more silly

think there's something in the water? hmm, down here in pittsboro maybe i shouldn't joke about that ;)










































these are actually pictures we took in the apple store, playing with the camera features on a fancy new mac. ha.

i can't stay out of it

washington post editorial today that expresses, as closely as anything printed ever will, my thoughts about the private vs. public school debate. i call it a debate: i'm not sure any researchers or think-tankers are really out there arguing over which is better. it's more of a philosophical debate in many parents' heads and in my own mind, as an education policy person but more importantly as a future-parent-probably.

Admist the Duke lacrosse scandal, the newspapers and coffee klatches were abuzz with stories about privileged white kids run amok. Many of these kids came from some of the Washington area's top private schools. Even if no crime occurred, this story seemed to confirm all of my gut-level fears about private schools: They breed a sense of entitlement and superiority; private-school kids believe they're not held to the same standards as the rest of the masses; it might just turn my kids into people I don't really like.

I know these fears aren't entirely rational. Certainly most kids who attend private schools would not send horrifying e-mail messages or hire a stripper and hurl racial epithets at her, as the Duke lacrosse players reportedly did (and no one is denying these particular aspects of the story). I have friends and relatives who went to private schools and even more who send their children to private schools now. Both of my parents went to private schools, and neither ever could have been accused of feeling superior.

But I've also seen the flip side. One friend said her daughter's few private-school years were filled with kids who knew their parents' money would buy them out of any situation, with kids who talk to any adult with the same irreverent tone they used on each other, kids who thought the regular rules just didn't apply to them.

whether you go to private school or not, you can come out a good person (or may inevitably end up bad). but what happens to democracy? how do we get to know each other? people who you'll never have an opportunity to dress out with in PE or share math homework with again - but who will, unavoidably, later intersect with your life? how do we learn to view the people we won't live with or next to later in our lives still as people?

i read a lot about the (lack-of) quality inthe public schools, though, in my own town and around the country. while i wouldn't give anything for my public education at good ol' AHS, will i be willing to sacrifice my own kid for my philosophical beliefs?

good thing i don't have to answer right now. it's a big question, tho, and the WaPo re-sparked the thought.

everyone's cute

yessiree!

politics, continued, this time even outside of pittsboro

i don't get to listen to NPR a whole lot these days, since i'm never in my car, and because we don't have a tv either, my main source of news is internet-based newspapers. my limited knowledge about current events (outside of education of course) is a big reason why i don't take a loud position on things like immigration reform. but this article caught my attention today, and i felt something akin to a responsibility to share it. according to the washington post,

A new census report reveals 45% of the nation's children belong to racial or ethnic minorities, with Hispanics representing the largest and fastest-growing minority group.

that's huge. clearly, children born in the united states of immigrant parents aren't going to be directly impacted by our future immigration policies. but statistics like this just put the whole thing in perspective. my fellow white people, we have enjoyed our period of majority in this country. in not very long - within my lifetime - the word "minority" will take on a whole different meaning. as in, us. minorities. then who's going to be deciding our immigration policy? the whole "keep-em-out" mentality just seems so short-sighted. look at who your country is, folks.

i could go on, but i won't...just, had to put this out there...

ticks suck

ginger is taking a biology class at unca this semester (well, technically i guess it's over now! woohoo!) and from her professor she's learned about how prolific ticks are in north carolina. evidently nc has the largest population of ticks in the country, and in nc, chatham county stands out for the highest concentration! eck. (ginger, correct me if i'm wrong here?)

it's been so lovely outside lately we just can't help but walk everywhere we go - and so, inevitably, tracy and i have had some ticks. some people really don't see the problem with this: they're just a version of a spider, really, that inadvertently passes along a couple of weird diseases when it tries to have dinner. i love spiders, tho, and i really really hate ticks. they're just so...leggy. and why do they have to bury their head in your skin? eck.


this sucker lodged himself in my underarm last night, and because tracy's out of town and i couldn't reach it myself, i went knocking on doors to find a friendly (and brave) (and tolerant) neighbor to get it out. i found michelle, who graciously shared a glass of champagne while she cringed and pulled him (actually, her) out. what a relief! so now she's in our freezer (the tick, not michelle), which i learned from my entomologist-grandfather is a good place to keep your prized multi-legged possessions.

another tip i learned recently, that worked last night: don't cover these things in vaseline or light a match or any other crazy thing you've heard all your life. just grab 'em with the tweezers and pull 'til they give up. works. and...yes, that's enough of this. my skin is crawling. on to something much more pleasant.

so if this happens to you, check out this site, and keep the stupid thing for a week or so 'til you know you're not getting sick.

primary results

our candidates won the primary!













these guys (donning white cowboy hats no doubt inspired by the article in the indy) will be our new county commissioners (most likely, anyway - vanderbeck still has to defeat his republican opponent in november). the grassroots work WORKED! and our canvassing was not for naught.

hooray!

a couple of articles about the race and the outcome in the n&O and the herald-sun.

tracy and i celebrated with huge crowd (well, huge for pittsboro) last night at the general store (what would we do without the g.s.??) and as they released the results, we realized: "score!" we moved to the right county for sure. if we had lost, i think we both would have seriously considered our plans to stay in chatham county - our quality of life would have quickly gone down the tubes, not to mention our property values. but with these commissioners, we're feeling so optimistic that this county and our town might really turn into the land we want to call home.

hooray! :)

chatham county makes the front page

the democratic primary is tomorrow, and boy has it been busy in chatham county. the triangle's independent weekly covers it in its front-page story. (check out the cover art - quite fitting!)