Thursday, February 28, 2002
Hey, Patty! Play a song for me. In my experience, people either really love Pat McCurdy or they really hate him. I don't know of anyone who knows of him and remains neutral. One thing is for sure, if you only experience him by way of recordings, you'll never really get what all the fuss is about. The live shows have so much energy and improv. There is a real give-and-take with the audience. (Sometimes literally.) Those who live in the Wisconsin-Illinois-Minnesota area are the lucky ones,that being his home turf. I must say, one thing that does bite about teaching school is that going to a Pat McCurdy show every Tuesday night ceases to be a viable option. *sigh*
Tonight he played after Lewis Black at the Potowatami Casino in Milwaukee. That must have been quite a show.... Ok, at the time of this writing it is not yet 11PM. The show will still be going on for at least another 45 minutes, if not more. Again, *sigh*
Today was one of those days where I know that I am experiencing karmic retribution for the crimes of my youth. I was not kind to substitute teachers as a child. My gradeschool classmates and I took great pleasure in trying to "sink the sub." Now, I am the vessel at which eleven or so first and second graders were aiming their torpedoes. Ouch.
There was some yelling, there were some time-outs, and one slamming of a door...but I never burst into tears. For this I am happy.
Now I need a nap. Instead, I am off to my "Drinkin' for Credit" (ie., bartending) class.
The sky is getting lighter so much earlier every day....I may be getting giddy. Whenever winter comes around, I go into a sort of photographic hibernation. I don't like using a flash very much, and I have a thing for slow film speeds, so the long winter nights mean very little time to take pictures. Most of the time I don't even bother. Soon. Definately soon. I am even starting to pore over the specs for the medium format Russian camera I am thinking about picking up.
A picture is worth a thousand words, right? Definately in my case. Sometimes I think I might be the proverbial monkey at the typewriter. *sigh* I suppose I had better get to work organizing my photos for online consumption.
Last night was my social circle's annual White Elephant party. The main idea of the party is that everyone wraps up 3 or 4 of the worst gifts that you have received that year (though some people pick up gifts especially for the occasion from thrift stores or places like this one.) and bring them to the party. Gifts are piled in the center of the room, looking appealing and mysterious. Each round, people draw numbers to determine the order of the gift choosing. After you have unwrapped a gift, you can either keep the gift or force a trade with a gift that has already been opened that round. The last person to go gets the best options, while the first person pretty much gets the shaft. Good or in demand gifts will usually be stolen multiple times. Hideous gifts have a tendency to appear year after year. Food and drink (and a bit of drunkeness) and witty banter ensures that a good time is usually had by all.
Last night for round one I was #6 out of 17 people to pick. I chose a present that included a pretty glass globe keychain that I had unwrapped last year, and had been stolen from me at the time. Ah-ha! Nope. Several people later, it was stolen from me in exchange for a copy of In the Army Now on VHS. Pauly Shore.... All was not lost, however. By the end of the round another guest was willing to exchange the video for a candle adorned with a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and a Precious Moments snowglobe. (Yes, someone else has one on E-bay. As of now, there are still no takers for it. Can't say as that I am surprised.)
Round two I was not only responsible for my pick, but I was the proxy for someone else who had to leave early. She was #3, I was #11. When I opened her first pick, it was a pair of balck leather men's gloves. We all decided that it would be very funny to exchange them for the Wheel of Fortune board game, which she had brought to the party in the first place. I don't think she faired much better when someone else exchanged that for a jar of pickled eggs that was also making it's second annual appearance.
For my own pick I opened a very tasteful looking Neiman Marcus box that actually contained some rather ridiculous CD's. I was able to exchange that for a copy of 101 Uses for a Bridesmaid Dress which had been a hot item that round. Fortunately for me, everyone who wanted it had already had it stolen from them, so my present was safe.
Round three had the hottest item of the night:a battery operated hamster that ran aroung in a little purple, plastic wheel. The woman with the first pick opened it, and it was stolen over and over throughout the round. Mwah-hah-hah! I was now #14 out of 14, so the hamster was mine! I played with the hamster for about a minute, and then offered a post-game trade to the woman who had it first. I felt bad for her, because in the last round she had been stuck with a condom in a cigarette tin. I exchanged it with her for a bouncy monkey key chain.
