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(no subject)
Mar. 24th, 2001 09:13 amThe sun is trying to break the rain clouds. I want the sun. It's so annoying that all week the weather is perfect, and then when I don't have to be in class it rains. I could hear the rainin my sleep.
Mar. 24th, 2001
robots and news
Mar. 24th, 2001 06:05 pmRobot Wars is on, and I can't help but think John would love this. He offered to take me to Dallas once to see SRL. These robots are pretty nifty. I want to build one, and terrorize students on campus with it. Heh, I can see it now. Robot chasing startled students across the main mall.
Peter Jennings is the only reason I ever turn on the evening news. He has great taste in ties. Television news makes me irritable more than anything else. It seems here that news is not really news, but some kind of slanted info-tainment. All the networks and cable are guilty. So little real, hard information is presented. It's all wrapped up in fancy graphics, talking heads and pretty packaging. With advertisements in between. Bah. Sometimes it truly scares me that America is full of people who gets their news from the television, and never even think to look beyond that. It's hard to concieve. Maybe because I have the nominal privilege of being white, of being from the lower middle class, of being educated half-way decently. I don't know. But somehow I grew up questioning, always looking for more. I read three newspapers every day, scan the AP online, read magazines and books, go to school and talk. When the Kursk sank I cried in my Russian professor's office while we wondered if the Russian government deliberately let those men die. Some of my friends just looked at me, unable to comprehend why I would care at all, much less care enough to cry for men I never met.
Great, Bobby Knight will be coaching Texas Tech. Sometimes, I am ashamed to be a Texan, when I see how much the state cares about football and high school athletics while the schools can't teach the kids to read. The football player in my AP English class in high school couldn't read. Couldn't read at all. But he was a hell of a football player, so exceptions were made. It doesn't matter how many kids can't read, or that the schools can't hire enough teachers, much less qualified teachers. It's all about the sports. Take a look sometime at the numbers, and see just how terrible Texas public schools really are. Look at those test averages, and then look at the demographics of the neighborhood where that school is located. I went to an upper middle class white high school, and they still hired teachers without checking their criminal history. Should I ever have children of my own, I will not raise them here.
I should stop ranting about things past, things I have no control over. It's grey outside. I would take a walk if the light had stayed with me. Somewhere, I have to find somewhere to go tonight so I don't wind up brooding all night. These are the moments when I wish I could just sleep through it all.
Peter Jennings is the only reason I ever turn on the evening news. He has great taste in ties. Television news makes me irritable more than anything else. It seems here that news is not really news, but some kind of slanted info-tainment. All the networks and cable are guilty. So little real, hard information is presented. It's all wrapped up in fancy graphics, talking heads and pretty packaging. With advertisements in between. Bah. Sometimes it truly scares me that America is full of people who gets their news from the television, and never even think to look beyond that. It's hard to concieve. Maybe because I have the nominal privilege of being white, of being from the lower middle class, of being educated half-way decently. I don't know. But somehow I grew up questioning, always looking for more. I read three newspapers every day, scan the AP online, read magazines and books, go to school and talk. When the Kursk sank I cried in my Russian professor's office while we wondered if the Russian government deliberately let those men die. Some of my friends just looked at me, unable to comprehend why I would care at all, much less care enough to cry for men I never met.
Great, Bobby Knight will be coaching Texas Tech. Sometimes, I am ashamed to be a Texan, when I see how much the state cares about football and high school athletics while the schools can't teach the kids to read. The football player in my AP English class in high school couldn't read. Couldn't read at all. But he was a hell of a football player, so exceptions were made. It doesn't matter how many kids can't read, or that the schools can't hire enough teachers, much less qualified teachers. It's all about the sports. Take a look sometime at the numbers, and see just how terrible Texas public schools really are. Look at those test averages, and then look at the demographics of the neighborhood where that school is located. I went to an upper middle class white high school, and they still hired teachers without checking their criminal history. Should I ever have children of my own, I will not raise them here.
I should stop ranting about things past, things I have no control over. It's grey outside. I would take a walk if the light had stayed with me. Somewhere, I have to find somewhere to go tonight so I don't wind up brooding all night. These are the moments when I wish I could just sleep through it all.
(no subject)
Mar. 24th, 2001 09:37 pmI'm going to sit in the bath and read Plath's The Bell Jar and feel like I will stop having nervous breakdowns every year.