Honu Heroes

Today was a really strange day...so strange, I can't quite come up with a title to it yet. Let's see how that works out...

Today I had to take kids out to do some turtlespotting. It's an ongoing activity we do where we take kids to specific places to observe sea turtles, take data on them, pictures and now video. We report stuff to the Pacific Whale Foundation who are trying to help them.

Sea Turtles are in danger because of all the messed up stuff we do to the oceans. The main issue is something called fibropapilloma. The turtles get these tumors that eventually kills them. And the tumors appear on the outside as well, all over their heads, tails, etc.

We've identified turtles, named them and charted when/if they get fibropapilloma. There's also a...uh...kind of an afterschool club called Honu Heroes...Honu is Hawaiian for turtle. You may find this hard to believe, but I'm actually not involved with them. But the kids have been giving presentations all over the island and even a couple on other islands.

Anyway, the first group I took were the veterans...the 8th graders. It was a long morning, but it was OK. There was a couple of spottings, but nothing huge. Honestly, it was more of a bonding moment - a lot of the kids, especially the girls, were taking more pictures of me than turtles...for posterity. I knew Kaitlen was going to be one of the kids who was going to have a tough time with me leaving and she spent most of the morning and lunch time messing with me. Viera's been distancing herself, which is going to continue until just before I go and Kristen is still trying to get me to start a MySpace page...they obviously don't know about Stu. The really surprising thing is our Aspergers kid has been showing emotion about me leaving...Jeez, now I'm healing the sick.

The afternoon was with the 6th graders. They were a pain in the ass. I had to pull the van over on the way because they were acting like such idiots...I almost turned this island around! I didn't realize that they hadn't done Turtles yet. So when they got there, they really had no clue what to expect. Once the turtles started showing up, that was the show. Twenty kids on this lava finger, literally clapping to get the turtles to come out of the cave. It was really cute. Then the turtles showed up and every one except one had fibro tumors around the eyes, mouth, etc. They had heard about it, but hadn't seen it until now. But they were still kids and were dealing with it pretty well.

After an hour it was time to go. I was the last to leave the area, just to make sure we had left no child behind (intended pun). I saw all the kids not going toward the van, but down the beach...what the hell? Off the lava finger (a naturally made pier out of lava rock from an eruption a long time ago) and on the beach a turtle had washed up on the shore...still alive but covered in tumors and dying. I've never seen anything like this before. The kids surrounded the turtle and realized that we needed pictures of this. To anyone showing up then it looked like the kids had no clue as to what was going on, but they knew that the pictures were going to help get this cause more publicity. We actually had to stop them from taking pictures.

When we got back to school, a bunch of kids went right to the teacher who does Honu Heroes. She got on the phone to some group who deals with this stuff, to go get the turtle.

I have the kids' pictures of this turtle. I'm not going to post them here - they're pretty graphic. Typing this has made me start to process this. I may have one more thing to do before I leave.

I'm gonna need me some rehab

Ooooh. Facebook is an evil, evil thing. I'm "finding" people or they're finding me who I got no business having contact with. Not in an illegal or immoral way...or at least not illegal.

There's people I haven't seen since Albion Jr. High who I am now Facebook friends with. I was on the other day and thought I'd see if Ed had a page (Dude, you're on the list of subscribers to this blog, I have no idea if you read it). So looking through those with ties to Albion High School...not too many people I was familiar with...where's Keith Saturn when you need him?

But I did run into...uh...OK, how can I explain this one. I'd rather not give a name here, though I don't think it would matter if I did. But this world is getting smaller all the time. When I was back in Jr. High, this girl was like the "it" girl. Oooh. Here's a reference. The movie Sixteen Candles. (Yes, I appreciate that I've officially become a teenager girl with this reference) Me, being Farmer Ted and this other person being....uh...the hot chick he ends up with at the end of the movie. Only in the real world, the hot chick never really knows who Farmer Ted is. OK, I'll go look up the character's name - please hold..................

