Tag: Uncategorized

  • Big Damn News

    Wow. I don’t even fully know how to wrap my head around it. Actually, I can’t. I’ll probably be able to later, but after today, I am still in shock. I’ll get to today later.

    Our daughter is 16 years old and starting her junior year. She has been homeschooled since the start. She is now officially a public school student.

    She still won’t be attending a traditional school. As a matter of fact, for people who have always used mainstream schools, she will still seem like a homeschooler, but for somebody like me, who has been homeschooling for a very long time (and for the vast majority did so as a willful underground homeschooler), it is a big psychological difference. Filling out all those forms in triplicate and sitting there while office people were handing out detentions right and left almost made me explode in hives.

    While it is possible to homeschool for free (especially if you put a massively massive amount of effort into rounding up free resources and scotch taping them together into a complete curriculum) it is much easier if you pour some money into it. Like with so much in life, money gives you quite a bit of access and freedom. Right now we are in a place where we are putting money into starting a new business, so the smart financial thing to do is at least check out the government funded option.

    So, we looked at the charter schools that offer online schooling, and we found an interesting hybrid option, that seems fairly idealistically education focused (I think many of the major online players are highly financially motivated). I am hoping it will be a very good fit for her.

    Tonight, we go attend our first parent night. The horrors.

    Anyhow, today… Ugh, today. I… eew. Today, we went in to complete enrollment, and I was completely mentally unprepared for how dreadfully long it was going to take. While the curriculum she is using is online, it is tied to a real brick and mortar school. A LARGE brick and mortar school. We had already been in to speak with the people who run the online program, and had been given a few papers and told to take those and a set of papers to prove we are who we say we are, to the main school attendance office. It took a day to assemble all the “show me your papers” papers, and then we dutifully made our way to campus. We arrived and went to the attendance office with our stack of paper work, and had to wait over a half hour just for somebody to talk to us (People there for enrollment needed to take a red number ticket). From what I overheard, the dean of attendance had made the office staff send out “summons” to every student who had missed one period or more since the start of the school year. The office was being overrun with students who were being written detention slips. It was all very disturbing, because the staff member would say something like, “Were you here yesterday?” To which the teen would non-respond by standing there. The staff person would repeat themselves. The teen would slowly shift their weight from one leg to the other. The staff person would repeat themselves and the teen’s mouth would drop open and a noise like “uuuuuh” would come out. The staff member would ask yet again and the teen would mutter “no”. Then the staff would ask if they had a note for the absence, which would then start the painful process of getting that question answered. We watched this happen dozens of times. Ouch.

    It was finally our turn to speak to somebody (yay red ticket 61) and they handed me a new giant stack of forms to fill out. WTF? Why not hand that to me when I arrived? I sat and filled out the forms, which took another 30 minutes, and then I turned those in, at which point they gave me a gold piece of paper with check boxes, and I was supposed to go from the attendance office to the special programs office. At that office, a person checked one of the boxes and signed my form. Then we were sent to the health office. At the health office a nurse came and removed 3 pieces of paper from our giant stack. Then she gave us a new piece of paper to take home and fill out. Then she tested the kid’s hearing and eyesight and weighed and measured her (she appears to have grown an inch in the past 6 months since her last doctor appointment… seriously?) and then she checked the little box on our gold piece of paper and sent us to the counseling office. We went to the counseling office to unlock our next achievement, and a woman with excellently applied eyeliner, and a complete disdain for us, sorted our stack of paper into separate smaller stacks and carefully stapled those together in some magical fashion. This allowed her to check off a box on our gold paper and send us on our way to the cafeteria, when we were thwarted by the ringing of a bell.

    We had to leave campus and go have lunch because the lady guarding the cafeteria couldn’t check our gold sheet while handling feeding time at the zoo.

    We went and ate some crappy fast food, and made our way back to campus and unlocked the lunch room achievement. We went on to the last level to discover that the boss monster had already left, and we’d have to complete a portion of our quest another day.

    In the meantime, she did get some classes picked out, and supposedly we will soon have an email explaining her userID and login information, so she can go check out the interface.

