some random notes from a scatterbrained, neglecting blogger

School is back in session. I'm slowly getting back to my self. I never feel right when school isn't in session. That's what happens when you spend your entire life in school. Be warned: those of you planning to spend your life in school.

I have returned to NPR junkie status. When I first moved to L.A. I withdrew quite a bit from news, completely frustrated with politics and the media in general. Besides, it's not like anyone is actually rewarded for being aware in this city. Plus NPR is pretty crappy here. There are two competing stations; KCRW is somehow the hip NPR station, but I can't stand it. If I turn it on, it's playing some irreverent music that will sooner or later grate my nerves. I listen to KPCC--hey, don't laugh, Tom Hanks listens to it too! They play only talk stuff. They repeat some of it too much, but I manage to navigate around it now. I've discovered a love for On the Media, which plays in the background as I type, which is the only program I know of that solely dedicates itself to analyzing all forms of media and how it presents itself. You mean someone in the media can actually get over itself for a minute to be self-reflexive?! Amazing, I know. It's damn good stuff. And perhaps, at the same time, I am getting over my distaste for the widely popular This American Life. Time will only tell if I will ever be able to stand the syncopated Ira Glass, but this week I actually like that KPCC plays the damn show twice during the weekend so I can experience David Sedaris in Paris. How I love Me Talk Pretty One Day. Sedaris apparently doesn't do any of the obvious in Paris, but sadly I will be the ultimate tourist when I visit at the end of the year.

What the hell has broken the flood gates on my blogging reservoir, you ask? It's a combination of spending hours and hours reading, doing several Sodoku puzzles at an ever-increasing pace, and taking a "Learning Style Inventory." I'm taking this one-credit teaching seminar that meets every other week through the year, and in preparation for our first class, we are supposed to take a couple of tests that evaluate how you learn. This isn't really a new thing. I did this years ago. I distinctly remember doing it in seventh grade and then having to tailor a project to the results. At any rate, this is different than any I've taken before; it doesn't include a "verbal" category, which I find odd. That would be how I would probably identify most strongly. Instead that conception is collapsed with both visual and auditory. Consequently, I scored nearly equally on visual, tactile, and auditory preference (in that rank order). Either this test is ridiculously off in how it measures or you can change your learning style over time. That may make sense. I've certainly gained a lot more knowledge and skills since I did this in seventh grade. I've strengthened my visual skills in recent years, but I hardly think that makes me predominantly visual. If you're going to remove verbal, I would rank myself as auditory, visual, and trailing big time in the tactile department. I am absolutely hopeless when it comes to using my hands. Oh yeah, don't believe me? Why is this unassembled futon still strewn all over my apartment?!