10.03.06
What the heck is my password?
02.19.06
Jeanne’s Humor
The odds of winning the lottery are about the same as the odds of being shot by the vice president!
12.07.05
Real Blog #2 Where I Live
These blogs run backwards … you see this first. But oh well. To continue with the story of my life now … last blog I talked about my work and now … the sad sad tale of my living circumstances.
I live in a tiny place, no heat, no air conditioning. How sad. Sometimes the temperature plummets to an arctic 50 degrees and other times it rockets to a sweltering 90 degrees. Such suffering one must endure by the ocean. It takes me over 15 minutes to get to the ocean. Well, unless I drive. To get to the ocean I pass shops and other tiny adorable little hovels like mine. No two houses are alike … it seems in beach communities individualism reigns. We don’t have restaurants so much as “eateries” and grocery stores a chock full of organic food — one must drive miles to find a true American store that guarantees all products will have preservatives or at least Aspartame. And MacDonald’s? Why, I don’t even know where the nearest one is!!! Woe is me!
The Purpose of a Blog
Finally, what a blog, in my case anyway, is for. These things take a long time to figure out. I thought perhaps that a blog might be for random meanderings, what is the purpose of life, why am I here, the eternal New Age narcissistic introspective answers to the secrets of the universe, a rationale for our existence, a justification to keep breathing air, or a reason to not, as the case may be.
But nay, a blog’s duty is to chronicle my adventures, to keep all my old pals, friends, loved ones, co-conspirators and accomplices up to date on me. What’s ole Karen up to these days, these years even [heck, she ain’t too great on letter writing, but we still think of her and hope she’s happy], what adventures and misadventures has she managed to stumble into, and what will she think of next?
Well, the truth is, I am pretty happy and i have managed to stave off that which I have always most feared: boredom. Oh, but my life is interesting.
Right now I teach mathematics [as always I use the word “teach” loosely, teaching being a verb which implies a direct object] at Washington Preparatory High School in Los Angeles. We call it “The Prep”. Do you picture a marvelous school peopled with children of lawyers and actors, shiny with technology, staffed with teachers who have tossed aside six-figure incomes to work in this stimulating academic environment?
–not–
Washington Prep does have, in my opinion, a goodly number of top teachers and many many smart students. The administrators are dedicated and I find here the one thing that is the absolute most important requirement for me to be comfortable and happy in a teaching position, and that is the sense that I am supported by the administration.
A student whom I do not know asked me the other day why I always seem to be smiling. [I thought “Boy am I good at fooling people into thinking I’m not stressed to the max or what?”] And I told the young man that I like the school. He asked why and I said there are three reasons:
-
I like the administration
I like the teachers
I like the kids
But now I must tell you about the school really. It’s located in South Central Los Angeles. There are gangs and fights and low attendance and low test scores and everyone is working as hard as they can to pull up test scores. Computers work or not, teacher textbooks may not be available, last year I had 55 students in a class for six weeks, oh, just watch the movies starting with “Blackboard Jungle” and ending with “Coach Carter” and you’ll get the picture.
Last year a dear girl asked me “Why do you work here? Why don’t you go to a school with good kids?” I told her very simply that “If I hadn’t come to this school I wouldn’t have gotten to meet you.” And she understood that I think this is the school where the good kids are. The good kids like her.
So this begins the true blog of Karen Bell.
08.30.05
Haunted House
Click here, if you dare … HAUNTED HOUSE
hint, you have to keep on clicking on the same things for it to trigger other things to happen, you’ll get a hand icon when you point your mouse over something your supposed to click, give it a try and have fun
08.14.05
Ethan Video
Video of Cyberium baby
…and another link
… and Tammy is also interviewed
.. and here is my brother Mark’s comment regarding this story:
Wow - an actual baby. So they turned the little feller in instead of finding a willing buyer! Very responsible behavior.
Scroll down to see other links to this story …
LIttle baby found at Cyberium.
Picture by click2houston.com
08.09.05
Thanks Bob Combs
Three wise and fun comments by George Carlin
On Cows and Illegal Aliens
Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that our government can track a cow born in Canada almost three years ago, right to the stall where she sleeps in the state of Washington And they tracked her calves to their stalls. But they are unable to locate 11 million illegal aliens wandering around our country. Maybe we should give them all a cow.
On Iraq and the Constitution:
They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq. Why don’t we just give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it’s worked for over 200 years and we’re hardly using it anymore.On Courthouses and the Ten Commandments:
The real reason that we can’t have the Ten Commandments in a Courthouse? You cannot post “Thou Shalt Not Steal,” “Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery” and “Thou Shall Not Lie” in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians! It would create a most hostile work environment
08.01.05
Newborn baby Story #3
KLTV
http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3664015
HOUSTON A video-game store employee taking out the trash in the alley at a shopping center found a newborn girl yesterday.
Chris Patten at first thought the girl was a doll on a blanket that someone had thrown out.
After a closer look, he saw the baby moving her arms and went to tell his boss, Patten said in the Houston Chronicle.
Cyberium owner Ethan Getz says he looked at the baby closely and saw it was a newborn.
He says there was about three or four inches of the umbilical cord.
Houston police and firefighters took the infant to Columbia West Houston Medical Center.
Officials say she was listed in stable condition yesterday.
An official with Child Protective Services said the girl was probably one or two hours old when she was left.
Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.