I’m sick.  It was all because of one day really.  As my mom says, your immune system is at its weakest from exhaustion. 

Friday was that day for me.  I took some of my seniors on a college trip that day.  Since only 5 students were interested in the schools that I was going to, I decided to have them come along in my OWN hoopride instead of renting a car. 

Mom: “You shouldn’t do that.  What if you get into an accident? Make sure they sign waivers.  Next time…”

 Yes mom.  Anyway, I thought 5 was pushing it in my lil Nissan Sentra, but I figured if I did it strategically, it would be fine.  Our biggest kid went in the front, and the 4 in the back had to alternate sitting forward and have one duck on occasion when we pass a cop car. 
So I took them to Bard College and SUNY New Paltz.  It was ~2 hour drive to the town of Red Hook and Poughkeepsie, respectively.  Plus I got 2 of my ex-students to give us tours.  Suh-weet.

Bard was nice and small.  But as my former student, Pamela put it:

Pamela: “Bard’s teachers are great.  You need to be open-minded and be willing to be challenged.  There are a lot of “weird people” here.  You must also get used to people who don’t brush their teeth, shower or shave their legs.”
- Nice way of putting it, Pammy.

Me and P-Lo.  (Check out the Felix the Cat shirt she wore for my arrival!  Awww)

Nex stop, New Paltz.  Of course we got lost, but it wasn’t just my fault.  I even asked the kids what route we should take but they didn’t seem to mind since they were enjoying their “road trip“.  Guess they don’t get out of the city often. 

New Paltz was great.  Of all the State Universities I’ve been to, it’s the ”coziest“.  Real pretty.  Looks exactly like the picture!  My former student, Luca, absolutely loves it there. 

                                Me and the artistic, Luca. 
Anyway the whole experience was fun but we were 2 hours BEHIND schedule.  Perhaps the cutest thing on the trip were the kids in my car worrying that I didn’t have enough gas.  I kept saying we did but they kept pressuring me to get some more!  How responsible! 

Got back at 6:30pm after leaving at 8:30 am.  Done right?  Nah, From 7:30-11pm, I had to DJ the High School Dance.  Man, these kids were really pissing me off.  Saying stuff like…
Annoying kid 1: “Yo, play this.”
Annoying kid 2: “Yo.  This song is too slow.”
Annoying kid 3: “Yo.  This song is too fast.”

You get the point.  These kids were freaks out there though.  I almost had to cover my ears and eyes when I played “Doo Doo Brown. “

Sheesh.  Kids these days. 

Well, we got the raise and its at 15%. 

Not too shabby.  There’s of course that fine print that goes along with it but it doesn’t affect me THAT much.

– I stay way over the 10 minutes a day anyway so that extra time really doesn’t affect me.

- The three less days of holiday kinda blows but its worth the extra 5g.

- The contract is good for 4 years and it expires Oct. 2007.  Not bad.  So in another 2 years, I can expect another raise!

As for another note, baseball season is over.  My beloved Mets are out of the playoffs but NY fans saw a couple of bright spots.  They are:


1. 3B David Wright  and  2. SS  Jose Reyes

*Thanks for the memories Mike Piazza!

Today’s lesson is why NY teachers (and counselors ) are talking about a strike.  This may especially be helpful for those non-educators and non-NY‘ers out there who have no idea what’s going on. 

Here are the facts:

- We have been without a contract for more than 2 years (May 2003) .
- What NY educators want: 19% raise. 
- What the City offered: 4%
-  What this NY mayor said ”Let the arbitrator panel decide!”
- What the arbitration panel suggested: 11.4% raise over 3 years.

All good in the hood?   So why are teachers complaining? 

Here’s the fine print if we accept:
- 10 more minutes a day added to our 100 minutes.  = 30 minutes more a day.
- 2 less days of summer vacation (Noooo!)
- 1 less holiday
- 10 more “free coverages” a year (cover a class if a teacher is “out sick”)
- No right to grieve letters to the file (If a supervisor writes a “bad” letter, can’t argue it)
- Luch duty, hall duty, involuntary assignment to position @ principal’s discretion
- no more seniority transfers
- 1st yr salary – ZERO %, 2nd yr salary -2%, first 6 months of 3rd year-3.5% then 5.5%

With all this additional work time, it doesn’t take a genius to call this additional $$ a raise.

