Education....seems to be low-priority.

First, I am freaking out over job prospect(s). But more on that later. The education stuff, which makes me sad, comes from the fact that LMUSD sent out a TON of pink slips to teachers this past week and a bunch of people showed up to the board meeting to discuss it. An NHS alum sent out a message about the meeting, and this is part of what he had to say:

The fact of the matter is this, we live in a society that weighs entertainment, and military over education. If you want someone to blame, blame the community, start with yourself. When was the last time education was a on the top of your political agenda? The truth is that the congressional districts 22 and 23 have long sat silent while our teaching staff has been underpaid and under-appreciated .

APparently some people are just on witch hunts, trying to place the blame on anything they can. But this guy is right - we have sat silent too long. Education has always been at the top of my short-lived political agenda, which probably speaks to my age more than anything else, and I have long been more than a little conflicted over the state of our K-12 and higher ed system - I feel like it fails to really reach so many students, but at the same time it's under-funded. And teachesr that are not so great probably had a not-so-great education in the first place - lovelyyy cycle. But despite my reservations and frustrations, I've never really voiced it in a public/constructive manner.

More thinking to follow over spring break. Right now I need to do studio work, study for a midterm, and decide on a job...

Weekends?

I miss those...

Only two weeks until I can sit in the sun on the beach and then SLEEP IN ON A WEEKEND. Without feeling guilty.

Daylight savings time robbed me of an hour of my Sunday and will make me late for everything else for the next month. The longer days, while taunting me while in studio, also remind me why I don't know if New York will ever really work out for me. I love long afternoons and warmth - visual and in terms of temperature - and need to live somewhere with short winters and short summers, because fall/spring are where it's at.

What If

What if you were Muslim but wanted to join the US military? Or if there was a draft and you were Muslim and drafted in? How would you and your family feel? How would your commander feel? Your peers? How would they treat you?

I'm not really sure what sparked that particular train of thought.


I sometimes feel like shit for having the privilege to criticize our involvement in wars and the president (former and otherwise) and not really paying much attention to what is going on in all of those things when I know some of the people who are laying their lives on the line to protect us, our safety, our freedom of speech, and our ways of life. I take their efforts for granted some (most) of the time. And my soul wonders....what do they think of me?

Still working

Here's something I'm continually struggling with: getting overwhelmed. I don't want to get overwhelmed so I don't read e-mails or start my work or whatever - basically I procastinate. Then I've procastinated to the point that when I do start, I've run out of time and I'm overwhelmed because I started so late.

My intentions have gotten progressively better on this front - at least I'm aware of my own tricks now - but it's something that I still need to work on.

I'm off to start my reveiw post-mortem.

Late-Night Playlist

My late-night playlist on Pandora includes:

Britney Spears' last two albums
Timbaland
Lady GaGa's album
Kanye's 808s, Stronger
CALABRIA 2007 by Enur
MGMT's Oracular Spectacular album
Christina Aguilera
Katy Perry's One of the Boys album
Kylie Minogue
Rhianna
PCD

......basically super classy music that I don't have to think about but isn't too mellow that I fall asleep, either.