30.52
Last summer, Miss W’s grandparents had some tree work done. Everyone thought this wedge of wood looked like a watermelon, so girlie brought it home. This weekend we finally got around to painting it. Turned out pretty good, don’t you think?

Such a goof ball.

29.52
I think this might be the only vertical photo in this entire project. Interesting.

I was inducted into Phi Kappa Phi today. Apparently this is kind of a big deal.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day.

28.52
~Fragile Things, Neil Gaiman

27.52
~Ben Franklin

Every day a new article is posted about some absolutely absurd occurrence in a public school somewhere. Student expelled for gun shaped Pop-Tart. Student suspended for gun shaped piece of paper.  Student subjected to psych eval for talking about a Hello Kitty bubble gun. It’s appalling.

And this goes back to what I said in Random this week about our acquiescence. Stop taking it. Right now. Stop allowing these absurd things to happen. Stop allowing your schools to up-grade under performing students’ GPAs. Stop allowing your schools to expel or suspend children because they’ve used their imaginations. Stop allowing your schools to fool you into medicating your children. Stop acquiescing.

Every time I see a new article about the absurdity labeled “public education” I am more convinced that making the decision to homeschool Miss W was absolutely the best possible decision I have ever made for her. At home and out in the world she is actually learning, and is free from the steady, not so subtle, indoctrination of a world firmly rooted in fantasy where everyone is “friends”, everyone gets a trophy, and most terrifying of all, everyone is conditioned to acquiesce to mediocrity.

Harrison Bergeron and benevolent dictatorship are not things I will ever teach my child to aspire to.

(And to think I was just going to tell you about our Saturday of learning about electronics and beginning germination of Venus Fly Traps and Sundews.  Go figure.)

26.52
You should really read The Yellow Birds.  It is tragic and beautiful and heartbreaking poetry masquerading as a novel.

25.52
My little punkin belly is 9!  *sniff* Before her party she said “I hope I don’t get many gifts, I already have so much!”  It kills me how grown up she’s becoming.  She had a great party with her friends, where she didn’t get too much stuff, and then we piled all the kids in the Jeeps to go see Escape From Planet Earth (which was not as painful as anticipated, but the Mister did doze off.  At least he didn’t snore).  She opened presents from the Mister and me separately, and got exactly what she wanted (a Smash Book – it’s like scrapbooking for the punk rock art student in you).  It’s been a pretty wonderful weekend on the Compound.

24.52
walter has changed so much since he came to stay with us.  he’s fat now.  and he lets us pet him and scratch his head.  he “fist bumps” us with his skull.  he thinks the porch belongs to him.  he also thinks he should be allowed in the house with the dog.  as soon as spring arrives and the ground thaws, we’re going to have to build him a pen.  but we’ll get him another goat to keep him company.

23.52
The perfect birthday gift for my favorite almost 9 year old?  A writing workshop with her favorite author of all time, Johnathan Rand.  She met him at a book signing two years ago at this same indie book store in town, but this was an afternoon of epic epicness, as she says.  She was so thrilled.

And Johnathan Rand is the nicest guy.  I chatted with him for a bit before the workshop.  He’s from northern lower MI, so of course we compared snow falls.

Miss W got to be his assistant for a few activities, which she loved.  At one point he gave them a paragraph and told them to continue the story.  He had a couple people read theirs aloud.  When he heard Miss W’s he had her stand up and read it again so the whole place could hear it, he liked it so much.  He thought it was a fantastic example of writing a complete story in just a few sentences.  I told her they sometimes call that “sudden fiction” or “minute fiction”.

At the end he gave them all signed posters and a book of American Chillers Word Searches.  Miss W got her favorite book, Dangerous Dolls of Delaware, signed, along with a couple of other things.

Not bad for a snowy Sunday afternoon.

Dangerous Dolls of Delaware

Rand chatting with Miss W before they got started. She made him laugh a few times.

Book Bug art

Waiting in line to get more things signed.

That’s pretty much complete happiness right there, people.

22.52
~Raw With Love, Charles Bukowski

Not the nicest human being ever, but he wrote some really fantastic poetry.  The first time I encountered Bukowski was my freshman year of college at Michigan State.  A pretentious young man with a beard, intent on getting into my pants, loaned me a book.  No, it didn’t work, if you’re wondering.  And Bukowski, from everything I’ve heard, was a huge misogynist.

Not so many years later, Johnette Napolitano, having taken a break from Concrete Blonde to form Pretty & Twisted, put Bukowski’s Singing is Fire to music.  It is one of my favorite songs to this day.

I never did watch Barfly though.

21.52
~Tell the Wolves I’m Home, Carol Rifka Brunt

Another excellent book, by the way.  I highly recommend it.

It feels weird to add a self portrait to this project.  I don’t know.

It’s very very cold here today.