You ask the questions.

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Xeney : One Thread

Ah, hell, I can't think of a topic. It's your turn. Ask me a question, ask everyone else a question, anything. Trivia, deep dark secrets, whatever.

-- Anonymous, October 17, 1999

Answers

I know I could look it up, but.. why is the Sacramento Valley filled with smoke? Bushfires somewhere near by?

-- Anonymous, October 17, 1999

How are you preparing for Halloween? Any upcoming costume parties? Do you carve pumpkins and decorate the house? Other than a pair of boxers, will Doc wear a costume? (Hey! I thought only Boxer dogs wore boxers. Yuk-yuk.)

-- Anonymous, October 17, 1999

This is the question that was all the rage in college truth or dare games as a "warm up": How old were you when you lost your virginity? Was it a good experience for you?

I've noted, over my adult years, that people just love to talk about sex. Go figger.

I'm not sure what is causing the smoke, although my first guess would be that pile of tires on the other side of the hills that got struck by lightening a few weeks back and is going to be burning for quite some time (I guess they can't put it out). With the winds, we get a smoky smell even here in the Bay Area - which would explain why I woke up with a headache and completely clogged

-- Anonymous, October 17, 1999


Smoke in the valley: the smoke here was caused by bush fires in Redding. We had a strong north wind yesterday, so we wouldn't have been affected by the tire fire, which is south of here. Hasn't that fire actually been burning for years, but the lightening made it worse? Wacky.

Halloween: We usually dress up. We've done the Good Witch/Wicked Witch deal before, but I don't think either Jeremy or I can fit into my Glinda dress this year. (His problem -- shoulders. My problem -- boobs.) I've been thinking of dressing up as Jeremy, wearing that wig I wore for September's cover photo. He doesn't like that idea, though. I'll come up with something.

Virginity: seventeen. It was a thoroughly lame experience, and if I could travel back in time, I'd slap myself silly -- and kick the guy in the shins, very hard.

-- Anonymous, October 17, 1999


Have you followed up on Creepy Guy?

And there are actually three fires going. There's one up by Rumsey and another one up by Dobbins (again?). I'm surprised there's any fuel left for a fire by Dobbins,after the fire there a couple years ago. One look north out of Davis and you'd think the entire county was in flames. I sent Mike to the drugstore to get me four asthma inhalers. After a severe asthma attack banished me to the shower and and I got the opportunity play with the nebulizer until shaky, it seemed appropriate.:P

On the bright side, yesterday's sunset was a bright fuschia and the sun appeared to set in a puff of smoke.

-- Anonymous, October 17, 1999



I just wanted to add: I hope you take pictures Halloween and post them in your journal.

Have I told you lately how much I enjoy visiting your website?

-- Anonymous, October 17, 1999


The more of those bathroom pictures I see the more I think you have a whole new Look going there. Have you considered just covering everything in layers of clear yacht varnish and calling it chic? I mean, people used to throw out battered old furniture, now you can take classes in how to "distress" your too-new stuff. Here's your big chance to be cutting edge ....

-- Anonymous, October 17, 1999

questions:

How sick are you of your bathroom?

How much do you wish you could just come home from work one day and magically find it all 'done'?

How do you stop a dog from barking at inappropriate moments?

-- Anonymous, October 17, 1999


Okay, I'll see if I can remember all of these.

Creepy guy: I've seen him around, but I haven't encountered him since the day I told him Doc bit like a motherfucker. He kind of followed Jeremy around a little one day after that, but he seems to be living with (or at least doing yard work for) a woman who lives around the corner, which may mean someone is taking care of him now.

Bathroom art: oh, yeah, it crossed our mind. In fact, that's what we've been doing for the whole last year: showering in an art project, only without the yacht varnish.

Bathroom completion: I'm not there yet. I'm still enjoying picking out fixtures and planning the tile work. I sort of wish I could come home and find it magically reframed, refloored, and replumbed, all ready for me to paint and trim and tile. But then Jeremy would miss out on the part that he thinks is fun. We'll be mightily sick of it before long, but right now it's still fun. If we won a special lottery and came home to find our bathroom all redone tomorrow, we'd be disappointed.

