Busy, Distracted & Disgusted

So, I was supposed to try to write something here everyday but I didn't. This last week was busy, busy, busy. The in-laws made it back just fine. I'm glad they're back, their dogs were about to drive me crazy. They'd like to inform the world that buying a SIM card from Wind in Italy is a rip-off. In fact, I think that most of Italy is a black market of underworld shenanigans. Is that accurate? I don't know, I'm tired and not thinking all that clearly, but I do love Italy anyway. And why am I (mentally & emotionally) tired? Some of my students this semester are thick headed, you can explain something to them that the average person ought to understand at first glance and they look at me like I have three heads. You can demonstrate something and in three seconds they don't remember where I told them to click. Are they all on Statins or something? I bring that up because on the radio this evening on the way home, the news came on, and they were announcing how great it was that more Americans could be on Statins now, since they've lowered the threshold for acceptable cholesterol. Never mind that cholesterol is important for brain function and cell wall stability, or that statins are associated with muscle degeneration and transient global amnesia, and also with Alzheimers, but never mind that! We're going to save everyone from the dreaded heart disease, even if it means turning everyone in the country into stupid, sickly people. Ever seen the movie Idiocracy? Yeah, um, when I first saw that, I thought it was absurd, but now, now I'm not so sure that that isn't where we're going.

I'm tired, teaching wears me the hell out, especially when I have to repeat myself like a broken record because people are incapable of taking notes. Don't get me wrong, I like teaching. That is, I like teaching when I have students who look like they have half their act together and pretend to care. I saw the other day something about free college tuition for community colleges, where anyone and everyone can go for free. Yeah, then community college education can be as good as our free public high school education. I'll let you take that one to it's logical conclusion. Eventually, I figure that a college degree will be about as worthwhile as a high school one, because gosh darn-it don'tchya know everyone gets a trophy and everyone can do anything they want. Bull hockey sticks. Some people shouldn't be in college, it's not for them, and they're pushed into it anyway, and then they wind up tens or even a hundred thousand dollars in debt and not even a degree to show for it because they couldn't make it through the program. And if they do make it through the program, they find that they're not cut out for whatever it was they studied, because the real world doesn't give a flying fuck what piece of paper you have, if you can't take a shower, show up for work on time, and meet deadlines. And the little darlings, starting in grade school, are lied to, and told that if only they have a piece of paper everything will work out for them. Hard work, work ethic, and responsibility are not the words du jour.

I'm going to take a shower and go to bed before I tell you how I really feel.

Daylight savings time... ugh!

I hate it when they change the time. Even though it's only an hour, it throws me completely off. As if that wasn't enough, I had just gotten everything cleaned up from the dogs, fed them, and made breakfast when my sister-in-law called me to tell me that there was a break in the water line up at the pump house. So we were without water for most of the afternoon. Luckily, my brother-in-law knows how to fix a pipe, and he got to work on it and after a trip to the hardware store got it fixed up (in the rain no less). It hasn't rained much in forever, and it rains today. It never fails that every time the in-laws go to Venice, something goes wrong.

At breakfast I read an article in the paper about how terrible it is that poor people have to pay more for college than rich people. I call shenanigans. That and I wonder what people are thinking when they have no money and go to a private school to get a degree they could have gotten at a State school. I wouldn't know anything about that /snark. To be fair though, when I got my degree, one could not get a degree in animation just anywhere. The choices were limited. Now however, they are not. Plenty of public universities offer degrees in animation/3d imaging/etc. And it's sheer stupidity to go to a private school when you are poor, unless you are getting the majority of it paid for in aid/grants that don't have to be paid back. IT'S STUPID. And I should know.

I forgot to write here the last couple of days because I've had my nose stuck in ancestry.com. I probably shouldn't have, but it's Spring break, so I signed up for a month of access. I have an interest in genealogy and every once in a while take another stab at where I left off. The only problem is, the more you research, the more people wind up in your tree, and the more work it takes to get back another generation. It's all exponential after all.

 I only had a little freelance today, and no school this week, so back to genealogy... maybe I should look at getting paid to research stuff LOL

The Real World: Not a fun place for the Unprepared

I have a hard time understanding the unmotivated and careless. It frustrates me to no end. I myself am very motivated, almost to the point of being cutthroat at times (I have to restrain myself). I also care about what I'm interested in. The same can't be said of some. They stumble through life, not bothering to assess whether what they are doing is working or not. They're quick to blame others for their own mistakes, and as a result, learn nothing.

