Today, I was walking in Ballard from the bank back to my apartment. A woman and her dog were walking ahead of me. The dog stopped in the middle of the sidewalk to take a crap. I was forced to pirouette (correction amended) around the dog to avoid my shoe from becoming a crap landing pad.

Does everyone realize there was a military coup in Thailand this last week?! On Tuesday, Thai General Sonthi Boonyaratglin rolled up to the capital in Bangkok with five tanks and overthrew Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was in New York preparing for a U.N. speech at the time. After gaining control, the general tossed out the constitution and declared marital law.

According to the BBC, "The coup followed months of growing tension in Thailand, with protests against Mr. Thaksin and a general election which was annulled due to concerns about its legitimacy... Gen. Sonthi has said he was acting in line with the wishes of the Thai people, accusing the old government of corruption and fostering divisions in the country."

Now, the non-violent, bloodless coup has become a huge tourist attraction. According to the AFP, tanks have been decorated with ribbons and flowers, local travel agencies have organized bus tours of coup sights and vendors are already selling coup t-shirts.

"It's cool to take pictures next to tanks. I will definitely bring my kids here this weekend to take pictures with soldiers," said Sinsak Jiarasincharoen, a 43-year-old businessman.

This weekend I went to the Stadium Centennial celebration...
I saw some old friends...
And my band got to play in Stadium Bowl...

Word Is Born proudly presents "Paolo's Random Thoughts":

• Katrine and I just saw a gang of three sizable raccoons prowling the neighborhood. Is the Olympia problem heading north?
• I ate a lot of Mexican food and drank tequila last night at various locations with Kailyn and Katrine.
• Speaking of Mexican food, Moos moves in tomorrow.
• I cannot take calls during the weekdays for another couple weeks because my parents used up all of our family plan minutes. If I don't pick your call and it's the middle of the day, don't be upset. If I don't pick up your call and it's the weekend or after 9, then you can go ahead and be upset.
• Although I can't take calls, I can send/receive text messages. I feel like I've been tricked into working for the enemy.
• I'll try to attend numerous Stadium High School events this weekend. The school is celebrating a remodel and its 100-year anniversary with a three-day extravaganza. For more information, visit www.celebratestadium.com.
• My band is competing in a Battle of the Bands at Club Impact in Tacoma on Saturday night. It's all-ages and the "suggested donation" is $10. We're playing at the Stadium High School celebration Sunday at 1 p.m. Admission and food are free (correction amended). What a deal! For more information contact me or visit the focuspoint MySpace page. We just posted new songs we recorded last weekend, too.
• Lastly, take your time to enjoy the following video of Stephen Colbert slapping morning news shows silly...

The other day, I went to Cafe Fiore at 11 a.m. to enjoy espresso and my newspaper. Unemployment can be a treat in this way. I was immediately drawn to the frontpage Seattle Times article "Hundreds of kids flock to state's new online schools".

According to the article, "Insight School of Washington, the state's first fully online high school, stopped accepting students after 650, and has 1,000 more who've expressed interest. The Washington Virtual Academy, a K-8 based in Steilacoom, has 652 students registered, and another 500 in the application pipeline."

Now you might call me old-fashioned, but I think there's a certain social value to attending school. I've never been a fan of home-schooling either, but that's the suprising thing about this online-education phenomenon -- only about one-quarter of Insight's students are coming from home-schooling. Close to 500 of Insight's enrolled students and their parents were so unhappy with brick-and-mortar schooling that they chose the new alternative? That's a little scary.

I think young people need to be in an environment where they can interact with each other. Eventually they will need to gain some social skills or otherwise be ill-prepared for higher education and/or employment. No doubt, high school in particular can be a tough time for many people, but parents should encourage their children to overcome challenges, not avoid them. Fear of potential hardships should not outweigh the potential for success.