first frosts and now no slalom?

I started this post a couple of days ago and got distracted. Life is hectic as usual in the Devil'sClub den, weatherproofing, doing the final mow, and basking in the wonderful heat of the new Toyotomi. Good thing too, even if it is raining today, the nights are starting to get a bit of a bite to them, and my bones aren't as young as they used to be.

Mill Bay is coming along nicely, as long as you don't get caught in the half-hour wait behind the pavers in the evening. Even though I'm digging the smooth ride, I kind of miss the excitement of the traffic blockade slalom they had going on for the past couple of weeks. It definitely spiced up the drive.

On the economic front, I really enjoyed Ish's Birk Plan post. I think that is the best solution for the crisis I've heard yet! Although, if you watched that A&E program that showed what happened to people after they won the lottery, maybe it wouldn't be such a good economic boost except for in the weird expensive knick-knack market. I think I could go a lifetime before seeing another burst of the diamond encrusted grill fad hit.

(Oh and btw, that's Bob B.'s abode.)

change and a political hangover

I've been watching too much television, and have been hearing that word a lot lately—and those are some powerful six letters. What other can invoke such an array of notion and emotion? To merely mention 'change' within any given crowd it sparks a thesaurus of replies, both negative and positive within whatever variable context.

It's anticipation is fear, anxiety, trepidation, admitting defeat, and downright panic for some, and hope, optimism, metamorphosis, innovation and peace of mind for others. The word is too much conceptually to wrap my mere 10% or less around to be honest.

Change is the only certainty in nature, and within intelligent thought—even if we want it and fight it simultaneously. Questions without answers are all I can collect: Why is it wrong for someone who's learned the truth to switch opinions on an issue? What is so bad about becoming more tolerant to something that was previously so foreign? Why does our society breed egos that can't admit they were wrong?

And this is where my brain starts to overheat, and I grab the beloved scepter of power and switch the channel. Meaningless entertainment, bizarre cartoons, and stupid people doing stupid things seems to counteract the overwhelming seriousness. I keep having to remind myself moderation is key. A quote by Aristotle comes to mind: "It is better to rise from life as from a banquet -- neither thirsty nor drunken."

Come to think of it, maybe that's what it is! A political hangover. Anyone know the morning after remedy for that?

Arrgh, it's Talk Like a Pirate Day

Methinks my maties and eye will sail Mill Bay, weavin pirate style.

A blog about nothing.

First, I really don't get it. I appreciate all that is Seinfeld, and am surprised at how well the Gatester is doing with his acting and dancing skills, but, huh? I do have to admit that this one makes slighter more sense than a computer that is chewy like cake. Would this be classified as Anti-advertising, or do you think they put a bunch of subliminal messages within the frames that brainwashes you with "leave the Apple alone... Appple is bad... Vista is gooood."? Oooh, I should try playing it in reverse.

***

B. I have new phrases I want the world to retire, along with doing anything "outside of the box", and "pushing the envelope." "Breaking the Glass Ceiling" or "Shattered the Glass Ceiling" or "Busted the glass ceiling to smithereens" all derivatives of this Willy Wonka reference, just needs to go away. Either that or is there a method of programming a v-chip to bleep user selective language? Now that would be useful. I would never have to hear anything about Britney Spears ever again, because that would be next on my list. I don't need to hear about broccoli spears, or Aries Spears, or Roman shields and spears, ever again, so I think I could live without it.

***

And lastly: Everybody wants Sarah Palin's glasses.

Oh yeah, I forgot, Mr. Ish is now published in Trend Hunter Magazine. #2 pic, not bad.

Lipstick on Education

Overheard so don't lambaste me: "Why are they so upset over the 'lipstick on a pig' comment, didn't Sarah Palin already announce in her first speech that she was a dog if she wasn't wearing any? Maybe I heard that wrong."

