Brotherhood of the Traveling Office

... well, it would be a brotherhood, if I had any bros here, anyway. I'm working (for the third day in a row) out of the Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins a couple blocks from our new apartment in Chicago. Every morning I come in, pay $1.09 for an iced coffee, and milk it for all it's worth by nursing it for a couple of hours while abusing the free wi-fi. After today, though, I'm moving this operation to a new coffee shop each day (hence the "Traveling Office" title, also inspired by Rachel recently staying up until 2am to watch the sequel to the Rory Gilmore/Ugly Betty vehicle/sensation) until we have internet set up in the apartment. Tomorrow's office? Cherub which the yelp reviews say "smells like grandma's attic." Can't wait!

Despite the bleak initial picture with regards to coffee shops here (seriously walked two miles down a main street in an unsuccessful search for a coffee shop with free wi-fi -- I don't think that's even possible in Seattle), we're off to a good start here. The apartment is way bigger than we need, particularly since we have no furniture other than the bed which (self-congratulation alert!) I successfully "built" (read: assembled with the helpful picture-instructions of IKEA). Each day brings new adventures and misadventures, the latter being particularly fun in the freakish (or perhaps even worse -- the routine??) 90-degree heat.

We've also been exploring some of the local cuisine and will surely be taco/burrito/torta experts of the first order. I've been furiously trying to keep up with Yelp reviews after each experience, too!) We also found a swingin party to watch the Lost series finale -- part of the Brew and View series at the Vic Theater. As it turns out, it was a good thing, too: the excitement of the crowd definitely buoyed spirits through the at times underwhelming and at other times plain frustrating 3.5-hours (Check out the Slate guys' discussion of the finale, too!). Reminds me of hooting with glee at a midnight showing of "Attack of the Clones" only to find out much much later that Yoda's sparring match with Dooku was actually pretty ridiculous.

Now that I'm settling into some sort of a routine (shyeah right), hopefully I'll be able to post more. There's definitely stuff to say! Until next time, keep cool and go Hawks!

Why I Like Glee

So after a near-death experience while in Tacoma this morning (see future entry, hopefully tonight) I've had to recuperate at home with a little Laphroaig and some hulu repeats of Modern Family and Glee. I've professed my love for the former before (though not to the extent it deserves), but this may be the first time I've admitted to my affection for the latter. The jury was out for a while, but it's solidly in now: I like Glee.

Why do I like Glee? Well, there are the over-produced, self-indulgent musical numbers. That's certainly a big factor. But more than even the musical numbers, I think what I like about Glee is that it's actually in a weird way somewhat unpredictable. Sure, the Gleesters pair up in predictable ways and break up in even more predictable ways, they win competitions in even more annoyingly predictable ways, and they face many of the overly predictable foibles and exploits of typical (or at least TV-typical) high school kids.

And yet I like it. It's strangely appealing in a way that for a while kept me wondering (in a very un-Sopranos-or-the-Wire way), is this a "good" show? And I'm not sure that I've entirely resolved that question still, but I have experienced enough of it to know that it is a good show for me. Despite all of it's seeming predictability, Glee is a quirky, weird little show with little moments of shocking bizarreness or poignant reallifeness. Like the uncomfortableness of Sue Sylvester (hilarious Jane Lynch, a Second City alum!) blackmailing the school principal after date raping (or, as Wikipedia has just informed me, "drug-facilitated sexually assaulting") him, or the some schizophrenic (a good word for the show, perhaps) storyline between Mr. Schuester and his crazy pregnancy-faking wife, or the more-complicated-than-they-should be relationships of the various high school students that remind me of the illogical, uncertain high school existence moreso than other pretenders.



But why do I really like Glee? The list:

-The Schuester hair jokes, which are really in full effect since the show's return two weeks ago. Rachel loves these jokes, too, for the same reason that I'm a little sensitive about it -- my hair is kind of Schuester-like. Though I did find some vindication in the most recent episode in which Sue admits that she only comments on his hair (which had previously been liked to a bird's nest and lesbian hair among other things) because she is jealous of it's waviness ... and lustrousness.

-Lines like "You're about as sexy as a cabbage patch doll. It's exhausting to look at you." ... particularly when they're directed towards the endlessly flummoxed and flabby Finn, at whom it is exhausting to look.

-Unapologetic devotion to particular pop icons. Though I'm still waiting for the David Bowie episode.

-The way it makes it's seemingly unforgivable underdogs (Puck, Quinn, Schuester's wife) somehow so forgivable that you find yourself rooting for them? Was I the only one that thought Schue was overreacting about the faux-baby?

