A Happy Birthday Song of the Day #2 - Cry When You Get Older - Robyn

Young boy, by the traffic light
What your daddy never told you
Is love hurts when you do it right
You can cry when you get older

Not only is this Thanksgiving Week, but around these parts it's Birthday Week, as well.  Yesterday was my bestie Rich's birthday and today is the birthday of yet another bestie, Kyle.  Kyle is one of my friends that I know from bowling and we've become pretty close over the past two years or so.  In that short time...well...he and I have gotten to know each other pretty darned well to a point where we stand today.  He is probably the one friend who I spend the most time with and I want to wish him the best of birthdays.

Kyle is a youngin', 25 years old today, and a lot of times I feel like I'm not only his friend, but kinda sort of his mentor, as well.  From what I know of him, Kyle is one of those people who's always found a comfortable spot in hanging around people older and wiser than he, and he not only found myself as one to look up to, but a whole slew of us from bowling, too.  Al, Eric and Rick, Gary, J.C., Eric C., Bobby and Rich, and a whole host of fellow bowlers have all shared in helping to guide this genuine young man through these past few years, and though he doesn't always realize how much he is loved by all of us, he really is a special part of this extended group of friends.

  

Out of all of us, Kyle, myself and our pal Gary have been among the closest, and the trhee of us have shared plenty of good times together, as well, from our Monday night jaunt to Coney Island this summer, to catching up and teaching Kyle the great, great show, Six Feet Under, to gay nights at Great Adventure, P-Town, parties, bowling and more, the friendship that we share as three is a special one, too!

Anyway, last night Kyle was trying to guess which song I was going to post today for his b'day, and though he made some good guesses, he got it wrong.  I realized that although I've spoken about soundtracks of relationships in the past, it's not only romantic relationships that can have a soundtrack.  One of the things that bind he and I together is our love for music, and though we have some differences in our musical tastes, there are certain tunes that we both love, and today's song is one which I believe introduced him to Robyn (via me!) and one that fits this particular day and week for that matter.  I'm not too sure about him, maybe it's too early, but I am certainly crying cause I got older, lol.  Anyway, for what it's worth, Happy Birthday my friend!

Sunday, October 21, 2012: Bowling...Who'd a Thought?; More Teacher Bashing

universal scraps

Sunday is such a unique day of the week.  Normally, I love a Sunday morning, especially a beautiful one like today.  In the morning, the rest of the day is filled with possibility of relaxation, enjoyment, and who knows what else, but then as the day wears on, workday Monday begins to loom and my whole attitude changes.  Ah, well, such is life, right?

Eventbrite

Bowling...Who'd a Thought?

Last night, one of my new bowling buddies, Tim, invited me to a party that one of his teammates was giving.  Tim's team was the team that my team played on the first night of bowling and that became my wonderful introduction to a whole new gay world.  Who'd a thought?

The guys on Tim's team, Tim, Sean, Al and Steve...(well Steve's the only one I don't really know yet)...are all fun, genuine people, and I already consider Tim and Sean good friends. Al was the one who hosted the party and there were plenty of guys from the league there, all plu's, and all really nice.  After all of my lamentations about the single life these past few years, I only wish I had done this sooner, and I'm looking forward more than ever to getting to know more people and expanding my circle of friends.

More Teacher Bashing 

One of the things I like about Sunday mornings is reading the Sunday paper.  It's a lifetime Sunday morning ritual that I look forward to, though it's not always a pleasant experience.  I only read the paper once a week because almost always there are things in there that get my blood boiling, like today.  My hometown newspaper is called Newsday, and it's a pretty respectable paper for a non-metropolitan area periodical, though quite often it gets me frustrated!

For the past nine-plus years, I've made my living as a teacher, and it's taken that long for me to become a little jaded at my profession.  I became a teacher for many reasons: it makes good use of my natural talents, I love working with kids, and I have an innate compassion for my students that transcends just teaching.  My students and I are as close as you can get to being a family, and I've been fortunate enough to have maintained contact with many of my students long after they've graduated.

