Ever since I was a kid I've admired Weird Al Yankovic. I don't actually listen to his music since it's not really my style, but have an immense appreciation for his talent. It's not easy to make whip-smart parodies, and he's very good at it. Today just seeing the title "Another One Rides the Bus" put a smile on my face.

Back in 6th grade there was a teacher in my middle school that everyone said was gay. Of course, kids at that age used the term disparagingly for anyone they might not like. Did we even really have an genuine understanding of what the term meant? While the man was a decent teacher, he had a somewhat snarky and intimidating personality. Yesterday I learned that he died in 2008 at the age of 75, and in his obituary was a reference to his "lifelong friend and partner, [male name]."

Had we, as children, picked up on something? Today, with 20+ additional years of life experience I can look back and see that there were probably some indicators, but is there even such thing as "gaydar" among 11-year-olds? In 1986? Or did someone have some inside information and the rumor simply spread? We'll never know, but I found this really interesting.

Homeschooling seems to be extremely popular nowadays. Working in a library, I see the direct evidence on a daily basis because homeschooling parents rely heavily on library books to support and augment their curricula. It doesn't seem so long ago that the perception of home-schooled children was one of oddness. The parents were perceived as somewhat eccentric and the children socially isolated. The trend seems to have now increased in popularity to involve families of all kinds.

It seems to me that there are two primary motives for homeschooling -- either to provide a better education than the parent thinks the child would receive in school, or to prevent the child from receiving information that normally would be included in a public school education. As a parent concerned about the quality of the public education system in this country, I can now understand the tug of the former. What is scary, however, is the seemingly astronomical increase in the number of parents who are now home schooling for religious reasons. They do not wish their children to be exposed to facts and concepts that directly conflict with their religious beliefs, and as a result these children are going to grow up lacking any kind of critical thinking skills. As a mother who hopes to fill my daughter's head with as much and varied information as possible, all I can think of is what a very unfortunate disservice these parents are doing to their children and their children's futures in the 21st century.

The homeschooling phenomenon also causes me to wonder what kind of standards are in place to ensure that parents are actually quality teachers themselves? Is it ethical for a parent who did not do well in school herself to decide to homeschool her kids, knowing that the knowledge and understanding she would be able to impart will be subpar? I honestly don't think I am cut out to be a teacher, so I think it's best to leave that to someone for whom it is a true calling. There will always be a small number of people in society who are simply meant to be educators -- they have the gift. I doubt that the current enormous number of home schooling parents all happen to be in that select group.

Since I'm apparently 8 1/2 years old at its creation, my best guess is that this is a poster completed at the beginning of the 4th grade school year or at the end of the 3rd grade year. My birthday is in December so it could go either way, but this kind of seems more like the type of project kids would do at the beginning of the school year.

At this time, I guess I wanted to be a post office worker when I grew up. Only a year later (as I read another of my essays) I had gravitated toward being an archaeologist or someone working with computers.

For me, the best part is the listing of things I don't like: Pickles, balloons and thieves (including a drawing of a thief with requisite black eye mask!).

My dad recently unearthed an old manila folder at his house containing some essays and stories I'd written in school during 4th and 5th grades. I think I'll eventually scan them (some have accompanying drawings), but I thought for fun I'd transcribe them here too, spelling, punctuation and grammar unchanged.


This morning, when I looked out the window, I saw a donkey. It was making noises like "HEE HAW" very loud. Then it ran down the hill and did donkey-kicks all the way. Then it stopped and looked around to see if anyone was watching. It didn't see me, but I could see it. It kept on going until the next block. Then it came back. I came out into the yard, and it saw me and ran. I went back in and it came back. I sneaked outside and got upon its back without it seeing me until I was on it. Then it went "HEE HAW" and kicked, but then I fell off and the donkey ran away.
LIZ & JULIA


Here's another drawing which doesn't seem to have a story to go along with it. It's a scene from nearly every day during the summers of my childhood. Our dock is on the left, the neighborhood raft is in the middle, and my friend Kari's dock is on the right. I have never been very good at drawing, but I like the focus on detail -- not only are there tires along the dock where the boats are moored, but there are red and blue reflectors on the swimming raft.

Is anyone else's journal being bombarded by spam comments? This is getting ridiculous...

I happened to notice these two DVD covers at work one day:



The similarities are amusing with the yellow-orange background and wide-eyed innocence.

There's a relatively new magazine being printed called "BBC Knowledge," and we have a subscription at the library beginning with the Jan/Feb 2010 issue. It caught my eye because it seems to be right up my alley, containing interesting articles on nature, science and history -- great for reading material while on breaks at work. Some go in depth while others are just did-you-know?-type tidbits, and it's also visually appealing. My complaint? I have never encountered a magazine so poorly edited! There are lots and lots of spelling and grammatical errors that should have been caught by a proofreader. Kind of disappointing to see in something professionally published, and by a name as big as the BBC. Yes, I am a bit of a language freak, but I will continue reading anyway while grinding my teeth.

Since becoming a mother I've noticed that my reaction to babies and hearing about babies has changed in a curious way. It's not surprising that hearing a baby's cry would trigger a response of wanting to comfort and calm the baby (even if it's not my own). What's also interesting is that simply reading a story or newspaper article about something awful that happened to a baby triggers a feeling of panic in me. I'm guessing the panic is stemming from the idea that something so terrible could also happen to my baby. It makes sense, but it feels strange because it wasn't my baby.