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Two Killed, 13 Hurt in California School Shooting.

Police said the suspect — a high school freshman treated like a weakling by some of his classmates because of his small frame and scrawny looks — used a .22 caliber revolver, which he reloaded once after emptying its chambers to shoot people at random in a hallway and boys’ bathroom of Santana High School.

The shooter had apparently told several friends over the weekend of his plans but no one believed him or reported him to authorities, according to accounts from students.

Reynolds said the suspect was often the butt of jokes at school, but that he usually replied with a joke and smile. ”He’s a kid who gets picked on a lot because he does not stand up for himself. Most of the time he just takes it. He is joking around about it … I didn’t think he was serious.”

President George W. Bush decried the shooting as “a disgraceful act of cowardice.”

I have a couple of things to say about this. First of all, if this kid’s motivation was the fact he was being picked on, where was his family to teach him that other kids are cruel and it doesn’t matter what they say? My next point is that I hope you can understand why there is a teacher shortage in this country. When a person weighs the pros and cons of teaching — whether to put his or her life on the line because of the few students that are out of control, or to take that risk due to the love of having an influence on kids (maybe even being able to reach out in some small way to the ones that need the most help) — most are going to choose to value the safety of their own life.

Many kids are missing out on having great experiences with great teachers who no longer have any desire to set foot in a classroom. If parents are not able to teach children the difference between reality and television (or between reality and video games) at an earlier age, then the teacher’s job, like an object being sucked into a black hole, quickly approaches the singularity of impossibility.

Taking into account media sensionalization, I can realize that not every school has incidents like this, but it’s enough to keep myself out of the school buildings for now. I know I can be a great music teacher, and I know that I can, and that I have the desire to, touch the lives of young people in a way that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. But until parents start shaping up, getting involved in their kids’ lives, and caring about what their students are learning, my would-be students will just have to do without me.

As you probably know by now — especially if you live in my general area — there was not much of a storm, certainly not the foot of snow that some people were calling for. That didn’t stop the craziness. Just a few days ago Darren mentioned getting ripped off at a gas station. Well it almost happened to me tonight. On the way home from work, I stopped to fill up at the place I normally do. He put $12.00 worth of gas in my car and put in a quart of oil. Now I’ll stop here and say that if New Jersey allowed people to pump their own gas, like the rest of the civilized world, we wouldn’t run into these problems. Anyway, he comes back with the credit card receipt for me to sign and it’s $16.00. I looked it over — it doesn’t break down between fuel and other items, so I asked how much the oil cost. He said $3.00. First of all, that’s pretty expensive for a quart of oil. Second of all, unless I’m horribly confused by modern mathematics, 12 plus 3 does not equal 16. I pointed this out to him and he handed me a one dollar bill, as if I got a prize for being the smartest in the class.

It’s been snowing off and on all day and there’s finally a light covering on the ground. The forecasts are still abiguous, calling for anywhere between three inches to a foot overnight. The snow will supposedly continue all through tomorrow and won’t cease until Tuesday morning. Some people are claiming it will be bigger than the “Storm of The Century,” also knows as the “Blizzard of ’96.” During that snow storm, I ended up stranded at a house of someone with whome I wasn’t really close friends. If I am stranded tomorrow, it will most likely be myself, stuck in my apartment.

I’m currently in the midst of redesigning the site. Please forgive me if things don’t work right away.

Last night I was reminded that I really miss being around Beth and Becca. I think Darren concurs. It was nice to relax and have some fun. Yes, I still think March is going to be a good month.

I just discovered a great plug-in for WinAmp. This will make your audio files sound as if they were being played on different record players from different time periods, all the way back to 1930. Vinyl record simulator. Lo-fi ecstasy from iZotope.

I’m now home from my second consecutive night at Lincoln Center. This time it was to see the New York Philharmonic play some Mozart. I’d also just like to mention that I think this is going to be a good month. I seem to be in a good mood in general. Well that’s all for now.

While I was at work earlier today, I got a message from Stacey asking if I wanted to go see Jazz at the Lincoln Center, since she was able to get her hands on two free tickets. How could I pass up an opportunity like that? So we went, and Benny Golson, a prolific Jazz composer, was the featured artist. The first set was with a quartet, then a quintet, then later his “jazztet.” The second set contained a big band for most of the tunes, and their encore even had a string quartet joining the band for Blues March. Though I don’t remember hearing about him before, Benny composed some well-known jazz standards like Killer Joe and I Remember Clifford, which have been recorded by all the “jazz greats,” and later he composted television show themes such as those from M*A*S*H and The Cosby Show.

Tomorrow night I get to go back into New York to see the Philharmonic play Mozart. I guess I’m lucky to be working so close to the city… and I’m luck I have a friend like Stacey who can get me tickets once in a while.

I currently live in Lawrenceville, NJ, 73 miles from my office [DELETED]. My lease on the apartment is up at the end of April, so I have to make some sort of decision soon. Becky, my current roommate, would like to live with her boyfriend in the apartment once I leave, but I do have the option of staying if I want. Becky would continue living here, I guess until however long we extend the least for. I don’t want to put her in that position, so I’m looking for other options.

I can’t afford to live anywhere by myself unless a part of a house is rented to me. In that case, I would need to pay for storage for my possessions. Whether I like it or not, I’m also hardly ever home, so it doesn’t make sense to pay too much for a place to live. It would make sense for me to live closer to work, except that it is more expensive to live up here, and it would be more unlikely that I’d see my friends, who all still generally live in the same area.

If I do end up moving closer to work, there is a slight chance that the office might move from Bergenfield to Asbury Park as early as December this year, and an ever slighter change that we might move in August. It would not make me happy to move all the way up here and sign a lease, only to find out I will have to commute to Asbury Park from Bergenfield every day. In this case, I can forget about ever seeing andybody I know ever again.

Let’s make this a great month. I’ll be striving to improve my financial situation (seems we’re all having a hard time) and my outlook on life in general. I have a birthday coming up and I am determined to enjoy myself. After all, I will have been alive for a quarter of a century, and that has to be some sort of accomplishment in itself. Here’s my horoscope for today, from a different source since I wasn’t fond of Yahoo‘s:

Everyone seems to be having a good time these days. Pisces is adept, efficient and highly social. The cosmic forces conspire to get your work done in the tastiest, most artful way possible.