and now i need a pair.

check them out.

about a month ago, he wrote about his top 100 novels, a response to someone’s response to NPR’s list. i’ve looked over others’ lists (including the Modern Library’s and the BBC’s from several years ago) and thought, “well, if they’re doing it, and Halpin’s doing it, i ought to do it, too.”

my list, in no particular order, includes books (not just novels) that have had an impact on me over the last 25+ years, whether because of subject matter, writing style, the time at which i read it, or the chemical that is released by the brain associating pleasure with certain things.

1. Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
2. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
3. Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen
4. The Stand by Stephen King
5. Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon
6. Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
7. An American Tragedy by Ted Dreiser
8. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
9. The Inferno by Dante (Ciardi)
10. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
11. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
12. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
13. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
14. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
15. The Talisman by Peter Straub & Stephen King
16. His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman
17. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
18. Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling
19. Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
20. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
21. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
22. Danny, Champion of the World by Roald Dahl
23. Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss
24. Maus by Art Spiegelman
25. John Adams by David McCullough
26. Truman by David McCullough
27. Animal Farm by George Orwell
28. Big Fish by Daniel Wallace
29. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
30. angela’s ashes by Frank McCourt
31. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
32. A Series of Unfortunate Events by lemony snicket
33. Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller
34. Falling Up by Shel Silverstein
35. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
36. The Traveler by john twelve hawks
37. The Bible
38. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
39. Snow Falling on Cedars by David Gunderson
40. Contact by Carl Sagan
41. What is the What byDave Eggars
42. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
43. Calvin and Hobbes – Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat by Bill Watterson
44. A Generous Orthodoxy by Brian Mclaren
45. Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
46. night by Elie Wiesel
47. extremely loud and incredibly close by Jonathan Safran Foer
48. Candide by Voltaire
49. The Unabridged Edgar Allen Poe
50. The Stories of Ray Bradbury by Ray Bradbury
51. A Bright Red Scream by Marilee Strong
52. The Search to Belong by Joseph Meyers
53. The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind by Mark Noll
54. The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
55. Timeline by Michael Crichton
56. The Big Book of Hell by Matt Groening

fifty-six. it was the best i could do. i wanted to BS a few more classics just to look more cultured and civilized, but then i realized, “hey! this is MY LIST! if someone thinks i’m not all that intelligent because i like dr. seuss, well pbbbbthhhh!”

do you have a list? how about a top three?

http://twitter.com/rustypants

or don’t.

the only line from any of their movies that i can remember is:

“aren’t you jerry garcia from the grateful dead?”

given the change in society since their last act (30 years ago?), are these guys even relevant anymore?

here’s a good article about it in the washington post.

here’s the link to download the beta version.

here’s google’s cool comic book format explaining why you should switch (and the specifics on the technology behind the browser).

www.worldbreastfeedingweek.org

if i can’t contribute can i…

oy vey. inappropriate.

pensacola chamber of commerce gave us a phone book.

verizon wireless told us we can’t add a third line with a pensacola number and two cincinnati numbers.

we got a bit lost.

we called about a house across the street from my new school.

i met my new principal (he’s quite cool).

i saw my classroom (unflatteringly pictured at right).

i signed my contract.

we lunched with the principal at the new yorker deli (if you visit pensacola, it’s worth the trip – unless you live in new york).

we got an apartment.

we’re officially residents – we have a pensacola address now.

we went to maria’s seafood market, grabbed some jumbo shrimp, had it steamed, crossed the bridge and went to pensacola beach.

sat on the beach (flatteringly pictured at left) and looked back at the past couple years, ate delicious shrimp, watched the sunset, stuck our toes in the water, grabbed a couple seashells and were content.

today we’ve more to do, not the least of which is to…

celebrate Lise’s birthday! woo-woo!

more later.

• signing my contract / meeting my principal / fingerprinting
• visiting two or three schools that are still hiring art teachers – lise’s going to work on getting her foot in the door and see how things look for getting a position in the district.
• finding the apartment complex we’re looking to rent from starting in August, filling out paperwork and writing too large of a check.
• stopping in on the school district offices and getting some final information before school starts next month.
• visiting the chamber of commerce for more moving information and area details
• hitting the beach in the evenings for sunsets, strolls, and sea shell hunting.
• going to joe patti’s seafood and loading up before we leave for cincinnati thursday morning.
• celebrating lise’s 39th birthday wednesday july 11th!! woo-woo!! want to send her a note? email her at liserust at gmail.com

for now, however, i expect my thoughts will soon be wandering the way they always do when i’m ridin’ sixteen hours and there’s nothin’ much to do. we’ll survive somehow.

now that the simpson’s movie is weeks away from release, i’ve given in and become a pawn in the game.

i’ve wanted for years to have a caricature done in the likeness of groening’s creations – it was worth the wait.

one thing i’ve always enjoyed about the show is their willingness to offend anyone and everyone – christians, muslims, hindus, whites, blacks, jews, gay, straight, men, women – nothing is sacred (and thank goodness).

i occasionally meet folks who are offended by the portrayal of God / Jesus / Christians in the show but i look again at the point: non-christians look at us and THINK WE REALLY ARE LIKE THIS or that we believe this or that about God! it’s a caricature of the real thing, a stereotype – but it’s what people think.

and if it takes a cartoon to offend us, make us step back and say, “geez – do i really (act / think / believe) this way? is this what people see when they see me?” then i’m all for it.

want your own Simpson’s likeness? www.simpsonsmovie.com – click on the section about making your own avatar and have fun!

