In an attempt to free myself from my self-inflicted prison of boredom, I decided to read a book that I bought awhile ago called Serpents in the Garden : Liaisons with Culture & Sex. It's by The Nation contributor, Alexander Cockburn (who also has a website called Counterpunch ), whose articles I have found interesting in the past. The main reason I bought the book is that it has a list of the top 100 books of the century, and I'm always on the lookout for interesting books. The book itself is pretty good and is divided into 5 subsections: Culture, Music, Art and Architecture, Sex, & Death. The essays are from various sources and most are interesting, a few very much so.

I got a couple books off the list to start with and just finished the first one, Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich. As the title suggest, the main thrust of the essay is to explore what schooling really is and to convince us that it is not only unnecessary, but harmful to society. To be quite honest I am apparently so institutionalized that I had never seriously considered that school could be anything other than benevolent. Sure, there are problems with the way schools are run, with what they teach, and with whom is taught, but with the whole idea of school? Illich starts with the question, how much of what you consider to have learned in your lifetime came directly from school? When I asked myself that question I had to agree that relatively little of what I consider useful knowledge was imparted to me through the institution of school. With this in mind we should consider then what exactly is the role of schools?

Illich believes that schools are primarily indoctrination machines. They teach us how to behave in society. They teach us that learning can only be accomplished through schooling. They teach us to value certificates and degrees above actual practical knowledge.

"Everywhere the hidden curriculum of schooling initiates the citizen to the myth that bureaucracies guided by scientific knowledge are efficient and benevolent. ...[It] instills in the pupil the myth that increased production will provide a better life. ...[It] develops the habit of self-defeating consumption of services and alienating production, the tolerance for institutional dependence, and the recognition of institutional rankings."

Schools are also not available to everyone to the same degree and quality. They serve to keep the gap between rich and poor, learned and unlearned open and ever widening. And once you have school those who have been schooled are ever aware of their privilege, and those without of their lack, schooling keeps everyone locked in their positions while at the same time promising opportunities for advancement.

Schools keep secret (or institutionalized) knowledge secret. No one is allowed to skip ahead of the planned path. No one is free to choose their own path to knowledge, or even which knowledge to seek. Mandatory schooling gives children no choice in their own development. It deprives them of what each of us as humans feel is our right: free will. Why are children dehumanized in this way? Why do we pretend that children of 12 and above are unable to form even the most basic of notions of self-interest? Why is it okay to lock these people up in buildings for eight hours a day without regard to whether they want to be there or not? Maybe our answer nowadays is something like, what else do we do with them?

Illich proposes a system of "learning webs." These are systems in which people who want to learn are paired to people who have the knowledge. He envisions some kind of computer database where users could register skills they have and ones they wish to have and which would spit out contact information for meeting to take place. The book was published in the 70s when this might have seemed somewhat complicated but with the web now I don't see why (e:Paul) couldn't program something himself (this of course disregards the digital divide...). To me, it seems that the hardest part would be the necessary paradigm shift away from authoritarian teaching institutions and empowering certificates. Nowadays you can't walk a dog without some sort of license, everything has become institutionalized, subject to some higher authorities guidance.

Illich acknowledges that with deschooling would come many other changes (in fact he believes it is the most important part of any progressive revolution) in society. In utopian fashion he imagines a world where action is valued over making, where living is a matter of people and not objects. I agree that the world he describes is a better place than the material-oriented place we live today, and it saddens me to see the reality that 30 years of "progress" has had on education and culture in general in America. We are pouring more and more money into an educational system that is failing more and more children. We are placing ever more emphasis on the pieces of paper given those who have the access and patience to sit through years of compulsory and voluntary education. We are even saddling university graduates with unprecedented amounts of loans which ensures their direct entrance into the corporate world.

My thoughts used to run towards a more socialistic kind of school, where it was compulsory to a certain degree, than became a choice (at which level both vocational and liberal arts are offered), but remained a service rendered free of charge from the government. But it would remain an institution in and of itself, which now I question. Does learning need to happen only under professional auspices? Is compulsory education a benefit to society? These are my questions now, and I need a bit more time (and maybe some more reading, the next book on my list is called "Growing up Absurd") for my thoughts to settle.

