Tag Archives: education

First things first – this here bloggy crossed the 10,000 visitor mark. And for that.. I thank you all.. especially you 10 or so who visit multiple times in a day to check on today’s conversations. I really enjoy those conversations… so again.. thank you everyone!

It’s been quite some time since I wrote a post after midnight, in the beginning of autumn I became a morning blogger, and I really don’t know how much it has changed my writing… but I do believe we are different people, in the morning vs. at night… right? I think up great schemes when I’m in the shower, most of my blog posts are developed while applying shampoo. (Kiss my Face imported from Trader Joes!)

Enough of the small talk. This morning.. bright and early at the break-a-break-a dawn, I’m hopping on the international train with the big B on its engine. Destination: Brussels. Objective: A down-home St. Nicholas weekend with my Portuguese-Belgian cousins and godson. I’ve been racking my brains all week trying to figure out what to buy the kids, ages 10 and 5. I stress about this because I’m determined to buy gifts with purpose, but I also try to listen to BitchPhD and her xmas strategy.

I’m the guy who spends hours in that tiny section they call “education toys.” What a nightmare, here in Amsterdam. The only thing I learned from seeing the educational toy section is that there isn’t much education to go around. Worse was when I ventured over to the “educational multimedia” section, where every title seemed to say DISNEY on it. I don’t necessarily have a problem with Disney, but don’t tell me that’s your educational software section!

The thing that haunts me is the roles we assign children early on. You hear the conversations all the time:

Cousin: What's little bm into

BM's Mom: Oh you know, he loves drawing

-Cut to BM receiving enough art supplies 

to arm the entire American military. 

 And suddenly he's the artistic one in the family. 

So I’m guilty of this as well… one cousin likes electricty and science, the other seems to like art and creative-do-it-yourself stuff. So sure enough, I get them stuff related. Poor kids… imagine the day where they wake up and just say… “you know what… from now on.. I like backgammon. Skrew this science stuff.”

You have no idea how often I looked at guitars today and thought “I’ll be him one.. and then get him lessons… and a gig.. and a band.. and a record deal.. ooooh man it’s gonna be a great life.”

What’s my point? I dunno.. poor kids… they have to deal with morons like me who start assigning them their careers based on a little interest.

Today’s Sounds: Joseph Arthur – (Something Indy.. I don’t remember.)

The dutch waitress with the cleavage revealing shirt returned to our table with a single glass of a golden liquid none of us had ordered. She leaned over slowly to give anyone interested a show, and placed the glass securely in front of NoCoins. She said in her cute dutch accent: “Since it’s your last night in Amsterdam, this is sort-of typical dutch and compliments of the house.” The man, my friend since the early days of high school, gave her a huge smile and thanked her for her kindness. We ordered some snacks, and sat there doing a combination of reminiscing and deep reflection on human relationships. Viola, the last night in Amsterdam for two of my favorite people.

Part of what keeps me connected to folks like this, and people scattered around the world, is of course blogging. I think most of us know that we are a community here, made up of writers, readers, critics, fans, or simply browsers, who pop-in randomly. Part of the beauty and richness of such a community is that it is completely open to anyone who is interested. You may decide not to comment, but you’re still part of it, you’re a reader and you’re forming opinions in your head, regardless if you share them or not. This creates a unique bond, blog readers and writers, because we know each other without knowing each other, and regardless of if nothing here is true, or not. Beyond that, through posts and comments, arguments and discussions, agreements and disagreements, we form new opinions or re-enforce old ones, collectively – so-to-speak.

Why the hell am I dwelling on this point, you’re wondering? Perhaps because next week I shall meet with an important someone from the Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis about my forever pending PhD plan. More likely, it’s because I was thinking about Mathemagenic’s paper/post on weblogs like buildings in a city, and communities emerging between the buildings, in the public spaces that aren’t clearly defined.

Keeping with that metaphor, and in the spirit of lameness, I’d like to think of myself sitting on the stoops of my blog, chatting with the neighborhood wiseman Brian, or with the girl-next-door the deconstructionist. And then there are the new neighbors on the block, like WinterofDiscontent or HelpyChalk, who might come over for a barbecue and chat about politics or parenthood. If it was a really good night, professor B and xTx might walk over from their blog-buildings and join us. Later we would all toast to Colin Powell for packing up his white vials of powder, and exiting stage left, along with his pathetic colleagues in Energy, Education, and Commerce. Come to think of it, there would be more bloggers than I can possibly list here hangin out on the front stoops. Still… I can see it now, my own shiny, happy, sim-blog-city.