I don't pretend to know anything about the No Child Left Behind act, or the state of education on the whole—I only have my perspective. Kodiak schools have always been wonderful for me, filled with a diversity of cultures, dedicated and caring teachers, administrators and staff. Even with the cinching of the budget belt, somehow we managed to keep programs that other schools have deemed frivolous. The arts, sciences, maths, and technology are rounded off by a healthy dose of athletics. We have even been given a top award for a school where a good portion of the students do not have English as their primary language.

It isn't all roses, of course, there are always classes and programs to lobby for, buildings in need of repair, special circumstances that need to be met, funding that is expected turned into the need for fund-raising, and children who need more effort to educate than ever before. All in all, I suppose we should count our blessings as far as schooling goes.

I've just read both candidate's statements on education. Obama | McCain. They both have some good things to say, but I wish you could pick and choose à la carte from both for the final policy. Once again, I'm leaning more toward the Obama camp, if not for the better dialogue, for the link that asks to Present your Ideas.

My ideas. Now, that is a thought provoking concept. My idea is that it isn't going to matter much for changes coming from within the education system as it is right now. Pay the teachers more, try and force math concepts on children who don't have the attention spans to follow logic ... wonderful ideas, and they need to be implemented, but to use that horrid cliché once again, lipstick. It isn't going to change the outcome of our children, the people that need to be held accountable with the ultimate responsibility are us, parents.

I've seen enough 'Nanny 911' and firsthand examples to realize, that as a generation, we really miss the mark on parenting skills and passing on virtues such as general morality and empathy. A lot of our children are disrespectful, wasteful, and greedy. I know most people would balk at the idea of mandatory parenting classes, but Keanu Reeve's character in 'Parenthood' had a good point "...you need a license to buy a dog, to drive a car - hell, you even need a license to catch a fish. But they'll let any butt-reaming asshole be a father."

Ideas regarding parenting, although I don't agree with myself that any of them actually should be implemented:
1) Require newly expectant parents to complete a responsible parenting class, not just newborn care.
2) Offer and encourage in-home services to teach positive parenting and effective discipline to anyone who asks, not just limited to those reported to child welfare, or want to be on reality TV.
3) Add Parenting 101 to the high school manditory curriculum and accent sex ed with a 'Baby Borrowers' boot camp.
4) Teach parents how to teach their children.
5) Become accountable as parents, do our part in helping our children develop a love for learning, consideration for others, and promote creativity and curiosity and the ability to teach themselves.

As for education within the school system:
1) Add requirements in elementary for nutrition, menu planning, budgeting and culinary skills.
2) Drop standardized testing / develop more individualized benchmarking.
3) Require personal finance / money management in middle school and high school.
4) Emphasize physical education as requirements, not electives.
5) Offer additional language classes in elementary (when second languages are more easily absorbed).
6) Teach tools to deal with a society obsessed with distraction and overindulgence, and teach children to find merit in responsibility, develop focus and counteract attention issues.

I could probably brainstorm more idealistic twaddle, but I'm having difficulty counteracting my own A.D.D., and apparently socialist tendencies. Who would have thought an apathetic anarchist punk like me could get that way?

Note to self: Avoid Mill Bay!

Can you say a road sticks out like a sore thumb? What would the proper terminology be for someone who repeatedly takes the wrong route? Me, myself, the moron. I have been caught by the flagpatrons one hour out of my day, all because of my own incapability to turn off the autopilot in my head.

All I can say, is I am sooo over road construction. I was thinking their latest effort was pointless and they should have been able to hold out for another year, until driving over the trimmed edge and realizing the ruts were almost to the subsurface. Isn't there a better pavement material that doesn't have to be torn up every other season?

And one last question... can you tell I'm not used to waiting in traffic?

white noise

The humming and hissing and crackling of a shifted station, whether jostled from its position by a loose dial or lumbering steps of the person pacing in it's proximity, is inescapable. No one reaches up to finesse the tuning. They seem complacent in listening to static, a comfortable nothing that refuses to erase the most serious of thought with glib commonplace chatter.