Dogs barking: depends on the context. If he's outside barking, a water gun works if you do it immediately when he barks, and then praise him for shutting up. Or so I'm told. We rarely leave Doc out long enough to bark, although he does bark at squirrels and cats.

For barking indoors, i.e., when someone comes to the door, we praise him for that and then tell him "hush," at which point he gets praised for shutting up, assuming he does. I like him to alarm bark; it's a security thing, plus our doorbell doesn't work so it's the only way I ever know there's someone at the door.

Barking for attention gets ignored for as long as we can stand it, and then it gets a squirt gun if he doesn't respond to "hush." We give him attention as soon as he's quiet.

Putting them in a down stay is supposed to help, too, because dogs allegedly don't like to bark when they're laying down. That doesn't work with Doc, not at all.

Our worst problem is barking at the cats to get them to play. It doesn't work -- they hate it when he barks -- and he usually winds up getting scratched. That only deters him for that one instance. The next time he wants to play, he resumes barking. I've started using the squirt gun for that one, too.

-- Anonymous, October 18, 1999


What are you REALLY angry about right now? That's addressed not just to Xeney, but the entire group. Is there anything that is really ticking you off right now?-- Al

-- Anonymous, October 18, 1999


Our local traffic plan, and the people who think it doesn't apply to them. I hate the damn traffic plan, but if we're going to have it, people need to respect it. The only thing worse than traffic circles and half street closures are people driving AROUND half street closures and going the wrong way or just too fast through the roundabouts.

Bad drivers are pissing me off. People who think my street is their own personal freeway and so they can ignore "do not enter" signs are pissing me off. Plus I stepped in gum on the way to work, and that's making me a little cranky, too.

-- Anonymous, October 18, 1999


About that local traffic plan: now that D Street is closed, the signs posted about the closure say "for more information, call" and then there is a blank space where the phone number should be. h says they are afraid to post the number because they don't want people to know how to complain. I told her I would write the number in with a magic marker if anyone could tell me what it is. Do you know the number?

-- Anonymous, October 18, 1999

Oh, yes, I have it somewhere. They had the number posted when they put the closures on G, H, etc., but since the collective citizenry nearly burned down City Hall at that point, I guess they got wise. I'll see if Jeremy has the number.

The big problem with the new closure (besides the fact that it's funneling even more traffic onto you guys up on C Street, as if you needed anymore) is there isn't a 4 way stop there. I know the people on the corner didn't want to listen to trucks braking, but now we have people whizzing around that corner to dodge the closure, and there is going to be a head-on collision on my block if they don't put in a four way stop.

The other day I had some bitch HONK at me for blocking her way onto D Street. I was headed east, and she wanted to go around the traffic barrier and was annoyed that I was in her way. I didn't budge until she'd moved on, and she flipped me off.

I hate the barriers, but the people who dodge them make me furious, too -- it's not the people who actually live in midtown who drive 50 miles an hour around the circles and dodge the closures without even slowing down; it's people on their way to work.

You write down the complaint number, and Jeremy and I will install one of those tack strips on the other side of the barrier to puncture people's tires. Midtown sabotage at its finest.

-- Anonymous, October 18, 1999


How many trick or treaters do you think you'll get?

We just moved to the suburbs and heard we should expect at least 100.

Also I thought you'd like to know that yesterday our nice neighbor helped us with one of our doors that sticks. He trimmed off about 1/4" and now it fits just right. Pat got all riled up and fixed the other two doors that haven't been closing right. It's so great to have doors that close now!

-- Anonymous, October 18, 1999


Oh yeah, and I'm not planning to dress up for Halloween, though we are invited to two parties on that Saturday. I have a couple of pumpkins sitting next to the door and I'll carve them the day before Halloween. Lots of people in our neighborhood really go to town with Halloween decorations, though. Lights and scarecrows and ghosts and all kinds of stuff. There's one house where they decorate the whole house and yard for EVERY holiday, plus they have a model train layout in their front yard.

15 or 16, depending on how you count. It was a big dissapointment.

I'm pretty sick of my own bathroom and the too-short shower.

I'm not really angry at anything right now.

-- Anonymous, October 18, 1999



I'm angry at my aging pregnant body.

