May, 2008
Closing Day
Friday, May 30, 2008
Today is Closing Day in the Erlanger-Elsmere School District. The day after students. The last day. The day teachers complete their punchout checklist and get to leave for a couple of months.
Except not anymore. Contrary to what many outside education think, teaching is not a 9 month job anymore. Teachers don't spend their summers sitting poolside working on their tans. At least not the good ones. For a good teacher, the summer is a time for professional development, continued preparation, and planning. I had breakfast this morning with members of the Lloyd High School faculty at Perkin's restaurant, and lunch today with the entire faculty of Miles Elementary. And in both cases, there wasn't the sense of nostalgia, of something coming to an end, that I remember from when I was in the classroom. Instead, there was talk about next year, about the district-wide professional development days coming up in three weeks, about teachers collaborating over the summer in preparation for the start of school. It's a never-ending cycle.
And if there's not much of a break for regular classroom teachers, there's even less of a break for "extended" employees like myself. In fact, yesterday I setup my online calendar for the summer, and I did something differently, and it was this difference that prompted me to write this entry today. What I did was this: In past years with this job, I would put on my calendar the days in June, July, and August when I WOULD work. There were two or three a week scattered throughout June and July. But I've added a few more days to my extended calendar each year, until yesterday I decided it would be much easier to mark down the days when I would NOT be working.
Now, don't get me wrong. Teachers still have plenty of off time. And even I have, if you put all of my non-work days for the year (excluding Saturdays and Sundays, but including Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Break, Spring Break, etc.) together, 41 off days, or a full 8 weeks of vacation time. I know a lot of people who would love to have half of that. So it's not terrible being a teacher. I just think we, as a society, need to rid ourselves of the illusion that teaching is a part-time job.
Road Rage
Thursday, May 29, 2008
I was in line at a red light this morning behind someone with this bumper sticker on her car, and I wanted to ram into the back of the vehicle. You can read this previous post to find out about my aversion to bumper stickers in general, but this one really got on my nerves.
First, though I have nothing against cats, I have a real problem with most cat people. And by "cat people" I don't mean people who have cats as pets. That's fine. I think it's great to have cats as a pet and to love a cat. If Lisa weren't allergic we'd probabaly have a couple ourselves. By "cat people" I mean people who treat their cats like bona fide members of the family, people who have a picture of their cat as the desktop image on their computer, people who--frankly--would have a bumper sticker like this on their car.
There are a number of other things that bother me about this bumper sticker. Let me just enumerate:
1. The word "Grandcat"
It's bad enough if someone had an "I HEART my cat!" bumper sticker on their car. But their GRANDcat? Give me a break!
2. The Purchase of the Bumper Sticker
Not only did someone have the gall to think I cared about their stupid cat bumper sticker (Again, see the link above to better understand my feelings on this issue), but--worse--they were foolish enough to actually purchase the bumper sticker in the first place. I imagine the person in some cheesy gift shop in some backwater place like Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, flipping through the bumper sticker rack, flipping past the "God said it! I believe it! And that settles it!" bumper sticker and the "Pigeon Forge is for Lovers" bumper sticker and the "See Rock City" bumper sticker and the "Have You Hugged Your Kid Today?" bumper sticker until she finds this grandcat bumper sticker. "This is it!" she thinks excitedly to herself. "This is the message I want all the world to see! This is how I want to be remembered by the people behind me."
3. The Fact that I was Behind this Person in Line
And this might be the real issue here. Not only did this person have a dumb bumper sticker, but she also was AHEAD OF ME AT THE LIGHT! How dare her!
4. The Blatant Sexism in This Whole Blog Entry
Notice how I refer to the driver throughout this entry as a woman. As it turns out, the driver WAS a woman, and she looked pretty much exactly the way I had imagined she would look in my mind, but I'd assumed she was a woman long before I'd confirmed it. Why? Because--in my honest, sexist opinion--I can't imagine any man--and I do mean ANY man, regardless of demeanor--putting that stupid bumper sticker on his car. It HAD to be a woman.
On the positive side, my life must be going pretty well if something like this bumper sticker is the biggest problem I have.
Brace Yourself: You May Not Exist!
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
It's dispiriting news, but I'm afraid the headline above is true. We may all be spirits. Or figments of our own imagination. Or something weirder than that.
As I was doing research on someone else just now I stumbled upon a website called howmanyofme.com. Supposedly you put in your first and last name and the computer does its thing and comes back and tells you how many people with your name there are in the U.S. For instance, if I put in "George Bush" it comes back and tells me that there are 1,417,423 people named "George" in the U.S., 109,500 people named "Bush," and 510 people in the U.S. named "George Bush" (There is, however, only ONE Hillary Clinton).