I step outside, and am surrounded with the white noise of wheels casting the morning shower's splatters mournfully turn by turn. Autumn's grey skies promise no end in sight, and the blades of the first frost are gleefully bidding farewell to our summer sun.

A maudlin Monday. The power to re-wind and re-play happening only within the imagination's fancy, where we can bear the static just to hear the same song again.

SpEd parents and candidates

While sipping coffee and reading the 'news' of the day, a comment on Ish's blog caught my attention. It was an accusation that small bloggers thrust in to the VP hit spike "just dribble it away". The KoKon isn't small per se, but this blog is, and after checking my statcounter and realizing how much of a random jump I got from mentioning S.P.'s glasses - I suppose he has a point. A small one. To be honest, I didn't ask or care for limelight - but was humored by the absurdity of the internet feeding frenzy. I'd bet I could garner more intentionally pandered hits by tagging the post with random statements for free porn. So, rather than 'dribbling away' a post on nonsense... I'll tackle an important subject.

I was curious if Sarah Palin's statement during her speech where she said "with her in office there would an advocate for special needs children within the White House," intrigued parents dealing with those issues. I was a bit surprised in the answers I received.

I have three classmates (that I know of), a roommate from college, and my own little sister who are raising children with Autism. I would have expected them to be delighted about the prospect of someone with first hand knowledge in power. However, as it turns out, while this may benefit the education system, parents of children with Down Syndrome and parents of children with Autism have different struggles. Here are a few statements emailed to me:

"Didn't really phase me, she might have some more sympathy toward developmentally delayed, but don't think it will make a difference in our lives. Downs and muscular dystrophy and cerebral palsey are all in the category of medical problem, that insurance companies cover. Autism is called behavioral, and most insurance companies don't cover treatment, leaving the parents to foot the bill if they want to get a good program going. I mean when they first diagnosed *** the psychologist gave us this big speel about how intense therapy for 40 hours a week was going to give him the best outcome but that kind of therapist was going to cost 30 to 70K per year, out of our pockets. We don't have that kind of money so we got to go through what free services we could get. Unless they are interested in health care reform, and lobbying to get the insurance co. to pitch in, it isn't going to matter."

"Children like Trig are a tiny group compared to autistic children. My daughter has never had even one in her special ed classes and she's 10 now. The numbers are like 1 in 150 for autism, 1 in 1000 for downs before age 40. Compared to when we were in school, where there were only 1 in 10,000 kids with autism. They need to start focusing all of their efforts on figuring out what is going on with the epidemic, and evaluating the vaccine safety and scheduling and coming up with some solutions for what they're going to do with all of these kids when they grow up and leave the school system. That was one of the only reasons I was pulling for Clinton, she was proposing $700 million a year for research and services directly to the autism community."

Sis just sent me a couple links with the note: "I'll have to wait and see what kind of advocacy she's offering, McCain has a good reference from his wife who was a SpEd teacher, Palin's too new to the SpEd community yet to really know anyway. Obama and Hillary were who the Autism groups were supporting."



http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/DisabilityPlanFactSheet.pdf

http://www.johnmccain.com/content/?guid=24dc9c37-e739-4aa3-8a88-ebae650a2f11


Well, there you have it, now at least I'm more informed.

Some of them were at least trying to be funny.

E!: Sarah Palin's Glasses... Why women want them, and where you can buy them.

USA Today - Will Gov. Sarah Palin's glasses start an eyewear trend?

Entertainment Tonight: Palin's speech beats out ratings for the American Idol finale.

Jimmy Kimmel (had to look that quote up to get it right): "And how are you going to be the vice president of the United States with five kids to take care of? She's got a four-month-old of her own, she's about to become a grandmother, and she's partnered with John McCain. How many diapers can one woman possibly change?"

Absolutely nothing to do with anything

My friend forwarded me an e-mail of stupid signs. Some of them I've seen before, but I had to repost in reminder of the good 'ol days when solving an anagram on site was the biggest rush you could get at three a.m. (they had more signs in the city).

