first ever dual lj and blogspot post

well, it's been a while, or something.

news:

the beloved red dragon has finally crapped out its last crap, the check engine providing the blaze for the blaze of glory that was... one of the windows freezing halfway open. sigh. my patrons, i mean parents, sold the car to a 17 year old who either has the 400 bucks to fix the window or will be rockin the garbagebag window. meanwhile, i drive my folks' cars as they look for a replacement car to continue to spoil me with.

goodbye KMT 727. i'll remember the good times: crazily driving through austin after a year of no driving in south america, having a world of music at my fingertips in the 6cd changer, and the northcountry bumpersticker that held on with shitty packing tape for so long.... and the bad times: that phase where it refused to start for 15 minutes or so every couple weeks, the door locks freezing shut making me climb through the trunk frantically to the front to turn the car alarm off (since the alarm logically fires whenever the trunk is opened before the doors...), finding ancient forgotten thai take out in the backseat.

other news: i finished reading my first book for grad school, The Underground History of American Education, by John Taylor Gatto. It was maddeninngly repetitive and unorganized, but i still gotta love gatto... he's pissed off, he's right, and he says stuff like (not a direct quote but you get the idea) "taking religious morals out of western culture in favor of secular scientism is like sawing 2 legs off your kitchen table and replacing one with a stack of dishes and the other with a large dog. it may still stand up, but it's not going to get you through dinner." www.johntaylorgatto.com

it's very strange to be deciding for myself what and how much to read, and now what to write about it... but i'm still so glad i'm doing this and not some normal bs teacher licensure racket.

the end