two posts in one day indeed

apparently the students indeed are frightened of electricity. as well they should be. one of my student's mother came home to a dark house because the kid was too scared to turn on the lights. awesome. she also slept with three nightlights on, which kind of doesn't make any sense because the nightlights were plug-in ones but she's not necessarily the sharpest so that's fine.

today in class i handed out an article about the Earth-like planet found recently: Gliese 581. the kids read it and another article about Dr. Edgar Mitchell, the Apollo 14 astronaut who is 120% convinced that alien lifeforms exist and the US government is hiding the evidence. we then had a freaking awesome discussion about aliens and what they might be like and the creepy government and the white man. one student even suggested that the government is using aliens as their spies. that, of course, is assuming the aliens would want to work for the government. and that worked very nicely into my discussion on the half-lizard/half-people race ruling the world. i am now getting inundated with emails from students about aliens and the UFO cover-ups.

Star Trek ahoy

Yesterday Mr. Will Cameron came up to me in the hallway and was incredibly excited about talking to me about the Star Trek movies he watched over the weekend. Specifically, he wanted to discuss the science behind some of the things he saw the crew do on previously unexplored planets. "I mean, they get of the spaceship and the they don't know if the air is terrible but they think it is and then as soon as they get inside a building they take their helmets off? I mean, come on. Does that make any sense? How can they do that?" I, of course, was giggling super hard and told him that no, that does not make any sense. I had not seen the movies, but the science behind them seems to have some major flaws, although that seems to be where much of the charm lies. I asked if he had watched any of the television show and suggested he immediately check it out. That only temporarily kept him from talking about how freaking awesome Spock was and how he died but oh shoot he shouldn't have said that but he comes back so don't worry... (and he's saying all this while walking backward down the hall while another teacher is yelling at him to get to class or he was going to be late).

This week I had the students watch "Pulse," a horror movie from 1988 about electricity being harnessed by the powers of evil and used to terrorize a family in California. It has Joey Lawrence in it from "Blossom" and is fantastic. And the students have been FUCKING SCREAMING their heads off during it. So awesome... and every class applauded at the end of it. My favorite moment was when Ms. Erica Puentes, quiet, quiet Erica Puentes, screamed out in some demonic guttural grunt "chop it down, chop it down" when the protagonist had enough of getting fucked by electricity and tried axing down a telephone pole. And the kids were all talking about how scared they were of electricity and how they're not turning anything on when they get home. I then told them the movie was put out by the Amish Propaganda Committee and they were buying into it.

dance update

apparently when shorty was trying to get low, she sprained her wrist and fractured her thumb. that's right. my first dj gig and my blaring beats lead to shredded carpals. fantastic.