Yes, in fact, I hate kid's music with a white hot passion. I have never seen or listened to High School the Musical, and I hope against hope that I will never have to. I have actual issues with most kid's music that I've heard. Don't even get me started on the travesty that is Kids Bop which I thankfully only know through their hellish commercials.
I have made one single exception that I can think of, though if Momma reads this, she may think of one other exception that I'm less willing to admit to. I really doubt that exception exists, but Momma has a way of remembering things I don't, whether or not they really happened.
Before I rant any more I will list my one exception. I love Thomas the Tank Engine. The original stories by Reverend Awdry are the ones I love, and the new ones that exist solely to make money can go straight to hell. Rev. Awdry's original stories were made up for his son, the same way that many classics of children's literature were created. So my musical exception here is Roundhouse Rhythms, a collection of songs from different episodes of the Thomas stories. I'm sure anyone familiar with Thomas knows plenty of lyrics to Gone Fishin' which is a great song. Toby's song is also a good one. I've even found a site with the lyrics so that I can sing along.
Now we continue with the rant. I just don't see the point of music geared toward kids. It's always music that no one but kids want to hear, and kids only like it because we buy it for them and treat is as special for them. In fact, most kid's music just plain sucks, so in my mind, we are, by giving our kids this crap, telling them they don't deserve good music. It's insulting to kids in my opinion to suggest that they can't appreciate good music.
Big Brother doesn't seem to appreciate the ska quite as much as Momma and I, but he does seem to like some of it. The Boy is constantly asking who we are listening to, even when we actually have the radio on, which means I don't usually know who it is till the DJ tells us, and I don't know that we've found anything he will claim not to like. We only listen to three stations regularly, NPR, the local college station and WDVX, easily one of the greatest radio stations known to man. Click the link and listen. If you love Americana and related styles you will love them. They are also commercial free, though my anti-commercial leanings get a different post.
I'll end the rant with music I know the boys like: Dwight Yoakam, Louis Jordan, Leonard Cohen, Carl Perkins, The Clash, Dropkick Murphys, The Melvins, Motorhead, Flogging Molly, Faith No More, Social Distortion, and the list really goes on. I could throw in some classical music that they've enjoyed, Tchaikovsky, the entire Strauss family, Prokofiev (Peter and the Wolf) Basically my point is, why reduce music to pop pablum when you can just give your kids real music? Why limit what they can get into? Why give them music that has an obvious enjoy-by date?
Sunday, November 19, 2006
not soccer weather
First, don't assume I'm pretending we get cold weather. We are in the south, as I well know, and it just doesn't really get that cold down here compared to some of the more crazy ass states like Minnesota.
Having said that, it's damn cold here today. Yesterday was oddly cold, colder than it felt, light, not unpleasant breezes all day. The breezes today are similarly light but much colder. Today's weather is the kind of weather where heavy and heavily padded fellows collide into each other while searching for the guy with the funny oblong ball. This is football weather.
I've checked the website of the soccer league on which I play. Our team captain called me last night to make sure I knew that we did indeed have a game today, but I checked again today to be sure that the games hadn't been canceled. We haven't had enough rain for the fields to be off limits, which is why our games are generally canceled. Apparently the schedule stands, and we will play.
The sky is gray and a little unpleasant looking, and the perky news ho last night actually mentioned the phrase "snow flurries." Those aren't rain clouds outside, but they could easily be snow clouds. It looks like winter crap weather outside.
And it's cold. Even in a flannel and leather jacket, my smokes today have not been pleasant. It ain't soccer weather out there today.
I briefly considered not playing. Part of me really doesn't look forward to freezing my nuts to my leg and being so cold that I feel brittle. Another part of me thinks that some of the other team members won't show giving me that much more playing time. That's the thought that might push me out the door into this not soccer weather day. I have also to consider that many team mates may not show. Last season ended with the majority of the team not showing for the last couple of games leaving us to play severely overwhelmed by the opposing team. I'm not looking forward to being part of seven or eight players playing a full side of eleven with substitutes which is a fear alongside the brittle freeze.
I will most likely be out at the field, freezing, shivering like a scared puppy. I will play my ass off looking to win the last game of the season. And that's the main reason I'll be there. This is our last game of the fall season, so soccer is over for a few months after today. I'm almost looking forward to the freedom of not having games looming each Sunday. But as usual, as much as I might think I'm looking forward to it, I'll miss soccer until spring finally drags itself back.
So I'll play. I'll freeze, sort of. I'll hurt myself a little on a spectacular (spectacularly stupid) slide tackle. And too soon it'll be over for a short time.
Having said that, it's damn cold here today. Yesterday was oddly cold, colder than it felt, light, not unpleasant breezes all day. The breezes today are similarly light but much colder. Today's weather is the kind of weather where heavy and heavily padded fellows collide into each other while searching for the guy with the funny oblong ball. This is football weather.
I've checked the website of the soccer league on which I play. Our team captain called me last night to make sure I knew that we did indeed have a game today, but I checked again today to be sure that the games hadn't been canceled. We haven't had enough rain for the fields to be off limits, which is why our games are generally canceled. Apparently the schedule stands, and we will play.
The sky is gray and a little unpleasant looking, and the perky news ho last night actually mentioned the phrase "snow flurries." Those aren't rain clouds outside, but they could easily be snow clouds. It looks like winter crap weather outside.
And it's cold. Even in a flannel and leather jacket, my smokes today have not been pleasant. It ain't soccer weather out there today.
I briefly considered not playing. Part of me really doesn't look forward to freezing my nuts to my leg and being so cold that I feel brittle. Another part of me thinks that some of the other team members won't show giving me that much more playing time. That's the thought that might push me out the door into this not soccer weather day. I have also to consider that many team mates may not show. Last season ended with the majority of the team not showing for the last couple of games leaving us to play severely overwhelmed by the opposing team. I'm not looking forward to being part of seven or eight players playing a full side of eleven with substitutes which is a fear alongside the brittle freeze.
I will most likely be out at the field, freezing, shivering like a scared puppy. I will play my ass off looking to win the last game of the season. And that's the main reason I'll be there. This is our last game of the fall season, so soccer is over for a few months after today. I'm almost looking forward to the freedom of not having games looming each Sunday. But as usual, as much as I might think I'm looking forward to it, I'll miss soccer until spring finally drags itself back.
So I'll play. I'll freeze, sort of. I'll hurt myself a little on a spectacular (spectacularly stupid) slide tackle. And too soon it'll be over for a short time.
Saturday, November 18, 2006
where, oh where
Where do people get the fucked up ideas that they have about homeschooling? We have to accept, to some degree, that the fundys have set a pretty bad example of who we are. People too often see the stereotype, the exclusionary tactics of certain people who make statements to the effect that the schools are anti christian, that their children are not allowed to pray or proselytize. They freak out that god is being taken out of the classroom because some of us don't want to pledge "under god" when reciting the pledge of allegiance.
Yes, these few out of many are the ones that get to describe homeschooling. Though so many of us know that this is not what homeschooling really represents, we are still doomed by our undesired representatives.
There should be some way that we can proclaim ourselves to be different, but we end up painted by this christ colored brush all too often. We may not like it, and we may differ greatly in our reasons to homeschool, but too many people hear that single word, homeschool, and they immediately assume all sorts of things about us.
I don't feel like posting the same old post about how it just ain't that way. I shouldn't have to describe all the ways we are different, all the ways that we know exactly what we are doing. I have read enough posts to know that we are not in the minority, yet I look around and find that we are being referenced as this when we are really that.
