To Live Simply: Stay Home on Boxing Day

 

Sabrina Carpenter for Second Graders?

T: Do you know what Jesus' father did for a living?

S1: He was a scientist?

S2: He was a driver!

T: Let me give you a hint. It starts with the letter C.

S3: I know. He was a carpenter.

S4: Like Sabrina Carpenter?

S5: Your crush?

Mancala

 My grade 2s this year are enjoying this game a lot. I got the board from my landlord who was ready to dispose of it, and I use decorative rocks instead of puka shells. Guess what? I got a mancala set from today's exchange gift. Tomorrow will be unboxing day. The kids will surely be happy to have a second set in class. Enjoy every bit of surprise this Christmas and always!

How to play Sungka (Philippine Mancala game)

60s-90s: Do you know where your children are?

 

21st Century: Do you know who your child is corresponding with online? 

Do you know who your child is meeting tonight?

How much do you know your child?

"I think shame is underrated these days... Re-enter with some more humility." SP

Julia Roberts & Sean Penn | Actors on Actors

Right. Nobody's ashamed of being too greedy these days (with obvious conflict of interest), too unkind (and shaming journalists), too uncaring (and not paying workers)... Where did humanity go?

MUSIC

 MUSIC or any form of art (or sports), for your child, please, instead of too much electronics before it's too late; otherwise, digital detoxing will be very painful. Just my two cents... Peace!

Take a second for some relaxing banjo

Anyone still wondering why AI is unregulated?

 

Zzz...

A total of ten hours in two nights.
marks for eight subjects
progress report comments
for each of twenty-two students
sixteen as English learners
six with special needs
one severe
tomorrow again
seriously?
deadline in two days

Zzz...

MLJ06122025ReadyToZzz

Thank you, Frank Gehry (1929-2025)

 

Self-Driving Cars? Why, oh, why?

 

What TEACHING really is

 

12. Supporting students with special needs

13. Dealing with warring/divorced/separated parents

14. Caring for children who haven't slept because they were online all night

15. Supporting parents who are learning English or can't read or write in any language

16. Dealing with parents who think that education is not their business

Nicotine Pouches: Why? Why? Why?

 

Still Standing

Typical fall snowfall for days

Today's a can't-find-your-car day
Muscle work after a 10-hour workday

Osteoporosis, come back another day.

We’ll Soon Be Sophias

 

It was a dorm room for four,
Across the street from campus.
One was added to us three.
She brought a portable TV
And watched as she studied after school,
So we watched, felt sad or laughed along,
Or finished our work in the library till nine,
Past her Dynasty, The Cosby Show, Family Ties,
Who’s the Boss, Full House, The Golden Girls…
And named ourselves young Dorothies
Instead of Roses, Blanches or Sophias.
Forty years hence, we’ll soon be Sophias
And very thankful indeed, never to complain.
Glad there are dorms, friendship and laughter.
MLJ28112025TheGoldenGirls1985-1992

What's on your "Shelfie"?

 

I could be like Rhys in So Far Gone and retire into the woods as a recluse but hopefully, never one of the ten gullible ones in And Then There Were None. 

The Good Lord Still Loves You

When on the road
You annoyed a psycho,
Stressed or recently divorced?
With diarrhea or late for work?
With PTSD or mad at the world?

Abruptly cutting you off.
Stopping. Thinking if you’re worth
A bullet? A baseball bat to break?
You wait. Drive off and get chased?
Thought 911 would be hard to dial,
Forgetting a voice command you could try
Simply say, “Hey, Google!”. Ain’t that nice?

You stay put. Wait for your final fate.
Until he drove on. The finger he gave,
Stabbing the air, now so pained!
Thinking a stupid, old woman
Was never worth his while.
Phew! You’re incredibly alive!
And felt so very much loved.
MLJ16112025RoadRageOn52nd

Are you getting a Tesla?

The future Trillionaire Tycoon,
With tax breaks and incentives,
Government contracts and loans.
Why, oh why? You still wonder?
Because he jumped around on stage!
Wouldn’t you join the circus? Be spared?

We, the Commoners, pay our taxes
In all honesty. Never ever been gifted,
But instead brutally fired for government savings
Or unpaid as unfortunate air traffic controllers.

Should we dance with the Yellow Clown
In the Ballroom, one of the 999?
Just be careful not to get kicked out,
Know the cost of EMS ambulance.
You might pass out, without insurance!
MLJ15112025WeTheCommoners

A Tale of Two Communities

 

On conspicuous consumption

How long is the line at the Food Bank?

How much AI?

Ignore Data Center Water Consumption at Your Own Peril

Eight billion people using AI
Not knowing. Data centers cooling
With the world’s water supply.

Corporate thirst for data is quenched?
Babies with iPads, happy in strollers?
Generation Alpha, do you have money
For ophthalmologists and optometrists?

Eight billion people using AI
Not knowing. Data centers cooling
With the world’s water supply.
People dying elsewhere. Who cares?
Where are the policymakers?

Oh! Not to forget. Campaign funds
Come from nasty corporate dollars.
Go to the dogs, growl the hounds.
MLJ/15112025MoneyOverNature

Maraming salamat!

Maraming salamat! Thank you very much for your well wishes. I wish you all good health, and lots of love and happiness.

I wish there was a lesson on the cost of aging, especially the cost of health care. Lol. No wonder people are in search of the elixir of youth. Anyway, just sharing that I treated myself to some Spanish bread which I hadn't had in ages. It was not like the mouthwatering kind in this picture though as it was probably "bread of the lesser baker" and a product of shinkflation.

God bless you all for your thoughtfulness. My apologies if I can't read all messages/posts. As you know, public schoolteachers are working 60+ hours a week. Even in their sleep, they're thinking about how to help little Johnny or Susie with the 3Rs or behavior modification. God bless you all for your patience with square moi and for being a friend all these years.

"Breathes There the Man" by Sir Water Scott

“Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonored, and unsung”

How fitting it was! What coincidence?
Why come across Sir Scott’s verse
In the midst of the longest shutdown
Under the tyrannical yellow clown?

Let the people suffer! Who are they anyway?
They who believed in economic miracles?
Miracles that bite and hurt
Through tariffs and job cuts.

Let the people suffer! Who are they anyway?
They who believed in economic miracles?
Miracles through tax credits, subsidies, contracts
For those whose backs the clown needs to scratch.

Let the people suffer! Who are they anyway?
They who believed in economic miracles?
Miracles for Argentina. For billionaire allies.
Sorry... Not for American farmers? So vile!

Let the people suffer! Who are they anyway?
They who believed in economic miracles?
Miracles in the East Wing. A new ballroom?
A Great Gatsby dance? For common people?

Let the people suffer! Who are they anyway??
They who believed in economic miracles?
Miracles for tech, cryptocurrency, AI giants
With whom the clown invests and connives.

Voters were blinded. Some are blind still.
“Conflict of interest” they know not until
All’s empty: Fridge. Gas tank. Mind and body.
While the clown plays golf. Isn’t that funny?

You’re welcome to dance in the new ballroom.
Just be careful not to trip and hurt yourself
For you have no health insurance coverage!
MLJ10112025WhySoBlind?

Are you kidding me (again and again)?

 

COP30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil