novatownhall blog

Monday and Tuesday are my last two days as a teacher. (They are teacher work days … getting grades in, graduation, getting signed out and other “end of year” work.) Friday was the last day with students. What I find both very touching, encouraging, and also at least a little sad is that I had about 20 students come up to me and hug me. There were students that I had ridden hard to improve their grades, and some that had needed encouragement to do their best, and some that showed what appreciation they could.

As the students left on the last day, I can remember feeling sad. While I am sure that what I go to will be rewarding, I also know that there is little chance of the same kind of reward … knowing that I made a difference in a young student’s life. The kids are wonderful, and I earnestly hope they have even better teachers next year.

Little dogs hate big snow, wish all glaciers would finally melt

More scenes from the Budzinski household this afternoon, below the fold.

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Interesting predicament: we are stuck in College Park at a motel with the clothes on our backs and our blackberries.

My car’s oil indicator went to zero just as we were merging from 95 onto 495 toward silver spring after a work engagement in baltimore, and as we got onto new hampshire ave it cut off completely about 10 pm.

Long story short the Explorer is at a strip mall in a godforsaken part of the godforsaken state of maryland, Linda is asleep and I am thumb typing while contemplating what to do in the morning.

I take ridiculously good care of the Explorer, and in fact had a full service about 10 days ago. My guess is the service people failed to tighten the oil filter – but I won’t know until I pay 150 dollars to have it towed back to va and have it checked out.

What I do know is the engine is probably toast, and the cost of “fixing” will likely approximate the cost of a new vehicle.

My dilemma is: is it worth the trouble to have it towed back to the place that did the oil change, and have them possibly take ownership of the problem in some way – or possibly have them offer to get a big new kaching-kaching job (what I call the “thank you sir may I please have another” solution), or should I take it to someone new who might be inclined to tell me what really went wrong and honestly how I am now totally screwed and might as well buy a new car.

Downside of the buy a new car option is my wonderful Explorer now has zero trade-in value so now I would be back with a full-on car payment for years to come after investing so much to keep the Explorer in tip top shape.

Not any real good choices here.

I am inclined to take it to the original service place just to see what they will say. Of course, they could lie, or say what to me would seem like a lie, and say “gee whiz Mr Budzinski it appears your such and such gasket mysteriously blew and that is why the engine is destroyed. Howsabout we get you a new one for 4000 dollars?”

That would just piss me off, and I certainly would not give them the job, and then I’d have AAA tow it somewhere else.

Or maybe they would say “gee whiz Mr Budzinski, it appears we ruined your engine so we will put in a new one for free.” If they say that, the mechanic monkeys that fly out of my butt can help with the labor and the Explorer will be fixed in half the time.

I don’t know; I am wavering between cynicism and skepticism and trust, and the latter seems like the chump choice.

Whatever happens I will definitely name the company that did the work when this is resolved, for good or for ill. If I am still driving the Explorer a week from now it will mean integrity won the day and there is cause for faith in civilization. If not, believe me I will go medieval on their asses. I got ripped off by the Sears corporation in the 1980’s and to this day no member of my immediate family steps in a Sears store. Now I am older, infinitely grouchier, and I have a blog.

Anyhoo, chillin’ in the fine state of Maryland, hoping to catch a tow-truck ride home tomorrow, having no transportation for the foreseeable future, and can’t even use the car I have invested all this money in as a trade in (and what do you do with a vehicle that is totally unusable? Interesting question, there.)

This may be a lighter-than-usual month for blogging – which would be saying something – or it may be absolutely on fire. I suspect we will know shortly.

On a positive note I can tell you that within the absolutely crappy state of Maryland – in which I always endeavor to spend no money and always encourage everyone I know to do the same just on general principles – this Holiday Inn in College Park, at 10000 Baltimore Ave (Rt 1), is really well-run. It’s physically a bit tired, but the manager “Glen” really takes his work seriously and it shows in all the staff. I spend a lot of time in hotels so I appreciate when it’s done right. If you have to stay in Maryland, this College Park Holiday Inn is a good choice.

Move Glen and his staff to a reasonable state like Virginia and they would set the world on fire, I guarantee it.

Enough thumb-typing for now. Hope to have an update soon.

Since it’s almost 2010 I figured it was time to ditch the 2008 design and functionality – though I know we will all miss it, just like we miss the 2007 version. Wish I had saved a screenshot of the 2005 version …

Plus with the dawning of a new political era it might be the dawn of a new blogging era here, kinder, gentler, and perhaps more generally rational.

One thing you’ll notice is we have gravatars showing in the comments. If you have one it will show up, and if you haven’t gone to gravatar to create your own, our new software will very cleverly attempt to discern your personality based on your writings and will provide a design reflecting your inner self. So creating one or just having the inner self revealed – you can go either way, it’s all the same to me.

Finally home after two weeks on the road. Blog seems to be working again, though the admin interface is a little clunky. Can’t find “categories” for instance but who really cares about categories at the end of the day, right?

