Students will be students, life in general

     I guess students will be students. Some of them are fairly diligent, some fall far behind. I have several who haven't even bothered to pick up the assignment that is 25 percent of their grade!
     I shouldn't take it personally that some of them are just sorry. But teaching can be a frustrating thing. Students don't listen much anymore. They would rather be on their cell phone texting, I guess.
     I was going to go on a hike with the NRV Outdoor Rec club Sunday, but it turned out to be wet and cold and cancelled out on Saturday night. I was looking forward to that little adventure. I have so little adventure in my life. Some would say writing is an adventure. It is more a frustration sometimes. You write and you try to get noticed, but it is difficult to make that happen. I'm no Stephen King. (Should I be?)
     It is wet and dreary today too. I hope the leaves don't all fall before I take my classes on a "leaf collecting" expedition!

Do People Socialize Anymore?

    Well, does anyone socialize anymore? Or know how to? If you move into a new neighborhood and don't know anybody, you would think that people might give you a fruitcake, drop by, say hello, invite you for tea? But noooooooo, people don't do that today, not even in this relatively small town I live in now.
    So, the other week I invited a number of people, including retired women and a few neighbors, to visit me for some tea and cookies. And did they come? A few said no, one said maybe, several didn't even respond, including the next door neighbors. Some people have a lot of family and old work friends. But if you are new to an area, your coworkers are much younger and don't invite you over, AND you have no family nearby, it can be a bit isolating sometimes. Maybe I should just concentrate on my writing. People don't know how to socialize today. (One person showed up for all that work cleaning up the house!)
    They said it is not healthy to be isolated. It can affect how your body works, especially if you get depressed. On the other hand, I feel like I have this nice little house to myself and can fix it up just for me. And wear a bathrobe half the day if I want, as no one comes by. They are working or busy with family or old friends.
    And speaking of that, I have been unhappy with my big, unsocial (they do little if any socially oriented activities, like a Christmas play and dinner, hiking group, newsletter a writer like me can contribute to, couples' group) Catholic church. So we went to the church of a fellow Democrat. It is much smaller and they have a "reception" after every service, I guess. Maybe I will alternate between the two, as I still "feel" like a Catholic and the Episcopalian church near me in Radford is very, very similar. But the pastor talks more to an adult audience, I think. The people after church were certainly friendly to me. (The next step would be to go from friendly to friends. Once you hit over 50 friends are harder make.)

Start of school has new smells, stresses -- life experiences too

     This year in my teaching I am going to try to be more relaxed, more knowledgeable about my different topics, which may make the teaching experience less stressful.
    I know that some of my students are not too with it when it comes to getting their books on time. And following directions. That is a simple thing older students can learn to do but a number of them don't, and goof off a bit. And I had, interestingly, one of my classes in the science building and man, could I smell it! It smelled a bit like urine and something else. I pointed this out to a science professor and  "he" said it was mothballs. I went into his calss and and got a whiff of a faint smell of formaldehyde, you know, that preservative they use that also promotes cancer (if you're alive, that is).. The smell has since faded but maybe I've just gotten used to this smell in the halls of science.
    Been reading off and on conservationist John Muir's crazy adventures -- he slid down a glacier, rode a tree in a windstorm, caught malaria and almost died, charged a bear, etc. And when he ventured to the Gulf of Mexico from Wisconsin, the smells of the sea reminded him of his early childhood near the craggy shores of Scotland. There isn't a particular smell of childhood I remember, but the taste of salty ocean water at Jones Beach on Long Island is prominent. And chocolate I think is my constant mood enhancer, even though I am (perpetually) trying to lose weight. Roses have a calming, slightly sweet scent, but most classrooms have the scent (or did) of pencil shavings and chalk. Medicinal, dental office smells never really put me at ease.
    And I can't sense any smell of "fear" in my students. Can they smell fear in me? Hopefully not. We live in a smelly world, no matter how you slice it (sliced fresh bread smells and tastes gooooooooood). 

