This week’s Geek is John Lasseter. He is currently the Chief Creative Officer at Pixar Animation Studio and has directed such films as Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, and most recently Cars.
He appears here on the hit radio show, “Interview That Nerd” with your host El Guapo con el Queso Grande.
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Let me repeat that. El Guapo con el Queso Grande. Yeah, sometimes you really don’t know what you’re going to get when you tell your students to be creative.
It really is a fun interview and I hope you enjoy it.
This past quarter I had my freshmen pick a Geek – someone who has significantly influenced technology – and then write and record a mock interview(4 or 5 minutes) with their Geek. This quarter they are presenting them to the class, and I will provide them here for you to listen to if you so desire. First up are the founders of Google, Sergei Brin and Larry Page.
You can download the MP3 here:
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Listen at your own risk.
“But that was only part of it. In truth I was a little scared, and preoccupied about where we’d go from here. For I had asked this of Dad the previous night, asked it straight out: Where do we go from August’s? He didn’t know. We’d simply go forth, he said, like the children of Israel when they packed up and cameled out of Egypt. He meant to encourage me. Juts like us, the Israelites hadn’t any idea where they’d end up! Just like us, they were traveling by faith! Indeed, it did impart a thrill, yet the trip thus far, in the frigid and torpid Plymouth, had reminded me what a hard time the chosen people actually had of it. Once traveling, it’s remarkable how quickly faith erodes. It starts to look like something else — ignorance, for example. Same thing happened to the Israelites. Sure it’s weak, but sometimes you’d rather just have a map.”
- Leif Enger, “Peace Like a River“
I find I can quite easily relate to this paragraph of prose, and maybe you can to.
“Once traveling, it’s remarkable how quickly faith erodes. It starts to look like something else — ignorance, for example.”
Or stupidity, or naivety… How foolish faith makes me look sometimes. How easy it is to say that I am wasting my costly education on the mission field, or, more broadly, my life. How easy it is to see faith as passive and callow instead of active and discerning.
“Sure it’s weak, but sometimes I’d rather just have a map.”
Or a paycheck, or a girlfriend…It’s easy to dwell on what I don’t have and worry about how I’m going to arrive at these things.
It’s better, though, to trust.
Our school is having Spirit Week next week, which is kind of like the week leading up to Homecoming at an American high school. Every day has a different theme, and this Tuesday is Geek Day.
4th grade teacher Miss Z is attempting to explain what a geek/nerd is to her class and they just aren’t getting it. Finally one pipes up
“Oh, like Spiderman or Superman before they changed!”
“Exactly.”
Then another 9 year old clarified, “So, Mr. Klein and Mr. Elwell don’t really need to dress up.”
Wow. After all these years I’m back to being called a nerd by a 4th grade bully.
A couple of leopard-spotted children accompanied the Morrisseys on a trick or treating run last Monday night. Pictured is little Rebecca getting treats from me and my roommate John. Later she is still enjoying her bounty. What might that bounty include, you ask?
- Some chocolate flavored cereal
- A big orange balloon (inflated by yours truly)
- A small potato(visible just above the balloon in the second picture)
I could maybe try and explain why we gave a potato to a trick or treating toddler, but it’s probably better that you think of your own reasons.
Also, the next day I went to a Halloween party dressed as “Matt Klein on New Year’s Eve.” This costume is probably best imagined than pictured or explained and was truly funny to maybe 3 people, but I enjoyed it none the less.
So my freshmen are diligently working(more or less) on an assignment, when one of them says very abruptly
“We should have a national ABBA dedication day.”
I responded, not quite sure he’d actually said what I thought he said
“Really? Are you sure you mean ABBA? I mean they’re kind of old don’t you think?”
Another student asked incredulously
“Are they still alive?”
I sighed, kind of amazed that any of these students actually know who ABBA is
“Of course they’re still alive. I mean, they’re old but they’re not THAT old.”
The first student chimed in again
“I think they made mostly Disco music. . .I really like Disco music. . .Maybe we should have a national Disco dedication day.”
Shortly thereafter this same student starts singing “Heart of Glass” to himself, to which a nearby student asked
“Is that ABBA?”
“No, that’s Blondie”
Then he decided to start singing YMCA, at which point I gently reminded him that there is no singing in Computer class.