    I am very hopeful that this will work out well. Supposedly there are multiple teachers to interact with via email, chat and phone, so she can get help fairly rapidly, which, in theory should free up more of my time so that I can work and potentially earn more money. We are still negotiating a few of her previously earned high school credits because national standards and CA standards don’t quite align, so it looks like she is going to need to squeeze in an extra semester of world history. Also part of her previous math work won’t be credited as math, but they will give her elective credits for it. My only concern is that she is so easily exhausted as she is still feeling the brutal effects of mono, and we homeschooled year around, meaning that on any given day, her total work load was typically lighter because she was working less hours, but more days. We are letting her take 1 AP class, even though she still isn’t back to full health.

    After spending several hours on campus, it appears that I hate high school even more now than I did when I was attending it as a student.

    Now I need to go nap, or soak in Benadryl, or perhaps just drink a lot of alcohol. Maybe all three.

  • About Face

    I like routine and it is easy for me to fall into the habit of doing something because it is what I do, long beyond the point of that thing being important. If I do not do it, I will feel anxious, because a thing which I am “supposed” to do, is not being done.

    I disabled my facebook account a week ago. I don’t expect to remain off of facebook forever (at least not yet), but it wasn’t working well for me (from a personal, not a technical standpoint). I was spending far to much time on facebook, even though I wasn’t enjoying that time. I was also spending too much time trying to figure out how I was going to make it work better for me, so I decided to remove that from my thoughts for the moment and just go cold turkey.

    Now, with a little perspective, I’m coming closer to deciding how to relaunch my use, and manage it in a way that is less time and energy consuming, and hopefully provides more positive than negative.

    I joined facebook (and Myspace) because my daughter was interested in being able to hang out with her friends online, and I wanted to look at the sites so I could make an informed decision. She was not yet old enough to join according to their TOS, so it was not yet an option, but I knew she’d like to have an account on her 13th birthday, so I started doing my homework ahead of time. I hated myspace, but facebook was fun for me. I had a manageable number of friends and it was nice to have a window into their lives, and for them into mine.

    Four years later I have, less than, but far too close to, 200 “friends” which is absolutely ludicrous. There are not 200 people on this planet who give a shit whether I am alive or dead, much less how my day is going or what the past ten photos of my pets look like. Hell, most of my actual friends don’t really give much of a shit how my day is going, because, face it, most of my days are going the same as previous ones.

    The thing is, I basically added everyone who ever added me, as long as I sort of knew them. I have no idea why they added me to start with. Do they just like the friend number to look big? Did they give facebook access to their email address book? I know one added me so I could play facebook games with her. I added less than a dozen people first. But, I figured if I was going to add them, then I should pay attention to them. I made friend groups so that I could post to only specific people, but didn’t use them for reading. If they were on my friend list, I read their updates. All of them. This could take a very long time if I hadn’t looked recently. Yes. I know. You don’t need to say it, and neither do I.

    Some of them are really fucking annoying too.

    Plus, I didn’t block any apps or games, so I got all that spam too. The whole point was to be there so that I could check it out for my kid, and keep an eye on her and how she used it. If she started spamming people with app shit, I needed to know it. No way to guide her along if I had blocked them all. Now, she is older and I am totally confident in the care she exercises as far as facebook apps go (and really, she can go ages without even logging in to facebook, because she is busy being addicted to tumblr instead, where half the time I want to throw up over stuff I see, but hey, she is older now, so whatever).

    So, I was overwhelmed with all this stuff to read, and the first choice was to narrow down my “friend” list. It turned out that was easier said than done, because while many had no real connection to my life, they were at least the friend of a friend (or friend of a business associate), and I worried about offending somebody, or some such nonsense. While I mostly feel it is nonsense, I don’t actually want to hurt somebody’s feelings if I can easily avoid it.

    So, I believe over the course of my week break, I’ve come to accept that I’ll just need to create reading groups on facebook, and really only look at those people regularly. Plus, try to just see what I see when I happen to login, and not go back to check on everything they’ve posted about since I last checked.

