Meandering Wanderings

It's been a heck of a weekend. So much to think about all at once.
First off, one of my best real life friends Dave (a good man, a good friend, and, unfortunately, suffering from Crone's (sp?) Disease, a disease where he can't digest most food well.) is, yet again, stuck in his house. He threw a disc (in his back) out. Poor boy. So I gotta come over to his place soon and cheer him up. I think I'll bring over the Star Wars Monopoly Kit or something. That's always fun :) I know that just my being there will help as this is the same guy who feels that all his friends are leaving him (they're all moving.. getting real jobs, their families are moving, going to school etc.)
Also, I'm going back on a diet. I've stopped walking now that I got a car and I don't need the extra fat/calories. On the other hand, I don't think this will last very long. It never does. As dumb as it sounds, my family DEPENDS on me to eat stuff. For example, my mother loves cake. She'll buy one, bring it home.. and, I'm serious, if I don't eat it, it goes stale. Or my grandmother who, despite the fact that she suggested the diet, will push more food and more desert on my plate until I look sick. I don't eat all that unhealty, not like I used to. I eat candy, but not much. The big problem is that my family goes out ALOT. That stems down to my mother who doesn't believe in cooking.
In short, it doesn't matter how often I come to school with a bag lunch and salad.. It won't make a lick of difference because this is how our family eats.
Don't misunderstood, I'm not angry about dieting. I EAT vegetables and fruit and don't eat candy and pop like I used to. I just think the whole thing is dumb because I know how my family eats and what their habits are and KNOW this won't work. (My grandmother's great quote. When I turned down desert one night because I WAS dieting was "Howard, this won't ruin yer diet". Oh, and THIS was a triple-fudge brownie. Uh... DUH IT WILL! =P They mean well.. on some level. Honestly.
I'm tired. It's too hot. It's bleeding near 90 degrees out. I'm glad I'm in an air conditioned trailer, but it's gonna really hit when I go home.
Question.
Why are the people in charge of educating us (not teachers, per se, but the ones who decided the curriciulum) so stupid? Explain to me why, in a society increasingly dependant on computer, we don't teach computer skills such as how to do research online properly and what sites give better quality information than others. (example.. a site listing peer reviewed journal articles vs. the random meandering of a person). I have a BRILLIANT idea.. cut out the stupid second languages crap and put in Computer Skills.
Also, what the hell is with this movement to get rid of sports and arts in school? In an age where you SHOULD be worried where your kids are, wouldn't it be better to know that they're at school playing football or in choir or practicing for the theatre production of "Annie" instead of on the streets, possibly getting involved with gangs, drugs and guns? I mean... TEACHERS seem to get this.. but the people responsible for the Curriculum who feel they need to balance the budget by cutting back extracurricular activities are, excuse my french, FUCKING IDIOTS!
I know that, as a parent, I'd rather know that my children are doing something constructive with their free time than possibly getting into trouble. Your kid may not be the next Big Thing (tm) in Sports, Music or Drama.. but they're doing something constructive, something (assumedly) they ENJOY and something that's going to make them feel good about themselves. Don't even DARE tell me that a smaller budget is worth cutting that out, cause that's shite.
Oh.. and then there's my dear brother, Marc. He wanted to see Jurassic Park III with the family. OK. We knew what to expect. We knew he'd bother us about SOMETHING. So we agree on a time (saturday - 9:20 PM show). He calls Saturday morning confirming the time. We agreed. He calls again about 2:00.. his friend is back in town, can we get a ticket for him? Now, you need to know my brother. We were pretty sure already we'd never get money from him for HIS ticket.. and at $7 a pop, we're not going to go get *2* tickets we won't get money back for. This all is moot, tho, because by then Josh and I were driving to the theatre with our student passes to get our tickets. We came back, Marc calls up again and we're like.. we already got tickets. Will we go back and get one, he asks. I lied and told him we were cleaning the house (not a total lie.. Josh and Mom WERE. I was.. not :) ). So 8:40 comes.. we head to the theatre.. and there's Marc. He looks like a complete and utter SLOB! He's wearing a stained brown tank top and shorts. He really looks slobby. Oh, and somehow, his two friends became four. So we walk in, sit down. I go and get pop. Marc catches up with me on the way and was like "You should come over and play with our kittens." Marc lives in Lovejoy, probably one of the roughest neighborhoods in all of Buffalo. So... uh.. no. I get my pop, walk back in and Josh, who had worked a long 8 hour shift and was working a 13 hour shift on Sunday is beginning to drowse off. (This isn't usually a problem, except for the fact that Saturday night, he SNORED through the movie. Mom and I kept elbowing him telling him to wake up and not snore.) Marc comes in, walks up to Mom and says "So what are you getting me for a going away present?" First off, Marc hasn't given mom a birthday, mother's day or hannukah present in near two years, so mom smiles sweetly and says "Why, the same thing you got me for my birthday.. and mother's day.. and hannukah. Nothing." Then Marc tells mom how he's hoping to stay in Israel past his month and live there. (Personally, I'm not even sure how he got a VISA to go to Israel to begin with. He has a crime record.)
The movie starts, Josh snores, we elbow him, he snores again etc.
Finally, the movie ends.. and Marc is like "Before you go to the Beach tommorow, PAGE ME! I want to go with you." What this would entail is.. us picking Marc up in Lovejoy, bringing him to the Beach (where he isn't really wanted) and us driving him back. Mom was like "No. I'm not comfortable with bringing you." He begged her. She said no. He said "look, just page, OK?"
Sunday.
Mom calls Grandma. Asks how the weather is.. and asks Grandma what to do about Marc. Grandma says she had ALREADY TOLD Marc that she couldn't take him this weekend and to come in during the week sometimes. So, knowing that, we had an excuse not to page him (not that we would have anyways) and left.
We came home to a message akin to "No one loves me. All i wanted to do was go to the Beach. Boo hoo hoo. No one loves me."
So it's been a FANTASTIC weekend! =P
Oh well..
Hopefully the week itself is better than the weekend.