Don't you hate when your education gets in the way of your education? At approximately 1:45 last night, I realized the take-home final I was writing had far less educational value than the latest crazy project of Nathan's. At about 11:00 he decided that multinational media conglomerates are evil and wanted to find out just how powerful they are (basically about 7 corporations control all media worldwide - I would say pretty powerful). He started with Universal Vivendi, and found that almost every music group he has ever listened to is signed by a label they own. At some point during his rant I pointed him in the direction of PBS's fantastic special on marketing to teenagers, The Merchants of Cool. After watching the hour long program, he felt like his blinders had been taken off. I don't think I've seen him that excited since he discovered the joys of online poker. And there I was, sitting at my computer trying to explain why Rev. Hooper is a prideful jerk, not a penitent sinner. Now how is that can help save the world?
12/16/2004
12/15/2004
(real) memory
[now playing: Diana Krall's The Girl in the Other Room (check it out)]
I had a bit too much caffeine this morning because I was out a bit too late last night, and now I've hit the wave of afternoon sleepiness. I used to just give in and nap for 20 minutes. Not so these days - now I either have more caffeine (usually a bad option) or try to get up, walk around, and get the blood pumping a bit (a good option). When I was growing up I took naps every day, at least in the summer. It might be those great memories of falling asleep in the backyard hammock with a book on my chest and the sun on my face, but this sleepy feeling always makes me a bit nostalgic. Our house didn't have a great backyard, but the hammock made up for it.
Or did it? I have memories of an idyllic childhood full of playing baseball in the empty lot on our street, catching frogs in the creek, riding bikes to the park so we could play "tennis" (our version consisted of trying to hit each other as hard as we could with tennis balls using my Dad's heavy old wooden rackets), and lots of fun "kid" stuff. But I don't remember being particularly happy as a child. If I was having as much fun as I remember, why wasn't I generally happier? I guess my point is that memory isn't always reliable. Who knows what sort of Freudian repression is going on in my head? But the granola bar I ate is kicking in - I feel awake and should get back to work.
I had a bit too much caffeine this morning because I was out a bit too late last night, and now I've hit the wave of afternoon sleepiness. I used to just give in and nap for 20 minutes. Not so these days - now I either have more caffeine (usually a bad option) or try to get up, walk around, and get the blood pumping a bit (a good option). When I was growing up I took naps every day, at least in the summer. It might be those great memories of falling asleep in the backyard hammock with a book on my chest and the sun on my face, but this sleepy feeling always makes me a bit nostalgic. Our house didn't have a great backyard, but the hammock made up for it.
Or did it? I have memories of an idyllic childhood full of playing baseball in the empty lot on our street, catching frogs in the creek, riding bikes to the park so we could play "tennis" (our version consisted of trying to hit each other as hard as we could with tennis balls using my Dad's heavy old wooden rackets), and lots of fun "kid" stuff. But I don't remember being particularly happy as a child. If I was having as much fun as I remember, why wasn't I generally happier? I guess my point is that memory isn't always reliable. Who knows what sort of Freudian repression is going on in my head? But the granola bar I ate is kicking in - I feel awake and should get back to work.
12/14/2004
Madness
Allow me to vent a bit. One of my neighbors is an 8th grader named Mahi. He knows that the seven of us in my house are happy to hang out with the kids from the neighborhood (as all the kids know), so he comes over and we play ping-pong or monopoly from time to time. Yesterday, as I was leaving around 8 AM, I saw him walking down the street. I thought he was supposed to be at school by 7:30 but wasn't sure, so I just waved and left because I was running late.
When I got home for lunch at about 12:30, Mahi was sitting in our living room watching a movie with my housemate Laura. It turns out he got into a fight on Friday and is suspended from school all week. His aunt, who he lives with, was so mad she locked him out of the house when she went to work. Basically, if he he didn't come to our place Mahi would be wandering the streets all week. Does this seem like an intelligent move by his school administrators?