Unfortunately I have nothing to inform or instruct you about, as the purpose of my travel would have very little interest for you – this I can assure you. So it will take some time to get versed on what is going on around here. I know on Tuesday I will be out at 0-dark:30 to set up one of the local polling places.

Here is an exercise: The past two weeks I was in two very different places, represented by the photos below. Can anyone identify a) the two towns, and b) the two sites depicted? First person to get all four correct wins a free sundae, glass of wine, or body shot, depending on your preference.

Our sailor. She is one awesome kid.

Here is a video of the graduation ceremony:

Been wrapped up in real-life oriented stuff – mainly the job, with some lawn mowing and other extracurricular items on the side. I plan to be blogging again soon, as soon as a couple more pieces of business are taken care of. It’s a bummer, the limited number of hours in a week.

On the plus side, there is now a crappy old movie starring Janeane Garofalo on cable while I’m catching up on e-mail. It’s how I like to think of Janeane.

Ok, ok, no more complaints please. Doing that pseudo liberal act got old for me too, certainly too old to listen to the CRAP I was getting; and while normally complaints are like shovelfuls of coal into my engine, this time … bleh.

I think I just get bored more and more easily as I get older. If I live to be 80 I’ll probably need to spend my entire day walking back and forth across the Interstate just to keep from curling up into a ball of weary despair.

So playing games here keeps me mildly interested and away from the cockfights for a few hours a day, at least, which the old lady appreciates because it leaves us some money for detergent and decent bologna – not the cheap stuff. I just don’t really have the energy to switch back into full conservative mode yet, however, because that persona is no roll in the jello, either, let me tell you. I could put on scholarly airs again, do the “Captain Joe Dash” kabuki, reimpose the “one profanity every 10th word” rule … but I guess I’m getting tired of the same old thing. Maybe it’s time to be who I really am for a while, shed the personas, the fake professional certifications and the concomitant income streams, and Just. Be. Joe. As myself, unvarnished, the person I am the OTHER 22 hours a day. Which is, of course, a shaman. I think there is probably a lot of good that can be done here by the skillful application of healing mantras and penetrating personal insights. Marriage counselor, child psychologist, priest, pastor, dream interpreter, recreational pharmacologist, and guide to discovering your own personal tonal and nagual – your animal guardian spirit.

But it’s hard to take what you do all day and bring it to the blog and think of it as fun. We’ll just have to see how long my sense of duty holds out.

This was the scene yesterday afternoon from the side of the Dulles Toll Road:

But wait, there’s more. The rainbow in Northern Virginia yesterday was actually a double rainbow.

I have not seen that anywhere except Hawaii before.

I recently met up with esteemed commenters, fellow liberal Democrats and Digital Camel denizens Kevin and el Jefe up in Baltimore.

(L-R) Kevin, el Jefe and Joe in B-More, loving President Obama

The main purpose, of course, was to celebrate the election of Barack Obama, which we did in grand fashion over a plate of Earth-friendly Obama Nachos and several pitchers of Hope and Change Lager. It worked, because by the third round we were all feeling more liberal than ever and well on our way to the type of change America needs.

Also, we were seeing Kevin off as he prepares to leave for Denver. I’m going to miss that guy. But thank goodness for the omnipresence afforded us by the Internet.

On which note, our discussion brought up a few interesting points relevant to this blog.

-Both Kevin and the Chief revealed strong suspicions that I was, in fact, both “Jack” and “Jacob.” When I pointed out their basic logical fallacy – to wit: I am obviously extremely lazy, ergo I could not possibly be ghost-writing two additional bloggers – they recanted, but then immediately expressed intense interest in what these flesh-and-blood “Jack” and “Jacob” characters are really like. When I explained that Jack and Jacob are both trim, well-manicured, kindly, self-effacing gentlemen more attuned to pastoral pursuits than the pell-mell of city life, both much in the mold of Supreme Court Justice David Souter, they seemed relieved. I think this foreshadows an even more elevated level of dialogue here.

-There will be another Amnesty Week at NVTH. It has been too long a time coming. We have a multitude of excellent commenters who deserve the opportunity to post whatever the hell they want on the main page. The upcoming holiday season seems a great time to put this in motion.

-A truly novel idea: We will initiate a program called “Honest Talk” which will be utterly revolutionary. Here’s how it will go: We put up a topic for discussion, and everyone has to tell what they think about it completely honestly. No artiface, no BS, no games; enforced with extreme prejudice. This will allow us all to get to the core of our various beliefs and disagreements. In sum, it will mean taking the innate human capacity for conversation and using it as our Creator probably meant for it to be used. I realize it sounds insane, but it’s so crazy it just might work. Stay tuned, it will be coming soon, and please prepare yourself mentally for the challenge.

We got back Friday from a conference in Atlantic City but for whatever reason it has taken me all weekend to get my energy level back. They say there is no downside to kicking meth but I am living proof they’re wrong. So, not much to blog about unless you want to know about the TV I’ve been watching.

Here’s the little lady at her favorite slot machine (we did get a few – very few – free moments). I gave up gambling about 15 years ago just because I suck at it and figured there was really no justification for trying to get better, so while she’s playing I usually just walk around and look at stuff. Or drink. Also, taking the occasional illegal photo or two.