To me, teaching is one of the most honorable professions a person can take on.  Teachers are tasked with a huge undertaking, which in reality is helping to prepare our young ones to be productive and contributive towards society...our society.  Children are our future and teaching them is a teacher's way of contributing to our society today and into the coming years.  So why then do so many people seemingly hate teachers?

Teacher bashing has become a very popular activity these past several years.  For whatever reason (I have my thoughts), teachers have become so vilified in today's society, and part of the problem is that the media seems to only fan those flames, like Newsday has done today.

The cover of today's paper features a headline that reads: LI Teachers: Take a Course, Get a Raise, with a subtitle, Easy Money: Questionable classes boost salaries, costing taxpayers.  The imagery featured between the headline and subtitle is a listing of various courses, I would guess deemed 'questionnable" by the paper.

The key word here, of course, is 'taxpayers.'  Therein lies the source of teacher bashing in today's world, and Newsday once again is irresponsibly fanning the flames of disgust and vitriol against my profession.  The special 'investigation' takes up the entire first five pages of today's paper, and goes on to make a case at how teachers hike up their salaries by taking meaningless courses of required professional development.  The article points to several seemingly ridiculous courses that appear to have nothing to do with teaching, and yes, I would agree that there are teachers who take such courses not for the knowledge, but for the money, but what I have issue with here are all of the implications the article makes, and how certain, specific details are highlighted in order to fan those flames.

My question here is: Is Newsday a friend of education or purposely trying to vilify the teaching profession by inciting certain anger towards us on the part of its readers?   There's a lot more I wish to say about this, and so I feel a piece coming on for Examiner, which is likely to get more views than this blog post, so stay tuned for that...

A Beautiful Autumn Sunday

There, now that I've spoken my piece, I'm going to get moving and head on out to enjoy this absolutely typical and gorgeous autumn day.  Too bad I have no one to share it with, though...sigh!  This is one of those kinds of days where I wished I had someone...  Anyway, thanks as always for checking me out.  Enjoy the day!

 

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September 19, 2012: School Days; LIPSA's Tuesday Night Tease; New Music Week

I've been in the right frame of mind for writing all day and now that I've sat down in front of the computer my mind draws blanks!  Isn't that the way?  I tell ya, I'm not sure if it's just me or life in general these days, but there always seems to be so much going on I need about another 3 or 4 hours in each day to catch up!

cbsnews

School Days

Today was only the 10th day of the new school year and already it feels like November!  My population of students has risen and a lot of the newer kids are older, in 9th or 10th grade, and don't speak a lick of English.  Talk about a tall order!  These kids have to pass five state exams AND learn English all within the next couple of years, and I'm the one steering the ship.

I tell you, I sometimes don't even know how I do it, but I trudge on.  My days are filled from morning until late afternoon putting out fires, and handling a million things at once, all the while trying to plan lessons and teach, oh, and occasionally make a trip to the restroom.  And the few minutes I get to breathe in between, all I think about are posts I'd like to post or articles I'd like or need to pen.  By the time I get in front of the pc, though....see above!  Sigh!

LIPSA Bowling

One thing I knew I wanted to talk about here was a new bowling league I started playing in last night.  The league, called Tuesday Night Tease and run by the Long Island Pride Sports Association, is something I've had my eye on for awhile and I finally joined.  I've been searching for a long, long time for a place to meet other "PLU's," other than a bar or online, and I think I may have found just the place.

I was hesitant to go it alone, so I asked my bud Rich to join me, but unfortunately Mr. Deet has suffered from what he thinks may be a pinched nerve (I know, ouch!), and so as of yesterday it was just me and me alone with the gay bowling boys.

Of course I was nervous when I first got to the bowling alley. I had missed the first week last week due to Open House at school, so not only was I new, but I was coming in after the start of the season.  I met Glenn, who runs the league, and was introduced to my first new teammate, Mike.  Mike is a newbie like me and he was the only bowler on our then rag tag team for the first week.  