To be fair, I should mention Mahi has a history of bad behavior. Most recently (last year) he got sent to an alternative school for troubled kids. I don't get it, though, because he is the most polite and respectful kid in the neighborhood, easily. When I talked to him about it, he said kids were picking on him, and he "just doesn't like to be touched." So, it's a classic case of a kid with a reputation and a short fuse getting targeted by instigators in his classes. They mess with him because they know they'll get a reaction, and more often than not Mahi will take the blame for it.
Don't get me wrong - I'm not letting Mahi off the hook. He deserves to be punished, but this punishment is idiocy! Let's take him out of school for a week, so he gets further behind in his classes, gets more frustrated at school, and expresses that frustration by acting up more. Great plan! Laura made him do his homework, but when he finished in an hour (he's bright too), she had nothing else to do. They ended up watching a movie because the he was bored out of his mind. He actually wanted to go back to school! I'm not a parent or a teacher, but this doesn't seem like the way our school system should handle discipline.
When I got home for lunch at about 12:30, Mahi was sitting in our living room watching a movie with my housemate Laura. It turns out he got into a fight on Friday and is suspended from school all week. His aunt, who he lives with, was so mad she locked him out of the house when she went to work. Basically, if he he didn't come to our place Mahi would be wandering the streets all week. Does this seem like an intelligent move by his school administrators?
To be fair, I should mention Mahi has a history of bad behavior. Most recently (last year) he got sent to an alternative school for troubled kids. I don't get it, though, because he is the most polite and respectful kid in the neighborhood, easily. When I talked to him about it, he said kids were picking on him, and he "just doesn't like to be touched." So, it's a classic case of a kid with a reputation and a short fuse getting targeted by instigators in his classes. They mess with him because they know they'll get a reaction, and more often than not Mahi will take the blame for it.
Don't get me wrong - I'm not letting Mahi off the hook. He deserves to be punished, but this punishment is idiocy! Let's take him out of school for a week, so he gets further behind in his classes, gets more frustrated at school, and expresses that frustration by acting up more. Great plan! Laura made him do his homework, but when he finished in an hour (he's bright too), she had nothing else to do. They ended up watching a movie because the he was bored out of his mind. He actually wanted to go back to school! I'm not a parent or a teacher, but this doesn't seem like the way our school system should handle discipline.
12/13/2004
Why I'm not having kids
Tonight I went to the Sunday School Christmas program at church. It was pretty typical - Mary, Joseph, shepherds, wise man, and even a King Herod. When I was growing up our church never did these things, and I sort of wonder what the point is. Somewhere between the star falling off its post and the shepherd accidentally nailing baby Jesus in the head with his staff, I looked around and noticed all the adults (including me) were chuckling. It wasn't malicious, but so what? We just sat there, smugly enjoying the unintentional humor of it. I guess there's something to getting the kids involved and making them feel important. But it's reducing the story to a cliche joke. Thinking about it kind of makes me feel dirty.
But then kids in the church have always posed questions for me. If they don't want to be there can/should parents make them go? Should the church pound home the gospel to little kids (like it does) if it's only going to develop a simplistic faith that never grows up? And then how do we help that faith mature as the kid does, so by the time she or he hits the big questions in life they have more than the trite Sunday School answers? The more I think about it, the more I realize kids are hard. You should have to pass some sort of intelligence test before you can have one...
But then kids in the church have always posed questions for me. If they don't want to be there can/should parents make them go? Should the church pound home the gospel to little kids (like it does) if it's only going to develop a simplistic faith that never grows up? And then how do we help that faith mature as the kid does, so by the time she or he hits the big questions in life they have more than the trite Sunday School answers? The more I think about it, the more I realize kids are hard. You should have to pass some sort of intelligence test before you can have one...
12/12/2004
Greetings
Hmmmm, I guess it's time to venture into the big bad world of blogging. Here's a thought to get things started: why are we so obsessed with other people's lives? Reality tv, memoir (the hottest literary genre out there), even blogging - it's all about full disclosure. Is it a lack of genuine intimacy in our culture? Escapism? Looking to other people's lives for inspiration? Or has this just substituted reading novels, the old way of taking care of those problems?
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