the breakfast club

A John Hughes movie that so accurately depicts so many aspects of American teenage life in the 1980s. I remember going to see it as a freshman in high school and not quite understanding everything that happened to the characters. Years later, as I watched the movie over and over again, it became more iconic to me. Recently, it has taken on new meaning.

I think of the scene where Allison (Ally Sheedy) opens up to Andrew (Emilio Estevez) about her home life. She talks not of parental abuse but rather neglect. She isn't so disappointed in their actions, rather their inactions. They do something worse than abuse, "they ignore me."

She is taken for granted, considered to be a fixture that can always be counted upon for whatever reason. Her family assumes that she is happy although they never know because they don't make the effort to ask. The family is too wrapped up in their own life that they don't even bother to wonder how someone else is doing. Allison contemplates running away but she doubts that her family would even notice.

I hear ya Allison...

morning glory

Excuse me while I copy and paste this story that I put up on my other blog. Its kinda funny and I figured this audience may enjoy it as well.



my ass hurts.

winter in holland is here and my backside is sore as a result of that arrival. this morning was kinda chilly on the ride to work but i didn't think it was THAT cold. the thermometer at home read 2 degrees (35 for you Fahrenheit people) so i figured that the bike path would be safe. i even was a bit cautious as i did the first km on the bike, making sure there was no ice. then i hit an open area, slightly downhill with a gentle S curve to it. that's where my day went to shit.

i felt the rear tire start to slide out and then the front followed, sending me crashing to the ground and sliding for a good 3-4 m (10-12 feet) along the ice. i laid there for a minute or two, my back and bum aching from the crash. i then got up and started pulling my bike out of the ditch. as i was doing so, i noticed an oncoming rider who was about to hit the ice.

i motioned to her to slow down and told her there was ice (in english of course, i couldn't remember any dutch at that moment). she was jittery and slammed on her brakes, sending her into the grass. a bunch of dutch swear words later and she pops up and starts yelling at her for making her crash! WTF!!! if she hadn't gone down when she did (into the grass) she would have bit it just as hard or harder than i did. the ice stretched for about 40 m (120 ft) through an S curve - no way in hell she was going to stay upright through it. but no, in her gratitude speech, she continued to bitch at me (now in english) for making her crash. i think that as she continued on, walking her bike, she realized how slippery and nasty it could have been if she hadn't lost it when she did.

as i walked my way down the icy stretch myself, i noticed a couple that i have seen many times on my way to work - a dutchman who rides with his surinamese girlfriend, side by side. as they came up to the turn (before the ice), i warned them about it and they walked their way through the stretch. alas, someone who appreciated my gesture of warning them before impending doom.

it took me an additional 20 minutes to get to work today b/c of my slowed pace and i arrived late. i wasn't the only one however as a total of 6 teachers from my school found their way off the paved path and into foliage or whatever was next to them. lotsa teachers walking around with limps, bruises, and a grimmace on their face thanks to mothernature's cruel little trick this morning.

but at least the day was a little better than how it started. my kids were good and we all laughed about my misfortune. if you can't laugh at yourself... but now i'm still in my classroom as i really don't want to get back on my bike to ride home. and since its past 5pm, the darkness has truly set in and my chances of spotting any ice right now are nil. let's hope for a event-free trip home. my ass doesn't want a reminder of what it felt this morning.

student survey

So I must have some very bored students, well at least one in particular, because I recently got an email from her with a survey attached. I figured that I would post my answers for all to read because I sure wasn't going to send it back to her.

