two posts in one day - what the crap

http://www.laweekly.com/art+books/books/jest-fest/14990/

bri's friend paul wrote about this a little, and so will i.

i have only read maybe 50 pages of Infinite Jest, but now I really want to give it another shot. i've already vowed to read Endgame by derrick "j is for" jensen over winter break. could i possibly read both?? i think i'm going to try.

update: s was for soup indeed - spicy chicken curry from ...a co-op
cracks are filled in.

yoga, soup, coffee = splendid saturday afternoon

saturday superalphabeblog

a is for awesome that it's saturday -feels like sunday.

b is for bowling - the true origin of the "get your ducks in a row"

c is for cookie, it's good enough for me (is that really how the song goes??)

d is for dad - he's turning 60 on jan 2 and i haven't helped contribute to the 60 small presents my mom is giving him one a day for 60 days. shame!

e is for ... not sure what e is for.
f is for first avenue. i lost my coat check ticket at the ike show wednesday night. i badgered the guy into finding our coats ("if there's more than one hanger with a puffy 80s vest and a fuzzy jacket with llamas on it, i'll eat my hat."). as he handed then to me he whimpered, "but where's your ticket..." i felt like a jerk. i really didn't want to wait until all the coats were gone. then, on our way out i found the ticket on the floor where we'd been standing when i answered mo's call... should have put the ticket in its own pocket. there's a lot to learn from this story.

g is for going to get my tea now. several times a week i make tea and then forget about it and it steeps too long and sometimes gets completely cold before i remember. another one of my charming household habits.

h is for homework i haven't seemed to be doing much of... nine more days til my last packet is due! soooooo many good books so little time...

i is for i can't beleive i am awake right now.

j is for jensen. with book club and my mom reading endgame, his ideas or stories come up a lot and i like that.

k is for kareoke - many excellent selections last night. the only disappointment was no wreck of the edmund fitzgerald. we dropped the ball on that one.

l is for lauren's going away shindig was a great success. to pull a lauren, i'll say a had a really nice time and i'm so happy to have such great friends. who else fights off the food coma with parlor games and a johnny cash dance party. no i mean it, i love you guys.

m is for moms. need i say more? no.

n is for noodle. i think chicken noodle soup would be just what i need today. as corey said, soup fills in all the cracks. really, i should have saved this for s is for soup, as i could also go for a nice black bean and mint, or coconut curry. sorry, no editing.

e i guess is can go back to e is for emu. someone in phil's honors seminar (music and adolescents, i think) was expressing confusion when people discuss other music types, as she only likes country, "I don't even know about, what is it? emu? music..."

o is for owls. i still like 'em.

p is for pointlessly paranoid. i keep getting weird and worried lately.

q is for quite groggy.

r is for resisting the urge to eat leftover pie for breakfast.

s is for squid and the whale. just got it from netflix. i slept through most of it on thanksgiving ... but i am looking forward to sleeping through different parts of it today, or even being awake. i love that movie.

t is for trying to write poetry on lauren's checks was maybe a good idea, but poorly executed, due to shitfacedness.

u is for usually it's me who falls asleep on the couch during a party or at the table of late night munchies... but lately is has been other people. maybe i am learning to drink again.

v is for vanessa. i miss her. she called me a few weeks ago. why didn't i call back? no reason. why is it hard to keep in touch?

w is for "what is the letter we love? W! the sound that we're extra fond of? W! its not any trouble you know it's a double-u when you hear W! W! W! W! " kids of a certain age love this song. and so do i.

x is for they've banned new drug names using x or z because it's too confusing.

y is for yonder, the great blue.... not sure why. i guess it's also for young americans. i think i miss my middle schoolers. i bet they are not thinking about math right now. nor am i really. man i gotta wrap this up i am babbling

z is for


zubiquitous.

i hope you have enjoyed this experiment in blogging.

friday funblog

just kidding! this is going to be about school.

i've finally been getting things done for my long delayed project for packet 4.

the good part is, i'm really enjoying it. i enjoy lesson planning. i enjoy learning theory. i am not ashamed.

i still have a fair amount of editing and turning handwritten assessment rubrics into stupid tables in Word... but i think i am going to do it... tomorrow.

i also enjoy booze.

i'm going to the town talk to go see what all the fuss is about and hang out with julia.

hmm. for the next packet, i'll be working on my personal educational philosophy and call to school reform activism... so maybe that'll lead to more interesting blogging than this lesson planning stuff. not that i actually wrote about that in any detail.

okay, no roughdrafts on this blog, just posting this p.o.s. as is - probably incoherent.

why does mark wheat see 10pm as the weird electronica hour. shit's creepy.

f it.
to the bar!

