DescriptionTime Whiled is the scathingly funny story of Lark McDougall, an impoverished, obsessive-compulsive ne'er-do-well struggling with a crumbling psyche and soulless jobs while he scrapes together money to go home to his ailing father. With dazzling, fractured prose, author Guy J. Jackson has created a charming anti-hero worthy of the Holden Caulfield pantheon, and a literary novel both brutal in its comedy and life-affirming in its humanity. About the AuthorGuy J. Jackson was born in California and grew up in Alaska. Eleven of his plays were produced in Chicago and two of his plays, Hello & Goodbye Hansel & Gretel and Rumpelstiltskin Revisited, have seen publication. Guy writes and performs short stories and has released several spoken word CDs. Recently Guy has taken to filmmaking and one of his short movies, My Surprise Cousin Catherine, was at the South by Southwest Film Festival. Time Whiled is his first novel. He currently lives in London

When I refer to schools in the five essays on education that comprise While Theres Time, I have elementary and secondary schools in mind. I approached this writing from the perspective of an insider, so to speak, as I have worked extensively in the field of education, first as a high school teacher and now as a professor of education in a university. These essays were prompted by dissatisfaction and a desire. Increasingly over the last few years, I have felt uncomfortable with the conventional wisdom in my field about how students ought to be educated. It just didn't set right with me. Labels vary for the mainstream thinking in the profession, but let's call it a progressive or neo-Deweyian (after the philosopher John Dewey) approach. Some might refer to it simply as modern education. Even though its advocates marshal compelling arguments in support of this set of ideas and practices (what they are will be spelled out in the essays), I was finding in my work in schools that it wasn't getting good enough results with students in the classroom, and that in any case it simply didn't fit me as a person or as a professional: my values, my hopes for schools and students and this society. So I felt an inner push to find an educational orientation that I could believe in more than the one that currently dominates in the field of education to the point that it could be called an orthodoxy, or at least find something that complements it, adds to it. These essays represent the results of my quest. I have concluded that the philosophical orientations that we most need to affirm and employ as bases for constructing school programs in our time are the very ones which are most often dismissed by professional educators, namely, conservatism and individualism. In these essays, I go into the specifics of conservative and libertarian orientations to education, explore what all the talk about teaching democracy in the schools is about, contrast sports and schools as settings, and use the concept of personal authenticity in a discussion of the work of teaching. What holds these five essays together is that they all are grounded in a conservative rather than liberal and individual-centered rather than collectivist frame of reference. These essays are self-contained enough to be read out of order, although I did line them up in the way that I think best presents my argument. I hope what I offer here informs the debate in this country over the best route to take in educating our children. I wrote this book with both general readers and professional educators in mind. For general readers, I hope what is here will provide them with a better understanding of how professional educators come at their work, and thereby enable them to deal with school people more effectively and give them some things they can take into account when determining what ought to go on in their children's education, or in schools generally. For people in the profession who read this book--teachers and administrators, those in training to become teachers, and so on--I believe these writings will provide them with a clearer understanding of the predominant thinking in their field; a good way to understand anything is to compare it with something that contrasts with it. I would presume, and hope, that for some educators and educators-to-be this book will provide them with ideas they can use to guide their work. Much of what follows is expressed in the first person. I thought that if I brought myself into this book it would encourage readers to bring themselves into it. I would like readers to see these writings as my half of a conversation. I want them to respond critically to what I have written and extend it, take it farther than I have been able to--and I don't think they have to be active in the field of education to be able to do that. I want readers to decide how, if at all, what I write changes the way they look at things, and what they a

Unique encounters with wild birds from the acclaimed scientist and “a dedicated watcher happy to knock down the fourth wall of zoology” (The Wall Street Journal). In his modern classics One Man’s Owl and Mind of the Raven, Bernd Heinrich has written memorably about his relationships with wild ravens and a great horned owl. In One Wild Bird at a Time, Heinrich returns to his great love: close, day-to-day observations of individual wild birds. There are countless books on bird behavior, but Heinrich argues that some of the most amazing bird behaviors fall below the radar of what most birds do in aggregate. Heinrich’s “passionate observations [that] superbly mix memoir and science” lead to fascinating questions—and sometimes startling discoveries (The New York Times Book Review). A great crested flycatcher, while bringing food to the young in their nest, is attacked by the other flycatcher nearby. Why? A pair of Northern flickers hammering their nest-hole into the side of Heinrich’s cabin deliver the opportunity to observe the feeding competition between siblings, and to make a related discovery about nest-cleaning. One of a clutch of redstart warbler babies fledges out of the nest from twenty feet above the ground, and lands on the grass below. It can’t fly. What will happen next? Heinrich “looks closely, with his trademark ‘hands-and-knees science’ at its most engaging, [delivering] what can only be called psychological marvels of knowing” (The Boston Globe). “An engaging memoir of the opportunities for doing scientific research without leaving one’s own backyard.”—Kirkus Reviews