You aren’t supposed to take photos in casinos yet I am strangely compelled to try it all the time. It’s the lure of the forbidden I suppose.

And hey, it’s Atlantic City. It’s a great place to have a conference, in the same sense that putting a fish hook through your ear is a “great” way to spend an afternoon.

It’s not that the gambling turns me off – it doesn’t. I’ve been to Las Vegas on business at least once a year for most of the past 15 years and that’s a truly great place to have a conference, possibly the best because attendance is guaranteed, there’s lots to do there and it can be very inexpensive if you don’t gamble.

Not to be uncharitable or anything, but Atlantic City is to Las Vegas like sniffing glue is to a bottle of decent cabernet.

For one thing, the city planners have managed to set things up so that no matter how nice a property you are at, in Atlantic City you can always walk out a door and find yourself in a crack den. Take a wrong turn anywhere in the city and you are on the set of The Wire. In fact, the basic rule in Atlantic City is, if you happen to get lost, drive into the nearest body of water because crack dealers are not, to date, amphibious.

I am certain, in time, New Jersey’s urban experts will work all these issues out once the gambling experiment by the sea has had a little longer to mature. In the meantime, I will stick by my basic philosophy of New Jersey, the state where I lived the first 12 years of my life. My basic philosophy of New Jersey, taught to me by an Isaac Walton League firearms instructor, is as follows:

No one should go to New Jersey at any time for any reason.

And if you are forced by circumstances to go to New Jersey, for goodness sake please don’t spend any money there because it will only encourage them.

On the other hand, if you happen to be a crack dealer, New Jersey is a wonderful place to go because I believe it is official state police policy to confiscate any firearms possessed by law-abiding citizens and deliver them directly to people involved with criminal enterprises. If you are a petty thief chances are you won’t qualify for anything more powerful than a Saturday night special but if you are a felon or at least a repeat offender you can do quite nicely up to and including large caliber pistols.

But alas, sometime circumstances do force our hand and we are compelled to travel to the godforsaken state of my birth, and any time you get out of New Jersey alive you are doing well. So all in all a good week.

Thanks for holding down the fort in my absence, guys. Good work here, good posts.

We just got home about midnight. A brief perusal of the Web tells me not much is happening in the world right now so I’ll just post some photos from the trip. If any news of import arises you can be sure I’ll be all over it.

In case you have ever wondered where all the seagulls go when they are not swarming and screeching over our parking lots, the answer is: They go to this beach in Naples, Florida and chill.

They just sit here for hours, not doing much, watching all the people walk up and down the beach, probably wondering “Why do they just walk along not in pursuit of any baitfish with nary a stop to dig coquinas out of the sand with their teeth?”

Just as we wonder, “Why do thousands of seagulls all just sit there on the beach?”

This struck me as interesting and provocative, I don’t know why. Bridesmaids in the surf – sort of has a ring to it.

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I’m working from the Ritz-Carlton, Naples, one of my favorite places in the world.

It was a cool bird situation today, not sure of species exactly but I think we are in the heron, egret, tern and maybe sandpiper departments.

UPDATE: more photos …

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Just checking in from my business trip … more real blogging to come tomorrow perhaps.

Key West, Florida.

If you’re interested see the rest over at the “get me as far as possible from salt water” blog, Digital Camel.

It has just been related again recently where Jack is being accused of being me.  I can never set the record straight with a liberal but, alas, I will never stop trying.  Jack and ACTivist are NOT the same individual.  You see, conservatives don’t need to Cybil on people to make it look like many feel the same way about an issue.  This is a liberal necessity (why I do not know) and is seen on this blogsite on a regular basis.  Now we have our liberals who want only one say like Lovisa, Staypuft, Sanity, zimzo and their ilk and I commend them for being themselves.  There are too many others that feel that a crowd with the same viewpoint can overpower logic.  WRONG!  The conservatives on this site know that one logical person is worth well over a hundred liberal-minded individuals.

The difference between Jack and I are not so great: we are both intelligent yet Jack does have a higher I.Q. then I.  We have/do work at the same business.  We are both conservative, rational, Christian, America loving logical individuals.  We even share the same Germanic heritage.  We do have different viewpoints on the same issues and don’t necessarilly have to agree to get along and respect the other’s viewpoint.  My parents were married for over 50 years and loved their relationship.  I have been told many times that there are tons of my doublegangers out there but that doesn’t mean much.  I don’t recall any siblings outside the homestead that I didn’t grow up with-huts or no huts.  Unless someone has been rooting thru my trash scarfing-up fingernails or hair I don’t believe I have any clones out there.  I have been called non-PC, selfish, gross and even mean!  Jack has never been called those things.  The most important item that always tells us apart is that Jack does NOT have a sense of humor whereas yours truly has a great sense of humor.  Rest assured, liberals; when you are dealing with either Jack or I-you are dealing with two distinct and separate individuals.  That said, believe like liberals believe.  I take the issue as a compliment myself!