New Discovery: Pockets

Ember has discovered pockets. So, now when we go on walks he always keeps his hands in his pockets. It makes walks much more anxiety-inducing because if he falls he is going to eat it. The other day at church he insisted on inching down the stairs feet first because his hands had to stay in his pockets. Again, all I could think was- man I hope he doesn't eat it.

The pocket novelty reached another level when he discovered a front pocket to his overalls.

"What this Ba?" he asked, "A pocket?"

"Yeah!" I replied.

"Oh a POCKET! I put this in my pocket," he stated as he placed a small plastic dinosaur inside.

Now you have to watch out for him. It's not just pockets that can store things of course. There is, for example, his ride-upon airplane. You lift up the seat and there is a secret stowage unit. One day I caught him placing his half-eaten quesadilla inside of it.

"Hey! You can't do that!"

And then I saw that this is a routine he developed days ago. Inside was a brown banana, which had stuck along the walls of his secret compartment stash.

Oh, that reminds me of this crazy stash I found of my own. You can find it here.

Listen to Things and It Will Be Better

It sucks doing things you don't want to do. Luckily, I have found a way to turn crappy things into awesome things. Check this out- It's a list of things I don't really like doing, matched with musical genres to make it badass.

Grading Papers = Fantasy Metal (ie: DragonForce)
Cleaning the House = Pop (Preferably British and Female-Fronted, ie: Ace of Base, Lilly Allen)
Washing Dishes = Songs of the Ocean
Playing With the Kids = Fugazi

Just kidding on one of those...

It can also be an enhancer. Like, take something pretty cool and then kick it up a few notches.

Example: Cooking Breakfast + Rock Ballads = Epic (see Classic Rock Breakfast Showdown)

So actually, that's where the washing dishes example should go- under enhancement. Of course, I like washing dishes. What do you think I am, an a*hole? baddoom chiish.

The Banality of the State Capitol Tour

Want to understand the fundamental failures of "representative democracy"? Take the Denver Capitol Tour. While led by well-intentioned guides, the field trip is the best way to alienate youth, especially if they are working class or not white.

From the Depths of DNC Organizing I Emerge!!

 DNC is over and I escaped unscathed.  No arrests and no tear gas to the eyes.  My emergency sub plans were never carried out and so for me, a small personal success at the DNC protests must be noted.

So now, after months of organizing, were the protests successful?  Was all that work worthwhile?

The brief answer to the first question is- to my initial standards the protests were an utter failure, but to my later amended expectations they were a solid success.  

As for the second question- Absolutely.  I'm really glad I was involved with Unconventional Denver.  I gained a better orientation of the Denver Left (for better or for worse) and made some good friends along the way.  I've got some fresh perspectives on things and some skills too.  I also went on Fox News, the national one.  That might have been the highlight of it all.

I'll probably be posting a long winded analysis of things in a few weeks, but right now it's nice to just know that it's over.

Beetle Plays Dead

So Obsidian brought this beetle home that he found with Jeremy. He said it was dead so we set it on the counter. About a half hour later we were eating mac and cheese when I look over to see the resurrected beetle crawling across the floor!! Obsidian's first response was, "We have to get it!! Mom is going to get really mad if she knows we have a beetle in the house!!!" That's because the other day we caught some grasshoppers and tried boiling them alive so we could cover them in chocolate and eat them. They all hopped out, one met its death on the burner and the other three are still unaccounted for. We also left a dead beetle next to the phone. She threatened that if she ever found a live bug crawling in our house that we wouldn't be able to bring them inside anymore, not even in jars.

For one, this bug is a really freaky looking thing. Also, when it's disturbed it lets out this weird hissing noise when it is disturbed. Plus, we thought it was dead so it was pretty exciting to capture this specimen. We went to whatsthatbug.com and found this picture

Blizzzzzzard!!!!

Oh man I love blizzards! It has been snowing for two days straight. We have over 25 inches of snow and the city at a standstill. The last two days of school for the semester were cancelled and I took sick day on Tuesday so I only had to go in on Monday.

Yesterday Obsidian and I made a snow fort. At that time the wind was blowing super hard but we didn't really care. By the end of our adventures Obsidian looked like one of those grizzly mountain men who had just summited Mount Everest (see photo).

Obsidian and Ember's eyelashes are sooo long. It's really cute. The snow was clumping onto Obsidian's eyelashes when he was outside.

The nice thing about blizzards is that it makes people slow down in this crazy capitalist world. I met three of my neighbors for the first time, borrowed a snow shovel from one and helped another's stuck car out of the snow. The stranded neighbor gave me 5 bucks for helping him!! I tried turning it away but he insisted. It's nice that there's still some sense of community around here. We should have more blizzards to get to know each other in.

the horrors of unschooling

This morning there was a breakfast for staff. I overheard a teacher say in disgust "I read an article in the Post today on something called 'unschooling'. It made me want to vomit! It's some sort of new movement where the kids get to learn whatever they want!" She was livid, as was the other teacher listening to her explain this absurd concept. It's interesting. Why is someone a teacher when the idea of kids following their desires is nauseating?

Typically the more a teacher has a martyr complex, the more they distrust and dislike students. They're the ones that spend the entire lunch hour gossiping about students and their families. It's something I need to start intervening with. The level of disrespect that is demonstrated sometimes is shocking and typically I bear and grin it. Gossiping from teachers about their fellow workmates is rampant as well. It's pretty ridiculous and is a real indicator of the type of environments that sometimes take hold in the school setting. Resolution- I'm going to start sticking up for students and teachers and calling this stuff out.