You'll be shocked and surprisedto learn what lies at the end of time!Relish the conundrums of time travelin this story of a man attempting to both solvea mystery and come to terms with his life."K. A. Bedford delivers by focusing less on the "wow" factor (and more) on the social-implications factor." — The Harrow"This is a gotta-read, with some thoughtful concepts to ponder." — Pam Allen, ConNotations------------------------------"Bedford is funny in a crazed, Rudy Rucker kind of way.While Rucker writes of gonzo theorists, Bedford writes of the gonzo mechanics who keep the machines running." — Fred Cleaver, Denver Post------------------------------Winner of the Australian Aurealis Award------------------------------If You enjoy Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy but crave something more sci-fi, with fewer goofy antics, you'll appreciate Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait.------------------------------In the future, Aloysius "Spider" Webb will journey to the End of Time.For now, he must be content with repairing broken time machines, rebuilding his life and avoiding the lunatic antics of his boss, Dickhead McMahon.Spider's life is status quo until he discovers inside a broken second-hand time machine, the corpse of a brutally murdered woman from the future. The Department of Time and Space steps in to manage the situation — leaving Spider asking a lot of questions that only lead to more questions; unsettling evidence, brewing trouble, and the knowledge that Spider himself might be involved in an epic battle for control of time itself.Will his knowing the future be a curse or a blessing? and will Spider Webb really find out how things turn out before they happen? With his new found knowledge, who can Spider trust?One thing is certain: it will all happen before the End of Time!------------------------------About the Author:K. A. Bedford lives in Perth, Western Australia. All of his novels have been shortlisted for the Aurealis Award for Best Australian Science Fiction Novel, and he has twice won, including for TIME MACHINES REPAIRED WHILE-U-WAIT, which was also shortlisted for the Philip K. Dick Award.Bedford attended Curtin and Murdoch Universities, where he studied Writing, Theatre, and Philosophy.------------------------------Other books by K. A. Bedford: - Orbital Burn - Eclipse - Hydrogen Steel - Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait (A Spider Webb Novel) - Paradox Resolution (A Spider Webb Novel)------------------------------Praise:"The local Western Australia ambiance provides a unique perspective that is quite consistent with the gonzo aspects of the story. Bedford has created a science-fiction novel that is sure to please most SF fans." — D. Douglas Fratz, Sci-Fi"The premise is not only is time travel common place, it's treated like any other vacation spot. The equipment is cheap enough that one can often find good deals on time machines on Ebay. But the book doesn't rest on one plot device but manages to pull off suspense mystery and intrigue. I am liking it despite myself!" — Paul, Reader

All baby boomers are children of their time. In Our Time After a While, writer Lloyd Billingsley backpacks into that time, the tail end of the tail-fi n era, in its very birthplace. In the motor cities of Detroit and Windsor, the streets, schools and parks jostled with a vast cast of characters. The author charts their adventures, and the sound track no border could stop, and which would spread around the world. This was long ago, but like Bob Seger the author is still humming a song from 1962, and still looking back in wonder. In Our Time After a While, his fellow baby boomers and all others can join him. Memories are made of this.

This is a varied collection of short stories. They describe unusual life experiences of people that are interrelated to animals, the natural environment, and nature in its broadest sense, as well as to other people.

The Detroit Tigers came out of the womb scratching and snarling. Early owner James D. Burns orchestrated the only known arrest of a journalist while covering a game. It's the only Major League franchise to sign a star player out of prison, which happened twice. Ex-Tigers have done time for crimes ranging from armed robbery to racketeering-and worse. One tried to burn and dismember a group of men after they kidnapped his mother. Another threatened to blow up a cruise ship unless he was paid a sizeable ransom. And Detroit legend Ty Cobb ran afoul of the law several times during his brilliant, tumultuous and often mischaracterized career. Join Detroit News writer George Hunter on a foray into the darkest, unruliest and sometimes funniest moments in Tigers history.