My back is trashed. I have one vertebrae this is acting like it's going to just fall out of my back and I'll be in a wheelchair. Mind you, I can take ibuprofen, but that's only good through the second trimester and then it still doesn't address the underlying problem of my ruined back.

Due to the smoke in the valley, I'm on 4 asthma inhalers because I can't take drugs to stop the sinus fill-up thing that is irritating my lungs in the first place.

It's doubly irritating because I can't leave the house to exercise, which would probably help my back, but the smoke is so bad in the valley, that it would irritate my asthma.

At any rate, I'm cranky about being in pain and not able to do much to fix any of it.

On the plus side, I got poked at this morning by the baby, so when it's all over, it'll have been worth it.

-- Anonymous, October 18, 1999


We didn't get any trick or treaters last year, and this year will probably be the same. In our old neighborhood we got tons of them, but there aren't as many kids down here. Too bad -- I love trick or treaters.

-- Anonymous, October 18, 1999

Damnit Ian. Forcing me to participate.

Re traffic calming, the above mentioned "calming" that diverts five blocks worth of traffic onto my formerly semi-quiet street: I have an idea. If the city REALLY wants calmness, they should install toll-booths. Having to pay to get in would insure that only really wealthy and serious drivers would be able to enter. This would prevent the current riff-raff who currently "panic" our streets: like state workers, apartment dwellers, renters, and folks who wish to partake of any shopping/cultural opportunites in Midtown. Or maybe they should close down Midtown altogether, creating the ideal gated and totally closed community that some home-owners apparently want (note: I haven't met a single, not one, person who supports the plan). As every letter writer to the newspapers has mentioned, if you want to live in the suburbs, move to the suburbs. (Or put up traffic circles in urban areas if you have the political pull.) Oh, by the way, this is also what makes me furious. Two responses in one!

-- Anonymous, October 18, 1999


Oh, I've met people who like the plan. I have some friends who love it. At the traffic meetings, it was probably about 50/50 love vs. hate. And you'll be thrilled to know that when I once suggested that the issue be put on the city ballot for approval (even if it was a non-binding vote), I was shouted down, because the people who care enough to go to the meetings ought to be the ones to make these decisions.

That was my last traffic meeting. I decided I was going to come out of the whole ordeal hating all of my neighbors without reservation, and that I'd rather have 9,000 cars a day on my street or barricades on every block than spend one more minute in a meeting room with those petty little people.

But yeah, I hate the traffic plan. I could write a novel about why I hate the traffic plan, but I'm going to go back to bed now instead.

-- Anonymous, October 19, 1999


Why do they announce the songs on radio stations in the reverse of the order in which they play them? They've gotta have a reason; they can't all be morons. Can they?

-- Anonymous, October 19, 1999

Yes, they in fact can all be morons. But what I hate even more than the backwards announcements is when they don't announce anything at all. You have to deal with the mind-numbing DJ banter, but they never tell you the actual names of the songs or the artists. That is why I do not listen to the radio.

-- Anonymous, October 19, 1999

SNAP OUT OF IT, DAMMIT!! how can i be expected to think for myself at this hour?

-- Anonymous, October 19, 1999

Okay, MSIE users, how many others, beside me, think that Beth gets a "Bad journaller, no biccie" and mean, nasty, pouty look for her extensive use of the very bad BOLD HOVER?

Boo, hiss on the BOLD HOVER.

-- Anonymous, October 19, 1999


Is BOLD HOVER the thing that makes the dates jump around when I put my cursor over them?

If so, I'd agree - lose the BOLD HOVER. but no pouty looks.

-- Anonymous, October 19, 1999


One more thing that makes me angry...Parents who don't set boundaries for their kids. There's this one woman in the neighborhood and her kids have some serious *oversexual* type problems. One of her kids, 5 years old, apparently was exhibiting wholly inappropriate behavior towards another child (another neighbor) in his childcare and was removed from his childcare because of it. Naturally, the little girl's mother refuses to let the 5 year old child play with her child.

This kid and his older siblings cause all kinds of damage, but the mom is never to be seen. If you bring it up with Mom, she says she'll *take care of it* and nothing changes.