I'm a fairly anti public school person. I have any number of issues with the beast, and I'm generally happy to rant about the situation. I have pretty much zero experience with public schools having attended the same little christian school all the years I was in school. Momma has plenty of horror stories about her years in the system, and I can easily use Google to find any number of horror stories that back up our decision.
I know that part of the problem is the blanket statements. I know that one single option is never right for all people and families. I know that not all public schools are evil places. I also know the amount of work I'm willing to do for my kids as opposed to the amount of work I'm not willing to do in regard to the public school system in terms of reteaching my kids. If I'm going to have to do the work anyway, I'll just keep them at home and do it right the first time.
What it comes down to is that I'm not willing for them to have my kids. Plenty of kids will leave the system after twelfth grade with a fair education and without having been bullied and misled. Plenty of kids will get a fine education from the system. My kids won't be among those, though they will end up just fine, well educated and well adjusted.
It all ends at the same conclusion. I love my kids and respect their ability to learn. I want them to grow up to be open minded and caring. I want them to develop into who they are as opposed to ending up a clone of their age peers. I want them to learn certain things when they are at an appropriate point in their lives. I want them to learn the truth about certain things that schools, no matter how good particular school systems may be, will never be able to teach well.
Yes, these few out of many are the ones that get to describe homeschooling. Though so many of us know that this is not what homeschooling really represents, we are still doomed by our undesired representatives.
There should be some way that we can proclaim ourselves to be different, but we end up painted by this christ colored brush all too often. We may not like it, and we may differ greatly in our reasons to homeschool, but too many people hear that single word, homeschool, and they immediately assume all sorts of things about us.
I don't feel like posting the same old post about how it just ain't that way. I shouldn't have to describe all the ways we are different, all the ways that we know exactly what we are doing. I have read enough posts to know that we are not in the minority, yet I look around and find that we are being referenced as this when we are really that.
I'm a fairly anti public school person. I have any number of issues with the beast, and I'm generally happy to rant about the situation. I have pretty much zero experience with public schools having attended the same little christian school all the years I was in school. Momma has plenty of horror stories about her years in the system, and I can easily use Google to find any number of horror stories that back up our decision.
I know that part of the problem is the blanket statements. I know that one single option is never right for all people and families. I know that not all public schools are evil places. I also know the amount of work I'm willing to do for my kids as opposed to the amount of work I'm not willing to do in regard to the public school system in terms of reteaching my kids. If I'm going to have to do the work anyway, I'll just keep them at home and do it right the first time.
What it comes down to is that I'm not willing for them to have my kids. Plenty of kids will leave the system after twelfth grade with a fair education and without having been bullied and misled. Plenty of kids will get a fine education from the system. My kids won't be among those, though they will end up just fine, well educated and well adjusted.
It all ends at the same conclusion. I love my kids and respect their ability to learn. I want them to grow up to be open minded and caring. I want them to develop into who they are as opposed to ending up a clone of their age peers. I want them to learn certain things when they are at an appropriate point in their lives. I want them to learn the truth about certain things that schools, no matter how good particular school systems may be, will never be able to teach well.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
oh how I suck
My posting here has gone steadily downhill lately. I've either run out of things to say or just finally realized that I never really had that much to say.
I'm going to make a real effort to get back into the habit of writing pithy little rants and blowing up about things that don't really have any bearing on my life.
I've considered a number of tactics to rehabitualize the posting thing. I could use this as an outlet for making up words, a personal favorite pastime. I think one of my problems is the bogdownedness I feel with normal life sometimes. I've got a really sweet habit of getting myself into a personal funk from which all topics, even the rare good one, just seem like crap that I prefer not to plod through.
Good (or not so much) rants are another personal favorite. I can always think of something to bitch about, so perhaps I should admit that uninformed spouting of vitriol is my true forte and should just stick with that.
So with that, I'll wrap this post and begin an angry screed against something completely inane and pointless. I'll give it all I have, writing furiously while railing furiously, tilting at windmills with made up words full of sensity and knowability while simultaneously nonsensabacle.
I'm going to make a real effort to get back into the habit of writing pithy little rants and blowing up about things that don't really have any bearing on my life.
I've considered a number of tactics to rehabitualize the posting thing. I could use this as an outlet for making up words, a personal favorite pastime. I think one of my problems is the bogdownedness I feel with normal life sometimes. I've got a really sweet habit of getting myself into a personal funk from which all topics, even the rare good one, just seem like crap that I prefer not to plod through.
Good (or not so much) rants are another personal favorite. I can always think of something to bitch about, so perhaps I should admit that uninformed spouting of vitriol is my true forte and should just stick with that.
So with that, I'll wrap this post and begin an angry screed against something completely inane and pointless. I'll give it all I have, writing furiously while railing furiously, tilting at windmills with made up words full of sensity and knowability while simultaneously nonsensabacle.
full quivers, empty heads
If that title doesn't piss off the over-breeders, then I will have to resort to even more inflammatory rhetoric, but I'm pretty sure that'll get 'em. If you think a quiver full is a good way to get a deer during bow season, you are obviously not up to date on the newest dominionist tactics.
God is the ultimate physician, or so we are told by a certain segment of fundamentalist christians. These people revel in having large families as they overpopulate the earth. The only birth control they use is faith that their supreme leader will decide if they need more babies. One must wonder, given this bit of insanity, whether they bother ever going to human doctors. You can't very well call god your doctor and then take your medical business elsewhere when he doesn't give you that physical that the new job says you need, but that's part of the christian thing where there words and actions don't really actually coincide so much.
What's wrong with having a bunch of babies? Isn't it their right as christian weirdos to overpopulate the earth? Who am I to suggest that their reasoning is both faulty and frightening? Are they suggesting that god is a condom and can decide to break or not based on whether he thinks you need more babies?
A quiver full of babies is considered a blessing, or so we are told. Does that mean that my youngest brother and his wife are somehow not worthy of being blessed? Because they had a hell of a time getting and staying pregnant. If you met any of my family, you'd have to also note that they are the kind of people who could be considered good christians. They follow the Bible's teachings and vote republican. How about my second oldest brother and his wife? They have three beautiful and bright daughters, but during the years they were having children, she had a couple of very difficult pregnancies and her own trouble producing.
My real issue here is one of absolute terror that these people are attempting to out breed people who think rationally. They are breeding christian warriors to eventually have enough votes to establish their theocracy. They don't want a free America with liberty and justice for all. They want to base national law entirely on biblical dogma, and since they can't do that as things currently stand, they will change it with masses of brainwashed children.
Christians have every right to pretend their scriptures make sense. They have every right to justify following certain parts of the Bible while ignoring other parts. It isn't my holy book, so I'm in no position to require that they follow it completely or interpret it sensibly. I can only use my knowledge of their book as I've read it, and I can certainly call them out when I catch that whiff of bullshit that follows them around.
The Bible makes very few references to breeding, and those it does are misconstrued to justify making more babies than they should. What the Bible does mention more than any thing else is that it's followers should spend their time taking care of the poor and the needy and the less fortunate. I'd think that children in foster homes, children needing a stable family, fall under all those headings. But certain people, assuming that god didn't mean for them to worry about other people, are too busy making too many babies so that they can send their christian army into the world to fight evil.
I have as many kids as I need. I come from a fairly large family, and I'm not completely against people having big families. I do think that people should use common sense when planning their families and controlling their own personal birth rate. What is a reasonable number of children? That's a question I can't answer. I do know that children should not be produced as political tools for future christian election wins, and that sounds to me like the plan when I read some of the writings by quiver full people. It's disturbing and frightening and wrong.
hat tip: this is a post I'd considered before, though it was reading at Spunky's place that got the brain wheels rustily cranking out my thoughts. Follow the link to a blog that I find well written and well thought out even when her beliefs make me cringe in fright. I don't always disagree with her, for what it's worth, but I hope like hell people like this never get in a position to dictate right and wrong for the country. Our current president has shown us time and again why overly faith based people aren't good at running nations.
