Top 5

Holy crap!!! Semi-regular posting?! It can't be.... Well, if the cop-out that is a top five even counts.

Anywho, onward and upward:

Top 5 books read while at Princeton City Schools
1st-12th

5.) Out of the Silent Planet - Being a sci-fi nerd and a C.S. Lewis fan, I was pretty stoked to read this. However, in doing so I learned one life lesson: trilogies weren't meant to be read one at a time. Every time I think about reading the other two books, I remember I have very little recollection of what actually happened in the first. Maybe someday...

4.) Night - I still have this book tucked away in some dark corner of my room. I remember reading it in 8th grade with Mr. Pogue, the guy who, if nothing else, taught me that books are printed on paper so they can be written in, torn up, and generally made your own. To this day a good indicator of books I've actually read is to look for the one's that have seemingly gone through the washer, twice. Anywho, a powerful book that everyone should be forced to read in school.

3.) Lord of the Flies - Another Mr. Pogue read that I probably wouldn't have even opened if it weren't for two undeniable facts:
3-1.) The edition of the book I bought had cover that was about 6 standard deviations MORE badass than anyone elses book.
3-2.) Pogue sold this book as being a case study in anarchy, which is pretty much what a 13 year old boy strives for Monday-Friday anyways.

2.) Notes From Underground - I think I was the only person in the class of '07 to like this book. Dostoevsky is a hell of a writer and anyone who thinks any different can suck my thumb. It's not easy to write what is essentially stream of consciousness for half of a novel and make ANYTHING of it, let alone something that would be taught in high schools nearly 150 years later. It also makes for a hell of a book on tape.

1.) The Great Gatsby - I didn't like it much then. The book absolutely emits the feeling, taste, and smell of summer (“It was dawn now on Long Island and we went about opening the rest of the windows down-stairs, filling the house with gray-turning, gold-turning light. The shadow of a tree fell abruptly across the dew and ghostly birds began to sing among the blue leaves. There was a slow, pleasant movement in the air, scarcely a wind, promising a cool, lovely day.”) and has one of the most profound last pages of all time. It seemed like we talked about this book for a month and I'm still not completely sure I "get" it. I'm also not sure if I'm supposed to.




The best part of all of this? I still have every single one of my projects from sophomore year of high school on. I want to personally thank every teacher that realized computers weren't the devil and in doing so let me have an amazing archive of stuff that, barring something terrible, I will be able to have forever.

Yes, even the bio coloring!!



So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

Moe Mashed Us Again

Went to the nati and watched the Vikes lose a heartbreaker to longtime rival Moeller, 27-17. I came away with these observatiosn:

* Nippert Stadium (and UC in general) really is a very nice venue. I may have to try to get down there for a UC football game sometime, I feel like when the place is packed it really makes some noise.

* Spencer Ware is good, but really not a thrower. Granted there were a few off throws that were more of a play miscommunication than anything, but he was constantly putting the ball at the knees. Not to say there weren't flashes of D-1 passing, but I feel like he would be much better off as a runningback or wide reciever in college (I would be surprised if any college coaches disagreed with me).

* Princeton will definitely have a good year this year. They more than doubled Moeller in offensive production, and were it not for two interceptions, probably would have walked away with a win. Both the offensive and defensive line still have a ways to go, but nothing to keep them from having a fun season.

* If the football team was even half as fun to watch as this when I were in school, I would have been very satisfied.

* The student section is really going downhill. A big Whiskey Tango Foxtrot to that one....

The Best Advice Ever

From some pretty OK teachers. I'm kind of hoping that there really are other people whoh read this, because if not, it would be a sick and twisted kind of post-graduate brown nosing.

And I ain't down wit dat.

Ahem (Paraphrasing. sorry, not exactly a titanium trap):

"I smoked once in college. I had one cigarette and I liked it a lot. So I knew I should never do it again."

-- Seriously... think about that for a second. Profound I tell ya.

