I started thinking about Middle School and High School the other day. I think that it is a wonder that anyone would make it through these 7 years of hazing. In my case, I went to an inner city school. It’s a miracle that the people in my middle school made it through the week.

My day started out unlike any other student’s day. We boarded our bus. Maybe the school bully would try to beat you up. The bus driver usually just let it happen. The culture is such that most people are desensitized to violence. Only the third time that this much older and larger boy tried to grab me sexually on the bus did the bus driver intervene.

I thought that was lucky. It wasn’t the first time or the last time that I would have had someone much older than me attempt a mini sexual assault during school hours with an adult present.

Through all of this we fought to get good grades and to make something of ourselves. We lived in a world where each 45 minute class had about 30 minutes of screaming and fighting which sometimes ended with teachers getting broken bones. The morning announcements actually included a obituary for any kids who had been killed over the weekend. I have to give the teachers who still cared a lot of credit. There were not many of them.

I am going to share with you two experiences that had an impact on me.

Bad

I used to help out at the school library. I did this because I did not want to go to lunch. The cafeteria might as well have been an unsupervised pit fight. I remember one day the school principal came through the library to find me reading a book.

She immediately started yelling at me as loudly as she could. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THE LIBRARY? GET TO CLASS! GET TO CLASS!”

I calmly explained to her that this was just my lunch period. I had just finished my library help for the day and was reading a book until class began. She would have none of this. She just increased the volume of her screaming and said that I was “NOT ALLOWED TO CUT LUNCH”. The librarians came out to see what the (loud) problem was and told her it was OK. I had permission to be in the library during lunch. The principal just turned and started bellowing at the librarians. She then called security. I ran out the door and into the hallway. How dare I read? How dare I not sit downstairs and get beaten up?

How dare I , indeed.

To this day I remember this because no other interaction more powerfully highlighted what my school was really about. It is about pushing kids to their designated rooms and keeping them locked up. Even if you were a quiet bookworm, you were treated like if you were the Bloods or Crips. It literally was jail. I had a lot of contempt for the kids who would act like idiots. How could you possibly want to stay in this place?

Good

Mrs. Perry was my 6th grade Reading teacher. By some miracle, she was actually really nice. Baseball was a really big deal in my town. I wrote a paper in her class that was honored by the city. My prize was 2 tickets to the baseball game. I remember how proud my teacher was when she gave me my tickets.

The day after she gave me my tickets, she asked me if I was going to the game. Of course I was not. My family did not want to be bothered with it as usual. I told her that they were not taking me.

The following day she asked me if she might get permission from my parents to let her take me to the game herself. It was not until that moment that I realized that I had actually been sad that no one wanted to go with me.

My parents gave her permission. True to her word she took me to the baseball game and even bought me a pretzel the size of my head out of her own pocket money. She introduced me to her husband and 3 children on the ride home. I will remember that for the rest of my life.

Bad teachers suck but the good ones don’t get enough credit.

This has to be the funniest and/or most weird interpretation of Mario EVAR. Did I just hear them mention KY Jelly???!?!?!?

Brother Firetribe is the guitarist of Nightwish’s band. They have produced the song, “Heart Full of Fire” with Nightwish lead singer Anette Olzon. I was surprised at how different she sounds on this song. Anette Olzon sounds really good with Brother Firetribe. Check it out here on The Rock Blog.

I agree that the way the production was done on this track suits her voice better than how Nightwish’s Dark Passion Play was produced. I obviously like them both, but you can really hear how she sings naturally with Brother Firetribe without all of the effects over her. When I first head DPP, I had mistakenly thought that she was relying on a pitch shifter and not actually singing the notes because of how processed the end result sounded.

This Brother Firetribe track is how she sounded when I saw her live in a small room with just a few people in the audience.

This is a really hot track!

I just uploaded this 13 x 19 ink sketch to my sketchbook. It is a work in progress.

It looks like we have some drama surrounding the Microsoft Zune. For quite a while the Zune Guy was thought to be some sort of marketing ploy by Microsoft. This man has gotten Microsoft Zune tattoos, plus tried to change his name to “Microsoft Zune”.

Not only is this man a real Microsoft Zune fan, but he has recently turned into an ex-Microsoft Zune fan. He is now going to have his Zune tattoos removed. What could possibly have caused all of this?

He says that Microsoft’s treatment of him did.

- He claims Microsoft offered to fly them out to the Redmond location, but changed their mind at the last minute. [Link.]

- Microsoft release a statement to Engadget that said, “according to reps from Microsoft we spoke with, the trip was never confirmed — only discussed — and ultimately canceled due to the very reasonable fear that it might lead a lot of “hyper-engaged users” to expect a trip of their own (though they did hook our man up with a free Zune and some related swag).”

The upshot? Zune Guy just bought an 80 gig iPod. [Link]