Thankful

something that occurs to me now that i'm at a middle school... i am REALLY LUCKY.  if you're close to my age, you should consider yourself lucky as well, b/c these kids today... i feel bad for them.  here's some reasons why:

1. no french fries in the cafeteria.  seriously.  in loudoun county, they have every type of potato imaginable: baked, mashed... that's it, right?  regardless, no fried.  i think that's an injustice.  i REALLY hope it's not about being healthy, b/c... let's not kid ourselves.  we all know what the score is.

2. my school had their first school dance today.  i don't know if any of my peers that do not teach in a school would be able to guess the starting time of this dance.  3:30... PM.  school ends at 3:18, first song starts at 3:30.  on a thursday.  our middle school dances were on fridays and it was at night.  when you walked inside the building, the sun was not visible any longer.

3. online grade books.  all teachers in this county work with a software called clarity.  and each student has a password to it.  which means their PARENTS have a password to it.  when we were in school, changing your grades was a part of life for some people i knew.  it was a tool in their fight for survival every 9 weeks.  now, the parents can check your grades every day.

4. a reason related to halloween: i told my kids today about how my friends and i would hit up like 2 to 3 different neighborhoods and the amount of the candy at the end of the night was bananas.  i remember there were years when my friends and i would recycle costumes and hit up our neighborhood more than once, since we still had our old costumes.  my kids told me they would start around 5pm, go once around the neighborhood and be back home, especially since today is a weekday.  huh???

seriously... thank you God that i grew up when i did.

School Tales

i've been at this school for about 2 months now and this has happened a few times: i'll be walking down the hallway when i would hear students yell, "mr. chang!  hey, mr. chang!"

initially, i ignored them b/c since that's my name, i had no idea they were talking to me.  but after it's happened a few more times, i now realize it's b/c these kids think i'm mr. chang (an actual teacher at my school).  i've never met the man, so either these kids are ignorant/racist (all asians look alike, right?), or i do look like him from behind, as this ONLY happens from behind me.  anyway, so now i know it's a case of mistaken identity, but i still ignore students who do this.  then a few days ago, i was walking down the hallway when it happened again.  but this time, when i ignored this student, he goes, "aight, mr. chang.  i see you."  then he says to his friend (i assume, b/c i'm not turning around), "why's he being like that?"  hahahahaha.

am i making these kids think mr. chang is an a-hole with my actions?

Admirable

today, i was watching something on youtube when i was reminded of a group of people i really admire.  in my effort to be more positive, i decided to write a blog entry about them.

so, the people i admire, in no particular order:

1. soldiers/firemen:

i admire people who volunteer to put themselves in harm's way for the sake of others.  i'm sure for some people, it's not all about being noble and sacrificing for others, i mean, the military does offer great benefits.  but let's not kid ourselves.  these people deserve our respect, admiration and gratitude.

2. law enforcement officers:

i know there are many instances of law enforcement officers screwing up on the job.  however, i truly believe this is kinda like islamic extremists.  there's only like 10% of them, but they're the subject of like 100% of the news stories that deal with muslims.  in our world, it's the f**k-ups that get the most attention and ruin it for everyone else.

all i know is that from my experience, i have never dealt with a cop that i thought was an a-hole.  and let's give credit where credit is due, they are doing a job that an overwhelming majority of us do not want to do.

3. teachers:

yes, i admire people that are going to become my coworkers.  and yes, there are bad teachers.  but once again, i'd like to refer to my point about islamic extremists, while saying that i'm only talking about the good ones here.  i've personally experienced how a good teacher can impact a student's life.  they change your life and change your world view.  they also make you feel like you really can do whatever you want.  and i'm gonna be one of them, so send your kids to me, i won't let you down.  =D

4. writers:

i actually started this entry almost 6 weeks ago, but i have not been able to finish it b/c of this section.  i've given it a lot of thought, and the best i have come up with is, "i can only describe what they do as magic."  b/c it really is.  with only words, writers create whole worlds that never existed before.  with only words, they can stir up all sorts of emotions.  with only words.  it's letters on a page, ink on paper.  that's gotta be magic, right?