Batman 3 reviewed, Violence in media, society

     "Batman 3:The Dark Knight rises," has a fair amount of violence, a ton of action, a lot of memorable quotes, most of which escape me now. For instance, the bad guy, Bain, tells Batman that when Gotham is in ashes, then you can die. And he's gotten weak in his victory, and he says that as he knocks Batman like he's a doll, which was impressive if not out and out mean.
    The movie I believe is philosophical about heroism and idealism and doing the right thing. It's difficult to be the lone hero, to carry that persona around with you. Madmen, many charismatic enough to garner a lot of followes, seem so persuasive (yet so unreal -- think Hitler, Idi Amin, Pol Pot and the rest). But they're not there, and we would hope they would stay away from the wider public arena.
    It was a powerful, interesting part of the movie when handsome actor Christian Bale is put by Bain in a prison that is at the bottoom of what looks like a huge stone well somewhere in the Far East (and the Wayne mansion looks a  whole lot like the "Highclere Castle" mansion I visited in England in 2001). The other prisoners talke to him about motivation when things get desperate. A blind man points out that it was a child who found a way up the walls and Wayne had to think like him. He was dedicated enough to Gotham City that he had to find a way out, something many of us wouldn't have the strength to do. Did that make it seem unrealistic? It certainly added to the drama and tension.
    But there certainly was a lot of fighting, explosions and other violence. Is there too much violence in the media? Not long after the movie came out a young man with red hair said he was the joker and shot up a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, killing 12 people who didn't even know the guy. The media said he got 6,000 rounds of ammunition off the internet. We have all these ways to communicate and buy things electronically, but at what cost? Why didn't someone pick up on this weird behavior?
    The movie gave Bruce Wayne a "point" in his life. What was the point (logic) behind the shooting in the movie theater?
    In real life, don't we need more heroes? But then, going it alone is too hard. One person can't "do it all," so we should work together more, compromise even. And use the media more constructively.
     

Men Think They know it all

    Men -- aggravating and annoying and think they know it all. We were going to the next town and I knew, basically a shortcut. Did my husband take my suggestion? NOOOOOOOO. He went by what our visiting son said, who doesn't live here and know the roads like I do. We drove 40 minutes out of our way, then learned our destination would have been closed if we had gotten there early to get tickets anyway!
    And planting a garden-- doesn't that go in the back yard, not the side of the house? But does he think so? NOOOOOOO. Either we agree or totally disagree. It's ridiculous.

Have moved, College orientation and moving to college essay

    This will be short in that we are are "still" in the process of moving in. Once you get all your furniture and papers and clothes and pictures and art and such in another house, then you have to sort it out. It is a "process," interrupted by my watching the Olympics. Man, they are so young, disciplined and fit (all the things I'M NOT).
    But, I am now copying an essay I wrote about my son Adam going to JMU for orientation a few years back. It involved alot of ravel and some interesting conversation...  (below)

   

An Inch Closer to Independence (Talking ‘bout their generation)

By D. J. Mathews

    It was going to be a big day, day to meet new people, maybe encounter a few cute coeds – for my son, that is. The news that our son Adam, a rising senior who was third in his class at his small high school, was accepted at a prestigious college was no surprise. Getting up at 4 a.m. to see the hotshot school was.

    “Grief, it’s the middle of the night,” I said. We were starting out for a college orientation session and the drive was over four hours away! I was dreading the drive and the thought of his leaving home. Then again, I would get some storage space in the house.

    Adam seemed wide awake – easy to do when you’re not the one driving – and very relaxed about this whole thing, staring out at the stars as I pulled onto the interstate. And he came up with a topic I never would have thought of.

     “My generation will probably live to be 500,” he proudly announced,as though we were on some obscure, out of this world talk show.

    “How would your generation manage that?” I had to ask.

    “Oh, you know, Ma.”

    “No, I don’t know. Give me a hint,” I said.

    “Cloning. By the time I’m your age they’ll be cloning all my organs so that I can live a much longer life.” Science had done a lot of things in the last thirty years, when I was a young undergrad. Mapped out the human genome. Come up with the Concorde supersonic jet. But they still haven’t invented a ball point pen that writes upside down on a refrigerator pad. As a computer science major maybe my son could work on that, or how to clone a pen that writes upside down on a refrigerator. Or maybe he could invent a time machine, so I could go back to a time of having a body without  lines and sags. But that’s a pipe dream for sure.

    Arriving at the university at 8:30, we had to rush through the registration line, running into the administration building to  have his picture taken.

     “What do you think?” he said as he held out his new student ID. He looked like he’d been caught in a tornado; the tornado won.

    “Looks great,” I said. “I can’t wait to show it to Dad,” he replied. But did he have to?

    My parents’ packet included information banking options, bookstore mementos and the joys of what looked like dorm rooms the right size for a squirrel. As Adam was dragged away with an orientation program assistant for his own special conference, I followed  other middleaged adults I surmised were parents into an auditorium so that they could discuss education options (read: how to afford college).