Today’s Sounds: The Shins – Chutes too Narrow

Singing: “LET THE EEEEEEEEAGLES FLYYYYY.” Let me echo the sentiments all around the blogosphere, pack your shit and get out Johnny boy, and don’t let the revolving door of cabinet positions smack you in the ass on the way out. Who knows friends, maybe Bush Part Deux will be a kinder and gentler administration………………. FOR ME TO POOP ON!

Big things lie on the horizon for bicyclemark. Join me on a quick preview, won’t you?

In less than two months I will be with my nephew… the A-REN… and together we will eat with bibs on, make funny baby sounds, and play with educational toys so that I might finally learn something.

There is more, but who could top those three beautiful things? Plus, did you know teens don’t read newspapers? I know my cousin akindofirony does, but apparently she’s an exception. I looked at the statistics of what media teens spend their time with and decided to do my own life breakdown based on their categories. I encourage you to do the same in the comments.:

Watch TV: Around 1 hour per day.

Listened to music on the radio: 1 hour per day

Listened to music on CDs/MP3s: 6/7 hours per day.

Used the Web: an insane amount of hours per day.

Played computer games: nah… too busy surfing the net.

Read a book for pleasure: 30 minutes of my day.

Read a magazine: They still exist?

Read a newspaper: 45 minutes of my offline day.

Read a comic book: You mean a graphic novel?

I think the categories suck. You could (and I do) spend hours on the net reading newspapers, listening to the radio, playing games, and YES reading graphic novels. Something tells me Gallop is too damn old fashioned to be surveying teens.

Today’s Sounds: Rush – Vapor Trails (Yes I sometimes listen to Rush!)

Only four more days and I’m moving back to my old apartment (pictured in the background of this blog). What’s more, I’m returning to the land of ADSL high speed net. I’ve enjoyed being, and will always be a Wi-Fi guy. But its moments like right now, where I could do without the clang-clang of bottles and loud Greek phoneconversations going on behind me. People also tend to come and sit with my while I’d working on my laptop, apparently this pose screams “come sit with me and ask for emotional counseling.” Of course I love chatting with anyone and everyone, so I’m as much to blame. I just want my privacy back and wi-fi does not afford enough of it.

My quote of the week comes from my darling Blondy But Brilliant, phone rings this morning and the highlight of the conversation went like this:

BM: “So how was the rest of the party last night?”

BBB: “Oh it was… yeah.. fun.. we went to the Brazilian bar after.”

BM: “Oh.. wednesday night.. thats salsa night!” (remembering my former career as a salsa dancer)

BBB: “Yeah? uhhh Maybe thats what I was dancing.”

That for me says it all… it’s going to be one FUN September around here.

Onto more important issues, prior to the festivities the conversation was about blog ethics. The whole idea that by blogging you might get in trouble for some of your opinions, especially in terms of career, if a potential employer doesn’t like your blog. I remember when the Sarcastic Journalist was fired for her blog. (plenty of others too.) Basically our conclusion was simple, we blog from the heart as well as the brain, and we’ve no intention to censor ourselves, no matter what the risk. Of course blogging could be a risk, just like speaking up for yourself can be. But we’re quite aware of that, and I suspect we enjoy the danger. On the contrary, self-censoring our blogs would be fucking awful.

The Dean of the international school came up to me recently and said the following:

“Hey… over the weekend I browsed through your blog, and I must say – I enjoyed it.”

Could this mean I’m getting big in the international education world? Deans of the world get ready! Either way, big thanks for that compliment sir.

Oh I need some company.. someone to come see Taking Back Sunday and Coheed and Cambria with me at the Melkweg on Sunday. Actually I’m not as excited to see them as I am to see my boy Fej who’s tour managing for them. My childhood bud from waaaaay back.. coming to Amsterdam. Yeeehaw.

Today’s Music: Taking Back Sunday – (Cause they’re arriving Sunday in NL)