5. musicians:

"you gotta hear this one song, it'll change your life i swear." - natalie portman ("garden state")

i think this is true.  i don't think such songs have a universal requirement, but some songs just strike us at a level and we never forget it.  i suppose this doesn't apply to people who are dead inside, though.  i have a cousin and when she was in middle school, i went over to her house that her family had just moved into.  so she was giving me a tour of it and showed me her bedroom in the process.  in it, i noticed that she had a nice stereo system set up, but there was only 1 cd that i could see.  it was a cd by some girl named, charlotte church.  when i asked her if she had any other cds, her response was, "i don't like listening to music."

umm... what???  i listen to music ALL THE TIME.  i even have music playing while i'm sleeping.  i can't get enough of it.

b/c of that, i admire people who can create music.

6. good dancers:

i don't mean professionals.  professional dancers certainly are good dancers, but not all good dancers are professionals.  i have 2 reasons why i admire good dancers: one, i enjoy watching it.  two, i can't do it.  it's really a thing.  my body doesn't do it.  it's been that way for many years now and i've come to terms with it, so don't feel bad for me.  BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, DO NOT THINK ALL I NEED IS A LITTLE ENCOURAGEMENT.  THAT'S NOT IT.

7. stand up comedians:

the first 6 people on this list, there's really no order to them, but the people i admire THE MOST are stand up comedians.  i have gotten up in front of a few people now and again for a variety of reasons and it's easy.  now.  it wasn't in the beginning, but with practice, it's become easy.  anyone can stand up in front of people and spit nonsense.  but these people have to stand up in front of thousands, at times, and make them laugh.

of course there are more honorable jobs, more difficult jobs.  but for reasons i do not totally understand, i find stand up comedians so admirable.  

Movie Review

wow, i started this entry 3 weeks ago and i never finished it... well, i don't want to waste it, so here it is.  3 weeks late.  i wonder if it's still in the theaters.
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so i watched this movie on friday.  these are my thoughts about this movie:

1. the americans cheated... kinda.  in these competitions, it's about crew vs. crew.  and when it comes to crews, there's gotta be a sense of it being organic.  think of a band like u2.  high school friends formed a band together and they've been together for 30+ years.  THAT'S a crew.  in the movie, the americans cherry-pick the best members from various crews to form a "dream team" to win this competition.  it's not technically against the rules, but i can't help but feel like they're breaking some sort of an unwritten rule here.  by the way, that's the crew's name: dream team.

2.  one of the weirdest parts of this movie was that there were clips from "planet b-boy" in it.  yes, i know the same director directed both that and this, but... i've never seen that before.  has any director done something like this before?  i mean, if it's a franchise, the movies can refer to what came before, but... yeah.  it was neither good nor bad, just weird.

3. since this is 3 weeks old, i'll talk about the WORST scene in this movie.  so chris brown is in it and he's supposed to be the best in the crew, but gets hurt right before going to europe.  so as he's leaving (it's got the boobie miles cleaning out his locker in "friday night lights" feel, or tries to), he says some nonsense about family and then finishes it up with, "act like champions, be champions."

at this point, ok.  it's cheesy, i'm embarrassed for everyone involved, but ok.  then comes the kicker: HE MAKES EVERYONE SAY/YELL IT.  MULTIPLE TIMES.  hahahahaha.  wow... it's funny now, but at the moment, i was speechless.  i literally had to cover my slack-jawed mouth, b/c i couldn't believe what had just happened.

4. if you like sports movies, you should watch this one, b/c it's like a game.  as you watch, you can try to figure out what movie each part of this movie originally came from.

5. the dancing is cool.
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i own "you got served."  i don't think i'll buy this one on dvd.