View and Sign Mr. Frei's Guestbook, or send msg to ktylerconk@aol.com!!
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Two months from tonight....
Greetings, Gentle Reader.
Yes, two months from tonight I will have gorged on birthday cake - and, God willing and the creek don't rise, creamed potatos - in my final 'training meal' before my August 5 AM departure. It's not exactly the picture of Rocky downing the blended raw eggs, but it's my picture, and I'm going with it.
Before we start tonight's blog, let's attend to a few housekeeping duties, shan't we?
First, I see that Blogmistress Kathy, after extensive and arcane consultation with my beloved Peg, has offered a medium by which those of you whose "screens don't look right" may attend to them via a double click. Let's be clear...she's the Webmistress, I'm the hapless rower. I have no idea what could be wrong with your screen - if anything - except that if you don't get the natty pictures, the fascinating links, the motivational Pledge Paddle Meter and such at the top of your screen, apparently something is "wrong" with your screen, and it can be "adjusted." Give it a shot. As Nerissa says in The Merchant of Venice, "It will be worth the pains." I, for one, still count the garage door opener as the leading edge of technology, so I simply wish you luck.
Second, my sense is that newer subscribers to the blog might not have the time or appetite to scroll back to the genesis of this adventure....so here is a clarification: this "pledge" thing is about raising money for financial aid for deserving young men at Boys' Latin, where I teach. It strikes me as a most worthy cause - these are great kids, and their parents make significant sacrifices to place them in my and my colleagues' classrooms - so that's what the fundraising is about, 'K?
Third, a philosophical question: What if you tune in to the Blog regularly and have not yet pledged? Are you morally compromised?
I, for one, send NPR a little bit each year because they periodically remind me, in a graceful way, that I'm essentially stealing services if I don't. Far be it from me to equate this tome with the national forum that is NPR, and I'm the last one to suggest that you are being entertained for free if you have not yet pledged. Frankly, it would be madness to suggest that any of this is entertaining in the least. And, yes, I have said (often) that the genesis of this venture was the journey, not the fundraising. But, philosophically speaking, you know who you are. :)
OK, enough housekeeping. Here's the sad confession: Tonight's epiphany is sparked by tonight's edition of Spike TV's "Most Amazing Videos."
I was catching up on the paper while it was on in the background...and I ashamed to say that I was sucked in. (A raised copy of The New York Times can well mask alternative banal persuits.) Mostly, I was sucked in by the delightful and breathtaking stupidity of it all. To wit: A guy tried to do a "loop" off a ramp on his motorcycle, came off the bike at the top of the loop, fell fairly gracefully to the gound...only to be crushed by the bike falling out of the sky. Another fellow on a bicycle was towed down a street at breakneck speed with the intention of letting go of the rope, hitting an enormous ramp, and landing on the roof of a three-story building. (The answer is "no.") The creme de la creme of this series were the four "rodeo clowns" sitting at a table playing poker in a bull ring; the bull was released into the ring, it charged the clowns with not a jot of hesitation, and several were badly injured. Were they suprised that this would happen? I don't get it. I mean, I thought the rodeo clown's stock-in-trade was his mobility, his cunning, his intimate, practiced knowlege of his adversary's tendencies. It seems to me that a rodeo clown gives these assets away when he's sitting in a plastic chair at a plastic table playing poker - or even pretending to play poker - with three other rodeo clowns.
Some have opined that my row is not unlike these kinds of courtships with danger...albeit mine will take place in very, very slow motion and will lack Spike's cinematic appeal. Other, kinder people have encouraged me in a reasonable and responsible way. To quote Mel Brooks as "The Two Thousand Year Old Man, "I don't want to get in the middle of that one." Suffice to say that considered risks for ambitious ends are the spice of life, nes pah?
Otherwise, the weekend has been nice. Baltimore was simply beautiful this weekend, I got a haircut, I've started to grade my students' Final Exams (another slowly unfolding tragedy, or the confirmation of blossoming minds? Too soon to tell...), perused my charts for several hours, etc. etc. All in all, a nice weekend.
Gentle Reader, I find myself tempted to riff on current and cosmic affairs in this blog; Iraq, Iran, teaching and learning, civility, Regi's Tater Tots (their newest appetizer, dappled with a delicate cheese, resting amid hearty nuggets of maple smoked bacon, all sailing in a secret sauce), but I will await the response of my readers to see if they would prefer that I largly stick to my knitting which, for this blog, is the row.
Let me know, will you?
