Freeeeeeeeeeedom

Factoid: my favorite movie is Braveheart.

Visiting the Eastern State Penitentiary was a lot of fun. The architecture and design were revolutionary, and it was the world's first penitentiary (penitentiary, we learned, means a place where prisoners learn penitence, or have time to reflect on what they did in order to change their lives). Eastern State's early philosophy was to isolate prisoners into cell blocks and not allow them to talk. They could go out in their "exercise" room behind their cell for two half hours each day. Besides that, they never left their cell. Talking was not allowed, and guards even wore socks on top of their shoes to muffle the sound of walking! I couldn't take it.

Al Capone served his first sentence in prison at Eastern State, when cops pulled him over on his way to Chicago from Atlantic City with several loaded guns. We heard stories of escapes, riots, smuggling, sports, and daily life behind bars. It made me decide to never go to jail. I took a bunch of pictures. Check them out!

What made the trip even more timely is that Sarah and I had just watched the Shawshank Redemption less than a week ago. It's her favorite movie, and I really enjoyed it too. Watching that flick, then walking through an actual prison made both experiences much more memorable. A good reminder about how experiential learning can be so good for students!

Lights out

It got dark here at 5PM today. Now, I know that daylight savings time just changed over, but still....5PM??? I'm used to being on the westernmost part of the eastern time zone, and now I'm on the eastern side. More sunshine in the morning, but much less at night. Maybe it'll help me get to bed earlier.

Friday morning there was a gorgeous sunrise in Philly (red sky in morning, sailor take warning!). I walked out to my car and my jaw dropped! Here's a picture of what I saw. Just realize that my camera didn't do the scene justice:

AND! This will be the darkest Halloween for some time. Congress recently passed a huge energy bill with a clause that extended daylight savings time for four weeks, starting this spring. Daylight savings time will begin three weeks sooner in March and end one week later in November. Senators made the change in hopes of saving more energy and getting people outside more.

Sarah's birthday

This weekend Sarah turns 23! As a surprise, I worked with her best friend Lydia Riddell and her fiancee Walter Nelson to come visit for the weekend. We successfully surprised Sarah late Friday night. The only complication arose when Lydia missed her connecting flight due to delays out of Grand Rapids! So, instead of arriving at 10:30 in Philly, she came in via Newark at 3AM thanks to Walter driving out there to pick her up. I played the staller role, and did everything I could think of to keep Sarah busy...fortunately, we were out with Jefferson friends at a Halloween/birthday party until quite late. It has been awesome to see Lydia and Walter here, as they are my first visitors to Philadelphia!

Walter asked me to be in their wedding last night! That means that Sarah will be one of the bridesmaids, and I will be one of the groomsmen. What a treat!

The biggest event (besides going to Franklin Fountain again!) was touring Eastern State Penitentiary. It was a blast!!! The prison is located right in the heart of Philadelphia, and it was revolutionary in its technology and design when it was made in 1829. We were able to visit Al Capone's cell, sit in cells, and discuss the humanity of incarceration. Who'd of thought a prision could be so enjoyable?!?

For the Halloween/birthday party Friday, I dressed up as Mr. Rogers. Sarah was a "Podunk County Fair Queen". Pictures will be posted!!!

bedtime

I had hoped to have time to post tonight, but I got sucked up in working on a new format for my students to take quizzes online. (QuizStar, in case you're interested!) I hope to introduce other teachers to it and let them use computers as an incentive! In my informal tests where I had half the class take a quiz online and the other half on paper, my students do better on the computer. Here's hoping this format will give just a little more motivation and success to students.

It's bedtime.

Great resource for 2006 election info online

If you haven't done so already, download Google Earth. The graphics and satelight imagery are incredible.

Second, turn on the layer labeled election 2006. If you do so, check out your area and click on the patriotic flag near it. You'll have a listing of all the positions, and people running for them, images, news stories about them, etc!

As a responsible citizen, this is the easy way to get all your info quickly.

Read more about it here.

Weekend success and struggles

As I read my post from yesterday, I realized I committed a grivious error for any language arts minor: my subject line alluded to things not mentioned in my writing! Just don't tell mom.

