Ok, I promise I’m gonna use this thing. I just realized that I haven’t checked it since before my birthday last year. That happens to be in August. I fail at blogging.
One of my tasks for today is to work on a WordPress theme that displays properly in browsers besides IE. Wish me luck?
I’m in a rather thoughtful mood today. I noticed a long time ago that I wasn’t updating, but I just couldn’t think of anything to write about. I still don’t really have anything to write about but this is what’s on my mind.
When I was in 9th grade, I had a teacher named Mr. Sinnaeve (pronounced Sin-a-vee). He taught English. It wasn’t until long after high school was over that I realized just how amazing of a teacher he was. See, Mr. Sinnaeve used to have us freewrite for 10 minutes at the beginning of every class. Freewriting is an exercise where you grab a pen and a few sheets of paper and just start writing and don’t stop. Whatever comes out, comes out. If you ever stop writing, even for a second, you’re doing it wrong. Needless to say, the end product of this exercise rarely makes any sense whatsoever, but that’s the point. It’s a valuable tool for finding ideas you didn’t know you had, or just to get something off your chest, or to teach you that it’s okay to write, even if you’re not sure yet why you’re writing. It was something that I really enjoyed at the time, and really took to heart. It made me a better writer, doing this for just 10 minutes every day. At the end of the 10 minutes, we would turn in our freewriting paper, and he would grade it. The only things he would mark people down for would be if there were eraser marks, or if the paper made too much sense.
Mr. Sinnaeve had a totally different approach to teaching than any other teacher we had encountered in our public school careers. If someone asked a stupid question, he gave a stupid answer. “What do you mean by ‘just write whatever is on our mind,’ I don’t get it,” would be answered by something like, “There are parrots in the ceiling.” And then he would move on. I was absolutely delighted by Mr. Sinnaeve.
One day, we came in to class and the teacher there was not Mr. Sinnaeve. I don’t remember who it was, because they were painfully uninteresting and not at all memorable. We learned later that Mr. Sinnaeve had been fired, because he ruined some ditzy cheerleader’s 4.0 because she couldn’t grasp the concept of freewriting, and her mom threw a bitchfit. Clearly this girl was excellent and retaining facts and regurgitating them, but if you can’t grasp the idea of just simply writing to write, you shouldn’t have a 4.0 in the first place, let alone get the teacher fired.
I was angry at the time, but looking back, even then I didn’t fully appreciate what Mr. Sinnaeve was doing for us. By changing the way I looked at writing and learning, he literally changed my life. I’ve made efforts to find Mr. Sinnaeve recently, because I want to thank him for being the teacher that he was, and I want to acknowledge the injustice of what happened to him. I want to tell him that I still freewrite every time I need to get something off my chest or come up with a new idea, and that he was the best teacher I ever had. Unfortunately I can’t seem to find any information about where he is or what he might be doing now.
If anyone can find a Theodore/Ted Sinnaeve that used to work at Holt Junior High, let me know.
George Clinton at Common Ground
Last night I went to Common Ground in Downtown Lansing for the first time. I never went before because I never really wanted to see any of the acts they booked (at least not enough to pay $30 for it). But, this year when I heard they booked George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, quite possibly my favorite band ever, I immediately took the day off work. It was well worth the $35 ticket (after processing) and the $6 beers. I saw an amazing number of people that I knew, listened to fantastic music, and got to get right up front to see George Clinton himself for the first time. Truly an amazing experience. My voice is a little rough today, but I have a brand new P-Funk t-shirt and some great pictures. All in all, it kinda made me think I should go to more of these city-wide events.
It has been a while, yes?
Alright. I know whenever something this huge happens there’s going to be a lot of controversy, there are going to be people who care more than others, of course of course. But there are some attitudes surrounding Michael Jackson’s death that are just simply silly. I honestly don’t feel that most of them are worth responding to, because the people expressing them are just looking to ruffle feathers and I’d rather not encourage that. I will, however, give my opinion here, where said feather-rufflers can’t deface it.
I’ve seen lots of people calling Michael Jackson nothing but a child molester and a freak. It even hurts me to type that. How anyone can ignore the simple fact that Michael was a musical and cultural icon, that he gave us timeless music, escapes me. Can any of the people saying they’re “glad” that Michael is dead really honestly say that they’ve never enjoyed his music? They’ve never imitated his dances? No, they can’t. He was (and still is) synonymous with American music and culture, and should be remembered and respected as such.
I’d have to be blind to deny that he became eccentric and, yes, his appearance became somewhat zombie-like. But can you say that you wouldn’t get a little wacky if you never had a single memory of being a normal person? Being a superstar since you were 6? If you never got to go to a grocery store or a bar, never got to meet people on your own? EVER? I know I would start to lose a few screws. People like us can’t possibly fathom that kind of fame. If we can’t fathom the way he lived, who are we to judge how he responded to it? Nobody, that’s who we are. Until you’ve lived your whole life in a fishbowl with millions of people watching you, and until you’ve changed the face of music and culture as we know it, then you should keep your judgemental mouth shut.
I don’t know whether he did anything wrong or not (actually I highly doubt he ever touched a child inappropriately in the first place, but that’s another discussion), the bottom line is this: it doesn’t matter. Everyone has their shortcomings. You’re not perfect. I know I’m not perfect, and when it comes my time to die, I don’t want to be remembered for my mistakes. I only wish that I had the opportunity to do something so incredible that it would totally overshadow any mistake I may have made… and Michael Jackson did that. I suggest getting down from your high horse for a second to respect him for the legend he was, and is. At least for a damn second.
It absolutely amazes me how this punk kid became the poster child for the NHL. I’ve said it time and time again that he’s got a bad attitude and a lack of class and sportsmanship, and this video from last night’s game proves it.
Classy. I guarantee that if the outcome had been reversed, you would see nothing but good sportsmanship out of the Wings. It has never been their style to trip or hit an opposing player after the final whistle, and nor should it be. This is professional hockey, those guys are professionals, they should be expected to act like it. I would also like to point out that he didn’t confront Maltby like a man, he jabbed him with a stick and then hid behind the refs. That’s not even acceptable in a street fight, let alone the Stanley Cup Finals.
That being said, I was also once again impressed with the stellar officiating throughout the whole game. There were (at least) four penalties on the Penguins during which none of the refs seemed to be able to find their whistles. But, on the bright side, despite the terrible officiating and the constant Crosby/Malkin brown-nosing, we still came out ahead. If that’s a glimpse of what is to come for the rest of the series, then I’m happy about it.
Although, what would make me happier about it is if Kronwall does to Crosby what he did to Havlat and puts that whiny tinkerbell on the bench for the next 3 games while the grownups play hockey.
