Wednesday, June 9, 2010

last day at the school

i read the postings on the 'save emerson hough' facebook page, as i knew this was the last day at the school- for now, anyway. looks like the appeal will be heard by the state in late august, about when the next school year begins. some of the comments found do make me smile or laugh, but not all of them. somebody referred to people being tarred and feathered, but how this is no longer acceptable. i don't enjoy the trash talking about how the money is being wasted on the appeal. but there were some good rebuttals to it. like how women suffrage (the right to vote) happened due to actions of the citizens getting involved. recently, i was told by a tour guide how many sent donations to support the legal efforts in the dred scott case, credited as a precursor to the civil war. but we all know how the stance is not popular with all, we have to ignore critics and keep moving. another referred to what likely was a john paul jones quote from the american revolution, i think he meant 'i have not yet begun to fight'.
    i noticed how it did help to search google for a change instead of just yahoo. found some emerson hough pictures- the man, his books, and the school. even found one of me, as i said i was researching hough. it was from the save-the-school page. of course some weren't about him, they were about julianne hough or about other emersons. but searching online isn't perfect, we all know this fact. but it's still quite good. i was pleased to find one of his books in spanish- 'la carreta'. i think it's 'covered wagon'. since there was one on the cover. and my online searches led to the translation being 'cart, ox cart, or prairie schooner'. it was the name of some restaurants as well. and i looked up other schools named hough, some are not in america but canada and britain. others i found were in vancouver, washington and in  charlotte, north carolina. the one from the carolinas intrigued me the most. there was some controversy about naming a school 'hough'. it was for a popular admininstrator, but there was some worry that it would be mistaken for slurs like 'ho' and 'huff'- a drug reference. whoever thinks this reads too much into things, and has too much time on their hands. or just plain cares too much about silly, unimportant things. i like using the word 'asinine'- it seems relevant here as well. didn't like having to explain the meaning to my dad one time when using it, especially since he then said how charlie used the term on 'two and a half men'. well i figured he would have understood the meaning, based on usage and context. anyway, i asked for the school system's help on spreading the word, from one hough school to another. though it said it wasn't opening just yet, would be in the fall.
  work was a little easier today, lower volume of work, which was nice. a colleague i sometimes ride the bus with to and from work was telling me about going to japan next week, will be there for two weeks. he is big on japanese language and culture, much like my college roommate, the physics major living near memphis, tennessee. he was unfamiliar with the movie 'gung ho'. i said it starred michael keaton, who he knew was in 'batman'. 'gung ho' is a nice movie about culture clash between the japanese managment and american workers at a car plant. i sometimes call him 'pop culture psychiatrist' as at first it seemed he was trying to analyze me whenever we spoke. he just likes to rephrase and ask back as a question, so he understands. i do understand him, whatever he's saying, no problem there. but he does use big words when rephrasing that might lose some people. i still enjoy conversations with him more than most colleagues, due to the intelligence level being comparable. same is true with the theater man, who i like to greet by saying both his first and last names. i've seen a few of the plays he has worked on, doing the background music or sound design. it is nice to know about some of the outside interests that people have, working in corporate america. as a former boss and mentor once reminded me, her job is just one part of her life. which means it's good to have more going on in your life. what i like about seeing a longtime friend, a little league teammate, is how we don't talk about our line of work much when i see him. there are more fun topics than work, and try to think about work as little as possible when off the clock. though his job is more interesting than mine, as he works in a casino. and he has told me about getting pit boss training. it is good to be well-trained, and well-rounded.

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