Within minutes, my two other teammates, who were also starting last night, came in, Michael and Ray.  I'd seen both of them around here and there, but had never met them.  All three guys are pleasant, and I'm looking forward to getting to know them better.  The team we were bowling against were old timers, three awesome people by the names of Sean, Tim and Al.  Within moments I was totally at ease and having a ball.

conflictingclarity

The MeetBalls

When the night began, we were simply known as Team #18, and so we had to come up with a name.  Since all four of us are of Italian descent, one of us suggested we give ourselves a name with an Italian slant, and after considering that The Scungili or The Calamari were more suited to lesbian teams, we decided on the MeetBalls.  I'm not sure if I love it, but it's cool enough.

Since he was the first real member of the team, we decided to have Mike be the team captain, and he fit the bill perfectly.  Mike is a good guy, yakking it up with everybody, giving us all encouragement along the way and he really took the charge by suggesting that we meet for a bite afterwards to get to know each other a little better.  So afterwards, the four of us, Sean and Tim, and two friends who had come to watch Michael and Ray went to Applebees, where we did indeed get to know each other a little better.

In the end, the whole night was great fun.  I'm sure that Michael and Ray and Mike are going to be very cool and maybe we'll all end up friends.  Sean is a huge Madonna fan, which you know I like, and Tim is simply a big sweetheart of a guy.  From what I saw, most of the people in the league seemed very nice and friendly, as well.  This could turn out to be one of the best things I've done in awhile!

usmagazine

New Music Bonus Week

This week has been a big, big week for new music!  Of course, yesterday was the release of the long-awaited new album from P!nk, The Truth About Love.  I've listened to it a few times already and I'm already loving it big time!  Stay tuned for track reviews of all the songs coming soon.  

Another favorite of mine, Nelly Furtado, came out with her latest, The Spirit Indestructible, which I'm listening to at the moment.  It's taking me a little bit longer to ingrain these songs into my head, but I'm liking it more and more with each listen.

To round things out, Christina Aguilera's first single from her forthcoming album came out.  I've listened to Your Body a few times also and I have to say that so far I'm a little disappointed.  I mean, it's okay, but not popping like I would have expected, especially for a first single.  Maybe it'll grow on me.  In the same vain are two new long-awaited songs by Missy Elliot.  9th Inning and Triple Threat (the title cut from her forthcoming album) both feature Missy with longtime collaborator Timbaland, but like XTina, neither song has that oomph I would have liked.  We'll see...

As always, thanks for reading.  I do hope to become a bit more regular with my posts on here.  Of course you can stay tuned for more Songs of the Day and those P!nk track reviews, and whatever else I come up with... 

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Sunday, March 18th, 2012: Back to the Personal; Splash Waning; Bowling

Happy Sunday! Today is going to be a beautiful day, with sunny skies and temps in the 60’s. It’s really amazing how weather can affect your mood. I would imagine that people who live in places where it doesn’t get cold, though, wouldn’t ever really experience this euphoria that comes with the change of seasons from winter to spring. It’s a feeling like no other! Now I’ve just got to put my head down, write what I’ve got to write and get out there to enjoy it!

Back to the Personal

As many of my regular readers may have noticed, the blog has changed in recent months from what it used to be. During this time I’ve gotten away from more of the personal side of my life and a little more into music tidbits, interesting items, and of course, my “Songs of the Day.” I know that most blogs should really focus on one specific thing in order to be really successful, but I can’t help it, I’m not a single-minded type of guy. I have many different interests and I like to spread myself around, so to speak.

With that said, I have tried to stay a little bit more away from the personal side of stuff, but I’ll not abandon it completely. I call this blog “John’s World,” because that’s exactly what it is: my world. I think that in their entirety my posts give people a sense of who I am as a person and who knows, maybe this will end up being my legacy.

So from time to time, like now, I’m still going to pen some personal memoirs…I know that there are some out there that enjoy reading my trials and tribulations, no matter how sappy or trivial. They’ve not stopped, so neither will my talking about them. It just won’t be as often as in the past…


The new XL nightclub is giving Splash a run for its money!

Splash Waning

For the first time in a long time, I went to Splash on a Saturday night. It was a last minute decision, because I went bowling last night and got a late start out of my house so I wasn’t sure whether or not I would make it by 12 (that’s when the price doubles!). I had originally wanted to go to the new XL, which I haven’t tried yet, but since I got out of my house late, I just opted for my usual standby. XL is undoubtedly the hot spot these days in NYC, and I can tell from both the photos they put on Facebook and the size of the crowds at Splash.