Seems like some mindless fun, right? However, when I put in my name, I am told that not only do I not exist (which doesn't surprise me. I'm assuming this is being pulled from phone directories and I have NEVER in my adult life had a listed number), but there are zero people in the United States named Sweasy. Zero. None. We don't exist! My wife used to exist. There are 310 people with her maiden name in the U.S. But now she's just gone, nowhere, a ghost.
Which makes me wonder: If we're not really here, where are we? I've been a Sweasy my whole life. Does that mean I've NEVER existed? And if I've never existed, maybe no one around me has ever existed, either. Maybe we're all figments of my imagination. Even Hillary Clinton!
One could only hope.
Honors Day
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
I learned a valuable lesson today, the hard way: Look at your calendar. Don't just put items in there. Actually look at it from time to time. Look at it. And look far enough in advance that you don't get any surprises.
This is something that I have learned the hard way on more than one occasion...which begs the question, I guess, of whether I've actually learned it or not. But that's the rambling thoughts of another day...
...I had a major project to do at work today and wanted to make sure that I had a block of time to get it done without interruption. So I looked at my Outlook calendar on my computer, and what did I see: "Kids' Honors Day--11:30-3:00." Holy cow! I thought to myself. Is this for real? I emailed Lisa, and she replied back. Yes, it was for real. This was at about 10:45. So I quickly rearranged my plans and took off for the kids' school. Why, I thought to myself, do I have 3 and a half hours blocked out for this? Could Honor's Day possibly be that long?
Turns out it wasn't, but it was. The girls' school splits Honors Day up so that parents don't have to sit through all segments. That's a great idea for parents of an only child. Hasn't been such a good idea for us the last two years. At 11:30 Natalie and the rest of the 2nd and 3rd graders had THEIR Honor's Day, and at 1:00 Meredith and the rest of the 4th and 5th graders had theirs. So I got to sit in the unairconditioned gym twice.
It was worth it, though. Both girls got multiple awards. It occurred to me as I was sitting there that it was possible one of them might not get anything, and I prepared myself for what I would say to that child when I saw her. She would probably be disappointed and sorry that I'd come all that way for nothing, and I'd say, "Are you kidding? It was worth it just to get to see YOU!" But I didn't have to do that. And I've never had to do that. It's funny that..up until the moment that it occurred to me that one of them might not get an award, it had NEVER occurred to me that they wouldn't. I mean, they always have before. It was such a sense of entitlement that I felt ashamed of it. I was like a Clinton! (I'm gonna keep picking on them, if you haven't figured that out.)
And no, while there are a bunch of awards handed out, every kid does NOT receive a certificate. I know because I sat with some people I know who had two grandchildren there. One child received something and the other did not (and was consequently heartbroken when she saw her grandparents. She started crying.)
And now, let me brag on the kids: As I said, each got multiple awards. I told Natalie that--despite her several academic awards--I was proudest that she was given the "Best Citizenship" award, which the 3rd grade class votes on and gives to one boy and girl. And for Meredith, I was proudest of her certificate for "All A Honor Roll." There was a boatload of kids who got the All A/B Honor Roll, but Meredith was one of only 3 children in the 5th grade to get all A's.
Okay. So We Went To Molly's Anyway
Monday, May 26, 2008
In a post I made last week (Scroll down a little ways and you can read it all yourself) I complained about the high cost of gas and said that as a result we were NOT going to drive 45 miles to Aunt Molly's house for a family get together on Memorial Day weekend. Well, we went. So I guess I have to change what I said below. $4 a gallon gas apparently does NOT change my behavior. It just makes me THINK about changing my behavior.
So why the change of heart? Simple. I did some math. It occurred to me that my car gets 30 miles to the gallon (30.9 actually, according to the computer onboard). So a 45 mile trip both ways uses 3 gallons of gas. Last year, when gas was $3 a gallon, I wouldn't have thought anything about driving to Molly's. But now that it was $4 a gallon I was so worried about it. It occurred to me that I was fretting over...three dollars! That seemed ridiculous. So we went.
And I'm glad we did. The girls had a great time (as always), and I enjoyed sitting and talking with people that I hadn't seen since Christmas. I posted photos of the trip on this site. You can see them (and photos of some of the other things I've written about in the last couple of weeks) by clicking the "Recent Photos" link above.
Wii Fit
Friday, May 23, 2008
On Wednesday I came home from work to find sitting on the front porch something my family had been anxiously awaiting for almost a year: a video game!