U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper has ruled that evolution textbooks in Georgia can no longer bear a sticker informing students that evolution is just a theory. In his ruling he stated that the placement and wording of the sticker gave the misleading impression that evolution was merely a "hunch" instead of a scientific theorem which has undergone rigorous tests and proofs. Atheists around the country were overjoyed initially but stunned to hear of the religious right's next step.

"We only wanted to inform children of the non-provability of evolution," said Atlanta city representative, Chris Christiansen, "but now it's all-out war. We would have been happy to stop at evolution, but now we're going to tell students the truth: Jesus can't be proved with science. And since Jesus is truth, science can't define truth."

A whole new round of textbook stickers are being proposed. With even more forceful messages, attacking science in general. Below is an example.

and who woulda thunk it, we found nuttin'.

"The search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has quietly concluded without any evidence of the banned weapons that President Bush cited as justification for going to war, the White House said Wednesday

The Iraq Survey Group, made up of some 1,200 military and intelligence specialists and support staff, spent nearly two years searching military installations, factories and laboratories whose equipment and products might be converted quickly to making weapons."

You mean our president made us go to war under false pretexts? I can't believe it. But, at least, the country is rid of one very evil man [size=s](and thousands and thousands of innocents)[/size].

On another note, the United States Of Europe is making headway on its constitution. The EU Parliament has endorsed the document and now it will be sent to the 25 member-nations for ratification, several by referendums. Personally I can't decide if this whole EU is a good or bad thing. I am glad that it's giving the US another super-power to recon with (one with many positive differences to boot), but I hope that it doesn't end up homogenizing the diverseness that makes the individual countries so great, and hope that the real progressive social movements don't get hog-tied by the corporations that will also have freer reign within the Union.

Yes, a bit strange sounding. You'd be surprised at how yummy cinnamon is in seemingly unsuitable foods, spaghetti sauce for example (the recipe for which I borrowed from (e:Paul) 's nonna). This time it wasn't my intention however. I went to the coop to get some various flours in order to make a gluten-free pot pie. (e:Matthew) was just given a GF recipe book (The Gluten-Free Gourmet Cooks Comfort Foods ) as a gift from one of his employers. It describes how you can combine all these other types of flours in different ways to achieve results similar to cooking with wheat products. Back at the coop, I was disappointed to find that they had not one flour on my list (which included tapioca, potato, and white rice flours). WTF? So the best I could come up with was this pre-mixed GF pancake and waffle mix, whose ingredients were very similar to the flour I was supposed to mix, albeit with a few extras, such as cinnamon and "natural flavors" (which I think are other spices in small doses).

So I got home and went to work. I had to finagle a bit, but then I never can seem to stick to recipes anyways, so I did what I normally do. I let my cook-intuition guide me. I stirred until the batter seemed about the right consistency, added the couple ingredients that were called for but lacking in the packaged mix, and voila! It came out pretty good if a little strange. Everything was about the right consistency (though the crust tasted and felt more like cornbread than pie crust) and the overall effect, once you became used to the salty/sweet synergy, was pretty neat.

Does anyone know where to get these weirdo GF flours? Maybe Wegmans? Or Feel-Rite?

we ((e:matthew) and (e:I)) went to see a movie. It was random. Pretty good. I have a picture as proof.




Now it's Saturday night, and I wonder what's on the menu. Just made some smash-ed potato-es. With garlic, parmesean, rosemary and dill, set to music of course. Tasty, as are many products which strive to utilize as many separate dairy products as possible. I've gotta change my userpic, it's starting to freak me out. So, anyone have any last minute suggestions for an awesome Buff-nite-out? Or in for that matter?

It's been awhile. Except for my erroneous post about the elephant, over two weeks in fact. I've been away from the computer a lot, and been engrossed with house guests and Dragonball Z (I found out I could download all the episodes auf Deutsch). I'm also lost in some new boring state of mind. The new place hasn't helped, in fact, I think the new ultra-comfort level may be making it worse. Why ever leave such a nice cozy space? I'm struggling with all the normal problems. What should I be doing with myself? Should I be doing something with myself at all? What is something? Should it mean something? Open-mindedness can lead you down a bewildering road. I've become so open-minded that I have trouble drawing any kind of conclusions. Especially when it comes to myself.

I always feel that something's got to change. I feel this way almost constantly, and have for years now. But looking back, things have changed. I've moved between places (cities, states, countries, continents), between friends, between different ways of looking at life. I've considered myself a student of math, music, politics, and science. I've tried-out a couple different relationships, and even altered the basic unit of a relationship. And after all that, I'm still looking for something.