Major players:
  vs. 
       CHANCELLOR JOEL KLEIN                               UNION REP, RANDI WEINGARTEN

*Already we’re making 20% less than educators in the suburbs.  Give us a break!

* We don’t have swimming pools, football, soccer, and baseball fields like they do, parking lots for thier kids and faculty like they do, resources like they do.

* We work more closely with students from low-income families who struggle with whether to join gangs or not and if they should go to college.  As opposed to some kids who struggle with whether they should get a Beamer or a Lexus for graduation.

Anyway, some who read this might not give a shit but everyone’s been affected or taught by a teacher.  They probably played a part with why YOU are the way YOU are. 

And that concludes today’s lesson on why we’re trying to stand up for ourselves in our profession.  It only took us 2 years to speak up.  

Moral of the story?

ALWAYS READ THE FINE PRINT.

Ever look in the street and and wonder if there was a person who you think would kinda look like you when you got older besides your mom or dad?  Well on my lovely trip to Niagra Falls with my cousins…

I think I found that person…

Whadda ya think?

*(Come to think of it, he looks a lot like my dad). 

gotta hate September.  Ugh.  Even though I don’t have to work until the 6th, I feel school started already.  You can smell it in the air.  Its getting a little darker.  Summer’s over. .

Had my annual retreat to good ole Pine Bush, NY.  Pics and story to come later.

Here are the rest of the Canada pics and the activities we did:

My mom would always go “social dancing” for fun.  For those “younger” people (including myself, its not like the Electric Slide or the Moonwalk. Its old people music like the Waltz, Cha-Cha, Swing, etc.  Anyways I got a lot of experience in that since they were 4 aunts and my mom and only me and my uncle as dance partners.  The ratio was always 5:2.  It was quite a learning experience to say the least!  (Sorry for the small pics but when I enlarge them, it gets fuzzy.)

     
So my III-eee (the one in purple) was trying to teach me most of these dances.  I kept repeating “1..2..3..4..”
     
Once I kinda got the hang of it, we were all partying like its 1999…or 2005…whatever, you know what I mean!
     
me and III-eee                     Me and Ma Dukes              Me and Ma Dukes II           That’s the Twist right thurr!
     
Me and Christy                   Me and my Grandma          Grandma, part Deux             Here’s a ‘lil flava for ya!

  (look how serious I look)
Though, it was not my typical dancing, it was fun to learn.  But those dance halls are serious man.  I was with my grandmother doing the Waltz and when we accidently bumped into someone, there were grilling us.  Hardcore.  Apparently you’re supposed to dance in a circle.  Who knew? .  But it was nice that everone got down and danced.  For my grandmother to do that was especially nice!

Then of course we had to do a little bit of what Chinese families do best….KARAOKE!
      adults
    kids bored

   so I took over…
   with my uncle…

Then we did what Chinese families do best as well…MAHJONG!
 okay, so I got bored.
How about Jenga Mahjong?
    

Last but not least, a challenge was bestowed by the “kids” to the “adults” to see who would win in a game of bowling.  Well apparently, my cousin David said he could bowl a 200 no problem so we gave the adults an extra person.  Long story short, my mom ( a very bad bowler) beat David in both games.  I guess the writing was on the wall when his first 3 frames were gutterballs. .  Yeah, we lost both games by a wide margin.  Sheesh.

   

 me and my “200″ bowler, David.
 my righty but “lefty”bowler mom.
 Winners and Losers

Good Times! .

 


Next year in CALI baby.

Alright the Canada Series is going to be a 2 or 3 parter.  There are like 1,000 pictures from 4 different sources.  And they’re all of the same scene!  I’ll just post some of them up to keep my readers occupied. 

