Merry Vacation to All!
December 23rd, 2008I know you’re not all on vacation, but I am, and it is sweet. Oh so sweet is the respite from crazy adolescents! Speaking of crazy Junior Highers, I rarely post about anything specific to work, but during this joyous time of vacation I shall choose a hilarious example of why I love my job. In one class I have a student who asks me the other day ,”Are you my friend?” Now maybe the hilarity of the situation won’t transfer over in a blog post, but my standard response to this question is “No, I’m your teacher.” You see, when you’ve been teaching a while, you develop these canned responses, sort of like a script. It’s like the words just flow out of me like they have countless times before. When the student inevitably replies “Why not?” I then say, “We don’t hang out. You didn’t invite me to your birthday party. We don’t text message each other. I don’t help you pass notes in class….” At this point the student usually gets it and leaves the subject alone, but not this particular student. He is in a state of denial and replies “No, I think you’re my friend.” Apparently despite proof of the opposite, he continues to press. I then reply “None of your teachers are your friends, they’re your teachers.” He says, “No, Mr. Smith is my friend.” I tell him to ask Mr. Smith later that day, and then let me know tomorrow what he said.
The next day he walks into my class and looks at me with sad eyes and says, “I asked Mr. Smith if he’s my friend, and he said no.” It was the most hilarious thing ever. Now the student tells me to say hi to my baby so my baby will be his friend. Gotta love it.
Anyways, my brother took me to the shooting range for the first time yesterday. We got to shoot a couple handguns and his new .22 pump-action rifle. I figure since he’s getting into it I should at least go and try it, and as a good conservative that believes strongly in gun rights, I should at least have shot one before. Overall it was really a lot of fun. I think there is a certain mystique that surrounds guns, and until you’ve actually held one, loaded it, and and shot it, you don’t realize how typical it really is. I’m not trying to demean the very dangerous power a gun can have, but it really reminded me of shooting a BB gun. Granted it’s much more powerful and you have to be more careful, but it’s a lot the same. Here’s my first target from shooting 12 rounds of my brother’s 357 Magnum (which I believe was .38 ammo?) It’s a bigger gun than his .22 handgun, and while the .22 is more economical and great for practicing your accuracy, there is definitely something cool about the bigger BOOM you get from the bigger ammo.
My first couple shots were off the mark, but once I got used to the action it wasn’t so bad! Thanks for taking me bro.
Otherwise we’re just gearing up for Christmas in a very low key way. Neither Stacie or I need much, and even the baby already has more than he needs, so I think appropriately this year the focus will be on family. We’re doing my sister’s in-laws on Christmas Eve, my parents and my in-laws on Christmas, and then my Grandmother/Aunt/Cousins on my Mom’s side up in Turlock the day after Christmas. This will be our first road trip with the boy, so it should be interesting. Hope everyone’s Christmas plans and gift buying are going well.
Glad you had fun! Hard to beat exercising a Constitutional right. They were .38 Special target loads out of a 4″ Smith & Wesson .357 revolver. Next time we’ll shoot some full power .357 Magnums or rent a .45.
I was talking to Sarah’s family from Wyoming once about our firearm regulations here in the Republik and they joked that owning a gun was a requirement for residency in Wyoming.
And if anyone doesn’t read my blog, I have a standing offer to take anyone who has not fired a gun before to the range for free.
Nathan, you should be friends with your students… come on hanging out with Middle schoolers has to be a blast right?
Shooting is a lot of fun. I miss living in a state where guns were OK and shooting was easy to do. I’ll admit it’s been YEARS since I’ve gone to the range and I’ll bet my aim is long gone!
My dad and I have a small militia worth of guns (rifles, shotguns and handguns) and I’ve shot most of the non collectible ones we have and I’m amazed at how different each feels!
It’s hard to describe the “fun” that the higher powered stuff produces. But they do tire you out sooner.
2 questions for ya. 1) do your students know about The Blarg? 2)Are you my friend? Say hi to Luke cuz were defiantly friends!
No they don’t, and of course you’re my friend!
I’ve done my best to keep this site as anonymous as possible. If I ever had a student find it and spread it I’d have to change to a new one.
Good thing your not my teacher, although i clearly need one to teach me how to spell. I’m sure your son and I aren’t defiantly friends. Besides you have to be my friend. When you married my best friend you got stuck with me.
Student: Hey, Miss Lindsay, are you ever going to become a teacher?
Me: Heck no
Student: Well, why not?
Me: Because student, I don’t like kids.
Student: What??? (crying hysterically)
All you need for accurate spelling Shannon is Google. Type the word, and it will tell you if you’re right or not.
And very nice Lindsay. There actually are some students that I do like…it’s just those other ones you HAVE to have with them….
Hi Cuz,
Hope you had a good time up in Turlock, wish we could have been there. Maybe in the summer we can make it over. Have a great new year.
like the civil questions asked in the hamas post, i’d like to inquir about gun rights in a similar matter in this one.
kinda curious why conservative goes along with gun rights, it seems contradictory in many senses. i don’t really care myself, just find it odd and was curious how you arrived yourself at putting the two together.
and alluding to Angelo’s ‘constitutional rights’ statement, there are many rights, chiefly the first amendment, to which exceptions ar granted, like you can’t yell fire in a theater. i assume the intent of the gun ammendment was to maintain a local militia, and that is not all that practical nowadays, heck if there were an invasion of terrorist at you school or even osama himself, if you pulled out a 9mm to shoot him the police would probably shoot your first as citizens no longer have the right to defend the homeland on their own.
keep in mind, i’m not against guns or any sort of personal property, just trying to understand the thought process.
ct,
You can’t say gun rights are contradictory to Conservative values and not say why. If you read the Heller vs DC decision from June 2008 you would know that the second amendment was affirmed as an “individual right”, not a collective one specifically made for maintaining a militia. This isn’t a conservative vs liberal thing, it’s a matter of individual rights.
Don’t look into something that is very simple. If someone is threatening your life you have the undeniable right to defend yourself. Who is threatening you and where it happens is irrelevant. The police aren’t going to be in your bedroom when a rapist comes to rape you a second time. The police aren’t going to be there during a home invasion robbery and some thug has a gun to your wife’s head. The police don’t protect you, they investigate crimes after they’ve happened and at that point it’s too late for you. When seconds matter, the police are minutes away.
Your “pulled out a 9mm to shoot him” scenario isn’t accurate. A concealed weapon permit is for when the police aren’t present. You aren’t there to help the police or to “defend the homeland on their own”, you’re there to protect yourself and others if the situation calls for it. A concealed weapon permit doesn’t make you a vigilante with permission to do whatever you want. And yeah pulling a gun in front of police is a good way to get shot in any situation, I’m sure there are many dead criminals who would agree.
In a situation like Mumbai the terrorists could have been stopped immediately if the public was armed. They chose this type of attack because they knew they would face little opposition from the public (and turns out even the police who were reluctant to return fire).
The parallels between Mumbai and Virginia Tech are frightening. A target rich environment that was practically guaranteed to be unarmed. If even one of the students or professors was carrying a concealed weapon the loss of life could have been reduced. Investigators analyzing the VT attack figured that each minute the police delayed while waiting for backup, 3 people died.
Aside from personal defense, there are many people who enjoy hunting. I’m in it for the marksmanship aspect too. Was shooting nice small groups at 50 yards with my .22 bolt-action yesterday.