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HogueThe10th's weblog
I've Moved!
Read my new blog at www.davidhogue.wordpress.com
last modified Oct 26, 2007 at 11:24
Danchan has served me well these past few years, but I need something more user-friendly. You can now find me at:
www.davidhogue.wordpress.com
We had a motivational speaker at school yesterday, and so I dutifully made my way toward the auditorium during activity period to help supervise the event, but first, I made a quick stop by the bathroom to kick out a group of students hiding there in a vain attempt to skip out on the forum. I can't say that I particularly blame the students. After all, practically everyone finds the prospect of listening to a motivational speaker ironically un-motivating. Once I arrived at the auditorium, I quietly took a seat in the very back and opened one of my Latin textbooks to read. Might as well not waste time, I thought.
The speaker was a former Viking football player (they always are), and he was talking about how to make good decisions. Trying to follow his train of thought, however, was no doubt as difficult as trying to tackle the guy when he was on the gridiron. For every point he was making there was a story about his kids, which in turn was followed by some roll-playing from volunteers from the audience. Did I say volunteers? I meant recruits. And some of the roll-playing was, in my opinion, inappropriate. He called one girl to the front and proceeded to create a hypothetical situation in which he was a teacher making an inuendo about how she could make up her grade after school. Pretty uncomfortable. He then called two teachers up to the front to illustrate a point he was making on gender stereotypes. I sure am glad that I wasn't standing up in the back, I thought, as I sat in the shadows. He could have summoned me to the front.
Perhaps you can guess what happened next? That's right. Ol' eagle eyes spotted me sitting in the back like a quarterback spots his wide receiver, going long. "You there in the back," he said. Shock, annoyance, and anxiety flooded my face. I took a look behind me, hoping that he meant someone else, but he kindly assured me that he meant me. I grudgingly surrendered and made my way up the aisle to the front, where two other teacher victims were also heading. Thankfully, the little skit we were drafted into wasn't complete torture. The other male teacher was Mr. Alcohol, the female teacher was Girl At Party, and I was Mr. Drugs. What did I have to offer her? asked Viking motivational speaker. Why, I could show her new places, I replied. Prettty witty, if I do say so myself. The kids got a laugh out of that. Roll her a joint, said Mr. Football. I don't know how to roll a joint. I mean, I've seen it done in the movies, but those scenes weren't playing in my mind at that particular moment. I rubbed my thumb against my index finger and then, realizing how stupid that looked, rubbed my finger in the palm of my hand and handed the other teacher an imaginary joint.
Guess what my new nickname is, by the way. Mr. Drugs. I explained to my students yesterday and today that the only drug for me is Latin. They laughed, but some offered to teach me how to properly roll a joint. At least I'm not alone in this. I'm sure Mr. Alcohol has a new nickname, too.
As I reread The Hobbit, I find myself wondering about what's going on with the powers that be in the movie world. According to ComingSoon.net, Fox is trying to make amends with Peter Jackson and get him onboard as the director, and actor Ian McKellan has said that he would definitely be interested in reprising his role as Gandalf. But what about Bilbo? Any ideas on who would work for this role?
Perhaps Timothy Spall (Peter Petigrew from Harry Potter)?
When Guitta and I brought our puppy Cora home for the first time, we knew almost none of our neighbors. After Cora came into our lives, though, we started meeting people left and right. They're drawn to her like moths to the light. We met the family to our right, the gay couple to our left, the paleontologist and his scientist fiance down the street, and a jolly older couple a few houses down. I'm finding out that getting a pet automatically connects you to a world of people that love dogs and can't resist introducing themselves to you so that they can pet your pet.
