FREAKING OUT!!

I'm mostly packed, but not entirely. We only have half the food packed. I keep thinking of a million things I have to do. And I'm FREAKING OUT!! That said, we're taking the over ten hour drive in two days, so the actual day of departure (tomorrow.) won't be quite as tiring. But that still doesn't solve the issue of nothing being packed. AHHHGH. Okay, I've finished freaking out now. Or at least I'm not going to freak out on screen anymore. :-P

I'll make sure to take pictures, I'll try and remember to take LOTS of pictures, and I will have a long post on the trip once I get back and settled in.

"See" you in a bit over a week!

Peace
Idzie

Sickness, sushi, graphic novels, and what's been going on...

Wow. I feel like I haven't blogged in forever! It's less than a week since I last posted, but considering how often I had been posting, it feels like a while...

So, the reason I stopped blogging was that I got a cold on Sunday. And suddenly, everything just seemed like too much effort! I'm still sick and feeling all clogged up, and REALLY hoping this cold will pass before we leave for the Unschooling Winter Water Park gathering on Sunday... I'm getting worried!

I know I was supposed to post a 'week in the life of an unschooler' thing, but I failed at that, since I completely forgot to keep track of what I've been doing! So I'll have to do that some other time...

Yesterday, my mom and I made sushi. And I absolutely love sushi! So I figured I'd chronicle the sushi making in photographs, then post them here!

Sushi rice, which is especially sticky so the roll stays together

This time we used cucumber, jalapeno and spinach seasoned tofu, raw spinach, avocado, and carrots. Only the cuke and tofu are pictured, though.

Nori (seaweed) with the rice spread on it.

The lovely filled rolls.

Lots and lots of delicious vegetarian sushi. Eaten with wasabi paste, soy sauce, and pickled ginger, this is one of my favorite meals!

In other news, I'm reading comics. Which I do not normally do. However, I absolutely LOVE Neil Gaiman's Sandman series. The only reason I even picked it up was that my father had brought home The Absolute Sandman vol 2 from the library, and the large size, weird cover art, and embossed, textured cover that reminded of a bible, drew me in. Of course, all references to religion end there! Or, not really... The stories are extremely eclectic, drawing from world mythology, legends, and biblical stories, and are often extremely interesting. The books often read quite a bit like a collection of separate short stories, although as you continue, the common veins that connect all of the individual story lines become apparent. I love how the only constant character in each individual little tale is Dream of the Endless, the Endless being six siblings who can be more closely compared to the horsemen of the apocalypse than anything else. Dream is such an amazingly cool character. According to Emi, I have a fangirl crush on him, but that is completely untrue. *Shifty eyes* Annnnyway, I'm now nearly done volume 3, and it's really good, although definitely aimed at an adult/mature audience. If reading about/seeing horror, gore, nudity, sex, or stuff like that makes you uncomfortable, then this is not the series for you. That said, it's still a great series!


Oh, and I made a new post on my much neglected trash blog as well.

I'll make sure to post before I leave on Sunday!

Peace,
Idzie

Unschooling writers, I need your help!

I've been asked to collect unschooling articles for the magazine Homeschooling Horizons. It is a homeschooling magazine, not an unschooling one, and leaning toward the more traditional, religious, styles of homeschooling. However, the editor really does want it to be a balanced mix of all different styles of homeschooling, and that's why I'm now looking for at least ten unschooling articles! I really believe that unschooling is amazing, and I love sharing my love of this educational path, so when I was asked to collect unschooling articles, how could I say no? Many parents who are new to homeschooling, or looking at different options for their kids, pick up this magazine, and I think it would be wonderful if they saw some lovely unschooling articles mixed in there!

We're looking to have about a fifty fifty split between articles by children, teens, and adults who are currently unschooling or have unschooled, and parents who are unschooling their children or teens. So, if you'd like to write an article, that would be awesome! And I'd also ask you to please tell your parents/kids/friends, and/or other unschoolers, about this if you think they'd be interested. :-)

I'm hoping to get a mix of articles from both a radical and plain old unschooling perspective. ;-) Since there will be ten articles running, one for each issue, it's important that not all of the articles are introductions to unschooling, although a couple of those would be good. Any angle, perspective, or particular aspect of unschooling is fine! From a certain religious perspective, how you learn(ed) a specific subject, the story of a specific project or unschooling group...

From the Homeschooling Horizons site:

Length: 2 "page" max! Though we would be happy to break your article up into a two part series, we would prefer to keep article lengths to 900-1500 words. Two-Part articles would appear in consecutive issues.