    I still find it a shitty way to communicate at any level that actually matters to me. Not to say that there are not some people that I manage to have meaningful communication on there with, but for most people, even those I care about a great deal, it just isn’t a good place for that. It is a place of small talk, and I don’t enjoy small talk. It feels like a waste of time and energy.

    I’d always prefer to have a one on one conversation, or just sit home and read a book, to attending any kind of group event. Living your online life as a group event is what facebook is all about. It is a group event that invades my home every single day. I need to manage the door much better.

    Fifteen years ago, the internet was more than a great resource to me, it was a refuge from the way general society interacted everyday. That is no longer the case. There is no way I can stop the internet cold turkey. I’ve stored my brain in the cloud. Dependence aside, it is clearly time for me to make a lot of changes.

  • Life With Dogs

    Leather Option on my friend’s car seats – $3000
    Water/Mud proof cover for the backseat to protect it from two Border Collies – $50
    Adoption fee for my adorable new puppy – $225

    Moment when Border Collies grrr-umph about puppy getting into THEIR car and puppy submissively urinates all over the uncovered front seat – Priceless

  • I have internet

    I am still very busy with unpacking, and when I do get on the internet it is to look up things for the house or figure things out about the area.

    I keep referring to Los Angeles as home.

    I am now going to go take a shower in some of the worst water pressure I’ve ever encountered. I called the utility company today to ask about it, and they took my number to call me back. They haven’t. It takes ages to shower.

    Tonight we are going to go make an attempt at a sushi place nearby that we’ve heard is decent.

    I need to get some lamps. A lot of the rooms do not have overhead lights.

  • still cranky

    After arriving here I realized I should make a couple of adjustments due to the weather. My desire for hot drinks is soaring, so I am trying to switch mainly to decaf. So far I am mostly failing at that while out because I forget to ask for it. I am waiting for a UPS delivery of my recent coffee order, and that included more decaf than usual to accommodate the switch at home. I don’t need to go NO caffeine, but if I drink half as much coffee as I want to in this weather, and all of that is regular, I will develop a problem. I also need to switch to mainly drinking black.

    The other thing that it made sense to change was the dog feeding routine. In California the dogs were fed late at night. Before the dogs were fed there was this whole bathroom routine that needed to occur. Yes, I am talking a lot about pet bodily functions lately. Welcome to my life. See, Indy has never been a fan of going to the bathroom, at least not since we brought her home when she was about 6 months old. She was a rescue puppy, and I do not know if she was born that way, or there was some kind of issue with the potty training at her previous home, but she came to us really hating to shit, and it took a long time to work things out so that we had a reasonably regular poo schedule and did not have to worry about poosplosions. When things are normal, she goes once a day, before she eats. Yes, I realize most dogs are supposed to want to go soon after a meal. Anyhow, getting her to go still requires human participation. She cannot just be let outside at around the right time. Somebody must witness it, and sadly for me, there are many days when she will only go for me. What am I babbling about this for? Oh right, the eating schedule. It was just too fucking cold to be taking the damn dogs out and standing around and hoping for a poo miracle late at night. I have switched to an after human lunch poo and feeding schedule. The dogs are happy with their new meal time at their new meal time, but every night at their old meal time they go absolutely ape shit. When I go to bed they complain mightily about the fact I have forgotten to feed them. I keep trying to remind them that they already ate (and I’m actually feeding them more to help them put on some cold weather fat), but they refuse to believe me and keep insisting that I have forgotten to feed them. On the other hand, they are still pleasantly surprised by their after lunch meal.

    I still need to take them out before bed to get in a final pee, but that doesn’t take as long as a poo outing. It still takes longer than in California because Indy thinks it is too cold and she keeps looking at me reproachfully, and London is always trying to catch something scampering through the backyard.

    We do not have a real fence in the backyard, hence all the TAKING the dogs out instead of letting them out. Fences are very unusual here, and very few of the rentals I looked at had any at all. Most people who do have dogs opt for the invisible fence. I like having this crappy fence better than no fence at all, because at least it delineates our yard and we are less likely to have people wandering in. This is also part of the initial bathroom issue with London as he hates to poop while leashed. He is getting better about it.

