Mis Metas

Hello kids. First off let me just say that I totally forgot to post one of my very favoritest reasons for liking Harry Potter in my last post. However, I'm not going to post it now either because that would require thinking and quite frankly I'm done with thinking for the time being.

Also I'd like you to know that it was Mother's Day on Sunday and my mother's pretty dad-gum rad.

But that's not what I'm going to write about either. Nope, for this here post I'm going to tell you some of my most recent goals.

1) To not lose all of my hair.

2) To learn how to play the bagpipes. I had my first lesson today. I'm horrible. Let me just put it this way, I'm a worse bagpiper than I am dancer (I know, bad huh).

3) To get a second date before September 22, 2010. My brother gets home from his mission on that day and if I've gone the whole two years without a second date I'm going to cry (well, actually I had a second date when he was in the empty sea so I guess it hasn't been quite two years)

4) To get big Stew to go on one date.

5) To compile my favorite students of all time list. N0w that I've taught a full three years I think it's time. And no, you're not on it (except you Ry-Masta).

6) To actually figure out how to teach. Like I said, I've been hired as a teacher now for three years so . . .

7) To learn Spanish.

8) To not be a total waste this summer when I'm not in school. Here's hoping I can wake up at least one day per week before 11:00 a.m.

9) To have a Lord of the Rings and Star Trek Next Generations marathon. And no, I don't want to watch them with anybody (except maybe Big Stew or Little Chad).

10) To write a biography of Oliver Cowdery. One day, one day.

Harry Potter

I'm upset today (coaching will do that to you I suppose) so I'm going to write (writing makes me feel better . . . sometimes).

Why I Like Harry Potter:

- Above all, I like Sister Rowling's contrast of good and evil, light and dark, magic and the dark arts. Her writing may not be spectacular, but she sure does understand people.

- Along those lines however, I like how she is regularly pointing out that people aren't so easy to differentiate. The world is not split into evil and good, but rather to all shades, from brilliant white, to a hundred shades of gray, to dark black.

- I like how Harry grows up throughout the series. Those first books are so carefree and the last ones are so introspective. Maybe I'm just starting to grow up myself or something, but right now I have a lot of the same feelings that Harry has in books five through seven.

- I like how throughout the series the author points out how quickly things can change. Ten minutes ago order, now chaos. Yesterday alive, today dead. And yet, somehow, life just keeps going.

- I like Dumbledore. As mentioned, he is my favorite character of all time.

- I also like Snape . . . and Luna . . . and Lupin . . . and Tonks.

- I like J.K.'s treatment of the subject of death. Throughout the series there is the contrast. Regularly we read that "there are things worse than death." However, Harry is regularly confronted with how painful it is to lose family and friends. Not only that, but the dead, although existant after life, can never come back. As much as Harry wants it to be the case, they can't come back. Sure we can feel, talk, and occasionally see them, but it's not the same. How true.

- I like her treatment of teenage infatuation. I teach at a high school and I'll tell you this, she understands teenagers a lot better than teenagers understand teenagers.

- And my favorite quote "It is our choices that define who we are Harry, not our talents" (or something like that).

That's all.