The online journal, notebook and playground of HFM

Indiana Girl sues school over prom tux denial

I so shocked by this that I can’t believe it. I’m giving the school a call later today to tell them what I think, because I can’t imagine how on earth this principal dares to do such a thing. The audacity. You have GOT to be kidding me about this. There is no way in 2009 that such a thing should happen. And good for that girl to sue them – way to go, kid! Way to go. That reminds me, I need to send in my ICLU membership money.

Hey, look there at the staff of the schools administration – Check out the women wearing suits to work! Get those off, ladies, you have to wear elegant prom dresses similar to these two piece prom dresses now!

From the Indy Star:

A 17-year-old Boone County girl has sued Lebanon Schools after her high school principal told her she could not wear a tuxedo to the school’s April 25 prom but would have to wear a dress.

The Lebanon High School senior, whose name is not revealed in the lawsuit, is a lesbian and does not wear dresses because she sees them as expressing a sexual identity that she does not embrace, court filings said.

Her attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana has asked a federal court to issue an injunction that would require the school to let her wear the same formal attire to the prom as male students at the school.

In the filing, ACLU of Indiana legal director Ken Falk argued that the district’s policy violates the stipulations in the U.S. Constitution that the government treat a female student the same as male students and not limit students’ freedom to express beliefs.

Continue ReadingIndiana Girl sues school over prom tux denial

New Urbanism – Study at home

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  • Post category:Brain Food

Cordelia at the Phenomenal Field proposes a home study course in New Urbanism, based on recommended reading over at the Where blog.

I’ll sign up for this home study course – this has been a subject burgeoning at the base of my brain for awhile. I’ve had Jane Jacob’s book (The Death and Life of Great American Cities) on my wish list for some time. I need an excuse to pull that trigger, and the others on the list sound great as well:

2. The Option of Urbanism by Christopher Leinberger (2007).

3. The Geography of Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler (1993).

4. Cities Back from the Edge by Roberta Gratz, with Norman Mintz (1998).

5. How Cities Work by Alex Marshall (2000).

I have at hand already A Pattern Language, and another book that has been languishing on my shelf for several years “Cities in Civilization” by Peter Hall – focusing on cities that have had created “golden ages” of influential cultural creativity – think Florence in 1400-1500, or Paris in 1870-1910, and examining what was unique about those urban settings that created the crucible for that dynamic creativeness.

And as a resident of an old urban neighborhood, I’m particularly interested in this title:

The Old Neighborhood: What We Lost in the Great Suburban Migration, 1966-1999 by Ray Suarez.

I always get good ideas from Cordelia; this reading list and subject is another. And I have a cool new blog – Where – to add to my feed reader.

Continue ReadingNew Urbanism – Study at home

links for 2009-03-10

  • Paperprop
    A site to view some images used to produce Theatre.
    (tags: theater props movies)
  • Smart Growth Redevelopment District Partnership
    Sustainable Design Assessment Team assistance will work with stakeholders to explore a model redevelopment district on the near-north side of Indianapolis centered at 22nd Street and the Monon Trail.
    (tags: indianapolis realestate local)
Continue Readinglinks for 2009-03-10

Life Shuffle

Having been tagged by Cordelia, I cheerfully submit my answers to this meme.
The Instructions:

1. Put your music player on shuffle.
2. Press forward for each question.
3. Use the song title as the answer to the question even if it doesn’t make sense. NO CHEATING!
(I’m going to break the rules right away, and use my entire iTunes library, which currently stands at 23,056 songs. We’ll see what that gets me.)
1. How do you feel today? Can’t Get Used to Losing You (Andy Williams)
2. Will you get far in life? Barbara Bush Quote – the underprivileged are better off
3. How do your friends see you? The Lottery (Alex North)
4. Where will you get married? Rhythm is a Dancer (Snap!)
5. What is my best friend’s theme song? Stoppin’ Traffic/Party at Erics! (Kid Koala & Herbaliser
6. If someone says, “Is this ok?”, you say: Body (Hurra Torpedo)
7. What would best describe your personality? I Never Changed (The Exploited)
8. What do you like in a girl/guy? You and Me (The Cranberries)
9. What is your life’s purpose? Tamburitza Linga (Ani DiFranco)
10. What is your motto? Bad Mouth (Fugazi)
11. What do you think about often? Rabbit in Your Headlights (U.N.K.L.E.)
12. What is your life story? Thuggish Ruggish Bone (Bone Thugs ‘N’ Harmony)
13. What do you want to be when you grow up? worked up so sexual/Death Cab Mix (The Faint)
14. What do you think when you see a person you like? Oce Moj (Sinan Sakic)
15. What will they play at your funeral? Midnight Rider (Gregg Allman)
16. What is your biggest secret? The Undertones (Teenage Kicks)
17. What do you think of your friends? Xylophone (The Magnetic Fields)
18 What’s the worst that could happen? Come Away with Me (Norah Jones)
19. How will you die? Lion (Sandra Bezic)
20. What is the one thing you regret? Sit on my Face (Monty Python)
21. What makes you laugh? I Hope (Dixie Chicks)
22. What makes you cry? All Things Dull and Ugly (Monty Python)
23. Who is your secret admirer? Pool Shark (Sublime)
24. If you could go back in time, what would you change? Carcass (Siouxsie & The Banshees)
25. What hurts right now? Mistake No. 3 (Culture Club)

