but I guess we had one today.

Well, considering that I’m feeling a bit better, I figured it was time to venture out again. Met up with some friends at Produce Row, and had a few pints. True evidence that I’m ill: none of the beer tasted good…I ended up with pear cider after failing with MacTarnahan’s (not a favorite) and TG IPA (up top), as well as (note to Emma) a sample of Full Sail Equinox.

beerdrinker’s been lamed with illness. That’s kept me from posting much due to lack of interesting thoughts. On the up and up now though, so I should be back on track.

Howard Dean is quite serious in his bid for the presidency. I am so pleased with what I’ve seen before, and now he’s written an article at Common Dreams explicitly stating his strong disapproval of Bush’s foreign policy. This is fantastic. It’s nice to see the combination editorial/campaign speech style in his words. It’s not just a complaint, it’s an offering up of a solution, written passionately, but with the reserve needed to win a broad support base.

Googlin around for info on the No Child Left Behind Act, I came across an interesting caveat mentioned by Mother Jones. If a military body requests a school for student contact information, they must furnish it. This is a huge violation of rights. While I was not significantly harrassed by recruiters, I know people who were, and these people would not stop…phone calls everyday, mailings, and now probably mass emailings. And what is next?

Not extraordinary news to stand out among the atrocities, but I noticed that West Linn-Wilsonville School district is making a good decision and even handling it well in disallowing students tranferring to other schools outside their area. The good part is that they are letting next year’s seniors finish with their current school. This decision will save the district hundreds of thousands of dollars and is a good example of positive changes that are available to help with the current budget crisis.

Go Tim! A nice speech in which he lays out several of the issues with protesting the war and the manner in which the current administration has impeded dissent, without once using the word protest.

This fancy bloggin software lets me use a more tag. Expect that more. For your bloggy pleasure you’ll have less scrollbar mileage to get to the bottom of the page and find what you think you’re looking for.

Had to add a new section to the blogroll over there for Phillip Greenspun. He was one of my earlier internet heroes (though losing points for embracing .NET) more for his outspoken views and concepts on usability and community-driven web sites than for the ArsDigita (now RedHat property…blech) software itself. Expect quality, though sometimes wordy and egotistical, opinions and banter.

This is a good little post about the work lives we are forcing on our teachers. Illustration of the huge inequities abounding for them, and the hurdles they need to overcome to do their job, one which might be considered important. I witnessed this in my own student teaching (I later decided that teachers are treated too badly here to actually get a job as one), with many teachers being moved from room to room, not having a home, nowhere to have a preparation period. Believe me, preparing classes and grading papers takes time, and that’s not even doing things like setting aside time to talk to kids in an effort to get through to them and pay attention to special needs. It is truly difficult to foster a positive learning environment like this. Teachers need props. The room is more than just a place with a ceiling and places to sit and write. It is a place for visual aids to be setup. For personalities to be expressed. To keep your lunch. My heart goes out to teachers.