The American "Akira"

I'm a fan of anime, so I'm kind of mixed as to how filmmakers are going to make "Akira" into a live action film. It's kind of a weird, bizarre, surreal little story. They are seriously talking about doing this as a live action remake for tentative release in 2011. But what would an American version of "Akira" offer to an audience.

The guy who created the "Watchman" Saturday morning cartoon video that's circulating right now has an idea.

"Watchmen" as a Saturday Morning Cartoon

Yes, this is a goof. But a really good one.

h/t Ace

Now This I Found Interesting

This is just one of the many, many reasons why I am dreading the idea of sending Christopher to a school in my city.

The Franklin School Board, which covers both Franklin and Hill, is talking about changing graduation requirements. Being proposed: getting rid of the block scheduling they have now to convert it into a more traditional 8 periods a day schedule, having the classes all be taught the same subject in the same period (sophomores would all be taught English in period C, Juniors in Period D, etc.), and increasing the amount of required community service to 60 hours by the time they graduate.

Needless to say, no one is happy with the lack of information on these changes. Or the fact that it is really, really confusing.

Some parents and teachers as well as students are concerned that there are not enough teachers to handle all the classes.

School Board member Courtney Eldridge asked whether teachers would have to teach outside of their certification because there wouldn't be enough of them to teach all the classes required by the new schedule.

Some teachers, like David Shorey and Jule Finley, have worked very hard for many years to develop the curriculum in the classes they teach now and, while none of the teachers said they would mind having to teach something else, they were worried that others might not be able to teach their classes as well and vice versa. They all seemed to be uncomfortable with the proposal as it stood because of this.

Shorey said he felt the students would not be able to get the best education they deserve with teachers teaching classes they weren't exactly meant to teach, or certified to teach for that matter.

Finley said, "It's a general concern for all of our departments." She heard from the foreign language department that they are concerned how they will be able to teach each other's classes. Science teacher Kristen Lombard was concerned about the science department because this department, she said, is subject certified, which means a teacher certified in biology is only certified in that subject and cannot teach chemistry or the other way around.

Student Kaylah Barton was also concerned that there are not enough teachers and also not enough time in the day for the proposed plan.

"How are we going to fit this all in one day?" she asked.

Student representative to the school board Ashley Briggs is concerned that the students themselves are not being asked their opinions.

"It's their education," she said.

Some even had an issue with the community service requirement, saying that it was hard now for students to fulfill the requirement because no one wants to have the students there.

Many parents, teachers and students said they heard from local businesses that not only are disappointed in their students but refuse to take student volunteers now because they have had so many bad experiences.

Some were also concerned about forcing a student to do something they didn't want to do, especially community service. They fear this will not teach the students anything, it will only make them hate it that much more.

Currently Franklin is a District in Need of Improvement under the No Child Left Behind act. As far as I can tell, they're clueless in this district on how to improve things, and think this is going to help. One more year, and the state has to step in.

Town Meeting 2009

The one thing I don't miss about being a reporter? Having to stay up late nights to attend town meeting.

But for those who had to do the task, here's a rundown of links to some of the town results courtesy of the Laconia Citizen.

General Roundup
Center Harbor
Alton
Belmont
Gilford
Inter-Lakes School District
New Hampton
Plymouth
Ashland
Meredith
Sandwich
Gilmanton
Moultonborough
Northfield
Tilton

Unfortunately I haven't been following as close as I should have on what's going on in each town, but I think the backlash of Obama's budget is coming in to play in a lot of decisions. And SB2 (for those outside the state, this is a measure that was passed for towns to adopt individually where towns can vote on going from a town meeting format to a deliberative session format) seems to be a debated topic again this year in many towns voting it down or not getting enough votes to allow it to pass.

Happy One Year Anniversary!

I got so busy with taking care of my son today as well as school tonight that I forgot that, not only would today have been my late father's birthday, but it is also the one year anniversary of this blog.

So....Happy Birthday to ConChrist!

So, what's coming up in the new year? Hopefully more entries than there have been recently, which I continue to apologize for.

Sometime this week I'm going to try to give a rundown of the upcoming Town Meetings here in New Hampshire. There are a few scheduled tonight, but more will be coming down the pike over the next few weeks. It will depend on how quickly I can do research before I can start reading my books for this class.

CPAC Speech: Rush Limbaugh

It's too long for me to post the full thing here, but Hot Air has the full CPAC speech that Rush Limbaugh gave during the convention yesterday.

Excellent speech. A must watch.