[A]rea Code - 3062 XM (postal code)
[B]est Band - Rush (is that suppposed to be a trick question?)
[C]olor of Choice - Green
[D]umbest Thing You Have Ever Said - "I thought you said it rained a lot in Holland..."
[E]ight Friends - Shamash, ZAP, Jeannie-bo-Beannie, SAM, SWill, Canadian Math Nerd, Mr. and Mrs. Rock, Bowie (names changed to protect the innocent AND some names were left off due to the limiting E - eight).
[F]irst Letter of Your Name - B
[G]reatest Movie - Miracle
[H]orrible CD You've Bought- Celine Dion (I dunno what I was thinking that day)
[I]llegal Thing You Have Done or Witnessed - broke into Stan Hywett mansion with a friend. No guard dogs that night!
[J]ello Flavor You Like - lime with vodka
[K]isses You Have Gotten - umm, I'm single and in my mid-30s, I've kinda lost tract of all the women that I've kissed over the years.
[L]unch That You Eat - whatever Tjeerd is serving in the cafeteria
[M]oney You Have Right Now - about 30 euro in my wallet, millions more in coins
[N]ine Foods You Like - pizza, lasagna, stroopwafels, nachos, chicken burrito, General Tsao's chicken (chinese), jagerschnitzel, baklava, burgers
[O]verall Thought Of Yourself - friendly, well-liked, respected
[P]athetic Pickup Line You Used/Someone Used on You - "Nice shoes, wanna fuck?" (actually I've only read that one but it just sounds so kewl).
[Q]uickest Mile You Have Done (that's 1.6 km to the rest of you)- 6:30
[R]eally Big Accomplishment - graduation from Naval Nuclear Power School
[S]omeone Special - no ONE special at the moment, lotsa good friends though
[T]alk You Will Never Forget - my Dad convincing me that I had met Bruce Lee's brother (long story but needless to say, my father lied to me).
[U]gliest thing/person/place - 1980s (and early 90s) Vancouver Canucks away jerseys (OMG, hideous indeed, I still have nightmares...)
[V]ery Important Possession - great great grandfather's pocketwatch
[W]hat You Last Ate - quesadillas with piri piri chicken
[X]treme Thing You Have Done - been through over 200 degrees Fahrenheit of temperature change (from 126 in Death Valley to -79 in Lake Placid)
[Y]our Favorite Thing To Do - play hockey (volleyball close second)
[Z]odiac Sign - Leo/Virgo cusp

thanksgiving blues

No, I am not sad about yesterday being Thanksgiving and I spent it alone. But it does remind me of the loneliest day of my life. A chance to reflect...

It was 1991, a year to remember indeed. My grades were awful and I dropped out of college in June. I decided to join the US Navy and did so on August 1st. I had my 21st birthday a week before I left for boot camp and then spent the next three months wondering what in the hell I had gotten myself into. After boot, my orders were to report to Nuclear Field "A" School on November 14th with my classes starting on December 2nd. Two weeks of 'smurfing' before school started up and Thanksgiving was right in the middle.

Since I had dropped out of school, I had managed to keep in touch with a friend from OU named Jessica Rabbit. No, its not her real name but its what we called her (for obvious reasons). Jessica had moved to Orlando, which is where I was now stationed and she told me to come have Thanksgiving dinner with her and her family/church group. How wonderful! While I couldn't be with my family for the holiday, I could be with a friend and her family/friends.

I gave Jessica a call on Tuesday to verify our plans. She said with regret that she was going to be celebrating Thanksgiving and her recent engagement with his parents in Pennsylvania. She was sorry for the late notice but he had just popped the question on Sunday night and they were heading out of town. From that point on, she sounded like a Charlie Brown school teacher - "Blah blah blah blah, blah blah-lah blah." To this day I have no idea what she said after that (and truth be told, I have never heard from her since).

So when Thanksgiving Thursday came just two days later, I decided to try my best to get out and do what I could to make the best of a lonely situation. The weather is beautiful in Florida during that time of year and I strolled off the base in search of something to do and a decent place to eat. Of course you can all see where this is going and as everyone knows, Thanksgiving in the US means that EVERYTHING closes up and people spend it with their families. Even the Chinese restaurants were closed.

I managed to find a diner open and serving their blue plate special (turkey with stuffing - go figure) where I ate with the other lost souls who had no one to eat with on Thanksgiving. There was not a table that had more than one person sitting at it, including mine. We all were alone and I wasn't going to go sit down with a total stranger and break the trend.

So I ate my dinner, paid the $9.95 (plus drinks) and wallowed my way back to the base. I was so glum that I called my parents collect to hear a friendly voice but got no answer - even they were out with others. I felt pretty crappy that day but every Thanksgiving since, I have been surrounded with family or friends. I say my own thanks on that day for never having gone through another Thanksgiving like that. While yesterday was the first time since 1991 that I was alone on the day of Thanksgiving, it wasn't a bad day. I am thankful for the family of expats that I ate with the day before, my adopted family since I have none over here.

Just a trip down memory lane...

new model for china?

Ok, so I am putting two (somewhat) unrelated news items together and I am kinda scratching my head about the sanity of the world today. This may be difficult to follow but I'll try to make sense of it all by the time that I am done.