    Much to my great sadness, the house next door runs a daycare. I did chat with the woman over the backyard fence our first week here and cautioned her against letting the children stick their hands through the fence telling her that Indy could not be trusted not to bite them. She said she would make sure of it. I was hoping that the cold weather would keep them inside most of the time, but many afternoons are full of the noises of squealing toddlers. I am not a fan.

    There is a good walking path just behind the house. There are an unfortunate number of burrs in the area, and most walks are followed by me needing to pick burrs out of the dogs and myself.

    Pics from the walking path:

    Dog Walk

    The Path

    Now that I’ve talked so much about poo and the dogs, I’ll mention the other critters.

    Wallace (the fish) – It was really looking touch and go for a while, but we’ve now warmed the poor thing up enough and he is finally eating again. I might need to find a cheap little aquarium (or larger bowl) and heater for him so that I am not stuck keeping one room so warm.

    Willow – The cold she developed when we first got here has cleared up and she seems to be doing well. She is generally just as much of a pain in the ass as at the old house. The cats are spending more time near each other than they used to, but it is still not overly friendly and often ends in hissing and huffing.

    Xander – He is also settling in well, although he is cold and is looking for warm snuggle places more often. Also, both cats are usually complaining of hunger and are super friendly because they hope we might feed them.

    London is climbing onto the bathtub and stealing the cats’ food. He knows damn well he is not supposed to, but it is going to take some doing for us to enforce that here. Things were set up much better for managing the pets at our own house. If I can just figure out which box I packed the zapper thing in, I should be able to remind him about his manners where the cat food (and other sort of kitty treats EEEW) are concerned. In the meantime, the cats are always wandering around complaining about their lack of food. When we lock them in with the food, so that the dog cannot get to it. They complain about being locked in, and refuse to eat it out of spite.

    Too much typing, time to go unpack something, or shop, or do something else unpleasant.

  • Buried

    I took a break from the moving madness to go see The Dandy Warhols last Friday.

    I had a… time.

    I composed a long and eloquent post in my head about them, but never found the time to get it from my head to keyboard, and now my head has gone to further mush.

    Instead you will get the Cliffs Notes version.

    I shall start off by saying that The Dandy Warhols did NOT disappoint me. They were very good. I completely enjoyed them, and on stage they proved themselves to be true musicians. The set had a nice pace to it, and just the right amount of talking. Best of all, they reached a respectable point in the evening, said “this is going to be our last song” and played their last song of the night. That was it. They said goodnight and walked off stage and… no encore bullshit. No pretending that they were done, when they knew damn well they were coming back. It was a classy ending and one I’ve been wanting to see for a long time.

    The opening act was The Upsidedown, which I just had to look up because it did not stick in my memory. What did stick was their tambourine player. Easily the best and most enthusiastic tambourine playing I’ve ever seen. Really. Too bad I didn’t like their lead singer nearly as much. This was a band I enjoyed more when it was only music and no lyrics, and that is very unusual for me. They played for 20 minutes and then thanked us and went away.

    Here we end of the Cliff Notes portion and move on to the Throw Me Off A Cliff portion of my post.

    The second act was A Place to Bury Strangers. I did not have to look that up. I never intend to forget the name of that band. It will make it easier to avoid them in the future. I do not like to rain on anyone’s parade, and I am sure they love what they do, and they obviously have fans. But, unfortunately for everyone, there were not many at the concert I was at. Definitely none in the group of people I attended with. At first I thought they were just not my cup of tea, but eventually I determined that I actively disliked the sounds they were making and desperately wanted them to stop. Seriously, when they got started, I thought they had things set up wrong, and that the screeching feedback and out of tune yowling was an error that they would stop and correct, but that is just their style.

    A couple of songs in, I was mostly staring at the floor and trying to will myself to a different place, where I couldn’t hear them. I could only zone out and pretend I wasn’t there for so long, and then some kind of mating cats getting attacked by rabid raccoons sound would cause me to glance up involuntarily. I glanced up and was shocked to discover that the drummer was GONE. He had vanished in a puff of smoke and I had a brief moment of giddiness when I thought perhaps my wishing had caused it, and that the entire band would soon vanish. I glanced towards my friends and saw that they were cracking up. We met eyes and I started laughing too. It soon became clear that nobody had exploded, it was just the fog machine on overdrive. Once again, I mistakenly thought something had gone wrong and they would fix it between songs, but it turned out, they just really fucking like the heavy smog effect. It was so disturbing to watch the drummer breathing in and out that stuff. I’ve walked through fog machine output, and did not find it even slightly pleasant to breathe.

