A teacher was told by a 15-year-old high school sophomore that he was having homosexual sex with an “older man.” At the very least, statutory rape occurred. Fox News reported that the teacher violated a state law requiring that he report the abuse. That former teacher, Kevin Jennings, is President Obama’s “safe school czar”…

from Washington Times

Just another reason to homeschool.

Turns out the “hockey stick” was based on chosen data, rather than random data.

See this article for a deeper discussion.

Even though they were two and three days late, I sent the Sookie and vampire proposals.

I hope they are accepted.

I was so focused on the two papers that are due next, I missed two deadlines for papers that I could have written in my sleep.

I am not too happy about that.

Both were vampire papers, which isn’t what I wanted to be my forte, but I could have done them easily and it would have been two more pop culture articles.

I’ve thought about sending in proposals anyway, but I don’t think that is good.

1. I wouldn’t want late proposals.
2. It makes me look unprofessional, which I was, for turning in stuff late.

Why might I send them anyway?

1. I could write them easily.
2. They would be published.
3. They can’t accept them if I don’t send them out.

Tomorrow will be two and three days late. Will I send them? Probably not. But I’m praying for a second call for papers from them, that they didn’t get enough of what they need.

I had papers due on Monday. They should have already had a version of them on the Friday before that we looked at in class, an in-class peer writing workshop.

I had someone email it to me today.

I took the papers late on Wednesday and gave the people a chance to rewrite for an average of the two grades. I took the papers late on Friday for a single grade.

But I am not under any circumstances taking a paper today. The person lied to me, since they said they had left in their room and I told them they could bring it to me in the next hour. I am NOT grading it.

And I’m trying to get my animosity out here so I don’t harangue the whole class.

Then I had a student write me and ask me what notes I had for her on her report. She wasn’t in class on Friday. She’s responsible for what is in class on Friday. I am not responsible for getting her–in a totally different medium–something she would have received had she been in class on Friday.

By the way, those late papers, the only ones I am accepting from those students all semester. That’s it. Some of them have used up their grace because they are too lazy to get off their butts and do their homework.

Oh, yeah, and the one who didn’t turn the paper in till today says that he was confused by the homework, so he won’t be turning that in tomorrow. He’s getting a 0 for that. There are no revisions for that paper. Period. And I’m not taking it late from him, even if he technically hasn’t used up his late because he got a 0 on the last paper.

I just sent him an email telling him to read the book and to have one for class tomorrow. I hope he does. Because he already has a 10% 0. He doesn’t need any more 0s.

I either misremembered or an article I was discussing was misleading. The article is no longer on the net. (I do have the original URL.)

Now I’ve embarrassed myself and lost credibility.

I hate that.

Women in the Ancient World

Where do you get your ideas? answer from writer Neil Gaiman. (Whom I have never heard of, but I like his questions in the middle.)

from the Telegraph

What do you think of the list?

In the first ten I’ve read four and don’t like one particularly.

I like all of the next four.

Of the many more middle years books I’ve read 18.

The list is weighted towards Brit lit, of course, and apparently the Telegraph is way fonder of Roald Dahl than I am.

Why is it that going to my parents’ house makes me tired? Usually I am up till midnight or later and I don’t really feel tired at all. I started getting tired at 9 tonight and I’m still fighting it. I was hoping to finish this paper tonight, but it’s longer than I thought it was going to be. I’m going to add one section, but not the two that needed to be in there so I could start cutting.

It’s an interesting topic though, so I am enjoying the writing exercise.

Hmmm. I wonder if this tiredness is the same phenomenon that sends Ron to sleep for hours above his usual amount when we are at his parents. I wonder if I just feel “safe” and “at home” and so I go to sleep like a child.

I don’t know.

It’s the biggest ever.

And it has a bracelet that Jeska would love. I really need to send Dielli’s book out again.

The picture is from the Guardian.

It’s been five months since I submitted my chapter on Civil War holidays. Usually when you don’t hear anything with a call like this, it means that they’re getting their ducks in a row to reject you.

However, today I received an email saying the chapter had been accepted. They made some minor changes, taking out two paragraphs and removing headings, but it’s still my chapter and they accepted it. I am so THRILLED.

R and M are okay with it but not totally thrilled. I am though. I am. I want to go do a jig somewhere public or something. I am psyched.