God is the ultimate physician, or so we are told by a certain segment of fundamentalist christians. These people revel in having large families as they overpopulate the earth. The only birth control they use is faith that their supreme leader will decide if they need more babies. One must wonder, given this bit of insanity, whether they bother ever going to human doctors. You can't very well call god your doctor and then take your medical business elsewhere when he doesn't give you that physical that the new job says you need, but that's part of the christian thing where there words and actions don't really actually coincide so much.
What's wrong with having a bunch of babies? Isn't it their right as christian weirdos to overpopulate the earth? Who am I to suggest that their reasoning is both faulty and frightening? Are they suggesting that god is a condom and can decide to break or not based on whether he thinks you need more babies?
A quiver full of babies is considered a blessing, or so we are told. Does that mean that my youngest brother and his wife are somehow not worthy of being blessed? Because they had a hell of a time getting and staying pregnant. If you met any of my family, you'd have to also note that they are the kind of people who could be considered good christians. They follow the Bible's teachings and vote republican. How about my second oldest brother and his wife? They have three beautiful and bright daughters, but during the years they were having children, she had a couple of very difficult pregnancies and her own trouble producing.
My real issue here is one of absolute terror that these people are attempting to out breed people who think rationally. They are breeding christian warriors to eventually have enough votes to establish their theocracy. They don't want a free America with liberty and justice for all. They want to base national law entirely on biblical dogma, and since they can't do that as things currently stand, they will change it with masses of brainwashed children.
Christians have every right to pretend their scriptures make sense. They have every right to justify following certain parts of the Bible while ignoring other parts. It isn't my holy book, so I'm in no position to require that they follow it completely or interpret it sensibly. I can only use my knowledge of their book as I've read it, and I can certainly call them out when I catch that whiff of bullshit that follows them around.
The Bible makes very few references to breeding, and those it does are misconstrued to justify making more babies than they should. What the Bible does mention more than any thing else is that it's followers should spend their time taking care of the poor and the needy and the less fortunate. I'd think that children in foster homes, children needing a stable family, fall under all those headings. But certain people, assuming that god didn't mean for them to worry about other people, are too busy making too many babies so that they can send their christian army into the world to fight evil.
I have as many kids as I need. I come from a fairly large family, and I'm not completely against people having big families. I do think that people should use common sense when planning their families and controlling their own personal birth rate. What is a reasonable number of children? That's a question I can't answer. I do know that children should not be produced as political tools for future christian election wins, and that sounds to me like the plan when I read some of the writings by quiver full people. It's disturbing and frightening and wrong.
hat tip: this is a post I'd considered before, though it was reading at Spunky's place that got the brain wheels rustily cranking out my thoughts. Follow the link to a blog that I find well written and well thought out even when her beliefs make me cringe in fright. I don't always disagree with her, for what it's worth, but I hope like hell people like this never get in a position to dictate right and wrong for the country. Our current president has shown us time and again why overly faith based people aren't good at running nations.
english as a second language
I'm no linguist. I'm just a guy with a couple of drinks in him. Something that I believe is that, were I to move to England, I could easily learn English, but for now, I suppose what I speak can best be described as American. Another post for another time might be about the question posed to me some time ago by a Mexican coworker. He wondered why we in the US refer to ourselves as American when there are in fact a couple of other Americas that we sort of preclude from that designation.
So my point here gets back, hat tip style I suppose, to the book I mentioned in a different post. I'm reading An Omelette and a Glass of Wine, written by English food writer Elizabeth David. The problem I'm having is one I've also had with Julia Child with her definite French leanings. I should point out here that I have a huge crush on Julia.
I'm sure my attempts at pronouncing French sound really funny if I were trying to say them to a French person. Lucky for me they usually stay in my head, but that's where the problem comes in. When you are geek about reading random food related stuff, you find often that you're reading about French food of one kind or another as well as about French other stuff.
Sometimes I just get stumped by a word, and I end up with a snooty French man inside my head pronouncing the words in a variety of ways. I can run through a few words that seem to make a certain sense in my head, and suddenly, out of nowhere comes the hard one. I'm not pretending I get all the words right, but I get them right enough in my brain till the one word shows up. My brain beats at it every which way, but my complete lack of any real knowledge of the language cuts through all my confidence from earlier. And that little snooty French man starts saying the word in a very stereotypical French way, laughing AT and not WITH, at which point I'm doomed to stay stuck on this word until I put the book down and walk away for a while.
For what it's worth, I'm cool with the French. I have nothing against them really. They seem to have a nice enough place over there in Europe. Maybe one day, when mother powerball bestows her wealth on me, I'll take a trip out there and have some of their food. I hear it's good. Hell, I might even learn the language finally.
So my point here gets back, hat tip style I suppose, to the book I mentioned in a different post. I'm reading An Omelette and a Glass of Wine, written by English food writer Elizabeth David. The problem I'm having is one I've also had with Julia Child with her definite French leanings. I should point out here that I have a huge crush on Julia.
I'm sure my attempts at pronouncing French sound really funny if I were trying to say them to a French person. Lucky for me they usually stay in my head, but that's where the problem comes in. When you are geek about reading random food related stuff, you find often that you're reading about French food of one kind or another as well as about French other stuff.
Sometimes I just get stumped by a word, and I end up with a snooty French man inside my head pronouncing the words in a variety of ways. I can run through a few words that seem to make a certain sense in my head, and suddenly, out of nowhere comes the hard one. I'm not pretending I get all the words right, but I get them right enough in my brain till the one word shows up. My brain beats at it every which way, but my complete lack of any real knowledge of the language cuts through all my confidence from earlier. And that little snooty French man starts saying the word in a very stereotypical French way, laughing AT and not WITH, at which point I'm doomed to stay stuck on this word until I put the book down and walk away for a while.
For what it's worth, I'm cool with the French. I have nothing against them really. They seem to have a nice enough place over there in Europe. Maybe one day, when mother powerball bestows her wealth on me, I'll take a trip out there and have some of their food. I hear it's good. Hell, I might even learn the language finally.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
new movie
The Boy is wrapping up his television for the day with some cartoons before we read and pack him off to bed. I'm not watching with him, or wasn't, and then something pulls my eyes to the screen. Suddenly, I find myself wanting to watch a new movie, which hasn't happened a lot lately. So many new movies look like such crap.
I was looking forward to Christopher Paolini's book Eragon some time before it came out, I'm sure to some extent because he was homeschooled. It didn't hurt that the book is a pretty good story as is the second in the trilogy, Eldest. I love dragons and mythical creatures and swordplay and long drawn out stories of good versus evil.
Reading the book, I couldn't help but find comparisons to other works of a similar nature. Perhaps for some that would be an issue, and in doing a search I actually came across a christian teen message board that seemed entirely populated by young teen girls explaining how much the book sucks because it's like other books. It was sadly funny, but not so much that I'm going to link to the bitches.
I seem to remember hearing something about a movie, and now I've seen the proof, the commercial, and I hope like hell it's good. No movie can ever really be as good as the book on which it was based. I'm sure scientists have hypothesized and theorified about this, and I'm sure there is some sort of natural law that declaims exactly this truth. As happens, that's going into the "not for this post" pile of ideas for things I may one day blog about.