For the past several weeks, Splash has been undergoing a renovation, presumably to try and win back some of the clientele it has certainly lost to the newer and supposedly larger midtown nightclub. The place is somewhat of a mess, with the whole front section of the upstairs being reconstructed. The new bar there is in place and to me it doesn’t look too different from before???

Time will tell whether or not these renovations will make a difference, but for the time being things are definitely not the same. The crowds are much sparser than they once were and last night DJ John Marto was conspicuously absent from his downstairs gig, at least while I was there. It used to be that down there would get just as packed in as upstairs with people who prefer a more pop sound to their dance music, but there was no one dancing to the automated video/dance music.

Needless to say, Splash is still a city club and the place wasn’t empty by any means. The crowd was still much larger than a LI club, and the music was pretty good, too. Unfortunately I made the choice to run up to the Ritz around 1:30, but even that place was packing them in more-so than Splash, as there was a hefty line outside waiting to get in. I figured with such a line it would be way too crowded so I chose not to wait and opted to head home. I should have stayed where I was!

I think that next week is the time to try XL, finally. Stay tuned for that…


XL Nightclub, Facebook

Bowling

I’m not sure if I ever mentioned this before on here, but once a month I bowl in a league. It’s the first such time since I was a kid and I joined as a favor to my friend Reet, whose friend asked her to join. This particular one-Saturday-per-month league is called “Just Friends,” and it is not a serious league by any means. Many of the bowlers kind of stink, and up until recently it really hasn’t been that much fun….key words “until recently.”

The past two times we bowled were a lot of fun! I’m not sure if it’s the company, the beer, or a combination of the two, but I become absolutely giddy when I’m there. I like making jokes and playing around with people. Just last month there was this one lady who was what I like to call a “chucker.” That is, whenever she bowls, the ball flies in the air about half-way down the lane, crashing with a loud thud before moving on towards the pins. No matter how many times she went, every single time up she’d chuck that ball, which I found to be so funny, especially considering her, um, large stature.

Not that I am any better…My form when I bowl is much better than when I was younger, but still a little odd. As a kid, for some crazy reason whenever I bowled my left leg used to kick up high and to the side, lol. I don’t know why that was, but it was. I credit my childhood friend Marc’s dad for helping me rid myself of that embarrassing habit. I remember him on the last day of our league, going up with me every time it was my turn and forcing me to concentrate on not kicking my leg up. Unfortunately, in the years since, I’ve developed another irregular method of bowling: these days I stumble!

Yes, I don’t know if it’s because I take too many steps before I reach the foul line or whether I’m just too excited to be doing what I’m doing, but almost every time I throw the ball, I stumble. Sometimes I even fall forward, having to brace myself from falling completely down.

Last night we bowled against a really fun team, and it was finally somebody else’s turn to make fun of me. They were cheering for us and we were reciprocating, laughing the whole night long and having the best time ever. At the end of the night, one of the ladies came up to me and told me that I had such a “fun” method of bowling, that it was “unique and hysterical.” Well, I’ll never be a serious bowler, and so I guess my bowling style has to fit my giddy personality when I’m at the lanes.

By the way, our team began last night in third place overall. Not bad, huh? And we won two out of the three games we played and maybe next week we’ll inch a little closer to first. Ya never know!






Well that’s all she wrote, for now! Time to get out there and enjoy this beautiful gorgeous day…enjoy!

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October 5th, 2011 - Tailer's Broken; Bowling for Pizza; Let's Go Yankees!

Happy Hump Day everyone! I know it’s a little late in the day to celebrate Hump Day, but it is an especially good one since there’s a 3-day weekend coming up. The weather really got beautiful today after what seemed like two weeks of rain and cold temperatures. I actually woke up freezing this morning, but thankfully things warmed up as the day wore on and now its primo comfortable!

It’s been a long couple of weeks and I’m frustrated because I haven’t been writing. Things have been so busy lately that I haven’t had too much time to write and when I do find a little time, I’ve been getting writer’s block. I see stories and get ideas all day long, and when I’m in front of my pc…nothing! I just hope things slow down so I can get my groove back on. Anyway, back to my story…


A broken coccyx

Source: Buzzle

Yup, it’s broken!