By round four there were only four of us left in the game, and I ended up with a stuffed Mickey Mouse in a rain coat, after having had a set of skull candle holders, followed by a wooden. Merry Christmas sled ornament.
In th epost game trading, the girl who had stolen the globe keychain from me offered it to me, provided I also took a garishly ugly earring tree off her hands. Hamster wheel woman also gave me a magic 8 ball keychain she had gotten. It was evidently a night of keychains.
Hottest items of the night: 1. hamster wheel 2. crepe maker 3. 101 Uses...
Worst items of the night: 1. single condom in a cigarette tin 2. mostly used container of Speek Stick 3. box of "Millenium Twinkies" and a self help book. (Ironically, this went to the peron who had given it at last year's WE, and who had in turn recieved it the year before. The Twinkies, contrary to popular belief, were rock hard, with small green patches.)
Sunday, February 17, 2002
It is amazing what you can find if you look hard enough. (And it wasn't that hard, after all.) Way back when I was first starting college and being introduced to the wonder of the internet, I was on a mailing list for They Might Be Giants. On that list there were a number of very active personalities. (nybody out there remember ben(been)?) Among the posters were Kate Pickering and Kari Bauer, who became the Kate and Kari Show and who, along with Francesca Parker put out the e-zine Utopia Parkway. After spending way too much time reading e-mail instead of doing homework, I dropped of of the TMBG list. Around 1996 or 1997 Utopia Parkway disappeared and I kind of forgot it had ever existed.
I just recently thought about it, and did a Google search for it. There is was, right at the top. Just like re-runs. I am now reliving my past.
Thanks to William Tychonievich at Bouillabaisse for the Soul, I have joined the masses hooked on Googlewhacking. I've also spread the addiction to some of my friends. While searching for a whack, I came across this most amusing page of alphabets.
Argh. I remember seeing some typos and spelling mistakes around here somewhere, but I can never seem to find them when I actually have time to edit. Grrrr.
Tuesday, February 12, 2002
So let me get this straight. Today is Fat Tuesday, traditional day of excess before Lent: sex, alcohol, chocolate, etc. Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, first day of Lent and traditional time for giving up worldly pleasures like sex, alcohol, chocolate, etc. for the next 40 days. Then Thursday is Valentine's Day, traditional day for sex, alcohol, chocolate, etc. Alriiiiiiiiiiiiight.
Monday, February 11, 2002
While going through my mailbox looking at old e-mail, I came across this link. I don’t understand it and I can’t explain it, but to quote the friend who sent it to me, “Seriously, this will make you insane. No fooling. IF you watch the entire thing, you will lose sanity for up to an hour. If you watch it twice, I don't know what would happen. I JUST DON'T KNOW. If anyone needs therapy of some type after seeing this, I refuse to be held responsible.” Thanks, Klinger.
I am glad to see that while the internet has made it easier of wackos to do a hit and run with cranky rantings, it can also be used to increase useful dialogue.
The ease, speed, and relative anonymity of e-mail encourages those who disagree with a view point to make their opposition known. The case that brought this to mind was that of Mark Miller, who received a great deal of virulent, angry responses by e-mail while promoting his book, The Bush Dyslexicon. In his case, the angry letter writers were right-wingers, but I am sure that the left can also be found guilty of such frothy mouthed ranting. I am not so naive as to believe that behavioral standards (or lack thereof) are limited to only one ideological camp.
However, the flip side of this insta-rant mentality is the honest exchange and debate that this medium can provide when at its best. I was pointed to the above link by the Dreaded Purple Master blog. The blogger, Daniel Taylor, found Mr. Miller’s article to be distasteful, whereas I found myself nodding in agreement with Mr. Miller. Yet while our reactions to the article where opposites, we were able to engage in a brief, sane dialogue on the matter.
I am a big fan of honest debate, but “in real life” most of my friends and associates share my liberal point of view. (Come to think of it, so does most of my city.) It is through the internet that I am able to encounter people whose world view differs from mine in major ways. I value this when it leads to mature discussion, even if the outcome is agreeing to disagree.
