Anybody who has used any version of Windows in the last 10 years has seen the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). I can’t really believe it, but the next version of Windows (codenamed Longhorn) has a Red Screen of Death! All I can say is “Wow…”

The wildest thing: You can check any KY Teacher’s credentials online at the Kentucky Educational Professional Standards Board site. A link to my credentials can be found
here. Somehow or other, looking up former teachers is very addictive. Everyone I have ever shown this to spends at least five minutes looking up someone, either good or bad.

I was reading The Talent Myth, an article by the current business philosophy guru Malcom Gladwell when I noticed a link on the bottom of his site to the web design firm Cavil.com. Apparently, Cavil’s croanies saw computer movies like Hackers and actually decided the artsy and useless sites that always show up in said movies are the way to go. It has been a long time since I have seen an artsy web design company that propogates mystery meat navigation. Most died off before or shortly after the dot com boom. Cavil, though, takes itself very seriously. The title of the page is “Cavil, an internet concern.” What kind of arrogant, pretensious title is that? If I didn’t know the site was about web design before I went to it, I’m not sure I would have figured out what they do.

I managed to find my way to Cavil’s site portfolio. On all of their sites, you are forced to poke-and-hope, relying on the little hand that your cursor turns into so you know where to click. That’s such crap. And if I were to question Cavil about their design practices, I would probably be told that I “Just don’t get it.” That’s the same mentality that caused Apple Computer to nearly tank in the late 80s/early 90s.

Why am I so upset over one little site like Cavil? I guess it’s because the same pompous asses who run places like Cavil seem to be able to get on TV and spread loads of crap about what freedom really is. They gladly sit around and protest animal cruelty and the evils of wearing brand-name tennis shoes. And at the end of all the whining, they’ll throw in something about how they create websites to “express themselves.” It irks me that people like that get to shape what a computer geek is all about, yet as long as sites like Cavil appear on a high-profile site like Gladwell’s such garbage won’t die because it will continue to generate hits. Generation of hits fuels these freaks into believing that what they create is quality. It never ends. Anyway…

On a very positive note, if I survive tomorrow, I will have offically completed my first year of teaching! It’s been a wild rollercoaster ride. I’m glad I went into teaching, though. I think I have actually helped a few students learn to think, even though they hated my guts while I was guiding them to that point. I must have gotten much more strict this semester. I failed 17% of my students (compared to only 7% last semester), not because I’m mean, but because they wouldn’t show up and/or do any work. I really don’t like failing people, but the expectations were clear from day one. I wish the students wouldn’t force me to drop the hammer, but I’m not losing any sleep over it.

There’s a quietness in my soul that I haven’t felt since December. Many things are coming to an end very soon: the first year MAT cycle, the students’ school year, and my curriculum class. My favorite part of any task has always been when it’s all said and done and I have achieved closure. The best part is how well I sleep when I don’t have a bunch of small things keeping my brain up at night. I do a lot of problem solving in my sleep, but when there are no projects due or papers to write, my brain takes a break.

It’s odd that I don’t mind that the closure of one chapter always brings the opening of another. I mean, in about 3 weeks or so, I’m going to start another leg of this race that is more challenging than the one I just finished. I guess I like the page between chapters. You know, the one that has been left intentionally blank. In that little section, there is nothing to lose and nothing to gain. Sometimes, that’s the best place in the world to be.

I turned in my massive MAT portfolio on Saturday (somewhere in the neighborhood of 380-400 pagses). It represents an entire year’s worth of teaching, reflecting, teaching, and re-teaching…It feels so good to have that out of the way. Now, all I gotta do is survive one more observation and finish my curriculum framework. This time next year, I’ll be fully certified and get a nice raise. The upcoming summer, fall, and spring are going to suck, royally. If I can survive one more year, though, it’ll all be worth it.