Damn chriswanzakuh and its cash depleting ways. Damn that this movie is likely going to nestle in my brain which will steep in thoughts of wish and hope for this movie. I don't know how soon I'll willingly brave the movie theater with The Boy in tow. Given all this, I'm not sure when I'll see this movie, but when I do you can be sure I'll tell you all about it.
I was looking forward to Christopher Paolini's book Eragon some time before it came out, I'm sure to some extent because he was homeschooled. It didn't hurt that the book is a pretty good story as is the second in the trilogy, Eldest. I love dragons and mythical creatures and swordplay and long drawn out stories of good versus evil.
Reading the book, I couldn't help but find comparisons to other works of a similar nature. Perhaps for some that would be an issue, and in doing a search I actually came across a christian teen message board that seemed entirely populated by young teen girls explaining how much the book sucks because it's like other books. It was sadly funny, but not so much that I'm going to link to the bitches.
I seem to remember hearing something about a movie, and now I've seen the proof, the commercial, and I hope like hell it's good. No movie can ever really be as good as the book on which it was based. I'm sure scientists have hypothesized and theorified about this, and I'm sure there is some sort of natural law that declaims exactly this truth. As happens, that's going into the "not for this post" pile of ideas for things I may one day blog about.
Damn chriswanzakuh and its cash depleting ways. Damn that this movie is likely going to nestle in my brain which will steep in thoughts of wish and hope for this movie. I don't know how soon I'll willingly brave the movie theater with The Boy in tow. Given all this, I'm not sure when I'll see this movie, but when I do you can be sure I'll tell you all about it.
Saturday, November 11, 2006
a pair of books
I won't recount the horror I've made of my library visits recently. I've racked up some fines through sheer ineptitude and laziness and payed them off at 10% by sheer fortune. We happened to visit the library on amnesty day in which donations of food erase your fines. I didn't realize this before we went, but I had missed two overdue items when packing up the library stuff, so I needed to return those before we could actually check new books out.
One of the books I picked up recently is The Republican War on Science by Chris Mooney, and this is the book I suffered through. It was certainly eye opening, to some extent, but I've also been just into conspiracy theory just enough to not be surprised. It was more depressing than enlightening, but I finished it, and of that I'm proud. I would suggest to most people that they read this book through at least once. Hopefully we can turn things around and this book will soon be a forgotten warning.
I was actually looking for that book as well as The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins, which our library system doesn't have. I'm not quite sure what to think of that. I really don't want it to be some backward southern thing, but if one searches the library catalog, Dawkins almost shows up more often for introductions in books as opposed to as an author. Which brings us to the book I may not get around to before it's due, The Origin of Species and The Voyage of the Beagle, with . . . guess . . . an intro by Richard Dawkins. I'm not sure if I really want to read this book or if I just want to have read it.
Part of the reason I may not get to Darwin this time (I've checked this book out before and not read it because it was due before I got around to it) is that I may just not get around to it before it's due again. I have newer borrowings that seem to be cutting the line in front of the old fellow.
I've hit upon the idea that what I need is to reread John Holt, How Children Learn. I've read it once before, and at some point I remember mentioning to Momma that we needed to just go ahead and buy it sometime. We didn't, so the library comes to the rescue. The book I'm currently reading is only a few Dewey mapped shelves away and wasn't actually on my list. John Holt gets pushed down the line a little. This should in no way demean Mr. Holt as one should certainly read his books. I'd go so far as to suggest that this one book should be given to all new parents as well as all teachers and school administrators.
Somewhere around 340, our downtown library's nonfiction section moves up a floor. On this same floor is the a/v section. I always love a trip to the second floor, and we usually take a few minutes upstairs, usually for music for me, and if Big Brother wants, they have a great selection of videos. I time myself upstairs because of The Boy. He gets noisome, perhaps even crazy, so I don't venture into books to browse until we hit the kid's section. There of course he can be a kid.
The boys were behaving mostly, so I slipped from education to food and cooking, John Holt in hand. I didn't have anything in mind when I came to food, so I may have actually stared at the shelves for a minute waiting for something to go off. Elizabeth David was the one. I picked An Omelette and a Glass of Wine. I have another book of hers that I've loved, though I'm not certain I've read it all. Both books are collections of pieces she's written for a variety of publications, and the book of hers I own, I've skipped around reading different bits as I felt like it. Because it isn't a book you need to read straight through or all at once, Holt may find himself worked into the middle.
Elizabeth David has become a favorite cooking writer of mine. How to describe her writing is a bit difficult. What I'm familiar with mostly happened in the years following World War II. She writes about cooking that I can only imagine. She writes about food rationing well after the war ended. She writes about travelling in France where fees for hotels and meals in the hotel restaurant were priced based on pensioners plans. She makes me jealous, and I read her all the same. Go get one of her books.
Quit with the rambling to end with a question. Why do I feel guilty if I return something to the library without having read it?
One of the books I picked up recently is The Republican War on Science by Chris Mooney, and this is the book I suffered through. It was certainly eye opening, to some extent, but I've also been just into conspiracy theory just enough to not be surprised. It was more depressing than enlightening, but I finished it, and of that I'm proud. I would suggest to most people that they read this book through at least once. Hopefully we can turn things around and this book will soon be a forgotten warning.
I was actually looking for that book as well as The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins, which our library system doesn't have. I'm not quite sure what to think of that. I really don't want it to be some backward southern thing, but if one searches the library catalog, Dawkins almost shows up more often for introductions in books as opposed to as an author. Which brings us to the book I may not get around to before it's due, The Origin of Species and The Voyage of the Beagle, with . . . guess . . . an intro by Richard Dawkins. I'm not sure if I really want to read this book or if I just want to have read it.
Part of the reason I may not get to Darwin this time (I've checked this book out before and not read it because it was due before I got around to it) is that I may just not get around to it before it's due again. I have newer borrowings that seem to be cutting the line in front of the old fellow.
I've hit upon the idea that what I need is to reread John Holt, How Children Learn. I've read it once before, and at some point I remember mentioning to Momma that we needed to just go ahead and buy it sometime. We didn't, so the library comes to the rescue. The book I'm currently reading is only a few Dewey mapped shelves away and wasn't actually on my list. John Holt gets pushed down the line a little. This should in no way demean Mr. Holt as one should certainly read his books. I'd go so far as to suggest that this one book should be given to all new parents as well as all teachers and school administrators.
Somewhere around 340, our downtown library's nonfiction section moves up a floor. On this same floor is the a/v section. I always love a trip to the second floor, and we usually take a few minutes upstairs, usually for music for me, and if Big Brother wants, they have a great selection of videos. I time myself upstairs because of The Boy. He gets noisome, perhaps even crazy, so I don't venture into books to browse until we hit the kid's section. There of course he can be a kid.
The boys were behaving mostly, so I slipped from education to food and cooking, John Holt in hand. I didn't have anything in mind when I came to food, so I may have actually stared at the shelves for a minute waiting for something to go off. Elizabeth David was the one. I picked An Omelette and a Glass of Wine. I have another book of hers that I've loved, though I'm not certain I've read it all. Both books are collections of pieces she's written for a variety of publications, and the book of hers I own, I've skipped around reading different bits as I felt like it. Because it isn't a book you need to read straight through or all at once, Holt may find himself worked into the middle.
Elizabeth David has become a favorite cooking writer of mine. How to describe her writing is a bit difficult. What I'm familiar with mostly happened in the years following World War II. She writes about cooking that I can only imagine. She writes about food rationing well after the war ended. She writes about travelling in France where fees for hotels and meals in the hotel restaurant were priced based on pensioners plans. She makes me jealous, and I read her all the same. Go get one of her books.