As for trick-or-treaters -- we usually see about 20-30 because we live in the back of the complex. My neighbor and I put out all kinds of jack-o-lanterns, so people know we're back there and we give out candy by the handfuls, so we're not left with any. Truthfully, any more, if I lived in a more urban area, we'd take him to one of those *sponsored* events downtown and to the houses of people I knew. It's creepy to have to go through your kid's halloween candy looking each piece over to verify that he can eat it, but even in your own neighborhood, you feel obligated to do that *just in case*. One thing I've seen people do that makes me feel more comfortable is that they stick a label on the candy with their name and address on it.

-- Anonymous, October 19, 1999


Dave: Okay, here is your direction for the day. Go out, right now, and vote for the school bond measure. Yeah, yeah, I know you don't have kids, you don't like kids, you don't like anything to do with kids, but Sacramento schools are so broke they don't even have wheelchair ramps, okay? Go vote.

Re bold hover: Grumble. I love bold hover. I love it when other people use it. But all right, all right, I'll ditch it.

Re trick or treating: in downtown Sacramento, Boulevard Park sponsors a safe house program. That means the entire neighborhood gets tons of trick or treaters, including lots of kids from other neighborhoods. When we lived over there, we got zillions of kids, even though we didn't bother to get designated as a safe house. That was when we lived in the fourplex. All the tenants would hang out on the front porch, some of us in costume, and hand out candy -- so kids got a quadruple score for showing up there.

-- Anonymous, October 19, 1999


Nope, I like the bold hover, use it m'self....why do you ladies hate it?

-- Anonymous, October 19, 1999

i have a question:

is the past tense of shit really 'shat' ? this would fulfill my 'learn something new everyday' quota.

-- Anonymous, October 19, 1999


I've heard people I really respect, like Iko, criticize the bold hover, but I LIKE it, I use it on my index page, I rather like the way it makes a page "move" a bit. I may take it off on my next redesign, but I personally like it, and like it on yours, Beth.--Al

-- Anonymous, October 19, 1999

well, from agrammatically correct standpoint, I can't tell you whether shat for past tense of shit is correct, but it's common as muck used in Australia.

As in, when talking about one sports team's superior beating of another "They shat all over them mate!"

As in, when expressing quite how startled/made afraid you were by some event/thing "mate, I nearly shat myself!"

A.

-- Anonymous, October 19, 1999


bold hover = text reflowing and oozing around = needlessly distracting

if you want flashy stuff, you could change the background color on hover, or the text color *and* background color. (Al, this goes for you, too)

Anita of Anita's BOD and Anita's LOL

-- Anonymous, October 20, 1999


All right, all right, I already said I'm taking it off.

As for "shat," I've heard it here as well as in Australia. It always sounds sort of pretentious and funny when Americans use it -- I have no idea if it's correct or not, but I think it sounds hilarious, so I use it sometimes.

-- Anonymous, October 20, 1999


On behalf of bold hover haters everywhere, Beth, I humbly bow down and thank you, most kindly. You are a queen amongst women and a most gracious hostess.

Er, ot something like that.

-- Anonymous, October 20, 1999


I don't care for bold hover because it makes whatever I'm attempting to click on move around, and it feels like I can't get it to hold still so I can click on it.

Thanks, Beth.

Why do you ladies like it?

I think "shat" sounds pretentious when Americans use it and don't say it myself except for effect.

-- Anonymous, October 20, 1999


Here's a question: what did you think of Spike's monologue at the start of "Angel" last night? I could not stop laughing...

-- Anonymous, October 20, 1999

I met a couple of really nice homeschooled kids last night... How do you feel, in general, about homeschooling? How about in specific?

-- Anonymous, October 21, 1999

Hot button there, Vic. I always felt sorry for the home schooled kids I knew. They either came from very religious families, or they had names like Winter Spryte and ran around naked in the woods with their folks. When previously home-schooled kids transferred into our school, they were always weird and a little clueless. But since they always came from extreme backgrounds, I have no idea what home schooling is like if the parents involved are not outside the norm to begin with.

