It's over

So the training is over. I'm pretty sure I'll be recertified, but I honestly don't think the other two people should be. In their last interview, they botched it as badly as anyone could have. The candidate was truly angry by the time they finished, and he had every right to be. Oh, well, stuff happens.
Then I was informed that I would be teaching OPSAV for the next 4 weeks. That's a course that focuses on speaking fluency, primarily for pilots and public affairs officers. So all I have to do is devise scenarios for them to speak, then sit back and let them talk. It's actually pretty easy.
That great economy Bush talked about apparently wasn't so great after all. The earnings reports for the quarter he bragged about were terrible, so the stock market dropped 200 points. His mouth spews shit and you just have to wait for reality to make it smell bad enough for people to get it.
I actually must have been in a better mood this week. One of the trainers said I was "sensitive" and a colleague said I always seemed to have a smile on my face. Huh? Me? Just two weeks ago I was accused of being a curmudgeon.
Oh, a colleague of mine and I also had to give a presentation on our trip to Iraq. That was actually kind of fun.

Practice interrogations

OK, so we spent a day practicing the Oral Proficiency Interviews. "Candidates" from Afghanistan, Turkey, El Salvador, and Yemen, which is a pretty interesting group. They all did much better than we did. It's been over 6 years since I did an OPI, so I klutzed around, knowing all the while that my clumsiness made the process that much worse for the student. BUT...we did get a ratable language sample from all of them, and the only one who complained was the one I didn't personally interview.
My fellow students irritated me for a good part of the day. One of them said she "just wasn't into it," so I had to do most of the first interview on my own (two interviewers work together). The other student decided he was the teacher, so a lot of time when we weren't interviewing, we were listening to his bogus lectures. I did get better as the day wore on and I do feel more comfortable, so tomorrow should be better. We'll probably be doing higher level candidates, though. More interesting, but also more complicated and more time consuming. I've done 3 interviews - only 4 more to go.

Curmudgeon

What the hell. I know I'm supposed to like everyone, but I just don't. So that's the problem with the training - I don't like everyone. One person doesn't talk enough. Another just knows that his opinion is superior to facts. But I like the instructor. She's reasonable, helpful, and pleasant. Could we want anything else?
I still can't help feeling trapped, though. I'll go through this week of training, do my best, probably get recertified, all for the privilege of doing extra work for no extra pay. Still, it was a quiet day without much stress.
Dems are finally getting their act together. Hillary, Gore, and Kerry all blasted Bush for the secret spying program.
Other stuff: $38 billion disappeared in Iraq. No accountability. Just gone.
Republicans pretending to want campaign finance reform.
Executive salaries may be made public.
Mayor of New Orleans went nuts for a chocolate city.
And Bush's numbers went up, not because he actually DID anything, but because he's trying to convince everyone everything's ok...they just have to ignore reality like he does. And it seems to be working.

Shoulda

I'm active in the peace movement, so I shoulda marched on Martin Luther King Day. I didn't, though. I stayed home during the day and helped my wife get her art ready for an art auction for abandoned animals. Then later, we went to see the new "Pride and Prejudice." Vera is a Jane Austen fanatic. If there were a PhD in Jane Austen studies, my wife would qualify. Her standards are high. Added to that is the reverence we both have for the A&E version of the novel. So going to this movie was a great risk. We went as skeptics, but WE LOVED IT! We had a great time from beginning to end. The daughters were more vivacious, the story was more about Lizzie and less about Jane, but all in all it was true to Austen and a joyful movie to watch. It let me run away from the world for a while, so I appreciated it from that standpoint.
Tomorrow I go to training for Oral Proficiency Interviews (OPI). These are the wonderful tests we give to make sure students have true practical skills in English, rather than just being able to pass a test. I don't like doing them. It's more work for the same pay, first of all. I also don't believe in the process 100%. And the tests are way too much like interrogations. BUT I have to do it. There aren't enough people who pass the course to get certified, so those of us who do are expected to pull our weight. See, I was overseas for so long, I require refresher training in order to be recertified. So that's my week. The trainer and I don't always get along, either. I won't comment on why - personal, very superficial reasons, to tell the truth. I should be a better person. But hey, I am human after all.
Well, I'm tired and do have to work tomorrow. Hope it's a good week.