Now, let me clarify something. We are not a video game family. Sure, the girls have all of the Harry Potter computer games, and I played quite a number of Atari 2600 games in my youth, but we don't camp out in front of Best Buy waiting for the latest version of HALO or GRAND THEFT AUTO. We DID purchase a Nintendo Wii almost exactly a year ago, but that was about it. So no, we're not the usual video game fanatics.
But then again, WII FIT is not the usual video game. I first heard about it back in June of last year, after it was demoed by Nintendo executives at a technology conference. There have been many reports about how WII SPORTS, the game that comes with the Nintendo Wii console, could be used as a form of exercise. The game was never MEANT to be a form of exercise, though. It just kind of worked out that way. But then came WII FIT. It is a game DESIGNED to be a form of exercise. Supposedly if a person uses this video game and the skateboard sized "balance board" that comes with it for 30 minutes a day, he/she will get an adequate workout.
We've had the game for a couple of days now, and I can tell you that--while I don't think anyone is going to go from obese to petite just with the game--it really IS an impressive game. As I mentioned, the game comes with a controller that resembles a bathroom scale but is slightly larger. In fact, it IS four bathroom scales in one, and as a user stands on the balance board, his/her shifts in weight can be sensed by the device, and it is able to determine whether the user is leaning forward or leaning back. As a result, there are some fun games that can be played, including a game where the user "heads" soccer balls by leaning to the left or the right (See the picture to the left). Other fun games include ski jumping, slalom skiing, jogging around an island, and hula hooping.
The game also includes some yoga exercises and some strength exercises. When I first saw these on videos on the Internet, I thought they looked like the dumbest part of the game. Who wants to try out a bunch of dumb yoga exercises performed by a cartoon character on a video game? I thought to myself. Why not use an exercise DVD and watch a live person show you how to do yoga? I must admit, though, that I am VERY impressed by the yoga and strength exercises, and I find them to be perhaps the best part of the whole game. And the reason is that the video game system--with the help of the Wii balance board--can give you something that no workout DVD could ever give you: real feedback on YOUR performance. I actually have a couple of yoga and Pilates DVD's (bought when my back problems were at their worse), and they're great, but the feedback you get from the instructors is fake. "You're doing great!" I'd hear them say, 2 minutes after I'd collapsed from exhaustion and was laying on the couch eating a cookie. They didn't know how I was doing!
Not so with the WII FIT. I'll be doing a yoga pose, and yes, the instructor might say, "That looks great!" But then ten seconds later the system might chime in with, "It looks like your leaning a little too far back. Try shifting your center of balance forward." It was actually kind of freaky the first time it happened. But I've gotten used to it, and I have to say I love the interaction and I love that it gives you a score and the end of each exercise which motivates you to try to improve.
And the strength exercises, which I thought would be easy, are actually kicking my butt in places. When I saw the trailer for the video game, I thought, "Push ups? Big deal!" But the game has you do the pushups so slowly that they really are difficult, and it measures your sense of balance as you go up and down so it can tell if you're doing all the work with one side of your body and it can tell if you're cheating and going up and down too quickly.
As I said above, I honestly don't think that the WII FIT is a substitute for a real workout program: You're not going to be able to trade your gym membership or stationary bike for the computer game. In the end, it is just a game. But it IS a tremendous supplement to a workout program (It even allows you to enter information into the game about exercises that you do outside of the game so that you can track your progress better), and if you're going to play a computer game, why not play one that really gives you a halfway decent workout at the same time?
And I'm not alone in my praise of the game. Lisa likes it, too. In fact, she and I "worked out" together Thursday night for about 45 minutes. Neither of us worked up a sweat, but we both agreed that we'd probably be sore today (I was a little sore in my left shoulder, the one I injured a couple of months ago). And Meredith and Natalie have played the heck out of the game. They take turns pretty well, but even taking turns, I've seen both of them play so hard that they are winded and have to rest while the other is playing.
It's a great little game. Come to our house some time and play it with us.
If You'd Like to See More:
The Original Wii Fit Trailer at youtube.com (This is the one I saw last June that first got me excited about the game)
A Newer Wii Fit Trailer at youtube.com
A recent news story about Wii Fit which includes a video of some people using it
Gas Prices at $4 a gallon
Thursday, May 22, 2008
I remember six months ago the news people stating that gas prices would hit $4.00 a gallon in the summer, and I thought they were hitting the panic button. Boy, was I wrong. It's not summer yet, and the prices are above $4 a gallon and climbing pretty much every day. In fact, I watch the national news most evenings, and I can't remember a day in the last couple of weeks when the announcer HASN'T said that oil reached an all time high today. You have to ask yourself when does that become non-news? At what point does a retreating oil price become news? I mean, if it's happening every night, it's not really "new" and doesn't really qualify as "news," does it?
