Tuesday morning stuff

* I kind of hate the second week of every month. Last night was CWF, Wednesday night is Elders' and Board meetings. And of course this late-afternoon is piano. And Thursday is my night class. (And Friday is a dental checkup).

* I'm annoyed at the person in charge of computer stuff here. I e-mailed them last week about a student who had not been added to my roster for my BlackBoard page. They've STILL not been added, which means instead of just being able to add their exam grade to the online gradebook, I have to download the gradebook, save it as a separate file, make a special line for them, and, if they NEVER get added, then I will have more headaches in dealing with their grades at the end. And yet, every day, we get e-mails about the Great New Features! of BlackBoard.


* My neighbors mowed their lawn last night. That's the good thing. The bad thing? Much of the "hay" from it wound up on my driveway. If they don't clear it up today (I'm not holding my breath), I will probably have to sweep it up after my piano lesson. And, I don't know what. Put it in my trash can, I suppose. I hate sending vegetable waste to the landfill but obviously the brushpile was part of the problem so I can't let that build up again. (We don't have a municipal chipper/mulchmaking/composting operation. My parents' town does so at least all yardwaste you put out there winds up being turned into compost or mulch. Here, it just gets buried in the landfill.)

* I'm in one of those "people irritate me" moods this morning. Too many news stories about people just doing random cruel stuff to other people. (The story out of Ohio, where a couple of kids encouraged an autistic classmate to do the ice bucket challenge, and then dumped a bucket filled with human waste on him. I can't even. That's just so unnecessary and cruel. And disgusting.)

* Queen Chrysalis has her saddle and one back leg. I just barely started the second back leg. (After that, it's just the various "attachments" - ears, horn, wings, mane, tail. Though the mane looks like it takes a lot of work....)

* Discussion on a listserv I have been subscribed to about "faith vs. science." There's a lot of snark and ugliness, and mainly from one side of the debate.(And I wish the other side would politely ask not to be insulted. I don't have the energy to)  It makes me sad and tired. Yes, I do think it's possible to be a scientist and have faith. Maybe not be an absolute Genesis literalist and be a geologist, but still....you can do it.And I'm fine with people not having a faith path, just as long as they're not telling me I'm "stupid" (or denying me a job) because I have one.

I don't know. Sometimes I wonder if our culture is becoming more fragmented and if everyone is setting up their own little domain and digging a moat around themselves and not allowing anyone else in, and not allowing the possibility of other thoughts and attitudes. You see this a lot with aesthetic things - the shows people watch ("OMG, you DON'T watch 'The Living Dead'? What is wrong with you?") or the music they like or the food they eat. (the sadistic side of me would like to put a paleodieter, a vegan, and a locavore in a room together and see what happens). Or stuff like some people talking about how it's "regressive" and implying it's anti-feminist to want to do things like bake and knit. (People need to take a breath, and watch "Free to be, you and me" again). So maybe you don't want to bake or knit, that's fine. (More wool for me!) But don't deny that for some of us, doing those things is relaxing and rewarding.

I don't know. It seems to me, in a lot of matters of choice, what works for me, works for me. It might not work for you. So I'm not going to talk about the choices you make as long as they aren't hurting another person. I talk about my choices because they work for me and make me happy. And maybe they work for some other people as well.

I don't know. I don't know what the endpoint of it is but in my bleaker moods I can imagine the endpoint of increasing Balkanization of our culture not being good.

* Everyone seems so angry right now. (I guess I am too, though I would classify what I am as more "annoyed and dismayed" than truly angry). I'm guessing it's that a lot of things are going on in the world that we are largely powerless to help or fix.