This payed off in a very tangible way several weeks ago. Guitta and I were watching a movie one night, when suddenly a shadow swooped down on us. It was a bat. I HATE bats. I am also terrified of them. The idea of an ugly, leathery rodent swooping down on my neck with its fangs bared makes me scream like a little girl. And scream like a girl I did, several times that night, in fact. Guitta and I rushed outside, and poor little Cora, who had been sleeping at our feet, confusedly followed. We chained her up, and then I sneaked back inside. Guitta offered to go after the bat herself, but being the man of the family, I refused to let her take on the rodent alone. After some very cautious searching (which involved ducking whenever I entered a room) I found the bat in our bedroom. It was flying in circles for the longest time before it settled down on the part of the wall just under the ceiling. My plan was to knot a towel into a ball, throw it at the bat, and then throw another towel over it to trap it when it fell on the floor. Unfortunately, my first attempt sent the bat flying and me fleeing to the bathroom. My second attempt received no reaction from the bat whatsoever. I was stuck.
That's when meeting my neighbors came in handy. It just so happened that the paleontologist and his scientist fiance were walking by and noticed that Cora had been chained outside. Guitta and I greeted them when we too went outside and told them about our little situation. Well, the scientist knew plenty about bats and informed us that it was confused by all the light in our house. If we just turned off the bedroom lights and opened a window, it would find its way out. Guitta and she went back in to do just that, and lo and behold, it worked.
So what's the moral of the story? It's good to get to know your neighbors, I guess. So if you find that you're too shy, go buy and dog and watch what happens.
It's been almost three months since this site has seen any action, and I think it's high time that something be done about that. Unfortunately, the new schedule I have at school is leaving me little time for updating, and we currently don't have email at home, so I'm just gonna have to make time one way or another.
First of all, I had a great break from school. Summer is a recurring reminder to me that teacher's pay ain't so bad. Guitta and I very happily enjoyed our first June and July as a married couple, marking our one year anniversary by spending the weekend eating out at several Jackson restaurants and watching several movies. That may sound lame to some of you, but to Guitta and me, it's a perfect way to relax and have fun.
Speaking of movies, we saw all the three-quels/four-quel, and overall, we were pretty disappointed. Here's a summary:
Spiderman 3: Lame
Shrek 3: Not very funny any more
Harry Potter 4: A little disappointing, but okay
Oceans 13: Surprisingly Fun
The best movie by far that Guitta and I have recently seen, however, is Stardust, a delightful, witty fairy tale. (There are a few risque/objectionable parts, so parents beware.) I have heard it dubbed the new Princess Bride, if that gives you a feel for the mood of the movie, though neither this movie nor any other can quite outshine the classic Princess Bride. Still, it's worth a viewing. Incidentally, Ben Barnes, the new Prince Caspian, plays the part of the father as young man.
Enough of movies. Guitta and I had the best time with her parents cruising it up in the Gulf of Mexico. We absolutely loved being onboard, watching shows, dancing at the discoteque, and viewing the ocean from a lawn chair on one of the decks. It was the perfect vacation for people who love to sit back and take it easy. We were with Carnival Cruises, which wholeheartedly recommend for their outstanding service. The people were always friendly and on the look-out for meeting our every need. We made two stops, both in Mexico, but it was the boat itself that we loved. Thanks to my generous in-laws for taking us!
The rest of the summer was spent visiting our parents, painting the living room yellow, replacing my Louisiana license plate, and raising a puppy. There were lots of other little things that we did, but they don't immediately come to mind.
Well, that was my summer in a nutshell. I hope all you people with "real jobs" don't hate me too much.
Puppy, that is. Guitta and I brought the little thing home this weekend from my parents' house and have been spending the last few days adapting to the new addition to our household. Her name is Cora Godiva Hogue, and she's a brown lab, weighing a little more than three pounds.
The first night was horrible. We left Cora in a cardboard box downstairs and spent the night hours trying to ignore her frightened yelps, then stumbling downstairs to comfort her, and catching sleep off and on while she slept. It was like having a (human) baby in the house. Since then, we've bought an everything book about puppies, a cage, and several puppy toys, and we've moved her little kennel to our bedroom. Things are definitely on the ups. She sleeps most of the night now, and she is learning to do most of her "business" outside. (She's smart; she knows what we mean when we say, "Go potty, Cora.")