Anyway, getting back to gas prices. I wondered at what point would gas prices get so high that it affected how I behaved. I mean, people have been complaining since 9/11/2001 about how high gas prices have gotten, but really, until recently, I was never really bothered by the prices, and they never entered into my mind when I made a decision about whether or not to go somewhere. So I wondered, at what price point would it change my behavior.
Apparently the answer is at $4.00 a gallon, because I'm starting to make decisions about travel based on necessity.
Example One: Last night at the girls' school Natalie was in a third grade play. Natalie had to be there early, so she and Lisa went on up to the school. Meredith and I stayed behind a) to clean up the dinner dishes and b) because we just didn't want to sit around for an hour in the cafegymatorium at Beechwood. When it was time for us to go, though, I couldn't justify the expense of driving TWO cars for a mile, so Meredith and I walked up to Beechwood and rode back with Lisa and Natalie.
Example Two: On Memorial Day many of Lisa's extended family will be at Aunt Molly's farm in Batavia. It's a place we've been many times before (For just SOME of the pics of the place, you can go here and here and here). However, it's about 45 miles or so from our house. Lisa is going to be out of town, and it's going to be too cool to get in the water, so I decided we'd skip the get together this time and save our gas for a trip out there later in the summer.
Example Three: Every month the technology coordinator's from all around the region meet in Owenton for a monthly update from the Department of Education. There are about 20 school districts in a three county region here in Northern Kentucky, and I am planning when we reconvene in the fall to car pool to save money. It just seems like a waste for 20 people to drive 20 vehicles 50 miles both ways.
The bus route goes right past our house. If my job didn't entail me driving out to each of the schools in the district occasionally, I'd consider taking the bus to work. I may consider--on nice days in the summer when I'm not wearing a suit--leaving my bike at work and taking the bus anyway.
I need a Prius.
Hillary Clinton in Fort Mitchell
Monday, May 19, 2008
So we sat on the front porch of our house from about 6:30 until maybe 7:15 waiting to see Hillary Clinton drive by, but it was a little cool and we got tired of waiting. We did take some photos, which I might post later. They include a photo of the girls sitting on the porch, a guy in a suit who MIGHT be Secret Service (or he might just be a guy in a suit) and a picture of a Hillary Clinton sign (which is probably like the Hillary Clinton signs you've seen in YOUR town). It's funny, our street is pretty much all Republican, but some guy came around while we were sitting on the porch and put a Hillary sign in everyone's yard. We wouldn't let him put one on Vent Haven's property. That'll show Hillary!
But she got the last laugh. Everyone in our house was in bed by 8:10 (The girls had been to a sleepover the night before and I have been under the weather the last couple of days--maybe allergies). About 8:20 I was almost asleep when I hear, blasting over a PA, "Ladies and gentlemen, the next President of the United States, Hillary Clinton!" And then this ardent applause, followed by Hillary speaking for 10 minutes or so. Couldn't tell what she was saying, but I could tell by the intonations and the pauses that it was her speaking. Every now and then the crowd applauded, but that's about all I got out of it.
And the Secret Service left us alone!
You can read more by clicking here:
Windows Vista
Sunday, May 18, 2008
I'm sure you've seen the ads on TV by Apple that make fun of Windows PC's. You know the ones I'm talking about: the boring, staid, business-like PC guy on the left and the hip, cool Mac dude on the right. Lately the ads have been pointing out the problems with Windows Vista. I'm here today to say that those problems are absolutely real.
I have three computers with Windows Vista on them, two at home and one at work. The work computer is running Windows Vista Business and the home computers are running Windows Vista Home Premium.
After more than a year of working with Windows Vista, let me just list for you 5 things I don't like about Windows Vista, pretty much in the order that I discovered them:
1) User Access Control.
This annoying feature pops up whenever you try to do anything that requires administrator access. It's supposed to be a safety feature. With older Windows operating systems a rogue program could run and without you knowing it do nasty things to your computer. Microsoft's answer was UAC, which pops up every time you try to do anything from install a printer to go into the Control Panel. It was so annoying that turning it off was one of the first things I learned how to do with my Windows Vista computer. As the Mac ads point out, though, turning it off renders this security feature useless.
2) Compatibility Problems.
By far, this continues to be my number one issue. At work one of the reasons that we haven't moved to Vista (I have the only Vista machine out of 1,100 machines in my district) is because so many of the software programs we have don't work with Vista. In fact, I purchased the Vista computer I have at work to replace my old workstation. But I haven't been able to take the old workstation down. I've had to leave it running in the basement of the Board of Education building and I remote into it when I need to access one of these non-Vista compatible programs. And that happens usually 5-10 times a day.