-c

monday miniblog

okay, i promised myself to start studying in by 7:30. so this is going to be short, and probably uninteresting.

-2 elderly relatives of mine passed away this week. lots of wondering about family, and closeness, and death.
-delicious dinner of leftovers tonight, including acorn squash with curry apple compote, and pumpkin lentil stew. the stew is from 2 weeks ago but i froze it and i've actually been reheating it and not letting it slip into the blackhole of forgotten frozen mystery items. glad to have at teast taken advantage of fall/winter foods a few times so far this season.
-really not used to daylight savings time.
-delayed turning my project in on time (today) due to deaths in the family and other unexpected things that have lead to busyness and general malaise. feel guilty, since theres been plenty of time i could have been working, but didn't. guess i need to forgive myself for not being a robot.
-have been a hermit lately and not communicated with many people i usually talk to. i'm sure in 3 (!) weeks when my semester is over i'll be a social butterfly again.
-tootsie is still really funny.

too much thinking lately

time again for foto fun.



kitty likes to sit on whatever i am reading.



better days last week = an almost real smile



up late studying delirium =why not photograph my asymmetrical thumbs??

-a short list

*go IRV!
*please try your beer michelada style at salsa a la salsa. you won't regret it.
*remember when i went to the downtown library and it was closed for columbus day? today i went. closed again. veteran's day. isn't that observed on a monday? blast. please remind me not to go on arbor, groundhog, secretary's etc. days...
*the u is starting a utopia in rosemount! (look it up on the strib)
*creative juices now dry

-c

they schools

(from my myspace)


what do you think of my new profile song?

please, do tell me what you think, about the song and what i'm writing.

dred prez doesn't pull any punches.

i'm going to try to write here about something i feel strongly about without editing or stopping because i'm overwhelmed like i usually do.

the song is a good reminder that so so much about the school system works for the status quo while beating the drum that if you try hard, you'll do well, you'll get a job, you'll succeed. the extent to which that can be true for some people is far overshadowed by how often school teaches us to resent adults, to get away with what we can when no one's looking, to stare at the clock and wish away minutes of our life until the bell rings, to look for the right answer not the interesting question, the gold star or the A plus not the powerful or complex idea, that our worth is bound up in grades and rankings...

and that was all in good old edina public schools. on the other end of the money and power and color spectrum there also, yes, the fact that the school system ignores the daily reality of kids and the history of their people in this country and does nothing to change the system.

the song says "i love education but if education ain't elevating me ain't getting me where i need to go, then fuck education. this whole school system can suck my dick, biatch." at the root of this is the same feeling that i've seen over and over in so many kids: no one is helping me understand why i need to know this, or why i have to fill out this "bubble sheet" or why i'm being asked to learn in exactly the same way as everyone else or i'm labeled dysfunctional or disabled. almost everything about how school and teaching is organized serves bureaucratic institutional needs, not human needs. we're "taught" so many things by plunking down isolated facts and memorizing and regurgitating and moving when the bell tells us for the next set of facts from the next overworked idealist or jaded paper-pusher with the next sanitized formulaic textbook "covering" the next bits of "content"... this does not result in deep or useful understanding even with passionate teachers ample school budgets. i believe kids love learning. most of what we so in school beats this out of them. "i tried to pay attention but they classes wasn't interesting." we've all felt that, the utter uselessness of vocab lists and quizzes and cramming in info so soon forgotten.

the song says "ya'll know they don't give a fuck about us." so. yeah. i still wanna be a teacher and "change the world" but i know i need to do it by giving a fuck. every day. about they kids as people above all else. meeting them where they're at and accepting who they are and rejecting everything else that gets in the way of teaching them what they need to know. they need to know how to love themselves. they need to know how people have been strong and resisted and fought together and made history. they need to know how to comminicate with all kinds of people. they need to know how to make peace. they need to know they are their own greatest teacher.


okay i'm done. i give myself 9 out of 10 for effort, 4 out of 10 on clarity. ha ha ha!

