- commentators once again criticizing education, but this go-round some seem to be taking a more extreme bent, and I'm bracing for the call of "let's just apprentice out our children to their eventual jobs" and maybe even "teaching kids to read is oppressing them! Back to an agrarian state!" by people who never realize that life was once nastier, shorter, and perhaps more brutish than now. (It's kind of like some of the people who are anti-vaccinators, who have never seen someone who was affected by polio. Or the people who criticize water treatment and have never read Dr. John Snow's account of a London cholera outbreak)
- Someone I knew from church (has since moved away to be closer to grandchildren) has been diagnosed with yet another cancerous tumor.
- Still kind of worried about my dad; there's some concern he can't keep his blood oxygen up high enough, he's not breathing deeply enough. My mom is spending all day, every day over at the rehab center with him.
- I'm just tired out. Teaching four classes, one where I still feel not-quite-equal to the material (Policy and Law) takes a lot out of a person. I have a couple borderline-rude people in another class that bug me too. It's not anything clear-cut enough I can put my finger on it and tell them "cut that thing out" but it reminds me of the mean-girls in grade school who would say things that you KNEW, because the tone and expression with which they said them were backhanded compliments, but if you went to an Adult over it, the Adult would just go "She's trying to be NICE to you" and you KNEW that wasn't the case and you felt abandoned and betrayed because not even the Adults believed you....
(And yeah. Maybe I am too sensitive and am reliving my childhood too much here)
- Lots of stuff in the news getting on my nerves. Lots of the things about how some people act getting on my nerves.
- I did get my most recent Adagio teas order, and am trying a new one ("Autumn Mist" and YES I am ready for the seasons to change already). But my joy isn't unalloyed because I remember some months back someone vaguetweeting about "don't buy from them, they are Bad" and then a few days later they posted something that sounded like an apology - a "restatement' of their commitment to their LGBT employees and I don't know, guys. I think to do business of any kind in this world today you have to go "Okay, what is the 'important' issue" and I admit to me with tea, the fact that the farmers of it are treated at least with a minimum of good ethics is my big issue, but....I don't know. I'm almost afraid to tweet about using the tea because of the thought someone will shame me for it and is this REALLY the world we want? Where it's 100% purity tests all the time, and anything less than 100% doesn't cut it?
It's hell being a perfectionist. If you don't know that, take it from me.
Anyway. And I know this is "my stuff" - I still think back to the schoolyard stuff of "if you like that tv show, you can't be my friend" or "if you don't give me that little eraser shaped like a little dog, I won't be your friend any more" and all the dumb emotional-terrorism things some kids do to other kids, and because I was SO DESPERATE as a kid to be liked, I either quit watching the show that I wasn't "supposed" to (or I continued to watch it, but never admitted to it) or I handed over the little eraser and just pretended I had lost it....and I still admit as an adult part of the reason I'm sometimes afraid to express a strong opinion about something is the fear of "but what if that person stops liking me over it?" and I know that's an immature thing and someone who will stop liking me over some small aesthetic issue (or because I won't figuratively give them my eraser dog) was never my friend in the first place, but....childhood issues die hard.
- I also went to the grocery (Wal-mart, womp womp: no time and energy to go to Sherman this week). I got a bag of Great Northern Beans, which in my book are THE beans for making "traditional" New England style baked beans (the other day I picked up a package of salt pork at Pruett's). However, I forgot to get molasses but anyway it's still too warm out to think about slow-cooking beans for a long time. (The salt pork will keep a while anyway). But I want it to get cool and I want it to rain so things like that are a pleasant Saturday or Sunday afternoon project.
I need to look for some happier things:
- The tea (Autumn Mist, a blend of hazelnut, vanilla, and cream flavors) is pretty good. I'm hoping the caffeine does its occasional trick of being a mood-elevator for me.
- I am now caught up on Season 8 of My Little Ponies. I really liked what was last week's (Well, in the US; apparently some other countries are showing the episodes earlier). Pinkie Pie starts playing an instrument called the Yovidaphone, which is part of Yakyakistani culture (Yakyakistan culture is an odd blend of maybe a little bit Balkan, a little bit Baltic, a little bit cartoon-reimagining-of-old-Viking. I sort of like the yaks and if the series continues with the Student Six, I am hoping some company makes a plush toy of Yona, she is my favorite (or is tied with Silverstream for my favorite) of those characters).
Anyway, Pinkie is not good at it. But, unlike someone like me who recognizes "wow, I'm not good yet" and practices in private, she subjects all her friends to it. And they can't quite take it. And yeah, Pinkie IS a little overeager - playing late at night just after Fluttershy has got all her
And Pinkie gives it up.
And her color fades alarmingly, and her hair goes flat (this whole episode did feel more like one of the early-season slice-of-life/exploring feelings/friendship lesson episodes, and I LIKED that). And she winds up moving away - going to Yakyakistan.
Which is where the rest of the Ponies find her. And she notes: I thought going to hear expert Yovidaphone players would make me happier, but it only makes me feel worse and OMB do I know that feel - when you're not that great at something sometimes seeing someone who is just shows you how not-great you are, and it doesn't help.
And through a couple of coincidences, Pinkie winds up being persuaded to go up on stage and play one last song on a Yovidaphone.
Now, if they had wanted the Stupid Ending, Pinkie would have somehow magically become Great because of osmosis or time-delay from her practicing, or something. But they didn't go for the Stupid Ending (which is why I like this show, and especially episodes like this) - she's not really very good, not any better than she was before. BUT: the yaks recognize her joy in playing, and they respond to that. (The yaks are a funny breed: they seem kind of coarse and sometimes even brutish, but they do clearly have some sensitivity). And the other Ponies tell Pinkie: we were wrong to ask you to give up something you loved just because you didn't seem to be good at it.
And that's a nice lesson, and perhaps a surprisingly adult lesson (in the face of the twitter-quote I posted the other day: it's not exactly the same as hating on Pumpkin Spice Lattes and maybe destroying someone's innocent joy in them, but it's close). It's another Don't Be A Jerk lesson, but one that needs to be emphasized.
I think I once before said that I gave up the clarinet as a teen because a teacher once told me I'd never be good enough to play in an orchestra, and so I was wasting my time and his? That's this exact thing.
The second episode - basically a Road Movie with Trixie and Starlight Glimmer as the Hope and Crosby duo (there's even a song that's not too far off the songs in the old Road Movies, though I'd have liked more references) was OK. I'm less fond of non-Mane-Six episodes these days, and have never particularly been a fan of Trixie. But it was another sort of "sometimes you don't like your friends very much but should always love them" story. I think I'll have to see it a second time for more of an assessment.
- I'm working on the sleeve cap for the first sleeve of Augusta so I bet I get that sleeve done this weekend. Am seriously considering NOT doing any of the work (writing an exam, grading student project ideas, reading on the biggus-thickus book on the history of the environmental movement, re-reading "The Tragedy of the Commons") that I brought home today, and pushing that off until Monday (which I have off) and instead using today to relax and do what **I** want because all too often it seems I don't get to do what I want.
- I found a free Barbie sundress pattern (that's a link to it; you download it as a .pdf and have to be careful of the scaling) and I want to take some of the bits of small-print fabric I have and try making one or two. (Oddly, I find that Olivia seems to look best in the vintage "handmade" Barbie clothes I have, and I wonder if she just generally looks better in the handmade ones, than in the shiny/slick/simply made commercial ones.
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