Not much has happened, so I haven’t blogged in a week. What? You hadn’t noticed? I’m crushed! So, I’ll just throw out some random tidbits from the week and we’ll see what sticks.

First, I’m involved in a collaboration on a new book. My partner isn’t known for horror, so it may surprise many of you. We haven’t announced it yet, so I’m not giving away the person’s name or anything about the project just yet. But I have a question. How many of you have done collaborations? How’d you manage it? What did you learn about the process? I think it’s going to be a lot of fun and I think the end project will be something very different from anything either of us have done on our own.

You’ll recall the Cottman Transmission post from a while back. We got my son’s car back. It was in the shop for two weeks. My complaints to the corporate office, both via e-mail and voice mail went unanswered. Yeah, I’m shocked.

Thanksgiving dinner was so bad that even my oldest son commented on how much arguing went on. My sister, the one who wants Edgar Allan Poe banned from textbooks, was there, of course. I gave her daughter a list of books used on the senior AP test, a sample multiple choice test and a copy of my syllabus, plus a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird and Lord of the Flies. My sister came storming into the living room and snatched it all away as if I was sharing Hustler or The Satanic Bible. There was more, but I’ll just keep that to myself. I just hope my niece won’t be too shocked when she gets into high school next year. Or worse, picked on for being so sheltered.

Kim read the first 60 pages of The Girls Nobody Wanted to Date and didn’t hate it. That’s a good sign. Now I just have to write some more of it. She did recognize some of the situations as things I’ve described from work. And she seems to think the cool English teacher in the story is moi. I can’t imagine why …

I wish I had time to reread David Copperfield. It was my first Dickens, and still my favorite. I read it mostly at work at the first machine shop I worked in after moving to OKC. I’d start the CNC lathe, then turn to my toolbox where I had the book propped open with a big Allan wrench in a drawer. I love that book. What I really wish is that I could experience it again for the first time. That’s why I space out my Dickens reading. I haven’t read half his books. I think of them like treats that I can’t gobble down all at once, because then they’ll be gone and there won’t be any more coming. Well, I did. Until I read The Old Curiosity Shop a few years ago. They say people lined up in New York harbor to yell at the sailors bringing the papers with the conclusion of the story to America, asking the sailors if Little Nell died. Yes, she died. Thank God! She died and Dickens had to move on to something better. Everyone gets a clunker, I guess, and so far that’s the only bad Dickens I’ve read.

Speaking of my favorite books, most of my AP kids want to read The Exorcist. I certainly see literary merit in the book, and I have enough money in my school fund to buy about 20 copies of the book. I just can’t decide if I should do it. Some of them absolutely do not want to read it. While I think that’s … immature, I’m not going to push it since including the book at all in an AP curriculum is kinda iffy. They can read something else, like The Haunting of Hill House. They’re all struggling through Billy Budd, Sailor over the break. One of them texted me this evening to ask if all the characters in the book are gay. Hmm. Why ever would she think that?

We went to Tulsa last week to see Metallica at the BOK Center. Now, I’m not a huge Metallica fan. They have some incredible songs, some good songs and some songs that just seem to drone on forever. Kim and Alex are bigger fans, but hey, if they were going, I was going. It was a great concert. They eschewed the boring songs and put on one helluva good show, playing all their best, except "For Whom the Bell Tolls." The set list, the pyrotechnics and stage presence were all outstanding. It was Kirk Hammett’s birthday, so during the final encore of "Seek and Destroy" the crew and rest of the band pelted him with cream pies and Silly String. Local band The Sword opened and were mediocre. They might have been better if the vocals had been loud enough to hear. After that Down took the stage and sucked up the joint. Hey, if I wanted to be cussed at, I’d stay at work, dumbass.

All right, this whole thing has really just been procrastination. Now I have to block out the crappy music my daughters play at night and try to get some work done. Where are my headphones and that new Alice Cooper CD … ?