Idiots

There was a riot on The Evergreen State College campus this morning at 1:30 am. One news report says there were 25 students involved after the Dead Prez concert, another says 200. Whichever it was, I was asleep, again, and totally missed it. But since there was pepper spray involved, I'm glad I did.

Here are some pictures.

These people are idiots.

This Makes Me Happy

Sex, Religion and Class

are all taboo in the world of school history textbooks.” So says James W. Loewen, a statement that, once I thought about it, made perfect sense. I went to a lecture for class today for Day of Presence here on campus called “The Most Important Period of U.S. History That You Never Heard Of, Why You Didn't, and What Difference It Makes." Where Loewen gave a two hour lecture mainly on his book Sundown Towns but also touched on his other book, Lies My Teacher Told Me. Both of which sounded fascinating and will soon be in my possession. In Lies he was struck by the complete idiocy that riddles today’s K-12 education system, especially when it comes to history. Students store useless history facts in a very tiny portion of their brain, vomit it back up onto multiple choice tests, get the grade and then erase these facts to make room for the next sections batch. I did it. You did it. We all did it, and now we’ve turned into Miss Teen USA South Carolina contestant muttering jarbled responses about saving the Africa and the Iraq with education when someone asks us why we think 1/5 of Americans cannot locate the U.S. on a map.
Like such as.
Idiot education system.
In Sundown he looks at towns across the U.S. that have historically (and many still do) have a policy where black people are not allowed in town after sunset. "Nigger, Don't Let The Sun Go Down On You In ___." is an average sign posted outside of these towns (Oregon and Washington are home to a few). While these signs are no longer marking the beginning of towns, the sentiment is still there. Old habits die hard, some harder than others. Most of these towns were, surprisingly, located in the northern states although they are depicted in movies and popular culture as being a southern phenomena, one way for Americans to feel better about what's still an embarassing and too common institution.
This was one of those lectures that gets me excited and anxious to go out and fix the world and at the same time makes me so angry that, even though our text books lie about it, people hurt each other over and over and over. History repeats itself, America is no exception.
Thank you Loewen.

I do NOT need to Have a Picture in Every Post

I decided to be brave today and ride the bus to school. It’s been lighter out earlier and the 94 bus has added more times that it runs up to our house so it seems like a good idea. Plus then I’d be all environmentally conscious and maybe get some exercise, both of which are generally good things but only when taken in moderation, mind you.

This morning it was lovely outside. Blue skies, no rain, etc. I even took the bunny out for a romp in the back yard until he started digging up tulips and then it was back to the cage for him. The bright happy day was what started this mad decision to take the bus, that and it’s a short day (ASL was only an hour long because of finals). So I get all packed up, feed Monty and then check the bus schedule online (it’s changed and I haven’t ridden the bus since it changed). Lo and behold the new 94 bus route isn’t posted, nor is it posted on the bus stop in our yard. So I decide to huff it down to the Transit Center. I figure that it should take about 40 minutes or so to walk there and even though it’s a little cold, it’s nowhere near bone chilling so I put on an extra layer and head out.

12 minutes later I’m covered in rain. It was so nice and sunny and tame that I thought that 40 minutes would be plenty of time to avoid rain. WRONG. By the time I get to the transit center I’m wetter than I was in the shower I’d just taken before I left which is ridiculous because in a shower the purpose is to get wet, outside it’s to stay dry. But I’m sure you connected those dots yourself already.

I catch the 48 to school, get there by 2:08. Class at 3. Get out at 4. Catch the 48 to Joann’s in yet another leg of the never-ending quest to find fabric that’s NOT covered in old-lady flowers for a pattern I bought last week. Hop back on the 48 at 5:30 and ride it until it becomes the 94 and stops in my yard.

Things I saw today:
A little girl named “Magenta” (she just turned five today and told me all about it) at Joann’s
Anti-abortionists with dead baby banners in front of Planned Parenthood (it’s sort of on the way from the house to the Transit Center)

Va bene.

A Valentine for You, and You and YOU!

Star and I made plans to make sweet Valentine cookies for everyone on Saturday. I doodled around all day, got up late, watched some movies, even thought about cleaning the kitchen (but didn't). Finally 6 o-clock rolls around and no Star. I'm getting antsy, we just finished up the movie The Treasure of Sierra Madre and I finally gave up. The buses stop running up to our house at 6 so I figured that was that so Dharyll and I decided to go to Old School pizza and get a pizza to make me feel better. So as we're heading out the door Dharyll's trying to get me to guess whose phone is which (they look identical until you turn it on to see the background) when mine lights up with a picture of Star which meant that she was calling me at a ridiculously perfect moment. She was at the transit center in town with a bag full of baking goodies and since the pizza place is right across the street it was even MORE perfect. So we went down, picked up Star and the food and went back up to the house.

We mixed up all the ingredients and stuck the pucks of dough in the fridge for an hour to cool so we could roll them out.
And then we cut them into hearts.
And then we baked them.
And then we went to make frosting but someone had put the eggs back. Everything needs to be at room temperature so we were trying to figure out how to make the eggs warmer without microwaving them (that would PROBABLY be a bad idea, but we may never know now...). So Star came up with the brilliant idea of sticking them in her bra for a while, which is what she's done in the picture above. Fantastic!
And here they are, all done! Some of them anyway, we made a bunch.

Happy almost Valentine's Day!

La Dolce Vita

I thought I'd give ya'll a tour of our rental house in Oly. Enjoy!