Quit with the rambling to end with a question. Why do I feel guilty if I return something to the library without having read it?
Friday, November 10, 2006
loudest voices say the least
Once more, I'm going to start writing a post with no idea exactly where I'm going with this. Chris posted a link to PZ's blog at Science Blogs titled Demand Higher Standards for Homeschooling. What actually follows is his thoughts upon reading a piece about Patrick Henry College. PCH, from what I've read about it, is a college begun in order to cater to a certain segment of the homeschooling population, one of my arch enemies, the fundamentalist. Once more, we as homeschoolers are described in full by a small segment of our population.
What I understand as the meat of the argument is that some homeschoolers teach their children young earth, creationist beliefs instead of the provable truth of science. It's assumed, it seems, that these parents, ever distrustful of all science, must certainly not only not teach it but also have no ability to teach it.
What really struck we were the comments. As Chris mentioned there and at his own blog, something that jumped out at me early on is the similarity between many of the commenters and those fundamentalist they so love to heap scorn on. So many people are so tightly clinging to their own inherent rightness in belief in the one true god be it the judeo christian boogey man or the pure provability of science.
One can neither prove nor disprove that there is a god. One can argue anecdotal evidence and faith, but beyond that, religion is not any in way provable. Science relies solely on proof and must be provable. Science revolves around the evidence we can gather and the variables we can introduce in order to measure outcomes. But often in science, a theory is proven for any number of reasons to be incorrect, and true science has to accept when this happens. Religion has no proof and is in fact based entirely on faith. No amount of faith can make a science experiment produce a desired outcome, and the results of the experiment must be accepted.
According to many of the atheists commenting on Mr. Myers' blog concerning this, teaching children anything that isn't true is actual, real abuse, and one commenter went so far as to compare this to sexual abuse. Another commenter directed us to Auschwitz to show us what happens when kids are taught the religion of their parents. They stand by this not because they are able to prove what they say but because they are right. That's all the proof offered that I can see, because they are right, and because they say so.
The problem here, and it's the same problem in every single anti homeschooling thing I've ever read, is that the people suggesting fixes for what they perceive as wrong with homeschooling generally have no real interest in or knowledge about the subject. All the arguments that arise are answered by homeschoolers, so the argument changes just a little to something we didn't answer, or perhaps it's something we answered, and they've decided they just don't accept our answer. Again, the argument turns into the antagonist proclaiming that what we've said is wrong because they are right and disagree with us. So we as homeschoolers answer the argument only to rebutted again. We are never agreed with, and when we do successfully counter someone, they won't generally admit it, but they will in fact change their argument starting the process all over again.
Especially worrisome was the tone, in many of the comments, that children are little more than wards of the state that people produce to add to the structure of society. People are seen as having few real rights when it comes to raising our children and in fact it's suggested that society has more rights to our children than we do. If we argue against that we are assumed to view our children as property over whom we hold all power. Those so secure in their personal rightness would argue that the state/society, has a right to teach our kids their view of the truth regardless of our wishes as parents. The state, they argue, even has the right to take your children and force them to attend school and be indoctrinated with what they see as the truth.
Reason and thought don't seem to account for much when people argue to be right instead of being willing to rethink their position. This doesn't seem like a very stable place for science to stand. Science needs to be able to move and sway with what is and isn't, to be both provable and disprovable. Being right has no place in science, but learning the truth, working hard to find out what can be proven and rigorously testing, that is science, and it is homeschooling.
What I understand as the meat of the argument is that some homeschoolers teach their children young earth, creationist beliefs instead of the provable truth of science. It's assumed, it seems, that these parents, ever distrustful of all science, must certainly not only not teach it but also have no ability to teach it.
What really struck we were the comments. As Chris mentioned there and at his own blog, something that jumped out at me early on is the similarity between many of the commenters and those fundamentalist they so love to heap scorn on. So many people are so tightly clinging to their own inherent rightness in belief in the one true god be it the judeo christian boogey man or the pure provability of science.
One can neither prove nor disprove that there is a god. One can argue anecdotal evidence and faith, but beyond that, religion is not any in way provable. Science relies solely on proof and must be provable. Science revolves around the evidence we can gather and the variables we can introduce in order to measure outcomes. But often in science, a theory is proven for any number of reasons to be incorrect, and true science has to accept when this happens. Religion has no proof and is in fact based entirely on faith. No amount of faith can make a science experiment produce a desired outcome, and the results of the experiment must be accepted.
According to many of the atheists commenting on Mr. Myers' blog concerning this, teaching children anything that isn't true is actual, real abuse, and one commenter went so far as to compare this to sexual abuse. Another commenter directed us to Auschwitz to show us what happens when kids are taught the religion of their parents. They stand by this not because they are able to prove what they say but because they are right. That's all the proof offered that I can see, because they are right, and because they say so.
The problem here, and it's the same problem in every single anti homeschooling thing I've ever read, is that the people suggesting fixes for what they perceive as wrong with homeschooling generally have no real interest in or knowledge about the subject. All the arguments that arise are answered by homeschoolers, so the argument changes just a little to something we didn't answer, or perhaps it's something we answered, and they've decided they just don't accept our answer. Again, the argument turns into the antagonist proclaiming that what we've said is wrong because they are right and disagree with us. So we as homeschoolers answer the argument only to rebutted again. We are never agreed with, and when we do successfully counter someone, they won't generally admit it, but they will in fact change their argument starting the process all over again.
Especially worrisome was the tone, in many of the comments, that children are little more than wards of the state that people produce to add to the structure of society. People are seen as having few real rights when it comes to raising our children and in fact it's suggested that society has more rights to our children than we do. If we argue against that we are assumed to view our children as property over whom we hold all power. Those so secure in their personal rightness would argue that the state/society, has a right to teach our kids their view of the truth regardless of our wishes as parents. The state, they argue, even has the right to take your children and force them to attend school and be indoctrinated with what they see as the truth.
Reason and thought don't seem to account for much when people argue to be right instead of being willing to rethink their position. This doesn't seem like a very stable place for science to stand. Science needs to be able to move and sway with what is and isn't, to be both provable and disprovable. Being right has no place in science, but learning the truth, working hard to find out what can be proven and rigorously testing, that is science, and it is homeschooling.
Sunday, November 05, 2006
more kid's words
Only half of us were home tonight, me and The Boy, and I was enjoyingish a bowl of ramen noodles while he had leftover peddi (spaghetti). With my hurty jaw, it was almost the right thing, though I'm not sure how much chewing of noodles occured as opposed to just mashing them lightly before they slipped down the gullet.
After scanning the channels on the television, I settled on the newest Blue Collar comedy show and listened to Jeff Foxworthy giving his fashion rules. One of his rules had something to do with tattoos, though I forget now exactly what he said. Tip to other bloggers, sometimes you should write the shit down so you don't forget if you won't be posting right away. More likely that's a tip for me, but it's out there now.
Regardless of the exactness, Foxworthy said something to the effect of not everyone should have a tattoo. The Boy replied immediately to say, "Everyone should have tattoos you idiot," speaking of course to Mr. Foxworthy. I'm sure I don't know who teaches my kids to use words like idiot, but I'm glad he didn't call him worse, like a douche bag or asshole.
After scanning the channels on the television, I settled on the newest Blue Collar comedy show and listened to Jeff Foxworthy giving his fashion rules. One of his rules had something to do with tattoos, though I forget now exactly what he said. Tip to other bloggers, sometimes you should write the shit down so you don't forget if you won't be posting right away. More likely that's a tip for me, but it's out there now.
