Wii for ME!!!

I had the opportunity to play with a Nintendo Wii Tuesday. It was so.... Nintendo (I love it).

Black Friday Deals

Here they are.... Shoppers start your engines!!!!

http://dealspl.us/Black-Friday/


Time to update the family gift giving wiki

Yep.... I need my own

I can't wait to have a washer/dryer of my very own. This morning I woke up extra early so I could wash my work clothes (typical weekend ritual). Not many people wash clothes early in the morning so I usually have the place to myself. Today I noticed that the laundromat door deadbolt had been engaged and left open, but went about my business in solitude.

During the wash cycle I went around the building to the gym to take a walk on the tredmill. Nothing really heavy, just a light stretch/warmup for a day of running at work. When I came back to the laundry room, there was a man and woman on the bench. The woman was sleeping in fetal position with her head resting on his lap while he read the morning paper. I also noticed that they weren't doing laundry..... so they had to be homeless.'


I finished my wash cycle and moved my stuff to the dryer, then left. I thought about them stealing my clothes but seeing as it was just my work uniform I figured they wouldn't want them. When I returned 30 minutes later, they were both standing next to my dryer looking very guilty. My dryer was 'OFF' too (It's supposed to go for 60 mins). Apparently they had put their clothes in with my clothes to dry them off. I took my clothes, felt them to make sure they were dry (which they were since I only put 3 articles of clothing in). The woman then turns to me and asks "Sir, may we have the rest of your minutes to dry our clothes?" HOLY FREAKIN' CRAP!! You may as well..... you were tampering with my clothes anyway (GRRRRR)


Yup, I can't wait to have my own washer/dryer.

Pretty Pretty

This site has some interesting photography. What's more is that the photographer talks about how the piece was composed. I thought it was pretty amazing.

I'm the Deaffest brotha on the block

I took the "Tone Deaf" test..... It's 36 little jingles that are played twice. You have to decide if they are the same or different.


I don't know how scientific it is, but it was fun (scored an 88.8)

German Engineering strikes again

The last two days have been absolutely beautiful to run in. As a valet at Disney's Swan and Dolphin hotel, I've been waiting ALL SUMMER for this kind of weather (It's tough to run when it's 98 degrees and drive back in a car that's 150 with the windows up).


Anyway, today I ran out to the back of our parking lot to retrieve a hot little BMW convertable (as soon as I saw it, I remembered parking it yesturday because I couldn't seem to find "Reverse" on the stick shift). Anyways, I jump in a pray that I can get it in reverse (or I'll look silly using my foot with the car in neutral). I turn the key and rrrrrrr rrrrrrr rrrrrrr; dead battery.... YUCK.


I run back and let the shift manager know about the problem.... hoping he'll send someone to jumpstart the car..... he sent me. So I run back out to the boonies with the car charger and "attempt" to figure out BMW engineering (I can drive cars just great.....but don't ask me to look under the hood). It took me a good 5 minutes to find the hood release (I looked everywhere I could think of). Then another 3 minutes to figure out the hood latch. TA DA! I'm in.... now where in world is that battery? After looking high and low, I found a cable that had a red casing on it (looked like a terminal to me), so I put the positive clamp on it and the negative clamp on the edge of the car..... NOTHING. I unclamped everything I touched the two clamps together..... BIG SPARKS, it's hot! After another 4 minutes of floundering the calvary arrived; two other valets and the shift manager. They schooled me very quickly that in these cars the engine is under the hood, but the battery is under the trunk boards (duh). So a quick jump later the car roars to life and the calvary charges back to the ramp....... leaving me to use my foot to get it in reverse.


Thankfully, the guest was very understanding.

Running off at the keyboard.....

- I'm getting a BEST BUY (not to be confused with Buy Best) less than a mile from my house (the LOOP). It'll be opening May 2007.

- My computer died.....so I got a new one

- Halloween doesn't feel like Halloween this year. Instead it's just October with NO holiday

- Had a great time in NYC with Ninja!

- We were first place this week at Trivia Night (thanks to brightstar as my "phone-a-friend")

- I've been staying after school on Mondays and Tuesdays to excercise with some teachers. They are working me to death, but it's finally starting to get easier.

- It's only a matter of time before I have a downstairs neighbor.... they finally put a real lock on the door.

Why am I still paying for cable?

Cancel the cable...... YouTube offers hours of entertainment for free. Let's see what's on tonight's listings:


Science Programing: Build your own flame thrower


Educational Programing in a hurry: World Politics lesson in 30 seconds


Nature Programing: Frogcicles


Technology Programing: Boom


So many channels... so little time.

Just typin.....

- I can't believe that eDonkey is gone for good. I used that little server to get all kinds of music, software, and such. Now I'm back to square one in my search for a Peer-to-peer provider..... Think I'll try Morpheus w/ bittorrent.

- I can't wait to strip the DRM off of my itunes purchases. Hopefully the software will be ready in a week or so that will make it easy to do.

- Speaking of Apple, I'm interested to see what their little iTV box can do..... gotta figure out how I can use it in a educational setting.

- I found out today that one of my friends at work is leaving to take a job with the district.... A real big bummer.

- I think Sept 11th shouldn't be about the people that died. It's rehashing the horrors all over again each year. Imagine the children who can't ever get over this tragedy because every year it comes back. They need to be able to move on with their lives..... I DO however, believe that the USA should not forget that we live in a world where people mean us harm. My point is 9/11 shouldn't be about what happened to who, but about how it impacted America on the world stage.

- I can't wait to pack up my bookfair tomorrow :-)

Peterson's Principal

No, that's not a typo in my title.... Let me explain:

The Peterson Principle (as I learned it back in undergrad) states that people tend to get promoted to positions they are least likely to succeed at. A skilled laborer may have mastered his craft to perfection, however if he is promoted to a management position his skills are will no longer match his job title and he will flounder.

I bring this up because the Assistant Principal at our school is driving me crazy. And I know I'm not the only one with this problem..... AP's in general seem to be hit-or-miss with their management skills. In my case, he runs the school as the dictator of a small country (my school). He has stated that his role is to give "directives" and that it's our job to follow them. Well, yes and no. True he is the man in charge... but we're all on a team that need to work together. By taking a dictator position, he is pushing people away who are trying their darnest to work with him (did I mention his excellent business sense doesn't translate to educational sense). Because of this, I'm seriously looking at alternative places to work (I let our district supervisor know that I'd be interested in looking at the new schools for next year). I know I need to stay "in field" to keep my National Board Certification.... but is something great comes along, I want to keep my option open to jump ship.

I've heard an old saying that states: If you love your job, you'll never work a day in your life. I've always said I'd stay until it wasn't fun anymore..... So far this year, I've worked my tail off and it's not very fun.