Weekly Kodachrome - Shoots & Shadows

We drove down the deeply-rutted trail of a road until he saw the pipe - cast off like a garment previously worn - jutting out from the tall grass like the barrel of a cannon.

Venturing inside the sloping tunnel, and using the late-ened light as a backdrop, we shot.

<center><a href="http://teachinfourth.blogspot.com/search/label/Weekly%20Kodachrome/" target="_blank"><img alt="Adventures & Misadventures of Daily Living" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-c7qmY-TlXUY/Tks7YC4Bx2I/AAAAAAAAGvM/-MrtULNMQy8/s800/Weekly%252520Kodachrome.png"/></a></center>

Did you take a photo in the past seven days that made you smile? If so, feel free to include it in the linky below. 

Remember, by adding your photo into the Weekly Kodachrome meme you are agreeing to do one of the following: display the linky or button to your post, or link back to this post so that everyone gets a little more exposure for the image they’ve uploaded. Those who don’t help to ’share the love’ will have their links removed. You can find the code for the linky here.

The Wall

There are days I know I’ve given my all.

I arrive to work long before the sun comes up, and usually find myself leaving when it’s completed its journey down into the fiery blanket of the western skyline.

I thought about this tonight.

I thought about my life.

I thought about the people that you just can’t seem to please, no matter what…despite the hours you put in, heedless of the amazingness you try feed into the day, there are those who just don’t seem to feel that your efforts have merit; it seems that all they are capable of viewing is that which you didn’t do.

You know those people I’m talking about, don’t you?

Of course, my greatest archenemy is probably none other than I, the scrutinizer extraordinaire. No matter what we do, it never quite seems to be enough for us to feel good about who we are…there’s always one more thing we should have gotten accomplished before day’s end.

And so today, I hit the wall.

No, not literally, but figuratively.

It was akin to finding yourself standing in front of a brick roadblock that is far too high to climb, and too step to traverse. You sit before it, dejected, and know that you are beaten as the rain thunders down from a vortexual sky.

There’s no point in going any further; there is nothing you can do.

You feel your weakened resolve as it begins to crumble, and you succumb into apathy.

It’s then, in that quiet moment that you make the decision not to give up, you realize that it is the wall that will come down.

It must.

A brick is pushed loose and the entire peak comes crashing down in a heap of dusty rubble.

And when the dust clears, you stand, straighten your shoulders, and you keep on running.

Media of the Week - Walk off the Earth

Every now and again you come across a song—or performers—who literally have you stop whatever it is you’re doing, and cause you to pause in your life. They make you smile, or sit in a state of complete awe.

That’s what Walk off the Earth did for me.

I smile and find myself completely blown away every time I watch it.

Weekly Kodachrome - The Staredown

The wondrously sickening, and sweetened smell flooded the classroom at the commencement of the lesson. The kids stared at the pieces of bubblegum on their desks with a type of yearning and titanicular longing.

They had to wait two days before they were actually able to taste it…

Oh, how I love teaching.

<center><a href="http://teachinfourth.blogspot.com/search/label/Weekly%20Kodachrome/" target="_blank"><img alt="Adventures & Misadventures of Daily Living" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-c7qmY-TlXUY/Tks7YC4Bx2I/AAAAAAAAGvM/-MrtULNMQy8/s800/Weekly%252520Kodachrome.png"/></a></center>

Did you take a photo in the past seven days that made you smile? If so, feel free to include it in the linky below. 

Remember, by adding your photo into the Weekly Kodachrome meme you are agreeing to do one of the following: display the linky or button to your post, or link back to this post so that everyone gets a little more exposure for the image they’ve uploaded. Those who don’t help to ’share the love’ will have their links removed. You can find the code for the linky here.

By the way, I posted a few days ago over at Four Perspectives, and if you weren't able to see the video I embedded in my last post, it's since been fixed.

Just Like the Ending Scene of a Movie

There are moments in life that - no matter what words we use - will never adequately convey the power of a moment.

This was one of those moments...



If I ever have a movie made about my life, I think that I want this to be the final scene.

The 911 Hair Dilemma

I pulled myself from bed this morning and started my regular routine for a normal school day.

Yeah, you know the type of steps that I’m talking about to get oneself ready for a day of just about any type: showering, shaving, fixing your hair, dressing, eating breakfast, and finally brushing your teeth.

Now, maybe this isn’t your particular schedule, but I imagine that it’s something pretty close.

However, this morning I did the unthinkable…

I did one step out of order: I brushed my teeth after shaving.

Bad move.

I got dressed and—with not a lot of time for breakfast—I headed to school, deciding I’d wear the tie I got from ‘Joey’ for Christmas. After all, I’d left it at school after my last time of wearing it.

I arrived at work around 7:00 and took my stuff to the classroom. I grabbed my tie and headed to a mirror to put it on.

As I looked at my reflection staring back at me, I gasped.

I’d completely forgotten to do anything with my hair.

Whoa, just wait a minute here Teachinfourth, why is this even a concern? After all, doesn’t your hair always have a messy kind of look to it?

Yes, it does…but imagine hair with no gel in it whatsoever.

Needless to say, it wasn’t pretty. I looked like an overgrown Chia Pet. That, or a puffball.

Since I had students arriving in the next few minutes for before-school homework lab, I had no time to drive home and remedy the problem. So, I did what any other sane person would do in my situation.

I called up a friend.

I must admit that it’s a good friend who’d be willing to bring you hair gel at the early hours of the morning, and save you from a notoriously awful ‘bad hair day.’

Yes, that is a good friend, indeed.

Media of the Week – The Documentary

I know that I usually post links to music, humor, or something that brings a tear to your eye and a smile to your heart.

This week I’d like to do something just a little bit different than any of that, because a few years ago I created a documentary.

No, I’m not a filmmaker…that’s one thing for sure; however, I wanted to give a crack at it. At the time we had this amazing after-school coordinator, Melanie Bliss (yes, my longtime friend and once-upon-a-time cowriter at Four Perspectives). You see Melanie had started up a program a few years back called “Stories on Stage.”

In a nutshell, it was dramatics programs like you’ve probably never seen before…loaded with awesome and just a smidge of ‘whoa.’

Yeah, I thought that it was simply amazing.

I could go on and on right now—telling you all about it—but then this sixteenish minute documentary I made would be rather pointless now, wouldn’t it?

Yeah, that’s just what I was thinking.