Regardless of the exactness, Foxworthy said something to the effect of not everyone should have a tattoo. The Boy replied immediately to say, "Everyone should have tattoos you idiot," speaking of course to Mr. Foxworthy. I'm sure I don't know who teaches my kids to use words like idiot, but I'm glad he didn't call him worse, like a douche bag or asshole.
wanted bacon, got a banana
Momma was nice enough to let me sleep in this morning, though when I say nice enough, the niceness was probably being nice to herself in not dealing with me as she attempted to awake me. She was also nice enough to be cooking a real breakfast, pancakes, eggs and bacon.
I ate everything including most of the bacon, but I left my last piece. I didn't want too much digestion going on as it was very close to time for my soccer game. I intended to eat it after returning home from the game, and I was rather looking forward to it. The Boy ended up getting it, but not because I didn't want it.
I did want that bacon, and I attempted to eat it. The one bite I got was excruciating.
You may not think this is a soccer story, but all good things end up being about soccer in the end. My team played pretty well today. Our front line is still passing well, and we out shot the other team by a very wide margin. Their one goal came off a muddle in the box which is how we've given up most of our goals this season. We've won our third game in a row, no thanks to a referee that just didn't seem to like us much. The game was mostly clean, but there were really just too many little calls that either didn't go our way or were missed entirely.
One call that didn't go our way was against me. An opponent and I were charging for a loose ball and were pretty dead even. I pulled out the defensive ace, the slide tackle, and launched myself feet first into the ball. It was a clean play if a little rough. We got to the ball at the same time, but my tackle took the other guy down. He came down right on top of me with a little elbow in the side of my jaw.
I've felt the jaw, pushed it and pulled it, wiggled it, opened and closed it. It doesn't hurt in its normal resting position. It doesn't hurt very much to open or close. Where it does hurt is closing it with any force, force such as it would take to eat a piece of bacon.
The bacon went to The Boy, and I got to eat a banana. Sure, my body needs the potassium more than it needs that lovely, smoky fat and meat and saltiness, but dammit, I wanted the bacon. My options for food as the night progresses seem limited at this moment to ramen noodles. They take slightly more chewing than the banana and somewhat less than the spaghetti that is my other reasonable option. I've also considered peanut butter and jelly, but I don't know that there is enough peanut butter for that, and I've got a feeling there may be some peanut butter graham crackers in The Boy's future. He's already decided against going to derby practice, opting instead to stay home with me and watch a movie, and he's refused all the leftovers in the house.
I don't know what is wrong with my jaw, aside from having a grown man land elbow first on it. I do know that it don't feel too pretty, and I'm dreading the later evening when I'm even hungrier and have already had the ramen.
I ate everything including most of the bacon, but I left my last piece. I didn't want too much digestion going on as it was very close to time for my soccer game. I intended to eat it after returning home from the game, and I was rather looking forward to it. The Boy ended up getting it, but not because I didn't want it.
I did want that bacon, and I attempted to eat it. The one bite I got was excruciating.
You may not think this is a soccer story, but all good things end up being about soccer in the end. My team played pretty well today. Our front line is still passing well, and we out shot the other team by a very wide margin. Their one goal came off a muddle in the box which is how we've given up most of our goals this season. We've won our third game in a row, no thanks to a referee that just didn't seem to like us much. The game was mostly clean, but there were really just too many little calls that either didn't go our way or were missed entirely.
One call that didn't go our way was against me. An opponent and I were charging for a loose ball and were pretty dead even. I pulled out the defensive ace, the slide tackle, and launched myself feet first into the ball. It was a clean play if a little rough. We got to the ball at the same time, but my tackle took the other guy down. He came down right on top of me with a little elbow in the side of my jaw.
I've felt the jaw, pushed it and pulled it, wiggled it, opened and closed it. It doesn't hurt in its normal resting position. It doesn't hurt very much to open or close. Where it does hurt is closing it with any force, force such as it would take to eat a piece of bacon.
The bacon went to The Boy, and I got to eat a banana. Sure, my body needs the potassium more than it needs that lovely, smoky fat and meat and saltiness, but dammit, I wanted the bacon. My options for food as the night progresses seem limited at this moment to ramen noodles. They take slightly more chewing than the banana and somewhat less than the spaghetti that is my other reasonable option. I've also considered peanut butter and jelly, but I don't know that there is enough peanut butter for that, and I've got a feeling there may be some peanut butter graham crackers in The Boy's future. He's already decided against going to derby practice, opting instead to stay home with me and watch a movie, and he's refused all the leftovers in the house.
I don't know what is wrong with my jaw, aside from having a grown man land elbow first on it. I do know that it don't feel too pretty, and I'm dreading the later evening when I'm even hungrier and have already had the ramen.
screwdriver booty
Does that title make sense to you? Does the thought of screwdriver booty give you pause? Do you want to know the story behind screwdriver booty? File this under can't make this shit up. Seriously, click HERE.
Motherfucking screwdriver-butt, monkey-spanking crazy ass shit!
Motherfucking screwdriver-butt, monkey-spanking crazy ass shit!
Saturday, November 04, 2006
ooooooooh evil cartoons
Yeah, cartoons are evil, but those cartoons you're thinking about are not the ones I'm thinking about. I spent way too much time today looking through 228 comics about the holocaust. These are the cartoons called for in the wake of the mohamed cartoons in the Danish newspaper.
We all remember the story, the Danish newspaper that ran comics featuring the islamic holy man mohammed. The comics incited the crazy part of the muslim world to freak out for a few days and throw bombs. Apparently, to prove a point, the muslims then called for retaliatory comics regarding their disbelief in the holocaust.
What struck me most throughout my reading was the mindlessness being hurled back and forth. Conspiracy theories were the norm in addition to the racism and hatred. The hatred seemed driven by a combination of religion and racism.
I really don't know what to think about the middle east. I know some amount of the tension is oil driven, but the oil isn't helping that many people there, and I wonder sometimes why anyone would stay. It seems insane to me who has picked up and moved a few times over the years. I suppose that's one of the beauties of not being born in that area.
I might be able to tell you a thing or two about living in the southern US, but I know so little about Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Egypt or any of the other countries crammed into that tiny, arid zone. I was once fairly oppinionated about the area with my baptist past teaching me its own judeo-christian view, and I have to make an effort not to let that continue to color my thoughts on the area now.
A perfect example of this inability to understand is the Iraq civil war. We in the US are certainly somewhat to blame for the crisis, but what is it that makes neighbors turn guns on each other based on doctrinal differences within the same religion?
We can try the issue raised in the comics. What makes Israel and Palestine get stuck in this endless loop of violence? Is it all oil? British and now American imperialism? Superstitious fucking nitwits? Is there really a zionist plot? What kind of people put bombs on kids?
It seems sometimes as if a certain part of the muslim world is stuck in a whole other time period from the rest of the world. One thing that stands out to me. Over the years, I can think of any number of US military incursions, and for the most part, we seem to go in and do whatever the guvment tells us they do, and then we get out. What international news I can remember over my short time on the earth has always involved the middle east and jews and muslims regardless of whether the other stories were Kosovo or the Philipines or Nicaragua. Who the hell even remembers Imelda Marcos anymore?
I'm done writing with I don't know, otherwise this post will turn into an anti-religion rant. I try not to hate it, to try to let people have their things, but it gets hard when diverging dogmas seem so often to result in killing and more killing. I just don't get it.
Hat tip to Orac at Science Blogs
Go here if you really want to sit through a bunch of racist cartoons that don't even have the decency to be funny.
We all remember the story, the Danish newspaper that ran comics featuring the islamic holy man mohammed. The comics incited the crazy part of the muslim world to freak out for a few days and throw bombs. Apparently, to prove a point, the muslims then called for retaliatory comics regarding their disbelief in the holocaust.
