera bags:

I didn't plan it like this.
Just sort of snuck up on me.
I mean I blinked and there they were.
Staring back at me.
Hello.
I don't use Baby Bag anymore:

I'd sell it, but I wrote my name on it.
I guess I'll keep it.
You know, for the next camera.
Inevitable.
I did put Big Brother Bag on the CL:

It only lasted two month before I outgrew it.
Hopefully I won't be looking at it for much longer.
It reminds me of my, sickness.
For now I have Mama Bag:

Now I'm looking all PRO.
I needed Mama Bag cause I just couldn't stuff anything else in Big Brother Bag.
Not safely anyways.
Then there's Papa Bag:

The 747 Jumbo Jet of bags.
Okay, now I guess it's like the Airbus A380:

I still call things really big 747 out of nostalgia.
I guess.
So anyways, I was looking at all these bags.
Shocked, I was.
Wait!
There's more:

That's not really a bag, it's more like a case but it holds a camera so I suppose it counts.
I actually have another bag here at school but I'm too lazy to take a picture of it and what we really need here is another picture of a camera bag.
How about a tripod bag?

It doesn't look like a bag but that thing that came in the box on the left goes in it.
I keep asking myself, why would I need a bag for my tripod?
If anything was tool and not a jewel, a tripod would be it.
You know what would be really cool?
A bag so I could put all these other bags in.
Wait.
I think they call that a trash bag.
Okay, enough bags.
For now.

Posts

No really.
Posts.
Not like this post, which I am writing during period 4.
The kids are all supposed to be reading, part of the school reading time, but I can see some of their reflections in my monitor and their just pretending to be doing what they're supposed to be doing.
Sort of like me.
So anyways, today I finished up that teacher thingy I had to turn in and it went well cause I'm like awesome and all that.
Now I can start goofing off again.
Make that goofing off more.
I took a break between report writing on Sunday and went out to practice more picture taking.
I need the practice cause I'm not that awesome.
Maybe one day I will be.
Awesome I mean.
I went to the same place, Sand Island cause it's close by and sun sort of sets in a nice way over there and it is a beach after all.
Sort of.
Except I didn't go the beach part I went to yacht harbor:

The plan was to shoot some boats but I ended up spending two hours there and catching the sunset.
I got distracted:

By those pilings in the foreground.
You know, them posts.
Posts, posts, posts.
Posts and more posts:

I swear I took like a hundred pictures of all them posts.
Some from this angle, some from that angle.
Once I get done with them I'll well, post them up.
If you know what I mean.
Anyways, I better get back to doing something teacher like.
The kids are getting restless.
Gotta go and kick some you know what.
Maybe.

PD

No, not the popo.
As in police department.
In this case PD stands for professional development, something us teachers need to be working on all the time.
Like we got the time.
Well I've been making some time since this thing is like due next week, this thing we call Duty Five:

Basically a reflection on what we're doing wrong, if we're doing something wrong, and what we're doing to correct it.
Or make it better.
Which ever comes first.
Oh I could have done something like make the kids take better pictures, but they all think they already take better pictures or I could have done something like making the kids stop letting their pants hang down their you know whats, or I could have done something along the lines of improving my lessons.
Or something.
Instead I've decided to improve their writing skilz.
Since I'm like a great writer they got something to shoot for.
If you know what I mean.
Anyways, I'm documenting all the stuff I implemented during the year to help the kids improve their Jedi Skilz, stuff like rubrics and all that and how much or not those things helped.
Them improve their writing I mean.
Well I'm supposed to be working on that thing right now, and if you looked at me here across the floor of the library you might just think that I was doing just that.
Instead, I'm writing this.
Boy, not exactly setting a good example am I?
Still, I'm writing, which is more than I can say for some of them.
Oh, oh.
Here they come.
Can't let them get behind me.
Then they can see the screen.
Don't you know.