For about the last year and a half I’ve been watching the Sunday Comics for good FoxTrot comics to put up in my classroom. Little did I know Bill Amend has been making them since 1988! Holy cow I have a lot of catching up to do!

Apparently there are “treasury” books full of the comics, so I might have to start collecting those. I love that they’re nerdy, about math, computers, video games, and all things geek.

As I was browsing through some older ones, this one caught my eye.

When I came downstairs this morning, it officially felt like Fall. Does that ever happen to you? I know the official first day of Fall is Tuesday or something, but it’s like that exact moment when it feels like the season changed from being hot/summer to cool/fall? It’s still too hot, but I’m ready to light a pumpkin spice candle and decorate in brown/orange leaves.

This year we adopted a new math textbook…which is good and bad. It’s nice because it’s all new, but it’s bad because it is a LOT more work than last year. Everything has to be adapted this year…HW, tests, PowerPoints, etc. It looks like I’ll be dedicating a good couple hours every Sunday to get ready for the coming week. Next year will be loads easier, so at least it’s only one year.

Back to editing slides on one-step equations.

There are a few people who I should be threatening with Dead Blarg status. My question for you is, how long until someone becomes dead? In the past I’ve used a month without a post typically…but that seems like an awfully long time. Should it be shorter? Three weeks? Two weeks? A month is nice because I don’t have to do any fancy math. I understand if someone has a busy week, or two…but a whole month?

Unless anyone can convince me otherwise, I think a month is a very reasonable posting length. After all, we are talking about DEATH. Anything shorter might be cruel.

Today we visited Crater Lake, about an hour north of Klamath Falls in Oregon. Out of all the sites we’ve seen on our trip, this is by far the most “wow” of them all. The lake is about 6 miles across, and 2000 feet deep in spots. The crater is from an old volcano that basically spewed all the magma it had, and then collapsed. Very neat.

Tonight we went back to Wingers for dinner…again. Stacie got a coupon on our bill last night for a free dessert, so we got that and more wings.

Technically we arrived to Klamath Falls in Oregon today, but the title of my post is about a restaurant called Wingers.

They don’t have any in California, but they have the BEST wings EVER. They were super crispy and the sauce was amazing. I had the spicy fire wings, and they were HOT. My mouth burned and my eyes watered a little. Very good.

Something I must complain about here in Oregon is that it is illegal for a person to pump their own gas. Apparently Oregon and New Jersey think the average citizen is too stupid to pump their gas, so instead they make gas stations hire people to pump your gas. Stupid.

Right now I’m watching my first Dodgers game in a couple weeks, and they’ve been doing terrible. I’d be surprised if they can right the ship and make a run at the playoffs, but they’re in a big transition. They’ve got some awesome young players, and a bunch of fuddy duddies. The old guys look older than they ever have before. Not to mention half the pitching staff is broken.

Tomorrow is Crater Lake. Should be a pretty day and we might do a few short hikes to better see the place.

Today we drove through the John Day Fossil Beds as me made our way South through Oregon. The John Day Fossil Beds are a National Monument, but probably one you’ve never heard of. It was on the way, so we decided to check it out. It was very pretty and unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. Here is a great picture of what we saw. Well worth the stop.

Tonight we’re in La Pine, OR, a short drive from Crater Lake and Klamath Lake where we’ll be driving to tomorrow.

I am a definite HD lover, but I have yet to jump into the HD-DVD or BluRay battle for a couple reasons. The main reason is that I see little reason at this point. Movies cost a lot, players cost a lot, and there just aren’t a lot of choices in terms of titles to watch. The second major factor has been the undecided “battle” between the formats. I read an interesting article talking about how that is playing out here. It sounds like BluRay is strategically placing itself to win. Seeing how I’ve yet to invest in either, I think that’s a good thing. It’s the superior technology, and it would give me a good excuse to buy a PS3 in the future.

Today in some of my classes I showed a video about building a gigantic skyscraper in Spain. My intention was to show students a couple things. One, that the math they are learning is still very basic, and there are applications in the real world that require math far more advanced than they have even been exposed to. The second was to show them that there is more to life than idiot A said something mean about idiot B, and that there is more to strive for than being a loser.

I’ve been listening to a few new albums lately. Right now it’s the new Fall Out Boy CD. I’m not as impressed as the last one, but there are some notable tunes on it. Other albums I’m diggin’ are by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Cute Is What We Aim For, and Paramore.

Tim Hardway said he hates gay people. The NBA said don’t come to the All-Star game. Larry Elder was suggesting it was hypocritical of the NBA, and I agree. After all, if the NBA doesn’t care that a large portion of it’s players are actual criminals (here), then why should they care what a retired player says?

It’s a long weekend. I have plans to finish my story, grade some papers, and relax!

I just beat the first dungeon in the new Zelda. Woot! I’m 7.5 hours into the game now. Only another 30-50 to go.

I’ve been told I need to make it known what my Christmas present desires are. If I have to make a list I’m sure I can come up with stuff, but there’s very little that I "need." Between my Wii and TV my entertainment needs are covered. Then I’ve got the dog to play with. I’m only on book 4 of 7 in the Dark Tower series, but then I’ve got a 6 book series by Robin Hobb to read. If you do the math that’s 10 books to read. I guess I need to do some serious thinking.

Thirteen more days of school until Christmas break.