Row your boat well this week,
Mr. Frei
(And, Steve, if you don't come to visit after you get back from school, I'll be very unhappy.)
Yes, two months from tonight I will have gorged on birthday cake - and, God willing and the creek don't rise, creamed potatos - in my final 'training meal' before my August 5 AM departure. It's not exactly the picture of Rocky downing the blended raw eggs, but it's my picture, and I'm going with it.
Before we start tonight's blog, let's attend to a few housekeeping duties, shan't we?
First, I see that Blogmistress Kathy, after extensive and arcane consultation with my beloved Peg, has offered a medium by which those of you whose "screens don't look right" may attend to them via a double click. Let's be clear...she's the Webmistress, I'm the hapless rower. I have no idea what could be wrong with your screen - if anything - except that if you don't get the natty pictures, the fascinating links, the motivational Pledge Paddle Meter and such at the top of your screen, apparently something is "wrong" with your screen, and it can be "adjusted." Give it a shot. As Nerissa says in The Merchant of Venice, "It will be worth the pains." I, for one, still count the garage door opener as the leading edge of technology, so I simply wish you luck.
Second, my sense is that newer subscribers to the blog might not have the time or appetite to scroll back to the genesis of this adventure....so here is a clarification: this "pledge" thing is about raising money for financial aid for deserving young men at Boys' Latin, where I teach. It strikes me as a most worthy cause - these are great kids, and their parents make significant sacrifices to place them in my and my colleagues' classrooms - so that's what the fundraising is about, 'K?
Third, a philosophical question: What if you tune in to the Blog regularly and have not yet pledged? Are you morally compromised?
I, for one, send NPR a little bit each year because they periodically remind me, in a graceful way, that I'm essentially stealing services if I don't. Far be it from me to equate this tome with the national forum that is NPR, and I'm the last one to suggest that you are being entertained for free if you have not yet pledged. Frankly, it would be madness to suggest that any of this is entertaining in the least. And, yes, I have said (often) that the genesis of this venture was the journey, not the fundraising. But, philosophically speaking, you know who you are. :)
OK, enough housekeeping. Here's the sad confession: Tonight's epiphany is sparked by tonight's edition of Spike TV's "Most Amazing Videos."
I was catching up on the paper while it was on in the background...and I ashamed to say that I was sucked in. (A raised copy of The New York Times can well mask alternative banal persuits.) Mostly, I was sucked in by the delightful and breathtaking stupidity of it all. To wit: A guy tried to do a "loop" off a ramp on his motorcycle, came off the bike at the top of the loop, fell fairly gracefully to the gound...only to be crushed by the bike falling out of the sky. Another fellow on a bicycle was towed down a street at breakneck speed with the intention of letting go of the rope, hitting an enormous ramp, and landing on the roof of a three-story building. (The answer is "no.") The creme de la creme of this series were the four "rodeo clowns" sitting at a table playing poker in a bull ring; the bull was released into the ring, it charged the clowns with not a jot of hesitation, and several were badly injured. Were they suprised that this would happen? I don't get it. I mean, I thought the rodeo clown's stock-in-trade was his mobility, his cunning, his intimate, practiced knowlege of his adversary's tendencies. It seems to me that a rodeo clown gives these assets away when he's sitting in a plastic chair at a plastic table playing poker - or even pretending to play poker - with three other rodeo clowns.
Some have opined that my row is not unlike these kinds of courtships with danger...albeit mine will take place in very, very slow motion and will lack Spike's cinematic appeal. Other, kinder people have encouraged me in a reasonable and responsible way. To quote Mel Brooks as "The Two Thousand Year Old Man, "I don't want to get in the middle of that one." Suffice to say that considered risks for ambitious ends are the spice of life, nes pah?
Otherwise, the weekend has been nice. Baltimore was simply beautiful this weekend, I got a haircut, I've started to grade my students' Final Exams (another slowly unfolding tragedy, or the confirmation of blossoming minds? Too soon to tell...), perused my charts for several hours, etc. etc. All in all, a nice weekend.
Gentle Reader, I find myself tempted to riff on current and cosmic affairs in this blog; Iraq, Iran, teaching and learning, civility, Regi's Tater Tots (their newest appetizer, dappled with a delicate cheese, resting amid hearty nuggets of maple smoked bacon, all sailing in a secret sauce), but I will await the response of my readers to see if they would prefer that I largly stick to my knitting which, for this blog, is the row.
Let me know, will you?
Row your boat well this week,
Mr. Frei
(And, Steve, if you don't come to visit after you get back from school, I'll be very unhappy.)