The guy sitting behind the couch tells me now that the problem is that I'm trying to alter my environment when what I should be altering is myself. I agree to a certain extent. Maybe I'm set in this pattern of searching for a perfect world that I'm just not ready to find. Maybe I've been sitting in it for years and haven't been able to recognize it for what it is. Maybe. But maybe there really is some other type of experience that is out there waiting for me. I don't believe in destiny, but I do believe in infinity, which means there's always going to be many more experiences out there than I can possibly fit in one lifetime. And it comes back to the decision, which I'm so bad at, making a choice. So I slide along, waiting for things to bump me into new ruts, and never taking the wheel in my own hand.

when you have this:



In Aceh, India the elephants are helping with the relief effort. Wow.

Mexican food is my favorite. I like to eat it all the time. One of my favorite recipes is for tasty chicken enchiladas in a green (verde) sauce. They are tastalicious, and oh-so bad for you. Like all my favorites, it combines just about all types of dairy products: butter, cheese, cream, and you can have sour cream on top!!! Here's a link to the recipe (which I dabble a bit with, so feel free to dabble a bit yourself).



Voila! The finished product! And I can't believe I managed to post the whole thing before diving in.

Five major libraries (The Oxford University library, the New York Public Library and three big US university libraries - Michigan, Stanford and Harvard) have teamed up with Google to make portions (or in some cases, all) of their book collections available online. The idea is to allow Google users to search through the actual page-by-page contents of books when using the Google interface. The service is called Google Print and their web page has an example:

"To use Google Print, just do an ordinary Google search. For example, when you search on "Books about Ecuador Trekking" or "Romeo and Juliet," and we find a book that contains content that matches your search terms, we'll show links to that book at the top of your search results. Click on the book title and you'll see the page of the book that contains your search terms, as well as other information about the book. You can also search for other topics within the book. Click "Buy this Book" and you'll go straight to an online bookstore selling it. If the book was scanned from a library, click the library link to find a local library that has it."

This sounds pretty neat and I think it is about time that we get the books digitized and available to the masses. I'm just wondering what the catch is. According to Google, as long as the book is not copyrighted (which means most "classics" and stuff older than 50-100 years), it will be available in its entirety (which is already being done by a couple different services today: Project Gutenberg Literature.org Bibbliomania ). But there are already a couple sites that are charging for the same services (see Questia which charges $15.00/month, but to be fair also has Scientific journals and other online resources). Even if it's not outright charging for services, but only making users view an ad per page or some other obnoxious device, I'm sure that the now publicly-traded Google has something up its sleeve to please the shareholders. So I just hope that these libraries, for example, haven't given the rights to digitize their libraries solely to Google. Otherwise eventually we'll be left with a company or two controlling all this information, which for the most part should be public. Hmmm, maybe it'll all be fine and I'm a nut though...very possible.

We just got the last disc of one of our favorite Animes yesterday. It's called Fruits Basket (yes, exactly that way, not fruit basket or fruit's basket, but fruits basket, ahhhh...) It is the heart-warming story of Toru Honda who has just lost her mom and starts living with the Soma family, who happen to have a curse placed on them. The curse is that whenever one of them is hugged by a member of the opposite sex they transform into a member of the Chinese Zodiac. It's all very cheesy and just so strange sometimes. I would reccommend it to anyone that likes anime or Japanese culture (maybe that's stretching it). (e:Matthew) loves it too! [inlink]matthew,168[/inlink] [inlink]matthew,169[/inlink]

So this is from an episode we watched a couple nights ago. There's an interlude scene and then this totally unrelated thing happens (though the rice ball itself is a recurring theme).

::DOWNLOAD SOUND::

The song is played as the rice ball moves from right to left across the screen (which reads furutu basuketo, or fruits basket). The lyrics: Sailor suit, sailor suit, a rice ball alien in a sailor suit. WTF, mates!?!

This is Toru's reaction:

::DOWNLOAD SOUND::

God I love the whirly eyes and the teardrop of consternation.

And we finally met the character who has my zodiac animal. Hiro Soma is very smart but confused and irritable. He is very cute, especially when Toru hugs him as punishment for playing a trick on her, and he turns into his zodiac animal.