I saw a short clip of an actor I respect saying he has not played a video game in a few years. He said he went all in, had two focused weeks, beat the game, and then wondered what he had to show for it.

I think video games can be a wonderful thing. But, I am replaying Portal 2 and I don’t know if I am having fun. I wonder if I could write. Reach out to someone I’ve lost track of. Play a game with my wife.

See replaying is out. But playing at all? I struggle with this. I loved Bioshock (1 and 3). The first portal was amazing. Braid! Nguyen writes about how the art of games are an expression of agency.

But I don’t know if it fills what I want my story to be now. So, maybe I’ll take a break. (Unless it is a game with someone else. )

This morning, while entering Starbucks, I noticed a large SUV parked halfway on a handicap spot and halfway onto the access aisle. The car engine was running, and I did not see any handicap placard or license plates.

As I stood there, a woman rushed out of Starbucks and attempted to open the passenger side of the vehicle. She was stymied by the locked door and jogged to the driver’s side, found what she was looking for, and ran back inside.

Disabilities are often invisible, so I can’t say if she needed the spot or not. I found it frustrating that she chose to park in such a way that blocked the access aisle. As someone who uses a mobility van with a ramp, I know firsthand that if someone parks in the access aisle, it can make it impossible for me to get my son out of the van via the ramp.

It’s like a game of Tetris, where every block needs to fit into its designated space. By parking in the access aisle, the woman was like a misplaced block that made it impossible for other blocks to fit into their spaces. In other words, she wasn’t just taking up two spaces; she was taking up three.

There is a saying that goes, “If you knew what I know, you would believe what I believe.” I can’t figure out what she believes. I can’t see this through her eyes. How do you park in a way that will make the life of a disabled person harder?

In the Teacher Leadership class I took talked about the importance of getting feedback from stakeholders. My admin I sat and had a few conversations.

For my teacher and student stakeholders I’ve done a series of surveys. For students the format is:

• What is your favorite part of the news show?
• What is your least favorite part of the news show?
• How could we make your least favorite part better?

Feedback is a balance. To support the school district’s initiatives, it’s important to maintain a sense of unity between the school-level programs and the county-level initiatives. It’s essential to consider feedback from both staff and students, it’s equally important to ensure that this feedback does not detract from the county initiatives. You can’t sacrifice coherence for popularity or simplicity.

Some feedback I took. The student shares were people’s favorite part (the video I do during a classes Moring Meeting). I am going to keep doing them. Students liked pictures of school events. I can do more of those and play them during the required Minute of Silence.

Feedback was mixed. As an example, many students did not like the mandated Pledge of Allegiance. But, feedback was all over the place. Too slow. Too fast. Please feature more students. Please stop having students do it. I felt that gave me license to experiment. Over the next few weeks I am trying some different styles of Pledges. I’ll then resurvey teachers and students on which they liked.

Some feedback I felt I could not take. Some students wanted to talk about current events, like sports or the weather. My school’s morning news is pre-recorded. Any talk about current events would be at least a week after the event happened.

Afterwards I made a video (spread over two days) walking through all the feedback and talking about what I would try to do over the next quarter. I want to take their feedback seriously and inspire me to try new an interesting things.