So we had our annual reunion in Toronto, Canada.  It was a lot of fun and what do Chinese families like to do at these reunions?  Everybody:

                                               “GROUP PHOTOS!”

            THIS PICTURE IS REALLY BAD.  LOOK HOW MUCH ROOM IS LEFT ON THE SIDES AND TOP!

                                 III-EEE, IV-EEE, JASON, ME, PAW PAW, V-EEE, MOM, CHRISTY, RACHEL

                                                      STANDARD PHOTO AROUND THE DINNER TABLE

                                ME CHILLIN’ WITH MY BUDDISHT/MONK/CRAZY AUNT AND MOM

                                                      STANDARD PHOTO IN PARKING LOT?

         A LOT OF EEE’S IN THIS PHOTO.  BUFFET LUNCH WHERE EVERY WOMAN ATE MORE THAN ME!

                                  YEAH.  ME AN MY UNCLE PETER KNOW WHERE THE PARTY’S AT.

Yep.  Those were like all on different days.  Got to see my cousins, grandparents, and aunts and uncles.  The whole Sha-bang…

                                   YEW-YEW, DAY-TSAI, SEE-WING, WAI-WAI, AND MUN WOON
                                       (YEAH, YOU GOTTA BE CHINESE TO UNDERSTAND THIS)


 

 Me with my grandpa, Jason and cousin Chistie.  Haven’t seen her since she was like 8 years old!  She’s all grown up and lost all her baby fat!  Ha Ha.  Isn’t she cute?  Anyway, I  had a blast with her since she was the only one laughing at my jokes. 

Alright…now you know most of my fam, I’ll post my next set of photos up with storylines.

Peace.

Sup everybody?  Hope things have been well since I was gone.  Well I was actaully back for a bit but went into hiding.  In my apartment that is.  Layed low.  It was too darn hot in NYC to be out.  Just me and my best friend, AC.

Canada was wonderful and had such a blast.  Will get pictures soon as I’m waiting for my aunt to get send them to me. 

Not much has happened since I came back…Let’s see…Oh yeah.  2 things.

1.)  I ran into the girl that thought my name was Alex in Central Park as I was rollerblading through.  If you remember I was going to avoid her for the rest of my life (I recognized her from behind).  So I thought:

“If I skate by her real fast, she won’t recognize me.”

Of course the plan failed and as I zoomed by her at 17 mph, I hear:

“ALEX!”          

So once again, I stopped and pretended it that was my name and spoke to her for a little bit.

2.) The unthinkable has happened as I see my former student (19 years old) at a bar I was at on Friday. .  Needless to say, I left after 5 minutes.  Strange man.

(* Chalupz it was Deanna at the OV. )

Greetings from Toronto, Canada.  Yes, I am on the move as I am out here to see family for a week.  But Xanga never stops right?  Well you guys are in for a treat.

THINK MY BROTHER IS THE ONLY ONE THAT CAN ACT?

Ha Ha.  Well then you are sadly mistaken.  Just a few years ago, when Better Luck Tommorow
was hitting the theaters, I was spreading the word around for my
friends to watch it.  Here’s what transpired with my friend, Laurel.

Me: “Yeah, so go watch BLT, my brother’s playing a big role in it.”
Laurel: “Have YOU ever thought about acting?”
Me: “Well I won’t discount it .”
Laurel: “Good to know.“

2 days later….

Laurel: “Hey my friend is doing  a short film and wants to know if you want to star in it.”
Me: “Ummm…does he know I have NO minimal acting experience?”
Laurel: “Yeah.”
Me: “And he wants to waste film on me?  Ok.”

So I did this film called “Le Pigeon“.  It’s about 3 minutes long.  It actually won some short film festival award.  Here’s the link.  Tell me what you all think!

http://www.kblzproductions.com/lepigeon.html

1 YEAR OF XANGA.  Who knew?    21,450 times my page has been reviewed?  Damn.  It started because my brother and cousin had one and thought I would try it as well.  It’s been fun.  The year has been full of :

                  ”Ooo I got a good story to tell Xanga!”