7-11 turns stores into kwik-e-marts – promo for new simpsons movie.

hee hee!!

we got to see a lot of good friends. ate crabs. stayed up late talking. played cards.

dolby got to hang out with his old friend, Ace. they got into some wonderful fights and rough playing over dolby’s toys (Ace won 98% of the arguments because he’s just a smooth and cool dog – dolby’s not refined enough yet).

and now i offer the pictures to you. enjoy. or not.

we got lise a new car today. pretty little 2003 Saturn Ion with 28,000 miles on it in excellent shape and taken very good care of by previous owner. her old 2000 Saturn SL2 has 156,000 miles and, while it’s been very dependable, i’ve been concerned about moving 1,000 miles away from her family and her obvious desire to visit as often as possible. this was my solution.

so my black ion, her white ion, living together in perfect harmony.

my car’s name is Shaniqua (because she’s black and beautiful). i’ve suggested that lise name her car something like bob. or jim. or steve. we’ll see.

waterdeep coming out with their first album in years.

…

today in maryland

while lise and i were out acting strange with old (young) friends…

(pretending to catch flies?)

(imitating a cat throwing up?)

(doing a bill the cat impersonation?)

…

dolby sat at home and wondered…

…

will they ever be back??

…

and don’t they WUV ME???

me: “why do you bother keeping me around? it doesn’t make any sense to me.”

lise: “i figure, ‘it’s extra income.’”

• the house has been up for eight days now and we’ve not gotten a single call. am i freaked? am i worried? naw. not yet. we knew this was gonna be a tough row to hoe when we set out to sell. the market is poor and there’s a glut of houses in cheviot / cincinnati up for sale – some better, many worse than our nifty little place.
• i’ve got my first interview this thursday with the principal of a school in pensacola – much excitement, obviously!
• lise’s been in toledo for a couple days visiting with her mom. a good visit was had and she’s all rested, relaxed and ready to hit maryland for a couple days.
• my wife = pure awesome. even with my mom’s finger up her nose.
• we leave for maryland later this morning for what will likely be our last trip there for a while. from cincy to maryland, it’s 550 miles. from cincy to pensacola it’s 750 miles. from pensacola to maryland it’s 1000 miles. zowie! but we’re not focusing on that – we’re looking forward to hanging with barb & joe plus seeing many of our kids from youth groups past. it’s gonna be a great time.
• and speaking of youth group kids: when did i give them permission to get jobs, get married, move away, start families, etc?? i thought they were supposed to stay 16 forever? hee hee. the truth is, this is where a lot of the fruit of ministry is seen – to watch them take the foundational things laid in years past and put them to work as adults – priceless, dudes, priceless.
• i’m almost finished with the book Wicked – and i liiike it! my friend amanda calls it her favorite book and she loaned me her copy. it was one of those books that you take, flip through, get discombobulated by big words, confusing names, unknown places and decide, “i’ll lie and tell her i started reading it, didn’t like it, and am just giving it back” but then… yeah, i decided to read two chapters, just so i wouldn’t have to lie. next thing i know, it’s 4/5 of the way through the book and i’m wondering how it’ll end!
• new tunes i’ve been listening to & like: sarah carr told me to check out augustana and snow patrol, so i did. they’re both pretty good, but i’m leaning towards augustana. chris brown’s self-titled album is pretty cool. alan parsons put an album out a couple years ago i just recently got called A Valid Path. a techno-alan-parsons? veddy iiinterestink!
• new tunes that aren’t impressing me: joss stone (borrring). john legend. acoustic alchemy (Zzzzzzzz…).
• new tunes i WANT SO BAD TO LIKE and i DON’T HATE but…: ry cooder’s My Name Is Buddy. hearing cooder do dustbowl-like tunes is… i dunno. i just dunno.
• i get shocked every other day or so when i realize: we’re moving the last week of july to pensacola. that’s 4-5 weeks away! holy CRAP! people to see, family to hang with, things to pack, apartment to find and rent, people to say goodbye to – we’ve been so busy getting the house ready that the time has just flown by.

if you’re in the area, please make it a point to holler at us and lets get together before we go!

and now, it’s almost 2am. sleep is welcome.

g’night.

when we first bought this place, there were many things that needed to be replaced or fixed or just plain thrown out. the wiring is a brittle cloth romex – wires covered in cloth. the panel in the basement was a vintage 1927 fusebox with three different boards and no central switch. the light fixtures in the ceilings are architectural antiques and (in my opinion) are butt-ugly. among the things that needed to be replaced were some light switches that were ancient and scary. i had a great time with several of the switches, but when it came to the one in the bedroom, i didn’t know what to do.

it sparked. it worked. usually.

it clicked LOUD. LOUD!

