Um... wow.

An e-mail I sent to my dad:

I may pass out from the sheer awesomeness of the fact that this event is
going to happen. Then I'm going to get my affairs in order because I'm
pretty sure putting that much "amazing" in one space will cause the world to
implode.

...I really don't think I'm exaggerating much here.

About this:

AFI showing 11 classic films at once

AP

LOS ANGELES - The American Film Institute is celebrating its 40th anniversary by simultaneously screening 11 classic films, each with a live introduction by a star or filmmaker.

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The screenings, on Oct. 3 at the Arclight Hollywood theater, are open to the public. Among the presenters will be Jack Nicholson for "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," Julie Andrews for "The Sound of Music," Clint Eastwood for "Unforgiven" and George Lucas for "Star Wars — Episode IV: A New Hope."

"I cannot think of another event when movie makers and movie lovers have come together in such a spectacular fashion," Lucas said in a statement. "I'm proud to be part of this historic night — both as movie lover and a movie maker."

Other introductions will be made by Warren Beatty for "Bonnie and Clyde," Billy Crystal and Rob Reiner for "When Harry Met Sally...," Kirk Douglas for "Spartacus," Morgan Freeman for "The Shawshank Redemption," Tippi Hedren for "The Birds" and Sylvester Stallone for "Rocky."

Tickets for "Target Presents AFI's 40th Anniversary" go on sale Wednesday for $25.

If you're within four hours of Silver Spring, Maryland, and don't go, you're priorities are totally off.

I Have a Sickness

Google Reader informs me:

"From your 42 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 2,142 items."

Is there such a thing as gluttonous reading? I think so. If there wasn't, I have made it so.

...but it's so delicious...

It feels kinda wrong at first...

...until you realize Stephen Colbert is a "sticking it" to all the near-sighted folks who think Mother Theresa's Dark Night serves as evidence against God's existence. Good man, that one.



In other news, found on Whispers in the Loggia:

In a related development, a friend sent word some time back that, indeed, "Stephen Colbert, a devout Catholic, teaches Sunday school every week."

Sorry, Emeril...

...after a triad of heavy posts, we're taking it down a notch. This song has been stuck in my head all week, accompanied by the hilarious video by Barats and Bereta (which, believe you me, notably increases the level of difficulty in teaching middle school).

For good measure, I also bring you the original "Mother's Day" short, upon which the Barenaked Ladies video is based and which introduced most of the free world to the viral genius of Barats and Bareta.

What Was That Whooshing Noise...?

For a change, it was not the sound of a deadline flying past me. Shockingly enough, I've met every deadline that has come at me in the last month.

Oh, that's what that noise was... I've been here a month as of today. School has kept me so busy, I wouldn't have noticed had the janitor not asked me tonight how long I've been in San Antonio.

That about sums it up, actually, I've just been really, really busy. Being a young and socially adept person, I still lament my social life a little and miss my family and friends immensely, but at the same time I have to admit this is probably the best possible set up for me. I'm in my classroom from 7:30 am to 9:oo pm everyday, minus about an hour and a half for supper and clean up. Part of it surely is my long-standing inability to focus except under very particular circumstances, but I think the larger part is that I'm still wet behind the ears and (don't tell Sr. Roseann) actually have no idea what I'm doing 96% of the time. Don't feel too bad for me -- on the first day of school, that was true 100% of the time.

I love it here. I love it here. The sisters are beautiful, my students melt my heart when they're not driving me out of my mind, the community at this school just blows me away, and I really think the sky here is bigger. I'm not kidding. It's huge, and absurdly blue.

A few pictures from these last 31 days.

Sr. Gloria, the one-sister-wonder behind VIDES

Pee-wee Eagles

Bigger Eagles (we won!)

My homeroom kids. :)

None Who Saw Will Forget

We had a prayer assembly this morning to "remember" 9/11. I say "remember" because none of our students were older than seven when it happened and roughly a third had not been born. During the assembly, one of my fifth graders was goofing off and I gave her my teacher-death-stare. She quieted down, but I continued to process what had just happened. All of the teachers were stone silent, as reverent as can be. We remember the day quite clearly. We get choked up looking at pictures and telling stories. We carry the weight of that day in our hearts.

But my fifth grader was three or four at the time and it's unlikely she had the presence of mind to register what happened. I thought about that and I wondered -- we will never forget, but what can our children remember?

I hope that 9/11 will never totally loose its tangible, visceral quality, never fade into just another tragedy of mythic proportions, like Pearl Harbor. I hope that somehow we can preserve the enormity of it to show our children. Not to scare them, but to show them how important it is to watch out for each other, to let our families know we love them, to live life. How important it is to remember the dead, because they were not always names on tombstones. They were sons and wives and mommies and daddies, breathing and loving persons, individual lives that made a difference somewhere.

For our children, and for us, to remember that what you stand for and what you stand up for, have consequences, and you'd better be ready to follow through.

I know as long as anyone who saw it happen draws breath, it will not be forgotten. I pray it is somehow remembered, not only memorialized, long beyond that.

Swiped from Happy Catholic:

The 4th of July isn't the day the 13 Colonies won their independence from Britain; it's the day they declared their independence. On the 4th we celebrate their eventual victory, but more than that we celebrate the resolve, vision, and determination which led to that victory.

Today, September 11th, we remember those thousands of innocent American civilians who died in the brutal attack on the Twin Towers. But 9/11 is more that. It is the day we resolved, as a nation, not to knuckle under to the terrorist threat -- and more than that, to stomp it out.

We must not turn 9/11 into a simple day of remembrance. We have not earned that blessing.

We must not lose our determination.