Caroline Mulford is the character's name.

OK, so I am now friends on Facebook with Caroline Mulford. And Mike Harding. Not as hot, but probably a better kisser. I'm just saying.

People from Franklin, Hillside, activism/politics...it's a big, weird stew. And on occasion it makes me uncomfortable.

Bombs Away!!!

Well, I told the kids at school today that I was leaving. It actually kinda fell into place. I wasn't supposed to be teaching at all today, today was going to be grading / catch-up day, but another teacher who was supposed to teach called in sick so I had to scramble for something to do. Part of my "lesson" was explaining to the kids that I was leaving. I actually ended up turning it into a half-hour, one-man-show. Three performances only.

So the kids got me to agree to start a blog to keep them up-to-date. So I'll probably be abandoning this one and starting a new one in a month...but I haven't decided the fate of Dave In Maui for sure yet. Either way, you'll still be able to get your Dave fix at the new one, it'll just be for a younger audience. That's right, no more dick jokes. Oh...I wasn't doing them before? I better get cracking then.

The one girl (who tried to set me up with her Grandmother) was actually pissed that I'm leaving. But by the end of the day I had her down to just annoyed. It's a start. I still have 3 weeks to get it to peeved.

I'm pretty sure as we get closer, it's going to get more uncomfortable, for me anyway, but it'll be pretty sappy and I'll try not to cry. Though I can just blame it on the vog.

As for my last 3 weeks of school...well, it looks like things aren't going to change much. I have the responsibility of planning next week's field outing - which I have - but it's already getting messed up. Semester report cards are due...I guess the last day of school, but no one's actually seen the report cards yet and they're supposed to be more like School Without Walls progress reports. I was actually pushing for that, but I guess I forgot to tell them that for teachers to give more anecdotal evidence of student learning you actually have to spend a significant amount of time with the students. And right now, none of the teachers do...or at least I don't. So I'll probably be doing progress reports on the plane, at the airport and in Rochester. I didn't tell the kids that this kinda stuff is the main reason I'm leaving.

I guess that's the deal for now. Hey! Where's MY transition team?

Gratuitous Semi-Nudity

{sigh} Even with loads of evidence, many times I still tend to think that I have more control over things than really do. (Relax man, I'm getting to the GSN) Like that one time I ran for school board...That dumbass, Domingo Garcia only had, like 90% more of the vote than me. I know if the State Greens weren't such shitheads...oooh....I'll blame it on Nader, HE was on the ballot that year, too.

OK...so back to Summer. We were close enough to the win that I know that if I just could have figured out a way to make her become more political, quicker, we could have won. Not dishonest, just more political savy...by that I mean, willing to go door-to-door more, stop being so persnickity over the lit, etc.

(I said, I'm getting to it.)

Me being me, I have doubts...where did I screw up, blah, blah, blah. And I'm in serious, never-doing-this-again mode. I don't think I'm going to be getting involved in anything once I get back. (You can stop laughing now)

So are you on the Facebook? It's blowing up with all the kids. Well, I'm now on Facebook as some of you know. Stuart's been on the Facebook for quite a while. Well, Summer's also on the Facebook. And when you're friends with someone on the Facebook, you basically give them permission to stalk you - even if you don't want them to. The only way you can get them to not Facestalk you is to unfriend them. I want that to be clear, so that those of you not familiar with the Facebook understand what's happening here.

This morning I was treated to this:


Uh...OK...I guess I'd vote for her...but for what, Miss Socket Wrench 2009? I guess maybe she may need to mature a little...ahem...politically, I mean. I know it's not my responsibility any more, but I feel I should say something to her...like:

"Hey, nice cans..." no, that's not it...uh, like "Are you related to Louise Slaughter?" Jeez, come on Dave, focus! OK, one more time. How about, "You're 25 years old and you want people to take you seriously. Those are pictures for paparazzi, not stuff you post on the internet of yourself." That's closer.

