charley's blog

Just when things can’t possibly get any crazier in the world, we find ways to push it a little farther, ways to turn up the crazy dial just a little more.

Just when things can’t possibly get any crazier, we managed to come up with:

Newt Gingrich;

Rick Santorum;

Nicki Minaj;

Mitt Romney;

Barack Obama;

Ron Paul;

And, a Jack-in-the-Box commercial where a guy marries a bacon burger.

Thanks for reading this, and I hope to write more soon, unless the above list is an indication of the impending end of the world.

Great stuff to tell you.  A girl we met in Uganda last July, Juliette, is finally enrolled in a school, which not only provides education but also care for her special physical needs.

If you’ve been a regular reader of this blog (and if not, why not???), you may already be familiar with Juliette’s story. She’s about 13 or so, and I had the opportunity to meet her in Uganda last July. Because she is unable to walk and has a few more physical difficulties, her family couldn’t afford to take care of her. So Juliette has spent the past 3 years or so living in a convalescent home, with elderly people. While it’s good that she had a place to stay and had good, loving friends among the elderly people, what she really needed was to go to school with people her own age. Unfortunately, that option wasn’t affordable for Juliette.

Recently however, through the work of Loving One by One and some generous donors, Juliette has received medical evaluations, and the possibility of walking at some point, PLUS, the opportunity to live in a special school and finally receive an education.

This 14-year-old girl has never been to school in her life.

The photos below, taken in the past few days, speak volumes. The first photo (left) is Juliette waiving from the porch area of her new school (her first school ever!!), and the second photo is Juliette on her bed in her dorm.

Great job once again, Loving One by One!!

It’s Sunday night, and in mere hours I have to get up and be intelligent, interesting and fun for K-8th music classes all week. Let me just go over the list of what I’ll need for the week:

My iPod Classic, and the means through my keyboard amp to play the iPod Classic very loud.Oh sure, when it comes to planning lessons, content certainly counts for something, but really, volume is almost everything.

Boomwhackers. ‘Nuff said.

Recorders. Not the tape kind; the kind you blow into to produce shrieking sounds similar to Janet Leigh being murdered in Psycho.

A good list of songs. This week’s offerings include such hauntingly lovely melodies as “There’s a Smell In My Bedroom,” “Get Up Get Up Get Up,” and “There’s a Ladybug in My Soda.”

Drums, shakers and triangles. To go with the Boomwhackers. ‘Nuff said again.

Video clips from PBS. They’re educational enough to be important, and short enough to be able to take the students right to the brink of suicide, and then bring them back.

Kazoos, just in this week from the fine people at Kazoos.com.

A powerpoint presentation on musicians of the 80′s. It’s part of a 4th grade project covering musicians of the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s. Don’t you wish you were in my 4th grade class?

Lots of miscellaneous loud and crazy percussion instruments, not included in the “drums shakers and triangles” mentioned above. These are different loud crazy percussion instruments, to be used only in case of an emergency.

A real train whistle, which I just bought at McCabe’s Music in Santa Monica. I’m not sure how it’ll be used yet, but I can’t imagine going to school without this whistle in my bag.

OK, looks like I have everything. This week’s butt is about to get kicked to the curb.

I apologize in advance for this rant. OK, here we go…

A few minutes ago, I sat down in my chair, picked up my laptop and opened the web browser. It opened to my home page, where I saw a few news headlines, including “Romney Takes It To Gingrich in GOP Debate,” and “Romney Attacks Gingrich In GOP Debate.” Attacking seems much stronger than just “taking it to” someone, so I guess good for Romney.

And as I saw those headlines, several thoughts came to mind…

What – another debate?

What could they possible still have left to cover in a debate, after the last 2000 debates they’ve had?

Does anyone still care about the debates? (probably not, but I guess you never know);

Do I still care about the debates? (what do you mean, “still”);

And I noticed another headline, inviting me to watch a live video feed of the debate, and I thought, “I’d rather stick a pencil in my head and then fall down four flights of stairs. Onto ice. Barefoot. While listening to country music all the way down.”

So here’s a note to the Republican candidates, coming from a guy (me) who’s sort of on your side, but is officially registered as an independent.  You guys are making it really hard for me, and others like me. And there are others like me – guys who lean toward the right on some issues, toward the left on others, and think both major parties are full of morons who are completely out of touch with what actual people want or need. (I hope that was clear enough). You’re not giving me any reason to think differently.

There isn’t possibly anything else to say in a debate, that you haven’t already said. Many, many times.  At this point, the first guy who’s willing to shut up for a while would probably get my attention. The first guy to say, “No, I’m not going to participate in anymore debates. You’ve all heard what I’ve got, and I’ve heard what you’ve all got. Everyone’s heard what we’ve all got. So you guys can keep getting together and talking about stuff no one’s listening to if you want to, but I’m taking that night off.”