———————
Death by lion? I guess that sounds about right. And I have no comment about number 20.

Continue ReadingLife Shuffle

All good things…

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  • Post category:Journal

So it’s Friday, and my last full day of vacation. It’s interesting to me that I spent so long feeling like I was missing some sort of creative outlet, but when I had a bunch of free time, I didn’t sit down and start a creative project, but instead did a hundred little projects around the house that needed to be done. But in those hundred things, I gave myself the time and space unimpeded by a schedule to be creative – to toy with different solutions, to figure out the best way to do it, to add the flourish that made it look just right.

Most of the time I spend working on the house was actually spent doing interior design – rethinking our living spaces and how we use them; relocating and creating the white space and margins and breathing room around our clutter, learning what looked best where and breaking down assumptions of what our creative spaces should be around the house. Prompted by our friend Lisa, I did a bit of reading in my tattered old copy of A Pattern Language that helped me do some of that assumption breaking about rooms and their uses and what makes us feel good about the space we live in.

All that about living space aside… the fact that I went from being an extremely unhappy person to being an extremely happy person in the space of a week has a lot of implications.

I’m much more creative and get far more work done (an extraordinary amount of work done) when I don’t have schedules and deadlines. I work better in an unstructured environment than a structured one. I knew that on some level because I’ve always resisted day planners and life organizers and Getting Things Done type schemes and wreckage of a thousand failed attempts at those all around. That I clearly need to throw away.

How I can reconcile that with my highly (over) structured job, I don’t know. I work there five days a week, and spend the next two days trying to recover from the brutality of it. So I never have time to do that unstructured, free-form play/work around the house, especially when we have weekend social events and friends that box in my only free time into schedules and “go here!” “go there!” blocks of time. I’ve turned into an anti-social person over the last few years as a result – not because I don’t love my friends, but because I don’t love my job, and scheduling time is too much like a job.

I want to quit my job and become an artist. But then, who doesn’t? And if I did, we wouldn’t be able to keep everything that we have. So, I guess Monday I go back to work.

Continue ReadingAll good things…

A little of this, a little of that

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  • Post category:Journal

It’s Thursday, and I have yet to do a real non-link related blog post, despite the fact that I’ve been off work all week. So what the hell have I been doing all this time? De-stressing. And it’s been fantastic.

I’ve spent the whole time without any agenda. Well, that’s actually not true; I had several ideas — I was going to have a reading vacation, and a writing vacation — but I didn’t get to them. Instead I’ve just puttered around doing a bit of reading, a bit of writing, a bit of blog reading, and some cleaning and home repair. I’ve just followed my nose wherever it lead, and I’ve accomplished a huge number of small tasks that have been nagging at me for a long time, but without any actual stress involved. It’s been lovely. I wish I could do this all day, every day.

I started out the week somewhat hampered – I’m having another bout of diverticulitis, and it’s put a crimp in my plans to take the D-O-G for a W-A-L-K every day. I’ve been taking antibiotics and hoping it’s not a serious problem, but knowing that it probably is and I probably need to go in to the doctor. I just really want to avoid the hospital. I’m pretty much done with those. Whether I need them or not.

Now it’s Thursday. I’m not sure what I’ll get up today. I’ve been toying with the idea of going to Ikea and getting some of the furniture we need. It’s only two hours. Seems like fun.

Continue ReadingA little of this, a little of that