Fresh stuff please! Original unpublished articles preferred, though reprinted works are acceptable as long as they have not appeared within 3 months of distribution of another publication.

Please send the articles straight to me at anarchist.hippie.child@hotmail.com. I may end up using a different email address if the editor prefers that I use a HH one, but for now this one will do! Oh, and I'd prefer if you sent the article in the main body of the email, instead of as an attachment.

Please include the following statement in your e-mail message, and include your name where it says "[your name]"

I, [your name], give Homeschooling Horizons Magazine permission to publish this article (or articles) in Homeschooling Horizons Magazine (print) and on the Homeschooling Horizons Magazine website (online). I offer this article free-of-charge, and understand that I will not get compensation if this article is published, unless other arrangements have been made in writing prior to publication.

When sending in your piece, specify whether you would like your work proofed or edited. We define as:

- proofing-we just point out the problems-you fix them
- editing-we make the changes-you approve before printing

To read the full submission guidelines, most although not all of which apply in this case, check it out here: Homeschooling Horizons submissions info

If you want to send a photo to go with your article, that's great! Just attach it to the email when you send me the articles. Submission info for photo's can be found here.

I'm really excited about this project, and really hoping that I'll actually get submissions! If you have any questions, you can ask them in a comment on this post, or send them to the above email address, however it'll most likely take me longer to respond to the email.

Thanks so much for reading this, and extra thanks if you want to write something! :-D

Peace,
Idzie

100th post, pro-choice, and travel

First off, WOO HOO! This post marks my 100th post for this blog. It seems just yesterday that I reached the 50 post mark!

Secondly, I just read a blog post that states that today is Blog For Choice day. Now, I don't want to blog on the official topic (What is your top pro-choice hope for President Obama and/or the new Congress?), but I figured I would blog about my opinions on the issue. I am pro-choice. Most definitely. If a woman is raped, or even if birth control fails, and she gets pregnant, she has every right to choose whether or not she actually has the baby. Not just for the mother's sake, but also for the baby. I don't think this world needs any more unwanted children. That said, I don't think abortion should be used as a method of birth control either. Birth control was invented for a reason, and should be used! Oh, and I also have a problem with the term "pro-life". I saw a video I really liked on pro-choice stuff, and I really like that he commented that to be truly "pro-life", you also need to be anti-war and vegetarian. I'd add to that, and say to be truly "pro life", you can't own a computer (who's manufacture causes women in Thailand to die of cancer), or use paper products (which kill forests and all those who dwell in them, including non-humans and indigenous peoples), or do any one of the nearly endless list of things we do in this culture that causes death. Say you're anti-abortion, but saying "pro-life" really doesn't work, in my opinion.

In other news, I looked up tons of stuff on travel today. I still have the tourist sites up for Ireland, Scotland, England, Italy, Greece, and France. I also ordered travel guides for British Columbia, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Yukon, and New Mexico. Now I have to wait excitedly until they arrive in the mail! :-D

I haven't really posted pictures on this blog in a while, although I have been updating my photo blog pretty regularly, so I'll post a few that I took today.

Our lovely old Flora, aka Foo Foo, aka Flora Bean

Beautiful Minni, aka Minnikins, aka Minni Minou

Sweet Henry, aka Hempers, aka Hempsicord, aka Henny

The wood stove, burning brightly

Lovable Winston, aka Boo Boo, aka Winduffy, aka Winduffers, aka Windy

Yes, I take too many pictures of my minnikins ♥, but I can't help myself!

And by the way, I'm keeping track (sort of) of the things I'm doing this week, so on Monday I should have a Week in the Life of an Unschooler post up!

Peace,
Idzie

Police. Why oh why do they dislike youth...