3 more weeks.

I'm Not Back Yet!

Checking my e-mail today...I get something from RG&E. Yep...Rochester Gas & Electric.

When I was in Rochester, I paid my RG&E bill online...but since I left I had not heard from them...until today.

When I saw the e-mail and the subject (New RG&E Document), I'm thinking...Oh crap...I STILL owe them something??!??

Then I open the e-mail:

A new bill invoice for account number 20014845919 is due 12/19/2008 for the bill amount of $ -1.45.
Click here to view and pay your RG&E bill


Uh...seriously? If I click, you're going to give me $1.45? And will I have a bigger penis, make money from foreclosed homes and get $2,000,000 from the Department of Ball Bearings in Nigeria???

Brain...confused....

Another Timetable Shot to Hell

On December 3rd there's going to be a school / parent meeting. Our communication or lack thereof has gotten so out of hand that they're having a meeting to clear a bunch of stuff up. The funny thing about all of this is:

*There's acknoledgement that there's a problem, but still no acceptance of responsibility or plan for serious change. In fact, the school...or should I say, it's leaders have pretty much painted themselves into a corner by relying on such lousy technology that they couldn't afford to change it even if they could.

*The solutions all the teachers are talking about to "get control" of the school again are very traditional. Punishments and rewards, grade everything, reduce the field outings, etc. It'll calm the parents down, but it's not going to change squat. Everything they're going to be doing is based on external motivation.

*The new schedule they're going to employ and explain to the parents on Wednesday doesn't have me in it. Also, in the spirit of communication, they're going to need to explain that a new Teacher's Assistant and Clerk are going to be on board. So we're going to moving up the timetable on the announcement of my leaving by a couple of weeks.

It's not going to be a total disaster, I'm just going to have to answer the same questions over and over and there will be more passive-aggressiveness by the kids who don't want me to leave. But it won't be too bad...I hope.

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A couple of weeks ago, I told one of the kids how much she reminded me of Suzie...Suzee...Suzey...uh...Suzi...whatever. Susan Gibney. Oh, there's those out there who don't know who that is. Suz...uh...damn...Susan is the sister-in-law of my Cousin Jill, who can read this blog, but doesn't. Susan is an actress. You may have seen her on one of the Star Treks, I get 'em all confused, Crossing Jordan and many others....

Here's her IMDB page.

Anyway, I have this 6th grader who so reminds me of a little Susan. Actually, I didn't realize it for months...it just hit me a couple of weeks ago. So I told the kid about it and told her I'd e-mail Susan to tell her. So every other day I would get, "Did Susan e-mail you back yet?" No...not yet. So she asked me again today and we had a few minutes, so I grabbed my cell phone and called her. After I talked for a while I let Lily talk to her. It was the cutest thing ever.

I think that's about all for now...most of you are probably reading this on T-Giving. Have a great holiday. I'm working most of the days, but have Friday completely off. If the roosters, babies and dog upstairs will let me, I'm going to sleep in, maybe make it up to the Labrynth and chill out before I go see Kanekoa with Jill. Then, it's back to work on Saturday. While I may be an unemployed bum, that first week I get back will be my first real vacation in a long, long time.

Jeez...I sent my resume to another place yesterday and I can't even remember what it was for. I gotta start keeping track of this stuff.

Yeowch!

So I've had this little e-mail conversation with the "campaign guru". He wanted my opinion on what "went wrong" with Summer's campaign. I don't know if I feel good about this or not, but he & I seem to be the only ones not happy with the result.

So I was pretty honest, but his last response...ouch babe! He called her a "princess" and not in a nice way along with a few other things. Seems as if he's already heard that she was hesitant to do the grunt work a candidate needs to do to win. He was a lot harder on her than I was.

But my last reply I think sums it up. She's 25 years old. When I was 25, I was a 300 pound blob who may have been a registered Republican. People change. And if she's not cut out to be a politician, she's still gonna make a very good community activist.