Yesterday, Guitta and I took her to the vet and found out the poor thing has some sort of fungus and lots of worms. Pretty gross. We were given special shampoo for the fungus, and from the way Cora reacted, getting a bath was the worst possible thing that could happen to her. She threw a lengthy and grunty pitty party afterwards. Thankfully, the medicine for her worms is flavored, and she absolutely loves it.
More adventures are sure to follow. I'll keep you posted.
Guitta and I lay awake last night until almost one o'clock, vainly hoping for sweet sleep to come. We think we know the culprit: the supposedly decaf Starbucks coffee we had been sipping on during an evening at Barnes and Noble. Ever since I joined her in giving up caffeine, my body has been extra sensitive to those times when I do have it, and last night, I could feel its presence flowing through my veins. I began to have doubts. Did I, in fact, ask for decaf? It's possible I could have just said, "Two cups of grande coffee, please." I'll never know for sure what I ordered, but I do know that at least one other time Guitta and I lay awake long into the night cursing that Starbucks kid for giving us caffeine instead of decaf. That brings up the question: what was he thinking? Did he think that we wouldn't know the difference?
Watch out, Starbucks. Next time I'll be watching.
Guitta and I are suckers for garage sales. We both racked up several weeks ago at one that my school sponsored, picking up such items as all six Star Wars movies, tons of hardback books, four board games (one of which was a marble game that my grandmother used to own), three purses, and an assortment of other random goodies.
This weekend we went to a sale sponsored by the church and bought a nice little writing desk for $15. It now sits in our living room, waiting for Guitta and me to paint it this summer. Speaking of summer and furniture, Guitta is encouraging me to build a project table for her after school is out. I've never tried my hand at carpentry, so this should be interesting. I'll keep you updated on how that turns out.
Johnny Hart, author of the comic strip B.C., has died. After his conversion to Christianity, he frequently commemorated holidays like Christmas and Easter with strips like the following:
After encouraging my wife to start a blog and kicking around ideas for blog names, I am pleased to announce to all (two) of my faithful readers that Guitta has finally started a weblog! [The crowd goes wild.] Take it from me, what goes on inside of her psyche is something you don't want to miss. It's like a roller coaster, a labyrinth, and Disney World all rolled up into one.
Check it out here, or click on the link under Great Blogs.
At last! Some word has come about the (slowly) upcoming Prince Caspian. Here are a few quotes from director Andrew Adamson from an article in the New Zealand Herald.
ON CASTING PRINCE CASPIAN AND KING MIRAZ
Adamson: "We have not yet cast King Miraz, we're still in discussions with someone on that. We have officially cast Prince Caspian finally after a very long search... He's a very talented young British actor named Ben Barnes.
ON BOOK VS. FILM
Adamson: "It's very close [to the book] in the same way that The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was. With that film what I really tried to do was imagine this story was real and CS Lewis had written a book for children about it but I was going to tell the real story so it had a bit more depth, a bit more action, a bit more grit and reality to it. I think that's true with this one as well."
ON DIRECTING FUTURE NARNIA FILMS
Adamson: "I don't think so. One of the challenges we have is we actually want to put three of these films out very close together, and in actual fact, I'll probably be finishing this one when we start the next one so it's unlikely that I'll be able to do both."
ON THE TONE OF PRINCE CASPIAN
Adamson: "This film is probably a little darker than the last one, partly because the children are older, but partly because it's a different story. At the same time, the death of Aslan was a pretty dark scene and I don't think there's anything that's harsher or less PG than that."
I just read an article on Mike Huckabee, and I'm impressed. True, he's not exactly the Republican front runner, but then again, who cares? I'm not too enthused about Mitt Romney, a Mormon, or Rudolph Guiliani, a pro-abortion candidate (and, lest we forget, an adulterer). Why should we settle for a bunch of front runners who are no good? Remember when we settled for Bob Dole?
Huckabee, on the other hand, is a Baptist minister turned politician, after a series of unusual events landed him in the position of being a viable candidate for the presidency. (Bill Clinton's ascent to office suddenly vacated the lieutent governor's office; then Jim Tucker's felony conviction and resignation opened up the governor's office to him, where Huckabee finished out the term and served two more terms afterwards.)