Or course, if e-mail allows speedy delivery of angry mail from detractors, it also allows for a quick rallying of defenders, as evidenced by the mailbag of Tom Tomorrow. As he puts it, "Posting the cranky letters seems to have inspired many of the rest of you to write--I've been getting ton of overwhelmingly, embarrassingly supportive messages lately.” Thus, equilibrium is maintained.
Friday, February 08, 2002
Ok, I am terribly anti-Microsoft, but this made me laugh so hard I almost choked.
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2/8/2002 08:18:57 PMlink
Sunday, February 03, 2002
This has had me on edge since I heard about it this past week. If anything, it has made me even more certain that I need to volunteer with Planned Parenthood. Not only do I think that people need better sex education and access to contraception, but I think we need to work on the ingrained attitudes towards unwed pregnancy in this country.
While in many areas, unwed mothers are an everyday occurance, many girls are still made into Hester Pryne. My high school was a conservative religious school that was staunchly opposed to abortion, but also believed that any sex outside of marriage was against God's law and provided no sex education of information on contraception. Girls who found themselves pregnant had few choices: have an abortion, hide the pregnancy, drop out of school, or else receive strict punishment. One friend of mine became pregnant her sophmore year....she dropped out of school and I rarely ever saw her again. There were rumors, from time to time, of secret abortions. Also while I was a sophmore, another girl that I knew became pregnant. She and her boyfriend were both top students and student athletes. They were active in choir, student government and numerous other activities and organizations. It was their senior year. When the school administration found out, they were barred from all activities including choir, which was also a for-credit class. At graduation, neither was allowed to participated in the graduation ceremonies. They were not forced to wear a bright letter "A" on their chests, but overall it came quite close.
All in all, I am not surprised that there is currently a need for organization like Safe Place for Newborns, regardless of the controversy that surrounds them. This time it was the mother, rather than the infant that died. Either way, such cases are tragic. I hope that some day our culture will reach a point where such things don't happen
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2/3/2002 06:51:21 PMlink
I just made my first submission to The Mirror Project. It is things like this that make me love the internet.
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2/3/2002 06:21:17 PMlink
Lately I have had an urge to go to Milwaukee. I haven't really been there is years and so much has changed. I especially want to see the new "wing" of the Milwaukee Art Museum. I am hoping that if I have the time or money to travel, I may be able to get to the city of my childhood sometime in the next few months.
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2/3/2002 12:10:15 PMlink
Saturday, February 02, 2002
02/02/02!!
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2/2/2002 05:20:19 PMlink
I agree with much of what he has to say, both in the interview and the book. However, now that I am teaching, I can see that it isn't just money for public schools that is needed. The district in which I teach spends quite a lot of money on its public schools, and does have some of the best schools in the country. The poorest children still are the ones filling the majority of the special education cases that I have seen. Even with shiny schools, computers, books, and teachers the poor students struggle to make the grade, and I think that poverty is still the cause.
Especially in a child's earliest education, parental involvement is crucial to the learning process. A kindergarten and first grade teacher can work day and and day out to help a child learn to read, but if there is no reading at home the going will be slow and painful. The child starts to fall behind and become frustrated. Frustration leads to behavior problems. The falling behind and the behavior problems leads to labels and eventually into a cycle that is nearly impossible to break.
Yet I believe that in many cases, the lack of parental involvement isn't due to lack of parental interest, but due to lack of time and energy. Most families that are scraping to get by at poverty level have a parent or parents working long hours at a menial job for near minimum wage. Frequently, more than one job at a time. When a person is working 40+ hours a week and still having to go down to the local check cashing joint to try get the rent paid in time and food on the table...well, reading with Timmy can start to fall by the wayside. (Especially if that person can't read too well themselves, having grown up in a situation just like Timmy.)
I know I don't have all the answers, and I probably can't even see all of the problems. However, it is pretty obvious to me that the best cure for poverty is indeed money. Yeah, seems like a no brainer, but a lot of conservative politicians and pundits still seem convinced that people really will just "pull themselves up by their own bootstraps." Um, what if they already had to pawn their boots?
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2/1/2002 10:49:23 PMlink
This is the stuff that hangs out in the basement.
Copyright for all images and text belongs to Katherine Olson, except whether otherwise noted.
(If I've cited something of yours and somehow missed the credit and/or link, let me know and I'll fix it.)
Irving Place
