It has been a damn long time sice I got a speeding ticket, but my luck ran out about 40 minutes ago. I had to go to work to pick-up my paycheck and was caught doing 50 in a 35 mph zone. Henrico county is totally screwing me on the fine--$59 + $5 for each mile over the speed limit. The total ticket cost comes to $104. At least it happened during the hoildays. I have had a bunch of tickets in the past, and have always admitted I was wrong and agreed that I should be stopped and reprimanded, but not this time. The speed limit should not be 35 MPH on this road. It is a major North/South Road connecting Patterson Ave. and Broad Street. The traffic on the road is ridiculous since Lauderale Ave., the street in question, ends right at one of the new malls. I have driven this road for 2 years straight, and can safely say that the speed limit should be at least 45. I think that the Henrico county planners need to examine some of the speed postings in the area.

I know that it could be worse, but it still sucks. I already have to pay for the ultrasound on my balls ($118) and my class for next semester ($636) during the month of December. I am really ready to stop having to be constantly worried about money.

Sadly, I have yet to attain fame and fortune over at ratemyteachers.com. Needless to say, the criteria used to judge the teachers is ridiculous to say the least. I would like to see the site be forced to add a "percentage of students who passed the standardized test" category. Looking through the site, I would say that it is being used mostly as a method of revenge, by disgruntled students. Who would have guessed? The sad part is that I have heard some parents view this site and use it to determine which school to send their child to, or which teacher they request.

Thanksgiving day went pretty well. There were no major outbursts or arguments. I did a lot of the cooking, including carving the turkey. Strange that the vegeterian was carving up the carcass, but I don't mind and I gues that's all that matters.

I bought a present for my Mom on ebay today and had an amazing experience. Hopefully the item will arrive in one piece etc... but the seller was fantastic. I used the "Buy It Now" feature and added insurance to the shipping cost. I received an email from the seller less than an hour later with my USPS tracking information. WOW!! I have bought a lot of stuff off of ebay and never before have I had an item shipped to me so quickly. If only all ebay sellers were like this.

Things I am thankful for:

1. Pornography
2. Anal Sex
3. Oral Sex
4. Vaginal Intercourse
5. My Cat
6. Disease
7. War
8. Murder
9. A high Infant Mortality Rate
10. SPAM relating to the size of my penis

There are many more things that I am thankful for, but I decided to keep it short. You might think that some of these things are toungue-in-cheek, but I would never do something like that. Never. Ever.

Remember folks, the Pilgrims were right-wing religious nuts who are responsible for the death of a lot of people. Columbus was also a cruel, muderous thief. Enjoy spending time with your family and friends but try and remember that a lot of people died and lost their land so that you could do so.

Happy Thanksgiving.

By the time the weekend rolls around it seems all I want to do is rest. Spoken like an adult. I now realize what my parents were always talking about. This week should be much better than last. This past week I had meetings and lots of work, this coming week I will have additional days off and time to relax. I find that between the 2 jobs and school, I have very little time for myself. Not that I am someone who needs an extraordinary amount of "down time," but more than I currently have would certainly be nice.

In work related news, one of the cooks was laid off at the restaurant--the owner could no longer afford to pay him, and some of the other kitchen staff has had their hours cut-back. I heard through the grapevine that the owner bounced a few checks as well. I think things are on a downward turn around those parts. Actually, business has been exceptionally slow for a really long time now-over a year. I wonder how much longer it will be in business. I do not forsee a major turnaround anytime soon.

Does anyone want to come over and help me correct papers? I am kidding, but boy do I do a lot of work outside of the classroom.

It is has been a busy liitle stretch around these parts. Lots of work to do, meetings to attend etc...

I met with one of my professor's last night who told me she felt that my students were very lucky to have me as their teacher. Wow. Earlier yesterday one of my elementary students gave me a late birthday present. A "card"/picture that she drew and colored. Very sweet. In addition I was very excited to hear about Massachusetts, and their excellent decision regarding the constitutionality of gay marriage. Every ruling like yesterday's brings gays one step closer to being able to marry and that is fantastic as far as I am concerned. Our president feels differently. Who's surprised? It is amazing that he thinks it is O.K. to execute the mentally handicapped but that is wrong for people of the same sex to get married. I think that someone's morals might be a little messed up.

Hope all is well out there.

Oh one last plug, I downloaded Mozilla 1.5 last night. What a great web browser. So many features, so little time to explore them all.

Kristy, otherwise known as Mrs ego inc. just informed me that what I read in the MWC magazine was incorrect. They printed the wrong last name for the Drew that is marrying the girl. Thank God! I thought that it was too bizarre to be true, but I made the cardinal mistake of believing what I read. It really sucks to be the Drew that I thought was marrying her right now, because his name is printed as being her fiance--which is a bad thing. That is a major mistake on the part of the alumni magazine. Would someone please do me a favor and leak some false information about me to the alumni magazine? Here is a suggestion for an email to write them:

"In the wake of September 11th Scott "Opie" W*** joined the Marines in an effort to help save his country from the dirty terrorists. While surprisingly making it through basic training, he was discovered in early 2000 somewhere in Afghanistan. He had gone AWOL and was found to be living as a woman. When located he was wearing a pink mini-skirt and living as part of Shiek Abdul Muhammad's harem. He ws immediately taken to Fort Leavenworth, and charged with abandonning his post. While in Leavenworth, he has made many new friends and his dance-card is reportedly always full. His services can be purchased for a carton of Lucky Strike's.