I did not go to work today. Instead, I paid a visit to my doctor because I couldn’t take the pain anymore. For some reason the literal ‘pain in my butt’ has been getting worse instead of better these past few days and it’s been so bad it’s even been keeping me awake at night. You don’t realize how much pressure your tailbone takes until you hurt it. Ouch!

Anyway, as I thought, the tailer’s broken and there’s nothing they could do about it, which is what I expected. They gave me pills, of course, only one that I’ve taken so far. They’re anti-inflammatories and so I don’t think they’re going to do much. The one I took a few hours ago hasn’t done anything. We’ll see…

I tell ya, I have a new appreciation for those who live with chronic pain. After about two and a half weeks of this, I am kinda sorta cranky and a little down. Through all of the busy-ness that has been my life lately, being in constant pain just makes it worse. It sucks too, because before that damned fall I was on top of my game, and now I’ve lost it. I guess I’ve just gotta wait it out…


Source: Te Deum laudamus!

Bowling for pizza

I think that maybe one of the reasons I was hurting especially bad this morning was because I bowled last night. I joined a once-a-month bowling league with my friend Rita and we had to make up the night that we missed last night because we signed up late. Bowling was not the sole cause of my pain, but it definitely didn’t help as I literally crashed once I got home at 10:45, which is really early for me.

I haven’t bowled in years! I used to be in a league when I was a kid and I always enjoyed it. In fact, I still have the same ball from when I was like 13 years old, lol. Rita and I are going to be bowling with her friend Karen and her boyfriend Joe. I’d met Karen once before and liked her, and the two of them were looking for something fun to do and so they chose this really laid back league. While most leagues play for money, this one awards bowlers with an even better prize: pizza. And the #1 team gets pepperoni on theirs. Woo hoo! (Hehe, I’m joking…I think!)

All in all it was a fun night. We bowled right here in Patchogue, a place where I deejayed “Friday Night Bowl” once upon a time. I was the first one who arrived, and to my pleasant surprise there was actually a gay bowling league going on. I’d heard about the league, but that was a long time ago and I didn’t know they still played, and on Tuesday nights. I remembered it right away when I saw a couple of familiar faces. I gotta say it was weird to see so many gay men outside of a gay bar.

Hmmm???? I’m gonna have to put that one in the mental register for another time!
Anyway, once we were all there we saddled up to our lanes and bowled. It’s been at least four years since I last bowled and wouldn’t you know it, my first two rolls were strikes! Yeah baby, I still got it! Well, sort of. I started off like a house on fire and bowled a 166 my first game, but as the games wore on I got tired and I wasn’t feeling too good, so my game got worse. Not too shabby, though, for the first time in a long time. I bowled a 118 and a 120 in the last two games. Cool!


Source: CBS

Let’s Go Yankees!

I’ve been a sports fan ever since I was a kid, and the Yankees were always a part of that so even though I don’t usually watch them too often, I’m keeping an eye on them in the playoffs. Say what you want about the Yankees, but money does not always equal quality and so at least they get quality enough for their money to be in it virtually every year. You can’t say that about any other sports team, I think.

Anyway, last night the Yanks needed a win to tie the series with Detroit or go home. The game was on at the bowling alley and when we left it was 5-1, Yankees. They eventually won 10-1, which I’m not too happy about. Whenever they score too many runs, they can never seem to buy any their next game. Let’s hope that I’m wrong.

Post Script

Oh, like I said before, there are so many stories I want to talk about here and on the other sites I write for, but there’s no time. I have been following with great interest the Wall Street Protests. I’m just salivating to weigh in on it, and I will, but hopefully not too late in the game. I am hoping that it gets even more attention than I’ve seen it getting, which is a whole story unto itself. In any case, I think that if more people knew about it they would pay more attention to it, which is definitely a good thing!

Walmartian of the Day

Oh well, Writing Wednesday’s gonna come late this week. It’s just par for the course! I leave you with our Walmartian of the Day. These guys are hot, aren’t they? Shopping for a Saturday night dinner on the porch…



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