Monthly Archives: January 2009

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I know, I know, I’m five days late on my update. It’s been weird weather this week, four days of misty fog just hanging in the air, leaving the area in a perpetual state of twilight for nearly the whole week, and everyone around me seemed to be suffering from a state of “BLAH.” Sun came out this morning and what do you know, folks are chipper again.

Anyway, I got to thinking the other day, listening to the co-worker’s little sister telling her “I don’t have homework, I never have homework” and thinking about education. You see, the “I never have homework” thing was true of me in high school too. I was above average . . . More than above average when it comes to language and literature. Since there is very little to offer “advanced” students around here, this pretty much meant I could be as lazy as I liked and still make high grades. I never had homework…because I could get it all finished during other classes and then go on to write stories in my notebook, or draw, or read, and generally not pay attention to anything.

However, while the educational system leaves a lot to be desired, leaving intelligent students completely unstimulated and lower-level students behind completely, I do occasionally wish that I had taken better advantage of it.

I have such a thirst for learning these days. I have never been able to immerse myself in any activity that doesn’t in some way stimulate my mind: The movies and television shows I prefer tend to be the sort that make you think. Video games, due to their innate interactivity and, in some cases, the ability to create your own stories and characters, provide another mental stimulus beyond the usual mind-numbing, anti-thought entertainments available. I don’t seek to turn my mind off in my entertainments–I seek to wake it up.

I love science, I really wish I’d paid more attention or taken more science courses in college, though they weren’t exactly required for an English degree, and any math beyond basic algebra makes my head hurt. I pick up languages easily, perhaps I could add another couple to the ones I already read well, and speak passably.

Most of what comprised my pre-college “education” was learned outside of the classroom, as I went out and searched for the things that I wanted to know, but wasn’t being taught. However, I always wish that I had paid more attention, and not just flitted from one thing to the next, devouring but not really appreciating what I was gaining, and forgetting most of it.

So I told the kid…yeah, I know that you’re a bit too smart for the classroom you’re in, that the work isn’t challenging or engaging and so easy to do that you’re free to be lazy…but don’t be. Find other things to learn, other things to challenge you.

I just got finished watching Obama’s speech, and it’s safe to say that we have someone in office that I can say I’m proud to have as our president. He’s an amazing and charismatic orator, and the speech as a whole was a hopeful one, though he recognized and did not make light of the problems he’s facing. He stressed working together and being inclusive, which is exactly what we need right now, but also taking responsibility for our actions and working together to rebuild.

“Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions – that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America . . . . . For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies.”

He wants to build infrastructure and upgrade technologies. It seems he’ll be very much technology and science oriented. We’re in a spot now where the new technologies, well implemented, are so much cheaper and more efficient than the old…the problem is setting them in place, and better to rely on science than “dogma.”

“We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do . “

Hope. I’m feeling so much more optimistic about so many things lately, and this just adds to it.

Links: Transcript of Full Speech

The first movie I’ve seen in the new year, Gran Torino (IMDB) is easily one of the best movies I’ve ever seen, but then, I’d expect nothing less from Clint Eastwood. He says that this is the last movie he will act in, and it is a fitting end to his career, though it may be but a small feature compared to some of his other work. Nothing like the action-flick that seemed to be promised by the trailers, it is the story of a grumpy old man stuck in a world that has long since moved past him. His previously nice neighborhood has become a ghetto filled with poor immigrant families and plagued by gangs.

Clint’s character, Walt, is a Korean war veteran who admits, at one point in the movie, that he knows more about death than he does about life. He’s never met a racist term that he didn’t like, and plants them with relish on everyone he chances to meet. It’s not until he rescues his neighbor, a Hmung girl who gives him back as good as she gets and wins him over, that he begins to look past the race of the families moving into their neighborhood and understand just how much they have in common.

The movie was funny in parts, and tragic in others, and had me both chuckling and crying my eyes out at points. This is definitely a movie that everyone should see.

I’m going to keep to my resolution and post to my blog at least once a week…even if I don’t have anything to post, and I don’t today, so you get to hear all about the thing I’m researching at the moment.

I had the luck of having a home essentially given to me at the time I most needed it. I’ve gradually been going through the house and redecorating it to suit my own personal tastes, which tend to lean toward the steampunk. Fortunately, the furniture in the house, for the most part old dark-wood antiques, lent itself to that aesthetic. Less fortunately, the walls, carpeting, etc. did not.

Enter the paint…at the moment I’m working on the master bathroom, painting the walls a deep sage green with the intention of accenting the molding and cabinetry in a deep chocolate brown, perhaps with some stencil-work. I haven’t got the budget to change out the fixtures or countertops, which are chrome and white, so I’ll be looking for other ways to soften their appearance.

There’s just something about fire that is utterly fascinating.

That said, when a boy decides to play with firecrackers on a windy New Years Day and sets the back yard on fire…less with the fascination and more with the panic. Said boy would be my little cousin. He was appropriately horrified and embarrassed, and fortunately we were able to at least slow the progression of the flames that it didn’t reach the tree-line before the fire department arrived.

My throat’s raw and I’m congested from helping to fight the fire, but other than a huge patch of black, burnt grass, there was no real damage done.

On another note, I’ve trying out Twitter. In general, I despise the world of netspeak that was encouraged by such things as limited-character cell phone text messaging and Twitter. However, as my beloved Strunk and White preach concise writing, and because I’ve found several writing Twitterers who post links to interesting information via Twitter, I thought I’d try it out myself.

My initial uses of it were entirely for advertising my blog updates, but lately I’ve embraced the “microblogging” aspects of it, and you will see my latest Tweets on this page. It seems to be a good way to quickly jot down new ideas in a place that is easily accessible.