This morning I was reading an article on the BBC about how the IMF was suggesting to China that it change its business model and put more money into buying consumer related products. It turns out that the Chinese are reinvesting about 55% of their cash into other companies rather than buying a lot of stuff. The IMF is worried that if China continues to do this that it will unsettle the world economy b/c their billion people aren't buying their share of the crap of the world.

In other news, I was watching CNN tonight and there was a story on the broadcast about the release of Microsoft's new Xbox and all of the hoopla surrounding it. Thousands of nerds waiting in line to be the first to buy their new Xbox when stores opened at midnight and began selling this new toy. (I may be wrong but I think I saw the same group of people waiting in line to buy tickets 3 months in advance of the last Star Wars movie...)

The reporter for CNN does some interviews with the people who were unlucky enough to NOT have arrived in time to purchase their new fan-dangled box that hooks up to your tv and gives you an alternate means to blow up the world and rid it of computer-animated terrorists (that's a run-on sentence but I'm ranting so leave it alone). She talks with some 30 year-old loser who is bitching about not getting his Xbox. Pardon me while I quote this man without the proper references but its too remarkable to not write down what he said (for posterity, of course).

"I'm so mad. I took a day off of work to come get an Xbox. Then I come down here to get one and they're sold out. I lost a day's pay and I have no Xbox. What am I gonna do?"

My first thought was - ask your mom to make you some Kraft Mac & Cheese for dinner and then make plans to move out of your parents basement. But I digress, back to my rant.

So this got me to thinking. What has America become? I realize that we are a society of consumers but WOW! I remember the Cabbage Patch kids craze from the late 80's (and the spin-off Garbage Pail kids) when people flooded toy stores and knocked small disabled children over to get to their favorite plush doll with a plastic head. I know that every year there is a 'latest and greatest' to flood American stores and this year it will be the Christmas of the Xbox. But why are we so fixated on buying so much shit?

Are the Chinese to be noted for their practicality in this case? Should the people at the IMF be chastizing (sp?) Americans for spending too much of their income and not saving more for their own retirement? Or does the greed and consumption of capitalism really make the world go round?

I recently bought a book that I am anxious to read (perhaps during this winter holiday) that in part relates to this idea. "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" - does it relate to current day America? Are the glory years of this superpower over and is this country destined to be invaded by Canada in the near future (maybe then I'll get to see some good hockey games on TV...)? Or is America driving the world economy with its consumerism?

Before everyone on the America is turning into shit bandwagon chimes in, think about it. Is consumerism as ugly as it appears to be or does it really allow for the 3rd world countries of the world to develop their economies by being manufacturing centers for the developed world? Is China right to attempt to hoard its own money bybeing a miser? Hmmm, things to think about. Chime in please!!!!

short hiatus

Its been a while since my last post and it got me to thinking about what to write about. I wish I could say that there was something cool and interesting going on in my life but truth be told, my life revolves around a couple of ideas - my graduate studies research and the quest for a new job. Neither one of them lend themselves to penworthy time (is that even correct?) so it somewhat points me to the new addition to the bottom of the page - my site meter.

I've had it in place for a few weeks now and I see that I do get some hits although I believe the majority of them to be from people who use Google to search for whatever. One of the nice things about the hit counter is that it tells me what terms people have found my site using. They range from "what does hup holland mean?" to "dwarf chinaman picture". An interesting mix indeed...

And it got me to thinking about possible topics for the future. Maybe there is something I can use from this site meter statistics page to write about. Inspiration comes in many forms, perhaps the googles of others can serve as mine.

So my first question goes out to Musings from the Void, a native Dutchman who is a self-proclaimed non-kaaskop. What does "Hup Holland" mean?

the cheese

the greenery
Originally uploaded by bcurry35.

As noted with my previous entry, my alma mater is known for its choice of extracurricular activities. One of those gathering places was called "The Greenery" and it was a sad day when I heard it was closing its doors.

But little did I know that it was moving to Holland! Lo and behold, the tradition hasn't died, only moved in its locale. So I guess we are meeting at this place next year before homecoming, right?

professionals

As some of my readers may or may not know, I went to a fine university (twice) in the SE corner of Ohio in a little town called Athens. Ohio University has long been considered to be a 'party school'. This was further driven home with an article from the Princeton Review that did rank the party schools of the US. What can I say, people at OU like to enjoy their time away from their professors and 'embibe' different forms of alcoholic beverages. Perhaps that is the reason why I dropped out of school...

