Listen up, music lovers, because Patriside has posted the new MixMania theme and it’s yet another stroke of his amazing genius.

September 11, 2001. Where were you? What were you doing? Who were you with? Where were you going? Were you at home? At work? On your way to work? Were your children with you, or already at school/daycare?

When you heard the news, what were your first thoughts? Even now, five years later, what do you think of when you are reminded of what happened?

What we want for this MixMania is a soundtrack of your mind, heart, and soul, based on your ‘take’ of 9/11.

This can take many forms, of course. Maybe you’ll pick some music that was popular during that time. Or music you were listening to, or music you made yourself, or music with lyrics about love, and loss, and remembrance. Maybe a mix of patriotic music would be your personal take on this theme. Or a roaring hard rockin’ blood-thumpin’ mix, that makes you stand up and shout. Perhaps a mix of heart-rending sadness is what you hear, when you remember 9/11.

Whatever your personal take, go over to Patriside’s blog and sign up. This could be the biggest turnout yet, and we’ve had some awesome turnouts!

Free music, friends. Sign up now.

And please: if you sign up, it’s a promise. Those who don’t follow through are cheating someone out of their music. Sign up, keep your promise, burn your mix, send it out to your ‘match’ you’ll be given, and watch the mail for your own. It’s a lot of fun, and you’ll get to own some great music that you might not otherwise have ever experienced. Shame on those people who sign up, get their music, and send out nothing themselves. It doesn’t happen very often, but it has happened. We want everyone to play, but we expect everyone to keep their word, too.

There’s nothing in this post that would offend anyone, is there? I mean, nobody’s going to throw a lot of hate-mail and CAPITAL LETTERS at me, are they?

Please don’t.

A little note for those who are throwing the poison darts: if you take the trouble to look in my archives, you will discover that my opinion of most standardized testing is probably lower even than yours is. My opinion of the public school system in general is pretty low, too. We have more in common than you think.

The difference might be that everything I have and think is out on the table and I really don’t care who sees it.

My grandmother was from the hills of Kentucky; she got married at fourteen and spent the rest of her life pushing out and raising children. She never learned to read or write, except for her signature. And she was awesome.

Because of her own childhood, she wanted better things for her own kids. Sending all of them to school was an act almost of defiance against her own parents, who made her stay at home and learn only those things ‘women’ did back then. That all of her children managed to graduate from high school in spite of the terrible poverty of their lives was a source of immense pride both for her and for each child.

My friend Jay, the Zero Boss, summed it up best:

The fact is, my kids have done well both in and out of school. I don’t see one choice as superior to the other, out of context. Homeschooling works because it’s driven by involved, caring parents; kids who excel in public schools usually have the same backing. All the debate in the world won’t solve the Schooling issue, because it’s not about schooling; it’s about shitty parenting.

Thank you, Jay. In my book, you are not the Zero Boss; you are the Infinity Boss.

This blog has not represented “me” very well lately. I think I need to stop focusing on school for a while and start focusing on things that won’t make large groups of probably otherwise very nice people throw big rocks at me.

I can’t agree about the cursive thing, though. I think it’s an art, like any kind of ideas put on paper, and no amount of computer keyboarding can take its place. A person with beautiful handwriting is an artist, and cursive is an art anybody can have if they try.

I do expect a cursive signature on an application or form. Even bad cursive is better than none at all, even in today’s computer age. It’s art. ART.

And no, I do not accept papers written in cursive OR printed out by hand, thankyouverymuch.

Yes, even at MY college.