Comments (0)

By Kyle, September 28, 2008 9:26 am

Now Playing: Money – Pink Floyd

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Most media coverage of LAUSD tends to be fairly short-lived, with little lasting repercussions. Finally today, the L.A. Daily News has let the cat out of the bag, publishing a story about the disparity in administrator and teacher salaries. What’s more, is that they’ve published a searchable database for every LAUSD employee (which is legal because our salaries are technically public records). So, does that mean you can actually look up my salary? Absolutely. As you can probably guess, lots of people are ticked at this, which seems like an invasion of privacy, but hey, we’re public employees, and the public has a right to know how LAUSD is spending their money. Bring it on!

Comments (0)

By Kyle, September 27, 2008 12:04 pm

Now Playing: Dedicated Follower of Fashion – The Kinks

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

I had two options for what to watch last night. I could have watched some utterly depressing baseball (3 games worth). But rather than soak in the gloom, I headed over to a colleague’s Hollywood apartment to watch the next most entertaining thing on television, The Presidential Debates.

Was there a clear-cut “winner”? Clearly not. Did both candidates clearly get their message across? Definitely. However, as I was listening to some pre-debate radio punditry, I was reminded that with today’s television audience, what’s (unfortunately) most important (as far as TV debates go) is not what the candidates say, but rather how they say it. Personally, I would like to add to that equation, that what really matters is what necktie each candidate chooses. The following is a brief history of presidential TV ties! And may the best tie win!

1960: Kennedy v Nixon. Winner: Nobody. This first tie battle, which is also the first TV debate ironically winds up in a literal tie. The reality of black-and-white TV makes it utterly impossible to declare a winner, which is really too bad, because a well-placed and amply distracting necktie can divert all attention from a typical five o’clock shadow.

1988: Bush v. Dukakis. Winner: George Bush, because he’s bold and brave enough to take on Saddam as well as the strangely colored striped necktie. My guess is that Dukakis’ eye-level view of Bush’s tie was the decisive factor in putting his candidacy into hypnosis following the debate.

1992: Bush v. Clinton v. Perot. Winner: Nobody. This would have been a good debate to televise in black and white. After all, all three came dressed in matching prep-school attire; dark suit, white shirt, bogus notions about economics, and almost identical black and red ties. Awwww……so cute.

2000: Bush v. Gore. Winner: Bush, who just prior to the debates, mailed Florida residents a set of matching red ties, in what later turned out to be a genius move.

2008: McCain v. Obama. Winner: McCain. Staring at Obama’s red tie, left me wondering whether Barak is subtly appealing to moderates or is simply confused about which party he belongs to. The only confusion left with John was whether his red and white tie should leave us calling him John Mc-Candy-Cain.

Comments (2)

By Kyle, September 24, 2008 11:10 am

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

This image (which took me quite a few seconds to “get”, after which I laughed out loud), comes from one of my new favorite web sites, GraphJam. And what I love best about this graph is that it reveals how utterly clueless most of us are.

And for your reading pleasure, an anecdote to illustrate this point: I have a friend who lives in Los Angeles and enjoys watching the occasional football game on TV. So my friend decides that on Monday night of this week, he’d meet up with some of his co-workers at a sports bar in Hollywood to watch the Jets / Chargers game. Knowing that parking in Los Angeles can be awfully expensive, he drives around Sunset Blvd. looking for some free street parking after the meters close at six. Wonderfully, this friend of mine found a nice little spot, about a block away, where the meter still had enough time to get through the allotted meter time remaining.

So then, this friend of mine parks his car, walks down the block, meets up with some buddies, orders some hot wings, watches Brett Favre throw three interceptions, watches the Mets lose to the Cubs on a side-TV, and then a few hours later, calls it a night, and begins to walk back to his car.

Upon returning to the place where he parked his car, he notices that his car is clearly not there. My friend’s first thought is that he has walked up the wrong street and is simply lost. Nope, he’s on the right street. My friend’s second thought is that his car has been stolen, but this is quickly overcome by his third thought, which comes to him when he realizes that the other cars he parked behind or in front of are no longer parked on this street.

It then dawns on my friend to read the street parking signs (which resemble the 1977 tax code) a bit more clearly. And what my stupid friend realizes is that the end of metered parking at 6pm, actually ushered in a 9-hour no parking tow-away period. Brilliant. So what began as a noble attempt to earn some free parking, thus turned into a 90 minute, 1 mile, $242 extravaganza.

Gee, I have some stupid friends.

Comments (2)

By Kyle, September 21, 2008 8:42 am

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Full disclosure: I hate the Yankees. I really, really hate the Yankees. And I love challenging those who tend to feel otherwise.

However, when pressed, I must admit that yes, the Yankees have been nothing if not good for baseball as a sport, a pastime, and a culture. So with today’s final game ever at Yankee Stadium (barring some unfortunate late-September miracle), an era comes to an end. It is, I have to admit, a bit sad to see the end of a place that is nothing short of sacred as a memory-space, and a space that thankfully I had one opportunity to visit back in 2006, during a summer trip to NYC.

So when the final out is made, the final run is scored, I will take a breath, tip my metaphorical cap, pause for a moment of brief silence,…. and then quickly begin the celebration that the Yankees won’t be the NY baseball team in the playoffs this October!

Comments (0)

By Kyle, September 18, 2008 3:19 pm

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Ice fishing. Flights out of LAX. Family vacations to Iowa.