__________________________________________
Lyrics:

Why havent you learned anything?

Man that school shit is a joke
The same people who control the school system control
The prison system, and the whole social system
Ever since slavery, nawsayin?

[verse 1]
I went to school with some redneck crackers
Right around the time 3rd bass dropped the cactus album
But I was readin malcolm
I changed my name in 89 cleaning parts of my brain
Like a baby nine
I took a history class serious
Front row, every day of the week, 3rd period
Fuckin with the teachers had, callin em racist
I tried to show them crackers some light, they couldnt face it
I got my diploma from a school called rickers
Full of, teenage mothers, and drug dealin niggas
In the hallways, the popo was always present
Searchin through niggas possessions
Lookin for, dope and weapons, get your lessons
Thats why my moms kept stressin
I tried to pay attention but they classes wasnt interestin
They seemed to only glorify the europeans
Claimin africans were only three-fifths a human being

Hook:
They schools cant teach us shit
My people need freedom, we tryin to get all we can get
All my high school teachers can suck my dick
Tellin me white man lies straight bullshit (echoes)
They schools aint teachin us, what we need to know to survive
(say what, say what)
They schools dont educate, all they teach the people is lies

You see dog, you see how quick these motherfuckers be to like
Be tellin niggas get a diploma so you can get a job
Knowwhatimsayin but they dont never tell you how the job
Gonna exploit you every time knowwhatimsayin thats why I be like
Fuck they schools!

[verse 2]
School is like a 12 step brainwash camp
They make you think if you drop out you aint got a chance
To advance in life, they try to make you pull your pants up
Students fight the teachers and get took away in handcuffs
And if that wasnt enough, then they expel yall
Your peoples understand it but to them, you a failure
Observation and participation, my favorite teachers
When they beat us in the head with them books, it dont reach us
Whether you breakdance or rock suede addidas
Or be in the bathroom with your clique, smokin reefer
Then you know they math class aint important less you addin up cash
In multiples, unemployment aint rewardin
They may as well teach us extortion
You either get paid or locked up, the pricipal is like a warden
In a four year sentence, mad niggas never finish
But that doesnt mean I couldnt be a doctor or a dentist

Hook(first part of hook twice)

Cuz for real, a mind is a terrible thing to waste
And all yall high class niggas with yall nose up
Cuz we droppin this shit on this joint, fuck yall
We gon speak for ourselves
Knowhatimsayin? cuz see the schools aint teachin us nothin
They aint teachin us nothin but how to be slaves and hardworkers
For white people to build up they shit
Make they businesses successful while its exploitin us
Knowhatimsayin? and they aint teachin us nothin related to
Solvin our own problems, knowhatimsayin?
Aint teachin us how to get crack out the ghetto
They aint teachin us how to stop the police from murdering us
And brutalizing us, they aint teachin us how to get our rent paid
Knowhatimsayin? they aint teachin our families how to interact
Better with each other, knowhatimsayin? they just teachin us
How to build they shit up, knowhatimsayin? thats why my niggas
Got a problem with this shit, thats why niggas be droppin out that
Shit cuz it dont relate, you go to school the fuckin police
Searchin you you walkin in your shit like this a military compound
Knowhatimsayin? so school dont even relate to us
Until we have some shit where we control the fuckin school system
Where we reflect how we gon solve our own problems
Them niggas aint gon relate to school, shit that just how it is
Knowhatimsayin? and I love education, knowhatimsayin?
But if education aint elevatin me, then you knowhatimsayin it aint
Takin me where I need to go on some bullshit, then fuck education
Knowhatimsayin? at least they shit, matter of fact my nigga
This whole school system can suck my dick, beeyotch!!