When?

I have this weird relationship with time. I think I always have. Often, it seems like time stands still. Often, I think of the old cliché about how the days drag yet the weeks (and months, and years!) just fly on by.

That saying is really true, I believe. You kind of go through the motions, do what you need to in order to get through the days that sometimes seem to linger on forever. While you're doing that so much other time, the ephemeral time that exists like smoke or steam, escapes your grasp and floats into the ether.

The good thing about time passing is that it offers perspective. That is one of the things I think that I am really good at. I am good at looking back and assessing (reassessing and re-reassessing!) what has happened in my life. Dare I say, I think I am even pretty good at objectively, well as objectively as possible, understanding my own part in what has happened in my life.

When I hear a year mentioned, like 1992 (first season of MTV's Real World) it usually seems just SO recent. I have a good memory for things and events and minutiae. However, I have a terrible memory for chronology. So, when I think of 1992 and it seems SO recent, I can remember songs, movies, friends, anecdotes, etc., but I have trouble remembering the order of things.

Introspection is great. In fact, I think it is one the most important gifts a person can give to himself or herself. How, though, how does a guy know when enough is enough? How does a guy know when to just let things go? More importantly, how does a guy know HOW to let things go?

Guess I'll just sort of have to ruminate on those questions and see what I can come up with.

True Stories:

• I once had a stalker who was a part-time phone sex operator.
  
• I've only been in love once.
  
• I once sold a pair of jeans to Mike Rowe.
  
• I quit my job at K-Mart via announcement over the loudspeaker.
  
• I was pen-pal to an infamous murderer.
  
• David Morse asked me all about Bjork before while he was deciding whether to accept a role in "Dancer in the Dark"
  
• The victim of numerous bullies, I was once chastised by a magistrate for being a bully.
  

  
   

 

Generation Z

***The average American teen sends 2,900 texts per month***

The February issue of California Educator has a really great cover story on the students we currently serve, Generation Z.

According to Mark McCrindle, Generation Z members are:

• Well educated and the most technologically advanced generation.
  
• Growing up in smaller households with older parents.
  
• Until recently, more materially endowed.
  
• Headed for careers that don't even exist today.
  
• Likely to have at least five careers and more than 20 employers.
  
• Very concerned about the environment.
  

National Grammar Day Is TODAY!

Visit the National Grammar Day (NGD) website for fun, free stuff:

An NGD e-card
A video of the official NGD theme song
A hall-of-shame playlist
A list of our blog partners
Photos from the Grammar Girl Flickr group.
Teaching materials
Vote for your favorite Schoolhouse Rock! episode.

Authorities believe Wash. man electrocuted by urinating on downed power line after car crash

MONTESANO, Wash. - Authorities believe a Washington man was killed by accidentally urinating on a downed power line after a car crash.

Grays Harbor County sheriff's Deputy Dave Pimentel said Monday 50-year-old Roy Messenger was not seriously hurt after he collided with a power pole Friday and called a relative to pull his car from a ditch.

However, family members found Messenger electrocuted when they arrived.

Pimentel says Messenger apparently urinated into a roadside ditch but didn't see the live wire. The urine stream likely served as a conductor, allowing the electricity to reach his body.

Pimentel says there will be an autopsy but burn marks indicated the way the electricity traveled through Messenger's body.

Neither Rain, Nor Sleet…

The United States Postal Service has been in trouble for a long time now, it seems. About a year ago Congress was asked to change the law and have the delivery of mail on Saturdays discontinued. Congress didn't do that, and it seems the same request will be made again soon.

From what I've heard the U.S. Postal Service is in the red to the tune of about 300 million dollars. (Many blame email and the like.) I get all that (and, dare I say it, I would probably be perfectly fine with no Saturday delivery of mail). What I don't understand, at all, is that approximately 5 million dollars was recently spent on a study that seemingly concluded that the service is losing a lot of money.

I live in a rural town where there is no mail delivery; everyone picks up his or her mail at the post office. This past year the office has shortened its hours substantially. That measure, in my opinion, makes sense from a fiscal standpoint. Spending money on a study, especially such a high amount of money, doesn't make any sense to me at all.

Julianne Moore confirmed for appearance on 'As the World Turns’

By Lynette Rice

A spokeswoman for Julianne Moore confirmed an EW exclusive report that the co-star of A Single Man will make an appearance on As the World Turns, the CBS soap that helped to launch her career in Hollywood. Moore's appearance will be a walk-on, her spokeswoman said. She'll greet her character's parents and wish them well. Moore could tape her episode as early as this Wednesday.

The Oscar-nominated actress got her start on ATWT in 1985 by playing half-sisters Frannie and Sabrina Hughes – a depiction that earned her a Daytime Emmy in 1988, the year she left the show. ATWT will end its 54-year-run in September.

Source: http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2010/03/01/julianne-moore-as-the-world-turns/