Curious George was Good...

But, here's the problem. There aren't many shows for kids that I would call, entertaining. Okay, don't get me wrong; I enjoy a good cartoon, same as the next man. But, come on. Is it, really, that difficult to make good cartoons, the likes of G.I. Joe and Ducktales?

On that subject, remember Ducktales? That was awesome. In fact, I remember they used to show reruns on The Disney Channel late at night; I used to flip back and forth between Jay Leno and Ducktales as often as possible. Oh, I get it. You don't like Ducktales? Well, I don't care. The truth is that Ducktales was the best show ever for teaching kids about history. It used to address all kinds of historical events...except the ducks could talk.

Anyways, back on topic. But, I was heartened recently when I turned on HBO and saw Curious George. It was everything a cartoon should be; it was cute and touching, while also dealing with deep issues of discrimination. After all, I am now aware of the difficulty of monkeys that live in the city and will, certainly, do my best to be more sensitive to them.

So, Curious George was great. And, for a brief time, my faith in modern cartoons began to be restored. That is, until I saw Happy Feet over the weekend, again on HBO. Now, I should disclose that I only made it through about 45 minutes of the film before I fell asleep. That alone should be proof, enough, that it was a bad movie; usually it's my wife that falls asleep during movies and I'm the one who makes it through. She, in fact, watched the entire thing, probably out of, what I must assume to be, sheer curiosity.

Indeed, based on what I saw of the movie, it was terribly boring and didn't make much sense. First, I didn't realize penguins are supposed to sing; I guess I thought they had better things to do like stay alive in the freezing cold. And, then there's this penguin that dances. Okay, that's cute and all, but come on. It makes no sense. What parent would not be happy to have a tap dancing penguin? I know I'd be excited if my child danced like Gregory Hines. Anyways, maybe it ended better than it started, but I can't imagine how.

The point of all this is to say that, I don't know what I'm going to do on the cartoon front. I just can't get excited about shows like the turtle show or Dora the Explorer. I mean, what happened to Looney Tunes even? I feel like everything I knew and loved is gone. Still, the truth is that I must start getting used to it, because I'm sure my child will want to watch Dora, and I'm going to have a tough time saying "No." Maybe I should get a G.I. Joe DVD and we can watch it together.

A Hard Day's Work

For the past four-and-a-half years I have been a star employee. I’ve consistently gotten my paperwork in on time. I’ve tried my best to stay current on the research in my field, I work well with the kids, and I get glowing reviews. Well…so much for that…

Pregnancy has turned me into a state employee at her mediocre-ist. Today, I was 20 minutes late. First, I got light headed and had to lie down for five minutes. Then, I puked up my Raisin Bran (oh, yah, I’m attempting to transition to healthy cereal), which then necessitated that I change my clothes (don’t ask) and brush my teeth again. By that point I was late and hungry because my stomach was empty. So, I decided to just give in to the lateness and go through the espresso stand drive through, too (attn: pregnancy police—espresso stands serve other things besides coffee). As substandard as my timeliness was today, last Thursday was downright reprehensible. Following is a chronological account of my day.

8:00 meeting at school 1 (It sounds like work, but I mostly just stared at my notebook)
9:00 drive to school 2
9:10 drive past school 2 and go to the coffee shop for a steamed milk and muffin
9:30 check work e-mail
10:00 eat muffin
10:15 check personal e-mail
10:30 take out manual for scoring a test and lay it out on my desk
10:31 play with wind-up toys on my desk
10:32 notice my favorite wind-up toy isn’t working
10:33 try to fix the wind-up toy
10:40 despair
10:45 recheck e-mail
10:50 leave for a home visit (okay, so that one is really part of my job)
12:00 return to school and have lunch
12:30 – 3:30 score and write up one test, eat again, stare at the wall, eat again, recheck e-mail, and go home

Now, this day was a little unusual as I didn’t have to see kids and there was no one else in my office, but as the old saying goes, “When the cat is away, the mice will check their e-mail and eat.”