On the other hand, I have serious problems with the educational system in the U.S., and particularly in California. Not just with the fact that our schools are dangerous, screwed up, and falling apart -- I actually have some serious problems with the whole idea of a public school system where young children are locked inside and told to sit still in desks for six hours a day during the most active time of their lives. (And we wonder why so many of them are on Ritalin? Sheesh.)

Jeremy and I both hated school passionately, and thus hated our childhoods -- since your childhood is school; it's where you spend the majority of your waking hours, and when you're not there you're supposed to be doing homework. We've talked about this, and neither of us has any clue how one successfully raises a home schooled child without the child growing up isolated. (I for one grew up pretty isolated and I went to public school, but that's another issue entirely.) But we also agreed that neither of us could stand the thought of sending our kid to school every day if our kid, like us, didn't want to go, and wasn't learning anything, and was wasting the first 18 years of his or her life being warehoused.

Thus the apalling lack of Jerbeths populating the planet. We aren't going to produce any children if we don't know what to do with them.

-- Anonymous, October 21, 1999


Oh, yeah, Spike's monologue: I missed at least half of it because the half I heard was so funny that I kept trying to get Jeremy to come in and listen to it, while he kept trying to get me to come in and help him make dinner. Thus, neither of us I got to hear it.

I should have slapped him for that.

-- Anonymous, October 21, 1999


I went to school in California, and felt that the first third of each year was a review of the previous year. In the next third, they'd introduce some new stuff (carefully, so as not to shock the delicate sensibilities of the snooty-rich kids in my town (orinda) into complaining to their mommies and daddies that school was too hard), then in the final third they'd kind of coast slowly into summer...

I never understood why I couldn't just read the textbooks, do all the homework, take the tests, and goof off for the rest of the year. Would have taken me a month or two, tops, for most classes (but do bear in mind the above point about slow-pitched classes for snooty rich kids).

Now that I'm living in Minnesota, my kids are going to an Arts Magnet school, which has some terrific arts programs (duh) and not much else. They're in band, and plays, and the World Music Ensemble, and dance, and blah blah blah, but they can't spell worth a darn. They have a couple friends who are homeschooled, and they seem pretty sharp. It's kind of odd if I go home in the middle of the day to get something, and these two kids are out walking their dog while everybody else is in school.

One of the obvious perks of homeschooling: As brett put it once, "Hello? I'm home-schooled? Every day's a snow day for me. Even if there's no snow."

-- Anonymous, October 21, 1999


Bah. You may not like bold hover but it makes tremendous sense from a User Interface perspective - the point is to do something that says, click me! I'm ready to be clicked!

Yay bold hover! Yay bold hover! Ya bold hover!

-- Anonymous, October 21, 1999


You made a comment once, I think, about collecting Depression Glass? If so, any particular pattern? Spikes' monolouge. Couldn't see it *sigh*. I think I'm going into withdrawel.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 1999

Well, I think homeschooling depends on what age group you're talking about. The people I know who've been homeschooled in the 'elementary school' years have been complete social misfits, in a bad way. However, the people I knew who were homeschooled later (especially only high school) seemed just fine, and possibly a little happier. I think kids really need to learn how to deal with other people when they're young, and those who miss that training become spoiled brats. It's certainly possible to avoid that in homeschooling, but it takes a lot more work. Especially if the kids are going to learn to deal with people who aren't like them.
Of course, most of the people I know who went to private school have the same self-centered attitude, and sense of superiority. But some of that might just be being human.
I hated school, I hated childhood, and I hate it even more now that I'm not part of it. I don't think homeschooling is a good answer, though, because very few parents seem to be qualified to walk and chew gum, let alone teach. And we need school to help us learn early that people suck, nobody is going to give you a damn thing, some other people will get what they want no matter what they do, and being nice won't get you anywhere. Better to learn that young than to start dealing with other people when your 16-20 years old and think they're all going to be like your parents.
Bah.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 1999

well, I have three kids and I do homeschool them. They're not social misfits, and they don't run around naked or thump bibles or anything. Plus they can spell & read. They're pretty much normal. Yes, it is harder to get them socialized when younger, but considering homeschooling is so popular these days, there's plenty enough other kids to hang around with, and go places with. Especially when it only takes the morning to get their work done. And most h.s. kids usally wind up ahead for their age.

