ivan

10/23 - A Hat Trick of Days at beacon this week so far, my 50th of the year - 26/30 laps now - jim's ride in the lot but lost he was somewhere in the immensity of the park - the Banal Ballad of the Big Breeze blowing down the Columbia - sport climbers wide-eyed on the way down

actually, that's the southern solution i'm no slave to the law and can't see why anyone would want to be - i wouldn't start a fire on the groudn in the park, nor use fuel i found on the ground there - hauling my own 3 logs from portland then lugging them 300 feet up into the air where there's not but rocks for sparks to settle on though... and yes, for the n'th time, doing a tr was raytarded, which is why i didn't do one

i learned by watching you, dad, i learned by watching you!

10/23 - day 49 - 24/30 laps this season - the Indian Summer Endures - breezy n' balmy - the base empty, save for the echoes of jim's recent remodel of the rock-blasted bits - mixes right well w/ the corner's new platform - just need to drop 2 more trees n' it'll be purrfect dave cat-calling from the ground as i began the 2nd pitch - lingered at tree ledge till he reached me, than had a ramble on up the rest of the corner together, bullshiting about the Life Beatardia

i swear the guy who hucked himself off the top in a hanglider sunday morning as i was taking a leak had a butt hanging from his lip

Yakov Smirnoff is not Irish and neither am I. Who cares? I, among others, care. Putting up a sport climb attracts crowds like flies to dung. Except the dung doesn't go away...it's been permanently installed....and the flies keep comin'! wasnt' talking to you - you managed to sneak yer post in a few seconds afore me

nothing more ironic than an irishman telling a russki to think clearly most of the erosion from sport-climbing comes from the parking lot, bridge, trail, etc. that it takes to get you to the base - but who cares?

anything worth doing... ...is worth having a hummer and a hot-dog after doing

Trafalgar this day but a bit more than 2 centuries ago! lord nelson dead on the deck of his flagship, who among us could fear such a demise or wish one more wondrous? - "kizmet" he clamored as death clamped its chokehold along his wind-hole, or was "kiss me hardy" more the thing? my 48th beacon-ramble for the fast-rotting year - the Breath of God on the wall, fall colors and fecund smells - the south side to meself - 2 laps, 23/30 for the year and me feeling suddenly like the weather-lords will allow the whole solo set

i need more oral illustrations of your existential angst

who is this "we" you speak of? reckon it's gotta be chilly... ya'll out there 2morrow afternoon?

10/19 - #47 - oregon forum blowing up w/ cruel threats to your friend n' humble narrator as the dawn broke, whiskey-drunk hungover - a gut full of greasy egg n' iced coffee - geoff at the b.k. via mike's - jensen's w/ kyle n' steve too for a tr on the arena of terror - i really need to remember to bring a #5 next time - topped out in the golden glow of the late-day sun - beers n' bullshitting w/ steve in the frosty parking lot after, eventually a run down to the skamania mart for a resupply - another beer later we rambled down for a full moon frolic on the corner, morre good beers in tow - belting out big tunes in the darkness, nary a headlamp in sight

washington is 47th in the nation in class size - the wa supreme ct mcleary case doesn't seem to be putting the screws to the legislature neither. this year's wierd for me - i have one microscopic class and 3 huge ones...

for at least one troop i was in as a lad, the bsa was little more than a thinly veiled excuse for a # of adults to get away from the wife, smoke grass, binge of bad beer n' diddle some dog-faced bitches pretty certain those old boys will be getting plenty of hate mail in the days to come

fair quote - but did he say we shouldn't' actually pay the bills we'd signed for already? pretty certain that the majority of americans want a balanced budget too - problem is there's a buncha daylight between the two main-stream visions of what such a budget would look like, plus a completely calcified process of getting those 2 visions resolved into reality.

how does one crack that nut? hand over buckets of cash from the Overlords so that, for every stable family, one parent can assume the role of betty cleaver and not have to work? i love that plan, mind ye, just don't see how it's in the political cards in this here enlightened republic of ours.

"but the power of instruction is seldom of much efficacy, except in those happy predispositions in which it is almost superfluous"

quality of teachers DOES matter, but as jay says, it is of much lesser import than the socio-economic background of the average student - a shitty teacher who doesn't care about his subject and is a hack at it to boot CAN rob a kid who's otherwise inclined to get a lot out of it, but only the rarest gem of a teacher is going to turn around the lot of folks w/ a huge deck of cards stacked against them i've been on both ends of the spectrum - a school w/ 100% free and reduced lunch and most kids living at best w/ only a single parent, the rest w/ worse than that and currently at a school w/ most kids driving cars worth more than i make in 2 years - teachers and admins combine to create, if they're working well, a fertile, well-watered field - the kids are the seeds and you can't control the weather but so much

walked in on my colleague the other day who teaches the Big Bull Loony Brains over in AP and she had a whole table of cakes n' cookies of every sort to make that there point

aLl YoUr KrAg$ aRe B3l0nG 2 u$!!!

10/17 - #46 - BLACK-JACK! kenny is formally awarded the Order of Beacon, 3rd Class for today bringing two pair of boobies to our sacred stone

overheard in a government class: "being able to delineate the various forms of federalism is unlikely to be an important part of your life, 20 years from now, but being able to give a shit about a task that's set to you and get something done in a reasonable amount of time will."

it's a helluva a lot of fun to watch and listen to a lecturer who knows his shit and has mastered the art of story-telling do his thing - better still he can do it over beers and use all the fine swear-words he wants

as for my social studies classes, i'd say i have a hybrid approach, w/ equal amounts of in class traditional direct instruction and creative/extension-style debate and project creation

well said. schools are thermometers of social health. when you have a fever, you don't solve the problem by changing the thermometer.