So today was not my best day teaching--the kids were off, I was behind schedule and flustered, I should have been clearer or much less clear, as we were doing histograms, and that's rather deep bullshit. I am beginning to see the limits of my progressive model, at least as long as I want an active and young life, somehow. The Latina crowd was rolling their eyes at me more than usual, but at least my students are respectfully honest enough to write me in their journals that (a) I should tell them more answers (b) I am boring (c) They hate writing journals, because isn't this math class anyway? And yet, they do it without question. And yet I am supposed to build critical insightful citizens? Hrmph.

So I was tired today but Rob Chin managed to drag me out to Kenka yet again, which was rather odd to say the least, on a schoolnight, but I have been relatively diligent, desiring to leave today only because thanks to the internet I had confirmation of the doorstep delivery of my hakama by insurgent DHL, which is now dutifully drip-drying in the living room, dangling by a broomstick between two bar stools as if it were some pre-Peking duck. The five folds, by the way, stand for trustworthiness, love, harmony, filial piety, and fidelity. Though perhaps those are half-translations of much deeper ideas, and indeed, they vary. Kanji apparently now veers toward the simplified, which I am rather scornful of.

Oh, oil is headed for $50 a barrel, which means it's time to buy! I really don't know what I'm doing, but it sure beats consumerism!