-Speaking of Schue's overreaction, the unexpected and jarring moments of legitimate pathos have got to make the list. When he finally confronts his wife about her deception, a scene not entirely unlike the Tony-and-Carmela-split-up scene in the Sopranos, there is some true pain going on there ... impressive particularly for a guy that spent most of the season fighting off the urge to jam out with a full-on white boy's overbite.

-The ability to seemingly deny that certain characters and plot points ever existed. As much as I love Needle-nosed Ned the Head, jettisoning Stanley Tobolowsky's character was probably a good idea, and the fact that they did it without a moment's worry devoted to explaining it away is refreshing.

I think that's enough for now, though you can expect to revisit this topic in the future. I've also got a lot to say about "Lost" these days but will probably hold off on that until no one remembers this ridiculously long post devoted to a middling teeny bopper show. Now it's time to reflect on the day's other, more traumatic, experience. Stay tuned.

Is there a Scottish Equivalent to St. Patrick's Day?

It's time for me to acknowledge that I've fallen off the wagon. I haven't picked up a book (any book, really) in about a week. When I'm through with this post, I'm going to give Paulo Freire one last college try, to hopefully alleviate some of the guilt I'm feeling.

My dad told me yesterday that I'm not as Irish as I thought I was -- and he tells me this four days before St. Patrick's Day! He and my mom have been exploring their genealogies online and have been debunking some of the lifelong ideas I had about who I am and where I came from. These ideas were always somewhat general and murky (Scotch Irish, kicked out of Scotland and then kicked out of Ireland and somehow wound up in Ohio), but they were an idea nevertheless, a part of my identity.

So it turns out that the McKee family comes direct from Scotland with no stopover in Ireland at all. The south of Scotland appears to be teeming with McKees (or McKies or MacKays ... or a bunch of other variations), dating back to the early 1700s when my great great great great great great great grandfather, David McKie, left the mother country and set up shop in the British colonies of America. David's son, John McKee, founded McKeesport, Pennsylvania (now kind of a depressed-looking place) in 1795. Dad's having trouble with his maternal line, though he's traced it back to Maryland, and the folks seem to be of English/Welsh descent.

Mom doesn't seem to have found as much in her research, though it looks like the Golemans are also from the British Isles (mostly English, she thinks) and were in Virginia for quite a while upon arriving in the new world.

I'm glad the folks are doing this -- partially because I do find it interesting and am gratified in a way to know where my ancestors came from, but also because it will be one less thing that I have to do when I'm getting old and wishing I knew more about who I am and where I came from. They also seem to be having a lot of fun with it, though, in typical McKee fashion, it took a TV show to spur this interest. They've been watching (and getting inspired by Henry Louis Gates' (he of the Obama Beer Garden Mediation) "Faces of America."

Final Thoughts ... for the Day

Okay, "Lost" was actually pretty good this week (It helped that it was focused on Ben Linus, one of the few characters to still have much individual interest for me). I wanted to say that, because I mentioned how unimpressed I have been with this season so far. Actually the last couple of episodes have been better ... although the religious overtones (which have previously usually stayed in the realm of undertones) need to get put back in check if it's not going to pull a total Matrix Revolution (remember the Keanu crucifix blast? yeah, you do.).

Also, I just checked macrumors.com, and they had a report about possible updated Macbook Pros being in stores tomorrow. They promptly backpedaled and debunked the rumors, but it seems like there is growing buzz in internetworld about an update very (hopefully VERY) soon!

Finally, Slate has a good advice column called "My Goodness: Advice on How to Make the World Better." Yesterday's topic was a question that I have debated with Rachel many times: Is it "wrong" (or bad) to send your kids to private school? The consensus seems to be that you need to do what's best for your individual kids, but it's certainly a complex issue and one that I'm sure we'll continue to struggle with. The state of public education in the U.S. is really abysmal and needs to be a priority for everyone.

Pacman

Catching up on Lost (so far not impressed with this ho hum final season), finally taking out the pile of recycling that was ivy-like in it's ascent up my living room wall, and now blogging about what has been taking up WAY too much of my thought and time today (and yesterday). I rediscovered the "fun" tab on my Google home page, which includes a Pacman app. I'm a fan of the arcade game (though mostly of the MS. Pacman), but today took the appreciation to a new level.

I was working out of our Tacoma office and (on a break, of course) played a game of Pacman when I started to think of how awesome I was at it. These thoughts merged with some paranoid theories about whether the different colored ghosts (or "Ghost Monsters") had different personalities/strengths/strategies and prompted me to do some Google searches. I not only found that there was a bizarre-sounding and short-lived Pacman cartoon in the 80s, but also (and somewhat more interestingly) a rather intense and impressive history of Pacman players.