Now my oldest went to public middle school last year, and the only "social" problem he had was getting along with bullies. go figure. At first, he didn't know how to handle it, but now he ignores them and they mostly don't bother him. And no, we didn't do the "Don't pick on our kid.." thing either.

Once you look deeper into the whole thing, especially when its your own kids, you'll find that the social aspects are only a small portion of the whole issue.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 1999


Unfortunately, elementary school is the time when schools are most likely to decide that your child is defective because he can't sit still and pay attention for six hours, and recommend drugs to make him a good little zombie.

I agree that public school is where you (ought to) learn that you're not any better than anyone else. Of course, in Sacramento at least, schools are pretty divided in terms of affluence these days, so I'm not sure how well that works out.

I'm also not sure that the social misfit phenomenon comes from missing out on public school, or if comes from the fact that many people who home school their kids are social misfits themselves. I'm not sure what happens if a more "normal" person home schools. (I hate using "normal" and "misfit" in this context, but it's early and I haven't had my coffee so my vocabulary is a little limited. Or maybe we can blame my public school education.)

I have read articles about home schooling that suggested organized sports and day care as good opportunities for social interaction for kids who aren't going to school, and I know that some home schoolers (primarily those with religious motivations) do send their kids to a type of private school for at least part of the day. Of course, the latter puts the kid into a closed environment where they do learn that the whole world is just like their parents (or that the whole world is evil, take your pick).

I don't know what I'd do if I had a child, frankly. I know I'd definitely put the kid in preschool and watch how things go. Jeremy assures me that if I have a child with him he's likely to be a spastic ADD brat who will hate school, hate his classmates and loathe his teachers, and not learn a thing in school until his ninth year in college. Or, as I prefer to think of it, a kid who learns by doing and by figuring out why a particular answer is correct, and not by sitting still and listening to someone who's not as smart as he is tell him to memorize stuff he doesn't care about. If we were to have a child like that, I don't think I could live with myself if I stuck him in public school.

As for spending time with other kids, it almost seems like there's too much of that these days. When I worked at a day care center, some of the kids were with us from six a.m. (or earlier -- that's when I got to work, but we opened at five) until nearly eight o'clock at night, including school. (It was a day care center and a private school.) I always wondered what that did to the kids who, like me, preferred to spend a lot of time alone. (I also wondered why anyone would bother to have children if they were only going to see them on weekends and just before bedtime, but I suppose that's a rude question.)

-- Anonymous, October 22, 1999


Oops. I was writing my post when Andrea posted hers. Just wanted to clarify that what I wrote was not written in reaction to her post, or else it sounds like I'm calling her a freak or something. Actually it sounds like we now have our example of a non-fringe person (is that better than misfit?) homeschooling. Thanks, Andrea.



-- Anonymous, October 22, 1999


Well, we are religious people, but not bible thumpers. We're reasonably mainstream non-misfit people (no comment on the freak thing) and we're homeschooling our kids, and have started with our oldest (4 yrs. old) because she's already reading independently.

Everyone worries about socialisation, but for me that's not a concern. My kids have been socialised from an early age through Mommy & Me, Gymboree, playgroups, Kidsarts, and (alas and alack!) preschool soccer league. (Which is, I think, an unfettered evil, but I zipped my lip in hopes that it will be a learning experience or something.)

As they get older, they will be involved in the activities provided by our local homeschool association, which offers organised classes in music and art, labs, field trips, advanced science and math opportunities that some parents don't feel comfortable tackling on their own (I'm not teaching calculus!) sports, social events and other things that homeschooled kids may otherwise not get a chance to participate in. There are currently about 300 families (most with at least 2 kids) in the association and it is growing every year. I don't think that they're going to miss out on interaction at all.

And most importantly, they are going to be taught in order to learn, not in order to get good scores on standardised tests. They are also going to be given the opportunity to learn to think, and not just learn by rote and parrot back facts in order to satisfy the requirements of an educational system that is broken from the bottom to the top. (Apologies to teachers who may be reading, I don't think that you're the problem, you're just stuck in the middle.)