When reached for comment, Shiek Muhammad said that he looks forward to his 'favorite little strawberry' returning to him upon her release. The shiek added that the first stop for Scott will be in Sweden where he will undergo sexual reassignment surgery.

We recently received a letter from Scott expressing his desire to let everyone know that he is extremely happy, despite his unfortunate incarceration, and hopes that some of his friends from college will be able to attend the July 2006 wedding in Istanbul. Scott, or Sherise as he would like to be called, will become the shiek's 35th wife. While the event is still early in the planning stages, the lucky bride and groom are discussing a Finding Nemo theme."

Mark you calenders.

My copy of The MWC Today alumni magazine arrived today. Some people's lives have taken some strange twists. My personal favorite is that Drew, my next-door neighbor from Freshman year also, Zak, @mar and R*shi's former housemate is ENGAGED to S*rya. S*rya with the very large nose and incredibly loud/nasally voice. Boy am I out of the loop. Last time I saw him, only a year ago, he was living in Northern, VA and embarrassing himself while hitting on a waitress at Gardiner's wedding. I further embarrassed him by calling him out on it in front of everyone. The last time I saw her she was trying to crawl into bed with Stephen for some lovin'. That is a bizarre combination. I certainly don't wish them any ill-will, but I am kind of disgusted by the whole thing.

Other people I know are popping out kids left and right. Odd because many of those individuals could barely take care of themselves. I feel so good about my life right now it is insane. The choices I made were not always the best, but at least I ended up in the right place.

Tecahing in the inner-city is definitely a strange experience. Here are two stories to tug on your heart strings.

On Friday I found out that one of my student's mothers had removed him from my class so he can take band class. This child tested as having the mathematical skills of slow 6th grader, even though he is in 9th grade. He needs my class more than band, but there is nothing I can do about it. I spoke with his guidance counselor who told me that she is going to let his band teacher give him his reprt card grade. He was in my class for 7 weeks and band for 2 weeks. I am confident that as I have spent considerably more time with the child, I am much more qualified to give him a grade. Total B*LLSH!t!

Today, I found out that the brother of one of my students was shot last night. Her uncle was killed two weeks ago. She did not know her brother's condition, hopefully he will make a full recovery since his is only 16 years old.

In happier news, I am going to the dentist on Friday. I have not been in 2 years, so this should be interesting. The best part is that I am in pain, which translates to bad news is most certainly on the horizon. Perhaps I will luck out and will just be a loose filling or something.

I bought the new David Cross documentary today, but have yet to watch it. It is called "Let America Laugh," and is a documentary of his Spring 2002 tour. Note it is not a comedy DVD, but rather a documentary.

I am a man obsessed. Ever since Slatch posted that mp3 for the Steve Albini mix of Nirvana's Heart Shaped Box, I have been trying to track down a copy of the entire album. I have spent hours searching the web and have determined that it is/was available as a bootleg. The bootleg is called "Alternate Albini Mix." I find it listed in people's collections, but nowhere is it available for download or sale. I recently contacted a guy from the Netherlands who runs a bootleg site, but have yet to hear back. If anyone can offer any assistance, please contact me.

While we do not have socialized medecine, the U.S. is the only country in the world that educates everyone. This is a fact. Now, I believe that everyone is entitled to an education, but at some point the powers that be need to say that an individual has acted in such a manner as to lose that right.

One of my students had a panel hearing with the school board yesterday. The panel was to determine if he was entitled to stay at his current school, or be moved to an "alternative education program." This student is a ninth grader, which means he just started at this school. He has received 8 discipline referrals since the beginninhg of the year and just received another referral for possession of illegal drugs on school grounds--thus the panel hearing. This child is a major problem, as far as I am concerned his actions have shown that he should no longer be educated with the general poulation. I have no idea what happened at the hearing yesterday but I will find out today. I am betting he is still at the regular high school.

The pep rally was crazy. It was super loud and I do not remember anywhere near that much ass-shaking involved in the pep rally's at my high school. The cheerleaders shook their ass and chanted. The band shook their ass and played their instruments. The band is made up mostly of drums. I've never before seen people with cymbals used like this. They put one behind their head, the other between their legs, and then shook their asses. The football players jumped up and down in a circle while yelling something. What exactly they were yelling is still, and will continue to be, a mystery. It was a strange experience overall. I am not sure how much pep there was, overall there was a lot of booing. I could not find my earplugs so I got to experience everything at full volume.

My birthday and the following days have been very cool. Usually I do not really enjoy my birthday, but this year I had a good time. Perhaps have just lowered my standards. But seriously, Friday night Kim and I got Chinese take-out, I opened presents-- basically all DVDs, and then we watched one of the movies. Saturday, we went to my parents which began with a huge argument but eventually progressed to a quite enjoyable day complete with an excellent birthday cake. Today I woke up late, and then went back to bed for an extended nap after finishing one of the books I was reading.

I hope everyone has had a nice weekend and enjoyed their Halloween.