i bought a switch, popped the plate off, and couldn’t figure out what had exploded inside. what a mess! the switch was like nothing i’d ever seen before, and to top it off, the previous folks had plastered around it, so you couldn’t even get the thing out (if you even knew where to start!!) – i was at a loss, and was spooked.

i put the plate back on, prayed that the thing wouldn’t spark a fire (and with cloth-covered wiring)…

well, this sucker finally gave up the ghost about a month ago. we resorted to using the bedside lamps instead of messing with the switch, and i swore i’d figure out a way to get that thing out of the wall and replace it.

thank gosh for uncle ken.

this guy is the king of old houses – he and aunt sharon lived for decades in what used to be a mid-1800’s one room school house in Milford – he’d done everything you can imagine to keep up, replace, fix, and renovate this old place.

he and sharon were in town last week and they came over to the house – i snagged him part way through the party and asked him to take a look at the switch. 15 seconds later he’s hammering at the plaster around it, yanking on crumbling old wires, tugs, pulls, and asks me if i’ve got a new switch. dashing madly, i find the replacement, bring the needed tools, hit the circuit to turn off the current, and next thing i know, he pulls what you see in the pictures above out of the wall.

it’s one of the simplest switches i’ve ever seen, housed in a ceramic base. never seen anything like it before. the reason it wasn’t working was that the ceramic base cracked in two and the connection wasn’t being made with the terminal.

oh, but the joy of owning an older home.

and please call if you’re wanting to buy a charming home in Cincinnati.

after months of preparation and work, the house is finally listed and up for sale. mike, our realtor, came by yesterday, took pictures, put finishing touches on the contract, got the last of the information we needed, signed here, initialed there, and we were set. as a free service, he reminded us of what we’re getting ourselves into – both an encouragement and a warning, given the current market.

but we ain’t worried about it.

yet.

we’re hoping for a quick sale at the price we’re asking, but we’re not really putting any hardcore expectations on it and not getting excited about the possibility. we’ve rolled with everything so far, there’s no sense in stopping that mindset now.

it’s a funny thing: through all this work on the house, we honestly didn’t realize how beat up the place was. chipped paint, bad paint, old fixtures, caked on dust and dirt, grime, grease, non-working parts, etc. – we were so happy to have the place at all that we didn’t notice the stuff. now that we’ve completely redone the appearance of much of the inside/outside, it looks better than it ever has.

i’ve put some pictures up of how things look now – feel free to browse and make comments.

i expected to be much more melancholy about the whole thing than i am – we’re so relaxed and at peace about this move to pensacola that it’s an unusual sensation to be just completely chill about it all.

many thanks to family and friends who have been so supportive – helping us paint, wallpaper, clean, encouraging us each step of the way.

Thoughts?

• i’m a very good test taker and the test is multiple choice – elimination of two obvious non-answers was easy for me – i took both the K-6 and the ESE exams and passed both.
• however, i’ve also been in education in one form or another for the last 16 years – there was much in the test that wasn’t real difficult if you’ve been around good teachers and good practices – i’ve been very fortunate to have been taught by the best
• ALSO, i’ve got an undergrad degree in youth ministry (read: teaching) and 18 grad credits at xavier university in special education.
• BE WARNED: if you don’t have a background in phonics and foundations of literacy, you’re going to be hurting. both the FTCE K-6 and the FTCE ESE (education of students with exceptionalities) were LOADED with questions regarding literacy, reading and writing processes and phonics education – good books to catch up with in this area include Phonics They Use and Writer’s Workshop – both of these books address most of the literacy questions you’ll encounter.
• i did not study for the exam – i took a practice test on both of them and decided to go into it blind – i don’t study well for wide-ranging tests like this. i DID, however, buy a study guide (but didn’t use it) and can recommend one in particular: FTCE (REA) by anne price davis. the other helps i saw out there pale in comparison. it’s also better than the $5 test booklet you can get from the state. in fact, i’d say the state test prep book is a waste – it tells you the principles you need to know but doesn’t teach them to you – this book does.
• feel free to contact me at youthdude at gmail.com and ask me specific questions.

for some stunning sunsets, scroll down towards the bottom – spectacular show – first two days down there the sunsets were marginal but then the full moon rose behind us, then two later days the sunsets blew our minds! all part of the reason our pensacola ritual involves being on the beach every night as the sun goes down. zow!

they’re small and may not look perfect, but be patient – i can only do so much with my little pocket pc.

well, our first real disappointment in the move to florida has hit over the last two days. it’s not a roadblock, it’s just a bump.

we looked at houses yesterday and today and things are gonna take a bit longer and require more patience than we thought. while it’s a buyers market here in the area, what the buyer has to choose from is less than exciting. houses are all very similar in appearance and not well kept up (at least in the area we looked and within our pricerange). we’re gonna end up with less house for the money but with a lot more property than we’re used to.

we’re keeping an open mind and aren’t in a HUGE hurry to find something we love anyway – couldn’t afford two mortgages even if we could get approved for another one.

despite this disappointment, we had a great day. got to see more of the area, bought a tiki, sat for a BEAUTIFUL sunset and just had a great time.