I sent out a creative nonfiction piece yesterday. I am very happy with the piece overall, but after I sent it I realized I should have changed the dates to make them more recent… If I had just moved everything ten years forward it would still have been creative nonfiction. The “creative” part would just have applied to the dates.

I guess I can still hope that they will accept it.

Doesn’t it frustrate you when you think you’ve thought through what you are doing and then you realize, oh, I should have done this?

The company sent information that my two packages (email and snail mail) were received.

I should get paid within the next month. That is good.

Maybe we’ll get out of debt (again) soon.

I was at my mom’s house today. It’s her birthday and I took her beautiful flowers from FJ Florist in south Houston. They are INCREDIBLE! (And relatively inexpensive as well.)

Well, it rained on the way there, not much, but a little. I prayed we’d get rain in my neighborhood.

Then I came home. There are some trees down and lots of shredded foliage. It looks like it did about a week after Ike hit. Boy, I’m glad everyone’s okay at our house.

Some places are out of power, still. The storm hit several hours ago. There was also one house that caught on fire and burned quite a bit, but not near us.

Dear Tech Support:
Last year I upgraded from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0. I soon noticed that the new program began unexpected child processing that took up a lot of space and valuable resources. In addition, Wife 1.0 installed itself into all other programs and now monitors all other system activity. Applications such as Poker Night 10.3, Football 5.0, Hunting and Fishing 7.5, and Racing 3.6. I can’t seem to keep Wife 1.0 in the background while attempting to run my favorite applications. I’m thinking about going back to Girlfriend 7.0, but the uninstall doesn’t work on Wife 1.0. Please help!
Thanks,
A Troubled User

REPLY: Dear Troubled User:
This is a very common problem that men complain about.

Many people upgrade from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0, thinking that it is just a Utilities and Entertainment program. Wife 1.0 is an OPERATING SYSTEM and is designed by its Creator to run EVERYTHING. It is also impossible to delete Wife 1.0 and to return to Girlfriend 7.0. It is impossible to uninstall, or purge the program files from the system once installed.

You cannot go back to Girlfriend 7.0 because Wife 1.0 is designed to not allow this. Look in your Wife 1.0 manual under Warnings-Alimony-Child Support. I recommend that you keep Wife 1.0 and work on improving the situation. I suggest installing the background application “Yes Dear” to alleviate software augmentation.

The best course of action is to enter the command C:\APOLOGIZE because ultimately you will have to give the APOLOGIZE command before the system will return to normal anyway.

Wife 1.0 is a great program, but it tends to be very high maintenance. Wife 1.0 comes with several support programs, such as Clean and Sweep 3.0, Cook It 1.5 and Do Bills 4.2.

However, be very careful how you use these programs. Improper use will cause the system to launch the program Nag Nag 9.5. Once this happens, the only way to improve the performance of Wife 1.0 is to purchase additional software. I recommend Flowers 2.1 and Diamonds 5.0.

WARNING!!! DO NOT, under any circumstances, install Secretary With Short Skirt 3.3. This application is not supported by Wife 1.0 and will cause irreversible damage to the operating system.
Best of luck,
Tech Support

from Happy Catholic

I don’t want to work. I don’t want to grade. I don’t even want to read books I enjoy because they are for work.

I am struggling with depression right now.

Please pray for me.

The Independent has the news that a fragment from the world’s oldest Bible has been found in an Egyptian monastery.

Nikolas Sarris spotted a previously unseen section of the Codex Sinaiticus, which dates from about AD350, as he was trawling through photographs of manuscripts in the library of St Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt.

The Codex, handwritten in Greek on animal skin, is the earliest known version of the Bible. Leaves from the priceless tome are divided between four institutions, including St Catherine’s Monastery and the British Library, which has held the largest section of the ancient Bible since the Soviet Union sold its collection to Britain in 1933.

The Codex Sinaiticus is available online.

Why America Doesn’t Believe the President is an interesting and effective compilation of various authors to show why health care reform has lost popularity… And why people think Obama is lying.

Discovery talks about an extinct eagle which they believe preyed on lone humans.

Could this be the real-life version of the roc?

After two different ACORN groups supported a pimp and the sexual exploitation of minor illegal immigrants, the Census Bureau of the US has finally dumped the activist group. It’s about time.

Too bad they’re still earmarked for millions from the federal government.