News of the Weird, Kevetching About Lonely Planet, and Being Appreciated

1. News of the weird: a zombie outbreak has affected my middle school. No, I don't mean the normal designation of young teenagers as "zombies." This time, the students are literally writing a "z" on their neighbor's arm, and then saying that they are a zombie. I learned about this two days ago, when a student asked if they could put a "z" on my arm and make me a zombie. Um...no. But I am intrigued by this situation. I wonder how it started, how quickly it has spread, and whether anyone is doing any research or keeping statistics on it. In the future, I might make this an actual classroom activity. "If you have a 'z' at the top of your paper, congratulations, you are now a zombie! I am your zombie overlord. Your mission is to infect the entire school building. Each day I will give you ten z papers. Give them out to whomever you contact. Give me a full report tomorrow and receive ten more z papers." Then we see how long the experiment takes, and we graph the results. I can hear the students now: "Ugghhh! We already did this, it's so last year. And we did it ourselves and we didn't have to make a graph." Then I will claim it is a longitudinal study. Just for fun.

2. The article that I posted earlier on Facebook: "Discover Life in the Nevada Desert." When I saw the link to this Lonely Planet article in my twitter feed, I expected to see a piece on the Extraterrestrial Highway, Beatty, the entrance to Death Valley, or similar. But no, it's about Las Vegas. It talks about how Las Vegas is "an artificial playground" where "tourists outnumber visitors 20 to 1" and predicts that our entire water supply will be used up by 2021. Yeah, we already knew that.

Then it talks about the Springs Preserve. I have been a fan of the Springs Preserve for quite some time. I even posted photos of it to the dead blog on July 1, 2007. That's how long I've been a fan. I attended a teacher appreciation event there in 2011 and I haven't been back since. I highly recommend the flash flood exhibit the article mentions.

So, the article is pretty cool, except that they haven't told you the price. I consider it my civic duty to correct this oversight. Of course, the last time I went there was free because I was being appreciated. You can also see that I get a hefty discount for being outnumbered 20 to 1. This is one reason why the title of the Lonely Planet article is misleading. You cannot discover life in the Nevada desert without knowing about the hidden menu.

After they don't tell you how much you'll pay to get in, Lonely Planet goes on to close their article with a list of blatant falsehoods. It says that there are no other green spaces in Las Vegas. The LVNV Parks and Recreation park finder page lists at least 68 parks, not including the dog parks, skate parks, golf courses, or state parks, and also not including North Las Vegas or Henderson. Also not including the 50 miles of trails like the one on which I took the photo seen here, which has a hunk of the Stardust (I saw that place implode!) at the Lamb Wayside trailhead, and these markers every 1/4 mile of the trail.

Oops, it's sideways. It says, "Neon to Nature," and that's my left foot there on the bottom right. 

The very last thing that the article says about town is...ride the Monorail. This is why the people who write these articles should be residents with no vested interest in any given businesses because DO NOT RIDE THE MONORAIL! It crashes. It's also no good for getting anywhere unless the only place you plan to go is someplace between the MGM Grand and the former-Sahara. (Oh for another implosion! But no, the Sahara is being renovated. Darn the stupid tanked economy and the responsible repurposing of buildings!) The Monorail doesn't go anywhere at all near the Springs Preserve. Boo, Lonely Planet. Boo. 

I mentioned that long-ago teacher appreciation dinner at the Springs Preserve. Even now, I still recall the purple lettuce and how delicious it was. Speaking of being appreciated, I would like to share with you this year's piece de resistance, Popsicle Stick Ms. Hendrix. The beginning art student who made this masterpiece  is an anonymous 6th grader who has likely never seen me. They totally nailed it: notice the messy orangeish-red hair, the googly eyes, the shocked O of a mouth, and my favorite blue jacket! I raved about Popsicle Stick Ms. Hendrix for about 5 minutes with each of my classes. The note, if you can read it, was from one of my 8th graders. 

It says, "Thank you for making geography worth learning. It's really boring but you seem to make it a little less boring haha. -Unknown :)"

These were not the only appreciations I received this year, but they were the ones that made my day.