What struck me most throughout my reading was the mindlessness being hurled back and forth. Conspiracy theories were the norm in addition to the racism and hatred. The hatred seemed driven by a combination of religion and racism.
I really don't know what to think about the middle east. I know some amount of the tension is oil driven, but the oil isn't helping that many people there, and I wonder sometimes why anyone would stay. It seems insane to me who has picked up and moved a few times over the years. I suppose that's one of the beauties of not being born in that area.
I might be able to tell you a thing or two about living in the southern US, but I know so little about Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Egypt or any of the other countries crammed into that tiny, arid zone. I was once fairly oppinionated about the area with my baptist past teaching me its own judeo-christian view, and I have to make an effort not to let that continue to color my thoughts on the area now.
A perfect example of this inability to understand is the Iraq civil war. We in the US are certainly somewhat to blame for the crisis, but what is it that makes neighbors turn guns on each other based on doctrinal differences within the same religion?
We can try the issue raised in the comics. What makes Israel and Palestine get stuck in this endless loop of violence? Is it all oil? British and now American imperialism? Superstitious fucking nitwits? Is there really a zionist plot? What kind of people put bombs on kids?
It seems sometimes as if a certain part of the muslim world is stuck in a whole other time period from the rest of the world. One thing that stands out to me. Over the years, I can think of any number of US military incursions, and for the most part, we seem to go in and do whatever the guvment tells us they do, and then we get out. What international news I can remember over my short time on the earth has always involved the middle east and jews and muslims regardless of whether the other stories were Kosovo or the Philipines or Nicaragua. Who the hell even remembers Imelda Marcos anymore?
I'm done writing with I don't know, otherwise this post will turn into an anti-religion rant. I try not to hate it, to try to let people have their things, but it gets hard when diverging dogmas seem so often to result in killing and more killing. I just don't get it.
Hat tip to Orac at Science Blogs
Go here if you really want to sit through a bunch of racist cartoons that don't even have the decency to be funny.
Friday, November 03, 2006
two wins in a row
Many years ago, somewhere between 1986 and 1988, I played my first soccer. I attended a fairly small christian school and played football my eighth grade year which was the year all the football size people either graduated or left to attend a different school, so the next year we could not reasonably pretend that we were going to have a football team. So we were given soccer.
I was never a really big football fan, though I do watch at least a little of the yearly squaring off of the Vols and the Bulldogs. I always hope that Georgia wins, and I'm usually given that joy by the final buzzer. And there is a little someone inside of me that gets a little feeling when I hear Larry Munson's voice, sort of an aural time machine.
The small christian school grew much smaller the year I'd have been a senior, though I was on the soccer team each year till then. That isn't any sort of brag of course as even the two seventh graders that we lapped while running laps around the field made the team. These were kids that would never have made the team in a public school, and good little christians that we were, we were still total dicks to these poor kids.
So then came the years in which I didn't play any soccer. When the small christian school ceased half its operations I was "homeschooled" and no longer was able to play. The quotes above are not scare quotes because my own adventures as a homeschool kid were not what you'd call real overly homeschooley and as such are a whole other post. That was my twelfth grade year.
After a few years of all sorts of trouble I ended up in North Carolina for a few years. I met Momma in what certainly wasn't love at first sight for either of us, but this is one more instance of different post, different day. The point here is that I ended up getting her pregnant which prompted our move to Tennessee. The pregnancy produced Big Brother.
Another few years passed before Big Brother was old enough for soccer. We'd decided to homeschool and had never really considered sports. Neither Momma or I were really sports fans at this point. I still had fond memories of those days playing soccer, and I'd even carried a pair of cleats between different moves, never using them but hoping one day to find a game. I didn't really look, but in my defense, I was pretty busy doing drugs before the whole baby thing.
Those cleats were nowhere to be found when I finally did get that chance at a game. I think it was Big Brother's first season playing AYSO, possibly his second. I didn't coach his first season, but I soon realized that, not only did AYSO need volunteers, but I was not going to stay off the field. It just so happened that another coach needed some players to fill out his team that played in an adult league. He was wandering across the soccer complex and happened to randomly introduce himself and invite me to play.
That began my adult soccer years. The cleats I have now are a lot like my old high school cleats, the cheap kind of Adidas that have that annoying little bit of extra toe. They fit all right, and I do hate the living shit out of them, and they work well enough. I could stand to stop smoking and start exercising, but I figure playing soccer once or twice a week is good enough to cover both those.
This story started out being about winning two weeks in a row. Being on a decent team isn't something I'm used to. Maybe I've been on decent teams that weren't as well coached as they could have been, but that's probably just adult sour grapes about a certain high school basketball coach. It's nice having won these games.
Now that I've finally reached my point, I find that I've written as much about soccer as I care to for one night. We have a game coming up with a team we played earlier in the season. They were recently beaten by one of the teams we beat, though I remember them winning our earlier match. We'll see Sunday how that turns out.
I was never a really big football fan, though I do watch at least a little of the yearly squaring off of the Vols and the Bulldogs. I always hope that Georgia wins, and I'm usually given that joy by the final buzzer. And there is a little someone inside of me that gets a little feeling when I hear Larry Munson's voice, sort of an aural time machine.
The small christian school grew much smaller the year I'd have been a senior, though I was on the soccer team each year till then. That isn't any sort of brag of course as even the two seventh graders that we lapped while running laps around the field made the team. These were kids that would never have made the team in a public school, and good little christians that we were, we were still total dicks to these poor kids.
So then came the years in which I didn't play any soccer. When the small christian school ceased half its operations I was "homeschooled" and no longer was able to play. The quotes above are not scare quotes because my own adventures as a homeschool kid were not what you'd call real overly homeschooley and as such are a whole other post. That was my twelfth grade year.
After a few years of all sorts of trouble I ended up in North Carolina for a few years. I met Momma in what certainly wasn't love at first sight for either of us, but this is one more instance of different post, different day. The point here is that I ended up getting her pregnant which prompted our move to Tennessee. The pregnancy produced Big Brother.
Another few years passed before Big Brother was old enough for soccer. We'd decided to homeschool and had never really considered sports. Neither Momma or I were really sports fans at this point. I still had fond memories of those days playing soccer, and I'd even carried a pair of cleats between different moves, never using them but hoping one day to find a game. I didn't really look, but in my defense, I was pretty busy doing drugs before the whole baby thing.
Those cleats were nowhere to be found when I finally did get that chance at a game. I think it was Big Brother's first season playing AYSO, possibly his second. I didn't coach his first season, but I soon realized that, not only did AYSO need volunteers, but I was not going to stay off the field. It just so happened that another coach needed some players to fill out his team that played in an adult league. He was wandering across the soccer complex and happened to randomly introduce himself and invite me to play.
That began my adult soccer years. The cleats I have now are a lot like my old high school cleats, the cheap kind of Adidas that have that annoying little bit of extra toe. They fit all right, and I do hate the living shit out of them, and they work well enough. I could stand to stop smoking and start exercising, but I figure playing soccer once or twice a week is good enough to cover both those.
This story started out being about winning two weeks in a row. Being on a decent team isn't something I'm used to. Maybe I've been on decent teams that weren't as well coached as they could have been, but that's probably just adult sour grapes about a certain high school basketball coach. It's nice having won these games.