-- Anonymous, October 22, 1999


Oops. Left out depression glass. I don't actually collect it. Jeremy's grandmother has given me some glass that I think is depression glass -- I am clueless about these things, but I've seen identical or nearly identical items in antique stores, labeled as depression glass. So I don't collect any pattern, but I have some candlesticks and a sugar bowl and a really gorgeous creamer (which I use as a vase for small flowers -- it's probably my favorite piece) and some bud vases and stemmed glasses. I think some or all of that is depression glass. Whatever it is, it's beautiful.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 1999

I know a couple of homeschooled kids here in Sacramento, and it's not for religion or racism, it's because of the schools. The social times are with other homeschooled kids.

There was that family in Boonville who were homeschooled and all went to Harvard. I especially approved because the dad then got involved with the public school board in order to make the public schools into the kind he could have sent his boys to.

And, locally, a fifth grade father is trying to get Del Paso Heights School District up to snuff. He pulled his fifth-grader because once he started school this year, he started falling back, but has kept his second-grade son in school. The system the DPHSD is using has been trained in the primary grades, but not the upper grades, and the 5th grade had an intern teacher. "Here, you don't know how to teach yet, take this class and learn."

The dad says, and I agree, that poverty is no excuse for a poor education. I'm especially interested in this at the moment because I'm also dealing with this district, though a different school. And there, the socialization could be negative, in fact. The school I'm dealing with is attempting to say it's a college-prep school, but when the big open house has more staff than parents, how serious are the classmates? Your own kid could be interested in learning till the peers teach him otherwise. My kids went to private schools in high school, and special programs in the public schools before that, but if this hadn't been available, or if we'd lived in something like DPHSD (the lowest scoring in the Sac area), I'd have home-schooled in a heartbeat. San Juan is a pretty-good district. I was glad that the Sac City bonds passed. Now that the board has stopped acting like a comedy routine, and there's a decent supervisor, it's time to fix the schools themselves. Grant School District, however, is still rehearsing for the circus. What I've seen of their feeder Del Paso Heights district is pretty good, but they need a lot of help. Homeschoolers aren't willing to sacrifice their own children while they wait. As long as they also work for improvements for all, good for them.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 1999


Depression glass. Just curious, as my mother and I both collect. If you're interested, there are some very informative sites on the net. If there is any etchworking on a piece, check under elegant glass. Fostoria is a good place to start for stemware.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 1999

Okay, here's a question: How many inappropriate emails do we think Beth got because of the paper-bag picture?

-- Anonymous, October 22, 1999

i was not homeschooled. i spent 12 miserable years in public school, ditching class, not turning in busy work, and hating it. the most i learned in my high school career was when i worked in a public library for two years and read voraciously. i always had. just never what they wanted me to. i slept in class, i wrote in my journal in class, i even went so far as to blatantly read other subject matter in class.

and had my mother let me take college classes in high school, like some of my friends, and hang around at home reading about british history and any novel i could get my hands on, i'd have been a hell of a lot happier.

my two cents. the home schooled kids i know here at carleton are smarter than the rest of us. plus, most of them seem to be better versed in dealing with adults, whatever that's worth.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 1999


I am so with aggie on this one. I hated school so much that I'm actually nervous about starting college (let me put it this way, I'm two and a half years out of high school, and I still haven't started college). I'm afraid it will be another huge waste of time, with general ed. courses that I can't test out of (due to local policy) that consume many hours that I'll never be able to get back.

Which is why I'm looking into distance education, at least for the gen. ed. req'ts.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 1999


Hehe, I'm a freak in my own way, you just don't know me well enough. :-)

I'll also echo what Dreama says, except I'm a little burnt out from the whole experience to sound full of ideals, even if most were realized. I've been doing this for 5 or 6 years, plus a bunch of other things. I'm just glad my kids can laugh at my mistakes. Now I tell them we're not saving for college, we're saving for therapy.

I grew up in a day-care and grandparents homes myself... tons of stories there!

Plus I'd love to be able to "make-up" my own curriculum for the kids. Damn, it was fun teaching them to read, tho'.... nothing like it.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 1999


If I had kids, I'd homeschool them. The more I hear from friends who do have kids, the more amazed I am at how bad the schools are.

