How can you possibly put together the new suspension system for the Ford Focus if you are not listening to Michael Jackson?  It may just be impossible.

Last week in class, the juniors watched "This Is It."  It is about the practice and rehearsal of Michael Jackson's concert tour.  It is a great documentary that showed the artist in many tones and moods throughout his concert rehearsal.  It highlighted the exact three moods and literary genres that are so influential in today's writing.  We finished our unit on the difference between Romanticism, Dark Romanticism, and Gothic.  The students watched three different musical performances, "Billie Jean," "Smooth Criminal," and "Thriller."  Each one represented the different literary genres.  It applies. I promise.

Now while the students are working in the shop and building a new suspension system for the Focus, all you can hear over the ruckus is Diamond and Justin singing Billie Jean.  Amazing.

They are doing a great job.  These young gentlemen have such a great dynamic working with each other and Hauger.  Hauger's son, Micah, is also here today.  I think he thinks he is 16-years-old and has no problem singing along to Michael Jackson with his safety goggles falling off his ears.

The snowstorm really came at a bad time for the West Philly Hybrid X Team.  It is hard to imagine how much work is left to do with the cars.  Each car needs to record 500 miles before the team heads to Michigan Speedway in a month.  It can be done.  It just can't snow again.  Ever.

It does feel good to be working at school.  Towards the end of the week, I was feeling a little claustrophobic.  An unexpected week off was very nice, but now there is something ticking inside all of us that makes us restless at home.  We need to be back to our regular schedule.  My arms are still very sore from shoveling my car out of the snow for two hours, but I am glad to be back in the shop on Saturday.

Later today a bunch of the students are going to the Temple vs. Rhode Island game.  John Doughtery gave us a lot tickets to this game, in addition to the $20,000 check he brought on Tuesday.  I think he could've just showed up with the check and called it a day.  I hope they have a great time.  Daniel is only going, because there will be girls there.  My response is "no romance in high school."

Ride or Die.

Ms. R

Daniel Moore: Basically, I thought the Auto Show was a great experience.  Not only we were able to see many different cars and styles, but we were able to explain what we were doing for the past couple months.  Many people came up to us and asked us many questions about our car and program.

Justin Carter: I wasn't able to attend the car show until later in the week.  But just to see our car on display was pretty awesome. Cadillac, Audi, and Mitsubishi surrounded our car.

Daniel Moore: When we were able to walk around, there was nothing better, more beautiful then the Corvette Sting Ray.   It was the sexiest looking car out there.  It had a great silver body with black rims.  It was covered in many different news outlets.

Justin Carter: Daniel could not be more wrong.  The Aston Martin is the most luxurious and hottest car at the car show.  It is the hottest luxurious sports edition car.  It is a cruiser specifically made for rich people.

Daniel Moore: There is nothing different from one Aston Martin to the next.  Each one is a carbon copy of each other.  There is nothing original about each Aston Martin.  They all look the same, but the Sting Ray is one of a kind.  It's just hot.  Its basic construction is genuine.  The style and detail are amazing.  It has nothing to do with performance.  After all that money, I guess performance is not the highest point of priority to buyers.

(Sekou shouts from the background.  Jaguar!  The best car was the Jaguar!)

Both Daniel and Justin can agree that the DUB booth was a great booth for free stuff.  Every time I saw Daniel, he had in his hand a Monster energy drink.  It was the same booth that was playing some of the latest pop and rap songs.  So I was told.  They also played 2k10 NBA for free.

Daniel Moore: I really enjoyed going to the car show after school.  I would leave school and hop on the El or sometimes take the trolley.  I liked going at the time from 4 to 8 because that is when most people would come to the show.  I talked to a lot of people about what we did.  It was exciting to talk to people about our car. Before I left for home, I would walk around some more and look at all the other cars that were on display.  And then I would show up the next day and do the same all over again.