Now that I've finally reached my point, I find that I've written as much about soccer as I care to for one night. We have a game coming up with a team we played earlier in the season. They were recently beaten by one of the teams we beat, though I remember them winning our earlier match. We'll see Sunday how that turns out.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
'nother quickie
From the classifieds in the most recent edition of our local alternative newsweekly comes this proof that we should all proofread and run spell check. The ad is for a finance company seeking a secretary/assistant. Among the requirements is "basic offive skills." I want to blame the finance company as I tend to like those employees of the newspaper that I've met, but . . .
another silly quote
Even I laughed at myself when I built this alien cross genetic DNA analyzer, but I guess I showed me.
-Proffesor Hubert Farnsworth, Futurama
-Proffesor Hubert Farnsworth, Futurama
thinking about thinking
I've sucked at posting lately, and I fully intend to remedy that. I have a whole pile of ideas that I've planned on thinking about writing about. I've also gone a few days without posting before the last couple of days in which I've been a bit more diligent.
Sunday night saw a very exciting derby match. I also played soccer that day, and I'm happy to say that we've won two games in a row. Big Brother's season should have been over this past Saturday, but we have a final make up game this week. As much as I love coaching his teams, I'm always happy when the season is over. I've gotten sucked into the reality cooking show on Bravo, having almost completely ignored it in the past. I actually got into the end of the last season based on the characters/chefs.
Right now I'm sort of watching Ultimate Fighter 4. The Boy is in pajamas and has just asked for cake, which he'll probably get, though my original plan was to have him in bed by now while we read some Winnie the Pooh. After that is probably some co-op Lego Star Wars with Big Brother while I wait long enough to be sure that The Boy is asleep and then run Big Brother off to bed. Momma is at work and is closing tonight, though the restaurant closes at midnight tonight meaning that this isn't a really late night.
There's a rundown of possible topics for me. That doesn't even delve into the mindless drivel I call political discourse. Okay, I don't really call it that, because even in my mind I know better than giving myself that kind of credit. I can come up with other stuff too, entirely new topics that I've yet to cover. So until then . . .
Sunday night saw a very exciting derby match. I also played soccer that day, and I'm happy to say that we've won two games in a row. Big Brother's season should have been over this past Saturday, but we have a final make up game this week. As much as I love coaching his teams, I'm always happy when the season is over. I've gotten sucked into the reality cooking show on Bravo, having almost completely ignored it in the past. I actually got into the end of the last season based on the characters/chefs.
Right now I'm sort of watching Ultimate Fighter 4. The Boy is in pajamas and has just asked for cake, which he'll probably get, though my original plan was to have him in bed by now while we read some Winnie the Pooh. After that is probably some co-op Lego Star Wars with Big Brother while I wait long enough to be sure that The Boy is asleep and then run Big Brother off to bed. Momma is at work and is closing tonight, though the restaurant closes at midnight tonight meaning that this isn't a really late night.
There's a rundown of possible topics for me. That doesn't even delve into the mindless drivel I call political discourse. Okay, I don't really call it that, because even in my mind I know better than giving myself that kind of credit. I can come up with other stuff too, entirely new topics that I've yet to cover. So until then . . .
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
new toy perhaps?
So, because someone (all the cool kids?) else did it, and because they said it was cool, and because I'm a sucker for cool, I have hopefully done everything correctly in setting up MyBlogLog. This is a fancy new thing that somehow or other makes the blogging/commenting world that much brighter and friendlier. I won't even attempt to explain what it is, and I'm not even sure I've got the code right. If you don't see it on the page, then I've fucked something up. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, that's fine, because I don't either. The Zero Boss does, and he posted about it as you'll learn if you click his name up there. I'll mention again that I'm not sure I've done everything right, so maybe I'm talking about things not to be. Or perhaps I'll just break my brain tomorrow night figuring it out. I've dedicated enough time to it tonight.
death by gay equality
Okay, perhaps I've argued for equality on occasion, like letting gay people have the same rights as the not gay people. And up to a point, I'm certainly happy to oblige the gays of the world. But I've had to point out to people the nightmare scenario of gay marriage one too many times. I fear that, due to Ed Brayton preaching the gay equality message, I must once again break open a package of truth, though I promise to leave the buttery spread of morality off this time.
Will gay marriage allow gay families the same rights afforded those with differently gendered parents? Will marriage equality allow aging gay couples the same rights as the not gays when one of the gays is hospitalized for some reason? Yes, they would be able to visit, such a simple act, taken for granted by the hetero couples. Will marriage equality make adoption by gay couples easier and thereby enhance the quality of life for some children who may otherwise live out their lives between foster homes? It is entirely possible that this may indeed happen. Those are only a few scenarios in which equality would work to make some lives better.
The arguments we generally hear against equality for gay people are generally mindless religious based meanness and spite. The closest we get to arguments are not good arguments and are often lies instead. So why do politicians fight so hard against something they know is destined? Why not be the good guy and help equality legislation get through? Title IX means that we now have a good national soccer team, so maybe gay equality will be good in a similar vein.
I've said it before, and I fear that I must continue to proclaim the news about gay marriage. It may be good for families and for society and for gay people to grant them the same equality that they should have had all this time, but that ignores the chilling truth of gay marriage.
When gay marriage is legalized finally, our world will immediately face its doom. Earthquakes will ravage the entire surface of the earth as the nazi tyrannosaurs break free from their underground cages. As they break through and out of their nests, their laser eyes will develop fully. Nazi tyrannosaur with laser eyes will then stalk the earth killing all who dare appear. We will all, gay and not gay, atheist and superstitious alike, be nothing more than food for the hungry laser eyes and gullets.
So, sure, we could start treating gay people as equal partners in humanity, kind of like we should have been doing all along with the gay people, the differently hued people and the non-penis havers, but when you've got an ass full of nazi tyrannosaur laser eye, don't come fucking crying to me because I told you so.
Will gay marriage allow gay families the same rights afforded those with differently gendered parents? Will marriage equality allow aging gay couples the same rights as the not gays when one of the gays is hospitalized for some reason? Yes, they would be able to visit, such a simple act, taken for granted by the hetero couples. Will marriage equality make adoption by gay couples easier and thereby enhance the quality of life for some children who may otherwise live out their lives between foster homes? It is entirely possible that this may indeed happen. Those are only a few scenarios in which equality would work to make some lives better.
The arguments we generally hear against equality for gay people are generally mindless religious based meanness and spite. The closest we get to arguments are not good arguments and are often lies instead. So why do politicians fight so hard against something they know is destined? Why not be the good guy and help equality legislation get through? Title IX means that we now have a good national soccer team, so maybe gay equality will be good in a similar vein.
I've said it before, and I fear that I must continue to proclaim the news about gay marriage. It may be good for families and for society and for gay people to grant them the same equality that they should have had all this time, but that ignores the chilling truth of gay marriage.
When gay marriage is legalized finally, our world will immediately face its doom. Earthquakes will ravage the entire surface of the earth as the nazi tyrannosaurs break free from their underground cages. As they break through and out of their nests, their laser eyes will develop fully. Nazi tyrannosaur with laser eyes will then stalk the earth killing all who dare appear. We will all, gay and not gay, atheist and superstitious alike, be nothing more than food for the hungry laser eyes and gullets.
So, sure, we could start treating gay people as equal partners in humanity, kind of like we should have been doing all along with the gay people, the differently hued people and the non-penis havers, but when you've got an ass full of nazi tyrannosaur laser eye, don't come fucking crying to me because I told you so.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
These are of course the boys, and they are of course wearing their Halloween costumes. The Boy is a darling little cat. He was especially cute telling people "trick or treat" and "thank you" with a quick "meow."Big Brother is the grim reaper. He looked like the reaper in person, but this picture gives him a bit of the Emperor Palpatine showing us the happy side of the dark side.
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