I hope you take a minute to look at the pictures from this weekend. I also put up some from the wrestling match! Here they all are for quick reference:
Trail walk
Drexel service day
Franklin Fountain
Wrestling

One of the coolest parts of the wrestling event was seeing the people who were there. Sarah and I both enjoy people watching, and this was a great place for it! Perhaps our favorite was a girl who was sporting, as Sarah called it, a Mulfro. You guessed it: it was a combination of a mullet and an afro. Here's a pic:

The people in Philadelphia must be spending so much time wondering how the Tigers ever got to the World Series that they're neglecting to collect their change! Just yesterday I collected $0.39 in dimes and pennies while riding my bike! I did pass one or two ADDITIONAL coins in luew of traffic congestion. What opportunities await! It does make me wonder exactly how much money is on the pavement at any given time. Is there any way to measure such a thing?

15 of the cents were found on the way to church (Sarah, a Jefferson friend named Melonie, and I biked to church yesterday...just beautiful weather for it). I put it in the offering plate, since I thought that since I found so much on the way to church, God may have wanted me to give it back to Him. Reflecting on the situation brought to mind a recent struggle of mine: putting money in the offering plate. I struggle with wanting to put at least some form of money in the plate when it passes by. The size of the bill or number of them is of little importance; the issue is that I put SOMETHING in the plate. This is wrong, I believe, because my motivation is not to give money to God--it is to show the people around me that I am giving money.

If you haven't yet, I encourage you to go to Wendy's and purchase a Trick-or-Treat coupon book for $1. You get 10 junior frosty's with it--that's only 10 cents a delicious treat! You can even use TWO coupons for a small. What a deal! Especially good with the newer vanilla flavor. =)

Speaking of good deals, a gas station/convenience store in Philly called Wawa is giving away free hot drinks between 2 and 4PM every day! Very good hot chocolate.

Today I purchased auto insurance. Living in Philadelphia instead of Holland increased my rates by almost 100%. Wowzers.

Most of my day at school was spent problem solving computer issues. With all the classrooms wired, I'm trying to format all the computers and get them back on square one again. That takes some time when some of the equipment is missing and other parts don't work. Fortunately, I only had one class today (as will I have tomorrow, as this entire week is standardized testing for the state). God knows how to time these things, doesn't He?!?

Go Tigers! Let's hope they continue their winning ways on the road. John Hile (former roomie), cheer them on for us in St. Louis!!!

Seth and I are going to make nachos for dinner. What a way to end a Monday!

Hard-hittin', Tiger-watchin', leaf-changin', Frosty-eatin', compter-movin', penny-findin' weekend

What a weekend! I tried to capture some of the highlights in the title of the blog. I'll try to have some pictures fill in more. One of the best parts? It was all free.

As a teacher, you rarely want to come to school on the weekend. Sometimes, however, it can't be avoided. This Saturday, my school had over 40 students (freshmen, MBA, and alumni) come volunteer at our school. They painted a few classrooms, the school entrance (Hope colors, actually!), moved my classroom to the second floor, and wired every classroom with the Internet. They had several people who had backgrounds with computers, and they setup a wireless network throughout the school. The school had been wired in every classroom, but the switch they were connected to had never been hooked up to the Internet! Drexel's network guy spent the day running around and fixing little snaffoos, but the main work had been done for him ahead of time. Pictures!

Sarah and I walked through one of Philly's parks--something called the Forbidden Trail--yesterday. The leaves were changing colors, the river ran by, and the air had a nice chill to it. Here are some pictures from our hike.

Friday night I did something I had never done before: I attended a professional wrestling event! I snagged some free tickets from CraigsList, and Sarah and I went after we consumed a free dinner at her school. Almost surprisingly, we had a good time! It's not something I'd want to go to often, but we got excited about it and joined in the action. And it's all real, right? =)

Here are the pictures of Sarah, Seth, and me at Franklin Fountain Wednesday night.

I'm battling a sore throat and the sniffles now, so I'm going to call it a night. Check back soon for more pictures and details about the weekend.