Then there's the other extreme, the ones who are so focused on their own thing, that they won't follow simple instructions. You're bothering them with your instructions. Did I mention that I teach college? I'm just a part-time adjunct, but I love teaching, it's really a fun exercise (on occasion it may seem in futility). There are always students who I just want to take by the shoulders and shake them like they do in the old movies and ask them if they understand how the decisions they are making now are going to wind up ruining the rest of their lives. Or maybe not ruining per se, but rather making their futures limited and incredibly difficult. I couldn't do that though. It's no longer socially acceptable to tell people the truth.

At any rate, if you desire to be an artist, you should avoid student loans. They are a burden. "The borrower is slave to the lender," which coincidentally, wasn't coined yesterday despite the looming student loan debt crisis in this country. It's from the Bible (Prov. 22:7). Even people from thousands of years ago understood that debt was bad, even if they did think the earth was quite flat. You have a whole generation of people now who don't understand the correlation between their situation and their outstanding debts. They wonder where all their money goes (to the banks), and they wonder why the can't get ahead (quit making stupid decisions). It's easy to be a starving artist when you don't have Sallie Mae breathing down your neck. But try waiting tables with private art school debt hanging over your head (or any other kind of debt for that matter). If you have no debt, the conversation becomes completely different.

Speaking of the Bible, I think some of my student are offended at the religion that makes up the majority of traditional art. I wonder if they understand that for painters a long time ago, it was the church paying the artists' bills and putting food on the table. I don't know what they're doing in high schools nowadays, but most of my students have never heard of many of the old artists whose work hangs in museums around the world. In the twelve years that they spend in grade school funded by the taxpayer, their education didn't even include bothering to mention Degas, Renoir or Monet or anyone else of note. They've only heard of Michelangelo, Raphael, Donatello and Leonardo because of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. How can one aspire to be an artist without having studied art? Some are obviously not even interested in the field they're supposedly trying to enter. I suppose I could understand that if there was money involved, however, the stereotype of the starving artist is a stereotype for a reason. Either you love art, or what are you doing in it?

It's okay to not know what you want to do with your life. It's an entire other thing to go into thousands of dollars in debt and not know why you're doing it. If you need to find yourself, it's much cheaper to backpack in Europe than pay for college. You might also see the paintings of some famous artists while you're there.

Life in the early 21st century

Once when I was backpacking in Europe (which doesn't happen often enough because I'm not rich), while in Venice, Italy, a fellow traveler at the hostel we were staying at, saw me writing in a journal.  She asked me if I kept a journal as a matter of course. I looked at her as though she had three heads, and I told her, 'no.' She asked me why not, and I replied that I was only keeping a journal during my trip because honestly, nothing interesting ever happened at home that was worth making note of.

As of late, I've rather changed my mind on the matter.

I'm an artist, specifically a medical animator. I work freelance from home, I like writing, and am trying to finish a novel that I'd like to see published. I'm married (he's an artist too) and we have a black lab named Sammy who likes to lay right behind my desk chair (which is where he is right now).

We're trying to get out of debt. Private art college will put you fairly deep in the hole (ask me another time about how stupid that was). I'm not much of the gambling sort, but I suppose we might have beat the house for once. We'll see how our hand plays out in the long run.

I'm allergic to dairy and to soy. It really kinda sucks. I can't eat regular chocolate, and pastries are off limits. As is cheese, butter, cream, sour cream, etc., and a whole host of other food stuffs. My husband is gluten intolerant, it causes him digestive problems and his excema to break out. We're quite a pair when we go out to eat (which doesn't happen often since we're trying to get out of debt). If I ever get back to France, it will be a sad day when I peer into the Patisserie and can't buy anything except a plain baguette.

I've tried to learn Spanish, French, German, Italian and Japanese. I'm very good at English, but not so much at any other language. A smile and a hand gesture will go a long way though.  I'm planning on going backpacking in Scotland in a couple of years, and at least most of them speak English there. Well, sorta. 

I despise liars (and therefore most politicians) and do not belong to any political party. If you're a Democrat, I'll probably make you mad at some point. If you're a Republican, the same applies to you. It's my blog though, so if you don't like it, get over it or move along.

I have this insane notion that all people are created equal, that you determine the outcome of your life, that we should all mind our own business, and that we have plenty of laws on the books as it is and we don't need any more.

Here it is, The Life of (and if you're wondering, my initials look like 'pi' when written quickly). Honestly, it fits, as I can be fairly irrational sometimes.