going to school

I'm maybe ten pages past the introduction now.  He is talking about different views of racial equality, Tocqueville racial realism which said it will never happen, then there is Washington Carver who thought it was up to blacks to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, and then there was this guy Dubois from around 1910 who thought whites should give blacks a helping hand, and that blacks should fight to get what that they want.

I remember Dubois Clubs from around the fifties.  I am not sure of what they were exactly but I recall them being thought of as radical.  I remember Nixon once saying that they called themselves Dubois Clubs so that people would confuse them with Boys Clubs and wouldn't realize how radical they were.

You're right it is very academic and tough reading.  It takes a lot of concentration, and seems to be making a lot of points that seem overly abstract.  I would advise skipping the introduction.  The history of racial relations is an interesting subject, so that will be something to learn, but the authors are taking their maddeningly slow ponderous way getting through it.  It reads like only one of them did the actual writing, I wonder which one?  Did you ever hear of the other guy?

I've been to school a lot since I graduated U of I in 1969.  From 1979 to 1981 I went to Parkland,=- the community college in Champaign.  I took a two year certificate program in data processing which eventually led to me getting a computer job in Austin Texas in 1985, and then my fat state of Illinois job in 1987.  It was my climb out of minimum wage jobs.

While in Austin I took four programming courses at their community college.  I was hoping that they would advance my career but they never had any effect.  But programming is nerd fun so I rather enjoyed them.

In 2002 I paid an arm and a leg to go to a private college, National Louis, to get a masters degree and a certificate in education.  When I was in regular college we used to snicker at education students, and now I understand why.  I used to have this theory of college where it was four years of bullshit and if you finished it that was proof that you could put up with a lot of bullshit, and since most jobs were a bunch of bullshit, it would help you get a job.  That was a little extreme for regular college but it is pretty close to being on the beam for education school.

Since then I have taken a lot of continuing ed courses and credit courses.  The problem with credit courses is that they waste a lot of time making you take tests, and sometimes they seem to get in the way of actually learning things.  Most of the stuff I know about art, science, and history I have gotten from reading books.  The bad thing about books is sometimes i drift in and out of them, and afterwards I don't remember as much as I think I should.  Seems like if I was forced to take tests or write papers I would remember more, not that I want to do either of those.

I took a trip to Prague around 2000, and that was way cool, but I haven't been out of the country since then.  Every summer I take five or so trips to visit friends.  While I'm there I like to visit places in the city where they live.  I have a couple friends who I almost never get out of their house when I visit them and that bugs me.  Taking these trips to visit the banks has been a lot of fun because of stuff we run into along the way.  Half the fun of the trip is the things you run into along the way. 

You ought to get out more, just for the hell of it, just for a four or five day trip, but then I guess it is your life.