What's on my mind....

Some random thoughts, musings and reactions....

Yesterday the Senate voted 49-48 against ending debate on a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Bill Frist, the leader of the Republican Party in the Senate brought the debate to the floor of the Senate despite the fact that he knew there weren't enough votes for it to pass. You see, this is an election year and the Republicans aren't polling well. Apparently the Republicans have gotten all the mileage they're going to get out of the abortion issue, so the new issue of choice to really get the far right-wing conservative base fired up is gay marriage. Nothing gets those "Christian" right-wingers going like a little hatred and bigotry. And Frist needs to whip up that base because he is planning on running for president in 2008.

Did you here that scientists have finally discovered extra-terrestrial life? Well maybe they have. How the hell did this story just slip through the cracks? Check out the story on CNN.com. It seems these mysterious red cells which don't resemble any life form on earth fell during sporadic rain showers across India during the summer of 2001. One scientist has theorized that the cells are extra-terrestrial bacteria that came from a comet or meteor that broke up in the earth's atmosphere and got caught up in rain clouds. If true, this is the biggest scientific discovery since fire. And this is the first we're hearing about it.

With just 5 student days and 2 professional days left in this school year, I'm seeing light at the end of the tunnel. There are 9 weeks of "free" time waiting, and I'm just itching to get there. This has been a rough school year for me, and I'll be relieved to have it behind me. Next year is a huge question mark (new district administration, new school principal, new curriculum), but I don't need to worry about that for another 2 1/2 months.

Ursprache

Did anyone else watch the National Spelling Bee last night? I never would have guessed, but boy did that make for good television! I was on the edge of my seat. It was dramatic and gripping, and most surprisingly the pace was good. I thought it would be slow and tedious, but they really keep things moving. Anyway, the bee came down to a battle between 2 eighth grade girls, one from Canada and one from New Jersey. They went back and forth like 4 or 5 rounds, each spelling their words correctly - and I really thought it was going to end up as a tie. I didn't realize this before, but apparently they only pick a set number of words each year. If they run out of words before the contest gets down to a single speller, then the contest ends in a tie. But apparently that hasn't happened in like 40 years. So these two girls are going back and forth, totally unflappable, spelling these crazy words until the Canadian girl got the word 'weltschmerz.' You could see by the look on her face that she had never heard the word before, and as her time was counting down you could hear panic creeping into her voice as she repeatedly asked for the definition and pronunciation. She ended up spelling the word with a 'v' rather than a 'w.' A mistake I found surprising since she knew the word was of German origin. The girl from New Jersey won the competition with another Germanic word: 'ursprache.' In contrast to her competitor, it was obvious from the expression on her face that she HAD heard the word before and she knew how to spell it.

So all in all it was a very enjoyable evening of entertainment. I'll watch again next year.