And it's not just a problem on my work computer, either. I found out that a printer that I have at home and a scanner that I have at home aren't compatible with Windows Vista. The printer, by the way, was brand new; it came to the markets AFTER Windows Vista, but when I installed the drivers I received a message saying something like, "Hello, it seems you're installing this printer on Windows Vista. Please note that many of the features will not work on Vista." And the message was right. I can do basic printing, but duplex printing and stuff like that are out of the question. And my scanner problem was even worse. When I went to HP's website and click on the Windows Vista link for my scanner I got a message that said "PROBLEM: Windows Vista drivers not made for your model scanner. SOLUTION: Purchase a new HP scanner." Thanks, Windows Vista!
3) Too Many Versions
There used to be two kinds of Windows, a business version called NT, and a home version branded with whatever year it was (Windows 95, 98, Me, etc). Then Windows XP came out and the business and home versions were BOTH branded Windows XP: Windows XP Home and Windows XP business. There was the possibility of minor confusion, but basically simple enough.
Then came Windows Vista. There are FIVE--count 'em, five!---versions of Windows Vista: Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise Business, and Ultimate. Only the Ultimate version has all of the features. Noticeably missing from the Business edition is the ability to burn DVD's. Noticeably missing from the home editions are the Remote Desktop and the ability to connect to a domain. It's irksome that Microsoft doesn't just give everybody everything.
4) Glitchiness
This really is the same thing as #2 above, but I said there would be five items, so I needed one more. But this is a particular problem. Drivers for Vista seem to have real glitches to them. At home I can't make my computer fullscreen in Windows Media Player without it crashing. And in another computer I had to turn off hibernation because the darned thing wouldn't wake up from hibernation. There are some smaller problems as well, but I don't feel like getting into them now.
5) Poor performance
Windows Vista is trying to so hard to look spiffy like a Mac (which it's never going to do. Those pictures above really do justice to what a PC feels like compared to a Mac) that it has put some real strain on system performance. For instance, I am typing this on what ought to be a smoking-fast computer: It's a duo core processor at 2.2 Ghz of speed with 3.0 Gigs of RAM (That's a lot!). And don't get me wrong: The computer's not slow. But it's not fast, either. If I were running Windows XP on this machine it would be blazing fast.
So my advice: Don't buy a Windows Vista machine. Wait for the next operating system. Or maybe get a Mac.
Frank and Patty Update 2: Elvis (or Frank and Patty, in this case) has left the building.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Early yesterday morning while I was sitting at my desk I heard the loud squawking of a couple of Canadian geese. I went outside and there was no sign anywhere of Frank and Patty, the two geese that had spent the last 2 1/2 weeks living at Lloyd High School (scroll down to see earlier posts on this topic). I asked some students who were outside, and they said that Frank rose up and circled around the high school a couple of times honking loudly. After a moment or two Patty left the roof and joined him, and the two took off north in the direction of the interstate. They haven't been seen since.
I don't know if something happened to the babies on the roof, or if maybe there never were hatched babies and (since no one ever actually SAW them) everyone had been imagining hearing them up there. In any event, I'm a little sad today as I was really getting attached to the two birds.
On the other hand, I feel a lot more secure walking across the parking lot now!
More About the Sweasys on the Net
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
In an earlier post I wrote about the sweasy.com and sweasy.org domains. I thought I'd quickly talk about the other Sweasys on the net...
I've never met a Sweasy I wasn't related to, at least not in real life. To be honest, the surname is so rare that I would honestly be thrown a little if I were at a conference or some place where I was wearing a nametag and someone I didn't know walked up to me and said, "Hey! My last name is Sweasy, too!" It would freak me out! It's just never happened to me.
If non-related Sweasys are a rarity in real life, though, there sure are plenty of them on the Internet. In fact, if you do a Google search for "sweasy," there aren't many hits on the first three pages that have anything to do with any Sweasy I know.
So for today's post, I thought I'd list the Sweasys who DO show up on the first couple of pages of a "sweasy" google search, at least today. The same people tend to be repeated over and over, so despite a number of hits you basically get down to 5 people:
Joann Sweasy: She seems to be a radiology professor at Yale. She initially graduated from Beaver College, which is in Pennsylvania, so she may be from the Northeast somewhere.
Charlie Sweasy: A baseball player for the Cincinnati Reds in the mid 1800's.
Bill Sweasy, the aforementioned CEO of Red Wing Shoes, who may be the owner of the sweasy.com and sweasy.org domains
Lisa Sweasy: Hey! Someone I know! Apparently she's going to be in a movie or something (I've actually seen the rough cut of the movie).