A walk in the park

Another quiet day. After I had breakfast and read the Sunday paper, we all went for a walk in OP Schnabel Park here in San Antonio. I was skeptical, since we had to drive through a housing development to get to the entrance, but it's actually a kind of wild place. We even saw two beautiful deer. The park itself is a cedar and oak scrub forest in a flood plain, which is why it hasn't been developed. On the way down a steep bank to the dry creek bed, I slipped and hurt my neck a bit. Didn't say anything so we could finish the walk. The thing I didn't like about the park is all these guys with mountain bikes have decided this is their park, so we had to stand aside more than a few times for macho bikers. I don't know how anyone can be macho in rubber shorts, but these guys tried. The walk was still nice, though, and even the 15-yr-old admitted he'd had fun.
So then we came home to lunch, more forgettable football, and a video session of Gerry doing his forms for Tae Kwon Do. I seem to be having tech problems lately, though. My DV camera, a JVC, should hook up and play just like a VCR, but I can't even find the video jack on the stupid camera! Oh, well...I'll figure it out. I'll have to go on line, though - we can't seem to locate our user's manual.
I have gotten some rest this weekend. I really should go on the MLK march tomorrow but I can't stand crowds. John Courage and his supporters will be there - I hope there's a good showing for him. He's a good man and I hope he can win the primary, then the seat in the House. God bless him.
News is minimal - just the brouhaha about our bombing Pakistan and Ney resigning his chairmanship. I hope it means the Republican Nazi Party is crumbling just a little more.

Baby Steps

So I had a quiet day. My wife was gone most of the day with my 15-yr-old and my 11-yr-old was upstairs playing computer games. I'm reading a book about the 1918 flu pandemic. I'll add comments about it when I finish it. I did watch some very forgettable football today while I read. I also got on my exercise machine, FINALLY, and hope to make a habit of it. If I take a sensible approach, I know I'll be consistent.
Few thoughts of work or the war or politics. I need that.
This evening, the four of us (Vera, the boys, and I) played Scrabble. It used to be a given that I would win, but Gabriel and Vera have both won recently. They are all getting better and I'm really glad about that.
No anger today. I guess that's a good day.

A good day

Measurable success is always appreciated. Another teacher gave me these 5 students with the caveat that they wouldn't talk much. By the end of this week, they were talking a lot. One of the students from Oman failed his test last week, so when I asked him about it, he described enough to tell me he had a problem with test-taking skills. I gave him a little advice about how to take our computer-delivered tests, and he was the first one finished AND he passed. Hooray! Even better, one student from Poland shook my hand after class and said he appreciated how I taught the class.
I try not to let my anger and frustration at the politics of our country spill over into my work, but sometimes I can't help it. I mean, I'm mad all the time that we seem so willing to ignore our Constitution and our founding fathers as we hurtle toward a theocracy, that we ignore good, common sense and let our president lie us into war, let him tell us a massive national debt is a GOOD thing, that spying on Americans is necessary, that torture is ok. Are we that stupid?
That anger colors so much - I resent the Jesus freak woman across the hall, even though I know she lost a daughter a few years ago and her faith helps her cope. I avoid the "Bush right or wrong" Republicans - I get pissed off just seeing them.
I don't think Bush is destroying America. I think he's already accomplished the task. We are no longer the good guys. Pride and greed, considered sins when I was growing up, are suddenly virtues. Lying is telling the truth, and telling the truth is lying. If I were a religious fanatic, I think I could make a pretty good case for Bush being the antiChrist.
Well, I just need to hang on till he's out. I hope against hope that Americans will recognize we need to throw the bums out in the next two elections.
I've been tired a lot lately. Maybe it's the no-meat thing. I've only been a vegetarian for a couple of months, and just don't have any energy. My wife's trying to help me with it.
So how do we get America back?

Why I changed the name

I changed the name for this blog because I realized that what I really needed to do is blog therapy, to get all the frustrations and animosity out of my system that builds up when you work for the poster organization for the Peter Principle.
I've been working for the Defense Language Institute English Language Center for over 10 years now. Most of the time, it's a great place to teach, especially when I get sent overseas. I've taught in Latvia, Taiwan, Japan, and Iraq. I don't know why, but teachers at DLIELC aren't respected. They are the bottom of the food chain. But when we go overseas, we are honored, treated with respect, given the academic freedom to do our jobs to the best of our abilities. It's wonderful and we also get the opportunity for international travel. We are also paid above the going rate for teaching English as a Second Language (ESL).
This week I've been teaching a military module to familiarize students with Explosive Ordnance Disposal vocabulary and procedures. I have 5 students: 2 from Oman, 2 from Poland, and one from Lithuania. The three European students will be going to Navy SEAL training in San Diego. The Omanis are going straight home when their English training is over. It's a good class and they are a great example of why I say that I will always enjoy working at DLI because when I close my door, it's just me and the best students in the world.
Having said that, I do find myself angry a lot, and I'll probably sound more negative here than I really feel, since I want to use this spot to rant, to let out frustrations. I'll do my best to balance that by talking about daily triumphs, too.
I think this will help me continue this blog longer than I usually do, because it has intrinsic value - I don't NEED anyone else to read it and react, but if they do, that will be fine, too.
Enough for today.