"If you want to save your GPA, sure maybe you should drop the class and move down. But if you want to progress as a person, I think you should stay in the class, try to learn, and not worry about the grade."

-- Some chemguy way back in junior year. Something about a rather cranky math teacher on tenure giving me a couple bad quiz grades and me asking him if it would hurt to just drop the class. I still remember my grades for that class every quarter: C, B, A, A. I guess I learned something.

"If you really want to not have any more teen pregnancies give every kid in high school a car, a job, and something to do after school. They won't have time to have sex."

-- One of those off-topic days in the school paper that once was. Really, you can't argue with that much. And trust me, I love to argue.

They don't seem as profound when I try to recite them anywhere from a 1-2 years later. The point stands, you learn a lot from people outside of biology or chemistry or... publication/photography/ad-sale?

And I could rattle on even more about other stuff like Catholic guilt, that trap door guy in everyone's head (and how one person killed him), Olympic curling, coaching sports teams that suck (but don't you dare say they suck), raising money a couple pennies (and s***load of calls) at a time, just plain having a hobby outside of your job, or making sure your job is your hobby.

But I won't. Probably because the only people reading already know about that.

See, I do remember some stuff you teach :)

//creepy foreshadowing on the picture there...and yes.. i do always look that retarded.

On a lighter side

Something else has come to my attention that I can't pass up. According to some notoriously unreliable sources (so take it for what its worth...) the Princeton-Moeller game will restart after a short (see: three of my years in high school) break.

Nice. Reserve my ticket now.

Watch me continue to beat the horse

After a healthy amount of sluthing around the interwebz, I found a little nugget of information that states that school board membership starts and ends with a new year. It also just so happens that (if you haven't noticed lately) 2007 has become 2008, and one person in particular seems to have expired his/her time (I'll leave that bit of "where's Waldo" to those who care enough).

Having a vested interest in figuring out whether or not this was true, I have searched up and down to see who the new incumbents are, but have had absolutely no luck. The best I can find is a January 14th meeting PDF file stating that there was a reception for new board members (how quaint), but not who these people are. Now, I know that school board positions are usually about as highly contested as the Hamilton County Auditor, but it would still be nice to have somewhere to look and easily see that information.

So I ask the audience, any changes in the glorious five from the list linked above? And if not, I'm pretty sure a few of us know who to contact to give a slight nudge to update the expiration dates.

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P.S. - If you haven't already noticed, I'm pretty much in that frustrated stage of now being old enough to vote and be heard, while at the same time having no control over what has happened up to this point. Most refer to this as "youthful idealism." Don't worry, I'm sure this stage will pass like the rest, but until then, let me have my fun.

P.P.S. - The more I think about it, the more the whole situation down in P-town front office urks me. And trust me, it already urked me quite a bit. First off, according to the list linked, 4/5 of a school board representing a district of ~42,000 (I looked it up...) all live in the same city. Sure, thats nit-picky at best, but in a district that prides itsself on diversity, this is a bit hypocritical. I will admit though, at least its not Evendale or Lincoln Heights (in terms of polar ends of the spectrum).
Secondly, sure the numerous familial relationships between the former (and maybe still current?) President within the district are not illegal or anything (nor should it be), but it still doesn't quite sit right. I'll be honest, it hasn't since I was still a student but I felt too involved with the whole situation to bitch and moan about it (for lack of a better word). I'm just going to save myself the frustration of trying to concisely say what I'm trying and just make another post sometime covering it.

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Sorry for:

- the italics-heavy post... Just a lot of unorganized thoughts roaming through the head.
- focusing on one topic lately. Actually, no, I'm not really that sorry. There is a lot that needs to be said here. I'm trying to keep it as factually based as possible from here on out, with the stuff I want the lawyers to ignore in italics. Blogging is all about a perception of a public forum, right? That and I'm pretty sure the readers here care about my local public school district and its inner-workings than the gentlemen of my dorm. Hell, who knows, maybe someone will actually care enough to read what a kid fresh out has to say. Novel idea...


