'Round and 'round we go

So it's that time of year again. Lunch pails and apples are polished and ready to go. School's back in.

(Has anyone ever really seen a lunch pail? I had this sweet metal Optimus Prime lunchbox when I was in elementary school. It was a lot of things, but a bucket was not one of them.)

As a student, the start of school was always kinda bittersweet — okay, maybe a whole lot more bitter than sweet. News flash, kids: it's not so sweet for your oppressors either. Yeah, I guess it's time to get back to "making a living" and "paying the bills" and all that crap, and I really like my career when it gets down to it, but who is ever excited to get back to the office after a nice, long vacation? That's what I'm sayin'.

As for (A)pples, some of those were rather tarnished last week. A school district near Richmond, Va., has one of those one-to-one laptop programs where every student gets a computer. First of all, I have my doubts about those programs. Most tech in the classroom is ill-used, so I think a lot of those laptops just get used for IM and porn. I'm not sure they're all bad, but without good training and support it just seems like a waste of money. Second, this district is switching from Macs to Dells — idiots. Third, and probably worse, they sold off all the used, 4-year-old iBooks for $50 each, conservatively 1/5 of their eBay price. Of course, this caused a stampede and near riot. Lots has been written about it, including this local news coverage with photos and video (Richmond Times-Dispatch, Richmond NBC 12). Ugly.

Just in case you were wondering, I've never received an apple of any kind from a student.