Michael Jackson and the Flying Slipper

Though I've laughed at and told many jokes about him, I've always been a fan of Michael Jackson. It wasn't until recently after he died though that I actually realized how big of a contribution to music, dancing, and the world in general he made. I still don't realize all that he did, but as I learn more about his life, I will.

Since his passing, I've seen some people on the internet that have been mad because everybody's making a big deal of this, because there are so many people in Africa (or wherever) that are dying everyday, so why should we make a fuss. Those people are fricking idiots. Nobody knows those other people who are dying, and those people have never done anything to affect our lives. Michael Jackson has done a lot to affect people's lives. Not just through music and dance, but also through contributing to causes, organizations, etc. Sure, people should be sad when people die even if they don't know them, but it doesn't affect them as much because well, they don't know them. Wake up, crackers.

Anyway, the floors at my JHS here in the Japans are slippery enough that when walking down the halls or just walking around in the classrooms, I take a couple of big steps and do a slide. This sliding ability provides plenty of slide to enable doing the moonwalk, and that's what I've liked to do sometimes over the past 3 years (though doing it in slippers can be tough and might not look as cool...).

Recently, my kids have wanted me to do impersonations of Michael Jackson, because they love it. So one day when I was in a classroom waiting for them to get lunch served up, etc, (they eat at their desks in their classrooms) some of them wanted me to do an impression of him. So I started singing and dancing, and kicked my foot up in the air. Well, you don't wear shoes at schools in the Japans, you wear slippers. When I kicked my foot up in the air, my slipper flew off and headed to a group of tables. It hit a couple of times, missed the first lunch tray, barely missed the second, landed on the second (without touching the food), then fell bottom down on a girl's bowl of rice and fried fish..... I was kind of shocked that it would land in her food that perfectly. Immediately after that happened, another teacher came in the room, but I down-played it as I had already got it back on my foot, and then quickly exchanged her food for mine. If the teacher knew what happened, I don't know, but all of the students erupted in laughter and I heard some of them telling others and the teacher all the details. It wasn't quiet for a few minutes after that. Needless to say, I apologized with a dogeiza.