So, I don't usually like writing two posts in one day, and I try not too. But while this is still fresh in my mind, I figured I'd post about it. Now, knowing my opinions and all, it probably doesn't surprise you to know that I'm not a huge fan of the police force. And cops have never seemed very big fans of youth. A friend of mine was told not to wear his earphones while walking along the side of the road by a cop. Suspicious looks from every man in uniform are directed at anyone who wears a hoodie and is under 30. And there just generally seems to be a feeling of tension whenever cops and kids are in the same vicinity. But back to the incident that led me to write this post. My sister, three friends, and I were walking to one of our friends houses, when a pretty average car pulled over and said something or other along the lines of 'hey'. Now, I should make it clear that it's not all that uncommon for a car/scooter full of drunk and/or high people to pull over and ask either idiotic questions, or directions to the nearest party, so we usually just ignore them. It's also not uncommon for cars full of extremely high people to whiz past at ridiculous speeds, swerve towards people to scare them (yes, that has seriously happened, and more than once), or honk their horn when right behind people to also scare them. So, we don't like random cars, and ignore them if we can. But for this particular case, we were a bit past the car when the driver yelled "Police!" and switched on the lights so we'd know it was a cop car. So we stopped. "Where are you going?" inquired the driver. I was thinking "None of your business", but luckily didn't say that. Instead, my friend cheerfully informed the cop that we were going to his house. "Are you going to a party?" he further inquired. "Umm, no" was the rather bemused response. I can never get over the stupidity of police. If we were going to a party, would we really tell them? After assuring themselves that we were not going to a party, they drove away. But I remained pissed. I wasn't even sure they were really police at first, as I was furthest from the car and ignoring them at first, thinking they were drunk idiots and all. But the guys assured me they were actually wearing uniforms, so really were what they said they were. Wow. People go on about how free we are, yet men with guns can pull over and ask us where we're going, and we answer for fear of being arrested on some made up charge, as others who are completely innocent have been. That really bothers me. And proves quite clearly to me that we are far from free. *Sighs* And I suppose you could say that they're trying to stop those speeding idiots I mentioned above, but I doubt stopping pedestrians is going to help that. There have never been police around for any of the actually bad stuff that goes on, yet they're right there to intimidate the innocents when we aren't doing anything even remotely "wrong". *Grumbles* But I'll end this, once again, political post before I can rant any more.

Peace,
Idzie

An interesting excert

Thank you for your suggestions to my previous post! I think I'll do 'a week in the life of an unschooler' type thing, following both Michele and Signe's suggestions (well, not the suggestion to talk about Signe, but the unschooling one ;-) ). But for now, I wanted to share this exert, which I very much like. I've written in the past about how misguided I find the whole "Green Living" thing (you can check out my past posts on it here and here), and since this excert says so simply why I dislike the whole "Green" thing, I figured I'd post it too.

"The whole individualist what-you-can-do-to-save-the-earth guilt trip is a myth. We, as individuals, are not creating the crises, and we can't solve them. Take our crazy energy consumption. For the past 15 years the story has been the same every year: individual consumption--residential, by private car, and so on--is never more than about a quarter of all consumption; the vast majority is commercial, industrial, corporate, by agribusiness and government. So, even if we all took up cycling and wood stoves it would have a negligible impact on energy use,global warming and atmospheric pollution. I mean, sure, go ahead and live a responsible environmental life; recycle, compost, ride a push-bike; but do it because it is the right, moral thing to do--not because it's going to save the planet.
If we really want to understand why this happened we have to ask ourselves another question: "Why is it that we seem willing to live with the threat of apocalypse rather than trying to seriously alter a world where consumption, of anything, is seen as unrelieved virtue, production, of anything, is regarded as a social and economic necessity, and more, of anything (like children or cars or chemicals or PhDs or golf courses or recycling centers), is unquestiononly accepted?""

That is by Kirkpatrick Sale. Oops I just made another political post, didn't I? Oh well. So now I shall try and keep track of what I do this week as an unschooler... Just so you know, it'll probably be boring. :-P Most of the the "learning" I do involves thinking, reading, and discussing, which although very fascinating to me, is not so much fun to read about! Oh, and here's a couple of quotes that I've found recently, and loved. They've also been added to my quotes page.

"None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free." Goethe

"The hardest battle in life is to be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing it's best, night and day, to make you like everybody else." E. E. Cummings

I love quotes. :-)

Peace,
Idzie

Ideas for what to blog about...

I never thought I'd say this, but I'm not sure what to blog about! I seem to go in stages. For weeks I'll blog only about day-to-day stuff, only lightly touching on political beliefs/causes. And then all I'll write about is politics for weeks on end! So I'm asking my few readers (I know I don't have many, but you guys keep me writing regularly, so thank you very much :-)), what do you think I should blog about? Keep blogging about political stuff? More photography? Should I talk more about my day-to-day life as an unschooler? Something entirely different? If no one has any ideas or particular preferences, that's cool too. I'll probably think about something I want to write about in a day or two. But if you do have some ideas, that's awesome! Thank a bunch. :-)

Peace,
Idzie

My rather unconventional views...

Check out my YouTube channel if you want.

Peace,
Idzie