Musings- April Fool's Day

I'm sitting at my desk and having to take a step back and reflect for a bit.  The stress of the day has gotten me down.  I'm not sure if it's the kids or all the paper I deal with.  It's probably an insidious combination of both.

Tomorrow is April Fool's Day.  I used to like April Fool's Day.  But, there is only so many times you can hear kids say "Do you know what today is, Mr. Stortz?  It's Tuesday- April fools!"  Or "Guess what I had for breakfast Mr. Stortz?  Waffles- April fools!"  Or the ubiquitously popular "Your shoe is untied Mr. Stortz.  April fools!"  You see, six and seven year olds don't exactly "get" (air quotes mine) April Fool's Day.  Of course this never stops them from trying.
 
It should be more like "I'm going to play well with others today, Mr. Stortz.  April fools!"  Or "I'm going to complete all my tasks in a timely manner today Mr. Stortz.  April fools!"

I think I'm going to hide behind my locked classroom door tomorrow morning.  I'll put a sign up that reads: Class canceled on account of irony."  The sad thing is, I will be the only one to "get" it (air quotes still mine).

Musings- Financial Crisis

Politics have never been a strong interest of mine. I've always felt it should be though. I mean, it's important, right? The problem is, I have lots of great excuses-

It's too hard to follow.
I don't know where to get my information.
I don't understand most of it.
Who do I trust?
How does this affect me?

That's why I'm so thankful when simple things come along to make it easier for me to figure out what is going on. Check out this video below. It is about how America got into this financial crisis. It is simple with LOTS of visuals- my kind of video. Give it a view, it's only 11 minutes long. (Don't worry, I'm still going to have to watch 4 or 5 times to take it all in.)


The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.