The View From the Foothills

Peggy Noonan also had something beautiful to say, as usual.

I. Hate. Politics.

The Roman Catholic Church holds that abortion is the deliberate killing of a human being. Catholic liberal politicians since Mario Cuomo have said they personally accept the doctrine of their church but nevertheless believe in a woman's right to choose. This is silly. There is no right to choose murder. Either these politicians are lying to their church, or they are lying to us. (Emphasis mine)

Michael Kinsey, liberal journalist. H/T Diogenes

I don't usually talk about politics. Actually, I never talk about politics except to mention how much I loath politics. This is quite intentional -- I find the style and tenor of contemporary American politicking to be truly and instantly nauseating, so I avoid the subject whenever possible. I confess it to be a view at best myopic and at worst hypocritical, but when I hear politicians and pundits of whatever party blather on for any length of time, my mind tends to turn to that part in the Bible where Jesus slaps the Pharisees around and says, "Hypocrites!"

I cannot convince myself, though I have tried, that any more than a tenth of people in politics really and truly have the best interests of the people at heart (that is, the politicians themselves, not he good folks who work for/with them). This is not because my views on most things differ from the views of most politicians. I have many, many friends whose views differ from mine, but they are sincere and honest in their beliefs, and for that I regard them highly. Politicians, on the other hand, churn out chum like that described above. This is why I don't trust politicians and really, really don't like politics.

Politics is a game of putting on the best possible face to as many groups of voters as possible for the sake of your party and of your election. The result is utterly impossible sayings like, "As a Catholic, I personally am opposed to abortion, but support a woman's right to choose."

B and in b. S as in s. Impossible, as a Catholic. But it's such a convenient opinion to have, why fuss over the unbelievably of it?

I wouldn't mind this particular matter so much if Catholic politicians didn't push their religion as part of their image. I can conceive how a person not morally opposed to abortion could, rationally, personally choose not to have one. That's like me saying, "I'd never jump out of a plane, but there's nothing wrong with it." For the record, I still think that view is wrong (yeah, I said it), but it is at least sincere.

Do not. Tell me. You believe something. Then stomp on one of its most sacred tenants. That makes you a liar, and it makes me angry. Have enough integrity to actually stand up for what you claim to believe -- or to claim what you actually believe.

The "personal opposition to abortion" trick is just one shining example of the things I detest about politics, but its scores of second cousins have filled up Congress. This is not at all the sort of thing that I have tended to talk about here, but I felt compelled, I guess, to publicly denounce the shenanigans that have already begun in the lead-up to the 2008 election.

Away with you, then, shenanigans. I shall ignore thee whilst I spend my days with people who actually work for the well being of others... and work on prying the beam from my eye.

You Can Tell I'm Getting Comfortable Because...

...Tonight, as I held an impractically small 4 oz. carton of orange juice in each hand, I looked at Sr. Ngan (pronounced "Nun", no kidding), scoffed, and said, "These are like orange juice shots!"

I will blame this on global warming. Works for a lot of other things, why not try it?

My Eagles Are Better Than Your Eagles

By "your Eagles", I mean these, for whom I have never harbored even a vague fondness. By "my Eagles", I mean these, for whom I suddenly harbor incredible fondness. Unfortunately, in this instance, "better" is not being used in the sense of "winning", but I'll get to that.

Our first football game was this Friday. The little dudes in white are our St. John Bosco Eagles. They were fewer and smaller in stature than our opponents from St. Paul, but still far cooler because I teach half of them (and, clearly, having me for a teacher makes a middle-schooler inarguably better than average). Additionally, they had several of these folks on their side of the stands:

Sr. Anna is on the left, Sr. Carmen on the right, both wonderful, joyful women. I accompanied them and Sr. Esther to the game. When they asked during dinner if I wanted to go, my response was to half fall out of my seat and knock over my glass -- I'm not kidding. Ever since Rampart, I've loved going watching teams from schools I am somehow associated with play football (Air Academy, Air Force, Delaware), and this is the first time I've gotten to see MY students play, and hang out with MY students while I'm at it.

The SJB Pep Squad, upon whom I have bestowed the alternate name of "Sinking Cutest Thing Ever". Appropriate, no?

Then the weather changed on us. It's been unusually wet here in San Antonio this summer. Ultimately, this is good, because the region has been in drought for a long time. When you're trying to watch a football game, the blessing of rain gets lost. Still, most of the parents and fans stayed, God bless 'em.

This is one of the things I love about St John Bosco School: it really is a community, and the people in it really stick by each other in matters great and small. Football, of course, being a "great" matter.

Our dance team (half of whom are also in my classes) stuck it out for a while, braving smeared eye make-up and donning ponchos before their grown-ups finally told them to go home. The football team played through, but no sense in these lovely ladies getting pneumonia -- or electrocuted.

A stranger saw me getting doused and handed me his umbrella before he left (thank you, Mysterious Sir!), allowing me to keep watching and photographing from quasi-dry space. Sr. Anna broke out the heavy-duty umbrella, while two more of my students were real men about it and just got wet.

If you look very closely at the scoreboard way behind Sister and the boys, you may notice the score of 23, Visitors, and 0, Home. I'm sorry to say, "home" was us. I was disappointed, I'll admit, but it was fun.

What's not so fun is that I'm not coming down with a cold, and if my abuelita were alive she would surely blame it on my standing, soaking wet, in the rain for two hours. On that note, I'm going to go drink some orange juice and sleep.

Well at least mobile posting still works

Both my computer and blogger are more than a little finicky, the result being that when i have time to post, i cant. Bollocks. Meanwhile, i miss these scamps, among others.