Yester day I presented my students with part of a previous journal entry that needed revision. I took their suggestions and fixed it up. They gave really good suggestions to improve it.

Here is the final copy of the story:

Stop Yelling at Me!
Mr. Pettis
September 14, 2005
I had always wanted to work in the camera department on a feature film, but my dream job was not turning out the way I expected it to. I thought being a camera trainee on a feature film would be fun. I would learn to load film, work the clapper, and be initiated into the world of filmmaking. The movie I was working on was ?Snow White: A Tale of Horror? and until I learned an important lesson, it was my tale of horror.
It had started out easily enough; I got along with everyone on set and had made friends with the camera crew. I was learning how to do things like call out ?Scene two, take three.? Then disaster struck; the focus puller hurt his back and the new focus puller, was a real grump. If something were wrong, he would yell at Jamie, the clapper-loader and then Jamie would yell at me. It was like when a guy has a bad day at work and comes home and yells at his kid and then the kid goes and kicks the dog. I was the dog. As camera trainee, I was at the bottom of the ladder.
One day after a long day of shooting, I got yelled at. Every day of shooting, there was a form that had to be filled out by the camera department and turned in by 8PM. I remember the evil focus-puller yelling at me, ?Pettis, you should of have turned in the form on time! You screwed it up and made us look bad. How could you be so stupid?? I had never heard of this form and had never been told to do it. I was furious, but held it inside and just felt my face turn red in embarrassment and anger. I didn?t want to get fired. Later, the clapper-loader, who also yelled at me regularly, took me aside and said, ?Listen Pettis, you don?t have to take this advice, but I?m giving it to you anyway. When someone yells at you, don?t take it personal. Just say you are sorry and that it won?t happen again. Then make sure it doesn?t happen again.? This guy was a complete jerk, but he was making sense and seemed to know how to deal with other jerks.
It didn?t take long for me to try out this new strategy. The next day, we ran late and used up a lot of film and ran out. Even though I had nothing to do with this problem, the blame worked its way to me. When the focus puller pulled me aside and started yelling at me, I interrupted him saying, ?I know that even though I didn?t know about the film, I should have know about it. I?m going to make sure we never run out of film again. Ok?? He looked at me stunned. I think he had expected to go on yelling at me for a few minutes, but because I had taken responsibility for the problem, he just looked a little confused before saying, ?Great, thanks.? We only ran late one other time during the production of the film and when we did I checked to make sure we had enough film. After working on this film, I went on to work in the special effects department, but I?ve never forgotten how to take responsibility and say, ?I?m sorry, it won?t happen again.?
Memoir Guidelines From Mr. Pettis? 2nd Period L.A. Class:
? Have a catchy title. (Don?t give away the whole story in the title.)
? Use correct spelling and use quotes right.
? Show not tell. Paint a picture. Make the reader see it like a movie in their head.
? Include details and use specific examples.
? Describe the place and setting.
? Develop the character?s personality. Show who I am. The person telling the story needs to have some character so we know who they are and what they are like.
? Share my thoughts and feelings. Explain my thinking. Reflect on what happened.
? Flow.

Boo-Boo Kitty’s Birthday Adventure

is a new Pink Bunny Story up over at pinkbunny.org. Go check it out!

I was up late last night getting prepared for this new teaching gig. Then I lay awake for most of the night trying to resolve some issues about teaching, why I left teaching and why I’m back in a classroom. My reasons for leaving are complicated, but my reason for returning are simple: I’m good at it, I get a lot out of it and when I am a teacher in a classroom I know that I am a force of good in the universe. I have to admit that I do not like waking up at 6:15AM, but being done at work at around 3PM ish is really nice. My schedule is pretty sweet. I have prep the last period of the day, so I am done seeing students at around 1:20. This means that I actually have time to plan. Life is good and as soon as I get a nap, life will be perfect.

Jennifer and I have been using the Tascam Pocketstudio 5 to make some music lately. Mostly it’s Jennifer singing and me making noises. We finally found the amazing casio vl-tone which had been hiding for a long time. It’s a keyboard and a calculator!!! It’s good to be making music.

I also got reviewed by my favorite art blog and you can see the review here.

Last night was a good artwalk night with really cool shows at Greg Kucera and Platform Gallery. Susan Skillings is the artist that I liked at Greg Kucera. She uses tons of Gouache and puts in on thick to make moonscapes. At Platform, you can see the paper show which is good stuff with a giant paper sculpture that moves gently and made me a little motion sick, but in a good way. I think I’ve already talked about the show at the Henry, but if I haven’t, go see it. I liked some and hated some which is a good thing and makes for good conversation. I meant to go to 911 media center for an art opening, but couldn’t find it without the address.

In other news, I just accepted a 12 week substitute position at Eckstein Middle School. I didn’t expect it and it fell in my lap and it was too tempting not to do it. It’s mostly teaching art with a class of language arts. Wish me luck, it starts Monday. I had planned on doing art and odd jobs and substituting all year, but I’m a sucker for art jobs.

Here is my cat named Kona, she was very patient and balanced this on her head for over a minute!

I would just like to point out one of my links. If you haven’t checked out studio notebook then you owe it to yourself to go spend an hour or two reading it. It is the art blog of Seattle. Not only does Carolyn Zick go review some of the best art in the PNW, she documents her wanderings into little known art cubby holes and takes us along on her adventures. Also, if you’re new to Seattle art, check out her art portal.

I got called this morning to be a substitute teacher and so I took it. It’s a half day gig, which I like. I left the house a wreck with photography junk everywhere and I can’t wait to get back there and get the shutter clicking. I’m trying to figure out what the horse photos are about. For me they connect to nostalgia for Bar-41 dude ranch and summer camp, but mostly they are just pretty pictures.

I read an article about Hayao Miyazaki. He makes his movies without knowing the ending. He treats his story with a lot of respect and becomes the characters in the settings and explores them. I’ve been coming up with Pink Bunny stories, but they are all sort of circling around the subconcious. Soon I feel like this little bunny will get dirty and have a deep emotional story, but for now, it appears I need to circle it some more and write some simple stories.

I am going to be doing some more plastic horse photography tomorrow. I use alt process and low tech means to get these and modify/make cameras to do this stuff. I’m going for a series of 12 photos which is harder than it sounds. I’ve got dolls and sheep photos over at illuminator 2 at the pike place market and I’ll put these photos over there if they’ll have them.