I recently found this from a current student who attends OU. Forgive the plagarism but I felt a need to share with my audience the pride that I have in my school. We may suck at sports but we have a kick-ass band and a tradition of enjoying our free time. While this quote may not be true (I'm not finding anything on the Playboy site to confirm it), it can be noted that we are ranked #2 on the Princeton Review (click on 'professionals' link above to visit site).

"We did not rate Ohio University on our top ten party schools because we feel it unfair to include professionals on a list of amateurs."
-Playboy Magazine, 2004

OU - drinking you under the table since 1804.

california humor

I found this website from another's blog page. Its kinda funny and really has deals out the pokes to the Gover-nator.

http://www.arnoldsneighborhood.com/index.html

lurker exposed

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. I had to reveal the fact that I had read a student's blog to them. It was just one of those situations.

I've got a great volleyball team this year and there are some special ladies on this squad. A new student to the school this year, libero made the varsity in her first year. I call her that because it is her position and despite what she says, I know that she enjoys having that as a nickname. Even on the stat sheet, that's her name. In any case, she has concerned me over the course of the year based on how she holds herself. I could tell there was something wrong.

So when given the chance to read her blog, I took the opportunity. There was some of the typical stuff on there about what it means to be a teenage girl but there was also something that had an edge to it. References to being EXTREMELY unhappy, not having any friends, and thinking of thoughts that she had before she moved here. This is not stuff that any teacher likes to read and I had to do something about it.

I called libero into my room and we had a chat. I wish that I could have just let it slide and be anonymous but I couldn't do that. She wasn't putting it out there for others to hear physically but she is screaming for help. Any kid who puts their thoughts down on an open forum like that wants to have someone step in and tell them the things that they know are true but need to hear anyways. "You are special." "You mean a lot to us." "Depression happens and there are ways people can help."

She seemed ok with the conversation and understood where I was coming from. She revealed a little about herself and what happened in that previous place and I was glad that she opened up to me. I gave her the reassurance that she could always talk to me but then again, I am her teacher and coach, and grown-ups aren't usually the ones that they want to talk to.

I went back to her blog afterwards to see if she had written about it and found the site shut down, erased. Seems as though I hit a nerve. I didn't tell anyone else at school about our conversation (teachers - I can hear you screaming from here that I have to tell the counselor. I ain't doing that unless she stays in her funk.) and I'm gonna give her some space. If there's one absolute that I remember from being a teenager is that privacy and space to find who they are is paramount. So I'm not going to involve anyone because as soon as I do, the whole school will know and I'm not gonna do THAT to her.

So I feel a little guilty about being a lurker but I feel like I did what I needed to do. She's retreated into a shell a little (at least no blogging) but I have the inkling of an idea that she just may open up to me again sometime in the future. Time will tell...

troop withdrawl? no think so

The US military hit a new milestone recently - one that I am sure that it never wanted to attain. The death toll in Iraq has reached 2,000 servicemembers and Americans are getting tired of getting the news that their family members are dying. The American public wants the troops out of Iraq, no one wants to lose any more lives.

But as much as I hate to admit it, they need to stay. A troop withdrawl CANNOT occur until Iraq is more stable. If Coalition troops pull out now, the country will crumble into chaos and the religious extremists will take over. To pull out the troops now will lead to tens of thousands of death in the future. Here's why.

In the presence of a leadership vacuum, any character can take a foothold in the political arena and rally the masses. A person who comes forward and promises better times, a person who says that the Zionists are to blame for their poor standard of living, a person who wants to clean up their home and make it a better place for those who belong there.

Hitler had those same ideas. Tens of millions perished.

History has told the story and we must stay the course to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. I hate hearing stories of students and friends going off to battle and not returning. They are paying the ultimate price for a leadership error in the White House. But to leave Iraq before the region is stable is to condemn the world to another global conflict.

Saddam Hussein is gone and while a terrible person, he kept the country stable. WMDs? Guess not. Links to al Qaida? Maybe, maybe not. Evil bastard? Sure. But until someone/something is in place to restore the stability, Coalition troops must remain on the ground and in the line of fire to prevent the worst case scenario.

Americans - stay the course. Assume the responsibility. We put Iraq into this mess and we have to get it out. American troops must be in Iraq for years to come (at least 2008) and you shouldn't trust any politican who wants to pull them out during their campaign speeches. If you do, chances are we'll be going to war in the not-so-distant future after that withdrawl.

*And I still think Bush is an idiot*