I don't think the social stuff matters much, but I'm probably a misfit myself. I also know a lot of people who actually have done this, and their kids are great, by and large. These are Berkeley hippies, mostly, not religious people.

My partner totally disagrees, so it's good that neither of us want children.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 1999


I didn't even realise the paper-bag picture _was_ Beth. If I had, I certainly would have paid closer attention.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 1999

I'm sure the homeschooled kids I knew thought they had no problem with public school once they went there, aside from dealing with mean kids. But I had some problems with them. They didn't know how to function in a classroom, such things as the raising of hands were completely foreign to them. They weren't used to studying things they didn't like. But they didn't know it was a problem. They were also complete jerks, but that may have been unrelated (and probably was, since pretty much every high school aged kid should be locked up until they get over themselves).

I've found a big difference between people who take their kids out of school because they had problems with it, and those who never try it in the first place because they just _know_ it would be awful. I have little tolerance for those who pull their kids out of school so they won't have to hear things that disagree with the parents religious beliefs. I also have little tolerance for those who do so because everybody knows those public school kids are so awful.

(Side note: I may just be bitter because my parents refused to let me homeschool for the last few years in high school. Or rather, said I could if I wanted to bankrupt the family by making my mother quit her job.)

When I have kids, I probably will homeschool them, but I would give the public school a chance first. My kids probably will get fed up with it eventually, but it might take a few years. All kids are different, and one might flourish where another would flounder. I know I had a better school experience than Jeremy, but not _really_ different (same schools, different time). And I keep thinking of one family, four children: the first homeschooled the end of high school, the second graduated, the third left at 16 and did the GED, and the fourth seems on track to graduate also. And they all are okay. There's no one right way, even if it's in one family.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 1999


I didn't get a single inappropriate e-mail. Even half naked, I just don't inspire slavering lust. Maybe especially half naked.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 1999

Which half? ...just had to be inappropriate...

Sunshyn

-- Anonymous, October 22, 1999


Are we still asking questions here or should I wait for a better opportunity? Obviously not so here goes:

Does anyone know what happened to Lara of the Laraverse? She stopped in fall 1997--hey, maybe she's our hostess, Beth, who started in fall 1997--although her site, froghouse.org, was active for a while. She even had a moving journal this past winter, December '98 to May '99, while she and Dave moved from MT to NH. After the presumable move, froghouse.org disappeared. Does anyone even remember her besides me?

And you know, I just checked. There is something there, so maybe one day there'll be more. Like an email address.

-- Anonymous, October 29, 1999

Oh, and I meant to say that I think Beth denied that last month's index page picture was her. Denial of cleavage, I believe. Maybe I misremember. If it was you, Beth, where'd the hair come from?

-- Anonymous, October 29, 1999

Lara was before my time, so nope, I don't know where she wound up. The only reason I've ever heard of her was that someone told me you were her, Lisa. But I take it you're not.

As for the other question, I intended to take the secret to my grave that the photo was me. However, I'm wearing the same wig and bustier as part of my vampire slut costume, and I knew I'd probably want to post pictures. So I outed my own self.

And there's the answer re the hair -- a big poofy itchy wig. In real life, it's auburn and comes nearly down to my ass. How do people go through life with long curly hair? How in the hell do you drive with no peripheral vision?

-- Anonymous, October 29, 1999


hairclips.

-- Anonymous, October 29, 1999

Darn you, Ashley! Why couldn't you have said: "hairPINS", thus enabling me to make a dumb comment to the effect of: "They're especially good for those sharp turns!" I have been thwarted.

-- Anonymous, October 29, 1999

Really? Someone told you that Lara was I? That's very cool. I loved Lara. We have/d similar neuroses. I described her in my Other Journals I Read page as "the journaler most like me for reasons I cannot support since her archives are gone" and I wonder if that's what you remember? But I hope it wasn't. I would be so pleased if someone else spotted the similarity.

When did you start reading on-line journals, Beth? I'm curious--it's part of my compulsion (which might be all mine and not one I share with Lara) to know how people met and their connections and somehow for me there's an aspect of that of how long elapses between discovery of OLJs, and whose, and starting one yourself.



-- Anonymous, November 03, 1999

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