________
And my voter-registration papers are filled out and ready to mail tomorrow morning (dependent on buying stamps). Be proud, parents.

Now for the irrational side.

I see January is School Board recognition month, so I think it is only fitting for me to recongnize the school board of my alma mater. Words cannot express, so I am forced to use a picture:

Notice the steam. Majestic.

That is all.

The (fairly) rational side speaking

I'm bad at introductory paragraphs, I don't think I can state that enough. Maybe this is also a little case of random blogging, but I feel that at the very least I need to let my voice be heard.

I'm a big of a fan as any when it comes to my high school. I think that the total education a person receives there is the best. I feel that even the meaning of "total education" is misunderstood by those who did not attend.

My school taught me both that the hypotenuse of a right-angle triangle is equal to the square root of the sum length of the sides squared and that each person should be respected equally for who they are, not in spite of it.

My school taught me that sometimes you need to get out of the comfort zone a little bit to raise some money for a good cause (either through calling a couple companies or "selling a damn ad").

My school also taught me that success is not a right, but a privilege. I was actually taught that many times over, whether it be on the football field, or the basketball court against Trotwood-Madison in the playoffs, or just looking down the halls occasionally and playing the "who will still be here next year" game (no, I never played that game, at least consciously). Only you can truly make something of yourself.

However, I was also taught that success was within reach of any person who stretched hard enough. The person who taught me that was Aaron Mackey. He wasn't a teacher, or even one of our 17 school principles. He was the superintendent of the entire district. For the record (contrary to what some may believe), I was not the student council president, nor did I have rich parents (I wish) or any relationship with the school board.

I had contact with Dr. Mackey through Princeton Entertainment Group (PEG). PEG was a group of about five students who for some freakish reason or another had a vested interest in the music business. This ranged from audiophiles to tired-and-true-techies to people who saw (and still see, to keep things straight) the field as a career, or a combination of those and many other characteristics. What we lacked in numbers (and oh did we ever lack in numbers) we made up for in determination to create, in hindsight, some relatively awesome productions. This included bringing in professional artists, creating some truly professional looking stages, and going on a weeklong tour of the southwestern United States (tour busses and all) with the school's equally impressive jazz band.

I remember one meeting specifically with Dr. Mackey back in my sophomore year. At that time, PEG had visions of a lobster buffet but only had the money for catfish. All it took was one meeting at Big Boy for Mackey to meet "the kids" and it was a done deal. We were given full support of anything we deemed worthy, whether that be financially or in time spent in the school outside of school hours (see: weekend overnights). The only problem after that was all of the intermediaries up to Mackey, but that is another topic completely.

"Princeton City Schools is at a critical juncture requiring accelerated progress on the challenges and opportunities that face the district." - School Board Vice President Lillian Hawkins

I have always believed that Dr. Mackey had a vision to create Princeton High School into a statewide powerhouse. He did not have to say that he wanted to have every student succeed without boundaries, he showed it. There is no other way I can say it, he was the ONLY person within "Central Office" that showed any sort of passion for the future of my school. At a critical juncture for an organization I put a hell of a lot of effort (and one speeding ticket) into, Mackey was there so that we could accelerate forward. Shit, in two years, the man has already left a bigger mark on the district than any previous superintendent through the construction of all new elementary schools, some well before they needed it. On top of that, he is supporting a $141 million bond issue for the construction of a very necessary all new middle school and high school. In my opinion, having spent the past four years there, the construction of a new high school is proactive, to say the least.



So I ask this to the school board: What more do you want?

I feel that through not renewing his contract, you demonstrated yet again that education is sadly just another business now. As soon as I hear a reasoned, justifiable statement from the President of the School Board explaining the need for such a top-level change in a time of sweeping district-wide development there will be a very, very bitter taste in my mouth.

As the most recent alumnus the district can speak for and as a tax-paying voter (maybe that will get through to you) I find this to be a very disappointing, irrational decision. I am eager to hear from you. Who am I though, anyways? I'm just one person. Why would you care?

Dr. Mackey cared.