Ohhh, Summer

Summer's here and the time is right for a teacher to do...nothing.

They don't keep this summer vacation from some antiquated notion of kids farming. They keep summer vacation around for us teachers to recharge our batteries and hit the new year head on.

I just couldn't imagine if there wasn't a cycle like this. If, for instance, one year finished and another school session began a week later. Burnout would happen. But with summer vacation comes remembrance of the wonderful profession that teaching is.

So the summer is spent, for the majority, doing MY thing. I've done lots of reading. I've read COLLISION COURSE by Robert Silverberg, a sci-fi novel about first contact that humbles. I've read DARKNESS & LIGHT, a Dragonlance novel that was really weird and had the knight and the gnomes land on one of the moons, for Pete's sake. I kept reading anyway, wondering what the heck was going on. As you can see, I have not really read any deeper fiction, joyfully. I now am reading CYBERNETIC SAMURAI by Victor Milan about a scientist creating artificial intelligence and then teaching it to live by the bushido code, similar to European chivalry. Cool concepts, and reminds me a lot about early episodes of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION where they all tried to prove how alive Data was.

I also rented a really cool DVD movie from that Red Box when we were in Washington. It stars Timothy Hutton as a writer and is called THE KOVAK BOX and I really enjoyed it. I think it would have been a wonderfully suspenseful thriller of a novel as well. It was extremely Hitchcockian in that the clues were just enough to make you keep watching, wide-eyed, as each new scenario presented itself. Excellent flick.

I also took over the reins of editing Independent Propaganda. I highlight independent comics and do a lot of reviewing, which is extremely fun. Reminds me a lot of that comics newsletter Jim Watson and I wrote together in middle school, B & W Comics Corner. My aunt actually saved copies of that little fanzine. My reviews have been quoted on several books and promotional materials. It is just fun. If there is a niche here that I can fill, I will gladly accept it. I am able to truly review stuff with my English education background. The site does not focus on Marvel or DC--there are plenty of other sites that do. It's sort of like underground music. I try to find and promote the small guy in hopes that they become the big guy. And if I get a good read along the way, that's my bonus.