It wasn't anyone I know, and I'm not promoting that it be repeated, but I did once see a good one driving past Cost Savers one day. It was an homage to South Park... if you notice they're careful to not put the extra letters of A, Y, and G on it anymore if they're promoting Big Al's pizza. Gotta love it.

Insomnia and tsunamis

Sleep eludes me. I've flipped past every news channel and absorbed as much as I want to hear. Everything from Nancy Grace's shrill voice (that invokes some carnal desire to shove a sock that has been living on a slimeliner's foot wrapped by mid-season X-tra Tuffs into her mouth) to news of David Duchovney's trip to rehab for sex addiction - yeah big surprise there. I've avoided pausing at the gaggling over poor B.P., I really truly feel for her... bad enough to have to face the music of consequence, but to be ripped to shreds on national media for nothing more that what brought a great portion of us into the world in the first place.

I did pause and watch the aftermath of Gustav, breathing a small sigh of relief that the storm weakened before the complete disaster repeated itself. I am curious now, however, whether or not evacuations will be as successful the next few times there is a spinner heading toward New Orleans, or if people eventually will become placated that level of destruction can't or won't happen again.

This leads me to start thinking about our own state of Kodiak placation. My generation was raised in the shadow of the '64 earthquake / tsunami, with the frightening tales freshly embedded within mealtime chatter. I know I'm not alone in my childhood nightmare of the sea coming to eat your house out from underneath you while you sleep. We even evacuated a few times in the 80s, which led me as an adult to purchase my home as far away from the shore to prevent that occurance, should it occur.

With all this deeply ingrained in my psyche, you'd think I'd be prepared ... or that I'd have confidence that our island would be truly prepared. I know too many people who live paycheck to paycheck, barely scraping by... and I doubt they either have stockpiles, or alternate heating, or even a clue as to the disaster game plan.

Sure the city has the official Emergency Preparedness Guide that covers earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, chemical leaks (wow, did you know that each of the canneries on cannery row has enough ammonia to wipe out downtown?) ... and the Mirror used to annually produce a Disaster Preparedness special section. I'm certain people read these things, and think to themselves, I should get my disaster kit prepared... maybe tomorrow, or the next day, or next week, month, year. I know I'm one of them.

So I propose this, with your extra special dividend this year, set aside just a few dollars and build up your kit. (Some ideas seen left from page 39). Keep in mind we are likely to be without power for quite a while if KEA gets drenched, and you should think about what you will do about heat, food, and communication. The schools disperse a plan within their admission packets, wouldn't be a bad idea to read that again. If I thought the influx at Taco Bell was a bit overwhelming, I can't imagine the already combat status parking lots filled with panicked parents.





Okay, I'm done with the gloom and doom and apocolyptic babble... I'm starting to sound like S.O., sans conspiracy theories. I'm about ready to force pop-culture tourettes on myself and start spitting out random 80s lyrics.

"That's great it starts with an earthquake,
birds and snakes and aeroplanes...
lenny bruce was not afraid,
eye of a hurricane listen to yourself churn..."

incoherently rambling...
I'll stop.

Exceeded expectations and Lamentations

I logged in to check on the blog on this quite quiet Labor Day after a weekend away from the machine. Quite surprising the discovery that my dear friend who I asked to please make me a spiffy banner for my boring old blog totally re-styled the page. Little "e" you are most talented, and I am blown away. Now I look like I've gone pro... even as my blog is infant and promises to be completely inane.

Even more surprising, the abrupt vacation of Art Vandalay... go to his blog and tell him popular opinion is - that he must stay, or at the very least, just pop in now and again. A reader for far longer than a writer, this blogger will miss his commentary.

Another item of note, congratulations to the all powerful Ish on your newfound fame - or infamy - with the Palin Vogue Cover hitting viral status. If I knew anyone in Italy, I would definitely score a copy of that paper for your brag book.

Also congrats to hot Sarah... apparently she is due to add Grandma to her list of titles. I don't really have an opinion on that one way or another, but at least Alaska's teens are being represented accurately... or not?