And I’d think, “Oh my gosh – what a cool guy. I want to listen to that guy say more.” That would get my attention. Which by the way, I haven’t given to any of the other guys yet.

Oh, a quick side note to Santorum (is he still in?)… Anytime the Evangelical Leadership (not sure who all that is) decides to give a candidate their “endorsement,” that candidate loses. Sorry to have to be the one to tell you. It’s just that those guys, who have some good beliefs, are under the delusion that they’re more relevant than they actually are. I would have advised not going to that meeting, but I guess it’s done now. Anyway, it was fun seeing you around for a while.

Sorry for my angry tone, readers who are used to more lighthearted blog stuff. I guess I just want a few things:

For the incessant, inane, debates to stop;

For the candidates to all take a vow of silence for a week or two (maybe if you stop talking for a while, some people may actually want to hear from you again. There’s a lot to be said for giving someone a chance to miss you).

Assuming neither of the above will happen anytime soon, I guess I’ll continue to try to ignore you until you give me a compelling reason to pay attention.

In an effort to become more connected with you, my vast reading audience, I think it’s time for some self-disclosure. I’m choosing “self” disclosure, because it really isn’t my place to disclose anybody else.

There are a few things about me, maybe more than a few, that are weird. I’m admitting that. That’s why this blog is called “Admittedly Weird.” So I’m going to list a few of those things right here. See, I feel closer to all of you already, and the list hasn’t even officially started yet. OK, here we go:

Although the Moons Over My Hammy at Denny’s is officially a sandwich, I eat it with a knife and fork;

I actually order the Moons Over My Hammy, just because I enjoy saying Moons Over My Hammy;

I have a stuffed penguin, wearing a red winter cap, on my piano. He accidentally didn’t get  put away with the Christmas stuff in 2010, and he now permanently lives in that spot. This year, we purposely left him out because he just seems to be happy there;

I have a hard time spelling the word “weird.” Which made writing the title of this blog post a little difficult. I always forget whether it’s “weird” or “wierd,” because really, both spellings look a little weerd;

When I’m walking on the strand in Hermosa Beach CA, listening to my iPod, and people are walking their dogs near me, I’m convinced the dogs are actually hearing the same music I’m hearing (even though none of them are wearing headphones), and are actually walking with the beat;

I have certain socks I like more than other socks, and I totally don’t care if the other socks’ feelings are hurt.

Well, that’s enough self-disclosure. I feel a renewed sense of freedom getting all that out in the open. So, tell me some of your weird stuff!

If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you may have noticed that occasionally I write a “thankful” blog post. There are at least two reasons for this…

1.  It’s important to not only be thankful, but to express it;

2.  Sometimes when you can’t think of anything else to write about, you can always throw a thankful blog out there. In fact, that alone is something to be thankful for.

So now two weeks into 2012, I’m thankful for…

The fact that it’s suddenly colder tonight, after two unseasonably warm weeks. Cold in January is kind of a good thing;

My heater and electric blanket;

Pop-tarts;

A cardiologist who was old enough to call me “kiddo,” who told me, “You’re all good, kiddo;”

A nearly completed book. I’m talking about writing, not reading;

Trader Joe’s;

My new cool canvas and leather messenger bag from the Lovely Miss Courtney;

A daughter who works at the Gap;

A maxed-out piano teaching schedule;

Fun kids at two schools;

A fun, although slightly older, kid at home.

May you have a thankful 2012!

2011 will end in two days, and this is the last post I’ll write for this year. Even if I think of something amazing/cool/funny to write about later tonight or tomorrow, I’ll save it. So this is my final two cents.

I wanted to focus my two cents on asking you one last time to contribute your two cents (more if you can) to Loving One by One’s construction project. I wrote about recently in my post titled An Unusual Opportunity to Give. LOBO was able to purchase nine acres of land early in 2011, and now because of a generous opportunity provided by one of their donors, every donation given toward construction on the land will be matched to a total of $50,000.00.

This opportunity will expire December 31st. So if you’re planning to take advantage of this chance to double the effectiveness of your contribution, you need to do it by Saturday of this week.

If you’re not able to do anything at this time but would like to later on, that’s fine – your help will still be needed and gratefully received. No worries. But if you are able to do something now, like right away, you should click on LOBO’s link on the right side of this blog and get it done.

Thanks to my readers and friends for your support of my Uganda Project this year. Many of you helped with financing my trip over there, many of you have contributed to LOBO’s work, and a few of you are considering taking a trip to Uganda yourselves. My involvement with and writing about Loving One by One is not over by any means – there’s something pretty exciting coming up in that regard in the next several weeks.

But for now, thanks for your patient reading and support. And that’s my final two cents for 2011.