So yesterday Anna turned in her paper and walked. It will probably be a while before her prof grades it, but at least it's turned in. We're just looking for a passing grade. But for now, we're just thankful that we can take a break for a while.

Please pray. It's really getting down to crunch time for Anna's paper and we're kinda stressed. We fly to LA tomorrow and her paper needs to be done before graduation on Saturday.

Ok, so here's the random thought for the day: how many movie trilogies that were not based on prior written (ie. Spiderman & Lord of the Rings) actually had all three movies be very good. So far, Anna and I thought of Back to the Future and the original Star Wars (and Anna partially disagrees with Star Wars).

Moral of the story: you can either make films that will be classic, or you can milk a film dry to make more money.


In Other News...
I'm toying with the idea of erasing my online footprint.

So earlier this week I talked with one of the head administrators at my school and came to the conclusion that I will not be working there again next year. His vision for the middle school is a group of three teachers who will stay there for year and develop a deeper rapport, as well as more integration. Right now, the three of us are totally united and work very well together, which is absolutely necessary for working with middle schoolers. But I don't fit into the plan, since I won't be here for more than a year. While I agree it's a good idea, I find the plan a little ironic since the administrator who is envisioning this transitioned into his position after I started and probably won't stay there after next year. Next year will be really interesting since the math and science teacher is also leaving (and probably being replaced by a first year teacher). They still don't know who they're going to get for my position, so that means out of the three teachers, only one will have had any experience with the school and the students. I just hope that they listen to the 'veteran' or they will have a real hard time with a couple of them.

You'll notice that I haven't yet mentioned what I will be doing in four weeks. The reason for that is simply that I don't know. Today was a step forward, in that I at least eliminated one thing that I thought was a major possibility. I'm not bitter or upset by the change, but I certainly understand Rebekah's feelings in her Calling Part 1. The only difference is that sometimes there is a waiting period between when you lose your old role and get your new one.

We could really use some prayer over the next week and a half. Anna has to finish a class in order to graduate in two weeks and that class is entirely dependent on one paper. She is still struggling with the direction of paper and her adviser is nearly impossible to get a hold of (department chair, finishing up another degree). We should have about as many interviews as we really need, although not nearly as many as what we were originally hoping for. I just noticed that I'm writing about this as if it were my paper, but for the next two weeks, I think both of our lives are going to rotate around this paper. However, in order for Anna to use those interviews, they need to be transcribed, which falls to me. Now for those of you who have never done transcription, it is a slow, tedious process. For every hour of interview, you can figure on at least 6 hours of time transcribing it (and I have at least 8 hours of interviews to transcribe). Oh, and did I mention that I'm still teaching full time and Anna is scheduled to work from 8am to 8pm for the next seven days! But the most important thing that we need is direction for her paper.

I'm in one of those weird moods where you're really tired, but don't want to go to bed, even though you probably should. I don't know if I'm going to go sleep or go watch The Best of Johnny Carson.

In Other News...
Here's an alternate dimension view of Will who returned from Scotland, deciding to play the bagpipes and go on the road with his stand up comedy.

I just finished watching the movie How to Steal a Million with Audrey Hepburn and Peter O'Toole and I was really delighted by it. It was light and amusing and just plain fun. Some of the schemes were very clever. I would say that this is one that Hollywood should redo, but the way that they usually remake movies, they'd probably ruin it. Incidently, I found another movie that I like better than the book. I just finished with an abridged version of The Legend of Bagger Vance, but it was not nearly as good as the movie. The movie was light and had a variety of generic spiritualisms (although looking back on it, there was one completely gratuitous scene) but the book was full of all sorts of weird God/warrior Buddhist spiritualism. Its rare to find a movie that is better than the book, but there are a few, and (at least an edited version of) Bagger Vance might be one.

In my classes we're starting a new set of books, so in the next few weeks (or days) I need to read The Fantastic Voyage (Asimov), The Cross and the Switchblade (Wilkerson), A Father's Promise (Hess), as well as refresh my memory of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Treasure Island. I also found that the local library has a pretty good audio/visual selection, so I'm going to try and make good use of that.


In Other News...
Please pray for us to know what I should do this summer and next year. We're going to need to start actively pursuing partnership development, but that will be nearly impossible if I'm teaching full time. We don't know what to do.