    After they had been playing for too long, I thought the song they were playing would be their last, but when it ended they started another, even longer one. That one ended and, once again, they started another. It went on and on. At some point in the middle I snapped and just begin laughing until tears were leaking out of my eyes. I am serious. I was disliking the experience so much that the concern that they might never stop playing had driven me to the point of hysteria.

    Along the way, Jono MOFO broke the strings on his abused instrument at which point he appeared to throw some sort of toddler temper tantrum about the breakage, and yet, they still did not cease.

    FINALLY there was silence. It was a heavy silence, with very little applause or cheering. The trio stomped off stage without a word. We stood around stunned and waited for The Dandy Warhols, but I was pretty concerned that they wouldn’t not be able to do anything to save the evening.

    However, as mentioned before The Dandy Warhols put on a great show.

    But, when we exited the building, we only had mouths for A Place to Bury Strangers. We talked about them on the way back to the car, on the way home, and were still talking about them the next day.

    Probably some of you reading this would like them, but I really, really did not. I’m sure you’ve already figured that out.

    From their myspace “A Place To Bury Strangers does not so much play songs as allow them to pour out. They are songs about longing, heartbreak and confusion played extremely well and at a passionately loud volume.” They are obviously accomplished artists, because THAT absolutely expresses my impression of their performance. Not playing, just pouring and flooding and some oozing, and I am right there, with intense longing to be someplace else, heartbreak that it was still happening and utter confusion as to why it was happening to me.

    I feel bad for them, and really, everyone. I think the person who booked them as an opening act for The Dandy Warhols did nobody any favors. The styles were not complimentary.

    And here, is a little video clip of the show for those of you who are interested.

  • i haz parenting skilz

    Some children have parents who don’t even know HOW to use instant messenger.

    My child is not that lucky.

    seeingdouble

  • Long haired cats = Eew

    That is all. Nobody wants the details. I wish I didn’t have the details.

    ick

  • Kicking Ass and Taking Names

    Today the kid got her junior black belt.

    We are really proud of her. She has been studying for more than 7 years now, and it is a pretty big day, made even more poignant by the fact she is currently on leave from active workouts on doctors orders. She is in physical therapy and working her way back.

    kungfuzap collage

    In her art the belts and degrees are:

    • white
    • yellow
    • yellow first degree
    • yellow second degree
    • green
    • green first degree
    • green second degree
    • green third degree
    • brown
    • brown first degree
    • brown second degree
    • brown third degree
    • brown fourth degree
    • black (then 8 degrees until Master)

    Her belt is a junior black belt, but is well deserved. She is the first kid at her school to ever get one, and in general in her art kids are not given black belts. She works out with the adults too, and in that class she is ranked green. In her art nobody under the age of 16 can be given an adult black belt, period.

    It was a very special day, as several people she has known a long time also got promotions today. One boy, who is really a young man now, got his black belt. He used to live near us so his parents and I would switch off carpooling to class. Now he drives himself. He has turned into an amazing fighter. I love to watch him kick ass out there. Such far cry from when he was first allowed into the adult class.

    Two of our good friends got promotions too. One who we introduced to the school, got his black belt today. The second, that person introduced to the school. He got his green belt. A green belt for the adults is a big deal in the art. It is considered technically a professional, which means legally they are expected to have control over their actions and are responsible for them.

    Two guys got their second degree black belts today. These are guys I have known for years and years now. One has become a good friend of the family through the school. It is always so great to see them kicking some serious ass out there. Love it. I wish I could get better shots of the action, but the lighting there is piss poor.

    All in all, a big day.

    Congratulations to all.

    Just a few small pics for fun, more will be available on flickr later.

    P1282669
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  • Eating Disorder

    I love Xander. He fits in well with the family. He has issues.