This is unschooling

Things I have learned this weekend, most of which I already sort of knew:

• The Olympics kind of wreak horrors on their host cities. Most of these horrors are rooted from debt. :(
• Killing yourself shouldn't be a possibility in sports. At least, not a likely possibility.*
• Push ups are no fun. Especially when broken up by running laps. (Wait, I knew that already)
• Boys are weird.
• Opening bands basically exist to suck, thus making the feature performance seem that much better as highlighted by The Ultimate Power Duo.**
• Marianas Trench is amazing.
• Throwing your bra onstage is not an acceptable thing to do.
• It should be required to brush your teeth and apply deodorant before entering a tightly packed mass of teenagers.
• Mosh pitts are uncomfortable but a somewhat necessary life experience.
• That penguin thing with the huddling? Yeah, it works really well.
• Concerts performed where the audience can see the stars are much more enjoyable than concerts inside of doors.
• Cheesy popcorn is good. Or I should say, it can be good.

Something I'm kind of wrestling with this week is schools. I do not know why it's surfaced now when my mom has been saying something to this effect my entire life, but it has. So I will tell you: Schools teach you to think a certain way. They instill protocol and order. It's a mold. Standardized testing is one example. But true education teaches you to think for yourself. And the only way to learn to think for yourself is to practice. So I've been practicing.

Q: What did you learn this week?

*I'm not sure if you heard about this, seeing as how I'm still not sure how the Olympics are affecting people outside of this immediate area, but a luger from Georgia (the country, not the state) died during a training run the day before the Olympic opening. On the news, they're saying it was because of a mistake that HE made that resulted in his death (he flew off his sled and into a pole). At first that kind of makes sense, but when you think about it, isn't it weird that physicists and engineers OKed this track, knowing that one slight error could have athletes in mortal peril? And we're blaming it on that athlete? Yeah, fuck that.

**Who, by the way, have three people in it. What kind of duo has three people? That was not rhetorical. The answer is a bad duo whose idea of lyrics is one sentence repeated over and over to a guitar riff. Also, a song about Count Chocula has potential, but you guys squandered it. Thanks for that.