Michael T. Miyoshi's Blog, page 32

When This Is Over…

I wonder what will happen when COVID-19 is over. I wonder what will happen when we survive the pandemic. Mostly, I wonder if we will have learned anything.

They say that those who do not know history are bound to repeat it. And we can certainly see this throughout history. Over and over and over again, we make mistakes. The same ones. Over and over and over again. The same exact mistakes. Just in a different flavor.

One of the things I have noticed during this time of social distancing is...

Disrupted, but Connecting

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted us all.

When it comes right down to it, education is just a small piece of the big COVID-19 picture. Lives are at stake. Health and the economy are at serious risk. Still, we all tend to think of how the pandemic is affecting us personally. So naturally, I think of education.

Thankfully, nobody I know has had a catastrophe during this chaotic time. We have just had our lives disrupted. Actually, disrupted is putting it lightly. We have all had our lives...

Good Friday 2020

Christ Carrying the Cross
by El Greco

This work is in the public domain.

I know today is Good Friday, but it is the worst of all the Holy Days.

I know why Good Friday is called Good Friday. It is the day commemorating Jesus dying on the cross. Which does not sound good at all. In fact, it sounds horrible. After all crucifixion was a torturous death perfected for its agony to the crucified. It is difficult to imagine hanging there in pain. Hurting to even take a breath. And then finally...

I Miss the Little Things

It might seem strange, but I miss being at work. Yes, I miss my students. Immensely. But I never really thought about all the little things I miss.

The big things I miss about working in a school are obvious. Interacting with students. Seeing them act like zombies in the halls. (Okay, I do not really miss seeing them walk through the halls like zombies until their coffee kicks in. I know. It is a strange thing seeing coffee addicts at 14. When I was a kid, I remember adults telling us that...

Vampires

I never really believed in vampires. Until I was quarantined for weeks with two of my three sons.

Vampires are an interesting lot. They abhor the sunlight. They do not like garlic. They shrink from the cross. They are pale and have fangs. My kids are like that. Well sorta. They like garlic. Okay. They are not really vampires, but I do find myself thinking that there is something to the whole vampire thing. That maybe there is a logical explanation to why Bram Stoker and those before him...

COVID-19 in My Tiny Part of the World

Map of the COVID-19 outbreak per capita
as of 17 March 2020
by Raphaël Dunant
(Alteration: size changed)
Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has wreaked havoc on society around the world. Even in my tiny corner of the globe.

I am averse to the news. At least for the most part. Especially today in the era of fake news. How do we know who and what to believe? What are our sources of truth? Does anybody really know what is going on? These questions are real, but...

Numeric Palindromic Dates

There was some hullaballoo about 02/02/2020 being a palindromic date. (Probably right around the beginning of February. But even if I was just imagining said hullabaloo, I did write a blog post about it a year before it happened.)

Apparently, a palindromic date had not happened for a while. And apparently, 02/02/2020 was special in that it is palindromic regardless of whether you put the year first and even if you swap the day and month from however you do it (more on that later). But I know...

Leap Day 2020

I was almost done posting my blog post for this week when I realized something amazing. I was going to post something on Leap Day.

I know that Leap Day is not anything special in the whole scheme of things. After all, it does come around every four years. But I know that it does not come around all the time when I am about to post something. True, the something I was going to post was not necessarily that special (yes, still trying to become mediocre), but it is a fun piece. At least it was...

Naps and Permanent Markers

Technology is amazing. Nowadays, you do not need a permanent marker when your friends take naps.

I do not know that I have done it, but there is always that temptation to do a little doodling when somebody is taking a nap in a public place. You just want to grab the Sharpie and put a mustache under your sister’s nose when she is sleeping on the couch while “watching” a movie. Or maybe you want to make your brother pay for the last time he teased you mercilessly so you put hearts and flowers...

I Hate Being Sick

Clinical Thermometer
by Menchi
(Alteration: size changed)
Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

I hate being sick. Especially, with a fever.

I left school one day recently being cold. Icy cold. I had put on my jacket somewhere after the middle of the day and never took it off until I got home. I did not think that I had a fever until somewhere in the middle of an after school meeting. But when I got home, the thermometer said I had a fever. Mild but still a fever. And enough to make me feel as cold...