Neil Sweasy: Apparently he's a banker of some kind. Don't know if this is the Neil Sweasy I'm related to. Regardless, you can read a lot about his financial life online.
Message for the Secret Service:
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
I'm no threat to Hillary Clinton!
I wanted to say that right away as I'm a little nervous today about someone in a dark suit and dark glasses breaking in my door...
I started keeping this blog in late April, and one of the first posts I ever made was a political one, stating that I did NOT like Hillary Clinton. I even posted a little picture of a sour looking Hillary Clinton.
Then I find out today that Hillary Clinton will be at a fundraising event this Sunday that is TWO DOORS DOWN from my house! I knew that our neighbor was a bigwig in the Kentucky Democratic party, but I didn't know a) he was vice-chairman of the party, b) he was a superdelegate, and c) his wife was a huge supporter of Hillary Clinton! And they're having a fundraiser/reception Sunday night at 7 PM. I swear, if I'd known that, I would NOT have posted anything negative about Hillary Clinton on this blog.
Now that I have, though, like I said, I'm a little worried. I don't know how thorough the Secret Service are, but just in case, I wanted to make sure that they knew that I wasn't going to hurt her. I don't want her to win the nomination, but (I'll repeat) I am no threat to Hillary Clinton! Please leave me and my family alone!
Frank and Patty Update
Monday, May 12, 2008
I thought it would be a good idea, after a week and a half, to give you an update on Frank and Patty, the two geese who have been living on top of the Lloyd High School library for the last couple of weeks.
Well, they're still there. This photo was taken this morning. It's Frank. According to all reports, Frank has lightened up a little bit (as all assistant-principals do eventually). Apparently he's decided that the people in the parking lot are no threat to him or to his mate, and he leaves pedestrians alone for the most part. From what I've heard he pretty much stays out of the parking lot now, too, keeping to the grassy area between the parking lot and the high school.
He did hiss at me when I snapped this shot, but I HAD gotten pretty close to him, so I don't blame him. There have been no reports of attacks since the middle of last week.
Patty is still up on the roof of the library. Though no one has seen the babies, there are plenty of Cheep-Cheep's coming from the rooftop, so I think the babies are up there. I have no idea what they're being fed on the rooftop, but they must be eating something.
Computers and TV's
Saturday, May 10, 2008
A few months ago, in an effort to cut back on expenses, we decided to let our Blockbuster.com membership expire. The deal we had was a really good one (in fact, so good that you can't get it anymore at the price we paid). For $19.99 a month we had 3 movies at a time delivered to us through the mail by Blockbuster. We could keep them for as long as we wanted and then just return them in the mail and in a day or two we'd get a new movie. In addition, we could take the movie back to Blockbuster instead of mailing it in (and the closest store is only about 200 yards from our house), and the store would mail it in for you and give you a free movie from the store to boot. Thus, we could really have 6 movies out at a time, 3 through the mail and 3 through the store. It was awesome! But Lisa really wanted cable TV, and it's so expensive up here(almost $100 a month)that I just couldn't justify having both, so we dropped the Blockbuster membership.
The problem was that when I looked at our Microsoft Money reports over the last couple of months I noticed we were paying about $15 a month in Blockbuster fees anyway as we were checking out a movie or two every other weekend. So I resubscribed to a movie delivery service. I looked at Blockbuster.com again, but the service we had before was now $39.99 a month! So I went with Netflix. For $9.99 a month we get one movie mailed to us at a time, but we can download over our broadband Internet connection as many movies as we want. And I'm finding I like that a lot! When I got a new computer in February I spent about twice as much money on the 32 inch widescreen monitor as I did on the computer, so you don't lose much watching the computer (In fact, I just pulled out a meausring tape and found that our computer monitor is actually wider than the TV screen in the same room. The TV is taller because it's not widescreen).
I guess what I'm getting at is that TV's and computers are sort of blending together. We're watching movies and TV shows (Netflix has as many TV shows available for download as movies!) on our computer, and we have a Nintendo Wii connected to our main TV, and the WII has a web browser built into it, meaning we can get on websites on our TV (It's very similar to the old WebTV service). I predict that within a few years most people will have a single appliance that does all of the things that both a TV and computer do now.
A Question You Don't Really Want to Know the Answer to
Thursday, May 8, 2008
"What was that song I couldn't get out of my head the other day?"
The Economy
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
As an educator, I've always felt pretty much immune to economic hardships. And for the most part it's been true: No matter what happens, there are always going to be children, and those children are always going to need to be educated, so I have almost perfect job security. I would have to do something illegal or immoral to lose my job. With tenure, I hardly even have to worry about doing anything incompetent to lose my job (though I'd like to think I wouldn't have to worry about that anyway).