    At lunch time we met up at the dining hall, which I thought would be a great moment for a thoughtful, serious  conversation on what college life and the future would bring. What commanded his thoughts? The amazing variety of food.

    “We don’t have this in our cafeteria,” he enthusiastically opined, spreading his arms out to showcase the food stations around us. At one place you could get a hamburger with anything on it and fries, at another several kinds of pasta; yet another have several soup combinations. And chocolate. There was chocolate cake, chocolate cookies, brownies, chocolate and vanilla swirled

ice-cream. Maybe that talk could wait till later. Now it was time to sample half those desserts.

    The afternoon session, while Adam and his peers were seeing advisors and signing up for courses, we middleaged fogeys were entertained about what college would bring for our children, and ourselves. Some wore purple, some wore yellow and black stripes (like bees) and pretended they were surprised by their "new" children, coming home much different after only a semester at college in their leather skirts and tight jeans.

    They specifically showed teens home on break dressed in a punk look of micro mini-skirt, heavy eye makeup and spiked hair, exerting their independence by announcing they would be home late, causing concern for the parents, who realized they had to adjust to this strange new person.

    Then they turned around and  also showed teens who wanted to go home the first weekend, who didn’t consider college their real home and were homesick right away. Being the independent middle child, I figured Adam’s adjustment to this brave new world of possibilities would be somewhere in-between. But as I slowly walked with him back to the car later, I knew that as he inched toward independence, the “real” adjustment for a student away from home would have to be mine. As I thought about it, the adjustment would be more mine, in more ways than one. I needed another focus.

    I considered  going back to college myself.

    While Adam had successfully gone through college and gotten a job using his computer skills for a company for away, I looked at Master’s programs close to home. After he graduated college, I decided to get back in the academic game again and see what it was like. It was not that easy; it required a lot of reading and preparation, which took my focus away from my sons and gave me the opportunity to see what possibilities were out there for me. And it’s been worth it.

    Whatever I do, I know encouraging my son’s independence and (eventually) mine, is the best thing a good mother can do.

                                                      - 30 -

   

Great First Night in House in storm

    You don't expect that your first night in the house you just got the deed for would maybe, no longer be there. I was a little worried about
that. Our first night in the house was in a great storm!
    Why, oh why, must we have this hurricane-tornadolike weather? The lights were blinking as the husband was using the electric pump to blow up our mattress -- yes, we were "camping out" in the house -- and I worried the lights flickering meant we were stressing out the circuits.
    We went out the front door and he said "Auntie Em!" It looked like a tornado might be close by, the branches of our small trees out front were literally being 'wrenched' back and forth. I felt sorry for the trees. I would feel even sorrier if something fell on the house we just bought.
    But the lights and everything electric had gone out now. This, our first night in the house! There was hardly anything in the house as we still had flooring to be put in and we were there, specifically, to take adavanage of the great electricity from the heat pump that was cooling ALL the rooms, something our rented house did not have. And all of a sudden, poof, it was gone, no electric, no escape from the high 90s outside. Or was it maybe a tiny bit lower?
     It probably was not that low outside, temperaturewise, as this was a weird storm. Dark and gloomy clouds, very high winds and no rain, to speak of. The  newspaper gave it a Spanish name, techerecho, or something like that! It is mostly a wind storm, and at the end of our block it caused a mature maple to almost split in two, and bring down a wire to the home in back of it (luckily, not ours). Even if we do have insurance, I would like the house to stay in one piece!
    By this time it was getting "really dark" in and out of the house,so Fran ran across to the neighbors and asked for a flashlight. The wind was still whipping things around and I wasn't brave enought to go out there with him. He brought back some of those white 'storm' candles and a lighter, dumped our almonds into some aluminum foil, and created a holder for the candles by lighting them and dripping the melted wax into the bottom of the tin. Then he set them in it and there they stood! Not bad for a former boy scout!
    You never think about hurricanelike weather this far inland in June. We did get the air mattress inflated before the lights went out, and opened our "one" window with a screen so we could get some breeze from outside. But at 11 pm or so a neighbor must  have been bored in the dark and started playing the drums, in a neighborhood with no electricity at all! It was difficult to get to sleep.
    I hear people in the bigger cities like Roanoke still may not have their power  -- ours came back on in the middle of the night. I went to bed early but the drummer and cars driving by and hitting the house with headlights were no help!
    Our second night was better. I guess it would have to be.