The above situations have been for the most part the only reason in my life that I’ve ever felt the necessity to wake up (and get up) before the crack of dawn, while the night is still in the midst of all it’s dark glory. As a result, I’ve never really gotten the opportunity to appreciate a beautiful sunrise, especially as it might occur over a city skyline.

Yet, as this school year has begun, I’ve gotten into the habit of consistently getting up before the sun actually rises, crawling out of bed, and getting ready for the day more early than I am used to. There are a number of advantages this offers, not the least of which is a stunning view of the sunrise above Los Angeles as I drive east toward work on Pico Blvd. 

However, there is a definite downside to all this:

Comments (0)

By Kyle, September 15, 2008 2:25 pm

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

I know, I know I’m only twenty-seven twenty-six (wow, I can’t even count anymore!), however there are quite a number of things that are beginning (and continuing) to make me feel old.

First, my former roommate for during my first three years living in Los Angeles, Brett, is mounting a political campaign for his local neighborhood council. VoteForFlater.com simultaneously gives details of his candidacy and puts me in the good company of those like Tommy Lee Jones, whose former roommates are now politicians.

Second, today my sister and her husband are celebrating their first wedding anniversary. Holy cow. A whole year has passed since that chilly and blustery weekend last year, when my sister and Jason tied the knot, and I returned to Los Angeles a few days later to find that my roommates had taped a headshot of UTLA president AJ Duffy to my bedroom ceiling, an image which remains there to this day. Happy Anniversary!

Lastly, my kids make me feel old, not because they tire me out, as much as the fact that they were born in 1996! Nineteen-ninety-six! Rodney King, OJ Simpson, and the L.A. Rams mean the same thing to my kids as Jimmy Carter, boycotted Moscow Olympics, and “Who Shot JR?” mean to me.

Comments (1)

By Kyle, September 12, 2008 10:18 am

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

You wonder if it is a good thing when you open up a major American newspaper and see the name of your school in the text, especially when the headline touts city prosecutors.

Well, such was the case this morning when I read an L.A.Times article basically stating that based on a successful initiative at Markham Middle School for the past two years, our City Attorney, Rocky Delgadillo will be sending a city prosecutor to 10 LAUSD schools this year to act as “safety specialists”. And yes, Cochran Middle School is one of them.

Apparently, the way to fix problems around here is to add more levels to the bureaucracy!

Comments (0)

By Kyle, September 9, 2008 8:25 pm

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

 “I don’t know what the original directions you were given, but these are the directions now”.

The above quote sounds like something an exasperated teacher would say to a class of unruly students upon the realization that the carefully laid plans for the class had utterly backfired. However, I did not hear these frustrated words come from any teachers today, but from an administrator in during our weekly faculty griping session that entails “professional development”. Apparently, what it was this time was that textbook distribution had been royally fouled up and we teachers had been told several different and conflicting tales about what would go on. Now don’t get me wrong, after the first full week (i.e. 5 days) of school and seeing my kids, I have great optimism that they WILL learn and will do very well! Tomorrow, the rubber actually hits the road when we begin learning about tables and graphs!

Comments (1)

By Kyle, September 6, 2008 4:50 pm

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

“Tangerine” is not only a fantastic Led Zeppelin song, but also one of the ingredients present in a salad that I learned how to create today in day 1 of a 4-Saturday basic cooking course.

Oh yes, in the course of a mere three hours, I have graduated from a culinary capability rivaling the utter mathematical ineptitude with which many of my students are entering class this year, to being able to cook both soups and salads with speed, dexterity, and creativity! Well, that may exaggerate the state of things a bit, but suffice it to say that in three hours I’ve learned some of the basics, including how to properly use a knife to cut, chop, slice, dice, and mince anything vegetable, as well as the motivation to do so!

At first, I had my doubts about this “cooking class”, especially after 90 minutes of simply sitting and listening to the instructor talk about knife use, and walk us through eight or so recipes without actually getting to do anything hands-on yet. However, my fears were quickly allayed when she partnered us up with another student. The crowd consisted of about 14 adults most of whom seemed to fit nicely within the 30-35 year old age bracket (with a few exceptions, older and younger). My partner and I quickly got to creating a Spinach and White Bean soup, which is literally exactly what it sounds like with the addition of several key flavorful ingredients like basil, parmesan cheese, and sauteed onions and garlic. After this creation, the class sat down to a family-style meal with all of the soups and salads that we students had cooked. Actually, the dishes were delicious (When the instructor asked me which of the dishes I liked, I explained to her that quite frankly, all of them were about 5 to 10 times as good as what I usually eat)!

Next week, we’ll learn how to do fish, but I have my doubts. What could I possibly improve upon that my good friend Long John Silver can’t do already?

Comments (0)

By Kyle, September 3, 2008 6:44 pm

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The year has not begun with a bang, but with a whimper. Even though this is year 5 for me, it only feels like my third time around. And yet, as I introduced myself to a rather frightened looking bunch of 7th graders, I wish I could simply skip this whole beginning of the year “song and dance” and get right into things.

Aside from a particularly boring day in which I explicated the beginnings of my classroom rules and procedures, (which I will continue to do during the next few class periods), perhaps the highlight was a random visit from a former student B_____, a student I had for the past two years. She’s just begun her freshman year at L.A. High School, and is now “off-track”. One thing you have to know about B_____ is that she started 7th grade very shy, very reluctant, and very intimidated by mathematics. By the end of 8th grade, she had turned out to be one of the top students in her algebra class, and I was (and am) incredibly proud of her.

Now if only I can get my new kiddies this year to turn out like her…..

And now I’m off, with no particular place to go.