Sure, there have always been effects to economic slowdowns that even I've felt. A tight state budget means that educators get little or no raise (This year the answer to that one is "little": How does 1% sound?), and there was that problem of astronomical health insurance costs a few years ago, but for the most part I have gone through slowdowns and recessions with a grin on my face and a song in my head.
But this time is different. First, though I'm not trying to sell a house, I can't help but notice the problems others are having who are trying. The houses in my area are going up for sale at pretty much the same pace they've always been going up for sale, but people just aren't buying. This means more and more houses are on the market, and they're sitting there for longer and longer. I'm amazed at the number of houses with big "For Sale" signs in the yard. I walked down one street the other day and counted 15 houses for sale. Yes, it was a long street, several blocks in length, but still, that's a lot of houses. If we keep it up, I can see a day in the future when every house in my town has a "For Sale" sign in front of it!
The other thing you can't get away from are grocery prices and gas prices. I don't get angry at either the grocery store or the gas station (I think people who say they are angry about high prices are ridiculous. It is what it is.), but I am just jaw-dropping amazed by the prices. I drive a Toyota Camry, and I remember the first time I filled up the tank and it cost MORE THAN THIRTY DOLLARS! I just smiled and though, "Wow. Gas prices are really high!" The other day I filled up and it was more than 50 dollars! And I used to spend about 100 dollars at the grocery store on the big, once a week trip. Lately it's been more like 160 dollars. Part of that is that the kids are getting bigger and eating more, but that's not all of it.
And professionally I've noticed the economy this time, too. Part of the problem is that the budget in the state of Kentucky was very poor in regards to education. I'd like to blame the legislature (and they do deserve some of the blame), but you know the expression about blood from a turnip. There just isn't any money in the state!
I probably wouldn't feel this budget pinch much at all if I were still in the classroom. I'd just whine about the 1 percent raise being too small, not even covering the rate of inflation, and then I'd go about my business of educating students. Now that I'm in a leadership position in my district, though, I'm seeing real effects of the state budget. Despite increased costs, our district is looking at receiving LESS money next year, and not just a little less, substantially less. Everyone in leadership is stressed out about it, trying to figure out how we're going to maintain the level of service the community expects from us with the funds that we'll have next year. There have been a lot of sleepless nights for a lot of people. I asked our Chief Finance Officer, who's been with the district in her current position almost 20 years, when was the last time it was like this. She glared at me and said, "It's NEVER been like this!"
I said, "Okay, when was the last time it was sort of like this?"
She replied, "It's NEVER been sort of like this. Not even close!"
So here's an example of a time when being first is not necessarily best.
Flower Child
Monday, May 5, 2008
Natalie is going to play a flower in a 3rd grade play in a few days, and we had to create our own flower costume. This is what we came up with. She's pretty excited, and considering that on a scale of 1 to 10 my crafty abilities are about a 0.3, I'm pretty satisfied with how it turned out.
Today I spent all day in Frankfort at an educational training. I was at the Capital Plaza Hotel. Brings back memories of my prom. Ahh, 1986. I could say that it seems like only yesterday, but the truth of the matter is that it seems like LONGER than the 22 years that it's been. I'm so far removed from the 1986 me that it basically seems like a different person. There are characters in books that seem more like they're a part of me than my 18 year old self does now.
And if it's been a long time for me, it's been a long time for the Capital Plaza Hotel, too. It was still fairly new in 1986, and seemed like quite a luxury hotel. Today I looked at the waterfall-fountain thing that is in the main lobby (and which served as the backdrop for my prom picture)and noticed that the glass that the water runs down was fairly covered in mold and mildew, and the caulk between the panels was yellowed and cracked. The carpet was fairly worn and in need of being changed out--it was beyond cleaning (and I cringed as I thought of how many proms, wedding receptions, and family reunions were held in the meeting room where I trained). It was enough to make a guy feel old.
Frank and Patty
Friday, May 2, 2008
Lately, the Lloyd High School student parking lot has been terrorized by a couple of Canadian geese. Apparently they're a mated pair, and the female has layed eggs on the roof of the library, which is right beside the parking lot. The male has determined that it's his job to protect his mate, and the best way to do that is to attack anyone and everyone who walks through the parking lot.
I first discovered the pair Monday morning. I was walking back from the high school to the Board of Education building, which is just on the other side of above mentioned parking lot. I cut through a row of cars, and as I came around the back bumper I heard this loud hissing sound. My brain did its best to try to make some sense out of the sound, and this is what it finally decided: Someone was letting air out of one of the tires of this car. I turned to look, and that's when it hit me: The beak of the male goose, right in my crotch! Now I understood, the hissing sound was a warning from the goose, comprehended a split second too late.
