So, this week has been a bit of a roller coaster in terms of personal health; Had a couple of good days with the sinuses and the throat, enough that I felt like I might be turning the corner. Then yesterday happened, and I started up that cycle of better/relapse that gets me two steps forward one step back for the next couple of weeks. I skipped dance class last night, in part so I could go to sleep early and not share my germs, and in part because the big feis is coming up in a couple of weeks, and a lot of focus in class right now is about getting the competing teams up to snuff, and when that’s happening, I’m kind of just in the way. No worries, I’m doing it for fun and to share an experience with the family is all.

I need to be somewhat fresh for the weekend at any rate -Saturday we’re heading out to SBC to get the kid off campus for a bit and see the school’s production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, which she has a bunch of friends in and has been working backstage stuff as part of her technical theater class.

Oh yeah, in the morning, I’ll probably try to catch a bunch of dratinis for Pokemon Go community day, but whatever.

anyway…

I’ve not gone ridiculously political in this space all that often lately, though the general responses to the Parkland Shooting from the current Presidential administration have really, really rubbed me the wrong way. From the crib notes on how to appear to have empathy* (especially troubling, given the description of Obama’s comforting families after another shooting floating around social media that I can’t find this morning) to the big headline in the last twenty four hours about the proposed solution to arm teachers(!), my outrage meter has kind of been pegged. That second thing, which is probably the worst idea in this administration’s huge inventory of bad ideas, and I say this as a former (failed? yeah) teacher myself, really is tone-deaf. First, no situation has ever been calmed down by the introduction of a firearm, and secondly (as a friend of a friend wrote this week), teachers have enough on their plates these days, and lack the resources, time, and support to do them.

This stuff’s got to change; it’s gotten to the point that the responses are rote on both sides. Shortly after the shooting happened, I got a comment on this website from my dear convention friend Paula on this post, and it struck me that it was entirely appropriate for Parkland, although it was written about the incident a few months ago in Sutherland Springs.

Things may, however, be changing. Paula’s comment was about the kids from Parkland rising up, not being quiet, and might be the spark that changes things. Gotta say, I’m really impressed with the action these kids are taking; I really hope they do change things.

and with that, music. Not a bad mix this time. Little heavy on indie and classic rock, but I’ll take it.

1. “Once In A Lifetime” – Talking Heads
2. “Black Ice” – Kitten Forever
3. “Don’t Dream It’s Over” – Crowded House
4. “Talking Backwards” – Real Estate
5. “Interstate Love Song” – Stone Temple Pilots
6. “Flourescent Adolescent” – Arctic Monkeys
7. “Lord of the Blacksmiths” – Falconer
8. “Armageddon It” – Def Leppard
9. “Us and Them” – Pink Floyd
10. “So Much Trouble” – Jethro Tull
11. “Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin” – Young Presidents

* – This one irked me enough that I went ahead and wrote song fifteen of fourteen about it for #FAWM. Might as well make some lemonade.