Fence post - n. An alternative when brakes aren't enough.

From time to time, I've been known to do something incredibly stupid. The most recent "dumbass" incident is wrecking my truck. Now, you're probably thinking, "Joey did something stupid? That's impossible. He's the wisest man ever to walk the earth." Sad to say, that's not always true. (Please note: this post may have several hints of sarcasm. Do not take them seriously.) I'll explain how this happened, but to do that, I need to go back a little.

My dad recently bought a 55 gallon aquarium. Why he did that would never be fully known to me. So he filled it with water, and put a dozen minnows in it, the kind you buy at a store where you can rent a movie and buy gas at the same time. So we had a bunch of little 20 cent fish swimming around in a $160 aquarium. I thought it was a little boring to have tiny silver fish swimming around, so I took my dad's minnow trap and drove out to the creek and try my luck and catching some perch. It just happens that between our house and the creek is 3 miles of unpaved road. After soaking the trap for a few hours, I drove back out there to pick it up and see if I caught anything. I peeled out a little at the first turn and had such a thrill from it, that I wanted to try it again. So the next turn, I pressed the gas pedal a little more to give it some more spin. The truck skidded to the right, I turned into the skid. It worked great. It turned around to the left, and I turned to the left, and it worked...kinda. It seemed I miscalculated the speed going around the curve and just ran right into a 3 inch steel fence post. Luckily for me, the fence post was fine. My truck, however, wasn't fine. It folded the bumper from a 180 degree angle to around 120, cracked the grill and the brand new header panel I had just replaced, and dented the hood a little. The license plate took the form of the fence post and made a perfect half-circle, along with the bumper that was behind it. What's even more lucky is the new radiator I replaced only weeks before showed no signs of leaking. So my truck has experienced trauma from 3 sides; the driver's side, the passenger's side, and now the front. All I need is a wreck from behind and my truck will become a compact truck.

Anybody want an old banged up Ranger with over 212,000 miles on it? It's a standard and drives like a dream...a red and black mediocre dream.


Oh, if you're a fan of John Lennon, I strongly recommend you watch "Nowhere Boy." Usually a biopic movie doesn't always turn out good, but this one is a must-see.

I wanna be a teacher...or an airborne Ranger.

I had to type up an introduction paper stating the reason why I want to become a teacher. I had also noticed I hadn't updated my blog in a while so I thought I'd amuse everybody and post what I typed up. Please note, I typed this up in, like, 30 minutes. I've very well known to do things at the last minute.

Joey Bartlett

TED 1312 – Sharp

1/19/2011

Introduction: Why do I want to teach?

If someone had told me in high school that I would be going into education at Baylor, I would have thought that was the most asinine thing I’ve ever heard. The thought of becoming a teacher was the last thing in my mind. But sometimes the plans we make take an abrupt left turn and we find ourselves following a path where we don’t know where it will end up. All through high school, I loved going to my math and science classes. When I was a kid, I would design and build things from Legos, things that would astound my parents. My father told me I would become a mechanical engineer when I grow up. Sure enough, after graduation, I went to Texas Tech and majored in mechanical engineering. While I had enjoyed the classes immensely, I wasn’t motivated enough. I flunked out and moved back home, where later I went to Texas State Technical College and graduated with an associate’s in mechanical engineering technology. During my time at TSTC, I took up a job as a tutor for the deaf students who have problems with their math homework, and even help out with their English assignments sometimes. There was one student in particular whom I’ve enjoyed working with, and caused me to realize I might enjoy teaching. All semester, that student came into the tutor lab and we sat down together and discussed the homework assignments, went over the methods used to solve various problems, and practiced on theories that the student’s teacher talked about in class. As the semester progressed, I started noticing that I have a lot more patience than most people when it comes to teaching. Practically all my friends have told me I should become a teacher, and when I told them I was going into deaf education, they, along with my family, gave me their full support. Currently I teach American Sign Language to the parents of deaf children at Viking Hills Elementary. During both experiences, at Viking Hills and at TSTC, I have enjoyed not only teaching, but seeing the student’s face when they finally understand.

I made this decision about four weeks before the semester started. I was in complete denial that I would succeed in the school of education because I was concerned about not being motivated enough. One professor at Baylor, who teaches Deaf education, gave me some advice. Before, I had felt panic and doubted myself, but after the discussion, I was suddenly at peace. It was at that time everything made sense. God made me to be a teacher for the Deaf. I have the patience for it, I’m always willing to teach something new to people, and I love to interact with the Deaf community. So after I made the decision to go into Deaf education, I started to ponder what I want to teach. The answer was quite simple. I want to teach high school math. Many Deaf students graduate from high school with the minimal amount of knowledge in mathematics, and that makes them limited to the potential they so deserve. So my goal is to give them as much as they want, so they can grow up to be engineers, architects, chemists, physicists, and whatever else they aspire to become. The mind is a powerful tool we use daily, and it’s a shame to watch it go to waste and never know what we are capable of.

Corny, I know.