Slippery time

So Radish has (temporarily) disappeared again. Why?

Well. First I was on vacation and just plain neglected him. Which is kind of inexcusable, because I enjoy Radish and should set aside time to spend with him while I am not busy.

And then I had to go back to work. I had to move schools and so spent more than a week moving and unpacking my stuff and puzzling over how to approach my year. Then school actually started and now I'm on a bit of a learning curve as I re-acclimate myself to being an elementary-school teacher again.

And also my little cat got really, really sick. As sick as she was last year, but in a different way and much more devastatingly drawn out. We haven't figured out if she can pull out of this yet or not. Yesterday I would have said definitely not. Today I think it's possible she could be mostly fine. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Time is a slippery thing. And Radish suffers because of it...as well as my knitting projects, my quilting project, my sewing projects, my garden.........

Radish will be back. Eventually.

Breaking News

The citizens of Insalataville experience another odd incident. Hmm. What do you suppose will come of this?

Wahoo!

Motion. It looks different in my head than graphic-ized. What do you think?

The Expected

Given how my spring went, you should have seen this particular act coming. Did you predict it?

I read on the interwebs that 112 is the emergency number in Australia. I don't know if that's true, but at least it gives the location some...flavor.

The Dr. Salustiana Solution

According to Wikipedia, salustianas are a variety of orange grown in Australia. I don't think they are unique to Australia, but I needed another orange name, preferably one that could be found where Radish is. And what a great coincidence that evil Dr. Valencia has an evil orange cousin right where Radish could find him!

This is my first Beware theRed Radish colored with my upgraded paint shop program, so I haven't quite got the settings fully adjusted. Unfortunately, the Viner font that I usually use to title the comic is not available. I tried to find one that looked similarly menacing, but could not. This font, however, is appropriately called "Orange."

Sumsumsummertime

I am getting ready to take a roadtrip. Finally the sun will start shining here in my corner of the Northwest, and I am leaving for the toasty, humid midwest. Sigh.

In preparation for being away from the comforts of home, I got a new laptop and am currently attempting to sync my files with my old desktop. This has been a headache. Newer operating systems snub their noses at older ones. I really want to get my pictures and itunes transferred. I upgraded my paintshop program and I'm curious to see how coloring Radish works using it. And with the way things have been going lately, I'm anticipating a steeper learning curve than I would prefer.

FYI, I have a couple of Radishes that are currently uncolored. So stayed tuned. There is an incident coming up that I think is not entirely unexpected.

I also upgraded my car stereo (it was a tape deck/radio, and I own no tapes) for the trip. I have a book on cd to listen to (Craig Ferguson's American on Purpose), Italian to practice, and my iPod library to sing with. The stereo required three trips to the stereo store. They used a wrong antenna part which completely disabled any AM reception. I will be on the road for the World Cup finals, and it would be gutting if I couldn't listen. Still. Two trips too many.

I'm excited for the roadtrip, but the lead-up has been rife with little hurdles. The car stereo. Italy losing in the group stage of the World Cup. I accidentally erased my iPod. I broke one of my walking shoes, and for some reason Nordstrom couldn't get ahold of me to give it back. I had a negative experience with an Amazon seller (!) trying to get a copy of Craig Ferguson's book (sorry Amazon, Borders came through for me on this one). And the biggest one has been the whole computer transfer thing. But once I am on the open road, all those little irritations should melt away.

I hope.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world...

Will Kiwi survive his meeting with Radish unscathed? Or will Radish whack him with the spade?Hmmm. If you were Radish, what would you do?

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, my school year has ended. It was a...hard one. My district is in the throes of "disruptive change." They keep telling us "disruptive change" is good. Three middle schools' worth of teachers have been displaced. I'm one of them. So the bright spot is that I still have a job, the cloudy part is that I don't know where yet. I will certainly miss the people I have worked with for the past 7 years. Our staff was a genuinely nice one, overall, with some truly amazing people. It's a shame to have this family dissolved. I hope I land someplace with people like the ones I worked with and with the camaraderie....and I hope that's not too much to hope for.

"Menace me!"

Poor Broccoli, always being menaced. I wonder what Radish is up to in Australia?

Summerfest in Insalataville!

It's a time to welcome the coming season with joy and relaxation. And yet, what we have here is an all-too-familiar scene from Insalataville. Garlic wouldn't be brazen enough to whack anyone with her cleaver at Summerfest, would she? Well duh, yes she would. But will she?

Apparently it's summer somewhere

...because it isn't even really spring where I live, which is odd. And much to the dismay of my neighbors, I'm sure, I have neglected my lawn. Well, besides the weather being unusually wet and chilly, it has been a pretty stressful last few months, so...there.

Anyhoo, it's good to see Broccoli out and about, but is he ever really safe? Maybe he should be wearing his fork-proof vest. But wait, isn't Radish in Australia? Maybe he can relax for a bit after all.

Good Guess!

I think Garlic realizes there was more going on here besides Radish just losing track of time while working on the escape tunnel. I wonder if the SWAT grapes are even still posted outside the lair?

Time Flies

OMG. All that stuff I had taught myself in the art of coloring Red Radish has jettisoned from my knowledge bank. I have a lot of relearning to do.

Thanks, Future Comic Book Writer.

Today, Friday of a really long week, a student brought me a comic book he had made. Pretty cool. Here's a sample:

I'm sure I'll see The Adventures of Alien Man on the shelves at Atomic Comics a few years from now.

When?

When, oh when, did "they" stop making notebook paper a uniform size? And why? Bad enough that pencils have "lead" that breaks every 3 mm or are wrapped in pencil-sharpener-killing plastic. Sigh.

And Now...An Education Rant!

Poor neglected blog. Radish misses you, and I miss Radish. He must be most of the way to Australia by now. But that is not why I stopped by.

It is election time and my school district is asking voters to pass a levy and a bond. This of course always produces letters to the editor of our local paper who feel that schools don't need money and teachers are overpaid. And I am always annoyed by idiots who think that teachers can show up to a barren classroom and pull a perfect education out of their ass.

So I wrote a rebuttal to this week's letter from somone who complained that we're always asking for money and have too many vacations and that police officers are also underpaid and never ask for anything more (then why are they calling me all the time asking for donations?) and that we don't need more money especially for technological gadgets, we need only be more passionate about what we do.

I was limited to 250 words. I had way more to say than this. And I left out the part where the school where I work had to rent port-a-potties when our plumbing backed up.

Wouldn’t it be great if passionate teachers were all it took to create and maintain effective schools? There is much more to a school than passionate teachers. There is art, music, foreign language and, yes, technology, which are all offered as electives: the first programs to be cut when the belt gets tightened. There are textbooks which need to be updated or at least replaced when they are falling apart. There is class size which when larger allows for less individualized attention to our students. There is maintenance to our schools, which provides for a safe and healthy environment for our children—ceiling tiles that stay on the ceiling, plumbing that doesn’t shut down half the restrooms. And, yes, there are technological gadgets, such as updated working computers, which in this era are more and more necessary. I know that where I teach, I will not have an electronic whiteboard anytime soon, but the maintenance we do get will be important for our students’ wellbeing. Being able to send my students to an elective that will develop their talents and interests in a more well-rounded manner will be important. Being able to provide our students with textbooks that aren’t tattered, and time that isn’t splintered among 35 other children will be important. There is so much more to a school than teachers. Passion for our students’ education cannot provide everything that is important to your child.

Sigh. I need a vacation. ;)