And…
                  ”Funny thing happened to me today…”
And…
                  ”Wait till they see these pics!”

TO…
               

                  “I hate writing on this thing!”
And…
                  “I can’t keep up.  Got too much work to do.”
And…
                  ”Arghh!  I wrote this really long post and it didn’t go through!”

* after a year of these emotions of Pure Joy…
   and Utter Disgust…

I’m still posting on a Saturday night..

                                       -  Thanks for reading!

Ok.  So I’m back but not for long.  I’ve been busy.  The summer has been good to me.  .  At one point, I think I drank for 7 days in a row.  Whew.  Then 4 days after that.   Don’t worry.  Just social drinking.  So one of those nights, I got into another ALTERCATION that I can write about on Xanga.  (see Oct. 10th post)  This was during my friend, Sandy’s bellydancing performance.  Before we get to that, can I tell you for a GUY, these bellydancing shows are a MUST SEE.  (If you know what I mean!)

                

                             

                           
My friend is the one in the back left.  Anyway, it is quite a show.  They have storylines and evrything!  This one was about some King who wanted to marry his first daughter off to some dude but she didn’t want to and ran off with another woman!  This is like straight out of the Lifetime network starring Joanna Kearns and Stacey Gold!  Anyway, here’s a pics of the dude that married the King’s second daughter off.
                  
Crazy right?  I’d be scared to get married too!  If you look closer in the 2nd pic, dude’s smoking from a Hooka. Straight pimp.  So at one point, the bellydancers came off stage and started to dance with the audience members…So I did what any good patron would do….  I obliged!  (Sorry..No flash.  more about that later)
                 
So here’s the altercation.  I’m snapping pictures without the flash and some bi-atch grabs the camera from me and screams
 ”YOU’RE NOT GETTING THIS TILL AFTER THE SHOW!”
and she just storms off.  .  So I’m pretty confused at first and my friends told me to go get my camera back.  Fine.  Conflict.  My speciality.  For those who know me, I’m being sarcastic.

So I follow her out the door and she’s screaming to this man behind the counter:
“CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS?  DON’T GIVE HIM HIS CAMERA UNTIL AFTER THE SHOW!”
Me: “Excuse me?  Why did you take my camera away?”
Bi-atch: “BECAUSE YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO TAKE PICTURES!  ROAR!
(I added the Roar for extra umph!)
Me: “Oh, I’m soo sorry.  I thought you said no flash photography.”
Bi-atch: “NO.  NO PHOTOGAPHY AT ALL!!!”
Me: “I guess I didn’t hear that part.  My mistake (I really meant it too!  I only heard no flash)”
Bi-atch: “NOPE!  WE SAID NO PHOTOGRAPHY!”
Me: “Okay.  well I apologize.  I just wanted to let you know that there was a right and wrong way of handling this.  You just don’t snatch someone’s camera from them.”
Bi-atch: “BUT THERE ARE NO CAMERAS ALLOWED!”
Me: “Ok.  But I just told you that I did not hear that.  It was a mistake.  If you just asked me nicely, I would’ve put it away.”
Bi-atch: “NO.  NO CAMERAS!”
Me: “Why are you so angry about this?  We’re adults here.   Once again, there is a right way and a wrong way of handling this matter.”
Bi-atch: “AND THAT WAS THE RIGHT WAY!”

Jeez.  Well that put me in my place, so I walked away without the camera.  There’s no sense having an “adult conversation” with someone who refuses to budge and tone down their voice you know?  Guess its just the counselor in me.  What I reall wanted to say was..
Me: “LISTEN YOU PIECE OF SH*T JUST BECAUSE YOU LIVE A MISERABLE LIFE AND AREN’T GETTING LAID, DOESN’T MEAN YOU HAVE TO SPREAD YOUR UGLINESS TO EVERYONE!”

Tolerance Young Jedi.  Tolerance.  .

* Afterwards, my friends ripped the man behind the counter a new a-hole saying that she was unprofessional and such.  They got my back.  Good times.  Good times.