I guess I had always thought I was a pretty amazing Pacman player myself and thought I must not be TOO far from "beating" the game. Little did I know that Pacman actually has over 250 levels (I've beaten maybe 10 or 11 in my best games) including a legendary "split-level" (a weird garbled mess of a level) that appears to be endless (or unbeatable). Since 1999, seven people have achieved the feat of a "perfect game" in Pacman, in which the top score is something over 3 million. (One of these guys was actually from Beavercreek, OH!) Anyway, dejected and ashamed, I now acknowledge that I am not a very strong Pacman contender, but it has inspired me to take my Pacman training more seriously.

Bring it.

Kindergarten

Well, it's official. I have a job for next year, and I will be teaching ... KINDERGARTEN! (Cue horror movie shrieks and ominous music.) It's a bit different than I was expecting (i.e. hadn't thought about sitting on carpet squares and finger-painting), but I'm already getting excited about the idea. Now, if only every other woman I tell about it will just stop saying "Aw, so cute!" or "Oh, how precious." We'll work on that.

I've decided that when I start teaching I am going to blog about it in a very scientific way while also respecting the privacy of the subjects (or students) involved. Rachel gave me a book for my birthday a few years ago called "A Primate's Memoir" by Robert M. Sapolsky, who refers to each of the members of the baboon troop by a name from the Bible. I think I'll do that with my kids, too, only maybe I'll use characters from Shakespeare or an HBO series. ("Today McNulty peed himself while I was helping Ophelia get rubber cement out of her hair." Something like that).

So it's been a little while since I posted and I wanted to make up for lost time by also posting a couple of links that I've been enjoying:

A good piece at the New York Times Magazine about "Building a Better Teacher."

An hilaaarious commercial for the hilaaaarious show "Modern Family." Some day I'll have to post specifically about the show, as it's really funny, but for now, enjoy the taste.

I've also been reading a new book, "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" by Paulo Freire. I'll have to comment further on it when I've been able to read a few paragraphs without either falling asleep or becoming somewhat overwhelmed. Gotta get back in the habit of reading academic works, I guess. Phew.

Hodge Podge

I've been reading some forum threads about how to get people to read your blog and in so doing have looked at some other people's blogs. I've come to the conclusion that part of my challenge is that I'm not a very disciplined blogger with regards to sticking to a particular theme or topic ... which makes my target audience for this blog basically people who care about my (apparently quite) random musings.

This entry isn't gonna help that much, I'm afraid.

So, first of all, I started watching "Big Love" this week and -- despite my deep aversion to Bill Paxton (I think I previously mentioned my "Worst Actors of All Time" list, which he tops) -- I'm already sold. I am a LITTLE concerned that I may mostly be enthralled by the strange and bizarre world of polygamy and/or Mormon cult living. Oh well. (The show was very quick to acknowledge that the Church of the Latter Day Saints (LDS) has not condoned polygamy since 1890.)

Okay, how about this one? I was driving down to Portland today, and apparently my radio tuner in the car is busted because most of the time I could only get one or two stations (this may also have been because I was in the boonies). I actually kind of like this, because it makes me listen to things that I normally wouldn't ... like THIS SONG! The first verse is about a guy who's about to kill himself in his car (a Chevy, of course) when his buddies call to make sure he's coming out on some binger. This thoughtful expression of friendship causes the protagonist to reconsider his plans and to respond what will become the refrain of the song: "Thanks for the call."

Today was gonna be the day
He´d already wrote the note
And parked that Chevrolet
At the end of that dead end road
Had his finger on the trigger; just about to end everything
He was taking one last long breathe; when he heard his cell phone ring

And his best friends say man where you been?
We´re headed down to the lake this weekend
You better not miss it ´cause buddy I swear
It won´t be the same If you aint there
And i told that girl that you like so much
You were coming along and her eyes lit up
I better let you go man i really hope i didnt catch you in the middle of anything
He said you kinda did but i don´t mind at all
I´m glad you called

It's been a while since a song made me burst out laughing, but this one did it. A+!

I keep hoping that each of of these posts will be my last one written from my crappy work laptop. I've got my sights set on a new mac and have been obsessively checking this website to see when I can fork over the dough. Both MacRumors, Rachel and everybody else I ask say it's better just to wait until the new updates are out. Sigh. Some day soon ... I hope.

Finally, and most importantly, I got to go watch Rachel compete in the Jessup International Law Competition today. She was amazing. I told her afterward that I was amazed by how much like a REAL LAWYER she really is now. The last time I saw her in a mock trial-type competition was in her first year of law school, and it's so impressive how much progress she has made. She has worked so hard over the last three years, and the results are plain to see. She has inspired me to take a similar tack (though perhaps not QUITE as zealous) in my own career path. She's amazing!