Although outbound file-sharing is horridly slow, sharing within the network is boss -- I can grab me an album every 2 minutes. Pshaw pshaw.

I work with elementary school children every Wednesday for my class at this alternative public school. My eyes jiggled when I saw that students were involved in structuring their recesses, investigating where their food comes from, and identifying the bias in a storybook. And the kids are great. Why I do I have to be so goddamn old? All I want to do is hang out with 3rd graders.

One thing around here I have a problem dealing with is the concept of racial identity. The pressure of going to "people of color" (I cringe of that phrase) meetings is something akin to what I felt attending church -- they believe, believe I believe, but I don't. Just because I'm Japanese doesn't mean I think of myself actively as such; I have such little relation to the country and the culture that it's practically foreign to me. I'm void of any racial identity -- living in Hawaii accounts for that. Consequently, I can't understand the permanent stance of offensive that racial unions and alliances imply, knives out and ready to mutilate the offender -- which seems to be anyone white -- at any vague semblance of bias. I can't invalidate personal experiences, possibly living in places with high racial tension, but I think it's reasonable to be optimistic, assuming that people are either sensitive to issues of race, or at least are genuinely interested in being so.