In 2005, Time magazine named him one of the five best governors in the union. He seems to have performed effectively, improving roads and parks and reacting decisively to the 70,000 Katrina victims flooding into his state. He has also been effective on health care, an issue particularly personal to him since his doctor told him he wouldn't live more than 10 years at his weight and with his adult-onset diabetes. He lost more than 110 pounds fast and works hard to keep it off.
So the guy has my attention. I think he's worth looking into.
Some of my students were very unhappy with me yesterday because of the test I had scheduled for today. Fair warning had been given the previous week, but alas! they waited until the day before to do their studying. One of them was so upset that she said, "I'm going to skip your test tomorrow."
So anyway, the four students who had tried to get me to change the test by shortening the material were all struck by a sudden one-hour sickness. (Three of them were, at least; the other had a dermotology appointment.) Strangely enough, they are all present now that it's fifth period.
The worst thing about this is that there is nothing I can do about it. There is no way that I can get these kids in trouble.
Oh wait. There's always the make-up test.
What a great word! I came across it today and tried to look it up under "agenarian," figuring that a "non-agenarian" was the opposite, but I was wrong. The "nonagen" part of the word means "ninety," and the word itself means "being between 90-100 years old." This is a classic example of the fun of the English language, with its very specific words.
Pronunciation: non-uh-juh-nair-ee-uhn.
I find it interesting that in order to find the text of the Pope's speech on Muslims, you have to do a significant amount of searching. I may be wrong, but it seems that most major news sites are not providing it for us. Perhaps they want us to take the Pope's comments out of context?
Anyway, if you're interested, here is a link that provides the entire speech.
There’s something about test days that effect epiphanies in students. Suddenly, they come to me with comments and questions.
Student: “Mr. Hogue, this test is on a LOT of information!”
Teacher: “Yes, I know. That’s why I told you over a week ago that there would be a test today.”
S: “Mr. Hogue, we haven’t gone over ANY of these poems!”
T: “No, we haven’t. I told you that this class is self-motivated. I told you that if you didn’t understand the poem, you would need to meet with me outside of class. I haven’t met with any of you three students about anything.”
S: “Mr. Hogue, can you just tell me what paragraph in Chapter 3 we’ll have to translate?”
T: “If I told you that, it wouldn’t be a test on Chapter 3 then, would it? It would be a test on that paragraph in Chapter 3.”
Check it out. I've added a new link.
(photo taken from movies.go.com)
I first learned of the upcoming movie The Nativity Story when my wife and I were at the theator some months ago and saw a poster for it hanging high on the wall. After searching for it online, I have learned a few details.
Advertising itself with the tagline "One Family, One Journey, One Child...who would change the world forever," this movie promises to be a major release on December 1st. New Line Cinema (which released The Lord of the Rings Trilogy) is distributing this film, making pains to ensure the Christian community (the newly-discovered and very profitable target audience of Hollywood) that it will be faithful to the nativity story. Mary is played by the very young Keisha Castle-Hughes, who was nominated for Best Actress for The Whale Rider. I confess, my curiosity is piqued. From the little amount of information I can gather from the official website, including from viewing the teaser trailer, it seems like it will be well-made at least.
After nearly a month of "conubial bliss," I must say that it is a GOOD thing to be married. My wife is the most wonderful, beautiful woman on earth, and I am abundantly blessed to have her as my own.
And I couldn’t have asked for a better rehearsal dinner, wedding service, or reception either. What an answer to prayer! Thanks to all of you for celebrating with us!
The vocal minority of Hogue bloggerss (and you know who you are) have expressed to me multiple times that there is a great need for me to blog again. I have even heard that they are distributing t-shirts bearing confederate flags and the slogan, "The Hogue will blog again." I'm flattered.
