There was an article recently in Mother Jones that listed teacher pay in 300 municipalities, including Olympia. For at least a couple of easily identified reasons, the article makes teacher pay seem higher than it is. Basically, they neglect to mention that our district, like most others I believe, has a disproportionate number of teacher at the maximum end of the pay scale because they are nearing retirement (many having delayed retirement because of the recession); also, they do not account for pay cuts that have occurred.

I'm glad to have had public school teachers who gave me the tools to see through skewed numbers to the real story, and am sorry they were not paid better for dealing with punks like me.

The full post, with links to the Mother Jones article and data, appears at Mojourner Truth.

I've been a card-carrying KAOS member since not too long after moving to Olympia, and have always been happy. They're in the Spring membership drive as we speak, asking you to join.

Maybe you are listening right now. After all, KAOS was voted Olympia's favorite radio station recently in the Weekly Volcano's Best of Olympia issue. Our diverse community interests have voices on KAOS. News uncensored by corporate establishment, music from the vast stretches of time and space, programming from all over the world and from native voices. Along with other community's stations doing their thing, they are part of a fragile patchwork that is not just a refuge from corporate radio and national public networks, but a crucial bulwark for freedom and democracy. Maybe that last part sounds hyperbolic, but consider that one of the first things that oppressive despots do, even in this age of the internet, is to seize the airwaves. If you are listening to KAOS, you are listening to independence and freedom.

Because they don't take advertising money (not even veiled as the frequent sponsor endorsements you'll hear on many public stations), KAOS depends on its listeners. Volunteers do just about all the work, but operations are not free. I don;t pretend to know all the costs, but I know they exist.

Lately I see my blog posts re-appearing on olyblog. I am too apathetic and tech-impaired to know how or why this has happened, but it saddens me that the internet gods cannot transmogrify the photos that went with the original posts. (Recently, something was removed on the basis of a writer not allowing photos to be used, or somethign like that, but mine are public domain, and as freee as anything else on the web.) On the other hand, the archaeologist in me understands that as time goes by, pieces weather away. Eventually, all that will be left of the original blog will be snippets and palimpsests, terms like "slime mold" and "pro crastinator."

There's a button somewhere around here that will link you to the Mojourner Truth blog, but admit it, you don't feel like looking. You want to be there now, seeing what's happening in one Oly garden, complete with photos.

Where there are humans, so there are rats. So much so that rat DNA has been used to track Polynesian migrations across the Pacific, but that's another story. Here in Olympia, the people who deal with the rat invasion say that there's been a population boom on the past decade. So much so that resepctable people even admit to having had rats in their houses. Egad

Here's a rat status report from the Eastside http://mojourner.blogspot.com/2011/06/ratified-treaty.html, which contains links to prior episodes in the saga.

Sweet dreams, Smith, W., 6079.

Somewhere not far from where you sit, the native blackberries are growing like mad. So are the Himalayan invaders, but the native ones are there too, crawling along the ground. People who know them like them--better flavor and smaller seeds than the aliens--but in general they're thought to be too small to be worth the effort. But, make a little effort NOW, and you will be eating big juicy berries LATER. Find a patch, spend a few minutes tending it, and have tea today, and a purple fistfull of flavor later.

I posted about this in more detail at my blog, but thought it might be good to link through here where someone may actually see it.

http://mojourner.blogspot.com/2011/05/i-was-gonna-write-about-tending-to-wild.html

Happy Harvest,

Mojourner

A collection of entries about backroad travel in Washington. One is fake. HYou'll figure it out.

http://mojourner.blogspot.com/search/label/backroad

Hi yall,

I've been blogging for a while, but not here. Lately I've been getting some hits on the procession and slime mold, two great topics that taste great together. The link here should get you to some of the Procession entries at Mojourner Truth, where my blog blather normally resides. Some are observations, but most are fakelore and gonzo ramblings.

http://mojourner.blogspot.com/search/label/Procession%20of%20the%20Species