Tuesday he was back. I was in my office at the Board of Education and I heard a student from the high school--who was delivering intra-district mail--crying in hysteria. Apparently the goose had chased her across the parking lot. She had to be escorted back to the high school building.
We called the game warden and were told that unless the geese were injured there was nothing they could do about the situation, so I volunteered to go out and determine if the goose was hurt. I found him in the parking lot, lurking between two cars as usual. He hissed at me and I hissed right back at him and took a step towards him. He put his head down and hissed again, but he also took a step back. I took another step toward him and he took another step back. I took a third step toward him and he turned and started very slowly waddling away from me. I thought if I could get him going a little faster I could find out if he was hurt and afraid to fly.
So I walked a little faster. He waddled a little faster. I walked a little faster than that. He waddled a little faster. On and on we went around the parking lot. A minute went by. And then two. And then I looked over at the high school building and saw that we were being watched. In almost every window facing that parking lot stood a crowd of students. We were the featured attraction!
I sped up a little bit more, practically running now, and finally the goose spread his wings and flew into the air, squawking like geese do. Well, I thought, he's not injured. He rose way up into the air, flew in a circle, and landed pretty much right where I'd found him a couple of minutes before.
That was the last I saw of him Tuesday. Wednesday I saw him three times. The first time I saw him he was standing in the doorway of the building facing me, like he was waiting for me. When I saw him I froze. The only things missing from the scene were a harmonica playing and some tumbleweed blowing by. I inched around him, though, and other than a brief hiss, he left me alone.
Yesterday I thought maybe they were gone. I went back and forth from the board to the high school twice and saw neither the goose on the ground nor the goose on the roof. I thought maybe the eggs had been destroyed somehow and the birds had left. But they were back today. We've decided, rather than fight the male, we'll recruit him. He's now our third assistant principal at the high school, and he roams the parking lot so that the other administrators don't have to.
I've named the geese Frank and Patty, after the custodians who come every day to clean the Board of Education building.
Why I'm Blogging
Thursday, May 1, 2008
I state at the top of the main page that keeping a blog is something that I swore I'd never do. So why am I doing it?
Before I answer that, let me talk about why I swore I'd never do a blog in the first place. The answer is pretty simple: Because I don't like other people's blogs. A blog is short for a "web log," and it's supposed to be a journal of sorts of a person's thoughts and feelings, sometimes on a specific topic, sometimes on whatever (My blog is going to be the latter). For more information, you can read this.
So why don't I like them? If a blog is really successful, it ceases to become a blog, in my mind, and becomes a commercial website. Ads start appearing on the site, and there just starts to become this corporate feel to the site. Worse, if a blog isn't successful, I get the creeping feeling while I'm reading it that I've stumbled across this sad self-publishing thing that is really only being read by the author and his mother, and maybe his sister occasionally, just enough so that her brother doesn't get mad.
I think I'm pretty much alone in my feelings about blogs, though, because more and more people are using them (over 100 million blogs and growing), and people I've talked to who start keeping one themselves or reading others find them to be pretty addictive. Not me.
I guess I just don't really care what most people think about most things, and that's why I don't like blogs, because blogs operate under the notion that we do care what people think about things. This assumption that I care what you think is what irritates me about blogs. It's pretty much the same feeling I get when I see a bunch of bumper stickers on a car I'm in line behind at the traffic light. The bumper stickers never change my mind about any topic (And I doubt anyone has ever had a sudden shift in belief as a result of a bumper sticker). Instead, I sit behind the car and glare into the person's rear view mirror, trying hard to communicate this message to the driver: "What makes you think that you're so important that I care what you think about politics, global warming, abortion, religion, whales, rock bands, or whatever else it is you've decided to stick on your car bumper?"
So why am I creating a blog? Despite the fact that this is a PERSONAL blog, I am creating it for WORK-RELATED reasons. Student and teacher blogging is a hot topic these days (though not as hot as it was--say--a year or two ago) and there is a lot of interest in blogging in educational circles. Of all the sites I've ever seen, the website that I'm using to create this blog (jottit.com) is the easiest that I've ever seen to use, and it is a) free and b) ad free. An easy to use, ad free, no cost site is pretty rare, and I'm curious how long this site will stay active and how often the site stays up, so I'm blogging to see how things go. If the site seems stable for a few months, I'll start heartily recommending it to others. If it doesn't, I won't. In either case, once I finish my experiment, I'll probably quit posting my thoughts.
Unless I get addicted...