Summer is now here, the time of year when I get to laugh at other members of the labor force and say, "I may get paid peanuts, but at least I get one--no, TWO--months of summer vacation. Bwa-ha-ha-ha!" With now work for either of us, the wedding plans now have the full attention of Guitta and me, and we're doing our best to handle the details one by one. Our current project is invitations, and it has turned out to be the least fun of our preparatory activities. The inventors of etiquette are laughing maniacally somewhere; I just know it. This week, after we've called it a day on the invitations, we've been watching the first season of Lost. Tons of fun, let me tell you. Joe and J, Newsweek calls it the best show on television; I know their opinion means a lot to you. Guitta and I have found an apartment, too. It's on the same street that I live on now, and Guitta will be moving in ahead of me, Lord willing, this month. We'll be neighbors.
Well, I hope the vocal minority is satisfied. :> I will be logging in, off and on this summer.
George Lucas action figure
Here's a taste of larknews.com, a satirical site poking fun at modern evangelicalism. It's a great laugh; go check it out.
NEW ORLEANS — Pastor and author Rick Warren has signed a deal to purchase the New Orleans Saints football franchise for $320 million from current owner Tom Benson, and has pledged to pour his time and energy into helping the city and team rebuild.
"This is the start of the Saints' turnaround," a Warren spokesman said. "America is going to see what a purpose-driven team can accomplish."
Today has inspired me to describe my vision of the perfect class...
I would come to school wearing nothing but a billowing purple robe, a pair of flip-flops, and a laural wreath, and walk into a classroom which consisted of a hundred square feet of cool marble floor with a raised dais at the center. The dais would have a cushioned chair at the top of it, a small table next to it, and a bottle of wine and a goblet on top of that. When I entered, my fifty students would rise and wouldn't return to their seats (on the floor) until I had told them, "Sedemini!" that is, "Be seated." At which point, I would pour myself a glass of wine and then begin teaching to the sound of fifty little pencils scratching away in their notebooks. Any student who dared misbehave would be beaten severely. My class would be interrupted only by the secretary delivering my $50,000 monthly paycheck.
Wouldn't that be lovely.
Well, it's official. I am now engaged to the beautiful woman I've been dating these past 4 1/2 months. I'm thrilled, excited, and thankful. God is SO good.
Afghani Abdul Rahman, a 41-year-old father of two, is now on trial for his life because of his conversion from Islam to Christianity sixteen years ago. It seems from what I can gather that what makes this case unique among the many, many martyrdoms of Christians worldwide is that he is facing martyrdom in a democratic nation. It seems that rule of the people doesn't necessitate justice.
There are many fascinating quotes concerning our brother Abdul. Here are some:
"Rejecting Islam is insulting God. We will not allow God to be humiliated. This man must die." - Afghani cleric Abdul Raoulf.
"He is not crazy. He went in front of the media and confessed to being a Christian. The government is scared of the international community. But the people will kill him if he is freed." - Hamidullah, chief cleric at Haji Yacob Mosque
"The government is playing games. The people will not be fooled. [...] Cut off his head! We will call on the people to pull him into pieces so there's nothing left." - Raoulf (see above)
"If he is allowed to live in the West, then others will claim to be Christian, so they can, too. We must set an example...He must be hanged." - Said Mirhossain Nasri, Afghani Shiite cleric
"We are a small country and we welcome the help the outside world is giving us. But please don't interfere in this issue. We are Muslims and these are our beliefs. This is much more important to us than all the aid the world has given us." Nasri
Perhaps Nasri has forgotten that many American CHRISTIANS gave their lives so that he and his fellow Muslims can enjoy typically democratic freedoms. So what happens when Muslim law combines with democracy? I suppose we'll see presently.
But imagine a world consisting of one democratic, Islamic state. What would that be like? Would we see massive holocausts?
Here are two more quotes:
"The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed to us." Paul, Christ's apostle to the Gentiles
"Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life." the Lord Jesus to the church in Smyrna
I know that most people have seen this picture, but it's worth another look.
The story, told by the photographer, is very interesting as well.
Jesse Donald Knotts has died at the good old age of 81. He was a funny, funny man. I hope I see him in heaven and get to laugh with him about Barney Fife.
"I loved him very much," said Andy Griffith. "We had a long and wonderful life together."
I'm posting these two photos for the express purpose of proving to a certain someone that these two kids are characters played by completely different boys.
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